I’ve been crazy for gingerbread this year, and have been experimenting with different gingerbread recipes for a month.

Gingerbread

The best has been one that is molasses-y but not too much so, kind of crumby yet moist and very spicy, with both ginger powder and freshly grated ginger root. I’m about to make another batch tomorrow, this time with ginger chunks from Bulk Barn.

This opened the flood gates and I started obsessing over ginger flavours. Before I knew it, I was trying anything remotely ginger related. Gingerbread lattes at Starbucks (ho hum, kind of thin). Gingerbread snap cookies (meh.) Then, finally a break through:

Real ginger beer by Crabbie’s

Summer? We drank this the day it was -46C in Edmonton. No ice though.

This is an awesome alcoholic beverage by the way. I got it at Sherbrooke Liquor, when they were out of the newest obsession in the house, a beer called Route Des Épices (Ale Rousse Au Poivre) by Quebec’s Dieu Du Ciel (it’s spicy. VERY spicy.) $6 for a reasonable serving, and this was tart, spicy and light. It’s 4%.

Then, because it was so cold I wanted to find a way to keep warm. I made hot chocolate from scratch. That is to say…

Gingerbread Hot Chocolate

I attended a Christmas party a number of years ago where I remember exactly three things: we watched a Lord of the Ring marathon, we had souffles but the host was perturbed they fell, and there was some wicked home made hot chocolate with Screech in it.

What’s Screech? Why it’s a rum endemic to Newfoundland. Mr M’s mom brought some back when she visited the east coast a few months ago. I’ve been dying to use it.

Real cinnamon reserved for special occasions

Chocolate “paste”

(This pot is my Gran’s. It is great for heating milk in, as it never burns, and stays hot a long time. She made it for making cream of wheat in.)

I edited my dad’s recipe for hot chocolate and came up with an awesome Gingerbread modification.

Gingerbread Hot Chocolate

• 1 cup of whole milk
• 2 portions of 1/4 cup heavy cream (i.e., whipping cream. My dad uses evaporated milk)
• 1.5 tablespoons of good-quality, unsweetened cocoa powder (I have started using Ghirardelli, but Valrhona or even Fry’s are good)
• 1.5 tablespoons of sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 0.5-1 ounce Screech (or any rum. Can also be omitted entirely.)
• stalk of ginger root, peeled and cut into slices
• half stick of cinnamon
• dash of ginger powder and cinnamon
• whole cloves or nutmeg, if you have them

In a heavy bottomed sauce pan over medium heat, pour in milk and 1/4 cup of heavy cream. Add ginger root, cinnamon and any other spices you desire, such as cloves and nutmeg. Let just come to a simmer, and drop heat until milk gets very hot and steeps in spices, 10-15 minutes.

Meanwhile, combine cocoa, sugar, dash of ginger powder and cinnamon, vanilla, rum and 1/4 cup of whipping cream with a whisk. It will get very pasty, so add milk or water to thin slightly and incorporate.

When milk has steeped, whisk in chocolate mixture until it has dissolved. Strain into a cup, over marshmallows or with fresh whipped cream on top.

This recipe is not too sweet, very spicy and highly drinkable. I don’t know how well it scales up, as I have only made two servings at a time of it. It’s quite rich.

Finally, at Duchess last week I saw one of their seasonal items:

Gingerbread macarons.

I have nothing to say other than: they’re great. Just like everything else they make.

Finally, at work a few weeks ago, we had to photograph some products from local business Beardog Cafe. One of their products smelled so good it was all I could do to not scarf it down as I shot it: Raven’s Gingerbread.

However, it’s for your four-legged friend. All-natural, and some pretty cute packaging, too.

Do you have any favourite ginger treats?

Yes, the name is offensive, but this is not the reason I got this cola. I found this gem in a huge cooler of independently branded sodas at a store at the Pike Place market in Seattle. There were dozens to choose from, and I was dying of thirst after hauling ass through the market in less than an hour. I did not have time to mull things over, and although I was torn between “Rat Bastard Root Beer” and “Fukola Cola”, I grabbed the last bottle of the cola. That had to be a good sign, right?

I was in for a treat!

