Food & Drinks

Home Food & Drinks

It is easy to recognize the wine enthusiast in your life. They probably have a wine rack filled with different types of wine or even a fridge fully stocked with a mix of white and sparkling wine at all times. This means choosing a present for them can be a breeze as a good bottle of wine will always work. However, why not get creative and put a bit of effort into your gift by choosing a present that is both unique and thoughtful? You can always pair wine with some other delicious goodies to create the perfect mouth-watering gift.

Barossa Wine and Cheese Gift Hamper

dinner with wine and cheese
source: barossacheese.com.au

Specific wines are associated with a specific occasion, such as champagnes for celebrations or Merlot for a date night. Wine has two favourite pairings: cheese and chocolate. Including each one of them in your gift is a sure way to enhance its flavour. Wine and cheese are a perfect match together, and the pairing of some types of wines and cheese is perceived as a form of art.

Wine and cheese from some locations have been served together for generations. Records dating back from hundreds of years have noted an obvious correlation between the geographical origins of wines and cheese when it comes to historical pairing. You can support some of Barrosa’s best regional food and wine producers by choosing to buy this incredibly luxurious wine and cheese hamper gift. From the Pindarie red wine to the Barossa Valley cheese selection, these wine gift baskets will make the perfect gift for any occasion.

Rose Chandon Indulgence

glasses of rose moet and chandon
source: esplanade.hr

Most wine gift baskets aren’t just about the wine but they often include some kind of food. Many wine baskets come include food based on the type of wine. If you are going with more sweet, fruity flavours then you may want to include chocolate.

What can please a rose lover more than a gift basket filled with a delectable pink bottle of wine and a box of chocolate treats? Just imagine, two glasses of rose wine, a box of chocolate, and your loved one. Featuring a bootle of refreshingly fruity Chandon rose and gourmet chocolates is a sure way to make a statement, making it a perfect drink for a warm and breezy summer night. This wine is a love story between delicate, crisp Chardonnay and pInot noir added in its final stages. It exhibits a pleasing mix of fresh red fruits, earth, and dust in its aromas and flavours, which will surely be appreciated by every rose wine lover.

Red Wine Luxury Gift Hamper

box with red wine as gift
source: bbcgoodfood.com

No other wine captures romance better than a bottle of red wine! Whether you like it lighter, or sweeter a bottle of wine is a sure way to increase the passion, making it a perfect drink for a candlelight dinner. But finding a quality bottle of red wine can be quite a challenge. Since there are so many red wine options on the market, perhaps you need to consider wine testing and follow up on some simple steps to choose the best red wine for your hamper gift. Pairing with delicious and complimentary treats such as extra mature cheese or delicious cocoa dusted chocolate truffles, this wine gift basket makes a delightful gift for every occasion.

Stemless Wine Glasses

two stemless wine glasses with white and red wine
source: eater.com

Enjoying a glass of wine never goes without pairing it with a beautiful wine glass. Therefore finding the right wine glasses can really make or break the whole drinking experience and taste itself. If you are more practical and want to avoid the messy situation of spilling out that can open happen when drinking from regular tall wine glasses, stemless wine glasses offer the perfect alternative.

These glasses have become particularly more popular wine glasses over the years. There are many reasons why you should consider buying stemless wine glasses instead of regular wine glasses as a gift. These glasses were certainly a bit controversial when they first came out as they were mistaken for regular glasses. However, on closer inspection, they are not as thick as regular glasses and their special design really brings out the flavour of the chosen wine. Besides this, these glasses are the perfect addition for formal and informal gatherings.

Vintage Wine As an Anniversary Gift

couple celebrating anniversary with wine
source: theknot.com

Life’s significant moments are better with the perfect choice of drink. When you are attending special occasions you shouldn’t go empty-handed. Vintage wine makes a perfect gift as a wedding or anniversary gift. Selecting a wine dating from the year of marriage is a wonderful gift to pay homage to the couple and remind them of the old classy saying that:” love like wine, gets better with time”.

Besides, wine is a product of craftsmanship and, therefore, all wines have a story to tell. You can describe something special about the wine on a gift card or you can keep it up to your sleeve for when you share it with the person you are giving the wine to. For instance, you can say something like: ‘This wine comes from the oldest vineyards in the region’, or mention any other unique aspects where you can emphasize its origins and makers.

