Hey ho daddy-o, you won’t believe it but we’ve made the mighty and masterful Cocktail to Cocktail Hour Season Two even more magnificent and helpful for the masses. How, you say, is this impossibility possible? By adding a new segment in the show called “Everyday Drinking,” a segment designed to help solve the problems of everyday drinkers, drinkers that are just like you and me (except without my awesome suit and trophy wife). Learn more in the most recent episode of the roaring Cocktail to Cocktail Hour.
Brrr, it’s cold (if you live in sunny Seattle, pretend with me). And even colder if you live in the arctic regions or happen to be a polar explorer. But have no fear, winter wonderlanders, I have a solution to your freezing problem: the Hot Brick. To test my solution, I’ve just spent six months living in the arctic. And then I filmed my results for the most recent episode of the Cocktail to Cocktail Hour. See below, please, and take off the freeze.
In the second smashing episode of the new season of the Cocktail to Cocktail Hour (hey, didja somehow miss the first episode with poet Ed Skoog and the Ellipse cocktail? They watch it now) I my-own-self take the stage in the Cocktail to Cocktail studios to make a brandy-Benedictine-Cointreau-lemon drink called They Shall Inherit the Earth. It was originally created by Morley Callaghan, a Canadian writer from years past. Oh, and there’s singing. And more singing by some shady folks who stopped in the studio. Curious? Watch it for gosh sakes.
Ba, baa, baaa, ba bum! That’s right cocktail lovers, the moment you’ve dreamed about since the finale of the last season of the Cocktail to Cocktail Hour dripped to a close is here–the new C2C season is now beginning (sorry for the wait. Our cameraman had some problems in a Central American lock up. But all’s well now). And what a beginning it is, friends, one that will be sung about in bars from here to Poughkeepsie. We have a very special lit’rary guest for this first episode, none other than poet and drink-maker and shot-putter extraordinaire, Ed Skoog, making his soon-to-be-renowned cocktail (a cocktail featured in Ginger Bliss and the Violet Fizz) the Ellipse. I’d say more, but I don’t want to spoil the fun, and the episode is a tad lengthy, so, with no further palaver, let the new season begin.
Okay, a warning: I’m going to talk about the following release party a lot. But can you blame me? In future mentions, I’ll probably provide some recipes and such from the book I’m about to mention, but for now, a drum roll for the down-and-dirty party details. But what is the party? It’s a release party for Ginger Bliss and the Violet Fizz: A Cocktail Lover’s Guide to Mixing Drinks Using New and Classic Liqueurs, my new book, and is an afternoon affair happening at the Rob Roy, 2332 2nd Avenue, Seattle, WA, on Saturday, October 8th, from 2 to 4 pm. I’ll be selling and signing books and genius bartender Andrew Bohrer (he of the Cask Strength blog) will be making Bitter Handshakes and Bruja Smashes (drinks of his featured in the book) and other drinks. It should be fun and a good excuse to have a good cocktail in the afternoon–so come on down, have that drink.
To woo you into stopping by, let me tell you that Ginger Bliss and Violet Fizz not only is bubbling over with liqueur info and history, party talk, and general boozy silliness, but features around 200 recipes broken into chapters arranged by flavor profile (A Liquid Citrus Circus, for example). The recipes range from lesser-known classics to more modern sure-to-be classics from top pro and home bartenders (many of whom I’ll mention more on this very blog as we get nearer the date). Need even more information? Well, check out the Ginger Bliss and Violet Fizz video. It’s time for you to join the GBVF Army!
As our producer and director owns stock in the BBC, our “season” lasts a mere six episodes (much like the Snuff Box). Which means (grab those hankies now) this is the last episode in this new season. And, if I can preen the feathers a bit, it’s a humdinger. In this finale, I’ll not only sing and dance (really!), I’ll also teach you to make the somewhat sultry Bedroom Eyes, a fine number that puts I think I delicious cocktail capper on another season of the show about cocktails and drinking and good times, the Good Spirits Cocktail to Cocktail Hour. But wait! Before clicking on the “play” button and icing up the shaker though, I must take another moment to thank our sponsors in writing (it’s a contractual thing—hey, every little helps). So, raise your glasses in a cheer for Holt’s Hangover Helpers, Fuller’s Homemade Liqueurs, Cash and Harley’s Fund for Young Bartenders, Butler’s House of Garnishes. And of course, raise another glass in a cheer for yourself, our viewers. Without you, well, we’d have to drink more ourselves.
It’s a Valentine’s Special (though not just to be imbibed on that particular day, or watched) here on the Cocktail to Cocktail Hour, as wife Nat drops by the studios for a bit of charming banter as she teaches you how to make the Princess, a tall, delicious, limeoncello-backed number that’s ideal both for serving to that someone closest to you and for having every day when the heat’s risen. It’s a romantically bubbly episode of the new season of the show about cocktails and drinking and good times, the Good Spirits Cocktail to Cocktail Hour.
