manhattan special

I seem to be on a NYC theme this week. I always renew my love affair with New York when the spring is finally in full swing, and summer just around the corner. It's finally warm, and the walk to the subway isn't nearly as brutal as it is in the dead of winter with snow and ice blowing in my face.

Manhattan Special is a beverage company that has been around since 1895. There's a bit of old New York in every bottle of their espresso coffee drinks and natural flavored sodas. In theory, the espresso coffee should be my favorite drink: espresso coffee and seltzer, finally together in a bottle, capped with a bottle cap. Sadly, it's kind of gross. After tasting Manhattan Special, I realized that I like my seltzer separate from my coffee. I like iced coffee, and I like fizzy drinks. Just not together. Maybe if there had been some vanilla ice cream to make it like a Manhattan Special Float. Now there's an idea.

Bringing old-time flavor to the present is something I try to do. I love old-fashioned/retro candy: Squirrel Nut Zippers? Mary Janes? Bit-o-Honey? I subject co-workers and friends to these candies on a regular basis. I will not subject them to a Manhattan Special. In the long run, they'll thank me.

brooklyn brewery

Ah, Brooklyn Brewery.  It really is lovely having a microbrewery in the city, and the opportunity to go on a brewery tour anytime I want. I've been on the tour -- and although it is just one room, (well, two rooms if you count where you go buy the beer afterward!) it is still a good time. They allow you to order in food while you wait for your tour, and the room is big and raucous.

Their bottle caps are simple, elegant and come in many, many colors. And even without the name Brooklyn Brewery emblazoned on the cap, I bet that most people from the tri-state area would be able to pick this bottle cap out in a lineup. Being one of the top 40 breweries in the country probably doesn't hurt either.

I find myself wanting to drink Brooklyn Brewery more when I'm not in NYC, though.  Maybe it is nostalgia for home, or maybe it's the closest thing to a good beer when there is only Miller and Budweiser around. Who knows? But I love their seasonal brews, and BB gives me something to look forward during each season: Summer Ale, Post Road, and the ever-delicious, year-round Pennant Ale (just in time for baseball season!)

newport storm

There was a period of time in my life when I was spending many a weekend in Providence, RI.  I had a good friend getting  a degree there, and it gave me the opportunity to have a "weekend house" away from NYC.

Providence is an underappreciated east coast city. River-Fires in the summer, a great local food scene (places like Luxe Burger Bar and Union Station Brewery), and plenty of junk -- I mean "antique" -- stores. I would drag my friend to every junk store in the area, even though I wasn't really sure what I was searching for. I have a fascination with things that others throw away, and junk stores allow me to look through other people's things in a way that is semi-acceptable. My friend used the opportunity to look for old baseball cards. To each his own.

One of the beers that we would drink regularly was Newport Storm: Cyclone Edition, and even then, I was saving bottle caps. I think my favorite thing about this cap is the writing on the side: "Newport Storm The Cap." The actual cap is a graphic of a cyclone with a bird in the eye of the storm.

Sadly, I don't spend nearly as much time in Providence as I once did, but there is talk of taking a trip to Newport, which of course, would mean a trip to the brewery (have I mentioned my love of brewery/factory tours?) and also eating many, many lobster rolls. Let's hope we can make it there this year!

flying dog

I love Ralph Steadman and have an appreciation for Hunter S. Thompson. One of the first H.S.T. books I read was The Curse of Lono, and I fell in love with Steadman's artistic style. This is why I love the Flying Dog bottle cap and website (I highly recommend you check it out!).

Rather than get into the nitty gritty of what gonzo journalism is, or give you a book report on Hunter S. Thompson (but seriously, read him already), I thought I would talk a little bit about this lawsuit going on between Michigan and Flying Dog and the Raging Bitch 20th Anniversary ale that they came up with.

So, the long and short of it is that Michigan doesn't think that it's appropriate to have a beer called "Raging Bitch" distributed within the state. But as the DCist.com article points out, Michigan already sells "Doggie Style" and "Dirty Bastard" beer from Flying Dog, both with equally "inappropriate" names -- if you go based on what they say about Raging Bitch, of course.

I always give kudos to clever advertising and product names. And besides, the fact that Michigan already allows a beer named Dirty Bastard to be sold just seems downright inconsistent. Flying Dog, I salute you for sticking to your guns. 

