Well, you can say what you want about us, but you can never say we backed down from a challenge. For those of you who have no freakin' clue what we're talking about, we here in the Liquor Snob offices made a vow when we first heard about the Pickle Back that if our readers wanted us to try them, we'd do it on St. Patrick's Day. For the record, we found the entire idea to be obscene, but the emails and Facebook messages we received convinced us we should think otherwise. Then, when we read the pickle juice in a Pickle Back can help avoid a hangover, we were all in.
Those of you who think were were just going to toss back a single shot of whiskey with whatever dill juice was lying around our fridge, however, are sorely mistaken. When we say we're going to do something, we do it, so we made an event out of it. We decided to find a Pickle Back winner among four different contenders - pickled egg brine, half sour brine, kosher dill brine, and the crap floating around in a pickled beet jar. Our findings are below, and while we aren't going to put this into our everyday drinking regimen, we have to admit people are on to something...if you find the right pickle juice.
Oh, and you might notice something odd about our pictured shot glasses - we decided to break out our Quaffers to cut down on the possibility of carpal tunnel from doing so many shot/chaser combos in a 10 minute period. And now, on to the show:
As you know, tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day, one of the biggest amateur hour drinking nights of the year. It's when the folks who only trot out their binge drinking on big holidays head out to the bars, put on a stupid hat, and pretend to be Irish. These folks aren't worthy to shine Shane MacGowan's tooth, but that doesn't mean we want them to feel sicky-poo from green beer on Thursday morning.
We know St Patrick's is mid-week this year, but all the same we put together a digest of our favorite advice for how to beat a hangover.
Before You Drink
Eat: Eat something that has vitamin B and C such as fruit. If you are going to an after hour party, you should eat early dinner before you go to the party or eat while you drink. The fructose in foods will help absorb alcohol.
Hydrate. Drink lots of fruit juice and water now. Think of it this way, for every glass of non-alcoholic beverage you drink now you will save yourself from having to drink two glasses in the morning.
Don't mix it up: Make it a beer night, or a wine night, or a vodka night, but don't make it an "anything goes" night. For one thing, you'll end up drinking too much. But let's face it; most drinks don't mix too well with each other. Your body is going to have a hard enough time handling that rum without you throwing in some gin.
Keep a large bottle of water by the bed you're crashing/sleeping on. When you'll wake up during the night or in the morning, you will be craving for water, but the headaches or someone throwing up in the bathroom will keep you from getting up or walking to get your water. Water by the bed is comfortable and makes the morning a lot more pleasant.
Before Bed: Take two aspirin with a full glass of water - The prostaglandin inhibitors in the aspirin can decrease hangover severity. In the Morning:
Take two more aspirin with a full glass of water - This has been shown to minimize headaches as well as decrease inflammation from leftover prostaglandin. Take (a) multivitamin: Replenishing C and B vitamins in particular can help get rid of the rest of the toxins.
That's right, we quoted ourselves - what're you going to do? It's our blog. And we know you'll forget most of this advice by the time you're in the trenches with food dyed miller lite (the most Irish of all drinks) but if you lay the groundwork before you go out you should be able to at least avoid yuking on your boss's shoes. Happy St. Patrick's Day!
A little bit ago we told you about the Jameson's Pickle Back, and expressed our nervousness about the shot. We have been overwhelmed by reader response since the story ran, telling us we need to sack up and give it a try. We will, but we'll plan on still waiting until St. Patrick's Day before we take our Pickle Back virginity, so to speak. What pushed us over the edge to wanting to try it, you might ask?
It was partially the parade of drunks who emailed us with sentiments along the lines of "DUDE IT'S AWESOME!!1!" but the real convincer was the article we found today from Jason Wilson at the Washington Post. He included all sorts of great info about Irish whiskey, but here was the kicker for us about the Pickle Back:
As a pairing, that might sound less than promising, but here's the surprise: A Pickleback is simply awesome. Brine and whiskey make one of those mysteriously wonderful combinations, and it doesn't hurt that pickle juice is second to none in preventing dehydration (thus helping to stave off the post-St. Paddy's Day hangover).
