Good Clean Fun

Jim never Eats a Second Cup

Caffeine, Food and Drink, Good Clean Fun / By

Remember the Yuban coffee commercials from the 1970’s? Certified Buzzed Boomers will. Yuban. 

Well here’s some fun news from happy-headlines.com.

“Founded in 2018, innovative distribution company BioBite has crafted a quirky solution to solve the ever growing issue of coffee cup waste. Each year over 2.5 billion coffee cups are being used, with the majority not being recycled, ending up in landfill where they can produce harmful methane gases.    

This is where BioBite comes in, offering a sustainable solution with their new edible coffee cup. The cup is suitable for both hot and cold beverages, desserts, puddings, soups, yoghurts and ice-creams. The recyclable paper label ensures safe handling of the cup and keeps the wafer away from the surface it is placed on, therefore there is no need to worry about contamination.

As well as being sustainable, there are several other perks that come with the coffee cup. (Editor’s Note:  Are they caffeinated??  Double Buzz!) The new edible cup is said to be ‘leak-proof’ for up to an astounding 12 hours once filled with a hot drink, as well as being 100% vegan and made from all natural ingredients. However if you don’t feel like consuming your wafer treat, there is a swathe of other recycling options, with over 7.5 billion stations being available to dispose of your cup.

The company hopes their solution can help contribute towards the ‘zero-waste’ movement and provide a viable, affordable and environmentally friendly solution for both customers and businesses around the world, decreasing the number of waste humans produce on a daily basis.

Already, the company is looking to expand their product portfolio into other areas. Soon they are planning to introduce edible straws, compostable cutlery, plates, bowls and many more items, adding to their fleet of sustainable products. They hope the introduction of these new products will help accelerate progress towards their long-term vision, which is to replace single-use plastics and papers with more sustainable options.”

Yeah, we’re thinking beer-flavored pint glasses.  Yum.

Cheers!

– Jet Cannon

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Play Ball!

Food and Drink, Good Clean Fun / By

The playoffs are just around the corner and Liquor.com has come to the rescue!

“There is no generally accepted, classic “Baseball Cocktail.” There’s not even a “Babe Ruth Cocktail.” If there were ever a man who didn’t think a drink was something to be avoided, it was The Sultan of Swat (he was famous for putting away a quart of whiskey and ginger ale with his breakfast).

Fortunately, there is one classic with which to toast the baseball season: the Cooperstown Cocktail. It was created at the old Waldorf-Astoria hotel back before Prohibition as a tribute to the sporting types from the famed upstate town who used to drop by when they were in the city. It includes gin, equal parts sweet and dry vermouth, orange bitters and mint leaves, and it’s the refreshment you want before, during or after a nine-inning day out.”

The Cooperstown Cocktail

  • 1 1/2 ounces Tanqueray gin
  • 3/4 ounce Martini & Rossi rosso vermouth
  • 3/4 ounce Noilly Prat Original dry vermouth
  • 2 dashes The Bitter Truth orange bitters
  • 2 mint leaves
  • Garnish: mint sprig (optional)

Steps

  • Add the gin, vermouths, orange bitters and mint leaves to a mixing glass with ice.


    Stir until well-chilled and strain into a cocktail glass.

    Garnish with a mint sprig, if desired.

Cheers!

– Jet Cannon

Photo:  Liquor.com

Repurposed watering Holes

Food and Drink, Good Clean Fun, Travel / By

Taking a retired facility and making it into a bar while leaving the elements of the old establishment intact, makes tossing one back just a little bit more fun.  In a previous post, we visited the Old Glory Speakeasy in Nashville, located in the boiler room of White Way Cleaners, formerly one of the largest steam cleaning facilities in Nashville.  The three story boiler is still there.  The dark, secretive atmosphere convinced us we were back in prohibition days.  

Closer to our home is the Tin Room Bar which took over a tin shop.  Ernie, the tin shop’s proprietor, is pictured on the menu.  The Tin Shop sign still hangs over the bar.  Some of the tools for bending tin are behind the bar. There’s craftsman quality poured into every cocktail.

