Teaologie and Cultivate Coffee and Tap House: Ypsilanti, MI

Yesterday, I attending a tea tasting by Teologie over at Cultivate Coffee and Tap House.

First, I’ll tell you a little about Cultivate Coffee and Tap House ( Cultivate Coffee and Tap House ): They’re about a month old, now, and you can tell by some of the empty chalk boards that they’re still adding products into their spot. They’re a non-profit looking to raise funds and support the community with excellent coffee, beer and cider. They’re also focusing on excellent tea. That’s where Teaologie comes in ( Teaologie, LLC ).

First, Sam, the Tea Guru, asked our group for our preferences. He had quite a variety of teas we could potentially taste but did check to see which we were most interested in. With a wide swing between heavy interest in pu-erh and others leaning toward a special Earl Grey heavy with lavender, he had his work cut out for him.

The great was adventurous, though, and seemed willing to at least try each tea. We learned so much more than just by buying separate teas on our own. Sam is not just extremely knowledgeable about tea, but he knows what he doesn’t know – the true sign of an expert.

In the end, I learned a lot, tried some news teas, and floated out of there with a couple new teas for my shelves, and feeling pretty smug and self-satisfied that I found such an awesome event to attend as if I had had anything to do with it.  😉

Meanwhile, I’m awaiting the next Teaologie event with (pu-erh)-baited breath. I should also mention that Cultivate does coffee tastings and other types of tastings. I want to make time for some of those events, as well.

Axpona 2015 and 2016: Chicago, IL

The last post gave a link to Enjoy the Music to see a live transmission from Axpona (Audio Exposition of North America) interviewing AK (AudioKarma) members, hopefully some locals that we’d recognize:
https://theperpetualtourists.wordpress.com/2015/04/25/axpona-2015-chicago-il-some-local-people/
I did tune-in and never did see the AK interview. I don’t know what happened with it.

In better news, Axpona dates are available for 2016:
http://www.axpona.com/

Axpona 2015: Chicago, IL (Some Local People)

My last post mentioned Axpona 2015 (Audio Exposition of North America), a significant North American audio event:
https://theperpetualtourists.wordpress.com/2015/04/21/axpona-2015-chicago-il/

In that post, I mentioned that Enjoy the Music will be providing a live stream:
http://www.enjoythemusic.tv/

In that live feed, at 4:30 p.m. CT, Enjoy the Music will be interviewing AK (AudioKarma) members. Some of the interviewees will be people we know from our favorite local audio club, SMAC (Southeast Michigan Audio Club).

For any of you reading who are audio fans, let’s watch and see who we know shows up at the interview. Maybe they’ll even wave at those of us they left behind. Even better would be if they brought us all back some awesome souvenir – some little token of their friendship,like, a nice set of Wilson Alexandria’s or something like that (hint hint). But maybe we’ll all have to settle for a wave.  😉

Axpona 2015: Chicago, IL

Once, again, I won’t be able to attend Axpona. It is such an awesome event that I’m truly sad to miss it. For those who haven’t yet signed-up, I hear that the hotels by the event are all booked, so I’ll suggest checking the hotels just over the Indiana border, or possibly down I-55 even as far as Joliet (about an hour to Chicago, depending where in Joliet you stay and this does not include rush hour traffic), to see if you can find a place to stay and just drive in and deal with the parking, each day:
http://www.axpona.com/
While there are places you could stay, such as Naperville or Joliet, which have train stations that go into downtown Chicago, getting to the airport hotels might require more planning. It’s not necessarily as straightforward. Additionally, the hotels you would stay at in those towns aren’t necessarily close to the train stations.

However, for those of us who can’t attend, they will have a live stream through Enjoy the Music:
http://enjoythemusic.com/pressreleases/AXPONA_2015_press_release.htm

Hey, it’s not the same, but it’s better than missing it all, together!

Dragonmead Microbrewery: Warren, MI

Saturday, my spouse and I stopped at Dragonmead Microbrewering ( http://www.dragonmead.com/ ). We don’t tend to get out to that area and, when we start out in that direction, seem to end up stopping in places like Royal Oak and Birmingham and not venturing further East. So, it was after quite a long time planning to go that we finally go there.

