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Upon first walking into the room, you’d be excused if you did a double take. Afterall, it’s not every day you walk into a potions lab and find yourself looking what’s definitely not a traditional potions lab. In place of the workstations stand counter-style stations like one would find in a cooking class, complete with cooktop stove and a conveniently placed sink. If one were to look in the cabinets, they would find all sorts of ingredients, none of which would give one any sense of what the lesson of the day was to be. At the front of the well-spaced rows of stations stands a single table bearing five clear storage containers, four of which contain lab coats in candy shades of each of the four house colors (candy apple red for Gryffindor, lemon yellow for Hufflepuff, blue raspberry for Ravenclaw and green apple for Slytherin) and the final one containing safety goggles. Beside the containers, you’ll find a stack of name tags (yes, the same “Hello, My Name Is” ones from before). Behind the table is a markerboard reading:
Quote:
Welcome! Please take a lab coat in your house color, a pair of goggles, and a nametag and be seated. The seminar will start shortly.
And today’s seminar leader? Gurmeet is standing to the side of the front table, wearing a nametag reading “Dr. Sharma”, a grape-colored lab coat and a welcoming smile (and pretending like she totally hadn’t had the urge to write “Slim Shady” on her nametag, just to see who would get the joke, which was probably no one since it was 2103).
OOC: Hello and welcome to the second potions seminar of the term! Have your character react to the environment, maybe greet Dr. Sharma (don’t worry, she’s not that kind of doctor!) and have a seat. Class will start in around 24 hours from now, give or take.
~ Mrs. Steve Harrington ~ Claimed by Bits ❤️ ~ Queen of Typos ❄ Magical Mosh Pit ❄
Okay, she had been completely off but Claudine didn’t mind. At least Heath was closer. She was intrigued that they were focusing on sweets. How did she feel about sweets? Neutral. Just plain neutral. Anyway. The Snakette remained focused, trying not to lose interest in the vast amount of information coming their way. Seriously. It was impossible for her to make any notes and so she wound up making doodles of Chocolate Frogs in her notebook. Claudine found it fascinating all the trouble that had been caused by said Frogs though. That poor Duke. Even poorer Mr. Smith.
Well, it was obvious, wasn’t it, what at least one of the ingredients could be. “Chocolate must be one of them,’’ she volunteered, a hand up and fingers of it wiggling.
oooh they were learning about candy today? Ashley loved candy. Specifically, muggle candy. She preferred her candy to be inanimate, and she didn't like jellybeans that tasted like barf. "Uh, well, on of the ingredients is probably chocolate, and the other one is, i dunno. Magic? Sugar? A magical ingredient that I've never heard of before?" Were chocolate frogs dark chocolate or milk chocolate? It was hard for her to say, seeing as she didn't eat chocolate frogs. She ate regular chocolate that came in a bar and didn't jump...
A potion! Hmm, Violet had always thought it was a charm that made Chocolate Frogs hop. Well, what was in regular chocolate frogs? She thought back to those Christmas holidays when Miss Howard had let her help her make homemade chocolate frogs, and raised her hand. "Well, regular chocolate frogs have Croakoa in them, so maybe Mr. Smith's did, too? Along with something else." Violet fumbled through her thoughts. "Rat tails, maybe?" Well, they made your hair go up in the Hair Raising potion, maybe they could make a frog go up, too.
It is a timeline, yes, but not of cauldrons,” Gurmeet replied with a smile. As if she would do something that boring. She didn’t even like using the things, they were so outdated….
”Yep, it’s a timeline, and you’re close as to for what too.” Though, she had been going for the individual dates….
”Bingo!” On most of them, anyway. ”The Olmec civilation in central Mexico,” at least, she was pretty sure it was the central part. It was definitely Mexico, though. ”were the first to cultivate the cocoa bean, which is where chocolate comes from. They brewed it into a coffee style drink that we now call hot chocolate.” So, that was where both chocolate and hot chocolate came from. She wrote that beside “1500-400 BCE” on the board.
Welp. She’d be a fool if she said she wasn’t expecting that sort of question. ”It just means that I’ve earned a docorate degree from my respective university.” Which meant that she super-duper versed in potions.
Ms. James here was quite the budding feminist, wasn’t she? Not something that bothered Dr. Sharma at all. ”And you’re on the right track regarding the Salem Witch Trials, but what was happening in the magical world that corresponded with the rise in tensions between magicals and non-magicals?”
”Its actually a complicated issue that’s better suited for your History of Magic professor,” Gurmeet answered, trying to be dimplomatic and keep the class on track. But, it was actually a good question. Just not appropriate for a potions lesson.
Mr. Jones had no need to feel embarrassed, because he was pretty close to the topic. ”Yes, we are talking about candy making methods, but not the macheriny part.” Since witches and wizards were kinda adverse to muggle methods and such (for reasons actually related to another date on the board and one of his classmates’ answers).
Eek, nope. Not really her wheelhouse. ”No. Besides, if it was that, there would be a few dates missing.” Namely, the plague of 430-427 BCE in Athens and the COVID-19 of 2020 AD that was worldwide.
Yep, it was potions, despite the room looking like a cooking class. ”Nope, not bread. Though, baking bread does smell good, no?” Gurmeet liked the smell, anyway. Reminded her of her grandmother’s kitchen.
And there was a lot of the rest of it. ”Exactly! The Egyptians first started making candy with nuts, spices and honey in 2000 BCE, something that quickly spread to the Ancient Greeks, who brought it to the Roman Empire and so on. As already mentioned, the Olmecs were the first to start using cocoa beans, and they spread that knowledge to the Mayans and then the Aztecs, who eventually spread it to Spain and it eventually spread from there to the rest of Europe and North America.” She added this to the board beside the respective dates. ”The world’s first on-the-books candy store opened sometime in the 1800s, but its hard to nail down an exact date since a lot of them claim to be the first.” Everyone wants that place in history!
