Consumption Lounge: 16 Essential Buys For July Summer Travel

Hot reads, packing game changers, cool gadgets, and more

Hey everyone,

First of all, hello to my new subscribers! I don’t know where you’re all coming from, but thanks for being here.

On that note, sorry I’ve been a little light on the content this month. On Friday, I’ll be testing out of the intermediate level of my Pilates certification program at Core Pilates NYC, a top-rated studio in New York City where I’ve been training at since April. So, that’s how my prolific food writing career is going! Follow @pilatesxcarly on Instagram for updates on upcoming classes.

This month you can catch me in the latest issue of Different Leaf, where I contributed to the cover feature on cannatourism alongside writers Chala June on the Napa weed experience and Meena Thiruvengadam on what’s happening in Chicago. I will also be joining the Different Leaf podcast this season to chat with Brit Smith about all the cool things you can do in the Bay Area and beyond. I think I might have even mentioned the weed witchery of Temescal Alley in Oakland where I picked up some stunning earrings from Marisa Mason and made a beautiful cloche terrarium at Crimson Horticulture Rarities many years ago that still sits on my windowsill. But if I didn’t, now you know.

Back in January, I traveled to the Bay Area for the first time since the pandemic to go on a recon mission for the issue, dropping way too much money on weed (entirely worth it) and carrying a Mission-style burrito on a 14-hour journey back to New York City. Aside from the ongoing and pervasive opioid epidemic plaguing the entire West Coast that looks like a unhinged human depravity nightmare from The Walking Dead around San Francisco’s Tenderloin, the rest of the Bay Area is pretty nice! In fact, it was a pretty optimistic long-term outlook as far as cannatourism goes that will serve as a nice case study for other cities. There’s a whole cannabis trail now that stretches from San Francisco to Humboldt County where you can learn the history of cannabis and visit sun grown farms, so many delicious side trips for when the munchies hit, and even a few cool lounges to enjoy your stash. Pick up the latest issue of Different Leaf for my full list of recs.

Honestly, been feeling kind of salty and super depress-y and very unmotivated from overcommitting myself as usual and being a sideliner to the very public abuse that WGA/SAG-AFTRA is enduring from executives while trying to justify their own existence, so I’ll just share some stuff I’ve been consuming this month before I descend into the dark place. Paid subscribers get a cool recipe for hot days ahead. Enjoy!

Words Well-Done

• Jason Wilson asks Does Wine Writing Have To Be So Embarrassing?

• Susan Orlean mourns the Instant Pot

• Emily Nunn makes Hetty Lui McKinnon’s Summer-Perfect Soba Noodle Salad

• Andrew Janjigian perfects the ultimate DIY yogurt recipe

• Christina Wong makes a Humboldt Fog matcha as an ode to NorCal

• Lukas Volger gives some summer lovin’ to beans

• Leah Koenig celebrates the history of Rome’s Jewish community with a recipe for Roasted Tomato Halves (Pomodori a Mezzo) from her forthcoming book, Portico

• Deb Perelman is on the ball as usual with genius oven-off summer recipes

Fly Essentials

• Aer Travel Weekender Bag: Looking to upgrade your travel bag? Go compact with Aer’s new Travel Weekender, which offers versatile storage perfect for carry-on travel. The 35ml bag is made with 1680D Cordura ballistic nylon exterior, YKK zippers, and Duraflex plastic hardware, which means it can take a beating while hopping between planes, trains, and automobiles (trust me, you don’t want to go cheap with luggage—you’ll pay handsomely when it busts open at the airport and you’re scrambling to make a flight). Plus, it has plenty of pockets and lockable storage compartments to keep your valuables hidden and safe. It’s also a little cheaper than the Travel Pak I co-signed over at GQ!

• Aeropress Go Travel Coffee Press Kit: This is not new by any means. In fact, I had friends raving about the Aeropress almost a decade ago. However, if you don’t have one, I recommend getting the travel kit, which is great for daily use and also packs up nicely for overnight camping and longer trips. This 3-in-1 brew method combines French Press, pourover, and espresso into a hand held cup (I actually like it more than my pourover, if I’m being honest here).

• Packing Cubes: Every once and awhile, I’ll come across some random travel influencer on social media talking about their packing method and am always shocked when they never mention packing cubes. How can you be a self-proclaimed travel expert and don’t know about this? Seriously, major game-changer and they aren’t even that expensive. You can usually score a pretty decent deal on a whole set for under $20, too. The Eagle Creek ones have served me very well for their compression over the past few years, while I love the separate compartment for dirty laundry with the Peak Design set.

Get These Gadgets

• OXO Good Grips Quick Release Multi Cherry Pitter: Cherry pitters are one of those devices you’d probably never have on hand, unless you bake with cherries pretty consistently or happen to receive one as a precious heirloom. Once you have it, though, you might wonder what took you so long. Functioning like a hole punch for your fruit, cherry pitters effortlessly pop out those tedious pits, making it easy to plow through a whole bag of fruit as a snack, sprinkle on a morning yogurt parfait, or polish off the top of an ice cream sundae. The OXO multi pitter, in particular, is worth the slightly higher price, pitting six cherries at a time versus the classic single punch. Trust me, when you’ve got a quart of 30 cherries, you’ll want this device.

• Sprout-Ease Econo-Sprouter Toppers Set: Sprouts are maybe among the cheapest and easiest things you could grow that makes it hard to justify ever spending money on them. This easy kit gives you a whole giant mason jar of sprouts in a matter of days that you can shove into salads and sandwiches for pennies on the dollar.

• Foot Spa Bath Massager: I am about 98% sure that I was high when I bought this, but I finally pulled it out a whole year later to use on my swollen feet after pounding out nearly 20,000 steps on one of the hottest days of the year. I don’t know which of my ancestors were wandering miserably through the desert, but I hope they’re proud of me. I know I was. Anyway, I threw in some CBD bath salts from Empower CBD that I was gifted from women’s cannabis networking group, Tokeativity at their Pride event at the end of June. I kid you not, my feet felt like they had just received a professional pedicure. Not only was the inflammation down from the CBD, but the jets and massage functions left them soft and supple with zero trace of callouses. Another one of those “why wasn’t I doing this sooner?”purchases.

Smoke Show

• Rompotodo: Just put in another custom order with this Argentinean ceramics studio that I have been ordering wares from since maybe 2018. If you hate getting hitters that blowback half the bowl in your mouth, these are an incredibly smooth hit. Plus, they look cute and are reasonably priced, too!

• Hepworth Farms Bubble Gum x Apple Fritter: New York might be receiving a lot of flak for its extremely slow roll out, but what you can get your hands on is incredibly promising. Case in point: I recently received an eighth of this lovely sun grown hybrid flower from certified organic Hepworth Farms in a very nice care package from Tokeativity, which I’ve been enjoying for its sweet, earth aromatics, frosty trichromes, and uplifting, well-balanced high. It’s currently available at Housing Works Cannabis Co. and Union Square Travel Agency.