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bar tools

Green & Gold Bar Cart Styling

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It’s March. It’s almost spring. Let’s refresh that bar cart with a little smattering of green and gold. Lucky Charms cocktail garnish optional.

Thank your lucky (edible) stars we’ve been scouring the internet for some new bar cart items this month. First, skip the green beer and get yourself some green liqueur instead. Now that you’re adulting, a gilded bar cart is much prettier than a cardboard box. Next, grab yourself some equally pretty gold jiggers and a functional pitcher (for like, water or holding straws). And OK, yes, you can have ONE novelty glass. And a stir stick or two. And if you insist, some mint bitters for that adult Shamrock Shake you secretly want.

1. Shamrock Glass 2. Gold Cheers Stir Stick 3. Green Glass Pitcher 4. Gold Jigger 5. Edible Gold Stars 6. Mint Bitters 7. Bar Cart 8. Green Chartreuse

 

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Valentine’s Day Bar Cart Styling

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Turn down the lights, turn up the music, and put a little something sexy on… your bar cart.

A well stocked bar cart is essential for setting the mood. Sure, you’ve got the booze (ahem, maybe some chocolate whiskey too?), but don’t forget the accessories! Some glittering coasters and cups look awful nice against a roaring fire. And nothing says love more than hand squeezing some limes, except maybe some heart shaped drink stirrers? Want to go over the top? Perhaps you need a pink neon sign proclaiming your love (of cocktails) to hang over your freshly adorned bar cart.

1. Chocolate Whiskey 2. Glass Citrus Juicer 3. Blush Decanter 4. Hammered Brass Coasters 5. Gold Wine Opener 6. Neon Cocktail Sign 7. Copper Mule Mug 8. Feelin’ Tipsy Drink Stirrers 9. Beth Kushnick Bar Cart

 

Catch up on all the gift guides here!

New Year’s Eve Bar Cart Styling

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Tiny bubbles…. or big golden bubbles. Whatever your type of bubbles, don’t forget to put some out on your bar cart this weekend. Here’s how we’re styling ours!

Gold? Check. More gold?! CHECK! We’re jazzing up our bar cart for NYE with a couple of glittery touches, plus, bottles and bottles of good champagne. Disco ball stirrers? Yasssss! Let’s put a stake in 2016 cause we are DONE WITH YEAR.

1. Pop Fizz Clink Napkins 2. Disco Ball Drink Stirrers 3. Brass Hand/Gun Corkscrew 4. Metallic Rimmed Champagne Coupes 5. Faceted Cocktail Shaker 6. Gold Wine Glass Numbers 7. Olympus Bar Cart 8. 2009 Louis Roederer et Philippe Starck Brut Champagne

 

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{Now Closed} Giveaway // The Ultimate Stocking Stuffers

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Our last giveaway of the year is JAM PACKED with lots of treats to go into your stocking. From mixers to bitters to cool bar tools, we’re including everything you need to up your cocktail game this holiday season. And the best part? A gift card to use on Mouth.com to stock up on, you guessed it, booze. Or you could also buy food to go with your drinks. It’s up to you.

We’ll have gifts from The American Juice Company, American Heirloom cocktail accessories, Cocktail Crate, 18.21 Bitters, Barbarian Bar Tools, Monin Syrups, Owl’s Brew, Taza, and SO MUCH MORE!

We’re only running this giveaway until Friday midnight PST so you just have a few days to enter! Check out the options below to get up to 8 entries for a chance to win this stocking full of cocktail magic and a $50 Mouth.com gift certificate. Good luck and Happy Holidays!

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Holiday Gift Guide: Stuff It Real Good (the stocking stuffer gift guide)

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You’re going to need a bigger stocking this year.

Remember, bottles of booze fit nicely into stockings. As do magazines (about booze), gummy bears (filled with booze) and cocktail kits (for making booze). Up your cocktail party cachet with some boozy playing cards, and don’t forget the fancy glassware! Pineapples are still a thing, so throw a couple of shot glasses in that stocking. Infused ice cubes fit too! And maybe a key chain that yells I like fancy drinks!

1. Cocktail Hour Playing Cards 2. Fancy Drink Key Chain 3. Ardbeg Uigeadail Single Malt Scotch 4. Pineapple Shot Glasses 5. Imbibe Magazine (click for more details and a super subscription price!) 6. Stainless Steel Cocktail Picks 7. Homemade Gin Kit 8. Baby Champagne Gummy Bears 9. Saturn Rocks Glass 10. Veuve Clicquot Paris Arrow Bottle 11. Vincent Bartender’s Hand Salve 12. Hot Toddy Cocktail Kit 13. Herb & Lou’s Infused Ice Cubes

 

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Holiday Gift Guide: The Naughty List

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Whether Santa’s giving you coal in your stocking, or Santa’s coming round the back door, you’re on his naughty list this year.

Are you making yellow snow and beating up on innocent reindeer piñatas (even if they are filled with tiny bottles of booze)? Don’t go crying some Bitter Tears, those are whiskey stones Santa left you, not lumps of coal. Now, on the other hand, if you’re looking for a little danger, and your scotch comes out of a bottle that was possibly forged in hell, then pour yourself some stripper highballs and put on some appropriate holiday music. Santa’s making a special stop at your chimney.

1. Highland Park Scotch Fire Edition 2. Reindeeryata! 3. Rogue Yellow Snow IPA 4. Rudy Ray Moore Christmas Album 5. Strip Tea Glasses 6. The Book of Dangerous Cocktails 7. Whiskey Stones 8. Bitter Tears Lucille Blood Orange Ginger Bitters

 

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Holiday Gift Guide: Wine Lovaaaahhhhhh

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Whether you’re a Level IV Sommelier or just like mixing your red wine with coke, this guide’s for you!