A little farther up the road is the Anderson School which is one of the McMenamin brother’s repurposed establishments.  The hotel and grounds sport several bars with our favorite being the Principal’s Office which seats about six people and offers specialty cocktails that would make Principal Anderson proud.  Located in Bothell, Washington the hotel, bars and restaurants feature vignettes of local history throughout. You’ll leave happy and a little smarter.

In future posts, we will explore bars in an old Elk’s Temple, a bank vault, a poor farm, a brothel, a barge, a plane, a train and historic hotels.

Meanwhile, go online and see what repurposed bars are in your area.  Oftentimes, there’s a fun history lesson to go along with your cocktail.

– Jet Cannon

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Yak Butter Tea

Caffeine, Endorphins, Fitness, Food and Drink, Good Clean Fun, Travel / By

Seattle writer Tantri Wija regularly amazes us with unique alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages featured in The Seattle Times.  Recently, she wrote about Himalayan butter tea which powers sherpas up Mt. Everest and the like.  Wow!  We want some.  She describes it as a power smoothie.  Okay!  Except…. We don’t have any yak butter on hand or pu-erh tea.  We could probably find grass-fed cow butter as a substitute but that would require a trip to the store.

Yet being anxious to prep for today’s Sherpa-level rowing workout, we dropped some regular butter in some regular black tea.  Let’s just say we never tasted anything quite like it (and possibly won’t ever again).  But what about the workout?  Coated-tongue in mouth, we climbed on the rower and quickly exceeded all our previous workouts.  Not really.  Our workout plan usually includes a pre-workout concoction that includes caffeine.  But telling people that our workout regimen includes cow butter tea, well, that’s worth something!  And we’ll be sure to order Himalayan butter tea, the real thing, if we ever get to the Himalyans.

Next, butter coffee.  Yeah.  That’s a thing, too.  We’ve apparently not been paying attention.

Climb every mountain…..

  • Jet Cannon
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Where’s The Beef?

Burgers, Food and Drink, Good Clean Fun / By

Growing up, we had a butcher one block away.  Mr. Roberts was the grouchy butcher and sweet Mrs. Roberts manage the tiny store.   Big candy bars were a nickel.  Supermarkets were popping up one by one but most of our meat continued to come from Robert’s Grocery.

About the same timeframe in Burien, Washington there were four butcher shops.  Today, there is one.  Thankfully.  And that’s were we get our Butcher  Buzz.  From browsing the Teriyaki Tri-Tip, the Kalbi Chicken, the Hawaiian Pork Wrap, Candy Salmon, and the homemade pepperoni to firing up the BBQ and dazzling family and friends with culinary excellence (and taking the credit), there’s magic in the process.  Oh, it costs a little more but it’s worth it. 

Support your local butcher if you’re lucky enough to have one.  They can’t compete with Costco price-wise but there’s tangible value in the experience.

– Jet Cannon

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Going Whole Hog

Good Clean Fun, Travel / By

Baby Boomers bought a lot of Harley-Davidson motorcycles over the years.  The unmistakable exhaust note is part of our classic rock collection.  Often customized, it’s rare that two Harley’s look alike.  And with all the gear and merchandise Harley markets, it’s rare two riders look alike.  Harleys are tough.  Baby Boomers are tough.

What will Harley do without the Boomers?  Euro-style bikes.  Smaller bikes?  Electric bikes?  Yeah, that’s where they’re headed because Millennials are their new market.  And that’s fine.  The big hogs belong to us.

– Jet Cannon

National TV dinner Day

Food and Drink, Good Clean Fun / By

September 10th is National TV Dinner Day.  Ah, the good old days.  Baby Boomers, remember? Before microwaves?  A full meal in an aluminum tray.  Genius.  TV trays.  One for each member of the family.  Black and white TV’s’ with rabbit ear antennas.  Three channels.  Ed Sullivan. The national anthem at midnight then sign-off.  Cold War.  Asian wars.  Riots.  Assassinations.  Segregation.  No liquor or beer sales on Sunday.   Ah, the good old days.  And compared to The Great Depression they were, we suppose.  

