Take a drink of Death’s Door. The company makes gin and vodka, shown, plus white whiskey. Photo courtesy Capital Brewing.

It’s got to be Death’s Door.

Made in Wisconsin by Capital Brewery, Death’s Door takes its name from a strait between the Door County peninsula and Washington Island—both located between Lake Michigan and Green Bay in eastern Wisconsin—where the spirits are made.

Death’s Door can be a perilous body of water. The name dates way back to pre-Colonial times, when a war party of 300 Winnebago natives tried to cross to Washington Island in canoes on a stormy night. They all perished, giving birth to a legend that the waters were infested by an evil spirit. When French traders arrived, they called it Port de Morts (the French translation) to ward off other traders.

But back to the real spirits: Death’s Door products are distilled from organic hard red winter wheat grown on Washington Island.

See the company website for a store locator.

TRIVIA
“Winnebago” means “the people from the stinking water,” which may have referred to the stagnant waters of Green Bay or the aromatic, algae-filled waters in local lakes and rivers. The French shortened the name and referred to these Native Americans as “the Stinkards.”

Why didn’t the Winnebago change their name? According to Wikipedia, the Algonquian words do not have the negative overtones attached to the French and English translations, puant and stinky.

Bezuidenhout is Brand Ambassador for Tequila Partida. A brand ambassador is a corporate employee who represents a brand to consumers, the trade, the media and other key constituencies. The job focus is to communicate the brand message: product features and benefits, and how the brand differs from others in the category. The Partida Brand Ambassador travels the country (or the world) meeting people. Of course, in the process, glasses of tequila are shared. Put this on your bucket list as a job to have.
 
 
HEATED AFFAIR: A HOT APPLE CIDER COCKTAIL / TODDY RECIPE

Ingredients Per Cocktail

Snuggle up with a hot apple cider cocktail (photo © Tequila Partida).

*You’ll get more exciting flavor from fresh-ground nutmeg. Buy the nets in your supermarket and grate them with a fine grater like this one from Microplane, or a pepper grinder-style nutmeg grater that keeps your fingertips safe.

Preparation

1. WARM a small wine glass (you can do this in the microwave). Add tequila and hot apple cider. Stir.

2. FLOAT a half-inch of heavy cream on top. Grate nutmeg over the top and serve.

Apple Cider Preparation

1. ADD in a saucepan, 6 ounces of apple cider for each drink you’ll be serving.

2. ADD winter spices: a pinch of allspice, a few cloves, a cinnamon stick, and some orange peel. If you want more spiciness, you can add more later.

3. COOK over low heat for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. The cider should be warm but not bubbling.

4. TASTE for flavor and add more spice if desired.

5. REMOVE the pan from the stove. Strain out the spices and orange peel.
 
 
MORE WARM COCKTAIL RECIPES

 
 
TEQUILA TYPES

What’s the difference between an añejo, a blanco, and a reposado tequila?

There are five different expressions of tequila. Take a look.
 
 
TEQUILA TRIVIA: THE WORM

Why is there a worm in some bottles of tequila?

There isn’t! It is prohibited by law to put anything other than the tequila in a tequila bottle.

Worms are placed in some bottles of mezcal, a less refined spirit and a precursor of tequila. But it’s strictly for tourists. The better brands of mezcal are worm-free. The worm, by the way, is a larval form of a moth that lives on the agave plant, from which both mezcal and tequila are made.
 

How does one pick a favorite pie or tart when one loves them all?

Given a choice—facing a restaurant dessert menu or a bakery display case, for example—we almost always pick the lemon tart. A buttery crust filled with a creamy, refreshing lemon filling, it’s hard to come across one that isn’t a delight. (Note: It won’t be a delight if bottled lemon juice, or anything other than fresh juice and zest, is used.)

Lemon tart is popular with those who love their sweets, as well as others who don’t like sugary desserts. The video below walks you through the process of making a lemon tart. While the speaker doesn’t sound too animated, the results are exciting.

The video doesn’t address garnishing, but a bit of whipped cream works just fine.

As a dessert or for afternoon tea, consider serving tea with lemon or espresso with lemon peel.

If you’d like to serve a wine with your lemon tart, a sweet muscat is the best choice. It’s easy to find a Beaumes de Venise or a California Muscat like Bonny Doon at your wine store. Check out our dessert and wine pairing chart whenever you need a pairing idea.

Pie versus tart. Do you know the difference between a pie and a tart? There are quite a few!

Discover a world of delicious tarts, pies and pastries. Take a look at our beautiful Pastry Glossary.

Love lemon? Check out the different types of lemon.

One of the quirks of WordPress is that posts disappear. Months later they can reappear (maybe, maybe not). Since we discovered this content-owner-nightmare, we’ve taken screen shots of every post we publish—not only to be able to recover the content, but also to prove to others that we’re not delusional.

So here’s our re-created 411 on Bakon Vodka:

We enjoy flavored vodkas, although we think that the flavor is often hard to detect in a mixed drink. Fortunately for us, we enjoy drinking vodka neat.

So, we enjoy Bakon Vodka in a shot glass or a brandy snifter.

Made in the Pacific Northwest from local potatoes, Bakon Vodka has a light infusion of smoky bacon that tastes real (the actual production technique is proprietary). We could wish for more bacon flavor, but we trust that the manufacturers tested all the different levels of concentration to strike the best balance.

But it has inspired us to enjoy our Bloody Mary with a rasher of bacon. You can make candied bacon, too.

We give Bakon Vodka as gifts. It‘s novel, delicious and everyone is more than happy to receive a bottle.

Bakon Vodka retails for about $30.00. Learn more at BakonVodka.com.
Find reviews of more of our favorite spirits, plus cocktail recipes.

But there isn’t.

Snyder’s Of Hanover is our favorite of the bigger pretzel lines. They sell flavored pretzel pieces in seven flavors, including BBQ, Cheddar and Ranch, plus Nibblers (pretzel nuggets) in Honey Mustard and Sourdough.

H.K. Anderson, a favorite smaller line (read our review), makes honey mustard-flavored pretzels.

Now, there’s a new line of flavored pretzels from Vibrant Flavors (makers of one of our favorite seasonings, Oregon Dukkah). While they look like standard small pretzels, Vibrant Flavors pretzels have unexpected bursts of flavor. The flavor is inside; there’s nothing to get onto your fingers.

The pretzels are made in Barbecue, Beerzels, Italian Herb, Maple Bacon, Roasted Garlic and Sweet Onion. Our favorites were Italian Herb, Maple Bacon and Sweet Onion.

While the Beerzels may sound tempting, they have a very particular taste. Instead, go for a glass of real beer and a pretzel—plain or flavored. To our palate, the Garlic tasted of garlic chips—not one of our favorite expressions of garlic.

You can buy the pretzels online at VibrantFlavors.com and Amazon.com.

In addition to snacking from the bag, we’ve enjoyed the pretzels:

 
More Pretzels