Holiday Gift Guide: Wine Lovaaaahhhhh!!!! // stirandstrain.com

OK, let’s talk glassware. You can get it fancy (it says so on the glass), or save yourself the trouble and just get some unbreakable glasses (they look so REAL). Or if you just can’t be bothered, you can just attach your glass to the bottle. For your fanciest wine peeps, grab some copper, or a fancy decanter, or maybe a book on the wine regions of Argentina. And what’s the best wine gift of all? Wine. Sent to your home. Every month.

1. Twist Wine Decanter 2. Stay Fancy Wine Glass 3. Wine Glass Bottle Topper 4. Unbreakable Wine Glass 5. Wine Tasting T-Shirt 6. Argentina Wine Book 7. Wino Wine Bag 8. Winc Wine Subscription (Use this link for a free bottle of wine!) 9. Copper Wine/Ice Bucket

 

Catch up on all the gift guides here!

Holiday Gift Guide: Black and White and Booze All Over

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It’s Black Friday. You have a lot of choices when it comes to impulse buying for the holidays. Thank you for visiting Stir and Strain.

Let the Holiday Guides Begin…

Holiday Gift Guide: Black and White and Booze All Over // stirandstrain.com

It IS beginning to look like cocktails. So let’s make some. Break out the vodka tonics for Mom and Dad. And don’t forget the coasters. Still stuffed from all that turkey? Muddle up something with fruit and tell yourself it will make you feel better. And then go shopping, just not at 5am.

1. Gun metal black strainer 2. Marble coasters 3. Cocktail print 4. Geometric straws 5. “Bad Ass” muddler 6. Our/Los Angeles vodka 7. Black growler 8. Q Tonic

The Halloween Bar Cart 2016 Edition

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Your bar cart isn’t stocked for Halloween?! OH THE HORROR!!!

Gift Guide: The Halloween Bar Cart 2016 Edition // stirandstrain.com

What’s more Halloween than a giant skull filled with vodka? Maybe some Bloody Mary Mix or a tiny skull adorned bar spoon? We’re stocking our bar cart this year with some matte black and smoky glassware. OK and yes, just a touch of gold too. And our cocktail toppers? Wax vampire teeth of course! After all it is Halloween. Let’s get spooky!

1. Crystal Head Vodka 2. Vampire Wax Teeth 3. Skull Bar Spoon 4. Mask Bottle Opener 5. Black Dipped Glasses 6. Cassiopeia Smoky Black Tumblers 7. Black and Gold Shaker 8. Taurus Bar Cart 9. McClure’s Bloody Mary Mix

{Now Closed} Giveaway // Colonial Spirits & a Loggerhead Bar Tool

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Giveaway: Colonial Spirits and Loggerhead Bar Tool // stirandstrain.comGrowing up in New England, once the calendar page turned to October, inevitably the Colonial time plays in school began. But what they didn’t cover in grade school was the real story of how America came to be: those Colonists got drunk and invented America.

If you’re intrigued about just how these fine folks did this, then this week’s giveaway is for YOU! We’ve got a giveaway package that tells you the whole story, AND an amazing new on the scene bar tool you can use to replicate some of the toasty beverages those Colonists enjoyed while, you know, inventing America.

Giveaway: Colonial Spirits and Loggerhead Bar Tool // stirandstrain.comColonial Spirits: A Toast to Our Drunken History by author Steven Grasse combines a love of cocktails and history into an immensely entertaining book that’s perfect for your cocktail book shelf. Here’s a few facts from the book you can throw out at your next Fall Holiday party:

  • George Washington had a treasured recipe for Small Beer stashed in a notebook, brewed with Bran Hops and 3 Gallons of Molasses
  • Martha Washington developed Cherry Bounce, a brandy-based drink that keeps her husband warm while he is away fighting the Revolutionary War
  • Benjamin Franklin took it upon himself to pen the Drinkers Dictionary, kind of like a colonial version of Urban Dictionary, where he published at least 200 synonyms for getting drunk
  • Thomas Jefferson imports red wines from all over the globe, collecting 20,000 bottles during his presidency; and toasts the Declaration of Independence with a glass of Madeira
  • John Smith and the early settlers at Plymouth Rock learn how to ferment alcohol from corn, as taught to them by Native Americans
  • John Adams preferred hard cider and drank a tankard of the stuff every morning; and Adams would live to be 90 years old, the third longest living president.
  • The Triangular Trade (and the blight of slavery) fuels the rum business and Fish House Punch is created at Philadelphia’s Tun Tavern as a way for people to “forget their mother-in-law”

How many of you have a loggerhead in your home bar? My bet is no one. However, this bar tool has been around for centuries helping to create toasty cocktails going all the way back to the Colonial era. And now one lucky Stir and Strain reader will get their hands on their own! But what is it you may be asking. The loggerhead is a unique bar tool that’s simple in design, yet has an effect on cocktails that’s complex and incomparable. Heat up the loggerhead, prepare your drink and then plunge the loggerhead in to create an exciting effect (and heat up your drink). This is the perfect bar tool for those chilly nights ahead of us.

Giveaway: Colonial Spirits and Loggerhead Bar Tool // stirandstrain.comThe loggerhead is finishing up its Kickstarter run but has already been funded which means you’ll get yours by December. For more info on the loggerhead, head over to their page!

Ready to drink like this nation’s forefathers? Enter below and score up to 10 entries to win the Colonial Spirits and Loggerhead Bar Tool (approximate retail value $90)! Giveaway ends at 11:59pm PST Wednesday October 12th, 2016 (US residents only). Good luck!

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