[b]”Definitely! And it wasn’t always used as a simple sweet treat, either. Its been used as medicine, bribes and even money!”[b] By the Aztecs specifically on that last one.
Was that all? The students had provided great answers, really using their brain power and she couldn’t be prouder. ”Okay, so we have all but two dates covered here, very good answers guys. You might be wondering about these final two dates, though. 1692 is when the International Statue of Wizarding Secrecy was first enacted. It was a response to the rising tensions between magical people and nonmagical people that had resulted in witch hunts all over Europe and the Americas. Now, you might be wondering what this has to do with candy, but I promise it will all make sense in a moment.
1850 was the year that nonmagical folk had their first encounter with wizarding candy. Now, magical folks had been making candy for as long as nonmagical folks. In fact, Honeydukes was first opened in 1641 as an off-the-books operation, selling to both magicals and nonmagicals. But, the enactment of the International Statue of Wizarding Secrecy created what you may call a “cottage industry” of sorts that specialized in “specialty candies”. I’m talking the kind that hop, twirl, floss, ex cetera. The forerunners to the candies that you guys are familiar with today. This was, of course, a sort of act of rebellion by those who had opposed the Statue.
So, back to 1850. One wizard, a Mr. Smith started making the precursors to today’s Chocolate Frogs. These things hopped more than just a few times. In fact, there are records that one of his creations made from his home all the way to Buckingham Palace a few miles away! But that is not the incident in question. In 1850, a nonmagical duke went passed Mr. Smith’s home one day and stopped at his street side stall. The unknowing duke saw Mr. Smith’s chocolate frogs, was impressed by his chocolate work and proceded to buy one of the creations. Once the duke opened the package, the frog jumped at his face, giving the man a heart attack on the spot! Mr. Smith’s house was burned down that night, under “suspicious circumstances” and Mr. Smith and his chocolate frog recipe were lost, except for one scrap of paper with the first two ingredients.
Candymakers and potioneers have been trying to recreate his recipe for centuries, but no one has come close. Where do potions come into this? Well, it was a potion that caused Mr. Smith’s creations to hop so well! It would be considered one of the ultimate achievements of both fields to be able to recreate that potion.” See, potioneers weren’t all serious and stuffy! There was a fun side, too!
”Now, based on your knowledge of the world, what do you think the two known ingredients of Mr. Smith’s potion are?” After the excellent guesses from her first question, Gurmeet couldn’t wait to hear their thoughts on this one.
OOC: Okay, that was longer than 24 hours. I’m sorry, I had a terrible jaw ache. Feeling better now though! I’ll move us along again in about another 24 hours.
Oh, well, not bread. She quite expected that actually. Everyone's candy related suggestions seemed like it made so much more sense. Although now she was craving for bread. Maybe she could sneak into the kitchens in between this and her next class?
At Dr. Sharma's next question, Serena pursed her lips thoughtfully before blurting out an answer. Better not make a habit of providing wrong answers during class all the time.
Two ingredients, in a potion that makes chocolate frogs jump. Cocoa would be too obvious of an answer obviously, and maybe the chocolate frog was simply infused with the mystery potion.
She raised her hand and took a guess "It could be leaping toadstools? Since they jumped and all that, and maybe, some other ingredient that would boost that jumping effect? Maybe something like the Exstimulo Potion...?" She trailed off uncertainly. It seemed like a whole lot of complicated potion brewing just for chocolates. "Is that even possible Dr. Sharma? To mix one potion with another to combine their effects?" She couldn't help ask.
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Phoebe beamed hugely at the professor's response to her. It had been somewhat pleasant, but it had been a real answer. And no dismissal. SEE? Someone should tell the Headmaster that it didn't have to be so hard all the time.
"Sugar, maybe? Sugar make me hop all over the place, honestly."
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Professors never wanted to answer her questions so Kinsay wasn’t surprised when Dr. Sharma evaded it too. She really did want to know the answer though. For now, she paused that train of thought to pay attention. It was a little embarrassing to see so many of the others know so much about the history of sweets. Was she supposed to know all of this too?
It made her sink in her seat a little bit. She felt proper horrible. Something else that made her feel proper horrible?
The mention of rat tails.
If rat tails were one of the secret ingredients to chocolate frogs, Kinsay would never eat one ever again. And that’s a promise.
”…. Um…. Helium?” It made balloons float. Jumping was a bit like floating.
__________________
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Despite being nearly correct, Heath couldn't help but feel he'd just made a fool of himself with his guess. He should've known the dates had nothing to do with machinery! He only gave that answer because his other idea had been said, and he didn't like to copy other people's answers. He took notes as he listened, hoping the act of writing would distract him from his emotions, and for a time, it did.
Then the mention of chocolate frogs made his stomach turn. Please tell him they weren't going to try to recreate Mr. Smith's chocolate frog recipe today! Okay, the idea of using a potion to make candy do something actually sounded pretty fun, just not frogs. Couldn't they make chocolate owls instead? Or maybe chocolate spiders that spun candy floss webs? Or chocolate shaped like any other animal that they didn't have to dissect a couple of terms ago…
Heath got so carried away with his chocolate animal ideas that he nearly missed the question. This time, he was determined not to let the nerdy, muggle side of himself show again and name a magical component, but what? As he listened to his classmates' answers, something someone (Serena) said gave him an idea. "Maybe a bouncing bulb?" he said after raising his hand. "Since it's known to jump, maybe using it in the potion would make the chocolate frogs jump too?"
Was that answer too similar to that girl's? Probably. Was it way off the mark? Probably, but it was the only idea he had.
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Ivy was FASCINATED. So fascinated, in fact, that she didn’t even care that she had been horribly wrong for once. This lesson was so cool... except that now she really wanted chocolate. Thinking about the common potion ingredients she knew, which was admittedly a limited list, Ivy raised her hand and picked a couple, ”How about... frog brains and lacewing flies because frogs would hop after flies!” she suggested.
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Text Cut: Replies!
