The cover jacket of “Cocktails & Amuse-Bouches, For Her & For Him” by restaurateur Daniel Boulud and bartender Xavier Herit. Photographer: Harald Gottschalk/Assouline via Bloomberg

The cover jacket of “The PDT Cocktail Book: The Complete Bartender’s Guide from the Celebrated Speakeasy” by Jim Meehan. Source: Sterling Epicure via Bloomberg

The cover jacket of “Brewed Awakening: Behind the Beers and Brewers Leading the World’s Craft Brewing Revolution” by Joshua M. Bernstein. Source: Sterling Epicure via Bloomberg

The cover jacket of “Barrels and Drams: The History of Whisk(e)y in Jiggers and Shots.” Source: Sterling Epicure via Bloomberg

The cover jacket of “Holiday Shots” by Lindsay Herman and Devorah Lev-Tov. The book includes chapters on flaming shots, eggnog shots and Jell-O shots. It’s published by Cider Mill Press. Source: Cider Mill Press via Bloomberg

A “Strawberry and Pearls” is a margarita-like cocktail made with Herradura Silver tequila, Cointreau, lime juice, strawberry and sugar served with strawberry “pearls.” It is featured in the book “Daniel Boulud Cocktails & Amuse-Bouches, For Her & For Him.” Photographer: Harald Gottschalk/Assouline via Bloomberg

An illustration of an absinthe drip by Chris Gall. The work appears in “The PDT Cocktail Book: The Complete Bartender’s Guide from the Celebrated Speakeasy.” Source: Sterling Epicure via Bloomberg

A Flaming Noel is made with genadine, Bailey’s Irish Cream, green creme de menthe and 151-proof rum. The book contains instructions on safely flaming drinks. Chief among them is to invest in a fire extinguisher. Source: Cider Mill Press via Bloomberg

There are all kinds of drinkers and, fortunately, all kinds of drinking books. Here’s my list for this holiday season.

The Entertainer

Wow your friends with a soon-to-be-classic cocktail from “Cocktails and Amuse-Bouches: For Her and For Him” by Daniel Boulud and Xavier Herit (Assouline, $50). Each book in the two- volume set contains recipes for 20 drinks and 10 appetizers.

Who among us females wouldn’t love a festive Strawberry and Pearls? This margarita-like cocktail is made with Herradura tequila and served with strawberry-and-Cointreau “pearls” formed in a calcium bath with the help of a magnetic agitator.

For the men — and a tad more easily prepared — is a Smokey Bandit with Mezcal, orange Curacao and eight drops of jalapeno juice wrested from the pepper with an extractor.

The food recipes, like Tempura Squash Blossoms and Turkish Lamb Meatballs, make from 20 to 80 hors d’oeuvres each and most don’t require special equipment. The typeface is distracting, but the books are a great gift for the ambitious host.

The Budding Bar Owner

“The PDT Cocktail Book” by Jim Meehan (Sterling Epicure, $24.95). This book is so detailed you could use it to open a franchise of its namesake East Village cocktail lounge, Please Don’t Tell. You might want to: It was recently named World’s Best Bar by industry magazine Drinks International.

Meehan, PDT’s managing partner and chef de booze, includes more than 300 drinks, the bar layout, an equipment list and a recipe for David Chang’s Momofuku Napa Cabbage Kimchi (which is served on hot dogs at the bar).

I liked Chris Gall’s illustrations, especially the Statue of Liberty holding a Manhattan garnished with brandied cherries and a well-endowed Tinker Bell overseeing an absinthe drip.

The Beer Snob

“Brewed Awakening” by Joshua M. Bernstein (Sterling Epicure, $24.95) is the story of craft beer. What makes this book exceptional is its design and attention to detail, including a dust-jacket map of lagers and ales, sidebars with labels and tasting notes and a guide to food pairings.

