The experiments are over. I have had two straight delicious, non-leaking perfect coffees, not too hot or cold, no leaking, no dirty looks from the cashier ladies, no defective lids, and yet, no winners.
One thing I have discovered, though, is my co-worker who sits behind me has won 4 times out of 10 on large cups of coffee. I'm at 1 out of 11, for medium. So bigger is better.
Showing posts with label experiments. Show all posts
Showing posts with label experiments. Show all posts
March 20, 2008
March 13, 2008
Coffee experiment: Parts 5, 6 & 7
I'll try to make this brief.
Part 5 coffee lid wasn't perforated properly. One side opened as usual but I had to tear the other just to lift it. Right away alarms were going off in my head as I knew I would be writing this blog to tell you that I had lost due to a defective lid.
"Please play again"
Conclusion: If the lid is defective, you are going to lose.
Next coffee, I am pretty sure she gave me cream instead of milk by accident.
"Please play again"
Conclusion: If you don't get what you ordered, you are going to lose.
Today's coffee. Looks like they ran out of milk. I got maybe a drop and she didn't bother opening up a new carton and instead just poured the coffee into maybe 1/4 of the milk I should have received.
"Please play again"
Conclusion: If the Tim Horton's server is too lazy to get more milk, you are going to lose.
Part 5 coffee lid wasn't perforated properly. One side opened as usual but I had to tear the other just to lift it. Right away alarms were going off in my head as I knew I would be writing this blog to tell you that I had lost due to a defective lid.
"Please play again"
Conclusion: If the lid is defective, you are going to lose.
Next coffee, I am pretty sure she gave me cream instead of milk by accident.
"Please play again"
Conclusion: If you don't get what you ordered, you are going to lose.
Today's coffee. Looks like they ran out of milk. I got maybe a drop and she didn't bother opening up a new carton and instead just poured the coffee into maybe 1/4 of the milk I should have received.
"Please play again"
Conclusion: If the Tim Horton's server is too lazy to get more milk, you are going to lose.
March 10, 2008
Coffee experiment: Part 4
As usual we went for coffee and I got my coffee. The thing is my friend was going to redeem his free coffee, so I didn't know if that affects mine or not. I tried to act like I didn't know him when we got to the front of the line, because you never know right?
As we were walking back to the office I noticed that the coffee kept dripping out. Little drops fell into my hand and I'm thinking oh man, this coffee cup is defective. It must be a loser.
I got upstairs to my desk and opened it up, and holy crap it was full right to the brim. The miniscus was all that was keeping it from spilling! What in the world.
I took a big whiff of it, it smelled fine, it wasn't as hot as I'd like it to be but it tasted fine as well.
"Please play again"
Conclusion: If the cup is leaking or filled too high, you are going to lose.
As we were walking back to the office I noticed that the coffee kept dripping out. Little drops fell into my hand and I'm thinking oh man, this coffee cup is defective. It must be a loser.
I got upstairs to my desk and opened it up, and holy crap it was full right to the brim. The miniscus was all that was keeping it from spilling! What in the world.
I took a big whiff of it, it smelled fine, it wasn't as hot as I'd like it to be but it tasted fine as well.
"Please play again"
Conclusion: If the cup is leaking or filled too high, you are going to lose.
March 05, 2008
The coffee experiment: Part 3
My efforts to make a completely ridiculous conclusions from Tim Horton's Roll Up The Rim To Win continues. Yesterday I went to redeem a free coffee, being careful not to reveal that I had the winning rim until after they had selected the cup and poured the coffee. Because hey, you never know right?
I opened up the lid to take that initial first whiff. It smelled burnt. It smelled like they had used burnt roasted beans or something, but either way it just did not smell right. Now if you take into account the conclusion from Part 2, you know what I was thinking -- "this coffee doesn't smell right, therefore it will not taste good, and therefore it will not be a winner".
But amazingly its taste did not agree with its smell -- the coffee tasted fine. In fact it was better than fine, it was nearly 90% as good as the the winning cup. So there I was thinking, the coffee tasted fine, but it didn't smell right. As far as I could remember, the winning cup of coffee smelled normal. I mean, it's not like I noticed anything peculiar about it, right? What does this mean?
Conclusion: If your Tim Horton's coffee doesn't smell right, it is not going to be a winner.
In other news, this is what happens to your body when you drink a Coke.
I opened up the lid to take that initial first whiff. It smelled burnt. It smelled like they had used burnt roasted beans or something, but either way it just did not smell right. Now if you take into account the conclusion from Part 2, you know what I was thinking -- "this coffee doesn't smell right, therefore it will not taste good, and therefore it will not be a winner".
But amazingly its taste did not agree with its smell -- the coffee tasted fine. In fact it was better than fine, it was nearly 90% as good as the the winning cup. So there I was thinking, the coffee tasted fine, but it didn't smell right. As far as I could remember, the winning cup of coffee smelled normal. I mean, it's not like I noticed anything peculiar about it, right? What does this mean?
