Sunday, March 17, 2024

Sunday Musings Coffee and Donuts edition

Happy St. Patricks day, hope you're wearing some green today, just not drinking any green beer.  Leave that to the amateurs.  Started my day off by taking the kid for donuts at an amazing local shop called Blackline Donuts.  Really great shop with great donuts, kolaches (really klobasnik but it's Texas ya'll) and Scones.  Instead of grabbing coffee at this shop, I made my own at home using beans from local Houston roaster Tenfold.   I really enjoy this roaster. Their shop is amazing, great food and coffee options.  They also have a space set aside for having educational classes which I think is really cool and wish more places would do it.  As for this particular set of beans, I made my usual pour over.  This is their everyday blend (literally and figuratively), medium roasted silky smooth, low acidity, sweet fruits.  Delicious and great paired with the pick up from Blackline.  Good way to start the morning, powered by sugar and caffeine!  Onto my more typical Sunday musings, Liverpool and F1.

Formula 1

It's an off week with no racing as they take a week away to relocate from the Middle East to Australia for next Sunday's Grand Prix.  However that doesn't mean there isn't news.  The paddock may be a bigger source of excitement this season than the track as it look like another run away title from Red Bull and Verstappen.  But that doesn't mean there isn't any drama.  Red Bull, the predictable champions are the source of the greatest amount of drama.  The Christian Horner saga shows no sign of letting up.  For the uninitiated, team principal Horner was accused of misconduct right before the season started.  In about an opaque of an investigation as you can have Red Bull hired an independent investigator who cleared Horner of all charges.  However that hasn't stopped F1 pundits of all shapes and sizes from predicting gloom and doom for the Racing Bulls, insisting that Horner will soon be removed, or Verstappen will leave the Austrian race unit.  Personally, I just don't see this happening.  Horner is the longest running principal in F1, and is one of the most successful.  He has been there since the beginning of Red Bull and has brought them multiple constructor Cups and individual championships with Vettel and Verstappen.  If he is truly cleared why would they replace him?  Who would be able to come in and do what he has done?  Verstappen has been with RB and under Christian since the beginning of his career.  He has thrived under Horner, and that car.  There is no other place that he can go that give him a car like this.  It just doesn't make sense to me.  But it is F1 and strange things happen when ego's get involved (plus his father doesn't seem to be able to get out of his own way being the source of a lot of drama). I think the other thing driving a lot of drama is the amount of drivers that become free agents at the end of the season. 12 out of the 20 drivers have their contracts end in 2024.  That is crazy and I can't remember a season where that has happened.  So there could be a total remake of the grid for 2025.  We already know Sainz is out and Hamilton is in at Ferrari.  Perez's contract is over at RB next season and I can see him not being there in 2025.  I think all of those contracts ending is causing a lot of drama, as well as a ton of speculation from the pundits who are driving clicks to their sites.  I think there may be more drama on the track than others.  While P1 may be locked up, I think P2-5 is going to be great to watch both on the driver side and constructors side.  Should be a fun season if you can get over the predictability of the winner.

Liverpool

No Premiere league matches this week, but that doesn't mean Liverpool was resting.  They had a mid week Europa League match against Czech club Sparta Praha in their second leg to move on in the second tier European league.  As they did in the first leg, Liverpool absolutely dominated beating them 5-1.  And honestly it wasn't even that close.  In just a few minutes Liverpool kicks off an FA Cup match against their hated rivals the obnoxious Manchester United.  ManU continues to be in disarray so I have confidence that Liverpool pulls out an away win and continues on to the semifinals of the premiere British tournament.  That keeps them on the path to potentially capture 3 more titles in addition to the already captured Carabou Cup.  The are still on track for the EPL title, Europa League Title, and FA Cup championship.  What a season this could be to celebrate all that Klopp has done for the Reds.



Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Wednesday Whiskey and Cigar


 It always feels good to take a step back, slow down and relax with a nice smoke and a scotch.  Especially with all the things going on these days, getting a little bit of time to oneself is a critical part of taking care of your mental health.  It was with that in mind that I sat down to enjoy these two lovelies.  

The Cigar

This is a box pressed Rocky Patel Decades cigar, it has a Sumatran wrapper with a secret mix of fillers within. This is a mighty robust cigar.  One that definitely tells you are smoking a CIGAR!  It's spicy with notes of black pepper, tar, leather, and nutty.  It's oily and intense.  It coats the mouth with its intensity.  This was a gift from a friend, so I was eager to smoke it.  It's also a well regarded cigar if you pay attention to ratings (which with cigars, I typically do not).  For me though this was on the too intense side of things.  I tend to enjoy milder cigars that don't saturate your taste buds, and this definitely did that.  It is a good cigar to sit and smoke for a while, as it lasted quite a while.  If you like robust in your face cigars this may be worth seeking out.

The Scotch.

My last few drams of Scotch have been lovely unseated expressions.  That stops with this pour from the distillery that makes my favorite peated Whiskies.  Ardbeg is located on the southern part of Islay, the spiritual home for peat heads.  Ardbeg has been around for hundreds of years producing outstanding scotch.  While they make many different expressions, some labeled by their year, and others as Non Age Statements (NAS) with unusual names like An Oa or Uigedail they all share a bold note of peat.  This particular expression Ardcore was a special release in 2022.  A typical thing that Ardbeg does is release a special expression on Ardbeg day and in 2022 this was that release.  In something I haven't seen before Ardbeg used roasted black malt to make this which adds even more smokey and some would say bitter notes to the spirit. It's lightly colored as with most Ardbeg offerings.  I am always surprised by this. I don''t know why, but my mind always expects a darker liquid for a smokey scotch and that is never the case. On the nose this is peat, smoke, charcoal, a little burn of the nostrils.  The mouthfeel is slick and almost syrupy, with notes of dark bitter chocolate, licorice, leather.  I love it.  It's robust and in your face, and it holds up to the robust cigar, although taken together it is a lot of in your face smokey notes.  But I appreciate these smokey flavors more than I do in this particular cigar. The flavors of the scotch meld together more tightly, more cohesively.  For whatever reason, I hadn't reached for this bottle in a while.  Glad I did tonight, it was just what I needed.

