"liquor" news and stories

Never heard of Four Loko? Try hitting the nearest college campus. The carbonated drink -- a potent combination of alcohol and caffeine designed several years ago by three college kids -- is available in teen-friendly flavors like Fruit Punch, Lemonade, and Blue Raspberry. Called "caffeinated booze," it may sound like an oxymoron, but it's a bona fide trend -- the Food and Drug Administration lists 30 similar products. It's also been referred to as a "blackout in a can," but for some kids the results are far worse -- they're ending up in the hospital.

Despite the old folk remedy of using coffee to sober up a drunk, the combination of caffeine and alcohol can have a disastrous effect. "When you put all these things together, it's a nightmare," Harris Stratyner, a vice president at the Caron Treatment Center and an addiction specialist, told Good Morning America today. "The caffeine may make you feel like you're not getting drunk as quickly, so you may ingest more." In other words, you don't feel the usual hallmarks of overdoing it -- until you've way, way overdone it. And given how much alcohol each can contains -- around 12 percent, equal to four beers -- this can be potentially deadly. In the past month, more than two dozen college students at Central Washington University and Ramapo College in New Jersey have been hospitalized after drinking Four Loko.

Legends, tall tales, good stories, myths...whatever you call them, the drinking world is full of them. Here are a few favorites to debunk:

MYTH: Beer before liquor, never been sicker -- liquor before beer, you're in the clear.
TRUTH: This is a cute jingle, but not reality. The percentage of alcohol in your blood (known as your blood alcohol content or BAC) is what determines how drunk you are. It doesn't matter what type of alcohol you chose to consume, alcohol is alcohol. More than your body can process can make you sick no matter what the order. A 12-ounce beer equals a 1.5 ounce shot of liquor.

MYTH: Dark beers are stronger in alcohol.
TRUTH: The color of beer has nothing to do with its alcohol content. People often mistake a beer like Guinness Irish stout for a "strong" beer when it actually has an alcohol volume of 4.2%, less than Budweiser's 5%. Many Belgian beers with a light color have alcohol content of 8% or more.

Photo: Heath Fradkoff

Been seduced by "Mad Men" yet? Have Frankie Valli on repeat on the Hi-Fi? Find yourself buying dusty vintage TV trays decorated with mallards? Drinking a gin martini, up, for dinner?

OK, we're projecting. Half the Slashfood staff is enamored with the show (see New York Magazine's handy primer) that is about to plunge into its third hard-drinking, heavy-philandering, Gotham-glamorizing season this Sunday. We are over the moon about the style, the cocktail culture, and those insane retro recipes.

It's the perfect excuse for a cocktail party (especially a costumed one), so bust out the pearls and heat up the curlers -- or grab the fedora and tiepin -- because it's totally OK to drink with friends on a Sunday night. No one batted a heavily lined eye at such a thing back in the day.

Our party primer, with tune selections, deviled eggs and LeNell's perfect martini, after the jump.

With Derby Day racing round the bend and summer hot on its tail, it's mint julep time. Considering the current rage for infusing one's booze, it's only natural to combine bourbon with mint before the two even hit a glass.

Some folks just toss the two together, steeping a few handfuls of leaves in a glass jar. Here's a slightly more precise recipe: Combine about 2 cups loosely packed mint leaves with 3 cups of bourbon, cap tightly and let sit for 4 to 5 days. If short on time, steep overnight (though another cupful of leaves will be necessary -- perhaps more if a very minty taste is desired). Once the liquor is infused, it's a quick jump to mint julep time: Just mix with simple syrup and pour over crushed ice, no messy muddling required. Some prefer to combine liquor, mint and sugar for an all-in-one infusion, but this mint-only rendition allows more flexibility for various levels of sweet tooths. The concoction also makes for a fine Jack n' Ginger (be wary of bourbon purists!), or an excellent Manhattan.

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.