Archive for the ‘Drinks’ Category
Root beer is one of my favorite soda flavors, so I couldn’t walk by the bottles of Sonoma Syrup Co.’s Root Beer Soda Syrup in Williams Sonoma without picking one up to try (they had cola and lemon-lime, too). I like a lot of the other products from Sonoma Syrup Co, including their vanilla bean crush, so I had fairly high hopes for the root beer. Plus, the idea of making my own gourmet soda was pretty appealing, especially because the instructions on the bottle just called for mixing the syrup with chilled soda water and giving it a stir before serving. The root beer and other sodas are all hand made using natural ingredients, cane sugar and natural flavorings. The root beer includes sweet birch, caramel, cinnamon, sassafras and vanilla.
The root beer syrup didn’t disappoint me. It was sweet, flavorful and peppery. It actually reminded me a lot of those little root beer barrel candies that you find at some candy stores (I used to buy those all the time when I was young!). The best thing about the syrup is that you can mix up however much soda you want – even if it’s just a little bit -at one time without having to open a can or a big bottle. The whole bottle makes about 25 8-oz servings. You can also adjust the amount of flavoring in your soda, if you prefer it stronger or weaker. I found that adding a little extra when I was making root beer floats made them even better. Because this syrup is really a concentrate (all of the carbonation comes from the soda water you mix it with), you could also use this as a flavoring for other recipes if you don’t want to drink down the whole bottle.
It doesn’t take much to put me in the mood to make some smoothies. A warm day and the motivation to pull out the blender are all I really need – and the warmer the day, the more likely I am to want to pull out that blender! Once it’s out, of course, you still need to figure out what to throw in there. Fortunately, almost any fruit will do.I gave this smoothie a tropical twist. I started with ripe bananas, fresh pineapple and shredded coconut. I added some plain yogurt and coconut milk to give it a creamy texture, and the coconut milk enhanced the flavor of the shredded coconut. I ended up blending in a little bit of sugar, as well, but the smoothie has a nice natural sweetness on its own.
It’s light and refreshing, and definitely a tropical start to the day if you make one of these with breakfast. You just need a little umbrella (and maybe a plane ticket!) and you’re ready for a little escape – at least, I know I was!
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“My old grandfather made and enjoyed wine for 80 years. He told me the soils in which the vines lived were a layer cake. He told me the soil in which the vines lived were a layer cake. He said, the wine, if properly made,was like a great layer cake, fruit, mocha, chocolate, and hints of spice — and rich, always rich.
‘Never pass up a good Layer Cake,’ he would say.
“I have always loved those words.” (from the wine’s label)
I tried to resist trying this wine when I first saw it in stores a couple of months ago, but it was simply too difficult to resist the tempting illustration on the front of the bottle and the equally tempting description of what a wine should be in the quote above, which is featured on the front of the bottle. Plus, I also like shirazes. So I bought a bottle to give it a try.
Layer Cake Shiraz is made by Layer Cake Wine, and is produced in McLaren Vale in South Australia. It’s a nice, well-balanced shiraz that has a lot of fruity, berry flavor to it. And it tastes very clean, not overly sweet or jammy; it tastes more like fresh berries. I can detect blueberries, blackberries and cherries in there. Keep in mind that I am not an expert wine taster, so I can’t accurately describe all of the other flavors mentioned in the wine’s tasting notes. Still, as a more experienced layer cake taster, I can tell you that this is a lovely and complex wine that would go very well with a chocolate or spice cake for dessert, as well as with a burger or steak at dinner.
Apple cider is a type of unfiltered apple juice made from pressing ripe apples to remove the liquid from them. It looks quite different from regular apple juice, which is filtered and is completely clear, because it is cloudy as a result of having apple particles still suspended in it. Many fans of cider will tell you that it has more flavor to it than regular apple juice does. It can be served chilled, but one of the most popular – and most delicious – things to do with a batch of apple cider is to spice it and serve it heated. It’s great for warming you up on a cold day when served this way.
Spiced cider. also known as mulled cider, can be made in a number of different ways with a number of different spices. To make spiced apple cider, add some cider to a medium or large saucepan (depending on how much or how little cider you want to make) and add in some whole spices to it. Use cinnamon sticks, whole cloves, star anise and a bit of nutmeg. I actually don’t use very much nutmeg, so I’ll generally add in a sprinkle of ground nutmeg. Bring the cider to a boil, the remove from heat and let the cider steep with the spices in it for 15 minutes or so. Strain out the spices and reheat before serving.
If you don’t have whole spices, you can use small amounts of ground spices, but you should keep in mind that you won’t be able to strain them out easily and they’ll probably just sit at the bottom of the glass when you go to serve the cider.
Anyone who has been in a Starbucks lately has seen Starbucks Via. The coffee company has been promoting their new instant coffee like crazy, so it’s pretty hard to miss. If you were lucky, you might have even gotten a free sample or two in a promotional taste test. I say “lucky” because Via is actually excellent for an instant coffee (and quite a bit better than some regular coffees). Starbucks came up with a new process to produce it, so it is not the same as the freeze-dried instant coffee that populates store shelves, nor does it taste anything like that watery, bland stuff. Via comes in two flavors – Colombian and Italian roasts – and tastes fresh and strong. It also dissolves easily in both hot and cold water, thanks to that new production process, so it can be used any time.
While I actually have taken a big like to taking a few packets of Via when I travel, I have found that it is an excellent baking ingredient in the home, too. Adding it into a recipe that calls for coffee flavoring is like adding a whole cup of coffee with just a little bit of powder. It definitely packs in much more flavor than regular instant coffee and incorporates much more seamlessly. This means that there is no need to dissolve it in a bit of hot liquid before adding it to a batter; you can stir it into dry ingredients just as you would with any ground spice, and it will blend perfectly into your finished product. The Colombian is good, but the Italian has a darker and stronger flavor, more like espresso. Via is a little more expensive than a generic instant coffee, but definitely well worth the price for the flavor and the convenience. I think that it is actually easier to use than the instant espresso powder that I usually use, and pretty much ties with Trablit coffee extract for flavor. Definitely worth keeping a box around the pantry if you like to use coffee flavoring in your baked goods or other dishes.
