In the world of premium urban exploration, where we constantly seek to make our evenings remarkable and special, Sangria is the quintessential Spanish concoction that brings vivid colors of life to our glasses. Can you already picture a chilled, oversized crystal wine glass of Sangria gracing your dinner table on a warm summer evening? Don’t let your imagination drift away. Let’s craft this fresh and fruity wine dream.

What is Sangria?

Sangria is a distinguished cocktail originating from Spain, a delightful fusion of wine, fresh fruits, sweeteners, and a hint of spirits, primarily red wine with a medley of citrus fruits. Modern Sangria is also being seen with rose, white, and sparkling wines.  When crafting a Sangria, the best choice of red wine includes Beaujolais, Pinot Noir, Zweigelt, Grenache, Barbera, and Tempranillo. This year-round fruity drink is incredibly popular at holiday parties and can make any gathering special – from that intimate dinner with your special someone to a casual hangout in your backyard.

Ingredients for Sangria

• 1 bottle of red wine 
• ¾ cup of orange juice 
• 3 tbsp of sugar 
• ½ apple 
• ½ orange 

Crafting Sangria

Before starting the recipe, it is imperative to ensure that the fruits you have chosen are not the ones that get mushy. Wash and cut your chosen fruits into bite-sized pieces.   Begin the recipe by pouring your red wine into the pitcher and adding the orange juice, sugar, and chopped fruit dices. Gently stir to blend the flavors without muddling the fruits.  Let your Sangria chill in the refrigerator for at least an hour. When it’s time to serve, pour your Sangria into your Lucaris Crystal Desire Universal Glass and garnish with a round orange wheel.  Keep exploring: Crystal Clear: A Taste of Crystal Glassware for Authenticity 

Serve Your Sangria in Lucaris Crystal Red Wine Glasses

For making a perfect Sangria experience, the choice of glassware matters just as much as the quality of the ingredients. Lucaris Crystal offers an exquisite range of glassware that complements your modern lifestyle and elevates your style. Lucaris Crystal Hong Kong Hip Burgandy Glass  Lucaris Crystal Shanghai Soul Burgundy Glass  Lucaris Crystal Tokyo Temptation Burgundy Glass  Lucaris Crystal Bangkok Bliss Burgundy Glass

Prepare to elevate your brunch experience with a dazzling Mimosa cocktail sparkling in your hand. At Lucaris Crystal, we know that modern living is all about savoring a passionate life, and what better way to do that than with the perfect Mimosa served in a gorgeous crystal flute?

Let’s unlock the crafting of this sunny and bubbly beverage.

What is Mimosa?

Mimosa is a delightful cocktail renowned for its refreshing blend of Champagne and citrus, traditionally featuring orange juice. This classic combination has graced brunch tables for decades, bringing a touch of effervescence to mornings.

However, the ever-evolving world of mixology has led to delightful variations. Some modern enthusiasts experiment with different sparkling wines like Prosecco or Cava, infusing a splash of cranberry, pineapple, or pomegranate juice to complement the citrus element.

Mimosa, in all its forms, is a perfect cocktail for brightening up your mornings or adding a touch of elegance to special occasions.

Ingredients

• 4 ounces (120 ml) sparkling wine 
• 2 ounces (60 ml) freshly squeezed orange juice 
• An orange slice, for garnish 

Crafting Mimosa

The Mimosa recipe begins by ensuring your ingredients are chilled to perfection. Both your sparkling wine and fruit juice should be ice-cold.

Pour your sparkling wine into Lucaris Crystal Champagne Glass, filling it roughly halfway. Follow this up with the fresh orange juice in a ratio of one part fruit juice to two parts wine. Gently stir to blend them together without sacrificing the delightful carbonation.

Serve it with a freshly cut, round orange slice perched on the rim.

Lucaris Crystal Champagne Glasses

Lucaris Crystal Lavish Champagne 

Lucaris Crystal Hong Kong Hip Champagne 

Lucaris Crystal Shanghai Soul Champagne 

Lucaris Crystal Tokyo Temptation Champagne 

Lucaris Crystal Bangkok Bliss Champagne 

In a world full of couples twirling on their Instagram reels, there exists an enduring culinary affair that has spanned decades and continues to hold its popularity – the timeless combination of wine and cheese.

Picture a cozy evening with soft jazz melodies playing in the background, a spread of exquisite cheeses and fine wines, and the clinking of crystal glasses. Can you see the symphony of flavors already?

In this blog, we are going to reveal six secrets to knot “wine&cheese” allowing you to create your own unique wine and cheese pairings.

