What do you do when your cocktail arrives with a bit of citrus peel?

It can be lemon, lime or orange peel, depending on the drink.

Do you:

 
It’s a good idea to rub the rim, as is done with a cup of espresso. It leaves an invisible coat of the citrus oil, which will add flavor to the drink with every sip you take.

We love the flavor of the essential oils in the peel (close to zero calories).

We also admit to eating the peel. It’s a habit we picked up in college, when draining our drink to the last drop. With a limited budget, when no liquor was left we stretched the drink by working on the ice cubes and the peel.
 
 
HOW TO CUT PEEL FOR A GARNISH

Different bartenders take different approaches:

 
And now, the rim strip.

What’s a rim strip? It’s name we gave to the orange peel in photo #1.

We saw it for the first time last week, when we reviewed Mr. Black Espresso Liqueur.

Instead of cutting a strip of peel for a twist and tossing it into the drink, some clever mixologist cut a slit on the bottom of the strip so the peel could sit on the rim.

We haven’t seen this trick before, and we love it. It’s so much more elegant—and fun—than the classic twist.

Depending on your perspective, it can look like a quarter-moon, a hammock or a Chinese sampan.

Try it with your next peel garnish.
 
 
THE BENEFITS OF CITRUS PEEL

Most people use only the juice and flesh of the lemon, and throw away the peel.

We suggest that before you juice the lemon, zest it. Save the zest for everyday cooking, for perking up marinades, salads, salad dressings, sauces, sorbet and vegetables to flavoring a glass of water.

If we have no immediate use for the zest, we use it to flavor ice cubes (fill the ice cube tray, then add some zest to each section.

Here are the health benefits of the peel:

 
Here are more reasons to eat the peel.

To your health!

[1] Look closely at this Black Negroni: A slit enables the peel to sit on the glass rim (photo © Mr. Black).

[2] Lemon zest and a basil leaf garnish this Blackberry Bramble (photo © Sugar Cane Raw Bar & Grill | Miami | Las Vegas | Brooklyn).

[3] A Cosmopolitan with a lime curl (photo © Heathman Restaurant & Bar | Portland, Oregon).

[4] A Margarita with a lime wheel (photo © Tequila Avion).

[5] Old Fashioned with a lime wedge (photo © Maker’s Mark).

[1] Zoku’s Iceberg ice cubes (both photos © Zoku).

[2] The classic jumbo sphere ice cube.

If you’re planning to gift a bottle of spirits, how about snazzy jumbo ice cube molds from Zoku?

They create cubes that melt so slowly, they won’t dilute the drink.

Jumbo ice cubes have been around for a while in cube and sphere shapes.

But Zoku has a couple of new shapes to consider.

The Zoku Iceberg Mold (photo #2) looks more like a brilliant-cut diamond.

Other Zoku ice cube shapes include:

 
These ice cubes are not just for cocktails: They also shine in mineral water and soft drinks.

Note that each mold makes one cube at a time, so plan ahead to make the number that you need.

They’re $14.99 each at ZokuHome.com.

The term “smoking gun” is a reference to an object or fact that serves as conclusive evidence of a crime or similar act.

But there’s no crime in purchasing a smoking gun—a.k.a. smoke gun—for cold-smoke cooking.

Creative cooks will love this kitchen gadget. We purchased one after paying $20 a pop for smoking cocktails at one of our favorite restaurants.

When we realized how easy it was to recreate a smoked cocktail at home, we purchased a smoke gun: this Homia Smoking Gun Wood Smoke Infuser Kit on Amazon, which included all the accessories and wood chips so we could immediately get to work.

You can buy a smoke gun for as little as $20, but you also need wood chips.

We’ll share a smoked cocktail recipe below, but first, all the things you can do with a smoke gun.

The smoke not only excites the nose, but it adds a delightful depth of flavor.
 
 
WHAT TO DO WITH A SMOKE GUN (A.K.A. SMOKE INFUSER OR SMOKING GUN)

While a smoke gun is a great addition to the kitchen, first note that a smoke gun doesn’t smoke food in the manner of a backyard smoker, over many hours of cooking.

It is cold-smoking, not hot-smoking: It gives a 30-second infusion of smoke flavor to cooked food or a drink, or to ingredients you’ll use to make a recipe.

Like a kitchen torch (and of a similar size), a smoke gun is a small tool that delivers big flavor. You add wood chips or other flavor agent (there’s a list below), and the gun converts the chips, cinnamon, herbs, etc. to smoke.

The gun blows the smoke into your food or drink, infusing it with smoke flavor.

