OK, what would be a US commercial coffee brand using grade 1 beans? How would one find out from a local independent roaster - ask?
I obviously can't speak for the US, but I'd imagine most specialist roasters selling direct to the end user would use the best beans. When you have supermarkets as your buffer where it might be expected your customer is not as discerning (because beans should begin to be consumed within two to four weeks of being roasted, but supermarket beans can be a year old) then it's not so critical.
There used to be a specialist coffee shop in Brighton where they roasted the beans in front of you and you could choose which country the beans came from, it shut in the 70s'. In Spain (we left in 2009) you can choose ground or beans for virtually all brands of coffee. When we first moved to France it was hard to find beans because ground coffee loses it flavours are just a couple of days and my wife only drinks coffee in a restaurant, completely irrational.
Today was very cold again so before venturing out I made the normal (for France) small cup of strong coffee and an Irish malt whisky, got moaned at by 'moan-a-lot' my personal name for my wife, she calls me 'groucho' because I had a second cup and another wee dram. I only drink spirits in winter.
In the Netherlands it's normal to have a large beer and yong (young) jenever or two against the cold. 'oude' jenever is the same as English gin ( a horrible taste), the English couldn't pronounce jenever so they shortened it to 'gin'. yong jenever is often prescribed by Dutch doctors for those with low blood pressure. I remember my buurman (neighbour) Herman had to drink a large young jenever every morning and evening - his big wife didn't like that at all, you could tell by the sour look on her face - he did.
Today was very cold again so before venturing out I made the normal (for France) small cup of strong coffee and an Irish malt whisky, got moaned at by 'moan-a-lot' my personal name for my wife, she calls me 'groucho' because I had a second cup and another wee dram. I only drink spirits in winter.
In the Netherlands it's normal to have a large beer and yong (young) jenever or two against the cold. 'oude' jenever is the same as English gin ( a horrible taste), the English couldn't pronounce jenever so they shortened it to 'gin'. yong jenever is often prescribed by Dutch doctors for those with low blood pressure. I remember my buurman (neighbour) Herman had to drink a large young jenever every morning and evening - his big wife didn't like that at all, you could tell by the sour look on her face - he did.
Totally agree about cognac but a Calvados with some years can be marvellous. Same with a single malt (can't abide blended whiskies) anything less than 12 years - no thank you.
As I type, LIDL's Woodgate 6% West Country (Tiverton) Scrumpy Apple Cider at £3.69/4-pack.
Face-numbingly good value - and with no additives!
Face-numbingly good value - and with no additives!
I just looked up - Sedlescombe Cider. There is a pub at the foot of the Devils Dyke in East Sussex that used to do amazing Ploughmans Lunches which came with a choice of properly stored cheeses and served Sedlescombe Cider. Sadly the owner (it was a Freehouse) sold up. The ploughmans lunches disappeared as did the excellent strong cider replaced with commercial Strongbow and the argument was 'it wasn't popular' - exceedingly strong b/s.
Dutch jenever isn't much to talk home about. You have to drink it icecold so you don't notice the lack of taste 😉 Now to be honest it has become extremely difficult to find flemish jenever that is any good. The best I have drunk in a very long time is french. "Houille" from the Persyn distillery.
The dutch herb bitters however are great. "Vrouwe Joustra Beerneburg" from Sneek... not bad at all.
The only genever I ever tried was Bohls from Amsterdam, and I thought it was pretty awful. In about an hour, though, I'm going to be mixing up martinis for my wife and myself. Mine will be Beefeater Gin and hers will be vodka.
I like Bokma Oude Genever and prefer it over plain vodka.
THis evening I enjoyed an Omnipollo Noa Pecan Mudcake:
Noa Pecan Mud
Omnipollo NOA
It says it fits perfectly with chocolate desserts - I had Tiramisu with my beer.
THis evening I enjoyed an Omnipollo Noa Pecan Mudcake:
Noa Pecan Mud
Omnipollo NOA
It says it fits perfectly with chocolate desserts - I had Tiramisu with my beer.
I cannot understand anyone liking oude genever, it's got a horrible taste but yong genever is not a lot different from vodka. Serve it chilled with a good blonde or weiss beer sets ypou up for a cold winters day in the Netherlands. Before I went to work in the Netherlands I used to make about 5 trips a year in the mid 70s' to buy tafelkleden/table carpets. When the Dutch traders bought expensive handmade carpets back from wherever they knew that if they put them on the floor the sand which got everywhere would soon destroy them so, they put them on their tables.
In the 19th century the Flemish mills began to make really great copies of Turkish/Persian carpets. At a distance you would believe they were the real thing. In the 60s the Dutch hippies would cut them up to make waistcoats from them. For 3 years in the mid 70s' I used to visit the street markets in Rotterdam/Haarlem/A'dam and buy them to make cushions or sell them as wall hangings. The Dutch winter is very cold because of the damp and I always visited a bar for a couple of borreltjes of yong genever with a pils - set me up for bargaining with the stall holders. Bargaining well is an art form - Turks and Arabs are very good at this so are the Celts.
Drinking related...the first day of the Boxing Day Test (Cricket between Australia and India) is forecast to attain 40C. Normally for a test the Melbourne Cricket Ground management have ready 25,000 bottles of water for the spectators. For this one, they've brought in an additional 100,000 bottles.
And that's on top of the beer!
(For non-cricket people, a Test usually lasts five days).
And that's on top of the beer!
(For non-cricket people, a Test usually lasts five days).
That temperature is nothing - your whinging like a pom. The last 7 weeks living in Guadix/Andalus the temperature by 1500 hours was 45/46C. When I loaded up the lorry taking most of our stuff to France the internal temp. was 54C.
Shall I rattle off the excessive temperatures I've experienced in the Australian outback? Or even the 60C+ in my shed? No, because it's irrelevant to the topic of what you are drinking.
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