Sip This: Koskenkorva Vodka

Brands get rebranded all the time, but this Finnish vodka, around since 1953, certainly deserves its new marketing push if you’d like something smooth yet intriguing to sip on its own or to craft a cocktail with.

Want to read the rest then do so at the Independent's site.

Sip This: Cooperstown Distillery Triple Play

Cooperstown Distillery Triple Play: Got a serious drinkin’ baseball fan that needs a gift? Who doesn’t? (It was just the All-Star game, folks!)

It turns out Cooperstown’s got more than the Hall of Fame and the hots for Natty Bumppo; the town’s namesake distillery is crafting fine spirits, and, even better, packaging the heck out of them. We’re talking bottles shaped like baseballs, three in a box.

Want to read the rest then do so at the Independent's site.

The Drink That Stirs the Straw

Growing up there was one, just one thing I could do faster than all the other kids--turn the page. I could read like nobody's business. So while pretty much anyone could go home-to-first or basket-to-basket or a quarter mile quicker than I could, I didn't care. I'd be busy reading them under the table. Perhaps hiding under one. But that's not the point.

That didn't stop me from loving baseball. Or helped me love losers at baseball, the Mets. While a year older than I am, they've only won two World Series in my lifetime, one I don't really remember (hey, what did you do when you were six?). But I got obsessed and it's still my favorite sport to the point I sort of tolerate that there are other sports in inverse relationship to how much good writing there is about them.

Not longer after the baseball bug bit, I discovered the joys of drinking. Which, of course, sounds wrong, but I've been always interested in a cut above my station and the drinking age was still 18 then. Living up in New Jersey my family would do things like occasionally go to a New York City dinner at the Rainbow Room, so maybe I got Art Deco and Fred and Ginger (who I didn't learn about really until grad school) and martini glasses all confused with my first beef Wellington and Manhattan (the island and not the cocktail) twinkling below. Who knows. But I was into import beer when that merely meant Heineken and Bass (remember those pre-adventurous days?), and somehow, well, no doubt a how aping my dad, into Scotch at 15. Not like every weekend, but I can remember one New Year's Eve with a bottle of Black & White and those cute doggies on the label and discovering for the first time in my life the perfect pitch of buzzed not sloshed. That's a halcyon spot I've hankered for more than I've cared to admit since.

So, look at this. There's a distillery in Cooperstown. (Why not, what town now doesn't have one?) But you can get a sampler called "The Triple Play" and it's got bourbon, vodka, and whiskey in 50 mL bottles shaped like little baseballs. This is a halcyon spot of Tom Seaver's knee dirty with full extension as his slider strikes a bum like Pete Rose out, of Darryl Strawberry's amazing Stretch Armstrong limbs knocking the snot out of a pitch, of Johan Santana, his arm basically a rubber band wearing down, finally tossing the club's first no hitter after 8000 games. And craft liquor.

Sure I'm going to review this stuff, but more than anything I want to praise its brilliance as marketing genius to at least one middle aged man. And when I empty a bottle I only wish I still had my Pitchback and try to pretend I could drop a curve on the outside corner just like fellow lefty Jon Matlack could, back in 1973 when I learned the fun of comebacks, underdogs, hope that wasn't mere smoke. When I also learned never to give up, and to lose (damn A's!), and to cry, and then there's tomorrow. To think I did all that without whiskey, even.

Basil So Nasal (Yes, This Is a Cocktail)

There's always that temptation to save dinner's leftovers for tomorrow's breakfast scramble, or if there's enough remaining, the next supper. My suggestion is this--throw those leftovers into a cocktail. Tonight our daughter and daughter-in-law kindly made us a scrumptious vegetable red curry dinner that got some Thai basil as garnish. So while we devoured every last curry drop, we still had a bit of the basil left.

I'm drinking it right now. I had a bag of limes that desperately asked to be juiced, and I had that lovely curry still warming my palate. You can guess where the flavor profile will go from there for The Curiouser Cocktail. And yes, buy some Aperol. Think of it as Campari light (not lite)--less alcohol, less bitters, less color. But lots of exotic citrus and spice. It gives the ginger, lime, and basil mid-range they'd never have on their own. As for that shrub, you can buy it in Santa Barbara at Still, where all you discerning drinkers should be shopping.

The Curiouser Cocktail

(makes two drinks)

2 oz. fresh squeezed lime juice
1 TBS. or so of torn Thai basil leaves
4 oz vodka (I used Snow Leopard)
1 oz. ginger shrub (I used the one by Shrub & Co.)
1 oz. Aperol

Muddle the basil in the lime juice. Add the vodka, ginger shrub, and Aperol, ice, and shake well. Strain with a mesh (to keep out all the torn basil) into two old-fashioned glasses that each have one large ice cube. Garnish with a star anise per drink, if you got them, but that's all for added aromatics, a nice plus but not crucial.

Sip This: Snow Leopard Vodka

Snow Leopard Vodka: Named after an elusive, endangered creature (and with 15 percent of each sale going to preservation efforts), this spirit is also unique as it’s distilled from spelt, an ancient grain that’s a cousin to wheat. That’s enough to help it stand out from the premium vodka pack, in addition to the gorgeous frosted bottle featuring the titular cat.

Want to read the rest then do so at the Independent's site.

Sip This: Hangar 1 Vodka

Hangar 1 Straight Vodka Yes, it’s a new Hangar 1. The backstory: Originally created by St. George Spirits in Alameda, the brand was such a success the artisanal makers sold it to the bigger Proximo Spirits (makers of 1800 Tequila, The Kraken rum, etc.) in 2010, producing it for them until 2014.

Want to read the rest then do so at the Independent's site.

Sip This: Corbin Sweet Potato Vodka

Corbin California Estate Grown Sweet Potato Vodka: It takes 10 pounds of sweet potatoes per bottle — that’s several Thanksgiving feasts per 750ml — to make Corbin. But it’s worth it if you want a vodka with some character and not just some odorless, colorless spirit. It’s very smooth, with flashes of nut flavors and that sweet potato sweet that’s a deeper sugar.

Want to read the rest then do so at the Indy's site.

S.B. Barrels Aren’t Just for Wine Anymore

It turns out making moonshine — and bourbon and vodka and gin — is a family business. That’s what Steve Gertman, president and master distiller at the new Ascendant Spirits, has discovered. Gertman left a career as a television producer for automotive-oriented programs to open Santa Barbara’s first legal full distillery since Prohibition. “I suckered my dad into the business, so like our neighbors Figueroa Mountain, we’re a son-father business,” Gertman relates. “My dad is a several-times-over entrepreneur and had always been pushing me to do that. And with all the playing around with speeding cars, my mother was very pleased I changed to a nice safe profession like distilling.”

Want to read the rest then do so at the Indy's site.