A Guinness float with Silver Moon’s Praline
Irish Cream ice cream. Photo courtesy
Silver Moon Desserts.

A stout float—ice cream and a bottle of chocolate stout—has become a popular dessert.

For St. Patrick’s Day, substitute the chocolate stout for Guinness. Here’s a stout float recipe.

Stout is differentiated from regular ale by its dark, brown-black color and chocolate-coffee flavors and fuller body. This is achieved by brewing with barley that has been dark-roasted to the point of charring (think of espresso beans compared to a medium roast).

Chocolate stout is a sub-category that use different malts, including chocolate malt, a more aromatic malt that has been roasted until it acquires a chocolate color and chocolaty flavor. The beers have a noticeable dark chocolate flavor that comes from the malt. Some stouts have actual cacao beans or chocolate tossed into the brew.

You can add an ounce of Bailey’s Irish Cream to the stout for a more well-rounded celebration.

And if you’re lucky enough to live where Silver Moon ice cream is sold (a NIBBLE Top Pick Of The Week), you can use their Praline Irish Cream, made with Irish cream liqueur. (Or, order it online for overnight delivery.)

If you want to brew Irish chocolate stout from scratch, we found a recipe!

Drinkin’ o’ the green. Photo courtesy
Agwa de Bolivia.

Looking for inspiration for St. Patrick’s Day?

Start celebrating with a green cocktail. You can make an entire cocktail menu from our green selections:

Finish the evening with Irish Coffee, of course.

Find a larger selection of cocktails in our Cocktails & Spirits Section.

Tomorrow: St. Patrick’s Day desserts!

This week, our Top Pick is a trio of treats. They’re not related to each other but for the fact that they’re all very special and worth seeking out.

Our first product is Tipsy Cocktail Stirrers from Sable & Rosenfeld.

Bloody Marys, martinis and any savory cocktail will be greatly enhanced by dressing up with gourmet cocktail stirrers. So will a sandwich, a burger or anything else that begs for visual excitement and savory splendor. (That makes it a great gift, too.)

Tipsy cocktail stirrers are also a very low calorie snack, and certified kosher by OU.

Why didn’t we think of this? Our new favorite
cocktail garnish. Photo by Katharine Pollak |
THE NIBBLE.

Sake “old school.” For a new take, combine
it with sangria. Photo courtesy
Tedorigawa Brewing Company.

Saké and sangria are currently hot beverage trends. What if you combined them?

Make saké sangria for a party, barbecue or an afternoon break. This recipe is courtesy of Riingo, a Japanese fusion restaurant in New York City.

This is a sophisticated sangria—not your typical party punch.

Recipe For One Cocktail

1. Combine 2 ounces rosé wine, 1-1/2 ounces infused saké, 1/2 ounce peach liqueur, 1 tablespoon mixed fresh fruit (apples, blood oranges, blueberries), a splash of pomegranate juice and a splash of orange juice.

2. Place ice cubes and fruit in large wine glass. Add the remaining ingredients, stir and serve.

Another idea for saké lovers:

Fruit-infused sakés are growing in popularity. You can buy them or make your own.

As with vodka, you can infuse saké with any fresh or dried fruit (we used fresh pears) by steeping it for 2 to 3 weeks in an airtight jar. Keep the jar in a cool, dark place, then use a funnel to decant the saké into the original saké bottle. Serve chilled saké with ice in a wine glass and garnish with the type fruit you infused (not the fruit from the jar—that needs to be tossed).

Looking for palate excitement this year? Like eating on the cutting edge?

McCormick’s 2010 Flavor Forecast offers 10 new ways to pair food and spices. How does a spice company decide what’s hot? The flavor experts at McCormick team up with leading chefs, food writers and other culinary authorities to identify the top flavor pairings and key trends that are poised to shape the way we eat.

This is the 10th anniversary of the McCormick Flavor Forecast, so join the celebration and try the recipes (THE NIBBLE has been publishing them since 2008). We’ll present one a day for the next 10 days.

The first pairing is almond and ale. You might enjoy nibbling on almonds as you drink an ale; now see what it’s like to put almonds into the ale.

Why does this pairing work?

You like ale, you like almonds; so how about
an Ale Almond Spritzer? Photo courtesy McCormicks.com.

