Grape skins

Legend has it that a 2nd-century Roman soldier, thirsty from a hard campaign but unable to procure the grapes to make his own wine, fermented a mixture of grape skins, pulp, stems, and seeds.  He called the resulting drink grappa, and the concoction remains a specialty in northern Italy to this day.

We haven't been making any questionable liquor ourselves these days, but I was reminded of this story by a very different drink that we made the other afternoon.  Matt had the day off and I was able to come home early due to icy roads and inclement weather, so we had the chance to make a fun lunch together.  A smoothie sounded like the perfect drink!  The only fruits we had in the refrigerator were red grapes and mandarin oranges... I'd never put grapes in a smoothie before, but it sounded like a fine combination.

After combining the fruit, ice cubes, and some vanilla yogurt in the blender, we remembered why we hadn't been eating these grapes very quickly: they have really thick skins, to the point of leaving a slightly bitter note on your tongue.  Oh well, too late... everything was covered with yogurt by this point!  We blended it together, and gave it a try.

The colors didn't come out so well in this photo, but the smoothie was a lovely pastel orange with bright red-purple flecks (the grape skins).  The sweetness of the mandarin orange juice and vanilla yogurt, combined with the much small pieces of grape skin, eliminated the bitter taste we had been experiencing when eating the grapes by themselves.  The flavors went together very well, too!