There’s information about special releases such as Kate the Great, Portsmouth Brewery’s Russian imperial stout (they only make 900 bottles and sell it all in one day). Home brews, seasonal brews and gluten-free brews are discussed in-depth.

There are homebrew competitions to enter, like Stone Brewing’s March Madness, Craft Beer Weeks to attend, like Alaska’s in January, and types to try, like Session lager from Full Sail Brewing Co. or Torpedo Extra IPA from Sierra Nevada. This book should become the handbook of the beer snob.

The Historian

Pour a glass of your favorite brown spirit and settle in for “Barrels and Drams: The History of Whisk(e)y in Jiggers and Shots,” edited by William M. Dowd (Sterling Epicure, $18.95).

This collection of essays introduces us to whiskey and heroes worldwide. We’re educated on what to collect, where to hide it, how to make a blend and the horror of drinking whiskey from plastic.

F. Paul Pacult tells the story of Scotsman George Smith, born in 1792, who became distiller of The Glenlivet. Peter Krass informs us that after the Civil War, Jack Daniel of Tennessee was an orphan with expansion plans.

Jim Leggett follows the voyage of Al Capone’s 100-year-old bootleg Sandy Mac Scotch as it’s dug up from the bottom of the Detroit River by a treasure hunter and makes its way home to Glasgow to be sold at auction by Christie’s.

Hit It Hard

Sometimes a shot is called for. One year, I was charged with making Jell-O shots for the Pal’s Lounge Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans. They would have been beautifully layered had I read Chapter 6 in “Holiday Shots” by Lindsay Herman and Devorah Lev-Tov (Cider Mill Press, $12.95).

This book’s holiday theme makes it a great stocking stuffer, but most of the 80 recipes can be enjoyed year round — eggnog shots excluded.

Difficulty and potency ratings are included for each slug, and there’s a chapter on flaming shots with tips like “Invest in a fire extinguisher. Please.” When dealing with a drink recently set ablaze, I use a straw.

(Catherine Smith writes for Muse, the arts and culture section of Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are her own.)

To contact the writer on the story: Catherine Smith in New York c.smith@bloomberg.net.

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The best part of the signature margarita at Oyamel, the Mexican small plates restaurant which just reopened in Penn Quarter, is the “salt air” foam that takes the place of a salt-crusted rim. Here’s how to do it at home.

By Cynthia Hacinli

Photograph by M.K. Tye.

Salt or no salt? It’s always a conundrum. Best to settle on a half-rim so that every gulp of margarita doesn’t come with a mouthful of the stuff. Salt does great things to tequila and lime, but in small doses. Too often that gritty too- salty sensation smacks of overkill. Clearly the bartenders at the relocated-from-Crystal City Oyamel (401 7th St., NW, 202-628-1005) have thought about this. Because when you order a margarita at the always-crammed bar of this Jose Andres Mexican, no one asks about salt. They’ve got it covered. With foam. The Oyamel margarita comes with a cloud of lightly salted foam on top. No grit. No overkill. Just a perfect balance of the sweet, tart, and salty. The secret? Egg whites? A cappuccino foamer? I asked the bartender and found out it was simpler than all that.

Oyamel’s Salt Air for Margaritas

1 cup fresh squeezed lime juice
2 cups water
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon soy lecithin (available at GNC stores)

Combine ingredients. Tilt the bowl away from you and blend with hand-held blender held in the far corner. When there’s an inch or so of foam on top, it’s ready to use. Skim off foam onto frozen margarita (made with your favorite recipe). When you’ve used it all up, repeat the process. Juice mixture can be refrigerated for several days.

Margarita Machine Rental, Austin, Round Rock, Houston, Seattle, Atlanta

Simple: adopt one of Healthy Chef Devin Alexander’s (an expert from Dr. Drew’s Lifechangers) tips, “Never deprive yourself!”

