Dick Dasterdly

Me too, never thought I'd see the day.

Just shows the country's going to the dogs, eh with all these American ways.

Next thing they'll all be eating McDonalds,

Oh dear I forgot, most of the kids already are.

http://www.mercola.com/Downloads/bon...ee/report.aspx

http://www.mirror.co.uk/lifestyle/he...health-3166771

rachelk

Is that to me re Chile? Wines are quite good yes, even cheap supermarket stuff is ok and perfectly drinkable.

But (ssshhh) I prefer to buy Malbec from across the border


Seriously, while I miss Ribeira & Rioja, it's true that the quality of those varies greatly. Argentinian Malbec is always spot-on.

Dick Dasterdly

I quite like Pisco Sour, kind of a cocktail based on their local brandy, though not many seem to know it on mainland Spain.

rachelk

Oh, I'm not convinced by the Pisco. It's cheap and abundant in supermarkets but to me it's just a cheap white/colourless (usually) alcohol like any other cheap colourless alcohol.

I did get quite a taste for the Amaretto Sour though when I was in the south....

Dick Dasterdly

http://southamericanfood.about.com/o...ks/a/pisco.htm

"There are many interesting cocktails made with pisco. Although pisco has a high alcohol content (ranging from 60 to 100 proof), it tastes very smooth and many people enjoy it straight. Pisco has been known to surprise first-timers with its potency, especially when blended into a cocktail. Pisco sours are notoriously quite strong."

Apparently it is often made from a weakened form of a cheap substitute brandy.

rachelk

Yes, I guess I'm judging it by the mass-marketed supermarket brands. I did once go to a distillery and taste what was meant to be the good stuff, but I just remember the taste of alcohol, nothing else.

However it is cheap, strong and comes in many different pre-mixed varieties.

I've been served pisco in some beautiful places though, and when you have a background of turquoise lagunas, snowy volcanoes and a lilac and orange sunset, it tastes quite good

Dick Dasterdly

Similar memories for me.
I often used to call in a bar run by a Chilean couple half way up a mountainside in Tenerife, they only mixed it when we ordered it, pure nectar and for sure the real thing.

jackytoo

Agree about the Malbec, seriously good brother did some work in Argentina and when he came back he sent us a case of Malbec to try and I thought WTF when I saw it. New world wines are now serious competitors to Europe.

Domino

another thread derailed - this time by starting private conversations about wine when the subject is COFFEE

considering J2 has recently been so vehemently verbal about people taking things off thread..............

jackytoo

There is only so much you can say about coffee

I will add one thing, not very often a Spaniard asks for cafe con leche, they just say "con leche " "un cortado" etc. how many coffees do people buy in a week anyway, I certainly don't even though I drink it at home. Never heard of juice, smoothies or good old sparkling water

rachelk

Oh dear. Logged on to blame Mr Dastardly for my having bought a bottle of pisco on the way home itom a day out yesterday (too late to pass by supermarket for buy a bottle of Malbec) but don't want to offend Domino.

So I'll just say that I'm looking forward to my morning coffee and wondering if i am allowed to call it expresso or not...


PS (and at risk of being accused of diverting the thread again)
As if life weren't complicated enough, biottled water comes in 3 types here: Still (red top), Sparkling (blue top) and Slightly Sparkling (green top)

Domino

then start another thread - my friend Jackytoo would be jumping up and down at all the off thread chatter if she was here. She really has a thing about threads that wander off course you know

rachelk

Real conversations go off topic as well.... imagine we were all in a bar (or a cafe, to stay strictly on thread) talking about coffee, and it came up in conversation that I was living somewhere else, and jackytoo, DD & I started to chat about wine & pisco, would we be be obliged to move to another table to avoid interrupting the coffee-chat - even if the conversation there had dried up?

Next thing you'll be telling me I shouldn't be posting here if I'm not in Spain any more.

Domino

nah we have to put up with EMR from Portugal, you are a like a breath of fresh arabica

rachelk

Glad to hear it, S Am forum is like a ghost town