"niche" news and stories

If you've ever been in a bar with micro-brews on tap, you've no doubt noticed a trend towards the ornamental, baseball-bat-sized tap handles that accompany some beers. A recent AP story charts this trend and includes a little history on tap handles. Apparently they were a product of a post-prohibition regulation requiring bars to identify which beers they were pouring. I still don't know how that kept bars from putting a different keg on the tap. At any rate, the story highlights the niche that ornate tap handles have become, pointing to companies like Tap Handles, Inc., which cranks out about 200,000 handles a year. Their site has a pretty impressive portfolio of their creations. BeerCollections.com also has a pretty nice gallery of tap handles. I've always been fond of this tap for Rogue's Dead Guy Ale. The AP story also gets extra points for using the term "breweriana."

The San Jose Mercury News recently featured an article about Belfast Sparkling Cider, apparently a longtime favorite among Chinese communities in California. With roots dating back to Irish immigrants and California's gold rush, the cider has now become a niche favorite, found at many Chinese restaurants in San Francisco. The Mercury piece goes over several theories of how the soda rose to such prominence among Chinese Bay Area residents, speculating on taste, price and location. There is apparently little marketing needed for the stuff, since it's had a loyal following for decades.

 In this week's food section, the LA Times managed to do put together a very respectable piece on some very specific food blogs, such as candyblog and DeepEndDining, both of which happen to be Los Angeles based. I'm a fan of many of the sites that were mentioned.

Unfortunately for other bloggers, they managed to insult the interest, effort content and sincerity of most, if not all other food bloggers. The first few lines say it all:
"It was fun to pore over the gastronomic musings at the Accidental Hedonist or I Was Just Really Very Hungry.... But quicker than you could say blogosphere, the world of blogs-by-dedicated-foodies got crowded, repetitive, overly precious and just plain dull."