Teaspressa Crystal Mimosa Kit with Riondo Prosecco

 

You'll have to forgive me, as I tried this all the way back in May and just posting about it now. The concept for the product is good. It looks like a sugar cube. There's three different flavors. So you put the cube of your desired flavor on the bottom of your choice of a cocktail glass and pour sparkling wine over it. The cube dissolves into the wine and you have a low carb, low calorie cocktail. Neat!

But unfortunately, since I will not tell a lie, I have to report that it was not all that enjoyable. It made the wine taste like a dusty rip off of the flavors it was trying to imitate. It's not gross, but also not pleasant. The cubes were abandoned for enjoying the bottle of Riondo, which was yummmmmyyyyyy.

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Moscow Mule with SwigSafe

SwigSafe is a tumbler designed to show you your pour so you can safely enjoy your adult beverages and monitor your intake to prevent binge drinking. You can use it for mixing protein shakes and monitoring your daily water intake as well.

It's hard to get a photo of the embossed features on the side, but up along the side are measurements. It counts ounces up to 16. And it also shows you how much one shot of liquor is (1 1/2 ounces) with a picture of a shot, then two, then three. Same with wine; one glass (five ounces) and then two. And of course the same with beer at one glass (12 ounces). I mean, I think that's pretty cool. The shape is nice too, because a crisp and refreshing pilsner in that thing would not look out of place. 

I used mine to make a Moscow Mule. At first I used the measurements on the side to make this exact recipe and then I ended up just dumping the rest of the ginger beer and vodka in there because rules are meant to be broken.

MOSCOW MULE

4 ounces of Ginger Beer

1 1/2 ounces of Vodka

1/6 of an ounce of  Lime Juice

I think it's a neat product to have available, especially for cocktails or just to measure your booze. I personally wouldn't drink wine out of it but hey,  I know plenty of people who would. 

CHECK OUT THE SWIGSAFE WEBSITE

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T.W. Hollister & Co. Oso de Oro Vermouth and cocktails for the holidays!

I don't know about you but I feel like the holiday season is more about cocktails than anything else when it comes to adult beverages, so how about making some cocktails with domestic Vermouth from Santa Barbara, California?

Both of these artisan Vermouths by T.W. Hollister & Co. are excellent! The Red Vermouth is made with 19 botanicals including hummingbird sage, grapefruit peel, blood orange, vanilla bean, and ginger root. The Dry Vermouth is made with 12 botanicals including orange peel, wormwood, chamomile, rosehip, and hyssop.

I just made a basic Vodkatini and a basic Manhattan because that's just how I roll and they both turned out AMAZING! But here's some different cocktail recipes that are perfect for the holiday season:

DE LA CRESTA
1.0 oz - Lime Juice
0.5 oz - Giffard Elderflower Syrup
0.5 oz - Casoni Aperitivo 1814
1.0 oz - TWHc Dry Vermouth
1.0 oz - Hendrick's Midsummer Solstice Gin
Shaken; Garnish with Lime

NUTTY OLD FASHION
2.0 oz - Glyph 85H Whiksey
1.0 oz - TWHc Red Vermouth
1.0 oz - L'Orgeat Almond Liqueur
Stirred

ROSE GOLD NEGRONI
1.0 oz - Hendrick's Midsummer Solstice Gin
1.0 oz - Lo-Fi Gentian Amaro
1.0 oz - TWHc Dry Vermouth
Stirred; Garnish with Lime

Check out the T.W. Hollister & Co. website and see if you can get your hands on these awesome Vermouths!

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Sauvignon Blanc Lemonade with Bloomers Frosé and VINI Sauvignon Blanc 2018

How about a bourbon and wine cocktail recipe? It's super easy to make, absolutely delicious, and really refreshing for these later days of summer while things are still hot. You gotta get your hands on some Bloomers Frosé to make it, though. Hell, you gotta get your hands on it anyways because there's A LOT of cocktails recipes out there for this mixer.

WHAT YOU NEED:

4 ounces of Bloomers Frosé
8 ounces of Sauvignon Blanc
2 ounces of Bourbon
A blender
Ice

So there's no actual lemonade in this lemonade??? Nope! But to my surprise the name definitely fits the flavor profile. Here's some info on Bloomers and what I used for the other ingredients:

Bloomers Frosé - The key ingredient to this cocktail and many more! This unique mixer is the first-ever retail mixer for both wine and spirits. This original ready-to-use, non-alcoholic mixer enables mixologists to whip up an icy-smooth version of your favorite cocktail or mocktail in minutes. Easy and crowd-pleasing, Bloomers Frosé takes your drink to the next level with frozen concoctions that are sure to please.  It's vegan, Kosher, non-GMO and Gluten-Free. You can find a bunch of other recipes for this product on their website: BloomersFrose.com

VINI Sauvignon Blanc 2018 - Because it's Bulgarian Wine Months thanks to BulgarianWine.com, I'll be using this Bulgarian Sauvignon Blanc from Thracian Valley. This is a mellow Sauvignon Blanc with notes of citrus and tangerine, and perfect for this cocktail because it's not like you're getting punched in the face with pungent grapefruit like a New Zealand SB. For $10 it's hell of a deal.

Evan Williams Bourbon Whiskey - A very affordable bourbon, especially in smaller formats like nips, and my go-to when I'm making cocktails that call for bourbon.

