We always find it fascinating to check out what people have been buying. Sometimes you've picked something up on our recommendation, and sometimes we dig through there to see if there's anything we want to buy or review ourselves. Below you'll find the 10 best sellers from this week, plus one item that caught us a bit by surprise. Plus, see the item we were surprised to find nestled in with the drinking gear below.
What's the surprising item, you ask? We'd have to say it's Case Files in Obstetrics and Gynecology - not something we expected to see mixed in with bar tools and breathalyzers, but hey...who are we to judge?
Talk about dedication to drinking - it's come to our attention that we're strictly amateurs. We've never even considered going to the great hereafter ensconced in a giant beer can, much less actually built the coffin and used it as a beer cooler.
We just found out about a new liquor from Thailand called Mekhong, which is apparently made a bit sweet to balance out the spiciness of the food. It's a blended distilled drink that contains sugar and rice, two of our favorite foods, and it sounds pretty high on our list of "must tries." Sounds like it's pretty drinkable, and it's quite possible we'd end up having a bit too much of it - luckily, what happens in Bangkok, stays in Bangkok.
The spirit is made with a bit of the spiritualism that envelops Thailand in mind. It's distilled and fermented and then goes in to several traditional and symbolic stages related to the five natural elements: earth, water, air/wind, fire and aether (the mythical upper air that encompasses everything).
We're sure none of you want to hear the word "drunk" after your Cinco de Mayo celebrations yesterday, but we recently stumbled across this video and thought we'd share it. We were friended on Myspace by a certain Horatio Lee Jenkins recently, and when we watched a video on his profile on a whim it made us chuckle.
Horatio is a Hank Williams Jr. doppelganger, and the song is a blatant riff on "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" with Jim Beam instead of a fiddle, but most of the flag waving shenanigans in the video seem tongue in cheek. Plus, we're kind of wondering if "Satan" in this video is actually Ron Jeremy in disguise.
Remember the old "watermelon full of vodka" trick? Someone would drill a hole in a watermelon and dump in a bottle of vodka or two, then throw it in the freezer? We've got some fond memories of drunkenly spitting out frozen watermelon seeds at a few parties, but we haven't had a good old drunk watermelon in a while. We've just found a recipe that could change that this summer - sounds pretty gourmet with the addition of some vanilla and chambord, and the idea of making individual pops classes up the whole proceeding considerably.
It's Cinco de Mayo again, and for a lot of people, the holiday is just an excuse to crunch some tortilla chips and slurp down a margarita or two. There's nothing wrong with that, but if you're looking for some more inventive ways to use your tequila, Colleen at About.com has some zesty-sounding cocktails for you to try, including Habanero Martinis, variations on the Bloody Maria, and the heartburn-inducing Prairie Fire.
You're already adding salsa to you tacos, burritos and fajitas, a few (okay, maybe more than a few) chili peppers here and there, so why not spice up your cocktails? For this Cinco de Mayo (May 5th) pair the sweetness of Mexico's "spirit" tequila with some of that spice - it makes a fine match and some interesting libations.
We were recently notified about a cool contest the Hpnotiq folks are running, where you can win up to $100,000 for just buying a bottle of the stuff. Seems like a no-brainer to us. And if you win, you'd better share with us, because we're pretty sure our posting of this story makes us ineligible. The things we do for you...
For summer 2008, Hpnotiq Liqueur introduces a $100,000 Grand Prize instant win sweepstakes. The sweepstakes will also feature another $100,000 in first prizes paid out in 200 $500 cash increments in addition to 500 Hpnotiq T-shirts for 2nd prizes.
In order to win, consumers must purchase a 750 ml of Hpnotiq featuring the "Hpnotiq Instant Win" neck hanger POS at retail. Each bottle featuring the neck hanger will have a Hpnotiq cork stopper imprinted with a unique numeric code. Winners will be notified instantly after entering the unique numeric code at Hpnotiq.com. The sweepstakes will begin July 2008, where legal.
