The Gourmet Cupboard

When it comes to the relationship between good health and wine drinking, the proverbial cat has been out of the bag for not just years but decades. It was originally postulated when people in the late 20th Century noticed that the French suffer a lower rate of heart disease than any other Western Country, and drew the obvious correlation between their consumption of wines and this health. Then, with the discovery of the important role that LDL and HDL cholesterol play in determining a person’s chances of heart disease, science uncovered a clear connection between wine, alcohol, and the risk of heart disease. So the simple point is that middle-aged people who regularly consume one to two glasses of red wine a day, closer to eight to nine glasses a week for women, have a lower risk of heart disease and other heart problems than those who don’t.

However, there has been a great deal of back and forth argument about how effective this preventative measure is and how exactly it works. The first point that many contemporary experts make is that consuming alcohol has its own risks, even when done in moderation, and the science isn’t strong enough to suggest that everyone should pick up drinking wine if they aren’t already likely to enjoy the beverage.

The first theory was that by raising HDL (high-density lipoproteins) levels – the more desirable cholesterol – and lowering LDL levels, red wine lowers blood pressure. While this remains essentially true, the effect has been documented and it is not strong enough to cause the benefits some argue red wine has. The next line of science suggested that this happens because certain antioxidants in wine have a positive effect on blood pressure. However, recent studies have shown that these polyphenols have no direct correlation with decreased blood pressure.

Some other proven benefits include decreasing plaque buildup in veins and arteries, thinning the blood, and flavonoids fighting free radicals to prevent cell damage including to the interior lining of veins. Recent studies even show that wine includes a cocktail of healthy, natural elements that also combine to reduce the severity of aging-related diseases such Alzheimer’s, dementia, and even skin inelasticity. But the fact remains that every population the exhibits the kinds of characteristics that suggest a strong correlation between wine and improved health practice regular and moderated drinking with little to no binging. There is even some argument that this general area of benefits to health and longevity can be found in other populations that moderately consume various alcohols, not just wine.

Wine is unique in that its production introduces chemicals from the seeds, skin, and stems into the liquid. It seems that the substances contributed by this process that were first identified as being responsible for wine’s health benefits may not be as important as was initially thought. But this just suggests that more research is necessary to identify exactly what it is about drinking wine that makes regular, moderate consumption so strongly correlated with a lower incidence of heart disease.

Understanding How Wine Can Benefit Your Heart Health Is Important for Making the Right Decisions. A Little Red Wine Can Be Good.

With Green Mountain Coffee, you can enjoy a delicious cup of coffee every morning quickly. They have been making delicious world class coffee blends for a long time now. Everyone is well aware of the pleasures of a steaming cup of coffee in the mornings. Green Mountain Coffee can turn lazy mornings into a delightful experience. With gourmet blends of exotic coffee and flavors that go beyond your taste buds to deeply rejuvenate and refresh your senses. So just grab yourself a cup of hot coffee and let yourself be a victim of sinful taste.

Green Mountain Coffee is a well known name in the world of gourmet coffee. For decades now, they have been bringing top notch quality and breathtaking taste to your kitchens. This unique brand has always ensured high quality by using only the best coffee beans from the best coffee estates around the world. They have a high technology processing system that yields the best flavor of pure natural coffee and retains the freshness and delightful taste. Their system uses k cups to brew single servings in a Keurig coffee maker. What really makes Green Mountain Coffee special however is their extensive collection of blends and huge array of flavors that really make them stand out of the huge crowd of coffee brands.

You may be a huge coffee enthusiast and may have a few unique recipes up your sleeve. But admittedly, it’s quite impossible to blend a huge number of restaurant quality coffee recipes at home. Most often, you would just wake up in the morning, pick up a packet of instant coffee mix and just go from there. But your mornings need not be that routine or repetitive any more. Green Mountain Coffee offers you k cups in over one hundred unique blends of coffee. From light and mild blends to full bodied dark coffee, you can have anything you like brewed in a Keurig coffee maker. And not just for coffee lovers, Green Mountain Coffee has some brilliant options for chocolate lovers too. Specially flavored hot cocoa blends are also available to suit your taste.

