Rachel Halpren

Booze For Charity

post icon

I was a spectator at the Macallan Ice Ball Plunge at this year’s Tales of the Cocktail when I was struck with an epiphany. The booze industry is even more philanthropic than I thought. Almost every person in the industry we know has donated time, booze, classes, swag and more. Even DOTW has gotten into the act, sponsoring the Martini Luge at the Silicon Valley Humane Society’s Fur Ball and donating multiple classes as fundraising … Read more

Rose Courvoisier Liqueur Review

post icon

Rose Courvoisier recently celebrated its first year anniversary as a product.  That’s not bad for a new product release in the ever competitive spirit space these days.  It seems like new products are being released weekly, if not daily.  It’s hard to keep up.  Rose Courvoisier is a liqueur at 18% alcohol by volume (versus the Courvoisier cognac that clocks in at a much heavier 36%) that was created by blending Courvoisier cognac and red … Read more

The Billionaire’s Vinegar – Literary Monday

post icon

In The Billionaire’s Vinegar, Benjamin Wallace investigates one of the largest, if not the largest, alleged frauds in the wine business. The Billionaire’s Vinegar is a fascinating look into the world of high stakes, high priced wine. Loads of wine obsessed rich people looking to possess rare and elusive bottlings. You can see why this book is fascinating – it quickly caught my attention, and I was engrossed to the end.

The Billionaire’s Vinegar examines … Read more

The Wild Vine – Literary Monday

post icon

The Wild Vine is a must read for any lover of American wine or what we like to call “weird varietals”. Weird varietals are obscure wines that are often made from indiginous grapes or hybrids. In this case, The Wild Vine chronicles the birth, growth and near death experience of Norton, a grape that its author calls the most American of grapes. As you learn in the book, it’s obscure, a hybrid and indiginous to … Read more

Poptails Review – Literary Monday

post icon

Poptails was made for this scorching summer heat! If you are wondering what poptails are, they are essentially popsicles made with booze. Yum! We received this book a few weeks ago and hadn’t gotten around to reviewing it. It’s hard to be excited about poptails when San Francisco has barely broken 70 this summer. However, we were inspired by the Oxley poptails that we had at the 2012 Tales of the Cocktail. As you can … Read more

Happy Pina Colada Day!

post icon

July 10th marks Pina Colada Day! The Pina Colada is the perfect blend of pineapple, coconut cream, rum and ice! I have to admit that a virgin Pina Colada (without the rum) is pretty delicious as well. Thanks to some medical issues and crazy antibiotics, I was forced to drink virgin drinks on a recent vacation. The virgin Pina Colada was the best of the bunch. Given the heatwave sweeping America, a Pina Colada would … Read more

Thoroughly Modern Milkshakes – Literary Monday

post icon

This week’s book pick is Thoroughly Modern Milkshakes, an appropriate pick given the sweltering heat consuming the United States. I love milkshakes, actually, I really love malts, and was pretty excited to see this book show up. Thoroughly Modern Milkshakes covers everything from the basics, chocolate shake anyone, to the exotic, ever try a raspberry rose shake. We tried a few of the recipes and it is clear that Adam Ried, author of Thoroughly Modern … Read more

Highland Park Valhalla Collection – Thor – Review

post icon

This gem comes from one of our favorite Scotch houses – Highland Park.  Not only is Highland Park 18 one of the most perfect spirits that I have been fortunate enough to taste, the Edrington Group, which owns Highland Park is simply amazing.  Long a family enterprise, they fought off multiple hostile takeover attempts by Seagrams in the 1950’s, consolidated their holdings into the Edrington Group, which is owned by the Robertson Family Trust (the … Read more

Last Call for Another Season of Mad Men

post icon

Mad Men is one of our favorite shows and we can’t believe the season is ending already. Can’t they make the season longer? I mean, who can’t get enough of Don Drapper, the fashion and all the cocktail swigging. Seriously, my goal in life has become to have a booze cart in my office or cube, even if I can’t touch the stuff on the cart. It just looks awesome!

Earlier this season, we reviewed … Read more

6 True Blood Inspired Cocktails

post icon

We can hardly contain our excitement with the return of the bloody great True Blood! Our lives aren’t the same without Sookie and our favorite vamps from Bon Temps and Shreveport. And, who could forget about the fairies, witches, were-creatures and those werewolves.

The boys and girls of Bon Temps love their cocktails and spend a-lot of time at Merlott’s, the local waterhole ran by Sam, a shape-shifter that can assume the form of any … Read more