Looking on the bright side, we can still get a TV dinner at the grocery store or an original 1950’s Swanson dinner on eBay for around $100 bucks (so glad we didn’t eat them all, though sales are slow).  And TV trays are available from Amazon for delivery to your front door.  Ah, the good new days.

– Jet Cannon

Don’t Puck with Seattle

Food and Drink, Good Clean Fun / By

We tried The KRACKEN ATTACKS FROM SEATTLE Limited Addition Rum for two reasons.  One, we like rum.  And two, the Seattle Kracken hockey team remains undefeated, given that they haven’t played yet.

We have to hand it to the folks at Kraken Rum.  Since there are a number of cities “under attack” by the Kracken, they’re urging us to collect all the various bottles which feature well-know landmarks from each city (e.g. Seattle Space Needle).  Good marketing.  We bought a few of those Starbucks coffee mugs from various cities until we realized we didn’t need a coffee mug from every city we visited.  So we probably won’t collect all the bottles but the spiced rum “with natural flavors” was pretty tasty.  We made cocktails without mixer or garnish.  Just shaken with ice and poured into a chilled martini glass.  Sweet but not too sweet.  Strong (94 Proof) but not too strong.  From what we remember anyway.

Kraken Rum.  Attacking a city near you!

– Jet Cannon

Buzzed Boomer Tailgate Superstar

Burgers, Food and Drink, Good Clean Fun / By

An embarrassing college football defeat could not dampen the fun of chatting with Billy, the proud owner of a magnificent tailgate vehicle.  Converted from a Walla Walla, Washington ambulance, the rig now features a TV and plenty of room for tailgate food and bbq essentials.  We asked about the condition of a rig that you’d assume was run hard and put away wet.

“In Walla Walla, it was 184,000 freeway miles.  And it’s a diesel,’ noted Billy.  Message… like us Buzzed Boomers, it’s still got some good miles left in it.  Like us Buzzed Boomers who reinvent ourselves, the ambulance was reinvented from saving lives to celebrating life, friendship, bbq, beer, and college football.

Like most tailgaters, Billy was warm and inviting, interrupting our questioning only to grab a beer.  He plans to hand off the Husky shrine to his son at some point so the tradition can continue.  Thank you for making our day because the football game sucked!

– Jet Cannon 

History of the iPhone

Good Clean Fun, Music / By

On August 31st, 1897, Thomas Edison was granted a patent for his Kintograph… the first movie camera.  He also developed the first phonograph using a wax cylinder to play back recorded music.  What most people don’t know is that he also invented the iPhone which combined a movie camera and music playback capabilities, and a bright light (he called it a light bulb)  but he told no one fearing that citizens would be bombarded with stupid ads over and over and over.  Ultimately, his invention was discovered after his death and others received the credit.

  • Old Man Wrong and Jet Cannon 
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Disneyland Bar Crawl

Food and Drink, Good Clean Fun, Travel / By

Disney World just turned 50.  Not old enough for Baby Boomer status.  But Disneyland was “born” in 1955 and qualifies.  

Want to catch a Buzz at Disneyland?  Disneytouristblog.com has created a lovely guide to all the watering holes and their special drinks.  If you thought admission was expensive, wait until the credit card bill comes for your Buzz excursion through the park.  Be worth it though!

– Jet Cannon

 

Elmers

Burgers, Food and Drink, Good Clean Fun, Music, Travel / By

Those of us at Buzzed Boomer love dive bars.  We love live classic rock.  We appreciate a properly prepared Martini (thanks Lindy)! We love pool tables.  We crave a great burger.  We love having our favorite IPA’s on tap.  How about a place offering breakfast and great specials?  And we’re grateful for a bar powering through the Covid disaster that closed so many restaurants.

Elmers in Burien, Washington is all of that except…. it’s really too nice to be called a dive bar.  It WAS once a dive bar but owner Rachel has been steadily upgrading Elmers.  And it looks great and it feels great.  Our kind of place!

Not from Seattle?  Elmers is a short ride from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and not far from a light-rail station if you’re visiting downtown Seattle.

We hadn’t been to Elmers in years but we’ll be back! 

– Jet Cannon

Elmersbarandgrill.com