We were greeted with Moscow Mule cocktails, made with Smirnoff red vodka and ginger ale, before joining the queue to watch our own cocktails being made, the recipes of which had been cleverly designed to match our blogs. Yes, the Splendid team had sat down, trawled through each and every blog belonging to the bloggers on the guest list, to create bespoke cocktails, one per person, to reflect what we blog about. Clever, or what? It was most impressive, especially considering how much time all that cocktail recipe writing must have taken.

We even had a pair of dedicated mixologists, who quickly got to work and didn't pause for breath as they shook their stuff behind the bar. Ridiculous laughed about his Ridiculous cocktail, which seemed to have a bit of everything in it, while Mex, blogging about the London Underground, sipped on a cocktail made by matching potential ingredients to tube line colours. Inspired.

Here's a clip of how to make a few different types of Moscow Mule:

And here are our clever mixologists who worked hard all night shaking our drinks...

a lot of concentration went on behind that bar to ensure our cocktails were mixed to perfection and not a drop wasted...

yep, he got every last bit of fruit out of that shaker... Or so he thinks.

"Is that a fly in there?"

"No, love, it's just a bit of blackberry."

Here I am with The Epicurienne, a fizzy special featuring inspiration from England (strawberries), France (chambord) and New Zealand (pineapple. They said they didn't have kiwis and I didn't have the heart to tell them that pineapples don't grow in New Zealand, but they do grow in many places around the Pacific, so it was good enough for me). Splash in some Smirnoff, naturellement, top up with ginger ale and voila! The Epicurienne! Mmm, tasty.

(Thanks to Katie Bargery for this snap.)

In case you'd like to try The Epicurienne, here's the recipe:

the-epicurienne-cocktail

Meanwhile, in another part of the hip Diageo bar, a cocktail bartender competition was taking place, only we didn't realise until an announcement was made towards the end of the evening. Unbeknownst to us bloggers, the entrants had been busy making drinks to impress the judges. Ah! The penny dropped for Katie B and me, as we'd spent ages watching some Michael Schumacher lookalike in a chic waistcoat fashion a chunk of ice into a perfect tennis ball shape for a whisky on the rock (singular), only to have the guy he was making if for walk off and leave it. How rude! we thought. That was before we realised that the rude person was a judge. I guess it's best not to get drunk on the job if that's your vocation. Such restraint! Anyway, we rescued the drink and gave it to Andy. Waste not, want not.

As if the evening wasn't exciting enough, we were all sent home with goodie bags of Smirnoff Red and ginger ale so we can try to Make The Mule At Home! I think Monsieur has a cocktail utensil set somewhere so I might just have to give it a whirl, only I'm pretty sure it won't taste as good as when shaken by the Smirnoff mixologists. I guess I can but try.

This month had a sponsor, Smirnoff, who wowed Annie, Lewis, Cedric, Chris, Mel, Hayley and the also lovely Gary amongst others by delivering a cocktail personalised to each blogger! Real attention to detail, researching likes and dislikes from each attendees posts and creating a tailored cocktail just for them. If social media PR is all about relationships, then this is a bit of an over-keen date! But in a good way, like someone booking tickets to your favourite gig or something. Anyway, mountains of goodwill generated by this, because there was no doubting that time had been taken, and value placed on the individuality and personality of each blogger. Essentially this was good, quality 'content', which couldn't be faked, and involved time and care. Definitely raised the bar for brand invovlement in this event.

My cocktail below which was very nice, though in my mind, me as a cocktail does have more champagne in it!

Event pictures here from Peter.

Coisas que você vai precisar:

- Balde

-Mangueira [uma pequena qualquer]

Ingredientes:

- 1,5 litro de água com gás [recomendo a da Crystal]

-1 litro de vodka [recomendo Smirnoff]

- 2 sucos de saquinho sabor limão [esse pode ser o mais barato mesmo]

- 2 litros de sprite

- Muito gelo!

Modo de preparo:

- É só jogar tudo dentro do balde, mexer bem, colocar a mangueira e deixar as garotas no estado que você precisa!

Bom você vai fazer 4,5 litros smirnoff caseira e se comprar tudo do mais barato, o role vai sair por uns 15 reais. Compensa, não compensa?

Sábado que vêm tem nova receita pra sua festinha! Bom role!

