Ah yes, A Christmas Story: a true yuletide classic. Jean Shepherd's composite tale of his childhood Christmas during the Great Depression has always been a family favorite -- I'm sure a lot of people love it -- and I was pleasantly surprised when, upon opening my holiday issue of Imbibe, I discovered a cocktail entitled "You'll Shoot Your Eye Out." Obviously... Continue Reading →
The Lauer household has been decked out for Christmas and logs are busy crackling away in the fireplace (or rather, they will be, if the temperature drops to the 40s during the day...not likely). There also happen to be a fair number of drinks being made to stave off the cold weather. While we won't be mixing any hot drinks... Continue Reading →
Happy Repeal Day, folks! That's right, 78 years ago Prohibition officially ended, and booze flowed freely again in the U.S. Of course, it hadn't particularly stopped flowing during America's "Noble Experiment," and in some cases consumption actually increased, but hey, it was back to being legal. Well -- and here's one more caveat -- it was legal... Continue Reading →
Right now, applejack is quite possibly my favorite spirit. Sure, I love sipping whiskey and trying out new gins, and cognac is great and I'm gradually warming to tequila, but I'll always love applejack. For those of you familiar with this quintessential American spirit, skip ahead a few paragraphs and get to the drinks. For... Continue Reading →
There is a certain period of time that's referred to as the "Dark Ages" of mixology...somewhere between the 1950s and the 1990s. Yes, certain pockets of resistance still existed during these decades, especially in the better bars and Tiki restaurants, but mixed drinks as a whole seemed to suffer, especially during the 70s and 80s... Continue Reading →
Last month, Imbibe ran a piece on Irish Whiskey that caught my attention, namely because I hadn't tasted or mixed with very many Irish whiskeys. If you've paged through a large number of cocktail books, you'll understand why -- it's just not used in cocktails very often. According to Imbibe the scene is changing, however, and... Continue Reading →
Time for the third cocktail night! This time around we'll be mixing up rum drinks, most of them on the lighter side. Yes, I know it's November, but down here in Georgia, the weather's still in the 60s or lower 70s, and who doesn't love one last taste of summer? Our three drinks can also... Continue Reading →
What's that? A cocktail contest, you say? Hmm... If you haven't run across it yet, About.com has a fairly extensive cocktail cocktail site set up. Helmed by Colleen Graham, the site includes a drink database, weekly articles, reviews, tips -- just about everything you'd find in a paper-and-print cocktail guide. They've also started a monthly... Continue Reading →
You know, most of the time a cocktail gets its name after it's been mixed and tasted -- hopefully nobody else has come up with the same thing and named it already. But what if you already have the name and you know that it would be perfect for a drink? This was the dilemma... Continue Reading →
*Yawwwwnnn* It's 9 am on a lazy Sunday morning...time for a drink! At least, that's what Cocktail Enthusiast's Kevin Gray would like us to say this weekend, since Mixology Monday is just around the corner, and the theme is "Morning Drinks." Provided that you're wide awake, be sure to check the MxMo website, and stay... Continue Reading →
Tempered Spirits 