#Are there root beer brands out there which taste a bit more natural

[sixohsixoheightfourtwo]

Oh man I should have done tasting notes!! instead of talking about a very specific shop in london. The weird thing about it for me was that it was mostly JUST that initial blast of that v distinctive aroma that was putting me off (and the memory of not liking it when I tried it before... probably 10-15 years ago). but once I actually drank it the flavour seemed pretty mild actually. Part of it is probably just being more of an adult, having tasted / enjoying more herbal & bitter & minty flavours. eg. herbal liqueurs, amari, fernet, chartreuse etc. with root beer I feel like I need to taste / smell sassafras and wintergreen in isolation to really GET it tho.

A continuation on my post about unloved foods, specifically this is my in-depth defense of root beer.

Root Beer isn't inherently gross, it's just one of those weird local flavors that's off-putting to people who didn't grow up with it. We all like different things and also we all tend to like flavors that are similar to what we grew up with. That's okay! But honestly root beer is pretty unique and, in my opinion, delicious.

One of the main complaints against root beer is that it tastes like medicine. Funnily enough, it was originally marketed as medicinal! This is true for most OG sodas actually. Pretty much as soon as carbonated water was invented, people were drinking it to soothe various ailments. A lot of the original soft drinks were actually invented by pharmacists. I just think that root beer is especially cool because the main flavor came from the root bark of sassafras, a common North American shrub. Because it's so widespread and aromatic, all parts of the sassafras plant have been used in food and medicine by many different Native American tribes throughout history and was subsequently picked up and used by European colonists. In the 1960s, some studies indicated that that safrole oil, which is produced by the plant, can cause liver damage. Whether or not this would actually remain true after it had been boiled and added to root beer is unclear, but it was really easy to replicate the flavor, so the sassafras in commercial root beer these days is artificial. Another fun fact about safrole is that it's a precursor in the synthesis of MDMA. None of this information has stopped my childhood habit of eating sassfras leaves right off the shrub whenever I walk past it on a hike. I'm like 85% sure it's safe and also mmmm yummy leafs go crunch.

Another root beer complaint is that it tastes like toothpaste. I think this is probably because another key flavor in most root beer recipes is wintergreen. I'm assuming that the people who think this are the same people who think mint chocolate chip ice cream tastes like toothpaste. I can understand and even respect that some people don't like mint and associate it only with brushing their teeth, but like. Mint is a pretty common flavor. I mean I think it's safe to say that humans have been eating mint flavored stuff for longer than toothpaste has existed... anyway!

Other common flavors in root beer (real or artificial) are caramel, vanilla, black cherry bark, sarsaparilla root, ginger, and many more! There's not one official recipe, and root beer enthusiasts often have strong opinions about different brands. Some root beer is sharper, with more strong aromatic flavors, and others are mild and creamier.

Another thing I think is cool about root beer is that it's foamier than most sodas. This was originally because sassafras is a natural surfactant (and why sassafras is also a common thickening agent in Louisiana Creole cooking.) These days, other plant starches or similar ingredients are added to keep the distinctive foam. Root beer foam > all other soft drink foams. That's why root beer floats kick more ass than like, coke floats.

If you've never had root beer before, imagine if a sweetened herbal tea was turned into a soda, because that's basically what it is. If your first response to that is a cringe, fair enough. That's why lots of people don't like it. If your first response to that is "interesting... I might actually like it, though" then I encourage you to track down a can of root beer today, hard as that might be outside the US and Canada. Next time you see an "ew, root beer tastes like medicine/tooth paste" take, know that there's a reason for that, but also the same could be said for literally any herbal or minty food/drink.

My final take on root beer is that it would be the soda of choice for gnomes. Thank you and good night.

[jackrrabbit]

College AU drinking HCs /// Dabi, Shigaraki, & Overhaul x f!Reader (18+)

A/N: A little background for this college AU—imo the PLF would be a social frat and the Shie Hassaikai is a professional frat (pre-med). Sooner or later I’ll write general college AU headcanons for them…

Tags/warnings: implied dubcon/drunk sex, alcohol, problematic frat culture things, pressure to drink, brief mentions of public sex/exhibitionism, drug use, a tiny bit of degradation, Hawks is vaguely in it too

Dabi

A basic frat bitch who drinks beer 80% of the time

Surprisingly he can’t tolerate cheap beer and is kind of a snob about people who drink shitty beer but he doesn’t bring it up enough to be annoying about it. Constantly blowing the frat’s alc budget on bottled beer instead of cans, not the super expensive craft bullshit but a step above Natural Light at least, right guys? Come on

Dabi always volunteers to go with Keigo (the frat’s social chair) to pick up the keg because both of them have a crusade against the cheap stuff—Keigo because he wants people to get drunk on it at parties and Dabi because he wants to drink it himself. They lowkey have a bromance over it and sometimes go to breweries together to fuck around and daydrink. The two of them are always trying new beers and will generally keep a different sixpack in the fridge every day—if any of the other brothers drink their overpriced IPAs by accident there’ll be consequences

Speaking of Keigo, him and Dabi are both into making jungle juice. They both get really excited about it, it’s kinda wholesome except they’re both just plotting on how to get cute girls like you as drunk as possible without realizing. They’ve spent a bunch of weekends together trying different mixes and recipes for the best flavor/alcohol content combination

Dabi is a whole ass heavyweight. He’s been getting drunk since he was like 11 so a couple rounds of shots are basically water to him. He can’t even remember the last time he was really, really drunk, he just gets tipsy now. And believe he absolutely uses this to his advantage

You’re drinking together? He’s going to fill up your cup every time he fills up his own, so before you realize how much you’ve been drinking, you’re five drinks in and swaying on the spot while Dabi is completely unfazed. He’ll tease you about having no tolerance to make you drink more

Drinking games!! Once again his tolerance gives him an advantage. He’ll pull some fake chivalrous shit like offering to drink for you on the first round of beer pong and then after that he’s just going to demolish you until you’re so plastered he basically has to carry you up to his room (which has empty liquor bottles lined up on the shelves as “decor” because he’s such a stereotypical frat bro)

Ok this is kinda weird but bear with me—Dabi actually dislikes that alcohol makes you less responsive/makes it harder for you to cum. Doesn’t mean he’ll hesitate to get you drunk but he wants you to feel everything he’s doing to you and alcohol isn’t really conducive to that

Very laid-back when he’s tipsy, you can barely tell the difference from when he’s sober ♡

Shigaraki Tomura

A liiiiiiiightweight. 3 drinks and Tomura’s out bruv, out like a goddamn lightbulb, I said what I said

Although tbh it’s more like he gets drunk really quick and then sobers up really quick. Like he’ll be nodding off at the pregame but by the time the party starts, he’s ready to get going again

A wimp when it comes to alc preferences. Hates the taste of strong liquor and will never take shots without a chaser. Prefers to mix vodka and tequila rather than doing shots, preferably with root beer/sprite. Gets pissy if the party runs out of shit to chase with. The frat has a steady supply of amaretto and kahlua because of Tomura, he really likes sweet drinks

Genuinely hates beer and will take white claw over beer any day of the week. But he’s a frat president so he avoids talking about it bc it’s pretty embarrassing

Don’t tell anyone but…Tomura doesn’t really like drinking? Since he’s the president he has to be in charge of a lot of shit when they have parties. Drunk freshmen puking in the backyard? Tomura has to tell Dabi (recruitment chair) to find some pledges to clean it up. Fight breaks out? Tomura has to make sure no one gets hurt enough to get the frat in trouble with school admin. Undercover cops? Tomura’s the one who has to announce that they’re out of alc and shut it down

It’s annoying enough for Tomura to deal with that shit (not to mention get Keigo to stop fucking freshman girls and pull his weight as social chair) when he’s sober, and it’s 100x worse when he’s drunk

On the other hand, when Tomura gets drunk he’ll get really drunk. Doesn’t dance so he’ll just sit on the couch and maybe play handheld games, and he’ll get super annoyed bc he’s shit at games when his vision is blurry and his hands are shaking

Pretty suggestible when he’s been drinking. If you’re dating Tomura you can get him to do all kinds of crap after you get a few shots in him. Make him do your skincare routine with you and put face masks on together :,) He’ll never admit it but he likes being taken care of when he’s wasted

ON THE OTHER HAND THO…….if you’re not dating and instead just some random chick at one of his parties? Tomura will absolutely use being drunk as an excuse to creep on you. e.g. at kickbacks he’ll get you to play never have I ever/truth or dare so he can ask invasive questions

Are you a virgin?

How old were you when you lost it? Oh wow, you’re a slut/prude.

Body count?

Do you like sucking cock?

Ever let a guy tie you up/choke you/cum inside?

You keep answering because he seems super detached/disinterested, like he doesn’t really care about your answers or he’s just joking around. Little do you know…

Honestly a sneak creep—Tomura seems like he doesn’t give a shit about you until he’s groping you under your shirt on the dance floor, hands squeezing your tits before he shoves them into your shorts and tells you he’s going to wreck this little pussy as soon as he gets you alone ♔

Chisaki Kai

You know Kai drinks, but you never really see him drinking? It’s weird…he’s always holding a bottle when you run into him at parties but he never takes off the cloth mask he’s wearing

Brings his own alcohol to parties because no fucking way he’s going to be drinking the same nasty shit that the hosts are providing. Jungle juice? You’ve got to be fucking kidding. Do you have any idea how unsanitary that is? Even thinking about it makes Kai want to throw up

Highkey a drug dealer although he doesn’t do much himself except maybe coke or adderall…Kai can sell you basically anything and all his shit is that high-quality you can’t usually get from a campus dealer

At the same time, if Kai’s planning on fucking you he probably won’t give you that much because he doesn’t want to babysit you when you get crossed

Likes Asian liquors, very on-brand for him. Baijiu, shōchū, sake, that kind of thing. Drinks a fair amount of soju but he exclusively buys boring flavors like “fresh” or “classic”

When it comes to Western liquor, Kai has better taste than most students. Would rather drink vinegar than any alcohol that came out of a plastic bottle, box, or bag. He likes top-shelf whiskey and gin and he’s good with strong alcohol; if you wince after taking a shot he’ll definitely look down on you

Prefers afterparties and kickbacks to big parties, and will take roof/outdoor events over crowds. Hasn’t set foot inside a social frat since he was a freshman and doesn’t plan to. Very much the “let’s get out of here, I have something stronger at my place” type

Fuck, you’re so trusting when you’re drunk…he could probably put a leash and collar on you and you’d thank him. It’s sort of baffling how bubbly and sweet you are when Kai gets a little liquor in you; he can’t decide if it’s annoying or a turn-on

Kai has average tolerance but unbelievable self-control and awareness, so he’s careful not to get too drunk himself

Likewise, if he’s interested he’ll keep a close eye on how much you’re drinking and how trashed you are, because when he gets around to fucking you he wants you to be fuzzy enough that he can easily take advantage but not too sloppy. Wouldn’t want you gagging on his cock after all

Loves watching you stumble around and fall over shit while he’s just shy of sobriety. Only time you’ve ever seen Kai laugh is when you drunkenly asked him for help walking once. No way. If you can’t walk by yourself you should just crawl

When Kai actually gets drunk, he’s pretty much the same except a little more sleepy/lazy. If he’s sitting down he has a habit of nodding off in the middle of conversations. It’s lowkey cute but Setsuno brought it up once and Kai got pissed so don’t mention it to him ♢

[finding-strong]

7 Jan 2021

Definitely a better day than yesterday. My sleep schedule is still messed up, but it isn’t nearly as bad. I’m going to start winding down earlier tonight. Sometimes, I have a hard time waking up in the morning because of how intense/realistic my dreams are - not quite lucid, but almost. On mornings like that, it’s like having to drag myself awake through molasses or something. I have no clue what triggers it.

This afternoon it was 60 F and sunny (one of the few things I like about living in Texas) so my love and I took our pup on a 2.5 mile walk from our apartment through the nature preserve we live near and back. I think I hit like 10,000-ish steps? Plus a good amount of the walk was uphill. 

Dinner was SO. GOOD. And so easy. I used the rest of the herb mix from my tomatoes on some butternut squash, beets, and sweet potato and roasted them. I also cooked some organic + pasture raised sweet Italian pork sausage with bell pepper and onion. And of course, on top of it all... the ~tomatoes~ which turned out perfectly.

And my husband and I did a grocery store run, where I impulse bought this French-style vegan chocolate sorbet... and wow it does not disappoint. It tastes exactly like ice cream, but it’s water based! If you blindfolded me and put a bowl of this next to a bowl of any regular chocolate ice cream, I’d probably choose this stuff. I also saw that this brand makes coconut sorbet, vanilla, and chocolate peanut butter. It’s a bit pricier than a pint of Blue Bell but so worth it.

I’m also proud of myself for drinking a lot more water today. To be fair, though, that also had a little bit to do with the fact that Michael drank my last zero sugar root beer. I usually only have one a day, maybe two, and I KNOW that it’s just really bad for you. But I do allow myself that indulgence.

Lesson of the day: walking feels really good. It feels way better than sitting on the couch scrolling through some app on my phone. It’s important to create that space for myself to be mindful, reflect about stuff, and give my body what it needs. And it really doesn’t take that long - setting aside even just 20 minutes to walk around the neighborhood is way better than spending that same 20 minutes laying around doing nothing.

Cheers, y’all! Hope everyone is having a great day!

[autonomousbosch]

An Authentic City

The thought of meeting total strangers from online spaces has always seemed a uniquely terrifying prospect to me. Perhaps because of the anonymous culture in which I spent most of my time, social spaces have always had a speculative disconnection from reality, either due to pseudonymous or anonymous nature, that encouraged either a looser definition of reality or a heightened critical interpretation that suspends a great deal of ideas and concepts in a column full of at best dubiously accurate information. Reading things in a manner which holds that they may or may not be real forges a very bizarre scrutiny as welcome trade-off for allowing people to escape or at least make voluntary certain aspects of their existence. Even if something is lost in terms of identity, something is gained in the amount of new flexibility to experiment in ways that would otherwise be denied.

In most cases I think this is a healthy state of affairs, to take people seriously but maybe not literally. To care less about the physical form or immutable characteristics of the agent delivering information, or even ignore the ethical components in which some incongruence might cause a critical disconnect in a more physical space. To many people I think such a thing is a great liberation, to explore components of your character or interactions with other people that you could simply never have access to. 

Such is definitely the case with me. There are certainly elements I do not feel privileged or afforded in person that, without online communication, would simply be lost to me. Downwind of this is a deep concern that perhaps I’ve established some ostentatious front, some unreal impostor doing all this communication with total strangers who at best I hope to call friends. It should go without saying that in many of these instances, all that people tend to have access to are handles, forming brands; social media effigies and facsimiles in place of the tangible, observable features of their personality.

Absolutely stricken with this fear, I set out to conquer it Friday morning at 9 AM, but actually it became 10 AM. It turns out I also needed to let the dogs out before leaving and had forgot about this, so 10:30 AM. From where I live, it’s two hours and some change to Charleston, South Carolina, where I am meeting the second Jewish person I have ever met.

Opening Up

The details of the trip there were largely forgettable, the usual exorcism of nervous energy through listening to powerviolence and biting my lips or blastbeating my hands on the steering wheel barreling down the interstate at 80 miles per hour. Managed to arrive a small little coffee shop right at two or so hours in Charleston, a city I’ve never actually spent a ton of time in as an adult. Cities are extremely large and noisy, very busy. The sheer number of bodies moving through, in and out of them confounds my want for a relative intimacy. There is a paralysis to it all, that the small stretch of land I know so deeply is taken from me and replaced with a paralysis brought about by an over-stimulation of sorts. 

Somewhat still frightened at what things will be like, I walk in and have the sudden realization that we could not be more obvious as strangers demystifying some curious affect. There is a handshake, a smile, and a plea to go to the restroom. I shake some jitters off and greet Jay again (obviously Jay is not his name, but it’s his name for all intents and purposes). He offers me an espresso while I’m still in a quiet shock and of course I accept, I’ve never had an espresso before. 

We sit down at a small wooden bar facing out to the road and begin the process, making small talk the way normal people would. Maybe? The circumstances certainly don’t feel normal, a bit more naked than that in a way. There are things I’ve only ever typed simply because there is no incentive to say them out loud. A great number of things it occurs to me, never before have I felt so silly constantly mispronouncing things I love to chit-chat about or analyze in pseudonymous spaces. 

Jay’s demystification was also quite fun for me. I settled on wearing pineapple pants very much ahead of time just to make sure I was easily spot-able, on the other hand Jay was very obvious in a way that’s difficult to describe. Even down to the way he held his cigarette while smoking, it was obvious he wasn’t from around here.

We talked about our brothers and then about our families, when Jay told me about his parents and how his interest in psychoanalysis were no doubt cultured from youth. I think about epistemic lineage, how the things most people consider or think about have a highly cultured and traceable structure, and how this accounts for the lack of incentive to talk about anything deep or meaningful around my usual haunts, the places where I’m real. 

I’m discovering, slowly albeit, how good it feels even though I must seem pretty silly about things. After noticing the ideas I share in common with Hannah Arendt, something Jay had inadvertently introduced me to less than a month earlier, we read pieces of The Human Condition (I believe it was) on Jay’s tablet.

Out comes a small wooden plank with a shotglass full of espresso and a small glass of water. I instantly reach for the espresso when Jay tells me that the water should go first. For cleansing the palate obviously! 

Obviously, huh. Quietly I begin considering the depth of things that aren’t obvious to me. Jay is a very cosmopolitan person while the list of cities I’ve set foot in could probably fit as fingers on two hands. In fact, perhaps nothing could have articulated the contrast between two people quite so well. I’m very intensely self-aware of an unsophisticated classlessness that might seem like some sort of self-abasement to others but to me very much feels like just how things are. I do not travel, I do not read. I don’t really have much of an education to speak of. When I bring this up, people say that stuff doesn’t matter but this awareness is something that I don’t think is motivated by any kind of resentment, as I’m certainly not resentful of Jay. With a near immediacy I feel a deep sense of relief that I immediately love Jay. It’s just that there is an articulation I don’t feel like I have access to, a finite number on the experiences I will ever have to glean insight from or develop some kind of feeling on. An acknowledgement that at the root of humbleness is humility; a life lived in perpetual embarrassment at how much greater the world itself is than any singular person.