I think Splendid Communications did a brilliant job at establishing relationship with the 50 or so bloggers who attended the Bloggers Meet Up on Tuesday, but they also managed to create a lot of buzz around the Smirnoff brand and the Moscow Mule via a variety of online venues such as the London Bloggers own blogs, Flickr, Twitter, Facebook but also YouTube, where you can watch a video of the making of the Moscow Mule.

The real challenge for Splendid, will be to keep their Facebook page an exciting place for its fans.

Once again, thanks for everything guys - I had a blast! :) And remember, a happy blogger is a blogger who will write about your product!

I was going to post about the blogger meetup yesterday, but I was out partying with these people - one of whom is a BB9 "competitor" with a deal to promote men's make-up.. (he was wearing guyliner). Company Magazine's 30th Birthday party isn't exaclty social media, but it was free drinks, massages and a whole host of beautiful people - so with an invite courtesy of Melanie Seasons, I couldn't turn it down.

So this week did see the latest in a long line of ever growing Blogger Meetups in London. Run by Andy Bargery, this month's event was courtesy of Smirnoff Vodka (via Rax at Splendid). The meetup was hosted at the Diageo bar and was hailed universally as a successful meetup and a genius piece of blogger relations.

After being treated to several Moscow Mules, each blogger was then taken through the process of creating their own tailored cocktail which had been specially created by mixologists based on the content and personality of the blog such as the Ice Cream 4 Everyone cocktail.

So why is this so great? Well it's really well thought through (not just free drinks), it's personalised (the though that went into individual cocktails was really impressive and shows real investment in each blogger), it shows us something that we don't know much about, and it makes a perfect excuse for an in depth blog post.

It probably won't make me change my vodka order, but bags of kudos to the team for organising it - hopefully more brands will see the value of this type of activity with bloggers... already there are posts out there, so it's good to see folk I caught up with there writing in agreement. 

Here are some other write-ups and pics from Lolly, Melanie, Willem, Annie Mole, Hayley and Yael (love the NYC crew!)

PR pitch #1: Twitter = Talking in public

Tim from Olgivy, sent me an email yesterday asking me to blog about an ad campaign for a technology giant. I love advertising so technically it should have been something I would have been happy to blog about... and the ads also looked good.

Such a shame his pitch was the worst piece of PR I have ever seen! I hated the tone of voice in his email (sounded like he couldn't be bothered), and the email looked like copy/paste job.... but the icing on the cake was this tweet:

Tim will hopefully learn that talking on Twitter = talking in public.  I found the tweet by following the blog link on his signature email!

Pitch #2: Bloggers and dating

This morning I found an interesting article in my inbox - 50 reasons to date a geek. Let me get this right - I am a blogger, hence a geek, hence single right? ;) The article is a little repetitive but nevertheless fun to read.

Pitch #3: Geeks unleashed at blogology

I attended the awesome monthly Bloggers Meet Up organised by Andy Bargery with the help of  PR agency Splendid last night.

The Meet Up took Place at Diageo's offices just behind Bond Street, to promote the Smirnoff brand, and the Moscow Mule, a tasty cocktail made of vodka, ginger ale, and a dash of lime.

Slpendid PR also did a fantastic job at reading our blogs and coming up with cocktails individually designed & personalised for ourselves and our blogs.

Good to see the usual suspects but also Julius, Hayley (albeit briefly) as well as some new faces!

Sometimes, you head off to an event that's so well organised, managed and presented you just want to go up to the organisers, shake their hands and buy them a drink.

This wasn't possible last night, due to the amount of free cocktails the organisers kept pushing into my hands.

(A reader interjects: Oh God. This isn't going to be another London party blog, is it? We expected better from you Gary. You've changed. You used to write pithy stories about beard-angst, rage at grammar errors and spending your life visiting towns we didn't know had football teams. Now you're blogging about parties. I bet you're only a short step away from getting thick-rimmed glasses. And a cardigan.)

A small bit of context as to why people kept giving me cocktails. At Smirnoff's HQ no less.

A while back, Andy Bargery had the idea of organising a (mostly) monthly meetup for bloggers in London. You didn't have to blog about anything in particular, just as long as you had blogged.

The blogger meetups attracted a wide and varying range of people, from photographers, to local government officials, to PRs (ok, there's a lot of these), to writers to people who just blog about whatever took their fancy. Put simply, it was a great way to meet new people, and at least you'd be guaranteed to have one topic of conversation.

