Mixology Monday: Bourbon

Bitter Bourbon   2 oz bourbon (drier varieties preferred) .5 oz Campari .5 oz green Chartreuse dash orange bitters   Combine in a shaker with ice. Strain into chilled cocktail glass. Serve with orange rind garnish. It’s Mixology Monday again, and our hosts this month are the Scofflaw’s Den, lovable ruffians and scoundrels that they …

Mixology Monday: Midori Melon Margarita

Midori Margarita, originally uploaded by cynthiacloskey. It’s Mixology Monday, and this month’s host is Anna at Morsels and Musings. Our theme is fruit liqueurs, interpreted for this as "a sweet alcoholic beverage infused with fruits or fruit flavours." My immediate first thought for this theme was the bottle of Midori that has been languishing in …

Drink — then you’ll see…

Through the kindness of friends, I recently acquired a bottle of Lucid, the sort-of-recently introduced legal absinthe that’s now available here in Pennsylvania and in the rest of the U.S. It’s a very pricey spirit, costing over $60 in PA and about that much elsewhere. Perhaps you’ve wondered, as I did, is it worth the …

All of this took less time than it took me to explain to a clerk at a PLCB “Premium Spirits” store what Armagnac was.

Peterb of Tea Leaves finds the mecca of quality liquor. It’s in Kansas City. Actually, I’m confident that it’s just anywhere outside of the borders of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. To catch you up on the latest developments in my on-going saga to purchase creme de violette: I sent an email to the special order …

MxMo: Limit One, Irish Sazerac

This has been my most difficult Mixology Monday yet. The theme is "Limit: One," set by this month’s host, Kaiser Penguin. Rules Consume and write about your favorite, strongest drink. You know, the one that that is delightful, complex, and will leave you wanting to stay home from work the next day. It should contain …

Violets for your furs

Violets, originally uploaded by Il conte di Luna. There’s an interesting discussion going on in the comments from my post on Monday about the question of privatizing the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board. Do take a look and chime in with your views. In the meantime, I want to add an example of what frustrates me …

MxMo: Variations on the Brandy Alexander

VMGq_6GouyI This month’s Mixology Monday theme is "Variations," hosted by Jimmy at Jimmy’s Cocktail Hour. Sometimes it seems like every drink I make is a variation on the original. Probably it is. Good cocktail-making is like good cooking: You take a recipe, tune it to your tastes and to the tastes of those who will …

Privatize the PLCB

Sad looking liquor store, originally uploaded by camera_obscura. Two weeks ago, Steve Twedt of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette authored a series of articles on the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board: what it is, why this state says it needs to hold a monopoly on wine and liquor sales (but not beer sales), alternative reasons why it does …

Fat Tuesday

Mardi Gras Masks and Beads, originally uploaded by biskuit. It seems a kind of cheating to celebrate Mardi Gras when I have no intention of giving up anything for Lent. Early in the evening I officially commemorated the holiday with a Sazerac cocktail — a classic drink of New Orleans. I listened to Madeleine Peyroux …