For the idea of coffee boutique flavors Starbucks got into trouble with that a few years ago. They were selling kohna coffee. That is supposed to be this wonderful Hawaiian bean, but it turned out they were not getting their beans from Hawaii. They tried to say 'kohna is a state of mind.' Unfortunately for them the FDA did not agree, but clearly they got away with telling people they were getting somethnig special and paying big bucks for it, when they were not.

There are a lot of examples of this in the food world. Blue Mountain Coffee has to come from a select number of estates in Jamaica in a specific region. Kona has to come from the Island of Hawaii, though I think they have relaxed the requirements on the exact area (which probably explains some of the very inferior cheap Kona on the market) Paresan Reggiano cannot be made just anywhere, neither can Congac, Champagne, or Armangac.

However for yeatrs wineries in Califronia and Washington sold sparkling white wine as "Champagne" and Distilleries in other parts of the world made and sold Cognac (amusingly some French distillers outside the Cognac region in Fracnce tried this and got in to quite a bit of legal trouble)

This probably has not entirely gone away in 2070, and there is probably a hook for a smuggling campaign somewhere in all this esoteric food chat.

(I'm thinking skillwired rigger with sensory enhancments and high rated skill chips in cheese identification)

I liked Washington state, went to college there following living in Hawaii, so I wasn't so familiar with beer other than well..the budweiser and crap stuff, then I get to college and started drinking beer I couldn't see my hand through the glass (and not just guiness), there was a converted firehouse turned pub right within walking distance of our campus, I got to sample many a nice nice nice beer. Nowadays, I like me a good Marzen.


Edit: oooh or a Dunkel. I loves me a nice Dunkel.

Ah good beer. Where I live has been holding regular beer festivals for a good few years so quality beer has started appearing in the better pubs.

Steve there is a difference in the names of wines. The French defend regional names like "Burgundy" and "Champagne" as a definition of the wine. American law does it by ingredient. So while the French say a Burgundy is from that part of France, traditionally pinot noir grapes an American 'Burgundy' is just a red wine, but an american Pinot noir must be made with those grapes. I would assume coffee beens fall into the 'ingredient' line more than the region because Starbucks did get in trouble.

I remember the wine thing because I once saw SF get into a shouting match with a waiter at a restaurant.
SF- "We'll have a bottle of the so-and-so burgundy please."
Waiter- "The pinot noir?"
SF(proud of her French parentage)-"No, the Burgundy."
Waiter "Is that the pinot noir?"
SF "In this case the pinto noir your selling is a BURGUNDY"
waiter "So I was right when I said the...'
You get the idea. The rest of us were laughing at the mess.

In the case of Kona it's US Trademark Law that applies not the FDA & empowering legislation, I'm fairly certain that to be called Kona (or a significantly similar brand) it must contain beans from one or more of the members of that growing association in Hawaii. The regional Controlee in France (and their Italian, Dutch, German, and Swiss equivalents) are more like Trademarks on steroids in my view

I only have one issue with the Kona Coffee Trade association, their stupid size controls.

Without being a distributor, you can only order 10 lbs of greens. This is bulldrek. I should be able to buy a ton if I can pay for it.

Some of my customers love Kona roasted at Cinnamon and others make me take to to FC+ for use as single origin espresso.

Thankfully, we have a Hawaii expansion in Shadowrun. It also portrays a Hawaii where I believe Kona is still an active growing region.

Hint: Better lots from Chiapas taste like mid lots from Kona. But I didn't tell you that.

BlueMax

I've found a 60/40 blend of Java Estate and Sumatra Mandhaleng can fool a lot of people too if french roasted

If I catch you French Roasting Kona, expect me to hire a "Team of Mixed Skilled Freelancers"

If you catch the drift.

Heck, I feel dirty taking Kona near second crack.

BlueMax

Just heard on the radio some of the science behind why we like the things we like.

One of the things they did was put people in an MRI machine and dribble them wine through a tube and tell them the cost of the wine they were tasting.

As the supposed cost went up, so did the amount of pleasure.

Seeing how I work in a totally different industry (shipping) now you probably won't ever catch me roasting Kona. I'm with you on preferring the lighter roasts (with a few exceptions) and I am one of those who doesn't particularly like Kona, I like the character of the Indonesian coffees which generally still have a nice finish without the overpoweringly heavy body of Kona

I don't care what flavor the coffee is, as long as the bottle of creamer (Saint Brendan's) still has some left.

It didn't have to do with the price... the Brazillian I was talking to said that people much preferred picanha over tenderloin. After visiting a Brazillian steakhouse, I can see why. SOOOO much more flavor.

Also the 3 billion that dies were the really poor so they took up less resources proportionally, and who knows how much of the farm land is still being used as farm land. Even today farms close up semi frequently since there are more profitable uses to the land, in a dystopean corp run future the bottom line matters so if X land makes more money as a factory than as a farm its becoming a factory, then the NAN may not be using it for farms since that is still a modification on nature or at least there farming methods may be directed more towards preserving nature rather then getting the most out of the land.

Still a bit of a stretch maybe but its enough to get past my suspension of disbelief.

41% beer?! i get sick just thinking about it...

good old scots.

makes me think of "buyers remorse". as in one attempt to convince oneself that this high priced item one have recently bought, is better then it appears to be so as to justify the cost.

Also what is considered 'elite' food can change a lot over time. Check out Lobster at Wiki

I recall reading somewhere that France (?) before a certain time period feed its prisoners lobster because it was a 'serf' food.

Culture can play a part too. My mother (of European background) never ate pumpkin until she came to Australia with my father. It was considered a 'trash' food and only fed to pigs (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

yeah, it was peasant food. but then look at the damn thing. You look like you're being fed a giant beetle.

I'd believe it, a lot of food/wine products opperate on this.

And for the record the wine I argued with the pretentious twit was a Louis Jadot.

You know, I just remembered that "Money" Johnson's storyline involves him only drinking Soykaff, despite being able to afford the real thing.

heh, maybe its easier to get a high caffeine variant of soykaff (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

No, there's a whole story behind it. I'm just not telling it yet. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

Spoilsport... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smokin.gif)

Yeah, well, hopefully it gets me writing again.

But, back on topic...

OK, Shadowrunners occasionally hit it rich.

What does the PCs eat when they have copious amounts of spare funds for once?

And, yes, I mean after you've stocked up the bolt holes with the finest MREs you can find.

Fancy folks and their MREs

I go to the stuffer shack and I gets me some purple Drank, some nuk-it burgers and some nuk-it chili dogs. None of which need to be refrigerated and have 20 year shelf lives.

Longer than I plan to live chummer.

If I have enough good solid food, its onto the bourbon. I wonder what substance you make fake bourbon with? But I dont care

BlueMax