Drink 197: What's Good for the Gosling

I’m back! Yes, it’s Mrs. Bottle here to share a story about the drink Mr. Bottle and I recently discovered. In honor of Chocolate Mint Day this past Sunday, we tried the Chocolate Mint Martini. We strayed from Mr. Boston and found this drink in another bar book I picked up during the Borders (RIP) liquidation sale. I think it was cheaper on Amazon but I was caught up in the frenzied moment of the sanctioned looting of a store.

Instagram classes things up, don't ya think?

The Chocolate Mint Martini has Vodka, Crème de Cacao, and Crème de Menthe. The recipe was unclear on whether the Crème de Cacao should be the clear or brown so I chose brown. It is a little richer in flavor and earthier in color (thank you Top Chef). Also recipes mostly seem to call for the clear version so I wanted to use up more of the brown stuff. It was quite mint-y, refreshing and very tasty.

Which leads me to another observation. It’s been a Ryan Gosling film fest at TBIAW estate over the past couple weekends. First we watched Drive. Then we caught a bit of Lars and the Real Girl (which we had previously viewed). Next came The Ides of March. Then Crazy Stupid Love. Well, we saw this in the theater (a real rarity for us) but we really want to watch it again so I’m counting it. And finally Blue Valentine. Technically we haven’t watched this yet because it’s supposed to be a real downer but it’s been on our DVR for about two months so I’m counting it as well. So what’s my observation you may ask? That Mr. Gosling is also quite mint-y, refreshing and very tasty. Now I have to go because Mr. Bottle is asking if we can start watching The Notebook.



Mrs. Bottle is thinking of starting

a new blog called

"The Gosling is a Wonderland"

By AlBBie905 (Own work)

 [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)



Overall Rating for the Chocolate Mint Martini

 

Taste: 5

Presentation: 5

Ease of Preparation: 5

Drinks Until Blackout: 3 – 34% Alcohol

Ingredients

1.5 oz Vodka

0.75 oz Crème de Cacao

0.75 oz Crème de Menthe

Drink 190: Meet the New Blog, Same as the Old Blog

Why does Mrs. Bottle hate me?  It has been almost a month since we have posted a drink and yesterday she suggested we fire things up again.  “Sure” I said, not knowing what drink she had chosen.  It turns out she had selected the Caruso, a mixture of gin, dry vermouth, and crème de menthe.   It was not good.   The combination of mint and vermouth is the worst pairing since Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn.

David Caruso does not approve

Honestly, I would have never agreed to resume blogging if I’d known she would make me drink this crap.  The Caruso is bad enough that the Wall Street Journal has an entire article about the perplexing nature of the drink’s origins and longevity.  The freaking Wall Street Journal!  You’d think they would be too busy writing about the collapse of the world economy instead.  I guess in 2009 things didn’t look so dire. Maybe if they had been a little more focused we wouldn’t be in this mess. 

Here’s what they wrote:

A Caruso cocktail survives, dusty from disuse, in the pages of the average bartender’s guide. That drink is compounded of equal parts gin, dry vermouth and crème de menthe [Ed Note: slightly different than ours], and it’s not very good. If no one drinks it, and it’s not very good, what’s it doing in the books? Perhaps the Caruso has persisted for the same reason as most of the cocktails in such compendia—to fill space. If a bad recipe gets printed in one bar guide—especially a prominent one like the 1930 Savoy Cocktail Book, in which the less than palatable Caruso was listed—it soon finds its way into all the others.

Coincidentally, “filling space” is also the same reason most of NBC’s fall lineup exists.  Unfortunately for me, the Caruso is now filling space in my belly, on our blog and in your brainpan.  Space that could be better filled by other things.  Well, at least the space in my belly.

Overall Rating for the Caruso

Taste: 2

Presentation: 3

Ease of Preparation: 4

Drinks Until Blackout: 3 – 30% Alcohol

Ingredients

1.5 oz Gin

1 oz Dry Vermouth

0.5 oz Crème de Menthe

Drink 170: Who Has Been Putting Out Their Kools on My Floor?

