opinionated alchemist

At times it is good - but at times it is also bad to be quite self-critical. See water-kefir - despite the people who promote this beverage and say, that it is delicious, I had pretty mixed results. When following the mantra of so many people online (using raw sugar or at least less refined sugars plus some dehydrated fruits, the drink taste IMHO just plain awful (as well as become more awful with fermenting longer). I found a workaround with Darcy O'Neal's "spring water minerals" - suddenly the tibicos culture is multiplying and very happy even with plain white sugar - and the ferment taste light and nice. However the second ferment is very unpredictable: The time of the fermentation (even in the fridge) changes dramatically the taste. It ranges from slightly funky (which is great) to awful and kinda off.  The fermented fruit also makes a huge difference: cantaloup melon tasted very natural like a natural melon gatorade, similar to kiwi. Watermelon tas...

I had a couple of days ago a meeting with Craig - we will have a corporate bar workshop and Craig helps us to showcase the culinary wizary as he works for the supplier muddle-me.com. Besides of a bag full of goodies he brought the Soda plus appliance - a piece I didn't encountered yet. Well he took the mouth quite full, that it is cheaper and better as the cream whippers (e.g. iSi) or Perlini...  As I have to test it, before I show it to a bunch of high profile F&B guys, which are coming from across the GCC countries, I took it today to a test. And as I shopped at Spinneys today, I thought it is a good thing to take their excellent apple elderflower squash back home; but wait, I just reviewed Darbo elderflower and I pretty we'll know the Waitrose product. So I took the gamble to buy the grape and peach variant. And who doesn't know my very dear friend Knob Creek? If it comes to extra aged and extra toasted American whiskies, this is one of the best (especially if you pu...

www.greenteajapan.com/teas.html For the moment I am working [still] on the new beverage program of Skylite [besides of all the other bits and pieces of a good relaunch of a rooftop bar]. Alcoholic mixed drinks, are rather finalized, but I am now working on the alcohol free drinks. While I was browsing, I found some more or less expiring mocktails on foodandwine.com  - one, the Emerald Palmer, looked quite intriguing. So I went on to our Japanese restaurant to get some macha tea. Unfortunately [or should I say fortunately] I haven't found macha tea there, they had only a fancy Sencha and Genmaicha. I have seen Genmaicha before - and but, to be honest, I am more intrigued by the sophistication of tea culture [tea ceremony and all] than by the taste of teas. So usually I am quite reserved to try a lot of teas [except of Earl Grey tea, which happen to pair fantastically with cigars - especially if you drink it with some sugar and a little bit milk] . Anyw...

Yeah - another old post. We carbonated today the first time at the Yas Viceroy hotel Abu Dhabi some grapefruit soda as well as peach soda; means we didn't only used carbonated club water, but used an iSi container with a CO2 cartridge. Due to the increased CO2, the sodas became a bit more sour. Overall they were more than fantastic - really tasty. And housemade sodas become one part of my beverage strategy for the hotel. Following the old post: Let me tell you a secret: I am addicted to sugar and addicted to sweet sodas; first of all Coca Cola. Unfortunately Coca Cola is really inexpensive [and mineral water quite expensive] in Dubai, so it is very hard to break through this bad habit! Though there are very few sweet sodas, which taste great - good Tonic is great [especially if it has a good companion like gin], or Ginger Beer is great [but not so much as protagonist - ginger beer is another drink, which greatly benefits of a companion, which is now dar...