A.

Lestodons were giant prehistoric sloths directly related to the sloths that live today. Weighing from 2 to 4 tons, lestodons roamed the grassy plains of South America during the Cenozoic era, eating grass and other foliage. Occasionally, lestodons ate avocados, pits and all, which is the only reason we have avocados today. The pits were then excreted large distances away from their original parent tree which allowed the plants to proliferate without competing for water and sunlight. The avocado pit is what’s called an “evolutionary anachronism,” meaning its size was favorably selected during evolution for avocado plants to reproduce. However, no sloth on today’s earth is large enough to be able to ingest and then expel such a large seed, yet the pit still exists.

C.

If you drank as much English tea as I do (9 cups a day), you’d know that a Jammie Dodger is an English biscuit—specifically a shortbread one with a sticky jam filling. (Just right when it’s 3 pm, at least another two hours to go writing chapters for the third edition of The Wine Bible). Other classic English biscuits include: the Cadbury Finger, Fox’s Crunch Cream, the Hobnob, and the compellingly named Digestive.

C.

Ice cream. In 1920 the Volstead Act was passed by Congress, prohibiting the “manufacturing and sale” of alcohol. The law caused many adults to look for alternatives to wine, beer, and spirits. Advancements in refrigeration had occurred simultaneously with the ban on alcohol, so with no beer to keep cool, ice cream became the number one tasty treat of the Prohibition Era. It has been estimated that between 1920 and 1929, ice cream consumption grew 40% in the United States. Prohibition also sparked new innovations in the ice cream world—single-serve frozen treats like the Eskimo Pie and the first ice cream bar on a stick from Good Humor were invented to meet the new demand for ice cream treats in public spaces.

B.

The Scoville scale measures the amount of spiciness or “heat” in chili peppers, in Scoville Heat Units (SHU). Scoville Heat Units are assigned based on how much dilution is required for the “burn” of a chili to no longer be sensed by taste testers. This point of dilution is determined when oil extracted from the dried chili is diluted with sugar water to a certain concentration level. If a pepper rates 5,000 SHU, this pepper must be diluted 5,000 times before its heat is no longer detectable. Bell peppers rate between 0 and 100 on the SHU scale whereas serrano peppers rate between 10,000 and 25,000 Scoville Heat Units. The scale goes even higher— where ghost peppers earn 750,000 to 1.5 million SHU and the mysteriously named Pepper X rates 1.5 to 3 million SHU making it one of the hottest chilis on the planet.

D.

According to a Medium.com “Insider” survey, in most other countries and especially in Europe, coffee is consumed in small quantities, and usually quickly. Think of an Italian standing in a café taking one second to down an espresso. People in other countries find it strange that in the U.S. people drink huge cups of coffee and take them to go. For the record, we think it’s perfectly fine to eat peanut butter when you’re over 10 years old, but we draw the line at marshmallow fluff.

A.

The Ark of Taste is an international catalog of endangered heritage foods maintained by the global Slow Food movement. The goal is to preserve unique foods that reflect their culture and place, and to keep them from extinction by encouraging consumers to grow and eat those foods. Besides being rare, foods on the list must be “culturally or historically linked to a specific region, locality, ethnicity or traditional production practice.” The Ark of Taste was founded in 1996. Today, more than 5,000 products from more than 150 countries are on the list. Those foods include: Great Plains Bison from Canada; Bergamot Oranges from Calabria, Italy; Violet Asparagus from Liguria, Italy; Harrison Cider Apples from New Jersey; Meyer Lemons from California; White Strawberries from Chile; and Bull Boar Sausage from Australia. Slow Food publishes the catalog along with resources for those who want to grow or buy the foods on the list.

B.

The Detachable Mustache Guard was designed to be affixed to the rim of cups, tumblers, and wine glasses, in order to protect well-waxed whiskers from tea steam, beer foam, and red wine stains. Patented by, the presumably long-suffering and hirsuit, C. H. Barrows on May 28, 1878, the invention’s popularity spread throughout Europe, until potters began featuring a cup with a mustache guard built right in. For many decades, famous china manufacturers such as Limoges, Meissen, Royal Bayreuth, and others created their own versions. Mustache cup production slowed after 1920 and finally faded from cups altogether by the later 20th century. However, as facial hair returns to fashion, a plethora of protective paraphernalia has hit the market including the “Mo’ Guard”, “Whisker Dam,” and “Lipmaster.”

C.

Terre de Lait, an organization for the French dairy industry, has created the “Fromagissons” campaign, a combination of fromage (cheese) and agissons (let’s act). The campaign asks people to start buying traditional cheeses in support of French cheesemongers who have seen sales fall as much as 60 percent since the crisis began. French magazine Agri Culture reports that only 500 tons of an anticipated 2,000 tons of cheese were sold in April. Terre de Lait is urging it’s countrymen to “work together” so that France remains the country of over 1,000 cheeses.