The Mingia Mary

A restorative for New Year’s Day:

The Mingia Mary

  

  

Photos From My Christmas Day (2015)

Christmas.

I was up early, then immediately napped and awoke around noon just in time for brunch:

 

Champagne Coupe:

 

And more Milk Punch:

 

  

Tom & Jerry:

 

Whiskey For Christmas Day

Merry Christmas to me! Thanks, sister!

 

24 Hours In Buffalo — Savoy & Vera Pizzeria

The reason I went to Buffalo over the weekend was to get myself some quality craft cocktails for my birthday.

My first stop though was for a quick beer, as I detailed in my last post, but the plan for the evening was very much about craft cocktails. We checked into our hotel and got gussied up for Halloween, then headed first to Savoy for a drink and Vera Pizzeria for dinner.

Savoy’s Beet Around The Busch:

  

My wife had a non-alcoholic cocktail which the bartender shook up and topped with ginger beer.

The first drink I had at Vera was a cocktail called Dill Breaker:

  

My second drink at Vera was a cocktail called Vice Admiral:

  

By the time we got to Vera it was very dark out, and the house lights were low (for Haloween I’m guessing) — and so I brightened the above pictures as best I could. Apologies for all the graininess, but I’m happy I at least got a pic at all for the blog. I easily could’ve left my phone at home and just enjoyed the atmosphere and overall experience. 

Our meal was excellent and the staff members at Vera were knowledgable and friendly. I finally got to try Amaro Di Angostura and the bartenders were kind enough to chat with me about their Fernet-Branca on tap!

The two cocktails I had are on Vera’s new Fall 2015 cocktail menu:

The Dill Breaker:

  

The Vice Admiral:
  

Labor Day Beach Drink

I had rum and fruit juice today at a bar overlooking the beach:

  

The Crab’s Claw is an oceanfront Caribbean restaurant in Atlantic Beach, North Carolina.

The drink was their Hurricane Isabella:

Myers Dark Rum, Malibu Coconut and Banana, Triple Sec with a Splash of Grenadine and Pineapple Juice. Always Shaken (things) up. Served on the Rocks.

Last year at this same place I had a cucumber-basil mojito, but today I was in the mood for a sweet and stereotypically touristy drink.

And I had to get a pic of their tiki fountain:

  

July 4th, 2015 — Recap

Having the Fourth of July on a Saturday this year felt pretty great (as Saturdays are like Fridays for some of us in the service industry).

All-in-all, it was a great few days.

I drank beer.

I drank wine.

And I camped out:

  

In terms of liquor, I drank something pretty basic on Saturday that I’ve never had before— gin and ginger ale.

Sure, it’s summer and blah blah blah gin and tonic. But I surveyed what we had on hand and the gin and ginger ale is what I ended up with. I almost went with whiskey & ginger ale (and there was actually a lot on hand to choose from), but I really wanted gin for some reason — which is a spirit I like, sure. but never really reach for. And I think this summer is going to be a turningpoint for me in that regards.

After the basic gin and ginger ale, I cracked open a bottle of Sipp Ginger Blossom and made two cocktails — one with gin for me, and one with Captain Morgan for my mother-in-law:

  
This flavor of Sipp had the bite of ginger beer, but also had vanilla and lime notes which softened and sweetened the drink. I’m sure it would make a great Dark ‘n’ Stormy. And I was afraid that mixing it with Captain Morgan would be overkill on the vanilla, but I didn’t hear any complaints.

And, finally, I love this photo I took Sunday night:
  

I was drinking a Great Lakes Burning River and tried to get a group shot without getting out of my chair. What ended up happening was a photo burst of several pics that created a weird vortex around my father-in-law. I didn’t digitally enhance it to look that way or blur it on purpose at all. 

Red, White & Blue

A day late, but still delicious:

  

Fourth Of July Wine

A bottle of white table wine from Oregon for the Fourth Of July:

 

Borealis
The Northern Whites
2014 Willamette Valley
39% Gewürztraminer 
33% Muller-Thurgau
16% Pinot Gris
12% Riesling 

Assessing What’s On Hand

Making Memorial Day Weekend drinks. Assessing what’s on hand and what I can make with the limited ingredients. 

Today Is World Cocktail Day

Happy “World Cocktail Day” to everyone!

Why a day to recognize cocktails in general as a category of drinks? I dunno… Why not!?

There’s a blog I check daily called Good Spirits News, and just the other day they posted about World Cocktail Day.

The blog post gives several notations about the origins of the word cocktail and cites Good Things Magazine for all its info.

It also explains why May 13 was chosen as the date for World Cocktail Day. Because that’s when the word first appeared in print:

On 13th May 1806, newspaper Balance and Columbian Repository defined a cocktail as, “a stimulating liquor composed of spirits of any kind — sugar, water, and bitters.”

This date is now recognised as World Cocktail Day, an occasion on which drinkers commemorate the first recognised publication of the word’s definition.

So the first recognized publication of the word cocktail described it simply as “a stimulating liquor composed of spirits of any kind with sugar, water and bitters. 

It’s such a beautiful recipe — with all its components being so basic and easily interchanged with other ingredients. There are so many sugars and sweeteners to choose from and now so many bitters on the market, not to mention the open-endedness of being able to use any spirit. 

Whatever you decide to have today, just don’t find yourself without a drink!

 

Thirsty For More?

— Here’s a link.

— And here’s another link.

And just to round out the “World” part of World Cocktail Day, here’s a link to a site which put together a map of the places where famous cocktails were born.

Here’s the map!