"blue" news and stories

"Our distributor asked us to do something like that," says Alan Brady, Head Brewer for Long Island, New York's Blue Point Brewing Company. "Now it's one of our top sellers."

Ah, what inspiration: I've heard more passion in bank transactions. But who can blame him: Blue Point's flagship beer Toasted Lager is a World Beer Cup winner. Now he has silly bloggers wasting his time asking questions about this fruity brew. Even the official description is somewhat backhanded: "Blue Point fresh Blueberry Ale offers an unusual twist on brewing that turns out to be just perfect" -- as if to say: "Don't worry, guys! It came out okay!"

There's a discrepancy as to how many blueberries actually go into a Blueberry Ale. The box boasts an impressive 735 pounds, whereas the website speaks to a more conservative 132. Maybe they halved the recipe? Either way, these numbers are meaningless to the average drinker -- It's all about what ends up in your nose and mouth -- and Blueberry Ale is appealing in both regards. The scent is a bounty of fresh, authentic blueberries, but surprisingly, the flavor itself is not overpowering., which is perfect. Beginner's mistake numero uno in fruit flavoring is putting too much on the palette.

Source

Yesterday, we saw a blue and orange cocktail to help get the Bears' fans in the mood to support their team before the Super Bowl kicks off. For Colts fans, a blue and white cocktail is needed and, thanks to About.com's super bowl cocktail menu, we can recommend a great one: the Dreamy Blues Cocktail.

This cocktail, despite its blue and white color scheme, is chocolate orange flavored and has layers of white creme de cacao and blue curaçao. It can be made in a martini glass or served as a shot, but in both cases the drink should be carefully layered with the curaçao floated gently on top of the creme de cacao. I find that pouring the "floater" liqueur into a tilted spoon helps create even layers, as you can guide it across the surface of the drink that way.

Full recipe after the jump:

Source

Walk into the cheese section of any market, especially at an upscale gourmet-type store, and you are going to see a tremendous variety of cheeses available. And that selection doesn't even come close to scratching the surface of the number of cheeses that are out there. It can be difficult to figure out the differences between each product until you've tried all of them, but here is a quick guide to cheese terminology that might help you sort through the basic types of cheese.

Fresh - High moisture cheeses that have not been aged, like cottage cheese, cream cheese, feta, mascarpone and ricotta.

Soft-Ripened - These have hard rinds and soft interiors, like brie and camembert. They often have edible rinds made by "spraying the cheese with Penicillium candidum mold before a brief aging period."

Semi-Soft - Cheeses that are neither hard, nor runny, but that are high in moisture and creamy in texture, like Monterey Jack, fontina or havarti. They are often easy to grate and slice.

Firm/Hard - Less creamy than soft cheeses, but ranging in texture from slightly elastic to brittle. These are also good grating cheeses and tend to melt well. The category includes Asiago, cheddar, Gruyere, Swiss and Parmesan.

Source

Magellan Gin is 44%abv/88 proof and is the Blue Gin in the Clear Bottle. This is another French gin like Citadelle and with what I am calling the French Gin style. I associate this with certain botanicals that give it a strange, sharp, floral taste and smell that I had a difficult time understanding at first. I like Magellan, more than I can really say about Citadelle.

Magellan is triple distilled in Cognac, France and mellowed with pure spring water. It has eleven botanicals including juniper, cloves, cardamom, nutmeg, grains of paradise, licorice, cinnamon, coriander, orange peel, cassia, and iris. After distillation with the botanicals, the gin is then infused with orris/iris root and iris flower which bring in additional notes of floral and spicy flavors and give it a pleasing blue color. It has a very aromatic and floral finish. When sipped straight it brings a slight tingle to the lips and tongue. It comes in a gorgeous bottle decorated with Iris flowers in bloom and Magellan's ship at sea.

Magellan's recipe and distillation process was changed in late 2005 and from what I heard the flavor changed slightly, the blue color was gone, and they put it in a blue bottle. It then became known despairingly as the clear gin in the blue bottle. Then after tons of customer complaints, and very poor sales, Magellan went back to the original recipe, process and bottle in 2006. I never got a chance to taste the clear version and the bottle I have is one I snatched up this summer that is labeled from the July 6, 2005 bottling and is the original version from before the change. When I pick up a new bottle I will compare the two and let you know if I find any differences.

Don't spend all your time thinking about what you're going to barbecue for the 4th of July – what about dessert? After all, you're going to want more than just a beer to wash down all those hot dogs and potato chips when you are out with friends and family, waiting for the fireworks display to begin.

Anything with Jello – as one of the few foods that actually comes in the color blue, Jello is the perfect choice for making red, white and blue desserts, not to mention that it's always a kid favorite. Try a patriotic Jello pie, red white and blue terrine or an All-american trifle.

Shortcake – there is something classic about shortcake after a barbecue. You can use almost any fruit, but opt for strawberries, blueberries or raspberries on the 4th. For the cake, make a traditional biscuit base or just use a slice of pound cake. Try this recipe or this one.

Chocolate chip cookies – maybe the expression should have been "as American as chocolate chip cookies," because not only were these invented in the US, but they're a favorite with everyone. And you can't go wrong with the famous Tollhouse recipe, which started it all.