You haven't lost it; you've nailed it. I work with agricultural producers in developing countries. They are _very_ often used as mere marketing props in simplistic (often wrong and incoherent) tropes that are simultaneously used to exploit those same producers. Consumers don't want the often ugly or complicated truth; they want to buy the story that soothes their consciences as cheaply as possible.
@@gregoryberrycone If we're being honest, the masses eat up the spoon fed drivel happily. If it makes them feel even a little better about themselves or puts them at ease all logical thinking get shut of for 90% of the population
I would watch an angry drunk James rant about things. Not to say his comments aren’t genuine and wellfounded. But I’m just imagining how fun that could be
I’m not a fan of ‘rant for likes’ videos, you’d just become Gordon Ramsay Mk II. But James & friends, an open bar and a game of ‘Crimes Against Humanity’ with random cards changed to known Hoffmann trigger words? Priceless. 😍
i dont know if you edit your videos but i applaud whoever made the decision to put the hello darkness my old friend lofi remix, it makes an amazing transision and having those little touches of coherence in videos really make you stand out, so shoutout to whoever made that decission
I think the other issue is that the language frames the farmers as wasteful, 'discarding' a quality product, when I would argue that it is (larger) coffee buyers/importers who have created the waste issue in the pursuit of profit. Waste of cascara is a result of these companies not seeing any financial interest in cascara, not farmers just deciding to send it to 'landfill'. I'd also guess that many farmers find a way to use cascara anyway. On the whole, it kinda frames this beverage company as being the 'saviours' of these 'savage', environmentally destructive developing world farmers.
TBH, Marketing firms should know what the product is. It just costs alot of money. Big companies just want to have a text written with the least amount of costs. And I think more than 90% of the people that visit the website don't know anything about it so they'll just believe it.
I watch WAAAY too many of these videos, considering I drink only a handful of coffee beverages per month and I am not especially picky about my coffee. There is just something delightful and engaging about watching anyone who is an expert in something on their soapbox.
The site is the way it is because it wasn't built out/written by the people who made the spirit. It's probably managed by an agency and they wrote the page copy and found stock photo's that were somewhat appropriate. They're repeating points as you put it, to hit a certain word limit and make the page look & flow nicely. This is obviously being aimed at the hipster/eco market who want to buy nice things but have their conscience assuaged, I think anything in that category should carry a level of cynicism, whether made by a large company or not.
I'll have to take your word for it. Page doesn't render for me in Firefox on Linux. I only get an image of some barrels, nothing else. I checked the source. There's a CSS file and two JavaScript files being referenced. No clue what the latter do, as I can't be arsed to open them. My guess is there's some comically outdated 90's style browser check happening in there that prevents the rest from loading.
During London Coffee Fest this year there were 'cocktail classes' run by Discarded in which the presenter explained the base of it is predominantly sherry. The sherry is used only for seasoning barrels before ageing some whisk(e)ys, and since the demand for seasoned barrels is greater than the demand for sherry, this is otherwise discarded. I think this would help explain some of the oxidised character in a newly opened bottle.
I think your take on the website was spot on. One could argue that not naming the farmer is not an issue with the company, but rather a matter of difference between the coffee and the liquor industries. Other than the founder and the master distiller, the people involved in the liquor industry aren’t paid much attention. Despite their emphasis on coffee culture, not even Mr. Black mention their coffee farmers by name.
James on Coffee he didn't like: "I didn't enjoy it as much as i expected, but it's okay" James on Clear Coffee: "This is so bad lol, so funny" James on Alcoholic beverage: *goes on a 5 minute rant on the company's web that didn't give credit properly to the producer and the bs they wrote thinking no one would even read them.*
@james, there are quite some producers in Columbia that use the cascara as fertilizer for their next crop. They ferment it first and burry it close to the coffee three. As mentioned before unused cascara is probably an issue of industrialized coffee farms.
Volumes are effective for making lots of drinks behind a bar. At home, weighing is so much easier and more consistent - especially if you’re fussy about balanced sweetness (where so many cocktails in bars fall down...)
