As humans I think we have a strong connection to natural products and wood is a material that we like to have in our homes, more than perhaps stone, metal or even glass. Each product made from natural wood (note: not machine-made wood such as MDF) has its own colour, tone and pattern, thus meaning that every wooden item is unique. You know that you are the only person on the planet possessing an item with those exact markings and shades. I believe this makes us feel a little bit special and perhaps reminds us of our own uniqueness too.
One of the nicest wood-made gifts you can give is a wooden bowl. It not only looks amazing but is practical too. Wooden bowls can be used for daily dining, or they can be used to hold salad, fruit or sweets. A bowl made from wood can also be used purely for display purposes due to its stunning natural patterns and hues.
Of course, there are other reasons to purchase and use wood-based items. Buying a natural product is often eco-friendly and biodegradable, especially if you choose to use disposable wooden products for parties or picnicking. Another thing to consider is that more and more producers of wood items are small businesses or individuals in poorer countries who now have the opportunity to sell their natural wares to us via companies that care for the environment, practice sustainability, and work towards improving the welfare of its producers.
Yes – there’s something quite special about wood!
Acacia Wood Bowls
Acacia trees are very fast growing which makes them perfect for many uses. As a hardwood, it is a very good wood for furniture making and for use in construction, and, as you can see, it is also very beautiful so it is used in carving and bowl making very often too. Acacia has a lovely tone so musical instruments are made from it and in Hawaii it’s used to make surfboards and canoes. We love the deep, rich colour of the wood and its prominent grain.
Rubberwood is a light-colored tropical hardwood usually obtained from trees grown in rubber plantations. It is often promoted as being “environmentally friendly” because it makes use of plantation trees that have already served a useful function, that being the production of latex. You may also see Rubberwood products advertised as Hevea due to the Latin name of the Pará rubber tree from which the wood is acquired: Hevea brasiliensis. This wood has a dense grain and very little shrinkage making it a stable construction material and it’s great for making furniture, toys and kitchen accessories – especially bowls!
Technically a grass, bamboo is one of the fastest growing plants on the planet. Many of the larger woody bamboo species are tree-like in appearance and are often called “bamboo trees”. They even grow to be forests, the only grass that does this. Bamboo has so many different uses. It can be used for food, textiles, construction and, of course, as a replacement from many types of products were traditional hardwood might be used, such as furniture or tableware. Bamboo is light in colour but can be stained to create different tones. It is strong, durable and very eco-friendly.
Another ‘wooden’ product we have here which isn’t actually made of wood, but is growing very popular, are coconut bowls. This amazing looking tableware is made from the shells of coconuts that have been cut, cleaned, sanded and polished. They are food-safe, neutral in taste and recyclable. Of course, when you buy a product such as this you are helping to reduce the amount of plastic being created and reducing your own carbon footprint. We also love the patterns and colours in these coconut bowls and spoons!
I’m no expert on wood (although I do like to tinker with a bit of woodworking) however I would imagine that many different types of hard wood might make great bowls for food use if treated correctly. Softer woods might pose a problems for some uses but if a bowl was to be used only for display only, a soft wood bowl might be fine. The following bowls are just a small example of four different woods that you might like to incorporate into your dining usage or home decor.
We hope that you have enjoyed reading this short article on giving a wooden bowl as a gift idea or for using in your own home as daily tableware or as a display piece.
It’s quite common for publishers to release cookbooks at the start of autumn in preparation for the Christmas rush on gift buying that happens in the following couple of months, and in 2020 this was no exception. With the COVID-19 lockdowns and a general rise in interest in healthy and affordable cooking at home, more and more people are looking at buying recipe books for their friends and family, or for themselves.
The following books are just a few of the many released or updated around September 2020. Included are hit books from established chefs, award winning cooks and a recipe book especially created for your Halloween bash at the end of October!
7 Ways: Easy Ideas for Every Day of the Week by Jamie Oliver
Jamie Oliver’s recipe and cookbooks keep coming and they always fly off the the shelves. His latest book, 7 Ways: Easy Ideas for Every Day of the Week is no exception. In his book, Jamie has taken 18 of the nation’s favourite staple food ingredients; such as chicken breast, mince, eggs, mushrooms, etc., and using his skills and knowledge, he has created 7 new ways of cooking them. Each recipe is exciting and easily manageable, requiring a minimal amount of time, effort and extra ingredients. Recipes include: Sesame Roast Chicken, Mushroom Cannelloni, Sticky Ginger Beef, and much more.