The cola is syrupy but not too sweet, well carbonated with a spicy buzz after, and mildly herby tasting. Not surprisingly, there is a long list of herbs in the drink: lime oil, orange oil, cloves, American, Siberian and Korean ginseng, African capsicum, dill weed, skullcap, echinacea, ginkgo biloba, kola nut, sage, damiana, and kava kava.

In the car after, I felt like I was vibrating, and thought “Gee, I don’t consume enough caffeine, that really got on top of me.” Turns out, there is additional guarana and caffeine added, though. This was basically a tasty energy drink.

Fukola Cola is a “resurrected” soda made by the Californian company Skeleteens as a “counter culture” drink. How apropos for Seattle. Coincidentally they also make the Rat Bastard Root Beer I was hemming and hawing over. Skeleteens products can be difficult to find apparently. If I’d known how rare it was, I would have loaded up.

By the way, according to Bones Jones, the creator of Skeleteens, it’s pronounced foo-cola.

Two new beverages this week. One was a vintage sodie pop I had been saving for some time. My boyfriend purchased it while on a road trip over a year ago, knowing I love to try new drinks, but I only got around to drinking it recently.

I had been saving it for a float, but I’m glad I didn’t. The ice cream would not have been good enough for it.

The bottle recommends “no ice” but I did not listen.

Virgil’s was a flavourful cherry cream soda with a subtle vanilla taste, and very very creamy in the mouth. It wasn’t overly syrupy or sweet, either, maybe because they use cane sugar. I’ve heard good things about Virgil’s other sodas, namely the Root Beer, and after trying the Black Cherry Cream Soda, I can tell you I will be searching it out. Apparently their parent company, Reed’s, makes SIX types of ginger beer.

Although I’m not sure it’s available in Edmonton yet, there are two bottles of Virgil’s Root Beer sitting in the fridge at work. I don’t know where they came from, but I will have to sleuth out the answer.

The other soda was a completely different story. I found myself at Sunterra one day, craving a soda as good as the Virgil’s Black Cherry Cream Soda, but faced with the same old soda selections. I saw the busy, eye-catching label for Jones’ “Jones Jumble” mixed flavour soda and decided to give it a shot. Jones are the people famous for oddly flavoured drinks like “Turkey & Gravy” and “Antacid”. I should have known better is all I can say.

The crazy label (one of three limited edition ones) serves as a wrap hiding the horror within: a grey/green/blue colour that is similar to that seen at sewage outlets on Thai beaches. The sewage blends into the gorgeous turquoise water making a colour distinctly recreated in the Jones bottle.

I did sample it before I saw the colour, so one cannot imply I let it put me off. The flavour is a “secret” blend of four different kinds taken from the stock of Jones Soda flavours. The overwhelming first grape flavour hid a later zazzy lemon lime, melonesque middle and FuFu berry finish. Of course, these are only my guesses. I’m not sure what the real flavours are.

I did not like this. I dumped it down the drain at work, but not before taking these photos at our copy photography set up area and attracting attention from nearby copy editors. “Looks like swamp water,” one said. Another stated, simply: “You kids will drink anything.”

The flavour was created as a novelty, obviously, and the makers challenged consumers to put their tastebuds to the test and identify the flavours hiding within. Are you brave enough to be a soda sommelier? The contest ended on July 15, but the flavour lives on, just like the lingering grape flavour my burps have.

A few new drinks in the past few weeks.

Melbourn Brothers Cherry Beer.

Although I have had cherry flavoured beer in the past (Bellevue Kriek) this brew was a bit different. This British beer had a lot of cherry added to it, so much so I found it overwhelming actually. It was a bit tart, and very carbonated. Just sort of like cherry juice with some beer mixed in. I’m not sure I’d try it again.

My old friend Fentimans.

Ginger beer is a real treat. I remember the first time I had it when we moved to England. We were in a pub in a city called Chelmsford, and I took my first sip, expecting ginger ale. How surprised I was to taste the sharp ginger and fizz in my nose. Fentimans is a more refined ginger beer. Still spicy and zingy, but a definite fresh ginger flavour and not too sweet, either. I would definitely drink it again.