Ever tried Raclette before? We knew it was a cheese dish that originated in Switzerland but had never come across it on a menu until arriving in Costa Rica this year. It always surprises us the things that we find there! Read More…
Each year around the holidays Neil and I look forward to making cookies but this year we didn’t have an oven where we were staying. We had to get creative with what else we could make and have it be comparable to our tasty peanut butter Hershey Kiss cookies. We found this recipe for chocolate wine truffles on Pinterest and it seemed like just the treat. We had the correct cooking set up as well as access to the ingredients here in Costa Rica. Also it would be just the thing to bring to our holiday get together with chocolate and wine lovers! Read More…
After creating our Wine and Chocolate Pinterest Board, it got me thinking we should do another wine and chocolate pairing. As I looked into those links, it reminded me that the tannins in Malbec wines, work well with the tannins in dark chocolates. That settled it, I’d find a Malbec and some local Costa Rican chocolate. Strangely I had a hard time coming across some local chocolate. (Most likely due to the pandemic) Then, at a local coffee shop, we noticed a display with a few different options. The owner recommended the almond one, so we were ready to go. Read More…
During our time in Costa Rica (much longer than we expected) we’ve been finding some really nice wines and cheeses. This trip we’ve had more purchasing options since we’ve been traveling around the country more. This has allowed us to find brands and shops that we never visited before. We’re also aware that it isn’t crucial to refrigerate cheese immediately so we’ve been fine taking the chance of driving home with it for a couple hours without thinking twice. Read More…
Today’s entry is being written poolside in Puerto Jimenez, Costa Rica. We did this pairing in Quebradas, Costa Rica, just outside of San Isidro de General, our “home” for the past 8 months. For a change of scenery we decided to come out to Puerto Jimenez for at least a month. I’ll take the opportunity to sit outside, listen to the waves and birds and get some work done! Read More…
We love the farmer’s market here in Perez Zeledon, Costa Rica. They call it the Feria and it’s the size of a soccer stadium, so there’s no surprise that we visit every week. One week while we were picking up our salad supplies and giant collection of vegetables, we walked past a table with mini bottles of wine. Since they were small, we could get a couple and not commit to a standard sized bottle of wine. Ok I’m in! Read More…
When we arrived in Costa Rica, we spent our first week at the beach in Puerto Viejo. The thing about the beach in Costa Rica, or anywhere, is that it’s hot! A little tricky for me to enjoy a nice glass of wine when I’m sweating so I usually seek other options. A great alternative was the box of Sangria that we found with such a fun label. Then as we continued to look in the grocery store, we came across a new brand of Costa Rican cheese. It was settled, we could still do some wine and cheese in more of a tropical way! Read More…
Towards the end of our Costa Rica trip, we found ourselves with a whole bunch of wine remaining from that case we had ordered from San Jose! There were a couple that had been earmarked for wine and cheese pairing research and another one that we just wanted to taste. And even two that we didn’t get to but ended up leaving as a Thank You gift for our caretakers. This pairing will kind be a catch all with wine, cheese, multiple dinners and even a little popcorn. We present to you “The Rest of our Wine in Costa Rica.” Read More…
We told you about how much fun we had creating our first home wine tasting so we decided to do another. The wines actually all came from the same distributor in San Jose, CR. It was so much fun to purchase an entire case of new wines to taste! Today’s set of wines are all 2017 Torrontés wines from Argentina. We’ve only tried one or two bottles of this grape before this tasting so we figured it would be interesting to try a few different brands side by side. Do you ever try varietal specific tastings? Let’s see how ours turns out! Read More…
We heard about this wine during one of our previous trips to Costa Rica but couldn’t find it until this year. The wine is made from cashews and we really thought hard about how a wine could be made from nuts. We were telling someone about it and they said “Oh silly, the wine is made from the fruit, not the nut!” Did you know cashew was a fruit?? Just shortly after finding the wine in one of our local licorerias (liquor stores) we came across the fruit in the farmer’s market. We told the farmer that we’d be tasting the wine soon so he gave us one of the fruits to taste too. Read More…