Sangria Cocktail Mix

two glasses of sangria cocktail
source: delish.com

The traditional sangria mix utilizes wine made from Tempranillo, but you can substitute it with your own favourite red wine. Just keep in mind that not all red wine will make a good sangria cocktail. It’s best to avoid older red wines but stick to dry red wines, that are reasonably priced and tasty, with fruit-driven flavour.

Adding a tasty mix of red raspberries, cherries, cranberries, key lime juice, and orange juice to your favourite red wine are all the key ingredients that constitute this drink. After soaking up in the alcohol for a while the fruit attains a distinctively delicious taste. Choosing to buy a ready-to-make sangria Cocktail mix for a friend who loves wine it’s really unique idea. All they need to do is dump the contents into a bowl ( add a little brandy, if they are feeling extra) and enjoy this perfect fruity summer beverage.

Recycled Wine Bottle Platter with a Spreader

recycled wine bottles
source: ekoios.vn

These one-of-a-kind serving plates are environmentally friendly, best suited for serving cheese, bread, or nibbles. Made from a recycled bottle of wine and paired with corked topped cheese knives they are the perfect accessory for any kitchen table. Each individually crafted, these adorable serving trays are the perfect gift for any wine enthusiast. They can be used for a party, as part of a dining set, wedding decor, or even as a kitchen window planter.

Buying Christmas presents can be quite overwhelming, not only because of all the crowds and the themed presents but also because most of us are just not good shoppers. Fortunately, there are some gifts that never fail and will help you get it right. Gifts that can be consumed – alcohol for your alcohol-loving friends and family members, or desserts for your loved ones with sweet-tooth. And the best part of it all is that buying is easier than ever before thanks to online shopping.

Gin Gifts

gin and glasses perfect gift combination
source: corbridgelarder.co.uk

If you are looking for a present for younger friends or family members, or older ones that love to party, gin can be the answer you are looking for. Gin and tonic is the number one cocktail served and consumed not only around Australia but across the world. The bitterness, the sweetness, the bubbles, the garnishes… some people can’t seem to resist it.

While you can go with a bottle of gin directly, you can also easily find much more interesting and original gin presents. As you are shopping for Christmas, you can buy a botanical gin advent calendar. Like the more traditional advent calendars, this unusual, fun-inspiring gin calendar will help your loved one count down the days to Christmas in a more entertaining way. And each next date, with a glass of the gin-flavour of the day, they’ll be grateful to you for the amazing present, although they may also decide to keep all of the different little bottles of gin for later.

For something even more special, you can pair the gin Christmas calendar with gin glassware, a recipe book for gin cocktails, or botanical gin garnishes. You could also choose the gin advent calendar to serve as a countdown to another gift – regardless of whether its gin related, or not.

For people who aren’t the best at choosing gifts, whether it’s for holidays, birthdays or special occasions, it is truly fortunate that so many people love gin, because that makes it so much easier to choose gifts for them. And the best part is that not only will gin gifts make everything easier for you, but your loved one will also really love it. Whether it’s the coolest botanical gin advent calendar Australia has to offer, gin glassware or a bottle of gin, with a gift like this your loved one is guaranteed to have a great time.

Red Wine Gifts

red wine and chocolates
source: friars.co.uk

Red wine is special and it’s one of the classics when it comes to gifts. This may be because it’s one of the most loved alcoholic beverages around the world. Or because it’s been around for millennia, it’s important in many religions and mythologies across the world, poets and writers have written about it, singers have sung about it.

All of this is also probably what gives it that romantic note that comes with it. That of course doesn’t mean that red wine is strictly for lovers. Red wine – often depicted as the elixir of gods – similarly to its huge diversity, the gift of red wine can convey an endless number of messages, ranging from a very casual gift all the way to a gift for someone special with a special meaning.

Whether it’s Christmas or another holiday, whether it’s someone’s retirement or graduation, whether you are going to a dinner at someone’s home, or you want to buy someone a gift just because, red wine is a classic. And with so many people to think about during the holidays, and so many different personalities, it’s a good thing that there are such things as classics.

Another great thing about wine as a gift is that it’s a great option both for people you are close to, and people you don’t know really well, like co-workers. If you are in a rush for a Christmas present, you can order a quality red wine online and have it delivered just in time. Of course, if you are buying wine as the actual Christmas gift, you should find a good one, from a small winery, for instance, or one that’s special for some other reason. Furthermore, you can order a good red wine in a beautiful gift box, or order a box separately, to make the present feel more special. However red wine can also accompany your main gift, alone or along with flowers, a chocolate bouquet or a lovely card.

