4th taster from the Advent Calendar.
Some people describe it as easy, and I’d agree. It is not overpowering, just slightly malty, you don’t feel the 43%, but it numbs the mouth nicely. For 45GBP, you can’t wish for much more.
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Category: *.BAK
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Glen Moray 2014 Oloroso Matured
3rd bottle from the advent calendar. This one is down my lane, so to speak: sweet and warm. Something I would definitely buy for myself:
https://www.masterofmalt.com/whiskies/glen-moray/glen-moray-2014-oloroso-matured-warehouse-1-whisky/
78GBP for what is basically 10 years old whiskey is a bit steep, but is definitely a nice discovery.
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Samsonite Ecodiver Travel S backpack
I’ve been using North Face backpacks for many years now. And grew slightly disillusioned by them with time. So after trying out a couple of Samsonite backpacks at the airport, I decided to give them a chance.
Ecodiver line is the water resisting one. That’s easy. Considering the fact that my North Face Surge got soaked quite a few times, I view it as a considerable benefit. The more complicated part is that inside the lineup, there’s Travel Backpack and Laptop Backpack. And smallest Travel Backpack (38L) is larger than the largest Laptop Backpack (26L). Since my surge is 32L and I don’t consider it to be too large for my needs, I went with Travel S model.
Things I like:
- Two pairs of compression straps, top and bottom
- Vertical organizers in the large compartment. This is useful for storing a water bottle, for example.
- The external side compartment also has a zip pocket. On Surge, those were open, and stuff would fall out of it unless you secure them
Things I’m neutral about:
- The glasses compartment is a mesh inside the large compartment. Don’t see why, could be made a small compartment accessible from the outside and still be waterproof
Things I don’t like that much:
- Hip belt can be tucked away, but you can’t remove it. I never used hip belt, and don’t expect to, so I’d prefer it to be removable
- I’d prefer two side pockets instead of one.
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St.Bernardus Christmas Ale
I was looking forward to try this beer, but it turned out into a slight disappointment. It’s not particularly bad, and didn’t leave me with a headache or anything like that, but it just didn’t taste anything special. Not too sweet, not too spicy. Just… alright, I guess.
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MtG memories
When I was a kid, our local game store had a poster of Magic the Gathering on its door. I’m not even sure if it sold any, or it was just there. But for some reason, two cards in particular scared me for some reason. Just found them:
Both from the Arabian Nights expansion.
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Eureka Mignon Libra coffee grinder
I wanted a grind-by-weight coffee grinder since I bought my first coffee grinder, Compak K3 some 7 years ago. At the time, there was only Baratza Sette 270Wi. Strangely, seven years later, there aren’t many choices either: either same 270Wi or Eureka Mignon Libra. There are mixed opinions regarding Baratza’s connical burrs design and it’s ability to grind for espresso. So, I decided to give Eureka a chance.
First few impressions:
Tiny. With the hopper, it is as tall as K3 without one, and much shorter. The feel if very compact.
Sharp edges. Compak is all round. The machine is round cone, the hopper is a round “hat”. Eureka is all angles, so sharp I almost cut myself getting it out of the box.
Smooth and clean. Eureka is known for making very quiet coffee grinders. While not very important for me, it is noticeably quieter. What was far more important for me, and one of the reasons I finally decided to get a new grinder, is the clumps and distribution. In the meantime, the coffee is clumpless, and comes out as in the videos, in an even stream. That also means that despite me not getting my funnel yet, it doesn’t leave as much mess as Compak does.
Now, I still haven’t dialed the grind, simply because I didn’t want to waste coffee. So maybe it will get clumps once I grind finer. We’ll see soon enough.
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Loch Lomond Spearhead Whiskey,
2nd taster from the Advent Calendar.
https://www.masterofmalt.com/whiskies/spearhead/spearhead-whisky/
I guessed right that it’s 30GBP whiskey. It doesn’t smell of anything but alcohol to me, and doesn’t taste like much. If I was told it’s an Irish whiskey, I would probably believe it.
I didn’t expect it, but the dive into the economics behind picking the right headphone driver was fascinating.
The smaller companies don’t produce planar drivers because they’re hip. They produce them because those are cheaper to prototype, and cheaper to produce in small quantities.
The larger companies don’t produce dynamic drivers because History. They produce them because it’s cheaper at scale.
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Johnnie Walker Green Label 15 years
This Christmas I got myself the Drinks by the Drum Advent Calendar, once it got a discount.
Finally got to opening it. The first one is Johnnie Walker Green Label 15 years, 49GBP per bottle.
I’m not a fan of blends, because you never know what goes into them. This one is slightly peaty, but still quite smooth and sweet, leaves nice numbness in the mouth. Certainly quite nice.
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Ninja Perfect Temperature Kettle
We had a Sage Smart Kettle for about 3 years and were very happy with it. But for the past couple of months it started to act out, loosing contact with its based, beeping when regaining it, sometimes not turning on at all.
The requirements were simple:
- Temperature control to be able to prepare green tea at 80C
- Visible water level
- Attached lid
Turned out that the choice isn’t that large. For example Haier I-Master Series 5 doesn’t have a visible water level, something I’d consider a basic feature.
So, we settled for Ninja.
What can I say:
- It boils 1L of water at exactly 2 minutes, which is pretty amazing.
- There’s a real time display of temperature.
- And there’s a led highlighting the water level when the kettle is on.
I especially like the real time display, as it gives a rough indication on how long until the kettle boils, or if it’s too hot to touch.