6 Factors to Consider for a Great Wine and Cheese Pairing

• The Three Pillars of Wine

Any kind of wine is about three things, flavor, intensity, and age, and harmonizing the same is a key player while pairing. The goal is to create a balanced and complementary experience, where neither the wine nor the cheese overpowers the other. Here’s how:

1. Young for Young: Young cheeses like Brie, Stilton, and Camembert are best suited for young wines that are spirited, fresh, juicy, and fruity. This may include dry roses, crisp whites, sparkling wines, and fruity, acidic reds. The youthful vitality of these wines mirrors the lively character of the cheeses, creating a delightful pairing.
2. Age Does Matter: We are not saying age matters in love, but in the case of wine and cheese, it surely does. The intensity of the cheese goes hand-in-hand with the age of the wine. Aged old cheeses that are savory, rich, and nutty, demand wines with ample body and structure. This interplay ensures that neither the wine nor the cheese steals the spotlight. 

• Balancing Act

The classic combination of salty cheese and sweet wine is a timeless favorite. The saltiness of the cheese enhances the sweetness of the wine, creating a captivating contrast that is equally balanced. 

For example, a mild, salty Gouda pairs splendidly with a luscious, honeyed Sauternes. Similarly, a pungent Roquefort beautifully complements a sweet and fortified Port wine, creating a harmonious balance of flavors. 

• Why Should White(s) Have All the Fun?

While white wines are often considered the default choice for cheese pairings, red wines also make a great pairing if chosen the right kind. Red wines with lower tannins are a better option in this scenario as they have a broader scope of pairing with diverse varieties. 

For instance, low-tannin wines like Pinot Noir, Barbera, Grenache, etc., can be a beautiful partner for cheese like Brie, and at the same time has also a scope of Camembert or Comte. 

• Role of Texture

The texture of the cheese is another important factor when pairing. You can either complement or contrast it with the wine, depending on the experience you desire. Here is an example of each:

1. Complement: Pair a creamy, soft cheese like Brie with a Chardonnay, and you’ll find that the wine’s buttery texture complements the creamy cheese, offering a lush, velvety sensation.
2. Contrast: On the other hand, the same creamy cheese can be paired with a sparkling wine wherein, the effervescence of the wine can cut through the richness of the cheese, creating a refreshing and palate-cleansing contrast.

• Love in the Neighborhood

Lovers hate long-distance relationships and so do wines and cheeses. The concept of terroir isn’t just for wine; it applies to cheese as well. When you pair a wine with cheese from the same region, you often uncover hidden pairings that harmonize effortlessly just because their origin is from the place.

For instance, a French Bordeaux beautifully pairs with a French Brie, or an Italian Chianti with Pecorino cheese creating a marriage of regional excellence.

• When in Doubt, Play Safe!

If you are just getting started, remember to begin with something easy and obvious. Many wine and cheese enthusiasts have explored the art of pairing and have shared their wisdom and experiences with the world. To begin with, choose the most basic Reisling, as its high acidity, balanced sweetness, and low-alcohol content make it suitable for a wide variety of cheese.

Refine Your Pairing Experience with Distinction

The connoisseur’s choice for lead-free crystal glassware, Lucaris, has a special place in the tableau of wine and cheese pairing. Crystal glassware not only adds an extra layer of elegance to your experience but also ensures that you’re seen in style during your passionate moments.

Also Read: From Grime to Glitter: How to Clean & Polish Crystal Glassware?

Different from standard alcoholic beverages, multi-layered cocktails are a taste sensation.

A cocktail is an alcoholic mixed drink, which is either a combination of different spirits or spirits mixed with other ingredients, such as fruit juice, cream, milk or flavoured syrup. There are various types of cocktails, based on the number and kind of ingredients added.

Cocktails are different from standard alcoholic beverages as they are made by hand; they don’t come pre-made in a can or bottle. A strong alcohol — tequila, gin, rum, vermouth, vodka — is usually used as the base and then skillfully combined with supplementary beverages and fruit or herbs for decoration. As there are no fixed ‘rules’ surrounding how a cocktail should be made, they are highly creative and unique.

Cocktail names are just as creative as their contents. Many have whimsical and romantic names or are associated with famous cities, such as the Long Island Iced Tea, Californicatoin, Moscow Mule, Singapore Sling, London Fog, Manhattan, Chicago Fizz and Boston Punch.

Compared to regular glassware, those explicitly made for cocktails are more diverse in their design and functionality. As the making of cocktails is an art form, they require an equally elaborate vessel for presentation, both to look and taste their best.

By far, the world-class standard in cocktail glassware is RIMS, a range of premium products that are tailor-made for mixology perfection.

You know you love them, but do you know where cocktails originated?

Mixing spirits and liqueurs with other ingredients to create a flavorful drink has probably been done since the beginning of time. But it wasn’t until the 1800s that the word “cocktail” came into widespread use, particularly in the United States.

The charm of cocktails has been hard for people to resist ever since. It’s not merely a matter of throwing a few ingredients together; creating the perfect tipple is an art form. A highly skilled bartender can customise a cocktail according to each individual’s preferences, style and mood.

To create a stunning cocktail requires two things – excellent fundamental skills and suitable glassware. RIMS cocktail glasses are known the world over as the perfect cocktail accompaniment. They come in four groups: THE PILLARS, THE PROUD, THE CLASSIC and RIMS ORIENT.

