Landor + Old Fitzgerald Decanter / A Design Story

A 60s promo film by Landor Associates on their design process for the Old Fitzgerald decanter bottles.

They used to be so beautiful…what happened to Old Fitzgerald?

CURRENT BOTTLE DESIGN /

BEFORE /

Secret Monk-Warrior-Guarded Liqueur Recipes? or Not-so-ancient Art of Marketing →

{from the Atlantic}
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/02/the-secret-ingredient/8910/ 

The Secret Ingredient

Chantanee’s Naga Lounge

Nesting in the lower floor of an office building all the way across the water on the eastern shores of Lake Washington—the city of Bellevue, Naga is a not-so-hidden gem that offers excellence in barmanship. 

Barmanship…is that even a word? No matter, Naga has never failed to impress me in the few visits I’ve made there. I would like to make more of these visits, but alas, its location in the aforementioned nether-regions makes it challenging. I pretty much always try to go to Naga when I go to Bellevue. And its parent restaurant, Chantanee, makes some damn good Thai food. But I’m not here to talk about food, am I? Besides a lot of people already write about it here. That, and Cafe Cesura. Chantanee is an old favorite of mine that has been around forever in a nearby strip-mall, before the recent move to its current space. With the move, it also birthed the Naga, which interestingly means Dragon in my language Indonesian and Thai (you know how it is with Sanskrit-based languages.) And what a glorious birth that was.

Let me talk about my most recent visit there, and the drinks I had.
Or what if I entice you with pictures first? Or Video?
 

The Black Donald is a creation of Jamie Boudreau, I believe. But Naga took the liberty of adding dry ice for theatrics and extra-coldness. It’s a twist on the old Mamie Taylor: Scotch, lime, ginger beer, adding Drambuie and Angostura into the mix. 

I ordered it for two reasons: it was the daily special, $9 (or $6 for happy hour), and it looked cool, so I wanted to take pictures of it. And I was surprised at how good the drink actually turned out to be. 

Naga has seen its share of barmen come and go, but they’ve always been top-notch in skills and service. They’ve all been good folks, which is reason enough for me to keep coming back. Jason and Seth were manning the Naga this particular evening. Seth made us our Black Donald’s, about 5 total over the course of the evening, and they all tasted the same. That is some consistency skills! None was over-sweetened, or over-diluted. And I saw him make about 25 of these that day. Repetition has its merits. 

A Mezcal drink I had contained Sombra mezcal, agave syrup, jalapeno-infused chartreuse, and lime. Tasty, but tastier after I asked Seth to add more Sombra float on top… 
Later on in the evening (my second visit, technically, I left and came back because I wanted more Naga), Jason made me an Arrack-based drink. If you know me, you know that I’m all about my people’s liquor - the Batavia arrack from Indonesia. The first was on the sweet side, but then he corrected it on the second order by using green Chartreuse.

 
Batavia Arrack, Pedro Ximenez sherry, Chartreuse, Ardbeg rinse

Naga also boasts an excellent selection of liquor to back up an already amazing cocktail menu. Its Tiki menu is some of the best around. The line-up is a mix of old classics and some creative originals that employ homemade ingredients like the jalapeno Chartreuse, Butter-Fat-washed Cachaca, House-made Swedish Punsch, and other Thai-inspired elements. 

And their happy hour: $5 bar food, $3 off cocktails - 3-6 and 10-close everyday. Good deals.

So, did I say enough positive things about them? Enough to warrant another pilgrimage to the Eastern shores? Maybe when I can assemble a team of dragon-hunting adventurers to cross that bridge with me.

That sounded super D&D dorky.

Food in Space →

Ever wonder what food looks like in space?

FOOD IN SPACE

Now you don’t have to imagine and fantasize of what it may or may not look like with these photorealistic renditions of actual Earth food, floating in the unknown frontiers. 

Post Prohibition Blog Site

This is one of those posts where I direct the reader to another blog, because it’s just too awesome.

Post Prohibition is one of those worthy of reblogging. Good content, recipes, photography, and the occasional videos.

Check out the DIY section which covers Homemade Orgeat, Liqueurs, and syrups.

NOM-186: A Threat to Mezcal and Mezcaleros

“Basically what it comes down to is the big tequila companies trying to push out the boutique tequila and mezcal makers.”

This news has been going around for the past week or so, there’s a bunch of articles out there that have done a much better job explaining and commentating on the whole issue, so I’ll just copy and paste those:

I.

“Currently there are two initiatives that have been proposed that have direct, debilitating effects on a large portion of producers of Agave distillates and harmful possibly irrevocable effects on the agrobiodiversity of Mexico. The projects were proposed by two different organizations. The first proposal from the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI) brands the word agave for the exclusive use of producers in the Appellations of Origin for Tequila (AOT), Mezcal (AOM), and Bacanora (AOB). The second proposal, NOM-186, from the Ministry of Economy regulates the specifications, proof methods, and commercial information of alcoholic beverages produced with species of the genus agave.”¹ “”Basically what it comes down to is the big tequila companies trying to push out the boutique tequila and mezcal makers,” says Travis Nass, bartender at Rancho Pinot. 

