Cheers Features

The Huffington Post ran an article in October titled “The Aviation Cocktail: How It Made Me Love Gin Drinks Forever.” I didn’t write the piece, but I could have—The Aviation recently inspired me to try gin again, too. As a result, I am now intrigued by the botanical spirit—after all but giving up on it some years ago.

Corks are popping all over restaurants, and not just from Champagne bottles. The expanding options in sparkling wines are appealing to guests who want to celebrate everyday occasions with affordable bubbles, according to several restaurant and wine bar operators.

Cheers Drink Recipes

1 ½ oz. London dry gin

¼ oz. Zirbenz stone pine liqueur

1 oz. Egg white

¾ oz. Lime juice

1 tsp. Powdered sugar

½ oz. Simple syrup

Pine needles for garnish

 

Add all except garnish into a cocktail shaker. Add ice and shake vigorously. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with pine needles.

 

This recipe is courtesy of Pick and Rocks Cocktails in San Diego.

Cheers Breaking News

Prohibition was repealed 79 years ago today. Here’s a look at how that 14-year period transformed American drinking habits.

Madcap mixologist Keith LaBonte, who died Nov. 18 at his home in Dallas, was a charming, glad-handing ambassador of good times, relentlessly energetic and aspiring.

Local sourcing, healthful kids’ meals to be top menu trends; onsite barrel-aging, food-spirits pairings to be top drink menu trends.

An Applebee’s in New York will be the first restaurant in the city to receive a gold Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification from the Green Building Council.

Bigger isn’t always better: Why diminutive drinks are the next big thing.

Cheers Product Watch

Sip Moscato is a new wine available from Vantage Point. The ultra-premium moscato has no added residual sugar, but gains sweetness from arrested fermentation, according to the company. It features notes of citrus, peaches and tropical fruits, and is available for a suggested retail price of $14.99 per bottle.

Orange Exclusiv vodka is now available just in time for Halloween. The Maldovan vodka is distilled from wheat and available for a suggested retail price of $9.99 for a 750-ml. bottle.

Parker’s Heritage Collection 2012 release is now available from Heaven Hill Distilleries. The sixth annual edition is a limited release that pays tribute to sixth-generation master distiller Parker Beam. The release features select barrels of 11-year old rye-based bourbons, with barrels of wheated mashbill used for Old Fitzgerald, also aged 11 years. Approximately 7,500 bottles will be available nationwide, for an suggested retail price of $80 for a 750-ml. bottle.

Latest Blog Posts

Liza Zimmerman

House wine often has negative connotations in the U.S. That’s because house wine has often been poured from a large, less-than-divine jug or a bag-in-a-box hidden behind the bar. But there’s no reason house wine couldn’t be an interesting, local selection of the restaurant served in a more appealing way.

Stephen Beaumont

As a scribe of beer, I am often called upon to teach people about different beers styles, be they students enduring the mandated beer portion of the sommelier course, restaurant or bar staff seeking to learn a bit about the liquids they’re selling, or interested aficionados curious about Pale Ale X or Pilsner Y. And as an evangelist of flavourful ales and lagers, I always do my best to make sense of it all. Now if only I understood it myself!