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Posts with tag names

Top ten best ever beer names

Beer and foam.
It's pretty common in the world of craft beer for brewers to come up with, hmm, interesting names for their creations. I love coming across really good names and trying to get the joke. Most of the time I get it.

Joey Redner, over at Tampa Bay Online took the time to compile a list of the top ten beer names ever. I won't spoil the number one pick for you, but there are some great names on the list. Beers with names like "Old engine Oil" and "I'll Have What the Gentleman on the Floor is Having" are just a sampling of the fun to be had.

This top ten list is just the opinion of one man, though. What would you put in a list of the top ten best beer names?




California tightening standards for wine labels

While some producers might balk at this legislative change, it is one that will add a little more clarity to the California wine industry. Governor Schwarzenegger signed a bill last weekend that prohibits wineries from using "Sonoma" as part of their name unless at least 75% of the grapes used to produce it were grown in Sonoma County. "Sonoma transcends a county name and has become nearly a brand name synonymous with quality wine produced by some of the greatest vintners in the world," Schwarzenegger said. A similar decision was reached last year regarding Napa wines and regulations may eventually be put in place to regulate other wine-growing areas, such as Mendocino County, and restrict the use of those names.

Not too many wines should be affected by the change, but any brands that are out of compliance will have until December 31st, 2008 to change their labels to reflect a non-Sonoma origin. A California appellation will probably be used in place of county references for these wines.

Baby Ruth official chocolate of MLB

For the next three years, Baby Ruth will be the official candy bar of Major League Baseball. In addition to having a logo proclaiming it as such on the packaging, the candy will also be featured in a number of in-game and TV promotions. The candy bar is nougat, coated in peanuts and dipped in chocolate. The fact that the name is almost identical to that of one of the greatest players of all time can only help endear it to fans.

Many people believe that the candy is named after the baseball player Babe Ruth, due to the similarity in the names. A Snopes article tends to support this theory, but the company that invented the bars, before they were sold to Nestle, says that they were named after President Grover Cleveland's daughter - who was named Ruth. Unfortunately this explanation has a few flaws, as Snopes points out. Not only were the bars introduced in 1921, but Ruth Cleveland died at the age of 12 in 1904, making her an odd choice to have a candy bar named after her.

 

 

The Ding Dong debate

Snack cakes are a hot-button issue for a lot of people, especially if the controversy over snackable wedding cakes is any indication. They represent a classic comfort for as most people had them during childhood. Even if your parents kept them out of the house and out of your lunchbox, chances are good that you were able to indulge once in a while at the home of a friend. From Twinkies to jam-filled krimpets, everyone has a favorite. If I had to guess, though, I would say that any kind of cream-filled chocolate cupcake is the favorite for most people.

Ding Dongs and Ring Dings are actually the same thing: a chocolate covered, cream-filled cupcake. Though sold under different brand names, Hostess and Drake's, respectively, they are produced by the same company. Hostess also sells their Ding Dongs as King Dons in some states, where there was a competitor with a similar name and they wanted to avoid confusion. The when the competitor went out of business, they tried to return to selling only Ding Dongs, but there was such an outcry, that they kept the King name. Little Debbie also makes a similar product, called a Devil Square and Tastykake makes a cream-filled chocolate cupcake, though only their Kandy Kakes are fully covered in chocolate, not their cupcakes.

Some people swear that they can taste the difference between these products, but I think that it's unlikely. Packaging doesn't impart any flavor into the cake within. Personally, I think that Tastykake makes the best of the bunch, though I'll take a Butterscotch Krimpet over a cream-filled cupcake any day.

Gorp...what do you call it?

It appears that I've made it through the 24 years of my life without having encountered the word gorp. You can imagine my surprise when, on a recent car trip, my girlfriend referred to the bag of peanuts, raisins and chocolate chips that I packed, asking "Where's the gorp?" Gorp came up in conversation again the other day, so I decided to do a little research. The origins of the word are cloudy at best. According to a Wikipedia entry, gorp may be a "backronym," an acronym created to match the letters of a word that already exists, standing for Good Old Raisins and Peanuts or Granola Oats Raisins and Peanuts. I'm skeptical of the latter because granola generally contains oats anyway, so that would be redundant. Apparently gorp is also known as scroggin in Australia, New Zealand, Britain and Iraq. Supposedly, this may also be an acronym.

[Photo: Wikipedia]

Continue reading Gorp...what do you call it?

Misspeaking Starbucks

I have always wondered why people have problems saying the drink names at Starbucks. I'm not just speaking about the sizes, Tall, Grande and Venti, either. I'm talking about words like "latte." I notice men actually mispronounce the words on purpose. They will plaster a big grin on their face and, sarcastically, say something like "I'll have a 'grand kap-po-see-no.'" I kid you not - and when you come into a Starbucks every single morning, you will learn, at some point, the proper pronunciation of the names. How hard is it to say 'grahn-day,' really.

I generally chalked it up to some sort of testosterone-based insecurity because women almost never do this; the fear of saying a word incorrectly by chance was so great that these men preferred to grossly mispronounce the words on purpose. The question is: why be insecure?

Continue reading Misspeaking Starbucks

Playing name games

checkout line recognition?For years, companies like Starbucks have been asking customers for their name. Using a name - as opposed to a generic “sir”, “ma’am” or “miss” - gives the cafe a sense of familiarity, as well as providing a convenient way to match customers with their orders. I find this to be a good system and would rather have my name called out by a barista than have to match a number on a receipt to my order or try to explain to an angry looking octogenarian that my caramel macchiato is not the same as her black coffee. Incidentally, the latter happens quite a lot, since the people who want to fight over drinks are the same people who hate to give their names to the baristas. Needless paranoia, since your first name is not generally considered to be classified information.

Continue reading Playing name games

Coffee that sounds like dirt: why am I so drawn to it?

thundermuck coffee
My brother-in-law worked for a local coffee warehouse for a couple of months (it was a long stint for him). One day he brought home a sticker from one of the coffee bags and stuck it on my coffee bean canister. "Fried Nerve Ends," it reads. I loved it.

So it may not surprise you to know that my new favorite coffee is this "Thundermuck" from Columbia River Coffee Roasters. How can you not love coffee that sounds like, uhh, mud? I take a perverse pleasure in drinking delicious, dark things that sound... silly. Why am I so attracted to terrible-sounding coffee?

Tip of the Day

Your turkey may not be centerpiece of the Thanksgiving spread, if you follow our simple tips on scoring that holiday ham.

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