Robert K Stephen (CSW)

RKS Tea Meister: Tea Squared’s Cranberry Purifier

From Toronto’s Tea Squared we try a “Cranberry Purifier” and there is no doubt of its cranberry nature on the nose. Elements of rhubarb, raspberry and rose petals. On the palate this pinkish orange brew has virtually no tannins. At entry McIntosh apple followed by cranberry and rhubarb. Minimal sweetness leads to the conclusion thisContinue reading “RKS Tea Meister: Tea Squared’s Cranberry Purifier”

RKS 2023 Film: “Vengeance: Rise of the Footsoldier”: Bad Good Boys Chasing Bad Guys

Patrick Tate (Craig Fairbrass) is a British criminal. The wind is not blowing in his favour as in the opening scene his attempt at armed robbery with friend Kenny goes wrong. Kenny loses his mask so he is identifiable, a security guard is wounded and the big heist is but for ₤ 2,500. Kenny isContinue reading “RKS 2023 Film: “Vengeance: Rise of the Footsoldier”: Bad Good Boys Chasing Bad Guys”

RKS 2023 Film: “Going In”: So Bad Could it Be Good?

Surely you must have watched a film that you thought was so bad up pops a mushroom of sentiment egging you on saying that it was so bad it was good! “Escape From New York” was a 1981 film with Ernest Borgnine and Kurt Russell serving as an example of this as regards the performanceContinue reading “RKS 2023 Film: “Going In”: So Bad Could it Be Good?”

RKS 2023 Wine: Where Have the Douro Table Wines Gone?

I don’t have piles of statistics and charts to determine why in Ontario’s Liquor Control Board Douro wines have slowed down to a trickle in the province of Ontario. Not that they were gushing in but it seems to me the Douro is faltering. Some of the LCBO old guard point fingers at the youngerContinue reading “RKS 2023 Wine: Where Have the Douro Table Wines Gone?”

RKS Literature: The Great Muffin Scam (Charles Dickens)

“He had visited the houses of the poor in the various districts of London and had found them destitute of the slightest vestige of a muffin, which there appeared to much reason to believe some of these indigent persons did not taste from year’s end to year’s end. He had found that among muffin sellersContinue reading “RKS Literature: The Great Muffin Scam (Charles Dickens)”

RKS 2023 Wine: Is This Sicilian Wine Suffering from Moderate to Severe Back Pain?

Planeta is one of Sicily’s most recognized wineries. Perhaps I picked up a bottle of their Plumbago because it reminds me of an affliction called lumbago somewhat of a relic of a disease categorization these days. Remove the P from the wine’s name and you have lumbago an affliction affecting the back. If you don’tContinue reading “RKS 2023 Wine: Is This Sicilian Wine Suffering from Moderate to Severe Back Pain?”

RKS 2023 Wine: Man of La Mancha and Wines of La Mancha

Man of La Mancha was a 1965 Broadway Musical. The wine we try now is a Cimal Tempranillo from the Spanish wine region known as La Mancha. Which is the better dancer? The answer is up to you. Aroma: This just about purple coloured wine is very much infused with blackberry, black currant and blackContinue reading “RKS 2023 Wine: Man of La Mancha and Wines of La Mancha”

RKS 2023 Wine: So What if the Wine You Bottled is Incredible? A Cave Spring Example of What Needs to be Done to Create a Buzz

Making a good wine these days is simply not enough. The distance from a winery to a consumer’s gullet may be a very long one and in most cases it, never happens. You must think of creating some “buzz”. Flies migrate to honey and certain other substances. Wine drinkers gravitate towards buzz. I recall manyContinue reading “RKS 2023 Wine: So What if the Wine You Bottled is Incredible? A Cave Spring Example of What Needs to be Done to Create a Buzz”

RKS Literature: Being Shamed for Being Different (Ken Kesey)

“I discovered at an early age that I was-shall we be kind and say different? It’s a better more general word than the other one. I indulged in certain practices that our society regards as shameful. And I got sick. It wasn’t the practices, I don’t think, it was the feeling that the great, deadlyContinue reading “RKS Literature: Being Shamed for Being Different (Ken Kesey)”

RKS Literature: Wandering Around in a Daze: Electric Shock Therapy (Ken Kesey)

“ There had been times when I wandered around in a daze for as long as two weeks after a shock treatment, living in that foggy jumbled blur which is a whole lot like the ragged edge of sleep, that grey zone between light and dark, or between sleeping and waking or living and dying,Continue reading “RKS Literature: Wandering Around in a Daze: Electric Shock Therapy (Ken Kesey)”