Dextro Energy Blackcurrant

113 days ago

The weather these days seem to be weird don’t you agree? In the mornings, it would be very sunny. Then just after lunch it would rain cats and dogs. I guess...

The weather these days seem to be weird don’t you agree? In the mornings, it would be very sunny. Then just after lunch it would rain cats and dogs. I guess this is what happen when you abuse the weather. It comes back and abuses you. Anyway, I bought this candy from….well…..Singpost. Apparently Singpost is now more about retail than a postal service. You go there to buy some stamps, instead you are bombarded with candies, mobile phones, Christmas cards, DVD players and so on. Felt like I have entered some retail shop than Singpost. God damn it, I just want to buy some stamps!  I don’t know about you but I feel that Singpost is going the way of SMRT. SMRT instead of concentrating on providing train and bus services, spend all of its time and effort on retail and property. That is probably why we have so many MRT breakdowns. Some of which occurred daily and blamed on whatever they can think of, even the weather you can get MRT breakdown……  And looking back at Singpost, you will see tons of complains about Singpost’s postal services in the forums.

Okay then, enough of my complains. It is now time to review this Dextro Energy. Some sort of candy made from dextrose which is supposed to give you “fast” energy. Something like bananas, only cooler and you don’t feel funny eating them outside in public.

Dextro Energy Blackcurrant with Vitamin C. Lookie here, it states – direct energy. I have no idea what “direct energy” means, most probably saying that the energy from the candy can be accessed by your body fast.

Hmmm…Dextro Energy provides fast carbohydrates in between meals and on the go. Dextrose enters the bloodstream directly. Idea for work, school and sport. They have other flavours like lime and raspberry. The blackcurrant flavour I have is pretty nice. I had expected it to be overwhelmingly sweet but surprisingly it isn’t. Although I have reduced my sugar intake drastically, I think this would work as a quick pick-me-up during meals.

Made from dextrose. You know the kind of “sugar” that last time your parents force down your throat when you were feeling ill? Usually mix into water. I think the name is Glucose. You buy the glucose in a can and it is all powdery? I remember having them (mixed with water) when I was little.  The taste is exactly the same! Oh, this candy is made in Germany.

Ingredients are dextrose, maltodextrin, critic acid, calcium carbonate, magnesium stearate, flavouring and vitamin C. What the hell is magnesium stearate doing in my candy? And why is there calcium carbonate (chalk) doing in my candy as well. Me don’t want chalk. But from what I read, apparently calcium carbonate is now used as an dietary supplement if someone isn’t taking enough calcium.

Yes, the actual candy themselves.

One piece of candy. Actually overall not too shabby. If you are looking for something easy to consume, this is it. There is definitely no intense sweetness and the blackcurrant flavour is pretty weak. Feels like I am eating glucose with just a hint of blackcurrant. Too bad it is not a mint.

Micro Agglomerated Corks

113 days ago

If you have no idea what micro agglomerated corks are, don’t need to worry. Only recently did I discover this. It is actually a pretty recent invention. And they are supposed...

If you have no idea what micro agglomerated corks are, don’t need to worry. Only recently did I discover this. It is actually a pretty recent invention. And they are supposed to be much cheaper as well. The reason is most likely they are made from the “waste” of cork process. These micro agglomerated corks are actually tiny uniform pieces of cork that has been “glued” together to form a smooth cork. That is a pretty innovative way of reusing your cork production waste. I don’t know whether they are really better or not, but from what I read, they should only be used to cork wines for shorter periods of time, like maybe 2-3 years at most. After that, oxygen might seep into the wine. If you want something longer, get natural corks  that has not been processed. Those should last a pretty while. Definitely more than this “micro agglomerated” corks.

As usual, I bought this set from eBay. It has become my favourite place to shop for wine making products. Of course you must be willing to wait for the goods to arrive. If not, Singapore has a few wine brewing stores where you can get supplies from.

