Well, I am a bit older now and I don’t feel like I should allow peer pressure to determine what types of alcohol I drink. So, I decided to reduce the amount of beer that I drink and substitute wine in its place. Unfortunately, I know very little about wine.

As a result, I think it might be a fun exercise to start a wine of the month type experiment. Every month, I will make the trip to my local wine store and select a wine that I have not had before to sample for that month. This way, I will both enjoy drinking and learn a new skill so that when I go to an expensive restaurant and I am given a wine to sample, I will be able to make a sound judgment instead of just pretending to know what I am doing.

Let the games begin!

Here are the alcohol by volume levels of popular brands of Absinthe:-

La Fee XS Absinthe Francaise 68% alcohol by volume or 136 proof
Doubs Mystique Carte D’Or 65% alcohol by volume or 130 proof
La Clandestine Absinthe is 53% alcohol by volume (106 proof)
Jade Edouard is around 72% alcohol by volume or 144 proof
Sebor is 55% alcohol by volume or 110 proof
Jade Nouvelle Orleans 68% abv (136 proof)
Mari Mayans Collectors 70 is 70% alcohol by volume (140 proof)
La Fee Parisian 68% abv is 136 proof
Lucid Absinthe 62% abv (124 proof)
Jade Verte Suisse 65% alcohol by volume (130 proof)
Pernod Absinthe is 68% abv or 136 proof
Kuber 53 is 53% alcohol by volume or 106 proof
Pere Kermanns 60% abv (120 proof)
Jade PF 1901 68% abv is 136 proof
La Fee XS Absinthe Suisse is approximately 53% alcohol by volume or 106 proof
Roquette 1797 75% alcohol by volume or 150 proof
La Fee Bohemian 70% abv which is 140 proof

Let’s compare Absinthe to several other beverages:-

Whisky – Johnnie Walker Black Label Scotch 40% alcohol by volume is 80 proof
Absinthe can be up to 75% alcohol by volume (150 proof)
Table Wine which is 9-12% alcohol by volume is 18-24 proof
Beer is only 4 or 5% alcohol by volume or 8-10 proof

Now, the alcohol-information.com website shows that 1 shot of 190 proof Everclear is equivalent to drinking 2.85 cans of beer and about 3 brandies. This information establishs that one shot of Absinthe is equivalent to 2.2five beers. So, the 22 shots of Absinthe is equivalent to forty-nine.five bottles of beer!

As you can see, Absinthe is stronger than types of fermented drinks such as wine and beer and even stronger than whisky. We therefore need to be careful when consuming Absinthe, not because it will make us have hallucinations, or any other psychedelic effects, but because it is strong and intoxicates quickly. We need to take particular care when mixing Absinthe with other alcoholic drinks in cocktails.

Care needs to always be taken when your are making your own Absinthe drink. If you buy an Absinthe kit like Green Devil then you are simply steeping herbs in a neutral alcohol such as Everclear or vodka. Now, Everclear with an abv of 95% and a proof of 190 — is much stronger than commercial Absinthe. Absinthe essences for Absinthekit.some have to be mixed with a neutral alcohol such as Everclear or vodka. Your finished Absinthe will be the proof or abv of the neutral alcohol you have used.

What is the percentage in Absinthe? For commercial Absinthe just look on the bottle label or if you order online, look at the product details for abv or proof. If you are making your own Absinthe from a kit, you need to look at the bottle of Everclear or vodka that you are using.

Since I moved to Australia recently, I have come to familiarize myself with the many excellent wines produced locally. I still only drink occasionally but I have been taking advantage of the many varieties of wine available here to try and extend my knowledge of Dionysus’ favorite drink.

Really appreciating a good glass of wine is an art in itself. Loving wine is not about drinking as much as one can and as quickly as possible. Drinking this fine beverage is also about savoring the moment. The more I learn about how wine is produced and what types of wine are best suited for different meals, I am starting to enjoy having a glass or two with dinner more than ever. In fact, I am considering starting a new wine of the month column for this website.

