Dear Kid,

Happy Friday! And Happy International Beer Day!

Didn’t know it was International Beer Day? Then it’s a good thing you have me.

There are three major classifications of beer: ales, lagers, and (if you’re a college student) beer-in-the-hand (which beats the kind that is more drinkable but more expensive).

Pay attention. There will be a quiz at the end.

Ales have been around forever (and by “forever” I mean back before women knew it was acceptable to punch a man who yelled, “Bring us some ale, wench!”). Lagers have only been around for a few hundred years.

Ales are fermented at relatively warm temperatures for short periods of time, while lagers are cold fermented for longer periods of time.

The primary types of ale are pale ale and brown ale, but within those categories are bitters, milds, IPAs, nut browns.

Lagers are the world’s most popular beer and the primary types are pilsners and dark lagers.

Then there are stouts (with a dark, coffee-like taste), porters (happy to carry your luggage for a tip), and malts (light to full-bodied with hints of caramel, toffee, and nuts).

Prost!

Love, Mom

Dear Kid,

Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit and Happy August.

It seems (to me) appropriate to use a lot of capital letters as we head into the a Month of Transition.

August is a Month of Transition. That’s why it has 31 days—to give us one extra before we pop into September (you’re reading this on the internet therefore it must be true).

We’re transitioning from camps to home to college. We’re transitioning from the looser structure of summer to the more rigid structure of the school year. We’re transitioning from shorts every day to shorts only on the weekend. We’re transitioning from summer sales to back to school sales.

There is a whole new crop of freshmen heading off to college this month. They face the same excitement-nervousness-happy-terrified-wonderful feelings every freshman faces. More importantly, their parents face the same excitement-nervousness-happy-terrified-wonderful feelings every parent faces.

News flash: kids get over it faster than parents.

Second news flash: parents generally know we’ll all get over it sooner or later.

Third news flash: we all get to experience it for each big “new.” Moving into an apartment, going off to an internship, joining a sorority or fraternity, getting a job.

Mega news flash for parents of college kids: they are much better at sharing the not so good news and the scary than they are at sharing the good stuff. Which is to say, they’ll sometimes contact you when life isn’t so great and sometimes forget to let you know they’re still on the planet when the happy happens. Unless they’re the kid who only tells you the good stuff and suffers in silence with the more difficult things.

Mega news flash for kids: we want to hear all of it. The good, the bad, the ugly, the wonderful, what you had for breakfast. (Ok, ok, you’re independent—you don’t have to share breakfast unless you want to. Just eat something. Coffee by itself is insufficient.) We’re thrilled that you’re having new adventures and new experiences and we want to know all about it.

Because we love you.

Happy August.

Love, Mom

Dear Kid,

The other day I told you about the coffees we tried at La Terza. What I didn’t tell you about was the cascara we drank there.

“The what?” you say. So glad you asked.

Cascara (which David taught me to remember because it sounds like mascara—although why he thinks about mascara is not something he and I discussed) is the husk of the dried coffee cherry.

Basically what happens is the (highly valued) seeds (and by “seeds” I mean coffee beans) are removed from the cherries. What’s left is then dried in the sun (like a raisin except without the raisin-ness). If you can get cascara (which is not easy—thank you La Terza for sharing!), you’d likely brew the cherries like a tea.

And it’s like nothing you’ve ever tasted. Because you’ve never tasted coffeetea. Or teacoffee. (Or cofftea?) But you’ve tasted toffee and this is nothing like that.

It’s delicious. Sort of fruity coffee with the consistency of tea. In a word: Yum.

Often, in coffee producing areas, people drink cascara rather than coffee, because coffee beans can be sold for cash money and cascara is generally just used as compost (at best) or landfill (at worse). With cascara becoming more popular, the entire cherry is being used.

You can also just chomp cascara. I tried that. It was ok, but never going to replace raisins in my world.

A word of caution. When (as and if) you purchase cascara, make sure you purchase from a (highly) reputable source and that you’re buying cascara not cascara sagrada which is the dried bark of the California buckthorn tree and is often used as a laxative. Who knew? Stick with the real cascara.

Love, Mom

Dear Kid,

In all the excitement of The Big News yesterday, I didn’t have time to tell you about our experience at La Terza.

La Terza is an Artisan Coffee Roasterie in Cincinnati. Not only do they roast up extraordinary coffee, they believe strongly in educating people about all things coffee. So on Saturday, Dad and I went over to La Terza for a tour. And education. A tour-cation. A tour de force of tasting and learning.

We tasted three different kinds of coffee (Ethiopian, the second one which I think was Brazilian but I’m not sure, and Sumatran).

We learned that when coffee is first brewed, it is too hot for all our happy taste buds. The only ones that work at super hot temps are the bitter receptors. So wait for your coffee/tea/soup to cool from about 180 degrees down to 145 or so to taste the full flavor.

We learned about how coffee spread around the world and how it’s now grown on farms. We learned more in an hour and a half than….well, we learned a lot.

Then we got to help in the process! (How cool is that!)

We got to help roast the Sumatran beans. Dad poured the green beans into the roaster. (I moved the lever.)

When the beans were done, David (La Terza’s owner) ground them up and made us coffee. Freshest cup ever.

It was a wonderful morning.

Love, Mom

Dear Kid,

Yark! This morning came a little early.

Actually, this morning came right on time. Our decision to do something with it came a little late. Which means I have 8 minutes to dash off this letter, finish my coffee, and be in the car.

We’re headed for a tour of a coffee roaster. I think that sounds like an excellent way to spend a boiling hot Saturday morning, don’t you? According to Dad, we’ll get to see the roasting operation and taste a couple of different kinds of coffees. I’m in!

Six minutes.

Other exciting things on the docket for the weekend: fill the car with gas, do some house cleaning, do a little cooking, brush the Puppy, sleep. Makes you wish you were here, doesn’t it?

Two minutes.

Gotta fly.

Love, Mom

Dear Kid,

You know the Sound of Silence? The one where nothing disturbs a beautiful sleep? The one Simon & Garfunkel sang of so eloquently back in the day? The one that’s supposed to exist on a summer Sunday morning?

We didn’t have it today.

Instead, the Puppy decided to practice his impression of an alarm clock. A very unhappy alarm clock. An alarm clock no one bothered to turn off.

After doing my best to ignore him for a while, I rolled out of bed to see what the catastrophe was. He wagged happily, said good morning politely, and returned to his pillow for a nap. I made coffee.

If I had to guess, I’d say that he was upset about not being invited on the bike ride with Dad and Pi. But since they aren’t here at the moment, I can’t inquire. Because the Puppy isn’t talking.

Have a good Sunday, kiddo.

Love, Mom