A Tea, a Coffee, and Two Beers

A Friday Hodgepodge

I did this year's liver holiday over July (making it Dry-ly, I suppose), during which I tried a new tea that I like and rediscovered chicory coffee. My first trip to the beer emporium after that yielded a new find on the way to restocking my current go-to beer.

***

1. Looking through the tea selection at Rouses, I stumbled upon a package of Twining's rooibos tea.

I'd heard of this, was in the mood for something new, and decided buying it would remind me to look up how to pronounce that odd word so I'd know once and for all: Be glad I'm weird that way, or markets in everything would be flooded with unpronounceable product names.

This one was a little off the beaten path for me, being neither some flavored variant of black tea nor an obvious candidate for an herbal tea, like peppermint. This is a tea, but it's in a category of its own, with a distinct flavor that I enjoy.

It lacks caffeine, but that's not a big deal to me since I don't drink tea when I want to caffeinate, anyway.

A pied hoverfly visits a chicory flower. (Image by Charles Sharp, via Wikimedia Commons, license.)

2. Already prompted by our move to New Orleans, I went ahead and bought some chicory coffee, which I'd tried before and knew I like.

Although I like tea, I prefer coffee, and since chicory lacks caffeine, the coffee-chicory mixture is less caffeinated and is good for times I want coffee, but not necessarily at full strength, caffeine-wise.

The chicory mixed with (or even substituted for) coffee is from the roasted and ground root of a plant in the daisy family, and which I think some of our neighbors have growing in the garden plots in their yards, based on my memory of spotting blue flowers on a walk. I'm thinking of planting some myself.

3. Way back in Jacksonville, some random stranger at that beer emporium struck up a conversation with me and recommended Innis and Gunn, a lager by a brewery in Scotland I'd never heard of. It was not bad, and I'd buy it from time to time.

On my first trip to the beer emporium here in August, I was keeping an eye out for something new and interesting, and ran across ... Innis and Gunn.

Only it wasn't what I remembered.

While I normally will look up a brewery when I try one of its offerings for the first time, I did not do so with Innis and Gunn, taking them to be a venerable foreign brand that I just hadn't heard of before.

This brewery is in fact only a couple of decades old, and while I like their Original lager, I prefer the Irish Whiskey Cask stout I found here:

At Innis & Gunn we are never content. Ever restless to create new taste experiences, then tireless in wringing every last drop of flavour from them. Irish Whiskey Cask is testament to that endless endeavour. Smooth Scottish stout, Irish whiskey cask-matured. This delicious beer catches the eye with its jet black colour, then delights the nose with aromas of dark chocolate, espresso and vanilla. All without losing its full malt character. On the palate, a beautifully balanced bitterness gives way to a long, chocolatey finish.

Nothing is missed from the combination of smooth Scottish stout and luxuriously rich Irish Whiskey barrels. First come notes of coffee, vanilla and chocolate. Then the long, smooth and seductive finish of this truly special beer. Irish Whiskey Cask is made with only the best. That means the finest rich malts; Extra Pale Ale, Amber and Chocolate. Roast barley adds even more body and character. Yet all of this richness is perfectly balanced by spicy, floral and tangy Herkules hops.

The above is from the vendor, but I think it lives up to the description and the good folks at Beer Advocate largely agree with me.

4. Last but not least is Ghost in the Machine, a hazy double IPA brewed by Parish Brewing in the middle of Cajun Country:

Welcome to the future. Our collective human consciousness, or Ghost in the Machine, has gained a tolerance for hops beyond what mankind has ever known before. This double India Pale Ale is the necessary outcome. Brewed with obscene quantities of hand-selected Citra hops from our favorite farm in Yakima Valley, WA. Expect pungent grapefruit aromas and flavors, tropical fruit, and less harsh bitterness than most IIPAs.

Unsurprisingly, I see that this is rated world class at Beer Advocate.

The icing on the cake for me is that the pub I go to for Arsenal games has this on tap.

-- CAV