“7 Ways, the most straight-forward cookbook Jamie has ever written. Simple, affordable and delicious food designed for all the family. Cooking dinner just got easier and tastier.”
Ottolenghi FLAVOUR by Yotam Ottolenghi and Ixta Belfrage
In this new cookbook Yotam Ottolenghi and his co-writer Ixta Belfrage bring you innovative vegetable dishes that are full of flavour and utilize exciting ingredient combinations to inspire and thrill. Ottolenghi FLAVOUR contains simple recipes for every day of the week. Each dish is low-effort but high in impact on the eyes and tastebuds. In the book, the authors explain how flavour is created, what you cooking processes you can use to get the most flavour out of your vegetables, and what produce pairings work exceptionally well together. Recipes include: Spicy Mushroom Lasagne, Romano Pepper Schnitzels, Miso Butter Onions and more.
Packed with colourful photography and innovative creations, Ottolenghi FLAVOUR is a must for vegetable lovers everywhere!
Dumplings and Noodles by Pippa Middlehurst
I was particularly drawn to this recipe book because of the eye-catching cover and also the fact that I’m interested in ramen! In the cookbook Dumplings and Noodles: Bao, Gyoza, Biang Biang, Ramen and Everything in Between, author Pippa Middlehurst discovers the traditional cooking methods behind some of our favourite Asian dishes. In this book you will learn how to make over 70 recipes with step-by-step techniques to help you achieve dumpling perfection and awesome wontons!
Recipes include mouth-watering dishes such as Barbecue Pork Bao, Miso Ramen, Aromatic Lamb Biang Biang and Dan Dan Mian, all accompanied by stunning photography and interesting information for food fans.
Cook Slow: Light & Healthy by Dean Edwards
TV chef Dean Edwards releases his latest book Cook Slow: Light & Healthy: 90 Easy Recipes for both Slow Cookers & Conventional Ovens as a follow up to his previous publication Cook Slow which was very well received by critics and home chefs alike. In his latest book, Dean wants to show us that your slow cooker is a versatile and amazing machine that can be used to cook light and healthy dishes and not just stodgy, winter stews that some might believe a slow cooker is only useful for. Its pages are packed full of amazing recipes including: Coconut Fish Curry, Teriyaki Beef, Baked Aubergine Katsu Cury, Maple Baked Figs with Granola and much more, including vegan and vegetarian dishes.
If you don’t own a slow cooker, fear not as all the recipes can be made in a conventional oven, however we would really recommend you invest in a slow cooker. Prices start under £20 and the electricity savings alone are a huge incentive to owning one, but we also love them for their practical usefulness and the fact that they make food taste amazing!
The Wicked Baker: Cakes and Treats to Die For by Helena Garcia
Helena Garcia, self-proclaimed creative witch, stylist and crafter, was a contestant on the Great British Bake Off TV show were she wowed the judges with her ghoulish bakes. In the cookbook The Wicked Baker: Cakes and Treats to Die For, Helena offers you a wide selection of spooky sweet treats and bakes, not only for Halloween but all year round! Make her Mummified Eclairs, Brain-shaped Cinnamon Buns, Cookie Bats, and the impressive Haunted Tree Cake. All the recipes are clearly explained with step-by-step instructions and the excellent photography really helps you visualise the final bake.
Yes, you too can become the Ghostess with the Mostest this Halloween with The Wicked Baker cookbook!
If you find holding glasses difficult or uncomfortable then these unusual and stylish drinks glasses from Bormioli Rocco may be the perfect drinks tumblers for you. Perhaps you no longer have the strength in your hands that you once did, or maybe a medical condition makes holding regular drinks glasses difficult. Suffer no more… And don’t let the strange design fool you – these tumblers may look awkward to hold, but they are anything but that!