WHAT YOU DO: 

1. Take those ingredients and ice, throw them in the blender, and blend it
2. Put it in a cup or glass
3. Drink up!
4. Let me know what you think!

WHERE TO GET THIS STUFF:

Bloomers Frosé is available online at BloomersFrose.com

VINI Sauvignon Blanc is available online at BulgarianWine.com
Evan Williams is available at your local liquor store

See more Bloomer Frosé recipes at BloomersFrose.com

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Cocktail Recipes: Vodkatini and Manhattan with González Byass Vermouth La Copa

I know what you're thinking! "These two cocktails are ridiculously basic!" and you're absolutely right! So why am I even doing this? Whelp... because both of the Vermouths involved use Sherry as their base wine. That's right! Sherry!

So rather than get convoluted and technical and fancy and add a bunch of things that would take away from your first experience with a Sherry-based Vermouth, it's better to keep it basic, right? Right! Plus, dammit Jim, I'm a wine guy not a mixologist! So let's start drinkin'!

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Cocktail Recipe: Tío Pepe Fino Sherry Dirty Martini

Tío Pepe Fino Sherry is 100% Palomino that sees 4 to 5 years in American oak casks after going through the traditional Solera system. It's a pretty darn good Sherry on its own for the $20 it'll cost you, with that lovely flor yeastiness and nuttiness, but today we're making a cocktail out of this bad boy. Instead of using Vermouth to make a martini, we're using Tío Pepe.

WHAT YOU NEED: 

Cocktail Shaker

2 ounces of gin (I used New Amsterdam)

2 ounces of Tío Pepe Fino Sherry

Green olives

WHAT YOU DO:

1) Drop some ice into your cocktail shaker

2) Pour 2 ounces of Tío Pepe Fino and 2 ounces of gin into the shaker

3) Shake the crap out of it

4) Strain into a glass

5) Plop an olive or three or six and splash some olive juice in there

6) Drink up!

The botanicals of the gin play along really well with the classic flavors of Fino Sherry, but I really do believe that making this martini a dirty one is the key to making it all work. Honestly it's not for everybody and I wouldn't recommend it for people who don't like Sherry or gin or olives (how dare you in all cases), but I'm really enjoying it and making myself another one (or two)! Cheers!

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Cocktail Quickie: Round Barn Crantini and Red Sangria cans

Round Barn is a winery, distillery, and brewery in Southern Michigan. After looking at their products, that whiskey and Kolsch of theirs look pretty damn delicious! But right here I have their two most popular items: their canned Crantini and Red Sangria. And guess what? They're awesome! The Red Sangria is tart and extra cripsy and refreshing. It's a Sangria made with red wine but there's a lot of peach and lemon on there with a little bit of cranberry, so for flavor it's only really "Red" from its base wine and its color. This would be great for grilling burgers! The Crantini is my favorite of the two. It's white wine with cranberry and lemon concentrates. It has a little bit of a breadiness with juicy cranberries and lemon candy. YUM YUM! It definitely calls for a big slice of pizza! Good stuff!

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Valentine's Wine Review: Castello del Poggio Sweet Rosé

Here's a wine that's nice and sweet just like your Valentine... me. Smooches! And I'm putting it out there with plenty of time for you to go out and pick one up for yourself before the actual day.

This is a rosé with a little frizzante sparkle made from Muscat and Pinot Noir out of Acqui in Piedmont, Italy. It has a 7% ABV and that's all I really know about it. But that's okay because this is clearly a wine that is meant for some fun and shouldn't really be taken seriously. Put your snobbery aside, lover.

With this review I do have some "romantic" cocktail recipes that you can make with this wine, too.

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Wine Quickie: Nino Franco Maple Cinnamon Cocktail Recipe

Fall is in full swing! Man, it got cold fast. So check out this quick little recipe of fall yumminess: take 5 ounces of Nino Franco Rustico Prosecco and half an ounce of ROOT 23 Maple Cinnamon Simple Syrup to make a Maple Cinnamon Cocktail! I'm enjoying the crap out of it!

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Wine Quickie: Nino Franco Summer Kir Recipe

So check this out... take 5 ounces of Nino Franco Rustico Prosecco and half an ounce of ROOT 23 Cherry Almond Simple Syrup to make a Summer Kir! It's pretty friggin delicious! *glug glug*

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Drink Review: Savîle Premium Rumtini

It's kinda funny. I'm a wine guy first and a beer guy second. Not much of a spirits guy or mixed-drinks-slash-cocktail guy. However, I'm not really all that interested in actually learning about beer. I dabble with educating myself on it. Yet the technical stuff and the history of spirits fascinates me, and I can appreciate the art of mixology even if I'd prefer a Merlot or a Marzen over a Manhattan.

But this really isn't mixology, is it? This is a pre-mixed drink. It's already made for you within the bottle that you buy. Those usually aren't all that good, right? Usually. Because as mixology is still going strong in its comeback, we're starting to see quality pre-mixed drinks being produced. They use the real ingredients instead of crappy knockoff flavors, and they have the alcohol strength of a real, hard drink. One example is Bully Boy Old Fashioned. It's mind blowingly fantastic.

Does this sound familiar? It should because box wine has been blazing the same path of quality elevation for a few years now. Almaden and Chi-Chi's aren't good enough. People aren't settling for crap products anymore, especially the workaholic, attention-to-detail consumer that is the Millennial generation.

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