The bill was written on behalf of a group of large, foreign owners of well-known agave spirit brands as a way to “protect consumers” from mislabeled agave-based spirits. But its passage, Nass says, could severely limit mezcal production and hurt owners of small family distilleries who have crafted these products for generations.”²

I am alarmed by this bill as proposed because it restricts the use of the Agave name to the Jalisco region. It was Oaxaca that since 1400′s has been perfecting the use of Agave into Mezcal. Its Comercom the regulatory Agency that verify’s the Pureness of Mezcal, and the bill appears to be an effort to separate this valued practice of High Quality that offends some mixture driven agave purveyors in the Spirits market. I for one stand for for pure certified Mezcal produced in authentic small batch by the loving hands of Oaxaca small family farms. I invite you to do something to help preserve this Fine treasure from Oaxaca.

Thank you

Rudy Favila Sacacuento Mezcal.

This article was taken from http://sacacuento.com/2012/02/mexican-bill-nom-186-could-harm-mezcal-makers-2/

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II. From Class Magazine

“Some of these small producers don’t know how to read and write but have been producing agave distilled spirits for at least 500 years. If they are not part of the industry they are kicked out of it: they would not be able to commercialise or label their products, which is ridiculous. It takes them outside of the legal framework and pushes them to clandestinity.” 

The proposals would: 

* brand the word ‘agave’ for the exclusive use of producers within the Tequila, Mezcal, and Bacanora appellations and limit its use to spirits made using only the six genus of agave allowed within these areas 

* effectively prohibit from market spirits made from 33 other species of agave outside the appellations 

* force producers outside the appellations to label their products ‘agavacea aguardiente’ or ‘distilled agavacea’ - agavacea is a much broader term that encompasses several hundred species 

* prohibit producers from displaying the percentage of agavacea in their products in labelling, i.e prevent them from displaying ‘100% agave sugars’ 

* limit abv outside of the appellations to between 25% and 35% - currently artisanal mezcals are produced between 45% and 55% 

Ron Cooper, founder of Del Maguey mezcal, said the proposals would result in limited consumer choice of an increasingly sanitised category. He said powerful non-Mexican brand owners were ultimately behind the proposals, which he labelled “stupid and greedy”. 

“There are a couple of new tequila brands every week, that’s how popular and how saturated the market is becoming,” he said. “But tequila has got this really narrow flavour profile that everyone has to shoot for, because they are stuck using the blue agave flavour profile. 

“I keep saying that mezcal is the mother is all tequilas, but it has only recently dawned on people that mezcal is wild, the flavours and terroirs are all over the place and that’s why they like them so much. There are all these beautiful indigenous people that have been making mezcal for far longer than the Spanish.” 

He said the existing rules around agave spirit production are already complicated, with some producers making spirit from wild agaves prevented from even calling their products mezcal because they fall outside the Mezcal appellation. “This new initiative wants to screw things up even further.”

read more:
http://www.diffordsguide.com/class-magazine/read-online/en/2012-01-24/page-7/nom-186:-news-report
http://www.diffordsguide.com/class-magazine/read-online/en/2012-01-24/page-8/nom-186:-what-class-thinks 

Bottom line: STOP NOM-186

Petition here

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More Mezcal videos here, telling the story of its production and the people who make them:

From Pierde Almas, which I love.

Funk To Funky: A Tribute to Bowie’s Birthday (or Bowiemas)

Tonight is Bowiemas, a celebration of Bowie’s birthday with drinking, glammery, costumes, and dancing to Bowie music.

I decided to make a cocktail to commemorate this event, and remembered one of my favorite songs “Ashes to Ashes”

“Ashes to ashes, funk to funky, we know Major Tom’s a junkie…”
I remembered that there’s an old-timey tiki cocktail called Dr.Funk, whose recipe I had to hunt down since I’d never had it before.

A general description of the Doctor Funk cocktail recipe appears in the 1921 book, Mystic Isles of the South Seas:

“I had been introduced to a Doctor Funk by Count Polonsky, who told me it was made of a portion of absinthe, a dash of grenadine,—a syrup of the pomegranate fruit,—the juice of two limes, and half a pint of siphon water. Dr. Funk of Samoa, who had been a physician to Robert Louis Stevenson, had left the receipt for the concoction when he was a guest of the club. One paid half a franc for it, and it would restore self-respect and interest in one’s surroundings when even Tahiti rum failed.”

Boston is James Lee Whitney’s (aka Jimmy Parker) dog, and quite possibly one of the cutest dogs around. He follows James around without leash and is non-humpingly friendly to strangers. He’s about the size of a Bruichladdich scotch bottle—an esoterically random reference I thought of since that’s really what I’d rather have over a dog at this point in my life. It’s probably not an accurate estimation of his body size. But I can’t get the thought of a nice Black-Matte Bruichladdich bottle out of my mind. And pouring it out into a little sipping glass sounds extra good right now. 

- Doesn’t poop or pee. 
- With an addiction, it can become your master.

 
- Will never give you a hangover. Will never get you so drunk that you’ll poop and pee all over your friend’s basement, leaving someone else to clean up after.
- Loyal to his master. 

Background music: Dust - by Gang Gang Dance

So I like watching alcoholic beverages blow up at 5000 frames per second (or more, the martini shots were 8900 fps, apparently). Who wouldn’t?

A can of Coors Light never looked so elegant.

tyliu:

Terry Punch