The Lilac Festival 2023
What an experience. I’m grateful to Carino for allowing me to participate independently as ‘sommerier’ while they all worked their asses off. The night before I spent nearly 4 hours […]
Huge Shop Update and House-cleaning
It’s all or nothing with me eh? I’m seeing the light! The shop is starting to flourish again with all the 2021 teas coming into stock. I have received my […]
Addressing some issues
So, trying to get this tea business to be my main driver of income for the first year has had its share of challenges. Fortunately, I’ve found solutions to many […]
I’m starting to get it.. How to be a waiter
I’m starting to get it.. How to be a waiter. I’ve done it for what’s coming up on 9 years, it’s about time. Those of you who know me from […]
Life goes on
I’m still trying to process the emotions for this. In November 2012 I left the Consulate of Japan to embark on a journey of wine as a sommelier for the […]
Pairing Tea with Food
Part 1) Introduction:If a person has only experienced unsalted bread for their whole life and was then exposed to bread with an appropriate amount of salt, I believe their life […]
Edible Plants of Canada
Something I have decided to study for 2020 and beyond is how to showcase more of our unique Canadian agricultural products, especially those which are practical to grow in Alberta. […]
Hibiscus
Today I showed up at work 2 hours earlier than I needed to because I misread my schedule. Naturally I sat down with a flight of hibiscus and drank until […]
Lavender
Well this was unexpected. After the article about Chamomile I felt I should get to know 2 other major herbal ’tisanes’ — Lavender and Hibiscus. Herbal teas have always been […]
Chamomile
Of all the 2019 teas I have imported, my sampling this year starts with Chamomile. It was surprisingly hard to brew a tolerable or even acceptable flavor. To reach the […]
Dream about Keanu Reeves Eating at Q, Cocktail Dinner Prep
Literally the transcript from the dream: (For storytelling sake, I didn’t clean up anything I said in my half asleep state) Keanu reeves and girlfriend maybe came for dinner at […]
Q Haute Cuisine Modern Tea July 2018 (Part 1)
So I’ve started planning out the tea selection for our next ‘Modern Tea’ event at Q Haute Cuisine. Generally the focus of ‘Modern Tea’ is education of the tea and […]
Barrel Aged Coffee Part 2
a follow up to the previous post Observation 1: Brewing with 30g:450ml the result was 380.7ml of brewed coffee. This would need 210.14g of sucrose to prevent freezing up to […]
Barrel Aged Coffee
I’ve seen a video recently; this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIbbJV-grHg In short, it was inspiring. To be fair, a lot of things in Japan are inspiring but this particular video gave me […]
Maybe it wasn’t as good as I thought?
Our service at Q went extremely well on Friday and Saturday, I’d say they were both nearly perfect. I got great vibes from all customers, especially those that did the […]
Building a memory
We encounter so many things a day, from smells, thoughts, ambient sounds, what makes something memorable? I think the short answer is consciousness, and in particular; Reading the atmosphere and […]
Q Haute Whisky Dinner 2017
So, this time I’m at it alone. No help from someone more knowledgeable than me in the field. It is about time I stop relying on others. I felt I […]
Tea Interview Prep!
Personal: Where did you learn? I’ve learned what I know from books, blogs, forums, and of course a lot of focused tasting. teachat.com hojotea.com marshaln.com The Tea Companion by Jane […]
a few kitchen table set-ups from Q
Digging through a bunch of old pictures right now, I might as well upload these! Summer Fall Fall
Corked Wine: How 2009 Tignanello punched me in the feels
Shitty situation. I opened a bottle of wine for a customer, 2009 Tignanello. It’s like $200 for them to buy, a pretty sizable purchase I’d say. Immediately upon pulling the […]
Rum Notes
Ever since watching Black Lagoon while I was in high school, I wanted to drink and enjoy rum. We have 4 — lets say ‘premium rums’ to offer at Q, […]
Stagnation
:/ Brick wall. Work life has gotten kind of boring. I can keep on trucking along and doing what I’m doing, but I don’t really feel any satisfaction — I’m […]
Duck Shit, and the tea Plateau.
Soon enough, our tea list will hit a plateau. There isn’t much I feel I could change to diversify it without just being nitpicky and careless with our money. With […]
Siphon Coffee set-up, flow, and precautions
After a bit of practice, I did a demonstration for my coworkers on siphon coffee. The point of which was to see what I expect of them if they were […]
Coffee
Well, I’ve got a crazy amount of caffeine in me, and definitely wont be sleeping for quite some time (now 4:00am) I decided to make the coffee list at Q […]
Q Haute Summer Cocktail Dinner
First of all, holy shit — it went well. It was very different in terms of preparation from any other event dinner we’ve done. I spent approximately 8 hours on […]
Church and State Event
Step 1: Aquire wine and butt pictures ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) Step 2: Drink the wine in a small, hot room at 1am Step 3: Record impressions, no matter […]
Cocktail Pairing for Kelly and Crystal (and Lev too!)
I’ve spent the last few days preparing a cocktail pairing for the Natura menu at Q. It can be frustrating when things don’t work. It’s creatively tough with the sheer […]
Gyokuro for Bob & Margaret
Coming up on mothers day, some very special customers are coming in for brunch at Q. They had such a great night when they attended dinner the last time, that […]
Q Haute Modern Tea
This menu was a fucking masterpiece, hands down one of the best ‘event dinners’ that we’ve done. I’ve gotta be one of the worst procrastinators around, deadlines are certainly my […]
Q Haute ‘World of Scotch’
A run over 9 scotches over @ Kensington Wine Market with Alex. Some initial (and very personal mind you) tasting notes to plan the menu off: Nikka Coffey Malt (love) – […]