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BUZZ - Trends, News and Views
By Editor: June 2007,
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Our quick (and unscientific) look at some of the trends and news we find interesting and relevant.
MAI TAIS AND TIKI PARTIES MAKING A COMEBACK
Ever wondered what an $1,150 cocktail tastes like? We haven’t, either. But according to a recent article at the Toronto Star’s online site, the makers of Appleton Estate Jamaica Rum are hoping their cocktail, named “world's most expensive beverage” by the Guinness Book of World Records, generates some renewed interest in an old Tiki classic -- the Mai Tai. Invented in 1944 in San Francisco by "Trader Vic" Bergeron, the Mai Tai has suffered over the years at the hands of lazy barkeeps, who sling versions made with cheap bar rum watered down with pineapple juice and studded with maraschino cherries.
What makes the Appleton drink so pricey is the rum – the same Wray & Nephew 17-year-old that Trader Vic used to make his historic drink more than 40 years ago – something that's been out of production for decades. Appleton, a subsidiary of Wray & Nephew, has six precious bottles of the rum in reserve and invited Winchester to taste it and replicate the famous Mai Tai.
It's all the rage in London, thanks to Mayfair's trendy Mahiki Club, where drinks are served in diver's helmets and hollowed-out pineapples and Prince Harry has been known to down $225 Treasure Chest cocktails (serves 8) with his gal pal.
Tiki is also a popular theme in New York and L.A.
For more, check out our Tiki party feature, and our Mai Tai feature, which includes Trader Vic’s original recipe.
"PEAR IS THE NEW APPLE."
According to ABSOLUT, "Pear is the new apple and apple flavoured vodka is yesterday’s news."
ABSOLUT has just introduced its newest flavor to North America - ABSOLUT PEARS, and describes the flavor as a "fresh and clear aroma of mellow pears with a slight touch of sweet almonds. It’s fruity, smooth and full-bodied with a long and slightly dry aftertaste." We tried it - and it's hard to argue with their description.
We asked the experts themselves - ABSOLUT - for some recipes to try this new Pear Flavor and we received two great recipes - ABSOLUT PEARS FIZZ and the ABSOLUT PEARTINI.
For more on ABSOLUT PEARS and to check out some new cocktail recipes »
IS YOUR FAVORITE RED WINE REALLY THAT GOOD FOR YOU?
Red wine is being widely touted for its health benefits, but not all red wines may act the same according to researchers at the University of Hertfordshire, who are testing a random selection of red wines to determine their levels of resveratrol. Resveratrol is a natural antioxidant found in red wine and red grape skins, known to protect against a range of illnesses and diseases including neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's or other dementias, cancer and heart disease and more recently documented for its role in extending lifespan. It is also found in peanuts and Dr. Richard Hoffman and his team are also currently examining their anti-cancer properties.
According to Dr Hoffman, although the health benefits of resveratrol found in red wine have been well documented, no one has systematically measured its levels in particular wines before. "As a result, they assume that all red wines are the same, but this is certainly not the case as the levels of resveratrol vary." The research team plans to be able recommend the healthiest bottle of wine among those they have tested. They also aim to work with wine suppliers and retailers so that they can persuade them to put health indicators on their products.
"The long-term aim is for people to be able to go along to the supermarket and to be able to know at a glance the levels of resveratrol contained in the wines they are choosing," said Dr. Hoffman.
(excerpted from Medical News Today.com)
MOODY AS A PINOT NOIR
Are you a chardonnay or a cabernet? An online New Zealand wine retailer says your favorite wine is a reflection of your personality.
Wine Fairy recently published a humorous list describing the likely characteristics of people who drink different vintages. If you're a chardonnay fan, you're "dependable, modest and admired for your steadfast beliefs," the site says."While you'll probably drink just about anything so long as it's alcoholic, you like chardonnay best because, like you, it's stood the test of time -- even if it's not quite cool anymore," writes the site's owner Lesley Reid. Sauvignon blanc types tend to be easygoing while trying to remain forever young. If pinot gris is your tipple of choice, you're probably a flirt, while pinot noir types are moody, charming and seductive, the site says. Cabernet blend drinkers are sophisticated and tend to rub people the wrong way. Perhaps unsurprisingly, champagne drinkers are billed as high-maintenance and "all about grabbing life for the living and taking what's yours."
Commuters’ cocktail hour likely to keep rolling
Faced with the possibility of losing their late-afternoon cocktail, bankers and blue-collar workers alike recently spoke out in defense of the tradition of a Scotch and soda or a cold Budweiser on the train ride home to the suburbs of New York City. Liquor service on commuter rail is actually a long-standing tradition, and in NYC, uniformed bartenders sell beer, wine, hard liquor, sodas and snacks from carts stationed near platforms at Grand Central Terminal on weekdays, beginning shortly after noon. During the evening rush, bartenders wheel their carts onto two Long Island-bound trains leaving Penn Station and sell alcohol to passengers during the trip. On Friday afternoons in the summer, the Long Island also sells alcohol from carts on the Cannonball, a train that travels from Hunterspoint to Montauk, carrying weekenders to the Hamptons. And based on the overwhelmingly negative response to a proposed ban on the cocktail service (which stemmed from concerns over drinking and driving post-ride), it’s unlikely that the tradition will be stopped anytime soon.
(with files from The New York Times)
Fashion designers are actually soaking clothes in, and imbuing perfumes with, wine
In yet another sign of our wine-soaked, post-Sideways times, fashion designers are actually soaking clothes in, and imbuing perfumes with, wine. Taking the term "fruit of the loom" literally, Milan-based fashion house Cool Hunting People recently sold out of a limited-edition jeans line dyed with Italian wine. Over in France, Bordeaux wine maker Ginestel has teamed with a perfume house to create a line of fragrances designed to evoke the aromas of wine. And at the University of Western Australia, scientists researching a cotton alternative have reported a breakthrough that is already threatening to make the Cool Hunting People's jeans look like yesterday's fashion -- a way to grow clothes out of wine waste product. The "fabric" is a cellulose fibre that forms on the surface of the fermenting tank after wine is exposed to oxygen. But perhaps the dodgiest wine-chic connection may be Yamaha's scooter, the Vino, aimed at competing with the Italian-chic Vespa. It all calls to mind a pun adopted by one of those cult Napa Valley wineries as a house motto and souvenir bumper sticker: “Life is a cabernet.” Apparently so.
(excerpted from globeandmail.com)
