Winter Treat

Both Stop & Shop and Trader Joe's have blackberries on sale. (The blackberries from Trader Joe's were perfect. The blackberries I purchased from Stop & Shop were a bit tart.)



I love blackberries. It's hard not to eat a whole container in one sitting or put a whole container on one bowl of cereal. And to have blackberries in February in New England seems so extravagant! But I couldn't resist and decided to treat myself.

I popped a berry into my mouth and was taken back to a childhood memory. When I was little we lived in the Berkshires. In the back of my grandmother's yard, there was a fantastic climbing tree and a neighbor named Oz who grew wild blackberries. He was an older gentleman with a big beard and a very scary looking scare-crow in his yard. This, of course, made him pretty scary to a small child. But he was harmless and very pleasant. My grandmother and Oz were friends and so we were allowed to pick his wild blackberries. I remember being very afraid of the scarecrow and sneaking into Oz's yard, grabbing some blackberries and then running back to the house. The blackberries were worth the fear. I was pretty young; we moved to Cambridge shortly after I turned 3.

Mix-A-6

I went to an IPA tasting at Cardoza's last week and ended up walking out with a mix-a-6 pack. (It's funny how those things happen.) Here are my choices/thoughts.


Troegenator's DoubleBock
It's probably not fair but I have a high expectation for a Double Bock (or Dopplebock - which rolls off the tongue much nicer). A few years ago Buzzard's Bay Brewery made a limited edition Weizen Dopplebock. Holy crap was it delicious! I got myself, my mom, and my uncle hooked on the stuff. They haven't made it since. ::sniff sniff:: Oh right, I'm writing about Troegenator.
I miss BBB's Dopplebock.

Southern Tier's Old Man Winter
It was tasty and drinkable but not really memorable.

Great Divide Brewing Co.'s St. Bridget's Robust Porter
This was a very nice porter. Mellow but not boring. It has just the right amount of roasted malt flavor. It's very robust and delightful to drink. I did not appreciate the pick-up truck silhouette of a woman on the label however.

Avery's Old Jubilation Ale
Basically I picked this one because 1) I've never tried it and 2) it's from Boulder and I love Boulder. Anyway, at first I found this ale had too strong of a barley taste. I ended up eating some Irish aged cheddar cheese and the taste really improved! But I still prefer Abita's Turbodog (brown ale).

Southern Tier's Raspberry Porter
I am not a fan of fruity beers. And I've hated all fruit Lambic's I've tried. But the Raspberry Porter was recommended by Derek, whose beer opinion I trust. If you like fruit and beer combinations, maybe this is for you, but I just didn't like it. It tasted a lot like Raspberry Seltzer.

Founder's Porter
This Porter is dark and rich and it has a strong roast flavor to it - like roasted nuts or malt (go figure). I'm not digging the roasted taste - it's too much for me. I prefer the Great Divide St. Bridget Porter, or Founder's Breakfast Stout.

Too many characters for twitter

I found this interesting:

"To say two people communicate successfully means no more than that they have arrived at a point where their mutual interpretations, each expressed in action interpretable by the other, are compatible – they work for the time being" (Glasersfeld, 1995).