New Years Eve is just a few short days away, so get that bubbly chilled and ready to toast 2007. Champagne is great straight, but mixing it up can really help out the not so good stuff. Making Champagne Cocktails also is great for left over bubbly. Apparently, sugar will help revive the bubbles in flat champagne. The original Champagne Cocktail is made with a sugar cube soaked with Angostura bitters. The recipe has changed little since it’s inception in the mid 1800s.

We have assembled an extensive collection of Champagne Cocktails just waiting for all that left over champagne. If you get crazy pick 3 or 4 to serve at this year’s count down.

Camper English at the SF Chronicle wrote this artice recently going a bit deeper into the Champagne Cocktail and the French 75, another classic. The article also lists about a dozen bars in San Francisco featuring Champagne Cocktails that you can try on your next visit to the City.

Champagne Cocktails
Chronicle photo by Mike Kepka

Every December 5th we pause to remember the passing of the 21st Amedndment, thus ending Prohibition. Yea FDR!

The nice folks at sent us this fun bit of history. Dewar’s Scotch was the first legal whisky to arrive in the U.S. hit New York’s South Street Seaport docks the moment the law was put into action. Joseph Kennedy, Sr. (JFK’s father) happened to be the US agent for the brand.

We found this cool video Dewar’s made, “What if Prohibition had Never Been Repealed” on Saving the World One Drink at a Time. Scary Stuff!

watch it here…

They also sent in their versions of these vintage American cocktails to celebrate this landmark day in our history.

DEWAR’S OLD FASHIONED
DEWAR’S HIGHBALL
WARD EIGHT
ROB ROY

Cheers!
Dewar’s.com

It’s that time of year again. No, not annual holiday celebration, it is something else. This Tuesday we celebrate the end to a dark time in American history - The passing of the 21 Amendment, thus repealing the 18th (a.k.a. Prohibition). For cocktails, however, Prohibition was a huge success. During Prohibition, people were drinking more than ever, it was the Roaring 20s after all. Unfortunately, the only liquor folks could get was typically homemade and terrible. To cover it up, speakeasy bartenders began mixing drinks with fresh fruit juice, soda and other mixers to help mask the taste of what became known as “bath tub” gin.

Even after prohibition was repealed, cocktails remained popular. They have since be become a part of Americana.

Jeffrey, from Eugene is rallying to make this day a major drinking holiday. I happen to agree. We need more holidays and who doesn’t need a paid day off work.

Repeal Day is December 5th

A new study published in the American Journal of Medicine suggests that cocktails made with mixers containing artificial sweetners can get a person more intoxicated than a mixer with regular sweetners.

Seems that diet drinks pass through the stomach faster than the regular ones. This makes the persons blood alcohol level spike quickly, thus getting you drunker, faster. It could also tip you over the leagsl limit. Of course you shoul never drink and drive in the first place.

[link]

The Little Ice Age that hit the world fromn 1450 - 1850 is said to have killed a large portion of the grape crop in Europe. As a result of the lack of grapes, Europeans began producing beer and hard liquor. Over the years, these libations became predominant in Northern European countries. As the English, Irish and Germans began settling the original colonies, they brought their beer and booze with them. Thus establishing beer and whiskey as our national drinks.

The Origins of Trader Joe’s and Why Americans Drink Don’t More Wine [link]

Forbes Magazine recently ranked the Nations metros on a five point scale for partying and it turns out Milwaukee, Wisconsin is tops when is comes to drinking and having fun. In fact 4 out of the top 5 are in the Midwest, proving that the heartland rocks. This really comes as no surprise to me, having spent two wonderful, partially inebriated years at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. The School is consistently ranked as top party school and Madison as a top city for quality of life. Hardy drinkers populate the whole state of Wisconsin. In 1992, when UW made it to the Rose Bowl, Wisconsin fans drank up all the brandy in the LA Basin.

Only a hour down I-90, Milwaukee is the know as the city of festivals, the most famous is the annual Summerfest Music Festival. This 10 day music, beer and food festival that takes place in an awesome setting on Lake Michigan brings the whole state out to party (and a few FIBS from Chicago). With top music acts, great Midwestern fare and a many drinking pavilions each featuring a different beer from Wisconsin (and few other places), Summerfest may rival Munich’s great Octoberfest, I’ll need to investigate that.

The cities were ranked on a five point scale, but Milwaukee’s ready access to the best beer, brats and cheese in the world make it a obvious winner.

Rounding out the top 10 are

#2 Minneapolis/St. Paul
#3 Columbus
#4 Boston
#5 Austin
#6 Chicago
#7 Cleveland
#8 Pittsburgh
#9 Philadelphia
#9 Providence

My home town, San Francisco, squeeks in at #20. We got work to do!

Read the story and see the full list

Men 10%, Women 14%. That’s how much more money people who drink and socialize in bars earn compared to their teetotaling counterparts.
Makes sense, alcohol is the great social lubricant.

Social Lubrication = Getting Business Done

Accoding to Edward Stringham, an economics professor at San Jose State University, “social drinking builds social capital”. This just reaffirms the old saying “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know”, and the people you want to meet are probably at the bar.

Read the whole story