a new kind of wine...

While in Siem Reap visiting Angkor Wat for the third and final (for a while, at least) time, Topher and I went on an adventure with four other Volunteers: rice wine tasting!

Now, usually rice wine is not something you 'taste.'  If you're me, it's something you avoid.  It burns, it's not delicious and it's typically only offered by already-drunk men at weddings.  It also might kill you, as it can be homemade and then sometimes stored in bottles once used to store terrible, deathly chemicals.

I digress.

This rice wine is being produced safely and deliciously by a couple in northern Cambodia.  And the best part is that they are infusing it with all sorts of fantastic things.

At our tasting, we sampled every single flavor- from mango and green chili to banana and cinnamon.  Other highlights were a coconut pineapple and green tea orange.  Yes.

I never would have guessed but my favorite was coffee and anise.  Anise, like black licorice? Which I typically hate? But it's amazing.  Topher's fave was the banana and cinnamon (you could not have designed two flavors he likes more.  And in one bottle, alcoholic and all? Done.)

The bottles are also hand-painted with some sweet Cambodia scenes by some local young artists. 

And of course, these hand-brewed, hand-painted and hand-bottled flasks of wine were just twelve dollars each.  Which I don't think is a lot, but I can't really tell anymore? So, you'll have to let me know in the comments if that is actually a great deal or I'm nuts.

I'm excited to bake with the banana cinnamon and add some of that coffee anise rice wine to some Bailey's!

Have you ever had rice wine?