hospitalitynU

To prevent a sparkling wine from foaming out of the glass, pour an ounce, which will settle quickly. Pouring the remainder of the serving into this starter will not foam as much.  Old wine almost never turns to vinegar. It spoils by oxidation.  In 1999 Merlot was the "hot" varietal, but 50 years earlier in 1949, the "darlingof the California wine industry" was Muscatel. A 1889 newspaper that described the Napa Valley crop as the finest of its kind grown in the U.S., was referring to hops.  Wine has so many organic chemical compounds it is considered more complex than blood serum.  170 years - the average age of a French oak tree harvested for use in wine barrels.  Portugal has 1/3 of the world's cork forests and supplies about 90% of the cork used in the U.S.  Beaujolais Nouveau cannot be legally released until the third Thursday of every November. In 2003 the date is Nov. 20th.  20 million acres are planted to grapes worldwide? Worldwid...

Tutankhamum Ale:  This limited edition beer has a very interesting past. It was brewed in the basement of the laboratory of Cambridge from a recipe that was discovered at Queen Nefertiti’s temple in Egypt. The beer was named after the stepson of the Queen, King Tut. The beer may be purchased for $52 per bottle. Samuel Adams Utopias : This is another vintage beer that you can think of. The beer holds the Guinness World Record for being the strongest beer at 50. The beer is brewed with hops and grain that makes the taste as bitter but the strength remains for longer periods of time. The beer is sold in a specially made copper plated kettle. The sweet flavor in the beer can be attributed to the vanilla, oak or caramel that is added during the production. This beer is non-carbonated and should be served at room temperature. There are only 8000 bottles that are available and you can own one for $100. Carlsberg Vintage 3:  Third in the trilogy series, this beer is st...

• 20 million acres are planted for grapes worldwide. • Among the world's fruit crops, wine grapes rank#1 in number of acres planted? • 164 countries import California wines. • 30 million gallons of wine were lost in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. • Phylloxera was first discovered in California on 14 august 1873 • It takes 5 years to harvest a commercial crop from newly replanted grape vines. • 10,000 varieties of wine grapes exist worldwide. • It cost 80 cents per bottle to age wine in a French oak barrel. • It cost 2.25$ per bottle to age wine in only new French oak barrels. • The first known reference to a specific wine vintage is mentioned in roman history rated 121 B.C. as a vintage “of the highest excellence. • A bottle of opened wine stored in the refrigerator lasts 6-16 times longer than it would if stored at room temp? • There are 400 oak species available • Only 20 are used in making oak barrels. • 5% of an oak tree is suitable for making high grade wi...

This liqueur was invented in 1797; it soon gained popularity amongst the fairer sex. It was also one of the first liqueurs to be advertised. However its manufacture was always shrouded in controversy due to one of its ingredients, wormwood to be precise. It was subsequently banned in many countries. Which 'Green Fairy' am I talking about?     Absinthe. Absinthe (invented by Dr. Pierre Ordinaire) was called the 'La fee verte' because of its colour. It gained instant notoriety because of the 'Absinthe murder' (One Mr. Lanfray, supposedly after having two shots of Absinthe, become so intoxicated and killed his wife). It was banned in the U.S of A in 1912 and this ban was followed by many other countries. The liqueur gets its name from a Jamaican 'Aunt Maria'. It is the one of the most popular coffee liqueurs in the world. What is this liqueur known as?     Tia Maria. According to legend, a young girl was separated from her family during the colonia...

We hear and read a lot about oats being a natural weight loss food. Oats do help in reducing hunger as the soluble fibre in oats fills you up by creating gels. The gels delay stomach emptying, so you feel full longer, which helps with weight loss. Eating a bowl of oatmeal in the morning can easily help you increase your intake of whole grains too. But there is also confusion regarding which oats to buy/eat because there are: 1)oat bran; 2)rolled oats; 3)quick oats and 4)instant oats available. Cooking time and texture are the only differences among the varieties. Oat bran is the bran of the oat grain. It is the outer layer of the oat kernel, where much of the fibre and many of the nutrients reside. Oat bran contains the same nutrients and fiber found in whole oats but they are more concentrated. Rolled oats contain the bran along with the rest of the oat kernel. Rolled oats are steamed and flattened between steel rollers, so they take about five minutes to cook. Quick ...

As we know while cooking an onion a very strong aroma is produced that most people enjoy. But cutting up an onion stings your eyes and makes them water uncontrollably. If you love to include onions in your dishes, this probably frustrates you all the time. So just what is it in onions that make them such an ordeal to prepare? When you slice through an onion, you break open a number of onion cells. Some of these cells have enzymes inside them and when they are sliced open, the enzymes escape. The enzymes then decompose some of the other substances that have escaped from sliced cells. Some of these substances quickly rearrange themselves into a volatile gas. The gas reaches your eyes and reacts with the water that keeps them moist. This change produces a mild sulfuric acid, which irritates the eyes. The nerve endings in your eyes are very sensitive and so they pick up on this irritation which is why our eyes sting when we slice onions. The brain reacts by telling your...