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March 14, 2012 | 0 Comments

Colonial Boy

1 oz Irish Whiskey
5 oz Hot Black Tea
1 dash Angostura Bitters
0.5 tsp Sugar (or to taste)

Add sugar to a heat-proof mug
Add hot tea, then whiskey and bitters
Stir gently

Featured Glassware:  Urban Nature Basics Goblet by Villeroy & Boch

 

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I start my day with a fundamental question:  coffee or tea?   And, while it may seem like a simple problem, I often find myself weighing the qualities of each beverage – the thick, roasted satisfaction of my au lait versus the bracing astringency of Assam and a splash of milk.  These days, tea wins out more often than not, and as tea is also a fundamental component of many a classic punch and cocktail, I’m always happy to find an excuse to feature a drink containing some measure of my morning pick-me-up.  Should that drink also highlight Irish Whiskey, well, then we’ve got the makings for a great St. Patrick’s Day libation. Read More…

March 12, 2012 | 2 Comments

Bottle Reboot – Part 3: Irish Whiskey

Of all our bottles, Irish whiskey is the one people most often tell us to replace. It is also our most popular bottle, and the fastest growing spirit category in the United States. So, as far as we’re concerned, it’s here to stay. As with Scotch, barley is the key grain behind Irish whiskey and, also like Scotch, malted grain is key to the Irish whiskey making process. Along with the Irish traditionally favoring an extra distillation over their Scottish cousins, the chief difference – and we’re simplifying here – is that when the Scottish embraced the more economical and pure (and often less flavorful) column still, the Irish held on for dear life to their pot stills, which produce a funkier, more complicated and less economical spirit – and it was almost the death of them. Fortunately, times have changed, and Irish whiskey is making a comeback.

Today, pure pot still whiskeys such as Green Spot and Redbreast remain the truest expressions of Ireland’s distillation heritage while the more familiar brands such as Bushmills, Jameson, and Powers cut the pot still distillate with grain neutral spirit (vodka) to offer more “easy drinking” and lower cost blends. When it comes to making cocktails, we think Irish spirit soars, especially in a classic Whiskey Sour.

 

PREMIUM ($40 – $50 / 750 ml)

Some claim that to mix these whiskeys in a cocktail is tantamount to heresy. We say it’s heavenly.

 

Green Spot

Declared by whiskey expert Jim Murray to be “unquestionably one of the world’s great whiskeys,” this bottle will surely get the staunchest Scotch drinker to think twice. While it may be more difficult to track down, you will be absolutely rewarded for your efforts.

 

Redbreast 12 y.o.

This is a bold enough whiskey to stand up to any mixed drink and come out shining. With notes of toasted nuts and gingerbread, it is amazingly complex yet smooth. More importantly, it makes, by far, our favorite Whiskey Sour.

 

MID-RANGE ($15 – $20 / 750 ml)

 

Powers Gold Label

Who are we to argue with the best-selling Irish whiskey in Ireland? While you won’t get the complexity of its pure pot still cousins, you will get something a bit bolder than Jameson, making Powers a great budget mixing whiskey.

As with all of our spirit reboots, these bottles represent just the beginning, and we’ll remain on the lookout for more exciting Irish whiskeys to send your way.

 

 

February 29, 2012 | 3 Comments

Leap Year Cocktail


2 oz Dry Gin
0.5 oz Orange Liqueur
0.5 oz Sweet Vermouth
1 Dash (tsp) of Lemon Juice

Add all ingredients to a mixing glass.
Shake with ice and strain into a coupe.
Finish with a lemon twist.

Read More…

February 21, 2012 | 7 Comments

1912 – Mardi Gras and the Baby Doll

By Lesley Jacobs Solmonson

 

2 oz Brandy
1.5 oz Orange Liqueur
0.75 oz Fresh Lemon Juice

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass
Or, pour directly into a rocks glass over ice

Featured Glassware:  Scotch Whisky Tumbler No. 1 by Villeroy & Boch

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Fat Tuesday –better known as Mardi Gras – is upon us and, with it, celebrations spanning the globe from Belgium to Brazil to the Big Easy.  Each Mardi Gras is unique in its way, but, given our current affection for all things 1912, it is the pre-Lenten revels of New Orleans that interest us today.

