4 new ways to up your adult beverage game

Impress your friends, try a new theme for a dinner party, or build your meal or party around an alcohol of choice. Here are 4 new ways to up your adult beverage game.

Martini & Rossi Frosé Pouches

LaLaScoop’s new favorite drink for the backyard or beach – the Frosé pouch! So easy, no need to worry about mixing ingredients or planning far in advance, keep Martini & Rossi Frosé in the freezer, then take out when ready to drink. Squish the package, rip off the top to drink, or pour your rosé slushy in a glass.

Made with real rosé wine, natural fruit flavors (hints of strawberry, lemon, grapefruit, and peach) and a touch of sugar cane, Martini & Rossi Frosé pouches are not too sweet and oh so delicious! Plus, the pouches are easily portable and recyclable, so they can go where bottles can’t. Since summer in LA extends basically to December, Angelenos can sip and savor these low-ABV libations all yearlong. Look for these pouches next summer when the hit the broader market.

Hakkaisan Sparkling Sake

Bright and refreshing with elegant sweetness, sparkling sake is our new favorite bubbly! Hakkaisan Clear Sparkling “AWA” sake has a lovely fruit aroma with small bubbles. Produced by a secondary fermentation process inside the bottle (similar to traditional champagne), it is the perfect celebratory pairing for light salads, appetizers (think smoked salmon tartar), raw oysters, seafood, or light pastry.

The Hakkaisan Clear Sparkling “AWA” sake can also be enjoyed as an aperitif before dinner to enliven the palate and wake up the taste buds. Given the light sweetness on the palate, you can also try AWA with desserts, a favorite match up for berries, airy chocolate, or a matcha macaron. “Awa” means bubble.

Kanpai!

Slow and Low Rock and Rye Whiskey

84 proof, Slow and Low Rock and Rye Whiskey has been served “straight up” in saloons and pharmacies since the 1800’s. Savor neat or as a shot paired with a beer. Serve over ice as an old fashioned. A drink made by sweetening straight rye whiskey with rock candy and citrus peels. Slightly hot and peppery initially, but soon gives way to a mellow, smooth sweetness.

Inspired by Slow + Low’s partnership with Nico of @findyourcalifornia, an artist focused on female empowerment, Slow + Low hosted a six-city happy hour event tour, each featuring a specialty cocktail by a local bartender who identifies as female. Los Angeles’s Conservatory bar director Jessy Erickson’s winning submission, the Blue Smoke (an egg white sour variation inspired by a Dolly Parton song with Slow + Low Rock n Rye/fig/plum/jalapeño/rosemary) was featured (full recipe below) in LaLaLand recently. Try to make one at home.

BLUE SMOKE (named after a Dolly Parton song)

2 oz. Slow & Low Rock & Rye

.5 oz Honey

.5 oz Lemon Juice

3 dashes Fee Bros. Plum Bitters

1 heaping bar spoon of Salted Fig Jam (4 tbs. Fig Preserves + 1 tsp. Kosher Salt)

2 Strawberries

Half Jalapeno

1 Small Rosemary Sprig

Quartered “Tiger Stripe” Fig

.5 oz Creme Yvette

1 oz. Egg White

METHOD

• Torch Rosemary Sprig, and cover with Bowled Snifter Glass

• In shaker tin; add two strawberries (with green tops removed) & half of a jalapeno, and muddle

• Then add Slow & Low Rock & Rye, Honey, Lemon Juice, Fee Bros. Plum Bitters, 1 Heaping Bar Spoon of Salted Fig Jam

• Add Ice & Shake Vigorously; then set aside

• Uncap smoked Rosemary spring, and place glass in front of you (save the sprig for garnish)

• Strain shaken ingredients into the Bowled Snifter; then fill with ice

• In a separate tin, add 1 oz. Egg White & .5 oz. Creme Yvette

– Remove spring from Hawthorne strainer, and place inside tin with ingredients

– Vigorously shake everything, until a blue foam forms

• Strain foam onto top of cocktail

• Place Roasted Rosemary Sprig & Quartered “Tiger Stripe” fig on top of foam

Gin Mare

The Mediterranean Gin can be paired well with food due to its unique botanicals of Spanish Arbequina olive,

Italian sweet basil, Turkish rosemary, and Greek thyme. Move over Gin and Tonic, fall into autumn with the Mare Pumpkin Flip with 60 ml Gin Mare, 1 egg, 30 ml buttermilk, and 20 ml of pumpkins beer syrup.

Add ingredients into a shaker tin without ice. Dry shake hard for 10 seconds. Then add ice and shake hard for approximately 20 seconds. Double strain into a chilled glass and dust with nutmeg. To make the pumpkin beer syrup: Find a seasonal pumpkin beer – one with spices added is best. Pour beer into a sauce pan and stir vigorously to remove CO2. Add equal parts sugar. Heat/stir until dissolved, then let cool. Pour into a Gibraltar glass and garnish with dehydrated long pumpkin, one cinammon stick, and a star annise. Fall never tasted so good.