This Month’s Cocktail: The Sazerac

Sazzzzzzzz-er-rack… The very name sort of sizzles on the tongue, a lot like its contents before they slip down your throat. It’s very southern in its origins, New Orleans to be exact, and this fact alone seems to import a certain je ne sais pas to its status as an iconic cocktail. It’s gone global since its resurgence from the dark, dank annals of cocktail lore where its languished for too many years, ignored and unappreciated.

Click the link below to read the full article and find the recipe.

Today, many of us live with technology in our homes that 50 years ago would have seemed unbelievable. Motion sensor lighting, automatically timed coffee pots and temperature regulation, and lights that respond to voice commands; most of these seem somewhat commonplace.

But what if instead of having an advanced water filtration system in your refrigerator, your whole house actually was a water filtration system? Or a giant air filter? Or a self-contained farming unit?

Well, it’s in the works. We are presently moving toward a whole new idea of what “Sustainable Living” looks like.

Nestled in the sun-soaked terrain of central California, cotton fields reach for the horizon, destined to one day become a t-shirt or a plug for a bloody nose. Cotton farmers work to keep their crops free of pests and disease in order to provide the world with this commodity.
These are the most agriculturally viable lands on the planet, so if they’re growing cotton, you can bet they’re growing a lot of it.

But, in protecting their crops, a new nemesis clawed its way out of the soil, seen in the many small wooden posts decorated with a menacing skull and crossbone.

Pesticides.

The art of cheese making was brought to America by the English and the Dutch, followed by Germans and Italians, so most early cheeses made in America were modeled after these styles. Production and importation of raw milk cheese aged less than sixty days has been prohibited in the US since the 1940s. Most cheese at this time and for decades after was mass produced in factories using pasteurized milk. Artisanal, or hand made cheese, has become very popular over the past twenty years in the US. This new wave of American artisanal cheese makers has sparked some new controversy about the safety of raw milk cheeses.

Rumor has it, some people actually watch our TE Labs videos. If you were wondering how things like pedal powered tanks or flour flame throwers come about, this email exchange should explain things. This is pretty much exactly how we operate:

Vin (in an email to Paul and Gocke): Should we make a Giant drinking bird that belches fire?

Paul: yeah. I guess it will have to be powered, due to the difficulty of making a balanced giant glass bulb? it would be funny if it drank gasoline that powered an engine that made it tip back and forth and ran the ignitor for the fire.

Vin: I’m sold. Can we do it in Jan or Feb? We should build it with some event at which it will be horribly inappropriate in mind. An AA convention?

Paul: I propose we build it and park it in vin marshall square. fully functional.

Vin: If it can inspire Idol like reverence and fear amongst the peasants, they will bring it offerings of gasoline (siphoned from tanks around Kensington) to keep the deity functional at all times.

Paul: That was my vision

[Editors Note: Gocke was apparently out getting too drunk to shoot video of our exploding lawn darts, and was not party to this planning session.]