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Barcelona is a sparkling city that will awaken your senses and capture your heart, with its vibrant culture, stunning architecture and passion for life. You'll be drinking sangria and dancing 'til dawn.
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Butler in the Buff
Ice Bar & Nightclub Entry
Nerdy Male Stripper
Arabian Baths Inc 15 Minute Massage
Hen Fiesta
VIP Champagne Sunset Cruise
Beer Bike
Cocktail Workshop
Gin & Tonic Tasting
Tapas Tour
Private Catamaran Charter
Wine Tasting
Create your own Cava
Cheerleading Class
Salsa Dancing Class
Pole Dancing Class
Bollywood Dance Class
Burlesque Dance Class
Nude Life Drawing
Flamenco Dance Class
W Hotel
Hotel NH Barcelona Stadium
NH Sants Barcelona
Hotel Garbi Millenni
Hotel Tryp Apolo
Sunotel Central
Hotel Pere IV
Euro Hotel Diagonal Port
SB Icaria Barcelona
Hotel Suizo
Bright and beautiful Barca
Undeniably one of Europe's most lusted over cities. It has dynamic culture, gorgeous beaches and vibrant nightlife.
The centrally located main tourist strip, La Rambla, has a real lively buzz every day of the week, all year round. With street entertainers, weekly markets, artists, acrobats, dancers, cafes, bars and restaurants, there's sure to be something for everyone. Barcelona's nightlife is also famously vibrant; from the bustling Port Olympic district, overflowing with lively late night clubs – to the famous, atmospheric Gothic Quarter, the maze of dynamic streets that tend to draw a more sophisticated crowd.
Now, call us presumptuous, but we're guessing you girls are partial to a little retail therapy and Barcelona is certain not to disappoint. With multiple designer shops (Burberry, Chanel and Armani to name but a few), and many fantastic shopping centres throughout the city, you'll be spoilt for choice on places to splash the hen weekend kitty.
This cosmopolitan metropolis of a city is peppered with iconic landmarks and attractions to visit on your hen do, including; Gaudi's 'unfinished masterpiece' the Sagrada Familia, Barcelona Cathedral, Sant Josep market, Parc Guell, the Picasso Museum, Columbus' Column, Port Vell, Montjuic Palace, Barcelona's football stadium Nou Camp and the Arc de Triomf.
The Spanish are also renowned for eating late, and partying well into the next morning (thank the Lord for siestas). So, after a spot of traditional tapas and a few glasses of Sangria or cava, you and the girls can head out for a wild fiesta at world renowned clubs such as Opium, La Terrrazza, Ocaña, Razzmatazz. Then, kick that hangover in style, with a stroll along the sun-kissed beach - to rest and recoup after an unforgettable last night of freedom.
Average Rating from 80 reviews
Kim Monahan12/09/2017
"Very easy and helpful"
Kerry Warren06/09/2017
"Fantastic time our guide was great and very professional from start to finish. Thank you "
Atlanta Mason12/06/2017
"This is the second time I've used LNOF and this was for my own hen. The service is impeccable, the staff are always happy to help and really do everything to ensure you have a great time. We had a issue with one of our activities and their Barcelona rep was straight to our location to sort it out. I also love that you don't need everyone has to dish out loads of cash at once. Really excellent company. "
Paige Roebuck06/06/2017
"We had an amazing weekend! Everything was organised brilliantly and all the activities was well worth the money! Thank you so much!"
Cath Hancock01/06/2017
"The BEST weekend ever, fantastic location, fantastic activities! Everything ran so slickly and i could not have done it without the help from the guys at Last Night of Freedom. From beginning to end I cannot fault them, and they were so helpful with organising everything, even when i had to keep getting new quotes for different activities and amounts of people, the patience they had was amazing! Highly reccomend!!! Thanks a million xxx"
Joanne Talbot22/04/2017
"Gin tasting was a great activity! "
Alpha Bland03/08/2016
"It was a great weekend, the boat party was a nice way to end the holiday."
Michelle Baker12/07/2016
"Barcelona is a fantastic city, would highly recommend it. Booking the activity with LNOF was no hassle and the staff I was in contact with were all very friendly, I would recommend them. Cannot wait to return to Barcelona again."
Ina Lerche31/05/2016
"The strip dinner was very good. Food was delicious, the stripper did a real good job and the bar crawl was a really good thing. Carlos who did the bar crawl was very friendly and i would book him every time."
Mira Buhecha03/05/2016
"Great help from everyone at LNOF. The contacts in Barcelona were extremely helpful and flexible and ensured everything was going well. We had a wonderful time at all the activities (the most at the spa) and went as smoothly as one would hope. :) "
Aditi Auluck30/07/2015
"It was superbly planned and I thank you all at LNOF. Only issue I had was with the transfer back to the airport where we couldn't find our bus driver. We had to contact our guide who kindly came out on his day off to help us. "
Leanne Thompson24/02/2015
"We all had a great time and everything ran very smoothly. "
Amy Glasgow16/02/2015
"A really great weekend, amazing fun had by all!"
Lauren Molyneux16/09/2014
"The weekend was fantastic, the reps were always on time and helped to make everything run smoothly.
The apartment was perfect and in a great location.
I will definitely use the company again to book further hen weekends."
Alison McKinven23/06/2014
"I booked the Spanish food demonstration. The food and sangria was lovely."
charlotte kennedy27/05/2014
"Trip was good! Bike tour amazing!! Stripper was very late!!!"
natalie briden05/03/2014
"Great weekend! Couldn't have gone any better. The apartment was amazing and all the guides out in Barcelona were brilliant!
We had a very surprised but happy Hen!!"
Hannah Phillips25/06/2013
"Overall an amazing weekend! Made even better by our rep, Steve, who made our night on the bar crawl! "
Kayleigh Hollins04/06/2013
"We were not very happy with the pub we ate at, it was a Irish pub full of drunk English men which did not respect our privacy at times. We were also sat next to the toilets! Not convenient!
When the stripper came we could not hear the music he brought along as the music in the pub was way too loud and they wouldn't turn it down for a few minutes whilst the stripper show lasted.
However once we left the pub it was all good, our rep was friendly and took us to great pubs a and clubs.."
Rachel McDermott30/04/2013
"Barcelona was a great place for a hen do. Shopping, history, food & drink - something for everyone! Paella was amazing!"
hollie davies12/02/2013
"Had an amazing time in Barcelona, we took part in the Arabian spa bath experience which was a great hangover cure! The organised bar crawl on the first night was great as it helped us try lots of different bars! Accommodation was great and absolutely spotless until we arrived ha ha, all in all a fab hen do destination and was a lot cheaper for alcohol and food then we thought it would be "
Laura Clair McCarthy McCarthy09/06/2012
"Had a great few days in Barcelona but wasn't very populated nightlife not sure whether this was because of it being weekdays. The company looked after us well and showed us around so we knew where to go. Our rep Stephanie was fantastic. The flamenco dancing was fun and created a great source of amusement for us all. "
Manny Kaur08/06/2012
"Amazing service by Garry from last night of freedom! He was very patient and helped with every query! I was slightly worried before leaving for Barcelona but as soon as I got there, my worries disappeared!! The accommodation was excellent with amazing services and Stefanie was an absolute pleasure while we were there! She helped with everything we ha planned and also went out of her way to meet the group on one of the nights we were away to ensure we had VIP entry Shoko! Would definitely be using this company again!!! "
Rachel Daniels29/05/2012
"Barcelona is definitely the place to go for a Hen Do! It is an amazing place and knows how to show you a good time!
We did Quad Biking and Flamenco Dancing which were really good fun, then we spent the day at a spa which was amazing!
Although we had a great time when we were there, there were a few things that we felt fairly disappointed by...our accommodation didn't seem anything like the pictures I had been sent, but was in a great location to get to the main strip. Also, the restaurant we were taken to was nothing like what I expected as it was tiny and not that 'hen party friendly looking' however, the food was nice.
Overall we had an amazing time in Barcelona and I would recommend it to anyone to go to for an epic hen do!
Zoe Mellors06/11/2011
"Had an amazing time in Barcelona.. The activities were really fun. The breakfast wasn't great and the bar to go for it was quite far away from the apartment. Also the apartment had a lot of families which isn't good as a hen weekend can be loud."
Claire Thirtle17/08/2011
"We booked the salsa class in Barcelona, everything was great from the uk side of Last Night of Freedom but I struggled to get information once in touch with the Barcelona section. I was told I'd receive details on my event one week before but didn't and we had trouble finding the venue as we had no directions.
Other than that the class itself was excellent and Gregory our instructor was brilliant!"
Sara Gardner25/07/2011
"Fab organisation, great activities - would highly recommend the bike tour to see Barcelona city. Ice bar very cool... and spa perfect way to finish a mad weekend. Would use again :o) "
Lesley Nelson05/05/2011
"We only used Last Night of Freedom for the salsa dancing activity. It was great."
Samantha Griggs07/04/2011
"We initially booked the cocktail making and struggled to find the venue. I made a call and was promptly met by a representative who took us to the bar. Everyone had a great time at the cocktail making and then we decided to use the services of another representative who took us to bars and even managed to get us into a club whilst we were wearing fancy dress. He stayed with us all night and looked after everyone to make sure they got home safely. Thanks for a fantastic time, will definitely recommend."
Kiara Crome14/07/2010
"Had a very enjoyable weekend with the girls the club in the port was fantastic, hotel was good very central and clean and activities were brilliant really enjoyed the cocktail making class and pole dancing lessons which I would recommend to anyone going to Barcelona for a Hen do."
Melissa Odo13/07/2010
"We had lots of fun! it was brilliant!"
Kalpa Patel29/06/2010
"We had the most amazing time in Barcelona, it's an amazing city, I've been a few times but never booked any activities for a hen so wasn't sure where to start. One of the girls recommended LNOF so I checked out this site. Everything was better than I expected.
Friendly and informative staff, easy booking process and great value for money! We- especially the bride to be was very happy. We all would definitely recommend the Hen Fiesta + Pole Dancing. If I have to organise another hen I would definitely use LNOF again! Thanks to all at LNOF team both here in UK and Barcelona who helped make it happen! :)
Amina Langridge19/06/2010
"Weekend was very good. The city is beautiful. Great shops, architecture etc. Only major drawback is handbag snatching and pickpockets which we had personal experience of on our first night!"
Patricia Mc Menamin04/06/2010
"Fantastic weekend, fantastic city."
Christina Lafferty03/06/2010
"Thank you for helping making it an unforgettable day!! We did the cocktail making class in Barcelona with Rapha. He was brilliant and very easy on the eye :) He really made the class what it was and it was such value for money. Barcelona itself was brilliant all you could want on a hen weekend right on your door step.
The staff at Last Night of Freedom were more than helpful and so easy to work with.
Thanks a Mill xx
Seema Patel03/06/2010
"The cocktail making was good, however the bar crawl was in very tacky locations, somewhere classier would have been nicer. Overall we had a fab time."
Claire Mc Menamin03/06/2010
"The Cocktail making class was ace! Really friendly instructor/barman who even popped to the shop to buy us crisps and chocolate while we were busily drinking our cocktails :o) It was well worth the money and a great start to our Saturday night out in Barcelona."
Emma Phelan30/04/2010
"Hen fiesta in Barcelona, venue was great even though we were late getting there. Stripper was good although the hen was a bit shocked!!!
Would recommend Last Night Of Freedom.
Emma Hughes30/03/2010
"We all had a fantastic time in Barcelona I would highly recommend it for a hen do.
The transfers were great we were met at the airport by our guide and she was really helpful. The apartments were great right in the centre. The bars and nightlife were brilliant I would recommend the bar crawl to anybody our guide was excellent he looked after us all night and got us into bars and then the night club. We all enjoyed the free shots it was well worth the money.
The hen fiesta was really good with the stripper but the venue seemed to be a bit disorganized we were not seated in the back where were told we would be seated the food was nice but it took a long time between courses to come out we were still eating at 11pm we got there at 8.30pm.
We had a great weekend and I can't wait to go back to Barcelona it is now my favourite city. Thank you for all your help in arranging my sister's hen do it was a weekend we will all remember.
Hayley Thorn10/02/2010
"we had a fantastic time, thankyou LNOF"
Kirsti Cummings11/01/2010
"The cocktail making was awesome and so funny..and we all left feeling a little bit tipsy was was good!"
Christa Glover02/12/2009
"The nightlife in Barcelona is amazingly fun. The cocktail class was the most enjoyable for me. The "teacher" was very patient with us and showed us step by step to make 4 different cocktails and he was a real gentleman, giving us tips to be careful in Barcelona of muggings etc.
Kelly Sprengers27/11/2009
"Barcelona is a very fun and beautiful place to go. The accommodation was lovely, however the city itself is quite dangerous."
Imogen Forbes26/11/2009
"The cocktail making class was fantastic. Very professional and lovely genuine barman- we even went back to the bar later for more cocktails!
Some of the group did have items stolen and we saw other groups who had the same problem, maybe this is something which you should make groups more aware of.
All in all a great hen do!
Thank You"
Emily Watts29/09/2009
"Just got back from our Hen Party in Barcelona, the activities were fantastic (spa/salsa class), little disappointed by the apartment, but as we were only sleeping there, it didn't matter too much - thoroughly recommend it."
Lindsay-Raine Laverick05/08/2009
"Barcelona was a fantastic venue with great nightlife and plenty of activites to keep us entertained during the day. "
Lynn Laidlaw23/05/2009
"We had a great weekend in Barcelona. It just went over to quick!!"
Lisa Reece13/05/2009
"Had a fantastic weekend in Barcelona! There were 10 in our group altogether and everyone had a great time. Our apartments were in great location; clean and plenty of space for five in each apartment.
We booked the hen fiesta night which was a great night - definitely worth the money - great meal, lots to drink and a stripper - what else does a hen need! LNOF thanks for your help and the great service you provided - would recommend you to anyone!"
Dawn Smith13/05/2009
"The hen fiesta was really well organised, our guide was really friendly, and everyone had a fab time!
the apartment was really nice, although a little dusty."
Sarah James30/04/2009
"We had a great weekend and booking was quick and easy!"
Bhavisha Mehta30/03/2009
"Loved the activites however dissappointed with the apartments being several floors apart.. "
Amanda Cano03/12/2008
"We would have enjoyed it more if our friends bag hadn't been snatched from outside the hotel."
Amy Brignell 26/10/2008
"The staff of Last Night of Freedom who arranged and accompanied us on our travels were amazing - thanks Evie!! and I would definitely recommend your services. Cheers"
Claire Watson14/10/2008
"Booking the Hen Weekend with LNoF took away all of the pressures of organising the party away from ourselves!
Barcelona was an excellent location for the group to go to - a fab time was had by all!"
Michelle Brown16/09/2008
"Had a thoroughly enjoyable time, and think everyone else did too. Ate at some lovely places, went to the Ice Bar which I highly recommend on a hen do. THey have all the different flavoured vodka's and its such a laugh!"
Lydia Avison16/09/2008
"What a great venue for a hen party, everything was so well organised, we were met straight away at the air port by a lovely Scottish guy and taken straight to our accomodation. Had a briliant w/end, just wish we had booked for longer now!!"
Nadia Gillam16/09/2008
"Had a fab time, nothing to moan about. Barcelona is beautiful, and were lucky to have a really sunny week. I would warn those wearing hen t-shirts that some clubs won't let you in!"
Alice Jackson16/09/2008
"A great time had by all, the Spanish rep seemed a bit rude and left us waiting in the coridoor when we arrived for ages but the Scottish guy that did the airport transfer was a darling, and made our trip. Accomodation was excellent!"
Penny Hicks16/09/2008
"Barcelona is beautiful, had a great time.Floor was a bit dirty in apartment and obviously hadn't been mopped for a while, but thats my only grumble!"
Amy Shilston16/09/2008
"Had a fab time, can't wait to go bk. Would book through you again I think for a hen or stag party"
Kathryn Reeves16/09/2008
"Had a fantastic time, great company to book through, Soraya did so well organising everything with you. Everything went smoothly, thanks very much!"
Sally Boulter16/09/2008
"Had the most fantastic time, Barcelona is beautiful and so were the apartments we were staying in.The internet pics really didn't do it justice! The Last Night of Freedom tour guide (the scottish one) was very helpful and friendly. The only fault I would say is that we could not switch the cooker off in either one of the three apartments, which worried us, and after quite a few frantic phone calls was sorted, and also the floor to the apartments was filthy, and everytime we walked with no shoes on our feet were black!"
Sarah Beavis15/09/2008
"We had a fantastic trip to Barcelona.
We were greeted at the airport by a jolly scottish guy who was really friendly, he arranged a private mini bus for us to get to our apartments.
The apartments were lovely! they were absoultly massive. We had two bathrooms, living area and a kitchen and the bedrooms each had balcanies.
The night life was amazing, i would recommened it to anyone. "
Soraya Geach09/09/2008
"There was 16 of us altogether in the apartments, and we all had the best time! Apartments were situated in a good area, which was not too close to the night life but close enough. I would say it was situated in a residential area and so we had to keep noise to a minimum which is quite difficult with 16 people on a hen party!!
The transfers were really efficient, and we were met straight away at the airport by a alovely scottish guy, and then taken straight to our apartments.
The discount card came in handy, and I would highly recommend the restaurants situated by the beach Port Olympic!!
Altogether had a wonderful holiday and wish we had booked a week now, sea, sand, sun and sangria what more could you want on your Last Weekend of Freedom!!!"
Hannah Mccarragher29/07/2008
"The whole group enjoyed the flemenco evening in Barcelona, it was excellent value for money and our host Kate was very personable and accomodating. Thanks."
Jodie Mcewen16/07/2008
"I thought the apartments were lovely that we used for my hen weekend in Barcelona, we all really enjoyed ourselves. Was a great location. The apartments were nice and airy with high ceilings, us girls were very happy to discover two bathrooms in each apartment. We are very happy we choose last night of freedom to go with!"
Mekala Dallimore16/07/2008
"Fantastic, would recommend a weekend in Barcelona to anyone. Beautiful, hectic city with entertainment and sight seeing if you prefer."
Sharon Easton24/06/2008
"Overall the weekend was a great success and the organisation on Saturday night was superb. We all enjoyed our guides company and he was attentive and helpful.
With regard to the accommodation, we had a very strong smell of paint and / or varnish in the apartment block on Friday and it was very overwhelming. The second smaller bedroom needs a mirror when there are so many sharing and trying to get ready to go out. You know what us girls are like! "
Liane Bone24/06/2008
"We had a great time in Barcelona, the city was great! Fab mix of sightseeing to do and bars and nightlife tto visit. Accomadation was Ok, in a good location. "
Kim Scanlon18/06/2008
"Barcelona is a beautiful destination there's plenty to see and do and you can be as wild or subdued as you wish, my only regret was we didn't spend enough time there. All the hens were very impressed with my choice of destination, and our accommodation was perfectly placed, very close to the centre of Barcelona, but still within a residential area so you had a flavour of the true Barcelona. "
Fiona Davison13/05/2008
"The only complaint I had was the rain :( !!! and Last Night of Freedom had nothing to do with that. The accommodation was fantastic and the airport transfers were perfect - our driver was really helpful at telling us where to go and where to avoid. All in all a GREAT trip - thanks!"
Emily Butlin03/04/2008
"Our reps Mel and Phillipe were fantastic and made the night for us all. The were attentive and on the ball ensuring anything we needed was adhered to."
Jags Sandhu20/03/2008
"The treasure hunt was great fun, a unique way of discovering parts of the city and the culture."
Simone Corner27/02/2008
"The cocktail course was great fun and everything well organised. The whole group rated it highly."
Victoria Barrett13/11/2007
"Barcelona was absolutely wicked for a hen party, we spoiled ourselves with spa treatments during the day and we arranged a bar crawl in the evening, the hotel was very central to all good bars, restaurants and clubs. Last Night of Freedom made organisation so easy, very highly recommended."
Elaine Mason 31/10/2007
"I was a little nervous about organizing the hen party over the internet but everything was brilliant, the agents for Last Night of Freedom were great both in England and Spain. I would always recommend Last Night to any one organizing a hen or stag do.
Thanks very much it was absolutely BRILLIANT.
Elaine Mason "
Amanda Read30/10/2007
"An amazing weekend, the activties were fantasic."
Hannah Gee30/10/2007
"Barcelona had everything a hen weekend with a difference requires - fab and funky bars and clubs, wonderful pamper venues and food glorious food! We had a great time discovering Barcelona and gave the bride to be a weekend to remember. "
Cheryl Kelly21/11/2006
"The hen do in Barcelona was out of this world. Our guide Ben was brillant, he showed us the best pubs and clubs to go to. Booking with Last Night of Freedom took the pressure of me, they booked the meal and stripper. We are still talking about how fab the meal was and how brillant the stripper was. Everyone enjoyed themselves and we will be back in Barcelona one day soon. Top marks for Last Night of Freedom and thank you very much for everything. "
Nicola Hawkins20/10/2006
"Would have been nice if we were informed prior to the meal that it would mainly be fish!! Out of the 7 of us 2 liked fish. Apart from that the whole weekend was fab!!!! Gabo was a great host!!"


