Canton Ginger Liqueur Arrives for Review

If there's one flavor we've always loved and wished we could get more of in our mixed drinks, it's ginger. The flavor can range from delicate and floral to a downright burn, and we just love it. That's why we're excited to try out the bottle of Canton Ginger Liqueur that just arrived. We'll be doing a full review soon enough, but here's what the Canton website has to say:

Originally created on the French Indochine ginger root estate of Domaine de Canton, this aromatic elixir first became popular among the colonial French aristocracy. A hand-crafted infusion of superior VSOP Cognac and baby ginger, Domaine de Canton is the world's first premium ginger liqueur. Enjoy it in a cocktail and discover a rare union of tropical romance and continental sophistication.

We don't have any proof they're actually the first such liqueur, but they had us at French Indochine ginger root. More at Canton Liqueur

Baij.tv Presents: Baijiu Face

To be honest, we'd never heard of a Chinese liquor called Baijiu before an email hit our inbox about it this morning. But, after watching the video contained in the email, we couldn't be more intrigued by the stuff, especially after our quick and not-so-thorough research introduced us to the phenomenon of "Baijiu face," which judging by the pictures reminded us of our own experience with Screech Rum face.

According to Wikipedia, the name Baijiu "means 'white liquor,' 'white alcohol' or 'white spirits.' The final line of the video told us all we really needed to know, about this high-octane beverage.

We may not have learned anything new about Baijiu, but at least we got fucked up. And that's basically what Baijiu's all about.

Watch the baij.tv video after the jump.

Continue reading: "Baij.tv Presents: Baijiu Face"

Questing for the Best-Tasting Jell-O Shot

We're going to go out on a limb here and say the fellas over at My Science Project are obsessed with Jell-O shots. Not that there's anything wrong with that by any means - we've scarfed our fair share of 'em ourselves - but they've taken the creation of these desserty, drunken treats to a much higher level. They've experimented with creating the strongest shots, and even the proverbial flaming Jell-O shot - we haven't seen this kind of dedication since our own attempts to find a pudding shot recipe.

The newest attempts from these mad, mad geniuses? Their latest obsession is to find the best-tasting Jell-O shot, and they tried out a brain-bending amount of different booze and Jell-O combinations to find out which worked best. They even tried out some specialty shots - the one that caught our eye was the Chocolate Covered Cherry, but they also whipped up Fuzzy Navels, Jager Bombs, and our own personal favorites, various pudding shots.

So what were their ultimate findings? Like we'd spoil the surprise. Head on over to MyScienceProject.com to gorge on all the Jell-O shots you can handle.

New Booze Arrives - Averna and Christiania

Have we mentioned we like getting in new booze for review? If we haven't...we do. We just got in two new bottles of very disparate types of liquor, and we couldn't be more fired up to give 'em a shot. That's us skipping, over there on the right.*

Averna Amaro Siciliano
We don't know much about Averna, but considering it's called "Amaro," we fully expect it to be something like the grandpa of amaretto. We'll keep you posted. Until we can, learn more, dig up some info on your own at Averna.it.

Christiania Vodka
What we do know about Christiania is that it A) contains potatoes (we don't know what's special about the Trondeleag variety but we'll look into it), 2) involves Nordic water (go Vikings!), and D) named after a famous Norwegian king. And there we have it...intriguing as all hell. More at ChristianiaVodka.com.

* ok, so we lied - the image from this story was stolen acquired from iSkip.com.

Home Shot Chiller Machine

It's official - there is no reason for you not to have chilled Jager shots in your house at all times. We're not about that bottle in the freezer, either. We're talking about the full-on Jager chiller you see in your favorite bar - the one that hangs from the wall? Now you can have three of them for less than the price of an iPhone! Or you could get just one - wuss.

Either way, thank you Skymall ! [via Uncrate]

Introducing Drinkin Joe

There are a few archetypes associated with drinking - the suave lady's man, the beer chugging frat boy, the ne'er do well who's drowning his sorrows. Drinkin' Joe, the fellow we just discovered, seems to fit into the latter category. According to his site, he lives in a crappy place, has a terminal disease, and he just lost his job. He's always thought booze was a scourge, and he's decided to defeat it the only way he can think of - by drinking it all up (with reviews!).

