Starbucks, Red Bull, Marijuana, L-Theanine in Seattle

Just exactly how do our brains work - I mean, when they do work. Take Seattle.  It's a brainy town, wouldn't you say?

Lots of rainy days to sit around and talk and think up cool things like Boeing jets, Microsoft computers and Starbucks coffee. Coffee shops and rain and juiced up brains. Lord knows what you might come up with.

Becky and I spent a few days in the Pacific Northwest back in January. Wet and green, lots of public art and saturated with culture.

So much to write about so I'll take my time and work on getting caught up.

Walking around, things strike me.  I take pictures to remember. Here are a few reflections to go with the pix.

We had dinner one night with some folks from Seattle who work for Starbucks.  They told us there are now 23,500 Starbucks stores in the world, give or take a few.  The one on Route One and downtown in Rehoboth Beach are typical.  They are all owned by the company. They emphasize sustainable coffees.  The phrase we heard a lot at the Starbucks signature and unique roastery and tasting room up around Capital Hill was "small batched and locally sourced" and of course sustainable.

Howard is the president and still plays a daily role in the company's direction.  Just like Sam and Dogfish.  In fact, the Starbucks roastery and tasting room reminds me of the Dogfish brewery in Milton. The Starbucks facility has been open for about a year, has a wide variety of coffee beans on tap which means that grinders and augers deliver them to the coffee bar where they are brewed on the spot for that day's specials.  Lots of copper coils and pots and fantastical stuff.  It reminded me of Willy Wonka's chocolate factory.

But back to the brains and Seattle. Coffee of course with lots of ways to get caffeine into your system from deep espresso to light blonde brews. Starbucks also has Tazo and Teavana teas and it was in a Teavana shop that I sampled Matcha tea made with green tea leaves and ground into a powder to make a soluble tea. Rich in anti-oxidants. L-theanine is an amino acid that hangs around a lot with Matcha and it's supposed to take the jagged edge off caffeine and provide a relaxed alertness.  I tried their peach Matcha, mixed the powder packet with six ounces of milk and six ounces of water.  Late afternoon.  Tasted good. Went home on a Friday afternoon after a busy week.  Instead of drinking a beer and settling into a chair, I went outside and cleaned up the yard for about an hour.  Motivated and relaxed and enjoying the outside.  I like it.

Other brain stuff in Seattle:  a big billboard campaign for Red Bull, another popular and so-called energy drink.  I know it has caffeine and a few other amino acids and special substances from exotic places halfway around the world.  Logan works for them.  If you see him, ask. I've always been confused by the meaning of energy, but I guess the food and drug administration equates caffeine with energy.  Need to research.

I was happy to see billboard and bus messages cautioning people about different kinds of drugs and responsible usage.  I've included some photos here as examples. Knowledge and education are the key. Education, not regulation, that's my motto. Libertarian.

We continue to push the edges of our frontiers.  Can marijuana-infused beer be far off?  I'm sure it's already happened.  Bottled water with caffeine has been around for years. My ideas are usually a ways behind the curve. Maybe some Red Bull or Matcha would improve my mental acuity.  Did you ever see legendary baseball player George Brett's eyes.  Blue as the sky.  Great mental acuity. See a baseball coming at him like it was a white grapefruit.

That's it for now.  More to come.  Or as the sign in the bar says: FREE BEER (tomorrow).