Originally a religious festival, Mardi Gras was brought to the Crescent City by French settlers who indulged in rich food and drink – as well as parades, masked balls, and late night carousing – before the fasting of Lent.  Most of the festivities were and still are centered on krewes and social clubs, among them the Baby Dolls who celebrate their 100th anniversary this year.   Tracing their roots to New Orleans’ 6th Ward, historically a cornerstone of Creole culture, the Dolls are one of the many “second line” groups in the brass band parades, which evolved out of traditional jazz funerals. Read More…

February 17, 2012 | 6 Comments

1912 – Ready-to-Drink Cocktails

Today, we’re doing a drink post with no drink attached. There’s a reason for this, of course — something beyond us wanting to cut out early for the long weekend, but in truth, that’s as good a starting point as any. Since we’ve been long overdue in discussing things like Bartles & Jaymes, Seagram’s Escapes, and Captain Morgan’s Parrot Bay Frozen Pouches, today will be the day. Like it or not.

But before we kick off President’s Day weekend (let’s wish George and Abe happy birthdays), I’m going to jump back to this past Christmas, when I shared the gift of frozen, pouched love with my family: namely, Parrot Bay malt beverage daiquiris. My reasoning was simple: I needed stocking stuffers and, at 3 for $5, how could I not buy them? As a joke, I also recently smuggled along a 4-pack of Bartels & Jaymes strawberry coolers on a multi-day trip to Disneyland. Since our nights would be spent in a dark, quiet hotel room – a self-imposed womb conducive to inducing sleep in our toddler – we needed something other than books to pass the hours. And since cheap, low-alcohol bottled coolers have been a staple of my drinking repertoire since my white-bread teen years, I’ve always had a soft-spot for them – much like my weakness for equally cheap pop music sung by cute girls (Holly Valance, you know what I’m talking about).

Read More…

February 14, 2012 | 4 Comments

1912 – Arizona, Prostitution Row, and the Virgin Cocktail

2 oz Dry Gin
1 oz Dry Vermouth
1 tsp Grenadine or Raspberry Syrup
1 dash Angostura Bitters

Add all ingredients to a mixing glass with ice
Stir well and strain into a cocktail glass
Garnish with a cherry, naturally

 

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Today may be Valentine’s Day, but it is also – more significantly – the Arizona Centennial,  marking the 100th anniversary of  our 48 contiguous united states and, as a by-product, the end of the Old West.  After all, when your last “territory” dons statehood, things stop being as fast and loose as they once were.  Fortunately for us, we’re talking Arizona, which – state or not – has always seen things its own way.

“Forty-Eighth Star To Be Placed On Flag Of The American Nation On St. Valentine’s Day” read the February 14, 1912 headline in Arizona Journal-Miner.  Across the state, canons, dynamite, bells, and, guns of all sizes would toll 48 times in honor of President Taft’s signing of the statehood proclamation and George W. P. Hunt’s assumption of the Governorship of the state.  And, while the term “Arizona Territory” may conjure images of the Old West, by 1912, Arizona the state was a relatively civilized place.  Contained in the very same issue of the Journal-Miner mentioned above are advertisements for Model Ts, Sealshipt Oysters, Wine Companies, Electricity, Cigars, and Hart Schaffner & Marx suits – all the comforts of a modern life.  Of course, that was in the cities. For those looking for it, the rough and wild west of old was still very much alive in mining towns like Jerome. Read More…

February 9, 2012 | 6 Comments

1912 – The RMS Titanic and Punch Romaine

By Lesley Jacobs Solmonson

 

Near, far – whenever you are…

In this, the first official stop in our self-styled Year of the Doctor, we’d be remiss if we didn’t pick one of the juicier points in history to kick things off.  So, here we go:  1912.  Why 1912?  As years go, it was a pretty bang up one.  The Republic of China was established, as were Paramount and Universal Pictures.  Piltdown Man was discovered (only to be, forty years later, revealed as a hoax).  Julia Child, Charles Addams, and Gene Kelly were born.  The Oreo cookie was invented.  T. E. Lawrence was poking around archeological expeditions in the Middle East, quite unaware of how life-changing his knowledge of the area would soon become.  And, of course, let’s not forget the folks over at Downton Abbey, who we first met when they found their lives shifting dramatically as news of the RMS Titanic sinking reached them.

And so, the Titanic.  This year – April 15th, to be exact – marks the 100th anniversary of the epic end of the great ocean liner. Rather than rehash that tragic tale, we’ve chosen to celebrate the remarkable ship herself and how she symbolized the Edwardian era itself — a period fat on the rewards of industrialization and fascinated with opulence, yet struggling with social equity.  It is rightly called a second “gilded age”, when the surface of things was exquisitely polished, covering the tarnish beneath.  And, while scholars put the end of the Edwardian era as anywhere between 1910 and 1919, it is not hard to see how the sinking of the Titanic defined a generation and signaled a loss of innocence and a change of seasons to come, much like the Kennedy assassination defined a very different generation. Read More…

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