Martini Groove

What?  Dairy Queen came out with a vodka?  CAN I GET IT IN A BLIZZARD? Well, DQ doesn't come from America's Heartland but from Sweden and is the first publicly owned vodka from Sweden since they gave up the government monopoly with Absolut and DQ is for Distilled Intelligence.  No, intelligence doesn't start with a Q, I just read the press releases.  The vodka comes from wheat seeds that are planted in autumn, rather than spring, and allowed to mature before sprouting, thus removing biological impurities.  After multiple distillations and filtrations, it's then blended with a soft, clean water from Malmköping, which is protected by the government. The truly unique thing about this vodka is that it's mixed at the end of its with some more of the raw spirit, adding to its complexity.   DQ Vodka - US$65

If there's anything that goes together as well as Orange County and Bend, OR, then you'll have to tell me after I'm done drinking this Cabernet with Mexican food.  BU-TAY vodka is made from corn and then filtered five times through charcoal and crushed vodka.  It's then blended with water from beautiful Bend, OR to create a vodka strictly for your upper-middle class lifestyle.  The stuff is sold out of Orange County and is only available in Southern California.  Though you can buy it online . BU-TAY Vodka - US$25.99

Remember when beer commercials were always just completely freakin' awesome? It seems like the beer companies have gotten a bit lackadaisical about entertaining us in the name of some old guy telling me how their beer is made. Stampede brings back the glory days with the GREATEST BEER COMMERCIAL OF ALL TIME. (This week).

I was reading Neyah White's blog and he posted this cool video about some Bartender Anime and then I looked at the "related" and found this. It's a video of this bartender in Vegas making a Liquid Panty Dropper for about one minute then she dances around the run-down bar like a stripper for the next 3 minutes, except she's not a stripper, because she's in Vegas and strippers in Vegas work less and make more money. Faaabuloooous!

Only 8 months after real absinthe has become legalized in the U.S., the importers and overseas producers have really started taking advantage of the buzz and mystique that absinthe holds and launching like crazy here. With more absinthe launches than vodka lately, it may not be long until the brands are just as gimmicky. Three new absinthe's have launched this week in hopes of garnering early market share in a soon-to-be-crowded market. La Fee Absinthe Parisienne is made in Paris and has been around for a while as it's been sold in 20 countries for the last 10 years or so. The product is made by traditional standards and the owner of the recipe still approves each batch of La Fee. For a while, Lucid Absinthe was the only one you could get in the US as it wasn't made from the traditional Grand Wormwood (until March of 2007) so it could get away with going around the law. The producers guessed that the stuff that was considered a fake (but still very flavorful) wasn'...

The makers of middle entry UV Vodka are launching another line to spend a bit more time on the upper shelf. Prairie Organic Vodka is a collaboration between Phillips and a 900 strong farmer's co-op in Benson, MN. The corn-based vodka is not only organic, but also kosher. Oh what a mitzvah they've done! It's then distilled 4 to 6 times based on the state of the corn that they receive. The company uses leftover corn cobs and other biomass to power the plant itself in an effort to create something that's carbon neutral. Nothing is said about where the water comes from but it's Minnesota, so probably some lake. Prairie Vodka - US$21.99

Now that they figured out that all the junk about Absinthe making you cut your ear off and making you have a mistress was mostly because people were just really drunk and not hallucinating, it seems that everyone's trying to get their hands on Absinthe. The problem is that the people that are making the good stuff, like St. George, aren't making enough of the good stuff. Companies are finally starting to get on the bandwagon and getting their Wormwood in to the US market. Absinthe Mata Hari is the Austrian company that's working on national distribution of their all-natural Absinthe. The formula has been around since 1881 and it's loaded with Thujone and Absinthin. The nice thing about the natural ones is that they get the nice louche effect, so it becomes good and cloudy. Mata Hari is launching in the Midwest first, including Texas, Louisiana, and Missouri up through Indiana. You should see it start selling for around US$40. Mata Hari

Here's a funny thing: I got this book to review near the end of last summer, which didn't make much sense because it was a summer book but there was no summer left. Also, I don't usually review books, so I had to learn how to read without moving my lips. The Backyard Bartender: 55 Cool Summer Cocktails by Nicole Aloni made me long for summer as I used it to keep me warm through the cold, wet California winter. Just kidding, California winters are awesome. Anyway, the book covers a lot for such a tiny little tome. From how to stock your bar, to what tools you'll need to look like a pro, to plenty of tasty recipes to refresh and relax you on the veranda. (Would you like to kiss me on the veranda? No, the lips would be fine.) One of my favorite sections that a lot of other books ignore is the section on Cocktails for a Crowd. When you throw a summer party you're not always interested in standing around and mixing cocktails for each person, this section teaches yo...