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subset: commoncrawl


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The number of pupils leaving school without mastering the three Rs has reached "crisis" proportions, the CBI warned today.
Sir Digby Jones, CBI director-general, called for schools to be better funded so children could be taught in smaller classes.
In an interview with Teachers' TV News, Sir Digby said: "We've got something like a fifth of the adult population in this country who can't read, write or count.
"We've got half the kids who do a GCSE in the summer not getting grade C or above in English and maths.
"This is a crisis. We're the fourth biggest economy on Earth, we're one of the greatest trading nations on the planet and we haven't even got half the school leavers equipped to deal with the world.
"So it's of crisis proportion," he said.
"Business has the right surely to turn round to a school and say: 'What are you doing to deliver kids who can read, write and count?' "I don't think teachers can run away from that."
Sir Digby also called for education to be 'better funded than it is', to provide more teachers and smaller class sizes.
He welcomed more government investment in education but said there was "another long way to go".
Sir Digby said more attention should be given to teaching foreign languages such as Spanish and Mandarin.
"We're lucky. We speak the global language of business and someone who doesn't learn any other language can get by in the world because of English," he said.
"But if you were going to equip a child today to get on in the 21st century and you were anywhere in the world you'd teach them three languages - you'd teach them English first, you'd teach them Spanish second and you'd teach them Mandarin third."
A spokesman for the Department for Education said ministers had made "record investment" in education.
"We have the best ever results in English and maths - 85,000 more pupils are now leaving primary schools with the expected level of English and 95,000 in maths.
"This year's GCSE results not only showed a record number achieving five good GCSEs but also the biggest rise in maths pass rate for five years and further increases the number achieving English GCSE.
"We agree that languages for business are vital and we're glad to see ever increasing numbers of pupils opting for languages such as Mandarin Chinese."
· The interview will be broadcast at 9pm today.


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Libraries offering more than books
"Instead of a place being filled with books, we're more of a place where people can socialize."
All that's missing from the North Liberty Community Library is a fake brick wall back drop.
The facility will become a default comedy club at 7 p.m. Friday, July 26 when Kevin Kramis and Bill Hildebrandt present their standup skills and cap off the library's adult summer reading program.
For Elaine Hayes, the free event – which she called "family friendly – is a chance to cater to mature readers. While the space has played host to authors and ghost hunters, it has never served as a default laugh shack.
"We try to do programming for adults to get them in the library," said Hayes, the branch's adult services librarian. "It's really easy to get kids, their parents bring them. As people get older it's hard to get them engaged."
The silent space for reading and research is the identity of the past. The North Liberty branch has gradually evolved from the traditional library to more of a gathering spot for area residents, Hayes said, noting part of that makeover is due to its shared space with the North Liberty Community Center.
"I think that libraries are seeing that their role in their communities is starting to change," she said. "Instead of a place being filled with books, we're more of a place where people can socialize. We're not a quiet library. We don't shush. People come in and meet."
"One of the reasons you're doing all of the promotions is to share what the collection is," said Maeve Clark, coordinator of adult services at the Iowa City Public Library. "We want people to use the resources in the library."
Clark said turnout has been high for movie screenings, author readings and Civil War-themed events that incorporated music and well as lectures.
Amber Mussman, public information officer and adult programming coordinator for the Cedar Rapids Public Library, said she's seen many libraries experiment with more unconventional events such as beermaking and winemaking to attract the over 18 set.
"The libraries' goal is to engage the community and its citizens in some matter," she said. "We do a variety of different things in that capacity so we become a community hub in that sense … We find a big sense of responsibility to do things that benefit the community."
Mussman said she plans to do "surprising" programming, including "hands-on experiences," once the downtown branch reopens in August. While those initiatives are not yet cemented, she listed crafts, a Scrabble club and The Salon Series quarterly author readings at Marion's Campbell Steele Gallery, as events that have resonated with mature library patrons."In terms of attendance in programs, it's always hard to engage people because there's always so much going on and the hardest thing is getting through the noise," Mussman said.
|Iowa Department of Transportation wants ...
|Get out of the house this holiday weeken ...
|Taking stock at the Turkey Trot in Cedar ...


