Is cranberry the new pumpkin?

 

 

 

            If you follow “Friday Night Cocktails” by the page, you must wait until week eight for Pumpkin Pie Cocktail, featuring a puree and maple syrup with a cinnamon stick for garnish. Fall’s fave gourd has been trending for years. Let’s give cranberry some room. Ginger beer and voka gives you a Cranberry Mule, and a cozy feeling, no doubt. A.J. Dean’s handy book offers “52 Drinks to Welcome Your Weekend.” Barkeeps may love this book as well as photographers and those who follow estate sales seeking classic vintage glasses. An image of the cranberry drink resembles an old-world painting rich in color and drapery. Sure cocktails take us back in time. This book shares that some popular ones are actually recent blends.

 “Drink Mixy”  gives adventurous and even “lazy” culinary thrill seekers jars of dried fruits and spices with instructions to fill blend with the prescribed alcohol and to wait three days. Three days? Imbibers will be rewarded. The “Tejas” craft cocktail kit has orange jalapeno, lime and turbinado sugar cube. Add tequila and later make a spicy margarita. Oh, there are other concoctions. But let us skip to “Joy,” for bourbon. Cranberry, orange, rosemary and turbinado sugar will make your Thanksgiving “old fashioned.” See how cranberry is doing that thing? Little red berry? welcome you to pumpkin spice season. www.drinkmixy.com

  Ethics of shopping – I’ve been introduced Purposer.com, a marketplace to shop and sell ethically produced products. You can wear or eat many of them. I felt extra good when I tried these goodies below. Let’s take a peek:

               B’s Gourmet Nuts are labeled “A little bit of perfect,” and I’d add, perfect for all this cocktail talk. Bags of “Decadent Cashews” come in flavors such as black truffle. Consider some for you and some for holiday giving. The endeavor blossomed from a “healthy love” of sharing drinks, food and conversation in a small, intimate setting, their site reads. Does intimate mean “leave me be with these nuts” or must you share? All good. A portion of proceeds benefit cancer wellness, so cheers to good causes.  

            Ground Up – Snickerdoodle Cinnamon Almond, Cashew + Coconut Butter had me mellow with a pretzel stick snack. Then I took the quiz based on my vacation and pastime preferences an learned Ground Up has me pegged as an Oregon Hazelnut fancier. But I’m pretty sure they’d let me in on a Salted eggnog coconut and cashew blend. Their mission is helping women lift up.

Cafetinto – Resembling tiny biscotti or something to carry in a silver Victorian snuff box, Cafetinto is a dainty formation of coffee beans processed with panela sugarcane. Drop one for espresso and two for coffee into a cup and add hot water. Stir and you’ve got an extremely flavorful Columbian favorite. The flavor is unusual for us and the red tint has been said to refer to ink or a common man’s red wine. It’s coffee straight up, easy and exotic all at once. It’s really different and good. A little video of a man simply enjoying is coffee is a soothing watch. This company creates jobs. 

Darragh Doiron is a Port Arthur area foodie not ready to let go of the pumpkin spice craze, but still, open…. darraghcastillo@icloud.com