Quote:
Originally Posted by FearlessLeader19
Okay, she had been completely off but Claudine didn’t mind. At least Heath was closer. She was intrigued that they were focusing on sweets. How did she feel about sweets? Neutral. Just plain neutral. Anyway. The Snakette remained focused, trying not to lose interest in the vast amount of information coming their way. Seriously. It was impossible for her to make any notes and so she wound up making doodles of Chocolate Frogs in her notebook. Claudine found it fascinating all the trouble that had been caused by said Frogs though. That poor Duke. Even poorer Mr. Smith.
Well, it was obvious, wasn’t it, what at least one of the ingredients could be. “Chocolate must be one of them,’’ she volunteered, a hand up and fingers of it wiggling.
”It might’ve been. We just don’t know.” It had been a good guess though, great even. ”But, it isn’t one of the surviving two ingredients. A lot of potioneers do tend to use it when trying to recreate Mr. Smith’s potion, though.” Yep, potion recreating was much more complex than one would think.
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Originally Posted by astrocat
oooh they were learning about candy today? Ashley loved candy. Specifically, muggle candy. She preferred her candy to be inanimate, and she didn't like jellybeans that tasted like barf. "Uh, well, on of the ingredients is probably chocolate, and the other one is, i dunno. Magic? Sugar? A magical ingredient that I've never heard of before?" Were chocolate frogs dark chocolate or milk chocolate? It was hard for her to say, seeing as she didn't eat chocolate frogs. She ate regular chocolate that came in a bar and didn't jump...
”A definite maybe on all three! There could’ve been a spell or two involved, a lot of potions use them to manipulate and bind the molecules in them together and produce different effects.” Was she getting too complex here? Hopefully not. ”But none of them are the known ingredients.”
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Originally Posted by MadAlice
A potion! Hmm, Violet had always thought it was a charm that made Chocolate Frogs hop. Well, what was in regular chocolate frogs? She thought back to those Christmas holidays when Miss Howard had let her help her make homemade chocolate frogs, and raised her hand. "Well, regular chocolate frogs have Croakoa in them, so maybe Mr. Smith's did, too? Along with something else." Violet fumbled through her thoughts. "Rat tails, maybe?" Well, they made your hair go up in the Hair Raising potion, maybe they could make a frog go up, too.
Uh….”Croaka? Is that a new thing…?” Gurmeet had never heard of it before, and she’d worked in potions and cooking for a long time. Maybe it was from a different country? Needless to say, it definitely wasn’t one of Mr. Smith’s ingredients. ”It’s hard to say no on the rat tails, because we just don’t know, but I can say that I hope not.” She didn’t much like the thought of rat tails being any where near any kind of food. And she could safely say that the current potion in use didn’t have them either.
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Originally Posted by mellamaet
SPOILER!!: Class Participation <3
Oh, well, not bread. She quite expected that actually. Everyone's candy related suggestions seemed like it made so much more sense. Although now she was craving for bread. Maybe she could sneak into the kitchens in between this and her next class?
At Dr. Sharma's next question, Serena pursed her lips thoughtfully before blurting out an answer. Better not make a habit of providing wrong answers during class all the time.
Two ingredients, in a potion that makes chocolate frogs jump. Cocoa would be too obvious of an answer obviously, and maybe the chocolate frog was simply infused with the mystery potion.
She raised her hand and took a guess "It could be leaping toadstools? Since they jumped and all that, and maybe, some other ingredient that would boost that jumping effect? Maybe something like the Exstimulo Potion...?" She trailed off uncertainly. It seemed like a whole lot of complicated potion brewing just for chocolates. "Is that even possible Dr. Sharma? To mix one potion with another to combine their effects?" She couldn't help ask.
”They could’ve been….” Gurmeet nodded thoughtfully. ”But they’re not the two known ingredients.”
And a question she could answer. ”It’s definitely possible to mix two potions together. But, it involves a lot of math, experimentation and knowledge of which substances can mix and which can’t to get it right and not blow something up or otherwise cause harm to oneself or others.” So, don’t try it, kids.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cassirin
Phoebe beamed hugely at the professor's response to her. It had been somewhat pleasant, but it had been a real answer. And no dismissal. SEE? Someone should tell the Headmaster that it didn't have to be so hard all the time.
"Sugar, maybe? Sugar make me hop all over the place, honestly."
”Makes a lot of people hop all over,” she replied with a smile. ”And it could’ve been in the original potion, but it’s not one of the surviving ingredients.” Twas a shame too, because now she was craving something sugary.
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Originally Posted by ArianaBlack
Professors never wanted to answer her questions so Kinsay wasn’t surprised when Dr. Sharma evaded it too. She really did want to know the answer though. For now, she paused that train of thought to pay attention. It was a little embarrassing to see so many of the others know so much about the history of sweets. Was she supposed to know all of this too?
It made her sink in her seat a little bit. She felt proper horrible. Something else that made her feel proper horrible?
The mention of rat tails.
If rat tails were one of the secret ingredients to chocolate frogs, Kinsay would never eat one ever again. And that’s a promise.
”…. Um…. Helium?” It made balloons float. Jumping was a bit like floating.
”Probably not. The temperature required to for helium to exist in liquid form,” because it obviously couldn’t be used in a potion in gas form, ”is too low. It would cause the other ingredients to freeze, at best.” Thus, ruining the potion. So, that was the one thing she could safely say no to. It was a good guess though. Plus, she’d exposed her classmates to some chemistry!
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Originally Posted by MadMadamMalfoy
Despite being nearly correct, Heath couldn't help but feel he'd just made a fool of himself with his guess. He should've known the dates had nothing to do with machinery! He only gave that answer because his other idea had been said, and he didn't like to copy other people's answers. He took notes as he listened, hoping the act of writing would distract him from his emotions, and for a time, it did.
