Sunday 19 November 2017

A quiet one

Not much to report this week - we’ve had a fairly quiet weekend to make up for the rest of the year looking pretty busy! I’m looking forward to all the busyness, though I’ve yet to work out when I’m fitting in Christmas shopping 😏
No cycling this week, just a couple of beers and a cafe trip. On Friday night I enjoyed a bottle of Campfire Porter by Box Social, a sweet, coffee porter that was delicious but didn’t quite hit the toasted marshmallow it promised. They have pretty much the most hipster branding I’ve seen (in a crowded field) but I’ll let them off since they’re based in Newburn 😉
I fancied something lighter on Saturday night to go with tea, so picked up a bottle of Good Times by Williams Brothers, who are one of the bigger, more established independent breweries I know of, with a pretty wide range of beers available in supermarkets and decent pubs you wouldn’t associate with ‘craft beer’ as such. Their Heather ale, Fraoch, is one of my favourites, even if I’m never confident on the pronunciation! I hadn’t tried this one before, but it turned out to be a good choice. A lightly floral pale golden ale, it complemented the spinach and ricotta cannelloni we had very well. I do like their label designs:
As an aside, even this supermarket purchase worked out at (I think) about 75p per unit, so well above the Scottish Government’s minimum unit price of 50p, and that was despite being on a price offer. It’s obviously a controversial policy but one I fully support, probably more robustly than was really necessary on social media to be honest. It is baffling to see dyed in the wool lefties making the same arguments against it as the Adam Smith Institute, and Rod Liddell on Question Time, but I think it shows how entrenched heavy drinking is in certain quarters.  Unsurprisingly, I have a reputation for being a beer lover, but the actual amount I drink is well within what’s considered healthy limits, so it’s been eye opening realising what some people think of as moderate alcohol intake...

Today we wandered into town for coffee and cake. Empire State Coffee must have been open a couple of years now, but this was our first visit. I’ve bought takeaway coffee from their new cafe in Broughty Ferry, so had an idea what to expect, plus I suspect it’s run by the same folk as the ‘secret’ bar! Downstairs was busy so we ordered and found a table upstairs. I’ve never been to the States, so I couldn’t say whether they succeed at creating a New York vibe, but the carrot cake was decent enough, and I enjoyed my chai latte. It was certainly busy. We might have to back for pizza, which they serve in the evening.


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