NY Barfly

The Ultimate Spirits Challenge Names Best Booze in Every Category

We know how frustrating it can be to head to the liquor store and stand at the shelves, paralyzed with indecision because there are just way too many choices. Well, a group of spirits experts led by F. Paul Pacult gathered at Astor Center earlier this month to help you narrow down the options. They tasted over 650 spirits that were entered into their contest, dubbed The Ultimate Spirits Challenge, and whittled that down to 31 trophy winners and 80 finalists. And somehow they managed to do this without falling over – impressive.

So, how does this help you? Well, there is a list of the winners in each category below the jump. Print it out and take it to the liquor store on your next visit – kind of like the liquid version of the grocery list. While it won’t help you decide what cocktails to make, at least you’ll have the ingredients in the house the next time you want to mix something up.

Yes, Someone Paid $94,000 For a Bottle of Scotch

You might cringe when you hear that one wealthy bidder actually paid $94,000 for a bottle of 55-Year-Old Glenfiddich Janet Sheed Roberts Reserve, but stop hatin’ cause that huge chunk of change is going to charity! Last week, at a party hosted by Entourage’s Adrian Grenier, the 55-year-old label became available for the first time in the US – the bottle that was snapped up by the wealthy bidder is one of only 11 in existence, and the Scotch maker touts the fact that it’s the world’s most expensive single malt. The shindig was held at the base of the Statue of Liberty – because freedom is all about having the ability to shell out $100K on booze if you so choose.

The proceeds from the sale will support SHFT, which is a charity that’s devoted to sustainable practices. The lucky auction winner, who also broke the world record for a booze sale, was Mahesh Patel, who is actually a whisky investor. Awww, you mean you spend all that money on some top-notch booze and you’re not even gonna drink it? If it were us, that bottle would have been half-empty by the time the ferry brought us back to the mainland.

Macbeth-Inspired Cocktails at the Met

For some, a trip to the opera is only bearable after a cocktail or four. Well, there was some interesting mixology going on in the house last Thursday, when spirits guru Allen Katz assembled a group of bartenders to mix up a “witch’s brew” in an opera-inspired coktail competition. Bartenders from top-notch watering holes like Crown, Fort Defiance and Milk & Honey all took part in the competition, and two-time winner Lynnette Marrero was on hand this year as a judge along with opera star Bryn Terfel (who thankfully didn’t have to go on after downing those libations).

This was one stiff competition – but Meaghan Dorman of The Raines Law Room bested the other tenders with her winning drink, the Glory and Grief. It was a mix of Crème de Violette, Lillet, Martin Miller’s Westbourne (gin), Absinthe and Grapefruit. Sounds like just the thing to make those arias positively fly by. Or, better yet, why not down a few of those witch’s brews before visiting Macbeth-inspired performance piece Sleep No More?

Even Fruit Flies Get the Drunken Blues

Yesterday, a fun study was published that basically validates what anyone can observe when they walk into a bar: people drink to deal with frustrations, particularly sexual ones. A group of researchers were able to show that lovelorn fruit flies drank more than their sexually satisfied peers. Check it out (from Science):  

Offer a male fruit fly a choice between food soaked in alcohol and its nonalcoholic equivalent, and his decision will depend on whether he's mated recently or been rejected by a female. Flies that have been given the cold shoulder are more likely to go for the booze, researchers have found.

The scientists were able to figure this out by putting male fruit flies into two groups. The first was placed in an area with females who were ready to made, and the second bunch were placed with a female who just mated, meaning she had no patience for their advances. The males that were rebuffed by the pretty female fly drank way more than their stud counterparts. In fact, the frustrated flies drank four times as much. Yikes. 

Researchers think they may be able to use the study to help treat alcohol addiction. We're curious to see a version featuring female flies that got all dolled up in their best dresses, only to be spurned by the d-bag flies at the bar. Think they buzz home and open a bottle of merlot? We're guessing yes....

Drink of the Week: Flippin' Irish, A New Take on Irish Coffee

Yep, this weekend is St. Patrick’s Day. While many of the city’s cocktail lovers will be hiding indoors while drunken hooligans take over town (it’s on a Saturday this year – egad!), you should still celebrate the tipsy holiday with a tipple or two. If you want to be lazy, you can always pour a few swigs of Baileys into your morning coffee, but modern mixology has moved far beyond such sloppy drink making. Instead, we propose cooking up a Flippin’ Irish, a modern-day take on the Irish Coffee from Employees Only bartender Dushan Zaric.

The mustachioed maestro has created a beverage that both celebrates Irish heritage (note the whiskey) and makes use of interesting trends currently taking hold of cocktail circles (witness the bitters). Most importantly, it will get you hopped up on both caffeine and booze – so maybe you’ll want to go join the cavorting crowds after all. Check out the recipe below and, if you’re going to set foot on the streets this Saturday, all we can say is Godspeed.