Sunday, March 10, 2024

Sunday Musings, Coffee, F1, and Watches

 


There is not much better than a quiet Sunday morning and a freshly made cup of coffee. Today I used my Fellow Stagg XF pour over.  Unlike a more traditional Vario this is a straight sided pour over cup.  I don't have a palette than can pick up huge differences between the two, but there some slight nuances.  There isn't a preference, but I'll go back and forth.  Today's beans come from a local roaster, Pearland Coffee Roasters.  Just down the road from where I live, I love the fact that there is a top notch coffee roasting company down in the suburbs of Houston.  It makes a bright cup, honeysuckle, pears, cinnamon.  Lovely cup.  It's a good cup to sit down with while I think about a few things that have occurred this week.

First up comes a recommendation, but not a TV show this week, instead a book.  The Formula written by Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg documents the rise of Formula 1.  They do this not by going year by year, but highlighting the big changes that have occurred throughout F1's history, what or who drove those technological leaps to make F1 the powerhouse sports institution that it is today.  It's a fantastic book, an incredibly quick read.  I favorably compare it to the authors other book The Club which took a similar look at the Premiere League, documenting how the league came to be in the 90's and then its rise to be what we know as the EPL today.  Both are oustanding books if you enjoy F1 and English Football like I do.

Watches

Earlier this week, one of my favorite watch companies, kind of out of nowhere released an eagerly anticipated watch that has sent watch geeks into a ferver with anyone that owns a watch centric YouTube channel breathlessly posting their reactions.  It's the new Omega White dial speedmaster.

It's a stunning watch, the white has a depth to it that I didn't expect and you don't get from the traditional black dial.  The indices are raised which helps create that multi-dimensional feel and the splash of red text adds just a bit of color.  While I will always favor the historical moon watch, Omega did a great job with this new dial. I spoke to an AD on Friday and they already had 25 people on the waitlist, so Omega has a winner on its hands for sure.

Liverpool

While I am enjoying my coffee this morning, I am eagerly anticipating one of the most important matches that Liverpool plays.  In just a couple of hours they host Manchester City for what could be THE match that decides who wins the Premiere League (sorry Arsenal fans).  Liverpool sits on top of the table, but if they lose this match to City, City goes on top and it will be very hard to catch them over the last couple of months of the season.  On a positive note, Liverpool has a fantastic record against City at home, so I have high hopes that they will win and continue to collect trophies during the final season of Klopp's leadership.

Formula One Thoughts

Race number 2 of the young Formula One season is in the books.  This week the teams visited Jeddah for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.  This second race was full of seasonal firsts:

First substitute driver, as Carlos Sainz was hospitalized for appendicitis so Ferrari called on its reserve driver, British teenager Oliver Bearman to drive the spaniards car.  The youngster did an outstanding job in his first F1 weekend. He almost qualified in the top 10 narrowly being beaten out by the legend himself Lewis Hamilton.  Oliver had a tremendous race, finishing P7 ahead of McLarens Lando Norris.  The youngster did an absolutely tremendous job in his first F1 race.  Will this lead to him getting picked up somewhere later this season or next?  


We had the first car retired during a race this season when Gasley who was hardly getting started before the Alpine car had to retire due to a faulty gear box.  This continues early season woes for the French race care team.

First yellow flag and safety car of the season when Lance Stroll ended up in the wall becoming the second car to retire this season. 

First lead of the season for Team Papaya when Lando Norris lead the race for a few laps when he didn’t pit during the yellow flag.

First time penalty when Perez had an unsafe release during a pit stop and was penalized 5 seconds by the stewards.  However in a rare case of a Haas driver trying to do better than other drivers Kevin Magnusson won a larger penalty by receiving a 10s one for running Williams driver Alex Alton into the wall, and then receiving a second 10S penalty for gaining a spot by going off track.  Way to be an overachiever Kevin!


On the McLaren side off things their strategy for Norris seemed questionable. They kept him out during the safety car which as mentioned above allowed the British driver to lead a few laps.  But it meant that he spent a long time on old tires that had to be managed. Norris dutifully did an outstanding job of getting his tires far beyond their predicted life. This allowed McLaren to put him soft tires when he pitted at last 38.  He came out in place 8 ahead of fellow British driver Hamilton.  Even though the McLaren car continues to struggle with straight line speed, Lando did an outstanding job of staying ahead of the Mercedes legend, and tried to race down the young rookie Ferrari driver Bearman, but he just didn’t have enough time to make an attempt to pass him.  Hindsight is always 20/20, but I feel if McLaren had pitted Lando just a lap or two earlier Norris would have had enough time to track down Bearman and finish at least one place higher.


Lando’s teammate Piastri had an outstanding weekend.  He qualified ahead of his teammate and ended up in P4 which along with Lando finishing in P8 kept McLaren in the top 3 for the constructors cup through the first 2 races of the season.  The team continues to show they are starting off much better than last season, and I maintain hope that they will finish better than they did last season.


Red Bull continues to show they are far ahead of the pack in every aspect of Formula 1, from drivers to strategy, to racing technology the other teams are tragically lagging behind the racing bulls.


Thursday, March 07, 2024

Let's Talk about Straps!



A new watch strap on a watch can completely change the look and feel of your watch.  Going from a metal bracelet to a leather strap, to a nylon strap can make your watch feel like new.  It's why I probably have more straps than I do watches, a small collection you can see above.  The metal bracelets belong to specific watches, but all the other straps are after market.  Things I got because I wanted a new feel, plus it's cheaper than buying a new watch. So if you are looking to change up the look, and think a new watch is the answer, put a different strap on it and see if that helps the urge.  You'll thank me later.

