The Spirit World

Bloody Mary … Sunday Brunch.  They go together hand-in-hand.  But if you’re a bit tired of the traditional Bloody Mary and want to try slightly updated versions, you may be interested in what the Bin Wine Cafe in Chicago has been serving.  Bottoms up.
1. Spice it up Mexican style with a shot of tequila and […]

One of my other jobs is being the editor of the Long Island Beer Guide which means that I have to drive around and find the greatest places on Long Island to have a beer and write about it.
On a recent trip out to New Suffolk I discovered this place called Legends that had a […]

There is a lot of mystique and intrigue around Absinthe. The spirit was banned in the United States at some point in the early 1900s due to its apparent effects on the mind. The chemical thujone was thought to be to blame for the hallucinogenic effects on heavy Absinthe drinkers but recent studies found only […]

Pisco is a product that had once been extremely difficult to find here in America, but recently we’ve been seeing a variety of different brands being exported from South America.
Technically, Pisco is a form of brandy in-so-much as it is made from grapes. Any spirit distilled from fruit is considered a brandy, with grape brandies […]

I received a sample of the 100% Organic Partida Agave Nectar some time ago and it has been quite a journey as I developed recipes for this interesting product.
The Partida Tequila company makes their tequila, as you might expect, from blue agave plants, a succulent that dwells in the arid lands around Jalisco, Mexico. One […]

I just got back from a week in Houston Texas. This is not the place you want to be during American Craft Beer Week — the one week during the year when beer geeks all over the US flock to their local breweries and brewpubs to collect points for the Great American Beer Tour. My […]

This June, Smirnoff will add the eleventh bottle to its range of flavoured vodkas - Blueberry. A flavour that they promise will “Fuse the essence of ripe blueberries with its premium vodka “With its sweet and tart texture, Blueberry raises our flavoured portfolio to a whole new level.”
This new flavour is ultra-smooth […]

Maybe it’s just me, but there are several words that are just so dang confusing when it comes to trying to figure out how to pronounce them properly. For years, I had seen “orgeat” in print, but never pronounced. To look at the word and apply crude American pronunciation to it arrives at something like […]

Last week I tried making several Mexican beer cocktails to see what I would be getting into this month. I experimented with several cerveza preparada such as the Cubana, the Mexican Iced Tea, and the Michelada. I wasn’t really happy with any of them. But Anita from Married with dinner commented that she’s got a […]

Recently, I had the pleasure of taste testing the Ruby Red Grapefruit flavored Hi-Ball Energy drink. I chilled this clear bubbly drink in the bottle and then poured it over ice. In the name of Science (right!), I drank it and then jumped on the treadmill about 10 minutes later.This soda had several good things […]