Man, what a crummy week for our country. Our thoughts/prayers/positive vibes go out to everyone affected by the horrifying events in Boston, and to those left disappointed by a certain legislative body’s inaction/capitulation to special interests in DC.*

* Ex-Boyfriend loves and supports all 27 Constitutional Amendments. Please don’t be a troll.

So what’s the best thing to do? Pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, have a nice drink (alcoholic or otherwise), and get right back on the horse — once you’re fit to ride again, of course!

Thankfully, New York Magazine has got us covered, libation-wise: earlier this week they published their 50-state cocktail travelogue — a perfect pairing for those brave souls that each year attempt to visit all 30 Major League Baseball parks in a single summer.

As I went through the list, I was surprised by how many cocktails from the Midwest appealed to my palate compared to the ones on offer from the coastal states. Of the 51 cocktails profiled (no taxation without representation, amirite DC?!), the following states offered the most-delicious sounding (in terms of ingredients) & looking ones:

• Michigan
• Mississippi
• Nebraska
• Nevada
• New Hampshire
• New Jersey
• New Mexico
• North Dakota
• Rhode Island
• South Dakota
• Vermont
• Washington, DC
• West Virginia

Also, no offense to Rye in Baltimore — I’ve had some nice cocktails there — but seriously, Bad Decisions deserves any and all cocktail love bestowed upon Charm City from out-of-town media. John Reusing started the cocktail renaissance that Baltimore has been enjoying the last few years, and all drunken high-fives are owed to that dude and his stellar staff of mixologists.

Anyway, I think my favorite drink of the 51 that were featured might be the Maridel, from the Parlor Market in Jackson, Mississippi:

In a shaker, muddle the cucumber-infused simple syrup and 4 or 5 leaves of basil. Add 2 ounces Cathead honeysuckle vodka and 1/2 ounce lime juice. Shake with ice and double strain through a sieve into a rocks glass filled with crushed ice. Garnish with a lime wheel and basil leaf.

Delicious!

(Via TheKitchn.com, by way of Adj! Special legal shout-out to photographer Melissa Hom and drink stylist Ian Knauer — please don’t sue me!)

p.s. – Denver & Vegas fans! Don’t forget to let me know, either via the comments section here on the blog, our Facebook wall, or our Twitter feed, which bar to meet you at when we’re in your respective cities on the nights of the 29th (Denver) and 30th (Las Vegas)! Your first round is on me if you show up wearing Ex-Boyfriend gear, and we’ll have free swag for folks at the bar whether you’re wearing our fly styles or not!

If you have a habit of overdoing it when it comes to drinking science might have a solution. MIT graduate student Dhairya Dand has created ice cubes that let you know when you’re drinking too much.

Dubbed “cheers”, these cool ice cubes contain a circuit inside an edible jelly mold. The circuit monitors the number of sips you take and determines how drunk you are getting with a timer clocking the rate you’re knocking back those cocktails. As you start drinking too much the ice cubes change from glowing green to orange and then red.

If you keep drinking despite the warnings, the ice cubes can send a text message to a designated contact to let them know you’ve had a few too many.

Via Salon

It’s wine mulling season! Hazah!  Mulled wine is one of the easiest and tastiest “it’s-a-cold-night-cuddle-up” cocktails known to man.  While mulling spices can be purchased separately pre-packaged in cute little tins, you may have everything you would need already in your pantry.

What you will need:
tea bag (or coffee filter)
tablespoon whole allspice
1 tablespoon whole cloves
3 cinnamon sticks
1 sliced orange (or orange peel with pith removed)
2 (1/2-inch thick) slices peeled fresh ginger
crockpot or large pot with cover
and a bottle (or box, heh) of red wine

Seal the whole allspice, cloves, and ginger in the teabag for easy removal later. And then add the rest of the ingredients to your slow-cooker to simmer for about 10 minutes.

Thrifty gift idea! Make mulled wine gift bags.  With some pretty cloth and mason jars, you can pre-package the pre-mulled wine for friends and family.  It’s both thoughtful and practical!

Nothing like the holidays to drive you to drink. We have all been there; the pressures of gift buying/hiding/wrapping/giving, decorating, family, traveling, traffic, all the while with variations of “jingle bells” penetrating your earholes. It’s a very stressful, and sometimes joyful, time of year. What better way to bring the family together than with a shared libation. Presenting the fail-proof holiday punch!

2 cups chilled pomegranate juice
1 cup chilled apple juice
8 ounces (1 cup) vodka
8 ounces (1 cup) Solerno (blood orange) liqueur
1 cup chilled sparkling water or wine
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice (from 6 lemons)
1/2 cup Simple Syrup
1 cup sliced oranges
1 cup of fresh cranberries

To make a frozen fruit ring, fill a bundt pan with cranberries, orange slices and water, and freeze over night. Combine pomegranate and apple juice, vodka, Solerno, sparkling, and lemon juice in a punch bowl. As the Solerno errs on the side of sweeter liqueurs, add the simple syrup to taste.  Serve and enjoy!