A Stinger is made with brandy and crème de menthe.  We have not tried that and we are not trying it today. Back in February we had the Vodka Stinger which is made with vodka and crème de menthe.  We are not trying that again today.  Instead we have the Scotch Stinger.  It is made with Scotch and crème de menthe.  I think there must be some connection between these drinks since they all have Stinger in the name but I can’t quite put my finger on it.  I may need to set the TBIAW iTeam on it.  We will put that aside for now and move on to the drink.

I used flash in this photo.
It really enhanced the lint
on our backdrop.

Hmm...this is in
all the Stinger
recipes.  Maybe
Mr. DeKuyper knows
the connection.

Anyone who has spent time with Mrs. Bottle knows she is always going on about how mint “makes everything better.”  The Scotch Stinger would really put her mint fanaticism to the test. Why? Because it might have mint but it also contains our most dreaded ingredient (in case you aren’t sure to what I am referring, it is the Scotch).  So far we have had seven drinks with Scotch and their ratings have been 2,2,2,1,1,2,1.  That pattern is like a reverse Fibonacci sequence of suckitude.

 

It turned out that the mint did make the Scotch Stinger almost tolerable. Don’t get me wrong; it was still gross, but probably the least gross Scotch drink so far thanks to the mint. It was kind of like the difference between a menthol cigarette and a regular cigarette.  In either case, I wouldn’t want to kiss you after you had one unless it was extremely late at night.  Anyway, the Scotch Stinger was tasty enough that it allowed us to make it our highest rated Scotch drink (tie).

Overall Rating for the Scotch Stinger

Taste: 2

Presentation: 2 – Kind of looked like a glass of wee

Ease of Preparation: 4

Drinks Until Blackouts: 2 – 38% Alcohol

Ingredients

1.5 oz Scotch

.5 oz Crème de Menthe (white)

Drink 169: Seven Silver Spiders Swam Silently Seaward

It does look silver

When we first started this blog one hundred and sixty-eight cocktails ago we thought the majority of the posts would just be a description of the drink and a rating of said drink.  Today we finally realize that goal with the Silver Spider, a shooter made from vodka, rum, triple sec, and crème de menthe.  This drink tasted mostly like alcohol with a bit of mint.  It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t anything special.  One thing it will do is get you drunk.  There you have it. 

Overall Rating for the Silver Spider

Taste: 3

Presentation: 3

Ease of Preparation: 3

Drinks Until Blackouts: 3 – 33% Alcohol

Ingredients

.5 oz Vodka

.5 oz Rum

.5 oz Triple Sec

.5 oz Crème de Menthe (white)

Drink 163: Mock It To Me

Am I a clown to you?

Today we have the Tequila Mockingbird, a mix of tequila, green crème de menthe, and lime juice.  We already knew that mint and lime complement each other but were still nervous about mixing it with tequila.  I almost suggested to Mrs. Bottle that we use some cheap tequila so we didn’t waste the good stuff but we decided to forge ahead giving the drink its best chance of success.  It turned out that the Tequila Mockingbird was delicious and nothing went to waste.  As usual, the mint and lime were delicious and refreshing together and the drink packs a bit of a punch, too.

I’m not sure why it is called the Tequila Mockingbird but I don’t usually let lack of actual knowledge keep me from commenting.  A mockingbird mimics the sounds of other birds so it is safe to assume that this drink must mimic another drink.  While it looks a lot like the Jade that drink isn’t well known enough to be mimicked and/or mocked.  That would be the equivalent of TBIAW mocking a blog that is less well known.  Something like the concisely named “Addiction help life coach Ontario, Success life coaching - Certified Life Transformation Coach” blog. It just wouldn’t be right.  Since we’ve ruled out the Jade, I think I’m going to go with the Mojito instead.  The artificially colored mint liqueur is clearly mocking the Mojito’s fresh mint and the absence of club soda is an obvious slap in the face.