text:
260 Tasting Notes
On Monday, I made a cup of this but I came down with a headache and a fever and I felt like I wanted to vomit, so instead of activating plan A [studying and drinking tea], I activated plan B [sleep until my next class]. Consequently, this cup went cold.
Today, I decided it deserved a take two, so I made a cup of it.
It says "blend," so I can only assume that there are multiple types of tea in this. I tasted what I thought might be some Ceylon, and than I got some nearing intense bitterness that made me think Darjeeling. The bitterness wasn't as strong as a previous encounter with the Autumnal Darjeeling Auggy sent me, but it was familiar enough that it made me "hurm."
I became even more suspicious when that bitterness began to sweeten in the aftertaste, and then as it cooled a bit more became even more indicative of that muscat taste.
Upon reading the description of this tea, I'm somewhat confused because I didn't get any Keemun out of it. I didn't really spend a lot of time smelling the leaves or the tea. I don't know why, as I seem to be very much all about that lately. Anyway, I've got enough left of this to play around a bit, so I'll be doing that.
Sorry this log is lacking in complete thoughts and cohesiveness. All I wrote down from my drink earlier today was:
And combined with the fact that Craig Ferguson is talking at the screen with an alligator puppet in a Cajun-Scottish accent, it's making this difficult.
Okay, I'm done.
This tea is interesting.
And I don't mean interesting as in that thing you say when you don't know what to say. I mean interesting as in it is full and varied and complex and it made my brain go to several different places all at once. I knew I wasn't going to be logging this when I drank it, so I was typing down some words when I did, and every single time that I did something – smelled it, sipped it, swished it, whatever, I found something different.
I was flooded with flavors and smells and texture and memories and wow. This tea was bombarding me with so many things that I could barely keep up. And at the same time I was trying to think, and to place things I wasn't recognizing instantaneously. It was overwhelming, yet invigorating.
So I'm going to try and piece this together, but forgive me if it comes out a little disjointed, because to me this is like launching someone up into the middle of the sky during the fireworks, bringing them back down, and then asking, "So, what was it like?"
First, this tea is strong. For what it's worth, I put about a teaspoon and a half in ten ounces of water. This was also my very first experience with it, so I'll probably try a shorter steep time just to see if that has any effect, though this level of flavor met me well.
There were only two components of this tea that did not strongly remind me of summer – the cinnamon and the tail of the sip that made me think of unsweetened cranberry juice. [Yes, this tea contains hibiscus. And yes, it is bold at the finish. If you can't handle it I don't recommend this tea, but you should be aware that this tea holds so much more than hibiscus.] As for the rest of it…
The dry leaf reminds me of peaches or apricots – ripe and juicy and slurpy – and they're accompanied by cinnamon. Wet, the leaf takes on a bunch of different tones. Sometimes it smelled to me like fruit punch. Then it was potpourri [but not in a bad way]. Then [and it took me a bit of thought to place this] it smelled distinctly like popsicles. You know, the fruit flavored ones that come in the white paper packaging. It had that muted fruitiness, accompanied by that dryness from the ice.
And then, perhaps strangely, I smelled chlorine. I swam competitively for a pretty long time, so chlorine, though really relatively the same from pool to pool, has different connotations to me; different smells. This was summer chlorine; the smell that rises off the soaked concrete of the pool deck as the sun beats down relentlessly. We would slink out of the water, exhausted after a particularly difficult practice and lie, half-heartedly stretching to try and quell the lactic acid that would shortly turn us into human noodles. That strange, unexpected yet familiar chlorine smell was also present in the liquid, but it came and went, dodging between the scent of peach pie sprinkled with cinnamon.
I wasn't sure what I was going to get from this exactly, so I tentatively took a quick sip. I didn't let it sit in my mouth for very long, and just swallowed it and I quickly realized this was not going to be enough time to get anything out of it except the resulting tartness. On the next sip, I held it in my mouth and let it roam around a bit. The hibiscus taste was there, but along with it was apple – not particularly sweet, but tart apple, and something else that I couldn't place. I gulped that sip down [the cranberry taste, as I discovered, was more apparent to me if i swallowed quickly, the hibiscus aspect clearer if I let it make it's way down more slowly] and took another sip in.
This time, I held the tea at the front of my mouth, just tasting it with the tip of my tongue. Here, I could definitely taste the cinnamon. That was very apparent. But there was something else swirling around with it that I couldn't quite figure out until it side-swiped my brain.
It was so clearly plum. I don't know how to break it down anymore than that, I can just say that once I recognized it I nearly face-palmed.
The rest of my cup was spent holding the tea at the tip of my tongue and then pounding it down when I was ready to swallow. I seriously enjoyed that plum cinnamon-y taste, and found the cranberry tartness at the finishing strangely refreshing. I was slightly, slightly disappointed that there weren't really any peach or apricot flavors to be found, though honestly I think that the rest of the tea was so intense I think it would have been completely drowned out.
I'm wondering if a shorter infusion will dial everything down enough to bring out more flavors, or if it will simply make for a softer cup of tea. Anyhow, this made for a really neat experience. I got a bit more complexity out of the aroma than I did the actual taste of the tea, but that plum cinnamon combination was delightful. I'll also have to try this iced when the weather turns warmer. Anyhow, right now I'm not thinking that this is going to be a re-order for me. It's almost too loud for me to enjoy as a tea to drink before bed [which is what I'd want it for since it's decaf], but for the time being I think I'll really enjoy this tin.
When I saw this on the Samovar website I immediately thought of Harney & Sons Spiced Plum, which is really good (I think). I didn't realize Cinnamon Stonefruit also had plum in it. I'll have to add some to my next order.
Okay, that sounds pretty awesome! Another Samovar win. I love it how different mouth positions and techniques work better for some teas more than others.
@Shanti It's one of the most WHAM, KAPOW, I'm-gonna-throw-some-flavors-at-you-and-I-don't-care-if-you're-ready teas I've had in a while.
@teaplz I love it, too! It keeps things interesting, fo sho.
Okay, I love the summer chlorine description. I spent many summers by the pool and the smell of chlorine on heated concrete is just wonderful. I love this tea from afar. So much.
These are some components that I have found in unflavored black teas. If you stripped them from all of their respective counterparts, I'm pretty sure that Ceylon is what you'd be left with. It tastes like black tea without the cool stuff.
And yet, there's something really compelling about it. It's plain, yes, but it's comfortable. It's familiar. And it's smooth, smooth, smooth.
This tea is Doug Funny.
Chik-a-pa chik-a-pa chik-a-pa boo-shwaaaaaah.
LOVE DOUG. I've seen every single episode, and my favorite is when Pattie briefly holds his hand. And then he refuses to wash it for a month. I'm not talking about ABC Doug, though. Cause that was an abomination. And yeah, Ceylon is totes "default" tea.
Every now and then my friends and I will bust out a little "Killer Tofu" or "Bangin' on a Trashcan." Hehe. And yes, I completely agree about ABC Doug. It was all just so…not the same.
Most black tea I've tried has this really distinct flavor that I can't seem to pick apart, so in my head I've just labeled it as "black tea flavor." This tea has that. I took a sip and it was all, "O hai! I'm in ur cup, blackin ur tea."
It doesn't have any smokiness, but it doesn't quite read as "smooth" to me. It's somewhere in between the two, which would almost be unsettling if it wasn't sweet. It's a pleasant kind of sweet; I enjoy it. And it helps with the bitterness that greets you at the tail of the sip.
About halfway through the cup I started to notice that it was drying my mouth out a bit. Not a ton, but enough to be noticeable. Also, the cocoa started to really come through, especially when combined with that bitter taste at the end. It was much more noticeable when I was inhaling, and if I kept my mouth closed and breathed in through my nose I could taste it a bit, too.
The last little bit of what I had in my cup got rather cool, which confirmed my suspicion that this tea runs best for me when it's between hot and lukewarm. Overall, a pleasant tea that doesn't really stand out all that much. Might be good for a lazy afternoon spent perusing the newspaper.
It's taken me forever plus three days to get around to logging these suckers. I'd sat down to do it one day and then realized that it'd been too long since I actually drank them and wanted to wait until I tried them again before logging them.
Now that that incredibly boring explanation is out of the way, on to the tea.
This Dragonwell rates a solid second on my Dragonwell scale. It's not a light, dancing, happy sweetness like that darned Dragonwell Spring that Carolyn sent me. It does, however, have some sweetness to it.
The first thing that struck me is that this tea brewed up into a very light yellow color. I don't know why I made a note of this, but it was very, very light. I've had a lot of teas that have been brewing up near colorless lately, but it's still novel enough for me t notice it when it happens.
Also, the leaves, and this is gonna sound kinda crazy, smelled like turkey when I sniffed them from up above. It took me a while to place it, but when I realized it I said aloud, "Holy poop, turkey!" [Except "poop" was replaced with its four-lettered cousin.] Curious, I sniffed them again closer, through the infuser, and they smelled like green beans – specifically the canned variety.
It had been long enough since I'd tried this that I couldn't remember exactly what to expect from this [secretly, I'm using these tea logs to replace my BRAIN]. The biggest taste that I got from it was, perhaps not surprisingly, green beans. Fresher green beans than what it smelled like, but green beans. A little salty, more sweet, though. And maybe with just a hint of smoke.
I'm going to try bringing the temperature down to 160 and see what that does for it. I'll be able to compare better now that I have it in my brain.
Turkey? Wow. Not near as fun as Jackee's caramel but I"m going to have to have this soon to see if I can find turkey (though honestly, I hope I don't).
Wow at the turkey flavor. It's okay, cause I smelled cilantro in my Strawberry Chocolate rooibos from RoT. This sounds like a pretty good Dragonwell! The one I sent you is pretty sad.
HAHAHA, I couldn't taste turkey, just smelled it. I think this would have been really weird if I had tasted turkey. Though I guess no weirder than this.
Ever since I read this: http://bit.ly/6kBYYq, I have been obsessed with trying this tea. So, when I decided it was time to put another order through with Rishi, Ancient Yellow Buds was the first tea on my list.
Not gonna lie, it's pretty amazing.
First things first, this tea brews clear [or very nearly so]. It doesn't look like you've done anything. I was thrown by this a bit, but now you know, and knowing is half the battle. [Cue shooting star rainbow swipe thingy.]
I'm going to have to agree with LENA, in that I primarily get honeysuckle out of this. Lovely, concentrated, honey combined with that almost strained sweetness from cholorphyll and a nectar-like thickness honeysuckle. It also did this crazy wonderful thing for me where, once I had swallowed the tea, I could feel the lingering honeysuckle taste actually dissolving on my tongue. Physically felt it. Like cotton candy, that kind of sensation, except not sickly sweet. Or angel food cake. It was awesome.
But the thing that kicks this tea from "love it" to "I am going to throw down some serious hyperbole and expletives until you try this" is the fact that lightly, in the aftertaste, towards the back of my tongue, I get the taste of freshly baked white bread, sweet and yeasty. This is not obvious. I like to wait in between sips of my tea, and that's probably why I noticed it.
I did three steeps of this at varying times [gauge reflects the first one, Rishi recommends 3 minutes and then 4-5 on second and third steeps, which is what I did]. I don't really see any need to deviate from these times, but I might since I definitely have enough to experiment a bit. Speaking of which, I bought 4 ounces of it, which I'm very glad of now because I expect that I'll be drinking a lot of it. Anyhow, if any of this sounds even remotely appealing to you I'd suggest that you get it.
@Takgoti I definitely agree that yellow tea is great. I got some Mengding Mountain Snow Buds, Huang Ya from last years crop from Tea Trekker. The infusion is really clear and to me this version sort of tastes like it has a hint of sweet asparagus(sounds disgusting but it's not.) I think that Rishi sets the steeping temperature a bit too high because Yellow Tea is more similar to Green Tea in nature, but maybe that's why you tasted those honeysuckle and bread tastes.
@Carolyn I'm gonna send you some!
@TeaCast It's good!
@Fred I prescribe to the school of thought that not all teas should necessarily be brewed the same even if they're of the same "type" anyway. I think that slight differences in processing and whatnot can result in more delicate or more hardy teas and that a lot of it's susceptible to personal preferences anyhow. That being said, I had zero issues with what Rishi put on the bag, but it won't keep me from trying different things in future cups.
@Takgoti You're absolutely right about the fact that certain teas can take a higher temperature. I agree with you on that one. What's amazing and why I like tea so much is that all the differences in flavor lie with the skill of tea master who processes the tea. It is pretty amazing you can take the same leaf and get 100's of different flavors just by processing it differently. I also deviate from directions sometimes. An example of this is I will start at steeping something that says a few short steepings at 3 minutes for first steeping 5 for second and 7 or 8 for third steeping.
NOM NOM NOM. Ugh, this and Purple Bamboo will be part of a super-future Rishi order! And I seriously mean super-future, since the tea is about to burst out of my house and start its own website.
@teaplz, I completely agree! But unfortuantely Den's Tea is being way too nice and giving away Lucky Gold Tea w/ a purchase of $30 or more. The one tea I really do need more of is, in spite of my already MASSIVE collection, matcha. I'm almost down to only having mandarin matcha left and I want to break that up w/ unflavored. So that'll put me at $24… and I really want that Lucky Gold tea so now I have to spend another $6! Too bad… hehe;)
Haha, my $3 coupon from Den is going to go to waste. I definitely do not need more tea for a while and it expires in January.
Ricky, I don't need any more (well except matcha) either lol, but come on how many times to you get a chance to try gold plated tea? So since I'm already putting in an order, I might as well put one item into my cart:)
I've been holding off on finishing my last three packs of matcha as well. I don't want it to all go away already. Argh when I thought I was finally making process and clearing the cupboard I received a whole bunch of tea.
Depriving yourself of matcha is just wrong:) So order some matcha and something else to make at least $30 then indulge in Lucky Gold Tea!=D
This review borders on the obscene. I feel like it should have been tagged NSFW. I mean…sure, yes, alright, with my wisdom teeth out there was probably some risk of me drooling on myself already anyway, but this is just over the top.
Honey and freshly baked bread? Really?
I would be feeling sort of scandalized if I weren't so interested.
@Teaplz I just ordered 1/4 lb of Lu Shan Clouds & Mist
Spring 2009, 1/4 lb of Sweet Dew Gan Lu 2009 Pre-Qing Ming, and samples of Mengding Mountain Rock Essence 2009 Pre-Qing Ming and Everest Hand-Rolled Tips Spring 2009 organic plus a 50.7 ounce glass teapot from http://www.teatrekker.com. My wife didn't want me to order it because she says I have too much tea and need to use what I have already. I told her if she can buy clothes I can buy tea:-). My tea drawer is overflowing lol.
@teaplz I was gonna try and come up with some kinda clever www for your tea, but I am full of food and too complacent and full for cleverness at the moment.
@sophistre Aw, sorry. Maybe I should have topped it with a little NC-17 or somethin'. It's really very ridiculously nommy.
As someone who bakes bread for a living, this is obviously a must for me. I'm enjoying the yerba mate I'm drinking to wake up right now, and I was totally fine with it (and with having not yet eaten breakfast) until I read this! I'm trying to clear out some room in my tea stash, too, before I even think about getting any more tea. There are little odds and ends of things need drinking, and some of it's far too old, so I'd never even consider adding it to the TTB. Therefore, it must be drunk…but WHY then do things like this have to tempt me? WHY?!?! weeps and gnashes teeth
Auggy was kind enough to send me a little of this. This is the first gyokuro I've made myself and I wanted to do it up right so I got a kyusu. The tea arrived here before the kyusu did, so there was a bit of an internal battle going on until I got my Rishi stuff. I was literally, at one point, standing and staring at this tea until I caught myself and shook myself out of it.
Anyhow, I was good and I waited. I'm not sure what difference making this in the kyusu made, but I liked rocking and swishing the stuff out.
I read/heard/saw somewhere that gyokuros are supposed to sit for 5 or so minutes in cold/room temperature water to open them up and keep them from before steeping them warm. That's something that's stuck with me for some reason, but I'm also not sure how specific that is to the type of gyokuro, and whatnot. I've also read many different things about water to leaf ratios and the temperature of water that's "supposed" to be used for hot/warm infusions. I've heard that you're not supposed to use water hotter than 160°F and that you should infuse in ice water. What all of this has led me to believe is that I just need to drink a lot more gyokuro and see what slams my door.
Anyway, I let this sit in some room temperature for five minutes. [I did try to drink that but it was relatively flavorless.] Then I did about four steeps at 1 minute in 140°F water, all of which tasted relatively the same. I probably could have kept going, to be honest, and I make a face as I type this – I think I might have wasted the leaves as a result. I also see that Auggy has varied her steeping times for different infusions [which is what you're probably supposed to do]. Luckily, I have some left of this to play around with, so I'll have to try steeping otherwise. I think I'm going to try and read some more about these before I do, because right now I'm very much saturated with conflicting information and I think some of it's going to begin dripping out if I don't try and filter and sort some of it.
All right, enough about my brain scream over "proper" gyokuro steeping. The tea. The tea was good! I really doubt that this truly shows the range of where this can go, but I enjoyed what I got out of it and that's a good thing. What I was missing was that buttery taste that both the description and Auggy both mentioned. I was searching for it, and I think that maybe because I was I thought I caught a glimpse of it, but that could have been purely psychological. What I did get was a vegetal taste followed by a delicious, chlorophyll-y sweetness. The sweetness was bright and high and clear, and only grew in volume when accompanied by inhalation. It also, and I'm really not sure how to describe this accurately, it tingled. It hopped around on my tongue.
