It’s been forever
A post is in the works
For now here is a pic of a blueberry mojito. On first sip, it tasted like a regular mojito but after a moment the blueberry bursts on your tongue. As the sweet and tart pops on your tongue the mint rushes on your palette.
Yum
Ok, there is nothing “franken” about this pairing but I couldn’t resist riffing off the frankenstorm trend. It’s too tempting. Make sure you are prepared ok? I have two bags of candy and six bottles of wine. And that’s not a joke. I take preparedness VERY seriously. All else fails, I will have many, many pairings to share once we recovery from Sandy.
It has been awhile since I posted and today’s pairing is a bit different. Hold onto your glass stems because I am shaking things up today!
A few weeks ago, I bought a Living Social deal. It was a class taught by the owners of Cookies & Corks. As evidence by the blog title, this pairing matches cookies with wine. But not just any cookies-this business worked with sommeliers to create the best confections for various wines. The tasting wheel below lays out how each of their cookies matches with various wines.
Amazing no?
We arrived to a table set with two of each cookie and a glass of wine already poured.
From Left to Right: White Cheddar Rosemary, Espresso Chocolate Peanut Butter, Apricot Sage, Sea Salt Chocolate Oatmeal, Zesty Lemon
We started with a quick lesson on pairing. Our teachers reminded us that we should:
1- Look at our wine, observe its color
2-Swirl and smell
3-Taste food
4-With a little food in your mouth, sip and notice the flavors.
And with that instruction, we were off.
First up, Prosecco:
Wine #1-Prosecco
The wine is tart and very acidic with a citrusy flavor. A lovely, light wine.
Zesty Lemon Cookie (LMC): This lemon cookie makes the wine pop and fizz in your mouth. Suddenly the wine becomes sweet and smooth on your pallet. It changes enough while maintaining its character.
Sea Salt Chocolate Oatmeal (SCO): An extremely salty cookie, this confection is delicious but startling. The wine is a bit sharper against the sweet. It’s an enjoyable contrast.
Apricot Sage (AS): Sam and I agreed this cookie was our favorite. The wine is only sweet at first, but as it leaves your tongue the sage blooms in your mouth. It is surprising and frankly, MAGICAL.
Espresso Chocolate Peanut Butter (ECPB): This cookies is extremely hearty and the difference between the bitter chocolate and sharp wine is unpleasant. Not a great pairing, but that’s exactly the point of the experience. Not every wine goes with every cookie.
White Cheddar Rosemary (WCR): This cookie is heavy and forms a thick, cheddary paste in your mouth. I found this cookie very difficult because I’m lactose intolerant and just not used to the taste. I defer to my boyfriend’s notes which say the “wine mellows out the cookie and tastes lighter.”
Wine #2-Sauvignon Blanc
The sauvignon blanc is slightly green in hue. It’s extremely ripe and has a slight lime flavor.
ZLC: The wine gets extremely rich and buttery. As it melts in your mouth the tartness evens on your tongue. Delightful.
SCO: The only notes I have on this (it was a week ago, ok?) is that the wine is soft. So, there you go.
AS: This cookie emphasizes the tartness of the wine, although Sam’s notes say the wine became sweeter. Everyone’s palate is different! Again, the sage bursts into your mouth like a little garden of eden. Amazing.
ECPB: The wine softens initially and the espresso somehow compliments the wine. At the finish, the flavor becomes tart again. Overall, not bad and an improvement from the last pairing.
WCR: Acidity still very present but the cheesy paste softens things a little bit.
Wine #3: Pinot Noir
This photo is really embarrassing because it is just terribly out of focus. And I warn you, there isn’t even a photo for the next glass. Overall, I think I drank only 2 glasses since they gave us very little portions. Yet, I was drunk enough to slack. Sorry.
The wine is ruby red with a lovely smokiness and a touch of spice. It’s light and has a clean finish.
ZLC: Unlike the other pairings, this cookie clashes with the wine. It’s zest knocks the flavor off center.
SCO: A sweet and smooth ride and the wine’s richness deepens. A very indulgent experience.
