24 Comments
Dec 19, 2023Liked by Scott Hines

Best drink this year was cracking a bottle of Blantons for everyone when we found out we were pregnant and decided to share the news. Runner up is a Cincy Light tall boy in Historic Nippert Stadium. Hard to beat a beer in the nip.

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I *almost* included Cincy Light in the list but Spotted Cow edged it out for the beer spot.

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I’ve not had spotted cow but sounds like it’s a must.

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also I believe I've said it before, but congratulations!

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Dec 19, 2023Liked by Scott Hines

For the second year in a row, gonna go with a pickle sour beer, this one being made with Suckerpunch pickle brin. Made by Destihl brewery.

I had a much better 2022 for drinking but that's ok

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I've been so tempted to get a pack of Suckerpunch, but I can't help but feel like having 6 of them is going to wayyyyyy too many.

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Dec 19, 2023·edited Dec 19, 2023Liked by Scott Hines

Got a little overzealous and posted this yesterday but the best things I had were

- Everything I drank at Violet Hour in Chicago

- The Paper Plane at Bangers and Lace in Chicago

- The Espresso Martini at Cabinet of Curiosities in Las Vegas

- Green Chartreuse for the First Time

- An attempt at an original cocktail involving strawberry puree, habanero vodka, rhubarb bitters and egg white. Was pretty good and quite spicy

- A Caiparinha

- Clarified Rum Punch

- And finally, a pina colada made with good navy strength rum

Oh and a late beer entry for the Weihenstephaner Hefeweizen, which I had somehow never had.

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I'm not a Rum Guy as a rule and largely avoided pina coladas, but I finally had a proper one at Casa Bacardi made with their 4-year rum and I get it now.

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Dec 19, 2023Liked by Scott Hines

a horchata at a taco shop in Joshua Tree

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ooh, a good horchata on a hot day is sublime

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Dec 19, 2023Liked by Scott Hines

I don’t think I’ve actually drank it this year but I’ve thought about it every time I’ve been at a cocktail bar this year.

In recent years at Hell or High Water, a speakeasy in downtown Louisville, had this drink on their fall/winter menu that was very light and refreshing, and tasted very similar to a thin mint. It almost has the look of Coca Cola. When I’ve had it previously it was the perfect drink for the end of the night. I would love to make one at home but I don’t even know what ingredients are needed.

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I still haven’t been to HOHW! I’m going to need to check it out.

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We’ll sometimes go to HOHW before or after we see a show at the Kentucky Center for the Arts since they’re only a few blocks away from each other. We live 20+ minutes outside of downtown so it’s hard to justify popping in a for a drink there if we don’t also have something else to do downtown.

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Dec 19, 2023Liked by Scott Hines

I will give only one answer for this: the "Drunk Grandma's Apple Pie" cocktail I had in a fancy Tokyo cocktail bar on my birthday.

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*fine*, I’ll go to Tokyo

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Dec 19, 2023Liked by Scott Hines

the sacrifices you make for the newsletter

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Dec 19, 2023Liked by Scott Hines

I’ve got a pair for ya

I took your watermelon agua fresca, froze some of it in an ice cube tray. I took a whiskey glass, rimmed it with lime and salted it with tajin, took 4 of the watermelon cubes and poured some blanco tequila over it. It paired phenomenally with steak tip tacos.

The other one I had at our curling clubs holiday party. Let me preface this with the fact that I believe cranberries are a horrendous bog fruit that came from the anus of satan themselves. This cocktail was cranberry juice, lemon juice, simple syrup, triple sec and vodka, garnished with a sprig of rosemary impaled into a cranberry. It was light, refreshing and gave me enough confidence to throw some difficult shots that failed spectacularly.

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Dec 19, 2023Liked by Scott Hines

I had a smoky old fashioned that had a Laphroaig wash, that was the perfect "around a fireplace while the snow falls" drink. Then, I've mostly had wine I really liked, with a special shout out to the 8 Euro Spanish wine I brought home.

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Dec 20, 2023Liked by Scott Hines

Most memorable drink I had this year was a Pimm’s cup at Kensington Palace. My wife and I had landed at Heathrow approximately six hours earlier. Our original flight got cancelled less than three hours before departure, so it was a very stressful rearrangement of flights (instead of a Virgin direct from IAD to LHR, we took KLM from IAD to AMS to LHR). The Pimm’s was definitely overpriced, but it hit the spot after a rough day of travel.

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Dec 20, 2023Liked by Scott Hines

maybe i'm like the 42nd person to suggest it and you've thought about it but the juice ain't worth the squeeze: ever consider writing a cocktail recipe book with all of your creations/adaptations? one page recipe, other side story, flip the page to the next.

i'd buy it.

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As someone who lives close enough to have New Glarus beers regularly, let me tell you that Spotted Cow is like their 4th or 5th best beer. If you're able to get back, I highly recommend trying their other offerings.

Also the best drink, the one I go to most frequently, is the Surprise Lily. Thanks for that!

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The best cocktail I had was on vacation in Edinburgh at a basement bar called Hoot the Redeemer. It was called Why You Cross. Aside from being unGoogleable, it doesn't appear on their website. The only evidence I have of it is a picture I took and sent to a cocktail buff friend. All it has is the ingredients, not the amounts or how to construct it. It has:

Woodford Reserve Bourbon

Cross Brew

Punt e Mes

Frenet Branca

White Chocolate

Orange Bitters

It appears to be in a rocks glass.

Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to recreate this. You will be handsomely rewarded (with a fantastic cocktail) if you succeed.

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I don't remember what the drink was called, but it essentially was a cross between an Aperol Spritz and a French 75- gin, aperol, simple, lemon and orange juices, topped off with prosecco. It was an early fall Saturday lunch outdoors on a day that should have been 74F and comfortable but was instead mid-80s and humid; at that moment I was both convinced this was the greatest elixir ever known to mankind.

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We had so many Aperol spritzes in Rome and Bologna. Our hotel in Bologna served gigantic ones with a tray of nuts, cheese, olives, and caperberries. I didn’t want to leave.

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