Riunite White Lambrusco Emilia

I have a bottle of Riunite White Lambrusco Emilia sitting in my shelf and have totally forgotten that I bought it. This wine is made from Lambrusco, Emilia region, Italian grapes . There are around 60 to 70 varities of Lambrusco grapes. Lambrusco is famous for it's high yield grape vine.The grapes itself are not sweet but this Lambrusco sweet wine might be a result of fermentation or addition of other types of grapes.

Due to it's sweetness, this wine is suitable a after meal dessert or for those who don't like dry strong wines.

This bottle of White Lambrusco is a rose casual wine made from red grapes. It has a sweet, pleasant and cool fruitty taste.  A great alternative to White Zinfandel (White Zin, sweet pink coloured blush (rose) wine).

Since the wine came with a screw cap, I don't have to worry about finishing all of it at one go. Instead I can keep it in the fridge after opening without worrying that it will turn into vinegar....lol!

Actually, any wines that have a screw cap can be kept after opening, just like port wines.

Yam Seng!....eerrrr, not bottom up ah.....wine must sip slowly.......

Tea Time, have a cuppa! - A Relaxing Drink

I love to try out different types of tea. Drinking tea is a good way to relax. Apart from that, tea contain antioxidant, protect your bones, clear our blood vessels from clots, protect against cancer (polyphenols) and increases your metabolism. The photo above shows the small collections of tea that I have.

Basically there are three types of tea; Black (fermented), Green(not fermented) and Oolong semi-fermented).
Black tea go through four steps process; Withering (fermentation), Rolling, Fermentation and Firing.
Green tea go through these 3 processes; Panfiring, Rolling and Firing.
Oolong tea go through only 2 processes; Withering (brief fermentation) and Firing (to stop fermentation)

 Although I drink tea almost everynight, I can still sleep well! Caffeine has no effect on me! LOL!

Honey Serai (lemongrass) Ginger Tea Drink – Recipe

Some of my readers and friends tried out the serai (lemongrass) drink in my post Serai – Destroyer of Cancer Cells but found that it is not very tasty. Actually, it will taste better when chilled or when it is hot. Anyway, my neighbour thought me to make this Serai ginger tea drink and this is a tastier version of the remedy to destroy cancer cells. My kids love this drink very much. Here is the recipe of Honey Serai Tea Drink.

Ingredients

Serai, 3 pcs, crushed

Ginger, 1”x1”x1”, crushed

Tea (I used Lipton, any dark tea will do), 1 sachet

Sugar, to taste

Honey to taste

Pour 5 bowls of water into pot and bring to a boil. Add in the serai and ginger. Let it simmer at low heat for around 45 minutes. Add sugar and stir until it dissolves. Put in the tea bag. Turn off heat and let the temperature cool down a little bit. Add in honey and chill the drink in the fridge.

Harvesting my First Batch of Homegrown Roselle

Still remember my post about the Roselle (scientific name, Hibiscus Sabdariffa) fruits that I bought from the market to make drinks? Well, I planted some of seeds in my garden and I harvested my first homegrown roselle fruits today. Although I managed to collect only 11 mature fruits, there are still lots of smaller ones on the trees. The roselle has pretty pink colour flowers and the fruits would form when the flowers drop off. Some of the earlier fruits dropped before reaching maturity so I boosted up the soil with some plant nutrients and managed to overcome this problem. I didn’t use any insecticide so I guess my roselle is healthier compared to the ones sold at the market. The stem of the trees are too soft to support the weight of the fruits and some of them bent during a heavy downpour yesterday. Luckily the stems were not broken and tied them up to my fence for support. Therefore, I quickly plucked all the matured fruits today! The eleven fruits I collected were enough to make around 6 glasses of tasty roselle drink. Cheers!

Refreshing C2 Cool & Clean Green Tea – Do I look Cool?

