Though it’s easy to forget when you spend all your time in an ivory faux-limestone tower, it’s easy to forget, Cambridge, Massachusetts is a unique (and wonderful) point in time and space. There are nicknames to match: some idiot Republican called Harvard “The Kremlin on the Charles,” semi-observant writers who’ve been to France sometimes call this city the “Boston’s Left Bank,” and everybody who gets a parking ticket will sigh and proclaim that that’s just life in the “People’s Republic of Cambridge.”

Actually, that has kind of a nice ring to it, don’t you think? Well, I do. Read the rest of this entry »

The name of this company drives me insane. I keep thinking I should say it 3 times and then get up and start dancing. And for all of those completely logical reasons, I have never bothered to sit down and try Numi tea before.

However, after pilfering through the Numi tea stocks at a friend’s corporate office, I have to say, I will never discount a brand based on its packaging of impressionist African wildlife ever again!

Numi Red Mellow (Rooibos) – The first one I tried, and got me back for more. Rooibos at it’s best; ever so slightly sweet.

Numi Sweet African Red (Green Rooibos) – So this was kind of weird. Very -very- light brew, basically flavorless. Reminded me a bit of white tea in a way? Probably would not try again.

Numi Bushman’s Brew (Honeybush) – Interesting! Never had this before. Relatively light, the flavour of the honeybush is released rather slowly in the brewing process. Its a tad sweeter than the rooibos, but otherwise tastes fairly similar (a taste, that I apologetically cannot find words to describe). Will definitely have to try more of this intriguing tea in the future.

Numi Monkey King (Jasmine Green Tea) – An extremely fragrant green tea. The jasmine comes out strong, straight from the tea bag, and stays there throughout the drink. The green tea, though, I think, brews a bit heavy. My mom liked it quite a bit, but I thought it was pretty unbalanced.

Chinese Breakfast?Yunnan Black Tea) - I doubt the authenticity of this… but I could be completely wrong and perhaps somewhere in China people actually do drink black tea for breakfast. Regardless, it tasted OK. Actually kind of like a heavier green tea that happens to be brown colored once brewed?

Simply Mint (Moroccan Mint) – its peppermint, not spearmint, and that makes it wrong in my book. but otherwise, its a fairly innocuous combination of mint and green with the right amount of mint (just enough to get a whiff) and a good heaping of gunpowder green tea. Sometimes I think the amount of gunpowder that people use in these pseudo-Moroccan mixes are too much, or at least, the type of gunpowder is too heavy, and this blend was no exception. Add one more to my list of Fail for American Moroccan tea.

All in all, I would say that Numi teas, based on the 6 I tried all yesterday (jeez i tried a lot of them), that they’re particularly strong on the African herbal teas/tisanes/teasanes (whatever makes your marketing director happy), and not tragic on everything else. I will definitely have to pick up more of their rooibos and honeybush teas in the future, though!

Oh. Hmm. There seems to be a blog about liquids. And I seem to be an editor. That’s weird. Somebody should have told me.

Anyway, it looks like we’re back from an unscheduled vacation. Where did we go? Um, nowhere. It got hot, and my modus operandi shifted from, “Run around like crazy drinking random liquids at odd hours” to “sit directly in front of the fan and try not to do or think anything, ever.”

Read the rest of this entry »

I should’ve realized much earlier; the recipe called for vodka. Not just plain vodka, but flavoured vodka. Not just flavoured vodka, but TWO flavoured vodkas. Not just any two flavoured vodkas, two flavoured GREY GOOSE brand vodkas. It’s kind of like the adage about the dog you kick but still keeps coming back; but the cocktail recipe you know is wrong in every way possible, but you still tried making it.

I blame it on my qualifiers, which has affected my palate till I’m practically pregnant. Case in point; I really really wanted a creamsicle. I never want a creamsicle! And I wasn’t going to go to the store to buy a bag of creamsicles of which I’d eat a quarter and then throw away the rest of the box.

Thus, this Vanilla Creamsicle cocktail appears to be the perfect answer.

Vanilla Creamsicle
Ingredients:
- 1 oz Grey Goose La Vanille (substituted with UV vanilla vodka)
- 1 oz Grey Goose L’Orange (substituted with Svedka clementine vodka)
- 3 oz Orange juice
- 1/4 oz triple sec
- fresh cream
Garnish: orange peel

The promise

What can I say, I’m a sucker for things served in parfait cups. *sigh*.
However, when I tried to make the concoction myself, it looked alot more like baby formula from China pre-FDA-chief-execution, than anything non-toxic.

The truth

It tasted pretty foul too — had to dump it out after the tiniest sip.
I think I’m going to stick with White Russians to get my creamy cocktail fix from now on.

The lady didn’t like the blackberry stuff, but I do. Perhaps my palette is damaged, perhaps we simply have differing opinions on how blackberries are supposed to taste (and let’s face it — on my budget there aren’t many fresh berries in my life).

