"Oh yay, another post on the Monkey Gland", is what a lot of people might be saying. Sure, it's been a topic of interest among bloggers and the Cocktail Brain Trust™ for the past few years. Most reviews are glowing, kind of like Canadians over President Obama. Personally, I suspect a lot of people like the cocktail because it makes people giggle like little school girls when they hear where the name came from. Yes, as many of you know, it was a xenotransplantation of monkey testicles into humans, to improve sexual drive. Lovely, just the perfect thing to name a drink after. OK, aside from the rehash of the Monkey Gland, a scan of the original 1923 newspaper article, detailing the drink, is included.

Valentines day is a wonderful commercial holiday. If the governments of the world wanted to fix the economy, they’d just make Valentines a week event and everything would be fixed. But alas, only Hallmark had that level of ingenuity. Flowers, chocolate, cards, diamonds and a dinner out now represent the modern definition of love, which is paid in one annual lump sum, due on February 14th. But, some of the enlightened, like myself, prefer to dispense the love throughout the year and avoid the mad rush and over booked restaurants. But, I can’t help doing a post since I came across the perfect topic, Parfait d’Amour.

Public Relations (PR) is something that almost every company on the planet invests in. Some companies do it in house and other hire a firm that specializes in getting “the word” out. Like anything, there are great PR agencies and there are some bad ones. The bad ones aren’t necessarily trying to be annoying, but their style of creativity can be abrasive. When you match this up with the blogger type publisher, you can get create some friction.

The search for “bartender of the year” has begun. Cocktail competitions are nothing new, but few do it with this much style. To promote this new competition, that is billing itself as the “Liquid Oscars”, they brought in some heavy weight talent to get the word out. Again, nothing new, but the way they put it together is quite impressive. If you want to see a very well done combination of Flash and video, with seven talented bartenders, including Simon Difford, Gary Regan and Angus Winchester, head over to The Magnificent Seven. After that, head over to We Are World Class.

Regional events are in the works, but should be announced soon. The final will be held in July 2009. The sponsor for the event is Diageo and the focus is on their reserve brands, with four categories to be announced, so keep that in mind.

If you want to see how they made site, there is a behind the scenes blog with all the details.

Today we use bitter liqueurs, like Ramazzotti, Fernet and Poli, as a form of digestif, to help with our over-indulgent nature. Sometimes sweet liqueurs, or cocktails, can provide some relief after we've gorge at the trough of gluttony. Before our "modern" digestive aids, there were similar cordials (1700's) that served the same purpose. These cordials were called Surfeit Water, which were specifically created for overindulgence. They differed from Bitters, in that pharmacists and doctors provided bitters for your ill's, where Surfeit Water was provided by your saloon keeper.

The shrub comes in various forms, sometimes brandy, many times rum, sometimes it’s a fruit preserve made with vinegar, and of course it can be a small woody plant. But the Rum Shrub was at one point the most popular of the shrubs, save for a period during the mid 1970’s when Monty Python took ownership of the word. If the Rum Shrub ever becomes popular again, it may very well represent the unholiest combination of drunken people ordering the shrub, in the vein of a medieval Knight, and a bartender who suddenly develops a series of ticks and anger management issues. Anyone who orders a shrub in the dialect of Monty Python, to said bartender, may be risking life and limb. Here’s hoping the Rum Shrub remains in the shadows, because yelling “bring me a shrubbery!” to the bartender is only funny to those who are drunk.