I think it's dope Hoffmann replied. Weighing is certainly more consistent in results, but a jigger is easier and quicker to use. At least from my experiences.
From a cocktail bartender I would say my only tip would be for any mixed drinks to add your ice last. Way to go with the bitters! Many non bartenders (and even some bartenders) don’t seem to understand how much bitters you really need. Great video again!
As it is with large alcoholic beverage companies they want to be reasonably intransparent. This is not about using specialty coffee cherries chasing extraordinary quality. This is about producing novel drinks with high margins by marketing them as special. By the way James, typically vermouth is made from white grapes and the red colour comes from the maceration process and originally from aging in oak barrels (which is today achieved mostly by colouring). Nevertheless I could imagine that the discarded vermouth could be interesting in an upside down version of a sweet martini with tonka gin.
We in Yemen, drink cascara for hundreds of years as the mean drink for the day and for occasions as well. We call it (Qeshir). it's more popular than coffee itself and tea. Flavours of Qeshir is different from an area to another ( as we cultivate coffee in 15 governorates ) the main flavours are apricot, raisin and occasionally date because here in Yemen we use natural process ( sunny processing) The processing method is a very important factor to decide what flavours we want to get. If you want to taste tobaco in Qeshir then it's recommended to try it with a honey process. Qeshir or Qascara naturally has sugar with high ratios, and you will notice the ratio of sugar in cold Qeshir is more than the hot one. I forgot to tell you that most of the people here drink it hot.
How is cascara traditionally prepared in Yemen? Simply steeping the cascara in hot water like tea? Grinding it first? Simmering it on the stove? Thank you for your insight!
@@steeping there are different ways. It's all according to the person's choice. Old ways, steeping coffee in cold water at night then boil it at the morning to be drunk as a hot drink.. some others like to roast it slightly then grind it slightly as well and put it into boiling water for 10 minutes. Well, there are many ways as it's the main hot drink, people created different ways. For me, I love it as a cold one. To boil it at night then steeping it till the morning after that to be filtered and put some ice cubes.
Just coming in late, re Qeshir - thanks for that overview of Yemini practice. In Arabic, the word Qeshir means "peel". That helps with the general discussion of the word Qascara James had in the latter part of the video.
James, you sir have some of the most descriptive and well worded reviews I have ever listened to. Thank you for this. Many of the products you review (drink) are not available in the US.
Great points there James. I tried it at London Coffee Festival and I was rather surprised to see a cascara drink, knowing Joel and all details about his novelty food application with the EU and its progress. When approached about the legality of the drink in the UK, staff were very reluctant to answers and eventually just said: 'Oh surely it must be legal if we have it here'. Eventually they decided to rather ignore me when I tried asking more questions.
What follows are my thoughts on the website. (It was a slow work day.) "For generations, cascara the fruit of the coffee berry has been discarded during coffee production." -- First, a comma is needed after cascara. Second, as has been called out, the description/definition given for cascara is rather incorrect. On the positive side, points awarded for the near-rhyme of cascara/discarded. "Inspired by the emergence of Cascara and the versatility of Vermouth, Joe Petch experimented with multiple vermouths and batches of cascara to understand what it takes to create the next flavour revelation." -- Why are cascara and vermouth capitalized? Who is Joe Petch? A job title would be nice. Oh right, one must click "Watch Here" to learn his title is Brand Innovator. But wait, I was promised I get to watch stuff. Ahh, I have to click "Watch Mix" so I can have a pop-up video play. Two more clicks -- one to play the video and one to close it. Phew, that was a lot of work! Finally, that whole sentence is a mouthful. "Explore the variety of serves he has created on our cocktail menu." Perhaps this is a case of differences in English, but to me (American) the plural noun 'serves' makes me think of racquet (racket) sports. Most likely, the writer was trying to not use cocktail twice in the same sentence, but instead of 'serves', 'libations' or 'concoctions' seem better choices. I'll stop here.
I absolutely loved your breakdown of why it appears the company is not showing the respect due to the producers. This is the kind of thing I notice in marketing and it drives me absolutely nuts. Whether it's a company jumping on the "body positive" bandwagon or the "environmental sustainability" bandwagon.
