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Powder Rum and Class V Vodka
Syntax Spirits distills Class V Vodka and the newly-released Powder White Rum in Colorado. Proud of their heritage, they use 100% wheat and snow melt from their native state to distill their vodka....
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Portland Potato Vodka
It shouldn’t be a shock to hear me say that I’ve enjoyed tasting the products that Eastside Distilling in Portland makes. From whiskies to rums, they’ve all proved to be excellent liquors. My...
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Walk the Line: Smirnoff
This is Walk the Line: a series where I explore the entire product lines of the most popular liquor brands together with a panel of friends and tasters. Click here to view the entire Walk the Line...
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Tallarico Vodka
Tallarico Vodka is a new entry into the premium vodka market. It’s sold in a tall, black bottle that fades to clear at the bottom to give you a peek at the vodka inside. Tallarico is distilled from...
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Smirnoff Sorbet Light
Low-calorie liquor is a big deal these days. From the multimillion dollar Skinny Girl empire down to the traditional liquor brands, it seems low-cal may be the “what’s next” after flavored vodkas....
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Screwdriver
Years before I knew anything about cocktail making, I had two favorite cocktails: Vodka Martinis and Screwdrivers. The Screwdriver is a pretty great drink, particularly when you make it right- no...
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Karlsson’s Bloody Mary
I reviewed Karlsson’s back in September and tried their signature “Black Gold” cocktail (on the rocks topped with ground black pepper). Now it’s time to apply that earthy goodness of Karlsson’s in...
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Win a Karlsson’s Prize Pack!
Simple Cocktails sponsor Karlsson’s Gold Vodka is giving away some great swag to one reader. To win this prize pack, simply comment below this post and tell us your favorite way to drink Karlsson’s....
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Prairie Cucumber Vodka
Prairie Spirits distills gin, vodka, and cucumber vodka. Their motto “made with respect,” explains their organic farming and distilling policies, and unusually, their liquor doesn’t cost a fortune in...
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Clique Vodka
Clique Vodka is a newer brand that’s really embraced the times it’s in. Their Twitter handle @cliquevodka is printed right on the black bottle, and they’re promoting a hashtag of #cliqueshots to...
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Cathead Fall Vodkas
Cathead Vodka out of Mississippi has released 2 seasonal flavored vodkas to go along with their year-round vodka and honeysuckle vodka. While flavored vodkas often border on insanity, Cathead Pumpkin...
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Christmas Day on the Morning Brew
Merry Christmas! If you caught my segment on the Christmas special episode of The Morning Brew, welcome to Simple Cocktails! Here are the recipes I shared – the second one was a favorite of The Big Man...
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Crystal Head Vodka
Crystal Head is an vodka bottle that I’m sure you’ve seen in stores: a crystal-clear, shotput sized skull filled with Canadian vodka. You’ve probably also heard how Dan Akroyd is a 1/2 owner of the...
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Iguana Cocktail
The Iguana is a nice twist if you’re a fan of Kahlua but you’re tired of White Russians. It uses a simple 1:1:1 ratio, and you can mix it right in the glass – notice the swirling Kahlua in the photo...
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Left Turn Distillery
Left Turn Distilling is the first distillery in Albuquerque, based on the research I’ve done. They’re making La Luz Vodka and Brothers Old Tom Gin right now, with plans for much more in the future....
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Willa Vodka
Willa is an Illinois wheat vodka, a relatively new product with a very limited reach right now. Willa is a certified organic craft vodka in beautiful bottle with a long, slender neck. Vodka is a busy...
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American Harvest
American Harvest is an interesting liquor. It’s tempting to refer to it as vodka, but that’s not exactly what it is. The distillers refer to American Harvest as an organic spirit, a 80-proof...
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Russian Cocktail
Here’s a 2-ounce cocktail that’s ghostly white and is a really accessible recipe for most people. I found this one in Gary Regan’s Bartender’s Bible and it’s pretty different from it’s popular...
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Piranha
This cocktail is a simple alternative to “________ and Coke,” and though it only adds one more ingredient, it’s more of a drink because it requires just a tad more effort. The ratios are simple, too,...
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Spymaster
I dug this cocktail out of Gary Regan’s Bartender’s Bible while I was on the hunt for simple vodka cocktails. It’s sort of a banana version of an eggy Vodka Sour. While the recipe has you serving it...
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Green Dragon Cocktail
Lisa and I recently compared 3 different types of Chartreuse on the podcast and it reminded me how much I love the stuff. I looked through my recipe books for Chartreuse cocktails, and found the...
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Ciroc Flavored Vodka
Ciroc is one of those infamous liquors – a “premium” spirit with star as a spokesperson. In this case, it’s Sean “P. Diddy” Combs, and as a matter of fact, he announced Ciroc’s newest flavor,...
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Cocktails with Ciroc Pineapple
I confess to being totally alarmed at how much I liked some of the the Ciroc vodka flavors on a recent podcast episode, and again in my review. Since that initial tasting, I’ve been dreaming up with...
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Cocktails with Ciroc Coconut and Peach
Like I said in a post earlier this week, Ciroc’s flavors really caught me off guard. I was a pleasantly surprised that they weren’t sweetened (flavored vodkas almost always are). Since I liked them so...
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Black Martini
Last year, I made a Harry Potter-themed cocktail for Halloween: the Devil’s Snare. For several years, though, I’ve meant to make a Black Martini for Halloween, and now that I have a bottle of Sambuca,...