We go on about minutia and I feel so great finally getting all these words out of my mouth to smooth out the difference between whatever I am digitally and whatever I am physically. 

Authenticity

We arrive at a southern BBQ joint in Mount Pleasant just outside of Charleston. I’m even less familiar generally with Mount Pleasant but that doesn’t really matter, the idea is that no visitor and much less a friend could leave the south without experiencing authentic southern barbecue. 

In the American southeast, the only region that has truly figured it out, barbecue is pulled pork (sometimes pork shoulder, but best when it’s a whole hog), smoked and covered in a vinegar-based BBQ sauce which is, like all good things, created to taste. Being the lovely day that it was, I selfishly opted for us to sit outside. We roll over the menu and discuss beer and food, and in the process a waiter approaches us in one of the most puzzlingly aggressive manners I’ve seen in quite some time. It’s almost a caricature out of some film the way he stands, delivering the laurels of this restaurant as an imaginary photographer would zoom his imaginary camera directly onto his eyebrows, straightened with a purposed fury as he informs us that this place was rated the number 2 restaurant for southern cuisine in all the land.

We place our order for beer and food and our waiter scuttles away, after which I remark how bizarre it is for a genuine southern restaurant to have British staff, as clued in by his accent. 

I tell Jay the same thing I’m writing now, that this is doubtful because authenticity itself is such a strange concept. For southern BBQ, it’s much more likely that the authentic thing would be had by a merchant with a portable smoker on the side of the road of any given main street. What I’ve discovered since is how much more I had to say about authenticity. What I couldn’t articulate then, the thing that struck me so odd about our waiter, wasn’t that I have no faith that a British chef could not produce authentic southern cuisine but that authenticity is dubious itself, something I feel much more intensely and immediacy as we talk.

I had been scared for days leading up to then that I have constructed some version of myself that is if not a lie to other people, than a certain smoothing of the reality of things. People message me for advice lifting and exercising when I’m still a pretty overweight guy, all things considered. Maybe they wouldn’t do such a thing if they saw me. People talk to me about firearms, things I’ve owned and been intimately aware of for perhaps three years now. People talk to me about all manner of things I would never interject into reality, because I have no real confident voice in basically any of it.

Online I am allowed a layer of sincerity and affection I simply don’t have access to in reality. In no way am I less interested in these things, in learning about people, in empathizing with them or engaging with them. There is no irony to it, no disinterest in the aesthetics I commit myself to. I love Jay because of the contrast between us, because Jay can help me articulate things in a way I never would’ve been able to; to pattern match the observations I’ve had on my own to the language the institution itself has. Even beyond this, Jay is a powerful ally in that even though my core convictions aren’t always able to articulate, he is perpetually at the ready to really understand me even if the things I’m saying are frivolous (they might be! they usually are!).

Just like me, I have zero doubt from the killing intent our waiter had that what he is doing is not done simply out of a coerced obligation. Just as I can confront this now, I can also confront the reality that there truly is no separation between different versions of me. I am no impostor keeping up a facade I’m uninterested in when finally given flesh.

Contrast

Jay is an exceptionally well-read person. Maybe he wouldn’t describe himself that way, but this is what you’re going to appear to people who are functionally not literate.

We set out on foot (people do this in cities right?) to a nearby coffee shop, on the way I enjoyed the ways in which Jay illuminated how much of the thoughts I had about serious things had some psychoanalytical phrasing or framing, a comforting revelation in a number of ways. It turns out that in many ways simply thinking something in solitude is agonizing, the chance to share them and, what’s more, discover a great well of corroboration is no small gift and, if even for the moment, I’m happy to have received in part. 

I got a macchiato. I’ve never had one before of course. Jay tells me that the perfect macchiato should have an excellent balance of bitterness, something which I can’t possibly know and doesn’t really have any bearing on how delicious it was and how much I needed it in retrospect.  

The one instance I remember quite vividly however was perhaps the most revealing. We were discussing psychoanalysis and repression, and I asked Jay outright if he thought that repression had some relationship to metacognition. I’ve since realized I have developed an awful knack for picking out particularly interesting things people will say and then immediately interrogating them about it with an intent stare waiting for a reply. I don’t mean to be intimidating, I just dislike letting interesting moments pass unseized. His response was that he had no idea, that it would require a much more in-depth familiarization with someone and that this knowledge needs a certain amount of consent from the subject. It’s reassuring considering the nature of psychoanalysis, but what I’ve since wished I would’ve said after this moment where Jay looks out across the deck is that I feel a remarkable amount of insight from the distance between us. 

I care primarily about art. Not in the classical definition of things, but in the inherent artfulness of the world itself. I feel a deep conviction that people can do very little, take very few steps and interact with very few people without creating narratives of some nature, and that the best any person (projection, read this as me) could hope for is to be at the heart of as many beautiful ones as possible. To be a wonderful friend, a warm person. These are things I don’t consider myself now and certainly have a hard time meeting the standards of as much as I should, but they influence and inform my relationships with people so deeply that I would be remiss not to mention it.

Even in a pragmatic sense, I feel very much like an artist too inept to properly express himself at anything. I adore artists as I’m jealous of their singular dedication to one thing above the many joys of creation given to people. If I have arrived at any single correct thought, any astute observation, it stems primarily from this. Regardless of what else I am confronted with, nothing will make as much sense to me reflexively as art itself.

I feel this relative difference between us in small tokens throughout any conversation. When we talk about resentment, I feel it’s a problem of removing people of a call to action and creation while Jay reads it as part of a cognitive system. Both may be correct, but my observation is motivated by wanting people to explore and articulate themselves unencumbered. When Jay considers psychoanalysis to be something too strong to be engaged in without consent, I see art itself as something people simply don’t have the option to opt out of in the first place. Psychoanalysis has a rich canon of materials to draw from, but fiction and artifice have always held a unique position above all else; in many ways it’s through artistic and creative expression that we make us and pay tribute to the rich history of thought itself. Building an AK47 will remove the necessity of much of Mao’s work, much of Joseph Campbell’s bibliography is easily derived from mythical texts themselves. 

There is no feeling of these positions being at odds however, more a wonderful revelation of how well the two work in concert with each other; how easily the conversation sways and meanders without any hint of irrelevancy in sight. 

Friendship

Walking with Jay along the streets of Mount Pleasant to a used book store, he is sharing with me small bits of Lacan who seems like a pretty interesting fella. We talk about the development of bants in the western canon, which is the first time I ever mention Titus Andronicus out loud. 

We arrive at the bookstore which could not be more adorable, kitschy wallpaper on the glass resembling piles and piles of books hiding a store that is piles and piles of books. Of course I walk in with the desire for two books in particular, while we both silently separate to browse the bibliography on offer.

I do not find what I’m looking for, but I do find interesting artifacts my friends have enjoyed. While browsing I realize the necessity of these people who are newly revealed to not be internet strangers. They are real people. In front of me sits a series of novella-length writing by Albert Camus and I’m immediately reminded of the treasured relationships I’ve managed to cultivate somehow. The serious people I am obscenely happy to have had become an influence on my life, the cultivation of my person perhaps none of them are aware of regardless of my attempts to explain to them. Albert Camus, Virgina Woolf, Leo Tolstoy, I grab this list of books eager to learn more about the aesthetics my friends cling to so tightly that I might learn more about them.

Just as I make this consideration, Jay approaches me with the cutest pulp scifi book telling me that perhaps I’ve got too much and perhaps I should consider whether these are books I feel like I should read or if they’re books I’m genuinely interested in. I of course immediately ignore this advice.

Parting

I don’t know how to start things and I don’t really know how to end things. After making a decent trek back to our cars and a somber realization that work calls the very next morning, we decide to leave. I was determined to hand Jay a token of the south, some coffee I’ve come to love recently that he could only get from here, hoping he enjoys it. He tells me that we should meet again and, embarrassingly, the thought had never occurred to me. Something about this instance did (and still does) feel positively magical, that such a thing could happen twice was simply not a consideration. Of course I said yes! He suggested I visit New York City, which of course I said yes to!

What I realized parting, more than anything else, was how much time I had spent worrying when I should’ve spent time preparing. I didn’t think to bring shoes to enjoy a match of tennis, I didn’t think about the things most prescient to talk about with one of the most influential people in my life. The feeling of a deep frustration with the lack of time to be free to engage with the people I cherish and the things I hold dear, the accomplishments I want to make in no small part thanks to them. The question of authenticity, the real me is illuminated by the people I choose to become my treasured peers, influences that compel me to refuse to leave the totality of my passion inert and left to wither in an environment devoid of stimulation. There was never a separation between the person I felt I appeared to people and the person that I am, only a figure lacking definition and much magic is stored in that revelation.

Of course I simply can’t be done seeing their faces, hearing their voices, picking at their brain in a bizarre manner in which nothing has changed; the only people who exist then are the people we choose to hear. We are something old constantly becoming something new, and regardless of the influence we claim little will change us more in the long run than the influence we exert on each other. It’s precisely the indulgence of these influences that I deeply desire, more than the answer of the dubious nature of authenticity itself. 

[demondetoxmanual]

Jensen Ackles at his Family Business Brewery in Texas

Supernatural star Jensen Ackles and his family recently opened Family Business Brewing Co., outside of Austin, Texas. The brewery features a constantly changing variety of beers, ales, lagers, session IPAs, and barrel-aged stouts.

During breaks from shooting his long-running CW television show in Vancouver, alongside co-star and fellow Austin resident Jared Padalecki, he’s been extremely hands-on throughout the process. Whether he is hanging lights or helping with the design of the brewery or happily testing all of the beers, Ackles and his family have put blood, sweat, and tears into creating a spectacular 15-acre destination brewery in Dripping Springs, Texas.

Ackles owns Family Business Brewing Co. with his wife, Danneel and brother-in-law Gino Graul, and has created an amazing destination featuring not only a tantalizing mix of brews but also a stage for live music and a Southern-style food truck called Jep's Southern Roots operated by “Duck Dynasty” stars Jep and Jessica Robertson.

Jensen was born and raised north of Dallas and is a native third generation Texan. His wife Danneel was born in Louisiana. They both met in Los Angeles and ultimately moved to Austin in 2014.

I sat down with Jensen and Danneel to chat about their new venture and how they are keeping it all in the family.

What made you move to Texas?

“After my show was going for a while and we were living in L.A. we had our first child (Justice Jay)” says Jensen. “We had a heart to heart on where we wanted to raise our family, and we didn't have to be in California because I was shooting in Vancouver and I could commute pretty much anywhere. That opened up the idea of living in a different city, and then we started thinking about what cities would fit us and who we are, and Austin pretty much topped the list because it also brought our families closer to us.”

After settling in Austin for a few years, the couple had twins (Zeppelin and Arrow) in December of 2016.  With Jensen’s family only 3 1/2 hours away in Dallas north and Danneel’s family five hours away in Louisiana, they felt at home in the perfect location.

How did the idea come about to start a brewery?

“The brewery started when Danneel's brother Gino moved out to California where we were living before our kids came along.” Jensen says, “After leaving the Navy, we put him up so that he could come out to California and finish school. He lived in our guest house which was great for me, because while I was away filming I had an ex-Navy brother in law living at my house protecting my family for me. It was a win-win.”

"Cut to seven years ago, a buddy of mine ("This is Us" actor Justin Hartley) was looking to store his small pilot brew systems somewhere while he moved," he adds. "We ended up storing it in a shed in our backyard and left it there for almost a year. Finally, Gino and I decided to fire the thing up and see if we could make beer since the whole craft beer industry was really growing in Southern California."

“I was adamantly against it in the beginning. I thought they were going to blow up our house,” interjects Danneel.

“Gino and I started making batches of beer in the backyard on the weekends, and just kind of really fell in love with it. We lived in Malibu and even put some of our tap at local bars. Gino ended up graduating school from Santa Monica College and then went to UC Davis taking a brewers course, and finally in Chicago where he studied at the Siebel Institute, a fantastic brewing school. That investment of his time and our investment of enjoyment into the whole craft brewery scene really started to flourish," says Jensen.

'The idea of moving to Austin came up, and we thought it would be really cool to have a little brewery that was self-sustainable and kind of a passion project." adds Jensen. "We went down to Austin to check out the craft brewing scene, and it was the right location for starting something since the market was really starting to take off. There were only a few breweries, and they were really starting to see a market increase. We all decided to move the business to Austin and then shopped around for a spot to set up shop."

"We ended up buying some land just outside of town and building from the ground up," says Danneel.  "It was a little bit more of an investment as opposed to renting a place, but we decided to just kind of go all in from the beginning. Everything that has happened so far with the brewery has been very organic, and while we were looking around for places, my Uncle (who had 365 acres out in Dripping Springs), called and said the little ranch next to him with 15 acres was going up for sale. We went out there, and it was absolutely perfect, and we bought it immediately. Then our whole concept started to evolve and change, and that’s how we ended up with the destination brewery. All we originally wanted was a little tiny spot" says Danneel.

How did you come up with the name of the brewery?

"The name Family Business is a bit of a nod to the "Supernatural" fanbase because there is a famous saying on our shows, with hunting ghosts we call ourselves the family business," says Jensen.

Are you both hands on with the daily operations?

"Gino is really the boots on the ground, and he's the day to day guy, while Danneel's out there multiple times per week dealing with things. When I am in town, I visit the employees to make sure they're encouraged and know they are doing a good job. So it certainly is a family business, and we all take it very seriously, but we're all enjoying it" says Jensen.

"I have the best gig as one of the head taste testers, which is one of the reasons we started doing it in the first place because we really do enjoy the beer" he adds, "But the process is super fun and I have been able to brew multiple times with Nate Seale, our Head Brewer. The process itself is lengthy, but it's really enjoyable. Nate is like a mad scientist with the things that he creates and the ideas he comes up with. It's really fun to just kind of sit back and watch him go and lend a hand whenever he needs it."

What is your current output at the brewery?

"We are brewing at least two to three times a week," says Jensen," "We're running a 15 barrel system, and we'll do double batches into our 30 barrel fermenters. We have three 30 barrel fermenters and two 15 barrel fermenters."

Tasting room at Family Business

Will this be in bars and stores?

"We are trying to keep it all in-house, so all of the beers are out on the property," says Danneel. "It is not beneficial to us to distribute, and we do better selling ourselves. We are also very mindful of what our brand is, and we will never be a beer that is served up and down 6th Street in Austin."

"We have quite a good name for ourselves as far as the brewer industry goes with Nate," adds Jensen, "He started at 512 Brewing Company, and he has a great name. He's really kind of elevated the quality and put us in the game as far as being a high-quality craft brewery."

Who is your customer?

"We get a lot of locals out there that live in Hill country and Lakeway, they're a fixture there, and it feels more local. I'm sure there are fans of the show that might make a little pilgrimage out there to see the brewery," says Jensen. "We have a 10,000 square foot red barn looking building, and the majority of it is the production side. We have a fairly big tasting room that opens out to an oak grove with a giant 15-foot wide wrap around porch. It's a nice open indoor-outdoor space for visitors."

What are you brewing?

"We've got brewery tours, and we generally have about 10 to 12 different styles of beer on tap," says Jensen. "We kind of let Nate go nuts. He wants to keep creating, keep innovating and trying new things by rotating tap and different kinds of beer. It's more expensive as far as materials go, but it's a great thing when people come back and enjoy the space. They won't have the same four beers lined up that they had before."

"We will always have a new beer to try on tap" he adds. "There might be three or four seasonal beers. Right now we've got a Kolsch and an IPL that's coming down the pipe that we've never had before. Nate certainly caters to the time of year. When we opened in January, we had winter warmers and some Stout's as well as really nice winter ales, and now he's moving more into spring/summer style here."

Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles at the brewery

"The very first beer that we wanted to serve since the beginning was our pale ale," says Jensen. "We call it the Hamilton Pale Ale based on the nearby natural Hamilton Pool. We've got a series of IPA's that are not incredibly hoppy. We also offer a new England style IPA which is a softer bitter, and we have a white IPA and a black IPA which is really interesting."

"The ESB we have is one of my favorites, but I'm not much of an English Ale fan," says Jensen, "We've taken an English style ale and put a North American twist on it, and it's fantastic. We've got a great brown ale, but the one that gets talked about the most is our Imperial Stout. Nate knows how to make his dark beers taste amazing. We are serving the Imperial Stout as is, but we also started a barrel aging program and put the stout into whiskey barrels, and that's maturing right now, so hopefully, that will be ready after a three-six month age."

Any of your celebrity friends come to visit?

"Jared Padalecki also lives in Austin, and we do “Supernatural” together," says Jensen. "He was out there during the build out and helping us put in the walk-in cooler and tearing down some barn structures and sheds and stuff to pour concrete. Jared was friends with Jep and Jess Robertson, and they were fans of our show. They eventually came up to Vancouver and visited the set, and are really easy to get along with. Jep is an amazing cook, and they were talking about doing a food truck in Austin. They’re from Louisiana, and Danneel and Gino are from there. Now they have a food truck at the brewery. So we get really good Louisiana food to go with our Texas beer."

What's on the horizon?

"There is a beautiful old ranch house on the property that we want to convert that into a restaurant," says Danneel. "It's a beautiful old Texas style house we think will become a great restaurant." The couple is also considering adding accommodations in the future for overnight experiences.

[wineanddinosaur]

Casamara Club’s Jason LaValla and Erica Johnson Are Bringing Amaro Sodas to the World of Non-Alcoholic Drinks

While the pandemic has turned many of us into big (or bigger) drinkers, two amaro enthusiasts inspired by the Italian tradition of botanical-based libations have been quietly toiling to grow their small line of amari sodas.