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Precision screwdriver
Yesterday I was fiddling with spotlights, and dropped the precission driver case. Not sure if it was just the gravity, or I left it open last time I used it. But all the 48 bits flew away.
Spend good 30 minutes putting them all back in places.
But now I can distinguish between TORX T7H and PZ00 bits.
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Vibram adventures
My KSO Evo FiveFingers broke down, with sole at the thumb cracking. So I decided to explore other Vibram options. Tried Furoshiki Icon and Furoshiki High Knit. Icon is basically a strapped sole. High Knit at least feels like a sock with a sole. They provide excellent grip, at least on parquet, but I don’t like that they stick my toes together even more than a regular shoe, not to mention a FiveFinger shoe.
Then I got V-Run Retro. Those feel great, right amount of padding, quick lace, back loop, everything I need, basically.
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Braun 9 Shaver
After struggling with Philips top-of-the-line shaver for a year, I went back to Braun.
It shaves better, there’s simply no arguing about that.
Also, it’s cleaning station acts as a charging station, while Philips is basically just a plastic can.
What’s strange is that unlike Series 7 shaver, there’s no horizontal swivel, just vertical swivel. But this one you can lock in place with a special button, unlike Series 7.
What I like the most is that the heads are also locked. You need to press two buttons to actually release them. I had a head fly off Series 7 a few times.
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Gadd’s Black Pearl Oyster Stout
One of the cans I’ve got from Beer52 random beer box was this oyster stout from Ramsgate. Strangely enough, most of the places that do sell it, sell it in bottles, and not in cans.
It’s a fine stout at 6.2% ABV, not too sweet, not too smoky, no hard feelings. Almost no gas either.
As of the name, some claim that brewers were adding oysters or oyster shells to the beer as a clarifying agent. There are no oysters in this one, though, and they explain the name as “good with seafood beer”.
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Acaia Pearl coffee scales
Acaia produce the top of the range barista scales. When I bought my first scales some five years ago, I considered them too expensive and bulky. But now, when I have a bigger coffee machine and a bigger kitchen, it’s less of an issue. And since my Brewista scales I bought while still in Amsterdam started misbehaving, I decided it’s time for an upgrade.
The Acaia Pearl sells in the UK for about 190GBP. In the US, it costs just 150$. So at first I thought myself smart to buy from there. Then, I considered the taxes and the shipping. So, I thought myself smart from buying from EU, for just 144GBP, including shipping. Then I was told this again doesn’t include VAT, and there may be additional taxes, because why not.
So, I ended up being humbled and buying those for 180GBP from the UK.
Compared to my Brewista, it’s super precise. Not 1-bean precise, but 3-bean precise. It would detect half a gram, basically.
It’s also big. It still fits on the coffee machine tray, and you can squeeze a cup underneath, but just barely. But, I rarely do coffee-by-output anyway, because my coffee machine does volumes.
The controls are wonky. First, they are touch. And to turn the scales off, you need to doubletap the “Off” button. Not long press, that switches modes. Double-tap.
Also, apparently because the top is all plastic, they are also not very sturdy. So they even put a protective film on top. Not very reassuring, but we’ll see.
It’s time to admit – I can’t play games anymore unless I know they’re being recorded. For PC it is granted. With GeForce Experience it captures the last 5 minutes of gameplay. With Switch, it also works well, it can capture 30 last seconds. But it means I has to play on the original gamepad, because no other gamepad has the “capture” button. Or, I could connect the console to a laptop running OBS Studio. Which I do.
For other consoles, such as PS2 and Neo Geo, it’s the same setup. I didn’t touch my Neo Geo for months, until I figured out that setup. Because if I can’t record it, I can’t remember it, and if I can’t remember it, it’s not fun, so why play it in the first place?
In March my SanDisk flash drive started to refuse writing anything at all. By some luck I still had it under warranty, so I decided to give RMA a try. It took them exactly 5 months to send me a new one. Five months. By that time I of course bought another one.
Then a couple of weeks back my expensive Philips shaver stopped charging. I took a look and discovered that one of the charging pins broke off and got stuck inside the charger socket 🤦♂️
So I sent the whole thing back. Philips shipped the shaver quickly enought, everything took hardly two weeks. But… Only the handle arrived. Now look, they said in their instructions that I shouldn’t send any accessories. But I didn’t consider the shaver head to be an accessory. And the charger was broken, what was I supposed to do?
In any case, I contacted them, and they agreed to even send me a complete shaver. We’ll wait and see how that works out.
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Hogan’s High Sobriety Cider
Making a cider that doesn’t taste like stale apple juice is hard. Making a low-alcohol cider like that is even harder. Hogan’s does a great job at that. Unfortunately, it’s hard to find in anything but x12 packs, which doesn’t correlate with how much we love cider.
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Engelszell Gregorius
For the good of me, I can’t remember where I’ve got this beer from.
This trappist beer is interesting, because it’s has an almost umami taste. It’s what’s called a “quad”, so 10.5%, pretty strong by any standard. And comes from Austria, which is a rare place for trappist beers.
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Gulden Draak Imperial Stout
Only after visiting Ghent I discovered that one of my favorite beers, Gulden Draak, also comes as an Imperial Stout.
It’s fantastic, as can be expected from Gulden Draak. Makes you lightheaded and slightly sleepy, but that passes quickly.
The taste is smooth, but not as heavy as some of the Imperial Stouts made in the UK.