Just make sure you're picking up a bottle with the 100 grand tag on it. Hpnotiq.com
We had a lot happen in April, including a whirlwind trip to Brazil...where we didn't even drink any Cachaca. Long story. But nevertheless, we've scoured the Web to find the coolest drinking news and products going, and wrapped them up for you in a neat little package. You're welcome.
One thing we didn't get to do in April was a chance to review the cocktail candles that were sent to us by Gwen at Intoxicated Zodiac, or the Hot D Wake Up Juice that's sitting on our shelf. Our bad. We'll take care of them post haste. But enough dwelling on what we didn't cover - see everything we covered in April after the jump.
This video is a bit longer than we'll normally sit through (like, a whole seven minutes) but this one caught our attention because it's about one of our favorite subjects. You'll learn a whole lot about absinthe, from how it's made to how it was demonized by rival spirits, which helped give it the bad rep it's had lately (a hundred years or so). Get there.
There's something to be said about experimenting with new kinds of cocktails, but are you ready for one that tastes like a hamburger? In the grand tradition of the Bacon Martini, we offer you another slab of chewy goodness - the whiskeyburger. Yes, there's real meat involved. No, there's no bun, but it's made with rye. Yes, we want to try it too.
Ha! Drunken astronauts! This t-shirt design tickles our fancy, but to be honest we're bigger fans of Where My Knickers At and Shockra (8 in the Sacral, 4 in the Root). This one made us laugh too, though.
...or bottle service, anyway, and in doing so the city is once again showing the fringes of its puritanical heritage. Boston has some serious identity problems when it comes to booze - for an Irish town a town with a pub on every corner, there are a lot of stupid rules imposed on drinking (we're looking at you, anti-happy hour legislation). We're not necessarily down with bottle service or the VIP image that goes with it, but if people want to look like their favorite fresh-out-of-rehab celebrities and OC rejects, who're we to stop them?
Most people see bottle service with VIP treatment at a hot club in a big city a special treat and a perk of being able to afford spendy bottles of booze. But one Boston official disagrees and is cracking down on the clubs that offer bottle service to their clients. His argument? That the price of the bottle causes patrons to feel they have to down the whole thing before the night is over which, consequently, steps on the toes of the "happy hour" law of a two-drink max per patron.
There's something to be said for drinks that only contain two ingredients and an optional garnish. If you get the two ingredients in the right proportions, they can be just as satisfying, or moreso, than a cocktail that requires 14 tools, a spotter, and a half hour to make. We've always been fans of the Dark and Stormy, and Jeffrey Morganthaler has put together a nice little piece on them in anticipation of summer.
He even includes recommendations for what brands of ginger beer and rum to buy, and we get the impression if you try to use Schweppes or Canada Dry, he'll find out somehow, come to your house and call you out. We're pretty sure you wouldn't want that.
Remember that scene in Cool Hand Luke where he promises to eat 50 eggs in an hour, and by God he does it? We just found out that scene has inspired an amazing tradition called Newman Day, where instead of eating eggs, they drink 24 beers in 24 hours. Well, no more time to chat - the day's wasting, and we've got to go pick up a case.
Newman Day, or (at Princeton University) Newman's Day, allegedly named after Paul Newman, is an annual tradition at Bates College, Princeton University, Kenyon College, and other colleges where 24 beers are consumed over 24 hours. It usually occurs in January at Bates and every April 24 at Princeton and other colleges. One possible explanation of the name of the tradition at Bates is that Paul Newman once said "24 hours in a day, 24 beers in a case. Coincidence? I think not," and loosely based upon his character in the film Cool Hand Luke.
We can't believe we've made it so long without ever mentioning this abomination of a movie. We're going to buy it and keep it in one of those "In case of emergency break glass" boxes, so we can pull it out if we ever need a reminder why flair bartending is irritating as hell. Or if we want to reinforce that Bryan Brown's career went down the shitter after F/X. Or if we want to bask in Tom Cruise in all his pre-Xenu glory.
News and tips on all things alcoholic, including beer and wine, breathalyzers, cocktails and spirits; plus drink recipes, booze reviews and more. All the news that's fit to drink.
What You Bought This Week: 5/9/08
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