Last night I went to a beer tasting in San Francisco. I didn’t taste all the beers but of the 15-odd I did taste the best were by Uncommon Brewers — especially their Siamese Twin (“the floral notes of lemongrass and sharper bite of kaffir lime blend with the deep malt”) and Baltic Porter (“whole licorice root and star anise”).
Five or six years ago I went to a sake-tasting event in San Francisco called “The Joy of Sake”. About 140 sakes. In a few hours I became such a sake connoisseur that the sake I could afford — and used to buy regularly — I now despised. The only sake I now liked was so expensive ($80/bottle) that I never bought another bottle of sake.
Did you go to the Marin Brewing Company’s BreastFest as well? Haha, small world if you did. Cheers
yes, that is where I went.
Many years ago I decided to buy a fragrance for my wife. Since at the time we didn’t have much money, we visited several shops where we smelled at least a hundred fragrances on test strips, plus another dozen or so on the skin (for fragrance changes over time as it interacts with the skin). They all smelled OK, but a few seemed somewhat better than the others. We finally settled upon one.
Over the years, as we subsequently visited fragrance shops, I have noticed how much more sensitive I am to smells. My wife says, for a typical unappreciated fragrance, that my eyes wince and my face flattens as I shrink back, and I’ll use language to describe it along the lines of, “It’s an army of Brazilian ants marching up towards my sinuses, and each ant swings a machete.”
“The only sake I now liked was so expensive ($80/bottle) that I never bought another bottle of sake.”
And you still go to tastings?? It seems like ignorance is bliss here, better to preserve your ability to enjoy cheap things.
James, good question. I will blog about it.
That sounds like a fun kind of night. But sake, don’t get me started, an acquired taste I guess!
PS: Was the cookbook I sent received? I hope so, sent several weeks ago.