30 micro agglomerated corks. Product of Portugal. From what I know, Portugal seems to be THE place for corks. I am guessing the cork oak tree is plentiful there. The advantages of cork as a stopper is that it retains its elasticity very well. So if you pitch or squeeze a cork, it should “bounce” back to its original shape pretty well. That is why those Europeans have been using cork to “stopper” their wines for centuries.

Nice, got a logo of grapes. One thing I discover about these micro agglomerated corks is that they are pretty smooth. This should go very well with the hand corker I have. Those natural corks which I had used before can be rather difficult to use. Anyway, once my mead is done, I will have my first try using these micro agglomerated corks.

Another view of the cork.

If you are into wine making and you are looking for some short term storage, this could be a good solution. And if you are using a hand corker, this would certainly save you some effort and sweat. I wonder whether they suffer from cork taint or not? From what I read, natural corks often suffer from cork taint – giving the wines a slightly cupboard smell and taste.

Danstar Nottingham Brewing Yeast

114 days ago

Yes, I know I have done this review before. But it is such a amazing yeast that I just have to have a go at it again. For those who are...

Yes, I know I have done this review before. But it is such a amazing yeast that I just have to have a go at it again. For those who are not into brewing or just starting brewing, this is an ale style yeast. Which means it produces ale, as opposed to lager. Although they are both beers, the difference between ales and lagers is the taste. Lagers are a lot more neutral in flavour and is actually much more preferred by the majority of beer drinkers these days. And most commercial beers are lagers. I am betting that almost 70% of the beers sold in the coffee shops and bars are lagers. Ales are a lot more complex (in general) and most likely need some getting used to. However for the home brewer, lagers can be rather difficult to achieve. That is because of the temperature needed for lagering can be below 10 Degree Celsius. And temperature control is rather difficult as well. First you need to get the temperature to room temperature then after a few hours lower it to that of lagering temperature. Not as easy as it sounds, especially if you are just a home brewer. Of course commercial breweries shouldn’t have such problems.

For home brewers like me, we need to find someway to achieve the “neutral” taste of lager through the use of ale yeast. Hence, we have this Nottingham Brewing Yeast – it is fairly neutral and if you can lower your temperature as low as possible, you can get the lager-like taste profile. All without the need for lagering equipment. Thus it is a very popular yeast to use, especially for beginners. Even experts use them as the yeast is very convenient for quick and easy beer. I have used them for countless beers – the Australian Pale Ale, the Mexican Cerveza and even Pilsener! All work pretty well if you can lower the temperature to 16 Degree Celsius.

One pack of the Danstar Nottingham Brewing Yeast. Enough for 23litre of beer. Isn’t that cool? The net weight of the yeast pack is 11g. Just imagine, such a small packet of yeast will be able to ferment 23 litres of wort. I am always amazed with the wonders of these little yeasts and bacteria and what they can do.

Back of the pack.

Some instructions for you to follow – suspend the yeast in 100ml of warm (NOT HOT) water. Do not stir. Let stand for 15 minutes then stir gently to suspend all the yeast. To avoid temperature shock which could kill the yeast cells, adjust the temperature of the suspension to that of the wort by slowly adding a little wort every 5 minutes, until the temperature of the yeast suspension is equal to that of the wort. Add to the wort immediately. For those who don’t know, wort is the “beer” before it was fermented. Always follow the instructions from the yeast manufacturer.

The ingredients are yeast & emulsifier. And keep your yeast refrigerated. Product of Austria and made for this Lallemand which is based in Canada. Actually I am planning to use this yeast to make some mead. Of course the alcohol content will be much lesser than what normally people expect of mead because this yeast will not be able to handle high levels of alcohol but the result would be a drinkable mead in less than 3 months. Mead usually require a year to age before it would be considered drinkable. But by using beer yeast, the process would be faster. Hopefully I would be able to get a good tasting mead in a short amount of time. Sometimes waiting for a year can prove very difficult for me.