This experience has intrigued me enough to really become interested in gyokuro, so I think I'll be trying to procure some more and do a little experimenting.
Also, should you be interested, pictures of the new kyusu begin here [they are, however, without tea]. http://bit.ly/5oRgh0
Very pretty kyusu. It looks calming and minimalist. I created a place in the Discussion area for us to put pictures and video of our teapots and accessories. This would be a good one for that spot, I think. (If you don't mind having it in two places.)
My beloved called your Sorapot video and my most recent one "tea porn". I think he just doesn't understand the joy of gazing at the perfect beauty of teaware. :)
Oooh, I'll go check that out. And so far as the tea porn, HAH, maybe I should switch the song out for a little bow chika bow wow music.
He expanded on his theory further, saying that your video even features a teapot strip act (when you removed it from the wrapping). He says all your video lacked was a Sorapot pole dance.
OhHhh that kyusu looks nice! Great photos as well. I have no clue how to wing Gyokuro's 140F. I might have to hold off on trying it.
Auggy already commented on how to drive Jackee Muntz into Caramel City, so I'm going to take this opportunity to get a little goofy on y'all. [Like I really need an excuse.] I can't take credit for this idea. While I'm sure it's been done elsewhere, I'm sapping inspiration from both an episode of Hey Ash Whatcha Playin' and a rather brilliant Yelp review a friend of mine wrote. If any of you have never stumbled across text-based games, you might not get this. So here's something ridiculous that may or may not help: http://bit.ly/DgJqE [Homestar Runner, Dungeonman 3].
Me: Jackee, what the hell? Why don't you taste like caramel anymore?
Jackee: I do not understand "caramel."
Me: Cut it out. What I am doing wrong?
Jackee: What's a "wrong"?
Me: …What?
Jackee: You are holding a glass MUG. Inside of it sit eight ounces of dark copper liquid. Steam rises from the top, swirling into nothingness. Exits are to the NORTH, SOUTH, and WEST.
Me: …
Jackee: You take a sip of the TEA and burn your TONGUE. Cursing like a sailor whose ship has chanced upon a Kraken, you bang your HEAD against the COUNTER in frustration at your stupidity. Exits are to the NORTH, SOUTH, and WEST.
Me: HEY!
Jackee: What's a "HEY"?
Me: Grumble. LET TEA COOL.
Jackee: You sit aimlessly, watching your TEA while you wait for it to drop an appropriate amount in TEMPERATURE. Occasionally, you blow on it, though you are unsure of its effectiveness on the actual cooling process. Exits are to the NORTH, SOUTH, and WEST.
Me: SIP TEA.
Jackee: You take a sip of TEA. The mouthfeel is thin, but not quite watery. The TEA is flavorful – strong, with notes of smoke and pine and a light sweetness. Exits are to the NORTH, SOUTH, and WEST.
Me: POUR TEA OUT.
Jackee: Well, that was wasteful of you. Exits are to the NORTH, SOUTH, and WEST.
Me: It's not my fault you don't taste good to me anymore! It's your fault you don't taste like caramel!
Jackee: I do not understand that command.
Me: Sigh. READ STEEPSTER.
Jackee: You log into your Steepster account. New reviews have been posted. Please click here: http://steepster.com/aug3zimm/posts/23176. Exits are to the NORTH, SOUTH, and WEST.
Just to walk you through my thought process at this point, now I'm really thinking. When I had Jackee the first few times, I was drinking out of a different mug and I didn't know that my utiliTEA was messing me up temperature wise. Even when it turned, I don't want to say bad, but "not as good" on me, I didn't know about my utiliTEA's little issue for the majority of my experimentation. I'd get a cup of caramel maybe one time out of five, but the parameters wouldn't match up so I was starting to think it was all in my head.
By the time I figured out the temperature problem, I barely had any Jackee Muntz left, so I tried a few cups on the stovetop and they rendered much of the same. I also tried it in a travel mug, and the smell thing didn't seem to fix it either. I did discover that steep time didn't appear to have too much of an effect, though, so long as I kept it somewhere around 3:30 to 4:30, it was pretty consistent.
Part of me must have still thought I could get it back to caramel. I think that I was partially re-invigorated after the discovery of my utiliTEA temperature issue, so I re-ordered Series 2, but the first cup of the first tin was not successful either. After reading Auggy's review, something clicked though. A lot of it had to do with the fact that she had actually found the caramel and that gave me hope [and also reassurance that I hadn't completely lost it]. But also I was looking at the temperature [205°] and thinking about maybe it was the shape of her travel mug. But my mug hadn't been shaped all that differently from the one I like to use now. Except…it had been a bit larger. So maybe the tea to water ratios were a bit different… No, I DON'T KNOW WHY I DIDN'T THINK ABOUT THAT BEFORE.
Me: CHANGE MUG.
Jackee: Which mug would you like to change to? To see your current mugs, type INV.
Me: INV.
Jackee: BODUM MUG, CAFÉ MUG, BIG TEAL MUG NOT SUITABLE FOR DRINKING TEA, BORING STARBUCKS MUG.
This is the mug I was originally drinking tea out of, by the way – http://bit.ly/4Am3Xb – the bottom top one. Oops.
Me: CAFÉ MUG.
Jackee: You switched your BODUM MUG for your CAFÉ MUG.
Me: MAKE MORE TEA.
Jackee: You turn on your KETTLE and wait for the water to heat, measuring out a heaping teaspoon of TEA before dropping it into your INFUSER. In a few minutes, the WATER is boiling. Exits are to the NORTH, SOUTH, and WEST.
Me: LET WATER COOL 195°F.
Jackee: You wait impatiently while the water cools to the appropriate temperature. You really should learn to be a little more tolerant.
Me: SCREW YOU.
Jackee: I do not understand "SCREW."
Me: MEASURE WATER 11 OZ.
Jackee: You measure out 11 ounces of WATER into a MEASURING CUP.
Me: POUR WATER.
Jackee: POUR WATER where?
Me: Into the mug, you idiot.
Jackee: I do not understand "idiot."
Me: POUR WATER INTO MUG.
Jackee: You pour the WATER into your MUG.
Me: STEEP 3:15.
Jackee: Doesn't that seem a bit short?
Me: Now you're helpful?
Jackee: I do not understand the question.
Me: STEEP 3:45.
Jackee: You let the TEA steep for 3 MINUTES and 45 SECONDS, watching a couple of stupid VIDEOS in the the meantime before removing the INFUSER.
Me: SIP TEA.
Jackee: You burn your TONGUE and your IQ drops another few points. You take out a FLYSWATTER and slap yourself across the face. Exits are to the NORTH, SOUTH, and WEST.
Me: LET TEA COOL.
Jackee: You sit aimlessly, watching your TEA while you wait for it to drop an appropriate amount in TEMPERATURE. Occasionally, you blow on it, though you are unsure of its effectiveness on the actual cooling process. Exits are to the NORTH, SOUTH, and WEST.
Me: SIP TEA.
Jackee: The TEA feels heavy in your mouth. A soft note of pine hits your TONGUE, but then gently fades away. You are greeted with the taste of burnt sugar.
Me: SIP TEA.
Jackee: The TEA feels heavy in your mouth. A soft note of pine hits your TONGUE, but then gently fades away. You are greeted with the taste of burnt sugar.
Me: SIP TEA.
Jackee: The TEA feels heavy in your mouth. A soft note of pine hits your TONGUE, but then gently fades away. You are greeted with the taste of burnt sugar.
Me: SIP TEA.
Jackee: The taste of burnt sugar slowly melts into the background and a salty note enters the flavors sliding around on your TONGUE. Anxious, you hold the TEA a bit longer in your mouth and are greeted with the overwhelming taste of caramel.
Me: OH SWEET POSEIDON, THANK YOU!!!
Jackee: What is a "Poseidon"?
Me: I hate you.
Jackee: I do not understand that command.
Me: …
Jackee: A FATAL ERROR HAS OCCURRED. NUMBER OF TEAS HAS EXCEEDED CAPACITY. PROGRAM WILL TERMINATE.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how I won Thursday.
Just a few more notes on the tea, because really that's what all that mess up there was about, I did try steeping this at around 185 and didn't quite get there in terms of the caramel, so I think that your temperature needs to be at least around 190°F, and could probably go up to 200°F but 205°F might be pushing it. [Auggy mentioned to me that her mug was cold and so it probably temperature dropped when it was in there somewhat significantly from the 205°F.] All this being said, all I can say definitively regarding the temperature is that it should be just below boiling if you hope to achieve this. It's possible that we're both just mad.
In regards to the tea:water ratio, I use one of these – http://bit.ly/5SpSvE – and when I measured it against a teaspoon last night it was like…1 1/4 tsp. Give or take a bit. I fill that up that spoon with just a teensy bit over, so somewhere thereabouts. The amount of water I put in the cup is somewhere between 11 and 12 oz, closer to 11.
All of this is assuming you a) have some Jackee Muntz on hand and b) want to try to replicate the caramel taste. I usually don't get this specific in my logs, I know, but this has been bothering me for quite some time and I'm afraid that you're seeing the aftermath of my GEEK OUT session here.
And thus endeth the really long tea log. I'm giving Jackee the ratings bump back to where he deserves to be, now that he has realized his potential for me again.
Seriously. I'm in love with interactive fiction and text adventures, and this is a totally WIN parody of that sort of stuff.
And yay for CARAMEL!
@teaplz Hahaha, not gonna lie, they get kinda tedious for me. And usually there are too many players that have been doing it for yeeeeears and they just go FOOM FOOM FOOM everywhere and I'm just sitting there, all, "Nooooow, north is…"
@Everyone Aw thanks, Steepsterites! [Steeps? Denizens of Steepster?] I'm glad you enjoyed it. I had a lot of fun writing it.
@Jack I'm curious to hear how it turns out. I made it again this morning just because I wanted to be SURE it wasn't going anywhere, and it worked [PHEW!]. I think I'm gonna try to dial it up to 200°F next time; might make it a bit stronger.
Oh takgoti, I meant more of interactive fiction/text adventure than a MUD. There aren't any players except for yourself. You use an interpreter to play them on your desktop, and they're usually free. Zork's the most famous one. They're sort of like interactive stories, and you emulated one exactly in your post. They're often filled with puzzles and narrative elements. Their hey-day was in the 80s, although people are still making them today. www.ifcomp.org is the website for the annual competition. This is what Strongbad was parodying, not the MUDs (text-based RPGs where everyone runs around killing things).
@chrine Thank you!
@teaplz Sorry, that wasn't clear. I was speaking generally of text-based games. The entire schema tends to bore me after a while. I'm too used to my graphics. My brain is lazy. The FOOM FOOM crazy player thing is just an added get-me-outta-here bonus for some text-based games. Though I guess that's true for a lot of games. [Oh, WoW…]
Haha, amazing =D. It took me a while to catch on. I'm slow :(
My bodum cups have cracks in it! It's so sad. I have a 12oz and two 8oz ones. Every time I wash them out, I hit them on the faucet.
Sorry for the stupidly long, long-winded explanation right there. I just geeked out cause I never get to talk about this stuff with ANYONE.
lol i used to play a MUD with my fiancee but he was a FOOM FOOM player where i was like "ok i go west right?"
@Ricky Eep, that blows.
@teaplz No worries.
@Kitch3ntools HAH, I know, right? I finish reading the description and I've finally decided which direction I want to go into and the computer's like, "Uh…you're dead." I'm not much better at single player text adventures either – I die far too easily. I think that they are largely responsible for why I was terrified of dying at any given turn when MYST came out [even though I was told on several occasions that you couldn't die – you COULD get trapped forever at one point though].
Myst was just terrifying in general! The eerie music, those talking books… the fact that you were ALONE all the time. And those puzzles were damned hard!
@teaplz Truth: I used to make one of my parents sit in the room with me when I played MYST. My dad was better because he'd actually try to help me when I played it. I also used to do the same thing with Prince of Persia when that first came out. In my defense, I was nine, but I'm still a wimp. I can't play stuff like Bioshock or Dead Space when I'm alone. Or at night.
@TeaCast Thanks?
Someone needs to get this girl a copy of Inform7. (Maybe it's a higher version than 7 now, actually, that's just the last I was aware of/obtained, admittedly).
All that was missing in this review was a grue. Grues are compulsory.
The temptation to totally overshare in this comment section is overpowering. In my Other Blog Life, I cover/review video games. Obviously, steepster needs its own fem gaming clan, or something.
sophistre, there's Gargoyle for Windows that's an all-in-one interpreter. Pretty awesome. And I'd love to know your Other Blog Life! And I've been dying to post this somewhere, to someone that would understand, ANYONE… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nigRT2KmCE
takgoti, I can't play ANY of those games, period. I end up screaming and throwing the controller. Everyone makes fun of me. I tried to play Silent Hill once. I had to run away from the TV, and beg someone else to turn it off within 20 minutes of starting. So we are comrades in wimp-ness!
@sophistre I had to look up what that was. Wow. [It looks like 7 is the highest version, too.] From what I skimmed it looked like a text adventure constructor program of sorts? I totally see myself becoming fascinated with the idea, losing myself halfway through, and then shoving it in the corner where half of my unfinished craft projects are.
Oh, also, I definitely typed out and deleted, "You are likely to be eaten by a grue," about three times before deciding I might be exposing just a little too much geek on the internets. Clearly, I was wrong.
@teaplz WORD. I also refuse to watch scary movies. A couple of friends called me once and told me to come over and hang out. So I drove over there and they were watching a movie, and I asked them what it was and it was some creepy Japanese film so I definitely left. Hadn't even gotten my shoes off. I can't sleep when I see that stuff, and the fact that I even am thinking about it so much now is probably going to result in the need to put on something like Anchorman so I can actually go to bed. Yes, I'm that bad.
That video was a fine way to end a very sleepless late-night-early-AM. ^^
That's precisely what it is. It's very intuitive about how it handles object creation (which is really all the code for text-based games is, afaik). Fun, interesting. After I discovered it, I did precisely what you've described above. I think I have a copy lying around on a disk somewhere, but I never did anything with it.
And alas, we three diverge on the matter of survival horror games and horror films — I am a sucker for both, despite having hated scary stuff as a kid…I suppose 'Alien' was probably responsible for converting me. I play them and watch them now even though playing them alone is sometimes out of the question and sleeping afterwards is usually nearly impossible. I don't know if this makes me a masochist or what. Maybe I'm addicted to the adrenaline rush!
@sophistre Haha, thanks! Also, so far as the horror thing goes, for me it's mainly the creepy feeling like someone's watching me feeling that gets me. That and the suspense thing. I totally psych myself out. The act of being scared if I'm not expecting it is something I can usually handle. It's the expectation of being scared that is when I get freaked out. [I don't think I actually realized this until I typed this all out.]
Funny, somewhat related story, a friend of mine used to hear the voice of Robert Stack from Unsolved Mysteries in her head whenever she'd go out to put the trash on the curb or something similar. "It was a normal Wednesday evening on this quiet street in Baltimore, Maryland. Jennifer Johnson was walking her trash out to the curb…"
@teaplz – I stopped writing them for ages, but as of recently I'm sort of trying to reassemble anything that wasn't official onto a tumblr page, which is now listed in my profile, if you're curious. ;) I'm lazy and update the video-game specific stuff rarely though, alas. I'm pretty behind.
@takgoti – I totally psych myself out. I am able to think of infinitely more frightening things once I'm jumpy than the movie or game can throw at me, for sure. I'm not ashamed to say that there are nights when the bathroom light stays on! Thinking about it, I wonder why I do this to myself…ahh, well. That's pretty funny about your friend. I guess for me it'd probably be Bill Curtis!
This' making me feel bad that I haven't logged onto any of my usual MUDs in a while. All of my characters have probably expired. Ahwell.
But I'm interested in the tea now. Hmmm. Very interesting read.
@Tyler Hahaha, thanks! [Though I don't think I'll be writing another review like that anytime soon.] And yes, I tend to be very long winded. Oops?
@AJ Sounds like me and my relationship with WoW. Though I think/hope that my characters haven't expired. Anyway, you should check Andrews & Dunham out! I can't make any guarantees as to how you'll get along with them, but I like them quite a bit.
I poked through the website a few times! It just takes me forever to purchase items online. I am a very apprehensive online shopper, despite glowing reviews. Actually, it extends offline as well. It takes me a few days of staring to decide.
@tak: Not that I play WoW, or if I did that I would even acknowledge that sort of thing in a public forum, because I totally would not, but if that were true, I'm sure you could find me on Malorne.
LOL. Reading this, I felt like I had been sucked into the Lost Treasures of Infocom. Oh, and as for where north is: you need a pencil and some graph paper. You haven't met tedious until you've mapped a text adventure. Its even more tedious than mapping a pre-auto map function CRPG. ;)
I got my Samovar order in today and I am so glad this is back in my life. Like, seriously, so glad.
When I ordered this the first time, I went out on a limb and got a large tin because I love orange, I like ginger, and I trusted Samovar. It was a good thing, because this has become a tea I very often love to have to finish the day.
I put about a teaspoon and a half into 8 oz. of water, and I think I was using more water [probably closer to nine, nine and a half] before because it came out stronger. I didn't mind it though, especially because I could actually feel the ginger warming my insides. If you're not a huge fan of ginger, I'd recommend upping the water volume or steeping it for around 4 minutes instead [this is a tea with which I have done much experimentation] because it becomes less noticeable there.
Especially now, in the midst of winter, I'll probably continue to brew this strong. Once it starts to warm up I'll likely revert to something a little weaker. The main tastes that I get out of this are the citrus [mainly orange, maybe a hint of that extra puckery lemon, but just a hint] and the ginger. The licorice is barely noticeable to me, and really I think it's just there to add depth to the sweetness.
It's like what I think a glass of orange cider would be like. I'm a big fan. Giving it a small bump.
Auggy's right. This smells like Pledge. I actually smelled it and thought Pine-Sol, but those two are pretty close. Also, maybe a little bit of cedar. It's not really a scent that inspires confidence when what you're smelling is something you're about to ingest.
Luckily, she's also right in that it doesn't taste like that. This was a milder tea for me, so far as teas go. Somehow, though, the combination of the lemon and the chamomile reminded me of potpourri. Originally, they combined to make me think I was getting a woody kind of taste, but now I'm definitely thinking it's closer to potpourri. Eh. I can see where the thought was. Maybe if the lemon was a little bit stronger, this wouldn't taste so strange, but…eh.
Yeah, seriously. It's very off-putting. The rating would have been pretty dismal if that had actually come through in the taste.


