Caught You Cranberry! My Favourite Breezer Flavour!

So the good, happy and high (no puns intended) people at Bacardi have got all Christamas-sy and have organised this super cool blogging drive at Indiblogger – write about your favourite Breezer flavour and if you are lucky and write a really breezy (again, absolutely no pun intended!) post, you get to win a year supply of Bacardi Breezer. The first image flash after I read this was the delivery van outside my house taking out crate after crate of breezer bottles. Whoa! What a sight! Very inspiring! Hahaha. The second image or rather thought was of a quick mental calculation of the cost of a year supply of Bacardi Breezer. Double whoa! More inspiration. Hahah.

So I set down to plan my post. But first things first - select your favourite favour. The choice was from these six flavours:

1. Jamaican Passion
2. Cranberry
3. Blackberry Crush
4. Lime5. Orange, and
6. Island Pineapple

They look so deliciously inviting!

Well, I knew that Cranberry and Blackberry Crush taste absolutely yum and refreshing, my taste buds were alien to flavours of Jamacain Passion and Island Pineapple. The remaining two - Lime and Orange, I had tasted and found them quite regular, with their distinctive and yet common tastes. So my safest and bestest bet was to hop on the Cranberry bottlewagon! But alas, this wagon was full to capacity already, a clear sign that Cranberry ruled the roost so far as popularity was concerned.

So that left me with Island Passion, my second favourite flavour, and I did not lose any time in joining this team lest I be stranded while other breezer enthusiasts took off for Bacardi's Breezerland. But despite being here, my heart was still set for Cranberry and I waited in the shadows, hoping for some seat on Cranberry bottlewagon to fall vacant, waited for some Cranberry enthusiast to change his mind and shift teams! I waited, and while I waited guess what I did! Guess, guess!

 I PLAYED THIS SUPER FUN GAME!

Catch the Flavour! On your phone!

Yes! This Breezer Catch the Flavour is so much fun and entertainment! You can choose to either bottle or package the Breezer and can speed up the game as per liking. For more fun, invite friends to play to compare your  Breezer bottling and packaging skills through your scores! Play it on your laptop or download it on your phone and play on the go! 

And so while I waited, hoping to eventually become a part of my favourite Cranberry team, I became a pro at packaging and bottling! Cranberries, pineapples, limes, blackberries et al, all sorted in their respective bottles!

Bottling or Packaging? Take your pick!

Bottling like a pro!

Packing it all up!

And while I mastered the game, seats in the Cranberry team fell vacant for me to hop onto it with much gusto! Yay to that!

So now that I have finally managed to catch Cranberry Express, here's why I so love this flavour...But, well, before I wax eloquent about why Cranberry is my favourite flavour, here's some some gyaan about Breezers first -  for all those who think it is an out and out alcoholic drink, or as some say in Hindi, that it is...eh...sharaab. This gyaan is sourced from wikipedia and can be cross-checked with various online forums and relevant websites. But then you can also check about the alcohol content right on the breezer bottle too.

Bacardi Breezer is a fruit wine-based alcopop with 4.8% alcohol in India, 4.4% in Australia, 6.6% in the United Kingdom and 4.5% in Europe. It comes in a variety of fruit flavours: lemon, peach, pineapple, apple, ruby grapefruit, lime, orange, blackberry, watermelon, cranberry, coconut, raspberry, blueberry, pomegranate, strawberry, and mango. In India, Bacardi Breezer was the first entrant in the ready to drink category.

So you see, Breezer is not an out and out alcohol beverage and has very little alcohol percentage. In fact many reviews about the product say that it's a very peppy drink with strong fruity flavour. So now that the are basics of Breezer done with, here's why Cranberry flavour is my favourite flavour!

Cranberry, my favourite flavour!

MY DEBUT BREEZER! Cranberry was the first breezer flavour I ever tasted! After much apprehension about whether it was a hard drink or a soft drink and much debating about its alcohol content, it was my brother who finally convinced me to try one. And the choice of flavour too was his - 'Try Cranberry, it's quite fruity and you will like it.' And needless to say, I absolutely loved it!

ALCOHOLIC SHERBET! It is rum mixed with fruit juice but it's the fruity cranberry that wins over the rum. It tastes like fruit juice mixed with soda, giving a nice sweet and tangy flavour. 

IT REFRESHES! Besides the good taste part, cranberry flavour is pretty refreshing too. If you thought that breezers will get you intoxicated, here's this myth busted. It's quite mild and just about tingles your tongue. 

TINGLE & MINGLE! Like I mentioned earlier, Breezers have very little alcohol content, so this gives me a chance to mingle a bit more with those friends who are social drinkers and prefer hard drinks...so while they swirl their whiskeys and rums, I have my own fancy breezers to give them company! Better than the boring fruit juices!

