PAMA Pomegranate Liqueur has announced the launch of its “Best Home Bar Star Contest.” Beginning today and running through February 29th, the contest encourages home bartenders and cocktail enthusiasts to submit cocktail recipes that are delicious, balanced, elegantly presented and, of course, use PAMA. The winner will receive a trip for two to the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen in June 2012, plus $2,000 and the opportunity for their recipe to be presented in front of thousands of attendees at the Grand Tasting Tent. The winning recipe will also be featured on PAMA’s website. The contest...

Fernet, that most bitter of Italian amari, has reached cult-like status in recent years. It’s a favorite shot for bartenders, a popular digestivo in San Francisco – Northern California accounts for nearly 40% of all Fernet Branca’s U.S. sales – and is often mixed with Coke in Argentina. But as Camper English notes, until now, a call for Fernet has almost exclusively meant Fernet Branca, the most widely available brand of the Italian liqueur. Hoping to change that, two companies will begin giving consumers more choices in their Fernet consumption. Camper’s San Francisco Chronicle article reports that drinkers can expect to...

Kahlúa Cinnamon Spice is the latest offering from Kahlúa, adding to the brand’s stable of flavors that also includes French Vanilla, Mocha and Hazelnut, to name a few. Kahlúa Cinnamon Spice is a blend of Arabica coffee and sugar cane spirit that’s infused with flavors of cinnamon, cloves and brown sugar. We already know Kahlúa to be a nice addition to coffee, but what else can we do with this liqueur? For starters, we drank it neat. On the nose, Kahlúa Cinnamon Spice is rich and sweet, with aromas of coffee and cinnamon. Take a sip and it’s more of...

Germany’s The Bitter Truth makes some of our favorite cocktail bitters – we’re especially fond of their celery bitters and creole bitters – but they also make a range of fine liqueurs, including an apricot and a violet liqueur. Given that the latter two products just showed up on our doorstep, straight from Deutschland, we figured we’d crack them open and do some drinking. Bitter Truth Apricot Liqueur This liqueur combines the juice of sun-ripened apricots with an apricot eau de vie distilled from the same fruit. As expected, it smells convincingly of apricots, but there’s also a pleasant note of...

Today at Tales of the Cocktail Drambuie introduced a new expression – Drambuie 15. Drambuie 15 is made with a selection of 15-year-old Speyside malts. It’s a refined, drier expression that brings the liqueur’s whiskey notes to the forefront. According to the company – This is achieved by the careful selection of old Speyside malts with soft, complex fragrance and flavors to complement the aromas of the secret Drambuie recipe. The resulting drink is designed to appeal to malt whisky drinkers and is perfect for sipping and savoring either neat or over ice. "To reach the high standards required for Drambuie...

Cocktail Enthusiast joined a slew of other booze writers and avid drinkers in Vegas this week for the official launch of Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Honey. Hosted by the MGM Grand, we tasted through the full Jack Daniel’s lineup with Master Taster Jeff Norman, sipped cocktails featuring the new Tennessee Honey liqueur and attended a mixology contest that pitted 14 Vegas bartenders against each other in a Tennessee Honey mix-off. Some highlights -- Drinking Whiskey with Jeff Norman As Jack Daniel’s Master Taster (which is perhaps the world’s greatest job title) Jeff Norman is responsible for quality control. He ensures that each Jack...

Averna, the Sicilian Amaro, announced today that it has revamped its bottle design. It marks the liqueurs’ first design update in more than 20 years and features a more contemporary take on the traditional label. Though I've got to say, it doesn't look that much different than the old bottle.  Still, Averna hopes the new look and feel will appeal to its increasing number of young consumers. Averna belongs to the category of amaros—herbal Italian liqueurs—that more people are starting to drink neat, rather than just mixing into cocktails. Bartenders have been knocking back amaros like Averna and Fernet for...

To prep for Wednesday’s start to Tales of the Cocktail, some people rest their livers, while others expedite their demise with some Rusty Nails.  I chose the latter. The Drambuie: Revisited, Revived & Remixed event at the  Roosevelt Hotel featured the classic Rusty Nail cocktail, plus four modern variations, live jazz and glitzy cocktail servers with big feather hats.  The four Rusty Nail cocktails were created by bartenders from Portland to Milwaukee to New York City, and each took the Rusty Nail base (Scotch and Drambuie) and added ingredients and flavors to form innovative variations, detailed below: Encrusted Nail – Chad Doll,...

Recently 30 booze experts tasted 1,024 premium spirits for the San Francisco World Spirits Competition.  Entries represented 58 countries and six continents.  Some winners are noted below. Premium Awards Distillery of the Year – Glenmorangie Distillery Importer of the Year – Moët Hennessy USA Best in Show, White – Trago Silver Tequila ($40) Best in Show, Whisky – Isle of Jura Prophecy ($70) Best in Show, Brandy – Père Magloire 20 Year Old Calvados ($100) Best in Show, Liqueur – Grand Marnier 100th Anniversary ($135) “Best of” Awards Vodka – Chase ($40) Flavored Vodka – Rain Organics Cucumber Lime ($21) Gin – Beefeater 24 ($30) Rum – Vizcaya VXOP Solera  ($38) Extra-Aged...