News you can use about alcohol: "It seems wine is less likely to be ruined by molecules that add an unwanted green vegetable taste if sold in cartons sealed with a thin layer of aluminium. The bad taste – known as the 'ladybug taint' – is caused by chemicals called alkyl-methoxypyrazines that accumulate in wine both from grapes themselves and from remains of ladybug beetles crushed when grapes are processed." The piece does go on to note-correctly-that boxes are good for wine only up to a certain level of quality (in my experience, $4), but really, the whole point of putting this up was to get wider acceptance for the phrase "ladybug taint," so there you go.
Monday, June 8, 2009
25
Ladybug Taint. Genius.
Booze takes on a lot of what we in the food industry call "off flavors," as in, for further example, "skunk" beer; that, not surprisingly, are derived from legitimate derivations. Many of which are best left unstated.
Which maybe you want to think about the next time you're planning to pour yourself some Old Grandad.
A ladybug's taint is measured in micrometers, and can only be viewed under a microscope.
It is among the smallest taints in the animal kindgom.
Not to mention the cleanest and ironically has no taste.
Wine from a box?
Okay, not to be a snob, but Christ in sweetest heaven, NO!
I would respect you more if you said you went around collecting the dregs from your guests' wine glasses after you throw a party. And that you then inject the same vile effluvia directly into your veins.
Well, most boxed wine actually comes from a plastic bag, which is cool, cuz you can just pee right in there when you're done.
Those things pictured are like little Juicy Jucies, for hobos. I see nothing to hate here.
Juice, even.
Why all the snootiness? I was at the beach yesterday and, to be perfectly honest, I could've used some white wine in a juice box.
Sort of reading the post...then coughed up my Mars bar when I read the last line. I too was hoping for more discussion on "ladybug taint".
Don't laugh. The pictured wine cartons will connect directly to an I.V. You can't do that to a bottle of Opus One.
But bag-in-box is best of all!
Also, wonder whose computer goes DING
... every time Google News finds the word "taint." (I haven't noticed that Google Entendre has been released yet.)
In Spain and Portugal, a 4€ bottle of wine is perfectly drinkable, and is what most people pick up at the supermarket for every day drinking (and many more buy the house brand at 2.50, some of it in a Tetrabrik carton.)I've had some box wines and canned wines in the US that tasted as good as the above mentioned 4€ wines. (Helpful hint-decant the box wines into a pitcher or carafe for a half hour before drinking. It gets the cardboard taste out). Oh, and also? The last time I was in NYC, I was wandering about various wine shops and looking at what Spanish wines were available, and was appalled to see crappy bone-dry Riojas being sold for 20-30$ a bottle that would have gone for a fraction over here. Moral of the story: if it tastes good, it is good...enough.
Thank you. It is true in France and Italy too. It's ridiculous the amount of snobbery that goes on here.
We're a beer culture, not a wine culture, so you need to give us a bit of a lag in terms of booze evolution.
Right now I'd say we're up to the French Revolution.
If it tastes good, it is good -- MOTTO!
I had a vodka freezee the other day at a food & beverage expo thingie - a commercially made one - and HELL TO THE YES.
Don't hate on Bandit! I'm sipping some right now, and it's lovely for this warm evening. Don't bring it to Thanksgiving dinner (unless your Thanksgivings end in shattered bottles and tears), but it's just great for the price. Ladybug taint.
Good heavens. Educate me, please. What Thanksgiving DOESN'T end in shattered bottles and tears? Or is this just Irish Catholic?
Right? We hardly ever make it to the actual giving thanks part.
It's the traditional celebration for all holidays in my family.
I'd like to take this opportunity to invite all of you to my one-man show: "Ladybug Taint: A Life in Pictures."
I love ladybugs. It breaks my heart that their little lives are ended so violently at harvest time. They're just walking around on the vines, enjoying the sun, eating aphids and other bugs that are harmful to the grape vines. Cute little, pretty things. Then wham! Their little lives are snuffed out. Some kind of awful crushing and squeezing machines involved. sigh.
I need a drink. Ladybug taint is now bitter sweet.
Just so you guys know, upon visiting your page I was greeted with not one, but *four* (4) Paul Blarts. It was a little much. Screenshot: http://i39.tinypic.com/2hibaj8.png