#and I don’t really enjoy carbonated beverages or lemonade

[oscargender]

I think it is so evil that all the best and tastiest drinks have caffeine in them and it’s absolutely criminal that my only option at this point is water (and maybe extremely weak green tea) 😭😭😭

[surveysonfleek]

227.

What’s the most relaxing thing you did today? laid in bed just now.

Do you shop at the grocery store closest to your house? yup. Which one of your guy friends is the best looking? i’m a bit biased but i’ll have to say my boyfriend.

What does your car smell like? i have this bath and body works air freshener. it’s watermelon lemonade apparently. Who could make you feel better right now? no one. just sleep.

Which three people (who don’t have a Myspace) would be in your top friends? idk lol. Have you had an epiphany lately? hmm sorta. not a big one. What color shoes are you wearing? not wearing shoes.

Which one of your friends is the most brutally honest? tasha or kim.

Miracle Whip or Mayo? mayo. never tried this whip thing.

Who/What influences your taste in music the most? probably just my taste from the past. i’ve always loved rnb because of my cousin so from then until now i still enjoy it.

Do you have anything to say to your ex bf/gf? no. In what year will/did you turn 21? i turned 21 ages ago.

Who was the last person you gave a birthday present to? bek.

What do you think of the person who took this survey last? i forgot who i copied this from, sorry!

Which one of your friends do you look most like? none lol.

Puedes hablar español bueno? idk :(

Which day of the week do you watch the most TV? i hardly watch tv anymore.

What’s your favorite vegetable? potato or broccoli. 

Which one of your senses would you not mind losing? i had this question in the last survey i answered. i mind losing any of them tbh.

Which band do you have the most of on your iPod/music player? idkkkk,

Which song describes your mood at the moment? ah nothing.

Which movie(s) do you quote the most? mean girls, duh.

What’s the closest pink object to you? my phone case.

Do you really weigh the weight on your driver’s license? our licenses don’t have that. thank god.

What’s your favorite non-carbonated, non-alcoholic beverage? root beer.

What’s the most epic thing you’ve done so far this month? hmmmmmmm. gotten my lashes done lol. so epic, i know.

Which one of your best friend’s friends would you most likely date? none.

Which word do you have the hardest time spelling? i can’t think of any right now. but there’s a few.

Big Mac or Whopper? whopper.

Have you ever been to an ‘Adult Gift’ store? yes. for a laugh.

What’s your favorite vacation spot? philippines.

What color underwear are you wearing? it;s multicolored and designed lol.

Have you ever slapped anybody? not hard.

What’s your second favorite sport? haha omg idk. i only like one sport.

What are you listening to right now? nothing.

Where will you be in six hours? sleeping.

What do you wish you had more time to do? i have all the time in the world tbh. although i wish i went to the gym more.

Who was the last person to ride in your passenger’s seat? my boyfriend.

Would you ever let anybody else drive your car? only my mum, dad, sis or boyfriend.

Which one of your friends will be the most successful? not sure. i sure hope it’s my bf. How old will you be on your next birthday? 27 :(

What store did you last shop at? actually no idea. the pharmacy?

What is your absolute favorite band? none. i’m so not into bands.

[yujachachacha]

what is with these chain posts

Tagged by @kuuxkat…a long time ago. For some reason, I didn’t get a notification about it. *shakes fist at Tumblr*

I’ve answered a lot of these in previous posts because the same questions get repeated over and over again, so let’s see how many times I can get away with not typing out a direct answer. ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ

I’m also gonna reformat the post a little to make stuff look nicer, and put it under a cut since 99% of the time I’m long-winded af.

Rules: Tag 10 followers you want to get to know better. heck off im an adult and i can do what i want!!!

Birthday: I think from now on, I’m going to adapt what I said in a previous chain post and just refer to it as “The day that LLS Season 1 ended”.

Gender: Answered in the 2nd question in the aforementioned post.

Relationship status: Refer to the “Relationship status” question in the aforementioned post.

Favorite color: Refer to #5 in the very first chain post I did. I apparently forgot that I answered this question before and went through the trouble of explaining it again in chain post #2 (the one linked in the birthday question), haha.

Pets: None at the moment, but I’ve had pets in the past.

When I was in…2nd grade maybe, I can’t remember exactly…my brother and I briefly had tiny turtles (idk what breed they were) as pets. My brother’s was named Rocky, after the Red Power Ranger from Mighty Morphin. Mine was named Terry, after Terry McGinnis from Batman Beyond. Yeah, we sure did have great taste in names lol.

But one day, after my mom cleaned the tank, Rocky disappeared. After a period of time during which Terry was mopey and not eating anything, Terry also disappeared. Back then, my mom told me that they’d escaped down the drain while cleaning the tank, and my brother and I predictably made jokes about those two brother turtles joining the TMNT gang. I’m fairly sure my mom made that up though, because we were so young…? Heh, maybe I should go ask my mom if she remembers what actually happened to those poor turtles.

