The best margarita I have ever had.

Have you ever met... the one...
That drink that you could never replicate in a million years, no matter how much you want to?
Well i have.

I am not a fancy person. I rarely go to fancy restaurants, eat fancy food, or drink fancy drinks. Some days, however, you do, really need to go off the deep end. In downtown Durango, there is a quaint little restaurant dominated by a wood fired stove in back, and a bar along the left side. A few weeks back (I know, i know, i'm wayyyy off my blogging game) I went out with a few coworkers. We initially sat up at the bar, until more people came.
If you haven't been. You should probably go. The bartender was a wealth of knowledge about all things prohibition, mixed drink, and beer. It was pretty much a free show to watch him mix his awesomely blended drinks.
My order, the Cucumber Jalapeno Margarita (and i apologize if i don't' have the name just right) took the cake. Our awesome bartender muddled together cucumber, fresh jalepeno, lemon juice and i think some fresh herbs, topping up the drink with really, really yummy tequila. The drink was fresh, refreshing, had a spicy kick, and was filled with little cooling surprise chunks of cucumber. While i'm not a fan of overpriced cocktails, this one was totally worth the 9 dollars. Especially if you are me sized, and that's pretty much all you need.
I've heard, at Chimayo, which is the home to this perfection, that the pizza is also pretty darn good.
I would say consider one, once you've gotten your drinks.
Cheers!

(No i don't have a picture.... low light and it was pretty much too delicious to put down)

Toddies Anyone?

Exciting news! I learned how to make a hot toddy! The internet makes this drink look really complicated, but an easy way to do it (and the right way, of course) would be to squirt a bit of lemon juice into a mug. Add a teaspoon or so of honey, pour in some boiling water, and top with some super yummy whiskey or bourbon. I suggest Bulleit. This awesome, local to Colorado spirit is pretty much my favorite bourbon ,which is saying a lot from a person who is fairly indifferent to bourbon and whiskey. A friend of mine, and fellow blogger, has been known to crack open the cheap stuff when i visit, knowing that the good stuff would just be wasted.
Bulleit, however, gets 5 stars from me. Best when consumed around camp fires, in hot toddies, or surrounded by leather bound books.
At about 12 dollars for the 375 ml bottle, its not the cheapest stuff, but if you want quantity, you probably aren't drinking bourbon anyways. Try it, if you get the chance!

Working Weekends

 While everyone else seemed to have a rather inebriated weekend, I kept things relaxed and easy. On Friday a midst a tornado warning I drove over to the liqueur store to try something new. I only had a bottle of the homemade wine in the car (have i remembered to blog about that at all?) and decided I could use something different. I picked up a 6 pack of the Southampton Pumpkin Ale and a 4 pack of Kahlua mudslides hoping for a good time. At first I thought the Southampton might be a local beer. Turns out it is... to New York. Happily it wasn't overpoweringly pumpkiny and it had a nice finish. I'd consider this again, although it was on the spendier side ringing up at about 11 dollars for the 6 pack. 4/5 for being a not disappointing pumpkin ale at 5.5 apv, and 3/5 for value.

Next up are the Kahluas. Ever feel to damn lazy to mix a drink? Then try these out. They are super sweet, but still tasty. They are definitely on the girly side and a little spendy at over 6 dollars for the four pack, but hey, a girl deserves something nice now and again. Next time i'm getting the mudslide variety :). Please note, the bottles are extremely breakable, i had a few of these in with the 6 pack of beer. The bottle sweat caused the bottle to fall out and all the bottles to hit the ground, the only one that broke was the single full white russian in the bunch. So sad for me :/.
3/5 for taste, and 2.5/5 for value. Party on.

Back blogging heaven in a cup

Sometimes I am a bad blogger. I've had this little gem sitting in my inbox for a few weeks now. Back in San Diego Krista and I could wait no longer for a drink, so we picked up some bloody mary's in the airport bar. Well mixed and delicious, these things still were not worth the 12 dollar price tag. Well, they were worth it, but I'm still going to complain about how spendy they were. I think the midwest drink prices are spoiling me! Back in Boston I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have flinched at the cost. Or in grenich village for that matter (shakes fist at the memory of a 25 dollar pitcher of beer). The moral of this story is drinking makes flying better, but wallets lighter. I'll have to make more of these bad boys at home. Yum!

Next post: Tawny vs. Ruby Port...