Green Mountain Coffee offers a vast selection of flavors to pick from, so you never fall short of options. You can literally sip a brand new cup of coffee every morning. Nantucket Blend Breakfast Blend, Fair Trade Vermont, and many others are some of the flavors Green Mountain Coffee offers.

A steaming hot cup of coffee is an absolute delight in the morning or after a long day at work. Coffee is a great conversation starter and a cup of coffee is an amazing thing to bond over. And when this cup of coffee is a cup of freshly brewed coffee, it couldn’t get any better. So just grab yourself a cup of hot coffee and sit back and relax while Green Mountain Coffee does its job of lifting your senses.

Thanks to the advent of Keurig cups, you no longer need to wait for your morning coffee to brew in a pot. You can now have a fresh cup brewed just for you in a matter of seconds. Just pick up a k cup, set it inside of the Keurig coffee maker and fresh, steaming coffee starts pouring into your cup. K cups are a path breaking innovation from the house of Keurig.

So if you are wondering what these Keurig cups are all about, well, these are pre-packaged, vacuum sealed coffee mix pouches that come in a cup. These cups contain all the ingredients required to make a cup of hot coffee. All they need is some boiling hot water. That job is done by a Keurig coffee maker. When you place a Keurig cup in the coffee maker and press the button, a tube punctures the Keurig cup and sends a stream of scalding hot water running through it. This hot water instantly mixed with the proportionate blend of coffee in the Keurig cup and makes a cup of delicious coffee. This coffee is then delivered to your cup using a dispensing nozzle. So all you need to really do is push a button, and your coffee is brewed before you can spell the word coffee! Isn’t that amazing now.

And that’s not all. There’s more to the pleasures of K cups. How many flavors of coffee can you brew at home? Two? Maybe three? Well, I can do just one. But with K cups, you can savor up to two hundred different kinds of coffee. So you can have a new coffee every morning. That’s because Keurig cups come in a huge variety of flavors from light blends to dark espressos. The range of flavors on offer is incredible. Some of the flavors come from the remotest parts of the world. Rich, aromatic and exotic, Keurig cups are a gift of god for all coffee lovers and others too. Yes, K cups also come in some very fine blends of tea, hot cocoa and iced beverages. So there’s something for everyone out there.

K cups are specially packed with a vacuum seal to lock in the flavors and keep the coffee blend fresh and aromatic for a long time. So you can have fresh Brazilian coffee or hot green mountain tea sitting in your living room, without worrying about any compromise in the flavor.

Keurig cups are especially useful for offices and commercial spaces where a lot of people need coffee and each one needs it at a different time. No more waiting for someone to blend a pot full of coffee and serve everyone. You can now have your own, fresh out of a Keurig cup.

Green Mountain Coffee is a well known name in the coffee world. Based in Waterbury, Vermont, Green Mountain Coffee has been offering its customers great quality coffee for a long time now. What could be better than a steaming cup of coffee on a lazy morning? Or for that matter, any time of the day, a good cup of coffee can really lift up your spirits. That is what Green Mountain Coffee likes to do. Lift up your spirits and put you in the best of your mood with the best coffee blends from around the world.

Green Mountain Coffee uses only the best quality coffee beans and puts them through a unique processing system that preserves the flavor of the coffee. What really makes them stand out of the crowd however, is their extensive range of exotic blends. With some unique flavors and intoxicating aroma, a cup of Green Mountain Coffee fills up your senses and refreshes your spirits instantly. No matter how big a coffee enthusiast you are, just how many different blends of coffee can you have up your sleeve? Two or three, or maybe four. But no matter how hard you try, being able to prepare two hundred different flavors of restaurant quality coffee at home is not an easy task. Green mountain coffee offers more than two hundred different blends of coffee, each with a unique flavor. So you can have a different taste of coffee each time.