The manufacturer calls these whisky glasses but in reality these are too big to be used for straight spirits, however they are perfect for mixers, soft drinks, juice or water. Each glass has a capacity of 420 ml (15 fluid ounces) and when empty they weigh 800 grams (28 ounces) so they are neither small nor light weight, but this all helps to make them a stable vessel for your drink. They stand 11 cm tall and have an 8.5 cm diameter.
As you can see, the design is quite unique. It has a timeless style that I don’t think will ever look old. When a glass is shaped like the Bormioli Rocco Sorgente above, or our favourite glass, the classic Blade RunnerCibi Double Old Fashioned Glass, it will never look out-of-fashion because it has an ageless design. In 10, 100 or 1000 years, these glasses will still be as appealing then as they are now!
You can purchase the Bormioli Rocco Sorgente Glasses on Amazon UK as either a pair of glasses (£7.99*), or as a box of six glasses (£14.99*).
*Prices shown are at time of writing and are subject to change at any time.
Our thoughts on the Bormioli Rocco Sorgente Glasses
What makes these Sorgente design glasses from Bormioli Rocco different? We took a long look at all the reviews and came up with the following observations. Buyers say that these drinking glasses are:
Stylish glasses that are easy to grip.
Comfortable to hold.
Great tumblers if you find holding regular glasses difficult.
Larger than normal glasses so may not fit small hands.
Definitely NOT a whisky glass – far too big – but great for mixers or juice, water, soft drinks, etc.
The packing is not altogether great and it is not gift boxed.
Some say the glass is a bit too thin and prone to breaking, whilst others think the opposite.
Reviews of the Bormioli Rocco Sorgente Glasses
There is nothing more honest that the reviews of real buyers and here are our top picks.
Amazon purchaser Pete writes of these Sorgente Glasses:
“These are marvellous glasses, larger than it seems from the photograph, these will easily hold a bottle of beer, so if you are measuring liquor into them, be careful. The shape, while curious, is excellent. It fits the hand very comfortably, and the ridges and twists in the glass make them extremely easy to hold and allow a firm grip. This is important for me as my hands do not function as they used to, so ordinary straight glasses can be a bit of a challenge. These are absolutely perfect and I can now comfortably hold a glass again without worrying overly much about it slipping out of my fingers. The glass is high quality, and these have a nice ring when clinked. It may not seem like it from the shape, but they are just as easy to clean as a straight glass. The base is nicely weighted and the size of the glass means it is not easy to knock one over. All in all an excellent drinking glass that is going to get a lot of use.”
Likewise, S. Smith says:
“Great glasses. Unusual design makes them stand out. I like a chunky glass and these are nice and solid in the hand. The contoured shape makes them easy to hold and no worries about them slipping out of your hand. Went through dishwasher ok.”
Happy buyer W.F. Smith notes:
“Excellent value for money. Attractive, lovely to hold. We tend to be good at breaking and chipping! Hence our glasses and crockery gradually get binned or recycled. We were down to our last two tumblers and I bought these. They look hard to chip or break. They are easy to pick up even from the top. They are lovely to drink from. I shall be using them for all drinks other than wine and even that I may…! So pleased I have bought another set.”
Therese offers her view and writes:
“While you may think these are difficult to hold, it’s actually the opposite, allowing better grip when slippery condensation occurs from ice cubes. Also great for having water on your bedside table as you grope around in the dark hoping you don’t spill water in your bed!”
Contented buyer Lee-anne notes of these unusual glasses:
“Love the feel of these in the hand they give you grooves to place fingers and with no effort afford a better grip a nice side effect of the beautiful, as we say in this house “wobbly glasses”.”
Christine Gaunt wasn’t so impressed and wrote:
“Ordered as a whisky glass but was too big. This was a gift but packing is not great so unable to give.”
Finally Karena gave these glasses 3 out of 5 stars and said:
“Like the shape, sturdy enough but a bit thick and cheap looking. Okay but not as nice as I had hoped.”
Conclusion
We really like the Bormioli Rocco Sorgente Glasses. Originally we were looking for new drinking glasses to replace our dwindling supply but the fact that these Bormioli Rocco designer tumblers not only look great but are easy to hold too appeals to us. We both do a lot of typing and our hands can become quite fatigued by the end of a busy day. I also know of a couple of people that, due to medical conditions, could really benefit from easy-to-hold glasses and these would make great gifts for them.