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Wow a Teavivre Pu Erh that no one else has reviewed. I feel honoured to be the first :)
I'm full of Chinese food now and I rummaged in my bag to find my sample of this. It's in a rather large silver sealed bag instead of the usual Teavivre sample bags and I can feel that the tea is a large piece of cake. That sounds nice … a large piece of cake. It would see I have more than one stomach, one for Chinese food and one for puddings.
Anyway I opened the bag and pulled out this large piece of broken off cake. It weighs 21g so I'm going to have to half it. There we are I now have 10g in my Gongfu. It's a mixture of dark and medium browns in colour with a rich and slightly smoky fragrance.
Tea:10g 5 steeps:30s,1m,2m,3m,4m 100ºC/212ºF
The table above was taken from the Teavivre website so I will try following those rules, if it's too strong then I will lower the steeping times.
Steep 1 – 30 seconds
The colour is reddy brown similar to mahogany and it smells sweet, woody, earthy but fresh. The flavour is actually quite subtle, it's fresh and light but it has a mature sort of taste.
Steep 2 – 1 minute
The colour now is almost black and looks like cola. It tastes earthy and thick, a little sweet and woody to. Despite it's strength it's still fresh and smooth. The quality is starting to make itself known and I'm impressed so far.
Steep 3 – 2 minutes
It still keeps increasing in strength but remains smooth and rich but fresh. For being ripe there is still a sweetness there and no harshness at all like some lower quality Pu Erh has. This is smooth all the way with that sort of caramel finish. Smoky, woody caramel.
Steep 4 – 3 minutes
The caffeine has made me a little tea drunk, it's pretty awesome. It's still the same colour as cola. The sweetness is increasing but not as much as some Pu Erh, this really has balanced perfectly.
Steep 5 – 4 minutes
In a few words this tea is: rich, sweet, woody, earthy, smooth, light, fresh, mellow, smoky and a little fruity. The strength has weakened a little in this steep but I think it would easily hold for another few.
I think this is the best ripe Pu Erh I have ever tasted. It's not heavy or bitter which is what I was expecting and it was also very consistent throughout. Delicious.


