a”
A coffee bean that will

keep your mind keen

» A coffee bean that will keep your mind keen

Morgan Hannah
Life & Style Editor

 

end up recommending Ethical Bean

Coffee to everyone everywhere I go. I
cant help it! And trust me, it’s not just
because I used to work there—although
receiving a free bag of delicious beans every
Friday really was an excellent perk to ensure
employees only drank Ethical Bean. It’s still
true: I only drink Ethical Bean since having
found it. Their coffee is organic, fair trade,
kosher, locally roasted, and delectable! It
truly fuels me after only one cup. That’s not
something I can claim competitors do.

I’m currently sipping on some

Superdark, formerly named Rocket Fuel,
as | write this review and I’ve got to say,
those notes of dark chocolate are just
right; not sweet, but not bitter. There’s no

better way to describe Superdark than the
way the Ethical Bean team does on their
website: “The love child of dark alchemy
and complete combustion.” Super Dark

is my favourite of Ethical Bean’s extensive
lineup of coffees, with the Sweet Espresso
and Classic coming up in close seconds. To
check out the rest of their selection, visit
them online at www.ethicalbean.com.

I appreciate how smooth Ethical
Bean's coffee feels on my tongue. There’s
no lingering acidic aftertaste and no
bitterness, despite it being a dark roast.
Each of Ethical Bean’s coffee flavours
willingly accepts a dollop of honey, without
compromising on its original taste as well.
Plus I like to make it thick, with five scoops
of ground coffee beans to six cups of water.

How does Ethical Bean provide the
public with what I'd like to call the only

The Pour Boy: Summer
beverages, had me a blast

» Pick-me-ups to help beat the summer heat

Jacey Gibb
Distribution Manager

 

revious Pour Boy installments have

homed in on the world of cocktails,
but it’s the summer and as good a time
as any to deviate from the norm. Instead
of cocktails, I’m writing about three of
my favourite boozy beverages, preferably
sipped on a sunny deck or in a backyard.

The first recipe I have for you is
sangria. One of sangria’s greatest feats is
how versatile and forgiving it is. You can
use any type of wine, add any combination
of fruit, and serve it during any stage of
its life (sangria tastes as good a week later
as it does 24 hours after combining the
ingredients).

Hand-squeeze a couple of lemons
and oranges, then add equal parts red
wine and sparkling wine. Don’t worry too
much about the quality of wine; there are
so many flavours going on here that no
one will notice if you use Naked Grape or
something equally cheap. Give the liquid
a couple of stirs, then add a few splashes
of apricot brandy. From there it’s time to
add your fruit. Feel free to add whatever
you have kicking around, but my go-to is
an apple-mango-watermelon combo. Give
the sangria a final stir and then store in an
airtight jar or bottle to help preserve the
fizz. Make sure to serve the sangria chilled
and with a spoon, so folks can enjoy the
fruit!

Next up, we take on the iconic pifia
colada. Blame it on the notorious song,
but I always found pifia coladas a tad
overhyped—that is, until Bon Appétit
released their version back in 2016. This
recipe strikes a nice balance between

creamy, sweet, and boozy, even though the
staggered blending and freezing can drag
the process out.

Dice up one fresh pineapple into
small chunks and then freeze for several
hours. Add frozen pineapple, 12 ounces of
cream of coconut (not to be confused with
coconut milk), 4 ounces of unsweetened
coconut milk, half a 2-6 bottle (375 mL) of
white rum, 4 tbsp of lime juice, a generous
splash of dark rum, and 3 cups of ice toa
blender, and blend until smooth. Here’s
the crucial part: Place the blender (mixture
still inside) in the freezer for 30 minutes,
and then slightly re-blend right before
serving. This gives the pifia colada a nice
consistency while still being chilled.

The final summer beverage to receive
the official Pour Boy endorsement is the
peach Bellini. They’re infamous for being
overly sweet, but this adapted recipe from
blog Sugar Spun Run has a manageable
level of sweetness.

Add equal parts frozen peaches and
Prosecco to a blender, followed by one-
ninth of the same measurement of peach
schnapps. (Similar to the sangria, don’t
worry too much about using the highest-
quality booze here; the peach flavour
will do most of the heavy lifting.) Blend
the ingredients until smooth and then
serve immediately. Depending on your
preference, I'll sometimes add more frozen
peaches to increase the thickness, while
other recipes call for extra sugar or simple
syrup. Dealer’s choice!