Far from being exotic, it is easy to use with your everyday foods. You can:

 
And of course, you can add smoke to cooked meats and fish. See the video on this page, showing all the different things you can smoke.
 

FLAVORS TO INFUSE

Depending on what you’re infusing:

 
COCKTAIL RECIPE: SMOKING ROSEMARY FIZZ

When the smoking cocktail is brought to the table (photo #1) and the waiter (or you) removes the dome that’s keeping the smoke inside (photo #2), the whole table gets to enjoy the aroma.

To make it at home, you need a glass dome (or wide-mouth vase, to hold in the smoke), a smoke gun, a smoking agent (e.g. wood chips), and ideally, a jumbo ice cube (it works better than regular cubes).

Instead of a dome, you can use the hose of the smoke gun to blow smoke directly into the cocktail. This is also how you infuse smoke onto cooked food.

Ingredients Per Cocktail

[1] Smoke infusing the cocktail under the dome (photo © Wall Street Grill).

[2] The big reveal at the table (photo © Wall Street Grill).

[3] Infusing chicken breasts with smoke, using a $20 Chefhut infuser (photo © Chefhut).

[4] Spraying smoke atop ribs with the hose of the Breville smoke gun (photo © Breville).

[5] A smoked Manhattan cocktail at Ocean Prime (photo © Ocean Prime).

You can also use this syrup in iced tea, hot tea or lemonade, on fruit salad, as pound cake glaze and sorbet topping, and of course, to flavor sophisticated snow-cones.

 
Simple Syrup Preparation

1. MAKE the simple syrup. Combine the water and sugar in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high, whisking occasionally until the sugar dissolves. Then simmer for a few more minutes until liquid is completely clear. Remove the saucepan from the heat.

2. ADD the rosemary and let it infuse in the simple syrup for 30 to 60 minutes, until the mixture is thick and syrupy.

3. REMOVE the rosemary from the pan and pour the syrup into a glass jar. Refrigerate, tightly capped. It will keep for at two weeks (twice as long for unflavored simple syrup).
 
Cocktail Preparation

1. SHAKE all the ingredients with ice and strain into a rocks glass with a jumbo ice cube. Garnish with rosemary.

2. SMOKE with hickory wood with a smoke gun under a glass dome.

3. BRING to the table still covered. Remove the dome in front of the guest (or yourself) so everyone can enjoy the aroma.
 
 
VIDEOS

Here are videos specific to cocktails.

[1] Oh so delicious: Jeff’s Famous Maple Brown Sugar Jerky (all photos © Jeff’s Famous Jerky).

[2] Prefer hot to sweet? Try Jeff’s Famous Sriracha Black Pepper Jerky.

[3] Jeff’s Famous Beef Jerky.

[4] For chile heads: Jeff’s Famous Carolina Reaper Jerky.

[5] Jeff’s Famous Cranberry Jalapeño Jerky.

[6] Jeff’s Famous Black Pepper. Jerky

America’s consumption of meat snacks has increased by 18% over the past five years, according to recent data from The NPD Group, a market research company.

And America wants more of this high protein, low-fat, grab-and-go snack that’s naturally gluten-free*.

We’ve had Top Pick jerkys before, but they are few and far between. Even small-batch artisan brands can be too tough for us, and/or leave remnants of gristle.

Not so with Jeff’s Famous Jerky. Each variety we tried was melt-in-your-mouth tender, with exquisite flavor. When you can say jerky has exquisite flavor, you know you’ve hit the motherlode.

Jeff’s Famous Jerky, of Mission Viejo, California deserves to be famous, especially for its eye-opening bacon jerky. Bacon or beef, the meats are marinated in deep, layered marinades.

The beef jerky has lower sodium than most brands, with no added MSG or nitrates. The bacon jerky has less sodium than pan-fried bacon.

The only caveat with jerky in general is that it’s high in sodium (don’t buy it for anyone on a salt-restricted diet).

But it’s almost fat free, and it’s solid protein: One ounce has about 23% of one’s daily value of protein.

We don’t like hard, overly chewy jerky. Jeff’s Famous Jerky is so tender and tasty, you can bring it to the dinner table and pair it with fine foods.

 
 
JEFF’S FAMOUS JERKY VARIETIES

Jeff’s makes a variety of delicious, tender jerky varieties. You can buy individual packages or a build-your-own box.

The flavors are variously spicy, sweet, hot, and combinations thereof. More importantly, they are clean, clear and natural, beautifully layered to imbue the meat with complex flavors.

All are hormone-free, without added MSG or preservatives, made from American meats.

Bacon Jerky Varieties

 
Beef Jerky Varieties

 
Turkey Jerky Varieties

 
 
GET YOURS NOW!

