Three Philosophers

so Jason n i went pubbing yesterday, with a mission.. the new bar that's opened at the old Coffee Bean Cafe is called Shango's, and it's a pretty excellent place! the staff is friendly.. Brian's the bartender, and Corey by far the prettiest waitress.. Brian is really knowledgeable, so it was great conversing with him..

this place has a wine-type beer collection, where you can go beer tasting, so our mission was to drink Three Philosophers.. out of Cooperstown, NY.. a dry cherry-lambic, dark beer, cloudy orange/red pour with a small brown head.. the aroma is caramel and dark cherries. first taste is caramel, brown sugar and raisins, leading to dark cherry flavors that finish with a sour bite.

at $6 and 12% alc. per bottle we'd decided to have just one each, but when does that ever happen! brian very kindly kept plying us with taster samples of other beers too.. so some four bottles, endless samples and three hours later we landed up at Jim's Steakout, grabbed a bite to eat.. then got home and opened the bottle of Ricard's Pastis, which i got in Paris. this is aniseed alcohol.. and is as close you can get to absinthe in the US.

jase (smart man!) had carried his smiling-face pipe too.. so we ended up completely tripping out.. man that aniseed stuff is beautiful!! along with the right things, it's totally hallucinogenic too.. just like absinthe!!