Green Mountain Coffee has now also taken over Keurig cups to make your coffee experience even better. K cups offer a proportionate blend of coffee in individual pods that can be used to brew a single cup of coffee instantly. All you have to do is pick up a Keurig cup containing your favorite flavor blend of coffee and place it in the Keurig coffee maker. Just pressing a button yields a steaming cup of delicious coffee.

With a huge array of flavors to choose from, the use of k cups never lets you run out of choices. You can literally have a new cup of coffee every time. Some of the most popular flavors from Green Mountain Coffee include Breakfast Blend, Nantucket Blend, Fair Trade Vermont Blend, and a lot more.

A coffee is not just a coffee, is much more than that. It’s a great way to start your day. Wash away that laziness and liven up your spirits every morning. Or if you just had a real long day at work, unwind, rejuvenate your senses and lift your spirits with a warm cup of coffee. A Keurig coffee maker can make the perfect blend of coffee for every mood and every time of the day.

Just the very thought of a steaming cup of delicious Tazo tea on a chilly morning is a pleasure in itself. And for years now, Tazo has been making that experience even more delightful. Tazo is a leading name in the world tea and Tazo teas carry the reputation of being the best makers of tea since a long time. Every cup of Tazo tea is made from a premium selection of only the best tea leaves garnered from the best tea estates across the world. The tea experts of Tazo remain busy all around the year searching for the highest quality of taste and aroma, and bring to you the best tea of the world.

Tazo tea is available in a variety of flavors. So whatever the occasion, whatever your mood, there’s always a perfect cup of tea for you. Tazo tea offers a platter of choices in both green as well as black tea. It also has a stunning range of herbal infusions which are not only great tasting but also highly rejuvenating and healing in many ways. Tazo makes a fine blend of the best tea leaves and a variety of spices and flavorings. You can find it all in Tazo tea. Cardamom, star anise, chamomile, hibiscus, rosemary, sage, even blackberry leaves and orange peel flavors. You will find a huge range of teas containing one or a few of these spices blended perfectly in a cup of tea that goes beyond your taste buds to refresh and revitalize your senses.

You can have your unique Tazo tea experience in any of the four major categories which are, Full Leaf, Filter bag, Bottled and Tea Latte. Some of the premium black tea blends from Tazo tea are Awake, Earl Grey, Montage and the ever so popular Tazo Chai. Green tea variants come in some delicious exotic flavors like Passion Potion, Giant Peach, Zen, China Green, Lemon Green and many more. But most interesting are the herbal infusions Tazo tea offers. Choices like African red bush, Calm, Sweet Cinnamon Spice and Wild Sweet Orange are just a few. With that many on offer, you will truly be spoilt for choices. You can in fact have a new flavor of tea every morning if you’d like to, and still never run out of options from Tazo Tea. The teas made by Yogi Tea are also very good.

Recently, Tazo tea decided to replace some of its old variants available in the retail market with a new line of full leaf variants. Full leaf teas offer a more natural flavor of the tea that all tea lovers cherish. Tazo tea, based in Portland, Oregon is a coveted name in the tea heritage. You can enjoy a hot cup of delicious, flavorful, exotic tea anytime, anywhere with Tazo tea.

Pop round a friends or neighbors house in the UK for a coffee and the chances are very high that you will be served a mug of bland instant coffee. This doesn’t happen in the US.

The reason may be due to past unavailability, but this is no longer the case. In the past, most offices and places of work in the UK had little or no provision for real coffee – instant coffee was the only option to a thirsty worker via a vending machine or jar and kettle. This has never been an issue in the US, where it seems fresh coffee has always been the preferred choice. Just watch any old cop show going back in time as far as you like – you would always see a coffee pot not far from the action.

Let’s be honest here. Instant coffee, made by adding hot water to powder or granules is not very nice when compared to the real thing. It bears little or no resemblance to the proper stuff. Real coffee has that amazing complicated aroma, intense taste and real personality. Coffee made from instant granules has little smell, a bland taste and absolutely no personality whatsoever!

Slick instant coffee TV commercials continue to infest TV in the UK. This may have tricked the general public into putting up with such a lousy beverage? There are two or three very large commercial brands that have captured most of the market and have no intension of letting their sales slip.

