Cocktails and Mixology

Rolling out with a ‘Rol & Rye.

2016 is finally winding down and frankly, it can’t end soon enough. This has been a pretty crappy year on a number of levels, and the icing on the cake for me was getting a 16 penny nail through the sidewall of the driver’s side tire on my car today. Can’t be fixed, so that means I’m buying a new tire. I’m sending 2016 out with a bang this year and starting January 1, 2017, I’m giving up the booze. Yes you read that right, I’m quitting drinking. (this is where all my friends and relatives roll their eyes and say “I’ll believe it when I see it.) The goal is to make it June 1 and just like when I quit smoking cold turkey January 1, 1992 it’s a goal I intend to keep.

One of the things I intend to do between January 1, and the first day of summer is document the physical changes the lack of alcohol will have on my body. I intend to take a photo a day of myself, weigh myself, and take note of any positive and or negative effects it has on me. Hopefully, come June 21, 2017 I’ll have something interesting to report. Maybe not, but the challenge is on in a little less than 48 hours.

Since I’m choosing to “Lose the Booze” in 2017, I thought it would be fitting to post a nice New Years Eve cocktail recipe that everyone can make and share. Behold the ‘Rol and Rye. It’s easy to make, easy to drink, and easy to share. Enjoy.

rolandrye

Interactive / Analog Advertising in Peru.

Interactive goes analog with the launch of the new Abraxas beer ad in Lima magazine. Produced for SAB Miller by Wunderman Phantasia PERU, the ad is deceptively simple. Turn the flashlight on, on your phone, or just use a strong light source to reveal a secret message by suing the light through the back of the ad. I love this because it encourages you to use your smartphone, but requires no app, QR code, or any other digital device. Nice, simple, effective.

Out of the Jar.

Out of the Jar by Gestalten is a new book about the best, and some of the most unusual spirits from small distillers around the world. These are spirits made by a new generation of distillers who are using combinations of rare fruits, herbs, grains and spices to reinvent and reinterpret high octane recipes for alcoholic drinks. The book features distillers that are crafting these by hand from the distllery to to bottling the final product. The video above introduces a hands-on whiskey maker from a prohibition-era distillery in Brooklyn, a passionate mezcalero who doesn’t chicken out from an unusual recipe, and a Berlin-based artisan whose rum is taking the world’s best cocktail bars by storm. It’s a nice little video short with quality production value, and it makes me want to go find some of the booze featured here.

ABSOLUT Glass.

ABSOLUT VODKA commissioned Designer Thomas Feichtner to design of a new vodka glass to compliment their new hand crafted small batch vodka , ABSOLUT ELYX. The vodka is distilled from wheat that is grown within a few miles of the distillery, in the original copper kettle from 1921 used by ABSOLUT.

Drawing inspiration from other design projects he has been working on, Feichtner created a three leg glass that is produced by hand with the highest quality workmanship of which was key to this vodka’s concept. The glass picks up formally on many of his previous works while retaining an independent character.

“I’m fascinated by the formal alternation between positive and negative, between sine and cosine. And here, I absolutely wanted to separate the glass’s body from the surface upon which it stands and thereby also create a visually independent and self-sufficient object,” Thomas Feichtner

To compliment the glass, and the special vodka ABSOLUT and Thomas Feichtner have created a unique cocktail to go in it. The “Absolut Feichtner” which is comprised of a bit of wheat syrup and lime juice, and a shot of Peychaud’s syrup and a dash of Angostura Bitters. I haven’t tried it yet, but the ABSOLUT web site describes it as “rather light in body with floral aromas, supporting the vodka’s natural taste. The soft coppery hue that refers back to its origin: The nearly 100-year-old copper kettle No. 51 in Åhus, Sweden.