It is a tad bitter, though at this point it seems that most of the things I drink are — perhaps that’s my problem? I’ve definitely had better fruit teas (all courtesy of Dandan; god only knows where she gets all of them). But, to me at least, it does a pretty serviceable job of tasting like blackberries and giving me something noncaffeinated to drink at night. I’m even somewhat convinced that if I had steeped it for less time it would be less bitter, but that might not be true.

Oh but don’t spill it anywhere, because it’s actually the purplest thing in the world. I may have to boil the pair of pants I was wearing to get the stain out.

So I guess what I’m saying is: you should try it if you want something adequate and aren’t physically inept.

Just call me Mr. Positive.

Due to a long-ago bad experience with Dunkin’ Donuts coffee, I’ve avoided the stuff for a long time. At the least, I wouldn’t pay money for it.

Recently, I’ve been at two different events where I didn’t have to pay money for it, so I threw caution to the wind and decided to give it a fair shake.

First, I was at an event where there was a big old box (yes, box) of their hot coffee. Not that it was all that hot, but there was also a microwave — we scientists are clever. Taken black, it’s… drinkable. In fact, it would even be good if it tasted less acidic. It’s got a mild nutty flavor, pretty inoffensive, but it left a sort of bitter taste in my mouth, and the farther down the the cup I got the more I could swear I felt my teeth dissolving. Probably that was psychosomatic though. Anyway, it’s a lot better than, say, the coffee you’d get at the 7-11.

Then there was Free Iced Coffee Day. Boston being Boston, it was chilly and rainy. What else would you expect on May 15? Thankfully, the line was short. Now, apparently people in this part of the world (at least the ones who patronize Dunkin’ Donuts) take their coffee with cream and sugar, because if you don’t specify that’s what you get. I found this out the hard way, but then, this is one of my few opportunities to explore Bostonian culture (how many times have I said that?). Anyway, the iced coffee tastes like sweet milk. With ice in it. It was colored like it had some coffee in it but I sure couldn’t taste it. I’m not much of an iced coffee person (I prefer iced tea), so that’s probably not the biggest loss. Does anybody drink iced coffee when it’s not free iced coffee day? I have no idea. But I’ll be generous and assume that they don’t.

It would be easy to say that I don’t know what all the fuss is about, but then again, I’m pretty sure Dunkin’ Donuts’s stranglehold on New England predates Starbucks and all the other quasi-upscale coffee shops (yes, black coffee from Starbucks is better than Dunkin’ Donuts, and if there are options in downtown Boston other than Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts, I’ve not heard of them). And besides, Dunkin’ Donuts coffee is a slightly cheaper, I think, and if all you want is something to wake you up and keep you from freezing to death, then that’s a valid selling point.

So while I don’t think there will be much Dunkin’ Donuts coffee in my future, I’m still happy to report that at least in once specific instance it’s at least somewhat better than the swill they serve at fast food restaurants (true story: I once ordered coffee at a Burger King. I added one mini-carton of non-dairy creamer. It turned white), and that the locals aren’t all totally crazy.

I mean, except for the driving, the accent, and the baseball.

There’s advantages to dating foreign men (read: non-Americans). I mean, beyond the looks, the accent, the lack of English, and the hot hot way they say “No, what is the meaning of this Make Out?”

I mean, what, no, from personal experience? Definitely not.

Seriously though, even when all is said and done and the foreign man in question has moved back to his foreign country that is an ocean removed from the Us of A, it’s nice to daydream sometimes, about the man, his accent, and a country full of similarly looking men with similar accents smiling at you at a cliff overlooking the Mediterranean. All-American boys are great and all that, but after its all over, you’re never going to romanticize about him and you idylling in, say, Southern California. Or New Jersey. Or Connecticut.

Liquids? Oh, right, this is a blog about liquids. We’re getting there!

Anyhow, I tried my hand at nostalgia a couple nights ago; fresh basil, pine nuts, parmigianito and pecorino romano on the kitchen top. No mortar & pestle or food processor (food processor?!, an Italian mama laments in the distance), but a wooden spoon and a bit of good ol’ fashioned work made for a decent pesto. I threw some De Cecco farfelle on the stove (if the Italian expats use De Cecco exclusively, that’s good enough for me), and even threw in a couple green beans on top because that’s what he always did, despite the obvious placebo effect.

To come full circle, I opened a bottle of Pinot grigio from the same geographic area. I wasn’t expecting much, after all, I’ve always thought of Pinot grigio as Chardonnay lite; not exactly a derogative, but fairly close, considering I’m not the world’s biggest fan of Chardonnays either (though these $5 bottles of Barefoot has slowly been changing my mind). But this inconspicuous $7 bottle of Vezzo Pinot grigio worked perfectly for the occasion! This was probably the first time that a food pairing had actually made a difference in my mind for a wine. But semi-spicy, musky, yet light in the throat, it went amazingly well with the pesto.

It was a really nice evening.

P.S. Bonus points if you’ve guessed the region of Italy the boy’s from.

I’m in finals right now.

