quicksearch cocktails:   search tips

glossary (Tch - Tia)

Tchaika
Tchaika is a mild Vodka produced in the West. It has a Russian name Tchaika (=gull). The design of the bottle is also shaped by typical Russian elements. But the Vodka comes from France. It is produced from the House Moët-Hennessy in Cognac. This relativly new Vodka is a rarity on the market: it is not a fruit-, but a wine import. Moët-Hennessy worked on this product for many years. After the idea to produce in France, was accepted from the company's management, a specialists-team was sent to the Ukraine to learn the Russian production methods while staying for months now and again. Long testings followed, until the Vodka of the french House reached its today known quality. Tchaika fulfils all demands asked for a first.class vodka, whereby the care of the distillation and filtration is most important for the quality. Tchaika is a grain-distillate from purest wheat. The distillate is filtrated about eight times above selected coal-types to get the absolutly neutral, smooth taste, which is typicak for vodka. Alcohol content: 40 %.

Teacher's
William Teacher founded his company in 1830, at the age of 19. The reason of foundation was a licence he got to open a "Schnapps Shop" for beer, wine and spirituous liquors. It was the start of a successful career: At the age of 40, Teacher owned 18 shops, which were the biggest shop-chain in Glasgow. He served generous portions of whisky for three pence, a bottle cost about two Shillings or half a Crone, depending on quality. And he always served his whisky pure. When his single-trade was flowering, he started in the wholesale business: He produced bigger amounts of blended whisky according to the wishes of his customers. One of his blends was so excellent, that he registered it as "Teacher's Highland Cream" in 1884. The business was successful and in 1866, an office was open in Manchester, ten years later another office opening followed in London. William Teacher died in 1876, and two of his eleven children took over business. In 1873, Teacher's also started to make an effort for the export-market. It started with a ship-load to New Zealand. In 1903, the first shipping load went to the US. In 1891, Teacher's built its own distillery near Ardmore in Aberdeenshire. In 1960, it also bought the in 1826 founded 'Glendronach Distillery', which was one of the oldest registered distilleries of Scotland. Most of the Glendronach whisky is used for blending, only a part of it is sold as Single Malt on the market. In 1913, Teacher's introduced the first self-opening cork. Until that day all bottles had been closed like wine bottles with a wine-cork, and a corkscrew was necessary to open the bottle. In 1949, Teacher's became a joint-stock company. Teacher's is the biggest independent whisky company, still controlled by the descendants of the founder. Teacher's offers following products in Germany: the standard quality Highland Cream (40 %), the top product Royal Highland 12 Years Old de Luxe Blended Scotch Whisky (43 %) and furthermore The Glendronach Single Malt Scotch Whisky 12 Years Old (43 %).

Teaspoon
Small spoon often used for having tea and sugar. Measurement (short: tsp) in English- Cocktail-books. Is about 5 grams or 0,5 cl.

Tequila
The national drink of Mexico, Tequila, got its name from a town of the State Jalisco. Tequila is produced from the trunk of the Maguey-Agave. This blue-greenish shinning cactus-type is also called "Mezcal-Azul" (Blue Cactus). The word Mezcal comes from Metl, the Indian word for Agave. Often Mexican drinks, like Pulque, Mezcal and Tequila are mixed up. All three are made ofrom the same basic product , the Agave; but Pulque is the alcoholic liquuid, produced after the fermentation of Agave juice and drunk fresh. Mezcal are all Agave's spirits, therefore Tequila is also a Mezcal. But a Tequila is only a product, which is produced from only one type of Agave, which is the Maguey-Agave from Jalisco and its neighbouring State Nayarit. Tequila is colourless at first, like all other distillates. It is stored in wax-treated containers or oak barrels. Tequila stored in barrels gets a light yellow colour, which gets more and more intensive the longer it is stored (four years the most). Alcohol content: 40 to 45 %.