ATTRACTIVE COLOUR! As much as the tangy flavour or rather the tartness of cranberries tastes good, the attractive orangy red colour too is very inviting! Plus it's been packed so beautifully in cute glass bottles! Beatiful and inviting packaging!

Cranberry, first among equals

So this was my take on my favourite Breezer flavour! Which one's your favourite? Which flavour do you love to catch? Tell, tell! Share, share! :)

This post has been written for Catch the Flavour Blogging Drive sponsored by Bacardi Breezer in association with IndiBlogger.
Photo Courtesy: picturejockey dot com

Moong Dal Halwa (Recipe by Chef Kunal Kapoor)

So here is the Moong Dal Halwa recipe from the cook-off event mentioned in the last post. Since the cook-off event was sponsored by Canola Oil, this halwa too was cooked in canola oil.

Moong Dal Halwa

Serves: 10
Preparation Time: 10 mins (requires overnight soaking)
Cooking time: 50 mins

Ingredients:

Moong Dal: 375 gms
Sooji: 62.5gms
Canola oil: 500ml
Sugar: 375gms
Water: 375ml
Green Cardamom Powder: 1.5 tsp
Pista sliced: 5 table spoons

Method

1. Soak the moong dal in sufficient water overnight. Drain all the water completely and grind it to a fine paste.

2. Heat canola oil and sooji in a karaahi. On slow flame cook sooji till it turns brown. Now add the moong daal paste. On medium heat cook the paste till it is thick and finally oozes out the oil.

3. Remove the karaahi from flame and transfer the fried paste to a metallic strainer/sieve. Let the excess oil drain out. While the oil drains out, mix water, sugar and cardamom powder and bring it to a boil, and then remove from flame.

4. Place the moong dal paste back in karaahi and start the fire. Heat it and add the sugar syrup carefully. Now cook till all the water is absorbed and there are no lumps. If you see any lumps just add little water and reduce it again.

5. For a twist in taste, you can flavour the halwa with fruits - orange or banana. Garnish with pista slivers.

Photo courtesy : Mrs Deeba Rajpal

Cooking for a Cause

I enjoy cooking. But only till the time everything in the kitchen goes as planned. A couple of bungled efforts and my enthusiasm limps out of the kitchen door and stays put outside, recuperating.
So this time around while I was out recuperating from the horrors of a vermicelli dish that stuck to the pan and refused to mix with the veggies it was garnished with, a wonderful news came along. I was shortlisted by BlogAdda to be a part of a Charity Cook Off With Chef Kunal Kapoor, in association with Canolainfo. The invite said bloggers would be a part of a cook-off and the post the event, the food would be shared with the kids of an NGO.

Wow, just the thing to lure me back into the kitchen. Though in all honesty I was nervous too. What if I was given some tough nut to crack. Some fancy Mediterranean dish, with a difficult-to-pronounce name? But all fears where allayed at the event venue - Banarsidas Chandiwala Institute of Hotel Management. The cook off was not a cook off after all, for everyone was cooking the same thing - Moong Dal Ka Kalwa - and that too with a set recipe provided by Chef Kunal Kapoor. The halwa was to be cooked in canola oil and it was fun to see Chef Kapoor helping everyone with the cooking, cracking jokes and sharing recipe trivia with one and all.

Now before delving more into the recipe and how the halwa turned out, here's a bit trivia on canola oil.

• Canola Oil comes from the crushed seeds of canola plant. These seeds are tiny and resemble poppy seeds, though they are brownish-black in colour.
• Canola and rapeseed plants look similar but their oils are very different. Canadians researchers used traditional plant breeding to eliminate the undesirable components of rapeseed and created 'canola' - a contraction of Canadian and ola.
• Researchers say canola is a very stable oil that doesn't break down at high temperatures, so it's ideal for sauteing, stir-frying, deep-frying and other high-heat applications.
• Its smoke point - the temperature at which it begins to smoke and degrade - is one of the highest of all cooking oils at 242 degree centigrade.

Chef Kunal Kapoor giving cooking tips

Now coming back to the cook-off, there was a twist to the recipe as well. Add fruit of your choice to the moong dal ka halwa - yes - and the fruit options provided were - orange, banana and cheeko. I opted for banana for I was unsure of the tangy twist an orange would add to my halwa. But after eating Ms. Deeba Rajpal's tangy-sweet halwa, (she won the cook-off) I am sure the next time I try this recipe, I am garnishing it with oranges too.

Lunch at Katha

Post the fun cooking event, it was time to share the sweet dish with the perky kids at Katha, an NGO that works in the field of community development, child welfare, education and literature. The kids not just enjoyed the lunch sponsored by Canolainfo, but also had many a servings of the moong daal halwa, and needless to say, their constant demand for more halwa was well worth us cooks' efforts.

