Last week, I had the opportunity to test out the ElectraPour, courtesy of New York Bar Store. For those of you who don’t know, ElectraPour is a new pour spout for liquor bottles with an LED that illuminates when you pour, transforming the liquid into a colorful stream of light as it pours into your glass. The battery life is around 4 hours of continuous pouring, which is phenomenal when considering that you’re usually only pouring for three or four seconds per drink.

Honestly, this is by far the best model of light-up pourer that I’ve ever seen. Most of the other LED barware I’ve seen or used have been too flashy or blinky, like an old cell phone accessory gone bad. The ElectraPour, on the other hand, is actually really low key; a steady, subtle stream of light. Also, unlike other light-up pourers I’ve used, this one pours at the same speed as a standard bottle pourer - so there’s nothing to “get used to” behind the bar when counting pours.

The ElectraPour is excellent for classy, low-key settings, where dim lights are part of the motif.

If you have a trendy lounge, or an upscale club, this is a great promotional tool, as it’ll draw more attention to shots being poured, which will, of course, lead to more shots being ordered. Since shots are the drinks where the most money is made, it’s a pretty good marketing gimmick.

If you’re throwing a party at home, everyone asking for shots poured with your cool new ElectraPours, you have a much easier night ahead, as, let’s face it, shots are pretty easy; no ingredients to remember. Not to mention, they’re still a pretty new gadget, so you’ll have an awesome conversation-starter at your party, before all of the trendiest lounges in your area pick up on it.

It merits mentioning, of course, that if you’re using the ElectraPour, the best results come from using clear or light liquors, such as vodka, gin or tequila. You could use it for pouring out darker colored liquors, but it’ll change/dim the LED light a bit. I would strongly advise against using on bottles of anything particularly sticky; you wouldn’t want to get any residue on the LED, as it might get blocked out a bit.

The ElectraPour is available, right now, at New York Bar Store.

…at least, not to a bartender; otherwise, you might find yourself getting your drinks shorted.

It’s customary procedure to “trick” a patron if they’re begging for a “stronger” drink, and in this video, a bartender will go over some of the basics of how you can do that at your parties. If you’ve ever been around the wrong kind of drunk before, you’ll know exactly why watching this is a good idea.

We just don’t see enough cocktails with bourbon nowadays. Today’s drink is the Bourbon Bog, named as such because bogs are where cranberries (and many other kinds of berries) are grown, and cranberries and bourbon are the two main ingredients of this beverage.

Bourbon and Whiskeys in general are of those liquors that most people never really consider to be great cocktail ingredients. This, to me, is precisely the reason to post a recipe for a delicious Bourbon-based recipe. Also, I wanted to make sure that once I posted a recipe for Lemon Syrup, you’d have something to make with it.

Bourbon Bog - Recipe:

• 1 1/2 ounces bourbon
• 1 1/2 ounces cranberry juice
• 1 to 2 teaspoons lemon syrup, recipe follows
• 3 dashes orange bitters
• Fresh cranberries, lightly smashed and soaked in bourbon

Fill a cocktail shaker or small pitcher with ice. Add the bourbon, cranberry juice, lemon syrup, and bitters. Cover and shake vigorously until thoroughly mixed and chilled, about 30 seconds. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Drop 2 to 3 cranberries in the glass.

Lemon Syrup is more useful than you think. With its smooth texture and not-to-sweet flavor, it’s a great ingredient in more than just drinks. Those sorts of things are outside the scope of this site, of course, so I’m going to stick with drink based applications, starting tomorrow.

Lemon Syrup - Recipe:

• 2 lemons, pitted and cut into small wedges
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup water

Put the lemon wedges, sugar, and water into a saucepan; bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Cool and refrigerate for up to 2 weeks.

So, today’s Groundhog’s day, and just about every single available groundhog in the western hemisphere has evidently seen his own shadow. Thanks a lot, friggin’ rodents.

It’s finally warming up here in Brooklyn, though, so I figured I’d stage an open act of defiance against our new natural enemies, and post a warm-weather drink. I’m not about to let a little fuzzy woodland creature tell me I have to bundle up for another month and a half.

In other news, the forecast says it’ll snow for the next two days.

Pisco Sour - Recipe:

• 1/2 tablespoon meringue powder
• 1 oz fresh lime juice
• 2 oz pisco
• 1 3/4 tablespoons simple syrup
• Dash bitters
• Finely grated zest of lime

Dissolve your meringue powder in the lime juice. Fill a cocktail shaker with ice, and pour in your mixture. Then add the pisco, simple syrup, and a dash of bitters. Cover and shake for about thirty or forty seconds, to make sure it’s frothy and cold. strain into a glass and garnish by sprinkling some lime zest on top.

So I’m about a month away from my birthday (Feb 26), and I’d like to think I’m more of a giver than a recipient when it comes to gifts, so I’m going all-out for this next contest. The prize for this contest will be:

Your very own Breathalyzer!

The BACtrack Select S50 Breathalyzer, to be exact. If you’ve ever been to a house party where there’s a breathalyzer present, you know the following two things to be true:

• 1.  Breathalyzers are an unexpected source of fun at parties, as well as at bars and clubs. For whatever their reasons, people just love checking their BAC for laughs.
• 2.  Breathalyzers are also a very useful (and potentially lifesaving) tool if you’re hosting a party, or attending one with a friend. People are a lot less likely to drive themselves home under the influence of alcohol when they can see quantified evidence of how unfit they truly are to be operating a vehicle.

How do you enter? I thought you’d never ask! Here are the details:

• -Leave a comment on an article. Each comment you leave counts as one entry; there is no limit to how many times you can comment, and you can comment on any article you want.
• -If you subscribe either by the site’s feed or by email, you automatically double your chances. This means that for each comment you make on an article, you get two entries. 
• -On February 26th (unless someone throws me a surprise birthday party) I’ll choose the winner using a random number generator. Then, I’ll email the lucky individual (maybe you!), and the rest is pretty obvious. 

So, there you have it - leave some comments, subscribe to the site, win an awesome breathalyzer as your gift for MY birthday. Good luck everybody!

So I know what I said last week about the new contest starting on Monday, but I’ve been struggling with some weird technical glitches over the past couple of days. Most of you probably hadn’t noticed, but between last Thursday and today, there have been a number of technical enhancements on this site that improve the way it functions, as well as a few other slight upgrades in the overall experience.

The final piece of the puzzle is to add the subscription functionality, which needed to be done before announcing the contest. The reason for that will become pretty obvious later on today, when I announce the next giveaway. But I do promise - the next contest will be announced today (or tomorrow); I’m almost done fixing this wagon.

Part of the fun of knowing a lil’ somethin’ somethin’ about mixology is laughing at all of the goofy, contrived gimmicks people some up with related to alcohol. It’s even more entertaining when it’s a fancy gimmick, purported to be the next big high-end, gourmet dining experience.

Today, I present to you: the Edible Martini.

Speaking of gimmicks, new contest coming out on Monday!

Yesterday, I went outside. I was outside for about, oh, 8 hours or so.

My move? I didn’t wear a coat outside. Nature’s move? It snowed forever.

In honor of the hilarity that ensued yesterday, I give you the following recipe. It is called the Avalanche.

Avalanche - Recipe:

• 1 shot Crown Royal® Canadian whisky
• 1 shot Kahlua® coffee liqueur
• Balance (fill the rest of the glass) with cream

Mix ingredients in a mixer, shake well, and pour into a highball glass over ice.