New, Unique Citrus Liqueurs from Florida:
T & W (also Mead and Vodka)
Out of the blue one day, last summer, I received a pair of bottles from Florida sent by a customer. There was no explanation, but were labeled T & W Orangela Liqueur and T&W Royal Mead Honey Wine.
The labels were charitably plain Jane, but the liquids inside were marvelous. I tasted them and immediately called the producers Ted and Henry Kasprow. In answer to my questions about them, Henry replied that he and his parents produced the liqueur and mead wine in their winery and distillery in New Port Ritchie, Florida. They were only two of the items produced. Wine is made for local sale from grapes from California, but a rye vodka and other fresh citrus fruit liqueurs were bottled.
Not interested in the wines, I asked for a sample of the Luxury Vodka and the Key Lime liqueur. They duly arrived and were of the same high quality as the first samples. A subsequent visit to the plant in Florida confirmed the validity of the products. Corti Brothers now has four T&W products in stock: Orangela Liqueur, Limonela Liqueur, Rye Vodka and Royal Mead Honey Wine. The citrus liqueurs are made using only fresh Florida fruit and not dried peel.
Refugees from Poland’s Communist regime, the Kasprows first arrived in Canada and then immigrated to the U.S., ultimately arriving in Florida in 2002. Having a wine making and distillation background in Poland, they established the T&W brand at their Empire Winery and Distillery in west-central Florida.
T&W Royal Mead Honey Wine is a holdover from very ancient times. Mead has a lot of counter culture about it, but it is a serious product. It is also an ancient one, going back to Vedic India and the Fertile Crescent. In Sanskrit, madhu, meant both honey or mead. This went into Latin as mel, through Greek and into Old Anglo Saxon medo, medu from which we get mead.
While wine is made from grapes, the fermented beverage from honey should be called mead. A traditional drink in Poland, there it is called miod. Man’s inventiveness when it comes to producing alcohol is all encompassing.
T&W Royal Mead is delicious. In fact it is the best mead I have tasted. A lovely pale yellow color, with a very clean honey scent, it has a lovely, clean finish of delicate honey. The honey used is clover honey grown in northern Florida, or just across the border in Georgia.
Royal Mead can be used to good advantage as an aperitif or dessert wine. You might try it with pork dishes, even Chinese roast duck. It is sweet, but it would combine with certain foods. Be adventuresome.
T&W Orangela is a unique liqueur produced from a very special citrus fruit, the Temple orange, grown exclusively in Florida. The Temple orange, first released in Florida in 1917 from a single tree, was found growing wild in Jamaica in 1896. It is thought to be a mandarin x orange hybrid. Named in the early 1900s for the first president of the Florida Citrus Exchange, Mr. William C. Temple, it is also one of the first patented oranges.
Temple oranges have high sugar content and moderate acidity with a unique flavor and a mandarin like scent. The production of Orangela uses all the fruit: the pressed juice is fermented to make the base for distillation which then is used as the base for the lengthy maceration of the fruit skins. Pale orange colored from the skin maceration, the liqueur is sweetened, lightly filtered and bottled.
T&W Limonela Liqueur is the maceration in neutral spirits of Key Lime, the true lime (Citrus aurantifolia). Lime juice is too low in sugar to ferment. Flavor is extracted by peel maceration. Lightly green in color, it is hauntingly fragrant and flavorful with a very clean lime flavor, softly sweetened.
T&W Luxury Vodka is a rye vodka from Mid-western rye which is fermented at Empire distillery and the resulting mash distilled there six times in copper pot stills. Creamy textured, it has a slight rye grain aroma and a full flavor. Vodka for drinking straight, serve icy cold from the freezer.
The T&W liqueurs and vodka should be served straight from the freezer, the mead at a cool temperature.
For Your Education
About twice a year there is a short course given by University of California Davis Extension called the
Sensory Evaluation of Olive Oil. The dates for it are Friday, March 10 and Saturday, March 11, 2006.It is taught by Paul Vossen, UC Cooperative farm advisor in Sonoma county and panel head of the University of California Master Olive Oil Taster panel.
Several other noted UC Davis sensory experts, culinary professionals and others will have seminars on oil and its uses. The IOOC threshold tests will be administered to test your sensory abilities in recognizing defects and perception of bitterness, essential for becoming a qualified oil taster sitting on a taste panel.
This short course is held on the Davis campus at the University Club. Enrollment Fee: $565 Includes two lunches and all tastings. Enroll in section 053FST300.
For information or to register: www.extension.ucdavis.edu or call (800) 752-0881
This is perhaps the most important short course on olives and their oil given in this country.
