I’ve invented a new drink. It is simple, but tasty. Healthy, but alcoholic. It was neither born of desperation nor was it CWI (conceived while intoxicated).
Background:
1. Champagne, even middling-quality champagne, isn’t exactly an everyday sipping sort of drink. Some people flinch when they tip it into their gullets. I myself kind of enjoy the flavor, especially the dry stuff.
2. I (like my dear girlfriend Jackie) am a graduate of the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver. We picked up some pretty awesome Master of Arts – International Studies degrees there. It’s a great school, and the last time I checked, is in the Top 12 International Relations grad programs in the WORLD. It is my alma mater, or Latin for “nourishing mother”.
3. Korbel California Champagne is a champagne brand from California (fittingly). Jackie and I stopped by their operation last year on one of our numerous wine country tours. It was fun to get a picture next to a Korbel sign. Note: There is no relation between the Korbel Champagne and the Korbel School. Josef Korbel was the Czech diplomat who founded the original graduate school and did numerous other interesting things, like inspire Condoleezza Rice to pursue a career in politics, and raise Madeleine Albright, his daughter and our first female Secretary of State.
4. ALO Drink is a San Francisco brand of drinks featuring aloe (fittingly) in various combinations. Their stuff has chunks of aloe gel floating around in it. It’s great.
I happened to have a bottle of Korbel Brut laying about for the past few months. We didn’t drink it on New Year’s Eve because both Jackie and I had had a big dinner at City O’ City and needed to sleep. So we decided to open it today (New Year’s Day 2011).
It tasted alright, but we needed to finish it (wasting champagne is bad luck or something) and I knew that it would be hard to stomach the whole bottle (or at least close to half). So I took an ALO Drink that we had picked up earlier in the day and dumped it 1:1 with the Korbel.
WHAT RESULTED IS A FLAVORFUL, HEALTHY, AND MILDLY INTOXICATING BEVERAGE THAT I HAVE CHOSEN TO REFER TO AS:
Aloe-ma-mater
And so it is. Try this one out – you won’t be disappointed. Rock on, America. Rock on, world. Happy New Year’s!