Stir & Strain

gift guide

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

by Leave a Comment

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

 

Catch up on all the gift guides here!

Holiday Gift Guide: The Naughty List

by Leave a Comment

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

 

Catch up on all the gift guides here!

Holiday Gift Guide: Last Minute Boozy Subscriptions & Deliveries

by 1 Comment

Chances are you going to forget someone on your list. Here’s a helpful guide to making sure you get them something by Christmas day. Better make it boozy!

Vinyl Me, Please
First up, forget about Netflix and chill. Wine and records is where it’s at. Vinyl Me, Please has partnered with Vine Box to create the ultimate bundle: Two Nights of Music and Wine. You get two albums and 6 glasses of wine. You bring the crackling fire. This deal is only around until December 18th so you’ll want to jump on this deal NOW.

SaloonBox
If your relatives can’t be trusted to buy good booze and never have any ingredients to work with, SaloonBox is for them. Everything is included in these kits and delivered to their doorstep. Sign up for a subscription or browse their selection of bar tools, you’ll be sure to find the perfect gift.

Shaker & Spoon
If your house is full of good booze, but you get stuck making the same drinks over and over, Shaker & Spoon should be the gift you give yourself. Every month you can get 3 recipes curated by top bartenders with all the ingredients to make up to 12 drinks (minus the booze). That’s a lot of good cocktails!

Flaviar
If you just want booze, or even, rare, hard to find, or smaller unknown brands, Flaviar has introduced an online speakeasy for just this reason. You get personalized recommendations and a FREE tasting box. And again, it’s being shipped to your doorstep, so no need for pants.

Robb Vices
Chances are there is someone on your list with fancy tastes, but who wants to figure out what to get them? Have Robb Vices do that instead. Each month there is a curated box filled with luxury items and usually booze. Maybe one month it’s a scorpion lollipop. Another month it could be specially designed whiskey drinking glasses. Regardless, it will be fancy and cool.

Cocktail Courier
Choose what cocktail you’d like, or pick one from their extensive list of drinks, Cocktail Courier will get that to your doorstep ASAP. If you’re thinking about having a holiday party this year and need help at the bar, they can even deliver a bartender to you. Holiday drinking is so easy this year!

 

Catch up on all the gift guides here!

Holiday Gift Guide: Wine Lovaaaahhhhhh

by Leave a Comment

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

by Leave a Comment

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

by 1 Comment

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

Recommended Reading: Back to School Cocktail Book Edition!

by Leave a Comment

School’s back in session and you have some reading to catch up on… About cocktails of course!

There’s been a slew of new cocktail releases we’re excited about and we wanted to share some of our favs. And watch this space in the following weeks because some of these guys are going home with you for free!

Gift Guides: Recommended Reading for Cocktail Books 2016 // stirandstrain.com

Do you guys have a favorite you can’t wait to read?

Top Row: A Proper Drink / Amaro / The Thinking Girl’s Guide to Drinking

Middle Row: Colonial Spirits / Bourbon / Imbibe! Revised Edition

Bottom Row: Smuggler’s Cove / The Coupe / The Canon Cocktail Book

Gift Guide: Falling for Apples

by Leave a Comment

An apple a day may keep the doctor away, but keep those apple cocktails coming.

Gift Guide: Falling for Apples // stirandstrain.com

 

We’re squeezing in apples every which way now that Fall is almost here. Apple shaped ice in an apple ice bucket? I wouldn’t bat an eyelash at that. A couple of big ol’ cinnamon sticks make perfectly fine cocktail stirrers when we’re talking apples. But you’ll need a giant one to stir that punch bowl of spiked apple cider. And you’re spiking it with Apple Jack, correct? And what will you top your apple cocktail off with… bitters and shrubs (made from apples of course).

1. Apple Ice Bucket 2. Apple Ice Cube Tray 3. Shrub & Co. Apple Shrub 4. Laird’s Apple Jack 5. Bar Keep Apple Bitters 6. Cinnamon Sticks 7. Large Copper Punch Bowl

Gift Guide: Summer Sipping

by 4 Comments

Need something a little cooler to sip from this summer? I got ya covered. So be cool. Don’t be all, like, uncool.

Gift Guide: Summer Sipping 2016 // stirandstrain.com

Summer’s made for pitcher cocktails, long icy cocktails, and when it’s really hot… beer in a glass (or just straight from the fridge). Brighten up your home bar while we’re still enjoying those long days.

1. Party Ferret Freaker 2. Yellow dipped pitcher 3. Grand Poppy Liqueur 4. Flamingo Glass 5. Tasty Tallboy Can 6. Copper Bar Cart 7. I Pineapple Summer Koozy

Summer Cocktailing Essentials 2016

by 5 Comments

Well, summer’s here. And I’m not going to complain about all this over 100° weather we’re having in Southern California. Nope. Not going to complain…

Summer Entertaining Gift Guide 2016 // stirandstrain.com

Instead I’ll use it as an excuse to sit in the pool with my flamingo drink holder. My fruit wine for the morning and my Japanese whiskey for the night (your whiskey changes each season too, right?). With a summery cocktail book in one hand, and my favorite citrus tools in the other I really won’t need much else for the next few months. Ok, maybe some boozy hot fudge sauce. That’s a must.

1. Tequila infused chocolate sauce 2. Outdoorsy drinking t-shirt 3. Bourbon infused chocolate sauce 4. Citrus squeezer and zester tools 5. Flamingo drink holder 6. Spritz: Italy’s Most Iconic Aperitivo Cocktail, with Recipes 7. Pomegranate Wine 8. Kikori Whiskey 9. Pineapple + Mango Sangria