Korean Propolis Soap

117 days ago

Apparently Google doesn’t like my blog anymore and they stopped indexing me altogether. Not too sure why. Perhaps it is because I changed my wordpress theme and they hated the spanking...

Apparently Google doesn’t like my blog anymore and they stopped indexing me altogether. Not too sure why. Perhaps it is because I changed my wordpress theme and they hated the spanking new design? Even my previous rankings have all fallen and I can’t even find my site on their search. Even with the phrase “Kefir Singapore”, my site does not appear in the results at all. I don’t think I have done anything illegal or whatever. Just regular postings and original content on the blog, yet they seem to have problems with my site. Kind of sad. But hey, it is not like I am making money from this blog right? I will just keep on posting and hopefully Google will let me get back up. If it doesn’t, no harm done.

Anyway, I bought this from eBay. It is some sort of propolis soap from Korea. Propolis as in the one found in bee hives. For more information on Propolis, check out this wiki on Propolis. It is supposed to be some sort of super food and when applied to your skin, has anti-bacterial effects. I am not doctor but that sounds pretty good to me. If you are interested, the eBay seller is idreamone. They sell all sorts of Korean nicknacks and sometimes you will find soap available.  At the moment, the seller seems to be selling some weird warmer hats. Not for sunny Singapore I guess.

One bar of Propolis soap. Converted to Singapore dollars, about 4 to 5 dollars. From what I read, this is supposed to be a natural soap without any sort of chemicals.  Pretty good if your skin cannot handle harsh chemicals.

Nice? Some Korean words I have no idea what they are saying. I think it is the brand or something. Nowadays Korean stuff is getting pretty popular, especially among the young. They have been watching too much shows and listening to too much songs from Korea liao.

Soap Ingredients : Coconut Oil, Palm Oil, Glycerine, Sodium Hydroxide, Sorbitol, Propolis Oil & Extract. Still cannot understand why is there a need to add Glycerine to the ingredients? Shouldn’t the oils and the sodium hydroxide combine to form Glycerine? I mean that is what natural soap is made from right?

About 85g. I think one bar should last me about 1 month or so. I bath twice per day only, so don’t sniffing me too much. Unlike the previous soap I bought (the rice soap), this did not have much of a smell. I was expecting like honey but it smelled pretty neutral. Which is good actually. I do not like my soap with too much aromas.

Laoshan Alkaline Mineral Water

118 days ago

I think this mineral water has been on our shelves for decades already. I only realize it these few days when I was looking for some glass bottles. Surprisingly, the mineral...

I think this mineral water has been on our shelves for decades already. I only realize it these few days when I was looking for some glass bottles. Surprisingly, the mineral water is kept in a green glass bottle which is weird since most of the mineral water we have in Singapore are stored in plastic bottles. Perhaps that it why this mineral water is more expensive. And it is from China. They label it as “Alkaline Mineral Water”. I had thought that most mineral waters should be relatively neutral compared to the rest of the drinks we have. But if it is truly alkaline, then it is good since most of the foodstuff we eat nowadays are often too acidic in the body. It is definitely better to have some balance when it comes to the food we consume.

One bottle is about 75 cents and contains about 270ml of alkaline mineral water. The water is good for making beer since it contains a good amount of minerals for active fermentation. Never use distilled water to make your beer or you will find your fermentation lacking.

Nice? One green bottle of the Laoshan Akaline Mineral Water.

From some old mountain in Qingdao or something. Hopefully it is not just plain water or something. You will never know from all these China made products. Kind of scared after that milk incident a while back. Hopefully they have improved their standard and quality now.

Okay, Laoshan Alkaline mineral water is a pleasant table water, bottled from the spring of the famous Mount Laoshan and contains various kinds of mineral elements, with a tradition of quality since 1905. Great. And it might just be what I need for my mead as well. The problem with making mead is that honey lacks the nutrients the yeasts need for a good fermentation (and hence a good tasting mead). Helping them out by using mineral water should produce a better mead. I hope.

