It's Getting Hot In Here: Heeet Hot Cinnamon Vodka

Milder temps are finally beginning to percolate through the thick veil of Winter in the Northeast.  So as the rooftops, patios and outdoor cafés open back up, some may begin to hang up their penchant for cold weather toddies and rev up their yen for warm weather mixers.  There are certain cocktails that scream Winter with their soothing heat and fragrant spiciness and then there are certain cocktails that call for Spring with their festive produce and verdant frothiness.  So what would you say if I presented you with a spirit that combined the two?

Take the comforting heat and the surprisingly sweet pop of cinnamon and lace it into a wonderfully crisp spirit and you get the seasonally appropriate deliciousness of Heeet Hot Cinnamon Vodka.  Cinnamon has the lovely duality of being both peppery and, when it has been allowed to settle, offers up a subtle sugar essence that creates a nice heat/sweet balance on the tongue.  That flavor comes to life in Heeet Vodka.  The cinnamon notes swim across and explode on your palette for a full profile of fragrant warmth from the crisp clean vodka and versatile spice.  Made from 100% natural ingredients Heeet is a perfect sipper all by itself as its natural make-up is like a perfectly blended cocktail.  Or perhaps you can play around with Heeet's amazing flavor like I did in the cocktail below that I call "Heeet For Them Apples".

Heeet For Them Apples

3 ounces         Heeet Hot Cinnamon Vodka
2 slices            Fresh cut apple (skinless)
3 sticks           Cinnamon      

Muddle apple slices in a cocktail shaker until pulp-like.  Pour vodka into a cocktail shaker and add ice.  Shake for about 15-20 seconds then strain into rocks glass with fresh ice and garnish with oblong slices of apple and shavings of cinnamon together with the rest of the sticks of cinnamon.  

I'm no bartender, but I like the way this turned out.  The apple added a familiar flavor for the depth of the cinnamon and an extra sweet element to play with the sweetness of the cinnamon.  The strain keeps most of the apple pulp out while the ice in the shake gives the juice form the muddled apple some dilution.    

Heeet Hot Cinnamon Vodka from Merry Go Spirits is available now at your finer winer and spirit retailers.  You won't need the AC for this Heeet. 

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Dave White

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Life, How Well's That Workin' For Ya?: Unfu*k Yourself By Gary John Bishop Book Review

What's life like?  Very different from how it was 40 to 50 years ago, right?  What's more, isn't it much different than it was say even 10 to 15 years ago?  Social media is now as commonplace as newspapers were then and newspaper reliance seems to be shrinking as much as CDs were as the 2000s progressed.  Our attention spans have grown shorter as many vanities have grown deeper and our demand for tomorrow is what we wanted yesterday.  There's so much to adjust to inside this rapidly-changing framework of society yet no matter how much what's around us is changing, we ourselves are pretty constant.  That could be a good and bad thing.  It's important to notice that with many things, we've allowed our surroundings to change us but what are and who we are at the core is still there lingering.

I thought of this as I read Unfuc*k Yourself : Get Out Of Your Head And Into Your Life by Gary John Bishop, a five-time author who is far better than a self-help guru.  Bishop is a personal development expert and his 'urban philosophy' approach to helping one become the best most enacted them prompts the individual to get out of their often crippling thoughts and into a life of embracing newness, potential, activity and happiness.  For that's what at stake isn't it?  Our lives, our  perceptions, our willingness, our stubbornness, our certainties and our expectations and how much of our reliances on them keep us from living, loving and reaching our full potentials.  In Unfu*ck Yourself Bishop offers up seven personal assertions for one to ponder that surpass the 'you're special' mantra and moving beyond mere thought to seizing the your special title by actively pursuing life and also recognizing the signifiers that you may not even be aware are keeping you immobile.  Bishop's comical tone is straightforward & non-coddling and doesn't shame or judge, but rather gets an individual to really look at their happiness to see how they are personally responsible for its lacking in an honest and appropriately thought-provoking manner.

After reading this book I realized how powerfully coercive my thoughts were in my going forward and how even more powerful my activities had to be in order to put the kibosh on years of the unrequited, the pitfalls, the excuses, the stale mindsets and the weaknesses that masqueraded themselves as strengths.  There's more to greatness than just positive thinking, there's the positivity of moving & shaking, starting & trying, failing & succeeding and loving & letting go.  