“I’ll let it go... I’ll let it go...” ✨“I could believe I’ve lost it and just become pure cynicism” 🤣👏❣️One of the funniest lines yet. 👌Now I just need some vermouth to wash it all down. 🥃
Hey James, im a spanish native speaker and here, in my home country, "cascara berry" its the dried husk/shell of the cacao bean. Hope this helps. Love your content! Keep it up.
Hey James! Just a tiny little detail, but as I figured you like details I thought it might be of interest. ;) Red vermouth doesn't necessarily have to contain red wine. In fact most of red vermouth is based on white wine which is colored with caramel or gets its color from the used herbs and spices. But more than this...amazing review! Thanks!
I know were not talking about what makes a good Manhattan but I like either Jameson's or Kessler's yes I know its a cheap whisky but I'm rather fond it
I'd assume for such a large company, they outsourced the design of the webpage. From experience, pleasant images and word counts usually dictate the content. Looking forward to trying the Manhattan for myself :)
Slowly going through the review playlist, and interested in seeing how many of these products or even brands have been discontinued. As an example, all the instant speciality coffee brands mentioned in on video seem to have disappeared. Would love to see a video revisiting these items with an emphasis on bad business decision making or effects of changing markets or even the fallout of the pandemic.
We call is CAScara, and if it is the same tree I think it is... Oh well, they used the berries. I never knew of berries but a local tree popularly called Sacred Cascara has its bark used in teas. That so happens because the bark has very, very high quantities of tannins, which dries out your mouth and it is used to treat or help in treatment of ulcers for the tannin's capability to coagulate/precipitate proteins and effectively close wounds.
I bought this blind and also put in a Manhattan. I used a rye with black walnut bitters. Interesting but didn’t feel like a Manhattan. Seems like this would work in a dessert more than anything.
Hearing this critique suggests this is about brand authenticity. The idea behind it is great and I for one would try it if it was available here in the UK, However, if the marketing is flawed then they had better put it right quickly. If the story is found to be a lie then this brand is sunk. Its no Perrier.
I think it's good to call out bs marketing. if more people do not let them get away, then others will listen. in terms of the product / branding / website - it's an effort to sell more of a product that in two years won't be around anymore. not a single iota of effort to go beyond market economy principles.
The sentences you read out from their website shows they have no idea what they're doing Those sentences were word vomit. That's a version of double speak. It was designed to confuse and just... Take up space to sound correct, but really it was just dribble Your review seems fair
Bravo for calling out the bullshit. Can we have a rant about branding which talks to you like it’s going to be your new Best Fwend Fowever next please? Having said that I’m sure their development bods do understand cascara production, it’s more that their marketing people think that the public don’t, which might suggest that there’s not actually a market for it. So perhaps the disingenuityismness is forgivable, the patronising not so much.
Their 3 points without the confusion and repetition: 1) plants are well nourished (fertilised probably) so there is enough sugar to start with, 2) the cherries are processed without water so not a lot is lost in the processing (excuse the wrong choice stock photo), 3) they pick cherries at the right maturity so that the sugars are concentrated well. I think they are all sound points, just worded poorly and ordered wrong.
Four and a half years on and they've revamped their website and dropped most of the copy/imagery that James had an issue with. They're still overselling the end product if Jame's review is anything to go by, but that's pretty common for any product in any market segment.
Totally agree on the marketing side of things. It's a bit tragic, but as you mentioned, bandwagon. A shame, because I was curious to put this in a Coffee Negroni. But nah. However, I was a bit surprised by your cursing! I don't recall you cursing in any other videos. Instead you choose strong and evocative descriptors of things to get the point across in a fun and clear way. I much appreciate that, so hoping you keep it that way! Thanks for all the beautiful videos you make!