Do you want to learn more about whisky? Of course, we all do. That's why Mark Gillespie's WhiskyCast is great. You can listen to it while you do other things - work, brush your teeth, or drink whisky, for example. And now, you don't have to be tethered to your stupid computer to do it - with the introduction of the WhiskyCast iPhone app.
In addition to Gillespie's tasting notes, the WhiskyCast app will let listeners access the four most-recent episodes directly from their iPhone or iTouch without the need to download and sync their player to a computer. The application was developed by JacApps, a division of Jacobs Media, which has built similar applications for numerous radio stations and has a unique knack for programming iPhones to play streaming live audio.
Looking for a replacement for the ubiquitous red plastic keg cup at your next party? Or maybe you're sick of pulling warm beer off a keg that's been sitting in the sun for a bit too long? Possibly you're one of those folks who chills beer glasses in the freezer, and you're sick of that icy shmeg floating up to the top of your brew? If you said "yes" to any of these questions, or if you're looking for some brightly colored cups to perk up your next gathering, with the added perk of chilling drinks without adding ice...get there.
The Chilly Twist™ base coolant was designed to be compact, easily stackable and never contact the drink itself, no impurity contamination or watering down of the drink is possible with this unique design. Drinks have been chilled from the refrigerator at 36 degrees, all the way down to 24 degrees, colder than ice.
Sounds pretty cool to us. (See what we did there?) Learn more at ChillyTwist.com, and check out their prices for yourself.
We always love hearing about brands were weren't otherwise familiar with, and we recently got a package on our stoop that gave us just such a surprise. In the box was a bottle of paQui tequila. According to their website, paQui means "to be happy" in the original Aztec, and we can say its lived up to its name so far...who doesn't like seeing a bottle of tequila?
We haven't cracked it yet, though we plan to with a quickness because we're suckers for a blanco tequila. Until then, you'll have to satisfy yourself with the blurb from their site: "paQui Silvera expresses the essence of blue agave, with an inviting, flowery aroma and layers of complex flavor that include notes of fruit and spice."
When was the last time you thought about taking a drink? If you're thirsty, you reach out and take the glass, and you put it to your lips. But what if drinking didn't come that easily? What if taking a shot or sipping a beer took a whole lot more planning? We recently found this article where a young woman with quadriplegia explains how she goes about taking a shot. It's eye-opening, the heroic measures it can take to get a simple buzz, and we thought it was cool enough to share.
First, make sure the bartender doesn't fill up the shot glass right at the brim. Second, you have to make the big decision: Should I use my mouth, or spend about 3 minutes trying to pick it up with my limp hand and try to precariously hold it? (I guess it depends what kind of a rush you're in to start drinking). Usually, since I think it looks AWESOME, I like to use my mouth. Pick it up tightly with your lips, use the back of your hand to balance it, and throw your head back and drink.
[via Disaboom] Well done, Tiffiny. And for those of you out there who think that doesn't sound too tough, we recommend you try the exercise in the following video to put things in perspective.
There are some moments in your life that you will always remember. Your first kiss? Hopefully. The birth of your first child? Probably. The first time you drink a shot of whiskey with a chaser of pickle juice? Most definitely. Or at least we imagine so, because we haven't actually done it.
You see, drinking a Pickle Back, as it's called by those who actually drink it, seems like a red pill/blue pill moment - a choice that will change your life forever. The shot was described to us using Jameson, a perennial Liquor Snob favorite, and we can only imagine sitting there at the bar, looking at those glasses full of golden and green liquids, knowing that nothing will ever be the same again. Plus, if you drink enough of them, we're pretty sure you'll decide you know Kung Fu, just like Neo.
The folks who told us about this shot claim that "Jameson's smooth taste complements the bitterness of the pickle juice nicely." That remains to be seen. We challenge our readers to send us their Pickle Back comments pictures, videos, haiku, whatever, to jake [at] liquorsnob [dot] com. We will also be accepting recommendations for the best pickle juice to use, as long as it's available.
If you convince us, we'll try our very first one on St. Patrick's Day, and we'll find out for ourselves how deep this rabbit hole goes.
