Tag: alcohol

Bloody Mary: One of the Most Popular Cocktails

Bloody Mary is of the very popular cocktail among the alcohol lovers. Both men and women love to have a sip of this popular cocktail occasionally. Bloody Mary is prepared by mixing vodka along with tomato juice, cayenne pepper, olives, celery salt, black pepper, lemon juice, horseradish, piri piri sauce, celery, Tabasco sauce, beef consommé and Worcestershire sauce. There are so many ingredients and they must be mixed at right time to get the best variety of Bloody Mary. It is so considered as one of the most complex cocktail drink. The final drink which is presented is marvelous in taste and the pleasure that one gets by drink Bloody Mary is simply amazing. Bloody Mary’s lovers term this drink as the most refreshing alcoholic beverage. The reason is that it not gives you the much desired buzz but also offers healthy serving of the various juices added to it.

The ingredient in the Bloody Mary together makes it an excellent restorative beverage and so it is an excellent drink using which you can get rid of your hangovers. People generally prefer this alcoholic drink in the morning or during the afternoon hours. It is mostly preferred with the brunches. Bloody Mary can be prepared in various manners by the varying the ingredients that are added to it. There are dozens of Bloody Mary variants today and different people have their different choices. Some of those methods have been described below.

Simple Bloody Mary: To prepare a simple Bloody Mary take the ingredients in the following quantify. 4 oz. vodka, Worcestershire sauce, 1/16 cup oz. tomato sauce, 2 oz. dill pickle juice, 3 tablespoon lemon juice, Tabasco sauce, ½ tablespoon each of celery salt and horseradish sauce and lastly 2 tablespoon of coarse salt. Mix the sauces along with the salts in the highball glass and then add all the other ingredients. Gently stir the mixture for about 25 seconds so that all the ingredients get mixed properly. Cover the rim of the glass in which the drink will be served with the lime juice and then apply coarse salt over it. Pour the drink in it and serve it with ice cubes.

Spicy Bloody Mary: Spicy Bloody Mary is different from the Simple Bloody Mary as the quantity of the ingredients in this variety is completely different. To prepare this drink take the following ingredients in the following quantity. 1 ½ oz. of vodka, 1 large lime wedge, 4 oz. tomato sauce, coarse salt as per taste, a very little fresh pepper, celery salt, 8 shakes of Worcestershire sauce, 2 dashes of hot sauce, 1/8 teaspoon of horseradish, green olive and spicy pickled asparagus. Mix them well with the crushed ice and then add the toppings. Squeeze a lime wedge and apply salt on the top of the glass along with coarse salt. The final drink will have a spicy taste. If you want to make it extra spicy then you can also add green beans to it.

White Bloody Mary: It is yet another popular version of Bloody Mary. The quantity of the ingredients in White Bloody Mary is 3 oz. vodka, 4 chopped tomatoes, 1 chopped cucumber, 2 cups green grapes, seeded jalapeno, 2 peeled celery, 2 lime wedges and 1 tablespoon each of salt, fine sugar, horseradish and pepper. You can also add cucumber spears to it. First of all take the chopped tomato, celery, cucumber, grapes and jalapeno in a blender and crush them completely. Then finely take out the juice prepared in a bowl and keep it in a refrigerator till it stains. Now in a pitcher add this prepared juice along with the vodka, ice and various other mentioned salts. Gently stir the mixture obtained and then finally pour it into a glass whose top is again rubbed with the lime wedge. You can now garnish the drink as per your choice and then serve it.

People believe that Bloody Mary drink was first prepared by a bartender named as Fernand Pete Petiot while working in the very famous New York Bar which is located in Paris. Just with the motive of creating a unique drink and to keep the clients interested, he prepared Bloody Mary for the first time. The drink was highly appreciated and everybody who got chance to drink it were highly impressed. His colleagues named it as Bloody Mary. Some people also believe that this alcoholic drink was invented by the veteran comedian George Jessel during his stay in the 21 Club. In one of the life magazine published in the year 1942, this drink was also named as the “Red Hammer”. The IBA claims that name Bloody Mary is nowhere related to the Queen Mary I of England and has also not been named after the waitress who used to work at the Chicago Bar. It was named as per the suggestion of the Petiot colleagues. Whatever may be the story behind this drink, just try this drink and I bet you will surely like it.

