Beverages in Big Screen

No matter, if you are in the US, in Spain, or in Japan - when you enter a pub and want to order your favorite drink or cocktail, it will probably be in the menu. Many drinks are named after movie titles, or are popularized thanks to their presence in some US blockbusters or TV series. Globalization works also in the area of beverages ... so let's find out what are the roots of the most universal alcoholic cocktails.

1. Movie: The Seven Year Itch (1955), drink: Wiskey Sour

One of the best known movies with Marylin Monroe, which includes the iconic scene of her standing over a subway grate as her dress is blown up. Her partner in the movie, a grass widower Richard Sherman (Tom Ewell), tries to prove that he is capable of preparing himself a perfect breakfast, namely a peanut butter sandwich and two Whiskey Sours.

Try it out:
1 1 1/2 oz bourbon (or rye, or Irish whiskey)
1 1/2 oz lemon juice, fresh squeezed
1/2 - 3/4 tsp sugar
Orange slice
Maraschino cherry

2. Movie: Psycho (1960), drink: Psycho

There is no direct connection between the famous Alfred Hitchcock's thriller and the alcoholic coctail. The only reason for the drink's name can be its effect on human beings - crazy headache and hangover!

If you can hold yours liquor:
4 cl Bacardi® white rum
2 cl Galliano® herbal liqueur
8 cl orange juice
8 cl pineapple juice
2 cl grenadine syrup

3. Movie: The Godfather (1972), drink: The Godfather

This cocktail brings to mind a picture of a cutthroat mobster in a suit and a bow tie, sitting in an exclusive armchair made of luxury leather. Try it in this kind of garment and scenery! 

The recipe:
1 1/2 oz Scotch Whiskey
3/4 oz amaretto almond liqueur

4. Movie: Blue Lagoon (1980), drink: Blue Lagoon

The drink's color and name conjure up the thoughts of an exquisite tropical landscape of ocean and beach. If you are not lucky enough to live in Hawaii or Majorca, order it and feel the fresh breeze of ocean's wind in your mouth.

Or prepare it at home:
1 oz vodka
1 oz Blue Curacao liqueur
Lemonade to taste
1 cherry garnish

5. Movie: Coctail (1988), drink: Red-Eye

The main protagonist of the movie, Brian Flanagan (Tom Cruise), starts to work as a bartender. While learning the tricks of his new trade, Brian gets acquainted with an unusual mixture of beverages (Red-Eye), which is said to help hangovers.

If you suffer from a hangover, try this:
1 oz vodka
6 oz tomato juice
1 can of beer
1 raw egg

6. Movie: The Big Lebowski (1998), drink: White Russian

The protagonists of this criminal comedy drink White Russians, also known as Caucasians, many times throughout the action. White Russian was well-known before the Coen Brothers film, though it revived in 1998.

Something for coffee fans:
2 oz vodka
1 oz Kahlua or other coffee-flavored liqueur
1 oz light cream

7. TV series: Sex and the City (1998-2004), drink: Cosmopolitan

Carrie Bradshaw, Samantha Jones, Charlotte York and Miranda Hobbes revolutionized traditional minds of many women in the world. Six seasons of TV series and two full-length films offer a lot of insight into the four protagonists' sexual peripeties, fashion choices, and New York parties, during which they always drink Cosmos.

If you want to feel like in NY, try this:
1/2 jigger lime juice
1 jigger vodka (Absolut Citron vodka is best)
1 jigger Triple Sec
1 jigger Cranberry Juice Cocktail

Sources:
Filmweb
Top 10 Movie Drinks
Drinks Named After Movies

Cheers! To Native Americans!

If you ever wondered, what did Native Americans drink, this post is for you.

Contrary to what is believed, they did have alcohol. As an example let us look at the Tohono O'odham Indians who had their own alcoholic drink from saguaro. Saguaro is a cactus and happens to be the largest one in the world. The drink is called tiswin and was brewed from corn. However, it is not so potent as the alcohol brought to America by the white settlers.

Here you have a recipe how to make it:

Saguaro Cactus

Tiswin (Traditional Pueblo Corn Drink)

Ingredients:

5 lbs dried white corn
      2 gallons water
      1 1/2 c brown sugar
      2 dried orange peels
      3 cinnamon sticks
      1 t ground cloves  

Oven-roast corn at 300 degrees until light brown, stirring frequently.  Grind
 coarsely in food chopper or in small quantities in blender.  Wash (using several 
 rinses, clean water each time), and discard hulls. 
 Put in crock and stir in water and other ingredients.  Cover and let sit in a barely
 warm place for five or six days or until fermented.  Strain through cheesecloth
 and serve.  
 

Another Indian drink (soft one, this time) is called pinole.

It originates from the central part of the American Continent and from Mexico. 

Pinole is a hot corn drink, which is sweet thanks to sugar and cinnamon 

that are added to it. 

