Movember Cocktails

Here at Notorious, we like getting involved in everything and when we can combine it with a worthy cause, well that's just the icing on the cake. This month, I've been growing a Mo for Movember - and this is how it's looking today.



Movember is a great idea. For those that don't know, participants grow their Mo for the month of November in order to raise awareness of Men's health issues, specifically prostate caner. Anybody can donate to a Mo - and the donations go to charity.

Movember is obviously a very appealing partner for a lot of Men's brands, from Wilkinson's Sword to Rockstar Games, and this year Finlandia Vodka have joined the list of sponsors.

Here's what they're doing:

"To celebrate Movember, Finlandia Vodka has created a menu of delicious Mo-inspired cocktails to tease and tantalise the tastebuds. This year sees the launch of Mo Academies across selected UK cities and we would like to invite you and a friend to hone your mixology skills.

The Academies are designed to give you a cocktail master class hosted by renowned industry experts, Soulshakers. The fun, hour-long course will help teach you some of the fundamental skills needed to be an amateur mixologist – from complimenting tastes to crafting stunning cocktail creations."

We're going to sign up and we'll let you know how it goes.

Cocktail wall stickers

Snazzy vinyl stickers from Hu2 Design. The cocktail graphic will set you back £55.

Hennessy Black

Hennessy have launched a new cognac for the first time in decades. It is designed for mixing, not unlike Courvoisier Exclusif which has been around for a few years.

Here's what Spirit Me Away said:

"For the first time in 48 years, the folks over at Hennessy are launching a new cognac to the market. Hennessy Black is the name, and they are focusing on mixability with it. Rolling out in 10 markets initially (they include Arizona, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, New York City, Ohio, Washington DC and Massachusetts), Hennessy Black is accompanied by a Swizz Beats “theme” song sure to grab it some name recognition. You can hear it and check a video at their site. I haven’t tried it yet, so here’s some more info from the press release til I have my own report."

"Hennessy Black is a new highly versatile, decidedly different cognac. This exciting new distinctively smooth blend allows consumers more ways to enjoy Hennessy and tastes great on its own or mixed. It is Hennessy’s first major new launch since Hennessy V.S. was introduced in 1961. Hennessy Black offers an intriguing new choice for social occasions and will aim to take Hennessy beyond the cognac category to be the premium mixed spirit of choice. Its consumption versatility will be supported through the creation of a new drinking ritual as it is perfect for enjoying up (shot) or down (mixed drink).

Packaged in a sleek, bold black bottle, Hennessy Black is a versatile blend of 35 to 45 unique, pale and gold colored eaux-de-vie selected for their elegant floral characteristics. These are subsequently aged in French oak barrels previously used by Hennessy for at least five years. Hennessy Black has a more gentle wood influence. The result is a different expression of Hennessy Cognac: lighter and fresher with scents of jasmine, daffodils and orange flowers that are delicately mixed with hints of citrus, honey, and fresh grapes to create a distinctively smooth cognac with surprising finesse balance, floral notes

Hennessy Black comes to market with a variety of mixed drink recipes that highlight its mixability and sophisticated flavor and can be served as simple, easy to make drinks or enhanced shot options, with ice or without. They include; HENNESSY BLACK Ice, neat with a dash of lemon juice and simple sugar with a sugar-dipped lemon slice; HENNESSY BLACK Bull, coffee liqueur and cola served as a layered shot or long over ice; HENNESSY BLACK Spice, with fresh ginger, a dash of simple syrup, lemon juice; and HENNESSY BLACK Royale, with champagne, a dash of lemon juice and simple syrup."

Visit the Hennessy Black site here.

Basil Hayden Fashion Week Cocktails

Great coverage of an event from Basil Hayden, one of Beam's special bourbons. From Intoxicologist. All images are from Beam Global.

"Tailored specifically for celebrated designer Cynthia Rowley to debut with the 2009 Collection during NYC Fashion Week, the Basil Hayden Wish received a comment of “Perfect” for the show by the designer herself. The Basil Hayden Wish embodies Rowley’s assertive, yet whimsical spirit while pulling inspiration from the rich red hues and wishbone features from the 2009 Fall Collection. Cynthia Rowley Fashion Show Bar Featuring Basil Hayden Wish - Beam Global Spirits & Wine Photo Credit

Fashion week draws a sexy crowd of elite trendsetters, stylists and models who desire to wrap themselves in luxury and fanciful delight. And why not? Beverage staples during a typical Fashion Week consist of champagne and vodka. The Basil Hayden Wish brought a refreshing twist to the predictable cocktail scene and started a new fashion trend of its own by becoming the new luxury cocktail of choice for the fashionable “It” crowd.

Blushed with a hint of passion and bitten with the tang of lust this cocktail is sure to fill you with a desire for fashion and flavor."