Another thing that probably deserves mocking is what we ate for dinner last night, DiGiorno Pizza and Wyngz.  We can be mocked for eating junk food and Wyngz can be mocked for being Wyngz. In turn, Wyngz are mocking real chicken wings with both their content and zpelling.  I was going to mock Wyngz with a scathing send-up but I learned that Stephen Colbert already discussed them on his show.  Some people find him funny, so instead of wasting any more of my time with this sub-par blog post I will just share what he did:

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Thought for Food - Wyngz & Wal-Mart
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog Video Archive

Overall Rating for the Tequila Mockingbird

 

Taste: 5

Presentation: 5

Ease of Preparation: 3

Drinks Until Blackouts: 6 – 20% Alcohol

Ingredients

1.5 oz Tequila

.75 oz Green Crème de Menthe

1 oz Lime Juice

Drink 152: Labor Pains

If you don’t follow sports you may not have heard that the NBA is officially locked out today.  What does a lockout mean, exactly?  I don’t really care but I do know that it means there won’t be basketball until the lockout ends.  The NFL is locked out, too, so this winter it is looking like the only pro sports option will be hockey, which apparently has a pro league.  Who knew?  I hope someone starts a Calvinball league to fill the void. 

In both the NBA and NFL the lockouts are about the same thing: Money.  This is surprising to me because in a million years I never would have thought money could cause a disagreement.  We decided to pay tribute to money by having a green drink today.  It is called the Jade and it is made from rum, green crème de menthe, triple sec, lime juice, and simple syrup.  We’ve already covered that the only difference between regular crème de menthe and green crème de menthe is some food coloring.  Therefore we just used our regular stuff and some Rit dye. I was skeptical about the Jade’s combination of mint, rum, orange, and lime but it actually worked.  The mint and lime balanced each other like they do in a Mojito and there was a nice hint of sweetness from the triple sec and simple syrup. 

The emptiness of the glass symbolizes the
gap between the owners and players

We debated whether it should get a four or five but we reached an impasse.  I thought it rated a four but Mrs. Bottle questioned why it wouldn’t be a five.  I then explained to her that we must have a hard rating cap so the small market drinks like the Jade can compete fairly with the big market drinks like the Cuba Libre. She countered that the careers of these drinks can be short so they need to maximize their ratings when they can.   We are now firmly entrenched in our positions and I don't know when we can resume rating drinks. 

Overall Rating for the Jade

Taste: 4 or 5

Presentation: 5 – Hard to beat a fake green hue

Ease of Preparation: 2 – Lots of half teaspoons

Drinks Until Blackout: 5 – 27% Alcohol

Ingredients

1.5 oz Light Rum

0.5 tsp Crème de Menthe (green)

0.5 tsp Triple Sec

1 tbsp Lime Juice

1 tsp Simple Syrup

Drink 108: Where in the World is Mr. Bottle?

Sensational?

Holy smokes, but it’s me (the better half of the Bottles) for the third day in a row. Mr. Bottle is very busy this week. He’s currently trying to determine which iPad app he likes the most. I think it’s between the cowbell app and the app that turns your iPad into a level. So let’s leave him alone so he can get back to testing if our countertop is level and I’ll get down to what I’m here to discuss.



Is she saying "White Power"?



For today’s drink, we’ve stumbled upon the Peppermint Pattie shooter. This drink is made from just two ingredients: white crème de cacao and white crème de menthe.  It used to be called White Power but people were always taking that the wrong way.  It tasted sort of like a York Peppermint Pattie but not quite. Probably more calories than the candy, too, since the York PP is advertised as a low fat food. But I did get a cool sensation when I drank it. But not one where I felt like I was on a mountain top yodeling, on a mountain ski jump, or riding a luge down a mountain. In fact I felt nothing at all related to a mountain. My sensation was purely this: When I sip/shoot a Mr. Boston Peppermint Pattie, I get the sensation of a cold mouth with a tinge of chocolate flavor.



