After the last couple of weeks of my sisters posting major kitchen appliances, I’ve gone SERIOUSLY gadget this week – and one of my favorites is this sparkling wine stopper. 
These are the cheapies I actually have ($9.49 for a 2-pack on Amazon. The one pack is 8.49. For a buck, I’ll get a spare). The Tinker and I enjoy a mimosa or two on Sunday mornings, and this allows us to open a bottle of sparkly and have it stay fresh until the next week. I’m not saying these will keep your champagne fresh indefinitely, but for a week or maybe two, hell yes. I’ve tried the vacuum corks where you pump out the air, but for me, these have worked better.
If you haven’t made mimosas at home, they are SUPER easy – our recipe is pretty generous. 1/2 glass champagne, 1/2 glass orange juice but adjust it to taste and to whether you want to get anything else done that day. This allows you to adjust the mix to the glass size, which in Texas can be pretty big (BTW, you can make these with a canning jar and a candlestick holder, a little clear glue, and voila! now we’re doing crafts!)
The many uses for adult beverages
We have found mimosas or bloody marys (couldn’t be easier with Zing Zang mix and Titos Vodka) the best way to survive garage sales. A big batch (or two) of one or the other, and by golly you are wheeling and dealing! Garage sales for us are about getting rid of the stuff, not becoming multi-millionaires, so for all those folks that have bought valuable items from us under the influence, we’re watching for you on Antiques Roadshow!
What you may not be familiar with are beermosas. As you may be aware if you follow our blog, I love my beer. Well beermosas are quite delightful, especially if you use a really nice Belgian White where you’d normally squeeze in a slice of orange anyway. But honestly? Your bottle of Bud Light will work just fine.
Since we mentioned bloody marys, down here in Texas we have drinks called Micheladas, which are basically beer-based bloody marys with some Mexican spice. The amount of spice is up to you (just like a bloody mary). 
You can even buy these in cans at the local stop-and-rob (for the canned variety, may we recommend Tecate Diablo Michelada – yee haw! Clearly the best choice for a Michelada would be a Mexican beer, but again, Bud Light is quite versatile. And put July 12 on your calendar – it’s National Michelada Day!
Now we’ve tried to use the tabs for beer cans and rubber/plastic bottle caps for bottles, but no, not really effective. You open a hop-based beverage? You finish it. My sisters have a lot more experience on the grape-based drinks…
Carol
We own this gadget. In fact, we have two different types. I can’t take an actual picture of ours because we are away from home, but they are similar to these.
Is this gadget a favorite? Can I do without it? Actually, no and yes. Our two stoppers are housed in our bar and seldom come out. On very rare occasions when we actually have Champagne, Prosecco (the bubbly of choice in East Beach), or Asti Spumante (my personal favorite) leftover, we will pull one of them out. That just never/hardly ever happens.
That doesn’t mean we don’t enjoy Mimosas because we do. We also enjoy Bellinis. It simply means that we enjoy Mimosas and/or Bellinis until the bubbly is gone. Prosecco, the wine of choice by the ladies in East Beach, is consumed by the bottle until all the bottles are gone…not until some of a bottle remains. Asti, my personal favorite, would never survive until another day.
Not just champagne sparkles
I should also add still another favorite bubbly introduced to me several years ago during a day in Cape Charles, a lovely little town on the Eastern Shore of Virginia on the Chesapeake Bay. A fabulous gourmet market and wine shop called Gull Hummock is there. During a wine tasting I sampled Villa Jolanda Moscato. I tried the pineapple, but it comes in multiple flavors. Even though at times it is difficult to find, I try to always keep a bottle available and chilled.
Now back to the original subject. Is this wine stopper a gadget taking up space that I can do without? No. It takes so little space in the bar that there it will stay until the days that it is needed, even though those are few and far between.
Jan
I must be honest. I have never heard of a sparkling wine stopper. But then, I am basically the only drinker in our household of four adults and 3 kids so breaking out Mimosas in the morning or a bottle of bubbly in the evening just doesn’t occur.
I do enjoy a Mimosa when I am visiting my sisters. I do enjoy a glass or two of bubbly on New Year’s Eve when we have a few friends over to celebrate. Neither of those occasions require the preservation of the leftovers…there are none!
I do have a related “gadget” though. The last time Carol and her husband visited, they brought a bottle of the Villa Jolanda Moscato she mentioned. We enjoyed it sitting on the deck in beautiful weather. A wonderful memory.
I think of it daily because I liked the design of the bottle enough to save the empty one and convert it for daily use (several times daily, in fact).
It is now my dish soap dispenser!
