GIN & TONIC – BOBBY’S WEEKLY HOUSTON PRESS COCKTAIL COLUMN
The Gin and Tonic is arguably the world’s favorite highball. This simple combination of botanical gin bliss, bubbly tonic, and a squeeze of fresh citrus is a leisurely, refreshing option that always helps to beat the summer heat. While a staple of the British colonial era, the gin and tonic is actually a relatively new [...]
SWIZZLES – BOBBY’S WEEKLY HOUSTON PRESS COCKTAIL COLUMN
I know what you’re thinking. And yes, the swizzle does sound like some crazy drink Snoop would have verbally invented at the height of his popularity. After all, it wouldn’t be the first of his concoctions – gin and juice anyone? It’s just too easy to imagine Snoop riding down Santa Monica in drop-top ‘64 [...]
THE CORN N’ OIL – BOBBY’S WEEKLY HOUSTON PRESS COCKTAIL COLUMN
For weeks, this friendly cocktail column has resisted the urge to write about the Corn N’ Oil. It was tempting, but using the Gulf spill as vehicle for discussing this cocktail seemed far too easy. After all, maintaining this column as a refuge from the daily stream of petroleum press seemed increasingly important as the [...]
BOBBY’S WEEKLY HOUSTON PRESS COCKTAIL COLUMN
If you’re a long time Drink Dogma reader, I know you probably think that I’ve been a lazy blogger. Sure, Drink Dogma has been neglected lately, but I’ve been anything but lax about writing about cocktails. For 15 weeks now, I’ve been writing about cocktails for the Houston Press, a local paper mag that’s been [...]
ANVIL’S BUFFALO TRACE PRIVATE BARREL SELECTION
Kevin and I recently visited Kentucky to select a barrel of Buffalo Trace to serve as Anvil’s own private barrel-selection. Yes, I am aware that this makes our jobs at Anvil seem like the cushiest dream jobs ever. Watch yourself there – you’re drooling with envy all over your screen. Well, truth be told, when [...]
A LOVE AFFAIR WITH AMARI
While familiar with Amaro before working at Anvil, the unusually large selection at the bar exposed me to different brands that I had not had before. I found these to be very interesting in flavor and quickly became enthralled with drinking these wonderful liqueurs. In my introductory post to Drink Dogma, I thought I would [...]
HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN BITTERS
I want to be like Antoine Peychaud. After finally confronting the realization that I will never live up to the old “Be like Mike commercials”, I lived in a world without a role model and guidance for several years. This void in my life, filled by a perilous journey towards a purposeless end (Masters degree), eventually had [...]
AIR INFUSIONS: SMOKED RYE
I’ve got two obsessive hobbies: cocktails and large South American tropical fish. The .0005% of the world’s people who appreciate the cocktails don’t understand the fish, and the .0005% of the world’s people who appreciate the fish don’t understand the cocktails. I might be the only link between these two strange groups of hobbyists. Generally, [...]
THE MAPLE LEAF COCKTAIL
Bourbon is a little angry at the cocktail world . For such a long time, it was a cherished standby of the refined palate, a refuge from the candy cocktail plague. Bourbon was a more respected American take on nobility, if such a thing exists. Yes, Elijah Craig would have been very proud. Unfortunately, the nostalgia of bourbon seems [...]
BIO-FUEL COCKTAILS: THE CORN N’ OIL
This one is a hard one to sell at the bar. Ears of corn and bottles of Quaker State generally don’t invoke impressions of delicious cocktails. What’s worse is that when promoting this Bajan cocktail I inevitably face the question, “Well, why is it called a Corn N’ Oil?” Without a valid response, the [...]
GIN & TONIC CANS: CONVENIENCE GONE TOO FAR
First the rattlesnake vodka, now canned gin and tonic; what the heck is going on here? Is the world completely giving up on the cocktail?
It all started when I was browsing the gin aisle at Houston’s ridiculously large liquor store, Spec’s, last week, and there it was canned gin and tonic. I mean it [...]
TEXAS LIQUOR LAWS AND ST. GERMAIN’S TARDINESS
I have started to wonder if states like Washington, Pennsylvania, and Texas are competing against one another to maintain the most ridiculous collection of liquor laws. For example, while everyone else in the country was mixing it up with St. Germain a year ago, lone star state residents like myself and fellow cocktail blogger, [...]
Smoked Cocktails: Part 3
Man, life has been pretty crazy lately. I haven’t had a day off in a couple of weeks, and as you might have noticed, this hasn’t left a lot of time for blogging. One of my regulars even called me out tonight and told me I needed to write more on the blog. [...]
Smoked Cocktails: Part 2
Well, the smoked cocktails experiments continue. As I described in my last post, I have been struggling to refine the introduction of smoke into cocktails, and I am now here to post my results. Three major ways of introducing smoke into cocktails without the use of liquid smoke have been discovered and tested. [...]
SMOKED COCKTAILS?
I generally try and write about cocktails in a somewhat informative manner. In other words, I tinker with bottles and ingredients behind the bar and post the results of my efforts here for people to read if they desire. Sometimes, however, I am boggled by my own ambitions. This week’s project at [...]
HOW TO USE EGGS IN COCKTAILS
The era before Prohibition is chronicled by countless historians as a time of insightful cocktail creativity and sophisticated understanding of available ingredients. Despite a modern day cocktail resurgence, it is impossible to imagine modern mixology without the blueprints of the past. With the foundations provided by pioneers of the drink, bartenders today have reinvigorated timeless [...]
COCKTAILS WITH VINEGAR AND GASTRIQUES
Gabriel, the “Cocktail Nerd”, recently discussed the issue of vinegar in cocktails, focusing on the Shrub family of cocktails. I think that the concept of using vinegar in cocktails is an awesome idea, and I really advise heading over to Gabriel’s blog and let him introduce you to using vinegar as a cocktail ingredient. His post demonstrates the [...]
A TALE OF FRAT GUYS, CAMPARI, AND THE NEGRONI
I am an enormous fan of the Negroni. I get cravings for one drink or another from time to time, but no other drink beckons my inner cocktailian like the perfect combination of sweet vermouth, gin, and Campari. The flavors are best demonstrated when served up, but I love my Negronis on the rocks and [...]
THE COCKTAIL CHERRY: THE NEON NEMESIS
The plague of artificial flavors continues to contaminate modern cocktails and gain strength. While powdered juices, chemical syrups, and candy liqueurs are among the most ominous of cocktail enemies, few perpetrators infiltrate such a wide range of cocktails as the modern maraschino cherry. Resting inconspicuously as an iconic garnish in cocktails ranging from the trendy [...]