Shocking royal wedding news

According to the Mirror, guests will be served champagne and wine, after beer was deemed to be inappropriate for the occasion.

"There won't be any beer. Let's face it, it isn't really an appropriate drink to be serving in the Queen's presence at such an occasion."

"It was always their intention to give their guests a sophisticated experience and they have chosen the food and drink with this in mind."

Quails' eggs with celery salt, mini Yorkshire puddings with roast beef and mini sausage rolls are expected to be served on the day.

The couple have vowed to stay sober for the day.

Sherry Glass

Sometimes called a copita, this pear shaped glass is also suitable for port, Madeira and liqueurs

Glasses

There are 8 main types of drinking glasses, each designed to complement the taste and bouquet of the wine or spirit it is intended to hold. The best quality glasses are full lead. or lead crystal; full lead crystal contains 30 per cent lead oxide, ;lead crystal contains 25 per cent lead oxide, and it is this addition that gives glassware its brightness and clarity weight and strength. The thinner and finer the glass the better the wine or spirit tastes.

serving wine

If your white wine has not been stored in a cool place such as a fridge. chill it for 15 minutes in bucket of ice or ice water.

Serve dry white wine and champagne at about 10*c and dersert or sparling wines at 4*c

The flavour of young reds usually benefits from decanting the wine at least an hour before the meal, but decant mature wines an hour before serving.Uncork the bottle to air young ines for serveral hours and one or two hours for mature.
Old Burgundy, Chianti and Cótes du Rhóne are best served ar abot 18*c, most other red wines and Bordeaux at 16*c but young red Bordeaux at 14*c and Beaujolais at 11*c

Wine with food

There are some foods that do not combine well with any kind of wine; these include anything dressed with vinegar or large quantities of lemon juice, pickled foods, egg dishes, anything heavily spiced with chilli or curry, and chocolate.

When planning what wines to serve choose according to the sauces to be used and method of cooking.

• A sauce of white wine, cream and mushrooms, for example, needs to be eaten with an assertive white wine such as an "Entre-Deux-Mers" or a white Burgandy.
• Sauces made from horseadish or mint diminish the taste of fine wines - match them with a robust, everyday wine such as a Muscadet or a Dáo.
  
• Fried dishes or fatty meats need robust wines to cut across the fat and freshen the pallet; a white Spanish or Italian wine goes well with fish and a good red Burgundy goes with fatty Poultry

Basic dishes such as casserole or stew are best served with a straight forward red wine. Goulash for example is good with a strong red such as Hungarian Bulls blood; a white meat stew goes with a light red - a Merlot or Gamay, for example.

Serving Tips

Serve dry wine before sweet, because you are unlikely to enjoy the dry wine after eating or drinking something even slightly sweet.

If you are serving the same wine throughout the meal, offer young before old. Go from the lightest to the heaviest wines, always serve the finest last.

Shellfish are usually served with chilled dry white or Rose wines.

Fish dishes also go well with rose or pink wines. but depends on the flavor of the fish. fish of subtle flavour such as trout need a delicae wine such as an Anjou rose or a Riesling: stronger tasting fish need weightier wines such as a white Burgundy or Rioja.

Poultry can be accopanied by red or white wines in France duck and goose are frequently served with a red Burgundy or Bordeaux (claret), although they also go well with a Gewurztraminer or a Riesling.

As a rule of thumb choose the wine for the meat according to the strenght of the flavour and accompaniments - a light wine for lighter flavour and simple stuffing. a stonger wine for richer ones.

Cocktails made easyish

First Chill the ingrediants bottles in th efridge for several houres before mixing cocktail, and keep a selection of short and tall glasses in the fridge, if possible. Alternativly fill each glass with ice while the drinks are being prepared. Empty them before pouting the drinks.
Have plenty of ice availble for chilling the drinks.
The measures given here are for standard versions of the cocktails; they can be expanded, strnghthened or diluted as required.