And I goofed up my visit, right away. I’d heard so much about their meads that that was the primary thing I wanted to try. Unfortunately, I became so mesmerized with the pages of beers that begin their menu that I ordered a beer sampler without thinking.

By the way, there is both a beer sampler and a wine/mead sampler, but they cannot be mixed. The beer sampler has a card you fill out where you write which order you want your beers in. When you receive your beers, they just put your card on the beer sampler tray, telling them what you want and in what order, but it stays on there to remind you what you ordered and in what order. It’s a great idea. I wouldn’t be surprised if the mead/wine sampler uses the same idea, but I didn’t think to ask.

In any case, the beer list is long but it’s not overwhelming to make selections because the beer is ordered by region. My spouse had heard that they are particularly known for their Belgian-style beers and ordered the Dead Monk Abbey Style Ale. I took a few sips and could never quite get a handle on that one – I still can’t figure out what I was supposed to be tasting.

That’s probably because some of my own beers were rather strongly-flavored. However, that’s not the case with my first beer in the sampler, Lancelot’s Cream Ale. It does taste like a cream ale. It’s extremely light. It probably would have been a better beer for a really hot day. I moved on to Guinevere’s Golden Belgian Ale, a Belgian-style pale ale. It had a lovely floral note to it, especially as it just made it down your throat and was the quick, lingering aftertaste. I then had Woody’s Perfect Porter, an English-style brown porter. This particular beer is one of their nitrogen-dispensed beers. It had a smokiness to it, despite not particularly being meant to be a smoky beer. The body was just way too light for my preference in this type of beer, including the knowledge that English porters tend to be lighter than American porters. However, I did quite like the flavor of the beer and I did enjoy it. Next, truly meant to be smoky, was the Bishop Bob’s Holy Smoke, a German-style Rauchbier (smoked beer).

Here is where I will pause to comment on a particular habit I have. When they are on someone’s menu, I will always try their smoked beer, their hot pepper beer and their pumpkin beer. The reason I do this is that these beers tend to be truly appalling. I figure that, if a place can get one of these to taste like a drinkable, decent beer, then they have some extra-special skills.

So, back to the fourth of my five beers, the smoked beer – it was really good. I enjoyed drinking it. Unlike the crappy ones, this didn’t taste as if someone dumped Liquid Smoke into it – the smoke had a natural-like flavor to it. Additionally, and also important, you could still taste the beer over the smoke – the beer flavor wasn’t hidden. So, I was really quite happy with this. Lastly, the 90 Shilling Ale, a Scottish-style strong ale. Here’s another beer I just couldn’t get a read on. My taste buds were probably affected by the two smokier beers I had before this one, but nothing I did seemed to allow me to get any good idea of the flavor of this.

While we didn’t stop at Dragonmead for a meal, we did get a snack. The Loaded Waffle Fries have beer cheese, bacon, sour cream and green onions. They’re a heart attack waiting to happen. We enjoyed them, immensely.  🙂   By the way, the serving size was modest so it was a modest snack to share.

It’s unfortunate that we weren’t there for a meal, though, because they seem to specialize in sausage sandwiches and make most of their own sausage. To me, that’s worth going back for, all on its own.

So, another trip is now all I can think about. Next time, I find out how their mead is and maybe try some of their wine, but the sausage sandwich is an absolute definite goal! Also, they do have one hard cider and I would like to try that, too.

I should add that I’m not a big hard cider fan but, when someone makes hard cider, I feel the need to try it.

Unexpected High Sodium Levels in Meat and Fish

I don’t like to be an alarmist about food. For example, every time there’s a new report about how eggs are good-for-you/going-to-kill-you/maybe-not-the-worst-think-for-you, I take it in-stride. Scientific research finds new links to health, every day, and I tend to try to eat a balanced diet full of a variety of foods and leave it at that. My goal is to enjoy my life and not get too crazy trying to follow every trend.

