In honor of the coming weekend, and on the off chance that alcohol may be involved, here are a few items I found interesting this week.

First up, I’m sharing a hack from KellysDIY blog on improving the taste of cheap vodka.  Haven’t tried this myself but it’s an intriguing idea:

Pour your cheap vodka into a water filter pitcher.  It will remove the impurities that make inexpensive vodka taste, well, cheap.  

Photo by Denis Linine on Pexels.com

Another great tip: Baking soda removes wine stains.

Photo by rawpixel.com on Pexels.com

Speaking of wine, the industry’s latest annual report cited some millennial trends that will impact not just this age group (currently 23-38) but the rest of us, too, as winemakers take notice. Cheers to healthy wines at a reasonable price!

Millennials:

1. Tend to prefer craft beers, spirits (e.g., whiskey) and/or cannabis to wine
2. Less interested in accumulating “stuff”; experiences mean more
3. Health oriented (wine’s competing with kombucha, for heaven’s sake!), which means a preference for wine that’s organic, sustainable and local
4. Don’t have a lot of money. They’re still dealing with fallout from the 2008 recession, student loans, and establishing themselves in their careers
5. Want their drinking experience to be fun (hence the appeal of inventive cocktails and entertaining mixologists), not precious or snobby
6. Turned off by pretentious tasting rooms (and high prices) they associate with their parents
7. Inclined to reject “safe” choices like pinot and chardonnay in favor of something unexpected. (Barrel-aged sauvignon blanc, anyone? Oenologists describe this rare specialty as having a creamier texture and more rounded lemony/crème brûlée flavors than flinty Sancerre or herbaceous New Zealand offerings.)

Are you a millennial? Do you agree with these general observations?

Incidentally, did you know that rosé is the fastest growing wine segment in the US?  If you’re of the generation that grew up on Mateus and have shunned them ever since, one of Oregon’s lovely, fresh, pinot noir rosés will be a revelation.

(front) Crowley Wines; (back) Coleman Vineyard’s Cherry Cove

And finally, some fun facts:

• Milkshakes originally contained alcohol.
• Red wines have higher alcohol content than white wines.
• Moonshine accounts for around 30% of the world’s alcohol drinking.
• A bottle of champagne contains 90 PSI of pressure — three times the pressure in your car tire.
• A gin & tonic will glow under a UV light because tonic contains quinine, which is UV light reactive
• Fear of an empty glass has a scientific name, Cenosillicaphobia.