Thank goodess for the invasion of US coffee shops into the UK high street. These have really taken root over the last 10-15 years and this has slowly been educating the public that real coffee is best. Indeed, it’s almost impossible to walk anywhere in central London without having at least two coffee shops in view at any one time. Thanks heavens.

It appears that things have been changing and now freshly brewed coffee is available almost anywhere. The acceptance of vending machines that now brew a reasonable bean to cup coffee has been a great help. Now nearly all premises serving visitors have fresh coffee on the menu.

In the home however the situation hasn’t changed. Very few households in the UK have a facility to brew freshly brewed coffee from the bean. The majority still stick with instant coffee even if they have a coffee maker for convenience. Yes, it takes longer to brew a proper cup, and there is more mess to clear up. Fresh coffee needs to be looked after properly and stored well. The final drink however is divine and beyond comparison.

Hopefully in the not too distant future, the Brits will throw out their jars of instant and get stuck into the real thing.

Coffee is a fascinating subject – Take a look at our website to discover more about the wonderful world of coffee and coffee machines.

Today’s wine is an interesting combination, a Hungarian Pinot Grigio. It’s named for Baron Lazare de Schwendi who according to legend brought Tokay vines from Hungary into Alsace way back in 1565. But don’t be mistaken, these are not the vines that produce Hungary’s sometimes world-class sweet Tokaji wine. I don’t recall ever tasting a Hungarian Pinot Grigio. I do recall tasting a Hungarian Tokaji that I preferred to a French Sauternes, but that’s another story. This wine was produced in the Pozmand region of Etyek, Hungary’s youngest viticultural area situated in the eastern part of the country. The locals claim that it has stunning landscape, and is known for excellent wines including sparkling wines. If you are in the region check out the local Cellar Festival in mid-May. Today’s companion wine comes from Austria’s signature grape, Gruener Veltliner in a moderate price range.

OUR WINE REVIEW POLICY All wines that we taste and review are purchased at the full retail price.

Wine Reviewed
Baron Lazare de Schwendi Pinot Grigio 2008 11.9% alcohol about $10.

Let’s start by quoting the marketing materials. Tasting Note: Hungary is starting to make some exciting Pinot Grigios. As a result, wines such as this melon-, pear-, citrus- and floral-scented one are finding favor. Dry and flavorful, this wine finishes crisp and very refreshing. Enjoy it with steamed mussels or clams. (VINTAGES panel, June 2009). And now for my review.

At the first sips this wine’s acidity was dominant. It seemed thin but refreshing. The first meal centered on a meatless patty made with textured vegetable protein. The acidity was now round and pleasant; the wine’s lemon stepped up. French fried eggplant sticks rendered the Pinot Grigio refreshing. A high-quality ice cream bar with a thick chocolate coating essentially gutted the wine.

My next meal was an omelet brimming with chilies. This wine was now excessively acidic and did not have a lot of flavor. Fresh avocado made it rounder. The wine lengthened in the presence of roasted eggplant brimming with garlic. And its delicate lemon flavor increased when consumed with a fresh tomato. Dessert was Scottish shortbread with lots of butter (32%) that intensified this Pinot Grigio’s sweetness.

My final meal was a broiled Atlantic salmon filet marinated and basted in an agave nectar sauce and then broiled and blackened. The wine now possessed lemony acidity. It displayed a tinge of sweetness when it met up with lemon slices. When married with rice and cold beets (really the beets, not the rice) it was crisp and refreshing, The accompanying green beans in tomato sauce rendered this Hungarian more acidic.

The first cheese was a mild provolone. The wine was now light, almost thin, with balanced acidity. With a fairly tasty yellow cheddar it gained in intensity to help it keep up with the stronger tasting cheese.

Final verdict. This is a close call, but I’d rather taste something new. It wasn’t quite good enough.

Levi Reiss has authored or co-authored ten computer and Internet books, but drinking fine Iwine with good company. He loves teaching computer classes at an Ontario French-language community college. His global wine website www.theworldwidewine.com features a weekly review of $10 wines. His European travel website is http://www.traveleuropetravel.com .