Intriguied? Here is the recipe:

 Pinole (Hot Corn Drink)

  Ingredients:

2 c blue or white cornmeal
      1/2 c sugar
      1/2 t cinnamon
      milk

Brown the cornmeal in a hot 425 degree oven for 8-10 minutes by spreading
 in a thin layer on a cookie sheet, stirring several times to prevent scorching.  Add 
 sugar and cinnamon and use like cocoa in about the same proportions, stirred into 
 hot milk and simmered for 15 minutes.

Recipies taken from HERE.

 

Show Me Your Mug and I Will Tell You Who You Are

Every one of us has its own, special container for our favorite drink which tells a bit about ourselves.

A babbling child presses clumsily her first "mature" juice cup to her lips.

A shy teenager waiting for his first dance squizzes nervously his tall transparent glass of soda.

A successful businesswoman drinks her daily dose of coffe from a best-mom-in-the-world coffe mug.

A sturdy mechanic takes a deep gulp from his beer mug after a long day in his repair garage.

A good-hearted grandmother takes a sip from her tiny porcelain tea cup at her weekly gossip meeting.

If you also wish to have something special to pour your drink in, look at a couple of our suggestions. Here are some unusual cups, mugs, and glasses that may suit your taste.

1. Zipper Wine Glass - they say that alcohol openes people up. Who knows, maybe it also can unzipp them?

You like it? Look here.

2.  "Little Heart" Wine Glass by Etienne Meneau - a very unusual way to explore a new taste of an old wine.

You like it? Look here.

3. Two Liter Beer Boot - looks like Santa's, does it?

You like it? Look here.

4. Two Carat Cup - a dream of every jewelery fan may now come true during every coffe morning!

You like it? Look here.

5. Mustache Mug - now, who said that I can't grow a mustache?

You like it? Look here.

6. Slanted Mug - not a drop of any hot liquid will be spilt on your knees.

You like it? Look here.

7. Mug Shaped Shot Glasses - a must-have in every dirty jail.

 You like it? Look here.

8. Bombs Away Glasses - perfect if you want to make your guests burst out laughing.

You like it? Look here.

9. Toilet Cup - it's hard to imagine WHAT can you drink from it...

You like it? Look here.


That's all folks!

"A hangover is the wrath of grapes" - Quotes about Drinking

Henry David Thoreau once wrote, "Water is the only drink for a wise man." Well, it is quite disputable if he was right. Especially if we take into account that bars all over the world are full of philosophers.

Anyway, take a look those quotes, created by various American celebrities. Which one is going to be your new life drinking motto?

1. “Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.”  

     ~  Benjamin Franklin

2. “Sometimes too much to drink is barely enough.”

     ~  Mark Twain

3. "First you take a drink, then the drink takes a drink, then the drink takes you."

    ~  Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald

4. “Better to sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunken Christian.” 

    ~  Herman Melville 

5.  “Here's to alcohol: the cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems.”

     ~ Homer Simpson

6. “Alcohol may be man's worst enemy, but the Bible says love your enemy.”

  ~ Frank Sinatra 

7. “Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut.”   

   ~ Ernest Hemingway  

8. “I feel sorry for people who don't drink. When they wake up in the morning, that's as good as they're going to feel all day.”

    ~  Frank Sinatra 

9.  "One reason I don't drink is that I want to know when I am having a good time."  

     ~  Lady Astor

10. “It takes only one drink to get me drunk. The trouble is, I can't remember if it's the thirteenth or the fourteenth.”

    ~ George F. Burns

 Source: QuoteGarden, ThinkExist.

18th Amendment - The Noble Experiment

Perhaps everybody heard about the Prohibition era in the US, since 1920 till 1933,  during which the sale, production, and transportation of alcohol were nationally banned. The purpose of the so-called Noble Experiment was to narrow down the amount of liquor consumed, however, it resulted in the exact opposite.
As history shows, forbidden fruit is the sweetest. Here, I would like to present some notions, phenomena, and people connected with the illegal, underground activities which flourished during the time of Prohibition.

1. Home-made wine - An easy way to produce your own alcoholic beverage. Farmers, as a reward for supporting the idea of prohibition, were allowed to produce their own applejack or blueberry wine, though on the condition that it was a non-intoxicating fruit juice for home consumption only. In reality, the wine was sold as juice under such labels like "brick or blocks of Rhine Wine," or "blocks of port."

2. Rum-running & bootlegging - These terms describe the illegal transporting of alcoholic beverages. While the term rum-running is connected with smuggling alcohol over water, bootlegging is applied to smuggling over land. Among the smuggled items were most often Caribbean rum, Canadian whiskey, French champagne, and English gin.

Rum-runner, William S. McCoy, Florida

3. Speakeasy - Also called a blind pig or blind tiger, was a place where alcoholic beverages were sold illegally. The distinction between a blind pig and a speakeasy is based on the kind of visitors who attended these places. Speakeasies were usually higher-class establishments, while blind tigers offered alcohol to lower-classes. Speakeasies were usually located in cities, especially in New York and Chicago, but also in smaller towns.

