musing

Orange tree terroir

Lord knows how scientists may have manipulated orange genetics since John McPhee reported this in 1966, but here’s a little bit about the where involved with oranges.

He writes that taste and aroma vary based on “the position of the individual orange in the framework of the tree on which it grew. Ground fruit — the orange that one can reach and pick from the ground — is not as sweet as fruit that grows high on the tree. Outside fruit is sweeter than inside fruit. Oranges grown on the south side of the tree are sweeter than oranges grown on the east or west sides, and oranges grown on the north side are the least sweet of the lot. The quantity of juice in an orange, and even the amount of vitamin C is contains, will follow the same pattern of variation. Beyond this, there are differentiations of quality inside a single orange. Individual segments vary from one another in their content of acid and sugar.”

In “Oranges,” his book developed from New Yorker articles, the Catch-22 becomes obvious to McPhee when he checks to see if a restaurant offers fresh juice at breakfast.

“There were never any request for fresh orange juice, the waitress explained, apparently unmindful of the one that had just been made. ‘Fresh is either too sour or too watery or too something,’ she said. ‘Frozen is the same every day. People want to know what they’re getting.'”

Then he strikes up a conversation with a couple at the next table. “. . . they had an orange grove on their property, with three kinds of oranges, so that ripe fruit was on their trees almost eight months of the year. All year long, they said, they drank concentrate at breakfast. They hadn’t made juice from the fruit on their trees for more than ten years.”

People knew what they were getting.

But what was the price?

Somewhere down the Ghost River

Wait, did you hear that
Oh this is sure stirring up some ghosts for me
She said “There’s one thing you’ve got to learn
Is not to be afraid of it.”
I said “No, I like it, I like it, it’s good.”
She said “You like it now
But you’ll learn to love it later.”

  – Robbie Robertson, Somewhere Down The Crazy River

If you use Twitter and follow beer folks you’ve see a lot of pointers today to CraftBeer.com, one of three relatively new websites from the Brewers Association. The other two are a site for members of the American Homebrewers Association and one for Brewers Association members.

A bit of necessary disclosure: I did a bit of work for the CraftBeer.com site and I also write for association publications, including two books.

That’s not why I’m suggesting you take a look at this particular video about Ghost River Brewing. Hit the arrow and hang on until they get to the river. You’ll wish it was longer.

Soundtrack Project: A Tangible Birthplace from Memphis Chamber on Vimeo.

Anyway, nice music. Works well, don’t you think? Yet when they return to the Ghost River and Chuck Skypeck (he’s the guy talking) mentions the “sound of your canoe going through the water” Robbie Robertson’s music found its way into my head. Both the melody from “Somewhere Down The Crazy River” and one of those lyrics you never heard on the radio and will never forget.

A canoe, a river, a beer, music. All things that stamp themselves into your soul.

 

 

‘Drinking games’ in The New Yorker

The current (February 15 & 22) of The New Yorker magazine includes an article by Malcom Gladwell called “Drinking Games” that tackles a bit of drinking and culture. Unfortunately it’s not one the magazine chose to make free online, but you can read the abstract here.

Hey, it’s The New Yorker and Gladwell, so ideas all over the place. Two to consider:

  • Gladwell writes : “When confronted with the rowdy youth in the bar, we are happy to raise his drinking age, to tax his beer, to punish him if he drives under the influence, and to push him into treatment if his habit becomes an addiction. But we are reluctant to provide him with a positive and constructive example of how to drink.”
  • He also writes: “Put a stressed-out drinker in front of an exciting football game and he’ll forget his troubles. But put him in a quiet bar somewhere, all by himself and he’ll grow mare anxious. Alcohol’s principal effect is to narrow our emotional and mental field of vision.” This is called “alcohol myopia,” and you can read more about it here.

    • Reading Gladwell it is always good to remember something Steve Pinker wrote in reviewing What the Dog Saw, a collection of Gladwell pieces.

    The themes of the collection are a good way to characterize Gladwell himself: a minor genius who unwittingly demonstrates the hazards of statistical reasoning and who occasionally blunders into spectacular failures.

    More than anything the article raises questions I wish more people thought about.

     

     

    12% craft beer gain? Is that possible?

    In still another story about gloomy beer sales that focuses on the largest brewers BusinessWeek provides this eye-opening number:

    “One segment of the beer industry that has resisted the recession is craft breweries, increasingly popular for flavorful beers made in smaller batches. According to data from the Nielsen Co., craft or microbrew sales rose 12.4% in 2009.”

    Nielsen also reports that craft beers now account for 5.8 percent of the overall beer market.

    Granted, Nielsen and the Brewers Association define “craft beer” in different ways (the BA is more exclusive) but a gain of more than 12 percent for 2009 would be stunning. The Wall Street Journal has reported Boston Beer production was up 1.6 percent in 2009, and we know traditionally total craft sales seldom differ much from Samuel Adams (in no small part because Sam Adams accounts for more than one bottle sold out of every five). In 2008 the category was up 6 percent, Boston Beer 6 percent. In 2007, Boston Beer 14 percent and “craft” 12 percent. You get the idea.

    Additionally, at mid-year the Brewers Association reported “craft” gains of 5 percent for the first six months. It would take one heck of a second half to hit 12 percent.