Kenneth’s Rants and Other Things

This isn’t a review. I just wanted to say that Otoro is good.

Otoro is on Oak @ Gough.  They also have sake sampler flights

Reegs had a wine tasting the other night. It was a blind tasting and the theme was Zinfandel.

the tasting table after the reveal

For blind tastings with my SF peeps what we do is bring the bottles in to the host’s place and immediately put them in paper bags. Then on a piece of paper or index card we enter a lot of information: name of wine, varietal, cost, where we bought it, AVA and maybe a little bit more info depending on what’s going on. [my apologies if I've talked about this before but some of you had asked]

Then the host or the assistant will take the bottle and give the bag a random number and note that on the card, then they’ll hide that information from the guests.

Each guest is then given a glass and an index card and pen. The scoring system is declared and explained (we used a 100 point scale w/ no damn decimals) and everyone can start tasting (and eating!). At the end of the night, the host or assistant uses a google docs spreadsheet and tabulates the scores. Then we have a reveal.

Some of the friends are a bit more serious than others so they’ll be pretty clear if they’re competing or not. (Most of the time my SF crew is competing with each other). Saturday’s tasting was a Zinfandel tasting. And most of the crowd was serious. That said- all of this is to have fun, have some good wine, and discover some wines that are new to you.

btw- be careful if you ever try to taste 22 Zins (after having pre-contest wines) in rare 90 degree SF heat. Drink lots of water, do tiny pours and spit out a lot.

At Saturday’s tasting, I wound up getting 2nd place out of the 22 wines we tasted! But….  I cheated. I brought a Zinfandel blend. I’m cool like that.

btw- It was a magnum of Limerick Lane 1023 – which is a 50% Zin / 50% Syrah

Click ‘more’ if you want to see the full list of what the finishers were- I’ll just list the top 10.

btw, my favorite wine of the night was  Pinot Gris that we had before the tasting – Toulouse from the Anderson Valley. Damn good. Continue reading ‘Reegs’ Zin Tasting’

My friend Christine (of white pants fame) launched a side project this week. She started a site called Sugar Dimples where she will chronicle her love of cupcakes and, more importantly, bake and sell you said cupcakes!

So go take a look at her photos, then hit up the order form if you’re interested.

Before I left SA, I had the clarity of mind to order some coffee beans for my return to SF. Based on a recommendation from Ray, I ordered from Weaver’s over in Emeryville.

I hadn’t heard of Weaver’s before. But Ray told me this tidbit (which is on the site):

COFFEE’S BEST-KEPT SECRET – Hand-crafting coffee since 1980, John Weaver apprenticed under two legendary coffee experts, Alfred Peet and Sal Bonavita. John is recognized as one of the most accomplished coffee roasters and tasting experts in the world. After nearly three decades as Master Roaster for Peet’s Coffee, John left to start his own company and launch the brand which bears his name: Weaver’s Coffee & Tea.

I timed it perfectly too- I got the order placed in the nick of time for the weekend roast, and it was at my office on Monday before lunchtime.

Although Ray said he likes the Organic Blend for his shots, I wanted to try the Espresso Blend first.  And you know what? It’s really good.

Or as Debra Morgan would say:

Go get some

Just a quick update-

Well, the machine is breaking. It’s leaking water. To be fair, the company has already started shipping a new machine to my dad. But I wonder if it was a design problem that they knew about already. I need to stop calling it an Illy too, it’s a Francis Francis X8.

I won’t have a full review I guess unless the machine gets here early next week. Let’s just say I still love my Rancilio Silvia and Rocky grinder and it completely demolishes pod machines imho, but there’s some ease of use I like in these pod boxes.

• Illy/Francis Francis pros -
  • makes great espresso
  • has a pretty good milk frother
• Illy/Francis Francis cons -
  • can’t leave the machine on all day (how do you heat the cups then?)
  • makes a shitload of refuse (giant plastic pod trash/recycling)
  • machine broke (although to be fair they’re shipping a new one)

• Nespresso pros-
  • really good coffee
  • good variety of styles to order from even thought I use the same 2 over and over again
  • can leave the machine on for a while, gets cups nice and warm
  • bigger water resovoir
  • makes good to great espresso
• Nespresso cons-
  • no milk frother for guest’s cappuccinos
  • machine costs a lot (I think the one I used is an n90)

Diff in pod sizes (for those of you concerned w/ the trash/recycling):

My dad has a new(er) Illy Espresso Pod machine. I’m uhh “testing” it this week.

As I’ve written before, I used  to HATE pod machines but after playing with the Nespresso I changed my mind.

The Nespresso is now his office machine and the Illy is the new home one. I’ll write more about it later but my first thoughts are: wow, that’s a lot of waste product (huge plastic pod trash) & DAMN that’s good Illy espresso & why aren’t my cups hot?

more later

via Bryan

via SJ Merc News:

Positioned in front of Psycho Donuts on S. Winchester Boulevard, local mental health advocates were making sure their concerns were heard.

They spent their morning passing out “stigma-free” doughnuts to customers headed into the shop to purchase pastries with names like “Bipolar” and “Cereal Killer.

“The purpose is to educate the community about mental health concerns about Psycho Donuts. We’re not trying to shut the place down, just raising concern,” said Patty Eaton of the Silicon Valley Independent Living Center.

(SFGate blog has pics)

“Imagine a shop that made fun of cancer; it wouldn’t be funny.”

Hey you espresso drinkers (I’m looking at you Caleb, Shane, Edgar and Bryan)– what beans have you been grinding and sipping lately?

I’m in a bit of rut w/ my blends and am thinking of switching up again. I usually grab Peet’s Major D or Espresso Forte, but now I’m trying to finish off a big bag of Lavazza and want to go back to Graffeo for a few weeks…..

Eunice sent me this list of 50 of the world’s best food blogs. The Homesick Texan is on there at #32… not that it’s a ranked list. I’m quite fond of her blog. Becks & Posh is listed too…

A good list- add some of those to your RSS readers…