And that my friends, is the Peppermint Pattie.

Overall Rating for the Peppermint Pattie

Taste: 4
Presentation: 4 – It looked like it would be cold
Ease of Preparation: 5 – Two ingredients and no garnish equal awesome
Drinks Until Blackout: 4 – 29% Alcohol

Ingredients

1 oz Crème de cacao (white)
1 oz Crème de menthe (white)

Drink 97: Et tu, Potato

I clean out my spam folder every couple of days, but I always check to make sure that I’m not inadvertently filtering out any real messages.  Today that paid off.  Sitting in my spam folder was an invitation to participate in a blogging contest.  The rules for the contest are also available online.   The prize is a $100 American Express gift card.  That is a great prize, because I can use it to buy almost 20 gallons of gas.  Before I write my entry I thought we should go over some of the rules.

We're inviting the blogosphere to participate in a contest to create humorous posts about how potatoes are a boring alternative to STOVE TOP Everyday Stuffing Mix.

That should be easy.  Everybody knows potatoes are boring.  Do you ever reach into the pantry, pull out a potato and take a big bite?  Of course you don’t.  At the very least you would add a little salt or some butter buds first.

Just in case you don't understand the premise, STOVE TOP helpfully provides some examples to help get you started:

Example 1: An image and story of talk show host potato that has put its guests to sleep.

Hmm. That happens every time I watch Jay Leno on the boob tuber and it really isn’t that funny.

Example 2: An image and story of a potato totally underdressed in it’s [SIC] plain old skin for an event.

As far as I can tell, that one is funny because the potato doesn’t know the difference between “it’s” and “its”.

Example 3: Showcase kids talking about how boring potatoes are and how they love STOVE TOP Stuffing Mix.

Oh man, that is hilarious.  Give me a minute while I compose myself.  Okay, I’m back.  I’m not sure how I could top that one, but let's continue.

Example 4: Showcase how potatoes don’t cut it – they’re so worthless to eat – doorstoppers, brick-fixes (spoof on home entertainment show sponsored by Stove Top)

Even Stove Top isn’t sold on this one.  They didn’t even call themselves STOVE TOP.

After the examples, they give this final tip:

Seriously, the more creative your posts and images are (as well as appropriate and non-offensive) the better! If it helps, think of the type of humor found in The Onion (http://www.theonion.com) and incorporate that style of comedy into your story.

Why didn’t they just say so?  It is no problem for me to write comedy like The Onion.  I do that all the time.  I usually do it right after I play guitar like Jimmy Page, make some food like Thomas Keller, and run some sprints like Usain Bolt

Darth Tater would like to have a word with that box
of delcious STOVE TOP Stuffing Mix

Using those hints I still have to be sure I follow the official rules:

At least 200 words with your “story” about the STOVE TOP Stuffing Mix being the “HERO” over the BORING POTATO.

I was going to write a story but I guess I have to write a “story” to qualify.  I also have to send a tweet, a Facebook post, or a YouTube video with the hash tag #unpotatofest.  That is a lot of rules, but I’ll do my best.  Without further ado, here is my “story”:

BORING POTATO does not understand viral marketing 

One day there was a BORING POTATO who worked at Kraft.  He toiled away day after day trying to come up with new ways to sell American cheese.  He once pitched an idea to Lowe’s Home Improvement for marketing a new paint color called “American Cheese Artificial Orange Coloring” but like most of his pitches, it fell on deaf ears.  At times like these the BORING POTATO wanted to bury his body in the dirt and die.