Personally I'm really interested by the insight that people are bored of champagne and vodka cocktails and want something with more depth. The kind of depth that you get from high quality brown spirits. There's a lot in this.

Edible Cocktails - Don't drink on an empty stomach

Brilliant post from Flavorwire about the trend for edible cocktails as an offshoot/cross over of molecular gastronomy (sorry Herve) and experimental bartending. It's a fascinating world and reminds me of the sensational gin fizz I had at El Bulli.



Image from Khymos

"A few years ago, I knew a pair of girls who swore by eating a bowl of rice before a night out. They claimed that the carbs slowed down the effects of the drinks later on. [Editor's note: Or, if your name is Ripsy, preventing such wacky hijinks as drunk yoga.] It’s a nice thought that may hold a grain of truth — like the recent discovery that 3 to 5 cups of coffee per day prevents dementia — but their plan seems a little backwards. Why not just find a drink that slows you down? (I recommend the cautionary harshness of an Angler’s Cocktail: four parts gin, three dashes of Angostura bitters, three of orange bitters, and three of grenadine, shaken and poured over ice.)

Or better yet, why not kill two birds with one stone and just eat your cocktails?

For the gourmets, the field of molecular gastronomy has given us new approaches to classic drinks. The well-publicized New York bar Tailor offers a variety of intriguing “solids.” Their Gin Fizz has the consistency of a sugary Peep (and was about the size of one) but their Rum and Coke tasted a bit like the watery bottom of a rail drink. And honestly, it’s unclear whether a drinker (eater?) can expect to feel any effects from these foodie morsels. As much as cocktail obsessives like to talk about channel knives and Pre-Prohibition recipes, we can’t forget why we came to a bar rather than an ice cream parlor.

So for us practical drinkers there are jello shots (think Body Shots, but with less Tara Reid). That’s right: just because you no longer have a fake ID doesn’t mean you can’t still enjoy a taste of spring break. And there’s no need to stick with Everclear now that you’re of age; try some more unusual variations. I’d recommend Tasting Table’s pumpkin pie shots. The weather’s still cold enough to eat pumpkin pie, and vodka never goes out of season. Your mom would be proud.



Image from Tasting Table

If you’re looking just for a snack to augment your drinking, then there are plenty of options other than beer nuts. Though the alcohol content is close to nil, I think the best are these gin and tonic cupcakes.



Image from Yum Sugar

They’re a great dessert, and they leave you with a nearly full bottle of gin, another of tonic, and slices of lime to keep you busy while you wait for them to bake. Now what could you make with those three?

Come to think of it, maybe you should have had that bowl of rice first…"

I guess a more traditional version of this would be a boozy trifle or a Christmas pudding swimming in brandy!

Sensory Cocktails

I've long been an admirer of Heston Blumenthal and am delighted to see someone embracing his ideas in the world of innovative bartending. See the New York Times article below for the full story.

" ALL I did, as usual, was order a drink. Which only partly explains why I found myself here, seated in a cordoned-off side room at Zeta, a plush, dusky, high-ceiling downtown night spot — holding a booze-filled pineapple and wearing a blindfold along with headphones hooked to a specially programmed iPod.

All the while, someone was spraying my face with what smelled like Hawaiian Tropic suntan oil.

Ladies and gentlemen, meet the world’s most elaborate cocktail garnish. The Tiki, the drink I ordered, is one of four sensory cocktails to make their debut this month at Zeta. They join au courant classics like a Ping Pong and Clover Club on the deliciously freewheeling cocktail menu, which also features a martini served on a bed of smoldering tea leaves and a bourbon-and-Coke “ice cream cone” forged in liquid nitrogen.

The sensory cocktails work like this: order the daiquiri, and you’re tucked into a semiprivate spot where you sip your drink blindfolded while listening to 18 minutes of Cuban music on an iPod. All the while, a waitress spritzes you with a cigar mist made by simmering crumbled cigars in water and simple syrup.

The idea, said Grant Collins, Zeta’s consulting mixologist, is “to heighten the link between the drink and the experience. Listening to the music makes your mind drift, and the blindfold heightens your sense of smell.” And the smoky mist? It’s a sensory trick to make you think you’re in Havana. Blind and piercingly alone, but still, you know, in Havana.

Mr. Collins cribbed his inspiration from Heston Blumenthal, the chef of the Fat Duck, a restaurant near London. That’s where Mr. Bluementhal created a seafood dish served with an iPod loaded with ambient ocean sounds.

Besides the Tiki, Zeta offers a sea breeze, with Blumenthalian wave sounds and a sea spray that leaves salt on one’s lips, and a martini equipped with a 1950s Rat Pack soundtrack. That last one is designed to evoke New York City, the capital of the cocktail experience — but where the virtual cocktail hasn’t arrived.

