Have a Good Weekend, Readers

Everybody have a great time at the season's first BBQ or whatever you do to commemorate the holiday, but don't forget to stay off the sauce if you're getting behind the wheel Well, that's true all the time but you know what we mean...this is a big cop weekend and there'll probably be more than one roadblock out there this weekend.

Pudding Shots and How to Shoot Them...Finally!

A while back we did a post about pudding shot recipes, and it continues to be one of our most popular stories. However, we've been a bit hesitant to make them, because since they don't set up like Jell-O it seems like you'd get all gloopy and chocolate-faced. However, an astute reader has finally solved the mystery for us; we'll let her tell you in her own words.

I used to work at a bar, and what we did is get the little sauce cups, not too small and fill them with your mix. Then place all million of the cups on a platter and freeze. The fun of this is watching someone reach their tongue to the bottom and try to get it all out. Hope this solves it if you haven't already.

Image via Jellatio (More pudding shot recipes are available at that page too)

10 Great Things About Booze

We got an email from a faithful reader last week, who was looking for some fundamental truths about booze. This person was looking for the bright side (and hopefully the light side) of drinking, and came to us. We were flattered, and it also made us think a bit. There are all sorts of people out there who demonize liquor, but there's a positive side to the stuff too. We wouldn't know half our friends if bars had never been invented, and we certainly wouldn't have screwed up the courage to actually talk to girls without a few stiff belts.

So, without further ado, our paean to our favorite hobby, or as the Bard says, "the cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems."

[Edit: Looks like the Modern Drunkard beat us to this topic, and their execution was better too. Check it out at 10 Best Things About Booze. Frank Kelly Rich, we bow to you yet again, you beautiful bastard...]

1. Drinking Can Make You a Dancer
Picture this with us: a wedding, let's say June. Horrible 70s music blasting from the DJ's tower of power, and all the women from age 7 to 70 are out on the floor, writhing and gyrating like someone dropped a live wire into a puddle in their midst. As you see grandma drop her walker and power slide at the end of "You're the One That I Want" from Grease, you ask yourself...where are all the men?

Oh, right, there they are. Clustered by the bar with a panicked look in their eyes, pounding down open bar drinks like Popeye on spinach. Most of them will be there for a while. Occasionally one or two will be picked out of the herd by their significant others or lope off looking for bridesmaids. And the drunker they get, the more likely they will be to lead that chicken dance the DJ is begging for, or do some kind of Steve Wozniak-eque worm in the middle of an impromptu break dance circle. By 11:45 even the most resistant stragglers will be out on the floor, weaving and bobbing to the music, drinks clutched like Linus's safety blanket in their hands.

More great things after the jump.

Continue reading: "10 Great Things About Booze"

Top 10 US St. Patrick's Day Festivals

Hey, guess what we found? A list of the 10 best cities to celebrate St. Paddy's day. Yeah, we realize it would have been more helpful a week ago, but what can we do? Just think about next year - you'll have 364 days to get over tomorrow's blistering hangover and we just realized we have friends in seven out of ten of these cities. Irish road trip!

10 Best St. Patrick's Day Festivals in the United States at Beer Taste Test

As an added bonus, some boozy Irish wisdom, via Digg

Building a Home Bar: Exploring Your Options

One of the things that we constantly think about is building our own home bar. As you might expect, we have a nicely-stocked liquor cabinet here at the Liquor Snob offices, but we'd love to have our own space reserved purely for experimenting with cocktail recipes and whipping up drinks.

That's why we're excited about the prospect of the new home bar series from the KegWorks blog, which will lay out the things you should think about when putting in a bar of your own. We like how they have tackled their project, including a series of questions such as moveable vs permanent, wet vs dry, and theme vs evolving decor. These are all things we might not have thought of, and we're already starting to workshop some bar designs.

Read the full post at KegWorks blog

How to Open Champagne...With a Sword

Let's face it, kids...Valentine's Day is on its way, and if things go right you'll probably be opening a bottle of the bubbly. What better way to impress the object of your affection than by opening them a bottle of champagne...with a sword? The technique, apparently called "sabering" looks pretty simple, and is WAY impressive.

Just make sure you alert your flame somewhere between pulling out the champagne bottle and drawing a sword, to keep them from thinking you're about to perform seppuku or engage in murder/suicide. We're not the most romantic guys on the Web, but we think that might kind of spoil the glow of the evening.

Old Fashioned Whiskey Cocktail the Robert Hess Way

If we've said it once we've said it a million times, the Old Fashioned cocktail is one of our favorites of all time. Commenter Temptin steered us toward this great video of Robert Hess (aka Drink Boy) making what looks like it could be the greatest Old Fashioned ever. Check the out the video, and don't miss the end, when he brings flaming orange oils into the mix...a must watch for Old Fashioned enthusiasts. Be patient - he doesn't even start mixing until somewhere around the halfway mark, but just like creating the drink itself, it's all about the journey.

We weren't familiar with this series of videos Robert is doing, but they're leaps and bounds better than most of the "bartending" crap you find on Youtube, etc. We've added his feed to our reader, and we can't wait to keep watching the vids...we're just bummed we couldn't figure out a way to embed them on our site.

Old Fashioned cocktail video at Small Screen Network

10 Best Things About Booze

Everybody needs a pick-me-up now and again, even if it's just being picked up out of the gutter after a few too many. When we're feeling low, we tend to head over to the Modern Drunkard for pearls of wisdom (make that pearl onions...soaked in vermouth). Today's treat? Their roundup of the 10 best things about liquor, from its ability to unite humanity, to its yin/yang scale from exuberance to hangover.

