Dote Nouveau Natural Wine – 5/5

Since moving in together, my roommates and I have been working our way into the natural wine scene. Our obsession was born at Leo Sourdough, our favorite Williamsburg spot specializing in “pizza, natural wine, bread, and coffee,” according to their sign, where we shared a bottle of skin contact wine that was bright orange in color and super tasty. Dote Nouveau, a light red made from Tuscan grapes, was one of our fav natty wines from recent weeks. We ordered it mostly because the label had an epic rainbow design on it (not like a pride flag rainbow, much cooler than that) and shared it with my Mommy and Grandma while they were visiting at Roman’s, a casual Italian place with a really hot menu that changes daily, alongside marinated olives, a sourdough batard, and cured meats, as we should. The wine was definitely high funk and super bright—Lucky Charms, apple, and rocket pop notes all up front, but in a super cohesive way. I want more. 5/5. 

Water I get from the sink when I’m bored in Zoom class and need something to do – 4.5/5

While I really, really, really try to focus during Zoom, after two hours of staring at the self-viewer (it’s impossible to look at literally anything else, admit it), my eyes start to cross and I dissociate usually thinking about something really gay like natural wine. When this happens, I, a creature of habit, always get up from my dining room table and make the trek (I say ‘trek’ because my legs are always asleep so I usually have to start dragging my body toward the kitchen as soon as I’m out of frame) and get a glass of tasty New York tap water to snap me back into it. Without these water breaks, I would probably never be able to pull myself out of my dead-end thought spirals, so New York tap water earns a very high placement on my list. 4.5/5

Fourth coffee of the day – 2.5/5

By the time I get to this cup of coffee, I’ve usually had so much artificial sweetener that the thought of one particle of Splenda dust going into my body makes me sick. So, I have to pound this cup black. And Nespresso Pumpkin Spice Cake pods just don’t hit the same without something extra. I still enjoy it because it’s coffee, and I love coffee (I was a barista last summer), but it’s not nearly as good as the first, second or third cups I had earlier. 3/5

Hard Kombucha – 4/5

Hard Kombucha is my other drink of choice besides natty wine. I discovered it this past summer while down the shore with oysters on the half-shell and peel-and-eats (dreamy), and I fell in love. Some flavors are really – like Flying Embers Pineapple-Chili, which tastes like a really dry and unsweet version of regular Kombucha and borders on some of the funkier, fizzier natty wines that I’ve had. Other flavors are gross – like Flying Embers Grapefruit and June Shine Acai Berry, which both taste like White Claw. It really is hit or miss, but when it hits, it’s a great convergence of tastes and perfect as a pre-dinner refreshment. 4/5

My Daily Smoo – 3.5/5

Every afternoon at around 12:15 I fire up the Vitamix and blitz together some veggies and fruit for lunch. Right now, I’m spinning almond milk, protein powder, spinach, kale, apple, cucumber, ginger and celery. Big Green drink. I top it with flaky salt and coconut flakes à la Molly Baz.  The cucumber and celery go really well together (refreshing!) and the ginger gives it in an edge—the same edge that hard kombucha has…more convergence of tastes. 3.5/5

Final Notes

I anticipate a lot of cold weather drinks in my future—while there isn’t a Starbs near my current locale, resulting in a complete lack of pumpkin spice in my life, the drive-thru near my house is about to be my go-to spot. Hot ass salted Caramel hot chocolates…soon.