Halloween arrives every October and usually the parties we attend aren’t fearsome at all. Some of them are even downright pleasant. It just isn’t right, you know. What we need are some Scary Cocktails to spook up the evening! In this article we have for you 48 of the best cocktails with a Halloween twist that we think will make your party really, really frightening!
If you visit our Amazon UK Storefront you will be able to find some of the glasses, tools and spirits used in the recipes below that we think will help you make the perfect Halloween cocktails and drinks for your party.
Halloween Punch
Here we have a spookily scary recipe for Halloween Punch that is sure to get your Halloween party started with a pop, whizz and bang!
Ingredients
Grape juice
Various fizzy drinks
Orange sherbet
Lime sherbet
Get your grape juice and a variety of carbonated soft drinks (club soda, ginger ale, lemonade, limeade, etc.) and mix them all together in a large punch bowl. Then take scoops of the orange and lime sherbet and carefully float them in the punch. They will start to melt a little and in a few moments a nasty looking film will spread all over the top of the punch. There should still be little “bubbles” in it, which makes it look like a witches cauldron! Yes, it will look foul, but it will taste great and the kiddies will love it!
Display your punch bowl in the center of the room and cackle loudly like a witch whilst serving your guests. Please refrain from adding any lizards. It really does ruin the flavour.
Black Devil
Here’s a simple cocktail recipe for Black Devil, that uses just three ingredients. So don’t be a devil, offer your mates this great drink when they come around on Halloween.
Ingredients
½ oz dry vermouth
2 oz light rum
1 black olive
Grab a twisted bar spoon and stir the light rum and vermouth with cracked ice and stylishly strain into a cocktail glass. Top with the black olive and serve. We suggest that you make this cocktail with a sly, devilish look on your face, so as to unnerve your guests. As you pour it into the cocktail glass, keep the impish grin. It really worries people.
Evil Blue Thing
What exactly is an Evil Blue Thing? Papa Smurf crossed with Frankenstein’s Monster perhaps? Who knows?
Ingredients
1 ½ oz white creme de cacao
1 oz Blue Curacao liqueur
½ oz white rum
Pretend to be a mad scientist! Put on a laboratory coat, frizz up your hair and crazily pour all the ingredients into a tall glass almost filled with ice cubes. Stir well and serve. Stare wildly at your guests whilst shouting “It’s Alive! It’s Alive!” Drop in a brain-shaped ice ball and you’ll really look the part.
Bill Murray and The Ghostbusters
Put on your boiler suits, strap a vacuum cleaner to your back and pretend that you are the brilliant Bill Murray and knock back a few of these cocktails with your ghostbusting friends.
Ingredients
12 oz bottle Budweiser ® lager
2 oz Jim Beam ® bourbon whiskey
You don’t need much in the way of brains to make this cocktail. Simply pour both ingredients into a beer mug, stir lightly and serve.
For even greater enjoyment, get hold of a copy of Ghostbusters (preferably on VHS) and watch it with a few friends. If you dumped your video recorder years ago you could always watch Ghostbusters on Blu-ray and enjoy the ‘dated but fun’ special effects really pop!
Klingon Blood Wine
A cocktail for Trekkies. If you didn’t know, a Klingon is an extraterrestrial humanoid warrior with a ridged forehead, snaggled and prominent teeth, and a defined language and alphabet. They are also quite bronzed. I guess that the colour of their blood looks very much like the hue of this cocktail.
Ingredients
1 oz Jose Cuervo ® Especial gold tequila
1 oz Captain Morgan ® Original spiced rum
1 dash grenadine syrup
2 dashes Tabasco ® sauce
Cranberry juice
Add 2 dashes of Tabasco sauce to a beer glass or beer mug filled with ice. Pour in the tequila, rum and grenadine, and then fill to the top with cranberry juice. Carefully shake a couple of times and then serve. ‘Iw HIq tIv! as they say in Klingon.
Bat Bite
I like bats. No, really, I do. They’re like cute little mice. That fly in the dark. With wings. And sharp teeth. Celebrate your love of bats too with this Bat Bite cocktail recipe.