This month, Smirnoff sponsored the blog meetup and offered use of the bar at parent company Diageo's HQ, just off Oxford Street. What followed was a masterclass in PR and blogger outreach, thanks to Splendid Communications, the firm representing Smirnoff.

The level of detail was quite astounding. Before the event, Splendid had researched every attendee's blog and passed on the overriding themes of each blog to the mixologists, who created a unique cocktail designed to reflect the overall spirit of the blog. Mine contained apples (the Westcountry connection), ginger beer and cinnamon (in reference to the beard-angst), and vodka. It tasted a bit like an alcoholic apple crumble.

The hospitality was first class as well. There was free food and drink, and the people from Splendid and Diageo were friendly and welcoming, without pushing themselves - or any kind of product. It was, quite simply, a laid-back venue where everybody could kick back, relax, and socialise, without having a brand pushed in your face at every opportunity, other than the drinks, which nobody's was going to complain about.

It might be easy to be cynical: why should a brand reach out to bloggers unless they want something. Well, they've already achieved it, judging by the number of complementary blog posts doing the round this morning.

Smirnoff didn't have to go to the level they did, but by adding that personal, fun touch and giving the blog meetup a relaxed venue to chat in, the brand's suddenly generating a large amount of buzz among some very well read blogs, and ones with ten readers such as this.

What's more, those present from Splendid and Diageo were genuinely keen and ethusiastic about blogging, helped in no small part by Rax from Splendid, who knew about the blog meetup and had been meaning to attend for several events.

It goes to show the value of having somebody on your team who, if they don't blog, at least reads and engages with them. It would have been easy for a company to just throw a few freebies at the group and go "Look, bloggers, we are generous. Be nice to us."

Us bloggers who attended last night ranged from the reasonably influential in their field to a few recent starters who blogged about nothing in particular, and we were all treated the same. I've seriously not been so impressed by a corporate event for a long time.

Social media isn't called social media for nothing. The whole event was a joy from start to finish, with many different topics covered and many fantastic people to keep in touch with on both a business and personal front, all of whom came away with a lovely glow from the night.

And a quick hello to some of the great people (and blogs), some the usual suspects, some first-timers, who were there last night: Melaine Seasons, Annie Mole, Flashboy, Rachel, the TV encyclopedia that is Miss Geeky, pun-loving Hayley, fellow last-to-leave digital marketing extraordinaire Lolly, Sandrine, the lovely Jaz, The Argyle-supporting Lewis Webb, Julius, the brilliant My Chemical Toilet blog, and probably one or two others who I've forgotten. Sorry about that.

Normally when I go to events or blogger meetups I always tell myself that I'm going to come home and write a post right away so that I don't forget anything that happened. What usually ends up happening is that I get home, bum around on Facebook for a while and tell myself I'll do it 'tomorrow after work' (just like with the Heston Blumenthal sherry tasting I went to last night).

But not tonight! I just got home from the London Bloggers Meetup and I think they're actually quite lucky I didn't run home in the middle of the event to write down how great I think it was.

I'm not a complete stranger to the London Bloggers Meetup. I attended the second one when I was in London this past February.  The meetup was a much smaller affair then; just a few people hanging out with drinks dishing about blogs.  Tonight, however, was a full-out Event.

First off, there was a sponsor: Smirnoff.  Second, there were two Smirnoff 'mixologists' (I hate that term) behind the bar just for us. Third, these mixologists made us all custom drinks for our blogs.  They literally had an entire book full of everyone who had rsvp'd to attend with profile pictures, background information and a specific cocktail recipe custom-tailored to their blog.  This means that I got a Fake Plastic Noodle-tail.

My mixologist looked at my nametag, found me in the book, and goes, 'Oh, Melanie!  Here we are - we're actually twisting lemon skins for your noodles right now.'  They added a little ginger for spice because I work for onlinefire and of course a fair amount of Smirnoff.  (Rax, from Splendid, the fine people who represent Smirnoff, wanted them to actually turn my drink into a flaming shot, but alas it was not in the cards. Points for trying though!)

You will notice the lemon noodles at the top... Brilliant.

It was a great event from both a normal blogger attendee and PR-y point of view.  I could tell that the Splendid folks weren't just going through the motions - they actually did research to figure out who I was and what my blog was like before making my drink; the Smirnoff people were friendly and knowledgeable and the bloggers were as always, a hoot.

