Book! Cocktails at Home: Vodka

I contributed to a book about Vodka.  What?  Vodka's cool!  VODKA'S COOL!!

Some other people are in there too.  I don't exactly remember their names but I think it's Kevin Moleskin, and Jeff Emmentaler, and President Gary Reagan, and the guy from O'Neil Surfwear.

Anyway, it's free and in .pdf format. If you want it on paper, you can hit "Print" and kill trees and stuff.

Check it out here. It's free but you can send me money if you want.

IKEA Home Bar

A lot of people are sure to have the problem of building a home bar without having to spend $5000 on a home bar unit.  Here's a solution using IKEA gear.

Hey, you're not going to be able to put it together correctly anyway thanks to instructions that are completely vague and have no words whatsoever.  It's like a mime trying to tell you how to do build an atomic bomb.

Indy Spirits Expo - SF

Last Thursday I got to meet up with Courtney Cochran (of Hip Tastes fame) and head over to Mighty in San Francisco to taste some of the latest and greatest spirits that are out there at the Indy Spirits Expo.  The event had some great tastes and a few that I'd rather not taste and lots of mediocre stuff that I won't even mention. There were some great gins but absinthe was the star of the night.

The Good
One of the first spirits I ever reviewed, Orange V Vodka, was there and I was reminded of why I gave it a great review.  Great orange taste without being syrupy or overpowering.  Still a go to flavored vodka even though so many other ones have come out since then.

Heavy Water vodka had ACTUAL HOT SWEDISH GIRLS at their booth!  The Swedish vodka was a nice change from a lot of the other vodkas that have been launching lately.  It has all of The Smooth you're looking for in vodka but actually has a finish that pushes a little flavor your way.  The slight fennel taste makes it perfect for your vodka martini. 

North Shore Distillery came out to San Francisco from Chicago with a whole bunch of perfection.  Everything that they were offering was absolutely perfect.  They had two gins including Distiller's Gin No. 6 and No. 11.  No. 6 is what I call a "crossover gin" meaning that people that don't think they like gin can try this one and have a great chance at liking it.  It's light, fruity, and perfect for mixing.  Distiller's Gin No. 11 was for gin-lovers only and packs a huge wallop of Juniper.  It's called No. 11 because the Juniper "goes to 11." 

North Shore also brought out their absinthe which is the first one of note for the night.  Their Sirène absinthe made me think of sitting with a friend on a late night and enjoying a glass of green fairy.  It was smooth, full of flavor, and made my mouth water.  Easily one of the best of the night.

Craft Distillers (of Hangar One and St. George's fame) was pouring a wide variety of spirits but the real standout was the Germain-Robin Absinthe Superieure.  Far and away my favorite spirit of the night it was absolutely delicious and made me realize why people go absolutely insane drinking this stuff so much.  Not from the Wormwood but from the sheer amount of alcohol that goes down without any realization of how strong it is.  Perfect flavors and what I consider to be the world's most perfect absinthe.  There, I said it.

Square One's Botanical was gin without the gin in it.  Plenty of the spices and flowers that you get in gin but without any of the Juniper.  A great spirit for mixing without worrying about anything being overpowered.  Square One spends times on their spirits and does them right. 

Lastly, is the Ransom Old Tom Gin.  This amazing gin that is made in the old style is then aged in oak barrels where it gets its gorgeous colors.  One site I read says that it carries hints of lavender (which I got) and mango custard.  Mango custard?  Who the hell writes this stuff and how the hell am I supposed to relate to that?  However, Ransom's complexities don't cease to amaze and it was one of the few spirits I went back and asked for another tasting of.  Absolutely amazing.  I'm not sure how I missed this one as it launched but I'm sad I did.

Of course, Veev, 44 North, and Bols Genever were great but you already expected that one.

The Bad
There were only a few things that I thought "I never want to drink this again, ever, with anyone."  One of them was Vieux Carre which made me want to learn the French phrase for "This tastes like it has been drunk before."  It comes in an ultra-cool sherry bottle which I'm glad to take off your hands if you've had the misfortune of buying this stuff.  If you want to purchase this stuff despite my advice then let's make a deal:  You give me $50 and I will come over to your house and kick you in the crotch (male or female) and we'll call it a day.

Not quite as bad was the J. Witty Chamomile liqueur.  If you like a bit of tea with vodka in it then you can skip a step here.  The honey flavors in it completes the tastes and it was fun to have a sample but not really worth having a whole bottle of.  Maybe cocktail gods greater than I can come up with something for it.  I've had amazing drinks with the Tarragon and Saffron vodkas made for me by the distiller, unfortunately J. Witty didn't seem to bring their A-Game.