Some mineral contents. And the name of the importer. Fu Shan Yuan Enterprises.

The importer in Malaysia.

And after I dispose of the mineral water, I can make use of the empty bottle to store my mead. Life is great.

EGO Chocolate Flavour Cream Wafers

119 days ago

It is Chinese New Year, so it is time to buy all sorts of CNY goodies. Somehow I bought this brand of stick wafers and I regret it. EGO is a...

It is Chinese New Year, so it is time to buy all sorts of CNY goodies. Somehow I bought this brand of stick wafers and I regret it. EGO is a pretty popular brand in our supermarkets and some of the snacks they make are pretty decent but for this cream stick wafers, I think it is probably the worst I have ever tasted. I kid you not. The wafers are just too thick with too little filings. It is like you are eating just the stick wafers. As for the chocolate filing, the taste of chocolate is non-existent. More like sugar than chocolate if you ask me. Too little chocolate taste, too little filing, too much wafers, it becomes tasteless. I know you can save some money by reducing the amount of chocolate cream filing, but this is just too extreme liao. Even the Shop N Save housebrand stick wafers are much much better than this. I am very disappointed, especially when you are expecting something nice for Chinese New Year and all you got is tasteless crap from EGO.

One can of the EGO Chocolate Flavour Cream Stick Wafers.

You look at the picture and it shows you the stick wafer full of chocolate cream filings. And when you open up the can, all you got is a tiny weeny amount of filing. And hardly any chocolate taste at all. Felt like I was cheated by my best friend. EGO, what have you done to me!?

The ingredients are wheat flour, palm oil, sugar, butter, eggs, soya lecithin and chocolate flavour. I think they add sugar instead of any chocolate. Taste like sweet filing instead of chocolate.

Some information for you.

Some nutritional information for you. If you are thinking “healthy” then you got to get your facts straight. These snacks are seldom healthy. Seems to have quite a lot of “dietary fibre” though. Perhaps this is a good alternative to eating vegetables. Or not….

This is the lid where to pry open to get to the goodies inside. Sorry about the dusty photos. The place where I am taking the photos seems to attract a lot of dust. I don’t know why.

Kept in a foil to prevent air from getting into the wafers. Yes to keep the wafers crispy. If not, I would add one more complain to the list already.  This little snack like I got tons of complains……

The real photo of the stick wafers. Very thick wafers and very little chocolate cream filing. If you were me and you was expecting something great, you will be disappointed as well. I nearly cried when I tried the first wafer. Thank the gods Shop N’ Save was open during Chinese New Year. If not, I might have cried myself to sleep that night.

Normally chocolate wafers would have this “chocolate stripe” one. But this wafer does not have any stripe at all.

Wescobee Wild Forest Honey

123 days ago

Bought this while it was on offer at NTUC. I believe for about S$10 for this 1kg bucket of honey. If I am not wrong, this can be found in most...

Bought this while it was on offer at NTUC. I believe for about S$10 for this 1kg bucket of honey. If I am not wrong, this can be found in most supermarkets in Singapore. Nothing too special about this honey, even though it is from Australia.  Not from China but from Australia. I feel much better buying things made in Australia than from China. It gives me a sense of peace as foodstuff from China has such a bad reputation. And you should be able to guess what I am going to be making from this honey right? Yes, mead – honey wine – nectar of the gods – whatever. The only problem I foresee with using this honey is that it is pretty dark in colour. I like my mead golden not brownish which does not appeal to the drinker, especially in Singapore where we all like things bright and light (like our lagers).

One bucket of 1kg Wescobee Wild Forest Honey. I am guessing they meant the honey is gathered from the forest and the honey bees are not domesticated (so to speak). I think it is a good think as you will never know what kind of antibotics and chemicals bee keepers use to keep their honey bees alive. Of course you will not have a consistent honey flavour.