Also, in 6th grade, I briefly had a Maltese/poodle mutt. My dad’s friend had moved to an apartment with a no pet policy, so we got to hang around with a hyper dog. His name was Jangoon (Korean for “General”, as in army general), and man, he was such a dumb dog…loved him to bits though. But after a year, the owner had a change of heart and moved out, so we gave Jangoon back to him. :’)

Wake up time: If you let me sleep in for as long as I want, I have the ability to stay in bed for 14+ hours. (¦3ꇤ[▓▓]

But to answer seriously - if I went to bed at a reasonable time, my natural waking time (i.e. no alarm) would be some time between 9 and 11.

Love or lust?: Whoooooa, deep. Are you asking me if love or lust is more important to the world? Or if I prefer one personally over the other? If it’s the former, y’all are gonna make me launch into some philosophical shit about how…oh wait, this post was supposed to be a self-intro. It’s probably asking me for my personal preference.

Well then. Since I’m the type who enjoys osananajimi tropes and couples growing old together, I guess I’ll go with “love”?

Lemonade or iced tea?: Chain post #2 asked me to pick between “Lemonade or sweet tea”, wow these chain posts sure aren’t very creative, are they?

Cats or dogs?: See the “Cat or dog person” question in chain post #2.

Coke or pepsi?: Coke. And on that note, 7-Up > Sprite, fite me if you must. I dislike carbonated beverages in general, though.

Day or night?: Have you seen what time I’m active on Tumblr and Twitter? _(:3 」∠)_ …night.

Text or call?: Ever since my parents started getting semi-competent at using their smartphones, I’ve gotten more comfortable with just texting. I still prefer calls for when I need to have an actual conversation with someone, though.

Met a celebrity?: I have a really, really long answer to this in chain post #2 under “Ever met a celebrity?”.

Light or dark hair?: I assume this is asking me for my hair color? Because if it’s asking me for what hair color I prefer in others, I really don’t give a shit.

Anyways, both of my parents and all four of my grandparents (and probably more ancestors down the line, but I’m too lazy to dig out my family book) are Korean, and I’ve never dyed my hair apart from very subtle highlights a couple of years ago (i.e. they’re pretty much gone now). Take a wild guess.

Oh, and yeah, a lot of Korean families literally have a book that lists their entire family tree. It’s pretty fuckin’ neato.

Short or tall: Again, I assume this is asking about me personally? Refer to the “Height” response in chain post #2. Also, I only learned this about a month ago, so I’ll add this - I’m the same height as Emitsun.

Chapstick or lipstick?: Chapstick…okay, I’m sorry, but I can’t read this question seriously without being reminded of Ellen DeGeneres, lol.

City or country?: Chain post #2 has my answer to “Country or city?” - seriously, are all of these chain posts written by the same person?

Last song you listened to: This question also gets repeated a lot, but at least the answer for this one always changes. If it’s a matter of the last song I actually listened to by choice, I think it was “Koi ni Naritai AQUARIUM”. If it’s the last song I happened to hear, it’s “Aqours☆HEROES” because I accidentally sat on my earbuds and started up my LLS playlist. :P

Tagging: Not going to tag a specific person, but if you see this post and wanna do it, go for it. Feel free to tag me so that I can get to know you better~

[dreamsfromfevers]

I used to only ever really drink Coca Cola. Mostly because it was easy being as accessible as it is, and that I enjoyed the stimulation of carbonated beverages. But after my doctor told me no more soda’s, I started turning to other more pleasant beverages. Carbonated juices, teas, and lemonades. I love lemonade.

My current drink in stock right now is carbonated peach tea from an Italian brand. I don’t know why I ever drank Coca Cola now, it tastes terrible honestly. I think this stupid monopoly it has on beverages should die out, there are far healthier and more delicious options, and we’re choosing to drink the chemical garbage??? Why??? Just try a few uncommon beverages and you’ll surely find that you enjoy something far better.

What’s your favourite beverage that isn’t a big name soda brand? Is it lemonade? Some kind of iced tea? Sparkling cider? Ginger ale?

[samanthasroberts]

Turning Lemons and Pine Needles Into Sunshine Soda

It seems that spring has finally and truly asserted itself down here in Virginia. The red buds and daffodils are out in force and I’m thinking about hooking the lawnmower battery up to the charger to see if I can get it to turn over.

A couple of weeks ago, I was faked out when a few gorgeous days reverted to bleak cold. That second hit of winter is a monster, and I should know better than to fall for that early taste of summer, but I’m so ready for warm weather, so excited to see things turn, that I get fooled every year.

So while I bide my time waiting for spring to finally arrive, I’m trying to keep my hands and mind busy. That’s how I recently found myself down at my tree line in the low pasture, figuring out which evergreens were which and looking for white pines.

I’d been reading The Wildcrafting Brewer, by Pascal Baudar, and I wanted to make something out of his new book because it oozes plenty. It feels bountiful and green in the way that acclaimed food writer Richard Olney’s menus do. Fixing up a batch of Baudar’s soda of pine needles and lemon was going to fix everything. Nothing, of course, smells better than a few sliced-up lemons.