Well, they are trying to sound like a socially responsible company making something that surely will be expensive but wanting to make you feel better for buying it... Or that's what I would think if they really commercialized it... Anyway, the cáscara issue will surely be sorted out I think, but it will take time... Here in México were some initial thoughts about elaborating alcoholic beverages using fermented remainings of the coffee to make sure of improving revenue and resources for the growing of coffee but it didn't work... It would be great if the influence of Europe can make the cultivators and entrepreneurs could make something with cáscara as an independent product of coffee like you suggest in your videos. Nice video, as usual your videos makes improve my experience in brewing and enjoying coffee☕🙂👍
Your head is screwed on right, James Hoffman. All your arguments make perfect sense to me. I am glad you pointed them out. In public. That's where they belong. Oh, and btw, a Manhattan should be made with Rye Whiskey, not any type of Bourbon, unless you are out of Rye. IMHO, obviously. To each theirs!
You haven't lost it; you've nailed it. I work with agricultural producers in developing countries. They are _very_ often used as mere marketing props in simplistic (often wrong and incoherent) tropes that are simultaneously used to exploit those same producers.
Consumers don't want the often ugly or complicated truth; they want to buy the story that soothes their consciences as cheaply as possible.
i wouldn't blame the consumer, id blame the people who think the masses are stupid and need to be spoon fed drivel
@@gregoryberrycone If we're being honest, the masses eat up the spoon fed drivel happily. If it makes them feel even a little better about themselves or puts them at ease all logical thinking get shut of for 90% of the population
3:27 When you're trying to impress the barista at your local café by providing an in-depth analysis of the flavour notes
haha!
I would watch an angry drunk James rant about things. Not to say his comments aren’t genuine and wellfounded. But I’m just imagining how fun that could be
I’d agree with this!
GIVE THE PEOPLE WHAT THEY WANT TO SEE JAMES!
100% backing this up!
I’m not a fan of ‘rant for likes’ videos, you’d just become Gordon Ramsay Mk II. But James & friends, an open bar and a game of ‘Crimes Against Humanity’ with random cards changed to known Hoffmann trigger words? Priceless. 😍
Like drunk history, but drunk anything rants. I could listen to James rant about anything in his measured style.
cjl76 id pay good money for this
I'm losing it over the "Hello Darkness My Old Friend" remix.
Also, looking at the website...it's gone, which is probably for the better.
i dont know if you edit your videos but i applaud whoever made the decision to put the hello darkness my old friend lofi remix, it makes an amazing transision and having those little touches of coherence in videos really make you stand out, so shoutout to whoever made that decission
Thank you!
I think the other issue is that the language frames the farmers as wasteful, 'discarding' a quality product, when I would argue that it is (larger) coffee buyers/importers who have created the waste issue in the pursuit of profit. Waste of cascara is a result of these companies not seeing any financial interest in cascara, not farmers just deciding to send it to 'landfill'. I'd also guess that many farmers find a way to use cascara anyway. On the whole, it kinda frames this beverage company as being the 'saviours' of these 'savage', environmentally destructive developing world farmers.
Many coffee producers use their cascara. Cascara tea is really common in Bolivia
@@etatsopa I'd imagine it probably makes good compost as well.
The savior complex narrative really hits the nail on the head here
This is what happens when big companies hire a marketing firm to build a web page for a product they no nothing about.
been there, and agree
100%
TBH, Marketing firms should know what the product is. It just costs alot of money. Big companies just want to have a text written with the least amount of costs. And I think more than 90% of the people that visit the website don't know anything about it so they'll just believe it.
Years late to the party, but...this could easily be their in-house marketing team as well. They often don't really understand what they're selling.
"your drink is nice, i'm not mad at it" *looks at camera very annoyed* 😂
10:09 😂
I watch WAAAY too many of these videos, considering I drink only a handful of coffee beverages per month and I am not especially picky about my coffee. There is just something delightful and engaging about watching anyone who is an expert in something on their soapbox.
The site is the way it is because it wasn't built out/written by the people who made the spirit. It's probably managed by an agency and they wrote the page copy and found stock photo's that were somewhat appropriate. They're repeating points as you put it, to hit a certain word limit and make the page look & flow nicely. This is obviously being aimed at the hipster/eco market who want to buy nice things but have their conscience assuaged, I think anything in that category should carry a level of cynicism, whether made by a large company or not.