Then the mention of chocolate frogs made his stomach turn. Please tell him they weren't going to try to recreate Mr. Smith's chocolate frog recipe today! Okay, the idea of using a potion to make candy do something actually sounded pretty fun, just not frogs. Couldn't they make chocolate owls instead? Or maybe chocolate spiders that spun candy floss webs? Or chocolate shaped like any other animal that they didn't have to dissect a couple of terms ago…
Heath got so carried away with his chocolate animal ideas that he nearly missed the question. This time, he was determined not to let the nerdy, muggle side of himself show again and name a magical component, but what? As he listened to his classmates' answers, something someone (Serena) said gave him an idea. "Maybe a bouncing bulb?" he said after raising his hand. "Since it's known to jump, maybe using it in the potion would make the chocolate frogs jump too?"
Was that answer too similar to that girl's? Probably. Was it way off the mark? Probably, but it was the only idea he had.
”Could’ve been. But its not one of the surviving ingredients.” Jeez, these students were creative and thinking!
And no, they weren’t going to try to recreate Mr. Smith’s potion today, don’t worry!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dances_With_Potter
Ivy was FASCINATED. So fascinated, in fact, that she didn’t even care that she had been horribly wrong for once. This lesson was so cool... except that now she really wanted chocolate. Thinking about the common potion ingredients she knew, which was admittedly a limited list, Ivy raised her hand and picked a couple, ”How about... frog brains and lacewing flies because frogs would hop after flies!” she suggested.
Oh, Merlin help her. Gurmeet did try to keep the look of disgust off her face. But, frog brains? Ew. ”Another one of those things that I hope wasn’t in there. But it is possible.” And possible that she would never eat another chocolate frog again if that were the case.
No one had guessed the two surviving ingredients, which actually surprised her. ”You all had good guesses. But, I think you’ll be surprised at how common these two surviving ingredients are. Or, one of them anyway.” She turned and wrote the two ingredients on the board and moved aside so they could be seen:
Quote:
Coffee Beans
Capsaicin (from hot peppers)
”The coffee beans, of course, have caffeine in them. This plays a major role in keeping the molecules moving once they’ve started. Capsaicin is the compound in peppers that makes them hot. It is the also what gets the molecules in the chocolate frog potion moving. This movement is important because that is what causes the potion to make the frog hop.” She was trying not to go too much into the chemistry of it all, since this was a potions class. Also, she was running out of time and she needed to get them started on the potion. ”Now, we might not have Mr. Smith’s entire potion. But, these two ingredients have been used as a springboard to the potion that is commonly used for chocolate frogs today and that is the potion that we are going to be brewing today.” Gurmeet turned to the board again and wrote the entire ingredients list:
”Now, if you look in the cabinets in your workstations, you’ll find a metal teapot, a French press, pre-ground coffee beans, a dropper bottle of capsaicin and a quart of cream.” She pulled each item from underneath her table and held them up as she mentioned them. ”Take your teapot and measure out two cups of water into it,” she demonstrated as she went, ”then turn your cooktop on mid heat and place the pot on it. As you wait for that to boil,” the teapot would whistle when it did ”open your French press and measure out four teaspoons of the ground coffee beans into it. Also, who knows the purpose of the cream?” Just curious to see how many of them could figure it out.
[COLOR=Red]OOC: We've reached the actual brewing portion, yay! I'll move us along sometime tomorrow! Until then, have your character have fun with the odd potions method!
__________________
Days of Potter 2023:___________________________ Which Bertie Botts Flavour Are You? You are Salt!
Hmmm....Violet was pretty sure she had heard somewhere that today's chocolate frogs were made of this magical substance called "Croakoa"--it was supposed to make them spring and also croak, which was the funny part about chocolate frogs. But maybe this old recipe was before that was invented.
So...coffee beans and capsaicin, huh? Hot peppers and coffee--that sounded like that spiced mocha coffee she had had at that little place in Brooklyn last year--and it had had cream in it, too, just like the recipe the teacher wrote on the board. She didn't remember the coffee making her hop, but it sure did keep her awake half the night.
Text Cut: Gurmeet Sharma
Quote:
Originally Posted by lazykitty
”Now, if you look in the cabinets in your workstations, you’ll find a metal teapot, a French press, pre-ground coffee beans, a dropper bottle of capsaicin and a quart of cream.” She pulled each item from underneath her table and held them up as she mentioned them. ”Take your teapot and measure out two cups of water into it,” she demonstrated as she went, ”then turn your cooktop on mid heat and place the pot on it. As you wait for that to boil,” the teapot would whistle when it did ”open your French press and measure out four teaspoons of the ground coffee beans into it."
Violet had measured out her water into the pot and placed it on medium heat--for once she was glad of all that cooking she had had to do in those Muggle kitchens last year, now she really felt she knew what she was doing. She'd even seen a French press before--hmm, she like those, she wondered if she could get one of her uncles to give her one? Given the fact that she was in disgrace right now, plus their views on Muggle technology, probably not. Well, in a few years she'd be of age and then she would buy her own!
Quote:
Originally Posted by lazykitty
"Also, who knows the purpose of the cream?” [
Violet raised her hand--if the cream in this potion was anything like the cream in that hot cocoa, it was to cool things down. "Is the cream meant to cool or slow down the movement once it gets going, so it doesn't get out of hand?"
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lazykitty
”Now, if you look in the cabinets in your workstations, you’ll find a metal teapot, a French press, pre-ground coffee beans, a dropper bottle of capsaicin and a quart of cream.” She pulled each item from underneath her table and held them up as she mentioned them. ”Take your teapot and measure out two cups of water into it,” she demonstrated as she went, ”then turn your cooktop on mid heat and place the pot on it. As you wait for that to boil,” the teapot would whistle when it did ”open your French press and measure out four teaspoons of the ground coffee beans into it. Also, who knows the purpose of the cream?” Just curious to see how many of them could figure it out.
Valencia set up her workstation by removing everything from the cabinets. She then took the teapot, measured out two cups of water, as instructed, and poured it it. She turned the heat on and prepped the coffee beans and French press.
She raised her hand. "Is it to add texture and curb the bitterness?" she asked. That's why people put creamer in normal coffee so it would make sense.