While I watched the concoction begin to bubble, I’ll admit it sparked some pangs of jealousy. In California, Baudar, after all, has a year-round cornucopia of fruits and vegetables to use for his different brews. I’d chosen this particular recipe, in part, because I have pine trees and I can buy ripe lemons. So when I chatted with him, I had to ask if he thought living on the East Coast was detrimental to the sort of projects he undertakes and writes about in his book.

“The original book, The New Wildcrafted Cuisine, had a lot of ingredients that were specific to Southern California but you have to think of this book as a compilation of ideas and concepts that people can apply with their local plants,” he said. “A lot of the book is about food preservation techniques using wild plants, such as fermentation (wild food kimchi, hot sauces), making cheese with plant rennet, herbal meads, making your own vinegars and so on.”

He went on to point out that many of his ideas are “totally applicable anywhere, such as making your own salt, researching your local terroir for spice blends, cooking in clay, leaching acorns, making wild beers with local mugwort.”

Some of this sounds advanced—it isn’t, really, it just seems daunting when you first read it—but Baudar is quick to point out a few things that won’t intimidate beginners.

“Anyone can start right away and probably from their backyard. Right now, we have a lot of nettles showing up and making a nettles beer is a very traditional ferment. Someone living in Vermont can explore the idea of making a dandelion wine.”

The trick is, as with so many things, you have to start with something pretty straightforward.

Look for “basic ingredients which are super easy to identify,” he said. If it strikes you, and you want to dive deeper, he suggests you seek out books about local edible plants and take classes with wild food instructors.

But of course, you can still enjoy all this without foraging: “You can also go to the regular store or farmer’s market and get your ingredients there. Right now, my local store is selling a lot of blueberries for example.”

What he’s really showing us in this lushly illustrated and inspiring book is that fermentation is fun and accessible, and that it shouldn’t be feared. It would be shame to leave all this to the experts.

“I even have a recipe about making a root beer using herbal tea bags,” he said.

Dilettantism is one of my favorite things, and I pressed the subject a little.

“I think people should entertain the idea of creating their own fermented beverages,” he said, “even if those are simple ferments such as fruit sodas or herbal meads. Anyone can go to the store, get some organic ginger and make some ginger beer or soda. You don’t even have to add yeast, it’s already on the surface of the ginger.”

It goes almost without saying that your personal forays into soda making will likely be much more healthful than anything you can buy.

I was most inspired by Baudar’s astonishingly forward thinking. He makes me imagine a landscape into which I have seeded treats for future forages. Why not establish a berry bush, a stand of herbs, a garden of plants used in beer? I love the idea of a garden that isn’t confined to a grid.

“If you are foraging in nature,” he said, “I think it’s important to make sure you grow more plants than you’ll ever take.”

Unless, of course, what you take is invasive. Many of our invasive species are actually useful, and Baudar has good ideas about what to do with them.

Horehound, for instance, is a bitter mint popular in medieval beer recipes. It is invasive, and cities spray pesticides to kill it in parks.

“The city should teach people about the medicinal benefits of the plant for cold and flu (you’ll find it in cough drop Ricola) or as a traditional brewing ingredient.”

He lobbed a motto at me—“Make beer, don’t spray!”—and he’s right, but I’d hate to see anyone pass this book by because they felt overwhelmed by a sense of duty. Don’t feel overwhelmed by anything. Pick it up, play around, find some stuff you like.

After my fermentation of pine needles and lemons bubbled for a while I strained it into bottles. But before I capped them, I tasted the soda. I have to admit, I wasn’t all that impressed—it tasted like a Tom Collins left too long. Fortunately, the yeast wasn’t done and really got to work, again. Within a few days, I had a soda that rushed up the neck of the bottle, and vigorously bubbled with fine natural carbonation. The flavors had deepened and grown more complex. Cheers to that. Happy Spring.

Pine Needle Soda

By Pascal Baudar

If you’ve ever tasted some delicious pine needles, trust me, you’ll want to brew this soda. My favorite pines are pinyon pine, ponderosa pine, and white pine, but I’ve also made blends that included white fir and spruce. In fact, when I was teaching in Vermont, we made a similar soda using white pine needles and blue spruce tips. Note that ponderosa pine and white fir are not recommended for consumption if you’re pregnant.

My regular mix is usually composed of mostly pinyon pine needles (60 to 80 percent of the blend) and some white fir needles (20 percent) with one or two lemons. I make sure to cut the pine and fir needles with scissors so they can release their flavors quickly. I slice the lemons into five or six parts but, if you’re an experienced forager, you can use sumac or lemonade berries instead.

INGREDIENTS:

Spring water

Pine needles

1-2 Lemons (cut in five or six pieces)

1-1.5 cups (225–335 g) Organic cane sugar or honey

5 grams Yeast (1 packet)

DIRECTIONS

Fill around half of your (clean) container loosely with the ingredients, add some spring water and organic cane sugar or honey, then add the yeast and place a paper towel on top secured by a rubber band or a string. 


