Crafty

I've already gone through my light rum. And I'm only in the C's of Mr. Boston's rum section. Time to stock up.

Now, I had a dilemma. I like to buy basics by the large jug, since it often costs quite a bit less than the standard sized bottles. But my pourers don't fit into those bottles. So I decided to get a bit crafty.

I had a bottle of glass etching cream leftover from a past project. I decided to make some cheapo super-easy modern decanters. Très Readymade. Here's how:

1. Wash an empty glass bottle well in hot water, peeling off as much of the labels as possible.
2. Use WD-40 to get the rest of the adhesive off. Wash off the WD-40 with dishsoap.
3. Cover surface with tape. Almost any kind will work--masking tape, scotch tape (harder to peel off), or if you want a reusable stencil get contact vinyl.
4. Sketch pattern onto tape and cut (carefully) with an exacto knife. Peel off areas you want etched.
5. Cover exposed areas with cream and leave for 5 mins.
6. Wash off cream and peel off tape. Voila!

I made two RUM bottles this way. I'm thinking I'll use a different font type for other kinds of alcohol. Like a swirly one for gin, a strong serif-ed font for vodka, etc. It will take me a while to empty out enough bottles, I guess.

Second crafty bit: it seems that most drinks that use a cocktail glass call for a "chilled" cocktail glass. I thought it was pretty unfeasible to keep my cocktail glasses in the freezer. However, since my bartending is rather slow, I've found that putting the glass into the freezer before beginning the rest of the drink (especially if it involves juicing something) usually results in a chilled glass by the time I get a drink into it. At the very least, the freezer puts a nice translucent frost on the glass. Check out the next two drinks as an example.