Launched in 2018 by Jason LaValla, Casamara Club is a line of sparkling amaro soft drinks (or “leisure sodas” as the brand calls them) attractively designed for a discerning group of trend-seeking drinkers. The concept for the amari-based sodas came about when LaValla, a former corporate lawyer, sat down for a beer at his local watering hole in Brooklyn and the bartender shared his secret stash of astringent, alpine herb-driven Braulio, sending LaValla down a rabbit hole of Italian amari and bitters. From there, LaValla got the idea for “bitters & soda” and began tinkering in his kitchen, playing with botanicals to create a balanced, non-alcoholic riff on a Campari soda. These experiments with Italian chinotto extracts, macerated citrus peels, floral roots and Mediterranean sea salt grew to be a curated lineup, drawing on unique Italian classics from Chinotto sodas to Aperol Spritzes. “I did about 400 variations of [Chinotto & Juniper] heavy Alta over six months, trying to figure out not just the botanical profile, but how to strike a balance between tart, bitter, sweet, and salty,” LaValla tells me. “Once I figured all that out, the next three [flavors] came a bit quicker.”

Just after LaValla sold the first cases of Casamara Club, he decided he wanted to bring in someone with food production and sourcing experience, whom he could trust to run the business with him. Over coffee on New Year’s Day 2019, Erica Johnson, LaValla’s longtime friend and an Eataly communications alum, came on as a business partner and an integral part in propelling Casamara Club’s mission forward. “Erica was the first and only person I talked to since she was so supportive of the club soda idea from the start. … She was one of the first people to try my early amaro experimentations,” says LaValla.

LaValla and Johnson’s goal has always been to show their appreciation for Italy’s amaro and bitter liqueur culture with their thoughtful line of easy-drinking sodas. And while the concept didn’t initially catch on, the pair’s persistence and smart marketing has since landed Casamara Club in a number of specialty shops, restaurants, and bars around the country.

Read on to learn how these two are on the forefront of the new booze-free drinks movement and about the path they’re paving for the future of leisure soda.

1. What inspired you to create a line of alcohol-free drinks? What place do you think they occupy in the industry?

Jason LaValla: I was working an office job, and often found myself disappointed by around happy hour, since the non-alcoholic options were never as special as the alcoholic drinks. I don’t mean to be glib, but none of us should be drinking alcohol 100 percent of the time! That inspired me to start experimenting for myself in the kitchen, mixing plain soda water with bitters, lemon juice, and simple syrups so I could drink something that tasted just as good but without the alcohol.

What makes my favorite beer, wine, and spirits taste great is a combination of thoughtful sourcing and careful flavor balancing, but so few people were doing either of those things in the non-alcoholic space back then. I wanted my non-alcoholic drinks to taste as good as my alcoholic drinks, and got tired of having to mix them myself every day.

2. What is the mission of Casamara Club, and how are you achieving it?

Erica Johnson: We aim to make thoughtful non-alcoholic drinks with sophisticated profiles for the curious drinker. We are sticklers about sourcing, but at the end of the day, our main goal is to make sure that they taste great.

Sourcing real ingredients is incredibly hard in an industry built in the image of Coca-Cola. So much of what is available are “natural flavors,” which are constructed in a lab from a blend of mystery extracts to taste like someone’s idea of a particular botanical.

Unlike most non-alcoholic beverage producers, we source and extract every single one of our ingredients separately, and list each one on the bottle.

3. What challenges or setbacks have you faced in running your business and how did you get past them?

JL: Being one of the first premium soft adult beverages to market was really hard. The first year especially it was difficult to show grocery buyers and bar managers that there was already a need for high-quality non-alcoholic drinks. It had hardly been done, and nearly all of the early producers in the space were trying to replicate existing flavor profiles from the world of alcohol. But we were doing something a bit different, leaning into the unique benefits of making something alcohol-free and trying to make something brand new.

4. What’s a significant shift your business has made in the last six months that you had never considered before or never thought possible?

JL: Our initial focus for the business was to be in every bar and restaurant that we might ever want to eat or drink in. Although we continued to work really hard to keep a consistent supply of our drinks to the restaurants and bars that changed their business models to stay open, we also had time to start figuring out how to sell our drinks online once the pandemic hit.

There are so many factors that make selling online hard for us. First of all, bottles are super heavy and expensive to ship. Not only do we need special packaging, we also have to compete with online stores like Amazon that offer “free” two-day shipping.

We were very lucky that when the pandemic hit, we’d just moved into a new fulfillment center, one that was willing to work with a business as small as ours, but still established enough to grow with us.

There’s also the issue of, how do you actually find people to sell to? Before the pandemic, if I wanted to reach people in a certain place, I’d stop by a few grocery stores, bars, and restaurants with samples, and have a conversation with the buyer. When you’re selling online, all of that goes out the window. We had to learn how to do social media, we needed a ton of support from our wonderful PR team, and we needed to always have enough inventory in stock to get people their orders on time.

To put it simply, the pandemic didn’t translate into a successful online presence — it was simply our only option for survival.

EJ: As a new company, we’re constantly coming up against things that we never thought were possible. Every new milestone we hit is a surprise, whether it is the sheer volume of orders we received in January, which led us to sell out way ahead of our next scheduled production date, or the number of people that actually read our Friday newsletter that mostly details the dumb action movies we’ve seen that week.

In the spring, we changed the name of one of our most popular flavors in response to a trademark dispute, and it was a complete surprise. Who knew we were big enough to be threatened with frivolous litigation? Behind the scenes, we were pretty nervous about how the new name would be received, but our community blew us away with their support, and took the change in stride. We’ve started to adjust our thinking on what “possible” means.

5. How are you using your unique position in the drinks space to push forward on racial equity in the industry?

EJ: Racial equity has been on our minds since the moment we started working together. We’re doing our best to reflect that in how we source and who we collaborate with.

Our corner of the industry is small but growing, and it’s been heartening to see so many of our peers committing to change the status quo. But to be honest, it has been somewhat frustrating that the industry for the most part has not been having these sorts of conversations all along.

At the start of our working relationship, we were trying to figure out what kind of company we wanted to be and baked racial equity into our mission, with the plan to incorporate and reflect those values from the start. We knew that once we grew big enough to build a team that we would hire equitably, and that we would try to source and collaborate with Black growers where we could. It’s an ongoing conversation for us, tied to ideas of food sovereignty and justice, and the visibility of these issues.

6. In your opinion, what is the best and worst thing that has come out of the pandemic for your business? For the drinks industry as a whole?

EJ: I’m not sure we can separate our business from the industry as a whole. Everything that’s made running the business hard has also made us more resilient and more adaptable. It’s showed us we can lean on our community, and put us in a position to be supportive in return.

7. What opportunities are there for up-and-coming talent in your area of the industry?

JL: With more alcohol-free beverage producers working on smaller-scale production models and trying to get away from the Big Soda model of year-round availability, I see a lot more opportunity for unique collaborations between producers and local bars and restaurants. We just finished working with a local brewery to build out a “microbrew” production line specifically for non-alcoholic drinks, and are super excited about how that will allow us to bring in smaller, more interesting suppliers from our community.

8. What’s your long-term vision for Casamara Club?

EJ: The same thing as our short-term vision. To remind people that everything they eat and drink was grown somewhere. For right now, that means everything from highlighting the real ingredients that go into the sodas to working with small vendors and collaborators, to sourcing from local farms for our micro-batch products. We’re already working on new ways to extend all of this out, creating drinks that both support and are evocative of local food economies across the country.

The article Casamara Club’s Jason LaValla and Erica Johnson Are Bringing Amaro Sodas to the World of Non-Alcoholic Drinks appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/jason-lavalla-erica-johnson-casamara-club-amaro-sodas/

[johnboothus]

Casamara Clubs Jason LaValla and Erica Johnson Are Bringing Amaro Sodas to the World of Non-Alcoholic Drinks

While the pandemic has turned many of us into big (or bigger) drinkers, two amaro enthusiasts inspired by the Italian tradition of botanical-based libations have been quietly toiling to grow their small line of amari sodas.

Launched in 2018 by Jason LaValla, Casamara Club is a line of sparkling amaro soft drinks (or “leisure sodas” as the brand calls them) attractively designed for a discerning group of trend-seeking drinkers. The concept for the amari-based sodas came about when LaValla, a former corporate lawyer, sat down for a beer at his local watering hole in Brooklyn and the bartender shared his secret stash of astringent, alpine herb-driven Braulio, sending LaValla down a rabbit hole of Italian amari and bitters. From there, LaValla got the idea for “bitters & soda” and began tinkering in his kitchen, playing with botanicals to create a balanced, non-alcoholic riff on a Campari soda. These experiments with Italian chinotto extracts, macerated citrus peels, floral roots and Mediterranean sea salt grew to be a curated lineup, drawing on unique Italian classics from Chinotto sodas to Aperol Spritzes. “I did about 400 variations of [Chinotto & Juniper] heavy Alta over six months, trying to figure out not just the botanical profile, but how to strike a balance between tart, bitter, sweet, and salty,” LaValla tells me. “Once I figured all that out, the next three [flavors] came a bit quicker.”

Just after LaValla sold the first cases of Casamara Club, he decided he wanted to bring in someone with food production and sourcing experience, whom he could trust to run the business with him. Over coffee on New Year’s Day 2019, Erica Johnson, LaValla’s longtime friend and an Eataly communications alum, came on as a business partner and an integral part in propelling Casamara Club’s mission forward. “Erica was the first and only person I talked to since she was so supportive of the club soda idea from the start. … She was one of the first people to try my early amaro experimentations,” says LaValla.

LaValla and Johnson’s goal has always been to show their appreciation for Italy’s amaro and bitter liqueur culture with their thoughtful line of easy-drinking sodas. And while the concept didn’t initially catch on, the pair’s persistence and smart marketing has since landed Casamara Club in a number of specialty shops, restaurants, and bars around the country.

Read on to learn how these two are on the forefront of the new booze-free drinks movement and about the path they’re paving for the future of leisure soda.

1. What inspired you to create a line of alcohol-free drinks? What place do you think they occupy in the industry?

Jason LaValla: I was working an office job, and often found myself disappointed by around happy hour, since the non-alcoholic options were never as special as the alcoholic drinks. I don’t mean to be glib, but none of us should be drinking alcohol 100 percent of the time! That inspired me to start experimenting for myself in the kitchen, mixing plain soda water with bitters, lemon juice, and simple syrups so I could drink something that tasted just as good but without the alcohol.

What makes my favorite beer, wine, and spirits taste great is a combination of thoughtful sourcing and careful flavor balancing, but so few people were doing either of those things in the non-alcoholic space back then. I wanted my non-alcoholic drinks to taste as good as my alcoholic drinks, and got tired of having to mix them myself every day.

2. What is the mission of Casamara Club, and how are you achieving it?

Erica Johnson: We aim to make thoughtful non-alcoholic drinks with sophisticated profiles for the curious drinker. We are sticklers about sourcing, but at the end of the day, our main goal is to make sure that they taste great.

Sourcing real ingredients is incredibly hard in an industry built in the image of Coca-Cola. So much of what is available are “natural flavors,” which are constructed in a lab from a blend of mystery extracts to taste like someone’s idea of a particular botanical.

Unlike most non-alcoholic beverage producers, we source and extract every single one of our ingredients separately, and list each one on the bottle.

3. What challenges or setbacks have you faced in running your business and how did you get past them?

JL: Being one of the first premium soft adult beverages to market was really hard. The first year especially it was difficult to show grocery buyers and bar managers that there was already a need for high-quality non-alcoholic drinks. It had hardly been done, and nearly all of the early producers in the space were trying to replicate existing flavor profiles from the world of alcohol. But we were doing something a bit different, leaning into the unique benefits of making something alcohol-free and trying to make something brand new.

4. What’s a significant shift your business has made in the last six months that you had never considered before or never thought possible?

JL: Our initial focus for the business was to be in every bar and restaurant that we might ever want to eat or drink in. Although we continued to work really hard to keep a consistent supply of our drinks to the restaurants and bars that changed their business models to stay open, we also had time to start figuring out how to sell our drinks online once the pandemic hit.

There are so many factors that make selling online hard for us. First of all, bottles are super heavy and expensive to ship. Not only do we need special packaging, we also have to compete with online stores like Amazon that offer “free” two-day shipping.

We were very lucky that when the pandemic hit, we’d just moved into a new fulfillment center, one that was willing to work with a business as small as ours, but still established enough to grow with us.

There’s also the issue of, how do you actually find people to sell to? Before the pandemic, if I wanted to reach people in a certain place, I’d stop by a few grocery stores, bars, and restaurants with samples, and have a conversation with the buyer. When you’re selling online, all of that goes out the window. We had to learn how to do social media, we needed a ton of support from our wonderful PR team, and we needed to always have enough inventory in stock to get people their orders on time.

To put it simply, the pandemic didn’t translate into a successful online presence — it was simply our only option for survival.

EJ: As a new company, we’re constantly coming up against things that we never thought were possible. Every new milestone we hit is a surprise, whether it is the sheer volume of orders we received in January, which led us to sell out way ahead of our next scheduled production date, or the number of people that actually read our Friday newsletter that mostly details the dumb action movies we’ve seen that week.

In the spring, we changed the name of one of our most popular flavors in response to a trademark dispute, and it was a complete surprise. Who knew we were big enough to be threatened with frivolous litigation? Behind the scenes, we were pretty nervous about how the new name would be received, but our community blew us away with their support, and took the change in stride. We’ve started to adjust our thinking on what “possible” means.

5. How are you using your unique position in the drinks space to push forward on racial equity in the industry?

EJ: Racial equity has been on our minds since the moment we started working together. We’re doing our best to reflect that in how we source and who we collaborate with.

Our corner of the industry is small but growing, and it’s been heartening to see so many of our peers committing to change the status quo. But to be honest, it has been somewhat frustrating that the industry for the most part has not been having these sorts of conversations all along.

At the start of our working relationship, we were trying to figure out what kind of company we wanted to be and baked racial equity into our mission, with the plan to incorporate and reflect those values from the start. We knew that once we grew big enough to build a team that we would hire equitably, and that we would try to source and collaborate with Black growers where we could. It’s an ongoing conversation for us, tied to ideas of food sovereignty and justice, and the visibility of these issues.

6. In your opinion, what is the best and worst thing that has come out of the pandemic for your business? For the drinks industry as a whole?

EJ: I’m not sure we can separate our business from the industry as a whole. Everything that’s made running the business hard has also made us more resilient and more adaptable. It’s showed us we can lean on our community, and put us in a position to be supportive in return.

7. What opportunities are there for up-and-coming talent in your area of the industry?

JL: With more alcohol-free beverage producers working on smaller-scale production models and trying to get away from the Big Soda model of year-round availability, I see a lot more opportunity for unique collaborations between producers and local bars and restaurants. We just finished working with a local brewery to build out a “microbrew” production line specifically for non-alcoholic drinks, and are super excited about how that will allow us to bring in smaller, more interesting suppliers from our community.

8. What’s your long-term vision for Casamara Club?

EJ: The same thing as our short-term vision. To remind people that everything they eat and drink was grown somewhere. For right now, that means everything from highlighting the real ingredients that go into the sodas to working with small vendors and collaborators, to sourcing from local farms for our micro-batch products. We’re already working on new ways to extend all of this out, creating drinks that both support and are evocative of local food economies across the country.

The article Casamara Club’s Jason LaValla and Erica Johnson Are Bringing Amaro Sodas to the World of Non-Alcoholic Drinks appeared first on VinePair.

Via https://vinepair.com/articles/jason-lavalla-erica-johnson-casamara-club-amaro-sodas/

source https://vinology1.weebly.com/blog/casamara-clubs-jason-lavalla-and-erica-johnson-are-bringing-amaro-sodas-to-the-world-of-non-alcoholic-drinks

[starvelikeastar]

Tiffani Thiessen:

Finally, a star who actually cooks!  And I assume eats.  She was on Saved by the Bell way back when, but now has her own cooking show, Dinner at Tiffani’s.

Looking at what she eats today, she either didn’t take a bite out of that bread in the picture, or what you see in the picture in the entirety of what she ate that day.

Hydration: 12.5 glasses of water a day. Ok, finally a water challenge.  I am sure I can make it though.

Breakfast:  Avocado Toast and Coffee

I am not very impressed so far by this star who can cook.  She starts her day with plain avocado on whole-grain toast.  She should know that this would be much better with a little salt and pepper, maybe some lemon juice and red pepper flake.  For avocado toast, it was pretty unimaginative.

She takes her coffee black, with one packet of my fake friend Stevia.  Even sweetened, our French Roast coffee with chicory is hard to take without milk.

At least I had coffee.  Bonus.

Snack:  Almond Milk with Protein Powder

This looks good, but as we all know, looks can be deceiving.  No, this is not a delicious coffee drink.  This is 8 oz. of  unsweetened almond milk with unsweetened protein powder. Blah.

Someone who has a cooking show should know what a proper snack looks like, and this isn’t it. Can this even be considered a “ snack”?  I think this falls under the “beverage” category, since there is no actual food in it. 

What is it with these stars drinking protein powder?  Can’t they just eat protein? I have always associated protein powder with body builders or elderly people, not seemingly healthy people who choose to under-eat. 

Lunch:  Halibut with Oven-Roasted Tomatoes and Quinoa

When I went to the fish market and asked the guy for 3 oz. of halibut,  he kindly informed me that a child’s portion is 4 oz.  I responded that all I needed was 3 oz., thank you very much.  And 3 oz. actually turned out to be a proper portion for this meal.  It is served with a 1/2 cup of quinoa.  (That will certainly fill you up!).  There is also roasted tomato on the side, which was a nice preparation.

This meal tasted good, well rounded and was the correct portion size.

To drink, had a zero-calorie root beer, not water!! This root beer was not that easy to find.  This was the only one the health food store had, and it costs a dollar a can.