My Eating Habits
I do sometimes eat things that are probably nothing but bad for me but I feel secure knowing that I don’t do that, often. Once in awhile, I eat donuts or other unhealthy items and I just enjoy it. However, on a day-to-day basis, I generally like to think my diet is pretty good. I don’t want to spend all my time analyzing the food I eat and I like to believe that I’m doing a decent job staving my hunger with tasty foods that are also not horrible for me to eat.

A Shock
Thinking I was eating a pretty decent diet, I was shocked to discover that it’s not as good as I thought it was. I eat lots of vegetables and some fruits, not too heavy on the meats, and I’m perfectly happy with poultry or fish.

I was shocked to find that poultry, fish and even pork can be OUTLANDISHLY high in sodium. I guess it’s because they’re so lean that they’re often injected with a water/salt solution to keep them moist, especially if they’re going to be frozen (the mixture apparently helps keep them from getting freezer-burn as quickly).

So, whatever information you find about how a chicken might have what looks like a low sodium content for a four-ounce portion, that only applies to chicken that isn’t injected. For example (and this is how I went down this whole sodium investigation path), I bought a package of chicken breasts where each chicken breast has, get this, 1020 milligrams of salt per breast. They’re quite huge breasts, definitely not just one portion for small eaters like me, but even if I divide it into 2-3 pieces, that’s still much higher than you’d expect. AND, yes, there’s more, I probably would have put a little salt on it when I cooked it AND might have had side dishes with a little salt in them, as well, to round out my meal.

What kills me about this is this: bacon might be high in sodium, but we don’t usually eat four ounces of it, either. I would rather eat more bacon and less chicken, quite honestly, if that’s what the choice comes down to. We spend time avoiding foods like bacon when the foods that are supposed to be okay to eat all the time aren’t that low in sodium, either!

When Words Are Meaningless
Don’t write to tell me to try the organic, all-natural, or no hormone versions. That has nothing to do with sodium content. Meats and fish can be injected with water/salt solutions and still have these labels.

Getting Around the Problem
Read the labels. Yes, sorry, but you have to read every single label of every item and brand you buy to know what the sodium content is. Do that BEFORE you plunk your hard-earned money into it. Don’t forget to read the portion size, as well.

Some grocery stores carry some meat and some fish that won’t be injected, but most stores carry items that are injected. Some stores have fishmongers and butchers that are knowledgeable and helpful. So, if you’re not buying the prepackaged items, where you can read the label, you need to shop where they know their product.

I was surprised to find, though, that it’s sometimes easier to find low sodium items in the ground products. For example, I bought some ground turkey from an ordinary grocery store and the sodium content is about what turkey would naturally have, but I seem to think that same brand of whole turkey would have some injected salt and water.

If you shop directly at a chicken farm or you fish for your own fish, you can get around this problem, too. At the Farmer’s Market, just make sure you ask. When the rod and gun clubs have their Thanksgiving turkey shoots, that’s another place where you can probably get an unadulterated bird.

Why Bother?
Why bother, you ask? As some of the producers will tell you, when you buy injected meat and fish, you’re paying for more water weight than you realize. You might even think you’re getting a good price on the item, but you’d be surprised how much water can be injected to increase the weight of each item. That’s your hard-earned money they’re kind of cheating you out of. You think you’re paying your money for meat or fish but too much of it can be water. It’s as if the butcher stuck their thumb on the scale without you knowing about it, basically!

I’m Angry!
I feel cheated and fooled. Dietitians will tell you that the easiest way for most of us to have a healthy diet without thinking too much about it is to shop the perimeter of the store. That is to say, literally walk around the edge of the store to stick with the fruits, vegetables, meat and fish – try not to go down too many of the aisles (where the prepared food is). That’s what I’ve done for years and now I find that that’s not enough. It just makes me angry to think that what I believed to be straightforward foods aren’t so.

We spend so much time talking about GMP (genetically modified foods), organic and all this type of thing but no-one seems to care about all the sodium in our diets and salt is called the “silent killer” for a reason – it’s something that too much of really can negatively affect us.