Today, daddy brought back a few bottles of Apple, Lemon and Forest Fruit C2 Cool & Clean Green Tea. Dad says that he is not buying carbonated drinks for us this Chinese New Year. Therefore, he got us these non-carbonated C2 Green Tea drinks!

When I heard the word ‘Cool’, I quickly put on all my cowboys gears and grab three bottles of C2 Refreshing 100% Natural Green Tea! Heh heh heh, do I look cool now?

Ok, first let me try the Forest Fruit Flavour! Wow, the mixed fruit flavour is nice and refreshing! Very smooth as well! Good drink for a tough cowboy like me! Cheers!

Now, I will try the Apple Flavour C2. Mmmmmmm, my favourite fruit. Arrrrgggggg, my sister is coming, I want to drink all two bottles of C2 at one go! My sister said that she likes the Lemon Flavour one! Her school canteen sells this drink as well! Lucky me, next time can 'tumpang' (ask) her to buy for me! Ha ha ha!

Now that I am all freshened up, its’ time to ride into the sunset......, Arriba Arriba......Hiiiiiiyaaaaaaa!

Stay tune for lecture from Daddy. Aiyo, so many scientific term lorrr! Catechins are natural antioxidant found in green teas (Camellia Sinensis). These powerful antioxidants can help to fight the effects of stress by reducing cholesterol levels, lowering blood pressure and boosting the immune system. C2 brews 100% pure and natural green tea leaves gently to retain the antioxidants normally lost in other extraction processes. In order to retain all the goodness, the freshness and flavor of natural green tea, the green tea leaves are brewed and bottled on the very same day by C2 Cool & Clean. Then they are packed in convenient 350ml reseal-able PET bottle that you can ‘sip & seal” and “drink on the go”. C2 is a Halal certified product! The addition of three types of fruity flavours enhances the taste and musk the bitter taste of Green ea/Chinese Tea. I have seen C2 Cool & Clean Green Tea being sold at in Giant, 7- Eleven, Jusco, Mydin and some shops near my housing estate. Check it out!

Homemade Roselle Drink

I bought around 300gms of roselle (scientific name, Hibiscus Sabdariffa) from the Kepong baru wet market. Roselle has properties to reduce blood pressure, high in Vitamin C, diuretic and mildly laxative. It has also been used to treat cancer but the effectiveness of it against cancer cells was not scientifically proven. Maybe the high content of anthocyanin (water soluble pigments that gave roselle its’ colour) in roselle is the active agents that can help to cure cancer. The vendor told me to remove the seeds and boil the calyces for 3 hours. Then I added a few blocks of rock sugars in to the bright red rosella juice. I let the roselle syrup cool down before I sieve it. The juice tastes a little sour and it has no distinct aroma. My family enjoyed a cool nice homemade roselle drink over the weekend! Related post : 1) http://peteformation.blogspot.com/2009/10/various-hybrids-of-hibiscus-bunga-raya.html 2) http://peteformation.blogspot.com/2010/07/harvesting-my-first-batch-of-homegrown.html

Homemade Air Sirap Bandung (Rose Flavoured) Drink Using Dragon Fruit Juice as Colouring