Flippin' Irish
Created by Dushan Zaric
Ingredients:
1 ounce Baileys with a hint of Mint Chocolate
1 ounce Bushmills Irish Whiskey
1 double Espresso
1/2 ounce Demerara Syrup
1 Whole Egg
2 ounces Heavy Cream
20 dashes Mint Bitters
1 Crown of Fresh Mint, for garnish
Ground Dark Chocolate, for garnish

Preparation:
1. Using a hand blender, whip the heavy cream with the mint bitters into consistency then set aside.
2. Add the Baileys with a hint of Mint Chocolate, Bushmills Irish Whiskey, Demerara Syrup, espresso and the whole egg into a mixing glass.
3. Add large cold ice and shake vigorously for 2 minutes.
4. Strain into a cocktail coupe and carefully add a tablespoon of whipped mint cream on top.
5. Using a microplane grater, grate dark chocolate on top and garnish with a fresh crown of mint.

Tequila + Guinness = Happy St. Patrick's Day!

How can you tell St. Patrick’s Day is approaching? Liquor brands are coming up with interesting, albeit a little wacky, ways to get their brands associated with the Irish. Case in point: the Black Opal, a cocktail designed by the folks behind Tequila Partida, which combines the agave-based spirit with a few swigs of Guinness. Hey, when you’ve got the luck of the Irish, anything goes, right? If you want to try it out yourself, the recipe is below – a little cross cultural mingling is always a good thing, and this libation will help you mix it up from the humdrum shots of Whiskey that you’d normally take on the holiday.

The Black Opal

1 1/2 oz Partida Reposado

1 1/2 oz Guinness Draft
1/2 oz Tawny Port
1/4 oz Agave Nectar (Cut with water. So the Agave Nectar is cut with equal parts water as we do with the Marg)
Dash of Angostura Bitters

Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into a chilled wine glass or small pint glass without ice. Garnish with some grated or ground cinnamon powder.

Guinness Note: Take a pint of Guinness before hand and use a bar spoon to stir it up for about 30 secs. This removes some of the Co2.

Recipe by Jacques Bezuidenhout

Introducing SnoBar Alcohol-Infused Ice Cream

Dessert just got a lot more interesting. Though it’s not currently available in New York, we just got word that SnöBar is rolling out a line of alcohol-infused ice cream in Vegas (seems like a fitting city for the sinful dessert). There are also alcoholic ice-pops in the mix – with Margarita and Cosmopolitan flavors – but we’re definitely more interested in the scoopable tipples. Promising a “full cocktail in every serving” – the boozy ice cream is available in flavors like Grasshopper, Pink Squirrel and Brandy Alexander.

There are also around 50 other flavors in the works – and they will be promoted at Vegas’ rollicking pool parties throughout the summer (if we were hesitating on taking a flight out there for our vay-cay, any doubt has been removed from our mind). There’s no telling when this stuff might make it to the Empire State (or if it will run into any problems with industry regulators), but in our boozy book it can’t be soon enough. You know what they say – “dessert first…”

Who Wants Edible Cocktails?

Of course the answer to the above question is EVERYONE! For our latest on Tablespoon, we delved into a subject that may be a bit foreign to all you boozers out there: food. But, don’t worry, the grub on our most recent list all contains a kick - from Rum Balls, to a boozy Jell-o mold, to alcoholic whipped cream that you can use to top-off an otherwise humdrum piece of pie. Click here to check out our pics for the best edible libations, and remember, even though you like to drink it up – you still gotta eat.

Nightlife Fixture Rande Gerber Launches Caliche Rum

Those of you who like to drink it up in New York have come across Rande Gerber, even if you haven’t met him in person. The hospitality guru is behind the Stone Rose Lounge in the Time Warner Center, and he conceived the Whiskey Bars that you’ll find in some top-notch hotels. Well, the impresario is getting into the booze biz with the launch of Caliche Rum. This white spirit hails from Puerto Rico (Gerber partnered with notable distiller Roberto Serrallés on the project. The spirit offers hints of citrus and oak, and you might catch a tad of vanilla as you gulp it down.

At only $24.99 a bottle, it’s not going to break the bank, making it a solid go-to choice for anyone’s home bar. Expect to see the bottle popping up in high-end haunts around town (it’s also launching in LA, Miami, Dallas and Chicago). If you want to get a little mixing (and a little spice) on, check out the Cali Kick cocktail below:

Cali Kick:
2 oz Caliche Rum
3/4 Fresh Lemon Juice
3/4 Simple Syrup1/4 Cream
1/8 tsp Curry Powder
small piece of Thai Chilis

Created by Michel Dozois, Neve Ice

New York Wine Sellers Under Attack!

What is going on in the world of New York Wine Distributors? Well – something that should have you up in arms, as it could add up to $5 to each bottle you pick up at the local liquor store. Last week, an amendment was shadily slipped into a bill making its way through the NY State Senate saying that wines be stored in state for 48 hours before being delivered to retailers.

And, what would the purpose of that be? Well, absolutely nothing, save for giving the state’s two biggest liquor distributors a major leg up in competition. They are the only two with warehouses located in NY, most vino you buy at the store is actually stored in New Jersey before being shipped to the shelves.

This would force small wholesalers to find a new storage solution for their stock – for absolutely no reason whatsoever. It would in turn drive up the cost of their labels and reduce choice for consumers, since in the interim we’d have to choose only from the options offered by the big guys.

Yep – this is a horrible idea, and hopefully it will die as more drinkers learn of its potential impact. You can read more about it here.