As you may be able to tell, my favorite style of strap is what is called the NATO style, or vinyl strap (these are the 4 straps on the left of the picture).  NATO straps have a fairly long history dating back to 1973 when the British Ministry of Defense wanted a lightweight, durable, waterproof strap that was easy to adjust, cost-effective, and could be multi-purpose.  What they came up with was a single pass through strap made of a durable nylon material (although leather is sometimes used in a NATO strap) that can be adjusted to fit over a military uniform, or a wet suit, or over the bare arm. It also protects the wearer for losing the watch.  Unlike a traditional strap, if a spring bar breaks, the way the NATO strap works, the watch won't fall off the arm.  Me personally?  I just like the way it looks, and feels.  Different types of Vinyl can be used.  Some feel shiny and slick like the material of a seat belt.  Others are ribbed, either horizontally or vertically giving some more rigidity to the strap.  They come in different colors and patterns and from a host of sellers.  

They can however be a bit tricky to put on for the first time especially if you have never worn this type of strap, so I made a little video showing how the strap works (apologies for the audio, may want to have sound turned down).



I do have a few places that I like getting different straps whether they are NATO, or higher end leather straps.  Here are a few of my favorites:

Bark and Jack

Theo and Harris

Crown and Buckle

WatchGecko

Teddy Baldassarre

Sunday, March 03, 2024

Sunday Musings and First F1 Race of the Season

 


It's Sunday morning and I am sitting down enjoying a wonderful cup of coffee from Dripping Springs based roaster Greater Goods.  Used my trusty Hario 60 Pour over, with a medium grind from the Sculptor Timemore grinder to make the cup.  It was full of flavors of a proper English Tea, stone fruits, and honey.  A delicious cup that inspires me to take a break, think about the last couple of days and write some. 

I've got some sports thoughts that I'll get to in a second, but first, a quick TV recommendation.  If you are not watching the outstanding HULU series Shogun you are really missing out.  Starring the always great and criminally under utilized Hiroyuki Sanada along with Cosmo Jarvis this adaptation of the classic James Clavell novel pulls you into the show from the very first scenes.  Tremendous cinematography, wonderful fight choreography and top notch acting makes this a show that you need to sit down and check out.  In total there will be 10 episodes, although only the first two are currently out.  It's been ages since I have watched the original Shogun adaptation that came out in the early 80's, but from what I remember this one just feels better.  While the acting in the original was good (you had Richard Chamberlain and Mifune in it after all), this just looks and feels more realistic.  Go check it out.

On to sports.  First some thoughts on my dear Liverpool football club.  A slow start to a midweek 5th round FA Cup match against Southampton ended strongly with a 3-0 victory and an advance to a match against the hated ManU.  I was a little worried that the very young squad Klopp threw out there wasn't going to pull it out, but a score before half let them into the locker room up by 1 before the Reds fully took over in the second half.  The Reds more traditional experienced squad hit the pitch yesterday morning against Nottingham Forrest.  Once again the cardiac Reds kept the fans in suspense as to whether or not they would win the match.  Back up keeper Kelleher continues to do a great job while Allison is out, but the Reds struggled to put the ball in the net.  Just when I thought the match was going to end in a 0-0 tie Darwin Nunez scored at the 98th minute to win the match with a beauty of a header.  Just a tremendous goal that got me out of my seat.  The Reds stay busy this coming week with a Europa League match against Sparta Praha before facing a must win Premiere League match up against Man City.  Fingers crossed that the Reds can put it to City and get the points to stay on top of the table.

Not only did yesterday morning have a great match from the Reds it was also the first race of the Formula 1 season, the Bahrain Gran Prix.  Unsurprisingly, Red Bull's Max Verstappen lead from lights out to checkered flag with no one making an attempt at challenging his dominance.  His teammate Checo came in second allowing Red Bull yet another 1-2 finish.  Somewhat surprising was a third place finish by a Ferrari Driver, just not the one you expected. It wasn't LeClerc, but Sainz leading Ferrari to a third place finish that was surprising.  My team, McLaren finished slightly lower than I had hoped at P6 and P8.  I really had hopes that Lando was going to track down Russell and finish ahead of the Mercedes driver.  Overall though, still MUCH better than last year's start, so hopeful that McLaren continues to improve and put pressure Ferrari and Mercedes.  

Which leads me to overreactions after one race:

1) A year from now Ferrari will have a worse driver line up than they do today.  Look Hamilton was a great driver, maybe the greatest of all time, but he isn't that driver anymore.  Sainz is better and will go somewhere next year making a big impact.

2) Maybe not an overreaction, but Red Bull will walk away with the top of the Constructors championship and driver champions with Max.  But the competition for P2-5 will be tremendous and one of the best in recent years.  Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren and Aston Martin will all be fighting for those positions every race.

3) Those 4 teams along with Red Bull are so good that there may be a lot of teams with hardly any points as I expect most of the teams above to score double points each race.

Next week's race at Jeddah should be good as everyone finished the race and there weren't any crashes or damaged cars coming out of Bahrain.  Hopefully McLaren can crack a podium position, but so far I'm pleased with how team papaya are doing.

What are your overreactions after one race?  

Thursday, February 29, 2024

Whiskey and Cigar Watching

Making it to midweek and finding some time to relax and enjoy a small pour and a cigar from two of my favorite brands makes work and hectic life just a tad easier.  It's a special time just for me to sit down and enjoy two of my favorite things, three if you include the other part of the picture above.  But let's talk some whisky.
Balvenie is my favorite scotch.  I mentioned Speyside in an earlier post as being my favorite region of Scotland.  I think scotch from here is the most balanced and some like this have a hint of peat.  This particular expression of Balvenie is their Week of Peat, once a year Balvenie distills a batch of peated malt  using their traditional malt bill and then bottle it.  This is a lovely balanced peated Scotch, not overly smokey, but just a hint that toys with the more traditional Balvenie flavors of honey and vanilla.  It's a lovely dram aged for 14 years.  Easy to drink and enjoy, but bold enough to hold up to a nice cigar.
Which brings me to this smoke from Cabal Cigars.  Its important to note that Cabal is owned by a local here in Clear Lake, the same fine gentleman that owns Beers Looking at You, a bar that I wrote about many years ago on the Houston Beer Guide.  So it's nice to smoke something that while not local of course, is owned by a local. This particular smoke is from their Esoterica line I believe with a Dominican wrapper and fillers from Nicaraguan nd Dominican.  It's a nice mild to medium smoke.  A great every day smoke in my opinion, well priced as well and something that paired really well with the Balvenie.  Smooth, notes of leather, coco, a slight sweetness it's a nice easy smoke.  This isn't a smoke that hits you over the head, but it is a great grab and go cigar.  So sit back light up, have a smoke and watch the time go by.

Watching the time, brings me to my last point, this beautiful watch from British independent watch maker Christopher Ward.  I think they have moved beyond the micro brand label.  While they are still primarily on line they are making their own movements, as well as doing a ton of unique things like the horolgoical master piece Bel Canto and the stunning Moonphase.  This particular watch is their Trident a dive watch that has a beautiful green dial.  It is good to down to 300 meters and is a date just watch.  The date window may be my one nit with the front of the watch as I really hate that it is not color matched to the rest of Its a great priced watch at just under $1000 which you can't really complain about.  Its got a great weight to the watch, not to heavy not to light, thin-ish body so it fits under a cuff and nice open style case back. While the movement isn't overly ornate, it is still nice to look at.  It also works on a number of different straps.  The one I purchased came on a very nice metal bracelet with a quick release clasp, however, I have been wearing it on different straps for the last few months.  Primarily a khaki Nato from Bark and Jack, but last week I switched to a one piece leather strap (which is what its on in the picture) from Theo and Harris.  I think it dresses the watch up nicely. So you can buy one watch, with 3 different straps and it really changes the overall style of the piece. I can't recommend Christopher Ward enough, their customer service was top notch when I ordered the watch and for a little bit extra they will size the bracelet for you (sending you any extra links they have removed).  The bracelet fit perfectly when it arrived.  As I stated before they are doing some really interesting things and they are incredible value for the product. Some of the best value out there in my opinion.  If I had any complaints about them, I do feel like their catalog is getting a little large and unfocused.  Too may variants of the same watch, although this is an issue with some of the big luxury brands as well, Omega, I am looking at you!  Overall though they are doing some really great things and keeping the price down which is a great thing since so many watch companies are raising their prices.

Sunday, February 25, 2024

Sunday Morning Musings and Formula 1 Predictions

 

I’m sitting in a hotel lobby Starbucks in Vancouver, drinking not so great coffee, staring at the rain coming down outside and figured now was a good time to do some musing.  We’re up in the PacNW celebrating my wife’s birthday, but while she’s sleeping, I’ve got some thoughts!  

 

As I write, Liverpool are about to kick It off against Chelsea for the Carabao Cup (the second tier English Football Trophy).  Fingers crossed they win and give Klopp the first of a few trophies in his final year as Manager of the mighty Reds.

 

Another TV recommendation, geared towards car lovers, but really anyone that loves a good sports docu-series should be watching Drive to Survive on Netflix.  For the uninitiated this show, now in its sixth season follows all of the different Formula One teams during the race season.  Each show focused on one particular team while also giving general ideas of the big storylines for different races.  It’s always a fantastic look at things that are going on behind the scenes and has been tremendous in educating a largely ignorant US public on this type of racing.  I’ve been following F1 for 15 or 16 years at this point, but the number of friends that have gotten into F1 because of this show is unbelievable.  It’s the prime reason we have 3 races in the US now. The videography is tremendous as are the sit-down interviews with the drivers and the team principals (the individuals that run each F1 team).  The latest season is now out, and I’ve already watched about half of the series.  So many things I had forgotten that happened at the beginning of the season, nice to be reminded of what happened during Formula Ones previous season.  A must watch before the first race of the newest F1 season next week.

 

Speaking of the upcoming F1 season I figured I would put down my predictions for where the teams will finish in the constructor cup.  There are some obvious predictions, and maybe some not so obvious ones.  Without further ado:

 

1.     Red Bull Racing - Like it or not this is the obvious choice and one of two on this list that I am sure will end up where they are ranked.  Preseason testing shows they are starting where they left off last year as the dominant team in F1. The question is, will anyone step up and be close to them…

2.     McLaren – Full disclosure, this is my team, the one that I have been following since 2008 or so. They have been struggling the last few years and seemed to aways be 2 years away. However, the last half of last season they were the 2nd best team in the paddock, and I think that continues into this season.  Norris will get his first race win as well as he leads team papaya back to near the top of the constructor’s cup.

3.     Ferrari – I’ll be honest here, as much as I think McLaren will be at number 2, I could see a flip flop here with Ferrari making it to number 2.  They have 2 great drivers that should be closer to the top than they should be.  However, even with a change in principal last year they were still plagued by unreliable cars and poor track strategy.  What will Ferrari do before Hamilton joins them next year?  Let’s see.

4.     Aston Martin Mercedes – I can’t ever quite put my finger on it, but I’ve never been a fan of the Stroll’s (father or son), but there is no denying what Daddy Stroll has done for Aston Martin.  He has turned around this team in spectacularly quick fashion and brought in one of my favorites all time drivers in Fernando Alonso to lead the team to victory.  Yes, Alonso is the lead driver of the team not Stroll the younger.  Near the end of this season expect chatter about Alonso leaving to maybe replace Hamilton. I think this unlikely, as I expect him to finish his career at Aston.

5.     Mercedes -I expect Hamilton’s last year for the team he made so dominant to be a frustrating one.  Mercedes is no longer top of the pack and many of the formerly also rans have made some huge strides where they have stayed stagnant.  Hamilton will go another year without a win, which will beg the question of why does Ferrari want someone at this stage of his career?  In the modern era drivers at his age don’t win many races let alone championships.

6.     Williams – Have this iconic British racing team turned the corner?  Formally one of the top teams in F1 they have been near or at the bottom for many years, including years of not scoring an entire point all season.  They made a huge leap last year finishing 7th with new team principal James Vowles (formally of Mercedes under Toto Wolf).  He was able to make some significant midseason updates to the car last year they helped them score some much-needed points.  My bet is that with a full off season he can more strides and move up an additional slot.

