Seasonal Sips promotes local food and drink

The Windham Chamber of Commerce promoted local businesses residents might not know about last Friday evening at its second annual Seasonal Sips presentation, held at UConn's Alumni House.

Of these, the vast majority specialized in alcoholic beverages, with the one exception in the drink market being the Hosmer Mountain Beverages soda company.

The Willimantic Brewing Co. (Main St. Café) and several local wineries offered tastings, while Bill Potvin, co-owner of Hosmer, distributed bottles of locally made old-style soda. He also promoted a recently developed energy drink.

After purchasing an energy drink formula equivalent to Red Bull in pharmaceutical content, Potvin discovered that caffeine is among the least effective stimulants in energy drinks, and one of the unhealthiest.

Hosmer adapted the formula to include roughly the same levels of caffeine as Coca Cola, and added grape skin and pomegranate for their antioxidant properties and flavor. B vitamins carry the drink's stimulant effect.

It sells by the name of Red Lightning. Potvin explained that his company generally aims to impress people who were alive in the days when old fashioned soda flavors were the standard, and that Lightning was developed specifically for young people.

Hosmer is the greenest beverage company in Connecticut, and distributes and picks up cases of soda along 20 delivery routes, Potvin said.

Roger Adams, the Chamber's executive director, emphasized the quality of vineyards within 30 minutes of UConn.

He explained that his organization has become involved with eastern Connecticut tourism, and hopes to bring local agriculture and wine to the attention of families of UConn and Eastern Connecticut State University students who might find the surrounding area short on entertainment when visiting.

Director of Tourism Diane Nadeau added that vineyards provide the strongest draw for those traveling in the area, and bring attention to other businesses supporting local agriculture.

Some, like the Heritage Trail Vineyard in Lisbon, include serious dining. Famed chef Harry Schwartz oversees and cooks for the vineyard's restaurant.

Nadeau emphasized that Windham is a craft region, producing the quality of wine people travel to California or the Finger Lakes region to pursue.

Its economy is driven by a cluster of beverage businesses of remarkably quality, many of which have been awarded national prizes in their specialty, like Hosmer's rootbeer or Willi Brew's brew.

Fred Mahr of Pomfret's Sharpe Hill Vineyard said that Connecticut wine has its unique points.

He cited the St. Croix grape, bred to surive the damp and short growing season of northern America, as a key ingeredient to success in the region.

While resilient, it is a grape which had to be researched and bred extensively to develop a taste that did not have to be blended.

"A lot of varietal development and research has been done by this vineyard," he said.

Sharpe Hill offers the most successful wine brand in New England: the white Ballet of Angels. Other Connecticut vineyards use the St. Croix grape, including the Taylor Brooke Winery.

Though the wine tourism industry depends on excess, Nadeau insisted that these businesses survive a poor economy.

Tourism is still tourism, she agreed. When people visit for wine's sake, they are likely to fuel local businesses as they arrive. She hopes visitors of UConn will investigate the area's finer offerings.