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It turned out that it was more difficult for her, or for anyone else for that matter, to guess the ingredients. A few suggestions made her wince. Rat tails? Ew. The actual two ingredients- coffee beans- was at least not surprising, but capsaicin {which she had never heard of before} was surprising. The last thing she expected was something from hot peppers. And was it a trend for the seminars to have something somewhat pepper related?
Claudine made her notes, finding it easier this time around to do so. Next, she took down the ingredients before moving to collect them from the storage cabinets. After casting a quick Scouring Charm on the equipment, she set to work: two cups of water were measured and poured into the teapot. Thankfully Sharma was demonstrating because Claudine would have felt like an idiot trying to figure out if she got the stove going correctly. But still... she felt like an idiot a second later. Muggle artefacts were not always her strengths but it was for Heath. “Heath,’’ she whispered urgently. “How do I put this thing on mid heat?’’ Oh, that had been fun to say; Heath and heat.
Anyway.
She could measure out the ground coffee beans still. After some difficulty, she opened the French press and did exactly that. “To give the mixture a lighter colour?’’ the fourth year suggested in reply to the question.
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Heath had no idea what the two surviving ingredients of the chocolate frog potion were! As such, he wasn’t surprised to learn that his guess wasn’t correct. At least he wasn’t the only one who was wrong! What did surprise him was what the two ingredients actually were. He never would’ve guessed coffee and capsaicin, but the reasoning behind their usage was fascinating! He had just enough time to take some quick notes before Dr. Sharma’s demonstration began.
He retrieved the equipment from the cabinets, setting it neatly on the counter in front of him. He had just measured the two cups of water into his teapot when he heard Claudine whisper in his ear. He blinked, his eyes darting from her to the stove. “See the little stripe that’s a different color than the rest of the knob?” he whispered back, gesturing toward the knob in question. “Turn that knob clockwise until the stripe lines up with the letters “Med” on the stove.” Just in case the instructions were unclear, he demonstrated by putting his own stove on medium heat… which he would’ve needed to do anyway.
While he waited for the water to boil, Heath measured the four teaspoons of ground coffee and added that to the French press. He looked up upon hearing the question. Ooh, he knew this one! He remembered his mum telling him that dairy products reduced the burn from spicy foods. His hand shot up, and he said, “Is it to keep the chocolate from tasting spicy? I think there’s something in cream and other dairy products that counteracts the spiciness of capsaicin.” What that thing was, he couldn’t recall...
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Ashley boiled the water and put the coffee beans in the french press. Despite her limited cooking skills, she could do this right. She raised her hand. "It could be to make it smoother. Or less spicy. Or more... creamy?" She didn't know the answer to the question, but she thought it was a pretty good guess. Her policy was always 'if you don't know the answer, say something plausible and wait to be corrected. Fake it til you make it. It's okay to be wrong.' It wouldn't be the end of the world if she was wrong. Of course, she liked it better when she was right, but unlike some people, she could accept less than perfection. Meanwhile, she would focus on her potion. Were they making chocolate frogs right now? Ew. She did not appreciate jumping chocolate, thanks very much. She would probably end up giving it to someone else.
Made of Awesome | Ern-la the Best-wa | TZ's Apogee
They WERE making candy, and still Phoebe's answer about Salem had somehow been right(ish). Amazing. Phoebe marveled over that as she crouched to pull out her supplies. Everything felt foreign and Muggle to her hands, but maybe that was the point. These were just cooking implements, albeit strange ones, and they were going to make some kind of magic with them. It was very cool. Maybe the doctor was a FOOD doctor.
Phoebe messed around with the dials on her cooktop until she figured out 'mid heat'. It didn't take a Ravenclaw intellect to see that the degree of heat varied based on where the dial pointed, so somewhere in the middle was 'MID'. She measured out water from her wand into the pot before adding it to the heat. Already easier than working a cauldron over a flame.
French press. French... "Why'd it have to be French?" she muttered as she pulled the cylinder towards herself and measured out the ground coffee beans. The smell hit her harder than any gross potions ingredient, and Phoebe paused to take a quick sniff sniff sniff of the beans. Lovely. What was she doing?
Violet was listening to the other students' replies when the sound of her kettle whistling caught her attention. She had measured the ground coffee beans into the press already, so she carefully tipped the hot water on top of them and paused a few minutes to let the coffee steep. Merlin, that smell!! She was so tired today, if the class didn't move along soon, she would be tempted to drink some of her potion herself.
doesn't proofread tweets | #wrongaboutcereal | #siriusly? | emo to the extremo
Oh. She knew that. (Read: She did not know that).
Something else she did not know? That there was coffee in chocolate frogs. Chocolate frogs didn’t taste like coffee. It was all very strange. Kinsay wondered about these things as she moved to take a look at the cabinets in her workstation so that she could find all the supplies. It was a little sad that they were just making a potion and not actually making chocolate frogs. That would’ve been more fun. And tastier. Probably.
Taking her teapot, Kinsay tried to careeeeefully measure out two whole cups of water. The water spell was just about the only one she was any good at. Setting the teapot to the side, she messed about with the cooktop, until she finally managed to get it to start working. Turning the dial to mid heat, she then placed the little pot on top. She hadn’t ever used a french press before, but it looked easy enough and all she had to do was add the teaspoons of coffee beans anyway. Easy!
“To make it more fun?”
Cream made lots of things more fun.
__________________
Days of Potter 2023:___________________________ Which Bertie Botts Flavour Are You? You are Lemon!
”It might’ve been. We just don’t know.” It had been a good guess though, great even. ”But, it isn’t one of the surviving two ingredients. A lot of potioneers do tend to use it when trying to recreate Mr. Smith’s potion, though.” Yep, potion recreating was much more complex than one would think.
”A definite maybe on all three! There could’ve been a spell or two involved, a lot of potions use them to manipulate and bind the molecules in them together and produce different effects.” Was she getting too complex here? Hopefully not. ”But none of them are the known ingredients.”