Some things just get better with age and fine wines are one of them. Red wines tend get more mellow and taste richer as they get older. However, in order for this to happen, these wines must be properly stored.

If you truly love these gifts of nature and have a significant collection then you will need to have a wine cellar or a wine cooler so that you can properly store your favorite vintages. However, if you don’t know the correct temperature and humidity factors for your winecellar you can very well spoil the wines that you treasure.

It’s important that the mellowing process isn’t hastened by storing your collection at the incorrect temperature. It has been documented that the ideal temperature for a winecellar is between fifty five degrees Fahrenheit and fifty eight degrees Fahrenheit. That’s because wines mellow more slowly in this temperature range.

The aging process will remain complex and will not require any special attention if you store your wines within this range.

Nonetheless, temperatures between forty degrees Fahrenheit and sixty five degrees Fahrenheit will not compromise the aging process as long the there are no large fluctuations in the temperature. If the temperature was to fluctuate rapidly, or if there were large fluctuations, you wines would age too quickly.

Your collection will not be harmed if the temperature drops below forty degrees Fahrenheit as long as it does not freeze. It will still age gracefully.

In addition the taste of these beverages would be unpredictable because the chemical reactions that take place would change.

If you were to store your bottles at a high temperature, even for a short amount of time, you will cook their contents. They will lose most of its character and freshness and will end up tasting like rotten grape juice. Even if the temperature in your winecellar or cooler were to reach eighty seven degrees Fahrenheit for a short period of time your wine could be harmed.

It is also essential that you keep your collection in air-tight corked containers. If air was to get into your bottles the wines will end up being ruined. It will oxidize and be unfit for consumption.

Winecellars should be damp, but not in the extreme. When a winecellar is damp the corks will be better preserved and will not dry out. However, if your wine cellar is excessively damp it can also spoil your wine.

In addition to maintaining the proper humidity and temperature you should make sure that your collection is stored in relative darkness because ultra-violet rays could also spoil their taste.

Next, to find a variety of Wine Coolers in different price ranges go to http://www.authoritywinecellars.com/

Today’s wine is a Chateauneuf-du-Pape from the southern Rhone Valley of France. Unlike many of its competitors, physical bottle has no distinguishing characteristics but I won’t that against it. The vineyard has been in the family hands since 1905 and the average vine is 60 years old. The winemaker used no fertilizer or chemicals and has started to use biodynamic techniques. The grapes were harvested by hand. This wine is a blend of Grenache (60%), Syrah (15%), Mourvedre (10%), Counoise (10%), and Cinsault (5%). Chateauneuf-du-Pape vineyards are known for their large stones that retain heat and hasten ripening. The companion wine is also organic and comes from the neighboring Languedoc region. It’s a Marselan, a cross between Cabernet Sauvignon and Grenache.

OUR WINE REVIEW POLICY All wines that we taste and review are purchased at the full retail price.

Wine Reviewed Chateauneuf-du-Pape Domaine de la Vieille Julienne 2005 15 % alcohol about $55.

There are no marketing materials and the front and back labels are essentially silent. So let me quote one of my favorite wine writers, Tom Stevenson, on red CdPs. “Due to the variation of terroir (roughly surroundings, my addition) and almost limitless permutations of encepagement (roughly grape blends, my addition), it is impossible to describe a typical Chateauneuf-du-Pape, but there are two categories – the traditional, full, dark, spicy, long-lived style and the modern, easy-drinking Chateauneuf-du-Pape, the best of which are unashamedly upfront and brimming with lip-smacking, juicy-jammy fruit… (In The Sotheby’s Wine Encyclopedia).” And now for my review.

