A serious business

It's a serious business, having your cake and eating it, not to mention balancing your cup of tea on a saucer.

According to the person who sent me the card (from Russia), there is nothing Russians like better than to gather in the kitchen, drinking tea and discussing "life".

This is a post for Postcard Friendship Friday hosted on Beth Niquette's blog, The Best Hearts are Crunchy.

Remembering summer

Wild strawberry juice from Finland.  It looks delicious!  I just wish I had the recipe - and the wild strawberries, of course.

Barossa Valley

As valleys go, this one seems very wide and flat, but it does allow for plenty of vines.  It is one of the major wine producing regions of Australia, in fact probably the most famous.  They have been producing wine, mainly red, for the last 150 years.

Yuri Gagarin in Moldova

The Yuri Gagarin stamp is the nearest I could find that relates to astronomy at the moment.  The stamp was issued to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Gagarin's journey into space but there is - they say - another link with Moldova.  It is said that he visited the wine cellars at Cricova, north of Chişinău, and wasn't seen again for 2 days.  I don't know whether that was before or after his flight into space. :)

This is a post for Sunday Stamps, run by Viridian. Click on the button to visit her blog and all the other participants.

The production of alcohol

Our Christmas pudding wouldn't be a Christmas pudding unless we poured lighted brandy over it.  I'm not saying we use the top quality brandy that used to be produced in the distillery shown here.

The postcard shows the distillery of Bisquit Cognac.  The House of Bisquit was founded in 1819 by Alexandre Bisquit at Château de Lignères but, in the way of so many things, it was sold to a bigger business, Ricard Pernod in 1966, who only two years ago sold it on to a South African company, Distell.  Once it was one of the biggest vineyards in the Cognac area.

After double distilling the wine produced by the local white grapes, the eau-de-vie is put into oak casks and left to age in cellars for at least two and a half years and up to 15 or 20 years.  The ageing gives the brandy flavour and colour.  During this time the alcohol content evaporates at a rate of about 2% a year.  This is called the angel's share. It has to be topped up with eau-de-vie from the same source.  The loss of alcohol is associated with the growth of a fungus which gives the barrels and cellars a characteristic sooty appearance.

Both these cards come from the same person, Nick, during 1982, and both addressed to the same family in England.  The first in July says how much he enjoyed seeing them and hoping to see them again in September.  The second, dated October , says he'd had a good trip back and will contact them next time.  Obviously someone who travelled frequently between England and Cognac, but I wonder why?

A post for Sepia Saturday

Taking a break

Coffee and cakes, what better way to fill a break?  I'll be taking a break myself but nothing as delightful as this, just a pause for a week. I'll be scheduling posts for that time but I don't expect to be able to take part in special days like Friendship Friday, Sepia Saturday.

Taking tea, Malaysian style

Teh tarik, or pulled tea, is enjoyed by everyone in Malaysia.  Literally translated it means "pulled tea" and consists of strong, hot, black tea mixed with sweet condensed milk, as simple as that, but then it's poured repeatedly from one metal mug into another at increasing distances.  The pouring or "pulling" serves to mix the ingredients thoroughly and enhance the flavour, cool the tea to an acceptable level, and to produce a foaming, frothy top, rather like a cappuccino.

Of course it has developed into something of an art form and you can find demonstrations and competitions everywhere.

Martini Jo

Martini Jo, created by Chef Jean Joho, Brasserie Jo, Chicago.

3 ½ ounces Skyy vodka
½ ounce Lillet Rouge
1 orange twist for garnish

Shake well with ice and strain into a chilled glass.  Rim the glass with orange twist and drop into the drink.

Russian tea

I'm told there is a Russian expression "to have a sit by a samovar", meaning to take one's time over a cup of tea and put the world to rights.  A samovar (самовар), once a centrepiece of a Russian household, was a water heater used for making tea.  Charcoal or coal was burned in the central pipe to heat the water in the main body of the samovar.  A teapot with tea concentrate was kept warm on top.  To make a cup of tea, a little of the concentrate would be poured into a teacup and diluted with hot water from the spout.  Not tea as I know it, but probably a good antidote after all the recent festivities. :)

This samovar dates from the 18th century and is made of brass.

Vintage wine

Dated corks from vintage wine bottles to anticipate festivities this evening.  As far as I can see, there is nothing there more recent than 2003, nor older than 1995.  I wonder who drank them all?

Wines from France are often labelled, "Mise en bouteille au château" but this no longer implies any great château with its own bottling plant.  Nowadays trucks come by smaller domaines which produce smaller volumes of wine and bottle the wine for them.  "Mis en bouteille au domaine", "Mis en bouteille à la propriété" both mean the same. 

Château, domaine, propriété, clos - all are much the same.  There is no necessity for there to be an actual château for the word to be used on a label.  For some reason though, "clos" is reserved for estates that are surrounded by a stone wall.

This is a post for Postcard Friday, which is hosted by Beth Niquette at The Best Hearts are Crunchy.