Alcohol BG Killer is a new drink on the US market (it's been in Europe for a few years now) that says that it can dramatically reduce your blood alcohol level and the amount of alcohol that is reported when you blow in to a Breathalyzer. The drink says that it uses a unique blend of herbs and spices (just like Kentucky Fried Chicken) in order to increase your body's ability to eliminate the toxins from your body. Which means it may also be used after eating Kentucky Fried Chicken. The press release is full of vague statements like "shows promise" and "could help" but says they have proof that it reduces your B.A.C. that is shown when you have to blow in to the Breathalyzer. I'll agree that sometimes taking a cab is a pain in the ass but it's just not worth it and this drink isn't going to save you. Call a cab or your mom or whomever. You can call my mom, but she's really grumpy when she has to pick someone up late. Alcohol BG Killer

Summer's here and it's already hot in my neck of the woods, so great drinks that cool you off are as good as gold in my house. Gold is also as good as gold in my house, which is why I built both of my kids out of pure gold. When Limonce showed up on my doorstep I was pretty stoked because I'd heard a lot about all of the new limoncello's out but haven't had an opportunity to try any except the homemade ones that I get from friends. Plus, it looks like gold. I love goooooold! Let's not really talk about the bottle because it's not like it's laced with gold flakes or is filtered with diamonds. It looks like a liqueur bottle. The taste and stuff After chilling the bottle really well, it didn't take me very long to think of it when I was looking to cool down. I poured myself a glass on the rocks. Mmmmm. Lemony goodness. When I started drinking it my first instinct was that I was drinking frozen lemon concentrate that had thawed out. I didn't ...

Taylor in Manhattan is another one of those places that is an incredible bar that is also trying to do food, but not that well. The bar is top-notch however and they've come up with gummi bears made from Absinthe to compliment some of their house cocktails. The gummi bear is 85% Absinthe with just a bit of gelatin and sugar to keep it in it's gummi shape. Now I know what to hand out this year at Halloween. Absinthe Gummi Bears at Taylor

In the heady days of London's tube-riding, that is to say, last month, you could ride around the tube, toting whatever alcoholic beverage you so desired. It was a renaissance in public transportation. The law recently changed and, as of June 1, you can't bring your favorite libation in to the tunnels deep beneath London. The Underground is strictly dry and most of the people aren't happy about it. In a protest just before the below-ground-prohibition took place, 50,000 people crammed in to The Underground to piss the night away in a drunken orgy of subway amusement. Check out the video below. via Drink of the Week

I have a ton of samples of various alcohols that I've tried, have notes on, but just haven't sat my ass down to write the review. Why? Because I'm drinking. However, Depaz Rhum has made it to the front of my list for being absolutely faaaaaabulous! (Two snaps). Lemme 'splain: Most rums are made with molasses and sugarcane by-products while Depaz is an agricole. That is to say they harvest fresh sugarcane then ship it to the distillery where it's crushed in the mill and the sweet juices are collected, then distilled. Not only that, they use blue cane, one of the more expensive canes out there. If you had to make a selection just based on the descriptions there it would be a no brainer on which to select, but most people don't know this about their rum so go with the cheap stuff that assaults their senses. Depaz Rhum (add the "h" for the traditional French spelling) is all class and is the equivalent of a great scotch, except it's rhum. Depa...

Just in case you were wondering what the Russians were up to in their part of the space station, now we know. They've been growing barley for beer. Japanese beermaker Sapporo is taking the barley and making beer out of it. You see, beer sales have been rather flat in Japan so they're trying to come up with gimmicks that will help get it some press. However, the beer they make won't be available for sale, thus making the press completely useless to anyone. They'll have enough barley to make 100 bottles of beer (on the wall) but haven't decided just how they're going to distribute them. Japanese brewery to make beer from space barley