Fun little interview with Tito Beveridge, of Tito’s Vodka, in this month’s Texas Monthly.
Says Tito:
To me, a good vodka should have a taste that tells you a little story. It shouldn’t burn or make you squinch your face—nothing like that. You have to be able to sip it.
Excellent advice, vodka distillers out there: No squinching!
Posted in Vodka
It’s, to say the least, “a very unusual way to imbibe alcohol,” as one man puts it: A sort of steam room that is filled with a gin-and-tonic mist. You don’t drink it. You just breathe it in.
And it gets you a little drunk along the way. Per the Times Online:
The mist tastes sweet and tangy – like an excellent gin and tonic – and is actually very satisfying to breathe in. None of us are quite sure if we feel drunk. Spending 40 minutes in the room is supposed to be the equivalent of a single cocktail but presumably heavy breathers (athletes and brass players?) will inhale the most.
The bad news: Unless you want to be covered with gin from head to toe at the end of your breathing session, you have to wear a special outfit during your time in the drunk tank.
Click through for video and information on getting tickets should you find yourself in London.
Posted in Drinking Science, Gin
I have no idea if these “cinco fun facts” about Cinco de Mayo are 100% accurate — Herradura sent them along — but they’re fun to read while you’re sipping tequila, Pacifico, or whatever else floats your boat on this fine drinking day.
1. Cinco de Mayo commemorates the 1862 Battle of Puebla where Mexico defeated French troops that outnumbered them almost two-to-one – after only two hours of fighting! The holiday has been celebrated in California since 1863, as a symbol of solidarity in response to the French occupation of Mexico from 1863-1867.
2. Cinco de Mayo is the largest tequila consumption day in the U.S. In fact, Americans can’t get enough of Mexico’s native spirit. Since 2002, U.S. imports of tequila have grown 48% – an average rate of 6.7% per year. In 2008 alone, more than 10.6 million 9-liter cases were sold. Tequila volume continues to grow despite the current recession.
3. Cinco de Mayo is so popular in Texas, that the State Legislation only allows the sale of fireworks on New Year’s Eve, 4th of July, Texas’ Independence Day in June, and, in some border areas, for the Cinco de Mayo celebrations.
4. The spirit of Cinco de Mayo can be seen across U.S. pop culture; in fact, War released a music hit from its 1982 Outlaw album titled “Cinco de Mayo” and in 1998, the U.S. Postal Service released a postage stamp to commemorate the holiday.
5. During the French occupation, Mexico’s cuisine absorbed French culinary tradition leading to the creation of many delicacies still popular today. Some examples are the chiles en nogada (stuffed chilies in a walnut sauce), conejo en mostaza (rabbit in mustard sauce) and volovanes (puffy pastries based on the French vol-au-vent).
Posted in Beer, Tequila, Upcoming Events
The poor man’s Jagermeister, Phillips Black is a wildly flavorful, very sweet, licorice-like herbal liqueur designed for drinking cold and, most likely, extremely fast so you don’t realize what hit you.
The 100 in the name refers to the proof level and the Black the color your soul will be after drinking three shots of this stuff. Drop it in a frozen shot glass and put it side by side against Jager, and most frat boys won’t know the difference in the final moments of happy hour… but you actually won’t be saving much money along the way: At $14 a bottle, Jagermeister’s only about $2 more expensive for a bottle, plus it’s got a picture of a crazy deer on the label.
Of course, Jagermeister’s only 70 proof, so if you’re looking to get trashed on tongue-lashing sweet stuff, Black 100 will do the job precisely 42.8 percent more rapidly.
As for the taste, it’s palatable and even somewhat interesting on the rocks or out of the freezer, but it’s so sweet it might give you diabetes after the first sip.
C / $14 / phillipsdistilling.com
Cinco de Mayo is just two days away, and that means it’s tequila time. Here’s a new one that just launched in April.
Gran Centenario already makes a full line of tequilas, including a reposado, but recently the company expanded with a new brand called Azul. The big draw: At $16 a bottle, it’s about a third the price of Gran Centenario’s standard-label reposado and one of the cheapest non-mixto tequilas on the market (if not the cheapest).
I wish I had Gran Centenario’s standard reposado to compare against, but since I don’t, take my remarks on a standalone basis. Bluntly: Azul (the name is Spanish for “blue,” as in blue agave) is a fine tequila, especially at this remarkable price.