Whether you’re sipping on a margarita, socializing over sangria or entertaining with mojitos, make sure to replace high-calorie drink sweeteners that often lurk in cocktails and blended drinks with fresh fruit. Use blueberries, grapes and other fruits that ripen in the summer to make your drinks affordable and fresh.

Making your drinks heavy on the fruit and light on the simple syrups also packs your beverages with tons of vitamins and fiber, instead of just quaffing alcohol and pure sugar.

Frozen Blueberry Margarita

3 cups frozen blueberries

1/2 cup gold or silver tequila

1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

1/4 cup freshly squeezed lime juice

1/4 cup light agave nectar

24 ice cubes

4 lime wedges for garnish (optional)

- Makes 4 (12-ounce) glasses with only 188 calories per glass

Take the triple sec out of the margarita but leave the flavor in this frosty Mexican refreshment. In addition to blueberries, use agave nectar for a natural, subtle sweetness. Agave is low on the glycemic index so you won’t just be spiking your blood sugar, leaving you hungry, cranky and tired later on.

by Monica Turner @ Starkinsider.com

Original Article

http://www.starkinsider.com/2011/08/summer-drink-recipe-frozen-blueberry-margarita.html

Austin Margarita machine rental

Ingredients

• 2 ounce(s) clear Tequila (Sauza or clear premium tequila)
• A splash of fresh lime juice
• A splash of Cointreau, Grand Marnier or Triple Sec

Directions

1. Combine all ingredients over a glass of ice. Garnish with a lime wedge and salt (or sugar) if you’d like. Makes one serving. If you prefer a frozen Skinny Margarita, crush ice in a blender, then pour in ingredients.

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An indoor-outdoor eating and drinking establishment attached to Chicago's Wrigley Field is named for the Diageo rum brand Captain Morgan.

By Sam Mamudi and William Spain, MarketWatch

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — There’s nothing like relaxing at the ballpark with a hot dog and a beer. These days, there’s also the option of slaking that thirst with a margarita.

So far this year, five major-league teams have struck sponsorship deals with tequila brands, according to an analysis for MarketWatch by SponsorPitch, a professional network that tracks sponsorship data. And, as social acceptance of spirits rises, distillers are rushing into a number of sports, filling slots traditionally hogged by big beer companies.
Five big-league teams have inked sponsorship deals with tequila brands this year.

Opening up sponsorship slots to the spirits world has provided a revenue boost at a difficult time of broader economic troubles that have hurt sales efforts, say industry insiders. And for fans there’s now even more ways to pass the time.

“Lots of people think of beer and hot days together, but we have a lot of fans who are interested in spirits,” said Jim Allen, director of corporate partnerships at the Atlanta Braves. “And for female fans, for example, we can offer margaritas.”

The Braves recently signed a pact with Familia Camarena Tequila after a new deal with Anheuser-Busch InBev AHBIF +2.00% that cut out the Budweiser brewer’s alcohol exclusivity. Allen said the new deal sees Anheuser-Busch paying less to sponsor the Braves while opening other avenues for the team to pursue. Sponsorship income from the alcohol category will be higher overall than in previous years.

It’s a pattern repeated across baseball, as teams have opened up to the new, lucrative potential on offer.

It’s not surprising that tequila brands are leading the charge. From 2001 to 2010, tequila saw the biggest rise in consumption of any spirit, rising overall 76%, according to the Distilled Spirits Council. That’s from a lower base than many, but the trend is clearly up. By contrast, beer sales are flat, and the changing dynamic has created new partners for sponsor-hungry sports teams.

“The economy has caused more than a few properties to re-evaluate their stance on a wide range of categories ranging from lotteries to spirits,” said Kris Mathis, chief executive at SponsorPitch. “The spirits market in the U.S. is extremely fragmented, and the fact is that sports sponsorships create a level of affinity and differentiation that traditional advertising struggles to achieve.”

Distillers “have lots of money to spend, and they are right now by far the best marketers” in the alcohol industry, said Tom Pirko, president of the consultancy Bevmark.