Considering that my own family history leads me to think I should be somewhat careful about salt content, I don’t know what to do with those chicken breasts. The frugal person in me can’t bring myself to throw them out. Maybe I’ll save them in case I get so depressed about this that I start feeling suicidal and just eat them all in one sitting…

Greenbush Brewing Co.: Sawyer, MI

Seeing photos of Greenbush Brewing Co. or even driving up to it, it doesn’t look like much with the large “B R E W E R Y” letters on top of the building. However, it’s quite nice. Actually, I’ll admit I only walked through the inside and somewhat paid attention as it was a nice day and I wanted to sit outside.

Greenbush is a great tourist destination for those of us travelling on I-94 close to the Michigan state line, as it’s not far off Exit 12 (12 miles east of the Michigan/Indiana state line). My spouse and I were making a trip home from Illinois, had heard of Greenbush and tried their Closure beer (which we liked quite a lot), and decided to try it. First of all, I should add that it was open for lunch, as we were travelling in the early afternoon, and second of all, they do have food. This was important to our considerations. I’ll also admit that the fact that they have a mac & cheese on their menu helped, since my spouse is obsessed with trying every mac & cheese that is offered in the world.

You can get a flight of beers for $12 that includes six beers. Their beers are grouped into three general categories. The categories are mainly price categories, except for one beer that has an entirely different price than everything else.

The names are interesting and don’t necessarily remind one of the beer that comes with the name unless you think hard. For example, the Scottish Strong Ale is called “Sheep in a Tall Grass” which, if you think about it, maybe the Scots do have a lot of sheep and maybe that does go together. I’m not certain.

All their beers were unique. It wasn’t a matter of lots of beers that all tend to blend in but of beers all with unique qualities, except where they were intended to be similar. For example, I wouldn’t be surprised to find that the Blueberry Ale and the Raspberry Ale were similar except for the fruit used in them. However, I didn’t try both of them to know.

I did have the Emptiness (Apricot Wheat Ale), the Vindication (Blueberry Ale) and the Unvarnished Truth (Cherry Porter). My spouse and I don’t tend to like fruit beers because they can be cloyingly sweet, too often. However, we both found these beers on the drier side. The Ales were refreshing and the porter was quite nice, possibly a little on the light-bodied side for a porter, but really a nice drinkable beer, even for a beer drinker.

I also had the Starchicken Shotgun (IPA) which was probably both our favorite, a lovely, zingy beer with a truly unique (in a good way) flavor to it. I also had the “Broken Promises (Wheat IPA with Zythos Hops) which I liked fine and it had a nice hoppiness, but was not nearly as interesting to me as the Starchicken Shotgun and which my spouse actually didn’t like, as my spouse didn’t like the flavor of the Zythos hops.

One last beer on my sampler was the 1825 (Belgian Strong Ale) which, indeed, did taste like a Belgian Strong Ale. It’s higher in alcohol and has a heavy body. It had a good flavor.

My spouse first enjoyed the Sheep in Tall Grass (Scottish Strong Ale), which was nothing like the Belgian Strong Ale, in case you’re about to ask – it did have it’s own unique characteristics and was a good beer. But my spouse’s next choice was the Helmet of Remnar (Imperial Blond), selected mainly because the name sounded to us like something out of the Coneheads. That might be a bad way to select beers, but it was excellent, as well. Unfortunately, it was served WAY too cold and my spouse spent much time manually warming the glass. Sorry, but, yes, we’re beer snobs!!  🙂

My spouse did get the mac & cheese, made with the housemade bacon. The bacon is in chunks too tiny to really get its flavor but, overall, the mac & cheese was delicious and extremely creamy. Not one little bit of that mac & cheese was wasted. I ordered the stuffed smoked peppers. I do happen to like stuffed peppers, but with smoked peppers, it took them to another place. It was unique and delicious. Not one speck of these went to waste, either. However, I will warn the next eater that this dish was slightly spicy. For those of us that like spiciness, it’s nothing. For those that like things totally not spicy, it might be too spicy.