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Taliban Leader Arrested in Pakistan
Pakistan said it has arrested a Taliban leader, but there were conflicting reports about his identity and the role he played in the al Qaeda network.
Senior Pakistani official identified the detainee as Abu Yahya or Abu Yahaya.
Earlier, media reports quoted officials in Pakistan as saying the man was an American-born spokesman for al Qaeda, Adam Gadahn. But the senior Pakistani official said he didn't believe Mr. Gadahn had been arrested.
Regional Violence
Follow events in Afghanistan and Pakistan, day by day.
A second senior Pakistani official also denied that any American national has been seized. "Adam Gadahn has not been captured," he said.
The arrest of another al Qaeda leader would mark a victory in the U.S.-led battle against the extremist Islamic group, continuing what appears to be increased cooperation by Pakistan in the U.S. effort. The Pakistanis have recently detained several Afghan Taliban commanders in Karachi, including the movement's second in command.
However, it wasn't clear late Sunday who Abu Yahya was, or what role he might have played in the extremist group.
If the suspect proves to be a U.S. citizen, it could highlight the small, but troublesome, role played by U.S. nationals in Islamic extremism. The radical U.S.-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki has emerged as one of a handful of "Internet imams" who could be helping to recruit Westerners to al Qaeda. Mr. Awlaki is being scrutinized for possible ties to Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian who allegedly failed to explode a bomb on a U.S. airliner on Christmas Day, and to Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a U.S. Soldier charged with killing 13 at Fort Hood, Tex.
Mr. Gadahn also is suspected of helping al Qaeda leaders improve English-language graphics in their Internet video messages.
The arrest of a U.S. citizen such as Mr. Gadahn could also expose the legal complexities that Washington faces in dealing with homegrown terrorists—if the suspect were to wind up in U.S. hands.
Mr. Gadahn was indicted during the Bush administration on charges of treason and material support for terrorism, civilian crimes that must be tried in a federal district court under full constitutional protections. As a U.S. national, he couldn't be tried by military commission.
When it first began trying to resurrect the long-dormant practice of commission trials after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Bush administration feared a political backlash if it were to propose giving Americans the more-limited legal protections envisioned for alien prisoners.
Departing from past practice—in 1942, two Nazi saboteurs who held U.S. citizenship were tried by military commission—former President George W. Bush's November 2001 order authorizing commissions and subsequent legislation have exempted U.S. citizens from such trials.
That distinction remains a potential legal flaw for military commissions, in part because the Geneva Conventions require that enemy defendants receive justice comparable to that afforded a country's own troops accused of wrongdoing.
Defense lawyers at Guantanamo Bay have asserted that the military commissions violate the Constitution's equal-protection guarantee, but courts have yet to resolve the question.
—Jess Bravin and Jared Favole contributed to this article.


