Admit it: you’ve always wished there was a slightly more convenient, less-liquid-y way to consume your alcohol. Or maybe it’s just me.
Anyway, thank goodness for Camper English, the L.A. Times’ resident booze guru and acclaimed inventor of the Honey Badger shot. He had the same idea, and has been researching and developing the best methods by which to create solid forms of our favorite adult beverages. However, his (thus far) favorite method was actually passed on to him by Lauren Mote, the mixology half of Kale & Nori Culinary Arts, a Vancouver-based catering service. Click here to get the details at Camper’s Alcademics blog, but it basically centers around boiling down spirits to reduce the amount of water, and then agitating the resulting syrup until it begins to crystallize into a very adult-friendly form of rock candy. Once the syrup has been turned out onto a silicone mat and cools, just break it up into rocks and pulverize it in the spice grinder of your choice for a powdery libation, a la these campari crystals:
This isn’t really news, but back in July the Rickey was declared the official cocktail of Washington, DC. Which is funny, because I feel that to live and work in the nation’s capital or root for their sports teams, I’d need way more than one cocktail to keep me sane (I should know; I’m a big ‘Skins fan). The good news is that the Rickey is a pretty basic drink that lends itself to a fair amount of variation. While I doubt I’d be a fan of the original “Joe” Rickey that uses bourbon in lieu of gin, I do like me some gin. So I scoured the webz for something awesome, and there is not much in this world that’s as awesome as booze and fire. Behold, the Rosewater Rickey:
Created (and photographed) by Jamie Boudreau at Vessel in Seattle, this is how it’s gonna go down:
Brulee in the bottom of a mixing glass:
5 pitted, brandied cherries
bar spoon of sugar
Angostura mist* (see below)
Fill with ice and add:
3 oz gin
1 bar spoon of rosewater
½ oz fresh lime juice
shake and strain into an iced Collins glass
top with soda water
*For Angostura mist, place equal portions of Angostura bitters and Lemon Hart 151 rum into an oil mister/sprayer.
To brulee the cherries, place them in your mixing glass, add the sugar, and mist the Angostura mixture through a flame.
Flame until sugar caramelizes.
As per usual, feel free to sub your own favorite spirit—I’d probably go with Hendrick’s for the gin, and since Lemon Hart 151 is extremely hard to come by, you may want a nice El Dorado (maybe the 8 year old?) or, in a pinch, Gosling’s Black Seal. Also, rosewater can usually be found in fancier groceries like Whole Foods or Fresh Market. Also-also, fire is awesome, but also hot. Be careful!
Poor Canada. Actually, no; poor Canadian liquor companies.
Like the U.S., Canada is saddled with a pretty sad rep abroad when it comes to its alcoholic exports. Both nations have thriving microbreweries, but by and large the rest of the world only knows us for Budweiser and Molson, respectively. Meanwhile, we’re inundated with awesome gin from Scotland (Hendrick’s), excellent vodka from—seriously—France (Grey Goose), and some seriously amazing rum from Portugal (El Dorado). Not to mention the tidal wave of awesome beers from Belgium and Germany!
Which means that the average Canadian beverage company is reduced to some pretty insane levels of gimmickry to make in-roads internationally. To wit: Frozen Ghost Vodka.
Sure, every product should have a story behind it, but to go to the lengths these guys have to drum up interest in some vodka? If it’s that awesome, shouldn’t its quality do most of the heavy lifting for you, marketing-wise?
Smirnoff? Absolut? Seagram’s?! NO, Michael Bay. No.
I get that you need to offer parents some way to dull the pain of sitting through your lump of childhood-ruining waste, but this is not the way. In fact, I cannot think of a WORSE way to add another $8 on top of a $12 ticket than being forced to drink “Michael Bay’s X-Plode Juice” while losing two hours of my life. $20 to be trapped in a life-sucking machine? Talk about a Pit of Despair.
(If this Youtube analogy causes Michael Bay to re-make Princess Bride, I will jump right out my f@#king window.)
Have you guys heard of Klout? It’s a new social media influence-compiler that takes all of the data produced by you on your various social networking accounts and grades you out based on link-clickage and page views and follows and likes. Like Google Analytics, BUT FOR YOUR VERY DIGITAL ESSENCE. I can’t decide if this is awesome or horrible. Probably both; the social media equivalent of watching some other dude get hit in the balls with some sort of object.
Here’s why it’s awesome:
Klout is new, so it has that “new app smell”, and it satisfies a navel-gazing urge and desire to have my ego stroked.
Here’s why it isn’t:
Klout is also pretty much a robot. And if a robot just rolled into your job or class wearing the coolest new clothes (mine, for instance), you’d probably want to hang out with it. But then it opens its mouth/switches on its speech facilitatrix, and just spews weird, random analysis of you based on what it sees with zero context. All of a sudden the cool new robot with the fly kicks seems a lot more like someone you’d like to shake down for lunch money.
For example:
That’s me. 29. My whole online existence, boiled down to a single (relatively low) number. High compared to my friends, but I rank lower than a lot of back-up outfielders on small-market National League baseball teams (how does Nyjer-f@#king-Morgan score a 57?!)
But check out the five topics I’m supposedly “influential” about:
1. Homelessness
2. Animals
3. Money
4. Billy Joel
5. Mystery
Let’s break it down: “homelessness” and “animals” should be paired together; my love of shelter pets and work with the SPCA is pretty well-known. Money…well, let’s just say that I always thought in order to be influential regarding that, you had to actually HAVE some. Klout thinks I’m Warren Buffet over here.
