Category: Food & Drink

Canned Cocktail of the Week: Melograno tastes as good as it looks

Melograno’s got the prettiest can designs on the shelf. The cocktails themselves live up to that standard.

Welcome back to FTW’s Beverage of the Week series. Here, we mostly chronicle and review beers, but happily expand that scope to any beverage that pairs well with sports. Yes, even cookie dough whiskey.

Seltzers aren’t the only things cutting into beer’s market share. Over time, the quality of premade cocktails has risen dramatically to bring another slim-fit can to shelves and chip away at light beer’s popularity.

Melograno isn’t a traditional cocktail thanks to its agave wine base, but it’s elbowing its way into that demographic with upscale offerings like Pomegranate Cosmopolitan and Orange Blossom Martini. The pitch is simple; these aren’t your typical High Noon vodka seltzers or your VMC tequila drinks. They’re low-calorie cocktails with a moderate ABV (five percent) aimed toward a crowd with a more discerning eye.

I mean, that’s pretty obvious from the labels themselves. These cans are gorgeous. They come in a sea of rich, glossy patterns like the wallpaper in the great room of a house you can’t afford. But I’m wary of a “blue agave wine specialty.” These typically come up short despite the promise of big flavor on limited calories.

Can they possibly be as good as they look?

How to get the (real) Sopranos’ gabagool sandwich celebrating the show’s 25th anniversary

Gabagool? Over Here!

If you’ve ever wanted to dine at the fictional Satriale’s Pork Store from The Sopranos, today is (potentially) your lucky day.

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the show debuting its pilot, HBO announced a partnership with Postmates that allows fans of the show to eat like a made man.

Unfortunately, only fans in New York and Los Angeles (and surprisingly not New Jersey!) can enjoy this deal. But if you live in either of those cities, you can potentially have an iconic meal styled like a Satriale sandwich delivered to your doorsteps.

For fans who live in Los Angeles, they can use the Postmates app to deliver from one of the Ggiata Delicatessen locations. Meanwhile, folks in New York can find the sandwich from Regina’s Grocery.

Both restaurants, for today only, are searchable under Satriale’s.

They will have the sandwich (for $10 before delivery fees) listed as The Gabagool, which is what series lead Tony Soprano calls the Italian cold-cut meat also known as capicola.

Even though it is disappointing that this sandwich is only available in a limited quantity and while supplies last at participating locations, that will make it even more special for the lucky few who get their hands on such a treat.

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Hot dog! You can drive the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile thanks to a pun-filled job listing

Yes, you can apply to be the Wienermobile driver.

Hey, do you dream of driving a car that looks like a hot dog? Do you wish you were an Oscar Mayer wiener (driver)?

Then have I got a pitch for you! The hot dog company put out a job listing in which applicants can try to become a full-time, one-year driver of the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile. The salary and benefits? They say it’s $35,600, plus $150 a week for meals and travel, 18 days of paid leave, health coverage and your hotels covered.

Also, you get to drive the Wienermobile.

The job listing has so many puns, like: “If you relish in the chance to hitch a ride in a 27-foot Hot Dog supporting one of the world’s most iconic brands, the Hotdogger program is the place for you!” and “ur 27-foot-long hot dog on wheels has made it a mission to spark smiles around the country even on their ‘wurst’ of days.”

Just, uh, be careful with the car:

Beverage of the week: Canelo Alvarez’s VMC canned cocktails, sigh, pack a wicked punch

The boxer’s signature cocktails are perfectly balanced and eminently drinkable. Mostly.

Welcome back to FTW’s Beverage of the Week series. Here, we mostly chronicle and review beers, but happily expand that scope to any beverage that pairs well with sports. Yes, even cookie dough whiskey.

Once again, we’re diving into the ever-expanding chasm of celebrity-branded booze. A boutique kingdom once ruled by the likes of Sammy Hagar and Dan Aykroyd has seen an influx of invaders fight over an expanding territory and the hearts and minds of drinkers across the world.

In this column alone we’ve hit branded offerings from Guy Fieri, Kendall Jenner, Blake Lively and many others. Today, since this is a sports site after all, we’re headed to the ring to see what Saul “Canelo” Alvarez has in store. His VMC line of drinks — short for Viva Mexico Cabrones, which I *think* I can write here without getting dinged by Gannett’s standards and practices — taps into his Mexican roots with local tequilas and classic recipes.

But it’s a crowded landscape when it comes to 12 ounces of carbonated cocktails to-go. Does a world class boxer have what it takes to stand out?

Bourbon of the Week: Kentucky Owl is great. Is it $300 per bottle great?

Batch No. 12 works overtime to justify its staggering price. Does it get the job done?

Welcome back to FTW’s Beverage of the Week series. Here, we mostly chronicle and review beers, but happily expand that scope to any beverage that pairs well with sports. Yes, even cookie dough whiskey.

I underestimated Kentucky Owl.

I didn’t realize the bourbon cult behind this beautiful, old school Bluegrass State bottle. It arrived, fairly inconspicuous, alongside a bottle of hibiscus liqueur. It was offered with the same level of PR casualness of Terry Bradshaw’s whiskey, a decent-enough bourbon aged two years and not ideal on its own. It languished in my liquor cabinet a couple months before I pulled it out.

What I got was the opposite of a cheap mixer. Kentucky Owl cracked my ass right out of the bottle with rich flavor and a spirit that had clearly been aged and blended with care. I’d figured the “Batch No. 12” was a gimmick on the label to sucker anyone taking a quick glance into thinking it’d sat in oak 12 years waiting for its turn. It hasn’t, but it has the smoothness and strength capable of convincing you otherwise.

Plus, gimmick bottles don’t typically run you $300 to $400 MSRP at the liquor store (you can get it for a lot less at the right places. Like Costco, impressively).

After going in blind I dropped the backup strategy of seeing how it would serve as a mixer. This would be perfectly fine as a very expensive whiskey and Coke and also an immensely stupid one. It’s clear this bourbon has everything it needs to stand up on its own.

But is it worth the cost?

Hard Seltzer of the Week: Willie’s Superbrew is as weird as its name suggests

“Superfruits” and herbs make Willie’s stand out in a crowded seltzer market. Is that a good thing?

Welcome back to FTW’s Beverage of the Week series. Here, we mostly chronicle and review beers, but happily expand that scope to any beverage that pairs well with sports. Yes, even cookie dough whiskey.

Willie’s Superbrew is not like other hard seltzers. That’s clear right away.

Whether it’s the craft brewery-style 16-ounce cans with sticker labels or the bold promise of “superfruit,” it’s not a drink you’d ever confuse with High Noon, White Claw or a host of slim-canned market standbys. The Massachusett brewer’s uniqueness isn’t limited to marketing, either. Their lineup includes flavors like ginger and turmeric and hops, which go above and beyond the La Croix-limited palates of other seltzer brands.

A drink that started as a home-brewed, boozy and fruited ginger beer has expanded to three flavors from its New England roots. And each can, from its DIY aesthetic to the uncommon mashup of flavors inside maintains that vibe. That makes it very interesting and at least a little cool amidst a perpetually expanding marketplace.

But is it any good?