Exotic/Disgusting Foods and Beverages Forum--An English Ginger Beer

      One of my earliest posts ever was about an English ginger beer, way back on June 9th, 2013 (along with another, fruity flavored English soft drink).  Anyway, let's explore another.  This one was from Fentiman's, out of Hexham, Northumberland, U.K.

     Fentiman's is moderately old, dating back to 1905.  At this time, Thomas Fentiman was offered a ginger beer recipe in return for a granted loan, to an unidentified person or persons.  Thomas was an iron puddler by trade.  If you didn't know (I didn't), an iron puddler was a person who converted pig iron into wrought iron, via a furnace.  Anyway, this unnamed loanee didn't repay the money to Thomas, so he set about making and selling the ginger beer himself.  (Evidently the life of an iron puddler wasn't very lucrative.)  Fentiman started by selling his ginger beer door to door, using a distinctive ceramic container.  The label on this container had a picture of a dog, which was Thomas's faithful dog named Fearless.  (Fearless can be seen on the label today, in fact.)  The company thrived for decades.  Alas, in the mid 1960's sales had plummeted, and the company closed.  However, in 1988 Eldon Robson, who was the great-grandson of Thomas Fentiman, reopened the business, using some of the original recipes.  The company has been reinvigorated, and is now doing well.  Currently, aside from the flagship ginger beer, Fentiman's also markets various sorts of lemonade, cola drinks, a lemon shandy, several kinds of tonic waters, a dandelion and burdock concoction, and a sparkling elderflower beverage.  Fentiman's has expanded in scope, too, as its wares are now exported to Japan, several nations in South America, Canada, Russia, and the U.S.  There are at least 2 manufacturing centers in the U.S., one in Pennsylvania, and one in Delaware.

     As far as controversy goes, I encountered two.  Firstly, in the past year or so Fentiman's has started using an artificial sweetener, notably steviol glycosides.  Some customers are irate about this, and think it's negatively affected the taste of the drinks that use it.  Secondly, one of Fentiman's products, their Victorian Lemonade, has an alcohol content of between 0.3-0.5%.  The state of Maine in the U.S. prohibited sales because of this, even though it would be almost impossible for even a small child to become intoxicated off of this, given its small, but discernable booze content.

Fentiman's ginger beer & muddled lime:  This drink came in a small bottle, only 6.7 ounces (or 200 mL).  It had a dull yellow color, and a ginger-y odor.  The flavor was pretty good.  Nice ginger spice bite.  Not as great as America's Cock 'n Bull, or England's Idris Fiery Ginger Beer (again, see my post on June 9th, 2013), but tasty.  If you like ginger flavors, I would definitely recommend this to you.

     Finally, if you're a fan of the Netflix series "The Last Kingdom," as I am, Fentiman's comes from a region that's mentioned throughout the show.  Northumberland (aka "Northumbria," in ancient times), is the area where star Uhtred is originally from.  His home castle/town of Bamburgh/Bebbanburg is in this part of England.

Exotic/Disgusting Foods and Beverages Forum--Chinese/Mexican/American Pepitas

      Okay, I was a little sneaky today, by using this title.  "Pepitas" are something I've already discussed on this blog--pumpkin seeds.  Yup, even though the Halloween and Thanksgiving seasons are long over, I want one more crack at pumpkins.  My previous foray into pumpkin seeds was marred by the misdeeds of the company that made them (see my post on November 4, 2023).  So, therefore, I wanted to try pumpkin seeds with a clearer conscience.  Today's pepitas came from Paramount Foods, out of NJ.  The seeds themselves were grown in Mexico and China, hence the title.

     "Pepita" means "little seed of squash" in the Mexican dialect of Spanish.  And, if you're not aware (I wasn't), squash, gourds, and pumpkins are all closely related, so much so that they're essentially subvariants of each other, and not separate species.  As it turns out, pumpkin seeds usually have white outer husks, which some folks eat, and others don't.  Some farmers have even bred subspecies of pumpkins that don't form the husks, which must save considerable time and effort of de-husking.  Also, speaking of breeding, pumpkins/gourds/squashes were all domesticated very long ago, between 8,000 to 10,000 years ago.  Or at least 4,000 years before corn (maize) and beans were.  This was done in Mesoamerica, or, essentially, the region comprising southern Mexico and most of Central America.  Although, currently pumpkins and their kin are grown around the world, including, obviously, in China.  Additionally, pumpkin seeds are very nutritious.  They contain large amounts of protein, fiber, fat, niacin, iron, zinc, phosphorus, magnesium, and manganese.  And they have moderate amounts of riboflavin, sodium, potassium, folate, pantothenic acid, and various fatty acids.  They can be eaten in various ways, too.  Many people eat them raw, or else roasted and salted, as a snack.  Others use the seeds as ingredients in sauces or salsas.  Or, some folks press out the oil, and then utilize this on salads, or as a cooking oil.  They can also be made into a seed butter, or as a flavoring for booze.