Throughout history people have made beef jerky for food and storage and necessities. There have ben lots of new methods developed such as freezing chemicals etc to the process of beef jerky.

People still love the taste and ease of beef jerky original which is generally made from beef but has been recently enhanced by other flavours like camel.

As it happens jerky must have the fat and moisture removed, because of this jerky is in general a source of protein. These great benefits are sometimes offset by the chemicals added by during manufacturer of jerky.

For Making your own health jerky follow these steps

1. Choose your meat, save your time with lean beef cuts, this is the easiest way to good jerky.

2. Cutting the beef into strips less than 3.2 mm thick (1/8 ich) will give you the best results

3. Make slicing easy partly freeze your meat and make cleaner cuts.

4. Trim all the fat because this does not freeze and can turn bad which will ruin your effort.

5. Use a marinade made from vinegar and sea salt (use ingredients of your choice) and put in your fridge for 6-23 hours allow the meat to absorb the flavours.

6. You can season the meat with flavouring of your choice you need to experiment because some of these ingredients makes the jerky sticky.

7. Dehydrate the meat by leaving gaps between the slices for air flow. In dehydrators use non stick spray on the racks. In an oven set it at 70 c allowing preheating. In the oven its not meant to cook only get rid of the fluid by evaporation.

8. You need to watch and keep checking the consistency of the meat this will take between 6 and 24 hours.

9. When finished Put your jerky in bags and keep it in either a fridge or a freezer until eating.

For best results eat your home made beef jerky within one week. But don’t forget you can save some time because there are some companies that use traditional methods to produce their jerky.

First and foremost, the peanut butter and jelly sandwich tastes great. There are not too many combinations that are better than peanut butter and jelly on bread. When you combine these three ingredients, the taste is to die for!

Speaking of ingredients, you do not need much to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. As mentioned above, if you add bread, you can have yourself a great snack in no time at all. Which leads to another benefit: it only takes a few minutes to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. For this reason, parents are always making this treat for children.

All in all, the peanut butter and jelly sandwich has been popular for many years. If you are in search of a great snack that does not take a long time to make, the peanut butter and jelly sandwich is right for you. With three ingredients, you can have a sandwich ready for your consumption within a matter of minutes.

The hotness of sauce is measured in Scoville Units (SHU.) It is a count of the number of sugar water drops required to completely neutralize the flavor of a drop of hot sauce. In case you are wondering how it got such a strange name, then know that the unit is named after its inventor Wilbur Scoville.

Your average, run of the mill, Tabasco sauce probably is at around 2-3,000 SHUs. Even your grandmother can enjoy that comfortably and so you probably can’t impress anyone with it. By the way, pepper spray used for self defense and to subdue bad boyfriends is 2,000,000-5,000,000 SHUs. In terms of sauce, forget about Tabasco and consider grasping one that is over 10,000 SHUs but less than 50,000. Taste it using a prick of a pin before you dive in.

If you are brave or crazy enough to go higher than that then Taste: the 4th sense store will sell you a hot sauce called “The Legend” from Cajohns of Columbus, Ohio, a pure blend of red savina habanero pepper that weighs in at 577,000 SHUs. By the way, the store won’t sell it to you unless you first sign a waiver stating that you are of age and not drunk! Apparently, the same store also sells a new sauce that is a pure reduction of capsaicin, a chili pepper’s active heat-yielding ingredient measuring an insane 7.1 million SHUs. I would stay away from this one unless it somehow makes its way on your “10 things to do before I die” list; and even then, make sure it is the last item on the list!

To begin, pull off the outside leaves of the artichoke with your fingers. Dip the leaves in butter and eat them by raking the succulent meat between your teeth, then discard. If the artichoke has been properly prepared, it will have the fuzzy thing, called a choke, removed. If not, dig it out with a spoon because this mass of immature florets is inedible. What remains after the choke is removed is the heart, which looks suspiciously like what you get in the jar at the supermarket. Quarter it with a knife and eat the pieces with a fork.

