The unsweetened experience of taste

For each, a pleasure

A friend shared a profile of his with me which made for intriguing reading until I happened upon a phrase, I was unfamiliar with. With more information at my fingertips than I could care to absorb in a microsecond, I tapped in the ‘girlfriend experience’ and a new world of knowledge without prejudice was opened to me.

Not one to moralise about vices as I cannot say I have that many virtues, even as one strives to be more virtuous, the offer of intimacy with emotional accoutrements for an agreed transactional value satisfies a universe of purveyors and patrons that cannot be ignored, if consent rather than duress initiates the purpose of the rendezvous. Invariably, there should be no shame in having the talent to share and seeking the talent to explore rather than exploit.

On the matter of ‘girlfriend experience’ of which it is an expression, a film, and a television series, even for the limited period in which that experience exists with one patron before another seeks it, it can only be hoped that the value of it which for my friend would be as cerebral as it is physical and rewarding will be repeated with more generosity than before.

Much as there can be a gender specification like ‘boyfriend experience’, it would appear the ‘girlfriend experience’ applies to all manner of companionship of that genre, it evokes a more fulfilling expectation than can be said for the less salubrious male determined version.

Stirring up the wrong sugar

Then to my long-running polemic about Frankenstein sugars. These are artificial sweeteners not derived from sugar cane or beetroot. I had decades ago taken to reading the labels on drinks and foods to ensure these sweeteners did not become part of my diet. Anything that suggests diet, no sugar, or low calorie, almost definitely has a different kind of known sugar in it.

Blog - The rise of the Frankenstein Sugars

In my ‘The rise of the Frankenstein Sugars’ blog of 2007, I wrote of the many sweeteners I have avoid whilst failing to wean myself off sugar. I had discovered through the process of elimination that some sweeteners trigger severe migraines, though accidental ingestion may not be a direct cause, new knowledge guides my adjustments.

The other day, I walked into a shop for a bottle of cranberry juice which is supposed to be ameliorative for the water infection I recently had. There was one with Stevia, a sweetener and sugar substitute derived from plants.

Peradventure a mistake indeed

Plants would have suggested its natural providence, but on tasting the juice, I did not have more than a glass, before I emptied the bottle down the sink after a week of it squatting with mendicancy in my fridge. Indeed, I have worked on eradicating the use of sugar in my beverages, I rarely have it in coffee which should be milky and not in tea when served in a restaurant or in a café.

I need to work on the guilty pleasures at home, honey replacing sugar is an indulgence and agave syrup doing the same is probably a cry for help where you’re marooned far away from civilisation. Evaporated milk in tea or coffee is a sin I indulged with the use of coffee milk when I lived in the Netherlands. I can only wonder how many pounds I might shed if I made sugar haram.

Stevia is sweet, but that is where the praise ends, the aftertaste is bland and forgettable, just a few degrees from sickly, you cannot have a tongue with taste buds and think Stevia is the future of sweetness. If I were to close the chapter on Stevia, Yuck, will be the last word of the three same words I repeat at the end. Each with their own exclamation mark. I regret that foolish adventure each day I remember my tongue was assaulted by it.