May 2012
5 posts
5 tags
I'm making tonic
I called the health food store.
“I’m looking for something…forgive me if I say it wrong…sin-choan-uh…kin-chone-uh…it’s spelled c-i-n-c-h-o-n-a. It’s a powder or a bark.”
“Yes.”
“Can you order a pound?”
“Yes.”
“Can you order a pound of citric acid, too?”
“Sure.”
My wife walked...
“Polls reveal that a mere quarter of Southerners have ever sampled the iconic...”
– Derby City’s best new publication schools us on the julep’s history.
Get ready for a lot of mint julep posts
Because it’s that time again.
April 2012
6 posts
Wikipedia's List of Cocktails →
Because you have no other plans for the evening.
"I don't give a shit that your family goes back to... →
youllbehealed:
William Langewiesche in the Atlantic.
March 2012
4 posts
5 tags
Store Brand
I live in Kentucky, where liquor and wine cannot be sold in grocery stores. No big deal. I live in Louisville, where liquor stores can be found within walking distance of almost every grocery store.
I was surprised, then, when, as a gag gift, a friend gave me a bottle of this:
Schnucks is a midwestern grocery store chain. I shopped there when I lived in St. Louis. Like all other grocery store...
4 tags
In case you didn't read the wedding post...
…I just got married. That means Toothpick Swords will be on vacation for two weeks while I’m on my honeymoon.
February 2012
4 posts
3 tags
I am getting married.
The wedding is in one week…and I’m frequently struck with concerns about the cocktail menu.
My bride-to-be and I are your typical midtwentieschildlessapartmentdwellers, so we’re still in that replacing-the-furniture-from-college phase where any money not spent on more comfortable chairs or some honest-to-god decent lighting seems ill-spent. We’re also not the type to have...
DEFEND NEW ORLEANS: Cocktail bar Cure turns three →
defendneworleans:
Three years ago, the Uptown cocktail bar Cure opened to the public. “It’s been a wild ride,” said owner Neal Bodenheimer. “We’ve been able to explore what we think is cool and interesting, and other people have wanted to come along for the ride.”
On Sunday, February 26, the Freret Street…
Police hold man on suspicion of stealing five tons... →
Police in Chile have arrested a man on suspicion of stealing five tonnes of ice from the Jorge Montt glacier in the Patagonia region to sell as designer ice cubes in bars and restaurants.
Local media reported that last Friday police intercepted a refrigerated truck with an estimated £3,900 worth of illicit ice allegedly bound for whiskies, rums and cocktails in the capital Santiago.
January 2012
8 posts
9 tags
“Perhaps Minneapolis never quite got over the Prohibition era of the 1930s. How...”
– The Spirited Traveler: Bootlegging in Minneapolis - Yahoo! News (via cocktailgarnish)
“Much like Pete Rose, it’s time we forgive Punch. Punch has a vibrant...”
– Meat
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“It is the whisky and brandy that made people suspect him of tipsiness (he...”
– History Today on Winston Churchill
3 tags
Even if you’re pouring drinks all night, you’re still a host. I’ve seen too many guests get turned off the second I pull out a muddler.
“You didn’t have to go through all that for me,” they say. Or, “Thanks for taking the time to mix this.”
Inevitably, every subsequent drink contains an “and.” Bourbon and Branch. Gin and Tonic.
...
“You have your folk remedies or your comfort foods or your routine that all help...”
– Best day-after breakfast, according to science: eggs and a tropical smoothie.
Happy new year, Drinkers.
(via americandrink)
And an extra bit from the New York Times.
December 2011
7 posts
2 tags
Kim Jong Il liked Hennessy →
“A lot of A-list musicians and talents enjoy the drink, like Kanye West,” Yu says. “I don’t usually get someone of his notoriety, in more ways than one.”
4 tags
About 2,500 gallons of liqueur spilled into the... →
The most cordial sewers in America.
3 tags
So I made something
I made amaretto. Good amaretto. I’m surprised. I’m surprised because making things has never worked out for me. In elementary school, two different teachers (in two different years) told me I could cross scissors off my school supply list because I couldn’t cut straight. I took that to mean I was an Idea Man. A big picture guy. I can see the end of the tunnel, just don’t...
“Calm down, Smirnoff. The best part about vodka is that it has no taste besides...”
– The AV Club
(Background)
November 2011
8 posts
A Girl's Guide to Whisk(e)y →
Former wine & spirits editor for Bon Appétit Heather John reflects on our favorite brown liquor for Tomboy Style.
“The only trouble with the otherwise honorable nightcap is that it has a...”
– Rules for an Honorable Nightcap - NYTimes.com (via cocktailgarnish)
Drinkify - Beck →
brewnoob:
Drinkify is a site that picks drinks to pair with your favorite musical experience, rather than vice versa, which is sometimes how I pick bars to visit based off their jukebox. I tried searching for Beck (my favorite musician) and recieved the recomended pairing with an “8 oz Microbrew” served neat. Sounds about right…
Any drink goes with Midnite Vultures.
Primordial Booze →
“Time was when the affable and sympathetic bartender moistened a lump of sugar with Angostura bitters, dropped in a lump of ice, neither too large nor too small, stuck in a miniature bar spoon and passed the glass to the client with a bottle of good bourbon from which said client was privileged to pour his own drink. In most places the price was 15 cents or two for quarter.”
October 2011
7 posts
About that brew
Halloween 1990. Kindergarten. I was Super-Gabe. I had a gold lamé cape and a shirt with my logo: a G with a lightning bolt through it. I was in the afternoon class. About 30 minutes into our first lesson, another teacher came by with a tray full of plastic cups. “It’s witches brew” she said, giving a cup to our teacher. “Can we have some?” we asked. “No,”...
When life gives you lemon twists
Cocktail enthusiasm has a number of advantages. You can make parties, holidays and pretty much anything else that happens within 50 feet of liquor a lot more fun. You can unlock knowledge to impress dates or embarrass poseurs who are clouding your valuable bar space with misinformation.
But it’s not always easy. Not for you and not for whoever you’re close to. There will be nights...
2 tags
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Learning from Prohibition
Prohibition was bad, blah blah blah.
Look, we know the Eighteenth Amendment seems silly now. But before you wax your curly mustache and curse the teetotalers, consider one of the reasons behind the temperance movement.
In the 19th century, when domestic violence went unprosecuted and there was no such concept as marital rape, women and children were the primary victims of what the first...
7 tags
Some bad years for bourbon →
bourbonbabe:
I’m going to agree with Bourbon Women Association founder Peggy Noe Stevens on this one: Carry Nation is our least favorite Bourbon Woman. A Kentucky native, Carry waged war against saloons and taverns in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Although she died eight years before the passage of the…
3 tags
4 tags
September 2011
7 posts