Uh….”Croaka? Is that a new thing…?” Gurmeet had never heard of it before, and she’d worked in potions and cooking for a long time. Maybe it was from a different country? Needless to say, it definitely wasn’t one of Mr. Smith’s ingredients. ”It’s hard to say no on the rat tails, because we just don’t know, but I can say that I hope not.” She didn’t much like the thought of rat tails being any where near any kind of food. And she could safely say that the current potion in use didn’t have them either.
”They could’ve been….” Gurmeet nodded thoughtfully. ”But they’re not the two known ingredients.”
And a question she could answer. ”It’s definitely possible to mix two potions together. But, it involves a lot of math, experimentation and knowledge of which substances can mix and which can’t to get it right and not blow something up or otherwise cause harm to oneself or others.” So, don’t try it, kids.
”Makes a lot of people hop all over,” she replied with a smile. ”And it could’ve been in the original potion, but it’s not one of the surviving ingredients.” Twas a shame too, because now she was craving something sugary.
”Probably not. The temperature required to for helium to exist in liquid form,” because it obviously couldn’t be used in a potion in gas form, ”is too low. It would cause the other ingredients to freeze, at best.” Thus, ruining the potion. So, that was the one thing she could safely say no to. It was a good guess though. Plus, she’d exposed her classmates to some chemistry!
”Could’ve been. But its not one of the surviving ingredients.” Jeez, these students were creative and thinking!
And no, they weren’t going to try to recreate Mr. Smith’s potion today, don’t worry!
Oh, Merlin help her. Gurmeet did try to keep the look of disgust off her face. But, frog brains? Ew. ”Another one of those things that I hope wasn’t in there. But it is possible.” And possible that she would never eat another chocolate frog again if that were the case.
No one had guessed the two surviving ingredients, which actually surprised her. ”You all had good guesses. But, I think you’ll be surprised at how common these two surviving ingredients are. Or, one of them anyway.” She turned and wrote the two ingredients on the board and moved aside so they could be seen:
”The coffee beans, of course, have caffeine in them. This plays a major role in keeping the molecules moving once they’ve started. Capsaicin is the compound in peppers that makes them hot. It is the also what gets the molecules in the chocolate frog potion moving. This movement is important because that is what causes the potion to make the frog hop.” She was trying not to go too much into the chemistry of it all, since this was a potions class. Also, she was running out of time and she needed to get them started on the potion. ”Now, we might not have Mr. Smith’s entire potion. But, these two ingredients have been used as a springboard to the potion that is commonly used for chocolate frogs today and that is the potion that we are going to be brewing today.” Gurmeet turned to the board again and wrote the entire ingredients list:
”Now, if you look in the cabinets in your workstations, you’ll find a metal teapot, a French press, pre-ground coffee beans, a dropper bottle of capsaicin and a quart of cream.” She pulled each item from underneath her table and held them up as she mentioned them. ”Take your teapot and measure out two cups of water into it,” she demonstrated as she went, ”then turn your cooktop on mid heat and place the pot on it. As you wait for that to boil,” the teapot would whistle when it did ”open your French press and measure out four teaspoons of the ground coffee beans into it. Also, who knows the purpose of the cream?” Just curious to see how many of them could figure it out.
[COLOR=Red]OOC: We've reached the actual brewing portion, yay! I'll move us along sometime tomorrow! Until then, have your character have fun with the odd potions method!
Serena smiled gratefully at Dr. Sharma's answer, she had obviously got it wrong, but at least she wasn't made to feel bad over it! Now that was quality teaching! When Dr. Sharma explained that a lot of complicated math was involved in making a compounded potion, the blonde Slytherin wrinkled her nose in distaste. Ugh. She hated math.
When the mystery ingredients were revealed, she (along with probably the entire class) raised her eyebrows in surprise. Coffee beans? And Capsaicin? Seriously? But there isn't even a hint of coffee or spice on any of the chocolate frogs that she has had! How was that even possible? Clearly her knowledge of what she think goes into the food that she knows and loves very well are steadily being proven wrong.
Serena then proceeded to remove the said items from her stations' cupboards, pulling out the items as Dr. Sharma instructed - teapot, French press, coffee beans, liquid death capsaicin, and cream. To an oblivious onlooker, they looked like they were making really spicy coffee. She added in the ingredients as instructed, once in a while, looking around her, watching how her fellow students did theirs, checking to see if she had done it right.
Then, at her last question, Serena raised her hand to answer - third time was the charm, right? "Its to neutralize the capsaicin, getting rid of the burn!"
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[texcut=Replies]
Quote:
Originally Posted by MadAlice
Text Cut: Gurmeet Sharma
Hmmm....Violet was pretty sure she had heard somewhere that today's chocolate frogs were made of this magical substance called "Croakoa"--it was supposed to make them spring and also croak, which was the funny part about chocolate frogs. But maybe this old recipe was before that was invented.
So...coffee beans and capsaicin, huh? Hot peppers and coffee--that sounded like that spiced mocha coffee she had had at that little place in Brooklyn last year--and it had had cream in it, too, just like the recipe the teacher wrote on the board. She didn't remember the coffee making her hop, but it sure did keep her awake half the night.
Text Cut: Gurmeet Sharma
Violet had measured out her water into the pot and placed it on medium heat--for once she was glad of all that cooking she had had to do in those Muggle kitchens last year, now she really felt she knew what she was doing. She'd even seen a French press before--hmm, she like those, she wondered if she could get one of her uncles to give her one? Given the fact that she was in disgrace right now, plus their views on Muggle technology, probably not. Well, in a few years she'd be of age and then she would buy her own!
Violet raised her hand--if the cream in this potion was anything like the cream in that hot cocoa, it was to cool things down. "Is the cream meant to cool or slow down the movement once it gets going, so it doesn't get out of hand?"
"No, the movement slows on its own once the package is open." Wasn't grand how science worked, even on things you wouldn't think would follow science "rules"? Even magic!