Billy Joel; OK, fair enough. I love The Piano Man. Apparently so much that he is the thing I care fourth-most about IN ALL THE WORLD. My wife, my cats, art, baseball, comics…don’t even make the list. And “mystery”?! I get that Klout is probably just picking up on the frequency of my Mystery Monday posts, but believing I’m influential about something as abstract as “mystery” is like saying you can actually “win” against terror.
Robots: awesome, but stupid.
FURTHERMORE, Klout believes that I am a.) not really all that influential, and b.) am only really influenced by ALCOHOL:
True though it may be, I don’t really need to be reminded of it by some douchey robot (whose shoes really aren’t all that great anyway). That’s right—my only influencer is Bad Decisions. My favorite bar.
Whatever. At least I’m not alone; Bad Decisions has a Klout score of 51, so clearly there are many other drunken Billy Joel fans with an air of mystery about them. I just need to find them.
In completely unrelated news, I’ve posted two new designs: Pirate Bunnies, and Ghost World. Snap ‘em up!
You didn’t mis-read that headline: Hendrick’s Gin has rolled out a fully-customized 1961 Rover 80 model P4, appropriately named “The Cucumber Mobile”, for marketing purposes. So what does this sweet, delicious auto come outfitted with?
While the antiquity of the vehicle adds to the aura, the Hendrick’s Tonic dispensing bar showing a bottle of Hendrick’s, and two glasses present in the boot, provide the whacky quotient.
What’s more, the vehicle also comes with a vintage Victorian tent, vintage wooden skis, chairs, a table, suitcase, and picnic basket for those of you who prefer your G & T’s a bit more rough ‘n’ tumble in the great outdoors. Don’t worry, though, they still have you pragmatists covered; it also comes with back-up gas can for emergencies.
That said, one wonders if a liquor-themed vehicle maybe isn’t the best way to garner press—there seems to be potential for a backlash of some sort. I seem to remember a group of mothers who don’t take kindly to stuff like this.
Now, gin, even gin as yummy as Hendrick’s, is very much a love-it or hate-it spirit for most drinkers. If you guys could modify a car to dispense a beverage, what make & model would it be, and what would you be drinking from it? Let me know in the comments section below!
For those of you not on the East coast…be very, very thankful. Yesterday our temp topped out at around 96° F, and today we’re expecting it to hit triple-digits.
So of course what better way to cool down and take your mind off the heat than some refreshing cocktails? My wife and I met our good friends Adrienne & Tony for drinks and had some truly delicious concoctions, courtesy of our friend Anna at @bad_decisions. First up, the “Delicious Hibiscus” (N.B., this is not its official name. None of us can recall if it even has one, but this works for the purposes of blogging):
Vodka, champagne, and either creme de cassis or hibiscus syrup (can’t remember which!), garnished with a hibiscus blossom. Pretty to look at and pretty tasty in my tum-tum. Plus, the blossom is edible and very yummy—tastes like a thicker Fruit Roll-Up, or a sweeter version of fruit leather.
Next, Anna made us the “Sensation”, which is a lot like a mojito, but served in a martini glass and made with gin instead of rum:
Lime juice, fresh mint, maraschino liqueur, gin, and served in a sugar-rimmed glass (in lieu of simple syrup or muddling the sugar and mint in a tall glass like a traditional mojito.)
Anything in particular you guys are imbibing to keep cool as the weather heats up? Let me know in the comments section below!
First, apologies: as you may have noticed from the tumbleweeds rolling by, I haven’t been very diligent about posting lately. As you also may have noticed, this is because I was out of the country soaking up inspiration from Norway and Germany. Today marks the return to our regularly scheduled posts! Now, on to the booze…
Well, this is quite awesome:
A new iPhone app called The Bond Mixology, available on iTunes for the pretty affordable price of $1.99. So what’s so awesome about it? Well, you get a full list of every adult beverage enjoyed by Mr. Bond (and his bevy of beauties) categorized by film. It also tells you the time stamp in the film when each drink was consumed (including a scene synopsis), and then provides detailed recipes for each. Is it frivolous and indulgent (and therefore exceedingly American)? Absolutely. But that’s drinking for you! Besides, what better excuse is there to host a Bond-a-thon with your guy and/or girl friends than to pair it with a cocktail tasting? This app was tailor-made for party hosting!
(Shameless plug for the good folks at @bad_decisions in Fells Point, Baltimore; they make a delicious Vesper—if you’re ever in or near Charm City, check it out!)
In honor of today being Cinco de Mayo, I’ve created some free downloadable beer charms to help you keep your drinks straight as the night wears on (a tricky endeavor, to say the least.) Just click on over to my freebies page and download one (or all) of the three themed sets so your fiesta guests remain cootie-free this afternoon and evening! Each printable set includes six charms (perfect for that six-pack you’re picking up on the way home) featuring fun Ex-Boyfriend characters from my designs, including kawaii guys, cute critters, and adorable monsters!
Wow. If ever there was a creation that embodied “arrested development”, it would have to be the Octane 120 Driving Arcade. Developed by Dream Arcades, the structure houses an HD projection unit for displaying a selected game on the wall, as well as a built-in housing for two 5-gallon kegs or one 1/2 barrel keg. It also features TWO taps; one behind the driver’s seat for use by those waiting their turn to play, and one to the right of the steering wheel so the user can pour and drink WHILE THEY PLAY. Talk about a Hedonism Bot! However, chances are that drinking while driving, even if it’s in a video game, results in a pretty short turn.
our customers