Check it out – Wecobee Wild Forest 100% pure Australian honey. 1 kg net. That bee looks very happy. And we love happy bees, don’t we? Happy bees produce great tasting honey for us to enjoy.

Wecobee have carefully selected this special lot of 100% pure Australian honey for you to enjoy. Fantastic for healthy living, active sports people and cooking. Nice. We have developed this pack as a handy and attractive storage container when empty. The pack is microwaveable, freezer friendly and then the lid will come off easily. Hmmm….I don’t know about that, but this is indeed a plus point. You can reuse the plastic bucket. Suggested honey uses: Use on cereals, desserts, smoothies. Add to your tea or coffee. Use on your carrots, in cooking or straight as it is for a quick energy pick me up. Carrots? Who put honey on their carrots.

Some nutrition information for you. Seems that 82% of this honey is sugar. But not just plain table sugar (sucrose) but a mix of different types of sugar (both complex and simple) which is a good thing. Full of nutrients, minerals and vitamins. Definitely better than table sugar my friends. Think of ways to replace your regular sugar with honey.

Yes, pretty dark isn’t it? I don’t know why but all the buckets of this brand at NTUC looks pretty dark. Some people claim that darker colour honeys means that they have much more flavour. Although I don’t disagree with that but sometimes it could be due to the storing condition of the honey. If it is kept in a warm place, the honey will darken.

Anyway, I will be making mead from this real soon. Will keep you guys updated.

Some Brewing Stuff

125 days ago

It took about 2 weeks to arrive. From my experience, it is actually faster to ship items from England than from Hong Kong, which is so weird considering that Hong Kong...

It took about 2 weeks to arrive. From my experience, it is actually faster to ship items from England than from Hong Kong, which is so weird considering that Hong Kong is so much nearer. And I am talking about normal small packets mail, which should be the same as regular air mail. Most of the items I brought from Hong Kong would take about 3-4 weeks, sometimes even longer to arrive. As for those from the United States or England, it will take less than 2 weeks. Well, once it took longer than that but it is due to the fact that it was shipped somewhere else wrongly before being shipped to Singapore.

Anyway, my brewing stuff has arrived. I bought the Young’s Cider Yeast, Young’s Ale Yeast and some wine shrink caps.

Young’s Ale Yeast. 5g only. I am using this yeast to make more mead. From what I read, mead using ale yeast will age faster than those using wine yeast. I am not too sure why and many people consider this “cheating” but hey, if it ages faster and taste just as good, why not? It is not like I succumb to the dark side or anything but even blending different grapes to make a better wine is allowed now, so again, why not?

This strain has been especially selected for its ability to produce rich, full flavoured English-style ales. Can make 23 litres of ale. Ale is the more flavourful of the beers, compared to lagers. Lagers are the ones that taste neutral and does not require much to drink. Just pop one open and you are done.  Most of us drink lagers in Singapore. Ales? I think only for the Brits or for those with a more complex taste in beers. Anyway, this is a product of the UK.

Wine Shrink caps. This is to protect the wine corks – you put in on the wine caps and use some heat source to “shrink” the cap onto the wine bottle top. I honestly doubt that it will protect the wine corks but it looks better, especially if you are using a manual hand wine bottle corker. Using a manual hand wine bottle corker, you will not be able to fully insert the cork into the wine bottle. Thus the top part looks like of ugly – with a small portion of cork still sticking out.

Picture of a grape. Kind of weird if it is used for mead or apple wine.

Chateau Haut Cardonnet Bordeaux 2010

126 days ago

Call me Mr Fancy Pants. That is what I am now. I have started drinking wine. As to why? Because someone bought me a bottle of wine. Yes, I said someone...

Call me Mr Fancy Pants. That is what I am now. I have started drinking wine. As to why? Because someone bought me a bottle of wine. Yes, I said someone bought me a bottle of wine. I normally don’t go out and buy wine simply because I can ill afford the expensive wines. You have to be practical here. If I am not wrong, a full bodied decent wine is about S$30-40 or so. So honestly, wine drinking is only for the well-to-do.

