Winner Beer!

Let's switch gears here a little bit and take about another great beverage, beer. More specifically, Yuengling Lager.
Today for lunch/ dinner I had a small meal at World Cafe Live, which if you haven't been or even heard about it, check it out! Live music every night in both the upstairs restaurant and downstairs big stage. They also share with WXPN.

But, with this dinner I had a great glass of Yuengling Lager. Famous for its rich amber color and caramel malt for its subtle sweetness. A true original.

They have a really cool story. They are considered America's oldest brewery. Not actually because they were the first ever in America, but the oldest to survive the prohibition. Not to mention losing the first factory to a fire in 1831, two years after they opened. Frank Yuengling, the son of Fredrick Yuengling (who started what was originally called "Eagle Brewery"), actually came up with the idea to start a dairy to help survive the prohibition. And, as soon as the prohibition ended they celebrated by producing "Winner Beer" and shipped a truck load to President Roosevelt.

TAZO

Sorry it has taken me so long to make another post, been kind of bogged down this week! But, good news! Starting tomorrow I will spending a week in Philly and you best believe I'll be blogging like crazy. The cafe and night life there is definitely much more cultured and eclectic than Pittsburgh.


But, on today's topic. Tazo Tea. Was working from Starbucks Sunday afternoon and had already had too much coffee by the time I got there. Not to mention it was 71˚ outside. So, I purchased an Organic Iced Green Tea. Definitely one of my favorite bottled green teas I've found.


What's really cool though is the word Tazo has a rich history in many cultures. For instance, during the Roman Empire Tazo meant "river of life" and was used as a toast to life by ancient Greeks. Also, means "fresh" in many Hindi dialects. 
But, what I found to be even cooler is, in ancient Babylonia it was a rejuvenating 'elixir' and thought to have magic powers.


The company we know now as TAZO was founded by Steve Smith in 1994 and sold it to Starbucks in 1999 for $8.1 Million. Not bad for a company made up of 50 people.


But, it sounds like Steve is still going strong with the tea industry. He started a company Stash Tea Company in 1972. Stash was sold in the fall of 1993 to Yamamotoyama, a Japanese tea company.


Recently in 2009 he started up Steve Smith Teamaker and pursuing that for now.