Unfu*k Yourself by Gary John Bishop (Harper One - Harper Collings Publishers) is available now on Amazon.com, Barnes & Nobles and other fine booksellers. 

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Dave White

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Shave Like A Briton, Live Like A New Yorker:MurdockLondon @ Nordstrom Mens Store NYC

I'd like to think that if you have the misfortune of finding yourself in a vehicle around the Holland Tunnel during rush hour then you'd better have an understandable unavoidable reason.  Similarly, I'd also like to think that if you stand on a sample sale line in New York City then you must be able to see a redemptive light at the end of the the discounted retail tunnel.  Then there's always the surest likelihood that you are very well aware that a dive bar in the LES can sometimes be far more welcoming than a wine bar on the UES or else why would you endure the grit in lieu of the glitz?  There's always good and oftentimes bad reasons for why we do what we do but in the end it's these experiences that give good stories to add color and depth to the whatever our lives are shaping out to be.  

So it's now that I challenge you to find yourself in Midtown Manhattan if not today then very soon.  Yes it's a traffic nightmare and the subways have been intolerably unreliable lately, but what if I told you that despite the honking, the scaffolding, the cranes and the crowds, there was a new oasis to sink your vanity into.  Well there is.  That new oasis is the brand new Nordstrom Mens Store at 235 West 57th Street.  However, while I would normally cajole you to rethink and rediscover how you wear what your wear, let me now ask you to find that cloth-free medium that begins and ends with bringing out the handsome devil in you.

Within the new erected pristine walls of the new Nordstrom-labeled haven for men is a British outpost that has brought its savvy and thorough approach to mens grooming across the pond for the dapper and disheveled men of New York.  Murdock London is a highbrow award-winning barber brand that carries a range of clean and natural grooming, skincare and aromatherapy products.  Ingredients that are as natural as the skin you're in presented in streamlined packaging & receptacles are what Murdock London offers men seeking to have an organic pre, during and post shaving experience.  That's why products like their incredibly softening Beard Moisturizer coats your pork chop and pampers your skin with a paraben and sulfate free formula that's bound to be a go-to for you.  Their Alum Bar is the original after-shave with a soothing potassium alum that heals nicks post shaving.  I am a fragrance fanatic and their quartet of organic fragrances conjure up the best smells and memories of the beauty of the planet in masculine, fresh and sumptuous blends like Black Tea and Vetiver.  

Murdock London has landed at the Nordstrom Mens Store in Manhattan New York City and at Nordstrom.com.  Would I send you to the new Mens Store if it wasn't worth it?  I got to experience  them firsthand Wednesday evening when the brand hosted an event at the W Times Square to introduce Murdock London to a group of savvy New York men by offering them haircuts and shaves from expert Murdock London barbers using their award-winning products. After a few Tanqueray  and tonics, inhaling the aroma of spice and cleanliness in the air and a cushy-feeling beard courtesy of the Beard Moisturizer, I was quite intrigued.  Check them out on MurdockLondon.com and Nordstrom.com and understand why the often harrowing yet sometimes surprising trip to Midtown would be a lesson in well-groomed fortune rather than futility.  

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Dave White

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Sailing Nicely On the Half-Seas: Half-Seas Sparkling Cocktails

Not that you should, but, if only for a time, you may want to hang up the heavy cocktails that kept you warm and toasty during the winter in lieu of some refreshing Spring effervescence.  Something bubbly, crisp and refreshing sounds like the ticket on a mild Spring day.  Make it more personal by being portable and you've got a handy seasonal winner to pop into a tote for a little naughty and nice addition to your roundtown romp.

That addition comes in the form of 6.8 fluid ounce cans.  Half-Seas Sparkling Cocktails makes grown & sexy imbibing on-the-go more deliciously plausible and appropriately convenient.  Half-Seas achieves these little gems with the help of natural ingredients like pure cane sugar and natural citrus and berry flavors with a touch of carbonation.  There are three flavors to choose from that will result in a cocktail that speaks to whatever spirit you need satisfaction from.  The Daiquiri is a sweet kiss of white rum and lime, the Bramble is a mellow dance of dry London gin and natural berry flavor and the Paloma tempts you with tequila and grapefruit soda.  They are perfect for a nice little buzz coupled with fresh flavor to make your day that much nicer (and naughtier).

Who says you can't take the bar with you?  Half-Seas Sparkling Cocktails are available now at their website here.  

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Dave White

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