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Stir & Strain

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Holiday Gift Guide: The Gold Standard

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When something is covered in gold it makes it special, right? Unless you’re Jill Masterson; then you’re an unfortunate casulty of a James Bond love affair. But let’s not get bogged down with my obsession with the James Bond franchise. Let’s talk gifts! Of Gold! For cocktails!

Holiday Gift Guides: Gold // stirandstrain.com

 

I’m sorry if you were expecting a certain gold-flecked liquor, instead I’m opting for some gold-wrapped champagne to top your cocktail. Make sure you mix it up nice with some blindingly beautiful accessories. And when you’re done, that bar cart is sure a nice way to store everything.

1. Southern Hemisphere Double Old Fashioned Glass 2. Brignac Brut Gold Champange 3. Gold Bar Spoon 4. Gold Jigger 5. Polka Dot Coasters 6. 18K Gold Cocktail Shaker 7. Bar Cart 8. Gold Stripe Straws

In Other News

If you’re on Facebook, Stir & Strain now has a page! You can click here to follow along.

Do you know the perfect gift for the cocktail enthusiast in your life? Care to share? Leave a comment so shopping is a little less awful for everyone else this year.

Holiday Gift Guide: Cocktails. On a Boat.

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Probably every year about this time I start feeling uneasy and mumble to myself, “I’m not ready yet”. Purity jokes aside, it usually means I’m all a fuss about the upcoming holiday season. I mean, it’s 80 outside. It sure doesn’t feel like Santa is hiding in my chimney, ready to come down and scold me for not baking enough cookies this year.

But just because I’m a bumbling mess doesn’t mean YOU have to be. This year I’m trying to be more proactive and bring you, readers, timely gift guides. Not like those I threw out in March, even though, well, St. Patrick’s Day is also a relative holiday in my field.

Today we’re going to ease into just thinking about fun gifts for those cocktail lovers/enthusiasts/entertainers in your life. Or you can make a list for yourself! Who cares?! I don’t; you should see my “to buy” list, many items of which will actually be appearing here in the next few weeks.

Since it is still pretty balmy out here in Southern California, I’m taking you on a boat trip – with boozy gifts.

You’ll need a good Navy Strength Rum on this boat, and a couple of shatter-resistant glasses (for when it gets rough). Who wants to carry a bunch of full size products when you can have mini bitters on board? Adult ice pops? Yes. Just don’t forget the ice bucket!

Nautical Cocktail Gift Guide // stirandstrain.com

1. Loop Rocks Glasses 2. Vintage Nautical Bar Tools 3. Sailboat Stir Sticks 4. Smith & Cross Rum 5. Sailboat Pops 6. Scrappy’s Bitters Travel Pack 7. Nautical Ice Bucket

Source It: Flask Gifts

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Christmastime this year felt easy. With Pinterest, if you’re me, you mindlessly pin stuff when you have some down time, you pin on your phone when you’re standing in line at the grocery store. You pin in the dentist’s chair. At some point you find you’ve pinned some 3000+ images that you for some reason or other felt compelled to want to hang on to. When it came time to start thinking about what to get people this year (and I am a person who LOVES to give gifts) I turned immediately to my Pinterest boards.

A flask is always a nice little stocking stuffer for those booze lovers in your life. A gift that works both personally or impersonally depending on the gifting situation. This year my husband received a nifty flask I had found while sifting through my boards. It does double duty being a flask with a whopping 8 ounces of booze holding capacity and embedded in the side is a collapsable cup- just in case you would rather sip from a cup then throw back out of a flask. Or for sharing!

St. Patrick’s Day? St. Joseph’s Day? Bunsen Burner Day?!? There’s tons of reasons to buy your loved one a flask this March. Here’s a couple of my Pinterest finds.

shot and a flask Gold Flask Mini Flask Copper Flask Wood Flask Giant Flask

From top to bottom: Shot and a Flask, Gold Flask, Mini Flask, Copper Flask, Wooden Flask, MEGA Flask
For these and more flask ideas, check out the Home Bar board on Pinterest.

Source It: Glassware Love

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I’ve gotten a couple comments lately on the glassware that I use in my shoots and I thought now is as good a time as any to elaborate on that.

Every time I visit a vintage store I have dreams of walking in and finding all sorts of mid-century tumblers and goblets and what-have-you, all with a reasonable price tag. Reality is that I’ve NEVER had that happen. I’m either disappointed with the selection (my Nana might love it) and/or the price tags are outrageous. I want to drink out of the glass, not lock it up in a curio cabinet.

This perfect combination of stock and reasonable price tags does though exist. I’ve found it through Etsy. Although you have to sift through a lot of what you don’t want, there is a large selection of what I DO want.

Below are some selections from the site of just the type of vintage barware you can find, without hefty price tags. Besides glassware, I’m also collecting vintage bar shakers that I hope to one day use/display when we finish our home bar.

1 & 2 are from my own Etsy purchases. 3-6 are a couple of choices I picked out to share from Etsy. Click for links to their pages. All photos from Etsy sellers.

{Etsy had no bearing on this post whatsoever. All content of my own choosing. Just FYI.}