Held Vodka from Berlin made there since 1921. Read their story below. My story with Held Vodka will be told after the Vodka got some rest and being used to cure “maladies” with some friends. We will enjoy for sure. If it tastes just half as good as it looks, it will be a great tasting for sure. cu soon!

The Meisner family founded their brewery and spirit factory in Upper Silesia in 1906. In 1921, the Berlin residents of the family developed the recipe for Held Vodka.

It was the beginning of the “Roaring Twenties”. Held Vodka was distilled and sold in small amounts from a backyard in Berlin for many years. When the wild times of the twenties came to an end, the recipe was put on the shelf.

In the war years of 1944/45, the Meisner family fled with their entire knowledge via Hamburg to Heide in Schleswig-Holstein. After re-founding the Robert Meisner Spirit and Liqueur Factory there in 1952, they have continued to produce regional spirits successfully.

In 2005, through a fortunate coincidence, two “Berliners by choice” approached the Meisner family with the idea of re-launching Held Vodka. So, the Held Vodka renaissance began, following the original Berlin recipe.

According to the 1921 tradition, the primary raw material is sugar beet mash, triple distilled and specially filtered. Held Vodka is pure and unadulterated, therefore perfect to enjoy straight and un-chilled.

Hubertus Connoisseur pocket knife:
Another great addition to my knife collection. The Hubertus pocket knife has no special product name but I would name it Connoisseur or Gentleman knife. It got all the essencial tools to “survive”. A knife blade, a fork, a corkscrew and a cap opener. No need for a tin opener – who want´s to eat out of tin/cans, anyway. You can argue that “who needs a fork” (use the tip of the blade) or “who needs a cap opener” us the back of the blade but that is why it´s the gentleman knife. It got style, I hope its owners too. The locking mechanism of both parts is very clever and well/solid designed. By opening the fork you unlock both parts. Very nice in design, the brass parts look great with the steel and the black bakelit. There is are also antler or wooden versions of this knife. Thanks David for this nice gift – travel save! Check the Hubertus Solingen knife page.

Nintendo Gameboy – Tetris:
Who do not remember the tune of Tetris? How often did you battle against someone and a nasty smile crossed your face when “bam” 4 lines went so your opponent (sister, brother, friend …). Do you still know the name of the inventor, programmer, designer of Tetris ? It was Alexey Pazhitnov / Alexy Pajitnov it was shown on every start of the game. The Gameboy is nearly 25 years old, the batteries still work and the gameboy and the game as well. Just the highscore sucked.

Tellason Jeans – San Francisco:
Great Clip! Tellason Jeans available within Europe via Amtraq distributed Stockists. Here some images from my Tellason Ankara. 

Finest Belgian Beers – The beer connection:
Hmm where to start? Manufactum offers Belgian Trappist beers since years so I´ve heard what great beers they are supposed to brew there. When Maria´s parents visited Belgium some years ago, I told them to buy some “samples” there. They loved the beer there and I loved the samples they brought with them.

Via be-cause blog I got in contact with Fred from Belgium he shares an obsession for straight razors and beer as well. So some time ago I´ve sent him some samples of the famous Bavarian Unertl Weizen/Weißbier. He returned the favour today with a wonderful selection of the finest belgian beers. Look at the bottles and the champagne style corks. Check the minimum durability of one beer of 2031! (It won´t  make it!) Man they take bottling quite serious and I have no doubt I won´t be disappointed with the content either. They will have to rest for some days to relax after that bumpy journey via DPD but as hard as it is to wait, they will get their time for the great belgian beer tasting. Thanks Fred!

Fred´s choice was:
- Trappist Orval
- St. Bernardus Abt
- Gueuze Boon Mariage Parfait
- Girardin Kriek
- Rodenbach Grand Cru

Check beershop.be for worldwide shipping

Laguiole self made set – Bausatz:
Another great present my sister and her boyfriend gave to me for my birthday. It took a while to finally start to assemble the Laguiole knife. Getting the bolts (esp. the last) in, with the tension of the spring was the most difficult task. The rest was just polishing and smoothing the edges down a bit. Not bad, not bad I would say for my first pocket knife. 

Heuer 510.501 Chronograph glass fixed by Peter Gernsberger – RLX5513:
Used, abused and finally I fucked up the glass by dropping it twice on the floor. So this tough dude was on rest for about half a year now. On my recent trip to Frankfurt I was glad to meet Peter Gernsberger from RLX5513. He said he can fix it, so I gave him the chrono without any receipt and hardly knowing him, apart from some messages and spending some hours with him on that day. Precious to me, not just be-cause of it´s “steetvalue”.  Peter fixed the Heuer within a bit more than 24 hours. No worries about the chrono being lost by DHL and probably to see my face in joy and disbelieve when he gave it back to me. Agreed was he will fix it within 2 weeks due to his busy schedule. The surprise hit me without any clue.

I´m hardly able to thank him enough for that favour. But in the trustful network of friends and friends of friends which I expanded also via be-cause there are ways to payback “debts” and favours.

Here some earlier images of the Heuer 510.501 and if you are on a search for great watches check Peters website RLX5513!

Gorilla Moc-Toe boots:
Worn for a bit more than half a year now (thanks to Chris Adamiak from Damn Yak for this “present”). I could not find any useful information about the Gorilla boot company. The boots age nicely and they are one of my most comfortable ones I own.  I especially like the big holes for the laces, but I definitely dislike the not real leather rim on the shaft of the boot. It´s a little fault (to save some cents?) but makes a huge difference, a nice product not thought to the end. See here the image of the boots when I received the Gorilla boots from Canada. 

Restoring 6 rusty old straight razor blades:
Visiting the flea market on the Main in Frankfurt I bought this nice leather roll bag filled with 6 old rusty straight razors. The price was so low that even just for the leather bag it would be a find. Coming home I first cleaned and oiled the bag and after that I cleaned and removed the rust of the razors. Two of them have no hallmarks and are also quite small like a 2/8 but the others (Bockla, two Peaso, Kobar) I will resharpen and use over the time. A bit of a progress is viewable right now of the images above more will show up soon.