7.     RB Racing – Red Bull racings younger less important sibling also features another one of my favorite drivers Daniel Ricciardo.  They also have one of the worst names in F1: Visa CashApp RB Racing.  Absolutely horrid.  But who doesn’t love Daniel and his giant genuine smile.  As much as it pains me, I am just not sure he has the ability to drive this team higher up the standings, especially considering how the other teams have improved over the off season.

8.     Alpine – Just not a whole lot to say here.  A team that I used to have high hopes would make a strong mid-tier run just can’t get it together, their drivers don’t seem to be in sync, competing and crashing into each other more than anything else.

9.     Kick Sauber – I was really hoping that Bottas would leave Mercedes and make an impact somewhere else.  Alas the only thing that is making an impact is his hair choices and his calendar.  The team is not good, and the drivers aren’t good enough to take a poor car and do anything with it.

10.  Haas – The other choice I am confident is that Haas will finish dead last.  The lone American team (as it will be in the future unfortunately thanks to F1 for not accepting Andrade’s bid) run by someone that has no desire to spend any money on his F1 team.  He can just pocket it and his company continues to make a profit.  And Mr. Haas fired one of the stars of Drive to Survive Guenter Steiner, now former team principalof Haas.  While Guenther may not have always done the best job, he was not the prime reason Haas has been in the doldrums and firing him will not improve where Haas finishes the season.

 

That’s it for the team predictions.  I’ll get my top 10 individual drivers’ predictions out before next Sunday’s race.  What are your predictions for the Formula 1 season?

Wednesday, February 21, 2024

Whiskey and Cigar Wednesday

It's a great thing to have a partner that encourages the things that you love.  My wife just so happens to be one of those partners, and while we typically don't do much for Valentines, she did surprise me with this wonderful bottle of whiskey.  Recently I was able to sit down and enjoy a dram along with a cigar.

 I am a huge fan of wheat forward Whiskies and this expression from Heaven Hill is a great example of why.  Aged 7-9 years and barrel proof this bottle weighed in at 60.7% abv. This could typically lead to an overly hot mouthfeel, but that wasn't the case here.  The wheat mash bill of 51% wheat and 37% corn, softened the heat, adding a sweet note as well.  It's honey, vanilla, a bit of spice and everything was indeed nice.  A splash of water toned down any residual heat if that bothers you.  

The cigar I paired with it, is my old standby.  Oliva Connecticut.  Oliva has been my go to cigar for well over a decade after I was introduced to it at my kids preschool.  Yes you read that correctly as random and weird as that may seem.  Obviously there is a back story, so here it is.  The daughter of the regional Olive rep went to the same preschool as my daughter.  When the preschool hosted the annual spring fling they also have an auction where various business and people donate things like dinners to restaurants or gift cards.  Well this fine gentlemen donated an Oliva cigar gift pack that came with a cutter, a lighter, a nice size cigar ashtray and a wide selection of cigars including samples of their off brand Nub.  Needless to say I won the item in the auction and after smoking a few sticks became a big fan of Oliva and haven't looked back since. While do love smoking cigars, and want to KNOW I am smoking one, I don't love overly robust smokes.  So this Connecticut has quickly become a regular for me.  A Ecaduadorian wrapper and Nicaraguan filler, this cigar smokes very smoothly.  It's a long smoke for me, full of notes of coffee and cream, cedar and a bit of oak, smooth, mellow and silky.  Yes its smooth, and some would call it light, but I do think its full of flavor, its just not a big in your face cigar, and that's just fine with me.  It played well with the soft sweet honeyed notes of the wheated whiskey as well. Made a for a great enjoyable night thanks to my dear wife. 

Sunday, February 18, 2024

Greater Goods Coffee and Sunday Morning Musings

 


Sunday mornings are my favorite.  It's a day that has no real plans.  It starts off quietly, me getting up early because well, I always get up early, everyone else is asleep so I get to make myself coffee and have some time to do things for myself.  The first thing I always do of course is make a cup of coffee.  I'll talk about my coffee set up another time, but know that usually I make some sort of pour over, or French press.  Today is no different, and I used my new MIIR Chemex style carafe that I supported last year on Kickstarter.  I use it when I want to make a larger amount of coffee that I can drink on all morning, in other words, it's perfect for a Sunday.  The coffee I used, I just received in the mail from Texas Roaster Greater Goods.  They are based out of Dripping Springs, and roast some amazing single origins and blends that I have been a big fan of for many years. Today's particular brew is a blend that celebrates the Year of the Dragon.  It seems everyone is releasing something special (this is never truer than in the watch industry where everyone seems to have a dragon related watch out).  But I digress, back to the coffee. This particular blend, called Prosperity Blend is made with beans from Kenya and Mexico.  It's medium roasted and I used a ratio of 15:1 which is my standard.  It makes a beautiful cup with chocolatey and plum notes, maybe slightly sweet, with a nicely balanced level of acidity.  Well balanced for a long morning of drinking.  

In addition to sitting down with a nice cup of coffee, Sunday's are for musing, so join me while I express some thoughts on a couple of things near and dear to me.  First up is Liverpool F.C. my favorite football club in the world.  I've been a LFC fan for almost 20 years dating back to 2006 when I had the opportunity to live over in Europe and became infatuated with European football.  LFC has one of the best managers in the world in Jurgen Clop who surprisingly announced that this year will be his last with the club.  Shortly after the announcement the Reds played some inspired matches, charged up to make Klopp proud, but the last few matches they've had to eke out wins or even ties.  That won't be good enough if they want to stay atop the table.  So it was with that in my mind that I sat down to watch their match yesterday agains the lowly club from Burnley.  On the positive side of things before the match it was announced that Mo Salah would be back in the lineup after a month away playing for his national team and being injured.  On the negative side it was announced that their starting keeper Allison would be out.  Liverpool doesn't have great depth between the poles so I was a tad worried, but hoped that because we were playing Burnley we would be OK.  Luckily I was right.  The Reds (even though they were playing in their atrocious lavender inspired third kits, they are always the Reds) dominated.  Salah played like he had never been gone, making some tremendous assists and getting his own goal as he helped lead the team to a 4-1 win.  In other good news Man City tied, allowing the Reds to stay 4 points ahead at the top, and 3 points ahead of Arsenal.  I am hopeful that the Reds can stave off the gunners and city and allow Klopp to ride off into the sunset with another Premiere League title.  You can't write a better ending to his stay than that.


