Two At The Most

Fall is closing in fast, but October refuses to leave until we honor it with a Mixology Monday. Over at Cocktailians, Vidiot is hosting a most excellent theme, Vermouth. He bids us:
Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to present a delectable vermouth cocktail for us all to drool over. Sweet/Italian or dry/French vermouth are fair game of course, as are quinquina, aperitif wines like Pineau des Charentes, or for … Continue Reading

It’s hard to believe, but Thursday Drink Night (TDN) has been around for a whole year.

An entire year of cocktail enthusiasts getting together once a week to invent new drinks on the fly. Dozens of themes have been tested. Hundreds of recipes have been tried1. Thousands of Your Mom jokes have been told.

To celebrate, this week the Mixoloseum Bar is … Continue Reading

Another month, another time to sort out what Roman numeral comes next. It’s Mixology Monday, and this month our fearless host is Chuck Taggart, who blogs about food and cocktails over at Looka! on the Gumbo Pages. Chuck has asked us to tackle the world of potable bitters:
You could use something gentle, like the lovely Amaro Montenegro, or something in-your-face, like the aforementioned Fernet. You could go insane, like a few … Continue Reading

This month’s Mixology Monday is being hosted by Tristan at The Wild Drink Blog. He’s put forth the following challenge:
This month’s Mixology Monday is all about twists on classic cocktails, that for one reason or another do an even better job than the drinks upon which they are based.

This could be as simple as a classic Margarita with a dash with a special touch that completes it, or maybe … Continue Reading

The makers of Tequlia Ocho are convinced the concept of terroir can apply to agave as much as grapes. So they are making three single estate tequilas, a silver, resposado, and añejo, to prove their point. I was lucky enough to receive a sample bottle of their 2008 Plata to give a try.

Naturally, as I have no other vintage to compare it to, I cannot speak to the importance of the labeled year. What I can say is this is an excellent silver tequila. Made from 100 percent agave, all the … Continue Reading

Right Gin is not afraid to say it – they want to be the gin for people who think they don’t like gin. It is, after all, created by people who thought they should like gin but couldn’t find one that worked for them. As you know, I already know I like gin, but was happy to receive a bottle of this gin produced in Sweden to sample.

Personally, I have to wonder what gins they did try, considering their big complaint was a heavy, oily aftertaste. That’s a problem I find exists … Continue Reading

Has this ever happened to you? You invent a new drink, and you think it’s the greatest thing ever. You sweat over a good name, you brag about it to all your friends. And then you forget about it. You remember a few months later, and try it again, and cannot imagine what lead you to think it was a great drink.

Campari Dolce

Happily, this is not the case with the Campari Dolce. I invented this drink at a … Continue Reading

Bitter Apricot Cocktail

Every Thursday night, starting around 7 pm EST (00:00 GMT), we meet in the Mixolseum chat room and make up drinks. Usually we have a theme centered around an ingredient that we try to experiment with.

The theme for November 6 was gin. Participants were asked to find a gin they haven’t previously purchased.

This was a big challenge for me. I’ve made an effort to try as … Continue Reading

Over at A Mountain of Crushed Ice, Tiare had a contest to name her drink. As I always have a hard time naming my own drinks, I was thrilled when she liked my name. Especially since the prize was a bottle of Swedish punsch!

Swedish punsch is one of those ingredients that’s near mythological here in the United States. While it’s common in Sweden, it has not been available … Continue Reading

I picked up a bottle of Aperol at Washington State Store #101, which for those in the know is the store to know about, since it’s the most likely to have interesting items on the shelf.

Tonight I opened the bottle of Aperol, and on first taste new I was going to like this “little sister” of Campari.

I knew I’d seen something about it one one of the many cocktail blogs i read, but when I went to find a recipe, I found it wasn’t even listed as an ingredient in the CocktailDB. A quick search, however, revealed … Continue Reading