[Piotr] The taste of a Polish childhood

As a Polish persone I could possibly glorify vodka or beer. Some of us drink tea in excessive amounts of tea – as a matter of facte more then citizens of Great Britain. But I want to write about Frugo – because first ten years of my life I have spent living in the block of flats at the Kosmonautów street in Wrocław. 

Frugo came back with jellys. Photo: M. Rymanowski

I was too young to try beer and vodka, and I didn't quite like tea. Not as much as everyone drinking “tchai” in a country wchich recently had overthrown communism for capitalism. My friends and I have tried many beverages, from lemonade to “drink-in-a-bag” – sort of vile “juice” packed in thin, plastic bag.

Of course in the store there was wide selection of apple and orange juices in carton boxes. All of them alike. Until Frugo rolled in. Exactly – Frugo – which was like a good, old pal from the playground. If you didn't know what to say you could always say “Let's Frugo” or something similar. Instead of carton boxes it was sold neatly packed in glass bottles, which you could then turn in in the bottle return facility for couple of groszs. To have for the next one.

Frugo had couple of different tastes. Producer actually named them somehow like “very orange”, but really there were four tastes: orange, black, green and white. No “forest fruits” or “apples” - just like the coulours the drink had. Frugo didn't containt any seeds, or fruity bits – because king voice from the advert got rid of long before it arrived on the shelves in the store. It also had magnificent abilities to bend time and space for the local grocery stores. Thanks to that – bored youngling laying around the block, without an idea of what to do, could actually wait for the shop to arrive and sell them some wonderfully orange drink.

Frugo had also this vibe of “awesomness”. It wasn't milk, so noone said something along the lines with “drink milk and grow strong”. If you drank Frugo you grew “rad” and “awesome” amongst the peers. When the Internet just appeared in Poland and everybody could only use 56k routers it already had some ads made in Flash. No other company had thought of that. They weren't available to see on any page, they were just send from one user to another – another “cool” thing to share.

Frugo is the taste of my childhood. But contrary to my parent's lemonade – I can still enjoy it. I even have a bottle on my desk right now. Empty, but still. I just have to got to the store and buy a new one. Or wait – for some say it will come to my by itself.

Piotr Telichowski from Poland

[Guido] Italian wine and not so Italian coffee

The drink that represents my country the most is certainly wine. Or coffee, either way. But even if our coffee is so well known in the world, we must admit that we just brew it. 

Guido's father is drinking a glass of one of the
1-3 bottles of wine that he produces per year

The real production of coffee is in South America and Africa. Not so for our wine. That's why in the ancient times Italy was called Enotria Tellus (the Land of Wine). And still nowadays Chianti, Martini, Marsala, Prosecco, Asti, Fontanafredda are just some of the most selling names of Italian wine in the world. 

The scale of the wine kinds in Italy ranges from the most tannic and less alcoholic in the north (wines made from the nebbiolo kind of of grape like Barolo, Nebbiolo, Barbera or Barbaresco) to the sweeter and more alcoholic in the south (like Marsala for example). 

The most famous, Chianti (Classico or Gallo Nero), is from the namesake zone of Tuscany: the Chianti hills, in the central-northern part of Italy. Made of both white and black grapes, it is a red wine very delicate and tasty, mildly alcoholic and delicious to serve with both meat or fish meals.

Even if American and Oriental wealthy people are buying more and more farms in our best winemaker places, in the Italian countryside it is still nowadays very common, for private people,  to produce a little amount of wine for their own use, to share it with friends or to make some gift for special occasions. That's why we have so many kinds of wine in our country: there are a lot of little producers and everyone uses some special personal method. 

Furthermore, Italy is a land full of different kinds of land and any particular land produces a particular grape from which it is possible to produce a particular wine. This is even the reason why very high level Italian wine is so expensive and difficult to find: we can produce only a very small quantity of each kind and a lot of them are even not for sale - they are just produced by people that enjoy them with friends. So Italian wine market is one of the few still remaining exemples of the fact that, even in the globalized consumerism world, not everything is for sale.

Gudio Giacomo Gattai from Italy

[James] Drinking rum & coca-cola

What is there about a drink that can level the playing field? One which the richest of men with high profiles would claim to have had and the poorest  peasant would down with their friends in a back alley bar, one of the first social drinks of many a young person getting their bearings in the social scene.