I'll have to take your word for it. Page doesn't render for me in Firefox on Linux. I only get an image of some barrels, nothing else.
I checked the source. There's a CSS file and two JavaScript files being referenced. No clue what the latter do, as I can't be arsed to open them. My guess is there's some comically outdated 90's style browser check happening in there that prevents the rest from loading.
During London Coffee Fest this year there were 'cocktail classes' run by Discarded in which the presenter explained the base of it is predominantly sherry. The sherry is used only for seasoning barrels before ageing some whisk(e)ys, and since the demand for seasoned barrels is greater than the demand for sherry, this is otherwise discarded. I think this would help explain some of the oxidised character in a newly opened bottle.
That makes sense!
So... This whole beverage is made of discarded parts? Including the marketing materials?
"I could believe that I've lost it"
-James Hoffmann, crazy man who measures drinks by weight.
He lost it after he produced the V60 Video. So much pressure released...
I saw a can of Monster Espresso energy drink yesterday and thought of your channel. I suspect it could be ‘worthy’ of a review...🤔😁
It's on the list...
@@jameshoffmann My condolences
Excellent. Although part of me feels some level of guilt for suggesting it, as we all know it’s not going to be good and I’m going to enjoy that 😂
They gave these out for free on the streets in San Francisco all the time. They were the most vile drink
My shop in Christchurch UK sells them and I love them but you don't want to have more than 2 in less than an hour just a warning lol
I think your take on the website was spot on. One could argue that not naming the farmer is not an issue with the company, but rather a matter of difference between the coffee and the liquor industries. Other than the founder and the master distiller, the people involved in the liquor industry aren’t paid much attention. Despite their emphasis on coffee culture, not even Mr. Black mention their coffee farmers by name.
I love how honest and sincere these reviews are. It's a joy to watch and still very informative.
"I'm not angry about it!" scowled James angrily.
I wanted to try this!
$19.95 US, not bad.
$40.00 shipping, rather bad.
The cocktail matches his glasses perfectly 🤣🤣
A pairing which Hoffman might even describe as "not unintentional".
James on Coffee he didn't like: "I didn't enjoy it as much as i expected, but it's okay"
James on Clear Coffee: "This is so bad lol, so funny"
James on Alcoholic beverage: *goes on a 5 minute rant on the company's web that didn't give credit properly to the producer and the bs they wrote thinking no one would even read them.*
@james, there are quite some producers in Columbia that use the cascara as fertilizer for their next crop. They ferment it first and burry it close to the coffee three. As mentioned before unused cascara is probably an issue of industrialized coffee farms.
I love your red glasses! ❤️❤️
Of course a coffee nerd would use weight instead of volumetric to measure drink components 😂
That caught my attention too!
Volumes are effective for making lots of drinks behind a bar. At home, weighing is so much easier and more consistent - especially if you’re fussy about balanced sweetness (where so many cocktails in bars fall down...)
@@jameshoffmann hey I'm not dissing or doubting the efficacy just I found it extremely humorous
I think it's dope Hoffmann replied. Weighing is certainly more consistent in results, but a jigger is easier and quicker to use. At least from my experiences.
That's what I do too since my scale is always out!
From a cocktail bartender I would say my only tip would be for any mixed drinks to add your ice last. Way to go with the bitters! Many non bartenders (and even some bartenders) don’t seem to understand how much bitters you really need. Great video again!
I would watch more cocktail related videos ;)
I honestly expected the ice the materialize in the shot. But your review did not disappoint. I really appreciate your honesty and integrity.
"it's fine, it's totally okay, I'm not angry about it" I almost fell off my chair! Mr. Hoffman as always thank you for filming!
As always, a great review! Such a pleasure watching you James!