My son likes to drink Sirap Bandung and he would always ask me to buy a packet of it whenever I visit any Pasar Ramadan. Since the one sold commercially usually use Artificial Red Colouring, I decided to make my own version of sirap bandung. I have a bottle of artificial colouring agent, Cochineal Red but instead of using this, I used the juice from red Dragon fruit. But before you use the freshly squeezed juice you have to sieve it to remove the seeds, or else your sirap bandung drink would have little black objects floating in it! The aroma of the drink comes from the rose essence which you can buy from the cake and bakery section of any shops. I have tried to use natural rose tea to make sirap bandung but it did not turn out well. The rose aroma is just not strong enough. Ingredients for making Sirap Bandung Concentrate Water, 1 bowl Sugar, 8 table spoons or more. Dragon Fruit juice, 3 table spoons or more (alternatively you can use Cochineal Red, 2 drops) Pandan Leaves (Screw pine), 3 pcs Rose Essence, 3 to 4 drops, or to taste Sweetened condensed milk, to taste (0ptional) Bring water to a boil with the pandan leaves in it. Add sugar and stir until all the sugar is dissolve. Turn of the heat. Add dragon fruit juice and rose essence. Your sirap bandung concentrate is ready. To make the drink, put some of the concentrate in a glass and add the desired amount of plain drinking water. You can drink it with condensed milk added or without condensed milk. Serve chilled. Related Drinks Post 1) http://peteformation.blogspot.com/2009/07/malibu-rum-with-orange-juice-cocktail.html 2) http://peteformation.blogspot.com/2009/07/my-favourite-cocktail-7up-with-malibu.html

Malibu Rum with Orange Juice Cocktail

I ran out of fresh orange, so I used concentrated orange syrup from Sunquick for my Malibu cocktail mix. Anyway, both make a wonderful mixture and I love the strong orange flavour with a tinge of coconut aroma from the Malibu rum. I added lots of ice to this nice drink and indeed it has a very nice cooling effect to bring down the body temperature during a hot sunny afternoon. Wish you a nice weekend, while I enjoy my Mailbu Rum Orange juice cocktail.........sipping it slowly! Cheers! LOL!

A Cooling Coconut Palm Drink on a Hot and Sunny Day

Looks like everything that is edible that come across my path sure ‘habis’ (gone), got eaten by me of course! My sis in law house in Butterworth has this nice mature coconut palm tree (scientific name, Coco Nucifera) that bears quite a lot of fruits. It is around eight feet tall and I think it must be the same species known locally as ‘Nyiur Gading’ (Elephant Ivory Coconut Palm.....direct translation!). Somehow the ground near the roots has lots of ants and in fact it sits on an ant hill! I have to be very careful whenever I want to pluck the coconuts from this tree. Anyway I managed to climb up using an aluminum ladder and chopped down a whole bunch of coconut palm using my survival knife...aka...Rambo style, ha ha ha! Unfortunately, the whole bunch dropped on the ladder and damaged it. I have to jump down; luckily the tree is not that tall! The aluminum ladder was a little out of shape and aluminum being a soft metal; I managed to get it back in the original shape again easily! Well, it was worth the effort and interesting adventure for some nice cooling drink of fresh coconut water. Aiya, sometimes ‘daddy’ needs to get some adrenalin flowing too! Every time, whenever I think about this misadventure, I would laugh at myself! LOL! Interesting Note: Malaysia used to be one of the top coconuts producing country but now we are at the eighth or ninth position.

Yum, yum, nice cooling coconut juice!

My Favourite Cocktail, 7Up with Malibu (Caribbean White Rum with Coconut)

Rum is made from sugarcane juice or it’s by product, the molasses through the process of fermentation and distillation. There are two types of rum, white and dark. White rum is normally used in cocktails and dark rum is usually used for cooking. It is believed that fermented drinks made from sugarcane originated from either China or India. Early South East Asians settlers (including in Malaysia) produced rum from molasses. Rum is a popular drink in the Caribbean and most of the world supply of rum is produced around here.

Although, I prefer whisky on the rock or red wine but occasionally I would go for my favourite Malibu with 7 Up cocktail. Anyway, I have cut down drinking alcohol drinks to almost zero nowadays but on and off it is rather relaxing to have a shot or two. I got this bottle of Malibu, Caribbean White Rum with coconut while holidaying in Tioman Island quite sometime ago. I bought if from the duty free shop in the island. It blends well with fruit juices such as orange, pineapple or grapefruit but I prefer to mix it with 7up. I just love the lemon and coconut taste mixture of Malibu with 7up. Pop in some ice into the cocktail and ‘Cheers’! So, what is your favourite drink?