North Shore Distiller's Journal

Upcoming Events

Friday, Feb 22 , 5-6 pm
Hear Sonja live on the radio on WKRS 1220 AM (Lake County, IL) talking about spirits and cocktails on the Cocktails with Jer & Nick show, along with our friends from Antioch Fine Wine & Liquors

Saturday, Mar 1, 6-9 pm
Couples Cooking class at the Corner Cooks in Winnetka. Bring a date or a friend and join us in pairing cocktails with amazing food, cooking with spirits, and having a great time! Contact Corner Cooks for tickets, $70 per person includes drinks & dinner.

Friday, Mar 7, 5-7 pm
Cocktail tasting and competition at Sam's Wine & Spirits in Downers Grove. Come out for this first-time ever event featuring specialty cocktails from a variety of spirits companies and vote for your favorites. Contact Sam's directly for tickets & info.

In-Store Tasting Events
Come see us and try our latest cocktails at any of these:
Friday, 2/29 - Binny's in Chicago (New South Loop Store) 5-8 pm, and Binny's Glen Ellyn 4-7 pm
Sat, 3/1 - Binny's Lake Zurich 1-4 pm
Sat, 3/8 - Lake Bluff Village Market 1-4 pm, and Binny's Plainfield (new store) - 1 - 4 pm

Check out our events website for the latest on what we've got planned!


Liquor Store Scavenger Hunts We've found some interesting stuff on trips to the liquor store. Have you? Read on... Spirit Tasting Party Idea One of our Club members hosted a spirits tasting party recently, and it looked so fun we wanted to share the idea with you. Great New Cocktail Recipes Including the Tahitian Dream and the Pearadise Found Upcoming Events and Outings Including a Couples Cooking Class on March 1st, cocktail tasting events and more.		February 2008 Updates
Spirits Tasting Party One of our Distiller's Club members, Rob, hosted a vodka tasting party for some friends recently. They tasted and compared ten different vodkas side by side. This type of tasting is really the best way to taste premium spirits, allowing you to see the similarities and differences immediately. What a great idea - each person can bring one bottle, and then everyone gets to taste a wide variety of spirits without buying a ton of bottles. And we're pleased to report that our own North Shore Vodka came out on top in the tasting. Thanks for the photo & story, Rob!	Liquor Store Scavenger Hunts As you might imagine, we spend a lot of time in liquor stores. We've noticed that certain brands sometimes have odd things happen that make their way into the liquor store and/or bar. Here are a few of the examples we've seen. Over-Dipped Wax A bartender friend told us that every once in a great while the little old ladies who dip the Makers Mark bottles get to over-dip one of them, and sometimes they make it out of the warehouse. We saw one recently here in Chicago - unfortunately it wasn't for sale. See photo above left. Upside-down Labels We've seen a couple of upside down labels from the fine folks at Templeton Rye. One of their founders told us that they have some older gents putting on the labels, and every once in awhile an upside down one sneaks out of the warehouse. Crazy Glassware A lot of glassware gets sold in liquor stores. Sometimes its just accessories or plastic cups for parties, and sometimes it actually comes out of gift sets that didn't sell or weren't requested. Above is one of the crazy glasses we found at a store recently. It was on clearance for $.25, which is why we had to have it - it does have some potential for mischief, after all. Have you seen anything weird or unusual that you hunt for at the liquor store (or perhaps that we should keep an eye out for)? Let us know!	Upcoming Events Friday, Feb 22 , 5-6 pm Hear Sonja live on the radio on WKRS 1220 AM (Lake County, IL) talking about spirits and cocktails on the Cocktails with Jer & Nick show, along with our friends from Antioch Fine Wine & Liquors Saturday, Mar 1, 6-9 pm Couples Cooking class at the Corner Cooks in Winnetka. Bring a date or a friend and join us in pairing cocktails with amazing food, cooking with spirits, and having a great time! Contact Corner Cooks for tickets, $70 per person includes drinks & dinner. Friday, Mar 7, 5-7 pm Cocktail tasting and competition at Sam's Wine & Spirits in Downers Grove. Come out for this first-time ever event featuring specialty cocktails from a variety of spirits companies and vote for your favorites. Contact Sam's directly for tickets & info. In-Store Tasting Events Come see us and try our latest cocktails at any of these: Friday, 2/29 - Binny's in Chicago (New South Loop Store) 5-8 pm, and Binny's Glen Ellyn 4-7 pm Sat, 3/1 - Binny's Lake Zurich 1-4 pm Sat, 3/8 - Lake Bluff Village Market 1-4 pm, and Binny's Plainfield (new store) - 1 - 4 pm Check out our events website for the latest on what we've got planned!
Cocktails of the Month Tahitian Dream 2 oz North Shore Tahitian Vanilla Vodka 1 oz Fresh Tangelo Juice Dash of Ginger Liqueur or Syrup Dash of Fresh Lime Juice Pour vodka, juices and liqueur into shaker with ice, shake well. Strain into cocktail glass or champagne flute and garnish with fresh tangelo slice or chunk of candied ginger. Pearadise Found Cocktail 2 oz Distiller's Gin No. 6 2.5 oz Pear Puree or Nectar 1 oz Lillet Blanc Dash of Orange Bitters Shake all the ingredients with ice, strain into champagne flute. Garnish with a thin strip of red pear (or, if serving in a martini glass, a skewer of small pear chunks).
	Famous Quotes "For every good compound, arrangement or synthesis of liquors, wines and their adjacent or opposite fruits and flavors chilled and served in a variety of glasses, there are approximately a million foul, terrifying, and horrendous similar excitements to stupefaction, cuspidor-hurling, and nausea." - Lucius Beebe, mid-20th century NY writer "And that was written before anyone thought to combine vodka with Red Bull." - Eric Felten, writer for the Wall Street Journal, and musician *Source -How's Your Drink? by Eric Felten, p.6	North Shore Distillery is the first and only artisanal distillery in Illinois. We have a passion for spirits, and for developing creative new products. Learn more about us on northshoredistillery.com. We hope you enjoy our products!