Recently, Chelsea and I have grown fond of “Sam Adams Light” (shock!) which has more body and flavor than most “regular” beers. Seriously, I buy Sam Light for the Flavor, not the reduced calories. Seriously.

Anyway, a few weeks ago, Chelsea brought home a 6-pack of the aforementioned hoppy goodness. We were disappointed to find that it was actually a 5-pack; one of the bottles had a misapplied cap, resulting in some moldy nastiness.

Chelsea decided to jump online and lodge a polite-but-formal complaint to the company. She completed a form on Sam Adams’ corporate Web site, and we promptly forgot about it.

…until the other day, when our mail included this envelope:

Inside, we found this letter:

To be clear, the author is the one-and-only Jim Koch… the founder and owner of Samuel Adams Brewery.  You’ve probably seen him in countless TV ads, especially if you watch professional sports. That’s the guy, and he’s real. The dude is so humble, he refers to himself as “Brewer.” Not “Owner” or “President” or even “Grand Poobah”. Simply, “Brewer.”

We really loved the letter and were thrilled to find this, enclosed:

Yep, Jim Koch signed a $9.00 refund — a hand-written check! — for the entire 6-pack (5-pack?).

So, who says “big business” can’t be righteous and cool?

Known to the ancient Greeks as “the fruit of the gods,” I am mildly ashamed to admit I’d never tried one.

The farmer introduced me to two varieties: “Fuyu” and “Hachiya” Persimmons. I opted for the “Fuyu” variant, which is often compared to an apple, best eaten while still firm (alternatively, the Hachiya should be consumed once it is soft). She further explained that a ‘pliable’ bloom (i.e. not brittle or hard) is a good indicator for a fresh Fuyu Persimmon, ready for consumption; she demonstrated with her thumb… something you can do at the Market or in the Produce aisle.

I cut the Persimmon as I would a snack-apple, starting by cutting out the bloom. After cutting the Persimmon into little wedges, I opted to remove the (edible) core, as I would an apple. There are no seeds, but it just had to go!

So what does it taste like? At first, it tastes like a very mild Apple. But the after-taste yields a wonderful sweetness of honey! If you are a fan of the “Honey Crisp” variety of Apples, but don’t mind something more mild, you’ll love these.

Note: Refrigerated, the little wedges are absolutely dynamite!

I am now a big fan of the yummy Persimmon, and I think you will be, too.

PHOTO GALLERY

Look for a pliable bloom, ensuring freshness.

In response to our inquiry, the stall attendant stated, “Jujube. Is Chinese Apple,” adding that we should select brown ones, as opposed to green ones, and that hard is preferable to soft fruit.

According to Wikipedia’s article, the fruit (not to be confused with the candy of the same name) is:

“…an edible oval drupe 1.5-3 cm long; when immature it is smooth-green, with the consistency and taste of an apple, maturing dark red to purplish-black and eventually wrinkled, looking like a small date.”

So we bought two from the nice lady at the Studio City Farmer’s Market. Allowing them to further ripen, we finally ate them tonight.

We both found them peculiar. Not unpleasant, but dry and airy. Perhaps they are better compared to DRIED apple rings. The truth is, we ended up having only a few bites each, giving the remainders to our Labradors (NB: Dogs like ‘em!).

I think Jujube is an interesting fruit, but I have no idea what I could do with them insofar as cooking (beyond simply eating them). At $3.00/lb., however, it’s safe to say I doubt I’ll be buying the Jujube fruit any time soon. But hey: I’ll try anything once.

PHOTO GALLERY

Jujube stand at the Studio City (CA) Farmer's Market.