On the sugar cane estates of Trinidad, it was noted that the indentured Indian, Hindu, laborers could be easily placated and "kept in line" with their ration of rum, made from the fermented molasses left over from sugar production, it was as easy as that, with the waste of production becoming a key ingredient for a product known and enjoyed the World over, rising from humble and harsh beginnings to now command an unshakable spot on the World Market.

The chaser (as it is called), Coca Cola is also a World phenomenon in its own right. However, when combined Rum and Coke becomes a drink that is refreshing, mellow, relaxing, and is the backbone of most, if not all social events where alcohol is served. While some bartenders and pubs may have standard measures that they will apply, one can often be left to one's own devices, varying the strength/weakness of the alcohol content, however you choose to have it. Rum and Coke laid the foundation for all other mixed alcoholic beverages that had Coke as the chaser.

This iconic drink was immortalized by the Andrews Sisters, who did not even know that they were singing a song based on the reality of prostitution during the Second World War, when Trinidad had American Army and Naval bases located in particular, the Western Peninsular, the area known as Point Cumana. The lyrics to the song  Rum and Coca Cola was plagiarized from the original created by Calypsonian (Folk song artist) Lionel Belasco who's stage name was The Lord Invader. The Andrews sisters version spent ten weeks at the top of Billboard's U.S. Pop Singles chart and was the top song for 1945, not only immortalizing the song, but a rum based drink that was previously mixed with water or plain soda.

James B. Solomon from Trinidad

[Sami] Lassi, the world's first smoothie

For over 4000 years, the people of the Punjab, in the Pakistan-India subcontinent, have partaken of the world’s earliest smoothie. 

In Punjab time passes slowly | Photo by Usman Ilyas

Punjab is the central part of Pakistan and India and the shared. Punj -aab  means “five rivers” and this great region has been the center of civilization and trade for the people of the Pakistan-India subcontinent for centuries. The fertile plains have provided everything from lentils to juicy mangoes and the great Thar desert has provided the best dates. The summers of the Punjab can soar up to 50 degrees Celsius with the “loo”, the searing hot summer winds keeping every living thing inside shade or shelter. The best way to relieve yourself in the sweltering heat is with a glass of chilled lassi. The drink is a simple concoction, made from plain yoghurt and chilled water. 

Lassi goes best with a lunch of hot and spicy Pakistani food such as the “nihari”, a stew of beef or lamb, cooked slowly and eaten with a heavy oven cooked bread called “kulcha”. Nihari originates from the Muslim royalty of medieval India, from where it spread to the entire subcontinent.In villages, the youghurt comes from milk prepared by your own cows (or buffaloes). The water is kept cool in clay pots called “matka” and drunk from a clay glass or bowl. The clay “matka” keeps the water at the exactly right temperature. Cool enough to make a refreshing drink that can be glugged down quickly.

Farmers, who work from daylight till dusk take a lunch break at noon. The lunch normally consists of a vegetable and meat curry, with thin “chappatti” bread and lassi. In olden times, the lassi was carried in a flask made of animal hide. It had to be consumed quickly or it would turn into cheese!In the cities, lassi shops are popular in the older part of the town. The medieval quarters of Pakistan’s city of Lahore is called the “Walled City” and you can find a small Lassi shop nestled among the winding streets. In the dusky evenings, you can sit under one of the many mahogany trees and sip a cool glass of lassi and watch the city come to life after a hot and humid afternoon, with young people and families going out to shop, eat or just take a walk in a park.

The Walled City gets its name from the fact that in the times of the great Mughals, the city was fortified with high walls and 13 gates provided entrance to the city. After the unsuccessful uprising against the British occupiers, the city was defortified and the most of the gates pulled down.

One of the best restaurants to savor rich Punjabi food with lassi is on the rooftop of Cuckoo’s Café, a restaurant built into an ancient spiraling block of buildings, at the edge of the Walled City. The rooftop provides guests with an exhilarating view of the Mughal era Badhsahi Mosque, the Lahore Fort and the Data Darbar, a shrine dedicated to the 11th century saint Ali Hajweri.

You can make your own lassi using the following:

Ingredients
. 1 glass chilled water
. Crushed ice (optional)
. Half a cup of plain youghurt
. A pinch of salt or sugar, as preferred

Instructions
Simply mix everything together and use an electric mixer to make a smoothie. Add crushed almonds, pistachios, cream, butter or even saffron to give it a unique taste. Some people like to add bananas or pineapple or mangoes to bring out a fruity taste.

Keep in mind a couple of glasses of lassi on a hot summer day could knock you out, so don’t drink and drive...

Sami Jan from Pakistan