Terry
The history of the Family de Terry, known for its Sherries and Brandies, dates back in England to 1066. While Queen Elizabeth I (1533 - 1603) was ruling the country, the de Terrys emigrated from South-Ireland to Spain. A few members of the Family have lived in the heart of the Sherry region, in Puerto de Santa Maria, since the 17th century. Today, the family owns about 500 hectares of vineyards and about 40,000 square metres of wine-cellars.Available from de Terry in Germany are: Fino, Amontillado, Oloroso and Cream. Around 1880, de Terry started producing brandy. Special care and storage in oak barrels for years caused the full, round taste and the dark colour of De-Terry-Products. Three brandies of de Terry are available in Germany: "Centenario" (38 %), the biggest product of the House and Terry "1900" (38 %), a higher quality. These products are sold in gold-cord-covered bottles. A top product is sold in a satin bottle, this is Gran Reserva "Terry I" (40 %).

Texier
The wine-distillery Texier was founded in Bingen at the river Rhine in 1887. It has experience in the wine-distillation production for years. The best distillation wines of the House come from France, they are used to produce Texier Extra Old, which is distilled according to the cognac-way and stored in oak barrels. Texier Extra Old has an age-certificate, which says, that the 38 % brandy was stored much longer than prescribed by law.

The Antiquary
The Anitquary 12 Years Old is a Scotch Whisky Mixture of highest quality. It was introduced by J. & W. Harthe Ltd about 100 years ago and was imeadately honoured as being a De-Luxe-Whisky of rare quality. The individual charcter of this whisky is caused by very old, from selected malt-whisky-distilleries coming, whiskies. The origin of the Harthe-company is not exactly known, because only a few old documents still exist. John Harthe was born in 1835; the local consultion book (reference book) of the post office says, that he had opened a shop in Edinburgh in 1857. Around 1860, John's brother William Blackworth Harthe became his partner. There are no exact signs, when Harthe sold "the Antiquary" for the first time. But hardly readable copies of an old correspondence book say, that Harthe already started very early to produce good Blend and Scotch Whiskies. In 1964, William Sunderson & Son Ltd., producer of the world-known "Vat 69", was asked to take care of the commercial and sale of Antiquary. In 1966, the carafe-bottle was introduced. "The Antiquary" is said to be one of the best De-Luxe-Whiekies in the world. Alcohol content: 40 %.