Single-flavor packages are $6.99 at JeffsFamousJerky.com. The beef packages contain 3 ounces of jerky; the bacon packages have 2 ounces.

Build-your-own variety packs offer a 20% savings; and there are gift boxes with personalized notes.

DISCOVER MORE AT JEFFSFAMOUSJERKY.COM

 
JERKY HISTORY

The word jerky comes from the Quechua language of the Incas, who called their dried meat “charqui.” But they were hardly the first people to make it.

Neither were Homo sapiens, we can deduce. Homo erectus emerged 1.5 million years ago, and evidence found five years ago in a South African cave suggests Homo erectus that built campfires.

The remains of animal bones and plant ash could be dated to a million years ago. [source]

By the time Homo sapiens emerged, 195,000 years ago, man had been enjoying barbecue, and by extension jerky, for some time.

Meat dried over a smoky fire is protected from egg-laying insects and multiplying bacteria (they need moisture to live). Cutting it into thin strips makes it easier to chew.
All the fat is trimmed from the meat because fat doesn’t dry. The dried meat could (and can) then be stored for long periods of time without refrigeration.

While the prehistoric method of drying the meat was used by other ancient peoples, it was not known in Europe.

The first visitors to the New World found Native Americans making jerky† from the meat of any animal they hunted (that which wasn’t consumed immediately).

In addition to helping early colonists stave off starvation, later pioneers who headed west quickly learned to make jerky. It was easy to transport, and was an important, high-protein addition to their diet.

The meat for jerky could be anything from buffalo to whale. Today jerky can be found in proteins as common as turkey, tuna and salmon, to exotics such as alligator and ostrich.

Today’s jerky eaters have the luxury of enjoying it as a snack rather than a necessity. We also have the pleasure of using tender cuts of meat marinated in a variety of spices, salt and/or sugar—seasonings that were not available to most ancients jerky-makers.

Modern jerky is dried in low-heat smokers, as opposed to the ancient technique of hanging strips of meat racks to dry in the hot sun. (The campfire could hold only so much.)

If your only experience with jerky has been dry and tasteless jerky, you deserve some of the good stuff.
________________

*Some brands or flavors within brands may use soy sauce or other glutinous ingredient in the marinade.

†The pemmican you may have read about in tales of early America was dried meat mixed with dried berries and rendered animal fat. It was invented by Native Americans and used extensively by immigrants in the fur trade. Many years later, it served as a high-calorie food for Arctic and Antarctic explorers such as Robert Falcon Scott and Roald Amundsen.

When we first tasted Mr. Black at a trade show, it was magnificent—but only available in Australia, where it was created.

Wholesale buyers liked it too, because now it’s widely available in the U.S.

If you drink other coffee liqueurs, you’ve got to try Mr. Black.

If you know a coffee drinker who’d enjoy sipping a rich, intense, coffee liqueur, treat them to a bottle of Mr. Black.
 
 
WHAT IS MR. BLACK COLD BREW LIQUEUR?

Mr. Black is a cold brew espresso liqueur, and in our experience, one of the best coffee liqueurs you can buy.

Each bottle is handmade at the company’s coffee roastery and distillery just north of Sydney, Australia (photo #2).

Mr. Black was developed to appeal to serious coffee aficionados. It emphasizes the purity of coffee flavor using a blend of beans from the best growing regions.

 
Next, the beans are roasted, ground and brewed.

 
The difference between something good and something great comes down to the details, says the company, and they are correct.
 
 
HOW TO ENJOY MR. BLACK ESPRESSO LIQUEUR

 
Discover more own the company website.

You can find Mr. Black at stores nationwide and online. Here’s a store locator for both retail and e-tail.

 
THE HISTORY OF LIQUEUR

A liqueur (lih-KUR) is an alcoholic drink composed of distilled spirits and additional flavorings that can include bark, flowers, fruits, herbs, roots and spices.

[1] Our favorite liqueur, rich and complex for serious coffee drinkers (photo © Mr. Black).

[2] Make the best Espresso Martini.

[3] Filling the bottles at the distillery (photos © Mr. Black).

Liqueurs are historical descendants of herbal medicines. These alcoholic medicines were made in Italy as early as the 13th century, often prepared by monks (for example, Chartreuse).

The French word liqueur is derived from the Latin liquifacere, which means “to dissolve.”

October 16th is National Liqueur Day.
 
 
EAU DE VIE, CORDIAL, LIQUEUR & SCHNAPS: THE DIFFERENCE

Liqueur has numerous “relatives.” Here’s are their differences.