100 percent blue agave, rested for two months, and bottled at 80 proof, it’s incredibly smooth. Agave is strong on the nose and up front in the palate, but it gives way to wood, vanilla, and a lingering sweetness that’s hard not to enjoy. Some vegetal notes make the finish somewhat less than perfect, and Azul is hardly a complex spirit on the whole, but this is a product that exudes both versatility and quality.
Bottom line: This is easily a go-to tequila for any cocktail and it works quite well for sipping straight, too. (I will note, however, that I had some trouble with the built-in bottle pourer, which refused to relinquish any tequila at all until it was fiddled with extensively.)
A- / $16 / proximospirits.com
“Nature’s sports drink,” they call it: Spiked with natural electrolytes, tons of potassium, no fat or added sugar, it’s the water of the coconut, familiar to most of us only as it regards the consumption of the occasional beachside piña colada.
Zico aims to get thirsty athletes and yoga enthusiasts drinking more of the stuff, by dropping the juice into aseptic, single-serve packages that are, if nothing else, more convenient than cracking open an actual coconut for the liquid within.
Zico comes in a straight coconut version and two flavored editions, one passion fruit with orange peel and one mango.
How does one evaluate Zico? Put simply, if you like coconut water you’ll love Zico: The unadulterated Zico is quite sweet and redolent of coconut flavor. The aroma, however, is a little funky, as all coconut water tends to be, that kind of musty note that some will find difficult to get past. The mango and passion fruit + orange peel versions are, surprisingly, not as sweet as the standard version, but I enjoyed the passion fruit one the most, which was richer in fruit flavor than the mango and did a pretty good job of balancing everything asked of it.
Mind the shelf life if you buy a case: It expires relatively quickly.
B- / $24 for twelve 11-oz. units / zico.com or buy it from Amazon
Today is the annual running of the Kentucky Derby, and that means julep cocktail recipes flooding in from all corners. Here’s a look at some of the more interesting spins on the classic mint julep which I’ve seen in recent weeks.
Rose Julep
Courtesy Four Roses
1 1/2 oz. Four Roses Single Barrel Bourbon
2 oz. Spiced Apple Syrup (Boil together chopped Fuji Apples, cinnamon, nutmeg, brown sugar, apple juice. Strain & chill)
Top with a splash of Fizzed Apple Soda
Garnish with a sprig of mint
Creole Julep
Created by Maksym Pazuniak, Cure/Rambla, for Tales of the Cocktail
2 1/4 oz. Cruzan Single Barrel Estate Rum
1/2 oz. Clement Creole Shrubb
1/4 oz. Captain Morgan 100
2 dashes Fee Bros. Peach bitters
2 dashes angostura bitters
8-10 mint leaves
1 Demerara Sugar Cube
Muddle sugar, Creole Shrubb and bitters until sugar is dissolved in a 10 oz. tall glass. Add mint and press to express oils. Add cracked ice. Add Cruzan and Captain Morgan 100 and stir until frost appears on outside of glass. Garnish with mint sprig.
Bitter Orange Julep
Created by Ben Jones, Rhum Clement
2 1/2 oz. Clément V.S.O.P. Rum
1 oz. Clément Créole Shrubb
3/4 oz. Dry Sack Especial 15 year old Oloroso Sherry
1/2 oz. fresh lemon juice
5 dashes of vanilla extract
3 dashes of Fee’s West Indian Orange Bitters
1 teaspoon of orange marmalade
One large orange wheel cut in half
6-8 mint leaves
Muddle one large orange wheel cut in ½ with 5 dashes of vanilla extract and ¾ oz. of Dry Sack 15 Year Old Oloroso. Add 1 oz. of Clément Créole Shrubb, 2 ½ oz. of Clément V.S.O.P., ½ oz. of fresh lemon juice, 1 teaspoon of orange marmalade, 3 dashes of Fee’s West Indian Orange Bitters and 6- 8 large mint leaves to the mixing glass along with several large ice cubes. Shake vigorously for a minimum 15 to 20 seconds and strain into a Julep Cup filled with fresh crushed ice. Garnish with mint and orange peel.
Can’t wait to try the bitter orange one, myself. Also, here’s my rummy spin on the julep, submitted for Tales of the Cocktail (alas, not a winner).
Can an $8 bottle of Hiram Walker Triple Sec really go toe to toe with the gold standard of curacao, Cointreau? Hiram thinks it can, and sent a bottle of its budget orange liqueur to taste side by side with Cointreau, which at $35 is more than four times the price.
In a nutshell: Yeah, it pretty much can.
