Wine Recap – August 2018

Welcome to the Wine Recap for August. I kind of realized that I forgot some July drinks in the last recap after it was posted so added them into this month’s recap. However, lucky we did because after some issues, my husband and I went on a few weeks of what I’d like to call an alcohol detox unintentionally but I always like to do that every once in a while after going to social events frequently and socializing with alcohol. Its nice to dial back and drink a lot of water and detox/flush the system a little. Which means that the next month’s recap might be a little thin, but we’ll see when get there, right? Let’s focus on the present!

Schweppes Blueberry Elderberry
(Signature Cocktails)

Producer: Mott’s Canada
Alcohol content: 5%
Location: Ontario, Canada
Taste Tag: N/A

I honestly never knew that Schweppes made a Signature cocktail line of alcohol beverages. No idea whatsoever. Did you? Its a pretty cool discovery though since I like blueberry and especially elderflower flavored drinks. The combination here definitely sounds like it works and for the most part it does. Its also very light and fruity and sweet. Its definitely for the most casual drinker, which I definitely am considered.

Black Tower

Producer: Hermann Kendermann GMBH
Alcohol content: 9.5%
Location: Germany
Taste Tag: Fruity & Sweet

The only wine of the batch this month goes to Black Tower. My husband apparently knew about this one before and said that it is a fairly common and known wine. I’ve never heard of it before. However, German white wines do have quite a knack for being on the sweet and crisper side and this one absolutely delivers. Its not my favorite wine that I’ve tried since we’ve started this journey but its one that I fairly enjoyed.

401 Brewery Orchard Blend Cider

Producer: 401 Cider Brewery
Alcohol content: 6.5%
Location: Ontario, Canada
Taste Tag: N/A

If you haven’t realized by now, we love easy drinks, especially ciders. Now, for those who don’t know (but we do because we visited a cider place who told us about it), Quebec ciders are unique because of certain components to them making them local and exotic. Whereas, when you drink ciders from other provinces like 401 Cider Brewery, I’m not exactly sure what qualifies them. Its something I need to look up and read on when I have time but its a little different. While I only have the picture of the apple one here, we also tried the pear and the peach flavors. Apple was still the best one. I can’t say however that its exactly to my palette. Its not bad per se and its still has that apple cider texture to it that is decent but something about the taste doesn’t appeal to me as much as other ones that I’ve tried.

401 Brewery Sparkling Oaked Cider

Producer: 401 Cider Brewery
Alcohol Content: 6.5%
Location: Ontario, Canada
Taste Tag: N/A

While I batched the three flavors of ciders together, I figured that I’d do this one separate because it is a little different from the others. We are big fans of oaked stuff. My husband likes the flavors that come with it usually. I do have to say that the 401 Brewery Sparkling Oaked Cider is alright. Its better than the normal ones above. There’s a distinctive taste to it that works pretty good.

That’s it for this Wine Recap!
Its pretty much a cider and cocktails post more. Its lighter but still fun to try out!

Gardening #2: Garden Center Haul & Organization

Oh how things have changed after only a month! I still remember the update last month. Now, the garden has grown, the grass has been removed from the vegetable garden and we just finish the garden centre visits as well as almost everything being in ground as we wait for a garden project to reinforce the veggie garden. Things are starting to look like how they were last year. There will still be improvements after this first phase is done during the summer but for now, one step at a time.

To start, our haul looked a little like this. You may have seen some of these during previous posts.

First visit was for flowers and herbs as the front yard and containers was ready to go.

Herbs: Basil, Oregano, Rosemary and Pineapple Sage
Flowers: Marigolds, Violas and Dianthus

Then we went to a visit to pick up soil and ended up with more flowers at Walmart which is primarily being used for hanging baskets and patio planter boxes.

The big haul is for the vegetable garden which was this past weekend as well.

Lettuce, Kale, Eggplant, Cucumbers, Zucchinis, Ground Cherry

Lemon Mint

Blueberry plant

The results of this haul at the time I am writing this post is below as we find a hopefully happy medium between container gardening which is for plants that need a lot of sun or partial sun and vegetable gardens. The flower garden is in the front yard. Hanging baskets are also on the patio.

Plants that aren’t in ground yet are the ones below.

You will notice that Phoebe has also gifted me a second variety of blueberry to help with cross pollination to hopefully get more berries. However, anything not in ground right now is mostly because we only have a makeshift fence up right now from last year and we are waiting for better weather to pick up a big trellis backdrop and figuring out possibly a bigger fence. That will be for the next update as everything else gets settled hopefully by beginning of June. 🙂

That’s it for this Gardening update!
How are your gardens looking?