Jananas

Today’s a gray Canadian winter day. So we wandered over to Black Dog Video and grabbed some movies. Because we’re all about root beer these days, we immediately snapped up two bottles of Boylan’s Root Beer. We’ve both had it before and adore it, so we thought that we’d add it into the mix.

They are a pretty amazing company. In fact, their grape soda is my favorite one thus far. From their website:

“The Boylan Bttlg. Co., founded in 1891, is honored to share very similar beginnings with the carbonated beverages of the same era that are now world-famous. But it is our differences of today of which we are most proud. For more than a century Boylan has formulated and produced, regardless of cost, only “authentic soda-pop”, unlike most bottlers in the country who have over the years compromised their original recipes and cut costs by switching to corn syrup and plastic bottles. Boylan still uses pure cane sugar which enhances the true flavor rather than leave a syrupy aftertaste and thick glass bottles to ensure freshness and proper levels of carbonation. Our in-house flavor formulations use the most expensive extracts and essences – and plenty of them. So whether you’re drinking a Boylan because you appreciate what is good and made right or just trying one for the first time, we thank you for supporting one of the oldest bottling companies and its authentic beverages of a bygone era.”

Now onto the Root Beer Review. First, Boylan only uses cane sugar – nothing artificial here. The soda itself is tasty and pleasing to drink. It has a creamy but not too sweet taste when you first take a sip. There’s a lovely and gentle mint aftertaste. It has the best of a root beer – sweet, creamy, and minty.

To put my review into context – I’ve restaurants to eat at specifically because they sell Boylan products. They are that good.

Last night we had another contender showdown – Berghoff vs. diet Berghoff. Originally hailing from Chicago’s own Berghoff restaurant, you can find more about its history here or below.

“A descendant of Prohibition-era Bergo Soda Pop, Berghoff Root Beer has long been a favorite. For the past 50 years this exceptional rich-tasting root beer could only be enjoyed on draft at the restaurant. Now, both regular and diet varieties are being bottled and can be purchased at The Berghoff or in retail stores.”

Our last few attempts have been a little disappointing, but we’re very happy to announce that we were delighted with Berghoff. To start, their regular root beer is sweetened with cane sugar (not corn syrup). Both bottles had a wonderful minty and creamy scent. It sounds silly, but have you ever smelled a bottle of soda right after its been opened? Try it, if its a good bottle the funny looks you’ll get from the people around you are totally worth the aroma heaven you’ll be in.

The regular version was fresh tasting and well rounded. It was minty and smooth and creamy. It had a little bit of everything and balanced it well. In terms of personal preference, I found it to be quiet sweet (in the cane sugar way) whereas Jason loved it for precisely that reason.

On the other hand I quite liked the diet version. [ I'm going to go off an a brief tangent - I love (love) diet coke, and always have. Its funny because I'm already with the taste of aspartame in it, even though I loathe it in other sodas. I also intensely dislike sucralose, mostly because I find it has a terrible aftertaste. ] The diet version is sweetened with aspartame. It wasn’t nearly as sweet tasting as the regular version. And although it has that aspartame taste, it wasn’t terrible (or as terrible as) most other diet soda. For example, I think diet Dr. Pepper is awful. Overall this diet root beer was quite pleasant. It still had a nice root beer flavour and it wasn’t ruined or overwhelmed by the choice of the artificial sweetener.

I would definitely buy this again and recommend that you give it a try. Thank you Berghoff for restoring my faith in our root beer challenge!

When we were traveling we spent a lot of time reading through guide books (thank you lonely planet). One of the things I wanted to do was to hit up some of the classes on dying and weaving. When we were in Chiang Mai, Thailand I came across pamphlets for the Chiang Mai Batik School. I thought it was interesting and it was certainly in line with my goals of learning more about dying and fabric in general.

The people at the guest house next to ours called up Ann & Ken and booked me in for two days later. The morning of, Ann picked me up at my guest house and surprise of surprises, I was the only person even though they have a stated two person minimum. I’m not sure how else (or better) to sum up my experience than saying I had a fantastic day. For 950 bhat (the equivalent of $30), I had a great, hands on experience.

Ann took me through the equipment and basics, teaching me about the different fabrics and waxes and how to use them. First up was learning salt & sugar techniques. I choose a lovely buddha-esque image that Ann had already drawn up. She had a stack of pictures for those of us who are less artistically inclined. We altered it to make it more personal and then I made my first attempt at canting. Ann fixed up my mistakes and then it was only dying. I have to say that this was my favorite part – playing with colours.

Lunch was a homemade Thai meal made by Ann and served in their dining room. That’s some pretty personal service and it was nice to try something that I knew was authentic (and not just food served to tourists). Did I mention that it was delicious and that she’ll serve vegetarians as well. Yeah, awesome.

After lunch we did a second batik technique – the crackle technique. I chose to do mine on a coarse cotton pillow case (versus the handkerchief-type material used in the morning). I learned more working with a different fabric and I ended up with a second type of item to display my batik making prowess. I chose to draw (?), paint (?), batik (?) (I’m not sure what the right/best verb is) of an elephant. We saw them in Thailand and even took an hour long ride on some outside of Chiang Mai so it seemed like a fitting image.

Again, I had a tonne of fun playing with colour. The elephant is actually a purple/gray colour. I loved the contrast of the yellow and the bright bright green of the leaves.

Put it this way, I loved this course. It was worth every dollar, I ended up with great souvenirs, and Ann was a fantastic host and teacher. So yes, I highly recommend taking it.

I read Stephanie Pearl-McPhee’s (aka the Yarn Harlot) blog about knitting. She’s an accomplish lady and her finish products and spinning always make me want to do more with my own fibre crafting.

Her blog post about the Wild Apples sweater she’s working on (which is lovely by the way) contained one of the best knitting quotes I’ve ever come across.

‘I suggest you not care and try and get all Yoda-knitter on it.  “This is not the sweater you seek.  The process is the sweater. The sweater is progress alone without becoming a sweater.” (It helps.)’

Really, really awesome advice combined with nerdy Star Wars reference, yes please!

I really like the ladies at Heart Breaker here in Toronto. Its great service, great fun, and I always have nice nails after a visit. Last time I was in I was looking through their selection of Minx Nails and I couldn’t resist having them  set aside the Dee’s Skulls (which are little Mxican Sugar Skulls) for me.

This is one of those things that you do just because you can. And it certainly brightens my day when I look down and remember that I’m rocking skulls on my toes.