As it is with large alcoholic beverage companies they want to be reasonably intransparent. This is not about using specialty coffee cherries chasing extraordinary quality. This is about producing novel drinks with high margins by marketing them as special. By the way James, typically vermouth is made from white grapes and the red colour comes from the maceration process and originally from aging in oak barrels (which is today achieved mostly by colouring). Nevertheless I could imagine that the discarded vermouth could be interesting in an upside down version of a sweet martini with tonka gin.
those pictures look like stock photos, not something they shoot to match the text
We in Yemen, drink cascara for hundreds of years as the mean drink for the day and for occasions as well. We call it (Qeshir).
it's more popular than coffee itself and tea.
Flavours of Qeshir is different from an area to another ( as we cultivate coffee in 15 governorates ) the main flavours are apricot, raisin and occasionally date because here in Yemen we use natural process ( sunny processing)
The processing method is a very important factor to decide what flavours we want to get. If you want to taste tobaco in Qeshir then it's recommended to try it with a honey process.
Qeshir or Qascara naturally has sugar with high ratios, and you will notice the ratio of sugar in cold Qeshir is more than the hot one.
I forgot to tell you that most of the people here drink it hot.
How is cascara traditionally prepared in Yemen? Simply steeping the cascara in hot water like tea? Grinding it first? Simmering it on the stove?
Thank you for your insight!
@@steeping there are different ways. It's all according to the person's choice. Old ways, steeping coffee in cold water at night then boil it at the morning to be drunk as a hot drink.. some others like to roast it slightly then grind it slightly as well and put it into boiling water for 10 minutes.
Well, there are many ways as it's the main hot drink, people created different ways.
For me, I love it as a cold one.
To boil it at night then steeping it till the morning after that to be filtered and put some ice cubes.
@@arzaqal-najjar1576 thank you! I will try those methods.
Just coming in late, re Qeshir - thanks for that overview of Yemini practice. In Arabic, the word Qeshir means "peel". That helps with the general discussion of the word Qascara James had in the latter part of the video.
The tiny moment of disdain after you said "discardier" was amazing. Highlight of the video.
James, you sir have some of the most descriptive and well worded reviews I have ever listened to. Thank you for this. Many of the products you review (drink) are not available in the US.
The first 8 minutes or so of this video was good. The last few minutes, golden.
I bought dried coffee-cherries and used them to make a tea (called coffee tea on the website). It tasted like fruit with a background funk of coffee.
Oh my god that Sound of Silence remix that kicks in at 5:26 wow!
Great points there James. I tried it at London Coffee Festival and I was rather surprised to see a cascara drink, knowing Joel and all details about his novelty food application with the EU and its progress. When approached about the legality of the drink in the UK, staff were very reluctant to answers and eventually just said: 'Oh surely it must be legal if we have it here'. Eventually they decided to rather ignore me when I tried asking more questions.
What follows are my thoughts on the website. (It was a slow work day.)
"For generations, cascara the fruit of the coffee berry has been discarded during coffee production." -- First, a comma is needed after cascara. Second, as has been called out, the description/definition given for cascara is rather incorrect. On the positive side, points awarded for the near-rhyme of cascara/discarded.
"Inspired by the emergence of Cascara and the versatility of Vermouth, Joe Petch experimented with multiple vermouths and batches of cascara to understand what it takes to create the next flavour revelation." -- Why are cascara and vermouth capitalized? Who is Joe Petch? A job title would be nice. Oh right, one must click "Watch Here" to learn his title is Brand Innovator. But wait, I was promised I get to watch stuff. Ahh, I have to click "Watch Mix" so I can have a pop-up video play. Two more clicks -- one to play the video and one to close it. Phew, that was a lot of work! Finally, that whole sentence is a mouthful.
"Explore the variety of serves he has created on our cocktail menu." Perhaps this is a case of differences in English, but to me (American) the plural noun 'serves' makes me think of racquet (racket) sports. Most likely, the writer was trying to not use cocktail twice in the same sentence, but instead of 'serves', 'libations' or 'concoctions' seem better choices.
I'll stop here.
Thankyou for the effort and passion you put into this
I absolutely loved your breakdown of why it appears the company is not showing the respect due to the producers. This is the kind of thing I notice in marketing and it drives me absolutely nuts. Whether it's a company jumping on the "body positive" bandwagon or the "environmental sustainability" bandwagon.
currently infusing some vodka with cascara and also fidgeting with a cordial of some kind
Do share a recipe if you happen to have some good results!
