The Debriefing is a series of blogisodes wherein I, Anton Beza, discuss what I’ve learned, loved and not-loved-so-much after the completion of a user-created mission from the app Checkverse. To go on your own adventures download Checkverse for Android or iPhone today!
As another rodent once said, “I’m late! I’m late!”. Though there’s not much of a schedule here at The Debriefing’s offices, I have been posting the last few episodes on Tuesday nights. However this week I didn’t. So there. The only person I have to blame is Alyssa. No, I’m kidding. It was my fault. The main reason was, I wasn’t close to completing any new kinds of missions. I had a few that were close, like “Coffee World Tour: South America”, but I did its sister mission only a few weeks back. Too soon.
Going through my active missions for the ninth time on Wednesday, an idea started forming as I gazed upon alison5800's “Go nuts!”. It’s a mission about eating different kinds of nuts and there’s something special about nuts: sometimes they come mixed.
The plan was simple:
- Buy a can of mixed nuts
- Pick up any straggler nuts
- Eat all the different nuts
- Write “The Debriefing — Episode 10: Easy Pieces”
I’ve come to find, though, nothing ever comes easily. Especially not missions…
But before I get to that, here’s the proof that I did, in fact eat all the necessary nuts:
A Tale of Two Groceries
On with the story…
We live almost exactly equidistant between two different groceries stores. To the north, we have Key Food, not known for its looks or enthusiasm, Key Food generally makes up for what it lacks with lower prices. To the south, Brooklyn Harvest, a fancy, Whole Food-esque enterprise with bright lights and many varieties of coffee bean.
“Brooklyn Harvest must have a ton of nuts”, I thought. I grabbed my new coat and scurried a few blocks to the store. Through some effort, I managed to find their nut selection, and boy was it disappointing. Sure they had mixed nuts, but they didn’t have all the stragglers I needed, specifically: hazelnuts and macadamia nuts. Defeated, I picked up just the can of mixed. They had pine nuts, but they sure were expensive. I walked home that night thinking that maybe this was a bad idea to try to eat all these nuts at once. I got home and went to sleep.
Early Thursday I decided I’d try Key Food. I figured it was worth a shot before I started seeking out nut distributors. I got ready that morning, grabbed my coat and bounded north. As I approached Key Food and walked under it’s large, red, white and blue sign, I started wondering what other missions I could do instead.
Then there it was. The display to end all endcap displays: a gigantic wall of nuts at the front of the store overlooking the checkout lanes. Key Food takes its nuts seriously. They had everything I wanted and more. There were nuts I’d never even heard of. I grabbed a few containers and set off for home.
The Debriefing
Thanks to Key Food, I was able to try all the nuts. Here’s what I discovered:
- Macadamia nuts are amazing. I can’t exactly describe the flavor, but it’s almost like eating a sweet meat (that probably sounds gross).
- Hazelnuts are flavorless. Maybe they have a subtle taste that my uncouth tongue can’t pick-up, but I didn’t get much out of them.
- Pistachios are not worth the effort. I knew this before, but the truth carries on.
- Brazil nuts are the packing-peanuts of mixed nut cans. They’re huge and tasteless. I bet they’re thrown in to take up space and add weight. I’m onto you, nut companies.
- Pine nuts are kinda sweet and have an odd flavor. Like macadamia nuts, they’re wicked $$$.
- Eating 10 different kinds of nuts in one day is not a great way to win over your stomach.
So I finally finished the mission yesterday. I spaced the nuts out throughout the day so as to avoid inundating the Checkverse feed. I’d like to thank Key Food, I couldn’t have done it without you!
Also, if you’re on Checkverse and haven’t created a mission yet, create one and there’s a good chance you’ll see it in The Debriefing one of these weeks.
Thanks for reading!
Your pal,
Anton
Like The Debriefing? Then tap the little heart in the corner to make it easier for other folks to discover! Or, to go on your own adventures, get an invite for Checkverse today. If you want more of mine, here are the previous blogisodes:
