Martini Groove

Belvedere Vodka has partnered with buyyourfriendadrink.com to get you to buy your friend a Belvedere. The site works pretty simply, just pay for the drink on their site, your pal gets an e-mail or text that has a redemption code on it, then they can go to a participating bar and redeem their drink coupon. You also have an option to send them a reusable drink card so that others can buy them drinks too. Participating bars are mostly in NY but there are a smattering of others throughout the country so you can be part of the fun if you live in, say, Biloxi, MS. The card has no set value, so you can give what you want, though there's a 99 cent transaction fee for doing the dirty work. Now you can buy that girl a drink and go home alone, just as if it was any other night, but without all of the actual embarrassment of getting rejected. Buy Your Friend A Belvedere

Did I mention that I was quoted in a newspaper two years ago saying that gin was the next big thing? Well, the world has caught up with my forward thinking and the stuff is everywhere. I'm the Nostradamus of booze. Greenall's is a pretty standard London Dry Gin that reminds you of why you probably didn't drink gin in the first place, but for old-timey gin lovers, it's the stuff of legend. Greenall's has now launched an RTD that is a gin & tonic using their very own gin and Indian tonic water. It's 3 measures of gin in a 12oz can, so you're bound to get your daily gin intake requirement. The stuff has been around Europe for a while but you can see it here in the US in specialty shops already. Greenall's

I know that you want to print out the words I write in this blog so that they may live forever on your walls but that's just not eco-friendly. Instead, why not create a nice .pdf? Use the links to your right to e-mail yourself the page, or send yourself a .pdf or even download a .pdf. It's just better.

About a year after the Mojito rage swept across America and has all but died out, Bacardi has launched their Ready-To-Drink Mojito in a bottle. You'd be hard-pressed to get me to believe that this stuff is every bit as good as a hand-muddled Mojito that's made at your local hangout as the fresh goodness is what makes a Mojito worth ordering. Do you really need a Mojito so bad that you'll want a pre-mixed one with chemicals in it that simulate the taste? This goes in the category with Cosmo, Lemon Drop, and other mixers that you probably don't need because these drinks just aren't *that hard* to make. Hell, anyone who's walked by a sewer run-off can get all of the mint they want. Hey, I'm not trying to pass early judgment on it but this stuff sucks. Bacardi Mojito - 1.75ml - US$19.99

Research has found that drinking too much wine damages the brain more than spirits and particularly beer, according to a study published in the medical journal Alcohol & Alcoholism. The study revealed that the hippocampus, the part of the brain involved in memory, spatial tasks and many other functions, was more than 10% smaller in people who drink more wine than beer. Scientists say alcohol content is not the culprit. Instead, they think there might be something in beer, such as B vitamins and folate, which partially protects the brain from the damage caused by wine. However, let's keep in mind that the study originated in Germany, a place known for beer and not their wine. Wine is worse for the brain than beer

Now that gin is back to being a respectable player on the top shelf of a lot of bars, it was only a matter of time before someone came out with a bottle of the Juniper Love that was just entirely too expensive. Bombay Sapphire got together with fine crystal creator Baccarat, Garrard, the world's oldest jewellery house, and designer Karim Rashid. Each of the five bottles retails for US$200,000 with profits going to charity. Each bottle is topped with a unique jewel-encrusted stopper made with sapphire gems, including a center sapphire. The trademark blue bottle is going to be sold in 5 different airports starting with London Heathrow then moving on to Singapore, New York, Dubai, and Sydney. Profits go to The Smile Train which provides cleft surgery for kids in need. If you have an extra US$200,000 to spend on a bottle, that right there is a worthy cause. Bombay Sapphire

Now, I'm not convinced that Absinthe tastes so amazingly great that I want stuff that's flavored that way, but it seems there is a new way to ease in to the licorice flavored stuff. I've found the best way to get in to Absinthe is to have some drinks that have just a bit in it, some drinks even put the Absinthe in the glass then throw it out to just get the film in the glass and a hint of the anise flavor. Green Moon Vodka is taking another route with it. They're mixing their own Absinthe with their own vodka, coming up with a vodka that's basically like the flavored vodkas, but Absinthe flavored. Their French wheat/barley/hops vodka is distilled five times then filtered three times to make a crisp vodka. They then combine it with their own Absinthe (also from France) and age it for 9 months to create a flavored vodka that makes you feel like you're sucking on a licorice stick. Green Moon Vodka - US$29.99

Just in time for your big St. Patrick's Day Weekend, here's a green drink to fulfill my necessary green drink post that is required by Blogger Law. Sure, there are a ton of them out every year, but I like Aviation's a lot, so this one fits right in. Aviation A classic martini with a sour twist Ingredients: 50 ml Plymouth Gin 35 ml Lemon Juice 15 ml Maraschino Liqueur 1 dash Syrup de Gomme Technique: - Fill mixing glass with ice - Add the Plymouth Gin, lemon juice (freshly squeezed), maraschino liqueur and syrup de gomme (Simple Syrup) - Shake well - Strain into a martini glass - Add lemon zest garnish The recipe came to me from Plymouth so I used their gin for it (and I'd recommend it), but you can use your favorite as well.