As I mentioned, it was a beautiful day and we ate on their patio, outside. We were inundated with the smell of the beer brewing and the barbecue being smoked. As we love these scents, it was a pleasure for us. I should have mentioned that they specialize in barbecue and if we make it back, we’re going to try some. The outside area is casual, with lots of wildflowers and wild plants. It’s also next to the train tracks. While we were there, the freight train came by. I’ve spent my life hearing trains and barges so this was a homey sound to me, but I realize some people might prefer to remain inside, although I’ll add that even my spouse, who isn’t that keen on trains, didn’t think the train was that loud.

Now, I should add this: we rarely go to the same place, twice, especially when we’re travelling. We love to try new places. But I’m already plotting my way back to Grrenbush on our next road trip and I suspect my spouse is plotting the same devious and delicious plot.

Jameson’s Irish Pub and Grill: Brighton, MI

In my last post, I mentioned how upset I was with my post-theater dining experience. On the way home, my spouse and I were just so upset with the way our day ended that we felt we wanted to find some other way to end the day before returning home.

We were thinking we might like to find a place for a fancy dessert or fancy dessert cocktail. In the end, we felt that even a place that had a nice on-tap beer selection would satisfy us and we remembered that we’d never tried Jameson’s Irish Pub and Grill in Brighton (

HOME

), so we dropped by, there, as that’s also on the way home back to Ann Arbor. We promised ourselves that, if there were two adjacent spots open at the bar that we’d sit in the them and try to enjoy a relaxing beer.

We slammed our car into the parking space and stalked into the place. We saw two adjacent spots open at the bar and dropped into them. The bartender came right over. He smiled at us. He had some kind words for us. We was helpful with our questions about the current on-tap selection. We ordered and felt we had arrived at the right place. Once in awhile, the bartender even stopped back to check on us. Here, they must have realized that our money was a green as the next person’s and glad to have us around to take some of it.

Meanwhile, Guinness had a promotion going where they were giving away free engraved glasses. They were trying to get the word out so that people would know who they are. My spouse and I were both not drinking Guinness and, in my spouse’s case, quite obviously not a Guinness, but the Guinness folks still came over and offered. They were chatty and friendly to us, although we did actually admit that we do like Guinness. I don’t think that made any difference, though, as I think that the friendly offer wasn’t dependent on anything in particular.

We both went home with our names engraved on our Guinness glasses wrapped in tissue paper and boxed up for our trip home with a little seal to keep the box from flying open and to indicate which box was for which of us. We didn’t need a free glass, by any means, but we went home feeling pretty good about our evening.

Red Cedar Grill: Williamston, MI

Saturday, my spouse and I drove from Ann Arbor to see “Book of Mormon” at the Wharton Center in East Lansing. Afterward, we had planned to have a nice meal before returning home. There were several new places in and around East Lansing that we hadn’t tried but we were a bit tired and decided to stop at the Red Cedar Grill in Williamston (http://redcedargrill.com/). We had been there, before, and quite liked it. It was also on the way home back to Ann Arbor.

We were a little early for Saturday night dinner service so we were quickly seated. The dining room was still a bit empty, at that point. The waitress did not come right over to us and it gave us time to read the drink menus and decided on a pre-meal cocktail, and we appreciated being given a bit of time for this.

The waitress was friendly and helpful. She took our drink orders. The wait for drinks seemed quite long, though. We did finally get our drinks. My spouse ordered the Thai Gimlet, which has house-infused ginger vodka, lime and basil. It was delicious and we could really taste the basil. I just double-checked the drink on the restaurant’s web-site and it says something about chile. We didn’t taste any chile so I don’t know if they still use it. I was a bit hesitant, but I ordered the Bacon Old-Fashioned, which had bacon-infused whiskey, sugar cube, cherry and bitters. I was hesitant because some of these bacon drinks end up being so smoky that you can’t taste anything else. However, I shouldn’t have worried because that wasn’t the case. In this case, the drink had absolutely no flavor, at all. Thus, nothing overpowered anything else. It tasted of alcohol and that’s all both my spouse and I tasted in it, unfortunately.

