A new breed of wine enthusiast

Do you remember the episode of Taxi where Father Jim takes a hit off a joint and says, Columbian, Indica strain, South side of the mountains, picked in October, in the morning. Now that wasn't wine tasting but there are wine enthusiasts that can tell you the strain of grape, the area it was produced in and in some cases, the specific vineyard. What you say? You make your own wine and you consider yourself a wine enthusiast. But do you ferment your own grapes and look down on the people that use kits? Yes there are a few definitions of wine enthusiasts. You may even consider yourself a wine enthusiast if you go to lots of wine tasting events such as the Los Alto Arts and Wine Festival. There are many more events in wine regions all over the world. At these events, wine enthusiasts can go to taste the new offerings of both domestic and foreign wineries.

Imagine my Surprise

Before my wine enthusiast stage, I pictured wine tasting as a gathering of stuffy looking men with moustaches who would look at and smell the wine, take a sip and spit it out. I thought it was all quite stuffy and high-brow, something akin to polo. Another view of the wine enthusiast was the one portrayed in TV and movies, that of the cork-smelling, glass swirlers with a superiority attitude. I remember my wife asking me to go to a winery for tasting. I relented after a few words and resigned myself to the fact that I was going to "taste" wine. Happily I went and discovered the joy of wine tasting. I had no idea it would be that much fun. My God, they weren’t all stuffy. Most of them were good people who had a love of wine in common.

A Changing of the Times

In the past, the public generally took their wine choices from so-called wine experts. That has changed because of more wine tasting opportunities and the fact that most community education programs include wine education classes. This has taught the general public to judge the wine on its own merits, after all each person has individual taste.

Here Taste This

There are lots of conversations that go on while wine tasting. Wine enthusiasts are generally very social animals who love nothing better than to discuss the merits of the favorite wine of the day. They take great joy in introducing new offerings to complete strangers within the wine tasting room. They discuss different vineyards and wineries. The may steadfastly claim their love for a certain blend but they are open to at least trying new wines. Back in the day, wine enthusiasts were depicted as unrelenting about trying new blends.

So what's in it for me?

These days there are advantages to being a wine enthusiast. People get paid well as tasters. Another more likely source of benefit to the wine enthusiast is in educational forums, teaching other people what to look for in a good wine. With this multi billion dollar industry, there are lots of spin-offs. Wine accessories are a huge business and growing by leaps and bounds.

Florence italy bed and breakfasts breakfast for the heart and your wallet

You can't go to Italy and not visit Florence. It simply isn't done. Located in the middle of the country, Florence is the capital of the Tuscany region. If you want to immerse yourself in Italian history and culture, go to Florence. If you want to feel the pulse of Italian life, drop by Florence!

Florence is one of the world's premier cities. From the 1300s to the 1500s, it led Europe in fields such as education, finance, and commerce. During this time, some of art's unofficial Hall of Famers, namely, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, and Dante, created some of the world's greatest masterpieces. Florence served as Italy's capital until the government was transferred to Rome in 1871. Today, Florence's economy is primarily based on tourism, which includes accommodations such as Florence, Italy bed and breakfasts.

A bed and breakfast, or a "B and B," is a private home in which several rooms are dedicated to guests who lodge there overnight. Many of Florence, Italy's bed and breakfasts offer world-class service and outstanding views of the city.

Mediterranean Chow

The Mediterranean Diet has greatly influenced breakfasts in Florence, Italy bed and breakfasts. In fact, while this cuisine type originated along the Mediterranean Sea, it has greatly impacted the entire country, including Tuscany. The Mediterranean Diet is based on farming, fishing, and cattle of the land. This includes the use of several types of plants, including beans, seeds, whole grains, and fruits. In Southern Europe, Italy included, foods such as bread, rice, pasta, and vegetables have become staples in people's diets. Of particular interest is the region's use of olive oil, which is much healthier than animal fats. Other components of the Mediterranean Diet include a glass of wine with meals, very little red meat, and a little yogurt and cheese.

What's for Breakfast?

Food itself is vital to Florence's economy. The food of Florence, including your free Florence, Italy bed and breakfast breakfast, originated from the lifestyle of the common people. In this culture, the entire animals were typically eaten. Continuing that tradition, several varieties of stomach tissue from animals are sold from food carts around the city today. If you want something a little lighter, however, you can enjoy Florence's appetizers, including sliced bread topped with a chicken liver paste.

Florence's most famous main dish contains a huge piece of beefsteak served barely cooked. Also, a special Easter Sunday breakfast in Tuscany includes salami, boiled eggs, Easter cakes and pizzas, and wine. Lastly, Florentine meals often include Tuscan bread mixed with soups or vegetables.