The sad irony is that while they are highlighting the part of the coffee plant that is discarded, they are treating the producers like trash.
“I’ll let it go... I’ll let it go...” ✨“I could believe I’ve lost it and just become pure cynicism” 🤣👏❣️One of the funniest lines yet. 👌Now I just need some vermouth to wash it all down. 🥃
This site is the hello fellow kids meme equivalent for cascara :D
Haha! This is painfully accurate.
This channel not only has A+ content, but the comments are the best on TH-cam!
"I'm not angry with it" - The first time ever, James said that over a coffee-drink
Excellent commentary at the end James, thank you!
Watching James slowly lose his mind and his classic British politeness through the Weird Coffee Drinks series is a revelation.
Hey James, im a spanish native speaker and here, in my home country, "cascara berry" its the dried husk/shell of the cacao bean. Hope this helps.
Love your content! Keep it up.
Hey James! Just a tiny little detail, but as I figured you like details I thought it might be of interest. ;) Red vermouth doesn't necessarily have to contain red wine. In fact most of red vermouth is based on white wine which is colored with caramel or gets its color from the used herbs and spices. But more than this...amazing review! Thanks!
"Hello darkness..." had me roaring.
Just a heads up, most sweet vermouth isn't actually made from red wine, but white wine. It normally gets the red colour from the botanicals
i totally agree with your criticism of their website and it’s descriptions.
This is what a review should be. Honest.
Quick tip from an old bartender regarding mixed drinks that are a bit too sweet: add a dash or two of Regan's Orange Bitters No. 6.
The passion here is incredible to watch
Good points. Brave. Fair. Thanks for shining the light.
"I'm going to make a manhattan.... I forgot the cherries... Hello Darkness my old friend". LOL
8:51 Whenever I argue with the better half and they bring up random infractions from 5 years ago...
Coffee related cocktails!!!!!!!!
They definitely watched this video, their website is now updated accordingly. :D
5:14 reminded me of Rachel Maksy and I'm loving it.
Loved this! Would definitely welcome more content like this!
I know were not talking about what makes a good Manhattan but I like either Jameson's or Kessler's yes I know its a cheap whisky but I'm rather fond it
I'd assume for such a large company, they outsourced the design of the webpage. From experience, pleasant images and word counts usually dictate the content. Looking forward to trying the Manhattan for myself :)
Don't forget the multiple repeats of a key phrase to increase the SEO.
Pages like this are meant to be read by web crawling spiders, not people.
You, sir are an honest man.
Slowly going through the review playlist, and interested in seeing how many of these products or even brands have been discontinued. As an example, all the instant speciality coffee brands mentioned in on video seem to have disappeared. Would love to see a video revisiting these items with an emphasis on bad business decision making or effects of changing markets or even the fallout of the pandemic.
"hello darkness my old friend" my sides
I love me a good James rant
“All sugar is in the cascara,”, "all sugar is in the cascara,","all sugar is in the cascara" is what they're trying to say I reckon. LOL
Please do more cocktail content! Would be super interested to hear you talk about them
James it's "CÁSCARA" , the stress syllabus is on the first A (KAS-karah).
(It's not unusual to hear good music on this channel, but) this is the first time I've tried to figure out what it was or who mixed it. Really cool.
We call is CAScara, and if it is the same tree I think it is... Oh well, they used the berries. I never knew of berries but a local tree popularly called Sacred Cascara has its bark used in teas. That so happens because the bark has very, very high quantities of tannins, which dries out your mouth and it is used to treat or help in treatment of ulcers for the tannin's capability to coagulate/precipitate proteins and effectively close wounds.
Different plant. Different cascara.
I bought this blind and also put in a Manhattan. I used a rye with black walnut bitters. Interesting but didn’t feel like a Manhattan. Seems like this would work in a dessert more than anything.
You should try Grind. It is a coffee rum. It is not bad from my experiences.
I think composting cascara would be more useful than having it in a drink. Anyway, which two vermouths do you use?