So there you have it. Three favourite
recipes to sip on as you melt away in a patio
chair somewhere. Just remember to pair
each of these drinks with a healthy serving
of SPF 30.

 

 

 

Have an idea for a story?
Mlifeandstyle@theotherpress.ca

coffee I'll ever buy? I'd
have to say it’s because
they care. The Ethical
Bean team cares that
you find their coffee
the best, and they care
that their Guatemalan |
coffee farmers are
compensated fairly

for their hard work. This care shows in
every batch of beans the production team
buys and roasts, which is why Aaron De
Lazzer, Ethical Bean’s Director of Coffee,
has become Canada’s first certified Q
Grader. A Q Grader is the unicorn of the
coffee biz—seemingly mythical and no
easy task. According to Perfect Daily Grind,
a Q Grader is an individual “certified by the
Coffee Quality Institute (CQID) as capable of
analyzing Arabica coffee through smell and

 

e New place offers huge and juicy chicken
¢ The Pour Boy: Summer beverages
¢ My experience going back to school

..and more

Photo by Billy Bui

taste,” a practice also known as “cupping.”
Individuals with the title of Q Grader, like
Mr. De Lazzer, undergo a six-day intensive
program in a Specialty Coffee Association-
certified laboratory where they learn the
language of coffee. This kind of effort
deserves a sampling.

And what’s more, Ethical Bean is
served right here in Douglas College’s New
West campus cafeteria! So grab a cup just
in time for exam season and the start-up of
the next semester— it’s the perfect student

fuel.

Relearning learning

» My experience going back to school

Craig Allan
Contributor

 

oing back to school brings back

memories. Some you never expect.

This past semester I returned to
school, attending a class in Philosophy.
The class contained a lot of content that,

admittedly, is not my strong suit. One day,

as | sat in class listening to my teacher
discuss the points of the recent chapter
in what felt like the most monotone voice
possible, I grabbed my pencil and began
to push my eraser around like a hockey
player would handle a puck. Doing this
immediately triggered flashbacks to a
bygone era: My high school years.

I graduated high school in 2009. My
high school years ended around the time
when smartphones were just starting
to come out. Without these devices to
distract us, we had to come up with more
creative ways to entertain ourselves. One
way that I kept myself amused when
faced with a class I had no interest in, or
a teacher with no charisma, was creating
my own version of stationary hockey. I
would handle an eraser puck, back and
forth with a stick pencil, and shoot it at
an improvised goal net. It was dull, but it
entertained me on the slow days.

Over the 10 years after my
graduation, I would go through periods
of sporadic schooling. Going to school
some years, and other years going to
work. The back-to-school experience has
always been an odd one. Before picking
my education back up, I didn’t write
anything by hand other than the letters
of my name and numbers under 31. Now

having to write more, my brain sometimes

has trouble keeping it straight. I'd have
thoughts like, “Does the line on the letter
“P” go on the left or the right?” Other

actions like opening and reading an actual
book and doing tasks like homework have
also struck me as odd from time to time.

Along with this re-adapting comes
the fact that my mindset has changed.
When I was going to college right after
high school, I had very little knowledge
of the world. Going to school was the
only constant I knew. Now I have a job.
That job has brought me money that has
allowed me to live a fun life of eating out,
travel, and sustainability. With so much
now going on in my life with regards to
working, focusing on my schooling has
caused me some problems. As much as I
want to improve myself by going back to
school and getting a degree (and work at
a job that doesn’t pay minimum wage),
Iam scared to death at the prospect of
going the next three to five years (and let’s
face it, likely more than that) with little to
no income. These worries are ever more
present in my schooling now than they
were in the surrounding 2010 Olympic
years.

Who knows how persistent these
worries are for me? Maybe I will get used
to going to school. Maybe I will learn to
live a low-income life. Maybe the added
time will help me find some hobbies
healthier and more enjoyable than just
sitting on the couch, eating chips, and
watching television. I don’t know any
of the answers to these questions. All
I know is that after about five years of
working two jobs for minimum wage, I am
looking forward to the idea of improving
myself and getting the skills fora job that
is higher than minimum wage. I may
have to live on pencil-eraser-hockey for
entertainment over the next few years but
hopefully the end results will be worth the
creatively bankrupt idea of fun I will have
to take on.