May 16th, 2010 Posted in Uncategorized | no comment »
If you’re a person who knows an awful lot about wine, your next challenge may be tea. After attending a seminar given by Teamaster Chas Kroll at Boston’s Park Plaza Hotel, I was intrigued to learn about the subtleties of aroma and taste. Used to tasting wine, I wasn’t sure how to approach this, but it turned out fine. I liked learning about the size of the leaves, when they were picked, how they were “fermented” and how to brew and drink. In a few hours, I came out of a session feeling I had a grasp of the concept, and could take the subtleties as far as I wanted.
Our Tea Master had led us through a variety of green, white and yellow, oolong and black teas in a Chinese style tea tasting — which is about a million times simpler than a Japanese tea ceremony, as I understand it. The Chinese ceremony is about the tea and the guest, not the ceremony.
Two days later, I went to a friend’s house where someone had just brought back a gift of teas from China. I knew exactly what to do: steep for 2 minutes and serve immediately in tiny cups. Inhale the fragrance, drink, and inhale the fragrance from the empty cup again.
Tags: Boston Park Plaza, Chas Kroll, tea, tea ceremony, teamaster
May 30th, 2009 Posted in American Lighthouse Cookbook, Uncategorized | one comment »
Just finished proofreading our new cookbook yesterday — hooray! My mind is swimming (pun intended) with recipes for seafood, stews, pies, cakes…no wonder I’m always hungry?
The American Lighthouse Cookbook on Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1581826761
pub date: September 1
May 13th, 2009 Posted in Uncategorized | no comment »
Suppose you had a chance to taste a fine scotch that had been blended 30 or 40 years ago, and forgotten in the back of a prime distillery in Scotland? I jumped at the chance, and found my tiny portion of The Last Drop full of layered nuances from cocoa and leather to smoke, cherry and caramel.
James Esty and his cohorts — all spirits industry veterans in their 60s, 70s and 80s — have created a new brand. Now, even if I can’t afford the $2,000 for a bottle of The Last Drop right now, I will be very eager to see what he brings to the table — or the glass — next year!
Nov 30th, 1999 Posted in Uncategorized | no comment »
…where people post notes on every bottle of wine they’re drinking? Yet, I am sometimes tempted to do this. Why? Vanity — assuming people care what I drink — probably has more to do with it than anything else.
As a wine writer, maybe I want to let people know about interesting bottles. Should I post or not? We’ll se…