Quote:
Originally Posted by LilFox06
Valencia set up her workstation by removing everything from the cabinets. She then took the teapot, measured out two cups of water, as instructed, and poured it it. She turned the heat on and prepped the coffee beans and French press.
She raised her hand. "Is it to add texture and curb the bitterness?" she asked. That's why people put creamer in normal coffee so it would make sense.
"That's part of it, actually," Gurmeet nodded.
Quote:
Originally Posted by FearlessLeader19
It turned out that it was more difficult for her, or for anyone else for that matter, to guess the ingredients. A few suggestions made her wince. Rat tails? Ew. The actual two ingredients- coffee beans- was at least not surprising, but capsaicin {which she had never heard of before} was surprising. The last thing she expected was something from hot peppers. And was it a trend for the seminars to have something somewhat pepper related?
Claudine made her notes, finding it easier this time around to do so. Next, she took down the ingredients before moving to collect them from the storage cabinets. After casting a quick Scouring Charm on the equipment, she set to work: two cups of water were measured and poured into the teapot. Thankfully Sharma was demonstrating because Claudine would have felt like an idiot trying to figure out if she got the stove going correctly. But still... she felt like an idiot a second later. Muggle artefacts were not always her strengths but it was for Heath. “Heath,’’ she whispered urgently. “How do I put this thing on mid heat?’’ Oh, that had been fun to say; Heath and heat.
Anyway.
She could measure out the ground coffee beans still. After some difficulty, she opened the French press and did exactly that. “To give the mixture a lighter colour?’’ the fourth year suggested in reply to the question.
That had been something she hadn't thought of. But then again, the potion wasn't really recognizable when on the frog soo... [B]"It does do that, but that's not why it's used."
Quote:
Originally Posted by MadMadamMalfoy
Heath had no idea what the two surviving ingredients of the chocolate frog potion were! As such, he wasn’t surprised to learn that his guess wasn’t correct. At least he wasn’t the only one who was wrong! What did surprise him was what the two ingredients actually were. He never would’ve guessed coffee and capsaicin, but the reasoning behind their usage was fascinating! He had just enough time to take some quick notes before Dr. Sharma’s demonstration began.
He retrieved the equipment from the cabinets, setting it neatly on the counter in front of him. He had just measured the two cups of water into his teapot when he heard Claudine whisper in his ear. He blinked, his eyes darting from her to the stove. “See the little stripe that’s a different color than the rest of the knob?” he whispered back, gesturing toward the knob in question. “Turn that knob clockwise until the stripe lines up with the letters “Med” on the stove.” Just in case the instructions were unclear, he demonstrated by putting his own stove on medium heat… which he would’ve needed to do anyway.
While he waited for the water to boil, Heath measured the four teaspoons of ground coffee and added that to the French press. He looked up upon hearing the question. Ooh, he knew this one! He remembered his mum telling him that dairy products reduced the burn from spicy foods. His hand shot up, and he said, “Is it to keep the chocolate from tasting spicy? I think there’s something in cream and other dairy products that counteracts the spiciness of capsaicin.” What that thing was, he couldn’t recall...
"And that's the rest of it! Dairy contains a protein called casein that bind to the capsaicin and prevents your tastebuds from sensing it. That's why chocolate frogs don't taste hot or spicy!" Thank you, science!
Quote:
Originally Posted by astrocat
Ashley boiled the water and put the coffee beans in the french press. Despite her limited cooking skills, she could do this right. She raised her hand. "It could be to make it smoother. Or less spicy. Or more... creamy?" She didn't know the answer to the question, but she thought it was a pretty good guess. Her policy was always 'if you don't know the answer, say something plausible and wait to be corrected. Fake it til you make it. It's okay to be wrong.' It wouldn't be the end of the world if she was wrong. Of course, she liked it better when she was right, but unlike some people, she could accept less than perfection. Meanwhile, she would focus on her potion. Were they making chocolate frogs right now? Ew. She did not appreciate jumping chocolate, thanks very much. She would probably end up giving it to someone else.
"It does all of those things," Gurmeet nodded. "But the main reason is to cancel out the spiciness."
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cassirin
They WERE making candy, and still Phoebe's answer about Salem had somehow been right(ish). Amazing. Phoebe marveled over that as she crouched to pull out her supplies. Everything felt foreign and Muggle to her hands, but maybe that was the point. These were just cooking implements, albeit strange ones, and they were going to make some kind of magic with them. It was very cool. Maybe the doctor was a FOOD doctor.
Phoebe messed around with the dials on her cooktop until she figured out 'mid heat'. It didn't take a Ravenclaw intellect to see that the degree of heat varied based on where the dial pointed, so somewhere in the middle was 'MID'. She measured out water from her wand into the pot before adding it to the heat. Already easier than working a cauldron over a flame.
French press. French... "Why'd it have to be French?" she muttered as she pulled the cylinder towards herself and measured out the ground coffee beans. The smell hit her harder than any gross potions ingredient, and Phoebe paused to take a quick sniff sniff sniff of the beans. Lovely. What was she doing?
Cream. Right. "It's not just for flavor?"
"Close! It cancels out the flavor of the capsaicin so your tastebuds don't register it." And you don't have a spicy chocolate frog! Unless you wanted a spicy chocolate frog....
Quote:
Originally Posted by ArianaBlack
Oh. She knew that. (Read: She did not know that).
Something else she did not know? That there was coffee in chocolate frogs. Chocolate frogs didn’t taste like coffee. It was all very strange. Kinsay wondered about these things as she moved to take a look at the cabinets in her workstation so that she could find all the supplies. It was a little sad that they were just making a potion and not actually making chocolate frogs. That would’ve been more fun. And tastier. Probably.
Taking her teapot, Kinsay tried to careeeeefully measure out two whole cups of water. The water spell was just about the only one she was any good at. Setting the teapot to the side, she messed about with the cooktop, until she finally managed to get it to start working. Turning the dial to mid heat, she then placed the little pot on top. She hadn’t ever used a french press before, but it looked easy enough and all she had to do was add the teaspoons of coffee beans anyway. Easy!