Jager is one of those things people either love or hate. With its syrupy consistency and punch-you-in-the-tongue flavor, this herbal liqueur is definitely not for everyone, but the people who love it love it fiercely, and the people who hate it swear they'll never drink it again. We won't come out and tell you which camp we fall into - let's just say it will always be part of the tapestry of booze we have woven through our lives.
Most people we know don't mix Jager - they screw up their courage and shoot it straight, drop it into an energy drink, or find some other way to consume it rapidly. This is why we nicknamed it "blackout juice" in college., but it is possible to enjoy Jager slowly. We haven't tried the recipes below you can bet we're going to try Jager & root beer sooner than later.
One of our favorites of the failed children's book titles that hit your inbox back in 2002 or so is "Daddy Drinks Because You Cry." If you take issue with the hilarity of that book title, click that little X in the top right of your window right now (or the one on the left if you're one of those people) - you are banned from the Internet.
The above paragraph has nothing to do with the reasons you should buy David Cross's book I Drink for a Reason. If you want reasons, get a time machine so you can count the individual tears of laughter running down our faces while we read the book jacket and a few selected tidbits this weekend. In summary, you should buy the shit out of this book.
As you can imagine, every holiday season, the Liquor Snob office gets a lot of emails about holiday-themed cocktail recipes. Valentine's Day is no different, with just about every liquor company, PR agency, and sodden drunk coming up with some way to romantically ingest alcohol. In the spirit of a new decade, we're trying to be better about giving those recipes a forum these days, so we're putting together a roundup of all the Valentine's-themed recipes we receive between now and February 14.
We're putting them in there in the order they come in, so come one, come all, and send us your romantical recipes, and we'll do our best to get them posted. We accept no responsibility for the luvvy wuvvy names some of them have, and hey - viva la romance, or barring that, viva la buzz!
We have to admit, we haven't exactly been pining for two more flavored vodkas, but we are interested in these two. 360 Vodka, which we were familiar with as an eco-friendly spirit, has just released two new varieties - 360 Cola and 360 Double Chocolate. According to the 360 Website:
The 360 Flavors are sure to take your taste buds on a wild ride. Relive the first time you ever experienced the spicy zip of cola. Enjoy the smooth, sweet taste of premium chocolate in your new favorite mixed cocktail. One thing's for sure, you've never tasted a vodka like this before.
We're fans of vodka and Coke when we've got a sweet tooth, and - we're sure you've already thought of this - who wouldn't want to put chocolate vodka on their Peanut Butter Cap'n Crunch? 360 Vodka retails for $19.99 a bottle, so you'll be able to stock up for just such experimentation.
Last week, we posted about Seagram's 7 Dark Honey, positing it was Seagram's' attempt to hit the same "I don't like whiskey" market that Beam seems to be targeting with Red Stag.The folks at Seagram's were kind enough to send us a bottle of the stuff for us to try it out ourselves, and based on our initial tasting, we have to say we weren't too far off the mark. We're trying to get better about turnaround time on reviewing the products we receive, so we'll post our initial thoughts here and hopefully be able to come back with some thoughts on how to mix it.
The bottle itself is interesting, a boxy affair with subtle honeycomb graphics climbing the outside. When we smelled it, we got a mixture of wheat and sweet, more on the sweet side, like the smell of the milk in your bowl after your morning Honeycombs cereal. There were other smells in there too - obviously the tang of alcohol, accompanied by molasses and a hint of cinnamon.
The cinnamon flavor carried into the taste as well, with a nice balance of cinnamon and the namesake honey, and a long sweet finish. We didn't taste much by way of whiskey flavor hidden in the honey, but the overall taste was pleasant enough that we kept sipping, which seems a good sign.
Overall, we think it would add a nice sweetness to drinks that would otherwise overpower whiskey novices (we're thinking the Liquor Wife would enjoy a Manhattan using half Dark Honey and half whiskey - sacrilege to cocktail nerds we're sure), and it confirms our original thought that this could be a "training wheels" whiskey for novices and the less adventurous. Plus, at $15-$20 per bottle, you don't have to break the bank to do it, which is also pretty sweet.
There's a new series of videos made by Bacardi, where a man is on a hunt for the greatest bartender on the planet. This particular bartender (side note: never call female bartenders "bartendress" - we have a friend who learned that the hard way after being ejected from a Boston bar) is called "The Hummingbird" because of her speed and grace while she attends to her nectar. We have to admit, we wish we could watch her flitting around outside our window while we drink our coffee.
