"stirrings" news and stories

Coming of drinking age during the Bartles & Jaymes wine cooler craze, I don't usually associate elegance with a pre-mixed drink from a bottle. But the last decade has changed some of that, with the movement toward all-natural flavors with no artificial coloring.

Back when I first learned to mix drinks, I would still occasionally grab a bottle of Jose Cuervo margarita mix for a camping trip. This never compared to the freshness of using squeezed limes, but sometimes the convenience of a bottled margarita was just too tempting when you are feeling rushed or just don't want to be bogged own with several different bottles and the accoutrements for making the drinks from scratch. This was back in the day when I didn't pay attention to whether or not the mix had high fructose corn syrup or FD&C Yellow #5. Now with companies like Stirrings, you can grab an all-natural mix and add tequila and feel pretty good about yourself.

Charbay released all-natural aperitifs that are meant to just be poured and drank in flavors of pomegranate and green tea. Like everything this company does, the aperitifs taste fresh and are made with a lot of attention to detail.

When it comes to assembling the bar for your holiday party, there's a certain list of basics you must have on hand--vodka, gin, whiskey, cola, tonic, etc. Such a bar will certainly serve to make a decent drink and satisfy most customers, but won't add anything special to the festivities. The easiest--and cheapest--way to add a little magic is with unusual mixers. Here's five that will add a twist to your cocktail menu.

1. Canada Dry Sparkling Green Tea Ginger Ale
It mixes equally well with bourbon, vodka and light rum and works nicely in a punch. The antioxidants listed on the bottle may come in handy when battling the holidays' excesses, but the large amount of sugar won't help with that Christmas waistline.

2. Sence Rose Petal Nectar
If you wish to offer chick drinks that are more Deneuve/Dietrich than Carrie Bradshaw, rose petal nectar can come in handy. Try the elegant American Beauty--not the brandy version, but one made with vanilla vodka, lemon juice and rose petal nectar.

As you may know I am a spirits fanatic, especially gin, and a big fan of fine cocktails. I have been doing intense research in the areas of spirits and cocktails for quite awhile and examining the details of what takes a cocktail and elevates it to the realm of sublime.

Many cocktails have a plethora of ingredients, sadly they are dismal creations better suited to cleaning drains than sipping for enjoyment. For a good cocktail, usually less is more. Classically in a cocktail you have the main spirit or two, spirit or alcohol based modifiers to add their character, possibly a fruit component, a small but very important addition of something like bitters for complexity, and another modifier that brings down the strength of the drink. Usually this is melting ice/water, but in the case of highballs it is also soda, tonic, etc., and in some great cocktails it's topping off the drink with champagne.

Now that Spring has sprung and summer is just around the corner my thoughts go to the Gin and Tonic. I happen to really like G&T's. Since I was in my late teens and able to drink legally, this was the drink that I had more often by far than any other. (Actually it was my drink of choice from a much younger age, but times were different back then, and the legal drinking age of 18 was treated more like a suggestion, than a law.) The more I came to love my G&T, the more exacting I became about the ingredients and proportions in the drink. I came to think of it as a science and have made off the cuff speeches many a time while ordering my drink. I ask what types of gin they have available and what brand tonic water. Usually the choices are poor but lately that has been changing.

I was interviewed just a few days ago by the New York Post for a Sidebar on their Good Libations summer drinks feature on the state of gins and tonic waters available today. One thing I came back to again and again is that the brand and types of gin and tonic make a big difference in the final drink. All G&T's are not the same. In fact they can vary so greatly that at times one wonders if they are the same drink.