The question, Mr. Collins said, is whether all this makes your drink taste better.

For this drinker, the answer was, eh, not so much. I’m not sure that I even registered tasting it, overwhelmed as I was by the lab-rat sensations of being sequestered and sensitized, not to mention spritzed. Then again, meditation isn’t my bag — not even cocktail meditation.

“You have to almost will yourself to be transported,” Mr. Collins advised. “For us, it’s about creating the right environment for that to happen.” To that end, Mr. Collins toyed with using a heat lamp, to replicate the warmth of the tropical sun. But that idea was dropped. “Too many danger points,” he said."

Genius.

A drink for dual personalities

Aimed at younger drinkers with a penchant for customising their own cocktails, this concoction by an Anheuser-Busch subsidiary is just waiting to be slammed by those who are wary of unskilled tipplers. We've all been out on the town with someone whose personality changes after a snort or two, but actually calling a drink Jekyll & Hyde...?

New cognac based cocktail

From cognac-world.

After spending 3 days in Cognac for the International Cocktail Summit, top bartenders and mixologists from around the world have created a new cocktail made with cane sugar, fresh ginger, lime, artisanal lemonade and cucumber. The cocktail has been imaginatively named "The summit".

The Bureau National Interprofessionnel Du Cognac site should have more details shortly.

Cocktail? That'll be £35,000 please.

The world’s most expensive Christmas cocktail has been unveiled at Movida nightclub in London. The club's A-list regulars will be able to order "the Flawless" for £35,000 ($71,000) a glass.

The cocktail's ingredients are:

• Large measure of Louis XII cognac
• Half a bottle of Cristal Rose champagne
• Brown sugar
• Angostura bitters
• Chips of 24-carat edible gold leaf.

In addition, there is an 11-carat white diamond ring at the bottom of the glass. Understandably, given the cost, two security guards overlook proceedings to make sure nothing goes awry.

Story from Elite Choice and The Telegraph...

Movida Club, London.

Bacardi Bespoke Bar Service

From Springwise:

Bacardi Bespoke is a service from Bacardi in the UK that brings bars to customers' homes or offices. The bars come complete with glasses, ice, equipment, expert cocktail mixologists, a portable bar and a DJ.

Naturally, the bartenders make everything with Bacardi, having created new versions of classic cocktails to incorporate Bacardi rum. Cocktail lists are personalised to a host's taste and a party's theme or vibe. In essence small-scale sponsored and branded events, Bespoke home parties are subsidised by Bacardi, so prices aren't as high as would be expected from a professional service (contact Bacardi Bespoke for details).

Spiked with a splash of tryvertising, Bacardi Bespoke is great example of what trendwatching.com has defined as the insperience trend: consumers' desire to bring top-level experiences into their domestic domain. Product seeding combined with something consumers want -- no reason why this wouldn't work equally well for other brands and other industries. Be inspired, and get the party started!

Contact: info@bacardibespoke.com "

Here's the content from the Bacardi site:



"Bacardi Bespoke is a prestige service for the House party generation. All those involved, from the Mixology team to the DJs and production designers, are leaders in their fields. And most importantly weve got you, our party hosts.

Bacardi Bespoke delivers a quality experience. Theres no embarrassing pazzaz or marketing spiel. We bring our cocktail party hospitality team - the best in the business, they handled backstage at Live8 and Glastonbury this year - to your space with all the gear they need... a bar, equipment, glasses, ice. Then there are the bespoke party soundtracks lovingly dedicated to cd by our world leading DJ's. Every element we employ throughout the service is the best, from the premium Bacardi Rums to our specially-commissioned bars and even the (arguably phallic) plastic muddlers.

The Bacardi Bespoke site here celebrates the House party, its history and its many forms. Within you'll find features anonymously contributed by some of the UK's finest style and music journalists, photography by Austin Harragin, artwork and graphics from the legendary artist known as Mode2, immaculate embroidery from Laura Lees and exclusive House party mix CDs by some of the Worlds most legendary contemporary DJs such as Cosmo, Rob Mello and Qool DJ Marv. We built it all, the way it should be, with love, passion and understanding, just like our rum cocktails themselves. Its a service you'll enjoy through your selected membership.

And your membership doesnt just count for a one-off cocktail party, we want to do more things together. We're already working on ways to evolve Bespoke. Your feedback and involvement is actively encouraged. Correspond through the useful 'contact us' button at the top of the screen to let us know your thoughts and experiences of the Bacardi Bespoke experience.

Enjoy yourselves here. And certainly at the parties.

“It was wicked to be served cocktails while hanging out with friends in a relaxed atmosphere”
Felix Buxton, Basement Jaxx"