The Champagne
The Champagne is bordered by law. It is situated about 150 kilometres north-east from Paris. This vineyard area is bordered to about 34,000 hectares by a law of 1927. But only 25,000 hectares are used at the moment, this is the so-called 'Zone délimitée'. This zone is subdivided into four areas, which differ in their situations and size expressly from each other. Main places are the coronation-towns Reims and Epernay. a) Montagne - wines, mainly made from blue grapes, are partly responsible of the boquet, alcohol content and character of the Champagne. b) Vallée de la Marne - Marne valley and Epernay: Marne valley, especially south- and south-east areas. Full, round and ripe wines are made from blue grapes. c) Cote des Blancs-White slope: Chardonnay-vines, which cause the freshness and finesse of the Cuvée, are mainly growing in the eastern areas. d) Aube: The growing area, Bar-sur-Seine and Bar-sur-Aube is situtaed the very south and has less importance than any othe region.
Production
The procedure tp produce Champagne is described as Méthode Champenoise. TheBenedictian monk Dom Pérignon is said to be the inventor of the Champagne. It nearly took a century, when the secret of production finally went outside the borders o9f France.
The descrption 'Champagne' is only for products from the region of Champagne, which was decided and set at the peace-contracts of St. Germin and Versailles (origin description).
Harvest
The wine-harvest starts at the end of September, which is about 100 days after flowering. The grapes are harvest carefully by hands.
Pressing
After harvest, the grapes are transported to the press in Mannequins (baskets). Pressing takes place a few hours after harvest and in special presses, where the cider/ press - substances can run through quickly, so that no colour of the blue grapes remains in the juice.
First Fermentation
The fresh pressed cider is placed in wood.barrels or fermentation tanks for the first fermentation, which turns the grape-juice into wine. Then, while the first testing, it is separated from the yeast and while winter time, it is transferred and filtrated a few more times.
Cuvée-preparation
In spring time, the choice of the Cuvée from different wines of the Champagne starts. Wines having different amounts, coming from different areas and regions as well as different vintages are blended with each other. Most Cuvées consist of wines of blue and white grapes.
Second Fermentation
A small amount of pure breeding yeast and cane sugar, dissolved in old wines, are added to the Cuvée to start the second fermentation. Afterwards, the product is bottled and sealed. Now the sugar turns into alcohol and carbon dioxide bit by bit. Because of the slowly fermentation under high pressure and the following storage, carbon dioxide mixes very good with the wine, which results in the fine froth and the long lasting perls later on. The bottles have to be stored at least for shaking. The remains in the bottom caused by of the second fermentation must be removed. Therefore, the bottles are placed on sloping shaking instrument, the neck is slightly pointing down. Every day each bottle is turned in a one eigth turning, shaken a bit and placed pointing a bit more down than before. After a few weeks all remains are stucked in the neck of the bottle.
Removal of the sediment
To remove the muddy remains, the neck of the bottle is dived into a freezing solution. It freezes, too; the bottle is opened and the pressure pushes it out of the bottle.
Dosage
The loss of the wine in the last step of the procedure is refilled through the dosage. It consists of wine of the used Cuvée, mixed with old Champagne, where cane sugar was dissolved before. Mixture amounts and addition-amounts of the dosage lead to direction of taste of the Champagne and are the secrets of the Champagne-House.
Cork
The bottle is sealed with a natural cork, which is furthermore closed with an Agraffe (small steal-basket).
Storage
The Champagne is shaken roughly again and stored until it reaches its bottle-ripeness.
Sizes of Champagne bottles.
Description of volume is a German Description in litres:
0, 178 litre Baby Split, Quart Piccolo, Baby Knirps 0, 375 litre Split, Demi Half Bottle, 0, 75 litre bottle, Bouteille 1/ 1 bottle, normal bottle 1, 5 litres Magnum 2 1/ 1 bottle, double bottle 3 litres Jeroboam, Double Magnum 4 1/ 1 bottle, four-times bottlw. The 3-litre bottle is not availabvle on the market, usually it is only produced by the Champagne-House, if wished expressively.
Known Champagne-companies:
Name, origin
Ayala Ay Piper-Heidsieck Reims Bollinger Ay Pol Roger & Co. Epernay Heidsieck Charles Reims Pommery & Greno Reims Heidsieck Monopole Reims Roederer Louis Reims Krug & Co. Reims Taittinger Reims Lanson Pére & Fils Reims Veuve Clicquot Mailly Mailly Ponsardin Reims Moët & Chandon Epernay Veuve Laurent G. H. Mumm & Co. Reims Perrier Reims Perriert-Jouet & Co. Epernay
Correct treatment of Champagne
The Champagne should be stored at 10 degrees up to 15 degrees the most, fairly in darkness, protected from draught and lying down. If done so, the Champagne lasts for many years but will not develop any further. The best drinking or serving temperature is 6 to 9 degrees. Perfect glasses to serve the Champagne are Sparkling Wine glasses shaped like a calyx, champagne glasses or FLOTEN or tulips, because the bouquet can perfectly collect itself there. Avoid using sparkling wine bowls.

The Glendronach
The Glendronach Distillery was founded in 1826 and is said to be one of the oldest registered distilleries in Scotland. The name comes from the river Ronach. In 1960, it was taken over by Wm. Teacher & Sons Ltd., a company, which was founded by William Teacher in Glasgow in 1830. Available in Germany is: The Glendronach Single Malt Scotch Whisky 12 Years Old (43 %).

Tia Maria
Tia Maria (Tia = aunty) is a Blue Mountain Coffee, Jamaica Rum, Cocoa, Vanilla and herbs produced sweet coffee liqueur. It comes from the Caribbean Island Jamaica. Romance adventure-stories are told about the origin of the recipe: Spanish families ruled Jamaica, which was disvovered by Columbus in 1494. In the 17th century, the English conquered the island. Many Spanish fled taking as much as they could carry of their belongings. One of them was Tia Maria, a slave of rich people. She saved besides valuable family-jewlery, an old pergament with the liqueur-recipe for her mastress while the muddle of the escape. It had been passed on from generation to generation. The liqueur, which was named "Tia Maria", in honour of the slave, was only produced for the need of the family. Centuries later , Dr. Kenneth Leigh Evans, a popular academic, doctor and gourmet, tried a liqueur while he was staying at a friend's house, which fazinated him. He got to know from the old family recipe and the liqueur, which could only be produced in small amounts, because it did not last very long. Evans experimented with the recipe until he got a product, which could last longer. Then he founded a trading society (trading company) and started to sell "Tia Maria" in a big deal. The 31 % coffee-liqueur is exported to 120 countries in the world.