Victor Villas

My main example is rooibos because at least it can make espresso-like strong brews, and is sold at some coffee shops here and there. But I personally prefer Mate too, though for cold drinks :-) And if I’m just in for some caffeine, black tea is the easiest to source (around here). Matcha latte is also growing in popularity! As well as London Fog.

I love all of these, but I’m one of those tea-adventurous coffee drinkers who care about the taste more than the caffeine.

Tldr climate apocalypse for the coffee plant might shift the market towards alternative plants. While technically true that coffee plantations will struggle in the coming years, this just means higher prices and worse average quality off the shelf.

A bit of nothing news, imho.

Coffee alternatives like rooibos are already here and the market is very resistant. Cheap coffee drinkers are irrationally attached to the bad taste they feel nostalgic for. Fancy coffee drinkers will absorb the higher costs without looking for alternatives. It’s only the tea-adventurous coffee drinkers that care about these innovations, usually due to caffeine consumption restrictions which is also a disputed market because decaf coffee quality is improving.

Dark roast does have more caffeine per gram, because there are more beans per gram, because beans become lighter as roasting continues and more CO2 is released.

Counting caffeine per bean indeed darker roasts have less caffeine, but it’s a tiny tiny difference, so the effect of the whole bean getting lighter wins out when measuring caffeine per weight.

As for decaf, all methods affect taste. Swiss Water isn’t inherently better. Water is a chemical solvent. Is this an ad?

Agreed. I’m all in for a Starbucks once in a while, but even though they have great drinks, the roast level is the darkest I’ve ever seen. Saying it’s not “burned” may be technically correct but people don’t say that literally anyway, it means that the coffee characteristics are gone and only roast notes comes through, which is totally true.

Maybe add some umami to give it a non-salty savory touch?

Tofu is like a third of the sirloin stake? Did not expect that “eating less plastics” would be among the benefits of me not eating meat. Strange times.

I think It’s a matter of time. Eventually the small time brewers and popular cheap brands come in to chase any margin gaps.

So the very basic solution to the mystery is that winter foods are those that are usually harvested to be eaten during winter :-|

Pakora are fried veggies, samosa is pastry, paneer is cheese, naan is bread. You can eat any of those with rice and sauce, but you can also have them without. Indian food has a lot of variation on flavours, texture, visuals, as expected from any cuisine with such a rich history.

Can you recommend something from Indian culture that isn’t what I have described above?

No because “overkill on spices, sauce and rice” is subjective. If “it’s always the same flavor” then either 1) you’re keep ordering the same stuff 2) the restaurants you’ve been to do lowest cost easy menus 3) it’s not the same flavor but it looks like so to you because you’re not used to it.

Next time ask the server for “solid food, no liquids” instead.

I just toss my enameled cast iron in my dishwasher every day, and deal with it being poorly seasoned by seasoning on the fly every time I cook on it. Scrubbing by hand isn’t that much work, but it’s still more than ten times the effort of just throwing it in the machine…

Holy guacamole, Argentina was at the precipice’s edge and finally decided to take a step forward

Sorry for the comrades who will have to deal with this hell

Who would have thought that vehicles designed to resemble armoured tanks are not a societal net positive when you think of everyone who is outside the metal box

lol did not see that coming, MTG taking Assange’s side, is the goal to smear Biden as weak a year from now? Who knows what’s inside that strange brain

One of many of life’s mysteries, such as why people get defensive about their water usage due to handwashing.

You did say earlier that you cook once a day, meal for two. When I do that, all dishes for the day take a third of the maximum load on my machine, so I could wash once every three days, therefore averaging like 3 L per day tops? You handwashing every day are spending 6-8L daily which is more than double.

If it is true that you can spend <8L for an arbitrarily large amount of dishes, though, then I guess there must be an amount of dishes that you will outperform a dishwasher. They cannot handle an infinite amount of dirt, unfortunately. If you hand wash every 7 days you will be averaging less than 1L a day which really does sound unbeatable.

And some things I just toss in there anyway. My Wusthof knifes for instance are not carbons steel and don’t have wooden handles, and my machine has a neat spot that secures it perfectly upright so the edge isn’t touching anything. I have been doing this for years and observed no noticeable downside.

It’s plausible that handwashing uses less electricity, specially if you let the machine heat-dry the dishes. But water? If you do the comparison against a fully-loaded machine, no way. Modern machines use half the water from machines of 15 years ago, and those were already competitive against handwashing. Best case scenario for handwashing (single water bath) still uses about twice as much water. Dishwasher detergent is stronger and the machine takes longer so it has more contact time, the chemistry heavily favours using less water for the same amount of gunk to dissolve.

In your case, as you already mentioned you only cook once a day and you don’t want to degrade your high end stuff in the machine, it’s reasonable that you won’t generate dishes enough to fill the machine. If you would be using a half-loaded dishwasher then it is plausible that you would use less water handwashing, but it’s still a close call - which is why I sometimes use the machine filled 1/3 without worry.

I’m definitely not on the oily broth soup camp, but I guess that’s because I barely make broth-based soup. I do love ramen with sesame oil, though!

I prefer creamy soups for winter, whatever the base: lentils, kabocha, black/brown beans, onions, hearts of palm. Super easy to make, if you have a handy blender to make quick work of it. That or oats & milk porridge for breakfast, I’m set for a chilly day.

If it’s worth to purchase a dishwasher… it varies a lot given each ones own priorities and situation.

If saving X minutes a day is a big thing or a small thing… it also varies a lot given how you value your time and how much you enjoy dishwashing by hand. I know a few people who love to do it; no need to take away that joy for the sake of efficiency.

But for the vast majority, if you have a dishwasher idle, those are some minutes you get back practically* for free.

I also cook only for two, but I do it three times a day, and I have a lot to do so I value each minute saved in chores immensely. My dishwasher has been a blessing, without it I would be eating out or ordering delivery MUCH more frequently.

Very true. Love my plastic spatula but they don’t have scraping power, so when using one you get the impression everything is sticking.