     Since I just talked about the Paramount Foods company fairly recently, I won't repeat myself here.  So if you're curious, you can read more about the business in my post on August 12, 2023.

Paramount Foods pepitas, roasted and salted:  These were an olive green color, indicating that they'd had their white husk removed.  They were crunchy, and slightly salty.  A tiny bit oily, too.  Kind of reminiscent of sunflower seeds.  Initially I thought they were kind of bland, but then they grew on me.  Now I rather like them, and have bought more than just the initial bag.  Also, it escaped me before, in my earlier samples, but I clearly prefer my pumpkin seeds to be shelled, to have the white husk removed.  Therefore, I would recommend these.  They're not awesome or anything, but they're decent.  And probably healthier than a lot of snacks.

     One final tidbit about pumpkin seeds/pepitas, that's kind of both interesting and disgusting.  Before better, more effective medical substances were developed, eating pepitas could help expel tapeworms.  So that was a win-win, huh?  You could crunch up a nice snack, and then rid your intestines of invasive worms, all at the same time!   

 

Exotic/Disgusting Foods and Beverages Forum--A Dutch Sweet Treat

      For once, I didn't find the food I'll be discussing today at either my local, or the secondary Shop-Rite.  Instead, I first encountered this one at a random gas station/minimart while on a day trip with a friend (Hi Leon!).  Anyway, this was stroopwafel.  From the Daelmans company, from The Netherlands.

     In essence, stroopwafel is the breakfast food times two, as a sandwich with a syrup filling.  The history of this food is a bit vague.  The French were making waffle "sandwiches" with a cheese center as early as 1393.  And had their own sweet version, called gaufre fourree lilloise by the 1800's or so.  But we're concerned with the Dutch kind.  Its origins are in the late 18th/early 19th century.  Some propose that a baker named Gerard Kamphuisen invented stroopwafel, during the time between 1810 to 1840.  Others maintain that it was created by bakers using waffle scraps that were left over, which were then sweetened and sold.  Whoever developed it, by the 1870's the dish was well established, and very popular.  The southern Dutch city of Gouda (yes, the one associated with the cheese of the same name) is particularly renowned as a stroopwafel center.  The name "stroopwafel" is a Dutch rendition of "syrup waffle" from the English.  Others call it "coffee topper" because of a common way of eating it.  A tradition holds that a stroopwafel needs to be "awakened" before consumption.  This is accomplished by putting it atop a hot drink mug, holding coffee or tea, for 2 minutes.  This will cause the syrup filling to become appropriately nice and gooey, perfect for eating.

     As I was researching this blog topic, something kept nagging at me.  The Daelmans name seemed vaguely familiar.  Well, my memory was correct--I've actually covered this company before, back on August 12, 2017 to be exact.  On that occasion I sampled some their cookies/biscuits.  Anyway, I won't repeat myself very much here.  Daelmans is a bit over a century old, and in addition to several additional stroopwafel flavors (chocolate, coffee, honey, maple, mini), the business also markets cookies/biscuits, cakes, a pastry called speculaas, and puff pastries.  It employs over 300 people, and exports to at least 30 nations around the world.

Daelmans stroopwafel, caramel flavor:  They were a round shape, about 9 cm./3.5 inches in diameter.  Their color was brownish-yellow, and they had the typical cross-hatched waffle pattern.  Plus, as mentioned before, each one consisted of two waffles pressed together, with a brownish syrup-y filling.  The texture was very chewy, and soft.  And they tasted like....particularly sweet waffles.  Or pretty good overall. Quite pleasant.  I didn't learn about the putting-them-atop-a-hot-drink-mug-to-melt-them procedure until later, so I can't comment on that.  (And given my disdain for hot drinks of all kinds, I wouldn't want to try them that way.)  All in all, stroopwafels are a neat kind of cookie-type pastry, and I would recommend them to everyone, save folks who hate waffles, or sweet pastries, I guess.

Exotic/Disgusting Foods and Beverages Forum--A Finnish-Style Cocktail

      A little while ago I was browsing in my local liquor store, and saw something new.  It was called "Long Drink," or less abbreviated, "The Finnish Long Drink, Legend of 1952."  Well, clearly I couldn't resist this come on.  For the record, I had the traditional citrus flavor, and the business behind this was The Long Drink Company, headquartered in Carmel, Indiana.