Using a clean wooden spoon, stir the liquid three or four times a day until you get a nice fermentation going—this usually takes 2 to 3 days in Southern California.

Strain the liquid into recycled soda bottles and check the pressure after a day or so, then refrigerate for at least 8 hours before enjoying. With pine sodas, you can really judge by flavors; taste as you go along and stop the fermentation whenever you’re satisfied. 


This recipe is from The Wildcrafting Brewer by Pascal Baudar (Chelsea Green Publishing, 2018) and is printed with permission from the publisher.

Source: http://allofbeer.com/turning-lemons-and-pine-needles-into-sunshine-soda/

from All of Beer https://allofbeer.wordpress.com/2018/05/01/turning-lemons-and-pine-needles-into-sunshine-soda/

[allofbeercom]

Turning Lemons and Pine Needles Into Sunshine Soda

It seems that spring has finally and truly asserted itself down here in Virginia. The red buds and daffodils are out in force and I’m thinking about hooking the lawnmower battery up to the charger to see if I can get it to turn over.

A couple of weeks ago, I was faked out when a few gorgeous days reverted to bleak cold. That second hit of winter is a monster, and I should know better than to fall for that early taste of summer, but I’m so ready for warm weather, so excited to see things turn, that I get fooled every year.

So while I bide my time waiting for spring to finally arrive, I’m trying to keep my hands and mind busy. That’s how I recently found myself down at my tree line in the low pasture, figuring out which evergreens were which and looking for white pines.

I’d been reading The Wildcrafting Brewer, by Pascal Baudar, and I wanted to make something out of his new book because it oozes plenty. It feels bountiful and green in the way that acclaimed food writer Richard Olney’s menus do. Fixing up a batch of Baudar’s soda of pine needles and lemon was going to fix everything. Nothing, of course, smells better than a few sliced-up lemons.

While I watched the concoction begin to bubble, I’ll admit it sparked some pangs of jealousy. In California, Baudar, after all, has a year-round cornucopia of fruits and vegetables to use for his different brews. I’d chosen this particular recipe, in part, because I have pine trees and I can buy ripe lemons. So when I chatted with him, I had to ask if he thought living on the East Coast was detrimental to the sort of projects he undertakes and writes about in his book.

“The original book, The New Wildcrafted Cuisine, had a lot of ingredients that were specific to Southern California but you have to think of this book as a compilation of ideas and concepts that people can apply with their local plants,” he said. “A lot of the book is about food preservation techniques using wild plants, such as fermentation (wild food kimchi, hot sauces), making cheese with plant rennet, herbal meads, making your own vinegars and so on.”

He went on to point out that many of his ideas are “totally applicable anywhere, such as making your own salt, researching your local terroir for spice blends, cooking in clay, leaching acorns, making wild beers with local mugwort.”

Some of this sounds advanced—it isn’t, really, it just seems daunting when you first read it—but Baudar is quick to point out a few things that won’t intimidate beginners.

“Anyone can start right away and probably from their backyard. Right now, we have a lot of nettles showing up and making a nettles beer is a very traditional ferment. Someone living in Vermont can explore the idea of making a dandelion wine.”

The trick is, as with so many things, you have to start with something pretty straightforward.

Look for “basic ingredients which are super easy to identify,” he said. If it strikes you, and you want to dive deeper, he suggests you seek out books about local edible plants and take classes with wild food instructors.

But of course, you can still enjoy all this without foraging: “You can also go to the regular store or farmer’s market and get your ingredients there. Right now, my local store is selling a lot of blueberries for example.”

What he’s really showing us in this lushly illustrated and inspiring book is that fermentation is fun and accessible, and that it shouldn’t be feared. It would be shame to leave all this to the experts.

“I even have a recipe about making a root beer using herbal tea bags,” he said.

Dilettantism is one of my favorite things, and I pressed the subject a little.

“I think people should entertain the idea of creating their own fermented beverages,” he said, “even if those are simple ferments such as fruit sodas or herbal meads. Anyone can go to the store, get some organic ginger and make some ginger beer or soda. You don’t even have to add yeast, it’s already on the surface of the ginger.”

It goes almost without saying that your personal forays into soda making will likely be much more healthful than anything you can buy.

I was most inspired by Baudar’s astonishingly forward thinking. He makes me imagine a landscape into which I have seeded treats for future forages. Why not establish a berry bush, a stand of herbs, a garden of plants used in beer? I love the idea of a garden that isn’t confined to a grid.

“If you are foraging in nature,” he said, “I think it’s important to make sure you grow more plants than you’ll ever take.”

Unless, of course, what you take is invasive. Many of our invasive species are actually useful, and Baudar has good ideas about what to do with them.

Horehound, for instance, is a bitter mint popular in medieval beer recipes. It is invasive, and cities spray pesticides to kill it in parks.

“The city should teach people about the medicinal benefits of the plant for cold and flu (you’ll find it in cough drop Ricola) or as a traditional brewing ingredient.”

