Cooking World

Mulled wine (from German gluhende Wein - hot, flaring wine) is irreplaceable in a cold season. This drink is perfect for long winter evenings and open air activities. It is usually prepared from red (less often white) wine with sugar and kitchen herbs, cinnamon and cloves, sometimes rum, cognac, liqueur and lemons are added.

Mulled wine is also recommended during recovering after infectious diseases, or at physical and mental exhaustion.

Directions:

The most important - mulled wine should not begin to boil! The temperature should be about 70 C. The wine should be heated in fire-resistant utensils until the white foam disappear.
It is important not to forget - mulled wine does not bear cooling, as the wine heated up once, loses for ever the bouquet and flavoring qualities. Use high glasses to prevent fast cooling.

If the structure of mulled wine includes hot water, it should be boiled just before use.

Mulled wine may be kept in a usual thermos. By the way, the drink will only win from it: it will slightly thicken and be brewed. The only condition - if you are going to thermos a drink for more than an hour, take out lemon peel, or the wine will be bitter.

Unique climate. The simultaneous closeness of Maipo valley to mountains and a coast exerted influence on a climate. Conditions for grapes growing are amazing. Day time heat is compensated by cool night breezes from the ocean, and mountains protect vines from cold winds and rains. Hot droughty summer and short soft winters - here are the basic features of the region. The fluctuation in day time and night temperature reaches 20 degrees, which influences well grapes acidity level. Wines turn out saturated, complex, but due to high acidity light and unobtrusive.

The river Maipo stretched from the East to the West also influences soil of the valley. The vineyards located along the river-bed, grow on stony soils, and wines here are mineral. On more remote sites because of sand and clay wines are more dense.

The first-class. In this valley have been located the oldest wineries of the countries: Concha Y Toro, Santa Rita, Cousino Macul, Tarapaca, Carmen. 8 thousands hectares out of 10 thousands are set aside for red kinds. The most popular are red wines from cabernet sauvignon, though each manufacturer has the own approach. So, light wine Cousino-Macul Maipo Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 1996 possesses the bright fruit aroma, inherent to Beaujolais wines. And perfectly structured wine Casillero del Diablo Maipo Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 1996, made by Concha Y Toro winery, on the contrary, is remembered by the saturated taste of a black currant and herbs with rich fruit and oak notes.

Designer Roberto Kavalli, obviously, does not recognize relaxation. Now he is going to launch a new wine collection.

Cavalli Collection and Cavalli Selection actually are blends of such wines, as Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot and Alicante Bouchet, created from the grapes grown by Kavalli’s family on their own vineyard in Tuscany. Cavalli wines will appear on sale next year in Great Britain, Germany, Switzerland and the USA.

The first 5000 bottles (with traditional for Roberto Kavalli leopard prints) will be sold in Tuscany prior to the beginning of sales in other countries. A vineyard is managed by designer’s son Tommaso, while Roberto Kavalli is concentrated on management of his fashionable empire. «Tomasso has never asked me about anything», has told the designer in interview to WWD.

«He is a true idealist. He has never used popularity of my name, however I needed 40 years to create the brand - why do not use it to sale wines?»

Appearance of grog began with disappointment. English seamen, whose menu traditionally included rum, one fine day, were given dilute drink at the direction of Admiral Edward Vernon. The admiral’s nickname of “Grog” has passed to this drink. Now grog is the drink, which consists of rum, sugar, hot water or strong tea. It is a strong drink. Or very strong drink.

Traditional Russian hot drink - sbiten. It is made from honey and treacle, cinnamon, cloves, herbs. This drink was popular in taverns, at fairs and in streets, it was bought from peddlers. By the way, this drink not always contained wine - but it helped to be warmed in frosts and to be rescued from cold.

Hot drinks are intended for a dialogue. The snack should not be burdensome - cheeses and dishes from them, ham, roasted bread. All these drinks can be not only ordered at a coffee house or at a restaurant, but also prepared at home. There are a lot of recipes, and it is possible to tell, them there are none of them at all – all depends on your taste, good purpose and occasion.

November is the time when struggle against seasonal depressions and colds pushes people to all extreme measures. The hot and spicy drinks containing alcohol is simultaneously both a cause and a purpose mixed in one glass.

One of the most popular hot alcoholic drinks is mulled wine. In its basis - red wine (less often - white), sweetened, mixed with spices and fruits. The history of mulled wine began in Ancient Greece - there the wine was mixed with honey, bay leaf, carnation, spicy herbs and warmed up - the drink for cold and rainy days was ready. For a long time in the different European countries drinks which were originated from those warmed up wine have both features of similarity, and their national features - different sets of spices, strong alcohol, etc.

One more winter drink is punch. Its native land is India, “punchâ€? from Hindi means “five”.
In a classical variant it is a number of components, which should be mixed in a drink: rum or vodka, sugar, lemon juice, spices and water. To Europe the recipe has been brought by British seamen, and, certainly, it began to change, acquiring new details. This way has appeared egg, coffee and tea punches, apple, cherry, etc.
There is also the Russian variant of this drink, which is featured by its ability to be ignited and is famous owing to hussars’ traditions. By the way, any punch is traditionally made in big portions.