     The name "long drink" is actually kind of generic.  In general, a "short drink" (aka "shooter") is a mixed drink with some non-alcoholic ingredients combined with one or more alcoholic drinks, as a kind of a large shot.  It's usually served in a large, double shot glass, or a small glass.  A long drink is also a mixed drink, only for this one the non-alcoholic elements are a much larger portion, and the overall creation is put in a tall glass.  Anyway, with that out of the way, let's get into the history of the Finnish Long Drink.  Back in 1952 Finland was set to host the Olympic Summer Games.  Therefore, huge international crowds of sports fans were scheduled to invade Helsinki and its surrounding area, and these people would naturally want copious amounts of adult refreshments.  Finland hadn't had much of drinking tradition in a while.  It had Prohibition from 1919-32, and then World War II had clearly disrupted Finland's supplies of alcohol, as well as everything else.  Anyway, Finland realized it had to change this up, fast.  The government thus relaxed some of the more restrictive laws about alcoholic beverages, and encouraged businesses to create 2 new drinks for the incoming customers.  One of these was a cocktail combining brandy with a local soft drink called Pommac.  That beverage was only semipopular at best, and was mostly discontinued in the 1970's, until a later revival in the 21st century.  The other drink, which combined gin with a grapefruit-flavored soft drink, was huge.  It became known as the Long Drink, and quickly became Finland's favorite alcoholic drink, period.  In Finland Long Drink is rendered as "lonkero," which is a Finnish approximation of the English words "long drink."  (Confusingly, lonkero is also a Finnish word meaning "tentacle," but this is evidently just a coincidence.)  Lonkero is usually between 5 to 8.5% alcohol, and is sometimes flavored with cranberry or lime.  Also, after Finland joined the EU in 1995 its government relaxed its alcohol production laws even further, so even more companies started making their own versions of lonkero.  Some of these use some different ingredient, such as using orange or lemon flavoring, or utilizing cider as the base instead of gin.  Currently the most popular brand of lonkero is made by Hartwell.  Lonkero/Finnish Long Drink had begun to be introduced to other nations--now folks in China, Japan, Taiwan, Estonia, and the U.S. are starting to embrace it.  Additionally, it should be mentioned that lonkero isn't that unusual or innovative.  Another drink, the "greyhound," predates it, and a greyhound is gin (or sometimes vodka) mixed with grapefruit juice, instead of a grapefruit flavored soft drink.  And in Mexico the Paloma (see my post on November 14, 2020) mixes tequila with a grapefruit-flavored soft drink.  So there were/are other very similar drinks made in other places.

     The history of The Long Drink Company was a little harder to learn.  However, I did discover that the company was begun in 2017 by 3 Finnish guys and 1 American.  The former were Ere Partanen, Sakari Manninen, and Mikael Taipale, with the latter was Evan Burns.  The official company website also notes that actor Miles Teller, musician DJ Kygo, and golfer Rickie Fowler are involved with Long Drink, both as spokespeople and investors.  The Long Drink Company has a partnership with Matt Brewing in New York to make and can their drinks--Matt is also known for making the Saranac and Utica Club brands of beer.  Aside from the traditional citrus one that I sampled, Long Drink also makes a Zero flavor (zero carbs or sugar), a Strong one (8.5% alcohol as opposed to the other's 5 to 5.5 %), and a Cranberry flavored kind.

Long Drink, traditional citrus flavor:  Had a citrus-y, lemon-ish odor, and was cloudy--it kind of resembled lemonade.  And it tasted like a lemon soda (soft drink).  Pretty good.  Not awesome, but good enough.  I couldn't taste the alcohol, either.  (It was 5.5%.)  So overall a decent hard soft drink, if I can make up an oxymoron.  After I had some I looked at the label, and that's when I first discovered that it was gin, with grapefruit and juniper flavors.  Which shocked me.  I despise gin, grapefruit, and juniper.  So the fact that I didn't loathe this is a ringing endorsement of sorts.  Therefore, I would heartily recommend this to those who like gin, grapefruit, and juniper, and would recommend even those that don't like these flavors to at least give it a try.

     If you're curious, Miles Teller is arguably best known for roles in such films as "Rabbit Hole" (2010), "Whiplash" (2014), the "Divergent" series (2014-16), "Fantastic Four" (2015), "War Dogs" (2016), and "Top Gun:  Maverick" (2022).  Kygo is a well-regarded, Norwegian DJ.  Rickie Fowler is still active, and to date has won 10 golf titles, although he's still looking for his first Major win.  His highest career ranking was #4 in early 2016.  Finally, in the 1952 Olympic games in Helsinki, the top medal totals by country were the U.S. with 76, the Soviet Union with 71, Hungary with 42, Sweden with 36, and host Finland with 22.  Individual stars include Soviet gymnast Viktor Chukarin, who won 4 gold medals, and Czechoslovakian runner Emil Zatopek, who won 3 golds.