The Los Angeles Dodgers are another team that’s recently signed up a tequila sponsor — in its case, Corzo Tequila. The club’s experience in partnering up speaks volumes about the how keen distillers are to work with sports teams. MarketWatch Topics: Los Angeles Dodgers .

“This was not an opportunity we sought but rather one that came to us,” said a Dodgers spokesman in an email to MarketWatch.

The recent increase is also because sports teams have found it easier to work with distillers as social attitudes change. In the not-too-distant past, the idea of promoting a spirit — hard liquor — at a ball game would have been frowned on.

“When spirits companies started advertising on cable television, it made a lot of difference,” said Pirko. “That demystified and de-fanged the industry, made it more mainstream and acceptable. These products really moved to the center of the culture where beer was, where beer is. ”

“The environment has certainly changed in the last five to 10 years, with more media access and normalization,” said Toby Whitmoyer, a brand managing director who runs the rum portfolio for privately held Bacardi, the third-largest spirits firm in the world.

Barcardi signed with the Braves once the team was free to work with spirits companies. And, along with Familia Camarena, Bacardi also has a deal with the Chicago White Sox. The White Sox opened a “Bacardi at the Park” bar and restaurant this year at U.S. Cellular Field.

Across town, at Wrigley Field, Diageo DEO +0.23% DGEAF +4.19% named an indoor-outdoor dining and imbibing establishment for its Captain Morgan rum mascot.
Liquor breaks through

Distillers are making their mark in other sports, as well — perhaps none as big as the deal Barcadi signed with the National Basketball Association last year — the first spirits tie-up with any of the top U.S. sports leagues.

“Our NBA sponsorship was one of the seminal moments,” said Whitmoyer. “It really shows that spirits have come of age.”

He declined to disclose how much the deal is costing Bacardi, saying only that “it is not a small undertaking.”

In April, Brown-Forman Corp.’s BF.A -0.42% El Jimador tequila brand became a sponsor of Major League Soccer in a deal valued in the eight-figure range. Read about Brown-Forman’s MLS deal.

“Across the spirits business, you are going to see more local and national sports deals,” Whitmoyer predicted. “And we all will step up to the plate to get much more involved in the space.”

“Whenever you open up new categories, it’s a bit of a land grab and companies like Diageo and Brown-Forman can maximize the impact across a wide portfolio of brands,” added SponsorPitch’s Mathis.

As if to make the point, Jose Cuervo, which Diageo markets and sells, announced on Wednesday the launch of the Jose Cuervo Pro Beach Volleyball Series, an event sanctioned by USA Volleyball and which will be televised on Versus.

There’s also another factor behind the push to link up sports and spirits — the changing demographics of players and fans.

Hispanics and African-Americans have long been larger-than-average per-capita consumers of spirits, and, with those groups’ prevalence on the field, in the seats and in front of TVs, companies that want to reach them will follow.

“We are moving away from a white-bread society, and this is just one more reflection of that,” said Pirko.

Sam Mamudi is a reporter for MarketWatch, based in New York William Spain is a MarketWatch staff writer in Chicago.

• The original Margarita was invented in 1948 by Dallas socialite Margarita Sames, at her vacation home in Acapulco.
• While blender Margaritas existed previously, the first frozen Margarita machine was invented in 1971. It was based on a soft-serve ice cream machine.

Margarita Holidays

• National Margarita Day is February 22nd.
• Cinco de Mayo is a regional holiday celebrated in the Mexican state of Puebla on May 5th. It is actually a bigger event in the United States than in Mexico, where many Margaritas are consumed.

Who’s Drinking Margaritas?