If you want your cocktails to stand out from the crowd, you need RIMS crystal barware by your side. Only RIMS can help you bring out the soul and artistry of every creation.

Here are a couple ideas:

1. Michelin star at home. Going to your favorite restaurant, enjoying your favorite dishes, drinking your favorite wines, and meeting your favorite staff is a wonderful experience. But what if all these
experiences could be provided in the comfort and safety of your own dining room? The idea is to offer exclusive, private dining experiences right to your doorstep. Guests can gather together a small group of friends and family, between 10 – 20 pax, at any chosen location.

All the tableware, glassware, and service staff are provided and catered for, with every dish prepared on the spot by the restaurant’s executive chef, just as if guests were dining in the restaurant. To build anticipation and facilitate logistics, guests can pre-order and customize their set menus, with wine pairings or any other favorite drinks concocted as they wish.

2. Taking in-room dining to the next level. Of course it is hospitality establishments that have taken the biggest hit during this pandemic, and especially all the hotels. In order to adapt themselves to the situation, a lot of hotels have offered steeply discount room rate, starting from 1,000 baht per night including breakfast, to the local market just to keep their businesses alive.

However, even though a lot of people have started coming out to stay in their dream hotels, many are not yet comfortable to dine in the hotel’s outlet or in public places as before. Nevertheless, what if we could offer an exclusive dining and drinking experience in the privacy of their rooms? Where it is not just regular room service dining that the staff delivers to your room? What I am talking about here is bringing a chef with portable stoves to do live cooking right in front of you in your hotel room. There could even be a Sommelier or a bartender coming to recommend wines, mix you a drink and serve them right in front of you.

In the long term, this is not just about making guests feel more safe and comfortable. But it can also be a memorable, cherished experience that will give guests a reason to want to revisit a hotel in the future.

By: Thanakorn Bottorff-Certified Sommelier –The Court of Master Sommelier, Advanced Sommelier –Wine and Spirit Education Trust and Thailand Best Sommelier 2016

By Sarah Heller, Master of Wine

and Lucaris Brand Ambassador for Thailand and Greater China

When I first began to collaborate with Lucaris Crystal in late 2017, we quickly started discussing a potential glassware range. As both a Master of Wine and a visual artist and designer, I felt it was extra important that I rise to the challenge and that our project be boundary-pushing and different.

In approaching any design project, the most important consideration is always what problem you’re trying to solve. For me the issue with so many glassware designs is that they aim to bring out the “perfect” expression of a particular wine but the designers seem to have forgotten that perfection is deeply subjective.

To develop a more nuanced idea of perfection, we began to research systems for understanding personal preferences in ways that were intuitive rather than overly technical. I was quickly drawn to the idea of the elements, which spans several Asian cultures as well as classical western thought. Lucaris, being a Thai brand, naturally brings an Asian perspective to all its projects – its core glassware ranges are named after Asian cities – and as a Eurasian person, I liked the idea of bridging cultures.

The team at Lucaris was immediately enthused about both the concept and a potential link with my art. Before I joined the wine world, I studied painting at Yale University, and my recent work called Visual Tasting Notes explores our subjective experience of wine, charting the overall “shape” a wine makes as we taste it. Glassware is critical in molding this shape – it can exaggerate or diminish a wine’s fragrance, amplify or moderate its acidity, harden or soften its tannins.

We thought in detail about how each feature of the glass – the dimensions of the bowl, its proportions and curvature – would impact the wine’s expression. We made a few interesting observations. One was the effect of rim tightness on our perception of texture. A tight rim feels hard and angular on the lips and exaggerates this effect in the wine, while a flared rim makes us perceive the wine as rounded and soft. Another was that tight concave curves in the glass – we called them “waists” – help to hold in aromas while the wine sits in the glass, but then releases aromas as wine flows over the curves on its way to the mouth.

We combined these features to create five unique shapes corresponding with five elements we chose from Ayurveda, Traditional East Asian Medicine and ancient Greek philosophy: Air, Water, Fire, Earth and Gold. Each glass emphasizes its “element” in the wine: Air brings out fragrance, Water brings out freshness, Fire brings out boldness, Earth brings out roundness and Metal brings out brilliance. Each glass is designed for use with any wine style – white, red, rosé, even sparkling, sweet or fortified.

An added benefit is that the system of elements should make food pairing, always challenging in Asia, easier to navigate. Cuisines, like personalities, can often be fit into element-based categories: sashimi is cool and subtle like water and thus a suitable wine pairing would probably also be fresh and subtle.

To create these unique, highly specific shapes, we quickly agreed we needed to work with hand blowers. This was a new horizon for Lucaris, which up until now has worked exclusively with machine-blown crystal. We believe that people who have deep respect for wine and want to experience it in the best way possible for them will gladly invest in top quality, especially since these multipurpose glasses allow you to cover all your needs with just one or two designs. I couldn’t be more excited that the collection is finally hitting the market this month!