Speaking of endings, that leads to me to my next topic.  I'm an unabashed petrol head.  While I have never had the pleasure of owning a performance car, I love them.  I love watching racing, particularly Formula 1, and I love the engineering behind high performance vehicles.  As a petrol head, my leaders have always been that British Trio of Clarkson, May, and Hammond.  The crazy, imbecilic, moronic, hilarious and yes educational group behind Top Gear and then Amazon Prime's Grand Tour.  I've been watching them diligently for over 20 years.  Yes sometimes they make me grimace with the comments, but they also make me laugh out loud and cry because I am laughing so much.  A few weeks ago they announced that the Grand Tour would be ending and they would be breaking up the band so to speak, which honestly doesn't come as to much of a surprise.  Yes they are getting older, but they do have their own shows, Clarkson with his farm show, May with his travel shows, and Hammond with his own business and show on Discovery. But with this announcement came the release this past Friday of their penultimate episode Sand Job.  The idea of the show is for them to build a high end Dakar Rally vehicle for cheap, so they modify a Jaaaaag Type F (called the F-off of course), and Aston Martin DB8, and a Maserati.  Their usual hijinks ensue and while I felt this show wasn't quite up to par with some of their other excursions it was a lot of fun and it is always nice to see these three back behind the wheel.  They honestly do hide some smart and intelligent insights in between the bickering, insults, and pranks.  I look forward to their last show together (for now) coming out later this year.  With a trip through Zimbabwe it should make for good TV at least.

Enough musing, I need more coffee. 

Friday, February 16, 2024

A Mission Ends, A Celebration


One week ago I posted the above photo on Instagram, celebrating the end of a mission that I had supported.  I used to it to highlight how I was planning on celebrating, and with the rebirth of the blog I realized that this picture also highlights a few of my favorite things, watches, scotch, and cigars.  These are the type of things I plan on talking about here. What do I like and why.  What draws me to these things.

A Davidoff cigar is definitely not my usual smoke (that will definitely be in a post coming up), but it is one that I reach for to celebrate special events, and last Friday was one such occasion.  This particular expression the famous Churchill is just about perfect.  A little expensive to be a regular smoke, well at least for me, this is what a celebratory smoke should be.  Long lasting, robust, chocolatey, spicy, and oaky its just about perfect.


When it comes to Scotch, I love peat, however there are times when I want something a bit milder, fruitier, a bit spicier and on those occasions I typically reach for a treat from Speyside.  My go to tipple is usually a Balvenie expression (again, more on them in a later post I am sure), however, last week I reached for something that I hadn't had before, Aberlour 18.  This was a tremendous scotch, and one that I was extremely happy I had purchased.  Aged in two different types of Sherry casks it is definitely sherry forward.  If you love sherry, you will love this scotch.  Notes of citrus and butterscotch on the nose with a rich spicy palate, stone fruits, and just a touch of honey.  Combined with the Davidoff Churchill and its notes of vanilla and oak, made for a tremendous flavor combination.  I love how the flavors of whiskey and cigars play off each other, sometimes complimenting eachother, other times fighting one another for dominance.  Both of these can make for a wonderful experience and is one of the reasons that I look forward to sitting down and trying new combinations.




Last but not least is my watch.  Not something that I typically reach for to celebrate, but like many watches has a story.  I got this watch recently to celebrate a raise at work along with getting a special assignment.  I went to my local Omega AD and fell in love with this watch.  The iconic Seamaster 300.  But not the traditional blue, or white dial, this deep dark rich green.  In certain pictures like the one on the left it shows up almost black, but in others it's a vibrant green.  I love how it looks, the heft of it.  It's a big watch to be sure at 42 MM, but on my average wrist I think it still works.  On the steel 5 link bracelet it looks amazing, although I may try it out on a Nato in the coming months.  The sapphire caseback is a beautiful showcase for the Co-Axial 8800 movement.  It's a fantastic tool watch that represents more than just a dive watch.  It was by my side, or well, on my wrist throughout the recent mission, helping to keep me on track during periods where it was hard for me to remember where I needed to be next.  But it never overloaded me with input (something that has scared me off of smart watches now).  It's also just an absolutely beautiful time piece and a welcome addition to my admittedly small (for now) collection.  
Last Friday as I enjoyed the scotch and the cigar, thinking about the previous few weeks and all that had occurred, I looked down at my watch, seeing the date marveling at how the time had flown by and smiled.  This is my alone time, the time during the week, with a cigar and a smoke, that I don't have to look down at my watch to tell the time, I look down at it to admire the tremendous amount of engineering that went into designing it.  It's about appreciating all the people that helped make this thing sitting on my wrist.  The people that helped harvest the tobacco leaves, and the person that rolled my cigar so perfectly, and the distillery master that over almost two decades created such an amazing beverage.  That is why I enjoy these things.



Wednesday, February 14, 2024

"Tap Tap'. Is this thing on?

 WOW!  It's hard to believe it's been almost 8 years since my last post.  Now the question is, can I revive this blog?  Not the same old barleyvine, but a new evolved BarleyVine!  These last 6 years my interests and taste it things have changed.  I've started new journeys into new interests and now I am at the point where I want to write about them, and yes maybe even talk about them, but stay tuned for that announcement in the next few weeks.  For now, welcome new readers and join in on my ride through the wonderful world of watches, whisk(e)y, travel, cars (mainly some F1 talk) and who knows what else.  What I promise is my full unvarnished opinion, hopefully some good photographs and good conversation.  I hope you'll drop me a line or reach out to me on X, Threads, Instagram, or whatever else your favorite social media app is these days.  If you don't see me there, drop me a line here and I'm always happy to chat about one of my favorite topics.