Ingredients
2 shots spiced rum
1 dash grenadine syrup
Cranberry juice
Pour the spiced rum over a few ice cubes in a tall glass. Fill further with cranberry juice, and finally add a splash of grenadine. Stir it all together and serve. This drink is most often served in a highball glass.
Vampire bats are amazing little creatures. It’s a shame that they have an unfounded scary reputation, but I suppose that any creature with the word ‘vampire’ in its name is going to frighten people. In fact, all three vampire bat species are very sociable, and you should be too at your Halloween Party this year!
Cemetery Cider
It’s scary walking through a cemetery at night, isn’t it? Build up some courage by drinking this cider cocktail before you go off on your midnight graveyard expeditions.
Ingredients
2 oz Captain Morgan ® Silver spiced rum
2 oz Jim Beam ® bourbon whiskey
2 oz Bacardi ® orange rum
12 oz apple cider
Combine the two rums and bourbon over ice in a cocktail shaker. Put on your best bartender waistcoat and shake well. Add the apple cider and stir lightly. Pour the majestic mix into a pint glass and serve to your guests before they go out night walking.
Green Demon
A Green Demon sounds like a really bad guy that, despite being evil, cares very much for the environment. This cocktail recipe uses fruit based ingredients so I guess that it’s a bit environmentally-friendly too!
Ingredients
1 oz Vodka
1 oz Rum
1 oz Midori ® Melon Liqueur
Lemonade
1 Cherry
Put on your favourite hemp jacket and organic bamboo slacks. Shake your vodka, rum and liqueur in a cocktail shaker and pour over a tall glass filled with ice. Top up with lemonade, and with gusto, add the cherry on top. Serve in a highball glass to all your sandal wearing friends. Seriously though folks, look after the planet, okay.
Dead Pirate Seaspray
Arrr! Pieces of Eight. Ahoy me mateys. Etc. Fed up of the old ship grog? Why not add a bit of smoothness to your cocktail evening with this great recipe. No dead pirates are used as ingredients in any form. Avast!
Ingredients
1 ¾ oz Malibu ® Coconut Rum
1 ¾ oz Kahlua ® Coffee Liqueur
1 tbsp Whipped Cream
Don your Pirate hat and pour the Malibu rum and Kahlua into a cocktail shaker half-filled with ice cubes. Shake vigorously like you were having a sword fight with Black Beard himself, and strain into a cocktail glass. Top with whipped cream. If you want to go the whole hog, garnish with a maraschino cherry and serve. Aye!
The Black Death
The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 75 to 200 million people in the 1300s – so let’s celebrate it with a cocktail, shall we!
Ingredients
1 to 1 ½ shots vodka
½ oz soy sauce
This cocktail is simplicity itself. Mix both ingredients in shaker and pour over ice. Serve cold.
This drink is usually served in an old-fashioned glass, preferably on a hot day with the sun shining over the thousands of rotting corpses littering the streets. Happy Halloween everybody!
Neon Nightmare
Do you remember the Eighties? I do. They were a nightmare – A Neon Nightmare you might even say! If you’re holding an 1980s themed Halloween Party then it’s law that this cocktail must be served.
Ingredients
1 ¼ oz Malibu ® Coconut Rum
½ oz Midori ® Melon Liqueur
¼ oz Blue Curacao Liqueur
3 ½ oz Pineapple Juice
Combine all the colourful ingredients into a mixing tin full of ice. Shake it like you’re Wham singing “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” and after all the prancing about, strain into a hurricane glass. Garnish with an orange flag. If you’re going to ask me why the flag has to be orange I think it’s because many of the pop stars of the time had fake orange tans so perhaps orange was the official colour of the eighties!
Zombie
No doubt you’ll get a few zombies at your Halloween gathering, and most likely they’ll be the folks who were too late to hire a costume so they just put on their old gardening clothes and splattered fake blood over them. Poor effort chaps! Never mind, cheer them up with this zombie cocktail recipe.
Ingredients
½ oz Bacardi ® 151 rum
1 oz pineapple juice
1 oz orange juice
½ oz apricot brandy
1 tsp sugar
2 oz light rum
1 oz dark rum
1 oz lime juice
Zombies shuffle around a lot so you’ll have plenty of time to gather all the ingredients for this cocktail. Once you’re ready, blend all ingredients with ice except the Bacardi 151 proof rum. Pour the blended mixture into a collins glass and carefully float Bacardi 151 proof rum on top. Garnish with a fruit slice, sprig of mint and a cherry, not that a zombie would be able to taste it of course. When you’ve lost your brain, you also lose your sense of taste.
