- FIRST! We’ve launched our first ever presets for Lightroom Mobile that is JUST for cocktail photography. Check them out! And use code BOOZENEWS19 this week and get any preset for just $5!!
- What beers you should be drinking this fall and, more importantly, why!
- OH SNAP! So you can shake a Martini!
- Looking to spend under $75 and get some great whiskey from around the world? Check out these bottles!
- The holidays are swiftly approaching. Have you been practicing your champagne tower building skills???
- With the holidays coming up, there’s going to be more bubbly bottles being brought to parties than you know what to do with. Here’s a book to help make cocktails with all of them.
- I’m already feeling pretty festive this year, but I don’t know if I’m feeling this festive. Would you drink this?
- If you like beer, and you have kids, these breweries let all of you have a good time.
- A gin and tonic advent calendar sounds pretty fun!
- Move over Seedlip. You’ve got some competition in the non-alcoholic spirits category now!
- And finally, there are some great cocktails at Disney, but I’m not sure about the majority of these...
I’m updating the Booze News today because there was some very sad news I learned on Saturday morning. Gary Regan, author of The Joy of Mixology, and fountain of cocktail know-how, has passed away. This is a huge loss in the cocktail community and his words on cocktails was my first teacher in my home bar. I still reference this book almost a decade after I first picked it up, as it is as relevant today as it was then. One finger-stirred Negroni will be drank in his honor today, and forever onward.
This post was made in partnership with 
While we may have come together over a shared bond of going out and having fun, now everyone in the group is at various forms of no-abv, low-abv, and mod-abv (a new term I am coining here). Getting together with a bottle of whiskey is just not going to cut it anymore, and as countless statistics now tell us, more people are embracing entertaining with all these facets of alcohol consumption in mind. So, together with 
At our Friendsgiving you won’t find a turkey, you won’t find a formal sit down dinner, but what you will find is laughter, dancing, pigs in a blanket, and since I’m bartending, delicious drinks. Oh and snacks. LOTS of snacks. I like to set out small stations around the house as no one ever stays in one place. One area I’ve got a DIY Your Seltzer bar with berries, herbs, ice, and citrus. And 
Another aspect of entertaining during the holiday season is sometimes people are looking for ways not to overindulge. When one of my friends arrived for the party she announced she was off sugar and carbs this month, usually I would have been scrambling to find something to serve, but lucky for her, the Smirnoff Seltzer Raspberry Rosé and Smirnoff Seltzer Berry Lemonade hard seltzers have zero sugar and just 1 carb per serving. And unlike some drinks you might get claiming no sugar, they aren’t adulterated with a bunch of artificial sweeteners. This announcement was totally unexpected from this friend but I felt super lucky to be able to offer her some tasty drink options (and eat all her dinner rolls! Ha. Sorry F!).
If you’re looking to incorporate some low-abv (and mod-abv) options this year with these Smirnoff hard seltzers, here’s a few ideas…
Well, for one, we’re right in the middle of Day of the Dead celebrations, which go from October 31st to November 2nd. And secondly, Tequila Cazadores has released a special bottle to commemorate the holiday designed by the Mexican artist Victoria Villasana. She “was inspired by the Cazadores Stag and its meaning in indigenous cultures in Mexico. The stag is a messenger, a powerful animal that represents sensitivity and intuition. Just like Día de los Muertos, it represents a connection with our ancestors and the bridge between life and death.”
This year marks the first year that I am making an altar with ofrendas, or offerings, at home. I was introduced to the holiday through my Mesoamerican Art History studies in college years ago, but this year my oldest has started asking some big questions about life and death lately. I feel like this is the perfect way to not only honor our deceased relatives, but to give an honest answer about the cycle of life in a way that is not scary, but rather joyous and celebratory.
If you are thinking about celebrating Día de los Muertos in your home this year for the first time. Here’s a primer on a few of the symbols that would be found on the altar and in the home.
This post is made in partnership with Hangar 1. Recipes and ideas are my own.
One of my favorite styles of cocktails to add an egg white to are sours. Sours can be quite tart depending on how they’re made, and even when adding in a sweetener, the egg white somehow magically transforms the whole drink into a silky, well-balanced drink.
This cocktail, made in partnership with Hangar 1 Honeycomb Vodka, which has now just become available for the first time ever outside of the Hangar 1 Distillery, located in Alameda, CA, is California fall in a glass. Juicy, ripe pears contrast with the woodsy sweetness of maple syrup and mingle with all those wonderful fall-time baking spices found in allspice liqueur, while a tart kiss of lemon juice accentuates the base of the whole drink with the complex honeycomb vodka. And that egg white gives the whole drink some body and a slightly frothy head that you can garnish with either a lemon wheel, or these really interesting honey discs I’ve been experimenting with. The honey discs are similar in structure to a hard candy, and not only do they really impress sitting in a cloud of froth on top of your drink, they also slowly melt into the drink to add even more honey flavor to the cocktail as you sip. These however are totally optional to the drink and the touch of sweetness they impart is minimal because they are so solid and melt very slowly. I just always have to go and make my drinks extra. But you don’t have to for this to work!
Pears can be so sweet when ripe, that the richness of honey is a fantastic contrast. They balance really well here and that’s because Hangar 1 isn’t just infusing the vodka with honey, they actually use honeycomb for a more intense flavor. What I love about Hangar 1, a California company, is that their honey isn’t sourced from some faraway place or imported, their honey is from their local farming community, Golden Harvest Bees, located in Redwood City, CA. When companies step up to being more mindful about sourcing ingredients and sustainability I pay attention.