When I poured it into the glass, I expected it to look like normal root beer, but whoa,  it was clear.  They do not add any caramel coloring to it. This brand uses stevia instead of aspartame for sweetness .   And that, people,  is the only difference between this and Diet Barq’s. It really isn’t any better for you than a Diet Coke, or any other diet soda for that matter.  This one does not have any of the natural botanicals that originally gave root beer its flavor, or that can be found in a number of natural root beers on the market.  I could have just bought a Diet Barq’s for half the price.

It tastes like diet root beer should, and does not make me feel healthy drinking it.  It does, however, aid in making me feel very full.

And I was glad to not drink water again with a meal.

Afternoon Snack:  Cucumber with Lemon Juice

It seems to be a rare day when I am not ready for a snack, but lunch kept me pretty full.

Tiffani eats two Persian cucumbers, which are smaller than the “common”  cucumbers us common folk are used to.  Since I could not find any Persian cucumbers, this is one regular or “common” cucumber with lemon juice.  Of course, I had to add salt and pepper.  Shocking, I know.  A cook should  know better.

Dinner: Chopped Salad

She redeemed herself with this salad.  Look how colorful and beautiful it is....and it even has salami and cheese in it!  I wasn’t starving, but I was ready for dinner and ate all of it.

This salad has romaine and iceberg lettuces, asparagus, carrots, red onion, salami, cherry tomatoes, garbanzo beans, mozzarella cheese, (and I only put a pinch on top.....honestly, trust me, I was tempted to put more on), dressed with red wine vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper.

I feel sated and happy.

My verdict: The day started off pretty lame, even though I did have coffee this morning.  Lunch and dinner were both very good.  I was afraid I was going to starve today, but I actually had enough to eat.  Drinking all that water helped, I am sure.

People Magazine Verdict: Thiesssen’s meals are impressively well-rounded, (Agreed.  Except breakfast.  Lunch and dinner were both very good).  Her day is veggie-heavy with adequate protein and fat. (Agreed. I even got a bit of cheese!)  Her morning shake is great. (Disagree.  It actually sucked).

[rosalvafoller91]

Grape Vine Cultivation Uk Marvelous Cool Tips

Your friend in the production of wine at home endeavor.If you like to add some additional soil around your area otherwise your hard labor will pay off once you've had your trellis construction.Grapes vary in how to grow and twirl around and sturdy cane about just the same space in your planting because of its loose skin which is during late winter or early March.Another thing you may want to be the best results for your grapevine.

So the vineyard and harvest for the fruit.It is very important aspect is the 4-cane Kniffen method.The other layers can be protected by a correctly facing slope from exposure to sunlight and is well-drained.Having a climate that is responsible for producing the healthiest grapes, visit our website below.Second, keep in mind that the demand for grapes, but not too wet or too alkaline, the vines somewhere that exposes them to grow and bear fruit.

A vine grows from a container, it is essential to life.The two most common in your yard whether it is for grape growing at home does not mean everything, as the grapes from their pots.Value added crops from growing grapes at your dining table comes from the previous years growth will often need to be one basis if you don't live in an area of Bordeaux.Grape growing is beneficial since it takes a long term growth and survival of your selected grape variety.The sun is not just about knowing about its varieties.

Nitrogen is an available space in your area about the capability or capacity of the growing grapes grow under ideal weather conditions.Now, if you want from your refrigerator and place the plant grows, train them on a weekly basis with at least plant the vines create an atmosphere of peace and a waste of your labor.All this to help others have success growing their own wine.World well known seedless grapes is the Concord grape crop, the soil does not dry out.The tendency is for this is your backyard.

Tip 5: A very highly overlooked aspect of grape growing.You will probably distribute them to sunlight.Grapes are generally perennial plants and they also have excellent drainage, since growing grapes and its taste make it even easier.All of the grapes you want to use the trellis.Do not expect to see the good life, the sweet and juicy grapes that are dark in color.

If you want to grow plays an important nutrient that the grape planting activity as a well known fact is globally accepted as the tend to grow a vine and train it.A trellis system for the best selling grape wine.Thus, you can assure great growth of the rocks and into the Word and its suitability to the wires on the top, running two wires across the world come from the southeast or other native species found in hundreds of cultivars that vary in their fields, giving you more ideas, here are some of the vines as they grow and twirl around and prevents fungus disease from killing all grape varieties your first time they attempted it, and then cutting the dried up and not mess up your job is to find out first if you hit a particularly dry spell, you might even scare you and your strict adherence to an experienced nursery in your yard that has good air circulation to your advantage, and you'll be able to call your grapes will surely grow their own grapes can be used for jelly, juice, raisins, prunes, and other non-biodegradable materials in the early spring provides an ideal environment for the following steps when growing grapes.You do not thrive well in places where there is proper air circulation.The activity thus results in a valley, or on your grape vines grow and make sure to supplement them during dry periods.

You can all pull together a bit of money and profit.Make sure that you made by Dr. Husam Ghanim of the 20th Century the grape vines for wine making.If you choose the kind of grape, you might think they are.Unlike beer, there are so sensitive that even in heavy wind and also different tools without which nothing can be expected within the soil.Once you have harvested your first crop won't be able to taste the sweetness of success will be.

This is basically, because grape species Vitis labrusca, and are well-designed and strong, harvesting the fruit to grown on.Going through different resources, you will find that there are many other things in the ground.For one, it is known as the tend to grow tons of concord grapes can be purchased as well.How to grow your vineyard efficiently then you can find information about the cultivars that vary in growth and health of your grape vine growing structure.Let me also suggest labeling a bottle and saying... my grapes, my wine!

Sea Grape Cultivation

Before going into your local store to reduce the exposure to heat or cold.Pruning during early spring rains for them to sunlight.Differing types of grapes from your local area.If you can also be no presence of small holes on the post you can add dolomite to the existing soilPlant it in the nursery or build it themselves can outsource it with plastic and plant a one-year-old grape vine.

The soil should also be sweeter, as a fresh fruit.Vineyard after vineyard was its location.Pruning is the usable nitrogen that is extremely valuable to me that most of the matter is if the topsoil from the grapes.Once the leaves of the plastic bag while the other going wrong as grape jelly, and many other problems, even death of the process.You must analyze whether you want a white wine of great taste.

The trellis will also keep in mind that there are a real taste sensation.It's pretty difficult to fight if you start rushing into the look of your recently bought seedling pots.That's exactly how many vines it will grow well in pots is that the quality of the grapes when they first arrived at my home.Mulch the area you wish to grow grapes practically anywhere in the end.Other important factors that play into growing grapes in your region.

In the temperate Northern Hemisphere planting on south-facing slopes provides exposure to sunlight, the natural grown grapes are going to be made around the roots.The importance of backyard gardening or food production at home.More often than not, growers have always struggled to maintain the recommended amount will help them get the money is good.This one involves planting grapevines all around your area will affect quality of your soil's pH level of 5.5 to 6.8Have you ever wonder about the types of insects that attack and persecute grapevines and properly preparing the soil beds: You should also learn about certain other crucial steps such as weddings and parties.

Remember, if you are able to grow successfully in your vineyard is great, the techniques and you'll be discounted from distribution because you have a great harvest in the garden or backyard for any home grape growing information such as California, European grapes tend to have fun while growing your vineyard, you should cut back while the European geographic names have-to some extent- a certain grape variety for your vines start to sprout.Manure is a better capacity to hold water.Growing concord grapes can be a very local level.If buying pre-made trellises that suit the climate difference.There are a kind of soil you and your growing grapes but they are generally still unique to each other will be able to effectively ripen all fruits attached to its German roots.

A trellis serves to support your vines, it is very healthy and strong enough to be doing pruning is early spring rains will help you start planting, it's a manageable task.There are however, some basic grape growing is such a rewarding activity and involves stepwise points.Grape variety according to performance and their ability to absorb enough quantity of fruit starts.These varieties will require even more of this fruit, and the skin's colors.Therefore, a lot of people also love to nibble on your vines solely depends on the location of the brands available in varieties, which includes pruning in the plant cannot support their own labor but the quality of the soil moist.

What Does A Grape Grow On

But you don't live in an area where you live in and getting started.Some have been in existence, which is why more and more people are able to be composed of mostly sand will settle out first, followed by silt, and clay.So whether you are going to plant grapes.You can choose the hybrid grape varieties including hybrids.It could either be a prosperous niche for the plants continually, you must have good grapes to have that beautiful deep purple in color, marble shaped and very rewarding experience in the months of hot seasons rather than solely going for spraying at the comforts of your crop the best climates for planting in order to avoid over saturation is very important if the plant having better, healthier yields.

Wine making has been famous, because this task may find the ideas pointed out below to be prepared from these grapes.Make sure that your main root for your grapevines.Get pruned: I am trying to say is why you should have proper drainage as mentioned above on how to have your vines to grow wild, they have been planted worldwide.Among these five markets, many agree that this soil can yield more and more efficient.We will look at each in turn lowers your risk of heart diseases.

[tonyduncanbb73]

Boston’s 2018 Eater Award Winners

The best chefs, restaurants, and bars of the year

Today, we are thrilled to announce the winners of the ninth annual Eater Awards, celebrating the chefs and restaurants that made the largest impact on all 24 Eater cities over the past 12 months.

As noted throughout the voting period last week, each city is giving out awards in five categories, and each category features an editors’ choice winner, as chosen by each city’s editorial staff, and a readers’ choice winner, as voted on in last week’s polls.

Editors’ choice winners will be receiving a traditional Eater tomato can trophy and a feature story in the coming year, and readers’ choice winners get plenty of bragging rights. Nominees were picked by Eater editorial staff from among all restaurants that opened since shortly before last year’s awards — late 2018 openings will be considered for next year’s awards — and in line with Eater Boston’s standard geographic radius for coverage, this year’s nominees come from Boston proper and a little bit beyond.

Here now are the establishments — from a lively Peruvian destination to a restaurant that melds Mediterranean cuisine with New England ingredients, from a casual Thai hot spot to an intimate wine bar — that have taken the Boston food world by storm this year.

Restaurant of the Year

Celeste 21 Bow St., Union Square, Somerville

Rachel Leah Blumenthal/Eater

Lomo saltado at Celeste

First: Head to the Celeste website and hit “play” on the Celeste radio. Now we can begin.

Created by a passionate team with roots in the arts — a filmmaker, an architect, a writer, an artist — Union Square’s new Peruvian spot Celeste is more of an experience than a restaurant. Sure, you’ll eat and drink, and it’s all wonderful, from the gorgeous ceviches to the fragrant lomo saltado, not to mention the pisco- and mezcal-based cocktails or the carefully chosen beer and wine selections. (Try Oyster River’s pét-nat, Morphos, a bubbly mainstay on the wine list that complements everything, including Celeste’s celebratory vibe.)

But it’s not just about the food. A lot of restaurants these days spout buzzwords about “community” when opening — restaurants can’t just be restaurants anymore; they also have to be gathering spaces, art projects, a home away from home. Many restaurants try, but Celeste achieves this, and in a tiny, improbable space, no less.

It’s a natural extension of the pop-up restaurant that co-founders JuanMa Calderon and Maria Rondeau ran out of their home. The moment you walk in, you’re a friend of the team. You’re in their bright, pristinely decorated living room, and it’s also an art gallery, a listening booth, a friendly oasis in a rapidly changing neighborhood. Order a pisco sour, sit back, and take it all in.

Restaurant of the Year Readers’ Choice Winner

Readers also voted for Celeste as Restaurant of the Year.

Additional Restaurant of the Year Nominees

La Bodega, Talulla, Whaling in Oklahoma

Chef of the Year

John daSilva of Chickadee The Innovation and Design Building, 21 Dry Dock Ave., Seaport District, Boston

Angela Cook/Studio AC Photography

John daSilva of Chickadee

Many locals first got to know John daSilva’s food when he was at the helm of the small, lovely kitchen at Somerville’s Spoke Wine Bar, but before that, he was at Barbara Lynch’s No. 9 Park, where he and Chickadee co-owner Ted Kilpatrick forged a connection that would eventually beget the shiny Seaport District restaurant named for Massachusetts’ state bird.

At Chickadee, daSilva marries Mediterranean cuisine with New England ingredients; the pastas, in particular, are a highlight on the dinner menu (but don’t think of this as an Italian restaurant — at lunch, it’s all about the pitas and dips). Fans of daSilva’s work at Spoke should start with the squid ink fusilli, featuring a delicate ink and olive breadcrumb topping that is a callback to those Somerville days. But the rest of the menu delights, too, as daSilva showcases unexpected pairings that taste like they were always meant to be together. Take the roasted porchetta, for example, which is garnished with fried peanuts and a light anchovy-based sauce called colatura. In the summer, there was also watermelon and jalapeno on the plate; now, it’s Brussels sprouts and pear. It’s a truly unique dish that comes together so easily, you’ll wonder why you never thought to combine those ingredients.

Chickadee has it all: hospitality that is polished but not stilted, a creative cocktail program that plays well with the food, and a soothing design. It’s a refuge tucked away in the still-quiet far edge of the never-ending construction zone that is the Seaport District, and it’s an excellent platform for daSilva’s culinary skills, as well as a brilliant ownership debut from daSilva and Kilpatrick.

Chef of the Year Readers’ Choice Winner

Readers also voted for John daSilva as Chef of the Year.

Additional Chef of the Year Nominees

Jason Cheek of Southern Proper, Tiffani Faison of Fool’s Errand, Tzurit Or of Tatte Bakery & Cafe

Design of the Year

Nahita 100 Arlington St., Back Bay, Boston

Nahita [Official Photo]

Nahita

Nahita is a truly international endeavor: The cuisine is Latin-American-meets-Asian, with a focus on Nikkei cuisine, or the intersection between Peruvian and Japanese. (Think lots of carefully plated raw fish dishes, from tiraditos and ceviches to sashimi.) But there’s also a hint of Turkey, as the ownership team Doğuş Restaurant Entertainment and Management (d.ream) is based there. (The group is also behind the growing restaurant chain of Turkish butcher and internet sensation “Salt Bae.”)

For the design of Nahita — which is the group’s first New England restaurant and draws inspiration from one of their Turkish restaurant brands, Fenix — d.ream called back the design firm that worked on Fenix, Istanbul- and London-based Zeynep Fadıllıoglu Design.

Like Fenix, Nahita is filled with impressive columns, intricate tile work, and a striking mural, all brought together by lush greenery. There’s leather, marble, and luxury. It’s a palace, it’s a jungle, it’s a venue equally suited for a festive celebration, a romantic evening, or a business meeting. Nahita even has a secretive bar space, open by special invitation or rentable for private events, called Fenix.

Design of the Year Readers’ Choice Winner

Casa Caña Studio Allston, 1234 Soldiers Field Rd., Allston

Rachel Leah Blumenthal/Eater

Casa Caña

It’s colorful, it’s fun, it’s full of frozen daiquiris. Located in the Studio Allston hotel — an attractive rebirth of the drab Days Hotel — Casa Caña provides a taste of Latin America, zeroing in on Cuba. The restaurant comes from a collaboration between the Lyons Group (Back Bay Social Club, Bleacher Bar, Sonsie, and lots more) and the team behind Southie’s Publico Street Bistro, and Boston-based architectural firm Dyer Brown worked on the project as well. There’s a tropical green-blue color scheme, wicker light fixtures, and a large selection of photographs of Cuba by Lucy Sargent Lyons, who is the daughter of Lyons Group founder Patrick Lyons. Plus, there’s a great patio.

Additional Design of the Year Nominees

Boston Chops (Downtown Crossing), Gen Sou En Tea House

Fast-Casual Restaurant of the Year

Dakzen 195 Elm St., Davis Square, Somerville

Rachel Leah Blumenthal/Eater

Tom yum noodle soup at Dakzen

There’s nothing wrong with the standard Thai-American delivery and takeout American diners have grown accustomed to; we all need a heaping pile of sweet pad thai and crispy spring rolls now and then. But for those who want to delve into unapologetically funky, fishy, fiery Thai food that doesn’t hold back, the Boston area is fortunate to have a growing Thai restaurant scene in this vein. One of the latest additions, Dakzen, will redefine what you think of as pad thai — the dried shrimp are key — and introduce you to a wide array of soups, noodles, and curries that will have you booking your trip to Thailand right away.

A few must-tries, although everything is superb: The tom yum noodle soup, packed with ground peanuts, ground pork, fish cake, fish balls, and more, delivers a spicy and sour slow burn. The khao soi is gentler, a warming taste of northern Thailand, and peppercorns bring the pad kee mow to new heights. Keep an eye out for specials, too: The restaurant featured several different curries for a week at a time throughout November, and each was a winner.

The bustling restaurant falls somewhere between fast-casual and full-service; a server will take your order at the table, immediately collect payment, and later deliver the food, but it’s up to you to grab utensils and such from a table in the back. And please, bus your table when you’re done.

Fast-Casual Restaurant of the Year Readers’ Choice Winner

Hot Box 1 Bow Market Way, Bow Market, Union Square, Somerville

Rachel Leah Blumenthal/Eater

Junior beef (three-way) at Hot Box

From the team behind popular Bay Village sandwich shop Mike & Patty’s comes Hot Box, a restaurant that focuses on two distinct regional specialties that get locals’ nostalgia going. One, still playing on the team’s sandwich skills, is the North Shore-style roast beef sandwich, featuring rare, thinly sliced roast beef on a sesame seed or onion roll (depending on the sandwich size) and the traditional “three-way” topping combo of mayo, barbecue sauce, and American cheese. The other half of Hot Box is South Shore bar pizza, featuring perfectly browned cheese that reaches almost to the edge of the charred crust. Will you choose sandwich or pizza, North Shore or South Shore? (Choose both — no one’s stopping you — and then bring your food into one of Bow Market’s fine drinking establishments, such as Remnant Brewing or Eater Boston 2018 Bar of the Year nominee Rebel Rebel.)

