Ouch. Ouch ouch ouch.

In the good old summertime, Lincoln and Mustafa decided to try a couple of gin cocktails we hadn't had before, the Tom Collins and the Pink Gin.  In the course of trying both of these, we killed over a fifth of rather expensive gin and possibly made ourselves permanently stupider.  Enjoy the experimints expertising expresso fun here.

The Caipirinha. The name in Portuguese means "Abble garble woof."

Only the Brazilians are batshit insane enough to make the "dare" drink part of their national culture and an everyday thing.  I used to think Brazil, with their liquor and awesome food and sex set to music (or musical sex, can't tell which and don't care), and their craziness about soccer and their relaxed attitudes towards porn and most everything else, would be a great place to live.

Then I watched City Of God, so now I'm over that.  Read more...

The Bronx Cocktail, Pal.

Overview:
I suppose I shouldn't be surprised.  When most of us think of the Bronx, we think of horrible nasty things, such as the Bronx Cheer, the film Fort Apache: The Bronx (well, actually the film itself is pretty kickass; it's just the setting of the movie), and of course, the embodiment of all that is foul and evil in the world, the Bronx Bombers. 

Jonas Bronck's farmland near the Harlem River in the northeastern part of New York City was probably a pretty nice place once, but the last time I rode a train through there ten years ago they'd gotten over it.  It's as if the whole New York Makeover done by Rudy Giuliani never make it north of there.  And this is right and proper, and just so, because, as all people know, New York City is really Manhattan.

Having pissed off everyone in the room, I must say that I was surprised to discover the existence of a Bronx Cocktail, or at least I was surprised that Lincoln discovered it.  Read more...

Looks pretty recent to me.

The Old Fashioned

Overview:
The Old Fashioned is possibly the first ever "cocktail" to be referred to as such, and I invite the truly interested reader to go over to Wikipedia and check out their entry on the topic.  Wikipedia is also where we get most of the recipes as well. 

Lincoln decided to try making an OF by the simple expedient of looking around the casa and seeing what we had in the cupboard, the fridge, and loaded up on the liquor cart.  As some Old Overholt Rye had recently been acquired (thank you the use of the passive voice in modern writing), and we were also in possession of some sugar and Angostura, he went for it.  I made myself one just now, to enjoy while waiting for some red beans and rice to cook up. Read more.

So simple, yet so complicated

Is there a more storied cocktail than the martini?  Does there exist a drink about which more songs have been sung, more novels written, more blah blah blah blah blah blah.

Get over it, folks.  It's a drink.  Granted, it's a really nice drink, and one of my personal favorites, but jeez, can some people just suck all the fun out of it.  My niece's husband, for instance.  He's a good guy, and he likes nothing more than to make a nice martini, but he is one of these quasi-autistic types who always has to follow THE RULES.  Cancer researchers don't put the effort into their work that this guy does into making a martini.  Everything must be calculated to the milliliter, and he actually uses the stopwatch on his Rolex to time the shaking process.  Sigh. Read more.

Harvey Wallbanger

The Harvey Wallbanger

Session Lager by Full Sail

Once upon a time, Rainier Beer (or Vitamin R as we called it) was the beer of choice in the Pacific Northwest dating all the way back to 1884. A regional beer couldn't compete in the big world of Big Beer, and it slowly diminished in popularity. The brewery was sold to G. Heilemann in 1977, then to Stroh's and then to Pabst. Today, it's brewed in California and barely registers on the consciousness of the local beer drinker. The iconic brewery is now the national headquarters of Tully's coffee. Oh, how the mighty have fallen. I remember the Rainier beer that was brewed in Seattle. It was a great, cheap beet with a nice balance of hops and barley. The stuff brewed in California is watery swill in comparison. Read more.