A Taste of Wine, Hip Hop and A Side of Ribs ‘Uncorked”

Think wine, Hip Hop and ribs are an unlikely combination?  Think again.   And Netflix’s Uncorked gives a glimpse of American life in Tennessee through the eyes of young African American aspiring sommelier. His dilemma  is to continue in the tradition of the family owned Memphis BBQ joint serving the ribs, and soul food to the Memphis community.   His grandfather started the business, his father continued the business and primes him to take over the business.     Immediately the feature opens with hard hitting Hip Hop music while shot cuts back and forth between smoking meat, tasting wine and cutting ribs.   The movie centers around a highly unlikely aspiration.   Although Black sommeliers are very few, like many professions lack of exposure or insight stifles an interests in the field.  However, what’s not lacking are Black wine drinkers globally.

Along with the efforts of the movie Uncorked, Black sommelier, Andre Hueston Mack hope to gain more exposure to the Black wine drinking demographic.  According to Mack in aUSA Today article, he expressed that Hip-hop and wine are the perfect pairing.

He is one of only a few black sommeliers and winemakers, and Mack is seeking to revolutionize the wine industry with his background in music, skate culture and modern design. A sommelier or wine steward, is a trained and knowledgeable wine professional, normally working in fine restaurants, who specializes in all aspects of wine.

He founded Mouton Noir, now Maison Noir, in 2007, starting it from scratch with no money and no investors.

His wine is now sold across the U.S. and in 11 other countries, with Mack splitting his time between 13 leased vineyards in the Willamette Valley in Oregon and his home in Brooklyn, New York.

Black Sommeliers are few but the field of Black owned wineries is expanding. Here are a few:

• Brown Estate
• Abbey Creek Vineyard. …
• Indigené Cellars. …
• Charles Wine Company. …
• Theopolis Vineyards. …
• Taste By Chef Rhonda. …
• FLO Wine. …
• Maison Noir Wines.

If you want to watch the road to becoming a sommelier in a film filled with twists and turns. Catch Uncorked on Netflix featuring Mamou Athie, Niecy Nash and Courtney Vance.

What is Butter Coffee?

 

Butter coffee is a drink consisting of brewed coffee, unsalted butter, and medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs), an easily digested type of fat. It’s similar to Bulletproof coffee, which was developed by an entrepreneur named Dave Asprey.

Although many people believe that butter coffee is a modern concoction, this high fat beverage has been consumed throughout history.

Many cultures and communities, including the Sherpas of the Himalayas and the Gurage of Ethiopia, have been drinking butter coffee and butter tea for centuries.

Some people living in high altitude regions add butter to their coffee or tea for much-needed energy, as living and working in high altitude areas increases their calorie needs

Additionally, people in the Himalayan regions of Nepal and India, as well as certain areas in China, commonly drink tea made with yak butter. In Tibet, butter tea, or po cha, is a traditional beverage consumed on a daily basis

READ MORE

A Taste of What Blackbird Vineyards Wines

MCCN got to catch up with a rep from Black Birds Vineyards.

We talked about the Rosé, Paramour and the Arise.   They are located in the Napa Valley and their focus are blends.

 

Tasting Natural Wines with Gabrielle Union

Let’s take a tour of natural wines with celebrity Gabrielle Union.  Why listen to Union?  Besides being a wine lover,  in 2012 Gabrielle Union was inspired by her love of wine to create a Chardonnay that she describes  unlike anything else on the market with the release of ‘Vanilla Puddin.’

Now what exactly is Natural Wine?

Union’s Husband and Basketball star Dwayne Wade stomping grapes.

Natural Wine is farmed organically (biodynamically, using permaculture or the like) and made (or rather transformed) without adding or removing anything in the cellar. No additives or processing aids are used, and ‘intervention’ in the naturally occurring fermentation process is kept to a minimum.

 

 

 

Downtown Disney District Adss Black Tap Craft Burgers & Shakes

The Downtown Disney District location will be the first for Black Tap to introduce its enhanced counter service style. After ordering and once you’re seated, a Black Tap team member will take any of your other menu, drink and CrazyShake orders. This will also be the first location where CrazyShakes can be ordered to go from a take-out Shake Window.

What’s so crazy about these shakes? Why are these burgers award-winning? READ MORE

 

What is Kombucha and How to Make it

Kombucha (also tea mushroom, tea fungus, or Manchurian mushroom when

Kombucha, including the culture of bacteria and yeast

referring to the culture; botanical name Medusomyces gisevii Lindau is a fermented, slightly alcoholic, lightly effervescent, sweetened blackor green tea drink commonly intended as a functional beverage for its supposed health benefits. Sometimes the beverage is called kombucha tea to distinguish the name from the kombucha culture of bacteria and yeast.

 

he exact origins of kombucha as a drink are not known.^[7] It is thought to have originated in the area of Northeastern China, and was traditionally consumed there, but also in Russia and eastern Europe

Tepache (Fermented Pineapple) Recipe

Ingredients

1. 1 ripe whole pineapple (or use just the peels)
2. 1 cup raw cane sugar (Rapadura, panela or Piloncillo)
3. 5 whole cloves.
4. 1 whole cinnamon stick.
5. 1 quart purified water.
6. 1/2-1 tsp (or 4g) brewer’s yeast (optional) This increases the alcohol content of the brew.

See Website:

https://www.smallfootprintfamily.com/tepache-fermented-pineapple-brew

 

MCCN Interview with La Nina del Mezcal interview

Interview from 3rd Annual Taste of Mexico:

Dave Miller: How did you get into doing Mezcal?

Cecilia:  Well um, kind of a long story but just to put it short… It was a trip that I took to Oaxaca about four or five years ago and the it was the first time I was there taking in the culture, taking in the people and the taste of Mezcal.  It occurred to me that people in Mexico were not appreciating it as they should so I started going back to Oaxaca and learning about Mezcal.  It is very extensive.  And then I started writing about it.  And that’s how the blog started and people started calling me la nina del Mezcal.  (Watch Interview for more)

 

Fine Wine and Dr. King

Three men from different backgrounds and strongly differing beliefs met totally by chance on a rainy evening in Atlanta. While sipping fine wine the wide divide in their beliefs did not disappear, but for a time, Jim Sander’s hospitality and a mutual enjoyment of the wine bound them together in pleasant conversation, and a little known but historic meeting passed into history.

Exploring South African Wine

And then there is the unique wine called seven sisters owned by 7 seven South African Women.  Read more about their history at the company website. Click Here