He lobbed a motto at me—“Make beer, don’t spray!”—and he’s right, but I’d hate to see anyone pass this book by because they felt overwhelmed by a sense of duty. Don’t feel overwhelmed by anything. Pick it up, play around, find some stuff you like.

After my fermentation of pine needles and lemons bubbled for a while I strained it into bottles. But before I capped them, I tasted the soda. I have to admit, I wasn’t all that impressed—it tasted like a Tom Collins left too long. Fortunately, the yeast wasn’t done and really got to work, again. Within a few days, I had a soda that rushed up the neck of the bottle, and vigorously bubbled with fine natural carbonation. The flavors had deepened and grown more complex. Cheers to that. Happy Spring.

Pine Needle Soda

By Pascal Baudar

If you’ve ever tasted some delicious pine needles, trust me, you’ll want to brew this soda. My favorite pines are pinyon pine, ponderosa pine, and white pine, but I’ve also made blends that included white fir and spruce. In fact, when I was teaching in Vermont, we made a similar soda using white pine needles and blue spruce tips. Note that ponderosa pine and white fir are not recommended for consumption if you’re pregnant.

My regular mix is usually composed of mostly pinyon pine needles (60 to 80 percent of the blend) and some white fir needles (20 percent) with one or two lemons. I make sure to cut the pine and fir needles with scissors so they can release their flavors quickly. I slice the lemons into five or six parts but, if you’re an experienced forager, you can use sumac or lemonade berries instead.

INGREDIENTS:

Spring water

Pine needles

1-2 Lemons (cut in five or six pieces)

1-1.5 cups (225–335 g) Organic cane sugar or honey

5 grams Yeast (1 packet)

DIRECTIONS

Fill around half of your (clean) container loosely with the ingredients, add some spring water and organic cane sugar or honey, then add the yeast and place a paper towel on top secured by a rubber band or a string. 


Using a clean wooden spoon, stir the liquid three or four times a day until you get a nice fermentation going—this usually takes 2 to 3 days in Southern California.

Strain the liquid into recycled soda bottles and check the pressure after a day or so, then refrigerate for at least 8 hours before enjoying. With pine sodas, you can really judge by flavors; taste as you go along and stop the fermentation whenever you’re satisfied. 


This recipe is from The Wildcrafting Brewer by Pascal Baudar (Chelsea Green Publishing, 2018) and is printed with permission from the publisher.

from All Of Beer http://allofbeer.com/turning-lemons-and-pine-needles-into-sunshine-soda/

[jaouad2d]

This bar got famous not serving alcohol (it does now)

Portland, Maine (CNN) — It all came to Johanna Corman after four nights of tossing and turning.

Her husband of nearly 17 years, Steve, had just been laid off from his teaching job of 19 years right during April school break in 2013, and they had two children in high school.

After 19 years of teaching, he asked her what he should do next.

Johanna had been a teacher, but she was also an adventurous spirit, willing to jump at opportunities to run the family apple farm and move to Maine's Cliff Island a couple months after seeing a "for sale" sign at the island's only store and café.

Johanna woke up on that fifth morning and realized the answer to their problems.

"I had this whole vision," she said. "A bar with bartenders, and they're mixing and muddling and shaking. But there's no alcohol. It's seltzer-based, but they're using really good, healthy ingredients.

"I love old fashioned ingredients, like bitters and tonics and shrubs and syrups. I just could see the whole thing in my brain."

A dream based on trust

Steve and Johanna Corman, co-owners of Vena's Fizz House

Channon Hodge/CNN

To know Steve Corman is to know how much he loves and trusts Johanna. Having followed her to Cliff Island ten years ago, where they ran Pearls Seaside Market & Cafe for six years, Steve agreed to give it a shot.

In the course of their marriage, "I've come to totally trust certain aspects of what she's saying, what she's doing," he said. "She's incredibly creative."

"And if we're going do it, we're going to go all in," he said.

Neither had a business plan, but by day's end, they had found a realtor and an empty corner bar with space for a retail space in Portland's hip Old Port neighborhood.

And two days later, Steve went to the bank for a home equity loan based on Steve still having a job -- which he did until June. (They were approved a few weeks later.)

Vena's Fizz House, named after Johanna's temperance-minded great grandmother, was born on July 10, 2013 with just 10 drinks on the menu and cans and bottles of seltzer as the base.

No beer distributor would sell them a carbon dioxide hookup without them also buying soda. Within a couple weeks, they bought the equipment online, watched YouTube videos to learn about the installation, and hooked it up themselves.

The beverage side of the foodie scene

Steve Corman holds the Cider Smash.

Channon Hodge/CNN

Led only by Johanna's vision and their shared work ethic, the Cormans tapped into an untapped demand for grownup, sophisticated non-alcoholic drinks -- both by customers who don't drink alcohol and foodies who want interesting drinks.

Customers told them, "We've never been able to go out to a bar and actually feel like we're having a nice drink too," said Johanna. "We always get seltzer with cranberry or something like that."

