Hello and welcome to our Washington Gin Showcase part 3! Yes, we have that many delicious gins here in Washington State, so expect to see a part 4 down the road 🙂 Be sure to check out parts one and two also.
This go around we’re having a look at Mischief gin, Dry Fly gin, Bainbridge gin and finally 2 gins from the San Juan Island Distillery Spy Hop and Spy Hop Harvest Select.
It’s that time of the month again! It’s time for Mixology Monday. This month’s theme of fortified wines (sherry, port, Madeira and Marsala) comes from Chemistry of the Cocktail.
We first experienced a fortified wine cocktail courtesy of Anu Apte from Rob Roy. She was doing a Drinking Lessons on sherry, and served us an Oloroso Sour (though she included Angostura bitters  on the foam as is pretty traditional for sours, and which really helps make the drink in our opinion). We’ve experimented since then, and sherry and other fortified wines have become very useful tools in our mixology tool box. They add character and depth much the same way that bitters can, plus sweetness and mouth feel, all of which are very important for making a delicious cocktail.
Back in December we came across this video. In it, Erik Chapman over at Sun Liquor reveals their aged eggnog recipe (recipe here for those that don’t want to transcribe it). Erik says that they age their eggnog for a month and it’s vastly improved. We here at Booze Nerds were very curious about a couple things. One, is it safe? Two, does the aging actually make a difference? After some research, we discovered that it was probably safe from going off as long as you keep it cold and away from light. We also came across this article which says that the booze actually kills off all the nasty things. So we weren’t going to poison ourselves. But is it actually worth the hassle of keeping jars of this stuff in your fridge for weeks or months?
Regrettably, we here at Booze Nerds are under the weather this week, and cannot join you for our regularly scheduled conversation about cocktails. Please check in next week, where we’ll be providing a postscript to the holidays in the form of an aged eggnog tasting. Cheers!
It’s the day before New Year’s eve.  Many people will choose to have champagne or sparkling wine at their celebration, but many people will also choose to start the evening with a sophisticated cocktail like a martini. If you are one of them, we’d like to offer you some alternatives to that classic. The following are all  similar in that they are very spirit forward cocktails, but they offer a range of flavor profiles that are different from the martini.
It’s Christmas! For some that means presents. For some that means spending time with family, which can range from good to nightmarish. For Booze Nerds it means drinking! Which certainly helps in all situations. For this holiday, our gift to you is a couple of original recipes to either help you get through the holidays, or to help you enjoy them even more.
The War on Christmas
For this drink we started with the name. Then we thought “hey, cranberry is a nice festive and seasonal ingredient, plus it is bloody red”, so we wanted to include that. Then Christa thought of rum for a base spirit, because the richness and sweetness of it would counterbalance the tartness and astringency of the cranberry. Then she felt a vermouth or vin apertif would add some sweetness to help balance the drink as well as some bitter notes to add interest. To finish it off, Shaun thought it could use some bitters to add a little more herbaceousness.
It’s Mixology Monday time again. This month’s theme comes courtesy of Rated R Cocktails. Mr. R is clearly not a fan of the holidays because the theme is Bah Humbug! With that in mind, Christa thought of drinks strong enough to help you survive the family get-togethers, Shaun came up with the name (being a curmudgeon himself), and we went from there.
It’s the holidays here in the States. And as such, many people turn to sparkling wine for it’s celebratory nature. However, we here at Booze Nerds are never happy to just drink something without fiddling with it. 🙂 So this week, we decided to focus on some delicious sparkling wine cocktails. Why serve just plain old sparkling wine when you can enhance it and really give your guests something to rave about? Each of these are easy to make, and will leave a lasting impression with your guests.
For this week’s post, we’re having a taste of something a little different. We managed to get our hands on a bottle of White Lion VSOA. What is it, you ask? Well, it’s a liquor made out of the fermented nectar from unopened coconut flowers. After the nectar is gathered, it is distilled and aged for 2 years in Halmilla wood (native to Sri Lanka) barrels. Until recently it’s only been available in Sri Lanka. However, it is now being imported into the US and is available through a few retailers if you know where to look.
So what’s it like?
Hello and welcome to part 2 of our Washington Gin showcase. As we mentioned in part 1, we have a lot of craft gins to choose from here, showcasing an amazing range of flavor profiles. All of them are very unique, giving you many selections among which to find your favorite, or if you’re like us, allowing you to fine tune each cocktail with the right gin to get the best flavor.
For part 2, we chose Isis Premium from MacDonald Distillery, Amethyst from The Ellensburg Distillery, Counter Gin from Batch 206 Distillery and finally Oola Gin from Oola Distillery.
BoozeNerds
Shaun
Christa
Booze Nerds 