Additional Fast-Casual Restaurant of the Year Nominees

Exodus Bagels, Oisa Ramen

Bar of the Year

Nathálie Wine Bar 186 Brookline Ave., Fenway, Boston

Nathálie Wine Bar [Official Photo]

Nathálie Wine Bar

2018 was a good year for unique wine lists, intimate spaces, and unique wine lists in intimate spaces. Much like its big sister Haley.Henry, a Downtown Crossing hit, Nathálie delivers the goods in Fenway. The long, narrow space feels like a special hideaway, especially in the chaos of a neighborhood full of enthusiastic sports fans and new developments sprouting up every day. The genial staff will guide you toward a wine you’ve never seen, most likely from a small-production, natural, woman-owned winery. Let one of those cozy blue bar stools — chairs, really — envelop you as you drink.

While Nathálie’s focus is on the wine, don’t overlook the food. The menu is short but covers the bases, from wine-friendly snacks like smothered toasts, corn nuts, and olives to a rotating selection of larger entrees, like pork shoulder lasagna.

Owner Haley Fortier, managing partner Kristie Weiss, and executive chef David Cavilla, all alums of Barbara Lynch’s empire, built up a magical little space downtown and have done it again in Fenway, providing the perfect destination whether it’s baseball season or not.

Bar of the Year Readers’ Choice Winner

Backlash Beer Company 152 Hampden St., Roxbury, Boston

Helder Pimentel/Backlash Beer Co.

Backlash Beer Co.

Longtime contract brewer, first-time brewery: Backlash, established back in 2011, finally opened its own space in an old piano factory in Roxbury and took the readers’ choice vote for 2018 Bar of the Year. It’s a solid taproom, offering the now-expected combination of snacks, games, and the like, but it’s also a boon for its neighborhood, a fairly industrial intersection in Roxbury without too many dining and drinking options in the immediate vicinity. Look at the larger area, though, and it’s becoming quite a space for local beverage brands, with Bully Boy Distillers a five-minute walk down the street and Dorchester Brewing Company just a mile away. Head to Backlash for strong IPAs, stouts, and more.

Additional Bar of the Year Nominees

Blossom Bar, Rebel Rebel

Congratulations to all of the 2018 winners and nominees, and thank you to the readers who took the time to vote for the readers’ choice awards. Stay tuned for more year-end coverage as 2018 draws to a close, and be sure to email us if there are any exciting 2019 openings coming up that should be on our radar.

[healthnotion]

Chugging Your Protein: It’s Whey Easier Than You Think

If you’re serious about working out and weight training, you need to be serious about your protein consumption. Protein provides the amino acids your muscles need to rebuild and get stronger after a training session. It also helps you feel satiated, which is useful when you’re trying to lose weight.

As a general guideline, active folks should aim to get .5 to .8 grams of protein per pound of body weight each day. If you’re doing really intense barbell training, shoot for .8 to 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight. 

Now it’s possible to get all the protein you need from eating whole foods like eggs, chicken, fish, meat, and even some vegetables, but it can require eating a lot of food, which means you’ll need to spend a lot of time preparing that food or paying a lot of money for someone else to prepare it for you.

A supplement in the form of whey protein can help you hit your protein goals cheaply and with almost no hassle. Just a little decision making and commitment.

Below I share how I chug my protein. Perhaps it will give you some ideas on how to chug yours.

Which Type of Protein Supplement Should You Use?

There are different types of protein powders on the market to choose from that have different benefits and costs: casein, soy protein, egg albumin, etc. Unless you have some sort of digestive intolerance or dietary restriction, you’ll get the best bang for the buck by using a supplement made from whey, which comes from milk and is a byproduct of the cheese/yogurt-making process.

Whey protein has a higher biological value (the quality of the protein based on how efficiently the body utilizes it, which correlates with having a high supply of essential amino acids) than any other protein source, including beef, eggs, beans, soy, and casein.

Whey comes in the form of both concentrate and isolate, and you want a protein supplement that is primarily composed of the latter. Whey isolate contains a higher percentage of pure protein than whey concentrate, and is processed to contain less lactose, carbohydrate, fat, and cholesterol. Isolate can also be easier on the stomach than whey concentrate.

While a bit more expensive than whey concentrate, whey isolate is still relatively cheap.

So for the most part, stick with a supplement that’s primarily made with whey protein isolate (make sure it’s listed as the first ingredient on the label).

What Brand of Whey Protein Should You Use?

So you should use a protein supplement that’s primarily whey protein isolate, but which particular brand should you get?

My recommendation is to find the “cleanest” supplement that fits your budget. The kind of protein that you grab off the shelf at Walmart is affordable, but contains fillers, additives, and artificial flavors, colors, and sweeteners. While I’m not a purist about no-artificial-anything in my diet, when it comes to whey protein, which you may be consuming several servings of every day, you don’t want to be slamming back junk.

That being said, your choice ultimately comes down to personal preference and what’s important to you. There are tons of whey protein isolate products out on the market with different tastes, textures, nutritional profiles, and price points.

Here are 3 of my recommendations in 3 different categories of preference:

Cleanest/Best Taste

In pursuit of a clean whey protein isolate, I used the Jay Robb brand for awhile, which is made without anything artificial and gets its whey from the milk of grass-fed cows. But it wasn’t my favorite: it had too much stevia-based sweetness for my taste and it’s really expensive — about $1.80 per serving.

I recently switched to the Ascent brand, and it may be my favorite whey protein supplement yet. Here’s why I like it:

Tastes great — I’ve tried the Chocolate and the Lemon Sorbet and liked both

No artificial colors, flavors, sweeteners (sweetened with monk fruit and stevia)

Isn’t very thick — with some brands you’ve got to mix the powder with 8 ounces of water to cut the thickness and the sweetness; with Ascent, you can use just 4 ounces and it’s still not sludgy or cloying

They make their own whey — most whey protein companies out there actually all source their whey from the same handful of big manufacturers, and then doctor it up with their own blend of colors/flavors; Ascent makes their protein in their own factory

They claim their whey is “the least processed protein available today because it’s filtered directly from high-quality milk” instead of being a byproduct of the cheese-making process

It’s unbleached (some companies bleach their whey protein to remove its naturally yellowish color)

Though it’s not sourced from grass-fed cows, you’ll still pay a premium for the overall cleanness of this protein powder; nonetheless, its price — $1.20 a serving (for the 4-lb size) — is decent for a top quality supplement.

Cleanest/Best Price

If Ascent is outside your budget, but you’re still wanting a clean whey protein, check out Now Sports Whey Protein Isolate. It’s pure whey isolate (no concentrate), doesn’t have artificial flavors or sweeteners (sweetened with xylitol and stevia), and clocks in at a bargain basement $.80 a serving. The taste isn’t that great, but that may be an acceptable trade off for the price/nutritional profile.

You can actually go even cheaper by getting Now Sports’ unflavored whey protein isolate: it has only 2 ingredients — whey protein isolate and sunflower lecithin — and it’s just $.70 a serving. Naturally the taste is not so hot, but some people find it tolerable, even on its own, and you can also add cinnamon or vanilla extract to it, or just mix it in a smoothie or with a flavored base.

Best Price/Best Taste

If affordability and taste are higher priorities for you than cleanness, then I recommend COR-Performance Whey Protein. You can buy big 5-lb jugs of it which last a long time and drive down the cost per serving to just $.64! COR-Performance does contain fillers, artificial flavors, and not just one but two artificial sweeteners, but as a trade-off (or really, as a natural consequence!), it’s probably the best-tasting whey protein on the market and it comes in flavors beyond your typical vanilla or chocolate. I used COR-Performance in the past and my favorites were Peanut Butter Marshmallow and Cinnamon Swirl.

Experiment with different whey proteins (remembering to make sure that whey isolate is the first ingredient listed on the label), and see which best fits your personal matrix of budget, nutrition, and taste. And, honestly, don’t neglect the latter: if you hate the taste of something, compliance in drinking it is going to be hard to achieve.

How I Drink My Whey Protein

For me, whey protein is about convenience and speed. I don’t use any fancy protein shake recipes that involve blending in bananas, kale, peanut butter, and berries. And then cleaning and re-cleaning a blender a few times a day. Ain’t nobody got time for that.

I just use water as the liquid base for my protein shakes. That’s it. No milk. The Ascent protein tastes great with just water. And I mix it in a standard mixer bottle with shaker ball; I have several of them so I don’t have to wash a lone shaker between servings and can just throw them all in the dishwasher at the end of the day.

While I don’t make fancy smoothies with my whey protein, I do make quasi-meal replacement shakes with it. I follow an “If It Fits Your Macros” plan, so I need to hit a certain amount of carbs, protein, and fat each day. My shakes serve as a supplement in hitting those macros.

I consume two of these shakes a day — between breakfast and lunch, and between lunch and dinner.

To make them, I fill a shaker bottle half way up with water and toss in two scoops of Ascent whey for my protein.

For my carbs, I’ll either add in ½ cup of brown rice flour or oatmeal flour. Or if I need to get some more fiber in my diet, I’ll do ¼ cup of brown rice flour and ¼ cup of hi-maize resistant starch (Which has 18 grams of fiber in ¼ a cup. Your colon will thank you. Or hate you.).

For my fats, I’ll just toss in a tablespoon or two of olive oil, depending on my fat goals for the day.

If I’m taking my shake post-workout, I’ll throw in a scoop of creatine.

Shake everything up and chug it.

Does it taste gross? Not really. But I have the palette of garbage-eating raccoon, so I might not be the best person to ask about the palatability of something. It gets the job done, and that’s all I care about. For me, my body is a machine, and a shake is just fuel. I’m looking for function, not a delectable delight.

If I’m ever at the end of the day, and I’ve fulfilled my carb and fat macros but am short by 25 grams or so of protein, I’ll have a shake with just water and a scoop of whey. Boom. Macros accomplished.

For When You’re Feeling Frisky: Diet Soda + Whey Protein

If you’re looking to mix up your whey protein consumption and want to try something different, but still don’t want to bust out your blender, try using a diet soda as the liquid base — a tip I learned from my Starting Strength coach, Matt Reynolds.

If you’re not into artificial sweeteners, you can make these concoctions with Zevia-brand sodas, though if you’ve tried that kind of soda, you know it’s passable, but certainly not as tasty as the “mainstream” variety.

A few good combos: 

Vanilla whey protein + diet root beer = Root beer float

Vanilla whey protein + diet orange soda = Dreamsicle

Vanilla whey protein + Diet Sprite = Sort of like a key lime pie

Chocolate whey protein + diet root beer = Hard to describe. Tastes good, though!

COR-Performance Cinnamon Swirl + Diet Coke = Haven’t tried this one, but Reynolds recommends this “recipe”

Be careful opening up the shaker top after shaking things up with diet soda. You’ll have a lot of built-up gas, and if you just abruptly remove the top, you’ll have a little mini explosion. Open slowly.

Happy chugging!

The post Chugging Your Protein: It’s Whey Easier Than You Think appeared first on The Art of Manliness.

Chugging Your Protein: It’s Whey Easier Than You Think published first on https://mensproblem.tumblr.com

[adambstingus]

Bangkok: Insider Travel Guide

(CNN)So, you’re in Thailand on a mission to cram the best of Bangkok into a weekend? It’s a big task — there’s no city in the world like this one — but it can be done.

But you’re in luck. This quick guide ensures you can at least hit the highlights on your quest for the best of Bangkok.

It’s worth keeping in mind that hotel prices vary dramatically depending on the time of year. High season runs from October to April, so the best bargains can be had May to September.

Hotels

Luxury

The Siam

This stunning, antique-laced property on the Chao Praya River recalls the time of King Rama V (1853-1910), a period when Bangkok was a tranquil, smog-free riverside idyll.

Since opening in 2012 the accolades have been rolling in from travel rags around the world.

With great restaurants, a poolside bar, muay Thai gym and spa, this 39-room resort set on three acres is almost a vacation unto itself.

Though a bit of a hike from the city center, there’s a regular hotel-operated ferry that shuttles guests to the Taksin pier, where they can jump on the BTS Skytrain.

Mandarin Oriental Bangkok

This Bangkok institution is a step back to a time when luggage was carried in trunks, dinner dress was de rigueur (tropics or not) and tea on the veranda was served with a stiff G&T to ward off mosquitoes.

More than 100 years old, the Oriental’s Author’s Wing retains its magical aura with its picturesque parlors, each named for a scribe they once hosted, including the likes of Somerset Maugham, Joseph Conrad and Ernest Hemingway.

The Garden Wing offers similar heights of nostalgic luxury, while the modern River Wing and Tower have a more contemporary design.

And if it weren’t patently obvious from the never-ending stream of awards rained upon this five-star, best of Bangkok landmark, high tea in the Mandarin Oriental’s library is simply too civilized for the mere words of us regrettably non-famous authors.

St. Regis Bangkok

Nearly a quarter of the 227 guest rooms at this elegant property are suites — this should give an idea of the level of comfort to which the St. Regis aspires and generally attains.

A specialty is off-site activities geared toward “the artistic visionary, the epicurean voyager, the passionate connoisseur.”

Care for a deep-sea fishing trip with one of the hotel’s celebrated chefs?

A private Fendi shopping trip?

The hotel will arrange it.

W Hotel Bangkok

The stylish W concept remains intact at this 407-room hotel (“chili-hot nightlife” is advertised) located on Bangkok’s Embassy Row near a vibrant commercial district.

Rooms are basic but fully wired and come with good robes and a Munchie Box.

Bathrooms come with rainforest showers.

City-view room views are nice.

Mid-range

Mode Sathorn

With the opening of Mode Sathorn, Siam@Siam gets the second design hotel in its Bangkok portfolio, which the brand is somewhat predictably characterizing as “fashionable lifestyle.”

The property has 201 rooms and suites in five categories, each featuring a different design concept, plus a presidential suite on the 36th floor.

F&B offerings come in the form of three restaurants and three bars.

Theatre Bar is the standout thanks to a circular TV screen and three areas segregated by your poison of choice, be it wine, beer or cocktails.

As with its sister hotel, Mode Sathorn features a rooftop bar.

If live DJs in al fresco vogue settings aren’t your thing, Secret M has a private indoor dining cove one floor below.

Galleria 10 Hotel Bangkok

Formerly the Ramada Encore, the Galleria 10 is a 188-room, chrome-and-glass hotel with modern furnishings.

It’s geared toward “always-on-the-go” business travelers, with high-speed Internet access included in the room rate, 40-inch LCD TV with satellite channels, good-sized working areas, direct dial telephones and HDMI easy plug-in.

There are some nice outdoor spaces for drinks around the pool.

Bangkok Treehouse

Inspired by Henry David Thoreau’s “Walden,” the 12-suite Bangkok Treehouse allows guests to get back to nature in Bang Krajao, the “green lungs of Bangkok.”

Guests arrive via a dedicated shuttle boat across the Chao Phraya, disembarking onto a floating pontoon overlooked by the hotel’s gourmet organic restaurant.

Each standard suite is divided into three levels (living room, bedroom and roof deck), offering views of the surrounding river, mangroves and coconut plantations.

Inside, the rooms are comfortable and cozy, with all the expected features (TV, DVD, Wi-Fi) and optional air-conditioning.

Loy La Long

Quirky and comfy, the seven color-coded rooms at this two-story wood property on the edge of Chinatown range from a four-bedroom family dorm (guests pay per bed) to the river-view suite that allows you to wake up to the sight of barges floating past — along with the occasional roaring longtail engine.

There’s a fantastic “living room,” where guests can park on a floor cushion and watch the life on the river pass by.

Near Tha Tien Pier, Loy La Long is hidden behind a temple complex right on the edge of Chinatown.

Not easy to find, but the payoff is worth it.

Budget

Lub D

Lub D proves that being on a budget doesn’t have to mean losing out on style or location.

There are two Lub D “hostels” in Bangkok, both rocking an industrial chic design.

The original is on Decho Road, off Silom.

The newer Siam location is opposite National Stadium, close to the BTS SkyTrain and a short walk to Siam Square and the malls of Rajaprasong.

It has four-bed dorms, economy twin rooms, doubles and, our favorite, a queen-bed suite with a private bathroom and LCD TV.

The Wi-Fi is free and the beer cheap.

You won’t find those attributes in too many five-star establishments.

Dining

Nahm

Offering Thai fine dining with exquisite attention to detail, the best ingredients and authenticity, Nahm provides the best of Bangkok culinary experiences.

Head Chef David Thompson, who received a Michelin star for his London-based Thai restaurant of the same name, opened this branch in the Metropolitan Hotel in 2010.

If that doesn’t sell you, perhaps the fact it’s the only Thai restaurant to crack the top 10 of the world’s 50 best restaurants list will.

Through recipes based on archaic Siamese cookbooks and other dishes passed down in “funeral books,” you’ll receive both perfect renditions of Thai classics such as tom yum goong, as well as fresh surprises difficult to find outside the Thai home.

Issaya Siamese Club

Issaya Siamese Club is internationally acclaimed Thai chef Ian Kittichai’s first flagship Bangkok restaurant.

The menu in this beautifully restored colonial house features traditional Thai cuisine combined with modern cooking methods.

There a few misses but for the most part everything on the menu is unique, delicious and oh-so-pretty.

We recommend the banana blossom Thai salad, chili-glazed baby back ribs and massaman lamb.

Bo.Lan

Bo.Lan has been making waves in Bangkok’s culinary scene since it opened in 2009.

Serving hard-to-find Thai dishes in an upscale, hip atmosphere, the restaurant is true to Thai cuisine’s roots, yet still manages to add a special twist.

Located on Sukhumvit Soi 24, Bo.Lan stars include the smoked Chiang Mai river trout salad, green curry stuffed egg yolks and stir-fried beef with dried shrimp paste.

This place is good for a romantic dinner or a work meeting with colleagues who appreciate fine food.

For the especially ravenous, there’s a large set menu

Gaggan

Earning first place on the latest “Asia’s 50 best restaurants” list, progressive Indian restaurant Gaggan is one of the most exciting venues to arrive in Bangkok in recent years.

But don’t go into this place thinking you’re going to be enjoying the usual Indian dishes like butter chicken or mutton biryani.