AS: This pairing is smooth and sweet, but the sage is not the best compliment to pinot.
ECPB: The chocolate comes out very prominently against the light and clean wine.
WCR: The wine becomes very acidic and the cheesy paste lays thick on your mouth.
Wine #4: Oops Cabernet Franc
A very dark wine and Sam said it tasted like resin, which I found interesting. It has leathery undertones.
SLC: Delicious and smooth with the pop of lemon. Sam said it was bittersweet. Again, different palates are amazing.
SCO: The salt lessons with this pair but I thought the flavor of the wine went a bit off.
AS: A sweet and smooth delight…just how I would like to end with Apricot Sage, by far my favorite cookie.
ECPB: The peanut butter is reinforced with this wine but the wine gets really harsh and unpleasant at the finish.
WCR: I LIKED the white cheddar with this one. The salty, savory cookie enhanced the wines deep and rich flavors. A great way to end the pairing.
Overall, this was a great way to spend an hour and I can’t wait to explore these cookies with more wine. In fact, I hope to crack open our box tomorrow and snack away. You can buy these cookies if you live in the DC Metro area (specifically VA). But they are also available online!
Happy sips.
It’s never too early to embrace the Halloween season. After all, we already have Thanksgiving and Christmas items on sale at stores. Every year, the buying season for the holidays comes closer and closer. It’s only a matter of time until we truly have Christmas in July. To celebrate both Halloween, my birthday, and all the great friends I made on Twitter (follow me at @loolabette), I threw together a little party. It was a pretty small affair since I can’t have that many people fit into my place.
I don’t want to say this post is Halloween themed. After all, I only used a Halloween candy: candy corn. The wine is just a regular Cabernet Sauvignon but from a brand I trust. I did not want to go the white route since those tend to be a little sweeter and I couldn’t see that working with the confectionary overload that is candy corn. I went with a Layer Cake because it is the brand I can trust. Before launching into my party of drunken debauchery (ok it was pretty tame), I took all my notes regarding this pairing. I wanted to make sure I was coherent.
The Wine: Layer Cake, Cabernet Sauvignon
Layers of Flavor
Candy: Brach’s Candy Corn
An American (?) Classic
The Dream:
Honestly, what does candy corn even taste like? How can you pair candy corn with anything when you really think about it? I don’t even understand the hang ups regarding candy corn. Is it the texture? The flavor is honestly just sugar and maybe some honey substitute. I needed a wine that counterbalanced the sweet but that would not go sour. Layer Cake wine tends to be very strong and thick and flavorful. It really is the best choice. The Layer Cake Malbec is one of my favorites and it’s truly a treat of a wine. And even though I had plenty to drink last night, there is a lot of left over wine. So I am drinking it. I refuse to let it go to waste.
Layer Cake smells delicious of course. There are notes of blackberry and rich, ripe strawberries. The smell alone makes my mouth water. A sip coats your mouth with tart fruit flavors. The blackberry comes in very nicely and the taste rests in your mouth delightfully.
The candy corn is well, typical candy corn. Sweet and thick with an unspeakable appeal. After a few bites of candy corn the wine stays smooth but its distinct sharpness fades. It almost tickles on the way down and becomes far more sweet than I would like. It tastes a bit cheap really. But overally the flavors remain even if they are not that strong.
This pairing is fine. You certainly wouldn’t be amiss to try it. The wine stays good, even if it loses some of its distinct charm. However, this is for the best when considering candy corn. A candy corn and wine stomach ache probably would be the worst thing in the world. Maybe a perfect candy pairing would be far worse than good for the intestines. I’m just trying to look out for you readers.
Friends please enjoy our Halloween season safely and responsibly. And please enjoy the following links about candy corn.
Right now I’m waiting to get on a bus for New York. Naturally I got here ridiculously early which is ok because I can blog!
For some time now I tossed around the idea of doing a kosher themed pairing. With the high holidays in our near past, I decided now was a appropriate time. I don’t know anything about kosher food besides the basic concepts behind it, so if you know a better candy or wine please let me know. I think I found an interesting selection.