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Mr. Wishes-He-Were-Hitchcock ("Scarface," "Carrie," "The Untouchables") loves his blondes and his femmes fatales ("Femme Fatale" was even the name of his last film), and "The Black Dahlia" has 'em in spades. Set in Los Angeles just after World War II, the film is based on a pulpy James Ellroy novel, which itself was based on a real story about a grisly unsolved murder. It's full-fledged film noir, not just in the hard-boiled dialogue and twisty plot, but in the way it's shot, rife with shadows, angles, alleyways and rooftops.
The obligatory cynical-voiced narrator is police detective Dwight Bleichert (Josh Hartnett), a stand-up guy whose partner and friend Lee Blanchard (Aaron Eckhart) is a little off-kilter and prone to obsessive behavior. They're looking for one particular low-life when Lee gets them moved to another case, investigating the murder of a struggling actress named Elizabeth Short (Mia Kirshner), whose body was found disemboweled and cut in half in an empty field. I mean, who WOULDN'T want to work that case?!
Lee soon becomes unhealthily focused on solving the crime, with leads pointing to the girl's alleged forays into pornography and bisexuality (two of De Palma's favorite topics). That's in the background, though -- indeed, Lee seems to wander out of the film altogether for a while. In the foreground, there is Dwight's budding fondness for Lee's girlfriend, Kay (Scarlett Johansson). The three have always been chummy, but now it begins to go further.
Enter Madeleine Linscott (Hilary Swank). Daughter of one of Hollywood's wealthiest, WASP-iest movie moguls, she's also a part-time lesbian and full-time mystery girl. She had a connection to Elizabeth Short and soon has a connection to Dwight, too, insofar as they start sleeping together. Evidently Dwight never heard the rule about not sleeping with witnesses, or never saw any of the movies where doing so turned out badly.
Oh, but it gets convoluted from there, in the delicious way that film noirs do, with more murders and suspects and clues and red herrings. De Palma shoots it all in his usual gleeful and technically proficient style, though without quite as much showboating as usual. He executes a magnificent crane shot around a run-down building behind which Elizabeth's body is found, but the shot isn't one of the three-minute things he used to do so many of. The scene in which Dwight meets Madeleine's family is shot from Dwight's point of view, the camera standing in for him -- but again, this lasts only a moment. De Palma is doing all his old tricks, in other words, and in great abundance. He's just not doing them as thoroughly as he once did.
And so the film is enjoyable enough, yet never quite comes together as a whole. Without the visual curlicues -- I didn't mention a hauntingly composed shot of a shadowy figure observing a murder -- I suspect my attention would have dwindled several times over the course of the rambling narrative. I admire the way the characters are photographed and the way they move around the sets more than I care about them as people.
The performances are serviceable to the plot, which is to say the actors aren't showy or grand; they just do what they're supposed to. I cite as the sole exception Fiona Shaw, who wins the Christopher Walken Award for Craziest One- or Two-Scene Performance as Madeleine's hilariously alcoholic elitist snob mother. She's the quintessential Brian De Palma character: excessive to the point of being grotesque, so much so that you can't help but smile and think that's what De Palma was going for all along.


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GREEN BAY - The Brown County Drug Task Force says it arrested a 49-year-old Green Bay man for allegedly selling heroin.
Authorities say the suspect was returning from Illinois Wednesday morning with a shipment of heroin. Officers tried to stop him on Lime Kiln Rd. near Debra Ln. on Green Bay's east side.
Officers followed the suspect to a parking lot on E. Mason St. near S. Clay St.
The suspect ran off. Officers found him in the backyard of a nearby residence. He was hiding under an overturned boat.
Investigators say they found 24.5 grams of heroin in the suspect's car. The street value of the drug is estimated to be between $7,400-$8,500.
The suspect is now in jail. He will be in court Thursday.


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Settlement talks between Qwest Communications and the Securities and Exchange Commission are stalled because Qwest won't hand over a 2002 report explaining why some deals now deemed improper were then considered immaterial to its financial results, USA TODAY has learned.
The SEC, which has been probing Qwest's books for more than a year, wants to see the report analyzing Qwest's network capacity and equipment sales back to 1999. That "extended investigation" found that Qwest didn't need to change its financial results regarding those deals because potential problems with them were not "quantitatively or qualitatively material," say March 2002 audit committee summaries.
Some of those deals are being reversed as part of Qwest's $2.2 billion planned restatement of results for 2001 and 2002.
The SEC wants Qwest to waive attorney-client privilege and release the report to ensure its probe of Qwest is complete, people close to the probe say. Qwest fears that doing so would mean it will have to do the same for plaintiffs in shareholder lawsuits. Qwest is negotiating to give the SEC the report without waiving privilege for others, people close to it say.
The USA's No. 4 local phone company will update its restatement Thursday when posting first-quarter results. Under new CEO Richard Notebaert, Qwest has been cleansing its books.
Companies under investigation are facing more pressure from the government to waive attorney-client privilege. If they don't, they could face stiffer penalties.
An item accounting for 10% of revenue is often considered material, but so could a minor deal that helps a company meet its growth targets. So far, regulators and prosecutors have accused eight current and former Qwest employees of fraud.
The materiality debate at Qwest reached its top ranks. When former Qwest CFO Robin Szeliga found possibly improper deals in October 2001, she told Qwest's audit committee that they weren't material, according to previously released data. She said Qwest's former audit firm, Arthur Andersen, former Qwest CEO Joe Nacchio and former general counsel Drake Tempest agreed. Nacchio, who could not be reached, has said he did nothing wrong. Tempest, the SEC and Qwest declined comment.


