Coffee comic poem by Angela Lansbury, Coffee, Tea, Beer, Whiskey, Guinness and Wine tastings

Coffee cup.

 When you start to cough

It means you are dry

So have some water

Yes, give it a try

When you are tired

Make yourself coffee

Invigorating

Off you go, lovely

The Chinese like warm watet 

The English used to like drinking tea

I never start with neat whiskey

Coffee's the wicked, wake up drink for me

I start with a strong Nespresso coffee

Starbucks if I'm out at eleven

Apple juice at tea time

Midnight more coffee heaven.

I don't need expensive alcohol

I'm a cheap dinner date

Satisfied with Prosecco

One glass sets my smiley state.

But to stop cough leaking, waking once or all night

I see your smirks and laughter

Doctor said, three caffeines a day, not seven

Last caffeine at lunchtime, tap water thereafter.

I take a trail tour once a year

Trail the supermarket if not.

Travel reading wine bottle labels

I'll soon be a polyglot.

-ends-

tasting and Tours  - UK and Ireland

Guinness

You can visit the Guinness factory in Ireland.

UK and Scotland

Scotland has whiskey factories and tours.

Wales

Wales has many places open to visitors.

England

More than 300 wineries. Big tour centres include Denbies, with supermarket, restaurant, cellar tours, and depending on season and latest policy outdoor tours chugging up the hillside to see the sunlight on one opposite hill, shadow on the other, which makes sense of the mystery of why terroir is important and the same owner can produce two wines in different styles and prices.

Berry Brothers and Rudd wine shop in Piccadilly, London has tastings and  pre-Xmas events. Most are highly priced, occasionally there is a free tasting with offers to buy the bottles you have tried.

London has the Pall Mall club for serious drinkers, with a huge range of wines by the glass and bottle, and storage of your own bottles.

Champagne

You can visit Champagne tour in France, in the city of  Rheims.

Green Tea & Japanese Tea

You can have organised tea ceremonies at tea shops in Japan, Singapore and other countries.

Wine Tours

You can take wine tours around France and Portugal. Some organizers do the same tour every year. Others change the venues so there is always something new for repeat customers.

Coffee

Every country has its own brand. Italian coffee names have captured the market.

Singapore

Supermarket wine is expensive. You can get deals buy buying cases. A big club in the branch of the Pall Mall club.

USA

California is a great region. I liked the ice wines.

Canada

Wineries. Ice Wine.

Australia

Many wineries.

New Zealand

BYO, bring your own in restaurants. Buy a bottle in the wine shop near your restaurant. This gives you a huge rage of wines to choose from. (You may be asked for corkage, which is usually reasonable.)

How I learned to love Prunes and Olives

PRUNES

 I didn't like prunes at first. Nasty dried, black things. With tooth-breaking stones. 

Olives, you often see, sometimes free, on bars. Prunes, you don't see so often. But I recommend you try and get used to both of them. Why prunes? I used to hate them.

 

However, we had to include prunes in our cure cancer breakfast after my husband developed a lymphoma lump on his neck overnight. The prunes were to relieve constipation in the dry ingredients of the breakfast mixture of plain porridge (or occasionally cereals), fresh fruits, and a nuts and seeds mixture.

Our first revelation was the discovery that prunes were pruneaux in French, which means plums. Prunes are actually dried dark plums. The word plums is a whole lot nicer.

Prunes came in four types. 

1 Those tinned in sugary syrup. Best taste. But with stones.

2 Those tinned in apple juice. Without stones. Not such as good taste. But healthier. Less annoyance from stones and most importantly, less risk of cracking one's teeth.

3 Dried in packets.

To revive the dried prunes, we tried soaking them in cartons of apple juice. At first, sweetened apple juice. Later, we found a supplier of fresh apple juice from Australia.

At first we saved the leftover syrup. The idea was to not overdose on syrup. But when we opened a new packet of dried prunes and had leftover syrup from the tin, we had the idea of adding syrup to dried prunes, and then adding our own apple juice.

Now, I find that I am keen on the prunes. They are succulent and moist. 

But what about savoury foods, olives? Olives can be green or black.

OLIVES

Watch out for stones. You can buy olives without stones, but they may be more expensive. youtube had videos demonstrating how to remove stones from olives.

What to look for in Apples, Pears, Cider, Calvados and holiday drinks

Problem
What's the difference between apples, pears, and cider and Calvados? Where will I find them?

Answer
I used to love cider and drank it all the time as a low alcohol drink before I got into wine. Cider is not as popular, with me, and the public, as it once was. (Cider producers may say differently.) Nowadays supermarkets selling drinks and restaurants have a huge range of other items to offer, wines, beers, even bottled water, to compete for the customer's attention.

Travelling To England and France
Two great cider producing regions are southern England and Northern France. If you want to explore both, you can go across from England to France by ferry or train as a foot passenger or with a car, or fly or fly-drive. If you go to England and / or France you'll find a large range of ciders all over the countries of France and England but especially in supermarkets and restaurants in these regions.

Story
Singapore
You will find cider worldwide. In Singapore we never noticed it until we needed it. In Singapore we bought cider in a supermarket to make onion chutney. We had to buy a four pack of cider.

Calvados
If you can't decide which you want, apples or pears, or want both, Calvados is the drink for you.
Calvados is type of drink combining, blending, both apples and pears. One producer has to have a minimum of a certain amount of pear juice, whilst another is limited to a maximum!

In June 217 I received an email proudly announcing that an English cider had won an award. They say:

Devon-based Lyme Bay Winery’s newly rebranded Jack Ratt Sparkling Cider has received a Silver Medal in the Design and Packaging category at this year’s International Cider Challenge, an awards scheme which celebrates the best ciders across the globe.

Tips from Websites
English Tourist Board
French Tourist Board
Cider

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Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. I have several previous posts giving more detail on cider. Please bookmark and share posts.

Apple Juicing and Apple Butter

Apples are out on the trees in England. Richard Paget of My Apple Juice told me he's organising apple pressing and will be expanding this nationwide for next year.

England Apple day is around October 20th, different in every area, according to how well and early the apples are that year.

From January to March he and I and you will be pruning apple trees. From May to July, selling apple juice.

He said that in America lots of places have apple butter making events. What is apple butter? Just the juice over a low heat, stirred. Why is it called butter? Because you spread it like peanut butter. It is thickened like milk to make butter. It's a bit like the jollity of grape treading pressing, the activity is communal with teams, and goes on several hours, about 36 hours he says.  So over in the USA look for apple butter making events.

myapplejuice.co.uk

Angela Lansbury, travel writer, photographer, author and speaker.