Posts Tagged ‘Bar Tools’

The conscientious folks at GlassDharma, makers of environmentally-friendly, reusable glass straws, want you to help make a difference, and they're willing to make it worth your while.

Contest entries are due no later than this coming Saturday, April 30. All participants who meet the contest criteria will receive a free glass straw and the grand prize winner will get a $100 gift certificate for GlassDharma products.

"Beautiful Bends" glass straw (L); "Decorative Dots" glass straw (R). Photos courtesy of GlassDharma.

Basic steps for entering the contest from the GlassDharma blog:

1) Write and send a letter to a restaurant -- (up to 5 different restaurants for up to 5 free straws).
2) Copy your letter (please include full contact information of the restaurant) into a comment on this page at the GlassDharma blog.
3) Send an email to earthday@glassdharma.com with a copy of your letter and please include the contact info of the restaurant AND your personal contact info so that a free GlassDharma Glass Straw can be mailed to you.
Note: *Contact information for entrants and restaurants must include, full name, mailing address and email address.

"Decorative Dots" glass straws closeup. Photo courtesy or GlassDharma.

Please note: For a full description of the contest rules and prizes, please visit the GlassDharma contest blog post here. The post includes the other entries in the comments section to help you get started. Or you can visit this GlassDharma blog post that offers suggestions to restaurants for implementing re-usables.

The contest has already generated over 360 letters to restaurants. Add to that number and have your voice heard (and earn a lovely glass straw in the process.

Have you heard of any cool and innovative enviro-friendly products lately? If so, I'd love to hear about them.

"Shorty" smoothies (12mm) glass straw. Photo courtesy of GlassDharma.

As the Ladies United for the Preservation of Endangered Cocktails note, "...the line between educated ordering and pretension can be paper-thin." Check out their four tips for proper ordering etiquette.

My love for green Chartreuse continues to grow rapidly as I continue to discover cocktails that boast this delicious herbal liqueur. Plus, it's apparently made by monks. How cool is that? Anyway, Kaiser Penguin has posted an Improved Chartreuse Swizzle recipe that I thought was marvelous. Highly recommended.

Check out this super cool, old-school Martini Gigger advert at A Dash of Bitters. Apparently it ran in Playboy way back. Makes me want to say: Neat-o!

If you're willing to out  little effort into making your own ingredients, this Autumn Whiskey Sour from Simon Desilva-Naimji, mixologist at the c5 restaurant in the Royal Ontario Museum. You'll need to make your own spiced syrup and infused bourbon, but hell, as I'm finding out, that's a big part of the fun.

Ever wonder about all those "diswasher-safe" claims you see on just about everything nowadays? I sure do. The folks at Food & Wine ran a bunch of glassware though 20 cycles and came up with six they thought passed the test. Not sure how many they tested, but hey, I wasn't there.

Not big on champagne? Always empty-handed and self-conscious when it's time for the New Year's toast? Never fear, it's here, champagne beer. That's right, Samuel Adams is releasing a limited run champagne beer called Infinium later this month. Should be here in time for the holidays.

I found another Chartreuse recipe that also features Calvados apple brandy (which I love -- Jersey Sour anyone?) on the Globe and Mail website this week. It's called The Apple Pie and it was created by Neil Daoust Nectar Social House in Dartmouth, N.S.