Fun Drink "Moscato Wine"

     Last fall I was having dinner with my mom and aunt at Olive Garden (I know, it seems like I go there a lot right?) They offered us a sample of their white table wine, usually I’m all for free samples of wine but I was just getting over the stomach flu and wanted nothing to do with alcohol. My mom, however went for it. My mom isn’t a wine drinker, my mom rarely drinks actually, and if she is going to drink it’s usually a margarita or some kind of coffee based drink. After she took a drink of this wine she was amazed and loved how sweet it was. She passed it around the table for everyone to try and although I was apprehensive because of my stomach I took a little sip and I had found my new favorite wine. My mom had asked the waitress what the wine was called and for the life of me I could not remember what she had said. I spent months browsing the supermarket isles for the name of it and I’m slightly intimidated by wine stores when I don’t know what the name of something so I didn’t want to attempt that.

     One day I rounded the holiday isle at our local Target and there it was. Moscato. I had finally found it. You wouldn’t believe how giddy I was that I had found it after all that time. Then was the deciding factor how many should I buy, but wait, am I sure this is the right one, what if this maker is not as good. So I decided on 1 bottle because I honestly make a trip to Target at least once a week so I could just get more next time I came. When I got home I popped it right open. Had a glass and then another. I can honestly say that this is my new favorite wine.

    Here is the one down side however, after a couple of glasses I developed a headache. I don’t usually get headaches from drinking wine, from what I hear, it’s pretty common with red wine. I did some investigating and although they’re not too sure exactly why wine causes this they believe it has something to do with Histamine. I haven’t had issues with other wines so I don’t believe it is the Histamines. They also mentioned that it could simply be the region or the vineyards chemical make up, this particular one being Ménage a Trois and another vineyard may not give me the same issue. Looks like I will be doing some more research of the tasting kind ;-)

Fun Drink "Toasted Marshmallow Amore"

Toasted Marshmallow Amore

 

Specialty cocktails are my favorite. There’s some kind of demeanor when you have one in your hand that makes you feel like the most sophisticated girl in the place. That’s why I had to try Olive Garden’s limited time Toasted Marshmallow Amore. Marshmallows are one of my favorite sweet treats which gave me even more reason to try it. I knew I had to stop and get one soon before they went away forever and I did just that a few nights ago.

  The Toasted Marshmallow Amore is made with Amaretto, Kahlua, Irish Cream, Marshmallow Syrup, Vanilla Ice Cream and chocolate sauce. Sound’s so yummy just describing it! Obviously, it’s more of a desert drink so I got my drink and an order of Olive Garden’s Zeppoli, which is an Italian doughnut dusted with powder sugar. My Toasted Marshmallow Amore was served in a chilled martini glass with a decorative chocolate swirl around the inside. I couldn’t wait to take a drink. The first sip was heaven, as was every last sip after that. The drink is chilled from the ice cream and it has a creamy frothy texture to it. You can’t taste much marshmallow which was fine with me because the mix of all the flavors of the alcohols was a perfect combination. I would say the Toasted Marshmallow Amore is probably my favorite dessert drink now and I’m going to be very sad when it’s gone. I’ll probably going to have to learn how to make it myself.

Photo Credit goes to Cocktail Puppy
They also have the recipee on there for the Toasted Marshmallow Amore!

Fun Drink: Almond Champagne

    POP!! Don’t forget to hold the cork after taking off the wire hood off your champagne. We could have had a shattered kitchen light! Luckily all is safe. My first “fun” beverage tasting of the year is going to be a bottle of Wilson Creek Almond Champagne. From Temecula, California and not Champagne, France normally this would be called a sparkling wine but is labeled as champagne. Wilson Creek is allowed to do this because of a law that states if a sparkling wine was labeled a champagne before the year 2006 they are allowed to keep that name as long as they display the city of origin on the label.

    Since it is the New Year what better way to celebrate then with a bottle of champagne. I absolutely love it!! It’s smooth flavor and just the right amount of sweetness makes me want to drink glass after glass. The Almond Champagne has a beautiful smell to it and the after taste only make you crave more. One criticism I do have however is that I like to have my champagne have more bubbles. But, for 10 bucks, I will take it as is. I would say it’s a perfect pairing for a simple desert but right now it’s making me crave a juicy rib eye with blue cheese topping.