I couldn’t decide whether to share this find on WTF Wednesday or Thirsty Thursday, but since it’s gin-related, here goes:

Some Brits decided that worms in booze shouldn’t be just the province of tequila, so they decided to add the creepy crawlies to this gin. As far as I can tell, there’s no case for worms making gin more delicious. The story simply seems to be that worms are cool. Yes, they’re cool in my garden but not in my cocktails, thankyouverymuch. I’ll stick to Hendricks.

Via Ministry of Alcohol

Don’t let your boozy over-indulgence get in the way of your next Las Vegas vacation. The folks at Hangover Heaven bring hangover therapy to you.

Their Duke-trained physician can come right to your hotel room and fix you up in under an hour. Treatment does involve getting an IV (ouch), but it still might be a more attractive alternative to spending the day with your head in the toilet.

Via Springwise

It got cooold here in Baltimore all of a sudden. I’ve been hibernating in my office with hot drinks and my sketch pad because it’s finally design time! Before I started selling Ex-Boyfriend products to stores I put out new designs willy nilly. I admit, it was more fun that way, but nowadays I mostly work on seasonal catalogs, releasing new art in December and July. So if you were wondering why I haven’t done anything new lately, don’t worry, there’s a ton of new stuff coming before the end of the year!

Don’t believe it? Here are some actual shots of me working on new art today!

As you can see, Oliver is hanging out to give me his critiques. Don’t let the reaper scare you, we aren’t going all death metal over here. He’s part of a larger piece but you’ll have to wait a couple more weeks for the final reveal. In the meantime, stay warm and drink up!

I’m currently loving this Mexican Hot Chocolate. It’s so spicy and boozy and chocolatey, plus it’s a hot drink! What’s not to love? Bonus points for creative tequila use, a spirit I don’t drink often that tends to sit on the shelf for too long around here. Mr. Cuervo will be so pleased to be out when it’s not even margarita weather!

Halloween may be over but you can enjoy pumpkiny goodness throughout November, too. Of course, the best way to savor the season is in a cocktail glass, so here are some recommendations:

If you’re a whiskey fan…

Check out the Pumpkin Apple Cider Cocktail via Vanilla and Spice. This drink heaps on an extra dose of festivity with sparkling apple cider and a sweet and spicy bite with honey whiskey, lemon juice and pumpkin pie spice.

If you’re a rum fan…

Warm up on a chilly fall day with a hot pumpkin butter rum! This fun seasonal twist on a cold weather classic calls for rum, sugar and spice. Plus, if you’re anything like me, you got super excited when the leaves started to change and went on a frolic to an orchard and loaded up on adorable jars of pumpkin butter from some quaint country store and now have no idea what you are going to do with all that pumpkin butter. Thankfully this recipe is the perfect way to use the stuff up. Check it out on The Kitchn.

If you’re a vodka fan…

Slash Food’s got the details on how to make your own pumpkin infused vodka, plus a recipe for a pumpkin vodka cocktail. This one requires some planning ahead since your vodka needs a week to infuse, but you’ll be rewarded with what can only be described as boozy pumpkin pie in a glass. Delicious!

City Envy, n. – Acute jealousy experienced by visitors in cities that have cooler stuff to do than back at home.

One of the fun aspects of what I do is the travel involved in going and vending my stuff around the country. This year alone, Ex-Boyfriend has been in Las Vegas, Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Baltimore, and Washington, DC. Next year we’re anticipating the addition of Orlando, San Francisco, and possibly even Toronto! And as much as we love Baltimore and miss it while we’re gone, there are certain things about these new metropolises that we just go ga-ga over and wish were waiting for us back home.

Case in point: Tipsy Pixels at The Triple Rock Social Club in Minneapolis, MN

Now, I’m not much of a gamer. I play Scramble With Friends and Words With Friends (feel free to start a game with me; username: Bearadactyl) and occasionally Baseball Superstars on my phone when waiting around outside of changing rooms or watching TV, but that’s about it. I haven’t seriously played video games since I was 19, which was…longer ago than I am willing to reveal to YOU people.

But a video game tournament involving alcohol consumption at a bar, with the prize being a fully-subsidized bar tab for the evening? I am ALL ABOUT IT. Especially given that my heightened tolerance and pairing with an equally-rusty or inexperienced gamer is the only hope I’d have of advancing to the second round. Maybe they assess bonus points for competing in a Tanooki suit.

I admit that sometimes I can get suckered in just by awesome photography and food-styling, but how can this not be wonderful? Fresh tomatoes, fresh herbs, fresh peppers, and yummy yummy vodka in my tummy? SOLD.

What’s even cooler is how utterly basic and easy this recipe from The Realistic Housewife is; your only equipment is a mason jar, a knife, a strainer, and a cutting board.

Here’s what you’ll need and what to do:

Add tomato juice and Worcestershire sauce to taste.

(Via Liqurious)