Dry Martini
Dry vermouth
Gin
Strip of lemon ring
Small green olives
Mix 1 part of vermouth to 2 parts of gin in a jug containing plenty of ice. Stir until chilled, and strain into small, wide rimmed cocktail glasses. Add more gin for a drier martini; more vermouth for a less potent one. Serve with an olive on a cocktail stick in a glass. Twist a strip of lemon rind over a glass to release the oils, and then drape it over the edge.

HangOver part two

Drinking Juice/Coffee Afterward: The base premise behind both of these seems to be that drinking lots of juice or coffee will speed up your metabolism and thus the processing of the alcohol. The problem with juice is that it would take gallons of juice to get enough sugar in your system to really change your metabolic rate—an already suspect line of reasoning since researchers in the 1970s established that drinking lots of juice slows down the metabolizing of alcohol. Then, even if the questionable trick worked, you'd have to deal with the massive insulin spike and sugar crash that followed—which can be just as nasty as a hangover. Hydration is important, especially after drinking it up, but juice doesn't do anything special to help you.

Coffee fails in a related fashion. If you drank enough coffee to speed up your metabolism enough to effect the processing of alcohol you'd give yourself heart palpitations and the side effects of mega-dosing on caffeine would dwarf the side effects of your hangover. Even worse, one study suggests that coffee-plus-hangover is a recipe for bad decision making.

If a glass of V8 or a strong cup of coffee makes you feel better/sober up then sure, drink some. Just don't expect it to magically absorb all that vodka. Between the two, the V8 is the superior choice—coffee is a diuretic and light on any nutritional value, whereas your V8 is packed with vitamins and salt, both of which you could use some more of after a night of drinking.

Slamming Pain Killers: Don't load up on over-the-counter pain killers before bed. Not only do drugs like Aspirin and Acetaminophen have short windows of effectiveness in the body—you'll be asleep for their most effective time—but they're hard on your stomach and liver. That's not normally an issue when you're sober, but now is the time to pay attention to those bottle-warnings. Acetaminophen is especially harsh on your liver—thus the big warning on the box of Tylenol about not taking it along with alcohol. Save the pain killers for the next day and only if you really need them—again, you need to let your body focus on purging the alcohol.

 

Drinking Water: Water is a magical elixir that makes your body function. You can never go wrong drinking lots of it and it's the absolute best thing to keep yourself from getting hungover and speeding up hangover recovery. Even better than just drinking a lot of water after the fact is drinking water throughout the prior night.

My unofficial never-have-hangovers routine is to drink a tall glass of water for every unit of alcohol I consume—a unit being one of the equivalency portions they teach in you in health class—1 shot=1 glass of wine=1 beer. Drink water frequently through the night, drink lots of water before you go to bed, drink more water in the morning. In addition to keeping you well hydrated, this technique also serves to regulate alcohol consumption. Would anyone really do 20 shots in an evening if they had to drink around 2 gallons of water to go with them?

 

Eat Up: Drinking liquids doesn't close the valve in your stomach or jump start the metabolic process—one of the reasons drinking cola fattens you up so quickly—so make sure you eat well before you start drinking. The myth side of this tip is that food some how absorbs alcohol and locks it up until your body digests the food. The real reason is the valve in your stomach closes to start the digestion process and it takes longer for the alcohol to absorb into your system—a huge cheeseburger is a metaphorical whiskey-sponge, not a literal one.

A solid meal will cause your stomach to focus on slowing the movement of food and liquid through your body so the digestive process can occur. If you skip the pre-bar-hopping meal, the alcohol you drink is essentially boarding a speed train to your blood stream. Focus on fat and protein-loaded foods to provide a nice slow-burning meal that will help regulate the absorption of alcohol.

 

 

 

Don't neglect a good breakfast, either. You may not feel like eating in the morning, but the last thing your body needs is you stumbling around like a zombie on and empty stomach. Mopping up the mess you made with a bottle of Tequila—just because it's a lighter-colored liquor doesn't always mean it'll protect you from a hangover—is hard work, and you'd be a jerk not to feed the help. Get a solid breakfast with complex carbs and some protein—a case for a farmer's omelet and some thick-sliced toast if there ever was one or perhaps a nice delicious bacon sandwich—to help your body power through

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