Skip to main content

Keep Warm on a Winter Night!

Image
By




















With winter still here, and with temperatures staying below zero I've got another suggestion how to keep warm on a winter night. For those who would rather opt for something more than hot chocolate, polish booze selection has plenty to choose from . Personally, in the autumn-winter season I go for two things - mulled wine (properly spiced - so as it is plenty fragrant), or better still - mead! I don't think I need to describe mulled wine to anyone, though mead deserves a brief description as it's not quite as widely known, yet it is one of the products my home country takes pride in!
Also known as "drinking honey" or "honey wine", mead used to be a traditional drink in Medieval European countries (especially Poland and Lithuania), where monks used to keep bees for wax, and mead was basically a by-product, believe it on not!
It is an alcoholic drink created by combining fermented honey with water, and it often comes in nice clay, Medieval-style bottles as shown in the pictures below. There are four varieties named according to proportion of mead to water., thus we have:

Półtorak (1.5 unit of honey to 1 unit of water) - by far the best, vastly superior over the other types. Really sweeeeeeeeeeet :) For me - ideal!  

Dwójniak (1 unit of mead to 1 unit of water) - not far behind the "póltorak" - a good alternative for those who don't have such a sweet tooth :)

Trójniak (1 unit of mead to 2 units of water) though this type has its fans, to me, it is like a cheap substitute. If I can get półtorak or dwójniak, I will pass on this one!  

Czwórniak (1 unit of mead to 3 units of water) - might be a experience for beginners - to help you decide if you are at all in this kind of drinks.  

I have recently found out that meads are also diluted further, to "piątniak" type (1 unit of mead to 4 units of water) - and I find it really hard to believe that you can taste anything in it, then again, I've always been fussy with food and drinks :)

All meads can be served either cold or hot, however I must say that heating it up highlights the scent and adds the finishing touch to the entire mead experience. Thus, I always heat my mead, and keep it hot, or insist on having it served hot if I order it at cafes. At home I've got a clever little thing shown in the picture bellow that keeps my mead hot and fills the room with a wonderful scent. 
The only tricky thing here is that the meads are so sweet and nice tasting that it's easy to forget how strong they really are! And believe you me, they are strong - containing between 8 and 18% of alcohol. Nothing will keep you warmer on a freezing winter night! :)


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My Take on Italian

By
Italian cuisine is often to be considered to be simple. I guess it is like with elegance - simplicity is the key. Good quality, real Italian ingredients are crucial, combined with a bit a passion, and not too complex a recipe. Pronto! Though, to tell you the truth, my very first steps with Italian cuisine included ... using instant sauces ... Nowadays I can't quite comprehend how anybody can claim they taste of anything, but I guess it takes trying to "the real deal" ...   The very first thing I cooked from scratch, and we both instantly loved, was spaghetti Pomodoro e Basilico, as the Italian call it. Even though for the Italian it is "primo piato" (first dish), an introduction to the main meal, it is just the matter of the amount, as it surely can be the main meal as well! All we need is spaghetti pasta, 4-5 ripe, sweet tomatoes, 2 cloves of garlic, 1 tablespoon of passata, 1 tablespoon of olive oil, a few basil leaves, salt and pepper to seaso...
1 comment
Read more

Gingerbread Layer Cake

By
This Christmas I decided to "pimp up" my gingerbread a bit, after a last minute inspiration. I saw a photo of this cake, literally a day before making the cake and decided it's an absolute must this Christmas. I really like how the cake combines gingerbread and gateau type cake features, it's both presentable and delicious. The cake (4 layers): 150 g honey (liquid) 200 g butter or margarine 500 g plain flour 3 yolks 4 tbsp milk 1 tbs purified soda 100 g sugar 1 tbsp ground ginger 1 tbsp ground cinnamon 1 tsp ground nutmeg 1 tsp ground cardamon 1tsp ground cloves a pinch of ground black pepper Combine the ingredients in a large bowl - as it's really hard to do, you may be best off using dough whisks on a food mixer. Cover the bowl with cling film and put into the fridge for 24 hours. After that time, divide the dough into 4 parts, place on a baking paper-lined baking tray and bake in 180C for about 15 minutes. Leave to cool.   The cream: ...
2 comments
Read more

How come I'm in Italy?

By
My little students often ask me: "Miss, how is it possible that you speak Italian and also English?" It's very cute when they do, but others ask equally often - how come you live here? Well, some people have their "American dream", I've got my Italian one. That's it. I've always loved Italy. I've liked the sound of the language, Italian food's always been one of my absolute favourites, and one day as I was travelling in Italy I had a thought - why not try to live and work here? There are some many teachers like me, who work in this country, I could do it too! I like doing things my way instead of following the same path as others. Life's short and what's the point wasting it repeating the things other people have already done? And so, a day before the end of the year we landed in Brindisi, Puglia where our Italian life began. I'll always have a soft spot for Puglia. Maybe I'm exaggerating, but I feel that it was the time o...
Post a Comment
Read more