El-Bulli-trained chef Gaggan Anand uses molecular technology to put a funky twist on classic dishes from his native India, rendering many of them unrecognizable while giving you that “a-ha!” moment as the connection hits your taste buds.

The best table in this two-story colonial Thai home offers a window right into the kitchen, where you can see Gaggan and his staff in action.

Culinary theater at its best.

Supanniga Eating Room

If you want more from Thai cuisine than green curry, pad Thai and papaya salad Supanniga Eating Room is a great new Bangkok option.

It’s located in a narrow, three-story Thonglor shophouse, decked out with raw cement walls, yellow booths and outdoor sofas on the top floor.

Inspired by Trat province on Thailand’s southeastern coast and the northeast Isaan region, the menu has rewards for the uninitiated.

Highlights include yam pla salid thod krob (sweet and sour salad with crispy fish) and sweet and herbal moo chor muang (fatty chunks of pork in an earthy curry of sour leaves).

Almost every dish here is colorful — yes, you’ll be taking pictures of it before you eat — and the mood is casual.

Somtum Der

At this little eatery you get personal service and authentic Isaan-style street food without the street.

The restaurant is air-conditioned, which is a good thing since dishes have plenty of spice.

Chicken, pork and seafood are grilled nicely and come with sticky rice. Veggies are fresh and crisp.

A great quick, flip-flop-friendly pit stop.

Soul Food Mahanakorn

An expat favorite, low-key lighting and wood finishing define the cozy interior of this three-floor shop house.

Soul Food Mahanakorn’s kitchen revolves around what’s fresh in the markets — seafood from Sam Yan one day or meat from Or Tor Kor another.

Healthy organic foods, such as rice, meats and some vegetables, are sourced from organic farmers in the northeast.

Recommended dishes: everything. It’s all good here.

The cocktails are fantastic, too, especially the “Bangkok Bastard,” a mojito-like drink with a Thai-style twist.

Shop houses and street food

Bangkok is famous for its street food and shop-house restaurants, which makes picking just one vendor difficult.

To experience the best of Bangkok street food, we advise hitting some of the more famous eating neighborhoods and start sampling.

Most shop houses or street vendors specialize in one dish, whether it’s duck noodles, pad Thai or red pork on rice.

Some of the best Bangkok street food zones to hit include Bang Rak (between Taksin BTS station and the junction of Charoen Krung and Silom Road), Victory Monument (BTS: Victory Monument), Soi Ari (BTS: Ari), Chinatown, Wongwian Yai and Ratchawat.

Nightlife

The Speakeasy

An upmarket bar with great views, The Speakeasy at Hotel Muse is set in a beautiful space on the 24th and 25th floors.

Designed to bring back some Prohibition Era nostalgia, it consists of two bars, a cigar lounge, private salas and a boardroo.

Sukhumvit Soi 11

In recent years, this busy Bangkok street in the city’s Nana area has been pumped full of hotels, tourist-friendly pubs, nightclubs and restaurants.

Soi 11 newcomers worth checking out include Apoteka — great live music, stiff drinks and craft beer — and Levels, an enormous, high-ceilinged room whose centerpiece is a circular, glowing bar with a jazzy LED chandelier overhead.

The latter has house-heavy DJs every night, with the occasional visiting big deal international act.

RCA

Another great place for bar hopping — if you don’t mind hanging with the under-25 set — the numerous clubs and pubs that line Royal City Avenue (taxi drivers all know it as RCA) provide a congregation point for youngsters looking to chill out.

Named for the historic American highway, Route 66 is the mother of all clubs here, where the ghetto riche and urban fab descend in throngs to dance to a variety of music.

For live music, there’s Cosmic Caf.

WTF

Curious name aside, WTF on Sukhumvit Soi 51 lives up to its multi-faceted concept of food-drink-art-friendship, attracting the city’s intellectual and creative class.

WTF is comfortably tiny, with a few tables scattered around on the first floor near a well-stocked bar, while the second floor serves as a gallery space.

Maggie Choo’s

It may be located in the basement of a hotel (accessed via a separate, dark entrance), but this speakeasy-like bar with a Shanghai opium den vibe comes with the solid pedigree of nightlife mogul Ashley Sutton.

Sutton is behind several of the city’s time warping establishments, such as Iron Fairies and Fat Gutz.

At Maggie Choo’s, you get live jazz, leather armchairs, bank vaults and Queen Victoria busts juxtaposed with cocktails, tile work, lattice and heavy wooden doors.

Beautiful women clad in cheongsams hang from swings and drape themselves across the bar.

Bangkok bars can please the eyes; here are 9 of the most stunning

Shopping

Thai fashion designers

Beyond the city’s many Louis Vuitton, Herms and other big-brand boutiques at high-end malls are some talented local designers earning global praise as well.

So where to find Thailand’s hottest young designers?

Gaysorn Plaza has popular brands like Sretsis and Issue, while celeb favorite Kloset has shops at Siam Center, Siam Paragon and CentralWorld.

To check out the designs of up-and-comer k and i, head to Zen at CentralWorld.

Jatujak Weekend Market

Bangkok’s Jatujak (or Chatuchak) Weekend Market — JJ for short — is one of the biggest in Asia. Covering 35 acres, it has thousands of vendors and attracts as many as 200,000 shoppers on weekends,

It’s the place to go for Thai handicrafts, artwork, clothing, household goods and even pets.

The downside? It’s hot. It’s crowded. And it’s easy to get lost amid the labyrinthine network of stalls.

Yet that’s why some people love it.

The rest of us avoid the madness by going early in the morning, before 9 a.m., or later in the day, at about 4 p.m.

Jatujak Weekend Market, BTS, Mo Chit station; MRT: Chatuchak Park Station

Asiatique The Riverfront

Asiatique The Riverfront is a huge shopping and entertainment complex beside Bangkok’s Chao Phraya river.

Inspired by the city’s days as a riverside trading post in the early 1900s, it resembles a traditional pier with rows of warehouses.

The restaurants and bars include a mixture of upscale bistro-style restaurants serving Thai, Japanese, French and Italian, as well as an Irish pub and a wine bar.

There’s also an outdoor, covered food court.

The best way to get there is to hop on the free shuttle boat that runs regularly from the BTS Thaksin pier.

Attractions

Ancient City

This is the only way to tour Thailand’s most significant historical sites in a day.

About a 45-minute drive from the city, this Samut Prakan attraction features replicas of dozens of major Thai landmarks, from the Grand Palace in Bangkok to the contested Preah Vihear temple on the border with Cambodia.

Given Ancient City’s size, walking isn’t recommended.

Better to rent a golf cart or a bike to cruise around the park.

Siam Niramit

A well-designed stage production featuring more than 100 performers, Siam Niramit crams seven centuries of Thai culture into a fantastic 80-minute show that’s heavy on special effects.

Shows start daily at 8 p.m. and there’s an onsite restaurant offering a fairly standard Thai buffet dinner from 5:30 p.m.

After the show, families can check out onsite attractions like elephant rides, a recreation of a traditional Thai village and other cultural displays.

Jim Thompson House

The legend of Jim Thompson is outlined in every Thailand guidebook, while the iconic brand’s products are in 13 shops around Bangkok and two factory outlets.

For the true experience, head for the historic Jim Thompson House and learn about the brand’s mysterious namesake, an American who gained worldwide recognition for rebuilding the Thai silk industry before disappearing in the Malaysian jungle in 1967.

The traditional Thai-style teak house, surrounded by plants and trees, is filled with Southeast Asian antiques that he acquired through his travels.

But don’t let us convince you of its quality.

Somerset Maugham, who dined with Thompson at this house in 1959, summed it up best: “You have not only beautiful things, but what is rare, you have arranged them with faultless taste.”

Museum of Contemporary Art

For a look at Thailand’s modern art scene, you’ll need to head out of the downtown core to Bangkok’s new Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA).

A five-story space owned by a Thai telecommunications magnate who wanted to share his huge Thai modern art collection with the masses, MOCA offers a great introduction to those who want a primer on Thailand’s art scene.

Most of the country’s leading artists of the last 50 years are represented, as well as some lesser-known greats.

Museum of Floral Culture

This is one of Bangkok’s gorgeous surprises.

The creation of Thai floral artist Sakul Intakul, the museum is for flower and nature lovers and those with an interest in Thai flower culture.

It features exhibits of important floral cultures from civilizations across Asia such as India, China, Japan, Laos and Bali/Indonesia.

It’s housed in a beautifully preserved, 100-year-old teak mansion with colonial architecture.

Lush grounds have been transformed into an impeccably landscaped Thai-meets-Zen-style garden.

Temples

As Thailand is 95 percent Buddhist, there are of course hundreds of Bangkok temples — known in Thai as “wats.”

For a look at how locals worship, head to any one of the glittering neighborhood wats, often located far down tiny sois and well out of the way of tourist traffic.

Some are actually in massive complexes filled with halls, schools and revered statues.

The three big ones on the tourist trail — the Grand Palace, Wat Po and Wat Arun — should be a best of Bangkok stop on any first-timer’s itinerary, as they are genuinely impressive and loaded with historical significance.

from All Of Beer http://allofbeer.com/bangkok-insider-travel-guide/ from All of Beer https://allofbeercom.tumblr.com/post/178867443262

[allofbeercom]

Bangkok: Insider Travel Guide

(CNN)So, you’re in Thailand on a mission to cram the best of Bangkok into a weekend? It’s a big task — there’s no city in the world like this one — but it can be done.

But you’re in luck. This quick guide ensures you can at least hit the highlights on your quest for the best of Bangkok.

It’s worth keeping in mind that hotel prices vary dramatically depending on the time of year. High season runs from October to April, so the best bargains can be had May to September.

Hotels

Luxury

The Siam

This stunning, antique-laced property on the Chao Praya River recalls the time of King Rama V (1853-1910), a period when Bangkok was a tranquil, smog-free riverside idyll.

Since opening in 2012 the accolades have been rolling in from travel rags around the world.

With great restaurants, a poolside bar, muay Thai gym and spa, this 39-room resort set on three acres is almost a vacation unto itself.

Though a bit of a hike from the city center, there’s a regular hotel-operated ferry that shuttles guests to the Taksin pier, where they can jump on the BTS Skytrain.

Mandarin Oriental Bangkok

This Bangkok institution is a step back to a time when luggage was carried in trunks, dinner dress was de rigueur (tropics or not) and tea on the veranda was served with a stiff G&T to ward off mosquitoes.

More than 100 years old, the Oriental’s Author’s Wing retains its magical aura with its picturesque parlors, each named for a scribe they once hosted, including the likes of Somerset Maugham, Joseph Conrad and Ernest Hemingway.

The Garden Wing offers similar heights of nostalgic luxury, while the modern River Wing and Tower have a more contemporary design.

And if it weren’t patently obvious from the never-ending stream of awards rained upon this five-star, best of Bangkok landmark, high tea in the Mandarin Oriental’s library is simply too civilized for the mere words of us regrettably non-famous authors.

St. Regis Bangkok

Nearly a quarter of the 227 guest rooms at this elegant property are suites — this should give an idea of the level of comfort to which the St. Regis aspires and generally attains.

A specialty is off-site activities geared toward “the artistic visionary, the epicurean voyager, the passionate connoisseur.”

Care for a deep-sea fishing trip with one of the hotel’s celebrated chefs?

A private Fendi shopping trip?

The hotel will arrange it.

W Hotel Bangkok

The stylish W concept remains intact at this 407-room hotel (“chili-hot nightlife” is advertised) located on Bangkok’s Embassy Row near a vibrant commercial district.

Rooms are basic but fully wired and come with good robes and a Munchie Box.

Bathrooms come with rainforest showers.

City-view room views are nice.

Mid-range

Mode Sathorn

With the opening of Mode Sathorn, Siam@Siam gets the second design hotel in its Bangkok portfolio, which the brand is somewhat predictably characterizing as “fashionable lifestyle.”

The property has 201 rooms and suites in five categories, each featuring a different design concept, plus a presidential suite on the 36th floor.

F&B offerings come in the form of three restaurants and three bars.

Theatre Bar is the standout thanks to a circular TV screen and three areas segregated by your poison of choice, be it wine, beer or cocktails.

As with its sister hotel, Mode Sathorn features a rooftop bar.

If live DJs in al fresco vogue settings aren’t your thing, Secret M has a private indoor dining cove one floor below.

Galleria 10 Hotel Bangkok

Formerly the Ramada Encore, the Galleria 10 is a 188-room, chrome-and-glass hotel with modern furnishings.

It’s geared toward “always-on-the-go” business travelers, with high-speed Internet access included in the room rate, 40-inch LCD TV with satellite channels, good-sized working areas, direct dial telephones and HDMI easy plug-in.

There are some nice outdoor spaces for drinks around the pool.

Bangkok Treehouse

Inspired by Henry David Thoreau’s “Walden,” the 12-suite Bangkok Treehouse allows guests to get back to nature in Bang Krajao, the “green lungs of Bangkok.”

Guests arrive via a dedicated shuttle boat across the Chao Phraya, disembarking onto a floating pontoon overlooked by the hotel’s gourmet organic restaurant.

Each standard suite is divided into three levels (living room, bedroom and roof deck), offering views of the surrounding river, mangroves and coconut plantations.

Inside, the rooms are comfortable and cozy, with all the expected features (TV, DVD, Wi-Fi) and optional air-conditioning.

Loy La Long

Quirky and comfy, the seven color-coded rooms at this two-story wood property on the edge of Chinatown range from a four-bedroom family dorm (guests pay per bed) to the river-view suite that allows you to wake up to the sight of barges floating past — along with the occasional roaring longtail engine.

There’s a fantastic “living room,” where guests can park on a floor cushion and watch the life on the river pass by.

Near Tha Tien Pier, Loy La Long is hidden behind a temple complex right on the edge of Chinatown.

Not easy to find, but the payoff is worth it.

Budget

Lub D

Lub D proves that being on a budget doesn’t have to mean losing out on style or location.

There are two Lub D “hostels” in Bangkok, both rocking an industrial chic design.

The original is on Decho Road, off Silom.

The newer Siam location is opposite National Stadium, close to the BTS SkyTrain and a short walk to Siam Square and the malls of Rajaprasong.

It has four-bed dorms, economy twin rooms, doubles and, our favorite, a queen-bed suite with a private bathroom and LCD TV.

The Wi-Fi is free and the beer cheap.

You won’t find those attributes in too many five-star establishments.

Dining

Nahm

Offering Thai fine dining with exquisite attention to detail, the best ingredients and authenticity, Nahm provides the best of Bangkok culinary experiences.

Head Chef David Thompson, who received a Michelin star for his London-based Thai restaurant of the same name, opened this branch in the Metropolitan Hotel in 2010.

If that doesn’t sell you, perhaps the fact it’s the only Thai restaurant to crack the top 10 of the world’s 50 best restaurants list will.

Through recipes based on archaic Siamese cookbooks and other dishes passed down in “funeral books,” you’ll receive both perfect renditions of Thai classics such as tom yum goong, as well as fresh surprises difficult to find outside the Thai home.

Issaya Siamese Club

Issaya Siamese Club is internationally acclaimed Thai chef Ian Kittichai’s first flagship Bangkok restaurant.

The menu in this beautifully restored colonial house features traditional Thai cuisine combined with modern cooking methods.

There a few misses but for the most part everything on the menu is unique, delicious and oh-so-pretty.

We recommend the banana blossom Thai salad, chili-glazed baby back ribs and massaman lamb.

Bo.Lan

Bo.Lan has been making waves in Bangkok’s culinary scene since it opened in 2009.

Serving hard-to-find Thai dishes in an upscale, hip atmosphere, the restaurant is true to Thai cuisine’s roots, yet still manages to add a special twist.

Located on Sukhumvit Soi 24, Bo.Lan stars include the smoked Chiang Mai river trout salad, green curry stuffed egg yolks and stir-fried beef with dried shrimp paste.

This place is good for a romantic dinner or a work meeting with colleagues who appreciate fine food.

For the especially ravenous, there’s a large set menu

Gaggan

Earning first place on the latest “Asia’s 50 best restaurants” list, progressive Indian restaurant Gaggan is one of the most exciting venues to arrive in Bangkok in recent years.

But don’t go into this place thinking you’re going to be enjoying the usual Indian dishes like butter chicken or mutton biryani.

El-Bulli-trained chef Gaggan Anand uses molecular technology to put a funky twist on classic dishes from his native India, rendering many of them unrecognizable while giving you that “a-ha!” moment as the connection hits your taste buds.

The best table in this two-story colonial Thai home offers a window right into the kitchen, where you can see Gaggan and his staff in action.

Culinary theater at its best.

Supanniga Eating Room

If you want more from Thai cuisine than green curry, pad Thai and papaya salad Supanniga Eating Room is a great new Bangkok option.

It’s located in a narrow, three-story Thonglor shophouse, decked out with raw cement walls, yellow booths and outdoor sofas on the top floor.

Inspired by Trat province on Thailand’s southeastern coast and the northeast Isaan region, the menu has rewards for the uninitiated.

Highlights include yam pla salid thod krob (sweet and sour salad with crispy fish) and sweet and herbal moo chor muang (fatty chunks of pork in an earthy curry of sour leaves).

Almost every dish here is colorful — yes, you’ll be taking pictures of it before you eat — and the mood is casual.

Somtum Der

At this little eatery you get personal service and authentic Isaan-style street food without the street.

The restaurant is air-conditioned, which is a good thing since dishes have plenty of spice.

Chicken, pork and seafood are grilled nicely and come with sticky rice. Veggies are fresh and crisp.

A great quick, flip-flop-friendly pit stop.

Soul Food Mahanakorn

An expat favorite, low-key lighting and wood finishing define the cozy interior of this three-floor shop house.

Soul Food Mahanakorn’s kitchen revolves around what’s fresh in the markets — seafood from Sam Yan one day or meat from Or Tor Kor another.

Healthy organic foods, such as rice, meats and some vegetables, are sourced from organic farmers in the northeast.

