Good Food and wine experience

So my visit to the Good Food and Wine show this year was just as successful as last year. I was pleased to see on all the social networks this year how the popularity of this festival has increased. Cant wait to see what's happening next year.
My highlights of the festival were...


Original Iced Cocktails

This brand first of all had the nicest staff. A smile really is a game-changer. This stall was extremely popular at the show as they had those vuvuzela type glasses filled with cocktails to the brim. Everywhere we went you could hear people enquiring from each other, " Where is the stand with the big glasses!!" When I arrived Sunday they only had 100 glasses left as the Saturday they sold thousands.

 Now in December last year I bought some premix cocktails in a box for New Years. I won't name and shame a brand as it's not my style, but honestly I could just as well have taken my mouthwash along to the party as it tasted disgusting.

 When I had the opportunity to visit Original Ice cocktails I was weary because won't I have the same experience again? Luckily not! I sampled the Daiquiri and Mojito. Now the Strawberry Daiquiri tasted just like a cocktail a bar would serve you but it comes out of a packet! Can you believe it? It was delicious. I gulped down my glass so fast that I almost had to take a time out at the festival.

 Now the tricky one was the Mojito as this is the one cocktail most people easily get wrong. Lucky for me Original Ice delivered again and it tasted delicious.

Other cocktails they offer are Singapore sling, Margarita, Pina-colada and Cosmopolitan. They sell them in 300ml sachets for R18-22 and in big 2L boxes for R70-R75.


These cocktails are easy to make. You pop the sachet or box into the freezer a few hours before usage, take them out and shake them around and bit and voila you can serve up cocktails in the comfort of your home without breaking the bank!


To celebrate my 10 000 page view I will be giving away some of these delicious beverages so keep an eye open for the launch of the competition.


Original ice cocktails are available in most liquor stores and they will also be at the Durban and Johannesburg Good Food and Wins show as well at the Pride festival in Durban.

Like them on Facebook
Follow them on twitter @Original_Iced
Check out their website

 

Spar wine and canapé pairing

Now wine and food pairing is the new "it thing" in the foodie scene. I knew that this was one exhibition I would not miss and even waited for 40 minutes to make sure I secure a place. We were hosted buy a chef and sommelier. They took as through all the motions of how to do a pairing.

1. Smell your wine. They encouraged us to smell like we were glue-addicts.
2. Swirl your wine. Observe the line the wine makes on the side of the glass. This indicates the alcohol content of a wine and the more alcohol that is present in the wine the longer it will take for the line to disappear.
3. Taste the wine. Observe the acidity and flavours that you taste.
4. Taste the food. Yummy :)
5. Taste the wine again and see how this influences the original taste of the wine. Sometimes it will be more or less acidic or new flavours you previously did not taste will emerge.

We paired most of our canapés with Spar's Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc and it was awesome to experience the influence food and wine has on each other.

 

Eric Lanlard  and Isabella from Australia Junior Masterchef

Myself and the flatmate were very tempted to partake in the kiddies baking session with Isabella. Luckily we did not embarrass ourselves and only observed at a distance as we made a game plan for next year to hire kids so that our enthusiasm will not be mistaken for anything illegal :)


We also observed Eric Lanlard at the Isabelina exhibition where he was busy creating a delicious chocolate cake. He was very entertaining and funny as he tried to say some Afrikaans words and explain egg sizes as in South-Africa our large eggs are equivalent to the UK's medium eggs!



Thank you to Lucy at Wonderland Collective for organising our tickets! What a treat it was :)




What was some of your highlights at the Good Food and wine show???