“Coffee and Manischewitz” by Doug Greco

½ cup hot coffee

½ cup Blackberry Manischewitz

Pour both into coffee cup, stir, and enjoy.  Thank Granny Dallago. 

My favorite holiday drink, and possibly the best drink that every lived, is what our family calls “coffee and wine”.  To be precise, the drink is ½ cup hot coffee, and ½ cup Manischewitz Blackberry Wine, first thing in the morning.   A jug of Blackberry Manischewitz, the super-sweet Jewish Kosher wine, always sat in our family’s cupboards growing up.  Our family is Italian and Catholic, and though Manischewitz has historically had a sacramental purpose for the Jewish-American community, my mom can trace our family’s tradition as far back as her grandmother, Lena Dallago, who immigrated from the poor Abruzzo region of Southern Italy. 

As a teenager, my great-grandmother came to the U.S. through Ellis Island and lived in the small, coal-mining town of Atlas, Pennsylvania.  (Granny Dallago now has a plaque in her name at Ellis Island, and was also featured in my very first, and mostly-true blogpost on Felix Screendoorface Mangialetto, the Italian “syndicate” man also from Atlas). Granny woke at 2:30am every morning to bake homemade bread by 5:30am for the coal miners who boarded in her family’s home. My mom remembers being sent to school each day with a belly full of hot buttered bread, and on especially cold mornings, coffee and wine.  I picture her hiking through snow with purpose in her Catholic school outfit, then arriving in Algebra class both energized and relaxed by the concoction, ready to get down to business. (After reading this blog post my mom pointed out that she did, in fact, get an “A” in Algebra.)

Initially, my grandmother used another Kosher wine brand, Mogen David, but at some point switched to Manischewitz, possibly as a result of the company’s successful campaign to build a market for the wine among non-Jewish customers in the 1950’s and 1960’s.

Though the recipe is simple, it is important not to stray from the ingredients.  For starters only BLACKBERRY Manischewitz will do.  At one point an uncle of mine came home with the Concord Grape variety, with embarrassing results.  It was never tried again.  You can get a bottle at most grocery or liquor stores, and sometimes at CVS, for about 5 bucks.  Other brands of red table wine should not be tried: they simply will not be sweet enough. 

Mainschewitz’s syrupy sweetness evidently goes back to its early days as a mass producer of Kosher wine for the growing Jewish community in New York in the 1940’s. Since the large batches of Concord grapes from upstate New York produced an uneven quality of wine during the fermenting process, lots of sugar was added to make it more palatable. The syrupy sweetness became its hallmark, and was applied to its other varieties as well.  Though today Manischewitz is sweetened with corn syrup for most of the year, during the four months preceding Passover season it is produced with real cane sugar to meet Kosher requirements.   So while either type will do just fine for coffee and wine, if you buy a bottle that reads “Kosher for Passover”, you are in for a special treat.

(Please comment and share any of your own family holiday drink traditions)