Although it appeared to come out of nowhere, Vena's was really an outlet for old-timey cooking and canning recipes Johanna had been tinkering with for years.

She had found mention of apple syrup in an old cookbook while running the family apple farm in nearby Hiram, Maine, and she decided to try to create it from excess apple cider they made on the farm. (Her brother Billy Johnson is now the third generation of the family running Apple Acres Farm, but the family has lived in Maine for 11 generations, since before the American Revolution.)

"Two months later, we bottled it, we corked and waxed the top," Johanna said. "We're at the old Portland public market and within an hour, people were coming to, we're just selling tastes and bottled. Two or three people said, 'Okay, we want to be your distributor. We want to sell this all.' Within an hour!"

That's when she invented her first drink, the cider smash, around 1989. Now a Vena's best seller, it's "equal amounts of cider syrup, fresh lemon juice and bourbon," she said. "It's the easiest cocktail in the world, and tart, sweet, beautiful."

For Vena's booze-free bar, Johanna wanted real ingredients, no artificially flavored anything, whether she made the products in her commercial kitchen or bought them from the few producers making bitters, shrubs (drinking vinegars) and syrups that she liked.

A modern version of an old-fashioned soda fountain

Vena's Chocolate Phosphate includes bitters.

Channon Hodge/CNN

Some of the drinks harkened back to another era.

The first drinks the Cormans developed were reminiscent of old-fashioned soda fountains: the lime rickeys, now in four flavors, and chocolate and cherry phosphates.

They also wanted created their own unique concoctions, like the Love Potion Number 9, made from raspberry gomme (an old-fashioned syrup), rose simple syrup, squeezed lime juice, Bolivar bitters, ghost pepper extract and seltzer.

Ginger Julep was made from muddled fresh mint, ginger puree, ginger syrup, ginger bitters, smoky habanero bitters, ghost pepper and seltzer.

Steve became Vena's head bartender, learning about mixology via YouTube videos, nailing those 10 drinks in his first few months on the job.

Part art and part science, the couple created and discovered ingredients to play with and invented new drinks. If they did well, they got added to the menu.

"One of the first we came up (around Valentine's Day 2014) with was the Lumberjack Love," she said.

They found a pine syrup made from this little company out in Colorado "that we just died over," which they turned into a best-selling piney lemonade.

These days, Steve leads the bartending staff. He works with more than 200 bitters and 30 shrubs to invent new drinks, trains Vena's staff, and leads classes to train bartenders and home enthusiasts of what they call liquid alchemy with bitters.

Johanna focuses on inventing and producing syrups and other products in her tiny commercial kitchen and developing Vena's retail operations. Next to the bar, Vena's sells ingredients for people to make their own drinks at home, including Johanna's own bitters and dry mixes that don't break US airport security liquid rules.

They didn't know if they would make it

It wasn't always a sure thing that they would survive, but after more than a year into the business, a man walked into their store and changed their lives.

He stopped by in November 2014, asking Steve, "What's your best non-alcoholic drink in your non-alcoholic bar?"

Steve made him a Lumberjack Love, which has spruce pine syrup, lemon, spiced tonic, Alpine Herb bitters, wormwood bitters, and Owl & Whale's persimmon bitters.

"After two sips, he's in love with this drink," Steve said. "He says, 'What's going on in my palate?' I said, 'I told you, it's the bitters.' I explained the bitters."

After he left, Johanna and Steve's phones starting buzzing with text messages.

The man was Food Network star Alton Brown, who was in town doing a show at Merrill Auditorium.

His Twitter followers had recommended that he visit Vena's. After enjoying his Lumberjack Love, he had tweeted out his love for the shop.

"He put Vena's Fizz House as one of his top eight tour stops on his national 2014 tour," said Steve. "Thank you, Alton Brown."

Adding booze to the mix

The Blackheart Mocktail becomes a cocktail by adding bourbon.

Channon Hodge/CNN

Another big decision was adding alcohol to the menu, but the alcohol infusion wasn't just their idea. It came from their customers, who kept tossing little bottles of liquor in their trash after spiking their drinks.

Steve, who had a rotating list of 40 different mocktail recipes on the menu, knew what to do next.

"The first thing I did was take every mocktail, and I knew, but I wrote down the alcohols that would go great, matched, and what other bitter am I going to add to or take away when I add in alcohol?" said Steve. "All of a sudden, I had already 120 mixed drinks using our non-alcoholic menu."

The Lumberjack Love became the grownup Lumbersexual, which has gin, pine, lemon, spiced tonic, alpine herb and wormwood bitters.

The Blackheart Mocktail turned into the Blackheart Cocktail with Maker's Mark bourbon.  It had the same ingredients as its non-boozy cousin with the same proportions -- plus bourbon.

Even the child-friendly (but sophisticated) Fluffy Fizz -- cherry juice, squeezed lemons, squeezed limes, orange shrub, simple syrup, and seltzer, topped with a good dollop of cotton candy -- can get grown up. Vodka turns it into a cocktail, with a few dashes of Vena's Bitter Charles.