A small sample:

10. It brings the joy.

"Why on earth aren't people continually drunk? I want ecstasy of the mind all the time."
--Jack Kerouac

There isn't enough joy in the world, and that's a fact. If there was, alcohol would have been dismissed as a mere disinfectant long ago.

I know, I know--we should just get "high on life" and then we wouldn't have to bother with the booze. And I've noticed that it seems to work for some people. What I've also noticed is those people all seem a little, well, insane.

How to Avoid Hangovers the Liquor Snob Way

New Year's Eve is on its way, and tis the season to be overserved. We've spent a lot of time railing against St. Patrick's Day as the ultimate amateur night when it comes to drinking, but New Year's Eve definitely takes the cake. It seems the question everyone's asking as they prep for their nights, whether it's a party or angrily drinking while watching Seacrest count down, is "How do I avoid getting hung over?"

Our best advice is to stay drunk, but we've taken some time to round up some tips and advice to help you out. Don't worry - we're not going to say "drink less," because that goes against our very nature. But below you'll find our tips for how to minimize the hangover you get, or at least deal with the hellish first day of the year if you forget the rules.

PS - don't expect much from us for the rest of the week, as we stretch our livers for the pending festivities, so...Happy New Year!

(Image via Flickr)

Continue reading: "How to Avoid Hangovers the Liquor Snob Way"

Alert: Booze Makes Egg Nog Better

So, it turns out there's a benefit to adding booze to your egg nog beyond the fact it gives you a buzz. You know that nagging feeling you get every time you make or drink egg nog, that sort of "what if I get food poisoning from drinking something containing two dozen eggs?" Well, science has unequivocally proven that adding booze to the nog will not only make you stop caring about it, the booze actually does keep salmonella from growing in your eggy libation.

Watch the vid after the jump for the whole story...we got three things out of it. One, egg nog mellows and gets better if you keep it in the fridge for a while. Two, always add booze to your nog. Three, don't actively inject large amounts of salmonella into it, because then all bets are off.

Oh, and by the way if you're looking for a good recipe, we've been drinking off this Maker's Mark Egg Nog recipe for the last couple days. High test, high protein, bourbony goodness..

Continue reading: "Alert: Booze Makes Egg Nog Better"

Michael Collins Golf Flask Set

It's funny that Kevin over at The Scotch Blog decided to feature this Michael Collins Golf Flask gift set during his Twelve Days of Scotchmas series today, because we saw this thing in the liquor store yesterday and it took every ounce of willpower we had not to buy it for ourselves. If you're looking for that last-minute gift for the golfer/Irish whiskey drinker on your list, pop into your local liquor store and see if they have these on hand.

The set includes a 750ml bottle of Michael Collins Blended Irish Whiskey, a gorgeous stainless steel Michael Collins flask, and a genuine leather flask holder that is perfect for golfers. The handsome leather holder includes four golf tees, two ball markers and a divot repair tool. Delicious Michael Collins cocktail recipes are printed on the back of the box.

Best Video Games to Play While Drinking

We've made no secret of the fact we're gamers here at the Liquor Snob offices, but it dawned on us today that we've never given enough love to our gaming readers, or games in general. We found a great article about the best games to play while you're drinking or drunk, and we thought their criteria were pretty dead-on. After all, we tend toward RPGs when we play, but who wants to end up like this guy?

Let's start with our target audience. They're not going to be able to focus for extended periods of time, so you need something that only demands brief bursts of coordination followed by plenty of downtime. That's key, because they're going to need a chance to sip from their drink. Hopefully they're not drinking alone, so downtime also gives them a chance to shift their attention back to the conversation, or, failing that, give them the opportunity to start one. Finally, their reflexes are generally going to be utter crap. People don't like to lose, particularly when they're drunk, so we need to plan for that as well. Our target player wants something that enhances the drinking experience without overriding it.

Also, for your convenience, we've pulled out some of their recommended games, along with the reasons why they're awesome to play when you're sauced.

Continue reading: "Best Video Games to Play While Drinking"

Repeal Day Roundup

As you know, today is the 75th Anniversary of Repeal Day. And as you also know, Repeal Day was the day the 21st Amendment went into effect, repealing the 18th and letting people drink sweet, sweet booze that wasn't made in a bathtub. So lift up a glass to the repeal, to your God given right to drink without going moonshine blind, and to liquor in general.

• Keepin' it Repeal [Jeffrey Morgenthaler]
• Remember: December 5th is Repeal Day! [Ardenstone*]
• 75 Years of Legal Intoxication [Kegworks Blog]
• Amendment 21 Cocktail Recipe [Drink of the Week]
• Where to Celebrate Repeal Day [Cocktails.About.com]

* Also where we borrowed the image from

Liquor Snob Holiday Gift Guide 2008

The holiday season is upon us again, and this year we decided to prepare for it. We picked up a cup and some football pads for braving the Black Friday sales, and we have multiple flasks to help dull the pain of dealing with the thronging hordes. Then we remembered (just like every year) that we could just shop online and get stuff that's just as good without all the hassle, so we decided to comb our archives for the best products we featured this year. That way we can shop for everything from a remote-controlled beer cooler to the greatest video game setup we've ever seen, all from the comfort of our own home.

We've compiled a list of our top 10 favorites (in no particular order) here; find everything else after the jump.

1. Big, Bad Breathalyzer Roundup

2. Cool, Cooler, Coolest

3. Jager Tap Machine

4. Keychain Corkscrew

5. R2D2 Ice Bucket

6. Full-Bottle Wine Glass

7. Mad Science Bartending Set

8. 6 Gallon Beverage Dispenser

9. Faberge Martini Shaker

10. Headmaster Electric Keg Pump

Continue reading: "Liquor Snob Holiday Gift Guide 2008"