JULY 4th FOOD: Red, White & Blue Cocktails

  Want a celebratory drink for July 4th? How about a red, white and blue layered shooter? A drink with several layers of different colored liqueurs is called a pousse café (pronounced POOSE-caff-fay). A classic pousse café is a liqueur-based drink served with after-dinner coffee. In French, the name translates to “pushes coffee,” or coffee…
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TIP OF THE DAY: Homemade Grenadine

First, what is grenadine? A deep red syrup used for hundreds of years to flavor and give a reddish/pink tinge to drinks and other recipes, true grenadine is made from pomegranate juice and sugar syrup. The name comes from the French grenade and the Spanish grenada, words for pomegranate. Alas, today’s mass-marketed “grenadine” is faux…
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TIP OF THE DAY: More Affordable Champagne Cocktails

A yummy Prosecco cocktail that can be adapted into a mocktail. Photo courtesy Harvard Common Press.   Champagne cocktails make any occasion more festive. And they don’t require Champagne, per se, but can use more affordable bubblies such as Prosecco and Asti Spumante from Italy, Cava from Spain and Sekt from Germany. You can also…
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TIP OF THE DAY: For A Twist, Substitute Saké For Wine

Summer saké punch with strawberries andcucumber: delicious! Photo courtesyGeikkekan.   For warm weather entertaining—like Father’s Day—serve something different and unexpected. Party drinks like sangria and punch are popular, affordable and easy to make. For a fun fusion, make them with saké. Saké, which many people think of as rice wine (we’ll skip the technicalities for…
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FATHER’S DAY GIFT IDEA: Blended Scotch Whisky

Last night we learned how to blend Scotch, courtesy of America’s best-selling Scotch brand, Dewar’s. A few decades ago, when single malt Scotch became all the rage, we became a snooty single malt drinker and hadn’t drunk a blended Scotch until now. We were missing out! Single malt versus blended Scotch is purely a matter…
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