You're asking me to wade into a professional debate, you know. I think watching Poppy and Snape row over who's better equipped to brew this would be comical, if the stakes weren't so high.
As it happened, his highness the repugnant prince insisted on answering. Says the myrrh resin's got to be as pure as possible, no additives, oils, perfumes or thickeners, no enhancement of any kind. If the saleswitch claims it's 'extra strength' or anything like that, probably not what we need.
The calamus must come from the Himalayas, Mongolia, or Central Siberia (which I think I already noted on the shopping list but twice told, etc.) and the cardamom we had was 'all wrong' according to his nibs. It's Indian. The strain he wants (needs?) comes from Bhutan or Nepal. In fact, it's black cardamom he really wants, not the other kind. That means the black or brown pods, not the green ones. (Amomum if you need to be technical about it. Sorry but he keeps shouting new information at me, which if he'd told Aleks probably would have saved us all a lot of - hang on.)
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branchandroot
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Date: 2012-12-28 04:10 pm (UTC)As it happened, his highness the repugnant prince insisted on answering. Says the myrrh resin's got to be as pure as possible, no additives, oils, perfumes or thickeners, no enhancement of any kind. If the saleswitch claims it's 'extra strength' or anything like that, probably not what we need.
The calamus must come from the Himalayas, Mongolia, or Central Siberia (which I think I already noted on the shopping list but twice told, etc.) and the cardamom we had was 'all wrong' according to his nibs. It's Indian. The strain he wants (needs?) comes from Bhutan or Nepal. In fact, it's black cardamom he really wants, not the other kind. That means the black or brown pods, not the green ones. (Amomum if you need to be technical about it. Sorry but he keeps shouting new information at me, which if he'd told Aleks probably would have saved us all a lot of - hang on.)