The Spirit World

The folks at Sam Flax New York have a nifty little gift-set for the cocktail lover on your list… this set of four mini cocktail shakers will be available in November and retails for $18.95. Celebrity cook Rachael Ray even called these out as one of her “faves” in the October issue of her magazine, […]

The objective of this exercise is to re-examine some of the slightly more obscure products which might be gathering dust on the shelves of bars across America (if not the world), and to see if our intrepid little band of explorers can uncover some forgotten gems of recipes which might breathe new life into those […]

Photo by Gary Regan
Used with permission

Having been pontificating about spirits, cocktails, and specifically cocktail recipes for what? Ten years now? I clearly have a wide variety of information and details spread all over the web in various forms and locations. Recently, somebody pointed out that the recipe I just presented for a particular cocktail differed […]

Two premium spirits brands Cape North Vodka and Saffron Gin, both of which are well known in leading UK cocktail bars, have just been listed by Sainsburys in their top 100 stores and by WineRack in 270 stores nationwide.  Cape North Vodka sells at £25.99 and Saffron Gin for £19.99 in both retailers in 70cl bottles […]

Wherever you live, some nights positively tingle with the feeling that anything is possible. Anywhere you go, some nights it feels like nothing will ever go right. Ask any gambler: all too often those nights that begin so charged with possibility end in the crushing conviction that everything’s gone hopelessly to shit.
Sorry.  I’ve been watching a […]

A few years ago, wine charms were all the rage.  Heck, they still might be, but I haven’t seen a lot of them lately.  If the wine charm phase was a little too cutesy for you, the folks at Modern Twist have a sleek, hip new charm that may be more your speed.  It slips […]

Finding new and interesting cocktails is always a challenge. There are far too many drinks coming onto the scene which are almost as though somebody tossed some trendy ingredients into a glass with some vodka, and thought it was a pinnacle of craftsmanship. Clearly not.
There are two ways which I like to rely on for finding […]

October marks an important month in terms of American wine — Food and Wine magazine gives out their annual awards for what they deem the best American wines out there.  This is the tenth year of the awards, and a number of new wines popped up on the list, including a few old favorites.  An […]

Every year, during the month of October, there are a number of pink-hued products that crop up to support breast cancer research.  Being particularly fond of the color pink myself, this is just what I don’t need … more temptation! 
Today’s find comes from the fabulous Red Envelope company — heart wine stoppers. Aren’t they […]

Argentina has been the focus of my studies over the past 2 weeks or so. I may have passed my geography exams at school, but I would have been hard pressed to accurately locate it on a map of South America until recently. When you do learn a bit more about its geography, it explains […]