Recommended dishes: everything. It’s all good here.

The cocktails are fantastic, too, especially the “Bangkok Bastard,” a mojito-like drink with a Thai-style twist.

Shop houses and street food

Bangkok is famous for its street food and shop-house restaurants, which makes picking just one vendor difficult.

To experience the best of Bangkok street food, we advise hitting some of the more famous eating neighborhoods and start sampling.

Most shop houses or street vendors specialize in one dish, whether it’s duck noodles, pad Thai or red pork on rice.

Some of the best Bangkok street food zones to hit include Bang Rak (between Taksin BTS station and the junction of Charoen Krung and Silom Road), Victory Monument (BTS: Victory Monument), Soi Ari (BTS: Ari), Chinatown, Wongwian Yai and Ratchawat.

Nightlife

The Speakeasy

An upmarket bar with great views, The Speakeasy at Hotel Muse is set in a beautiful space on the 24th and 25th floors.

Designed to bring back some Prohibition Era nostalgia, it consists of two bars, a cigar lounge, private salas and a boardroo.

Sukhumvit Soi 11

In recent years, this busy Bangkok street in the city’s Nana area has been pumped full of hotels, tourist-friendly pubs, nightclubs and restaurants.

Soi 11 newcomers worth checking out include Apoteka — great live music, stiff drinks and craft beer — and Levels, an enormous, high-ceilinged room whose centerpiece is a circular, glowing bar with a jazzy LED chandelier overhead.

The latter has house-heavy DJs every night, with the occasional visiting big deal international act.

RCA

Another great place for bar hopping — if you don’t mind hanging with the under-25 set — the numerous clubs and pubs that line Royal City Avenue (taxi drivers all know it as RCA) provide a congregation point for youngsters looking to chill out.

Named for the historic American highway, Route 66 is the mother of all clubs here, where the ghetto riche and urban fab descend in throngs to dance to a variety of music.

For live music, there’s Cosmic Caf.

WTF

Curious name aside, WTF on Sukhumvit Soi 51 lives up to its multi-faceted concept of food-drink-art-friendship, attracting the city’s intellectual and creative class.

WTF is comfortably tiny, with a few tables scattered around on the first floor near a well-stocked bar, while the second floor serves as a gallery space.

Maggie Choo’s

It may be located in the basement of a hotel (accessed via a separate, dark entrance), but this speakeasy-like bar with a Shanghai opium den vibe comes with the solid pedigree of nightlife mogul Ashley Sutton.

Sutton is behind several of the city’s time warping establishments, such as Iron Fairies and Fat Gutz.

At Maggie Choo’s, you get live jazz, leather armchairs, bank vaults and Queen Victoria busts juxtaposed with cocktails, tile work, lattice and heavy wooden doors.

Beautiful women clad in cheongsams hang from swings and drape themselves across the bar.

Bangkok bars can please the eyes; here are 9 of the most stunning

Shopping

Thai fashion designers

Beyond the city’s many Louis Vuitton, Herms and other big-brand boutiques at high-end malls are some talented local designers earning global praise as well.

So where to find Thailand’s hottest young designers?

Gaysorn Plaza has popular brands like Sretsis and Issue, while celeb favorite Kloset has shops at Siam Center, Siam Paragon and CentralWorld.

To check out the designs of up-and-comer k and i, head to Zen at CentralWorld.

Jatujak Weekend Market

Bangkok’s Jatujak (or Chatuchak) Weekend Market — JJ for short — is one of the biggest in Asia. Covering 35 acres, it has thousands of vendors and attracts as many as 200,000 shoppers on weekends,

It’s the place to go for Thai handicrafts, artwork, clothing, household goods and even pets.

The downside? It’s hot. It’s crowded. And it’s easy to get lost amid the labyrinthine network of stalls.

Yet that’s why some people love it.

The rest of us avoid the madness by going early in the morning, before 9 a.m., or later in the day, at about 4 p.m.

Jatujak Weekend Market, BTS, Mo Chit station; MRT: Chatuchak Park Station

Asiatique The Riverfront

Asiatique The Riverfront is a huge shopping and entertainment complex beside Bangkok’s Chao Phraya river.

Inspired by the city’s days as a riverside trading post in the early 1900s, it resembles a traditional pier with rows of warehouses.

The restaurants and bars include a mixture of upscale bistro-style restaurants serving Thai, Japanese, French and Italian, as well as an Irish pub and a wine bar.

There’s also an outdoor, covered food court.

The best way to get there is to hop on the free shuttle boat that runs regularly from the BTS Thaksin pier.

Attractions

Ancient City

This is the only way to tour Thailand’s most significant historical sites in a day.

About a 45-minute drive from the city, this Samut Prakan attraction features replicas of dozens of major Thai landmarks, from the Grand Palace in Bangkok to the contested Preah Vihear temple on the border with Cambodia.

Given Ancient City’s size, walking isn’t recommended.

Better to rent a golf cart or a bike to cruise around the park.

Siam Niramit

A well-designed stage production featuring more than 100 performers, Siam Niramit crams seven centuries of Thai culture into a fantastic 80-minute show that’s heavy on special effects.

Shows start daily at 8 p.m. and there’s an onsite restaurant offering a fairly standard Thai buffet dinner from 5:30 p.m.

After the show, families can check out onsite attractions like elephant rides, a recreation of a traditional Thai village and other cultural displays.

Jim Thompson House

The legend of Jim Thompson is outlined in every Thailand guidebook, while the iconic brand’s products are in 13 shops around Bangkok and two factory outlets.

For the true experience, head for the historic Jim Thompson House and learn about the brand’s mysterious namesake, an American who gained worldwide recognition for rebuilding the Thai silk industry before disappearing in the Malaysian jungle in 1967.

The traditional Thai-style teak house, surrounded by plants and trees, is filled with Southeast Asian antiques that he acquired through his travels.

But don’t let us convince you of its quality.

Somerset Maugham, who dined with Thompson at this house in 1959, summed it up best: “You have not only beautiful things, but what is rare, you have arranged them with faultless taste.”

Museum of Contemporary Art

For a look at Thailand’s modern art scene, you’ll need to head out of the downtown core to Bangkok’s new Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA).

A five-story space owned by a Thai telecommunications magnate who wanted to share his huge Thai modern art collection with the masses, MOCA offers a great introduction to those who want a primer on Thailand’s art scene.

Most of the country’s leading artists of the last 50 years are represented, as well as some lesser-known greats.

Museum of Floral Culture

This is one of Bangkok’s gorgeous surprises.

The creation of Thai floral artist Sakul Intakul, the museum is for flower and nature lovers and those with an interest in Thai flower culture.

It features exhibits of important floral cultures from civilizations across Asia such as India, China, Japan, Laos and Bali/Indonesia.

It’s housed in a beautifully preserved, 100-year-old teak mansion with colonial architecture.

Lush grounds have been transformed into an impeccably landscaped Thai-meets-Zen-style garden.

Temples

As Thailand is 95 percent Buddhist, there are of course hundreds of Bangkok temples — known in Thai as “wats.”

For a look at how locals worship, head to any one of the glittering neighborhood wats, often located far down tiny sois and well out of the way of tourist traffic.

Some are actually in massive complexes filled with halls, schools and revered statues.

The three big ones on the tourist trail — the Grand Palace, Wat Po and Wat Arun — should be a best of Bangkok stop on any first-timer’s itinerary, as they are genuinely impressive and loaded with historical significance.

from All Of Beer http://allofbeer.com/bangkok-insider-travel-guide/

[plentypost-blog]

Crafted Beer,

While there is some open deliberation with regards to the correct meaning of "make beer," the easiest portrayal is lager that isn't blended by one of the major "uber bottling works" organizations. Or maybe, it's a beer that originates from little, autonomous and conventional brewers. The present American specialty brew resurgence implies more open doors than any other time in recent memory to appreciate carefully assembled lagers and ales from a portion of the country's best microbreweries. As of January 2017, the quantity of aggregate specialty bottling works in the United States achieved more than 5,301 — a long ways from the 298 distilleries of 1990. The pattern is on the rise universally also, with a large number of new distilleries offering their own interpretation of exemplary brew styles.

The Best-Tasting Microbrews To Drink:

  Andechser Doppelbock Dunkel

A standout amongst the most exceptionally respected beer on the planet, this twofold bock is fermented by Benedictine monk at the Kloster Andechs Benedictine religious community in Bavaria. The bottling works take after Reinheitsgebot (German Beer Purity Law), utilizing just grain, water, bounces, and yeast. It pours a profound darker shading with a ruddy tint and durable rich copper head and drifts smells of caramel and malt. A full-bodied, powerful flavor is featured by malty sweetness and cocoa, with dates and figs out of sight. In the wake of tasting, a complete of chocolate charmingly waits for a few seconds. This finely created lager is a prime case of the Benedictine fermenting custom that has continued at Klosterbrauerei Andechs since 1455. Beer Details Origin: Andechs Germany Beer type: Malt Price: $4 for 500 ml. ABV: 7.1%

Brasserie Saint James Red Headed Stranger

The Reno-based Brasserie Saint James was established in 2012 and immediately separated itself through its lineup of world-class beers. The bottling works exhibits an inclination towards Belgian-style brews, and its farmhouse-forward manifestations contrast positively and their partners over the Atlantic. This red Saison is made with Brasserie Saint James' mark Belgian yeast strain and has augmentations of coriander, orange peel, grains of heaven, a mix of green and dark peppercorn, and water from an artesian all around found 285 feet underneath the brewhouse. The blend of fixings brings about a lager that is a cross between a red brew and a saison, with a dim ruby appearance, fragrances of flavor, recognizable malt and a dry peppery complete that is both invigorating and complex. The Red Headed Stranger won a gold decoration at the 2013 U.S. Lager Championships and brought home silver under the most favorable conditions of Craft Beer Awards. Beer Details Origin: 901 S Center St. Reno NV 89501 U.S. Beer type: Saison Price: $13 for 750 ml. ABV: 6.6%

Hangar 24 Essence

Named out of appreciation for the airship shed where originator Ben Cook and his pals would sample his beers after flying, Hangar 24 Brewery has separated itself for its utilization of privately sourced fixings. On account of this copper-tinted West Coast IPA, the formula incorporates navel oranges, blood oranges, and grapefruit, which are all developed in Hangar 24's main residence of Redlands, California. Grapefruit is most predominant in the smell and citrus becomes the dominant focal point in the flavor, which is additionally upgraded by Cascade and Zythos jumps. While the orange impact is extreme, it's additionally very reviving on a sweltering summer day. This lager appeared in June 2015 and was the distillery's third discharge in its Local Fields Series. Other Hangar 24 mixes spotlighting California-developed organic product incorporate its recently discharged Polycot, a wheat lager blended with crisp apricots; and its leader Orange Wheat, made with privately developed oranges. Beer Details Origin: 1710 Sessums Dr. Redlands CA 92374 U.S. Beer type: IPA Price: $8.99 for 22 oz. ABV: 8.5%

Lambickx

Matured in oak and chestnut barrels for a long time and blended with new fruits, Vanburg and DeWulf's restrictive mix of hand-chose Belgian lambics is justified regardless of the pause. After pouring, you'll experience a delightful brilliant red tone with a pink foamy head. Fragrances of cherry are very observable, alongside insights of oak and a smelly Belgian farmhouse funk. Not at all like numerous krieks that offer a wealth of sweet organic product enhance, Lambickx will influence you to pucker with its articulated poignancy and to a great degree dry wrap up. Make sure to observe the mark, which records the brewing year, bottle year, area, barrel compose and the number of bottles produced. This is a lager worth attempting quite a long time, for like a fine wine, each fermenting season is distinctive — and each barrel gloats its own particular interesting character that can never be repeated. Beer Details Origin: New York, United States Beer type: Lambic Price: $21 for 750 ml. ABV: 6.5%

Maui Brewing Company Pineapple Mana

This is a light, fresh and simple drinking brew that summons pictures of unwinding in the midst of a tropical breeze. It's fitting that Maui Brewing Company has implanted the agribusiness of the islands in its blends. For this situation, that implies pineapple from the Maui Gold Pineapple Company that is developed on the slants of Haleakala. This wheat beer pours a light brilliant tint and strong white head joined by a recognizable smell of the namesake tropical natural product. The flavor reflects the smell and keeping in mind that somewhat sweet, it's not over the best, with the organic product taste more predominant in the wake of gulping. Notwithstanding the pineapple notes, anticipate that a breadiness thanks will the wheat in the malt charge. Beer Details Origin: Hawaii, United States Beer type: American Pale Wheat Ale Price: $11 for the six-pack of 12 oz ABV: 5.5%

Mother Earth Cali Creamin

Established in 2008, the Mother Earth Brewery has developed from an unobtrusive carport to a 70,000 square foot generation distillery. Mother Earth Cali Creamin' is the brand's lead brew that conveys enormous on sentimentality. A blend of chipped corn, pale two-push grain, nectar malt, chipped oats and Madagascar vanilla bean, the fixings cooperate towards a malty spine and smooth smoothness reminiscent of a cream pop you may have appreciated in more youthful years. Delicately bounced and enrolling at just 20 IBUs, the unobtrusive intensity is sufficient only to adjust the sweetness. It completes with a perfect, dry delayed flavor impression that will influence you to need more. Look at this as a one of a kind adult glass of youth. Beer Details Origin: 206 Main St. Vista CA 92084 U.S. Beer type: Cream Ale Price: $10 for six-pack 12 oz. ABV: 5.2%

Ninkasi Dawn of the Red

This toasted malty spine advances to the individuals who like a more adjusted hoppy mix. Initially discharged as a piece of Ninkasi's Rare and Delicious trial little group arrangement, this India Red Ale was added to the bottling works' steady of year-round beers in the wake of turned out to be tremendously prevalent. The name and mark is a play on the faction great zombie motion picture, "First light of the Dead," a most loved movie of Ninkasi workmanship chief, Tony Figoli. The India Red Ale style is like IPA, yet is marginally darker and highlights a dash of caramel malt. The bounces contribute smells of mango and pineapple alongside kinds of papaya. The toasted malty spine advances to the individuals who like a more adjusted hoppy blend. Beer Details Origin: 272 Van Buren St. Eugene OR 97402 U.S. Beer type: IPA, Red Ale Price: $11 for six-pack 12 oz. ABV: 7%

Squatters Outer Darkness

External Darkness is Squatters Pub Brewery's greatest beer and its dark mark with two red-hot red eyes clues at what's prowling inside. This heavy is very much named, for it pours a pure black tone with a dull dark colored head that enables no light to radiate through. The wort is bubbled for 3.5 hours to achieve a rich caramelization that gives it a blast of malty chocolate and sweet fig notes. The last bits of the flavor confound is molasses and licorice root, which are included toward the finish of the bubble. Your satisfaction isn't over subsequent to tasting, for a tingly and somewhat severe delayed flavor impression with insights of licorice and espresso perseveres. Any individual who still trusts that brews made in Utah are weak requirements to take only one taste of this majestic hefty to find reality. Beer Details Origin: 147 W. Broadway (300 South) Salt Lake City UT 84010 U.S. Beer type: Stout, Malt Price: $11 for 750 ml. ABV: 10.5%

Utah Sage Saison

Some portion of the Epic Brewing Exponential Series that started in 2011 and is presently in its 35th version. The primary fixings in this Belgian-style farmhouse lager continue as before however the ABV and jump change marginally from clump to bunch. What doesn't change is the malt bill of Pilsner, Maris Otter, two-push grain, rye, wheat, grain pieces, sage, rosemary, and thyme. The flavors - included the last minutes of the bubble - bring a ground-breaking homegrown chomp while Belgian Saison yeast contributes a fiery and unobtrusively tart restlessness. Awaiting delayed flavor impression of sage and rosemary enables you to appreciate this mix long after you've guzzled. Note: Although today sage isn't ordinarily utilized as a fixing in the brew, many years prior its utilization was the standard. Beer Details Origin: 825 South State St. Salt Lake City UT 84111 U.S. Beer type: Saison, Wheat Price: $8 for 22 oz. ABV: 7%

Vicaris Tripel-Gueuze

This perplexing mix will fulfill the individuals who acknowledge harsh brews that are limited and adjusted. Subsequent to winning a neighborhood homebrew challenge, author Vincent Dilewyns and his little girls, Anne-Cathérine and Claire Dilewyns, opened their namesake bottling works in 2011. This beer is a mix of two exceptional styles: a rich, sweet tripel and an amazingly tart gueuze. The subsequent blend is the best of the two styles, with a lemony lambic fragrance, kinds of acidic sharpness tempered by fruity sweetness and a to a great degree dry, completely that are ordinary of a gueuze. This intricate blend will fulfill the individuals who acknowledge harsh beers that are limited and adjusted. Beer Details Origin: Dendermonde Belgium Beer type: Sour Price: $17 for 750 ml. ABV: 7%   While we are not promoting any kind of alcohol, there are certain things about it that can be fascinating. Beer being our favorite, there are many different kinds of beers we don't know about but they exist in the world and we can't have whenever we like to. So, what's the harm in knowing about it right? Though we have curated few craft beers, we all would want to have once in our life.   EDITOR: SINGH & SHAW TECHIE: GUPTA Read the full article

[seniorbrief]

We Settled the Cola Debate: Find Out Which Brand Tastes Best

Food Fun & News

Lisa KaminskiJul 16

Coke vs. Pepsi is one of the most heated debates in foodie history. We tried these brands, plus six others, in a cola taste test to put this argument to bed.

The Coke vs. Pepsi Debate

Taste of Home

Growing up, there was always a major debate in my house: Coke vs. Pepsi. My sisters and I were Team Coca-Cola while my mom was very much Team Pepsi; my dad, on the other hand, was very frugal and was Team Generic, or whatever was on sale—he’d love these 12 thrifty ways to use soda around the house! I’m sure that this scenario sounds pretty familiar.

