Glugg

Another holiday tradition in my family is glugg. My grandfather apparently made it every year and it was always quite the hit (I was not fortunate enough to try his original concoctions).

Together with my mom, I whipped up a batch (vat) while I was home this past week.

It is really quite simple and quite delicious/intoxicating. When it is first put together it tastes like a slightly sweeter manhattan, but if you let it sit for a day it loses a lot of its edge once the spices get "all up in it."

I'm also not quite sure what the reflective film is on the second picture, but I'm sure it is either adding to the deliciousness or alcohol content of the drink.

Glugg (yields enough to get lots of people drunk)
1 bottle rye whiskey (we used seagrams 7)
1 bottle port (can't remember what we used)
1 bottle sweet vermouth
handful of almonds
1/4 cup dark raisins
1/4 cup golden raisins
10-12 cardamom seeds
6-10 cloves (i think that's right)
4-5 cinnamon sticks

bring it all to a slight simmer. add in simple syrup (2 parts sugar to 1 part water heated up) to taste. done.

If you want to put on a show and burn off some of the alcohol, you can light the whole thing with a match (just don't blow yourself up if you're using a gas stove). This will reduce the drunk yield so I don't think I'd recommend it.

Five Whiskeys

On a recent trip through DC, I stopped by to visit Jeff, of Jeff Drinks and Stuff fame.

We decide to partake in one of our favorite activities not involving video games, whiskey. I'm not quite sure how we ended up with so much to drink, but there was probably some peer pressure involved.

Jeff already had the Jim Beam and Elijah Craig 18 Year (well, that was technically Laura's). He purchased the 1792 and Jameson. The Jameson purchase took a little prodding from me, which most likely consisted of me saying, "hey Jeff, this is on sale!"

I purchased some Knob Creek which was destined for a Wake Forest tailgate.

I actually took notes on each of the drinks, but in typical fashion managed to misplace them.

The one surprise of all the night was how drinkable Jim Beam was neat. I'm not sure I'd ever just sipped it before, instead of just throwing it back, but it wasn't as harsh as I thought it would be.

The one thing that wasn't surprising at all was the awesomeness of the Jameson 12 year. It was, bye far, the best whiskey of the evening.

The middle three are all pretty good, but I thought the Elijah Craig was a little too peppery for my tastes.

I gotta say it was a good day.