Edible Gifts

chocolate bouquet as gift
source: funkyhampers.com

For people that don’t like alcohol, younger people or people you know love to eat sweets, one perfect Christmas present is a tasty and gorgeously crafted chocolate bouquet. In the realm of foods, chocolate is what wine is in the realm of alcoholic beverages – a classic. Of course, you can also give it as a part of a gift, you can order a pretty edible bouquet with chocolate and a gin gift or a nice red wine online if you are in a rush, or you can use it instead of flowers to accompany your main present.

Chocolate isn’t only the favourite or one of the favourite flavours of most people on the planet but consumed moderately it’s also healthy both for your mental and your physical health. One other similar thing that chocolate has with wine, aside from the fact that they can both be good and bad for you, depending on how you consume them, is that as gifts, they both offer an endless range of meanings. This is why, like wine, chocolate gifts, and any other edible gift for that matter, is a perfect Christmas present. It’s good for kids, it’s good for close relatives, old friends, best mates, and even for someone you don’t really know, but feel obligated to buy a gift for, like a co-worker.

An edible bouquet is a gift of flavour and experience. Of course, alcoholic gifts do offer the same, but chocolate, other sweet stuff or even fruit bouquets, are much preferred by many people. Anyone can go online or in a store and buy themselves red wine or gin. Anyone can go outside and buy themselves a chocolate bar. This, of course, doesn’t mean that they can’t be considered a special gift. But the truth is, no one, or at least barely anyone, will ever think of ordering a chocolate bouquet for themselves.

You know bars? The extraordinary places where every single worry you might have magically disappears once the bartender pours your drink and you start chit chatting with him/her? Oh yes, for many people these are the favourite spots to chill for a while and take the edge off. But in order for you to have your drinks served at their optimum, they first need to be kept at a specific temperature. For that very reason, these happy places (how I like to call them) need to have an appropriate bar fridge.

There are various types of bar fridges that have different features and uses. Some are designed for storing a specific type of beverage – for instance, wine should be stored in special fridges known as wine coolers. Other types of bar fridges, on the other hand, are much more versatile and can be used for storing all kinds of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, including beer, vodka, rum, gin, cider, juice, soda, etc.

Continue

If you’ve never had a weight problem, yet would want to change the shape of your body to look more sculpted, doing certain exercises (that target specific muscles) will increase your muscle mass. However, this requires time and devotion. To furthermore speed things up, you can try incorporating specific eating habits into your diet such as consuming mass gainers, eating carb-rich foods and getting enough fluids.

mass-weight-gainer

Continue

While in the very beginning of humanity, people looked for food to eliminate their hunger and charge their energy levels, eating differs greatly nowadays as it is not strictly related to satisfying the appetite. Sometimes we eat because we are in eating company, when we attend parties so we have to eat not to offend the host, while we watch all Downton Abbey or Game of Thrones seasons in a weekend. And even when we are sad so we find food to be the best companion. Whichever the reason, little do we realise the intake of sugar exceeds accepted levels for normal body function. Although excessive amounts of sugar can lead to gaining a few (or more) kilos, they can also cause serious health problems such as imbalanced blood sugar and blood pressure to begin with.

Stevia is Better

Continue

A lot of us know that sugar is bad for our health and a lot of Australian’s have started making the switch from sugar to other alternatives. You can find a lot of sugar substitutes including stevia and xylitol Australia wide so it’s not an issue of unavailability. It all comes down to knowing the facts and your motivation to get rid of sugar once and for all. Below we’ll go over all the health benefits you will receive by replacing sugar in your diet with xylitol and how you can incorporate it into your cooking and everyday life. It might seem like a challenge, but once you know all the facts it really isn’t.

Xylitol over Sugar

Continue

Oh, the excitement that a good bottle of wine brings to the table! It has the capability to make every occasion more elegant and to instantly boost your mood. It is the ultimate drink for family gatherings and celebrations. And not only family ones for that matter, it is many people’s favourite drink to have anytime, anywhere; millions of people are passionate about its aroma and flavour.

However, not all wine is produced the same way. One of the most favourite choices world-wide is definitely red wine. And since the market is full of red wine of questionable quality, finding a quality bottle of red wine can be quite a challenge. But do not panic, we got you, follow our steps to find great red wine that will taste like heaven.

Continue

There are different types of online and offline auctions that are a great opportunity to buy amazing wine at better prices. Take a look at how you too can find a restaurant-value wine but at a fraction of the price.