P.S. Masterchef Kunal Kapoor's Moong Daal Halwa recipe in the next post. :)

The Charity Cook-Off with Masterchef Kunal Kapoor was organised by Canola Oil. For more information about Canola, you can check this website.

Wella Experts Bust Hair Colour Myths

Recent trends in hair colour industry show that Ammonia-free permanent hair colour is quite in vogue and consumers are showing more affinity towards it as it is considered less damaging.

But have you ever wondered, if not Ammonia, then what?

A deep seated myth about hair colour highlights ‘Ammonia free hair colour as damage-free, because it does not smell so strong’. But the truth is, ammonia-free permanent hair colours replace ammonia with another - similar active ingredient which even though doesn't smell, can be worse for the hair.

This myth surrounding ‘Ammonia-free’ hair colour was busted by Maria Castan, Scientific Communication Expert from Wella Professionals. Maria is in India to educate women about various aspects of hair care and dispel traditional myths surrounding hair colour.

At a recently held Bloggers Meet in Delhi, Maria explained in detail about what ingredients go into making a permanent hair colour and how ‘ammonia-free’ is not necessarily damage free. In this interactive session, she also explained the reason why Wella has decided ‘not to go down the path of “no ammonia” for their permanent hair colour’.

From the Experts: Ammonia v/s No Ammonia

Every permanent hair colour needs an active ingredient, called ‘alkalizer’ so that the hair colour can enter the hair cuticles and colour it. Ammonia is the most common alkalizer which has been safely used in hair colouring for over 50 years. Certain permanent hair colours - sometimes referred to as ‘no-ammonia’ or ‘ammonia-free’ often use another alkalizer called ‘MEA’ instead of using ammonia, MEA is not a new technology. Demi/Semi-permanent colours have been using MEA for more than 20 years in a safe way. However, some permanent hair colour brands, in order to get rid of ammonia & its smell, have also started using MEA. But MEA is used in much higher concentration by these brands as it’s a less effective alkalizer for permanent hair colouring. And this can be much more damaging for the hair.

So the next time you contemplate about hair colour, keep in mind that ammonia-free is not really damage-free, and it all boils to its concentration in the hair colour. Ammonia has been safely used in permanent hair colouring and is known to be one of the best technologies for giving long lasting colour to the hair.

To know more about Wella Professionals, you can check here.

My Car Stole, from Rooja!

My last post was about this awesome online store Rooja, that has an exhaustive collection of apparel and accessories for both men and women. And here in this post I list two of my favourite items that I got from Rooja.
As I shared in my last post, I wore these on the show Nano Drive with MTV Season 2, and it gave me a nice colourful break from the boring t-shirts and  jeans routine.  So here's my favouritest accessory from my Rooja collection - my car stole! 

Cute, colourful car stole!

I wore this one to my heart's content, for it looks stylish and the fabric feels super soft on the skin. And it's colour - peachy pink - is vibrant, without being too bright for the eyes!
Here are some more pics with me sporting my car stole! Hope you like them! 

Coming up next is another favourite from the Rooja store! Stay tuned! :)

P.S - Cross posted from solitaryreaperwrites.blogspot.in

Fashion & Me - Taking Baby Steps

I am not a fashionista. Far from it. In fact on a very honest note, I am not even fashion forward. Most of my shopping trips end up with my bag full of T-shirts and pairs of jeans. Or some girly tops once-in-a-while.
But not any more. For I am discovering fashion, (yes, yes, discovering) thanks to the fun, colourful and exhaustive collection at Rooja - an online store for luxury designer apparel and accessories.

One stop shop for fun shopping!

Like I said, I am a novice when it comes to fashion,  but then I am gradually getting inspired to look beyond the boring  T-shirts with philosophical quotes . And it was while browsing the many online shopping stores that I came across Rooja. What makes it it different is the exhaustive collection of national and international brands - Italy, France, USA, Belgium, UK - they have stuff from almost everywhere!

The MANY Brands

Plus the collection on this website is exhaustive - from clothes to shoes, bags, watches and other accessories, quirky stuff for home decor and hundreds of other fancy knick-knacks, you will find it all here, and that too in fun, bright colours. (I love colours!) And if the men reading this are a tad disappointed with all the girly-girly stuff being talked about, then you can take heart for this store has some uber cool stuff for you too - right from witty t-shirts to wallets and funky accessories to gear you up in style.

Fun stuff for the men too

And now for those who are wondering why I am waxing eloquent about the worth coveting stuff from Rooja, it is because I have bought some good stuff from this store, and want to show appreciation for their excellent service! And also because I wore some of their stuff on the show Drive with MTV Season 2 and it was fun sporting some fashionable stuff for a change! The next post lists what I bought!