At the first sips this wine was very rich and multi-layered. But it did taste sour. The first meal centered on a first-cut veal chop coated with parsley flakes and thyme and fried alongside brown mushrooms and garlic. The wine was long and mouth filling. It tasted of chocolate but its sour acidity remained. Shaking the wine vigorously seemed to reduce its sour aspect. With the mushroom and garlic mixture the Chateauneuf-du-Pape deepened and chocolate remained predominant. The wine’s acidity dealt well with the grease in the accompanying side of potatoes roasted in chicken fat. Hopefully the sourness is a thing of the past. Dessert was fruit juice candy that somewhat muted the wine. But it was still powerful.

My next meal was a broiled Atlantic Salmon perked up by Cajun spices and fresh lemon. The wine presented liquidy tannins and had good length and black fruit. The microwaved redskin potatoes gave the wine harsh, not sour, acidity and took away most of its fruit. Cold beets weakened this Rhone Valley native but it had pleasant tobacco and was balanced.

The final meal was a lamb blade chop coated with a mixture of black pepper, onion powder, and ground basil leaves and fried alongside brown mushrooms and garlic. The wine was long, very long and balanced. It dealt well with the fatty meat. When paired with the mushroom and garlic mixture this Chateauneuf-du-Pape was long and mouth filling. In the presence of a moderately spicy tomato-based Turkish salad the wine remained powerful. Its tannins were soft and it was really omnipresent.

The first cheese was a rather bland provolone. In response the wine was very long, powerful, and multi-layered. It tasted great but was perhaps wasted with a pedestrian cheese. Things were about the same when the CdP faced a yellow cheddar which managed to add a taste of tobacco to the mix.

Final verdict. I don’t intend to buy this wine again. While some of the pairings were fine I was often disappointed. I want a Chateauneuf-du-Pape that meets Stevenson’s description but perhaps $55 just won’t do it. Needless to say, I won’t be repeating this experience every week. By the way, the producer recommends aging this bottle for 8 to 15 years so perhaps I hit it a bit too soon.

Levi Reiss authored or co-authored ten computer and Internet books, but prefers drinking fine wine with the right foods and people. He teaches computers at an Ontario French-language community college. His global wine website www.theworldwidewine.com features a weekly review of $10 wines. Visit his Italian travel website www.travelitalytravel.com.

It has now become apparent that the easiest and most convenient way to buy coffee is through online retailers. Coffee is one of the most popular drinks in the whole world, and there are so many different varieties to choose from. Fortunately, no matter what kind of coffee you like best, it is now incredibly easy to find it online!

Naturally, you will want to consider your budget. Nearly everyone is on a tight budget these days. You can find a variety of different online retailers that will cater to a wide range of different budgets. This is especially true when it comes to shipping. Double check your shipping options before you order. Of course, if it is very important for you to receive your order quickly, you may find that it will be worth it to pay extra for faster shipping.

Part of the appeal of online shopping is that you can have your products delivered right to your doorstep without even leaving the comfort of your own home. All you have to do is sit back and relax while you look at all your options, and then once you decide what you want the item is only a few clicks away! Another great advantage that you will get when you buy coffee online is that you will have a much wider variety of options. You can order coffee from any area you like, and you don’t have to travel anywhere to get coffee from another state or country!

The retailer that you choose also has a lot to do with the type of coffee that you prefer to drink. Over the last decade, it has become more and more popular to drink organic and fair trade coffee. Not only is it better for the environment, but it is much better for your health overall. In addition to that, by supporting the fair trade movement you are helping farmers in developing countries to get a fair price for all of their hard work.

Don’t forget that organic and fair trade coffee also has a much better taste and aroma. This is because of the farming practices that are used in the process of growing this sort of coffee. It used to be that it was really hard to find organic and fair trade coffee. Additionally, it used to be pretty expensive to purchase. However, the demand for it has increased so much that you can easily buy coffee that is organically grown from an online retailer. Now that it is so simple and cost effective to buy this kind of coffee, many coffee lovers are jumping at the chance. It’s so much better when you can drink your morning cup of coffee with a clear conscience knowing that you are not only benefitting the famers and the environment, but you are also benefitting yourself.

Overall, it has become quite clear that the ability to buy coffee online has brought about a great deal of convenience and variety to coffee lovers worldwide.