The Recipe:

The bittersweet character of both ale and almonds makes a congenial, cozy and hearty match. Invite friends to try this recipe for an Almond-Ale Spritzer, a moderately sweet beer-based cocktail. Enjoy it with a good food-themed movie.

And come up with your own recipes: ale-steamed shrimp with toasted almonds, for example.

It’s the birthday of the Father of Our Country (George Washington, to those of you who didn’t attend grade school in the U.S.).

Washington was quite a fan of egg nog and devised his own recipe that included rye whiskey, rum and sherry.

Toast to Washington with egg nog: He loved
it! Photo courtesy Chefs.com.

Mix up some passion for Valentine’s Day.
Photo courtesy Grey Goose.

You still haven’t found your perfect Valentine’s Day cocktail? We’re here to help!

How about something red? Something vodka? Something sexy? And delicious, of course!

Try the Lovesicle, Midnight Moment or Pair-tini from Grey Goose. All blend infused vodka (pear or orange) with Valentine flavors, including passion fruit purée, red grapefruit juice, vanilla liqueur and a liqueur called Parfait Amour, based on a Curaçao base.

Check out the cocktail recipes.

For a fun Valentine’s Day party, let guests invent their own “love cocktail” and name the winner. Be prepared with a large-size (3 liters or more) of at least one base spirit like vodka, plus all of the liqueurs and mixers required to let contestants evoke their inner mixologists.

Chocolate cocktails range from sweet to spicy
to sizzling, like “Hot Lips,” above. Photo
courtesy Van Gogh Vodka.

Chocolate has been called the “fruit of love,” so it’s no wonder that it’s the favorite gift for Valentine’s Day.

Long thought of as an aphrodisiac, there’s a scientific basis to the claim. Chocolate contains phenylethylamine, the same chemical released in your brain when you fall in love—leading to an excited feeling of infatuation.

Given what alcohol does to one’s brain, what happens when you drink chocolate alcohol? Find out this Valentine’s Day with chocolate cocktails made from Van Gogh Dutch Chocolate Vodka.

The vodka is so wonderfully chocolaty, it doesn’t need mixers. But not everyone likes drinking vodka neat—even chocolate vodka. So check out these chocolate cocktail recipes.

And run to your nearest liquor store to get a bottle of Van Gogh Dutch Chocolate Vodka. If you aren’t celebrating with a special Valentine, this is one way to make new friends.

Vodka for ginger lovers.

Hmm. Your Valentine doesn’t like sweets. But she does love a great cocktail or a shot of something special.

How about the “vodka of love”: ginger-flavored Yazi Ginger Vodka?

In Asia, ginger has long been considered an aphrodisiac, believed to have mystical powers that bring harmony to life and love.

Using glacier-fed spring water from Mt. Hood, Oregon’s highest peak, Hood River Distillers has infused vodka (grain spirits) with natural ginger, orange, lemon, cayenne and red pepper extracts for a complex, well-balanced flavored spirit. There’s a ginger forefront and a citrus-spiciness in the background.

The bottle is stunning: A spiraling dragon is etched on imported French glass, with a scarlet banner and cap (“yazi” refers to the Chinese dragon). Available nationwide, Yazi says “Be My Valentine” to all lovers of ginger. The suggested retail price is $30.00.

We enjoy drinking Yazi straight, but you can mix up a broad variety of cocktails. Here’s the “Love Potion,” courtesy of Typhoon on Broadway in Portland, Oregon.

Ingredients Per Cocktail

- 2-1/2 ounces Yazi Ginger Flavored Vodka
- 1-1/2 ounces Cointreau
- 3/4 ounce fresh lemon juice
- 1 maraschino cherry for garnish

Preparation

1. Fill a cocktail shaker two-thirds of the way with ice. Add all ingredients.
2. Shake for 15 seconds.
3. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
4. Garnish and serve.

Find more recipes on the company website. For a retailer near you, telephone 1.503.574.3693 during business hours (Pacific Time).

Come on, men: a pink cocktail is the theme
of the day. Photo courtesy Roseangel Tequila.

Surely, you’re not going to serve the same cocktail favorites on Valentine’s Day! A special day means special cocktails.

Start with these pink tequila cocktails, and check our Cocktails Section for more Valentine’s Day drinks.

There, you’ll find the Love Potion Martini, Right Kiss Gin Cocktail, rosy vodka cocktails and more pink cocktail recipes with gin.