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

Crowler Legal Decision Announced

A couple of months ago I wrote a post celebrating a legal victory craft brewers had over the state of Texas. In that post I laid out all the other legal cases that involved craft beer and the state of Texas.  One of those cases involved Cuvee Coffee suing TABC to sell crowlers.  As I discussed then, crowlers (single use 32 oz can shaped growlers) were being regulated differently then the glass growlers that most of us are familiar with.  Well, last night the judgment was returned and announced via Cuvvee Coffee's Mike McKim on Twitter , and once again, it was another victory for craft beer.  Yes.  Crowlers are legal again!
I was honestly worried that there was a chance that not only would we not get crowlers back, but that the judge would make a sweeping judgment that got rid of growlers as well. Its nice to see the legal system have some sanity.  This also means that the state of Texas is 0-2 against craft beer this year.  It means that your tax dollars are going towards TABC legal fees.  Think about that at the voting booth.  If we had legislatures that were more friendly towards craft beer, then TABC wouldn't be facing these lawsuits as much.
So what does this mean?  A couple of things.
1) At least in Houston, and honestly Texas too,  crowlers were just starting to take hold in certain places.  The Houston area only had a few places that were doing them (they take a crowler machine to seal them, so there are some places that don't want to make that investment).  I expect places like Petrol Station to do crowlers quickly. Other places, like Nobi down in here in Clear Lake, will need to purchase a new machine as they gave their old one to Texas Beer Refinery.  I do expect them to get a new machine sooner rather than later though, as they still have a an inventory of crowler cans on their wall.
2) You will start to see an influx of new places carrying crowlers. I've spoken with the owner of Beers Looking At You down in Clear Lake, and he stated that he will absolutely have crowlers, once the case has been settled, he can get a machine, and crowlers in stock.  I think you'll see more of those type of places serving crowlers, so the consumer's options continue to expand.

So what's next?  There are two things that I will be keeping my eye on.
The first being whether or not TABC appeals the above decision.  I believe that they will not.  Just as they haven't with the previous decision, I don't think TABC wants to spend more money on legal fees for a case they will lose.
Secondly, there is one more legal case involving craft beer that we could hear about before the year is out and its a big one.  As I mentioned before Deep Ellum has sued TABC to gain the same rights that wineries and distilleries have in Texas, To-Go Sales.  Currently breweries can only sale direct to the public for on premise consumption (and that's only been since 2013).  However wineries and distilleries can sell their wares to you, for you to drink wherever you want.  Why the disparity?  Look at who donates to the legislatures.


Tuesday, October 04, 2016

Flying Saucer Sugarland Beerfeast 2016

Last Saturday, the craft beer bar Flying Saucer hosted their annual Beerfeast in Sugarland.  There are different beerfeast's hosted by a number of different Flying Saucers around the country, but the one in Sugarland is the only on in the Houston area.  This was the 5th year for the event, and I've been twice before.  Once working a booth for Open The Taps which was their first year, and then once as just a guy drinking beer, which is what I was this last Saturday.
The festival boasted 50 craft breweries, and over 80 beers, and it seemed like more than that.  General admission tickets were $35 ahead, or $45 the day of (do some planning folks, no reason to get the tix the day of).  There were separate VIP tickets for $68, not available the day of.  The VIP tickets got you in an hour early and access to some special beers.  Each ticket gave you a card for 12 tasters, and you could purchase another card for $5.  This Saturday was a gorgeous day for an outdoor festival, which, you can't always be assured of.  For the VIPs the doors opened at 1pm, but for us plebes, we waited until 2 to get in. Before you enter you're handed a list of the breweries and beers to be served and it covered breweries from national craft beer brands like Avery, Boulevard, Dogfish, Deschutes, Firestone Walker, and Victory, to Texas brands like Saint Arnold, Karbach, Community, and even new comer Eureka Heights.  Additionally
the iconic Belgian brewery Cantillion was represented.  The lay out was simple.  There was one large tent that took over the back third of the Sugarland Town Square where he majority of the beers were served, there were additional smaller tents on the edges of the town square with sour beers, canned beers, pumpkin beers, rare beers (most of these were for VIPs) and Cask Ales. Lastly, Saint Arnold had their own large tent where they were serving some special beers, as well as 4 different Bishop Barrels and performing Beer
Weddings (whatever that is) conducted by Saint Arnold himself.  After getting one of the Cantillion beers (the Gueze, as the Kriek had already been kicked by the VIP crowd) I headed to the rare beer tent trying to get a taste of Brash's Hammer Smash Face a 15% barrel aged Russian Imperial Stout. It was then that I realized the rare beer tent was for VIPs, although later in the day I went back and they were serving everyone, but by then Hammer Smash Face was gone.  But no worries I did have a plethora of other outstanding beers to drink.  Some of the highlights included Deschuttes Pinot Suave, Brooklyn's Hand and Seal, Firestone Walker Velvet Merkin (FW was also serving Sucuba, Stickee Monkey, and Sour Opal), Oskar Blues HotBox (a tremendous coffee porter), and a few other ones.  I went with my girlfriend and we each tried each others beers so it was like getting to taste 24 different beers.  There were a couple of standouts that either blew me away or just surprised me.  First my girlfriend go Stone's 20th Anniversary Citracado beer that is made with avocado honey.  It sounds unusual and it was, but the avocado honey added this sweet green flavor, but the beer still finished hoppy and dry.  A really cool beer.  Another beer that I was impressed by was (512) Cabernet barrel aged Tripel.  Which is their 3rd anniversary Tripel aged in Cabernet barrels for a year which created a tremendous beers with fruity esters, oak, red wine, vanilla, and some tartness.  A surprising beer from 512.  Lastly, Saint Arnold served their Urbanhouse American Wild ale.  This was their saison finished with brett and aged in wine barrels.  This shocked me with how good it was, and was an almost perfect beer in my mind.  Beautifully balanced, nuanced, and flavorful.
Overall, I really enjoyed Beerfeast.  Its a smaller more intimate beer festival. No one was sloppy drunk while I was there, and you could move around, talk to some of the beer reps without shouting or constantly run into folks.  The lines for the beers moved quickly, traffic flowed really well, and as I've mentioned there were some tremendous beers available.  There were some negatives in my mind.  1) Not sure the VIP tickets are worth almost double the General Admission tickets.  One hour early and maybe a couple of beers that I didn't get to taste doesn't seem worth it to me.  2) They did run out of certain beers by around 4pm.  By that point most of the Firestone Walker beers were gone, so were a lot of the Prairie beers and some others, and the festival ran until 6.  Maybe they had more somewhere, but I don't think so as I was walking around for a bit and didn't see them replenish anything as I left by about 4:30.  So if you go next year (and you should), plan accordingly, and hit the rare stuff, big stuff, or popular beers early or you may be SOL.
I'll finish by saying this is a recommended festival for me.  $35 isn't too much to taste a bunch of good beers, and spend an afternoon with craft beer nerds.  Saucer always does a good job of bang for the buck in almost everything they do, and this is no different.  Also nice to see a festival like this out in the burbs and not downtown.