The Wine: Rasht Clarét
The Candy: Havlah chocolate, plain, marble
The Dream:
The candy looked rather unexciting to me so I wanted a flavorful wine. I enjoy clarét and this particular bottle was really cheap. Unfortunately my selection of wines was rather small. I know Havlah to be a bit dense so I hoped the clarét could flush out the debris.
The Reality:
The clarét is certainly fruity with a lingering of over ripe strawberries. The flavors are fleeting and fly off your tongue, leaving as soon as they landed. An unfortunate surprise is the strong bitterness as an aftertaste. It’s like the skin of a lemon and harsh. I hope the Havlah can help negate that taste.
The original Havlah is like tahini with a slight sweetness and subtle crunch. It’s good but does not add too much to the wine and does not stop the bitterness. The marble variety does not taste any different and the chocolate just has a cheap milk chocolate coating. Nothing too extraordinary.
I want to try this theme again because I really think it has potential. Next time I will find a specialty kosher store to get high quality goods. Until then, enjoy your weekend!
Friends! I am sorry it has been so terribly long. I am not able to post yet but tonight I have hopes. As the title suggests, my days are packed. Life is changing and like an aging Chardonnay, it is for the best. Hold on for a bit longer and we will sit down with glasses in hand surrounded by candy wrappers.
Happy Sunday everyone! I hope your day is sunny and fine. We have another guest post today from my friend Sarah. Enjoy and remember, you too can guest post. Just leave your contact info below or contact me via email (if you have it).
Sarah claims she is no wine-expert, but she sure knows how to make my mouth water for her latest discovery.
——-
So I’ll start off by saying I’m NOT well-versed in wine. I’m still
figuring out what I like, what’s reasonable to spend on a bottle, and
what different types actually mean. My latest adventure has been to
find a wine I tried at a restaurant recently- it was a Pinot blanc and
it was so delicious. It paired perfectly with my soup, scallop entree,
and desert. What more could you ask for in a wine?
Since this wonderful discovery, I’ve been searching for variations on
this white wine as it seems Pinot blanc is a rare find. I went to my
local liquor store and they had a big display for this company
“Steeple Jack” which apparently does unique combinations at super
inexpensive prices. I picked up the Semillon Sauvignon Blanc which is
described as follows: “This wine has a burst of tropical fruit and
grassy notes followed by a crisp, citrus finish.”
Photo Credit: Ballast Stone Estate Wines website
I was hoping it would be a light but bitter wine and after tasting it
it was definitely bitter but not exactly the lightness I wanted. When
I decided to pair it, I wanted to do my favorite evening guilty
pleasure: strawberries and nutella.
I was totally unprepared to make a planned/educated pairing so I
figured it would fail miserably, but this was actually a delicious
combination! The heaviness of the nutella really cut the bitter/sharp
taste and allowed some of the softer flavors to come out of the wine.
The strawberries kept with the fruity flavors and helped cut the
nutella as well. My only negative note to this pairing is that the
nutella takes too much of the bitterness out of the wine and leaves
the wine with a rather plain flavor/experience. There were moments
when I asked whether or not it even tasted like wine or just a
flavored water of sorts.
This was my first pairing and first review of a wine- huzzah for
success! I’ll keep on my quest to find a delicious Pinot blanc to
enjoy at dinner but in the meantime I will continue to experiment with
cheap white wines I’ve never heard of before. And its likely they’ll
all go through the nutella test after this enjoyable experience.
This weeks post is sure to sandblast your tongue, but in the best way possible. It is a bold pairing that surprisingly worked out very well. I took on two difficult mediums-gummy and sour. Yes, the contender this week was Sour Patch, otherwise known as those little people that you eat. This candy came recommended as a pairing with a white wine. But since I am fresh out (Chardonnay, I still miss you), I had to make do with what I had of my Groupon stash. I must say, it worked out for the better.
I can not say I came away with an expert way to pair sour with wine. Every ounce of me says this type of companionship will always end in tears. But instead it ended with me eating sour patch and drinking wine in front of the TV. It’s amazing what a good relationship can do.