July 1, 2014
Long Island Ice Tea – A refreshing cocktail

Cocktail is a drink which is prepared by mixing various alcohols in an appropriate quantity. This does not mean that you need to mix many alcohols together to get your cocktail, it can also be prepared by just mixing one alcoholic ingredient. Today we have so many different varieties of cocktails and Long Island Ice Tea is one of them. It has the reputation of being a mild, refreshing drink which feels like ice tea and gives you a much desired relief. This is the reason Long Island Ice Tea is one of the world’s most preferred cocktails. Go to any part of the world and you will find people loving and talking about this wonderful drink. It is prepared by mixing gin, vodka, rum and tequila. Yes, you have all these in one single drink. Isn’t incredible?

One of the most popular version of the Long Island Ice Tea which is high in demand is the one in which there is an equal proportion of the gin, vodka, tequila, triple sec and rum mixed with the one and a half parts of the sour and some cola to give it a color of ice tea. Long Island Ice Tea is then served on the rocks or poured over the glass containing ice. In other variants the sour mixed can be replaced with the other available options such as the lemon juice and the cola can be replaced by the actual ice tea. Even if this drink has the name of the Long Island Ice Tea, it generally does not contain any tea in most of its variants.

According to the International Bartenders Association, Long Island Ice Tea is one of the contemporary classics drinks that is widely loved and appreciated. One of the basic advantages with the Long Island Ice Tea is that we can make it stronger when required by just increasing the concentration of the alcohol in it. A normal Long Island Ice Tea has 22 percent of alcohol concentration in it. Some of the people love to have it with a high level of alcohol concentration in it. It helps them to relax and attain a much desired pleasure. Some people like to go for the extra-long version of this drink which has even more percentage of the alcohol in it. Whatever variant of this ultimate drink you choose it is surely going to sooth you with its ultimate taste and fine aroma.

If you want to prepare it on your own you will have to get the following ingredients. 1.5 cl each of vodka, tequila, triples sec, rum and gin. 3.0 cl of gomme syrup, 2.5 cl of lemon juice and the cola to give it the much desired ice tea color. Just add all the above mentioned ingredients in a highball which should be perfectly filled with the ice. Stir it gently and then decorate it according to your wish. And now your drink is ready to get served. Add a straw and get the taste of this wonderful cocktail which will surely help you to get rid of the worries and will helps you in relaxing.

There is a conflict so as to how this drink came into existence and who actually coined the termed Long Island Ice Tea. The major conflict is between the claims made by person named as the Robert Rosebud Butt and an Old Man Bishop who was from Tennessee. According to the claims made by Robert Rosebud Butt, he is the person who gave the world the so called ‘Long Island Ice Tea’. In the year 1972, one day while working as a bar tender at the Oak Beach Inn resort located in Long Island, New York he tried to make a new sparkling drink that includes the triple sec and came out with the recipe of this drink and named it as Long Island Ice Tea. Many people say in support of Robert Rosebud Butt that yes he is the person because of whom we have such a refreshing alcoholic drink today.

This is one story. Another section of society believes that the Long Island Ice Tea was first prepared long back in the 1920s by the famous ‘Old Man Bishop’ was lived in Long Island community located in the Kingsport, Tennessee. It was the year of probation. After he made this drink for the first time, his son Ransom Bishop made some changes to the drink with the maple syrup and the whiskey to give it a much relishing taste. For years now we had the debate of where the Long Island Ice Tea was first prepared. Is it Tennessee or is it New York? This question is still unanswered but one thing is for sure, who so ever invented it, did a wonderful job. The name Long Island Ice Tea can be found mentioned in the literatures that were written in the year 1961 and so people believe that the later mentioned story is more appropriate.

