"AbsolutVodka" news and stories

Absolut Vodka is holding casting calls around the country for the third season of its reality show "On the Rocks: The Search for America's Top Bartender," which will be shot on location in Las Vegas and will air this fall on select NBC stations across the country.

Previous seasons included traditional bartender challenges involving accuracy of free pouring, flair behind the bar, knowledge of classic cocktail recipes, speed, and how many tips you can collect. Not so typical competitive rounds have included trying to pair total strangers romantically while serving them two different cocktails and pairing a cocktail to a costume during a masquerade ball. The first two seasons also challenged participants to match cocktails with food that you might not normally have a cocktail with, like a big piece of beef, which would usually be paired with red wine. (That winning drink was a play off a Bloody Mary with pepper vodka and a black peppered rim.)

Out of 10 competitors in the first season, Las Vegas' smiling beauty Amanda Gager was declared the winner after she created a signature recipe for the debut of Absolut Mango. She then served as a judge for the season two and traveled around promoting Absolut, appearing on the Today Show and in various magazines.

Recipes and the trailer to "The Search for America's Top Bartender" after the jump ...

Each Thursday, we round up a selection of scrumptious links from our friends over at YumSugar. Here's what they've got cooking this week:

• Getting the big O -- Cat Cora has a new TV show in the works.
• Shocking, we know: an onion dip recipe that's better than anything from a packet.
• These facts are fizzy.
• Pork is always in season and pairs perfectly with rosemary when grilled.
• Selecting wedding wines doesn't have to be as painful as the post-nuptial hangover.
• Say fuggedaboutit with cherry esplanade, an Absolut Brooklyn cocktail.

Absolut has added another variety to its line of flavored vodkas: Mango. With its tropical taste and groovy, painterly swirls on the bottle it's a bit surprising that it took until No. 10 for Absolut to add this one to their repertoire.

Or not. After I ordered a mango 'n' tonic at a bar recently, the bartender looked slightly askance and asked if I was "sure," explaining that "a lot of people don't like it."

One taste had me in agreement: As a straight-up shot or with a non-masking mixer like tonic water, Absolut Mango has a peculiar taste. It starts fruity-mango and ends fruity-mango, but there's some strange bit in the middle that sort of flops on the tongue like mango detergent.

This is especially odd since Absolut so adroitly used mango in its New Orleans flavor, but perhaps the hit of black pepper that elevated that vodka above its peers also helped disguise the troubling mango notes (not to mention its super-cool design).

Absolut Mango does work nicely when blended into a cocktail or combined with juice: She's just not a sipper.

Have you heard about this? I think this is one of the funniest stories I've heard all day. Absolut Vodka pulled an advertisement it was running in Mexico because it offended some people in the US.

According to Reuters, the ad shows a map of the US and Mexico from before 1848, when Mexico lost a war and lots of territory to the United States, with the text "An Absolut World." It seems that some Mexicans are still a little sore about this, so the advertising makes sense in that country. Still, if you know the history, I suppose I can see why Americans would be offended.

I think it's pretty funny. I don't really know the history very well, and to me what's done is done. I am having trouble seeing what all the fuss is about, but I'm pretty entertained by Absolut's advertising woes.

[Via Reuters]

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Absolut Vodka is the number three selling brand in the world and, unlike its competition, is not owned by the type of corporation you might expect. It is owned by the Swedish government - for now, at least. The parliament just approved a plan to sell the vodka brand, as well as its parent company, V&S Vin & Sprit AB, and several less well-known brands, to the highest bidder. The estimated price tag is $5.7 billion.

Absolut is quite a prize for other liquor companies because it is the top imported vodka in the US - a market that is one of the largest in the world - and is rapidly increasing in popularity in countries like Brazil, Canada, Britain and Germany. There are already several interested buyers. Bacardi, which also owns Grey Goose Vodka, has thrown its name into the hat, as have Pernod Ricard, Brown-Forman and Fortune Brands. Time will tell where Absolut's ownership ends up, but the state is confident that its Swedishness will remain intact, as the vodka will still be produced in Sweden.

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