Thanks to Andy and everyone for a great night! See the rest of my pics here.

Press releases have piled up in the last few days, so be sure to have a look around at what is new. 

There are varying contests which include liquor: a new reality television series in conjunction with Absolut Vodka, MartiniArt.com is sponsoring a cocktail contest where you can win some swag, GQ Magazine (hurry for that one it ends soon) pairs with Smirnoff to win a Moscow Mule Cocktail Kit and a long read in The Russian Standard Vodka which is teaming up with Maxim Media and the Miss Russia Pageant.  Talk about marketing.  The photo alone is worth clicking on the link.  It’s a long tall drink of…something.  I have not had the opportunity to sample this particular vodka, but now it is a must.

·         ‘On the Rocks: The Search for America’s Top Bartender’

·         MartiniArt.com: Martini Recipe Contest

·         Win the Ultimate Smirnoff Moscow Mule Cocktail Kit!

·         Russian Standard Vodka and Maxim Media Join Forces

We have new releases by OVAL Vodka which I just reviewed and found to be fabulous!  It is a must have if it is available in your area.  If it is not, find a way to purchase it.  Now the newly released limited edition OVAL Vodka will be much more difficult (and expensive) to get your fingers on but you can have a look at it here.  Belvedere releases an Intense version of their already premium vodka.  This one is marketed in a sleek black bottle at 100 proof.  Now that will knock your socks off!  Be prepared to be shaken and possibly a little stirred.  Smirnoff partners with James Bond with the new Quantum of Solace.  Three cocktails have been created or reinvented specifically for this release.  I am currently trying to acquire the recipes to share here.  One more new release is the launch of a new website by Gruppo Campari the American subsidiary of Skyy Spirits. 

·         OVAL Vodka to Release Luxury Swarovski Bottle

·         Belvedere Vodka Announces Launch of 100 Proof Belvedere Intense

·         Smirnoff Shaken Not Stirred By New James Bond Film

·         Gruppo Campari American Subsidiary Skyy Spirits Launches Website

Last up is a small bit of wine news to cap off the day. 

·         The Wine School — Best of Philly 2008

·         Raymond Wines at Mill Valley Film Festival

If you have updates or would like to see something that I have not picked up off the wire, please let me know.  I will be happy to add relative news to the site. 

Thank you for reading!

The Intoxicologist

Str8upcocktails@gmail.com

Efter længere tids pause er jeg tilbage med et blogindlæg... Denne gang udgyder jeg min galde over den nye James Bond-film!

Ikonoklasme
Fra wikipedia: "Iconoclasm is the deliberate destruction within a culture of the culture's own religious icons and other symbols or monuments, usually for religious or political motives."

Idag kunne jeg læse følgende i en artikel i Politiken: "James Bond siger ikke længere replikken »My name is Bond, James Bond«. Og han er også ligeglad med, hvordan hans Martini er tilberedt."

Nu står verden da ikke længere!

Hvem husker ikke den varme følelse af genkendelighed og glæde i biografens mørke, når James udtalte de bevingede ord: "My name is Bond... James Bond"? Der gik altid en glad mumlen igennem publikum. Man følte sig hjemmevant... Nu var det helt sikkert, at vi var i James Bonds univers.
Under Pierce Brosnans vælde så vi så de første tegn på en vaklende James B.:
James Bond der ynkeligt tuder over en tabt kærlighed, mens han tylrer vammel Smirnoff Vodka rent (føj!). Aston Martin bliver skiftet ud med BMW. Product placement i lange baner. M bliver en kvinde (!). Den gamle Q bliver skiftet ud (det kan man dog ikke klandre nogen for, da skuespilleren og den evige Q, Desmond Llewelyn desværre døde).
Siden er Daniel Craig som bekendt blevet Bond - endnu et kontroversielt valg. Han er altså bare ikke ligeså så slick som good old Sean C. eller Roger Moore...

Nu er turen så kommet til genkendelighedsfaktor nummer et... Replikken over alle replikker: "My name is Bond... James Bond."
En anden udødelig (troede jeg) klassiker er også ude i den kommende Bond-film... Nu er Bond pludseligt ligeglad med om hans Martini er 'shaken' eller 'stirred' og endnu en tradition, som stammer helt tilbage fra Goldfinger (1964), er slettet.