The beverage end of foodie-ism

The child-friendly Fluffy Fizz is topped with cotton candy.

Channon Hodge/CNN

"We had such a good following for the non-alcoholic drinks that we were afraid once we added alcohol, we would lose those people," Johanna said.

That didn't happen. "We'd get all kinds of people, usually it was in groups, where it might be two don't drink and five do drink," she said. "They were thrilled."

As teachers, they like to teach customers about all the ingredients they make and use. "Most people that come in don't know anything about bitters or all the tonics and syrups," she said.

"So we want it to be that they're 100% comfortable, not to be intimidated, and we want them to ask us questions. We want them to be able to make drinks at home."

That's why they sell ingredients and freely hand out recipes in person and via their website, including the one below.

Blackheart Mocktail or Cocktail

1.5 ounces blackberry puree

0.5 ounces lime juice

0.5 ounces Vena's honey creme syrup

2 mint leaves

4 dashes SF Bitters Co. Boonekamp bitters

8-12 dashes Dram Apothecary Black bitters

2 ounces seltzer

1.5 ounces bourbon for the alcohol version

Shake with ice in a Boston Shaker. (Mint will be muddled with ice during this process) . Pour all without straining into a smaller version collins glass.  Add two ounces of seltzer, stir and garnish with a mint leaf and lime wedge.

Travel This bar got famous not serving alcohol (it does now) http://ift.tt/2F0Txxy via CNN.com - RSS Channel - Travel http://ift.tt/1WRaRf3

[unchartedtravel-blog1]

40 Things You Should Know About London

By Bobby 

1. They drive on the wrong side of the road.

2. They curse. A lot.

3. They have more of a mixed racial population than I’ve ever seen before! Italians, the Dutch, Germans, Portuguese, Spaniards, the French, Thai, Indians, Chinese, and Japanese. While perusing the roads of London, I think at times I heard more different languages spoken than I heard English!

4. London. Is. Hot. (at least for the 10 days I was there). Londoners don’t really wear shorts – it’s usually the Americans that you see wearing them. As a tourist, from all the walking, you’ll want to dress lightly, but at the same time appropriately. Be careful with layers. Just saying. It’s a hot city.

5. Speaking of which, air conditioning seems to be rare. Your only options for A/C are modern (AND I STRESS THAT) hotels, restaurants and cafes, and museums.

6. Trafalgar Square. It’s pronounced “Truh-FAL-guh” with emphasis on the “FAL”.

7. Traffic is scary. Be careful of the fast cars in narrow streets, the double-decker buses, and bicyclists! My first few days, I was almost hit by double-decker buses 10 times. Traffic is crazy, they drive aggressively, and they drive on the wrong side of the road. Add all those together, and you have a disaster for Americans.

8. When crossing the road, LOOK RIGHT, THEN LEFT. Because of #7.

9. Use the Barclay Bikes. Use them use them use them. They are all throughout the city available for rental with over 500 bike stations. Not only are there plenty of them, but they are very affordable. Just be careful, and make sure you use the bike lanes and understand the traffic laws. It gets quite scary at times when you have cars zooming past you just inches away from your bike.

10. London Bridge is Falling Down. This is not the bridge you are picturing right now. That bridge is actually called “Tower Bridge”. London Bridge is quite plain looking, and is one bridge over from Tower Bridge. Speaking of bridges, you should spend a morning and walk up and down each of the bridges over the River Thames. There are great views of London from these bridges!

11. “Cheers Mate” means “Thanks, friend!” Use it! It will make you feel AWESOME when you use it. I know I did.

12. Gloucester and Leicester. DO NOT SAY “Glau-ses-ter” or “Lay-ses-ter”. It’s pronounced “Gloh-stuh” and “Lee-stuh”. Yes, it’s pronounced like that.

13. YOU CAN DRINK ALCOHOL IN PUBLIC! Yes! It’s true! Meal idea: get a sandwich, beer, and crisps, find the nearest park, or find a place along the Thames, and enjoy your meal there! Be careful though, in the City of Westminster it isn’t allowed. Westminster is inside of London.

14. The zig-zag lines in the road mean something. I’m not sure what they mean, but they mean something. What I do know is that the black cabs are not allowed to pull over on a zig-zag line.

15. Speaking of roads, the traffic lights are different. They change from red to yellow to green to red.

16. The London Tube is the underground rail system in London. It’s an easy system to get used to and if you’re in London for a week, I recommend buying a 6-day Travelers Card to use on the Tube for £35 British Pounds.

17. Be ready to see Maserati, Bentley, BMW, Mercedes, Porsche, Ferrari, and Aston Martin. Those high-end vehicles are a common sight around London. I giggle with glee every time I see one of those beautiful creations driving down the roads.