Advantages Of Buying Wines From Online Auction Houses

Being the bargain hunter and a wine lover you are, buying wine through online auctions is just what doctor prescribed. Your average wine spend may easily be as low as $10 per bottle. Like it, don’t you. The two most important aspects of buying wine form an online wine auction are the price and the vast array of choices. Perhaps the only disadvantage is the inability to get a tactile sensation of the bottle before you buy it, but when you think about it, it does not even sound like a downside at all. If you are willing to do some research, you can find pretty good wine bargains.

wine-auction

Collector Wines at Auctions

When a big auction is over, wine prices change due to several reasons:

  • some people see such wines as a fine investment and are willing to pay more and the seller knows it
  • businessmen look to impress someone by getting such bottles of wine as a present, or
  • there has been detected a growing demand for a particular continent or country.

The wines that are to be featured on such auctions are usually presented to the public through catalogs several weeks prior to the date of sale. The funny thing about such auctions is that a wine can get at a ridiculously high price due to being sold as a gift several times in a row.

Recent Or Old, All Is Sold

Usually at a wine auction, you can find both recent (usually cheaper) and old (by default more expensive) wines. As the saying goes“the older the better”, it is clear that if quality and prestige are in question, people usually opt for vintage wine. However, many recently-produced wines are hard to go unnoticed and can be auctioned at rather high prices as well.

wine-auction-2

What To Avoid

Certain wine auctions feature selling lots that consist of twelve wine bottles. However, a huge and very common problem arises when all you really want is to buy just two or three of them, but you have to purchase the whole case or nothing at all. Beware, fraud is a common thing on auctions, so unless you are quite sure that each bottle comes from a prominent collector, avoid buying wine cases to avoid losing money in vain. Furthermore, a smart person should always pose the question whether the good or poor condition is the main reason why a certain wine is being offered.

As with everything else in life, a wine auction can also become a place and occasion when you find yourself barking at the wrong tree and instead of getting something to cherish, you pay dearly for someone’s bottled garbage. Yes, the wine might have been opened before and damaged or even past prime.

 

Wine and cheese make a perfect combination for creating memorable moments. Therefore, a wine-and-cheese party is a great option to welcome your new neighbors, to celebrate your birthday or to spend great partying moments with your friends. However, most people consider preparing this kind of party an overwhelming task. And they have the right.

Pairing wine with cheese is not easy; you need to make sure the wine complements the taste of the cheese and vice versa. Not that there are strict rules about food & wine pairing, but for example, stronger wines pair well with stronger flavour cheeses. Also, white wines pair best with soft, creamy cheeses, while reds are best with hard cheeses. If it sounds a bit complicated, trust us, it isn’t. And it certainly should not be the reason nor an excuse for you giving up on throwing a good wine & cheese party. Follow the steps below to learn the essentials of pairing wine and cheese.

Ultimate-Wine-Cheese-Party

What you need to know before you start discovering the possible wine-and-cheese pairing options, are their main features. When it comes to cheese, the determining factors that come into play are:

  • the level of moisture,
  • the type of milk from which the cheese is made,
  • the region of origin, and
  • the rind or mold.

When it comes to wine, you need to consider: acidity, body, sweetness and tannin content.

Blue Cheese

Common characteristics of most types of blue cheeses are the increased saltiness and rich taste. To balance the saltiness and the rich flavour, go for robust red or sweet desert wines. Example: Sauvignon Blanc or Chardonnay.

Ricotta

Although this Italian whey cheese is famous for being the main ingredient in fillings for stuffed pasta shells, lasagna and few Italian desserts, the creamy white and slightly sweet Ricotta perfectly enhances crisp and dry Pinot Gris.

wines

Chevre

When it comes to Chevre (also known as goat cheese), there is no strict rule for matching it with a wine, since matching depends on the age of the cheese. Younger cheeses pair well with lighter wines, such as Riesling, Chardonnay, Champagne and Semillon wine. If the cheese is aged, a Pinot Noir would be the best choice.

Gouda

The flavour of this Dutch cheese can be best accentuated with wines that feature semi-level of sweetness and low content of acid. You can’t go wrong by pairing this type of cheese with a semi-sweet or a semi-dry Riesling wine.

Parmesan

This sharp cheese is best paired with Chianti, Prosecco or Nebbiolo. The sweet, heavy-fruit notes, as well as the high acidity and tannin content of these wines can best complement the sharp taste of Parmesan cheeses.

Planning a wine party? Follow these steps

Prev1...234Next Page 3 of 4

RECENT POSTS

© Copyright 2014 - StepsTo