It takes about two whole days to recover from an Elixir Tasting night hence the reason why you have not heard from us for a while.  Entertaining people is energy intensive…

The Elixir Tasting was a success and we had the pleasure of the company of Dandelion Chocolate from San Francisco.  As I had mentioned before, we changed some things around.  Gnome added a bit about the various stages of the aging process of wine and passed exhibits around.  We also let everyone taste a Gnome’s New Year’s Eve Maize Beer; for all intents and purposes, it was perfect with clarity, colour, one inch head with good head retention.  The only problem was that corn beer actually tasted revolting!  No wonder nobody makes maize beer!  It has a distinctive sour and “vomity” smell which puts you off before it even touches your lips!  Everyone had a good laugh about it.

In previous Elixir Tastings, a lot of the time was spent waiting for glasses to be cleaned and bussed back after each tasting.  This time we put bowls on the tables with jugs of water so that people could rinse out their glasses.  Gnome’s mother had mentioned to us that traditionally, Italians do not like to waste a drop of alcohol, so the taster is suppose to rinse their glass and swig down the rest of the diluted alcohol.  Everyone involved was quite happy to comply with the new rule.

Everyone loved the Lemongrass Elixir as per usual.  And, the next favourite seemed to be the Roselle which has a mature, well-bodied taste.  Of course, everyone enjoyed the Chocolate Velvet which is always the last tasting of the evening.

Anyway, we are almost back to normal so expect to hear from us soon.  Unfortunately, I have not got a photo of the Elixir Tasting to show you but, Cotton Tree Lodge has promised to furnish me with one of their photos at some point.  So, I will insert a picture in the near future…hopefully!