Wine Central

In addition to being a food mecca of sorts, Tuscany is also one of the best wine-producing regions in the world. Several areas near Florence, Italy bed and breakfasts, such as Bolgheri, Chianti, and Carmignano, are famous for their grape crops, which are used in a variety of wines.

Bolgheri is a small village, which includes a lovely avenue of cypress trees. Only the best grapes are used to create the wines here. On the other hand, Chianti is the home of thousands of producers of Chianti red wines. The wines created vary in where and how the grapes are grown, how many types of grapes are used, and how the wine is produced and aged. Lastly, the Carmignano region has been producing outstanding wines for over 12 centuries.

A visit to Italy is never complete without a visit to Florence. Staying in a Florence, Italy bed and breakfast will allow you to savor the essence of the region's food and wine.

Why all wine connoisseurs must purchase a wine storage cooler

As the years pass, the quality and taste of wine changes. The manner in which wine is stored can either slow or hasten this natural process. Whether you are storing white or red wine, sparkling whine or champagne, it may be necessary to invest in a wine storage cooler in order to protect your assortment of fine beverages.

Wine storage coolers are available in a vast array of stores. Even the lower end consumer retailers have gotten into the party. It is not uncommon to find great deals on these products from stores like Walmart and Target. Of course, for the more luxurious wine aficionados out there, high end retailers have more aesthetically pleasing and electronically sound wine storage cooler for sale.

What does a wine storage cooler do? It sounds simple and many of you are probably wondering why not just use the household refrigerator. The reason for this is that the storage temperature required for food to be kept fresh and the temperature required to keep wine properly cooled is different.

Food generally requires a much lower temperature. Another reason is that the continuous opening of the refrigeration causes temperature readings to change. Wine needs to be kept at a constant temperature in order to preserve its color, taste and quality.

Another problem to consider is that different types of wine require different temperature settings. You are not going to have this flexibility with a standard refrigerator. Many wine storage cooler are manufactured with the ability to delegate different temperature and humidity zones. For instance, if you have a fine bottle of white and a deep red wine, you can set two different settings in your wine storage cooler to ensure the preservation of the liquid.

Besides the obvious usefulness of the wine storage cooler, there is an aesthetic component to having one in your home. When a visitor sees a wine storage cooler, the immediate connection is made with luxury and class.

There are a ton of products on the market for you to choose from. The best way to begin your search is by viewing consumer reports, fine wine magazines and doing some Internet research.

If you go to wine tasting events, you might want to ask some of the other attendees and even the wine manufacturers which devices are the best to keep your wine as fresh as possible.

The power of supermarkets and changing attitudes

More and more concerns have been raised about the impact of the supermarket giants both on food production as well as on workers rights.

A recent report by War on Want and the British GMB, investigating the case of Wal-Mart (ASDA), shows how the relentless pursuit of supermarkets of the lowest possible prices has a negative impact on the supermarkets local communities as well as their suppliers, often based in the poorest countries of the world.

A few years ago, the supermarket retailer Safeway (now owned by Asda AKA Wal-mart) sent letters to their farmer suppliers asking for a contribution of Ј20,000 per product line, in order to improve marketing of the products. They went on to invoice their suppliers for these sums. Supermarkets have tended to only do business with the largest scale suppliers at the lowest cost wherever they may be located. Next time you go to the supermarket take a closer look at the food labels, you will see New Zealand lamb and vegetables from Israel. But this is not what most shoppers would choose - when asked, they say they prefer British farm food. Supermarkets are moving towards this as many are now offering vegetable and meat box schemes stocked only with local and often organic food. Many small firms have spent years building organic box schemes and organic delivery into a viable business only for supermarkets to jump in on the act as it becomes more mainstream.

Britains supermarkets are damaging British business, are bad for consumers and bad for the environment. Farmers and consumers are paying the price of its uncontrolled expansion here and overseas. MPs must act now to curb the growing market power of supermarkets and ensure that Britains booming supermarket industry does not kill off farmers, consumer choice and the traditional British high street.

The UK Competition Commission has been called upon to look at the actions of supermarkets which many say are damaging almost everything that they touch.

Tesco controls nearly one third of the UK grocery market, setting the standard across the retail sector. But while the company boasts about its commitment to fair trade and corporate responsibility, a new report from Friends of the Earth shows that Tescos practices are putting many UK farmers out of business; while on the high street, some 2,000 independent stores went out of businesses in the last year alone, unable to compete with promotions and planning and taxation policies which favour the multiples over smaller shops.

