Wedding Fever

As promised, we are bringing you the cocktail recipes from our recent nuptials. We would like to extend a huge thank you to Nick and Marco from Bittercube for creating these recipes and for being on site to craft these cocktails for our guests. Much to the surprise of regular readers of this blog, we are kicking the drink recipes off with a vodka based cocktail. It is not often that you will find us drinking vodka. Much of this has to do with the inherent lack of flavor and aroma of a quality vodka. This cocktail packs a ton of flavor and aroma. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

Wedding Fever

1.5 oz. 45th Parallel Vodka

.5 oz. Bittercube Creme de Flora*

.75 oz. fresh lemon juice

.25 oz. simple syrup

Pinch of bee pollen**

Combine ingredients into a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake until well chilled. Double strain into a chilled coupe glass. Garnish with a pinch of bee pollen. 

*If you cannot obtain Bittercube Creme de Flora, St. Germain could be substituted

**Bee pollen is available from many farmers markets, bee keepers, or organic markets

Potent Potables

No we are not talking Celebrity Jeopardy here, we are referring to the first legal spirits distillery in Minnesota since prohibition. It was announced this week that 11 Wells Spirits is setting up shop in Saint Paul. Located at the Old Hamm's brewery complex, they hope to begin distilling spirits this coming January. It seems a very fitting location for a distillery. Named after the 11 wells on site, 11 Wells Spirits will be utilizing the water from its namesake well number 11.

Saint Paul is a very logical location for a craft distillery. With the current popularity of classic and craft cocktails, high end and craft spirits are gaining popularity, and Minnesota has all the right ingredients needed for making spirits. Minnesota has pure water, plentiful grains, and is home to two cooperages to supply the barrels needed to age the spirits.

At this time, the distillery plans to produce Gin, Rum, Bourbon, Rye, Malt Whiskey, and a corn based liquor called Minnesota 13. Minnesota 13 is named after a strain of corn developed by the University of Minnesota to thrive in the short Minnesota growing season. This unique corn liquor gained acclaim during prohibition as a premium quality moonshine.

We look forward to tasting some of the distillate in the coming year. We will keep our fellow hedonists updated as we hear of news regarding 11 Wells Spirits.

Photo Courtesy 11 Wells Spirits

Just Married

If you have been following this blog for awhile, you probably have noticed that our posting has been pretty sporadic over the past several months. While we do feel lax in our duties of bringing our fellow hedonists news and information about imbibing, there is a good reason.

The writers of this blog spent their summer preparing for their union together as husband and wife. We are happy to report that documents have been filed, the beneficiaries changed, and it is all legal. Now that we have settled in to domestic tranquility, we are back to deliver to you our passion, great tasting libations.

In the coming weeks we will be sharing with you some of our very spirited celebration. We were fortunate enough to have Nick and Marco of Bittercube Bitters craft a specialty cocktail menu just for our wedding. We will be sharing with you the recipes and techniques so that you too can enjoy these cocktails as much as we did.

Changes are coming!

Trust us, this is a good thing. You'll notice over the next week that we're doing some clean up on the blog which will make it much easier for our fans to find what they desire. Admittedly we've been a bit occupied with something huge, so our frequency of writing has decreased significantly. We promise to share our big secret in a couple weeks. In the meantime, email us and let us know what you are interested in. Tell us about restaurants & bars, cocktail recipes, techniques, or even send us your general bar questions like "What is the difference between a martini glass and a cocktail glass?" thehedonisticbar@gmail.com

Cheers!

Cool Ice Tool For Home Hedonists

Recently, we are The Hedonistic Bar became aware of this Kickstarter campaign for a company that aspires to offer tools the enable hedonists to make their own crystal clear ice at home. After watching the video, we thought this was a pretty cool idea, and well worth investing $50 in to help make this aspiring company's idea a reality. The chisel, Lewis bag and mallet are probably worth the money all by themselves. Take a look at the video for more information about this really cool idea.

Better living through chemistry

WARNING! Coarse language ahead!

Finally a use for all those chemistry classes we sat through in high school and college! Okay, okay, a use for chemistry other than blowing things up...

This lovely piece of handiwork comes to us from Brazilian designer Mayra Artez. The Periodic Table of Alcohol arranges the concoctions "based on their primary liquors, groups and proofs." To get a better look, click for the bigger version.

We can get down with most of these but there are a couple we might let unsuspecting rubes friends try first. Adios Motherfucker - the name alone makes us a little nervous. We're sure that many poor decisions have begun with the phrase "Adios Motherfucker!"  The Irish Trash Can sounds like something that really should only happen on St. Patrick's Day, and when someone talks about it the next day, everyone looks away awkwardly and mumbles... And last but not least, Shit on Grass. The rule of thumb around our house if it's called poo, looks like poo, or smells like poo, we don't put it in our mouths. 

We think we'll print a poster of this and play our own version of Russian roulette. We'll blindfold people and make them point to the poster and we'll serve the drink their finger land on. Sounds like fun right?

Cheers!

Whoa...I think my bottle just winked at me

Recently, we ran across this series of animated beer labels made by Trevor Carmick of Beer Labels In Motion on a technology blog that we follow. Yes, not only are we here at The Hedonistic Bar cocktail nerds, we are computer nerds as well.  I wonder when we will see some of these label hit the bars and liquor stores around town? Not holding our breath for anytime soon though. We surmise if this technology actually existed, that it would add significantly to the cost of a six pack of suds.