Devil Juice
If you thought that Devil Juice was made by squeezing ripe Devils, then you’d be wrong. It requires five ingredients that are easy to find, and when combined together may give one helluva hangover!
Ingredients
½ oz sloe gin
½ oz bourbon whiskey
½ oz vodka
½ oz Amaretto almond liqueur
6 oz Coca-Cola ®
Go on… Be a devil and make this knockout cocktail. It’s so easy. Take a Collins or highball glass and fill it with ice cubes, then pour all the ingredients over the ice. Stir and serve, or better still, drink it yourself. It is not obligatory to wear a Devil costume with forked tail whilst making this Halloween cocktail, but it is more fun.
Evil Tea
In my house we generally drink PG Tips or something similar, and usually our tea is anything but evil, unless it’s been steeped for too long of course. This Halloween I’m going to enjoy a glass of Evil Tea, but probably not for breakfast before doing a day’s work. I can’t see that going too well.
Ingredients
2 oz Captain Morgan ® Original spiced rum
10 oz iced tea
If you can’t make this cocktail, you’ve probably been at the rum already. Simply mix the rum and iced tea together well, pour over ice and serve. Even a blind pirate with one-legged parrot could make it. This cocktail is most often served in a Collins glass. If you haven’t got one of them, use a tall tumbler. They’re more or less the same thing.
Blood
Blood. We all have it running through us. Unless you’re an alien. Or a politician.
Ingredients
2 oz Bacardi ® white rum
1 oz raspberry syrup
Grab your ingredients and pour them into a Champagne flute filled with crushed or shaven ice. The raspberry syrup creates the blood red complexion so if your blood looks a little pale, add some more. Serve to your friends asking loudly, “Does anyone need blood?”. Vampires are likely to be first in line.
Bloody Margarita
Here’s a Margarita recipe with a twist. The juice MUST be blood orange juice, otherwise it kinda loses the whole Halloween themed feel.
Ingredients
1 ½ oz tequila
1 oz blood orange juice
½ oz fresh lime juice
¼ oz Cointreau ® orange liqueur
You’ll need a cocktail shaker to make this cocktail to perfection. Shake all the ingredients with ice in the cocktail shaker, strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Serve to your friends or drink it yourself. Whatever you do, don’t add any cocktail umbrellas to this drink. They’ll poke you in the eye for sure. Simply garnish with a slice of blood orange and congratulate yourself so being oh-so-very sophisticated.
Acapulco Zombie
I’ve never been to Acapulco so I’m not quite sure if it is full of zombies or not. In the 1960s, it used to be full of the jet set – film stars and mega-rich socialites for instance – so perhaps Acapulco is where famous people become the living dead after they have died.
Ingredients
1 shot vodka
1 shot tequila
1 shot rum
1 dash white creme de menthe
orange juice
grapefruit juice
Head to your cocktail bar and pour all the alcohol into a tall highball glass. Next, add the two juices in equal amounts and finally add a little Creme de Menthe. Drink a few of these and you too will be “going loco down in Acapulco”!
White Bat
A white bat? Surely such a thing does not exist. It really does though. The Honduran white bat has snow white fur and a yellow nose and ears. Also it is teeny at less than 5cm long. I bet it’s cute! I don’t know if the Honduran white bat has a bite, but this cocktail certainly does.
Ingredients
1 ½ oz Bacardi ® white rum
½ oz Kahlua ® coffee liqueur
1 ½ oz milk
3 oz Coca-Cola ®
Milk and Cola together sounds disgusting doesn’t it? Well, you’ll never know until you’ve tried this cocktail, will you. Get to it then! Build all ingredients in a tall glass over ice. Stir the ingredients slowly to mix them well and serve with a straw.
If you are at a Halloween party and you’re wearing those funny plastic vampire teeth, you may want to remove them before attempting to drink cocktails. Colourful sticky substances dripping down your chin and onto your shirt is not an attractive look.
