Woodbridge Brut is creamy, yeasty and citrussy with a touch of sweetness that enables it to be paired with desserts as well as savory foods—including the Thanksgiving turkey. Photo courtesy Robert Mondavi.

Champagne has an international fan base for its complex, toasty, yeasty wines. Champagnes have distinctive flavors, unique due to the layers of chalk underneath the region’s soil.* Since there’s a limited amount that can be produced each year on 75,000 acres, the price is accordingly high. The least expensive bottle is around $25.00.

Unless your crowd is full of wine connoisseurs, you can have just as pleasant an experience with other sparkling wines for a third to half of the price of the least expensive bottle of Champagne. Other sparklers at $8.00 to $12.00 a bottle are very satisfying glasses of wine. When mixed into a cocktail, only experts can tell the difference. The complex flavors of pricey Champagne are up covered by mixers, so why overspend?

(Our favorite Champagne/sparkling wine cocktail is a Kir Royale, combining the wine with creme de cassis, blackcurrant liqueur. You can use raspberry, peach or other mixers. Learn more.)

Here are sparkling wine varieties to look for that are $8.00 to $15.00/bottle (prices will vary by retailer):

The region of northern France now called Champagne was settled by the Gauls around 500 B.C.E.

When the Roman legions conquered the area in 56 B.C.E., they bestowed upon the land the name Campania (Champagne) because of the similarity between the rolling hills of that area with the Roman (now Italian) province of Campania (the word campania itself means “open country”).

In the Middle Ages Champagne was a duchy, then a country. In 1284, Champagne was brought under French rule when Jeanne, Queen of Navarre and Countess of Champagne, Brie and Bigorre married the future King Philippe IV (she was 11 years old!). When Philippe’s father died the following year, Jeanne became Queen of France at age 12.
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*The best grapes in Champagne are grown where a Tertiary period chalk plain overlaps a vast Cretaceous chalk plain that lies underneath the soil layer. It’s the same huge basin that created the White Cliffs of Dover in England. The chalk provides good drainage and reflects the heat from the sun.
  

We hate to rush the holidays, but now that Christmas decorations appear in stores the day after Halloween, we feel we’re already two weeks out of step.

So today we launch our Gift Of The Day series. THE NIBBLE editors have selected almost 100 gifts in 11 gift list categories from cookies and chocolate to kitchenware to sweet and savory stocking stuffers, kosher and diet gifts.

All of the products are delicious and represent gourmet and artisan food gifts that we’re giving, as well as gifts we’d like to receive.

Today’s gift is a custom gingerbread family from Gingerista.com.

You can select gingerbread people and pets in the same gender as the recipient’s family—everything from mom, dad, 2 girls and a dog, to two mommies or daddies to a singleton with five cats. It’s a unique and tasty gift.

What a tasty family! Photo by River
Soma | THE NIBBLE.

[1] Demerara sugar (photo by Glane | Wikipedia).

[2] Turbinado sugar (photo by Leena | Wikipedia).

Demerara sugar is natural brown sugar made by partially refining sugar cane extract.

It’s a more nutritious product than what we know as “light” and “dark” brown sugar. These are made by adding molasses to fully refined white sugar, which is stripped of its nutrients.

Molasses itself is a by-product of sugar cane refining. It’s the residue that is left after all the sugar crystals are extracted from the cane juice.

Demerara sugar is named after the Demerara colony in Guyana, a small independent state on the north coast of South America, where the style of sugar was first produced.

 
 
SUBSTITUTE DEMERARA SUGAR

Quite a few dessert and candy recipes call for caramelized sugar, which means placing white granulated sugar in a pan and heating it until the sugar browns and takes on a caramel flavor.

It’s easy enough to do, but you have to continuously stir the sugar so it doesn’t burn.

But you can skip this step entirely by substituting demerara sugar.

Note that in recipes requiring a cup or more of sugar, more butter or other fat needs to be added to compensate for the lower moisture compared to brown sugar.

More recently, the company has put a nice spin on its line of pretzels.

In additional to the familiar, thin Salty Stix, there are Honey Wheat Braids in better-for-you whole wheat, Peanut Butter Nuggets and Double Baked Butter Balls—a joy for butter lovers.

Read the full review of H.K. Anderson Pretzels, which includes new ways to serve pretzels.

You’ll also find the history of the crunchy snack—created in 610 C.E. by a European monk to bribe children into memorizing their prayers.

• Find more of our favorite salty snacks.
• Take our Pretzel Trivia Quiz.

Have some Peanut Butter Nuggets with your
peanut butter sandwich. Photo by River
Soma | THE NIBBLE.

The Keurig B60 Special Edition Gourmet Single-Cup Home-Brewing System is ideal for busy people on the go. It brews a fresh cup of gourmet coffee, tea or cocoa in less than a minute.

The machine uses single-serving K-Cups, available in more than 70 varieties of coffee, tea and cocoa from a number of premium brands, including Millstone and Folgers. All you do is insert a K-cup and press a button. There are no messy coffee grounds to clean up—the K-cup gets tossed in its entirety.

With an extra-large water reservoir—73 ounces—you’re set for the week.

Featuring chrome accents and a blue, backlit LCD display, the Special Edition Keurig allows you to program water temperature, set a digital clock to brew while you’re still in bed, and make coffee for three cup sizes. The removable drip tray accommodates travel mugs.

A delicious cup of coffee with no messy clean-up! Photo courtesy Keurig.

• Folgers Black Silk
• Folgers Lively Columbian
• Millstone Breakfast Blend
• Millstone Hazelnut Cream

Tea and cocoa capsules are not included but are also available. Learn more about Keurig Single Cup Coffee Brewers at Keurig.com.

Retail Value Of Prize: Approximately $182.00.

• To Enter This Gourmet Giveaway: Go to the box at the bottom of our Gourmet Coffee Section and click to enter your email address for the prize drawing. This contest closes on Monday, November 22nd at noon, Eastern Time. Good luck!