The highball is perhaps the easiest cocktail ever. One glass. Ice. Spirits. Top with pop, water, club soda or tonic. Stir and done. The variations are endless—bourbon and ginger ale (my parents’ standby), Jack and Coke, rum and Coke, whiskey and soda, vodka and tonic—yet hardly varied. Until now. SodaVie launched its line of naturally… Continue Reading
Liqueurs are big these days. Elderberry, apricot, honey, ginger, pine—there seems no end to the sweet libations flavoring our cocktails. And now, into the fray, comes Dumante Verdenoce, an Italian-made pistachio liqueur. Although bartenders like Van Zarr of bluestem have been playing with Dumante for months, I didn’t get my first taste until last week,… Continue Reading
I love gin. I love whiskey. Those statements combined can make it hard to order a cocktail. Now that Old Tom gin is back on the market, though, we can enjoy the best of both worlds. (For details on how this came to be, see my column in today’s Kansas City Star.) Two brands are… Continue Reading
The margarita remains our favorite order at the bar, according to the Cheers On-Premise BARometer Handbook, but the drink’s popularity may be waning. What’s to blame for this horror? Margarita mix? Frozen margarita machines? The very things that made margaritas ubiquitous? Maybe. Or maybe the margarita as we know it is simply being overwhelmed by… Continue Reading
I’ve paged through a lot of crappy cocktail books over the years. Jason Wilson’s Boozehound: On the Trail of the Rare, the Obscure, and the Overrated in Spirits is not one of them. Wilson writes about spirits for the Washington Post; I’ve enjoyed his work online, but the book is even better. Wilson tastes Cognac… Continue Reading