Consider drinking a dry, acidic wine with artichokes, as they clash with anything sweet or fruity; see our guide for wine tasting to help you decide on the right wine for the occasion. With lighter fish or chicken, try a pinot grigio or sauvignon blanc. For salmon, duck or pork, dry German Rieslings and some pinot noirs work. With red meat or pasta with marinara sauce, try Italian reds like Barbera or Barolo.

There are 4 essential steps to wine tasting

1. The swirl: Holding your glass by the stem flat on the table, swirl it in circles to release the aromas.
2. The sniff: Now that the swirl has released the wine’s aromas, bring the glass close to your nose and smell; make sure to inhale deeply. The aeration helps to bring out the wine’s flavor enhancing your ability to judge it.
3. The sip: Now that the wine’s aromas have been released and you have prepared your taste buds for what’s coming, bring the glass to your mouth and at first slurp a bit of wine and gurgle. Then swirl the swish the wine all over you mouth.
4. The spit: Once done tasting, spit. This step is only important if you plan to taste more than one wine in a row. Careful with this step because it might have some serious negative effect towards you image, especially if you are in a high class restaurant!

The tricky part about wine tasting is how to tell the difference among wine varieties such that you can pick your favorite. To achieve this you have to practice on your own time at home. Go out and purchase a number of different wines, blanc and red. You should start practicing with the broadest and most important wine-flavor categories: oak, acidity and floral aromatics in whites; fruit, tannins, and earth flavors in reds.

To figure out the difference in taste among the different wines, get yourself some green apples for cleansing your palate between sips (cheese will ruin you ability to discriminate) and apply the 4-step wine tasting process described earlier. For example, start with a chardonnay and notice the buttery-oak taste. Follow with a sauvignon blanc and notice how unpleasantly acidic it is. A Riesling will have a flower aroma that will transport you to the corner flower shop. If you have also brought home some reds then poor a glass of Bordeaux and enjoy its dry, chalky tannins. An Italian Cabernet Sauvignon should fill your while mouth with the bitter earthiness of a rocky hillside in Calabria.

This guide should get you started in wine tasting. If you really want to excel at it then you have to practice even more. Once you can identify the few major flavors mentioned above, you are read to graduate to finer wines.

1 1/2 pounds halibut or whitefish fillets, cut into 6 serving pieces
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/3 cup white wine or apple juice
1 1/2 cups julienne strips carrots, 3 medium size
12 slices lemons, 1/8 inch thick

Heat your oven to 375 degrees. Spray six 12-inch square pieces of aluminum foil with nonstick cooking spray. Place 1 fish fillet in the center of each piece of foil and sprinkle with garlic, salt and pepper. Pour the wine over the fish and place 1/4 cup of carrots on each fillet. Top each with 2 lemon slices and wrap the foil around the fish, sealing it inside. Bake them for about 10 minutes or until the fish flakes easily with a fork.

To serve, place the packets directly on the plates; the aroma released when the foil is opened is wonderful and will dazzle your dinner date. You can serve the halibut with a side of potatoes, rice or pasta.

The recipe as given here is good for 6 servings. Enjoy!

Ripened on the vine in Florida and then carefully coddled for the trip to the grocery store, the wrinkled tomatoes were developed from a French heirloom called Maramondo. The UglyRipe tomato was the innovation of Mr. Joe Procacci, the Thomas Edison of the produce industry as I like to call him. Mr. Procacci is a well respected gentleman who is quite dynamic and full of enthusiastic energy in the produce business. He loves tomatoes and he enjoys making them taste good. So he developed the UglyRipe tomato that looks like an old fashioned backyard garden Heirloom variety just loaded with rich, red, juicy flavor.

The UglyRipe is so called for its wrinkles and misshapening appearance. After all, that’s what backyard garden tomatoes look like, don’t they? But the taste of an UglyRipe tomato is absolutely out-of-this-world.

The tomatoes are a bit pricy but will transport your taste buds back to the heady days of summer. So, don’t judge a tomato by its appearance!