Conclusion: If your Tim Horton's coffee doesn't smell right, it is not going to be a winner.
In other news, this is what happens to your body when you drink a Coke.
March 04, 2008
The coffee experiment: Part 2
I'm trying to think of the last time my coffee tasted as good as it did today, and I think the last time was actually when I decided to try some Country Style coffee about a month ago. It tasted sweeter than usual.. like the sweet taste of victory.
Anyway, today's results were rather astonishing because they in fact somewhat contradict my previous findings. The coffee, as I mentioned, was fantastic. But what's surprising was, I didn't even check the result until after I finished drinking. So in all likelihood it COULD have been a losing cup. But it wasn't -- it was a winning cup.
WIN / GAGNEZ UN CAFE / COFFEE
Conclusion: Winning cups of coffee taste better.
Anyway, today's results were rather astonishing because they in fact somewhat contradict my previous findings. The coffee, as I mentioned, was fantastic. But what's surprising was, I didn't even check the result until after I finished drinking. So in all likelihood it COULD have been a losing cup. But it wasn't -- it was a winning cup.
WIN / GAGNEZ UN CAFE / COFFEE
Conclusion: Winning cups of coffee taste better.
December 11, 2007
Pasta Sauce
I had been experimenting the last two times I cooked, on trying to make a meatless pasta sauce. You're probably thinking -- has Brian gone mad? No meat?!
I think generally pasta is kind of a very heavy, filling meal. But if you take out the meat, then it becomes this starchy by light meal if you do it right. I had this idea of making pasta where it was more pasta than sauce, which is something completely foreign to me, having grown up eating spaghetti *drenched* in meat sauce.
The first time I tried making it, the result came out completely different from what I had pictured in my mind. I had this idea of the spaghetti being dry, and covered in olive oil and oregano. That part I had down pat. But the sauce didn't work out quite so well. I wanted to have this super strong flavored sauce so you didn't need a lot, and fresh tomatoes cooked, but chopped and sprinkled over the sauce.
Instead, I basically ran out of garlic, for one thing, and then I got lazy and didn't put onions, so it was, in the end, a mushroom and tomato mixture with tons of oregano, pepper and salt. What's worse is I cooked the tomato first and it turned into a mush, and the shrooms shrank to almost nothingness. By the end of it I barely had enough for just one meal, feeding 1 person, me.
For the second try I put the tomatoes in last, but it still ended up a mush. I bought garlic but once again left out onions. I rarely ever cook without onions, so that part was already a mistake. I also picked up some basil and sprinkled that in.
What I had pictured in my mind was totally different, but the sauce ended up being pretty tasty. Ina didn't particularly like it (she likes saucy stuff whereas I had never planned to make my creation saucy) but Darryl and I both thought it turned out decent.
Tonight I plan to try yet again. I have been reading up on pasta sauce and people talking about using canned stuff, just because it makes life easier and it's still possible to make it home-style even with the manufactured ingredients. To me that's something I may try later on, but for now I want to try to make it myself. I'm thinking to add diced mango to add some new flavor tonight (because I have mango in the fridge and need to get rid of it), and of course onions.
Looking forward to it.
I think generally pasta is kind of a very heavy, filling meal. But if you take out the meat, then it becomes this starchy by light meal if you do it right. I had this idea of making pasta where it was more pasta than sauce, which is something completely foreign to me, having grown up eating spaghetti *drenched* in meat sauce.
The first time I tried making it, the result came out completely different from what I had pictured in my mind. I had this idea of the spaghetti being dry, and covered in olive oil and oregano. That part I had down pat. But the sauce didn't work out quite so well. I wanted to have this super strong flavored sauce so you didn't need a lot, and fresh tomatoes cooked, but chopped and sprinkled over the sauce.
Instead, I basically ran out of garlic, for one thing, and then I got lazy and didn't put onions, so it was, in the end, a mushroom and tomato mixture with tons of oregano, pepper and salt. What's worse is I cooked the tomato first and it turned into a mush, and the shrooms shrank to almost nothingness. By the end of it I barely had enough for just one meal, feeding 1 person, me.
For the second try I put the tomatoes in last, but it still ended up a mush. I bought garlic but once again left out onions. I rarely ever cook without onions, so that part was already a mistake. I also picked up some basil and sprinkled that in.
What I had pictured in my mind was totally different, but the sauce ended up being pretty tasty. Ina didn't particularly like it (she likes saucy stuff whereas I had never planned to make my creation saucy) but Darryl and I both thought it turned out decent.
Tonight I plan to try yet again. I have been reading up on pasta sauce and people talking about using canned stuff, just because it makes life easier and it's still possible to make it home-style even with the manufactured ingredients. To me that's something I may try later on, but for now I want to try to make it myself. I'm thinking to add diced mango to add some new flavor tonight (because I have mango in the fridge and need to get rid of it), and of course onions.
Looking forward to it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
