This Week’s Tasting Notes

I usually don’t kick things off with cocktails (and sweet cocktails at that), but here we go.

Pisco Punch
I’ve been trying to dial in my recipe for Pisco Sours, and thought I’d change gears a little bit by ordering a Pisco Punch at Las Primas on North Williams (they seem to have no web site). The Pisco Punch (or this Pisco Punch) was just way too sweet, and I’m guessing that it was the sugar or a sugary syrup mix or possibly sweetened pineapple juice. It’s supposed to be a sweet drink, but this was so sweet that I just didn’t like it. Finishing it was work. The food at Las Primas is well worth exploring and the sangria is a nice balance of flavors and sweetness. I recommend the Butifarra sandwich, and a churro (or two). I’m not sure how Las Primas stacks up to real Peruvian street food, but we’ll be finding out in September.

Springtime in Paris
St. Germain, rhubarb bitters and champagne. I’m always game to try anybody’s play on the French ‘75 despite the fact that it can be quite the gamble. Extra Special KDB and I tucked ourselves into The Driftwood Room after seeing a show at Artists Repertory Theatre. The main note in this cocktail was the St. Germain with the effervescence of the champagne making for easy drinking. Good stuff, but I would have liked the rhubarb bitters to be cranked just another dash for just a touch more complexity. Still, a great drink, and I was reminded of The Stones in Paris ‘76, a spin on this cocktail that I had at Beaker and Flask or Pix Patisserie…I don’t recall. I want that one again.

Portland ‘85
Another champagne cocktail with Clear Creek Pear Brandy and their Pear Liqueur. It was just too sweet and a little overwhelming on the palate. I don’t know what the ratio of ingredients was, but reducing the liquor by half and letting a little more brandy come to the front would be nice. It’s not a bad drink, but side-by-side with the Springtime in Paris, it was just too sweet.1

And on to the beer…

Southern Oregon Brewing Na Zdravi Pils
A very light bodied pilsner with almost no sign of hoppiness until it slowly makes its presence known way in the back of the mouth. Really, really good stuff, but it looks like they’re not bottling it. Oh, and Na Zdravi is apparently Czech for Cheers!
ABV: 4.8%

  1. We actually shared two more cocktails (the Mallory Manhattan and another that slips my mind), but service at The Driftwood Room seemed to take a real nose-dive and crashed into the mountain. We weren’t sure if it was a shift change, confusion in the kitchen, a lost food order or what, but it was hard to enjoy those drinks as we slipped off the radar. ↩

Mr. and Mrs. Wallace Wolf having coffee with breakfast.October 1974 National Archives Identifier: 412-DA-15851 Extra Special KDB and I have coffee with breakfast every morning. It looks nothing like this moment that Mr. and Mrs. Wolf are sharing. I have the luxury of taking early morning meetings in my underwear by teleconference with replicants three to twelve time zones away. She has to fly out the door to report to real-life skin jobs. I cook. We eat. I brew. We drink. I’ve been on a diet for over a year now in which I eat nearly the same breakfast each morning: 1 egg .5 cup of egg whites .5 cup of pinto or great northern beans (or lots of chard during the summer) Extra Special KDB gives a thumbs up to all that protein, so she has the same for breakfast. For coffee, it’s usually beans from Extracto or Ristretto, freshly ground and made in a Chemex. Her coffee goes in a travel mug with soy cream. My coffee goes in an enameled mug with heavy cream. Our 21st Century breakfast routine is a little frenetic. She’s grabbing bites of breakfast while going through her bathroom/wardrobe routine, frequently standing while she eats. I’m usually checking emails from co-workers and seeing what meeting invites have come in while I was asleep. We chat, and we’re connected, but it’s got an energy we’d both like to dump. So, we’ve just decided that it’s time to commit to one leisurely breakfast each week. It only requires a few minutes of planning the night before and rising fifteen minutes earlier than we normally do. We’re not sure which day, but we’d both like this idea. Now, if we can only get this amber light in our breakfast nook and a photographer to capture our coffee and breakfast moments… High-res

Mr. and Mrs. Wallace Wolf having coffee with breakfast.
October 1974
National Archives Identifier: 412-DA-15851

Extra Special KDB and I have coffee with breakfast every morning. It looks nothing like this moment that Mr. and Mrs. Wolf are sharing. I have the luxury of taking early morning meetings in my underwear by teleconference with replicants three to twelve time zones away. She has to fly out the door to report to real-life skin jobs.

I cook. We eat.

I brew. We drink.

I’ve been on a diet for over a year now in which I eat nearly the same breakfast each morning:

  • 1 egg
  • .5 cup of egg whites
  • .5 cup of pinto or great northern beans (or lots of chard during the summer)

Extra Special KDB gives a thumbs up to all that protein, so she has the same for breakfast. For coffee, it’s usually beans from Extracto or Ristretto, freshly ground and made in a Chemex.

Her coffee goes in a travel mug with soy cream.

My coffee goes in an enameled mug with heavy cream.