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Our Stanley Cocktail
My first homemade cocktail was a Borodino, which is a 1:1:1 variation of the drink pictured here. If you’ve ever visited our Buyers Guide section, you’ve seen that the first 4 bottles of liquor I...
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A Simple Bloody Mary Bar
Bloody Marys are an interesting cocktail in many ways. Firstly, they’re not simple – both the ingredients and garnishes can be huge lists of spices and pickled things. Second, they occupy the very fun...
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Iceberg Vodka
We recently tried Iceberg Vodka on the podcast, and we were really impressed with what we tasted, especially in the flavored versions. Before I was contacted by Iceberg, I’d never heard of this brand...
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Grey Goose Vodka
Grey Goose fights a tough fight on a regular basis. For something legally defined as tasteless and odorless, there is a wide variety that you find in vodkas. Most people can tell the difference...
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Deanne Cocktail
Here’s a tasty cocktail I dug up from Gary Regan’s Bartender’s Bible this week. I keep thinking that I’ve done a cocktail with similar ingredients before (maybe gin-vermouth-triple sec?), but I don’t...
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Skyy Vodka
It’s not often that I find myself surprised by a liquor, particularly by a vodka. Once you’ve tried several dozen, they all taste pretty similar to each other. It caught me off guard, then, when we...
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Kamikaze Cocktail
We had the opportunity to go to San Antonio for their annual Cocktail Conference recently, and one thing I heard a little bit about in the seminars was “redeeming” cocktails from the 1990s, the...
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Vodka 360
In the last few weeks, we’ve had the opportunity to try out Vodka 360 and their line of flavors at Simple Cocktails, including this episode of the podcast and this cocktail. Billing their vodka as...
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Fancy Grasshopper
Recently, we made one of last century’s most iconic cocktails: the Grasshopper. A low-booze, sweet-as-hell, electric green cocktail that has since inspired cookies and cakes that bear it’s name. When...
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Prince Memorial Cocktails
You know, I’ve always found cocktails that memorialize an occasion, or person, to be a bit cheesy and so I rarely partake in “theme” drinking. I found myself in a situation last week when Prince died,...
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206 Distillery in Seattle
I had the opportunity to visit 206 Distillery in downtown Seattle recently, who make Counter Gin and Batch 206 Vodka, and got a tour from Rusty Figgins, their master distiller. Rusty let us start with...
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Santa Fe Spirits Distillery Tour
I had the pleasure of taking the VIP tour at Santa Fe Spirits in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Santa Fe Spirits distills unaged Silver Coyote Whiskey, Expedition Vodka, and SF Spirits Apple Brandy. They have...
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Genever: “Dutch Courage”
Genever (or jenever), pronounced “YUH-nee-vur,” has it’s roots in the Dutch word for juniper, as that’s the primary botanical in it, similar to gin. Genever is the most popular spirit in the...
View ArticleBorodino
Here’s the recipe for a Borodino, a simple cocktail with vodka, gin, and triple sec (orange liqueur). It’s got a great orange, herbal flavor and is crystal-clear. This can be found in my PDF book: 1...
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Vodka Flavors Gone Wild
I will admit that I can have a snobby attitude about some vodkas, particularly the strange new flavored ones that have appeared in the stores recently, going way beyond fruit flavors to marshmallow or...
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New Mexico Vodka All-Stars
There are 3 distilleries in New Mexico, offering a gamut of products from 15-year-old rye whiskey to gin to vanilla extract. All three, however, distill vodka. Don Quixote offers Blue Corn Vodka, KGB...
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Karlsson’s Gold Vodka
Karlsson’s calls their vodka “a natural vodka with taste.” It’s distilled from virgin potatoes in Sweden once, which is really unusual for vodka – most vodkas are distilled 4-6 times to render it...
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Still Waters Whisky and Vodka
I’ve hated the sour, watery Canadian whiskies that I’ve tasted previously (Crown Royal, I’m looking at you). When I poured my first glass of Still Waters Blended Canadian Whisky, that changed. As you...
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Sub Rosa Saffron Vodka
Unfortunately, the sweet (sometimes creepy) flavored vodka category is the #1 seller at the liquor store nowadays. Aside from the philosophy attached to this, let me remind you that vodka is still a...
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Cathead Vodka
Cathead is a moderately priced vodka from the state of Mississippi. One dollar of every bottle is given to foundations that support live music, and right on the label it says “Support Live Music.”...
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UBONs Bloody Mary [+ Giveaway]
The Bloody Mary is THE drink for Sunday brunch. Up until now, I’ve avoided posting a Bloody Mary recipe for one primary reason: they’re not simple. The simplest recipe I’ve found was from The Cocktail...
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Infusions
by guest writer David Coveney, The Spirit Cellar Online I have been doing liquor infusions at home for quite some time now, and I love using gin. One of my favourite infusions is rosemary gin: leave...
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Modern Harvey
Galliano has launched a new campaign to compete tongue-in-cheek with this national election stuff that we seem to be in the midst of. At the Vote 4 Wallbanger site, Harvey promises to “Make America...
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Frey Ranch Gin and Vodka
Frey Ranch Distilling, near Reno, Nevada, is a near-200-year-old family farm that began distilling in 2010. One of the few “estate” producers in the U.S., the ranch’s current caretakers Colby and...
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Humboldt Vodka and Hemp Seed Vodka
Humboldt Distillery is based out of northern California where they distill vodka and rum. I used their spiced rum to make a cocktail that I’ve been really enjoying lately: the Double Rum Old...
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