Filmens instruktør, Marc Forster (måtte hans bil punktere!) udtaler: "Det er rart at være åbensindet omkring Bond-opskriften. Man kan altid gå tilbage til den senere."
Sludder, siger jeg! Hvorfor skal alting absolut laves om?
Hvorfor må vi ikke bare beholde lidt af den gode gamle, politisk ukorrekte, misogyne, damebedårer?
Ok, måske er det lidt for meget af det gode, at Sean Connery får hysteriske kvindfolk til at falde til ro med en velplaceret lussing, men skal han absolut være en tudende whimp, der ligger under for womens lib?
Når man piller alt det, der i mine øjne kendetegner Bond, ud af filmene, får vi bare mere af den samme metervare, tju-bang actionhelt, som vi kender alt for godt fra film med Bruce Willis, Dolph Lundgren, Steven Seagal osv.

Naturligvis skal James B. også følge med tiden, men er det nødvendigt med vold og magt at fjerne alle genkendelighedsfaktorer?

Kald mig bare traditionalist, men svaret er nej, og jeg boykotter James Bond i biffen og må vente til dvd'en udkommer.

"Sa traiesti pe pamant poate fi scump, dar include o calatorie gratuita in jurul soarelui in fiecare an." -- Ashleigh Brilliant.

"Traim intr-o era in care pizza ajunge la noi acasa mai repede decat politia." -- Jeff Marder.

"Un intelectual e cineva care a gasit ceva mai interesant decat sexul." -- Edgar Wallace.

"Intr-o tara subdezvoltata sa nu beti apa. Intr-o tara superdezvoltata sa nu respirati aerul." -- Jonathan Raban.

"Noua Zeelanda este o tara cu trei sute de milioane de oi, iar trei milioane dintre ele se considera oameni" -- Barry Humphries.

"Singurele cuvinte in engleza pe care le-am vazut in Japonia: SONY si MITSUBISHI." -- Bill Gullickson.

"Homosexualitatea in Rusia e o crima iar pedeapsa inseamna sapte ani de puscarie, inchis alaturi de alti barbati. Lista de asteptare se intinde pe trei ani." -- Yakov Smirnoff.

"Nu vreau lingai in jurul meu. Vreau ca toti sa-mi spuna adevarul - chiar daca asta i-ar costa slujba." -- Samuel Goldwyn.

"Doctorul mi-a dat sase luni de trait dar, cand n-am putut plati factura, mi-a mai dat sase." -- Walter Matthau.

"In fiecare dimineata ma uit in Forbes la cei mai bogati oameni ai Americii. Daca nu sunt acolo, plec la munca." -- Robert Orben.

"O parte dintre cei 10 millioane $ am cheltuit-o la jocuri de noroc, o alta parte pe femei. Restul i-am tocat aiurea." -- George Raft.

"Nu-i suficient sa faci tot ce-i mai bun. INTAI trebuie sa stii ce sa faci, APOI sa faci ce-i mai bun." -- W. Edwards Deming

"Succesul inseamna sa mergi din esec in esec fara sa-ti pierzi din entuziasm." -- Winston Churchill

"Nu lua viata in serios: nu o sa iesi din ea viu." -- Elbert Hubbard

"Singurul mod de a va face calculatoarele sa mearga mai repede este sa le aruncati pe fereastra." -- Robert Paul

"Sa nu faci nimic e tare greu: nu stii cand ai terminat." -- Leslie Nielsen

CLIENTE: Smirnoff Vodka; REDAÇÃO E DIR. DE ARTE: Leandro Marchiori.

Para provar isto algumas fotos :

Quer mais :

E pra fechar com chave de ouro, um apoio para os cachaçeiros pois sem eles de quem iriamos rir ?

Aqui vai o mais novo e melhor porta cervejas do mundo !

Por enquanto é isso pessoal ! :D

Descrição: Excelente comercial da marca de bebidas Smirnoff, que mostra o quanto a Vodka Smirnoff é Extraordinariamente Purificada!

Potential party goers went into the group with an expectation of instant interactivity, free commenting and constant replies, and were served accordingly by the brand and their peers. GPS gaming, videos and social interactions were all tightly interwoven. All the while, users were behaving responsibly, and dealing with eachother in appropriate ways. Successful ticket hunters were proudly showing off their trophies and one example of self moderation included the online crowd petitioning ebay to take down (unfair?) party ticket auctions.

