It’s the second appearance this season from imbibing magician Andrew Bohrer, who makes his newest special guest manifestation to teach you to make the Bitter Handshake, a Fernet Branca-based cocktail Andrew created (and one that’s become a huge hit).You’ll also see hypnotic ice ball carving, hear about Andrew’s mystical spirit animal, view Andrew’s enchanted locks, and enjoy more supernatural shenanigans in this episode of the new season of the show about cocktails and drinking and good times, the Cocktail to Cocktail Hour.
To begin the New Year, the new season of the Good Spirit Cocktail to Cocktail Hour has an extra-fantastic episode, just for you. It boasts an extra-fantastic special guest: home entertainer deluxe, musical madman, media master, really, he’s a genre spanner, Mr. Mark Butler. Mark traveled all the way to the Cocktail to Cocktail studios just to teach us, and you, how to make the mysterious (Midwestern mysterious, that is) Occidental cocktail—the ideal treat for 2011 (even if it was featured in Dark Spirits a few years back). Put it on your menus people, and enjoy.
Hello hello, and sorry for the extended holiday break from blog posts. But at least I left you with the first two episodes of the new season of the Cocktail to Cocktail Hour (still four more new episodes left—can you believe it!). And, I’m back to help you start your New Year right, with a link to a blog post on the PBS blog The Daily Need, a post which features videos from four (that’s right, four) of the poets who have poems in In Their Cups: An Anthology of Poems about Drinking Places, Drinks, and Drinkers. Each poet is reading one of the poems they have in the book while sipping on a favorite drink. I can’t think of any way to kick start a cocktail-a-rific and poetic year than by watching the videos (repeatedly, to ensure the year is really all that and then some). The post includes videos featuring amazing writers (and charming drinking companions) Ed Skoog, Amy Fleury, Emily Bedard, and also a video with me (wearing a boss coat, I have to admit). So what are you waiting for? Get your year started right by heading to the Daily Need now.
Here we are (after a little delay due to French, Italian, and Russian TV censor problems) with Episode Two of the new season of the Good Spirit Cocktail to Cocktail Hour, hosted by me. In this episode, I take over the mixing duties (and the “wearing-painful-garlands” duties) and show how to make an Eden Cocktail. The Eden is a sparkling wine drink, with rum, Campari, fruit juices, and bubbly. It’s ideal for the holiday season, so let’s call this the C2C holiday special! Oh, there’s swearing in here (it is the holidays), but it’s bleeped out. So, play the video for the kiddies as the Yule log burns and as you load up on holiday puddings. And a ho, ho, ho to you, too.
Okay, that’s the world’s longest blog title, but I just wanted to get everything in and would have even bolded it if this blogging software would let me. But it wouldn’t (even after I promised it drinks). That’s how excited I am that the first episode of the new season of A.J.’s Good Spirit Cocktail to Cocktail Hour is done! For this season, we wanted to really knock some boozy socks off, so we took the camera and crew on the road to Seattle’s Mistral Kitchen, so bar manager and boy cocktail genius Andrew Bohrer (proprietor of the Cask Strength blog, too) could get all up in his molecular mixologist for you with an updated version of the Jimmy Roosevelt. As it’s the first episode and such a big whomping deal, it’s longer than normal–but you get twice the fun, twice the laughs, and (most of all) twice the cocktailing! We are still haggling with our normal Swedish station, so the only way you can see this currently is online (thanks to AKTV). Please send it to your friends, your bartenders, your paramours, and anyone else whose email you have. Cheers!
Or at least he thinks he can in the below video. But he is challenging you to prove him wrong. So, if you’re tough enough, film yourself and then let him know. I’m just happy I can have an open beer served to me really darn fast (and without even having to break the bottle’s neck off with a rock. Which is what I usually do).
I am going to get out of the way on this one, because the important talking is all done in the below video, which is a sweet (but not sugary) review of Dark Spirits. The review comes from Jen at the Library of Eden (and, in case you’re getting all wiggy about it, let me assure you–I know no one from the Library of Eden, so this is an unbias’d awesome freaking review.) Check it out:
Some (foolish ones) think a marathon is just a race ran a certain number of miles from point A to point B. When, actually, many things (life, even, if you know the full story) are marathons, going from one point to another. Heck, maybe that’s just the way it feels today though. Whichever case you’re in to, it’s nice to have a good drink to sip after the marathon is over, or before the marathon happens, or to sip instead of running at all (my choice). I think the Class of the Race is ideal for these situations, with its classy blend of bubbly, bourbon, Bénédictine, Peychaud’s, and a touch of simply syrup. Learn to make it (and watch a real marathon ending with it) in the below video, filmed by Dr. Gonzo (genius—have you emailed him about getting your quarterly free Khaos Apocrypher by the way?) and featuring a troop of serious runners. Or drinkers.
It’s the second appearance this season from imbibing magician Andrew Bohrer, who makes his newest special guest manifestation to teach you to make the Bitter Handshake, a Fernet Branca-based cocktail Andrew created (and one that’s become a huge hit). You’ll also see hypnotic ice ball carving, hear about Andrew’s mystical spirit animal, view Andrew’s enchanted locks, and enjoy more supernatural shenanigans in this episode of the new season of the show about cocktails and drinking and good times, the Cocktail to Cocktail Hour. 
