Food & Drink
Alcohol-free beer, taken seriously
Alcohol-free brewing stopped being an apology about five years ago. A short guide to what actually improved, how to read a 0.0 label, and the Dutch shop we order from.
6 min read · Aug 2026
Food & Drink
What we eat and drink, examined honestly: everyday meals, labels and sourcing, drinks worth the ritual, and less waste in the kitchen.
- Everyday Eating
- Drinks
- Sourcing & Labels
- Kitchen & Waste
- Brews & Ferments
Food & Drink
Buying matcha well
Small tins, named harvests, shops that answer questions. A practical guide to buying matcha in Europe without wasting money or tea.
6 min read · Aug 2026
Food & Drink
Keeping it going
Mould versus yeast strands, vinegar batches, going on holiday, and when to stop. The part nobody writes because it is not photogenic.
6 min read · Aug 2026
Food & Drink
Whisk, bowl, water
A chasen, a wide bowl, a sieve, and water at the right temperature and hardness. What to buy, what to skip, and how to keep the whisk alive.
6 min read · Aug 2026
Food & Drink
Kombucha, from first SCOBY to second ferment
Kombucha is sweet tea fermented by a bacterial and yeast culture. The method is simple; the failure modes are where the learning is.
8 min read · Aug 2026
Food & Drink
Matcha, properly
Most bad matcha is not bad matcha — it is good powder treated like instant coffee. Grade, water temperature, sieving and whisk technique, explained.
6 min read · Aug 2026
Food & Drink
Sourdough, without the mythology
A starter is flour and water. A loaf is four ingredients and a schedule. Everything else people tell you about sourdough is decoration.
9 min read · Aug 2026
Food & Drink
Milk kefir, the twenty-second ferment
Kefir asks less of you than any other ferment: milk, grains, a jar, a strainer, one minute a day. Here is how to keep it alive and tasting good.
5 min read · Aug 2026
Food & Drink
The second ferment
Two to five days sealed, 10–20% flavouring, and a plastic test bottle. How to get fizz without shrapnel, and how to reuse bottles safely.
7 min read · Aug 2026
Food & Drink
Reading a matcha label
Grades are marketing. Harvest date, origin, cultivar and milling are the facts that predict the cup. How to read a tin, and what silence on a label means.
7 min read · Aug 2026
Food & Drink
Jar, tea, sugar
A 3-litre jar, swing-top bottles, loose tea and plain white sugar. The kit is trivial; the sourcing questions are not.
7 min read · Aug 2026
Food & Drink
What kombucha actually is
Before the jar: what the SCOBY is, what the two ferments each do, and the small number of facts that make everything else make sense.
6 min read · Aug 2026
Food & Drink
What matcha actually is
Before method, before gear: what separates matcha from green tea ground up, and why shade, steaming and stone milling change the cup.
6 min read · Aug 2026