Awesome rant! Go James Go! Looking forward to the cupping, er, coffee tasting!
Hearing this critique suggests this is about brand authenticity. The idea behind it is great and I for one would try it if it was available here in the UK, However, if the marketing is flawed then they had better put it right quickly. If the story is found to be a lie then this brand is sunk. Its no Perrier.
I think it's good to call out bs marketing. if more people do not let them get away, then others will listen. in terms of the product / branding / website - it's an effort to sell more of a product that in two years won't be around anymore. not a single iota of effort to go beyond market economy principles.
James Hoffmann is the coffee industry’s “Comic Book Guy” from the Simpsons.
Both sweet and dry vermouth are generally based on a dry white wine, but Idk about this one in particular.
The sentences you read out from their website shows they have no idea what they're doing
Those sentences were word vomit. That's a version of double speak. It was designed to confuse and just... Take up space to sound correct, but really it was just dribble
Your review seems fair
I absolutely love your use of "it's fine"
No one is believing that it is in fact, fine 😂
That website is like the essence of PR
Bravo for calling out the bullshit. Can we have a rant about branding which talks to you like it’s going to be your new Best Fwend Fowever next please?
Having said that I’m sure their development bods do understand cascara production, it’s more that their marketing people think that the public don’t, which might suggest that there’s not actually a market for it. So perhaps the disingenuityismness is forgivable, the patronising not so much.
Damn you keep it real.
I would watch a cocktail series by you. Please do this....
You seriously weighed all of the cocktail ingredients instead of using volumes?? I gotta say, I respect a man that sticks to his principles 😂😂
The hair magic at 1:00
When "I'm not angry about it" is the best James can say about a product....
Their 3 points without the confusion and repetition: 1) plants are well nourished (fertilised probably) so there is enough sugar to start with, 2) the cherries are processed without water so not a lot is lost in the processing (excuse the wrong choice stock photo),
3) they pick cherries at the right maturity so that the sugars are concentrated well.
I think they are all sound points, just worded poorly and ordered wrong.
Love me some cascara. Really wish it was more common and I'd honestly love to eat some fresh or dried coffee fruit.
I've eaten fresh coffee berries and they taste BAD. Like, there's a shudder-inducing, weird plasticky sweet taste.
Or maybe it was bad coffee. I dunno
I forgot the cherries. I died here.
What vermouths are you using regularly? Antica?
Four and a half years on and they've revamped their website and dropped most of the copy/imagery that James had an issue with. They're still overselling the end product if Jame's review is anything to go by, but that's pretty common for any product in any market segment.
Totally agree on the marketing side of things. It's a bit tragic, but as you mentioned, bandwagon. A shame, because I was curious to put this in a Coffee Negroni. But nah.
However, I was a bit surprised by your cursing! I don't recall you cursing in any other videos. Instead you choose strong and evocative descriptors of things to get the point across in a fun and clear way. I much appreciate that, so hoping you keep it that way!
Thanks for all the beautiful videos you make!
I cursed?
Well, they are trying to sound like a socially responsible company making something that surely will be expensive but wanting to make you feel better for buying it... Or that's what I would think if they really commercialized it... Anyway, the cáscara issue will surely be sorted out I think, but it will take time... Here in México were some initial thoughts about elaborating alcoholic beverages using fermented remainings of the coffee to make sure of improving revenue and resources for the growing of coffee but it didn't work... It would be great if the influence of Europe can make the cultivators and entrepreneurs could make something with cáscara as an independent product of coffee like you suggest in your videos. Nice video, as usual your videos makes improve my experience in brewing and enjoying coffee☕🙂👍
What about with a bottled-in-bond straight rye rather than bourbon? Lemon twist?
Your head is screwed on right, James Hoffman. All your arguments make perfect sense to me. I am glad you pointed them out. In public. That's where they belong. Oh, and btw, a Manhattan should be made with Rye Whiskey, not any type of Bourbon, unless you are out of Rye. IMHO, obviously. To each theirs!
nice review! i love to hear cristisism because from the firms you only get blown up marketing crap.