June 28, 2009
After getting drunk on a bottle of white wine Saturday night, I made a drunk-person purchase at 7-11. Placed side-by-side in the soda refrigerator were Shiso Pepsi and Green Tea Coke. The Green Tea Coke was on sale for 125 yen, marked down from the standard soda price in Japan of 150 yen. This was […]
June 26, 2009
I’m trying to take a new approach to Fridgin’ Out- thought that it would be more interesting if just the more unique, peculiar items were featured. So I went through my best friend Khoi’s fridge the other week and found some great stuff (fire-engine absinthe from Spain!). Khoi and his wife Sarah live in San […]
After making my umeshu and bottling it up for indulgence in October, I became restless. I wanted to make more while I waited for three months. But this time I wanted to try another fruit. After discussing it over with a veteran Japanese fruit liqueur-maker (my ex-coworker), she suggested I try biwashu (“biwa” is a […]
June 24, 2009
Previous:Gin & June Part 1, London Dry & Plymouth GinsGin & June Part 2, GeneverGin & June Part 3, Old Tom Gin For the fourth and final installment of Gin & June, I’ve decided that sloe is the way to goe. I am, of course, referring to sloe gin. Of all the gins discussed this […]
June 22, 2009
READ ALL 6 PARTS OF THEÂ TAP THIS HOME BREWING GUIDE HERE Popping the cap off of the first beer in a new batch is always exciting. When I first started I used to think nothing but “I hope it doesn’t suck.” Now I am a little more confident in my batches and am curious to […]
June 17, 2009
Previous:Gin & June Part 1, London Dry and Plymouth GinGin & June Part 2, Genever June’s journey into the world of gin continues this week as we explore another long-lost type of gin called Old Tom. Old Tom is a lightly sweetened gin that reached the height of its popularity in 18th and 19th century […]
June 16, 2009
Japanese mothers and grandmothers are hardcore. Every year they make their own liqueur and June is the month to start preparing. Starting in late May, supermarkets stock ume (Japanese plums) in bags of 1 kilogram which cost around 700-900 yen per bag, alongside cartons of white liquor. I decided to join the mama-san frenzy and […]
June 15, 2009
Everyone is hopping on the eco-friendly bandwagon these days. Japanese advertisers and marketers are drooling at the opportunities and capitalizing heavily. Take this new line of bottled water, brought to you by the good folks at Coca-cola (who totally care about the earth). It’s called I LOHAS (pronouced i-rohasu). LOHAS stands for Lifestyles of Health […]
June 10, 2009
Previous: Gin & June Part 1, London Dry & Plymouth Gin Last week I declared that gin would be Happy Hour’s operative agent of inebriation for the month of June. In accordance with that declaration, part 2 of Gin & June is about a lesser known variety of gin called Genever, the forefather of modern-day […]
June 6, 2009
My mama brought home a bag of biwa the other day, the Japanese word for the fruit loquat. I guess her friend has a biwa tree in her yard- have you ever heard of them? They are these darling little apricot-like things that grow in clusters. Look at this one small branch! A bit of […]