If you like this vid, which we got from Mixology.eu, check out the other one, called The Samurai.
Are we dating ourselves with a Joan Jett & the Blackhearts reference? Maybe. But we couldn't avoid it, because it was the first thing that popped into our heads when we read the press release from Heaven Hill announcing the launch of Blackheart Premium Spiced Rum. Here's what they have to say about it:
Blackheart Rum is named for the sultry seductress of the high seas. Blackheart is bold and bawdy, cunning and cutthroat, sexy and seductive and left a trail of broken hearts wherever she traveled - that is how she came to be known as Blackheart. This is her rum.
Blackheart Rum weighs in at a high-test 93 proof, and it sounds like you would like it if you enjoy that certain other rum named after a certain Captain (or a certain Sailor). We don't know much about the history of minxy pirates, but consensus around the office is that we'd rather put a Blackheart in our mouths than a Morgan or a Jerry. More at BlackheartRum.com [link not working at press time, but we're sure they'll get it fixed]
News and tips on all things alcoholic, including beer and wine, breathalyzers, cocktails and spirits; plus drink recipes, booze reviews and more. All the news that's fit to drink.
Liquor Snob Pickle Back Challenge
Well, you can say what you want about us, but you can never say we backed down from a challenge. For those of you who have no freakin' clue what we're talking about, we here in the Liquor Snob offices made a vow when we first heard about the 
Continue reading: 
As you know, tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day, one of the biggest amateur hour drinking nights of the year. It's when the folks who only trot out their binge drinking on big holidays head out to the bars, put on a stupid hat, and pretend to be Irish. These folks aren't worthy to shine Shane MacGowan's tooth, but that doesn't mean we want them to feel sicky-poo from green beer on Thursday morning. 
A little bit ago we told you about the 
Do you want to learn more about whisky? Of course, we all do. That's why Mark Gillespie's WhiskyCast is great. You can listen to it while you do other things - work, brush your teeth, or drink whisky, for example. And now, you don't have to be tethered to your stupid computer to do it - with the introduction of the WhiskyCast iPhone app.
Looking for a replacement for the ubiquitous red plastic keg cup at your next party? Or maybe you're sick of pulling warm beer off a keg that's been sitting in the sun for a bit too long? Possibly you're one of those folks who chills beer glasses in the freezer, and you're sick of that icy shmeg floating up to the top of your brew? If you said "yes" to any of these questions, or if you're looking for some brightly colored cups to perk up your next gathering, with the added perk of chilling drinks without adding ice...get there.
We always love hearing about brands were weren't otherwise familiar with, and we recently got a package on our stoop that gave us just such a surprise. In the box was a bottle of paQui tequila. According to their website, paQui means "to be happy" in the original Aztec, and we can say its lived up to its name so far...who doesn't like seeing a bottle of tequila?
There are some moments in your life that you will always remember. Your first kiss? Hopefully. The birth of your first child? Probably. The first time you drink a shot of whiskey with a chaser of pickle juice? Most definitely. Or at least we imagine so, because we haven't actually done it.
Jager is one of those things people either love or hate. With its syrupy consistency and punch-you-in-the-tongue flavor, this herbal liqueur is definitely not for everyone, but the people who love it love it fiercely, and the people who hate it swear they'll never drink it again. We won't come out and tell you which camp we fall into - let's just say it will always be part of the tapestry of booze we have woven through our lives.
One of our favorites of the 
As you can imagine, every holiday season, the Liquor Snob office gets a lot of emails about holiday-themed cocktail recipes. Valentine's Day is no different, with just about every liquor company, PR agency, and sodden drunk coming up with some way to romantically ingest alcohol. In the spirit of a new decade, we're trying to be better about giving those recipes a forum these days, so we're putting together a roundup of all the Valentine's-themed recipes we receive between now and February 14.
We have to admit, we haven't exactly been pining for two more flavored vodkas, but we are interested in these two. 360 Vodka, which we were familiar with as an eco-friendly spirit, has just released two new varieties - 360 Cola and 360 Double Chocolate. According to the 
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