He's only been going for a week, so we'll see how long he can keep up his Droopy Dog/Debbie Downer intensity (he feels like a persona more than a real dude), but he does make for a fun read. Plus, check out his "Drunk of the Minute" Flickr photos on his site.

Drinkin' Joe [via Intoxicated Zodiac]

Pocket Shots: We Finally Have a Use for Cargo Pants

It's not very often a new booze comes out and sends us scrambling for pants with cargo pockets, but here you have it - the Pocket Shot. We'd heard of these things before but never thought of the sinister beauty they represented. It's booze designed...dare we say destined?...to go into your pocket and be consumed on a portable basis.

And at $2 a pop, pardon us while we fashion some Chewbacca-style bandoliers for our gin, rum, vodka, whiskey and tequila. Not sure how they taste, but do you really care when you're surreptitiously dumping four of them into you bathtub-sized Coke at the movies?

Pocket Shots [via Wired]

Navan Cognac Review

For a long time Cognac has struggled to gain recognition as a proper liquor. Although in certain urban locations it is quite popular, for the most part Cognac has very little following. An often misunderstood type of brandy, Cognac is actually named after a city on the Charente river in France. To be called Cognac, brandy must come from this area and must follow certain rules of distillation and aging (these rules are quite reminiscent of the ones which we went over in our Bulleit Bourbon review).

Cognac must be double-distilled immediately after distillation and must be aged at least 3 years in Limousin oak barrels. Since distillation removes impurities, obviously double-distillation is a good thing, both for your palate and your head the morning after. And as far as the Limousin, it has a very loose grain so it imparts a pretty strong oak flavor to the brandy compared to other types of oak.

Today we will look at a lesser known Cognac, coming to us from the makers of Grand Marnier. Navan is an 80 proof Cognac made with black vanilla bean, the 2nd most expensive spice in the world. On the bottle is printed: “The rare black vanilla of Madagascar is the fruit of the sensuous orchid. Its complex, distinctive flavor is considered the world’s finest. Intense, smooth, rich and aromatic.”

Continue reading: "Navan Cognac Review"

Smirnoff Urban Lifestyle Specialist Contest

We just got a press release about an Urban Lifestyle Specialist contest from Smirnoff, and to be honest, before reading it we wouldn't have been able to tell you what an Urban Lifestyle Specialist is. We probably would've said they're the folks who teach 50 Cent to shoot people, or consult with Puffy/Puff Daddy/P Diddy on his monthly name change.

Now that we've read the release, apparently the ULS contest has something to do with sending 10 people all over the world for a year to "retrace the worldwide journey of the Smirnoff brand." It's got all kinds of buzzwords about how those ULSs will use blog and video and photograph and fingerpaint about their journey. We have to admit, it got us excited about the contest and what being a ULS might be.

We're fully ready to sign up and we really think we're perfect for the Smirnoff Ten; find out more in the press release below or head to Smirnoff.com to throw your hat in the ring.

Continue reading: "Smirnoff Urban Lifestyle Specialist Contest"

How to Stock a Home Bar for Under $300

We get a lot of questions about what's the best way to stock a home bar, especially for those who aren't willing to shell out hundreds and hundreds of dollars to do so. We're constantly meaning to do some research into the topic, but it appears someone has beaten us to the punch (and done a great job doing it). Jason Wilson at the Washington Post put together a great list with some very good advice and some limitations we can get behind (trying to stick to bottles around $20, for example).

We dedicated $200 to the basic setup: the six bottles every bar needs - whiskey, tequila, rum, vodka, gin and brandy - plus several essential mixers.

But no one drinks the same cocktail season after season. Allowing for that, we decided to dedicate an additional $100 for seasonally appropriate spirits. We purchased bottles with summer in mind.

In the end, we were able to get 15 bottles, plus the two small bottles of bitters, for less than $270, leaving us with $30 of wiggle room to allow for store-to-store price variations. And it put each bottle at an average of less than $16.

So what did our budget buy?

Find out at Mercury News (Update: Originally featured at the Washington Post) [via Topix.net]