This was handed to me before the weekend. If you think thought it might make it through the weekend, you were mistaken.There is little forthcoming info on this stuff, so here's what it is: Alloy Wine Works Tin City Americano Wine x Coffee. The back of the label reads, "Red wine grapes co-fermented with coffee beans."
It also reads, a collaboration with HoneyCo.
After doing a bunch of stuff on my day off, I headed out for a Trader Joe's run, a walk of about 20 minutes one way. But first, I tried about half a glass of this stuff. Let me tell you this: this is some weird, dense, alcoholic-black licorice-black cherry-cranberry juice-kind of stuff, sweet-like. Also about 15 minutes into my walk it suddenly became a good idea to try a cold brew with wine and coffee. Science experiment!
Right, it's been a while since we've done one of these. The last coffee one was a Guinness and coffee cold brew, and that was delicious. Why not wine? Probably because it sounds terrible*, but now I am walking up to Trader Joe's, slightly floating, really, realizing $3 wine is the perfect thing for something that might be really awful. Kismety! The current coffee is Yukon from Starbucks. Sort of medium, I opted the milder Merlot so it wouldn't overpower the coffee. Also my smallest jar so I wouldn't cry when I realized I just wasted a bunch of good coffee on this whole idea.
It's a 2-scoop sized jar.
Wine to fill.
A thorough stir.
Enjoy the rest of that fantastic wine.
And wait 12 hours.
(actual blurry picture, not-wine induced.)
PS: recycle.
Next morning it gets strained. Rinse the jar, refill with cold brew.
But the real question was, Wait, it's 7:30 AM. When does one drink this? It's too early for wine, but at night it's too late for coffee. After some deliberation, I decided it was exactly the right time to taste this. I mean - in the interest of science - to note the results. Which I did. Note.
Findings: despite the wine, actually not at all bad. Much more subtle and straightforward than the candy crush of the Tin City Americano. With good wine it would be better. Also, someone suggested white wine. They thought something neutral like a Chardonnay, but I'm thinking a Riesling could be amazing.
(*...though come to think of it, we did do the Great Kalimotxo Experiment way back then. The cola profile could have suggested wine's compatibility with coffee. Bad on me for not sooner realizing this.)
(Day four, this has settled into a very delicious thing. Because wine is shelf not-stable, it doesn't make sense to brew any larger a batch unless it is widely shared or you drink a LOT of both wine and coffee all day long. So if you never open wine becauce you can't finish a bottle, enjoy some and cold brew the rest.)