"blend" news and stories

Two down and two to go in our exploration of the Italian tradition of the "four Ms" of making espresso coffee. The third part of our list also happens to be my favorite: la miscela, or the espresso blend.

The word "espresso," contrary to relatively common belief, has almost nothing at all to do with the beans themselves, but rather the magically delicious elixir they produce when put through the process. You can actually toss any beans into il molino and extract them using la macchina and what you'll have is, by most definitions, espresso.

But that doesn't mean it's going to taste very good. Find out why after the jump.

'New York Jew' wine. Photo: Eric Scheffer

Didja hear the one about the wine called "New York Jew"?

We're not making this up: Although the punchlines practically write themselves -- "this bottle's got three varietals and four opinions, folks" -- the North Carolina restaurateur behind this new vino swears he's serious.

Eric Scheffer, who worked with Pat Roney and Leslie Rudd of the North Coast's Windsor Vineyards to create the new-this-month red blend of Cabernet and Petit Syrah grapes that comprise his New York Jew label, says sales have been tremendous.

"I can't keep cases of it in the restaurant," says Scheffer, a Brooklyn native who opened Savoy in Asheville, N.C., more than a decade ago. "I have people in Detroit and Chicago asking how they can get the wine. I have people driving up from Florida for it."

To promote their new blender, the Total Blend, Blendtec decided to try and prove exactly how powerful it is. Instead of making the margaritas, smoothies or other crushed-ice concoctions that are normally favored by the blender industry when demonstrating functionality, Blendtec is using iPods, lightbulbs, coke cans and golf clubs to prove their product's superiority. By blending them.

Their Will it Blend? website has a huge collection of videos of the stunts that host Tom Dickson has attempted in the lab. Some of the top rated videos include whole oysters, Thanksgiving dinner and Cochicken.

Since the average person isn't - and shouldn't be - using their blender to chop up golf clubs, there is a section of videos that demonstrate safe blendings to try at home if you get the urge to blend after watching some of more extreme videos.

[thanks elise]

Source

Two fairly common wine terms are "varietal" and "blend." A varietal wine is one made primarily of one type of grape, like Chardonnay, Zinfandel or Pinot Noir. A blended wine is a combination of different types of wine, designed to enhance certain flavors, rather than a certain grape. Another word that gets thrown around a lot is "vintage," which refers to the year that the grapes were produced. Judging from the location of the winery and the vintage, wine connoisseurs can pinpoint their favorite wines based upon the quality of the harvest that year.

Since 1972, winemakers in the US have been allowed to add up to 5% of one vintage to another vintage wine and still tag it the the year of the latter. Under this standard, a 2004 wine could have up to 5% of 2001 added to it, for example. This standard was increased to 15% a few weeks ago. It was done to "give greater flexibility to domestic winemakers in blending wine to better suit consumer tastes" and the Wine Institute noted that adding older, more mature wines to younger wines would help in "improving taste appeal and quality perception." Countries in the EU, as well as Australia and New Zealand, already have this 15% standard, while countries like Chile and South Africa allow up to 25%.

Some areas in the US, prestigious American Viticultural Areas, will still be using the 95% standard, if they blend with older vintages at all. 

Source