Recent content by Lou A.

Thanks, Jeff, for posting that picture.

Terrible news. Reeling.

"There are also Muscadets that cost as little as $35 a bottle."

Kevin Cedergreen makes very good domestic (WA) chenin.

In days for yore, the preferred method for ingesting Ferm-Aid (this was years before Owsley) was insufillation. Today's whippersnappers only know Farm-Aid, but I find it too barnyardy.

Drinking out of cups

Mark is right: no one in Brooklyn pronounces it "fah-schist," unless they went to Sarah Lawrence and took years of corrective elocution lessons.

I was unaware of the USDA regulations on cider--do you have a reference for that? In any event, here's a link to the Dupont page that describes their unpasturized ciders: http://www.calvados-dupont.com/en/cidre-bouche.htm I wonder if they're compelled to use selected yeast in order to reach 5%.

Heh, yes, as did my Grandfather's kosher pickles! I doubt the additional atmospheres of CO2 from 5-6 g/l really would exceed the engineering specs for the Champagne-type bottle used for some of these ciders. Sparkling cider has a lot less CO2 than Champagne, so I don't think a marginal...

I don't know. I believe that the "fresh" unpasturized ciders I taste do have some RS--under 10 g/l, is my guess, but not so much that they taste full-on sweet, to me at least. The Dupont cider, for example, is labelled "Brut du Normandie" yet I percieve it as having some RS--but, perhaps it's...

SB, in France, do folks make a distinction between apple cider and perry (I mean, is there a French equivalent of the English word "perry")? I know that outside of the Pays d'Auge ciders may contain a fair amount of pear in them but I don't see any special designation of that on French cider...

BJ: The two Dupont ciders (normale, organic) that are imported to the States are neither pasteurized nor filtered. I don't agree that they're middling--they are, of course, made by a pretty big Calva producer, yet by my lights the Dupont organic unfiltered unpasteurized cider is quite good...

Dupont makes several different ciders, but I've only had the organic one and the "normale." It's instructive to taste the normale side-by-side with the organic. The organic bottle is more interesting, even though I believe they are fermented in the same way. In any event, delicious stuff, and I...

I would strongly urge you to seek out Patricia Tsai's ChocoVivo chocolates. These are raw, unconched chocolates from organically grown, Mexican beans. Patricia does make some flavored chocolate (she grinds the flavors in the mill along with the cacao beans) but I prefer her bittersweet stuff...

There is amusing prose on the back labels and also a graphic of a badger with a line struck through it. Some of the labels have a clown-like face on them, which freak my wife out a bit. Ondenc--I've only had three: one from Plageoles (sweet), one from Auques (less sweet), and in Lescarret's...