I could go on and on about the politics of this whole thing, but dear readers, that is not what you come to this blog for. You come here for awesomely cool bottle caps. But I would love to know your thoughts, too. Please feel free to leave comments about how you feel about this lawsuit. In the meantime,  I'll step off my soap box, and have a Raging Bitch for everyone in Michigan that can't have one tonight.

reed's, kombucha wonder drink - guest post by Michael Lober

All right, listen up all you ginger fanatics out there: enough is enough. Don't get me wrong, I like ginger just as much as the next person -- particularly when sushi is involved -- but I don't enjoy it in everything. In fact, I'd go so far to say that I don't enjoy it in most things: burgers, meatloaf, empanadas, ice cream, wine, etc. I understand that ginger is trendy--exotic enough to be hip but not enough to be alienating--and that ginger has made significant inroads with the organic foodie crowd. Fine. Shred it up and sprinkle it on your kale casseroles for all I care, but really, is it a good idea to make it the key ingredient in a soda? I enjoy a good ginger ale every now and then, but most of the time the ginger in these sodas isn't overwhelming. I understand that craft soda manufacturers often try to produce anti-Coca-Colas -- as in, a drink that tastes strong and earthy in such a way as to not seem mass produced -- but there's got to be a better way of doing so than by simply tripling the amount of ginger in the mix.

Reed's has gone one step further: They've based their entire brand around ginger. There are six different flavors of ginger brew put out by Reed's, which, in my opinion, is six too many. The ginger completely overpowers whatever fruit flavor it's mixed with, and the aftertaste isn't sweet like a ginger ale or biting like a root beer but pungent and nasal-cleansing like ginger. I mean, I like ginger in small doses on food that it complements, but I don't fancy the idea of eating (or drinking) entire stalks of the thing. Reed's can lecture me all they want about the health benefits of ginger. That's all fine and good, but when I want straight-up ginger, I'll just, you know, go buy some ginger. The bottle caps are pretty cool, though.

Kombucha Wonder Drink clearly has an inferiority complex. Let's start with the name. Wonder Drink? Seriously? And then there's the price -- $3.50 in my neighborhood, way too much for a bottled soda. Finally, there's the soda itself: Asian-Pear-Ginger soda. Asian pears and ginger taste just fine as a snack, but I don't need them in soda form.

Look, Kombucha Wonder Drink, I understand that you're trying to make a splash in a competitive marketplace; it's hard to compete with the craft soda producers of the world. I get it. But, seriously, everything about your soda makes it seem like you walked into a Whole Foods one day, bought a couple of items on sale, blended them to liquid form, and then charged Whole Food-like prices for the concoction. Good try, but maybe a little less pear and ginger next time. And your bottle cap could use an upgrade. Silver is so 2000s.

mystery cap!

Faithful readers! Try this one on for size:

I can't remember what this one is, but I recall it being some sort of Irish beer, and had at an amazing restaurant in NYC.

Any clues are greatly appreciated. And have a wonderful weekend full of bottle caps and delicious drinks of all kind.

rebel, badass, rogue

Are you a Rebel or are you a Badass? Let's see, if you're a Rebel, you might be from the Czech Republic.  If you're a Badass, you might be Kid Rock. If you're a bottle cap collector, you could be either one. Or you could be Rogue...

I purchased Rebel at our local supermarket, and I'll be honest: the only reason I bought Rebel was because of the name and the prospect of writing a blog post about this and Badass (Badass was purchased at crownvention!).

Rebel was a surprisingly good beer. It didn't just taste like another Budweiser. It's the kind of beer that I would consider buying again. High praise, indeed.

I didn't realize that Kid Rock had his own beer. It makes me wonder what other celebrity beers are out there. I've never listened to Kid Rock's music (if you can call it that) but if I ever find Badass beer in my local bodega, I'll try it if only for the name. But seriously, why is Kid Rock making a beer? What's the deal with celebrities thinking they need to make beer or clothing lines or perfumes? Celebrities should stick to what they do best -- being celebrities. Because, really, are they brewing the beer or coming up with the designs for the clothes, or are they just paying other people to do the heavy lifting and swooping in at the last minute and saying "Yes, I like this. I'm a badass. Now I will put my name on it." Is that the scenario? (I'm asking you, Kid Rock.) In that case, I want to be a celebrity and just have my name attached to things. If you're going to endorse something (Pepsi, Coke, TD Bank, etc) that's all fine and well for your bank account, but these "this is mine, I created it" ideas just seems like a bunch of bull to me. In other words, Kid Rock, just because you call your beer Badass doesn't make it (or you) so. Hmmm, in the end, maybe I'm more of a Rogue....