Choya Umeshu liqueur is the last one I'd warn you off from.   It was, well, nice.  It's made from the Japanese Ume fruit and even has a few sitting in the bottle.  It tastes sweet and syrupy by itself and maybe cut with a light vodka it would be decent by itself.  I didn't get that it was very mixable and when I tasted an actual plum from the bottle I felt like causing someone pain.  Like taking your mother out to a nice steak dinner then not calling her the next day.  That kind of pain. 

Conclusion
I tried pretty much everything that they had there but these were the standouts one or the other.  I wanted to give some notes on stuff that you may not have tried to either go get it or avoid it.  Leave questions or disagreements in comments.

Whisky Bottle Has a Graphic Equalizer

Ballantine's is probably one of the world's best selling whiskeys but doesn't get much play when it comes to whiskey lovers who prefer a Scotch that tastes like you're licking a large stick that was recently encompassed in snails.  However, they sell a LOT of their stuff and they seem to be happy doing just that.

Their newest bottle is one that even the most outrageous of vodka companies are going to be angry at themselves for not thinking of first.  The bottle uses a power source and has an electroluminescent technology to make it look like a graphic equalizer that is reacting to the sound.  Contrary to reports, it's not actually reacting to the sound but moves the lights at random.

It would be cool to travel back in time and show this bottle to a T-Rex or something.  They would FREAK THE HELL OUT!  Okay, that might be too far back in time but it's a nice thought.  Maybe Abe Lincoln or something.

This stuff is shipping all over the freakin' world but there's no date set for it hitting the U.S. shores.  That's just weird because you KNOW that U.S. Americans would go crazy psycho for it.

Checkout the link to see a full line-up of these kind of bottles in action.

Dieline Package Design

All natural Nyquil with Southern Comfort

Nyquil is great for dealing with things like a cold, jet lag, or boredom, but did you know that it tastes like ass?  Actually, if your ass had an ass and you put paprika on it, then licked it, that's what Nyquil tastes like.

If only there was some way to make an all-natural version of Nyquil that didn't taste like the ass of an ass with paprika.  Now there is!

The good folks over at Hot Knives have put together a lively concoction that starts with Southern Comfort and only gets better from there. You'll need stuff like mint, green chili, ginger, and other goodies. Did I mention the Southern Comfort?

This one is all natural and even has a better commercial.  Follow the link below for the full recipe.


KniQuil from Hot Knivez on Vimeo.

All natural NyQuil - Hot Knives

Girl Drink Drunk

Yeah, I'm mostly phoning it in at this point. My buddy Dan found this one and I wanted to share.

Mixing a cocktail while Schumacher drives

Schumacher's brief return to Formula One was only the beginning! Now he's got a guy mixing cocktails in the car as he tears around a closed course.

Getting Democratic on The Democrat

I've had my share of days bartending and even more than my share of days of weeding through the crap that companies publish about their products in the name of "breaking news."  I mean, really, do we NEED a tequila recipe that commemorates Columbus Day? 

My solution lately?  I've been hitting the classic cocktails hard, buying the old books, and bugging all the people I know that are good at this on how to do something.  Thus cometh The Democrat.

Now, The Democrat is one of those cocktails that I call a "Crossover Cocktail."  Why?  Because it's one of those drinks that has something in it that people will say they hate, something like bourbon, and it will win them over and get them started on path to righteousness.  Other cocktails I include in this are a Cucumber Gimlet, an Aviation, and a few others. 

So, here's the old recipe for The Democrat. 

2oz Bulleit Bourbon
1oz Democrat Syrup
3/4oz Fresh Lemon Juice

The Democrat Syrup is really the key here.  It's one part warm water, one part honey, and two parts peach liqueur all mixed together.  Then you let the syrup get to room temperature (or chilled) before you use it in the cocktail.  Combine the ingredients in a Collin's glass and then stuff the glass full of crushed ice.  Tasty. 

I wanted to mix it up a bit and see what I could do to change up the flavors.  So, I made what became The Ted Kennedy

2oz Rye Whisky (I used Hirsch)
1oz Kennedy Syrup
3/4oz Fresh Lemon Juice

For the Kennedy Syrup, I wanted to use a pear liqueur so I lowered the ratio of the honey so it wouldn't get overpowered.  So, it was one part warm water, one part honey, and 2 parts pear liqueur.  Using the rye whisky really brought out the flavors of the pear as well.  A nice mellow blend. 

The beauty of this one?  You can try it for yourself very easily.  So, you know, you might want to get on that.