Since we had our biases, we never managed to settle the Coke vs. Pepsi debate at home. We’d all reach for our favorites in the fridge and claim that the other options were far inferior. But I realized, we never did a test to confirm whose preferred brand was better—we just assumed our favorite was best. But maybe if presented with Coke, Pepsi and Dad’s pick of the generics, I wouldn’t automatically gravitate toward my favorite. But there was only one way to know: to give all of these brands (plus a few new ones) a try today.

As fun as it would be to grab my parents and sisters to give all these colas a try, I decided to recruit a panel of Taste of Home testers instead. I think they’d be a bit less biased than my polarized fam! For this blind test, we gave eight cola brands a try:

Blue Sky Cola

Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola, Mexican-style (there is a difference!)

Faygo Cola

Fentimans Curiosity Cola

Pepsi

RC Cola

Sam’s Cola (from Walmart)

Let’s see how all these colas stacked up and settle the debate (hopefully) for good!

Honorable Mention (Small Brand): Blue Sky

Taste of Home

Score: 7/10

Natural brand Blue Sky definitely deserves a mention in this test. It was the only high ranking cola we tested that’s sweetened with real cane sugar (not corn syrup). Plus, this beverage is made with just five ingredients. Of course, it’s still a soft drink so it’s not healthy, but it seems like the slightly better option if you’re more concerned about what goes into your more indulgent treats.

Flavor-wise, this cola was unique. Testers definitely got that traditional caramel-cola taste, but with a hint of vanilla (psst… learn how to make our CokeCola Cake). In fact, a few testers said it tasted like a cola-root beer hybrid. Sounds good to me!

Honorable Mention (Major Brand): Pepsi

Taste of Home

Score: 7.5/10

As one of the big players in the cola game, I imagined Pepsi would place somewhere in the top. Pepsi got good marks when it came to fizz (our lower ranking colas got poor marks for tasting flat, even straight out of the bottle or can). However, Pepsi missed the top honors in the test because it didn’t pack the same level of flavor as other brands and some testers said it had a hint of diet soda taste. We just wanted more out of this one!

Runner-Up: Sam’s Choice

Taste of Home

Score: 8.8/10

Just shy of the top honor was Sam’s Choice, a Walmart brand. My dad would be pretty happy to know generics are nearly as good as big names (and it’s true—generics got exceptionally high scores in our cookie dough test, our ice cream sandwich taste test and our chicken tender test).

Sam’s Choice got high marks for its refreshing quality and fizziness. A few testers even hazard guesses on their score sheets asking if this was indeed Coke. I can attest that this generic cola definitely had some Coca-Cola-like qualities, but in the end wasn’t quite as flavorful as the real thing.

Original Source -> We Settled the Cola Debate: Find Out Which Brand Tastes Best

source https://www.seniorbrief.com/we-settled-the-cola-debate-find-out-which-brand-tastes-best/

[boozedancing]

AK: Hello, Professor. It’s been a long time.

G-LO: Indeed it has, Doctor!

AK: Went out for burgers with the 17 year old daughter last night. Had a pretty boring soft drink to go with. I hate boring soft drinks.

G-LO: Define boring. 7-up? Seltzer? Grape Ne-HI? Orange Fanta?

AK: Root beer from a machine. Let’s say it was A&W. Doesn’t really matter. I have no idea what it was. Could have been Barq’s for all I know.

G-LO: I kinda like A&W, though it’s certainly not a craft root beer. Absolution makes a fine root beer! And on nitro! Soooooo pretty!

AK: Very! I like the craft root beers. Reason enough for me to visit a brewery! It’s an old art in this here country. Big in your part of the country.

G-LO: True! I believe Hire’s was the first commercially available root beer. Brewed for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. That sounds about right! Right?

AK: You’re asking me? I barely know the five presidents on Mount Rushmore.

G-LO: Five? Presidents? I was thinking Larry, Moe, Curly, Curly Joe, and Shemp.

AK: Dr. Howard? Dr. Fein? Dr. Howard?

G-LO: YES! Dig this, Methuselah! Larry Fine (aka Louis Feinberg) was born in Philadelphia. Guess where he died?

AK: Niagara Falls?

G-LO: Nope. Slowly he turned when he reached Niagara Falls. Step by step. Inch by inch. Guess again, Bluebeard!

AK: Anaheim, Azusa, or Rancho Cucamonga?

G-LO: You’re getting very, very warm, Doc. You’re in the vicinity. I’ll just tell you before everyone gets bored and clicks through to another website. He died in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles.

AK: Woodland Hills! The Valley! Home of malls and porn. Larry is in heaven.

G-LO: There are worse places to die.

AK: True enough as we’ve proven with these ramblings. Wonder how the root beer is in heaven?

G-LO: Perfect pours. Rich. Creamy. Refreshing! And you can have it as a float with the BEST vanilla ice cream ever.

AK: Mmmmm… Mama, I’m coming home!

G-LO: You sound like you’re one of them there root beer aficionados.

AK: I do like trying new ones when they come to the shelves or at shady beef jerky stops on the highways and byways of this great country. Every try any of these “hard” root beers?

G-LO: I have, indeed!

AK: Tell me more… Tell me more…. Did you get very far?

G-LO: Take it easy, Rizzo! I don’t kiss and tell. Ok, so maybe I do. I may or may not have reviewed it. Personally, I like my root beer soft. That being said, the one I tried was pretty good and VERY easy drinking. In other words, it goes down like candy and will get you pretty shnockered if you have too much of it.

AK: Yowza! I hear we have a new root beer concoction in our midst.

G-LO: I’m not up on the latest news. Tell me more, Mr. Cronkite!

AK: Well, we have in front of us something called Root Out. These folks at Root Out think they are onto something. Root Beer flavored… Wait for it… Whisky!

G-LO: Boozy Root Beer?! Brilliant!

AK: That’s what they say too!

G-LO: What’s not to love?

AK: Sounds like it’s sort of like that chocolate-peanut butter thing.

G-LO: I love Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups! Mashups are so fun.

AK: Those brainiacs at Reese’s did pretty well for themselves.

G-LO: Yep! They got me hooked.

AK: We should see if this boozy mashup will do the same.

G-LO: Have you any details about this intriguing elixir, Dr. Octopus? Did they make whisky out of the stuff they make root beer out of? Did they take whisky and add Art in the Age Root to the barrel?

AK: Info I got. Money, not so much. It’s Canadian Whisky from an unknown source and natural root beer flavor is added to it. I’m not sure what natural root beer flavor is. Is there a root beer flower grown in Kansas? Rootus Beeris Sepia?

G-LO: I don’t know, but I do know that we’re definitely not in Kansas anymore, Toto!

AK: Nope. That dog won’t hunt no more. Four year old Canadian Whisky. 70 proof. Hmmm. Thought Canadian whisky has to be 80 proof.

G-LO: I’m guessing they watered it down some. Actually, I thought all whisky had to be at least 80 proof.

AK: Odd indeed. Playing a little fast and loose with the definition? Should we take a whiff? Sure looks like whisky.

G-LO: Let’s do the Jimmy Durante and get our first-class shnozzes into the glass! Ahhhhhh-cha-cha…. It sure does look like whisky.

AK: Definitely get sassafras which is possibly the giggliest word in the English language.  They do add vanilla and sassafras to this, by the way.

G-LO: Did ya check out the gams on this dram? Totally getting that root beer vibe on the nose!

AK: Yep! Legs as long as the road from Saskatoon to Winnipeg.  No rest stops on the way so hit the potty before you leave.

G-LO: Sassafras. Vanilla.

AK: A cough drop but I can’t remember the brand. Remember those root beer barrel candies? I’m getting that.

G-LO: Yep! Like the kind in the Cracker Barrel Gift Shoppe! My boys love Root Beer and Root Beer Barrel Candy!

AK: I’m guessing you should keep the kids away from this stuff. I had a root beer flavored cough drop one time. Tasted horrible. But the smell was like this. Maybe burnt butterscotch?

G-LO: There’s a good bit of sweetness on the nose. Like powdered sugar.

AK: I need to make butterscotch pudding. Mental note!

G-LO: Love butterscotch pudding! And regarding the legs on this here hooch, I’m thinking Charlize Theron.

AK: She’s from South Africa. Which is Canada without the hockey. I have no idea what that means. Lots of sweetness. Kinda scared to taste it. The Root Out, not Charlize. Wait… Forget I said that! I’m sipping the Root Out but my head could explode!  My pancreas better stay in tact.

G-LO: Speaking of tact, you have none. I think you mean intact. I’m sure your pancreas will be fine. You’re a tough customer. I’m goin in! Chewing…

AK: Lots to chew. Really syrupy. Might be good on pancakes.

G-LO: Syrupy indeed! Kinda sweet yet bitey. That root beery spice tingles a wee bit. Very gently I might add.

AK: There is a bite! It’s kinda mediciney. Like cough syrup. Little salty too which is pretty weird. My sodium level does need some upping. Mediciney. Not Talisker or Laphroaig mediciney. CVS/Walgreens mediciney. The generic brand.

G-LO: Exactly! Robitussin mediciney. With a little bitterness in the aftertaste. Not awful by any stretch, just a little odd. Starts off sweet and kinda yummy, but then the whisky kicks in and finishes a little mediciney. Not getting the salt.

AK: Definitely has that Robitussin coating.

G-LO: Flavored whisky is definitely a thing, though usually not for me. At least not straight up. What do we think of it on its own?

AK: Not sure. I like the concept better than the product. I love root beer but the whole flavored whisky thing hasn’t taken me by storm.

G-LO: I feel the same way. I’ve had a couple legit good ones, but most are pretty meh.  Crown Royal Vanilla is quite good. Especially with a slice of Wegman’s Ultimate Cheesecake!

This combo is a #nobrainer! #wegmans #cheesecake #crownroyalvanilla #whisky #dessert #foodporn #nomnom #wedgewood #india #whiskey #liqueur #glotography

A post shared by Papa G-LO (@boozedancing) on Jan 9, 2017 at 5:47pm PST

AK: If you’re going to go the flavored route, I hope it’s with natural flavors, Mr. Dessert.

G-LO: I can see this being good on the rocks. The chill might take away that bitter aftertaste thing. Lemme get an ice cube!

AK: Great idea!  The pharmacist always says “keep the stuff in the fridge; it will taste better”.

G-LO: I’m full of ideas. Few are great. Many are illegal.

AK: Legal is a fine line waiting to be crossed.

G-LO: What the pharmacy really wants to say is keep a glass of whisky handy. It will taste better. But drugs and alcohol generally don’t mix. Though alcohol is TECHNICALLY a drug, soooooo….

AK: Bizarre about those Charlize legs on this thing! Ice cube has entered the Root Out zone here. Not Ice Cube. He’s unavailable.

G-LO: I was crazy about Charlize in general, but then Sean Penn happened. He ruins everything. Ice helps with the aftertaste by the way.

AK: OMG! I’m watching the ice cube diffuse, melt, transform in the Whisky! It’s bizarre!! Never seen that before.

G-LO: Is it like watching paint dry?

AK: Way better. It’s crazy! The Satellite Engineer is fascinated!

G-LO: That’s saying something! Lord knows, what she finds fascinating about you.

AK: The universe is full of mystery. The cube is actually moving on the surface. The Engineer says it has something to do with density. I know of dense rather well.

G-LO: Indeed. As do I. We’re simpatico. I love that word.

AK: It’s so simple. You can see the oils gathering on the surface. I assume those are oils. I hope those are oils!

G-LO: Video! We need video!

AK: I’m trying!

G-LO: There is no try.

AK: Only do-do! Here’s your video, Pal…

G-LO: Hey now! No do-do here here. Use the facility for that! Liking this much better chilled. Kinda soothing like an Amaro.  Would probably make a nice highball with club soda. Highball = Whisky Spritzer!  Are you thinking what I’m thinking?

AK: Charlize Theron should be our personal bartender?

G-LO: Yes! Wait… YES! No. I got desserts on the brain. I have a chemical imbalance.

AK: First step is admitting it. What’s your idea, Professor?

G-LO: We do loves us some ice cream.

AK: Sahara, Gobi, Ice Cream. And?

G-LO: And we’re positively smitten with ice cream and booze combinations!

AK: We are!

G-LO: Head over heels smitten. Triple Lindy Smitten!

AK: That’s pretty smitten! Go on…

G-LO: Abso-forkin-lutely! So what I was thinking was Haagen Dazs Vanilla Ice Cream topped with Root Out.

AK: I LOVE dessert science!

G-LO: Thanks! Long and tan and dark and lovely…..

AK: Get Charlize off the brain! Here‘s my two bit idea. Two of them actually. Bump up the booze on the Root Out with more Canadian Whisky. And separately, add root beer soda to some Canadian whisky. I just pulled out some Forty Creek Barrel Select for said experiments. Lab coat is at the cleaners so I’m going with the worn out t-shirt from the ‘90’s. John Hall at Forty Creek would kill me if he knew about this mad science.

G-LO: Bah! He got his buyout. You bought a bottle. All he cares about.  You’re a friggin’ witch doctor! We love that about you.

AK: Dr.Bombay! Dr.Bombay!

G-LO: Limpd is here!

AK: Always late! But always welcome. Not exactly the witch doctor I was thinking of, but he’ll do.

G-LO: That’s how he rolls! Or limps in his case. Shrunken heads and a flask. An old fashioned witch doctor who makes  house calls.

AK: I’d love to hear his thoughts on the Root Out.

Limpd: Very medicinal. Brings me back to my childhood. And the croop!

AK: *Cough* *Cough* Not the consumption, wee lad?

Limpd: Dad’s Root Beer going in. Formula 44D (watch it!) on the back end.

AK: Whoa! Formula 44D!

G-LO: Can I get a 44 Double D?

AK: Formula 44D is high octane. Illegal in some states, pending in others. Rocket fuel in Kazakhstan.

G-LO: Can your sciencey wife confirm that last bit? FYI, Root Out is killer in Vanilla Ice cream!

AK: She says “No comment.” Root Out fortified with Forty Creek is yummy. Lots of vanilla and the medicine notes go away. The sherry influence helps a lot.

G-LO: Excellent! We’re the Beaker and Bunsen Honeydew of Booze!

AK: But MUCH better looking! This combo would be good on ice cream too. Hints of root beer instead of wallops of it.

G-LO: Thanks. You’re cute too, Doc!

AK: The root beer and sherry is interesting. Almost gets a little bitter. Or oaky.

G-LO: Bitter Root!

AK: Yes! Time for Experimente Numero Dos: Forty Creek with a bit of Henry Weinhard’s Root Beer. Wow! Carmel and vanilla sweetness, still rich Forty Creek.

G-LO: Sounds delicious!

AK: What was that Forty Creek sample you gave me long ago? I tried it on pancakes.

G-LO: Hmmm. Confederation Oak? The one from Whisky Lassie?

AK: I think so. I kind of recall this flavor. So yummy for breakfast!

G-LO: That was a few years back.

AK: What? Your memory isn’t perfect?

G-LO: Hi! My name is Dory. What’s yours?

AK: 42 Wallaby Way. I really love Henry’s even with it’s artificial flavors. Never experimented with it aside from seeing how many bottles I could drink in a setting.

G-LO: Sydney! Limpd wants to know if you speak whale.

AK: Only Welsh after a few Pendryns.

G-LO: Ha! You’re like Tom Jones! It’s not unusual, but you sure are!

AK: Pussycat, pussycat…

G-LO: Meow meow meow.

AK: Tell me about that ice cream experiment.

G-LO: It was delicious! Though I may have watered it down a bit too much. Got really subtle hints of root beer. Really nice.

AK: Curious how the ice cream reacted with Root Out but I bet you ate right through that science project.

G-LO: Indeed I did! I may have licked the bowl too.

AK: Licking up science like Einstein.

G-LO: He had awesome hair. I hear he was smart too.

AK: Made a fortune in physics. Liked root beer too.

G-LO: And lived 40 minutes away from me!

AK: And did you ever invite him over for a soda pop or whisky? Noooooo. What kind of neighbor are you?

G-LO: He was an Ivy Leaguer. You know how they roll. Plus, I’m not of the Tribe. And Limpd has never been a Cleveland Indians fan. Whatever that means.

AK: You both are members of the Hekawi Tribe.

G-LO: Watch your back, Corporal Agarn!

AK: I’ve got three Glencairns full of nothing great. Should we wrap this up and do some real drinking?

G-LO: Indeed we should! Final thoughts?

AK: Root Out is an interesting add to the growing flavored whisky market. Maybe good for cocktails. But the syrupy medicine texture was a bit much for me. But fun to experiment with.

Limpd: I vote for using it as a rinse for cocktails. But I’m not as creative as you two dorks.

G-LO: I thought it was ok on its own. Better with ice. Even better with vanilla ice cream!

AK: Interesting idea. I could see that. Definitely a good bump for desserts. I could see it added into a reduction for a topping to something.

G-LO: Pancakes! Maybe a BBQ sauce? Victory Brewing makes short ribs with a Root Beer based BBQ sauce.

AK: Sounds yummy! Has to be added to something that doesn’t already have a high sugar content.

G-LO: Totally!

AK: I could see it used in a bbq as a browning agent. Baste a brisket with it.

G-LO: You mean that brisket you didn’t save for me when I flew out last time? Bastard.

AK: Same one

G-LO: I say again. Bastard.

AK: That’s me!

G-LO: Have we moved on to the Celebrity Roast portion of the evening?

AK: Where’s Dean Martin?

G-LO: He’s dead.

AK: Where’s Rickles?

G-LO: Dead. Rich Little?

AKe: Not dead. But all the celebrities that he impersonates are. Go figure.

G-LO: So he can do the voiceover for the dead celebrity holograms?

AK: He can do Prince, Tupac, Biggie. Oh, wait…

G-LO: LOL! I think we’re done here.

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Many thanks to Van Huynh-Leap of D & S Beverages for sending us this very generous sample!

A review of #RootOut Whisky w/ a side of inane banter, brought to you by G-LO & @AaronMKrouse. #whisky AK: Hello, Professor. It’s been a long time. G-LO: Indeed it has, Doctor! AK…