Normally, I’ve got a lot of self-righteous pre-yuppie disdain for all things sugary. While I may, in fact, have consumed multiple liters of Mountain Dew per week when I started college. I fell off the wagon when I saw Super Size Me and realized just how many pounds of sugar I was ingesting (really - go ahead and mock me) and switched mostly to coffee (which I take black because I prefer it that way — even coffee with sugar has quite a lot less sugar than soda).

But I’ve been drinking coffee with every meal for the last week or something; it’s about to burn a hole in my stomach.

So I did what anybody desperate to stay sharp but without the money to start a cocaine habit would do. I went to the campus convenience store and bought a really big can of Red Bull (I thought they came in only one size!). Then I drank it in like five minutes.

For the record? 220 calories in 16 ounces. So the same as soda. Sucrose instead of HFCS, if you care. It’s not exactly good for you.

But that stuff gives you wings.

Time for my obligatory controversial statement: While I definitely don’t know much about human physiology, I could swear that that stuff works better than coffee. It makes me less jittery, but still makes me want to sail across the Charles River under the cover of darkness and claim the Prudential Building for God and the Queen (note: while you absolutely should click on that link, there is a single audio usage of the ‘F’ word. Just a heads up). Is is the magical blend of amino acids or the placebo effect? It’s hard to say. Anything banned in Denmark has to have something going for it, though.

After consuming that monster can of Red Bull, I spent three hours working on a single problem on a take-home final, cleaned my desk, realized that I had been using the wrong boundary conditions, rewrote the offending part of the routine I was using, and still didn’t get an answer that made any physical sense.

Then I fought a grizzly bear. With my fists (more slight impoliteness. But seriously, if you don’t laugh at this you’re old. Or less stupid than me).

I can’t afford to drink Red Bull every day, and it probably wouldn’t even be the smartest idea to get into the habit of drinking it every week (after all, I wouldn’t want to build up a resistance to placebo). But it’s good to know that it’ll be there for me.

Almost as good as it is to know that classes will be over soon.

Last Wednesday, sitting around a conference room table, going over a friend’s qualifiers presentation:

J: “Hey. Want to get beer tonight?”
Me: “Ok.”

And simple as that, 6pm, we’re strolling out of the UES to the painful transnat corpdom that is Midtown, heading towards the Ginger Man, a Manhattan beer powerhouse with 66 beers on tap and 120+ bottles,
and one of 12 listed bars in NY with Dogfish 60 on tap.

It’s a Wednesday, Midtown’s a wasteland, and it was 6pm. We didn’t expect there to be much of a crowd, but by the time we got there, it was completely packed! This is a huge bar with plenty of seating area, but alas, all seats (and standing room) was taken up by suits loosening their ties. After standing around awkwardly for a bit, waiting for the last member of our party to arrive, we finally procured a table, got our beers, got halfway through the first round, and then realized… the bar was practically empty. Somewhere in that one hour differential, the B&T crowd had finished pounding in that one last drink before catching the PATH back home.

This bar’s location was really a shame, considering the wonderful bounty of beer they had available.

I tried (ever my own or someone else’s glass… no I didn’t drink 4 beers there):

Stoudt’s Blonde Double MaiBock
y’know, i just wasn’t feeling this beer at all. i really wanted to, since double bocks sound like candy on a stick, but while this had alot of different flavours going for it, they didn’t… mix together at all. just ended up being a bit weird and incongruous

Franziskaner Hefe Weisse
typical hefeweizen with a bit more spice/kick than usual. pretty decent, but not too special for a hefe

Victory Storm King Stout
yummy, good stout.
didn’t stand out from other stouts, but had the same texture & nice malty taste of caramel & choco (not sweet). delicioso!

Dogfish Head 60 Minute
Wow. So unlike the Dogfish Head 120 minute, this actually still tastes recognizably like an IPA. However, its also the best IPA i’ve ever had. just the right balance of hops, acidity, flavour… i wouldn’t, however, compare this to the 120, just b/c the 120 really belongs in a dessert beer category, instead of the normal IPA.

One of the best things, however, about 36th st though, is its proximity to K-town. We jetted over there, grabbed some korean bbq & Hite korean beer (which is pretty amazingly mediocre, but hey, every country has their own macrolager), and it was an excellent night.

I’d definitely head over to the ginger man again sometime, just not between 5 to 7:30pm on a workday.

The Ginger Man
11 E. 36th St., New York, NY 10016
nr. Fifth Ave.
212-532-3740

1. Even when the tea is free, people will reuse teabags when the tea is a floor down but there’s a hot water dispenser right down the hall.
2. Mountain Dew is, in fact, the breakfast of champions.
3. The signs that say you can’t have beverages in the computer lab don’t apply after 8 PM.
4. There is no such thing as too much orange juice.
5. The only problem with storing beer in the office fridge is that you’ll inevitably forget about it for six months and the cap will get rusty.
6. Washing your coffee cup is optional.
7. Unless you take your coffee with cream; then it’s not.
8. Especially if you don’t empty your cup at the end of the day.
9. If that day is a Friday, then god help us all.