At Jezebel, the Cocktail Must Be Kosher – New York Times
Of all the mixologists charged this year with creating a cocktail list in New York, Nick Mautone, the beverage director at the new SoHo restaurant Jezebel, may havefaced the greatest challenge. Jezebel is a kosher restaurant, and the cocktails also had to fall in line with the laws of kashrut.
Kosher wine lists are common in New York, and relatively easy to assemble. All a wine director has to do is look at the label. If it has a hechsher (a symbol of kosher certification), the bottle is a potential candidate for the cut. If not, it’s not. But cocktails are composed of a panoply of ingredients, every one of which must be checked out.
Base spirits are the easy part. “Most spirits are kosher by definition because they’re distilled,” Mr. Mautone said. “All the impurities have been removed. The majority of vodkas, gins, whiskey and tequilas are all kosher.” Still, you have to keep your eyes peeled. Some flavored vodkas and whiskeys are not eligible. And many whiskeys today are finished in wine barrels (port, sherry), a technique that negates their kosher bona fides, since all wine products must be certified.
But a glass of whiskey is not a cocktail. It requires modifying agents, and that’s where things gets hard. Many of the famous liqueurs and bitters — Campari, Benedictine, Chartreuse, Dubonnet, Peychaud’s bitters — that are required to make some of the world’s most famous cocktails are not kosher. That means no Negronis, no Sazeracs, no Vieux Carres, no Bobby Burnses. It’s enough to break your heart.
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Ads for Skyy Vodka Come to TV – New York Times
When it comes to liquor brands arriving on television to advertise, the sky, it seems, is the limit – particularly now that Skyy vodka is joining their ranks.
Skyy, sold by the Campari America unit of Davide Campari-Milano and Grouppo Campari, is to start running its first commercial on Thursday. Until now, the brand’s ads have appeared in print and online.
The commercial is to appear on cable channels like Bravo, Comedy Central, E!, ESPN, ESPN2 and TBS. Plans also call for the spot to run on Web sites that include Facebook, Hulu and YouTube.
Campari America is also looking into running the commercial during “Saturday Night Live” on NBC.
Other distilled spirits that have come onto TV recently include Hornitos, Jägermeister, Maker’s Mark, Pucker, Sailor Jerry rum, Skinnygirl and another Campari America brand, Wild Turkey. They have joined a lengthy list of liquor brands using television, including vodkas like Absolut, Grey Goose, Ketel One and Smirnoff.
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Bow & Truss restaurant adds to North Hollywood’s eclectic mix – Los Angeles Times
The arrival of a restaurant and bar like Bow & Truss has been heralded as a bit of a tipping point when it comes to destination drinking and dining in North Hollywood. It’s walking distance from the Federal Bar, Margolis’ first restaurant venture, which opened a little more than a year ago and draws a hip and fashionable crowd from over the hill as well as a satisfied roster of locals. Like downtown L.A. in 2007, when Cedd Moses opened his pioneering whiskey bar Seven Grand (also with Tello and Demarest), North Hollywood is showing it’s ready for a high-concept craft cocktail bar.
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Island Hoping – Tasting Table
But with globalization comes a blurring of traditional boundaries, and a new rum is showing how flavorful an international approach can be.
A mixture of 23 rums sourced from seven places, Banks 7 Golden Age Blend ($30) displays all the complexity a well-traveled spirit should have. Rum from Barbados lends a nutty character to the mix; Guyanese rum adds a touch of tropical fruit; and a molasses-rich Trinidad spirit gives the blend rugged assertiveness. Guatemalan rum contributes a deep earthiness and Panamanian rum a bracing dryness; these characteristics are topped by a heady, funky fragrance from Jamaican pot-distilled rum, and deepened with a spark of spice from Batavia arrack, a sort of ancestral rum distilled on the Indonesian island of Java.
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The World’s Hottest Vodka – Huffington Post Food
In a world where Peanut Butter and Jelly, and Glazed Donut flavored vodka exists — a chili vodka that will burn your face off is a welcome change. Not only is Naga Chili Vodka the opposite of sweet — but by infusing it with one of the hottest chili peppers on the planet, it is a tongue-melting 100,000 Scovilles hot.
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Whiskey Makes Retirement Easier – The Wall Street Journal
Mr. Meyer is the founder of Wigle Whiskey, a distillery that crafts organic, artisan rye and wheat whiskeys. “There was a state law that forbade distilleries to sell their products on site,” he says. “Our whole plan was to do tastings and sell our whiskey right from the warehouse, so we built a case and testified in front of legislators and got the law changed.”
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Fraser & Neave Play Raises Thai Tycoon’s Profile – Wall Street Journal
Thai beverage PCL’s surprise grab for a US$2.2 billion stake in Singapore-listed beverage group Fraser & Neave Ltd. is raising the profile of its chairman and founder, Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi, as he looks to extend his empire overseas. Although analysts are awaiting more details of Mr. Charoen’s plans for Fraser & Neave, some have said they foresee the potential for a tussle with Heineken for control of the company’s food and beverage assets. That includes Asia Pacific Breweries, a joint venture between Fraser & Neave and Heineken that makes Tiger Beer, one of Southeast Asia’s most successful regional brands.
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