According to the historical records, at the end of the 16th only Istanbul there were at least 500 cafes. In Europe the first cafes were opened by immigrants from Asia around 1650.
It is interesting that a coffee tree has a lifespan of about 50 up to 70 years.
The coffee berries turn bright red from yellow in 6 - 8 months after flowering.
Mature coffee tree in bloom is covered with 30,000 white flowers which begin to develop into fruit within 24 - 36 hours.
In nature coffee tree can flower eight times in one year, all depends on rainfall.
Arabica has 900 different flavours.
During roasting coffee increases in volume by 18.60%.

There a few versions about coffee’s origin

The province in Ethiopia where it was first discovered is called Kaffa.
The holy building in Mecca is called Kaaba.
In Turkish “roasted� is “kahwe�.
Cahouah and Cohuet are Arabic words.

Going to buy perfumes, some people take some coffee in their handbag to have a sniff in between smelling each perfume to refresh the nose.
Spent coffee grounds around the garden plants will prevent it from snails and slugs.
A mixture of coffee grounds and sugar can be used as a fertilizer to help pot plants recover, if their leaves that have turned yellow in winter.
In December 2001 Brazil produced a scented postage stamp to promote its coffee - the smell should last for 3 to 5 years.

May be you know that coffee is the second most often used product in the world after oil;
For the producing countries it annually makes a profit in €30 billion.
It gives work for more than 100 million people.
About 1400 million cups are consumed each day.
Coffee is the second most popular drink after water in the world.

How ballerinas of the Big Theatre grow thin? It is said, that their favorite diet is white wine with a slice of cheese or red wine with red fruits. So self-denying people simply do not refuse the pleasure to drink a glass of red wine after each meal. Scientists have established why wine is so useful to keep-fit. In has cholagogues in its structure - first relief for an organism. Other - correct insulin content: very often excess weight is connected to it. The third – strengthen endocrine glands’ secretion, the fourth - support normal acidity. Besides, scientists from Harvard University have established: “daily� glass of wine reduces risk of stones in kidneys on the whole by 39 %. Champagne clears an organism from harmful substances. And aperitif promotes stimulation of gastric secretion and an intestinal motility, that salutarily influences digestion and metabolism.

Experts of «Wine and health» forum and German Wine Academy studied wine influence on 40 patients with excess weight. Half of volunteers daily drank 200 ml of fruit juice and stuck to a strict diet, the others were treated with the same amount of white dry wine. Results of experiment have shown: patients drinking wine have lost 20 % more of their weight, than those who drunken juice.

With confidence we may say that only natural wine is good for the health. But all depends on the situation. It is quite obvious that doctors give their preference to red wine. However, white wine is in something even more advantageous. For example, if red wine has more antioxidants, in white wine they are more effective, as they are less on the size and more easy penetrate into tissues.
But all the same red wines have more useful substances, especially those which were created from ripened grapes with a thick peel. Among such wines there are a lot of French and Chilean wines.

Red wine prevents clot formation, salutarily influences cardiovascular system. The mechanism is known: wine improves lipid exchange, promotes correct balance of lipoprotein in blood, suppressing development of an atherosclerosis. Besides it promotes to cholesterol balance, raising the content of good cholesterol and reducing amount of bad cholesterol. And also softens the tendency to reduction of arteries in stress situations, reduces blood pressure and increases diameter of blood vessels.

Wine medicine
Researches of scientists do not need any new tests. The most important tests have already been conducted by life and results have been reflected in statistics which only should be comprehended and analyzed. Why, for example, in France death rate from cardiovascular diseases is twice lower among world average parameters? And this is despite of the superfluous cholesterol content in fat and spicy national cuisine! Such cuisine should turn back for the nation in general heart attacks, insults, mass arthritis. Americans, who studied this riddle, have called it French paradox.
In clinics of the Western Europe wine treatment was prescribed two centuries ago. Russian doctors have paid attention to wine a little bit later, from the middle of the XIX century.
But what are those magic components which transform wine into panacea? No one definitely can answer this question though for the last years there have been numerous attempts to penetrate into curative secret of the wine. Till now it is a deep dark secret: six hundred components are determined and measured, but the total number is unknown. It is precisely known, that wine 80 % consist of biologically pure water, and contains from 8 up to 15 % of spirit received as a result of sugar fermentation. The rest - in microscopic dozes are: organic acids, glucose and fructose, phenol compounds, aromatic substances, volatile oils, complex ethers, aldehydes, tannins, 24 microelement including manganese, zinc, rubidium, fluorine, vanadium, iodine, titan, cobalt, potassium, phosphorus, etc. And also mineral salts, “nutrients”, amino acids, proteins and vitamins. But all force is in proportions, in complex interactions. And scientists of all world try to solve the mechanism of their influence.