Future-ish: Cocktails

Showing posts with label Cocktails. Show all posts

Cocktail Astronomy | Pluto's Sexy New Profile Pictures

Image credit: Credits: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute
Here at Future-ish, we love astronomy and we love cocktails. So to prep our fans (and ourselves) for those stellar weekend cocktail conversations, we are pleased to offer our Cocktail Astronomy post each Friday.

It's official...Pluto is back on the planetary dating scene with humanity and according to NASA, the dwarf planet's new profile pics are 'Over the top'. In fact, close up images of Pluto from NASA's New Horizons spacecraft released in September 2015 indicate incredibly diverse surface features suggesting a very interesting past. Given Pluto's new multi-faceted personality, what do these new images mean for our long term relationship with Pluto? As the NASA announcement states: "it's complicated". One thing is for sure...we expect a full-on love fest for Pluto.

>> Read the full announcement for more juicy details.

Cocktail Pairing: given our up and down relationship with Pluto, a Bitter Crush

Cocktail Astronomy | Prawn Nebula

Here at Future-ish, we love astronomy and we love cocktails. So to prep our fans (and ourselves) for those stellar weekend cocktail conversations, we are pleased to offer our Cocktail Astronomy post each Friday.

Few things are more ubiquitous at any good happy hour than a prawn cocktail. So we are pleased to share one of our favorite nebulas located 6,000 light years from earth in the Scorpio constellation that goes by the same name, the Prawn Nebula (aka IC 4628 and Gum 56, named after Colin Stanley Gum). Whereas the prawn cocktail is simple recipe of shrimp and Mary Rose sauce, the Prawn Nebula has many more cosmic ingredients to spice things up. In fact, the mixture of elemental dust and gas clouds from collapsed stars makes the Prawn Nebula quite the active nursery for baby stars.

A new image of the nebula published by the ESO's Gems program in September 2015 used the MPG/ESO 2.2-m telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile’s Atacama Desert to create stunning detail of nebula and its ability to recycle the materials from old stars to create new ones.

Cocktail Pairing: French 75

Cocktails and Constants

Manhattans will never be the same...from now on, they'll make you smarter. These cocktail Math Glasses feature mathematical constants and arithmetical formulas that won't let your mind dull for a minute when enjoying your favorite libation. Impress your friends with a toast to/with Pythagoras's constant, Pi, Phi,or Euler's Number.

Cocktails on the Rocks

Want a little geology with that gin and tonic? Designer Anna Rabinowicz and Uncommon Goods can do just that. The Agate Coaster Set features color-enhanced Brazilian agate slices that make for will make for great conversation starters at your next cocktail party.

Cocktail Astronomy | The Northern Lights

The Norther Lights from Greenland in 2010.
Image credit: Daniel J Cox/Corbis via The Guardian
Here at Future-ish, we love astronomy and we love cocktails. So to prep our fans (and ourselves) for those stellar weekend cocktail conversations, we are pleased to offer our Cocktail Astronomy post each Friday.

This week, the forecast is for an amazing show of the Northern Lights after a solar storm on the sun. If you're lucky enough to be in an area to see them and the weather is clear, set out some Aurora Borealis hors d'oeuvres and make sure to try out the cocktail pairing below.

Aurora are actually collisions between electrically charged particles from the sun that enter the earth's atmosphere. If there's been a The lights are seen above the magnetic poles of the northern and southern hemispheres and are known as 'Aurora borealis' up north and 'Aurora australis' down south (as in Australia).

For this week's cocktail pairing, we suggest you try out one of the cosmic concoctions by Candace Bacon showcased in her Hubpages post, How to Make Drinks that Glow in the Dark.

Fab Facets | Ozone Bar in Hong Kong

The Ozone bar in Hong Kong's towering Ritz Carlton Hotel isn't just the worlds highest bar, it is one of the most stunning. We noticed more than a few geometric lines throughout the interior. Located on the 118th floor, the bar offers incredible views of the city and incredibly tasty cocktails. Mix in Asian tapas and a DJ and you have an unforgettable Hong Kong experience.

SeanChron | Cocktail Catalyst

5.27.12. "Fabulous" is the only way you can describe a visit to The Chandelier bar at the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas. What could be more over the top than sitting in a three-story chandelier made of Swarovski crystals.

I was initially reluctant to go to Chandelier in fear that the whole Vegas-ness of it all would overwhelm me but once I discovered they had several cocktails that fall into the molecular gastronomy world, I had to go. It turned out to be a quiet night for molecular gastronomy drinks as they were out of some of the key ingredients for a few of the cocktails. No worries, they had plenty of fixings for one of their signature creations, the Verbena. The liquor lab protocol for this taste experiment combines tequila, Yuzu sour, ginger syrup, lemon verbena leaves and - the true cocktail catalyst - a Szechuan floral button. The blossom numbs your mouth, over-activates your salivary glands, sets off a cascade of pop rock like activity in your mouth, and then makes the flavors of anything you eat or drink for the next 10-15 minutes REALLY intense. I even had a further physical reaction...a good 10 minutes of hot flashes that even made my glasses fog up.

Now THAT is a cocktail.