Mind you, I love Cointreau and use it in all manner of cocktails where orange is required, but the price is pretty gaudy. Luckily you use so little a bottle of Cointreau typically lasts for three or four years in the average home bar.
But let’s say you’re drinking margaritas every night. What to do? Maybe an $8 triple sec is a better pick.
Side by side, I expect most tasters would struggle to pick out which is which. The most notable difference is proof: Cointreau is 80 proof and Hiram Walker is 60 proof, and you can taste the extra alcohol in the Cointreau. Cointreau also has more of a bitter edge drawn from orange peel, which Hiram’s triple sec has more of a bold, tangerine character that really tastes of fresh juice. Very sweet and lush.
Now a bottle of Hiram Walker may not impress anyone with its garish colors and dated bottle design, but if you were to, say, pour a bottle of Hiram triple sec into an empty bottle of Cointreau, well, I wouldn’t tell anyone you did it.
A- / $8 / hiramwalker.com
Summer is nigh, which means pink wine time is upon us. Frederick Wildman submits for our approval this rose from Paul Jaboulet Aine, the pink version of the producer’s popular Cotes du Rhone Parallele 45, the red version of which is a staple at every wine shop on the planet.
This rose — 50% grenache, 40% cinsault, 10% syrah, is light and simple, very mild with notes of apple and strawberry. The finish is short, and Parallele 45 Rose offers playful flower notes, too. Extremely easy-drinking, it’s both a starter wine and a fine, if unchallenging, aperitif.
B+ / $11 / jaboulet.com
For the first time since 2003, Portugal has declared a vintage Port year: 2007, which was characterized by relatively cool weather, followed by some heat near harvest time, just enough (they say) to ripen the grapes.
I had the chance to sample the 2007 vintage from 12 different producers this week (total production of all of these wines together equals a scant 65,000 cases) — and while I’m not prepared to say, as some might have you believe, that this is “the best vintage of all time” (a phrase one hears a lot when dealing with winemakers no matter what year it is), it’s certainly a solid year that will offer wines with plenty of longevity and diversity.
Styles were quite different from producer to producer, and I couldn’t pinpoint anything specific that might define 2007 uniquely. Best bottles were poured by Graham, Taylor Fladgate, and Dow, but if I had to pick a favorite, I’d give the slight edge to Fonseca’s immense and flavorful Vintage Port.
Also on hand were a sampling of older ports dating back to the 1970s, and its here where some of the event’s most amazing treasures were found. Specifically: Dow’s 1980 Vintage Port, just perfect for drinking right now with a wonderful balance of fruit and alcohol, earth and sun, and definitely a good deal for $110 if you can find bottles still laying about.
2007, as it was explained to me at the show, also marks an interesting legal change for Port producers: Previously they were forced to buy the brandy used in the production of the wine from the Portuguese government. (For the novice: 15 to 20 percent of a bottle of Port is actually brandy, which is used to arrest the fermentation process midstream by killing the yeast with alcohol and leaving the sugar in the wine, which is why Port has that characteristic sweetness.) The new rules let Port makers use a higher quality of brandy that’s not sold by the feds — which should lead to better quality wines, and more divergent styles.
Complete notes and ratings follow.
2007 Vintage Port
2007 Croft / B+ / heady and herbal
2007 Dow / A- / very dry in style, easier-drinking than most
2007 Fonseca / A / really packed with fruit; this one has great longevity
2007 Graham / A- / flowery, easygoing. moderate sweetness
2007 Noval / B / spicy and racy
2007 Quinta da Romaneira / B- / too woody, some astringency
2007 Silval / B+
2007 Smith Woodhouse / B+ / very traditional, raisin notes
2007 Taylor Fladgate / A- / solid, well-behaved and balanced
2007 Vargellas Vinha Velha / B+ / cocoa-infused, lighter in style
2007 Vesuvio / B+ / rich, generally fair
2007 Warre / B+
Older Vintages Sampled
1980 Dow / A+ / just about a perfect Port, ready to drink right now, gorgeous and rich, but not overpowering
1985 Fonseca / A- / definitely ready for 20 more years in the bottle, full of strong cherry notes
1970 Graham / A- / quite pale and light, fading
1977 Smith Woodhouse / B+ / fading, some off green notes
1977 Taylor Fladgate / A- / well-aged, though filled with sediment
1983 Warre / B+ / heavily alcoholic, dry and light
Posted in Port & Sherry, Reviews, Wine