Our 21st Century breakfast routine is a little frenetic. She’s grabbing bites of breakfast while going through her bathroom/wardrobe routine, frequently standing while she eats. I’m usually checking emails from co-workers and seeing what meeting invites have come in while I was asleep. We chat, and we’re connected, but it’s got an energy we’d both like to dump.

So, we’ve just decided that it’s time to commit to one leisurely breakfast each week. It only requires a few minutes of planning the night before and rising fifteen minutes earlier than we normally do. We’re not sure which day, but we’d both like this idea.

Now, if we can only get this amber light in our breakfast nook and a photographer to capture our coffee and breakfast moments…

Biorn is a viking that just wants to die in battle so he can drink and fight in Valhalla. I was trying Ragnar’s Dry Mead, and poking around for some Viking fun when I discovered this.

See my last post for my take on Ragnar’s Dry Mead.

This Week’s Tasting Notes

Stillwater Stateside Saison
By the time you read this, it will be too late. It will be gone from Barista with no known date on which it will return. It may never return. I had taken a break from my run on saisons when I stumbled across this, and there’s quite a bit going on with this beauty. It’s light and crisp, but with a funkiness. There are citrus notes (maybe grapefruit) and a little bitterness and a big white head. I’m just glad it was a late Friday afternoon when I found it and that I’m close enough to Barista to walk home. Track it down if you can, and keep an eye open for more from Stillwater.
ABV: 6.8%

Honeyrun Mead’s Ragnar’s Dry Mead
I knew I would have this issue when I bought this offering from Honeyrun…I think I’m just not a fan of fermented honey. I’ve never really found a mead that was dialed in to my palate. I’ve never spent an afternoon pillaging and laying waste to coastal villages then settled by a fire with mutton. Perhaps that’s a requirement for me to enjoy mead. This had a promising aroma that reminded me of cheese, specifically Epoisses or Pont-L’eveque, but that’s where the magic just kind of ends for me. It just has a musty taste. Sorry vikings.

Starbucks Casi Cielo Beans
The Danish Ambassador and I were in a pickle. We both needed to be heads down cranking out some work, we both wanted coffee, and we work in a pocket of town where a forty minute round trip walk is required to get good beans. We gambled, and came up short. I’ve been drinking quite a few Rwandan coffees, and this Guatemalan falls a bit short in several areas. I find it smooth, but lighter bodied than what Starbucks would like you to believe with an acidity that’s…well, maybe it’s there. At $15.95 a pound, it’s way overpriced. I was a little shocked at how many beans were splintered and broken when later compared to beans from Extracto and Ristretto. It’s a coffee experience, not coffee.

Helles Pilsner
Breakside Brewery keeps doing things I like. I believe Extra Special KDB and I have walked there on three consecutive Saturdays for happy hour these last few weekends. The Helles is a simple, straightforward pilsner that I like whether it’s cold outside or pretending that it’s spring. Grab the mussels (go Mediterranean) and the slider trio for a cheap, filling lunch. I’m cleaning my growler out to take some of this home.
ABV: 4.9%

Let Them Eat Cake (Too Many Fatties On The Dancefloor) - Andy Clockwise
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Let Them Eat Cake (Too Many Fatties On The Dancefloor)

  • Andy Clockwise
  • The Socialite

1,294 plays

Extra Special KDB and I don’t do a lot of baking. I’ve tried kicking as much sugar to the curb as possible. I don’t need the calories, and I didn’t lose 60 pounds over the last two years eating…well…eating cake. All that said, we wanted cake on last night. More specifically, we wanted cake in time to watch a two-hour episode of Downton Abbey.

Neither of us had a recipe we were dying to try, so she quickly went through some sites and ran into something that looked like it was worth investigating. Chocolate Whiskey Bundt Cake has whiskey, coffee, lots of chocolate, butter and sugar. You can grab the full recipe at Epicurious, and here’s what we used for three of the ingredients:

  1. we used Holy Kakow’s Oragnic Cacoa Powder for the unsweetened cocoa powder
  2. we used Extracto’s El Salvador Adelaida made in a Chemex for the coffee
  3. we used Noah’s Mill for the whiskey

I was also playing a little house DJ while we baked, and eventually put Andy Clockwise’s Let Them Eat Cake on repeat.

Pics in the next post.

I’ve always had a distrust of people that don’t like pets or have never had one. Pet lovers the world over probably know what it means to be in a place (physical or mental) where your pet is your only drinking buddy. The song’s a little sad, the video’s kinda cute, and it just made me think about what pets are to us some times.

So, here’s to Thurgood, Owen, and Mister Pippers…my four-legged drinking buddies of the past. Here’s to yours as well!

I’m late to the game on this one, but Proof, from Zeus Jones is a whole barrel of awesomeness.

I’m late to the game in the sense that while the app still works, the promotional bottles of scotch that were sent out have long since disappeared. Basically, you can still buy scotch, and host tastings using the app. I’d love there to be a bourbon version.

Ignore the silliness of the video, and just concentrate on the fact that coffee and board games just got very cool in…well…VivaJava, a board game about coffee.

They’re already over their funding goal, but backing them now can secure you pre-order copies and some backer-only expansions as their funding milestones are unlocked.