Saturday, December 16th I will be doing a tasting at Joe Canal in Lawrenceville NJ from 12:00 – 2:00 pm
- Laird’s Applejack86
- Hochstadter’s Slow & Low Rock and Rye Whiskey
- Crop Vodka
- Farmers Gin
3375 US Route 1 South Lawrenceville, NJ 08648
Saturday, December 16th I will be doing a tasting at Joe Canal in Lawrenceville NJ from 12:00 – 2:00 pm
3375 US Route 1 South Lawrenceville, NJ 08648
First published in bostonmagazine.com
In our rundown of the best hot chocolate in Boston, a few notable spiked examples made the cut. But should you seek something a little stronger, you’re going to want to head to our favorite bar-ware store, Boston Shaker.
Warren Bobrow and his trusty sidekick, Klaus the Soused Gnome show us how to conjure a mighty strong batch of hot chocolate made with Austrian-made Stroh 160. That’s right, that’s 160-proof rum. Hey, if anyone knows how ward off a winter chill, it’s the Austrians.
Repeal Day.
Just the very mention of the word “repeal” suggests setting something behind, to leave it in the past, and what better day to leave something in the past than December 5, or Repeal Day, which celebrates the day Prohibition ended and the modern age of drinking really began.
When I was growing up, my parents and all of their friends smoked pot. You know how some people smell Tollhouse cookies baking and are brought back to childhood? That’s how I feel about marijuana smoke (if that helps you understand the scale of their use). But, despite decades dedicated to cannabis use, their kit consisted of a tray and a tin can filled with rolling papers, Bic lighters, and alligator clips for roaches. That was a basic DIY marijuana set-up during a time when it was completely illegal.
Have you been assailed by emails of an uncertain provenance, promising you the world, yet delivering nothing? This is true to a fault, as consumers we are price conscious and it gets us into trouble, again and again. Perhaps the difficulty stems from wanting something right now- and not being willing to wait. So patience is truly a virtue in the consumer driven world. So fair readers, relax and breath for a few minutes, just the time necessary to scan over this list of the goods that come to the table in the act we call, giving. Here is a list of vetted, quality products that should bring pleasure throughout the year ahead and forward from there.
Klaus is up in Boston for a visit to prove a point. That the garden fresh herbs contained in Fernet Branca offer more than just basic cocktailian satisfaction. They augment our desire for unique flavors while calming the belly.
It’s funny how Klaus can travel, seemingly around the globe then wake up to want another drink, another way of tasting liquid history.
Hot Toddy Time!
Frosty weather is coming quickly and in keeping with his German heritage, Klaus has a fire burning in the fireplace to take the chill off the morning. Mornings in the old house are usually punctuated by the sound of crackling fires in the dining room fireplace. Comforting and warming, a nice fire is taking the chill off the air out in the garden.
Although it’s still warm during the day, the mornings can be rather chilly!
Ginger Beer is a highly personal thing. Since the USA is a melting pot of cultures and countries, so to is the art of ginger beer. There are ginger beers that span the globe, from Los Angeles (Birthplace of the Moscow Mule, to Moscow, Russia (where they’ve never even heard of such cocktails) to Bermuda (where it’s mixed with caramel colored rum) to the deck of your armchair- watching America’s Cup videos while sitting in your easy chair, to Cleveland, Ohio- birthplace of the Pickett Brothers- founders of Pickett’s Ginger Beer.
That incessant growing in your stomach should be reason enough to go for a road trip. When one is motivated by the thought of that mystical ‘ring of fire’ that thing of rare beauty– the air that permeates the region around your head just over a platter of ribs or even chicken. All is sublime. That is what is called barbecue. Something more than just a meal. Barbecue is highly personal, and therefore perfect. Barbecue is regional, cultural and it has deep meaning to someone who understands the intellectualism in barbecue. There is a warm feeling surrounding the phrase- low and slow- and what this means in a broader context is part of the soul. Low means the temperature of the smoke and the time it takes to slowly melt the savory meat over warm smoke. Low also means the pulse of the smokehouse. Low means taking your time and low means sipping a fine beverage- like one of the eclectic selection of beers available at the congenial bar, from far and wide.
Over there, out on the perimeter of the inter-webs, a great deal of information is being disseminated and accepted by the masses as the only way to do very important- yet completely misunderstood things pertaining to Cannabis. There are dozens and dozens of internet magazine articles and books on the market that explain how to make infused foods- but have you seen any about infused beverages? Probably not because there are very few tested ways to infuse spirits safely with THC. It’s always advisable to start with small amounts of Cannabis when infusing, then build up from there in a thoughtful manner. It’s easy to scan over the reams of misinformation and accept it as correct- especially if this misinformation is on the internet! This can be a real problem when dealing with Medical grade Cannabis, primarily because of the expense. Organic, lab-tested Cannabis is extremely expensive and the afflicted will not want to make any cooking mistakes with their hard earned money. Now, the availability of ultra high quality, microprocessor controlled machinery, such as the MB2E, has succeeded in making life easier for the end-user. The MB2E is such a product that has broad-reaching flexibility, especially when it comes to infusing craft spirits with fully decarbed THC for medicinal purposes. There has to be an easier way to do this task that the slow-motion infusion process that clogs the inter-webs. Each method has its time and place, but the MB2E method is far superior.