To me the evidence is clear that offering a social group interesting stuff always needs a post moderation approach (of comments, posts, interactions) to be successful. It is something we have approached similarly on Toohey's For The Love Of Beer campaign.

I reckon it is something that instinctively everyone (even a lawyer) knows: write something, see your own post, respond to banter, pass it on... all of this relies on instant gratification to be rewarding and keep momentum. Users see it happen and work beautifully on most of the web, on a daily basis and especially in social networks. So they don't tolerate legal bottlenecks and content wormholes. Who would seriously and continuously bother if every contribution goes into moderation first?

Anecdote No. 1: The pilot on the right in this photograph was named Smirnoff

Anecdote No. 2: Don't let those big, official-looking aviation headsets fool you.  The pilot on the left had his plugged into an iPod Shuffle (see it clipped there, just to the right of his hand?)

The moral of these anecdotes: Arctic pilots are undeniably badass.

Goodbye, Arctic.  I mean it this time.

Karl is such a Teddy...Bear

Karl Lagerfeld, aka the fashion king, has now his own teddy. Created in association with Steiff, the Karl Lagerfeld Teddy looks just like his papa: sunglasses, dark suit and tie... The Karl Bear will be available online and at Naiman Marcus in september for 1,500 USD.

The perfect gift for an It Baby...

Go to Steiff online

It's my Party.....

Diesel is giving a huge 24 hour party around the world on October 18th 2008. Starting in Tokyo at 5pm GMT, following the time zone to parties in Beijing, Dubai, Tel Aviv, Athens, Amsterdem, Milan, Zurich, Munich, Paris, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Barcelona, Oslo, Helsinki, London & Sao Polo. There will be famous DJs from around the world. To be followed...

 Reality Tv Just got real...

Follow three debuting models Cato, Austria and Madeline, in this mini reality series presented by Vogue Tv. From their home countries to fashion week, see them go through photoshoots, makeup, and wardrobe trials...live!. Episodes 1 & 2 are already on the website. 

Go to Model. Live

Michael Kors Tv Star

Micheal Kors will be on Gossip Girl. Playing himself, the designer will apear in the episode featuring New York Fashion Week. Can't wait for it...

Winter 08/09 just go Military...

Even with the tartan revival of this winter, Vuitton didn't think it was enough. To make and extra splash for '09, the fashion house colaborated with Japanese artist Takashi Murakami and created the "Monagramouflage" bag. A surprising winter hit!

Please step in my Monopolies...

Reebok partnered up with Hasbro and created Monopoly edition sneakers. From 40USD for the child version, 80USD for the male version and 75 to 80USD for the women version. Available exclusively in the USA and UK.

It's time to play our childhood game all over town... 

Christmas before Xmas

This is just precious! Smirnoff, (my favorite  vodka) has teamed up with designer Irina Volkonskii to redesign the famous bottle. And the new all red look is so precious and christmas-sy. Available in september for 12 EUR in France (other countries to be determined), this bottle should be bought as an early Xmas gift.

E quando nada parece chamar à atenção, eis que é veiculada uma campanha que nos dá a volta aos intestinos e ficamos a pensar naquilo um bom bocado. Chegamos inclusive a mudar o canal para não ter de ver... Quanto mais agressivo, melhor! Resulta com uns, não resulta com os que são indiferentes a tudo e todos.

Normalmente associamos estas campanhas a causas sociais mas cada vez mais,  na publicidade direccionada a produtos de consumo, começamos a ver campanhas bastante fortes do ponto de vista conceptual e fotográfico. Reparem nos exemplos abaixo: Smirnoff, Playstation2 e Ugly Pizza.

Neste último caso, da Ugly Pizza até o nome é anti-publicitário, mas achei interessante a forma como comunicam o produto "good food is all about taste and quality, not just the way it looks."
Podem clicar para ampliar as imagens.

14th June 08

Layo and Bushwacker come to Tokyo with with UK magazines Mixmag and Notion in trail. A Smirnoff sponsored piece of PR, with Layo and Bushwacker remixing the soundtack to this years Smirnoff Sea ad. 

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZrReRZPjD8&feature=related (original)

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=rxiNUu7Qwws  (L&B remix)

SET produce the photo's and provide the visiting team with an insiders view of Tokyo.