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Sese – Acid Rap [Audio] #SOTD
St. Catharines, ON – Get the cake! Pour the champagne! Sese is celebrating a birthday today and to celebrate he's dropped off a new heater. Spitting over Chance The Rapper's "Acid Rap," he shows no letting up on the competition.
Look out for Sese on Peter Jackson's Since I Was 16 Canadian Tour, getting started April 1, 2015 in Toronto. He'll be promoting his latest project, the critically acclaimed YFRWN3 (Your Favourite Rapper's Worst Nightmare Volume 3), which is available here.
Sese's "Acid Rap" freestyle is our Song of the Day. Check it out below!
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For many older workers, getting a job in this economy can be a challenge. But despite retiring from a 31-year education career, Karen Adamson felt she had more to give.
So Adamson joined Encore! Hartford, a UConn-based program that trains seasoned workers for nonprofit careers, all because she wanted "to continue to make a difference."
Now, she does marketing for a Hartford nonprofit that helps families get back on their feet financially.
Jim Brady, who also went through Encore!, now works as an elder abuse advocate, following more than 30 years in investment management.
"I wanted to take a skill set that was honed in that particular industry and apply it to the betterment of those around me," said Brady.
Karen and Jim are two of the 125 people who have completed the four-month immersion program.
Students in the program learn the nuts and bolts of running a nonprofit from those who do it every day, then get hands-on experience in a fellowship.
It's a leg up for older workers trying to get back in the workforce, where misconceptions about both salary demands and lack of social media savvy can hurt them.
"The financial system, the current economy, has a tendency to hit the age 50 and up population harder than it does their younger counterparts," said Nora Duncan, spokesperson for the AARP, which works closely with Encore!.
Now in its fifth year, Encore! Hartford aims to reduce unemployment in the corporate world, while increasing the workforce in Connecticut's nonprofit sector, filling the talent void that it says exists throughout the state.
"The ideal beneficiary is, in my mind, the age-50-and-up employee who came from a for-profit sector in a management position, a higher level position, and really has struggled to get back to work and wants to do something more meaningful, with more social impact and more community involvement," explained Duncan.
The program costs around $3,000, but the AARP and the state say they provide some students with grants.


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After reading Naomi Wise's rave about this place several weeks back, finally made it in there today to check it out. It was very good, and is definitely worth a try.
The building used to house a restaurant called Tioli's (which was horrible), and the owner kept the moniker because he was able to purchase their beer and wine license.
The menu consists of burgers, salads, and bratwurst. There are a lot of burger choices, including a German style 1/2 pork, 1/2 beef burger, a Grecian style 1/2 beef and 1/2 lamb, plus turkey, buffalo, ostrich, and alligator versions, with all kinds of interesting toppings.
Also of note was their selection of German draft beers - they had three from Spaten: lager, Optimator, and hefeweizen. They also had some Pilsner Urqell, and a couple of decent domestics (Firestone Double Barrel and Sam Adams), and Newcastle. It was hot, so I ordered a lager to help me decide on food.
The owner was on hand, and made several recommendations. I saw they had a burger with imported sauerkraut. I asked him about it, and he said they imported real German sauerkraut made with white wine. He said it was especially good with their house-made pork bratwurst. He directed me to a special they run, which is a bratwurst, kraut, and German-style potato salad, with a glass of wine or an imported beer for only $10. Couldn't pass up a deal like that, so that's what I ordered.
The food came, and $10 for this amount of food was really a great deal. The bratwurst was sizeable, and came with a flame-grilled roll. They also make their own mustard in-house, which is of the spicy brown variety. The mustard with the brat and the kraut was great. The mustard was pungent and strong, the brat rich and satisfying, and the kraut tender and sweet.
The potato salad was also delicious, with strong flavors of mustard and vinegar.
My friends who went with me ordered some different stuff - one got the burger, another the brat special only he chose the smoked brat. They offer three house-made brats in total: pork, veal, and smoked (not sure which meat goes into the smoked one). My friend with the burger, while he said it was good, did wish he had ordered one of the brat plates.
This is definitely a good place to check out. Prices are very reasonable. Most of the burgers are around $5 for 1/2 pound patty, with some slightly more expensive based on toppings. The exotic burgers like buffalo and ostrich are pricier, coming in around $11.
I have a hard time imagining I would go there and not get the brat special though - that's really one of the best meal deals I've seen around San Diego.


text: > I admit author's bias, but I suggest graphics-drawingcombinators. It is a > 2D drawing library based on OpenGL with a pure interface (no IO, except to > finally render your drawing), and supports all the stuff you want except > clipping. > > It uses the SDL bindings, which I have heard are not easy to > install on windows, but go smooth as a baby's bottom on ubuntu. > > Luke I'll second this. I started using graphics-drawingcombinators about a month ago so I could easily convert SDL Surfaces into 2D sprites within OpenGL. The entire haddock synopsis fits on a single browser page, making it extremely easily to start using and build off of. You might also want to take a look at Conrad Barski's picnic tutorial at http://www.lisperati.com/haskell/, where he does some work with 2D graphics by generating .svg files. -- Michael Steele.


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GIF Animation: Penetration of Meg Griffin upclose!
See the raunchy ways of private life released for you by Family Guy. Two sex-starved bucks poke their rods into a hot hottie's cock-sucker and give her a DP with no mercy! Horny Family Guy cum receptacle wants to feel hard black dick right up her ass, and then blow it till it unloads giving her a messy facial cumshot to savor on…
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The No. 1 verdict of 2012 was $1.17 billion, awarded to Carnegie Mellon University, represented by K&L Gates, on December 26. Carnegie Mellon sued Marvell Technology Group Ltd. in 2009, alleging that the company's computer chips infringed two patents developed by the university. Quinn, Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan represented Marvell during the four-week trial in Pittsburgh. John Quinn of the firm said the case is "far from over." One ground for reversal, he said, was that 80 percent of the damages were for sales outside the United States, which "should not be recoverable."
The second largest verdict of last year was $1.049 billion, awarded to Apple Inc. on August 24 in a closely watched trial in San Jose, Calif. The jury found that Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. had willfully infringed six patents tied to smartphones and tablet devices, but it ruled against Apple on antitrust and contract claims. Since the award, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh denied Apple's bid to ban Samsung's infringing products in the United States. She also threw out the jury's finding that Apple willfully infringed, which prevents Apple from seeking triple damages.
The full list of the largest verdict awards of the past year.
IP Awards Dominate
Intellectual property verdicts represented the largest category in number and dollar value last year. The category has contributed one verdict higher than $1 billion in each of the three prior years. But this year's list of top verdicts was notable in that three verdicts reached the $1 billion mark or higher, and all of them came out of high-stakes trials.
In No. 3 Verdict, Monsanto Wins $1B Over Seed Patent
After three weeks of trial in a closely watched patent case involving genetically modified soybeans, a federal jury in St. Louis, Mo., took just one hour to return a $1 billion verdict against E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co.


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Be safe out there with Serfas' TL-STN Seat Stay Taillight. This water-resistant safety beacon will get you noticed out on the road with a large, super-bright 1/2-watt red LED flanked by 6 brilliant smaller LEDs. Plus, the weatherproof silicone body stretches to easily mount to any tube on your bike. Use a few Seat Stay Taillights for 360-degrees of visibility! This great light has steady, strobe and flash modes.
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This works great. The led lights are incredibly bright and it has several flash settings. Easily attaches to the bike. Just bought it, so not sure how long the battery lasts. Great buy for $20 so far.
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Danish designer Henrik Vibskov has released his Spring/Summer 2009 eyewear collection. The collection consists of several styles, each coming in multiple colorways. The Nathan Road Glasses are a little more special, but also not for everybody. The Sunny is a very easy to wear style, inspired by the Wayfarer.
The Henrik Vibskov Spring/Summer 2009 Eyewear Collection is now available at Tres Bien.
Detailed images follow after the jump.


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Duquesne University Discount Offers
Duquesne University students, faculty, and staff are entitled to discounted tickets to events throughout the Cultural District! To explore current shows, simply click on the links below each organization and your Duquesne University Cheap Seats discount will be pre-applied.
Bringing a group to a Cultural District performance? Visit https://culturaldistrict.org/group for more information and to request your groups' tickets!
- Current Student or Faculty/Staff Identification is required to pick up tickets.
- If you are receiving a message that the code is invalid, this means that there are currently no shows available for sale and we encourage you to check back later for updates.


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Dodge Ram 1500 Big Horn
Dodge Charger SXT
Chrysler 300 Limited
Dodge Durango Crew
Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo
With hundreds of vehicles on our lot, this is the place for sedans, trucks, SUVs, and coupes, we've got what you're looking for. Like this 2008 Dodge Ram 1500. A comfortable ride with plenty of style! Experience driving perfection in the 2010 Dodge Charger. A great car and a great value! Step into the 2011 Chrysler 300. It features an automatic transmission, rear-wheel drive, and a refined 6 cylinder engine. Next up is a competitively priced Dodge Durango. If you need the flexibility of an SUV, you should definitely take this one for a test drive! And finally, load your family into the 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee. Feature-packed and decked out! Our team is professional, and we offer a no-pressure environment. We'd be happy to answer any questions that you may have. We are here to help you.


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Sapna Boxer Short
Why settle for one type of animal print when she can have lots all at once? These wild shorts are a bright and playful coral and blue that say she's in for a fun time.


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What Is Addison
Flash Draw Created Aug 22, 2009 470 x 338px Unless noted Copyright 2009 Addi15.
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Discover Lavazza vending machines for large office environments and high-traffic public areas.
Corporate contactsPhone +39 011 24 08 400
Our history, like all histories, is made up of emotions, obstacles, important changes and leaps into the future.
Creamy and aromatic Coffee blend with intense and aromatic flavour and consistent long-lasting crema.