June 18, 2014
Beat The Booze : Curing Hangover At Home

Partying hard is something that comes naturally to youngsters these days. It is the new trend that is gaining momentum all over the world. But it comes with its own bag of after-effects. And the worst of them all is a hangover and due to this, after an awesome evening of indulgence, it is hard to keep that awesome feeling going in the morning.

Hangover is the experience of various physiological and psychological effects following consumption of alcoholic beverages, and is characterized by severe discomfort, that may last more than 24 hours. It is caused due to accumulation of alcohol inside the body and occurs when intoxicating effect of alcohol begins to wear off the next morning. The symptoms include headache, drowsiness, fatigue, nausea, stomach problems, sweating , dry mouth etc.

When you wake up the next morning after partying, your main aim is to cure the piercing headache and the lingering hangover. Normally, you just pop in a powerful painkiller or some other medicine to curb the headache, without knowing the side effects. And the condition becomes worse, when you are a regular party- goer because you can’t just pop in those tablets day after day. This is where natural remedies have a role to play.

There are some easy food items in your kitchen which help to cure that hangover without any worries about side-effects. They even detoxify your body by removing toxins from your liver, and thus reduce the effect of those hard drinks. So using these simple home remedies for curing the hangover is very beneficial for you as they don’t harm your body.

Water :

Drinking water is one of the best cures for a hangover,as it rehydrates the body which is dehydrated by the alcohol. Drink 6-8 glasses of water a day to treat that hangover.

Tea:

Being mostly water, tea is a great agent for rehydration. Green tea is a great source for detoxification of body as it is packed with anti-oxidants. Also, ginger tea can be used to cure a hangover because ginger has long been used to treat nausea and stomach sickness, which are one of the symptoms of a hangover. By combining 10-12 freshly cut ginger root pieces with 4 cups of water, this ale can be quite effective for curing a hangover.

Apart from this, milk thistle tea can also be taken as it cleanses the liver of the harmful toxins in alcohol. To make milk thistle tea, add a tablespoon of milk thistle seeds to a cup of hot water and have it.

Coconut water :

coconut water contains potassium which will help you feel better in no time if you are suffering from a hangover. It also hydrates your body much more effectively than simple water.

Juice:

Tomato juice is a great cure for hangover as long as it is not Bloody Mary induced, as it acts as an anti-inflammatory agent and replenishes the lost nutrients in the body. Orange juice is also a great way to cure a hangover as it raises your blood sugar levels and helps to lose some of the symptoms. But, you should skip acidic juices (like orange juice) if your stomach is upset and have apple juice instead.

Honey and lemons:

Have a classic hot drink of honey and lemon mixed with water, as it replenishes fluids and sugar lost to hangover. Lemon replenishes the vitamins you need and honey has fructose which competes with alcohol metabolism, which in turn helps to expel alcohol from the body. For curing a hangover, boil 1 cup water and mix honey and lemon juice and have it several times a day.

Bananas:

When you are drunk, lots of potassium is lost from the body and eating a banana will surely give you a giddy-up and go, as it is loaded with potassium.

Potatoes with milk :

Eating potatoes is another way of replenishing the body’s potassium levels, and if taken along with milk, there is a great boost to your calcium levels as well. Thus, this is a perfect combo to reduce the hangover.

Apart from this, you should have foods which are light and easy to digest, like rice, soup or toast. Eating something solid will help to cure the headache and stomach problems. If you have a very bad headache, you can also compress your forehead with an ice pack, or just rinse a washcloth under cold water and put it on your forehead for some time, to get significant relief.

So if you take these natural things to treat your hangover, then it will be easier for your body to endure those cocktails and hard drinks. Keeping all things apart, most of all, you should follow the mantra of “prevention is better than cure” in your life. Excessive drinking may be curable at first, but it can cause long term effects if consumed like an everyday affair. So controlled drinking is advisable for all-the-time-hangover-stricken people in the first place, blended with these simple and fruitful home remedies, which nullify the extremely harmful effects of alcohol on your body by its cleansing and detoxification.

June 5, 2014