We began to notice that the restaurant wasn’t filling-up and also that there were seldom servers walking around. This seemed odd on a Saturday night. However, we did finally get to order. My spouse got the mac and cheese. It was made with four cheeses, one of which must have been smoked Gouda, because it had just a touch of that flavor. The flavor was used sparingly so that you could taste it but that it didn’t overpower the dish. The chicken on top was fried perfectly and was delicious. My spouses’s only complaint was that the cheese sauce could have been blended better with the noodles. I ordered the blistered chicken breast. As it happens, I rarely order chicken in restaurants as I don’t eat out, much, and find chicken to be a bit dull. However, with the preserved lemon potatoes and the Roquefort, honey and sherry flavors in the chicken and sauce, it was excellent and definitely a treat. I enjoyed it, immensely and ate the entire thing. Let me add that they had a decent by-the-glass wine selection and my spouse’s Vouvray from Loire, France was just spectacular, but my Loire Sauvignon Blanc was good, too.

Now, for dessert: my spouse and I asked for the dessert menu. Everything looked so good and the six or so items looked so unique and delicious that we thought we’d have a hard time deciding what we wanted. So, initially, it was nice that our waitress didn’t come immediately back to take our order. But after 40 minutes, we just felt resentful and angry. The restaurant wasn’t full even then and we seldom saw servers around.

We gave up and went to the hostess to ask her to get our bill. Even then, we had to wait a bit. When our waitress returned, I was trying not to feel bitter and was ready to do my wimpy Midwestern thing where I smile at least a weak smile and say “thank you” when I receive my bill, just to be my “nice” Midwestern self. Unfortunately, she didn’t give me the opportunity to do even that, as she kind of tossed/dropped the bill on our table, turned and ran off.

So, after being there for almost two hours in a partly-empty restaurant on a Saturday night and getting just a cocktail and our meal, we gave up on the dessert we’d been truly looking forward to. Our theater-matinee-followed-by-a-meal ended abruptly and we left feeling quite upset. We were so upset that we agreed that we won’t return.

Coffee Season

Coffee season is here and, by that, I don’t mean the “growing” season but the “roasting” season and I only mean it for me, personally.

A friend of mine did one of those life changing plans where he got a teaching degree and moved to Indonesia to live and teach. He’d always wanted to travel and see other parts of the world and this was a way not just to afford it, but to become immersed in a new culture.

As such, last summer, when he said he was minimizing his household, was getting rid of his coffee-roasting paraphernalia and willing to teach someone to use it, I jumped at the chance. I roasted my coffee in late Summer and early Fall until the temperatures dropped to the 50’s in the daytime. After that, it seems to take too long to finish each roast, especially when the wind is cold.

I will now mention that his method and, as such, mine, is to do the roasting outside using an old popcorn air popper. Thus, if it smokes a bit or makes a mess, it doesn’t matter. In fact, I roast by a mulched area of my yard and, if I trip, knock it over and the beans fly everywhere, it’s not a big deal. Fortunately, this doesn’t happen to most of my batches..

Regarding 2014, a little over a week ago, I felt the temperatures were getting warm-enough, consistently-enough that I ordered some unroasted beans. Just now right before starting to write this, I have done my second roasting of 2014 and I feel fairly proud of myself.

Technically-speaking, you can fairly easily get pretty good coffee can save money over buying the fancier brands of whole bean, roasted coffee. Also, unless you buy the electric coffee bean roasters (which can get pricey), if you like to feel a bit frugal, this is one way to get that feeling.

Personally, I just get a kick out of doing it and it’s not a hobby that costs me extra money, as I drink about the same amount of coffee, regardless. One other frugal way to roast beans is to use a skillet. Similar to roasting chestnuts, you want a dedicated pan for this or you’ll get that oily film stuck to a good pan. People who do this tell me that any old cheap skillet from a garage sale or the thrift shop will do.

I had considered using a skillet except that I don’t want the greasy smell to linger in my kitchen. Those people who use a skillet tell me that, if you really don’t want that smell around, you could do this outside on something like a camp stove, but I haven’t heard if anyone report that they do this on their grill.

As something of a do-it-your-selfer, this is just an easy way to get an “I did this!” fix on a regular basis and without buying huge amounts of supplies for some new project.