The Wine: Viña Alarba, Old Vine Grenache (Product of Spain)
The Candy: Sour Patch
I always find this little guy disturbing
The Dream:
If I am honest with myself, I thought this would turn out terribly. I felt sure that the wine would sour and turn after my first sour patch. This candy played a huge role in my childhood of destroying my young taste buds. My tongue looked like the field after Antietam when I finished a bag. I didn’t go with the Malbec I had on hand, since I thought the stronge flavors of a Malbec could warp too easily. The wine I chose boasted of a finish of white pepper spice. Spice. That, I thought, could just maybe work out.
How do you like my book selection?
The Reality:
This wine lunges and bites you at first sip. I found myself taking a step back and needing several sips before I could make any sense of it. As the wine roles over your tongue it makes small nips, keeping your mouth alive for flavor. The wine is deceptively smooth at first before it ripples through you. There are notes of plum and well, it sure is spicy. After the initial snap there is a lingering of sweetness and fruit in your mouth. It is a fun wine because it keeps you awake.
Compared to this wine, the candy is a sweet surprise. It does not take me back by its sour flavor. Each flavor of candy is a bit different, but the lime flavor has the worst effect on the wine. Overall, the wine is mostly unaffected and the flavor does not bend or warp. The cherry candies are sweeter and bring a new note of fruitiness to the pallet.
I wrote down that I did not think this was a home run. But reflecting on this pairing, I am going to take that back. Considering the challenge of sour patch, I think this turned out well.
Next week we will have a guest post since I am taking an online class right now and I’m a bit busy!
Happy Labor Day weekend!
I will go against the grain here and labor a bit in order to make a new post. I am going to stop talking about how I get a bit behind on posting because I am sure that’s very boring.
Summer is officially over. I do not know how that will change my pallet. Hopefully the crisp Autumn, that won’t come to DC until late September, will bring exciting flavors. Today’s post is certainly something different, venturing into a type of sweet I usually don’t like: white chocolate. It’s not that white chocolate isn’t lovely; it’s perfectly fine. I consider it a lower chocolate. Although it doesn’t taste like it, white chocolate reminds me of hardened lard. It’s a solid white mass that is very fatty and usually pretty bland. That’s why I decided to take it on. What would this blog be if I didn’t step out of my comfort zone?
We continue to go through the bag of wine I got a few weeks ago. I have to say I was disappointed this time around. Unlike the stunning chardonnay I sampled last, this wine didn’t knock my socks off. It was fine but but I can’t say I will buy it again. As pairing goes, it was good which is saying a lot considering I paired two things I don’t exactly like.
Enjoy the post and please, relax today. I know I slept in after a very busy week and tomorrow I start my online statistics class. Tonight I plan to work on another pairing and celebrate the end of a truly great summer. Thanks to you all for helping make it great.
The Wine: Cuvée de Peña, vin de pays des Pyrénénees-Orientales, 2009
Pretty label, but it rubs me the wrong way somehow
The Candy: Lindt, Lindor Vanilla White Chocolate
Little Scoops of Ice Cream
The Dream:
The reality is I bought these while on the phone so my mind was elsewhere. I also love vanilla and Lindt is relatively safe. I know it’s not too fancy, but it’s white chocolate, the trashiest of chocolates (sorry I’m not sorry if I offended you). I actually did not mean to have the packaging of the wine and chocolate match, but it turned out quite lovely right? White chocolate has this viscosity to it and is simple flavor wise.
Pairing the Lindt with a generic wine felt safe but still had the potential to pleasantly surprise me. Since white chocolate is relatively bland, the red could build on it’s flavors and provide the extra boost white chocolate usually lacks.
The Reality:
The chocolates are little scoops of vanilla ice cream. Each ball of chocolate is sprinkled with black vanilla flecks and the vanilla flavor is intense and rich. I froze them, because that is just how I prefer my chocolate. It also keeps them from overwhelming your mouth. When each chocolate unfrozen it sort of makes my mouth sweaty. They sort of make my lactose-intolerant mouth lurch at first taste, but that is ok. I like that just one is enough to satisfy your sweet tooth.
