Man Made DIY

At least where I live, making your own spirits at home is still considered moonshinin', and therefore illegal. Were it not, I think I'd try to built my own mini-still and experiement with distilling and aging my own spirits. 

Until then, I'm committed to the… read more

Hit Chicago-based chef and restauranteur Grant Achatz had an interesting weekend dabbling in a bit of molecular mixology.

"Achatz tweeted... that he and [Chef de Tournant] Schoettler were "playing with sensation and texture in a gin and tonic," with a link to the above video (h/t Grub Street Chicago). "Playing with sensation and texture" seems to be an understatement. The gin and tonic Achatz is sampling in the video contains Anchor Junipero gin, yellow chartreuse and "cucumber alginate… read more

There's a really weird origin story that surrounds the Collins. And by really weird, I mean some sort of hoax that I'm not quite sure I get. The Wikipedia article leaves me quite confused, but this post at Mental Floss explains a bit better:

"The Great Tom Collins Hoax of 1874...begat The King of Cooling Drinks, the Tom Collins. The hoax kicked off with a prankster telling a group that they were being talked about by the loose lipped Tom Collins, and then sending them on an angry goose chase to find him. 
In 1874, the Steubenville Daily Herald reported that the hoax “belong[ed] to New York, where it was played… read more

You may not know it yet, but the Negroni is your new favorite cocktail. It's strong, balanced, absolutely delicious, and makes a perfect pre-dinner cocktail that'll match nearly anything you're eating during the warm months.

The drink was supposedly invented in Florence in the 1920s, when Count Negroni asked the bartender to pump up his Americano (equal parts sweet vermouth and Campari, served tall with soda water) with gin.

And if you're brave enough to flame an orange peel, it's totally worth it. The toastiness of the orange oils mixed with the bitters and the spices of gin is a very… read more

Turns out, James Bond had it all wrong. A martini is a drink that contains only spirits, and benefits quite a bit from stirring rather than shaking. Stirring creates a heavy, silky feel on the tongue, and avoids what connoisseurs called "bruising" the drink (integrating air bubbles). Of course, it's all about how you like it, but we hope you'll give this classic-style martini a try.

Just remember: a 3:1 gin (or vodka) to vermouth ratio keeps things refreshing, cold and… read more