The BORING POTATO’s career was going nowhere.  Just when he had given up hope, he read a story in his daily newspaper about something called “viral marketing” and he thought he would give it a try.  At the next sales meeting, he proposed a plan to try to get web loggers to write about a Kraft product in a humorous way.  He suggested that something in the style of Ziggy would really take off.  They would offer $400 worth of prizes and generate at least twice that much in publicity.  It was a plan that seemed great to the BORING POTATO. 

Luckily for Kraft, there was a new member of the marketing team.  Her name was STOVE TOP Stuffing Mix.  She pointed out that this  idea was a transparent attempt to get people to work for very little remuneration.  Also, it was a ham-handed effort to tap into so-called social media that was not very clever or fun.  Not only that, it was the BORING POTATO’s job to make sure that all apostrophes were used properly in marketing materials and he had recently made some embarrassing gaffe’s.  He really needed to focus on that instead of coming up with half-baked potato ideas. She promptly mashed his idea and saved the day.

The End

No taters here

Oh yeah, I almost forgot that we also had a drink to share with you.  It is called the Mocha Mint and it is a combination of  STOVE TOP Stuffing Mix and turkey gravy.  Ha ha! That is not what is in the Mocha Mint.  That is my second favorite food to eat on Thanksgiving.  My favorite food is mashed potatoes.

The Mocha Mint is made from coffee brandy, crème de menthe, and crème de cacao.  It was a little syrupy, but the flavor was nice, almost like a minty Frappuccino ^TM.   I was about to mention to Mrs. Bottle that I could taste coffee until I remembered that the Mocha Mint had coffee brandy as an ingredient.  You can bet that STOVE TOP Stuffing Mix would never make such a mistake.

Overall Rating for the Mocha Mint

Taste: 4

Presentation: 4

Ease of Preparation: 4

Drinks Until Blackout: 5 - 28% Alcohol

Ingredients

.75 oz Coffee Brandy

.75 oz Crème de Menthe

.75 oz Crème de Cacao

Day 67: Pinch by Pinch

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!  This is my favorite day of the year.  It’s not because I will go out to some hokey Irish pub and drink until I can’t see straight.  That is something I can do any day of the year.  It is my favorite day because I will wear no green and seek large crowds in the hopes that I get pinched.  For many people getting pinched may be an unpleasant experience, but when you are as starved for human contact as I am, a pinch is better than isolation and unfulfilled desires.

I don't think that comes off as disturbing at all, but let’s move on.  We are finishing our run of Irish drinks with the Irish Flag, a shooter made from Irish cream liqueur, crème de menthe, and Mandarine Napoleon orange liqueur. The idea behind this drink is that you can layer the liqueurs and it will end up looking like the Irish flag:

Best Case
Scenario

The Irish Flag name is a little misleading since there is no way it could look like that. Instead, it would look like the Irish flag if you flipped it on its side and changed the color of the center stripe from white to brown (the actual color of Irish cream).  Our best-case scenario is something that looks like an Irish flag that is dirty and passed out after a night of drinking, so it still seems appropriate after all.   

We had a few things working against us in the Irish Flag.  The first is that it called for green crème de menthe.  Our crème de menthe is white.  It turns out that the only difference between the green and white crème de menthe is some green food coloring. Luckily we always keep our pantry stocked with green food coloring. If we didn’t, how could Mrs. Bottle make me green eggs and ham every Tuesday?

The second problem is that this recipe calls for a specific orange liqueur, Mandarine Napoleon, presumably because of its orange color.  We don’t have that particular liqueur so we substituted Patrón Citrónge orange liqueur and planned to use more food coloring to make it orange.  In retrospect, we probably should have chosen Grand Marnier, which is already orange-colored.

The laws of physics were the only other things in our way. Historically we have had a distinct lack of success with cocktail floats. We recently bucked that trend, though, so we had some hope of success.   Mrs. Bottle poured our “green” crème de menthe into the glass.  So far so good.  It floated on the glass no problem. She then added the Baileys and it floated, too!  A little green seeped through much like the bubbling crude of one Mr. Jed Clampett, but it wasn’t enough to cause any major concerns.

