Sponsor Shout Out to Mount Gay Rum
The exclusive sponsor of Alcademics.com this month is Mount Gay Rum. Mount Gay has been distilled on Barbados since 1703, and today is a flavorful combination of column and pot distilled rum. They offer four bottlings: Eclipse Silver, Eclipse, Extra Old, and 1703. In 2007 I visited Barbados and Mount Gay (pictures

Adam Lambert and the Improperly Used Absinthe Fountain
Hey, did y'all see the new Adam Lambert video "For Your Entertainment"? I sure did. As you'd expect, he dresses in all black with sparkly studded accessories and sings while people writhe around him. He also holds a snake.Less expected is the new symbol of rock star stature: an absinthe fountain. RISKY!  You'll notice that the pouring absinthe fountain doesn't appear to have ice in it, and that given its color it looks like they put absinthe in the fountain instead of ice water, and that the other fountain appears t

New Booze: Kahlua Coffee Cream
Yeah, I know. Cream liqueurs. You never want to drink them but when you do you realize they are *so* *damn* *tasty*. Then you store them in the back of the refrigerator and forget about them until your refrigerator is overflowing with cream liqueurs then you being to wonder about the shelf life of them but then say "Heck with this, it's an Amarula night!" The last thing I need is another cream liqueur taking up the space in the refrigerator that in theory I'd use for fruits a

New Booze: The Glenlivet Nadurra Triumph
My favorite of the Glenlivet single-malt scotch range is the Nadurra, the non-chill-filtered, natural cask strength, 16-year-old expression. It has a nose of Dole fruit cocktail spilled onto a bed a straw and on the palate tastes like tropical trail mix, complete with the dried coconut, apricot, and other fruits on top of honey and

New Booze: A Second Van Gogh Vodka
Once upon a time, premium vodkas were premium enough. Then along came a little brand called Grey Goose that convinced everyone that they should pay more for vodka. It took several years for other brands to react to this, but eventually they did, releasing new and more expensive versions of their vodkas. From this era we received Stolichnaya Elit, Level vodka from Absolut, Skyy 90, and I just read about something called Belvedere Intense. Several of these vodkas have an increased alcohol percentage that helps explain their price increases. Others have taller bottles. Now Van Gogh Vodka has launched