Uh oh. Look what showed up on my doorstep sometime in the middle of the night. Or maybe it was this morning, I'm not sure, I haven't been around much. Somehow a keg of Heineken and Heineken Light showed up too. Get ready for lots of sexy sexy. Heineken Beertender

TY KU is a sake liqueur that has more than 20 ingredients in total and some of them claim to be aphrodisiacs, health supplements, and fruit extracts. It's also made with Shochu and about 18 other things. The product came about as a project of two students at Columbia University though the product itself is made in Japan. What's in it? It's the V8 of the liqueur world. The blend of 20 plus ingredients used to flavor TY KU include some power-packed names among the health conscious: pomegranate (antioxidant), Asian pear (hangover remedy), honeydew, yuzu (twice Vitamin C of oranges), plum (Vitamin C), fuji apple (lowers LDL, increases HDL), white cranberry (antioxidant) and oolong and green teas (antioxidants). The spirit is sweetened with elderflower syrup which reduces the sugar factor common among liqueurs and the effects of the aphrodisiacs ginseng, damiana and dragon's eye are thrown in as an added little bonus. What's the other gimmick? Oh yeah, the bottle fre...

The guys from Tim & Eric Awesome Show and Tom Goes to the Mayor and a bunch of stuff on SuperDeluxe.com got free reign to do whatever they want for Absolut, as long as they mentioned the product. I wish more companies would be this liberal with their brand because a lot of good stuff would come out of it. Also, a lot of bad stuff, which could be good too.

It's kind of hard to look like a food-wine pairing pro when you're out on the town and ordering a Big Mac. Unless you thought to look it up before you left, your date will just give you a blank look when she asks you, "What wine goes with a Value Meal?" eWine match has solved the problem by allowing you to text the food you're having to 411511 and it will respond quickly with a few wines from different varietals that go well with the food. This is no "Red meat and red wine" service. If you put in "cheeseburger" you'll get results that include Cabs, but also Shiraz and Chardonnay. Try it for yourself. Sure, standard text messaging rates apply, but it beats the hell out of you giving all of your money to your phone provider because you're still trying to text your vote in for Chris Daughtry from last year. eWine match

Okay, just to let you know, I'm writing this review of Christiana Vodka after drinking *a lot* of Christiana Vodka. Yes, it's that good. Let's not pretend like we're Robert Parker and have a lot of snobby things to say about something that we probably made up in some sort of acid-induced trip while at Burning Man. Seriously, I think he keeps a journal of words to use so when inspiration strikes, he can write it down. The Bottle The bottle is some sort of anomaly. Yes, it's only 750ml, but it seems taller, wider. It holds more . I imagine they use some sort of space-time bottle manipulator. I dunno. I do know that I have it in my large collection of alcohol's that would rival most TGI Friday's and that it stands taller. Do you like how I keep railing on TGI Friday's? It's my new running gag. The Smell It smells like vodka. The Taste Christiana is produced from potatoes. In my opinion, this is something that not enough vodkas are doing. It ma...

Amazon has decided to start using their marketing muscle and hugely popular recommendation engine to start getting booze on your doorstep. Not too long ago, Amazon invested US$30 million in Wineshopper.com only to see that site go belly-up. Currently, they have a small partnership with Wine.com where Wine.com sells gift baskets on their site, but not wine. Some articles are stating that Amazon.com is going to hire a Senior Wine Buyer and handle things themselves. Decanter and others are saying that they have increased their partnership with Wine.com and all orders will be directed from Amazon to Wine.com. Though Wine.com has been successful in the last year, their business practices have come under quite a bit of public scrutiny of late due to the fact that they ordered a bunch of wine from other retailers and had it shipped to states that the retailers should not have shipped to, then proceeded to tattle-tale to state Attorney's General. Most wine bloggers are calling it ...

These fancy ro-bots just might be the wave of the future! In my day we didn't have any namby-pamby mechanized automaton running around giving us things like beer from it's pressurized pony keg. No sir! We had to get a can of Coors from a store that also sold various porn magazines and then we had to pull-off the top of the can to get to what's inside, none of those "flip-tabs" for us! You could always recognize us because most of us were missing the first part of a digit! This ro-bot has a remote control and a headset so that someone can be far away from it and offer comments through the speaker system that's built in. Clever comments such as "Did you dress in the dark today?" or "No, I didn't give you that rash." The nice thing about a ro-bot bartender is that if it spills your beer you could punch him in the neck and not feel too bad about it. Chassis the automaton ro-bot that is the beginning of Skynet/Matrix.