The wine has a leathery smell with notes of blackberry. It is smooth with an acidic finish, but lacks any outstanding flavors beyond the blackberry. I think this is a great table wine that would go with many dishes. It won’t overwhelm your food but certainly will not start any conversations.
The small truffles creates additional smoothness for the wine and gives it a softer finish. The sweet vanilla adds to the subtle blackberry notes and elongates the fruit flavors. It’s an indulgent treat and I could not eat too many. The pairing is good and I imagine it would go well with any generic red (sorry for the word generic, it’s not right). I imagine a nice rioja would also be pleasant.
Have a happy holiday and remember, it’s California wine month!
Happy Thursday. I hope all of my super cool readers are doing well. I know the end of summer looms on the horizon. For some of you it is exciting and for others maybe not so much. Either way, I hope you are coming to peace with the coming fall.
To help you find that inner happiness, I came up with a lovely pairing. It is not revolutionary, but it’s good wine and intriguing candy. Full disclaimer: all the wines for the next 6 postings or so will be classier wines. I snagged a great Groupon for a wine store in downtown DC. I recommend Groupon for finding wine deals. Sometimes they are not actually deals, but when they are you can get a decent haul. I even got one of those fancy bags with different slots for wine…for you know, all those instances where I need to buy a bunch of wine at once (come to think of it, I could use that bad boy to recycle a lot of my bottles!) For some of my readers, this wine may not seem so top-shelf. But for a lowly 23-year old, these wines are absolute treats. I have even enforced a one-glass at a time rule so they don’t dwindle away. Let’s see how long that lasts.
Our candy is an interesting one. It was too intriguing to pass up and of course it came from Trader Joe’s. They are chocolate raspberry sticks. If you read that and have no idea what I am talking about, you are in good company. When Sam and I saw them it was an instant ‘yes.’ I thought the touch of raspberry and the thin chocolate shell could play well with the chardonnay.
The Wine: Cinnabar, 2010
Starry Eyed
I loved the cap to this wine so I have to share it. It’s adorable, while staying classy. It has a wonderful whimsy to it.
It’s a blurry photo because this cap excited me that much
The Candy: Trader Joe’s Chocolate Raspberry (Jelly) Sticks
I don’t think you’re ready for this jelly….stick
The Dream:
This candy combined two different types of candy–chocolate and jelly-gummy candy. Gummy candies are difficult to pair, so the chocolate edge and the substantial amount of jelly in the middle offered a promising treat. The flavor range was not too big, which made the pairing easier to manage. Chocolate and raspberry are classics, but this candy has a twist to make it interesting. Chardonnay can usually hold its own against sweetness. It can be very potent and since I knew I had a high quality wine, I felt confident. But I sort of always feel confident, so that’s neither here nor there.
The Reality:
A sip of this wine is an onslaught of flavor with notes of tart green apples and ripe pears. It is extremely dry and pungent, which for me is what a Chardonnay should be. It’s refreshing and you savor each sip to extract the play between tart and crisp. The color is a deep yellow, like the skin of a ripe lemon. I enjoyed this wine over several days and it felt like luxury. This wine would be wonderful to share with some close friends on a late August evening.
The candy is intriguing. They are indeed jelly sticks surrounded by chocolate. No doubt about that. The milk chocolate is typical but the gummy center is far squishier than I expected. The raspberry is not overly sweet but rather sour. Your lips pucker a bit and the amount of filling washes away the chocolate from the tongue. It really is tasty. I suggest freezing them as well.
Together, these two make a nice pairing. The wine does not go sour after the sweet treat and both are strong flavor wise individually. But I don’t think either one enhances the other. They are both good and they taste well together, but there are no fireworks. The raspberry leaves that slight tart kick that lingers lightly for no more than a second with the chardonnay. An interesting surprise.
I recommend this pairing overall. The jelly sticks are fun, but mostly because the are called jelly sticks. The wine is simply mouth watering. You can’t lose when you are consuming these two, and truly, what else can you ask for?
Happy Friday All! I thought I would post this amazing infographic (that’s what they are called right?) so you can start out your weekend fresh. It’s from the Discover News Tumblr. You should check it out.
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Uncorked, Unwrapped 