Tales of Two Drinks..

1. Sangria Success

We opened a bottle of wine for dinner tonight. It was one of the cheaper stocks that dad has bought some time back.. it was light - lack of aroma and we didn't quite enjoy it, as we have been quite `spoilt' with the better wines that we have tasted.

Then suddenly I thought of an idea - why not use the wine to make Sangria instead! Since I've recently bought a nice recipe book that even has cocktails in it..

I quickly flipped open my `Marie Claire - Hot' (a lovely recipe book with sumptuous and relatively easy-to-make dishes) and see what I needed to make Sangria. I was glad that I had all the ingredients except for Conintreau which I substituted with Vodka.

The result? Well, I thought it was pretty good and even fussy dad said he liked it! Yep, it was much nicer than the earlier plain (cheap) red wine.. :)




Here is the rather simple concoction - try it yourself if you like! ;)

A bottle of Rioja (dont ask me what it is) or light red wine
100 ml sugar syrup
60 ml Cointreau
60 ml lemon juice
1 orange, thinly sliced
1 lime, thinly sliced
ice cubes, to serve.

method: stir in all ingredients into a large pitcher!


2. Baileys' Bummer

Baileys Irish Cream is one of my favourite drinks (by now you would think i'm an alcoholic but the truth is I do enjoy my drinks - in moderation of course) ;) I vaguely remember just a couple of weeks back someone gave us a bottle.. And we have yet to open it.

So last night when dad and I were watching movies on DVDs, I decided to treat ourselves to the creamy drink.. on the rocks as usual.



We were looking forward to savour the drinks - dad normally doesn't take Baileys much. We were quite engrossed with `Finding Neverland', after a rather dull and obscure `The Village'. So we just took a few sips while watching the movie... and soon, I began to realise the taste was a bit funny.. it was very acidic and had a odd kinda taste to it. Definitely different from the Baileys I had before.

I mentioned it to dad, and he said there were lumps in his glass!! So we quickly paused the movie and on the lights, and went to check the drinks, and the bottle of course.

I looked at the label at the back of the box.. and was shocked to see this:



My goodness! The bottle of Baileys had expired more than three years ago!!

No wonder it tasted funny.. and when we poured the drinks out from the glass, there were lumps in it too!! Y-u-c-k-s!!

I felt so grossed out.. To think of it, I already had swallowed no less than six or seven gulps.. I mean how did you suspect that when the bottle was given to you just a few weeks ago and was completely new - unopened?

Dad then remembered the bottle was given by my mom's vocal teacher - a Chinese national who has now return. She probably had no knowledge that Baileys has a shelf life and also neglected to check the best-before date..

I was worried that dad and I would get sick. But we didn't since we didn't consume that much.. But the taste of the gone-bad Baileys, and the fact that I knew it was almost 3 1/2 years past its due date, just made me feel quite sick (maybe psychologically I think)

Even as I woke up this morning, I felt I still had that after-taste in my mouth.. Eeeek. Sigh, and now I can't look at my beloved Baileys the same way again..