Single Sourced Colombian Coffee, at the Truck Stop...

 

I kid you not-- just when I needed a good long laugh on a long drive from Cleveland to NY, I walked right into this at the Pilot, when I stopped to drain and replenish.  

"Single Sourced" Colombian coffee... so important to over the road truck drivers and other long hawlers (the highway type).  No beans from the Dominican Republic mixed in here, to destroy the integrity of the terroir coming out of this spigot. 

No way. 

Such a relief... comic relief. 

Petrus Aged Ale-- Absurdly Good.

 

I ran across this in my beer dungeon yesterday, and it turned out to be a good antidote for processing family tragedy.  It was a reliable name, and it was as good as it gets-- perhaps the best sour brewers on the planet with apologies to nobody. 

You'll find them online here:

https://petrussourbeer.com/en

Doc's Hopped Cider and Salmon

Not sure if I've said enough about Doc's Cider over in the black soils of Warwick on Little York Road, but I ran across photo of a fish we paired up with Doc's Hopped Cider last fall, after going to the Orchard for hilarious, fun apple picking. This pairing was a grand slam-- I can tell you about it, and show you, but you need to git some with some version of this Honey Lemon roasted salmon recipe and taste it.  I don't know how it was made-- the cook is not talking.

Doc's Hopped Cider is my favorite cider by it's own self-- pure genius, the kind that makes home brewers and cider makers say "I wish I thought of that" (even if they did, making small batches in the garage years before Doc went big with it) but stand this Doc's Hopped Cider along side "fishy" fish like yonder salmon and you'll get a perfect couple.  The cider has a that thin white wine-ish profile to start, albeit obviously apple based, as all ciders that are not those big, cloying sweet commercial production ciders... (on tap in woody bars, imported from UK, but shall remain un-named, and undrank).  But then the dry hopping that makes a plain old cider about 340% more interesting and all the food superlatives that we all apparently never tire of hearing and saying... which is in and of itself, amaaaaaaazing.

I mean-- look, it's taken a dip since it's 2013 peak, but it's still hovering, and buzzing from mouths from LA to Johannesburg.. Perth, Singapore-- Fk it, add Hong Kong, see,  https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Amazing&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=26&smoothing=3&direct_url=t1%3B%2CAmazing%3B%2Cc0

I thought "Amazing" jumped the shark a long time ago, but now Landscapers use it when they are closing sales... to cut your grass (true story), which closed the deal-- I cut it myself.  What am I, 101?  And you know what-- my grass looked AMAAAAAAZINGK!

Nevertheless, if you know what's good for you, don't wait for another COVID19 Apple Picking Season this fall, you should get out of town for some fresh air this spring, maybe drive up to Warwick, NY for Doc's Cider orchard, with 31,043 other people on the weekends, or during the week with just 332.  They have those graduates or students from Culinary Institute of America cooking pizza and making salads and things that pair well with the product. Sometimes there's live music, but you'll want to call ahead for all that.  

Here's the way:

https://docscider.com/orchard/

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Marketing Tricks of the Trade-- Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid

 

April 2, 2021 Way of the Cross led by Pope Francis