Anyway, this is the Chateau Haut Cardonnet Bordeaux 2010. I believe the wine maker is Haut Cardonnet and the grape variety is Bordeaux which is from the region of Bordeaux in France. Seems that the French likes to simplify everything. The year of the wine is 2010. Seems that nowadays wine are aged pretty fast. Just pass 2011 and we already have wines from 2010. Could be that nowadays wine makers are much better in blending to get the correct profile and thus wines taste acceptable faster? You know, time is money right? As for the result, I really don’t know. I have not drank enough wines to give you a definite answer. Of course if you are willing to sponsor some wines for me to try out, I will do my best.

The bottle of Chateau Haut Cardonnet Bordeaux 2010. Sorry about the photo. These few days the weather was so warm that just one or two minutes after taking the bottle out from the wine, condensation took over. By the way, is it okay to keep the wine in the fridge?

13.5% alcohol. Product of France, obviously. I am pretty sure there are numerous other wineries in other countries using the same grape variety as this one. I wonder whether they can be called Bordeaux wine as well? If I read correctly, I think the French had spent a lot of effort to protect their trade mark and their wines. Well I am no wine expert. And you should avoid buying wines that come in clear bottles. Exposure to light tend to damage the wine, that is why most wine stores have rather dim lighting. I once thought that they were trying to be cool to have this kind of lighting, till I realize that wines don’t do well in the light. That goes for supermarket wines as well.

You see, just right outside their gated mansion is the vineyard. And the big gate opens right into the vineyard! Poor things. The land there must be pretty limited.

13.5% alcohol.  About 750ml of wine for you to enjoy.

Nice colour.

I swear, this is all I drink in one sitting. That is all!  Drinking wine is not my pastime. I know there are quite a number of people in Singapore who actually enjoy drinking wine and can afford it. But for me, I merely like to read about wines. And feel “high-classed” about it.

Singlong Peanut Cake

128 days ago

Well, this is the “cake” you can buy for S$1.50. Some rich powerful elite thinks that you can find carrot cake in the hawker centres for S$1.50 but we mere mortals...

Well, this is the “cake” you can buy for S$1.50. Some rich powerful elite thinks that you can find carrot cake in the hawker centres for S$1.50 but we mere mortals know that that is no longer possible. At least no longer possible in most cases. Even that Ang Mo Kio Central famous Carrot cake is like S$2.50 now. And so small portion one. But it seems that our rich and powerful elite doesn’t even know the thing they themselves have created – massive runaway inflation. Sad. Anyway, we are here not to talk about carrot cakes or even generals, but we are all here to read my little review on this Singlong Peanut Cake. This is a true peasant food – there is no doubt about it. What is expensive about little cakes made from peanuts and sugar (mostly sugar)? Nothing. In fact, this little box should not cost more than 50 cents.

See, the ingredients are peanuts and sugar. Product of Malaysia. There is nothing manufactured in Singapore anymore. Everything is made somewhere else and then trucked to you. As you can see it is Sing Long Foodstuff TRADING Company. The net weight is 200g. I am sure 80% is made of sugar. But then in Singapore sugar is expensive as well. There is nothing cheap in Singapore anymore. I bought this from Shop N Save if I remember correctly.

Pieces of peanut cake for you to enjoy.

A more detailed view of the peanut cake. These are compressed sugar/peanut mixture. I used to eat them by the tons when I was young. But at least when I was young, it actually tastes like peanuts. Once you place them in your mouth and you start to chew, the peanut mixture will simply melt into your mouth and teeth, creating this nice little gooey thing in your mouth and you can’t talk because it sticks. It is like eating peanut butter. Now after about two decades, I find it just too sweet. But hey, still enjoyable. Childhood snacks never fails. That is why even after so long and with tons of competition they are still so popular.

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