Gulf of Mexico Tea

Irish Flag?

 Then came the moment of truth.  Would our Patrón substitute for the Mandarine Napoleon as seamlessly as Replacement Becky filled in for Original Becky?  Would it float on the Baileys and create a sort-of version of the flag of Ireland?  In a word, “no.”  Mrs. Bottle’s pouring technique was flawless, but the laws of physics defeated us again.  The orange liqueur immediately started sinking through the Baileys.  Eventually it sank completely below the Baileys and formed a layer between it and the crème de menthe, representing the flag of nowhere.

Although we were not shocked by this development we were saddened.  We hoped that the drink would cheer us up, but suspected that orange, mint, and Baileys were probably picked more for their aesthetics than their complementary flavors.   It turned out that our concerns were baseless, though, because once again the Baileys overwhelmed the other flavors. We couldn’t taste any mint or orange. It tasted like Baileys with a faint burning in our mouths.  The burning was probably because the Irish Flag is almost 30% alcohol.  A couple of these and you won’t notice or even care that the colors are in the wrong order.



When we make the Libya Flag we will get it right

Overall Rating for the Irish Flag

Taste: 3

Presentation: 5

Ease of Preparation: 2

Drinks Until Blackout: 4

Ingredients

1 oz Irish Cream Liqueur

1 oz Crème de Menthe

1 oz Mandarine Napoleon

Day 65: Charlie Foxtrot

Drink me, I'm Irish Charlie

In case you didn’t know, St. Patrick’s Day is later this week.  We decided not to do a full theme week since we didn’t think of it in time but we thought we could have a few Irish-themed drinks anyway to get us in the party mood.   We start off with the Irish Charlie, a shooter made from Irish cream liqueur and crème de menthe.  After thorough research we determined that this drink is called the Irish Charlie because that was the nickname of former president of Ireland Charles De Gaulle.  To make this drink into an Irish Charlie Sheen you substitute crazy for the crème de menthe.

We used Bailey’s Irish Cream, the best selling liqueur in the world. We have already covered the special relationship between Baileys and Irish cows but we wanted to learn if there were other reasons it was so popular.  I broke out my Ultimate Encyclopedia of Wine, Beer, Spirits, and Liqueurs and learned that Baileys is the “kind of soft svelte drink that unscrupulous boys plied unsuspecting girls with in nightclubs.”  I can see why that would make it popular.  I wish I had known that when I was in college. It probably would have been more effective than my standard technique of begging and sobbing.  That is also the technique I used if I ever convinced an unsuspecting girl to come back to my apartment.

As far as the drink itself, it was only so-so. The Baileys mostly overwhelmed our taste buds leaving only a hint of mint remaining.  Neither Mrs. Bottle nor I are huge fans of Baileys so this wasn’t our favorite outcome.  It wasn’t terrible, but it isn’t something I would make again.  If you like Baileys and mint you will likely enjoy it.  If you don’t, you probably won’t. You can’t get that kind of review just anywhere.

Using fresh Baileys might help, too.  Baileys has a shelf life of 30 months and I thought ours was probably older than that.  I found the expiration date on our bottle:

This is 2011. 12/2002 is 98 months ago.  98! If that date is 30 months past the purchase date our bottle is over 10 years old.  I think that might actually qualify as an antique.  That might be okay for a bottle of Scotch or fine wine, but this stuff is made with cream.  From happy cows!  I’m no food scientist, but maybe one that was fresh would taste better.  And be less likely to kill us.

Overall Rating for the Irish Charlie

Taste: 3

Presentation: 2

Ease of Preparation: 4

Drinks Until Blackout: 5 –  24% alcohol

Ingredients

1 oz Irish Cream Liqueur

1 oz Crème de Menthe

Day 36: No Shirt, No Shoes, No Dice

It is day four of Romance Week and today we are trying something a little different, a hot drink.  Of the 35 drinks we have had so far, only one was hot.  Today’s drink is called the Hot Kiss and it is a mix of hot coffee, Irish whiskey, crème de menthe and crème de cocoa. To mark this special occasion, we actually purchased an Irish coffee glass.  We are nothing if not dedicated to producing the highest quality blog we can given our lack of talent.

