Curaçaos - Don't be affraid

We wanted to change things up a bit and introduce a different color palette to your mixology repertoire. We aren't usually drawn to the bluish frou-frou drinks that arrive with lots of fruit and an umbrella on vacation, however the Blue Ice is a tasty and easy to make lybation. Here's the scoop on Blue Curaçao Liqueur.

Curaçaos history - It's flavoured with the dried peel of the laraha citrus fruit, grown on the island of Curaçao. A non-native plant similar to an orange, the laraha developed from the sweet Valencia orange transplanted by Spanish explorers. The nutrient-poor soil and arid climate of Curaçao proved unsuitable to Valencia cultivation, resulting in small bitter fruit on the trees. But the aromatic peel maintained much of the essence of the Valencia varietal, and the trees were eventually bred into the current laraha cultivar.

Curaçaos flavour - The liqueur has an orange-like flavour with varying degrees of bitterness.

Blue Ice:

• 2 oz vodka
• .5 oz Blue Curaçao Liqueur
• 1 oz fresh lemon juice

Shake all ingredients in a shaker half-filled with ice. Pour in a cocktail glass or in a highball glass filled with ice. Garnish with a slice of dried Pineapple.

Cheers!

a pear you won't soon forget

We've introduced you to various flavor infusions via Vodka, Gin, Whiskey etc, however, infusing vodka is one of the easiest spirits to work with because it's very neutral—making it a wonderful base. Things like fruit, cinnamon sticks, herbs and citrus rind all make for wonderful infusing elements.

Today we're introducing you to our infused Vodka (or Gin) with Pear, Apple and Chai Tea. The Chai gives just that little extra zing making it great for Autumn cocktails that will impress your most discerning guests. Let’s just say you’ll be thanking us next week when you’ve killed the whole bottle.

Ingredients:

• 1 Litre Vodka or Gin
• 2 Jolie Rouge Pears
• 1 Green Apple
• 1-2 Chai Tea Bags

Place vodka in a jar with a tight fitting lid.

Soak the tea bags in the vodka for one hour, then remove and discard. In the meantime, slice up the pear and apple–add to the jar.

Let pears, apples and vodka sit for one week in a closed container.

Once your week is up, your liquor is done infusing. You can strain the pears and apple out of the vodka, and eat or trash, I know what I'd do.

Come back later for a fantastic cocktail recipe using this infusion.

Cheers!

Vodka: potato vs grain

Vodka is defined as a neutral spirit "without distinctive character, aroma, taste or color. In fact, vodka's neutral taste does account for much of its appeal: It mixes equally well with tonic water and tomato juice, and it can be as crisp as James Bond's vodka martinis or as trashy as the "swamp waters" my local bartender mixes (made of vodka and Redbull). Vodka suits any occasion, goes with any food, and "possibly" gives you less of a hangover than any other liquor. It's no wonder that in America, vodka outsells gin, rum, and tequila, as well as scotch, bourbon, and whiskey.

Vodka can be distilled in a good many ways, from a great many substances, including wheat, rye, beets, corn, potatoes, and sugar cane. In Russia, the Yukos oil conglomerate recently made headlines for marketing a vodka distilled from hemp seed. As a result, each brand has a distinct smell, flavor, aftertaste, and burn (i.e., the burning sensation vodka creates as it goes down your throat). The grain-based vodkas, which are the most popular, tend to be smooth and can even go down easy. Vegetable-based vodkas are often, and often unfairly, dismissed as being harsh.

After several tastings, we came up with this short list of tasty, smooth vodkas.

• Brilliant (Distilled from grain)

• Glacier (Distilled from potato)

• Ketel One (Distilled from wheat)

• Armadale (Distilled from wheat and barley)

• Chopin (Distilled from potatos)

All fantastic, but in the end, Chopin was by far the best of the best. So, there you have it, distillation with potato is the winner. Cheers!