Thursday, September 29, 2016

Book Review: A Proper Drink



A few years ago I was absorbing as many books about beer as I could get my hands on, lately though as you can tell by my posts I've been obsessing more and more with books about the world of spirits and specifically cocktails. I am always on the prowl for new books and have even had some folks point out some older ones that I should check out. This book is the former, A Proper Drink: The Untold Story of How a Band of Bartenders Saved the Civilized Drinking World is written by the great Robert Simonson. He writes for the New York Times but is also the author of another of one of my favorite cocktail books The Old Fashioned: The Story of the World's First Cocktail, I can not recommend that book more. To me an essential book detailing not just that one cocktail but a history of how cocktails changed, plus it has some killer drink recipes. Honestly, I feel the same about A Proper Drink as I did about Old Fashioned even though they are very different books.
A Proper Drink is an amazing book, to me it almost perfectly captures the rise of the current cocktail movement although I do have one significant quibble that I'll touch on in a bit. In general the book focuses on the rise of the cocktail movement by tracing the bartenders who made it happen. The book is relatively chronological, starting really in the mid 90's through today. Each chapter looks at a specific bartender or bar, restaurant or group there of, why they were important, and how they kept the movement transitioning forward. Most chapters ends with one or two cocktail recipes that were mentioned. The format of the book makes it an extremely quick read in my opinion, I breezed through the book.
The book starts where any book discussing ground breaking bartenders has to start with the king of the craft cocktail, Dale DeGroff who was really one of the first guys to use fresh juices and to eschew the use of soda guns at his bars. It didn't hurt that he tended the bar at the iconic Rainbow Room and that he is an amazing mentor to a whole generation of bartenders. On the other side of the pond, the book also discusses not only the rise of the craft cocktail movement in America but in Europe as well and that pretty much started in London with Dick Bradsell. This is another one of the things that I really appreciated about the book is that it didn't just isolate the rise of the craft cocktail movement to the states but really showed how it started in England, Europe (Germany), Australia, and even Japan. This shows that its not just some isolated fad but that it has moved around the world much in the same way as good wine and good beer has done in the past few decades.
Going back to the states, Simonson does a good job of flipping back and forth between the east coast and the west coast, detailing the rise of this new generation of ground breaking bartenders on both sides of the country. How they established their bars, how they mentored the next generation, and who their inspirations were. Its this last point that I really enjoyed reading about. I am a huge fan of biography's of musicians. All kinds of musicians, as I love reading about who inspired the music they make and in many cases its very similar to bartenders. Watching a great bartender make a new drink, using new flavor combinations, and even how they build a cocktail; to understand why they do those thing you need to understand who their mentors and inspirations were.
The book covers all the places we know as ground breaking, the aforementioned Rainbow room, Milk and Honey, Pegu Club, Employees Only, PDT, The Atlantic in London, Flatiron Lounge, and many other places on either coast or in London. The book also doesn't just give credit to the bartenders for the rise of the craft cocktail movement. It also highlights retail places like the venerable LeNell a retail shop where early bartenders could obtain hard to find bitters, amaros, vermouth, and more. The book discusses the rise of the annual Tales of the Cocktail event in New Orleans as well as the cocktail authors like David Wondrich. What this shows is how widespread the movement is and how many different people it has taken to make the movement successful.
While I believe that last sentence of the previous paragraph is a true statement detailing how Simonson succeeds in A Proper Drink, it is also where he fails some which brings me to my one issue with this book. As I stated many times the book does a great job of detailing the rise of the craft cocktail movement on both the east and west coast as well as in places around the world in London and Australia; it doesn't do a good job of highlighting the movement outside of those places. I truly believe that if the craft cocktail movement was isolated to just New York, LA, Chicago, and San Francisco it wouldn't be much of movement it would be fad. Craft beer didn't become sustainable until it traveled from the west coast and Denver, to places like Texas, Louisiana, the Carolinas, Kansas City, and many other places. I feel the same way about the craft cocktail movement, and I think the Simonson does himself a disservice by not highlighting the rise of craft cocktails in places like Houston, Denver or Kansas City, all places with a pretty damn good craft cocktail scene with some folks who are ground breakers in their own right. I would have love to have seen him highlight people like Bobby Huegel (who is briefly mentioned in a discussion about sustainable liquor), Sean Kenyon or even Adam Hodak. I think highlighting some folks outside of the east and west coast and yes even New Orleans (which Simonson does do a good job with) would really show how widespread and sustainable the movement is.
That's it though, that's the only negative thing I have to say about the book. Frankly, this book is tremendous and if you're a fan of craft cocktails it should be on your shelf. Not only is the book put together incredibly well, the recipes sprinkled throughout are tremendous. Each recipe has a little history with it that help explains who made it, when, and why. For me I like that type of stuff as its good cocktail party fodder. So go pick this book up, read it, and let me know what you think.

If you're looking for this book, support a local book seller and pick it up here.