Our Cup Runneth Over

Since it is romance week I feel like we should be dispensing some romantic advice.  In all modesty, there probably isn’t a better source on the planet than me, but “romance tips” articles are played out and I actually don’t know anything. Instead of droning on about fixing your girlfriend dinner or making her a mix tape, I thought our time would be better spent analyzing two recent romances in the news to see if we can learn anything. 

Doesn't see the problem

Let’s start with Mark Sanchez.  You may have heard that Mr. Sanchez has allegedly been “dating” a 17-year-old high school student. Some people might think that he is creepy for doing so, but I don’t. I’ve dated a few 17-year-old high school girls myself and really enjoyed it.  Of course I was 17 at the time.  Really, Mark’s only mistake is that he is 24.    Well that’s probably not his only mistake.  He probably should have asked her not to post about it on Facebook.  He could have mentioned it right after he plowed her field.  On FarmVille, that is.  I really hope the resultant media attention doesn’t sour their relationship or hurt her GPA. I’m not really worried about the impact on Sanchez’ career, because on the Jets his behavior qualifies as prudish.

I wouldn't be able to resist
(Image: Gawker)

Our next case study is (former) Congressman Christopher Lee (R-NY).  Mr. Lee resigned from Congress on Wednesday after it came out that he had apparently been soliciting dates on Craigslist.  This would have been fine if Mr. Lee wasn’t married.  Or if he was seeking only married women to date.  As far as I know, it isn’t cheating as long as all parties are married to someone.   His second mistake was sending a shirtless picture to some stranger.  That is no way to a lady's heart.  He should have sent a junk shot like everybody else, amiright?  I guess he is pretty fit and likes to show off the bod, but when I take shirtless pictures of myself in the mirror I usually go with a more casual pant.

I don't know if either Mr. Sanchez or Mr. Lee uses a Hot Kiss when wooing a potential mate, but it wouldn't hurt.  Unless, of course, it is served it to a minor.  Anyway, the drink was very good and moves into our top drink list.  The drink had a rich coffee flavor with nice mint and chocolate undertones.  It also scores well on the romance scale.  A nice Hot Kiss in front of a fireplace on a cold winter's night would certainly be welcomed by any right-thinking person.  A little whipped cream never hurts, either.  It is also good on the drink. The Hot Kiss was also garnished with a chocolate covered mint, but it sank to the bottom before we could take a picture.  It was a heart-shaped peppermint patty and it looked great for the 3 seconds it was visible.  A Junior Mint probably would have been a safer choice, if less attractive. 

If we have learned anything from the Hot Kiss, Mr. Lee, or Mr. Sanchez it is this: The legal age of consent in New York is 17.

Overall Rating for the Hot Kiss

Taste: 5

Presentation: 5

Ease of Preparation: 3

Drinks Until Blackout: 10  - Only 9% Alcohol

Romance Score: 5

Ingredients

1 oz Irish Whiskey

.5 oz Crème de Menthe

.5 oz Crème de Cocoa

6 oz Hot Coffee (we used 5.25 oz because that's what our coffee machine makes)

Day 29: Stingers Like a Bee

The Vodka Stinger is the drink we are featuring today.  It is a mix of vodka and crème de menthe.  It is a variation of the classic Stinger, which is brandy and crème de menthe.  The Vodka Stinger is known as a “duo” cocktail, because it contains a spirit and a liqueur and nothing else. Duos tend to be quite strong since there are no mixers to dilute the alcohol. 