• The Margarita was the most popularly ordered drink in 2008, representing 18% of all mixed drink sales in the U.S. Runners up were the Martini, Rum and Coke, Vodka and Tonic, and the Cosmopolitan. (Source: Cheers On-Premise Handbook 2008)
• On average, Americans consume 185,000 Margaritas per hour. (Source: Brown-Forman, 2008)
• Margarita consumption peaks in the South, accounting for 34.9% of sales. Top markets include Alabama, Florida, North Carolina and Texas. (Source: Brown-Forman, 2008)
• Based on sales, Atlanta, Miami, St. Louis and Nashville are among the best major metro cities for Margarita drinking. (Source: Cheers On-Premise Handbook 2008)
• The U.S. is the number one tequila market—larger and more important than Mexico (note that the U.S. population is almost three times as large as Mexico’s). (Source: Cheers On-Premise Handbook 2008)

These facts were provided by Casa Herradura, one of the oldest and most respected producers of tequila, founded in 1870. Located in the heart of Mexico’s tequila region, in the tiny town of Amatitan, Jalisco (just outside of Guadalajara), Tequila Herradura is 100% blue agave tequila, carefully crafted using traditional methods such as cooking the agave in clay ovens and fermenting naturally with wild yeast. Tequila Herradura is all-natural and estate bottled. Regarded as the leading innovator in the tequila industry, Casa Herradura introduced the first Reposado tequila in 1974 and subsequently launched the first Extra Añejo, Seleccion Suprema. In 1994, Casa Herradura launched el Jimador Tequila to honor the men who harvest agave plants, which is today the best-selling tequila in Mexico.

Photo: Barrels in the old Casa Herradura distillery.

let’s start with the machines… Rockin’ Ritas offers the best margarita machines on the market.

Our competitors machines….                                Our Margarita Machines…

Can you see the difference? Many customers who rent our competitors machines for margaritas often find that the machine doesnt freeze the liquid properly. That is because they are not made to produce frozen cocktails. They are made to produce granitas. Our machines are commercial quality, hold 6.5 gallons of liquid and are made specifically to pour a perfect margarita every time. Their machines take up to two hours to freeze a batch, ours take thirty minutes.

The Flavors…

We offer delicious frozen drink flavors made with fresh ingredients and real fruit and shipped to us within hours of production. We offer a variety of drink types and  flavors. If you don’t see a flavor you like, ask us and if it exists we will get it for you. The competition?…not so much.

The Service…

The most important aspect of any business is serving your customer well. We take pride in delivering great products and great service to all of our customers. We schedule convenient set-up and pick-up times, we explain how to use the machine and always answer any questions you may have. We also provide all of the equipment and supplies you will need to serve your frozen drinks (except the alcohol). If you have special requests, let us know and we will do our best to accomodate them. Does the competition do that? We don’t know.

Rent a margarita machine from Austin’s favorite rental company…Rockinritas.com. We have served Austin for over ten years and have loved every minute of it!

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Come join us for fun, food and great times at the 2nd annual Gettin’ Sauced! festival at the Independence Brewing Company on August 27th. Gettin’ Sauced! is an annual BBQ sauce contest and festival in Austin, Texas. Taste sauces, & pick your favorites. Listen to live music in the Live Music Capital of the World. Enter to win door prizes. Cool off with a cold drink. And meet with BBQ joints & sauce vendors. A perfect way to spend a hot & humid summer Saturday! Rockin’ Ritas may even bring a margarita machine or two and serve up some frozen margaritas.

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Margarita Machine rental Austin

• YIELD: 4 servings (serving size: 1 cup)
• COURSE: Margaritas, Austin

Ingredients

• 2 cups ice cubes
• 1 cup chopped peeled mango (about 1 large)
• 6 tablespoons chopped ripe peeled avocado
• 6 tablespoons fresh lime juice
• 1/4 cup tequila
• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons Triple Sec (orange-flavored liqueur)
• 4 lime wedges (optional)

Preparation

• Combine first 8 ingredients in a blender; process until smooth.
• Divide the mixture evenly among 4 glasses. Serve drinks with lime wedges, if desired. Serve immediately

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