18. London has a depressing past, and is basically built on top of a massive grave-site. The city was almost destroyed three times. First time was the infamous Great or Bubonic Plague, second time was the Great Fire of London in 1666, and the third was the Blitz, or the Bombings of London by Germany in WWII. Thus you will see a wonderful mix of architectural styles, and at times one on building! Oh, on some of the underground rail routes, you feel the trains take a sharp turn. These are due to the bodies buried compactly together, and the engineers couldn’t remove the bodies for worries of the road and buildings collapsing above the ground. Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?

19. Double-decker buses are awesome. They’re awesome because they’re a constant reminder that “Hey, I’m in London.”

20. There is no real “British Accent”. You can probably just make one up, and the Brits will just assume you’re from another part of the Kingdom. You’ve got the Australian accent, New Zealand (and Kiwi) accent, South African accent, British-Indian accent, Irish accent, Northern Irish accent, South English, London English, the Queen’s English, RP English, Posh English, Cockney accent, Manchester accent, Coventry accent, Welsh accent, Scottish accent, and so many more. And don’t speak with a posh, or RP accent. It’s usually spoken by the older generation. In fact, QEII uses her own accent called the Queen’s English which is still somewhat posh.

21. British food is…unique. I’d recommend trying out the vast choices of ethnic foods around the city. Indian, Thai, Korean, Chinese, and Italian are always great places to try.

22. Speaking of British food…they like to put sausage in EVERYTHING. Everywhere you go, sausages are on the menu. I guess it’s a good thing if you like sausages for breakfast, but for lunch and dinner as well?

23. Lemonade in the UK. It’s basically Sprite or Schweppes.

24. Museums. London is filled with museums. You’ve got the British Museum (where I spent 4 long hours), Imperial War Museum, Natural History Museum, Tate Modern, Tate Britain, Greenwich Visitor Centre, Tower of London, London Transport Museum, Museum of London, National Gallery, Victoria and Albert Museum, are among the best! But don’t visit all of them – you’ll start to hate the museums, and it will be an expensive vacation if you do visit them all.

25. Castles/Palaces. Being a European city, there are plenty of castles to visit. Some of the more popular castles and palaces are Buckingham Palace, Tower of London, Clarence House, Windsor Castle, Hampton Court Palace, and Kensington Palace. Pick and choose, pick and choose.

26. The Globe Theatre. It’s not the original.

27. Dining in is expensive. However, there are plenty of affordable options when it comes to restaurants in London. Chinatown/SOHO is one place to find those options (just don’t stay there past 9pm). Also, unlike the U.S., servers in London will not do anything for you other than bring your food, beverage, and check. In the U.S., servers can get quite annoying when checking up on you every 5 minutes. I prefer the London way. Just leave me alone and let me dine.

28. I hate the £1 coin, and so will you. British money makes just as little sense as U.S. currency. The 2 pence coin is larger than the 20 pence, 5 pence, ten pence, and 1 pound coin. Also, what is up with the £1 pound coin. In the UK, you’ll weigh 5lbs more with pockets and wallets full of those annoying £1 coins. On the plus side, if you collect each newly design coin, you can make this: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a8/New_British_Coinage_2008.jpg

29. I highly recommend taking a historic tour. Do it. You will not regret it, and it will be well worth the money. At least take a “Ghost Bus” tour: http://www.theghostbustours.com/

30. Houses of Parliament. No matter how many times you’ve seen the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, St. Paul’s Cathedral, or any other popular attraction in London, it is just as breathtaking as the first time you see them.

31. The River Thames. Not the Thames River. And another pronunciation blunder: it’s “Temz”…silly Brits.

32. The rats own the city at night. And they’re not afraid of humans. I don’t mind a rat, but when they’re in groups, I squeal and flail my arms running away.

33. Tea is like water. The Brits will drink tea even on a hot summer day of 80F.

34. The Queen. The day I arrived in London, she left for Belmoral Castle. And the day I arrived back home in the U.S., she returned back to Buckingham Palace. There went my chance of high-fiving Her Majesty. Anyway, see if you can get a tour of Buckingham Palace, and maybe you’ll spot QEII and can take a selfie!

35. Nothing is FREE in London. Nothing.

36. Bacon. Delicious, crispy, greasy bacon. Unfortunately, bacon as we know it here is not the same in the UK. Over there, “bacon” is what we would call ham in the US. And it’s very salty too.

37. Black Cabs. They’ll rip you off if you’re not careful. Find the right one, get his card, and use his cab to get around the city . Great thing about the Black Cabs, is how spacious they are! They’re like mini limousines! But don’t take a Black Cab. Take the Tube. Or rent a Barclay Bike….or walk.

38. Staying hydrated will cost you! Water in London is more expensive than carbonated drinks. Find ways to refill your bottle for free. (Drinking fountains [be cautious], in a cafe, or at your hotel)

39. The entire city has WIFI!…but you have to pay for it…and it’s really slow. If it says it’s free, then it means it’s terribly slow. Just go find a McDonald’s or Starbucks and you’ll be fine.

40. The United Kingdom has five main train companies. Among them Virgin Trains which is a great choice! I took Virgin Trains from London to Coventry in First Class, and it was great! Snacks, drinks, and a comfortable ride.