One in five people think that supermarkets are most influential when planning decisions get made, over the council or local people. Often people cannot get obtain planning permission to build an extension yet the supermarkets are often granted permission to build huge stores the size of football stadiums

But, things are changing for the better–

Supermarkets are trialing having tractors deliver goods straight to the supermarket door to save on food miles.

Tesco are installing solar panels and using renewable energy in certain stores to show how green they are becoming.

Waitrose has started its own fair-trade scheme. The cash has been raised as part of the food retailers initiative to return a sizeable proportion of profits it earns on sales of citrus fruits to the farmers who grow them.

Ikea is to become the UKs first major retailer to regularly charge customers for plastic bags, to try and tackle waste and environmental damage.

The success of Marks & Spencers ethical marketing drive that urged shoppers to "look behind the label" has dwarfed all its previous advertising campaigns, according to research from a leading City brokerage.

Supermarket Sainsburys is to sell more than 500 of its own-brand products in compostable packs instead of plastic as it seeks to cut packaging waste. It says the scheme, already trialled on some of its organic range, will save 3,550 tonnes of plastic a year.

Is this a genuine change in attitudes by the supermarkets or merely a change in public relations direction to ensure they get all the green pounds that tend to be spent in local markets and shops? Ill let you decide.

Coffee - the addictive stimulant

Coffee is one of the important commodities in the world. It is consumed by many people around the world and plays a major part in some economies of the world. It is traded through some major commodities board around the world, e. g. New York Board of Trade (NYBOT). Currently, Brazil is the worlds largest coffee producer which constitutes about 32% (year 2006) of the total world production.

Coffee is an "addictive" beverage made from grounded roasted coffee beans. The pleasant aroma and taste makes it irresistible to coffee lovers. There are many ways to consume this concoction. Some like it hot and some like it cold. It can be consumed with or without sweetener, cream, milk or any other combination you can think of. Its very versatile and creative people can create new taste and flavor. Many businesses have built an empire around coffee, like Starbucks.

The Origin Of Coffee

According to legend, coffee was first discovered in the highlands of Ethiopia during the 9th Century by a shepherd called Kaldi. While tending to his herd, he was intrigued by the strange behavior of his goat. They were happily dancing and leaping after eating strange red berries. He plucked those berries and brought them to a neighboring convent and relates his observation to the priests there. They decided to boil those berries and after drinking the brew, found an extra boost of energy. From there on, the beverage starts to spread to other areas in that region from Egypt to Yemen before reaching Turkey, Persia and some parts of Africa.

Coffee eventually reached Europe in 1690 when the Dutch managed to smuggle coffee plants out from the Arabian land. It was first introduced into Moka (Mauritius), Sri Lanka, India and finally the island of Java in Indonesia before finally brought home to Europe. It was later introduced to the French Caribbean colonies. The coffee plant eventually spreads throughout the American Latin and soon the coffee beans become a major export commodity of some countries here.

Major Coffee Species

There are two major species of coffee plants cultivated for consumption, namely Coffea Arabica Linnaeus (commonly referred to as Arabica) and Coffea canephora (commonly called Robusta). The Arabica variety has a better taste compare to Robusta which is much bitter but less aroma. Sometimes, Robusta is used in the coffee blend to reduce cost. There are also other species of coffee plant like Coffea liberica and Coffea esliaca which is indigenous to Liberia and Sudan respectively.

The Art Of Roasting Coffee

The coffee beans have to be roasted before it can be consumed. After the coffee berries are harvested, the berries are stripped off their flesh leaving only the seed or beans. It is left aside to ferment in order to remove the slimy layer present on the coffee bean. When this process is completed, the fermented coffee bean is washed to remove fermented residue before being dried and graded.

There are several ways to roast coffee, such as traditional roasting, 10 minute quick roast, 90 second flash roast and many others. Different methods will give rise to different taste and aroma. As heat is applied, the coffee beans will loose moisture and turn dark. This is due to the natural occurrence of caramelized sucrose. When there is no more water in the coffee beans, the sugar and acid will begin to release their aroma. This is called the Maillard reactions. The roasting process is then halted and beans cooled and stored. Grinding can be performed and stored in an air tight container to maintain freshness.

Conclusion

Coffee is a favorite beverage of many people. It is now available in convenient forms like instant coffee granules. Some creative coffee companies have introduced pre-mixed sachets so that coffee can be consumed at any time, any place. Just add hot water and your coffee is ready. Canned coffee has also started selling in parts of Asia especially Japan and South Korea.