Seagram's Seven Crown

Today I have something that should be in everyone's budget, Seagram's Seven Crown. Easy to find and cheap like other liquors that have a plastic 1.75l bottle. One shouldn't judge a drink by its bottle though. Before I begin I'd like to note that not many buy this to drink straight but to mix, I'm drinking it straight to single out the notes it can add to a cocktail.

Even a small whiff of this will let you know it's alcoholic. Beneath the sting of alcohol is a sweet apricot scent along with wood. This is nice but impossible to enjoy with that burn. Once in your mouth notes of "good whiskey" are there but once again overtaken by alcohol. To make it fair I took my glass and turned this into a rickety with club soda and a little lemon. The sweet apricot was most noticeable but the wooden whiskey was only a hint. There was still a touch of burn.

I knew this wouldn't get a grade as high as many of the other liquors I've reviewed, but I must say this is a F (avoid). Seven Crown's attributes after you got past the burn still didn't make it a good deal. Spend a few extra bucks and get something better.

Gekkeikan Sake

The first sake on my blog will be Gekkeikan, a sake not made in Japan as one would think but right here in the USA. This will also be my first time drinking sake as I write this so I'd like to note that I don't have any other sake to compare it to. I try to grade all drinks as how much I enjoy them though, not how they taste to others of the same type. I review all types of drinks here.

I have three glasses in front of me; chilled, warm and room temperature because that's the three ways sake is served. Putting my nose over each revealed a lot about the different ways of serving. The warmer the sake the greater the tingle on my nose from alcohol, but also the more character. Mellow floral melon would be my description of it. The taste was almost parallel but also included a slight graininess that was more apparent when cool. I can see why sake is sold along with wine because it's body is almost exactly like chardonnay, rounded but not too heavy.

Gekkeikan's sake isn't anything exotic in my mind, just a delicately sweet wine-like drink with a heavy body for such a taste. I'm leaving it with a B (good) and think it would go very well with sushi, but not just because they're both Japanese. I'd also like to add that family and friends have warned me that sake's alcohol content can quickly catch up with you.

Root: 1 Cabernet Sauvignon '08

It wouldn't surprise me if many of you have noticed Root: 1 on the shelf before because it's a rather charming bottle. With the tree and its roots digging between words describing the wine stamped directly on the bottle with no paper label, it's hard to miss. As you'll find out this wouldn't be a bad one to take home based solely on the bottle as long as you like a robust cabernet, let me tell you why:

After decanting the aura given off by this showed a 'spicy' blackberry along with cherry. Once on the palate things got much more complicated though. The fruit notes turned into plum, raspberry and darker cherry but what I found most unique was dark chocolate. Coco didn't overpower the dark fruits though, it's just very well placed so you can't miss it. The body was quite smooth too and a hint of vanilla feels tied to this. In aftertaste the chocolate seemed to linger on the back of my tongue. I found this to be very well balanced.

Root: 1's cabernet sauvignon is a A (excellent) in my book and I should have reviewed this a long time ago because it's a favorite of mine. I'm sure it'll be a favorite of many once people try it and realized the price tag on it (I find it around $10 a bottle).

A Drink Connoisseur's Equipment

I feel obliged to say sorry for a lack of posts recently but due to vacation and enjoying summer while it's here, my attention was away from my laptop. But I'll begin my momentum with a post about how I drink my drinks. I think my particular approach to each variety of drink and that variety's type of drink being exclusive to all other types is only fair to everyone reading and the label selling the beverage. Experiencing drinks these ways brings out all of the notes. There are reasons for so many different shaped glasses. Lets start with one that's easiest to understand in my mind: Tea.

Almost all of the tea I review (and drink on my own time) is loose, so you have to find an alternative to a tea bag of course. After trying out many different ways like tea bags you fill yourself, tea balls, and other infusers I settled on this one. I found Bodum's Yo-Yo to be best because it lets the tea float more freely and you can pour the hot watter over the leaves so it does a better job at letting the tea do its work. As for each different type of tea I typically follow what the label says. Usually it's black and herbal teas are with boiling water, green and oolong is at 180°, and white is closer to 170°. Typically the suguested time is about 3-5 minutes and not left in afterwards (but I personally prefer to leave rooibos and hibiscus in longer), white is 5 or more minutes though. One thing that seems to go against common sense is to boil water freshly filtered and from the tap, not any bottled watter. This is because tap water has more oxygen in it and will pick up the taste better.

