Gin Friends: If it is London Dry Gin, does it matter how cheap it is?

I have an e-mail list for people I meet that like gin. I send out messages a few times a year about new gin I have tried and occasionally organize events. Last weekend we got together to answer the question in the title by a blind taste test. By London Dry I meant predominant juniper flavour (so not heavy botanicals like Hendricks) and not sweet. The contestants were:

1. A home brew gin with juniper and other botanicals added to cheap vodka.
2. Boomsma 
3. Boodles
4. New Amsterdam
5. 5 O'Clock Gin (at $7 US the cheapest entry) 
6. Beefeater 

The entries are shown below. Look at those beauties! The women are quite attractive, too. 

    

We did not get a complete consensus of opinion, but the general view was that the cheap 5 O'Clock Gin was the worst. I thought it had a slight chemical taste that was quite unpleasant, but since I poured the blind samples my opinion was not truly impartial. The general favourite was Boomsma, with Boodles and Beefeater close seconds. New Amsterdam was actually quite sweet so not really a dry gin that could be compared to the others and the same with the home brew which was more strongly botanical. Unfortunately we didn't get any higher end gin to compare (Victoria Gin and Phrog are local and in the right class). We will have to revisit this question, although unfortunately we can say that if you buy cheap gin it won't taste as good. However, the difference is not strong when you put it in a G&T. 

We had food and they enjoyed my view.

   

We had a couple of ideas for the next event. We could compare locally made gins. I know that Endeavour Gin from Liberty Distillery on Granville Island is quite good. We could stack it up against Schramms, Wallflower (from Odd Society), Longtable, and Victoria Gin. I am sure we could find another one to get us to six again. The other idea is to address the question, "does cheap gin and fancy tonic make a better G&T than fancy gin and cheap tonic? And is fancy gin and fancy tonic just too much?". 

Loon Lake Workshop

A few weeks ago I went to Loon Lake Lodge for a workshop on "Numerical Methods for PDEs on Surfaces." It is close to but not exactly my research thing, but I got invited and it looked like fun. The Lodge is in the UBC demonstration forest just outside of Maple Ridge. I had no idea it existed but my father, a retired forester and UBC graduate from the 50's, remembered coming out here in the Summer as part of his training. It is a great place to have a small meeting. You drive to a key pad gate at the edge of the city and then it's gravel roads after that, just like you are miles into the interior. It is a beautiful spot. The lake, the lodge, and the food they made for us three times a day was fantastic. This is a great place for a small meeting. If you google "loon lake lodge" it comes up.

After talks the second day we walked around the lake. There was a hand ferry to cut across one arm of the lake instead of walking around on the road. 

   

      

I went swimming in the lake. It was cold, but I was used to Babine Lake in Northern BC so not too bad. I am not a good swimmer, just dog paddle around and enjoy the water. They made a fire that night. Really fun group of faculty and graduate students and a number of undergraduates that were attending an associated Summer School joined us one day. 

One the last afternoon we did a hike in Golden Ears Park. 

   

One of the most memorable moments was the picture below of (R to L) me, my student Steve Ruuth, his student Colin Macdonald (now my colleague at UBC), and his student Tony Wong. Four academic generations with me as the old man. They made a big deal about it, and because I am a bit shallow, I really appreciated it. It is fun to see them all doing so well.

I Need My Phone (And a Recommendation)

I was a late adopter of cell phone technology, but now I seem quite dependent on it. My old cell phone (an iPhone 5S) has glitched over the years. I had the battery replaced on one of my visits to East Lansing (where I visit a colleague at Michigan State University every year). It started glitching again a few weeks ago: it would not power up and refused to take a charge, but then start charging the next day. When I took it in to the Apple Store they told me they could not even open it up because it had a third party battery in it. Li-ion batteries can be dangerous, but I imagine the greater part of this policy is incentive for customers to buy expensive Apple parts. Anyway, I realized I had a great deal of my work and social life, and entertainment wrapped up in that little box. It could have been a wake up call to put down the technology, but instead I just bought a new phone. It is an iPhone SE, same size as the old one so it can fit in the same case I had, which is leather and quite nice.

I should say that I don't buy the phones with my own money. As a UBC faculty employee, I get a professional development allowance every year of $1,500.  It is surprising what you can and cannot do with this fund. You could pay for actual professional development: I could take a course on how to program in a modern computer language or on how to be a more motivational Director. However, most faculty members believe they can learn anything like that on their own. You can't take visitors out to lunch, although I believe that is often a legitimate expense and most faculty do not have alternate funds for this. You can't buy office furniture, although UBC will not necessarily provide upgrades even if your office chair is from 1950. Surprisingly, you can buy telecommunication equipment and pay for the monthly costs. Because I use the phone for work and my personal life, it seemed fair that I let UBC buy the phone for me and I pay the monthly bills.

These phones are all technically the property of UBC. They phrase it this way so you can't buy a phone with your PD money and then sell it to augment your salary. But the question is what you do with the old phone when you upgrade. UBC does not want a three year old glitching phone back. I decided to take it to a repair place and spend some of my own money ($44) having a new battery put in to see if that gave it new life. I took it to IRepair in International Village (second floor, you have to look around a bit to find it). It is just glass doors leading to a shallow entry way and a wall with a window cut out.

 

I rang the bell and a technically competent looking young man came out. We chatted, he took my phone and by the time I finished my lunch at the food court the battery was replaced. Seems to work fine so far. The repair guy said the old battery was the dodgiest one he had ever seen: it had no markings on it at all, not even fake ones. I will find a BC taxpayer to pass the old phone on to, or keep it as an extra to put a foreign sim card in when I travel.

Recommendation: Vancouver Bullion and Currency Exchange

Vancouver Bouillon and Currency Exchange (VBCE) gives good rates on currency exchange and I have never had to wait for them to bring in currencies for me, even things I consider somewhat obscure: Israeli Shekels and Danish Kroner. You can charge currency to your debit card. It is all very convenient, even the location on South Granville near Broadway.