RSS Feed

Tag Archives: Cupcake

Chew, Chew, Fail

Posted on

In a few days readers, I will be sipping Turkish coffee in well…Turkey! So there won’t be posts for a little bit due to the travel and such. I will try to throw a pic or two your way while I am there. And yes, Mommas reading this blog / friends, I WILL be safe. My excess caution is legendary.

Before I ship off, I have another special post with candy from overseas! (Oh, there will be Turkish candy, you know it). My friend brought me these wine gummies from England. They are pretty nutty, just look at the back of the bag.

Chew Chew CHEW

Chew Chew CHEW

It’s a gummy, so yes, I went with a white. It wasn’t incredible, so I am committed to switching it up next time. Mark my words readers, Liz is going to switch.it.up.

Candy: Maynards Wine Gums

IMG_1660

 

A Colorful Assortment

A Colorful Assortment

Wine: Cupcake Wine, Angel Food

IMG_1661

The Dream:

Sigh. I am bored with my approach to gummy-wine pairings. My friend told me these gummies were fruity but a bit more intense. It is a richer flavor, so she said. I wanted a wine that wasn’t too sweet and not too dry. I chose this Cupcake wine because I was relatively unfamiliar. It is a table white, so it felt easy and not too risky.

The Reality:

The wine has a subtle sweetness with a delightful hint of vanilla. There is a bite like Chardonnay but it is smooth and goes down easy. The flavors all combine in the right way to make it a wine that’s worth sipping on a hot summer day. I will be buying it later this summer.

Took this photo at 8. Summer is here!

Took this photo at 8. Summer is here!

The flavor breakdown:

First of all, the gummy flavors don’t pair exactly with a wine flavor. By not exactly, I mean they don’t pair with wine at all.

Orange: The sweet orange flavor reminds me of Skittles. After the orange gummy, the wine loses the sweetness and the vanilla flavor jumps ship.

Dark Purple: This gummy is rich and not the normal grape flavor. It is nuanced and very tasty. But the wine goes dry although there’s a bit of berry twist.

Yellow: This flavor is a lot like Skittles yellow, pretty standard. The smooth wine goes down well with this pair. It maintains its richness.

Green:Lime flavor with nothing that is interesting.

The Takeaway:

A good person admits when they are wrong. I am done with the white wine approach for gummies. There will be a switch up, mark my words.

 

Mint Madness

I may be off Facebook (for now) but that does not mean I’m off blogging. And today we celebrate something we all wish to carry in our hearts in the shape of a four-leaf clover: the luck of the Irish.

I know that immediately you are thinking: this is a wine & candy blog, this has nothing to do with Ireland. And yes, I’m inclined to agree with you. That won’t stop me commemorating St. Patrick’s Day. Today we’ll explore the flavor that, somehow, has to do with St. Patrick’s Day: mint.

Now, I was curious as to why mint relates to St. Patrick’s Day. Yes, it is green. And yes, Shamrock Shakes is all the proof I need to prove there is a God. But…why mint? Isn’t parsley green? And kale and grass? A quick look on Google really tells me nothing. Thoughts? Why mint, out of all green things?

That’s enough exposition. We are not going to find any answers today and my St. Pat’s is rather busy, but not for the reasons that you think. No, I’ll be gallavanting amongst DC’s cherry blossoms, which are most certainly not green. I’ll wear a green necklace though.

The Wine: Layer Cake, 2010 Malbec from the lovely Mendoza

Round, Chocolate Flavor

Malbec Madness

The Candy: Junior Mints, an American Movie Classic

Vs...Senior Mints...?

The Dream: In the spirit of St. Patrick, I’ll be perfectly honest. I did not have a master plan. I knewJunior Mints were the candy of choice. I had a Junior Mints t-shirt in Junior High, as some readers will recall, that I thought was the most important clothing item I owned. I loved that shirt, as well as Junior Mints. In terms of wine, it proved to be a tricky choice. I did not want to go for light and fruity since those flavors would not work with chocolate mint. It needed to be rich. Fortunately, Malbec Madness was happening at the liquor store. Since Malbec Madness is a play on March Madness…it fit perfectly. Plus, I chose carefully. Layer Cake is described as rich with hints of tabacco. It looked like a wine in which I could immerse myself.

Don't you want to take a swim?

The Reality:

When I opened that bottle of wine, I immediately smelt it. The chocolate flavors engulfed me and I felt myself falling in love. I brought it over to Sam, but he did not seem that intrigued. I kept smelling it for awhile, looking forward to tasting this truly layered wine. I did not smell tabacco though, that was a bunch of lies (St. Patrick would not be pleased). As I poured myself a glass, I realized something upsetting.

Who will play second (Irish) fiddle?

I had to drink this wine, a meal unto itself, with a cheap theater candy. Already, this was not going to work. I ate a Junior Mint, which I will not make up fancy prose for. It’s a Junior Mint. Then I took a sip of wine and my mouth screamed in dismay. How could I distract from this round wine, with subtle chocolate flavors and richness that scoffed at a simple J Mint? Though the taste of cheap mint quickly washed out of my mouth, I spent the rest of the evening drinking wine.

Here is the ultimate question then: can mint be paired with wine? I want to keep exploring this. I don’t think a rich wine like Layer Cake, which I recommend, especially to those who love Cupcake, works with mint. Could I be more daring and try a white? Would that hold a surprise?

 

Either way, drink up friends and enjoy your St. Pats. And buy some Layer Cake–St. Patrick would be proud.