Liquors are very versatile on your palate ranging anywhere from black licorice (absinthe) to plain smoke (bourbon), so almost each one is approached differently. Clear liquors are compared on the rocks or straight and in a typical cocktail (ex: gin in a martini) because that's how they're frequently enjoyed as a drink. (If you're just taking shots, you're not enjoying the taste). Single malt whiskeys are analyzed in the Glencairn glass (pictured above) with a touch of purified water that brings out a lot of taste. Otherwise it's usually on the rocks or straight.

Beer and wine have too many different types of glasses to picture and explain in one post, but I'll go over some of the more unique ones. Pilsner glasses are ideal for lagers because it helps to bring out the head and keep it around longer through being slender. Champagne flutes help keep sparkling wine carbonated through less surface area so it stays fizzy longer. The other end of the stemware and beer glass spectrum with it's tulip shapes are saved for the robust drinks like cabernet wine and Belgian ales because with the middle of the bowl being wider than the mouth makes the smell more concentrated. This way it's easier to single out and identify what makes it up. As for temperature, beer is just from the fridge and most white wines are slightly chilled (not as cold as beer).

Now last, but certainly not least, is how to prepare coffee. I think buying a fine bean, griding it when you get home and making it in a coffee maker two days latter is an insult to it. A freshly ground bean in a French press makes a nice strong cup with that foam you don't get through any other method. Somehow this makes my coffee experiences three-dimensional and I can pick up more notes from my cup. The only thing I'll say about sugar and cream is that some people should be looking up reviews on different brands of sugar and creamers because they're just adding a touch of coffee with their sugar and cream! (P.S. I only put a tiny drop of half & half in my coffee)

Zhena's Gypsy Tea Fire Light Chai

Zhena's Gypsy Tea has a rooibos chai this time. And this makes perfect sense to me, rooibos is caffeine free and chai has two settings in my opinion, on a cold winter day or a at the end of a long one to relax. Now regular tea chai has a little caffeine due to the tea leaves, so this might be a better choice! But my job is to tell you how it tastes, not the health benefits and how it fits in your day.

I expected to detect cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger as soon as I opened the tin but once steeped the rooibos set this apart from other chai. Not in the smell but the flavor, the nuttiness of rooibos played a great part with the other spices. The cinnamon wasn't overpowering like other chai and overall this had a great composure. As I had guessed, Zhena's website said there was some orange peel in this too. It's hard to sense because it works with the sweet, but I believe it still makes a difference.

This one will be in my cup while I read a book or listen to George Winston's relaxing soundtracks. I give it a B (good) because I'm not typically a fan of chai because they're usually too sweet for me, but this one is quite balanced.

TAZO Orange Blossom

Some of you may have noticed tins of TAZO tea while waiting in line at Starbucks. This is due to the growing popularity of loose leaf tea, and Starbucks it hopping on the bandwagon. Today I have a cup of their Orange Blossom green tea in front of me to review and it smells like a good way to end the day.

As I said the fragrance is very nice but not orange, jasmine. Orange is there too but blends with the sweetness of the jasmine. Once on your tongue you can tell it's a green tea, I think it's a jasmine pearl like this one. Looking at the leaves themselves they're not pearls though. The lighter fruit taste isn't just oranges (tangerines) though. I believe other fruits are there as well with many herbal supplements.

TAZO has plenty of fine teas, but I think this one scores better as a frankincense than tea. The aura put off by this is fantastic but the taste of the tea doesn't follow up with it. TAZO's Orange Blossom gets a C (decent).

Yellow Tail Tree-Free Chardonnay

Tree-free? Is Yellow Tail going green and helping to save the world!?! Well, not that Yellow Tail is a bad company but tree-free means not aged in oak like almost all chardonnays it seems. This could be a good turn, the fuller body of chardonnay with fruitier notes but not as dry as some lighter grapes. Lets find out.

Upon pouring this chilled, my senses would've told me this was pinot grigio if I didn't know otherwise. Very crisp and dry smelling in a 'sneezing' way. The palate showed melon notes in addition to the crisp, but I didn't find it very enjoyable on its own. After pouring another glass once room temperature I found it a little better. The melon could be detected in the scent and was stronger on the tongue. It has a very dry aftertaste chilled and at room temperature.

I'm leaving this with a C (decent) because I think aging in oak might be the way for chardonnay. Although fruitier it was rather simple wine and the citrus with melon didn't work well together.