Drink Matron

Tag: Cocktails

  • Summer time is a good time for drinking

    Summer time is a good time for drinking

    Tomorrow is the beginning of summer and I am excited! It’s been a great spring so far – a bit rainy, but perfectly mild – and I expect that summer will continue the same way. Great summers come with one of my favorite things – drinking outside. I love sitting outside at a bar, restaurant, or patio, sipping on beer, sangria, or a refreshing cocktail, and chatting with friends, or staying quiet and just enjoying the world around me. Life is just better with a drink and some sunshine.

    Along with drinking outside comes farm fresh brunches and day drinking. Bloodies Mary with just picked garnishes, mimosas with freshly squeezed orange juice, mint for your mojitos that the bartender sent you back to grab from the vine yourself – these are just a handful of reasons that summer day drinking is the best.

    Pool or beach side, summer brings us classic and new takes on margaritas, pina coladas, and daiquiris. These drinks bring us to a tropical state of mind and keep us their all day, weekend, or even summer long.

    And the beers! Oh, the beers of summer are the best, aren’t they? IPAs, wheats, kolsch, sour ales, and saisons make the summer nights so much more tolerable, bringing your spirits up and cooling your body down (and rocking your pallet all the while).

    No matter how you drink your summer, it’s going to be a good one. So fill up your cups, and go enjoy. I’ll be with you all the way.

    Cheers!

  • Portrait Party Event Photos

  • Bushwick Portrait Party 2012

    This weekend we will be attending our amazing friend Justin’s annual Portrait Party in Bushwick, Brooklyn.

    Justin began this tradition when we had the fantastic honor of living with him for 5 months when we moved to NYC the first time in 2009.  He’s a photographer and wanted a chance to take some fun and interesting pictures.  The party went so well, that he turned it into an annual event.  It will be a night of cocktails, beer, beautiful people, and most of all, portraits. (Well, for me it will be mostly about cocktails and beer, but you know what I mean…)

    To attend you’re not required to get your portrait taken, but it is strongly advised. Adrian took a few interesting ones back in 2009, and I expect there will be plenty more where that came from this year.

  • Surprising discoveries about ginger beer

    So what is Ginger beer anyway? That was the question that I had in my head when the Dark ‘n’ Stormy started showing up on my radar. I assumed it was a low alcohol fizzy beer from England (and the name reminded me a whole lot of “butter beer” from the Harry Potter franchise).

    Well, it turns out, yes, the drink originated in England, and it’s fizzy just like the more common ginger ale, but it’s not actually alcoholic – anymore. Once upon a time in England it had 11% alcohol in it, but that changed in 1855 when laws were passed requiring non-excisable beverages to contain less than 2% alcohol.

    Then, I asked myself, what about alcoholic ginger beer? Isn’t that what’s required to make a Dark ‘n’ Stormy? Nope. The most commonly used ginger beer for a Dark ‘n’ Stormy is Barritt’s, and that’s completely alcohol free, as is Gosling’s own ginger beer.

    I guess you learn something new everyday.

    There is alcoholic ginger beer; however, despite what is said. Last weekend, at the Brooklyn Waterfront Craft Beer Fest, I tasted an excellent alcoholic ginger beer called Crabbie’s.  There’s also Royal Jamaican, Blue Tongue, Hollows, and Franks, to name a few. It’s difficult to find, though, so if you’re in the United States, don’t expect to walk into your local grocery or liquor store and happen across it.

  • Found on the Internet: One Drink, Five Ways: Rum and ginger beer

    Here’s a great article from Metromix New York about the many ways the Dark ‘n’ Stormy can be interpreted.

    http://newyork.metromix.com/bars-and-clubs/standard_photo_gallery/one-drink-five-ways/731037/content