4. Izzy Einstein & Moe Smith - Agents of the US Prohibition Unit who operated in New York in the period 1920-1925. They were extremely successful in shutting down illegal speakeasies. They used disguise in order to expose illegal establishments and their owners. The story of their lives is presented in a film "Izzy&Moe."

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089358/

5. The Purple Gang - A criminal organization of bootleggers in the 1920s, also known as the Sugar House Gang. The mob operated mainly in Detroit, Michigan, due to the closeness to the Canadian border. Its leaders were Charlie Leiter and Abe Bernstein.

6. Boardwalk Empire - An American TV series set in Atlantic City, New Jersey, during the Prohibition era. Based on Nelson Johnson's book entitled Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times, and Corruption in Atlantic City. Here you can watch the series:

http://iitv.info/boardwalk-empire/

The Prohibition era was over in 1933 after the ratification of the 21st Amendment which repealed the 18th Amendment.

What are you views on banning alcoholic beverages?

Did the 18th Amendment infringe the freedom of Americans?

How do you like the feminist approach to Prohibition presented in the photo above?

Maybe, you are familiar with the period of 20s and 30s in the US, and would like to share some information with other readers?

Express yourself!



Sources:

http://history1900s.about.com/od/1920s/p/prohibition.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prohibition_era

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,742105,00.html

A college student suffers heart attack after having a caffeine-vodka drink.

It was a case of a perfectly healthy teenager being brought to an emergency room of Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia, suffering a heart attack. When he recovered, he told the doctors that he was drinking Four Loko.

Four Loko , also called a “blackout in a can” is a fruity liquor that contains 12 percent of alcohol and caffeine. Those amounts are said to be an equivalent of SIX beers and three shots of espresso (super strong coffee) in  ONE drink! Four Loko gets its name from the four kinds of stimulants it uses: caffeine, taurine, guarana and wormwood, the active ingredient in absinthe. Moreover it is distributed in large, 23 ounce cans. Yep, it definitely has “the power”.

Similar cases of teens passing out after drinking  Four Loko have been reported throughout the US. In one case, at Ramapo College in Mahwah, N.J., six students were rushed to the hospital. The average level of alcohol in their blood was 40, where level  40-60 is found fatal. 

In response to those cases, the officials warn against drinking Four Loko excessively, pointing out how dangerous mixing vodka and caffeine is. On the other hand, such “mixture” is nothing new – people have long been mixing for instance rum and coke or Red Bull and vodka.

Do you like mixing energy drinks or coffee with vodka? 

Do you care if it is bad for your health? 

Have you ever felt bad or weird after having one?

Tell us your thoughts!

Source: fitPerez , Palm Beach Post News

"Have a ball...and a beer"- Beer Pong!

Our fellow American(ist) drunkards!
What we have for you today is the key to ultimate pAArty fun -

BEER PONG!

Most of you probably know the game, heard about it or may have even played it. For those who have no idea what the game is about, we will lay out the rules and tools.
The game is extremely popular among high school and college students in America, as well as random people who simply like to par-tay!
The game evolved from the original beer pong played with paddles which is generally regarded to have had its origins within the fraternities (student associations) of Dartmouth College in the 1950s and '60s, where it has since become part of the social culture of the campus. The original version resembled an actual ping pong game with a net and one or more cups of beer on each side of the table.

You will need:

1.  BEER (yeah, rly!),
2. A bunch of people who like beer and want to get drunk (other people can go home, they are useless),
3. A long table (f you have a ping-pong table at your crib, you are cool and we're jealous), 
4. Twenty-two plastic cups,
5. Two ping-pong balls (or more. Drunk people tend to lose things,and you don't want your game to stop in the middle with "Dude, where's my ball?!")

The playing field:
There are two teams of  two or whatever number of people. Each team gets ten cups, which on both ends of the table are arranged in a triangle  - four cups at the edge of the table, then three in the next row, then two and then one. Also, each team gets one cup filled with water, to rinse the ball if it hits the floor.

Now play:
A member of each team throws or bounces the ball accross the table, aiming at the cups of the opponents. If he/she manages to sink the ball in one of the cups, a member of the opposite team has to drink from the cup. When one team misses, the other throws and so on.

Simple? Sure! Nuh-uh? Not getting our blab? Watch these videos on YT:

How to Play Beer Pong
Beer Pong Shooting Styles

Want to try it out? Don'forget to invite us :)!
"Have a ball...and a beer."




Sources: Wikipedia <3,YouTube.

Welcome!

Hello Everyone!

Welcome to our blog, on which we'll vividly explore the beverages from the United States. Drinks of all kinds will be the main theme of a multitude of absorbing posts. We'll briskly swim through a wide range of liquids, its dense history and watery cultural background.
Ever wondered what is the most favorite drink of Native Americans?
What was the REAL motivation for introducing prohibition in the US?
Who is the author of the best drink-related motto?
Where can you find the most awesome mugs for your favorite drink...?

All this and a lot more coming soon!

Cheers!