Actual Wonder Twins Power Activation

When I think of a strong duo the first thing that comes to mind is Batman and Robin.  The last thing that comes to mind is the Wonder Twins.  I was never a fan of the Wonder Twins and always got annoyed when they showed up on the Super Friends.  In case you aren't familiar with their powers, the sister could change into any animal and the brother could change into anything made out of water or ice. They changed into bizarre items instead of just changing into the most practical thing.  “Form of a giant squid!  Shape of an ice anchor!”  Those just seem like terrible decisions. I guess it was better than making a gopher moat.  Of course when I showed this paragraph to Mrs. Bottle she said that the Wonder Twins were awesome and that the best part of Super Friends was seeing what they would change into next.  Yet another crack in the marriage exposed.

Unlike the Wonder Twins,  the Vodka Stinger was quite good.  It had a nice mint flavor without tasting like mouthwash.  It is pretty strong, though.  At 35% alcohol, it will still kill the germs that cause bad breath.  Mrs. Bottle thought that it might be even better with some chocolate liqueur.  A quick Google search found the Godiva Mint Martini, which is vodka, crème de menthe, and Godiva Chocolate Liqueur.  This would be a “trio” cocktail if the Godiva was creamy but it isn’t so it’s not. It turned out that the Godiva wasn’t chocolate-y enough to make the drink better.  I actually thought it wasn’t quite as good as the Vodka Stinger.

Godiva Right In

If the Godiva Mint Martini was a Super Friend, it would be the Apache Chief.

Overall Rating for the Vodka Stinger

Taste: 4

Ease of Preparation: 4

Presentation: 2 - Looked like water

Drinks until blackout: 4 – 35% alcohol but kind of small

Ingredients:

1 oz Vodka

1 oz Crème de Menthe

Overall Rating for the Godiva Mint Martini

Taste: 3

Ease of Preparation: 4

Presentation: 3

Drinks until blackout: 5 – 27% alcohol

Ingredients:

1 oz Godiva Chocolate Liqueur
.75 oz Vodka
.5 oz Crème de Menthe

Day 26: Help me, Tom Cruise

Maybe the cherry is the angel?

26 days in and today we confront the Fallen Angel, which is made of gin, lime juice, crème de menthe, and bitters.  I am a gin man through and through but this drink made me nervous.  It seemed like gin, lime, and mint were a recipe for disaster.  Mrs. Bottle was even more apprehensive since she isn’t a gin woman.  We each said a small prayer and proceeded with caution.

To prepare ourselves, we first tried the crème de menthe by itself.  Unsurprisingly, it tasted like mint.  Mrs. Bottle thought it tasted exactly like Scope.  I prefer Listerine so I wouldn’t know.  It was definitely syrupier than any mouthwash I’ve had.  Suitably prepared, we made the drink.  Once again our taste buds were hit by the unmistakable sourness of the green plastic lime juice.  This time it was a little different, though, because there was just a hint of mint to cut the acidity.

Mrs. Bottle immediately proclaimed “yuck”.  She thought her taste buds may have been fouled by our taco dinner so she ate a cracker to cleanse her palate.  “No, it just tastes weird” was her conclusion, but I wasn’t so sure.  I had sip after sip and still couldn’t decide if I liked it.  I ate a cracker and sipped some more. I couldn’t fully describe what I was tasting.  The mixture of lime juice, mint, and gin defied rational thought.  Even after I finished the whole thing I was on the fence as to whether I actually liked it or if it was just tolerable. It was the Eyes Wide Shut of  drinks.  Except with way less nudity.  I really cannot emphasize that enough.

That is too bad, because some nudity would have helped.

Even we don't know if we liked this movie

 

Overall Rating for the Fallen Angel

 

Taste: 3 – Completely on the fence

Ease of Preparation: 4

Presentation: 3

Drinks until blackout: 5 – 26% alcohol but a minty aftertaste

Ingredients:

1.5 oz. Gin

1 oz. Lime Juice

1 tsp. Crème de Menthe

1 dash bitters