Black Widow

Tzvika from Israel wrote in saying:

“I just spent four hours reading your blog…and it is just amazing!  I have a little question.  I got a bottle of black Sambuca…what kinds of cocktails can I make with it.  Thank you.”

Tzvika,

First of all, thank you for taking so much time to pour through the material on my site.  It is wonderful that you found it so informative.  My regret is that you did not find everything you were looking for.  However, I am so happy you decided to take the time to email me. 

Sambuca is an Italian liqueur flavored with aniseed that is most often found in clear or “white” form.  Other varieties are deep blue in color, referred to as black Sambuca, and bright red, red Sambuca.  Black Sambuca usually has a hit of lemon zest flavoring along with the anise. 

The most common ways of serving Sambuca is neat, on the rocks, with fresh water added, or in coffee in place of sugar.  Sambuca con mosca (neat with coffee beans floated atop) is a common Italian way of serving Sambuca.  Flaming Sambuca is also interesting and eye catching as there really is nothing like setting alcohol on fire before throwing it down the gullet. 

There are of course straight-up cocktails served in martini glasses as well.  The Bartender’s Best Friend by Mardee Haidin Regan is an excellent source guide.

Black Widow

1-1/2 ounce Citrus Vodka

1-1/2 ounce Black Sambuca

Combine ingredients in a cocktail shaker filled one-third full of ice.  Shake ten to fifteen seconds.  Strain into a well chilled martini glass.

Folly Martini

2-1/2 ounces Stolichnaya Kafya Vodka

1/4 ounce Sambuca

3 Coffee Beans for Garnish

Combine ingredients in a cocktail shaker filled one-third full of ice.  Shake ten to fifteen seconds.  Strain into a well chilled martini glass.  Place coffee beans atop for garnish. 

Gotham Martini

3 ounces Smirnoff Vodka

1/2 ounce Blackberry Brandy

1/2 ounce Black Sambuca

3 Blackberries for Garnish

Combine ingredients in a cocktail shaker filled one-third full of ice.  Shake ten to fifteen seconds.  Strain into a well chilled martini glass.  Add blackberries on a skewer for garnish.

Licorice Martini

2 ounces Kahlua

1/2 ounce Sambuca

Combine ingredients in a cocktail shaker filled one-third full of ice.  Shake ten to fifteen seconds.  Strain into a well chilled martini glass.

thebar.com also is a wealth of information for recipes.

Buca-Cinco

3/4 ounces Romana Sambuca

1/2 ounce Tanqueray London Dry Gin

1 ounce Cream

1 ounce Milk

Combine ingredients in a cocktail shaker filled one-third full of ice.  Shake ten to fifteen seconds.  Strain into a well chilled martini glass.

Bullet Martini

1 ounce Tanqueray London Dry Gin

1/4 ounce Romana Sambuca

1 splash Lemon Juice

1 splash Sugar Syrup (Bar Syrup)

1 teaspoon Lemon Zest for Garnish

Combine ingredients in a cocktail shaker filled one-third full of ice.  Shake ten to fifteen seconds.  Strain into a well chilled martini glass.  Garnish with lemon zest.

Plenty Good

3/4 ounce Smirnoff Black Cherry Vodka

3/4 ounce Romana Sambuca

Combine ingredients in a cocktail shaker filled one-third full of ice.  Shake ten to fifteen seconds.  Strain into a chilled shot glass.

White Cloud

3/4 ounce Romana Sambuca

1/2 ounce Smirnoff No.21 Vodka

1 ounce Cream

3 ounces Hot Coffee

Pour Romana Sambuca, Smirnoff No.21 Vodka and cream into a cup of hot coffee.  Top with whipped cream.

Five Points Sazerac

1/4 ounce Stirrings Blood Orange Bitters

1 ounce Crown Royal

1 teaspoon Romana Sambuca

1 piece Lemon Peel for Garnish

1 Maraschino Cherry for Garnish

Combine ingredients in a cocktail shaker filled one-third full of ice.  Shake ten to fifteen seconds.  Strain into a well chilled martini glass.  Garnish with lemon peel and maraschino cherry.

Con Mosca

1-1/4 ounce Romana Sambuca

1 ounce Club Soda

3 ounces Cranberry Juice

1 Lemon Twist

Build ingredients in a highball glass in the order given.  Garnish with a lemon twist.