“To make it more fun?”
Cream made lots of things more fun.
Mmmm....
She honestly didn't know what to say in response. While she did appreciate avoiding the burning sensation when eating chocolate frogs, she wouldn't call it fun. "Sure," Gurmeet finally said nodding slightly.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mellamaet
SPOILER!!: Dr. Sharma
Serena smiled gratefully at Dr. Sharma's answer, she had obviously got it wrong, but at least she wasn't made to feel bad over it! Now that was quality teaching! When Dr. Sharma explained that a lot of complicated math was involved in making a compounded potion, the blonde Slytherin wrinkled her nose in distaste. Ugh. She hated math.
When the mystery ingredients were revealed, she (along with probably the entire class) raised her eyebrows in surprise. Coffee beans? And Capsaicin? Seriously? But there isn't even a hint of coffee or spice on any of the chocolate frogs that she has had! How was that even possible? Clearly her knowledge of what she think goes into the food that she knows and loves very well are steadily being proven wrong.
Serena then proceeded to remove the said items from her stations' cupboards, pulling out the items as Dr. Sharma instructed - teapot, French press, coffee beans, liquid death capsaicin, and cream. To an oblivious onlooker, they looked like they were making really spicy coffee. She added in the ingredients as instructed, once in a while, looking around her, watching how her fellow students did theirs, checking to see if she had done it right.
Then, at her last question, Serena raised her hand to answer - third time was the charm, right? "Its to neutralize the capsaicin, getting rid of the burn!"
And another to get it right! "The cream cancels out the spiciness of the capsaicin!"[/textcut][/textcut]
As if on cue, her teapot began whistling as she finished replying to the final student. "Water's done!" Gurmeet exclaimed, removing the pot from the stove. "Now, add the water to the press," some had already done that, "and close the lid tightly." She, of course, did this as she was speaking, taking a moment to take in the smell. "Now, you're going to set a timer for four minutes and wait for the coffee to brew." And enjoy the smell, which, no sarcasm at all, was lovely.
OOC: Thanks for sticking with me here! I really appreciate it, as well as your awesome replies!
I'll move us along in about 48 hours, give or take. And again, thanks for sticking around and being patient with me!
__________________
Days of Potter 2023:___________________________ Which Bertie Botts Flavour Are You? You are Salt!
doesn't proofread tweets | #wrongaboutcereal | #siriusly? | emo to the extremo
Even though Dr. Sharma said 'sure,' she didn't sound very sure at all. Made Kinsay feel some type of way... There wasn't much time to linger on that though because her pot started whistling too and that meant her water was all ready! She grinned with excitement, carefully taking the pot from the stove and adding it to the press. She didn't know how much water to add, but in all the excitement she may have added a bit too much so that it was spilling out of the french press.
...... Whoops?
Kiz was sure that if she ignored the mess off water, no one would take notice. So she swiftly moved along to the next step and closed the lid tight and set her timer for four minutes exactly.
__________________
Days of Potter 2023:___________________________ Which Bertie Botts Flavour Are You? You are Lemon!
Hey! Ashley had guessed right! That was good. She added the water and closed the lid, smiling slightly for once. As she waited, she drew nice flowers on her arm while checking her watch periodically. Maybe cooking and potions was fun, as long as you did it correctly.
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Yes, Claudine did see that odd colour. Heath’s instructions were simple enough and she followed them exactly. Luckily Heath was good with these sort of Muggle things. Perfect. Now she could move on.“Thanks,’’ she whispered. The teapot and its contents were now being heated and it turned out that she was wrong with her response. At least Heath fared better. Claudine was pleased for him.
Anyway.
The water in her pot started to boil shortly after Sharma’s and was added to the press. Next, the lid was snapped on and… that was it? They waited? Okay, then. Claudine was just awkwardly going to be here doing nothing…
Wait.
The girl inhaled deeply. Wow. That smelt great. Claudine was immediately taken back to her trips to Espresso Patronum during the summertime.
Made of Awesome | Ern-la the Best-wa | TZ's Apogee
Oh, it kept it from being spicy? That made sense, sort of. Like putting something spicy in and then expecting it not to taste spicy... then again, they added peppermint to overcome the flavor of frog bile or whatever, so who was she to judge?
Phoebe picked up her pot of water, as instructed, and poured it into the press. Why was it called a presssss? Lid tamped down, although Phoebe leaned in to enjoy the scent on the escaping steam. Coffee. That was it? Just... wait? Potions was EASY.
"And that's the rest of it! Dairy contains a protein called casein that bind to the capsaicin and prevents your tastebuds from sensing it. That's why chocolate frogs don't taste hot or spicy!"
Of course! Violet thought to herself. She remembered eating that overly-hot Thai food last year and her father giving her some milk to make it stop hurting. Casein and capsaicin, huh? She wrote those terms down.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lazykitty
"Now, you're going to set a timer for four minutes and wait for the coffee to brew."
Uh oh, Violet had already poured her water into the pot--that was, oh, about two minutes ago. She hated estimating in potions work, but she set her timer for two more minutes and hoped for the best.
As if on cue, her teapot began whistling as she finished replying to the final student. "Water's done!" Gurmeet exclaimed, removing the pot from the stove. "Now, add the water to the press," some had already done that, "and close the lid tightly." She, of course, did this as she was speaking, taking a moment to take in the smell. "Now, you're going to set a timer for four minutes and wait for the coffee to brew." And enjoy the smell, which, no sarcasm at all, was lovely.
OOC: Thanks for sticking with me here! I really appreciate it, as well as your awesome replies!
I'll move us along in about 48 hours, give or take. And again, thanks for sticking around and being patient with me!
Serena had never made coffee before, and especially not using any of these - what were they called again? French presses?. Mum favored coffee, and Dad always had takeaway from the coffee shop across from their building.
Following Dr. Sharma's instructions to a T, Serena poured in the now boiling water into her press, then waited.
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Potions Seminar #2 - Gurmeet Sharma 
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