Ten years ago, if you went to your local liquor store looking for rye whiskey, you’d be lucky to find one or two brands gathering dust somewhere between the bourbon and Scotch sections. Once the whiskey of choice for most imbibing Americans, rye was eclipsed in popularity by bourbon and Canadian whiskeys after Prohibition, and…
Category Archives: Spirits
Zacapa 23 Rum Soars Above the Clouds
I like all sorts of rum. Some of my favorites include cachaca (Brazilian sugarcane rum), elegant French Caribbean rhum agricole and I also enjoy some heavy, aged rums layered with nutty and tropical notes, particularly in a Mai Tai. I also find rum one of the more intriguing spirits because of its global impact and…
Martin Miller’s Gin Rocks the Golden Trailer
What do you get when you hand-pick botanicals in England, blend them with spring water from Iceland and drop the resulting elixir into a red carpet event in downtown Los Angeles? A smoothly aromatic Gimlet served at an award show at the newly restored Orpheum Theatre. Coinciding with the first day of World Cocktail Week,…
From Rio to Saigon
South American culture has been taking the U.S. by storm for a while, now. Whether Snoop and Farrell are singing about the ‘beautiful’ women in Rio, or celebrities on Dancing With the Stars proudly prance the Argentinian Tango – we love to take in all that’s spicy and Latin! Cachaca (sugar cane liqueur, the main…
Pink Lemonade Vodka: A Sour Experience
I always feel badly when I don’t like a product. Well, I don’t feel badly not to like it, I feel badly to tell everyone I don’t like it. However, I have to give an honest opinion. That said, this product is not my favorite. Sometimes I get the impression that marketers assume that anything…
JAMES MORELAND’s “Perfect Pairings” Aboard Bombay Sapphire’s Luxury Train
The setting sun along the California coastline+ A luxury train + an exclusive dinner party with Tara Weaver, a personal chef with celebrity clientele + James Moreland, Bombay Sapphire’s Master Mixologist. A dozen of us boarded the Creative Charters Luxury dining and lounge car, attached to the back of an Amtrak train, en route from…
The Battle Over Pisco: Sour Grapes?
Pisco is the “national drink” of Chile. Or, is it that of Peru? What the heck is pisco, you ask? And, what is all the fuss about? The word “pisco” comes from Quechua (“qheshwa,”) an indigenous language of the Andean region. Formerly the official language of the Inca Empire, it is still spoken by approximately…
