Among the innovative new spirits we're finally finding time to catch up with is BULLDOG Gin, an ultra-premium gin handcrafted in London housed in a broad-shouldered charcoal gray bottle with deep purple hues and an iconic spiked collar.

BULLDOG is quadruple distilled, triple filtered, and infused with the taste and aromas of its twelve distinctive botanicals, including poppy, lavender, and dragon eye - a cousin of the lychee fruit often heralded as an ancient Chinese aphrodisiac.

Made from traditional copper pot stills and a painstaking distillation process, BULLDOG exudes a smooth and harmonious texture with a distinctive flavor, with notes of fruit and citrus lending a refreshingly crisp character and balanced finish.

BULLDOG has enlisted renowned mixologists Somer Perez, John Freeman, and Michael Waterhouse to create some signature cocktails using the bold spirit:

"Plumdog Millionaire" – created by John Freeman

2 oz. BULLDOG Gin
1 oz. Japanese Plum Wine
1 oz. Lavender Soda
Black Plum Half Wheel Garnish
Lavender Sugar Rim

Directions: Stir over ice, strain. Serve in a martini glass with lavender sugared rim and garnish. (Cont'd after the jump)

Plenty of hotels serve up unusual cocktails, but Raffles hotels have a unique claim on cocktail history: sometime in the 1900s, in its Singapore Hotel, bartender Ngiam Tong Boon created a gin-based cocktail named Singapore Sling, in a hue of proper pink designed to appeal to the hotel's female British clientele.

Or so the story goes, there's debate about whether it was originally called a "Singapore Sling" -- in browsing around today, I found reference to a "Straits Sling" and also a "Gin Sling", neither of which have the same ring. There's also question about whether the original recipe is the one in use today -- for more on this, check out "Dr. Cocktail" Ted Haigh's treatise on the subject in Mixologist: The Journal of the American Cocktail, which goes into depth on the subject. Either way, the Singapore Sling served by thousands at Raffles Singapore today is worth trying at home, see the recipe below.

Also in the East, at Raffles Hotel Le Royal, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, the signature drink is a "Femme Fatale". This drink is named after Jacqueline Kennedy, who apparently left a lipstick- stained cocktail glass at the Elephant Bar during her 1967 visit, which was only discovered during the hotel's restoration. (Questions arise: how did they know that it was her glass? And of all the descriptions of Jackie O, is "femme fatale" the first that leaps to mind?) Either way, this is another drink designed to appeal to the ladies.


Raffles "Femme Fatale"
7.5 ml Crème de Fraise
Dash of cognac
Top with Champagne

Serve in a champagne flute with a garnish of rose.



Raffles Singapore Sling

30 ml Gin
15 ml Heering Cherry Brandy
120 ml Pineapple Juice
15 ml Lime Juice
7.5 ml Cointreau
7.5 ml Dom Benedictine
10 ml Grenadine
A Dash of Angostura Bitters
Garnish with a slice of Pineapple and Cherry

Anyone can be creative with less intense spirits but it takes a certain talent to win a competition involving more exotic potent potables. Bärenjäger Honey Liqueur recently announced the winner of the brand's first-ever New York bärtending competition. Six of New York's finest bartenders competed in the Bärenjäger Bärtending Competition. Five judges: mixologist and spirits aficionado Allen Katz of Southern Wine & Spirits; Spirits and Cocktails Geek Gary Regan of ArdentSpirits.com, Director of the Worldwide Bar Database, and author of The Joy of Mixology; Julie Reiner of Clover Club and Flatiron Lounge; one of the foremost spirits trade writers, Jack Robertiello and Aisha Sharpe of Contemporary Cocktails, Inc., chose Kevin Diedrich as the grand prize winner of an all-expense trip paid for two to Oktoberfest 2009 in Munich, Germany.

Bärenjäger is a honey liqueur which was first introduced during the 15th century and used by hunters to lure bears from their dwellings. Today's version a 70 proof vodka-based honey liqueur is made in Germany using honey from the Yucatan. Each 750ml bottle contains 225 grams of natural honey and a mixture of botanicals. The drink comes in a straw wrapped bottle that features a hive-shaped topic and an image of bear baiting. The overall flavor profile has honey's floral sweetness but with an herbal complexity.

The winning drink is called "The Bottom Line." Kevin Diedrich's previous bartending experience includes Bourbon and Branch, Michael Mina's Clock Bar, CASK, Beverage Academy, The Ritz Carleton and Bourbon Steak. The new drink is both classic and new. The recipe, plus the recipe for the audience favorite, the Bäre Fizz created by Gerry Corcoran, are after the jump.

Ever have a recipe that makes you want to run to the kitchen and start cooking immediately? The recent Motor City Journal piece on the Last Word made me want to run to my bar. The Last Word is a classic cocktail that originated at the Detroit Athletic Club during the Prohibition era. It combines gin, maraschino liqueur, lime and green Chartreuse (a recipe is here). The end result is a celery green cocktail that looks delicate but has a big flavor profile that is by turns, herbal, sweet and sharp.

The cocktail's punch comes from the green Chartreuse, a French liqueur which is flavored with 130 herbs (there is also a milder yellow version). It was once made in the Grande Chartreuse monastery but is now produced under the supervision of monks from the monastery. The picture above shows one of the monks with a glass of the liqueur in 1953. On its own, Chartreuse has a potent medicinal quality. The Last Word recipe makes it a bit more palatable, lightening its treacly quality and rounding out the grassier notes into something lighter and more refreshing.

The Last Word has languished in obscurity for years but is experiencing a revival led by cocktail aficionados who find it has just the right amount of history, mystery and uncommon taste. It's becoming popular in urban bars around the world once again. The good news for home bartenders, is that it's also a pretty easy drink to make. No muddling, infusions or elaborate garnishes required, as long as you have the ingredients on hand you are good to go. After the jump, an episode of The Cocktail Spirit with Robert Hess shows how it's done.

It's been called a contest but seems more like an expo ... either way, it's typical of the ambiguity of communication coming from North Korea. "Crude liquor and sweet drink" – more than 100 types – were on display. These beverages were made with "grain, non-grain and by-products."

Yummy! I can't wait 'til the clock strikes noon and I can have a double-shot of by-products without regret.

The purpose of this event of indeterminate type is to use science to improve the traditional methods for creating these "traditional" drinks, "thus making the dining table of the people more bounteous" (no, you can't make this stuff up). Several years of famine and general consumer goods shortages make this a laudable goal, but one wonders if a trade show will be enough to solve the country's state-sponsored problems.

Though spirits would seem like luxuries in the "workers' paradise," peasants have been able to enjoy the "sour and refreshing crude liquor" when taking breaks from toiling in the field. Depending on the region, the crude liquor is called: thakju, thakbaegi, nongju or nongthak. In Yodok, it's called "nonexistent."

Interested in serving thakju at your next dinner party or cocktail reception? Just ferment boiled rice after "maturing" it with germ barley. Pour, threaten to drown the United States in a sea of fire and enjoy!