Frisky Witch
I’m not really into witches, but a frisky one does sound like a lot of fun!
Ingredients
1 part black sambuca
1 part vodka
You don’t even need a cauldron, bubble, trouble or eye of newt to make this cocktail, just a Collins glass or tall glass into which you pour both the black sambuca and vodka. Stir the spirits and enjoy!
In general, witches get a bad press, don’t they. I’m sure that they are not all cackling, old goats with black hats, hooked noses and gnarled fingers. I mean, Sabrina was pretty cute, wasn’t she?
The Graveyard
When I was a kid I used to have to walk past an ancient, spooky graveyard on the way home from school. Most of the time it was fine, but if I didn’t get out of school on time or if it was a dark, wintry afternoon, I would run past that graveyard as fast as my little legs could carry me!
Ingredients
1 oz Tabasco ® sauce
1 oz tequila
lemon-lime soda
Take a tall or highball glass and pour 1 oz of Tabasco Sauce over ice and then add 1 oz of Tequila. To finish of this wicked brew, fill the glass with lemon-lime soda. Stir and serve. You can also make this in a cocktail shaker and shake the drink to mix it. It’s your choice. Be careful though – this is a spicy cocktail. Too many of these and you’ll end up in the graveyard yourself!
Dead Hand
There is a pub in Salisbury that has (or had before it was stolen) a mummified hand encased in glass embedded into the wall. The pub is The Haunch of Venison and legend has it that the hand belonged to a cheating gambler who was playing cards with a butcher. The butcher took offence to his sneaky ways, chopped off the gambler’s hand and threw it into the fireplace where it was later retrieved by staff. I’m sure that this cocktail tastes nothing like petrified gambler’s hand. Less chewy, I’d imagine.
Ingredients
1 oz whiskey
1 oz vodka
1 oz rum
2 oz Midori ® melon liqueur
Fill almost to the top an old-fashioned glass with ice cubes and add the ingredients. Stir well and serve, preferably to those that don’t cheat at cards.
Creeping Death
With four shots of vodka in it, this cocktail lives up to its name. Your hangover is bound to feel like a slow, painful creep towards death if you have too many.
Ingredients
4 shots vodka
8 shots extra dry vermouth
1 pinch salt
orange juice
Grab that bottle of vodka and pour 4 shots (yes, four) into a cocktail shaker glass. Add the dry vermouth and a pinch of salt and fill it up with orange juice. Shake well and serve in a tall highball glass.
I wonder if death is like the movie “Ghost”? You know. Pottery making with dead people and such.
Dark Nightmare
We all have nightmares. Well, I guess we do. I know that I do. In fact I had one last night which was quite bizarre and just a small bit frightening. I suppose that if you drink too many of these cocktails, you will have dark nightmares, so just stick to one or two, okay.
Ingredients
¾ oz Kahlua ® coffee liqueur
⅛ oz Goldschläger ® cinnamon schnapps
⅛ oz milk
You’ll need a shot glass for this cocktail. Pour in the Kahlua and Goldschläger and add the milk last. Stir. Enjoy. Go to work.
Vampire
Vampires don’t really seem that scary to me. As long as you only go out during the day, you’ll be fine, and if you do want to venture out at night time you just need a bit of garlic around your neck to keep them away. It might ruin your date, but at least you’ll be free of neck bites. Mind you, that depends on the person you’re dating. I knew this one girl…
Ingredients
1 oz Chambord ® raspberry liqueur
1 oz vodka
1 oz cranberry juice
Get yourself a cocktail shaker and pour the ingredients over ice in the shaker. Serve this cocktail as shots in an old-fashioned tumbler.
Seriously though, hickeys are dangerous so be careful. Not as dangerous as being bitten by a vampire, I grant you, but love bites can be pretty scary things. Be careful out there folks.
Fuzzy Evil
Fuzzy Evil sounds like a fun, but ultimately terrifying experience. This cocktail is made of three fruit flavours so I’m certain that it is delicious, but it might give you an evil hangover!
Ingredients
1 oz peach schnapps
6 oz orange juice
6 oz pineapple juice
Get yourself a cocktail shaker and pour in all the ingredients over crushed ice. Shake it well and strain into a Collins glass. Serve to your guests whilst muttering crazily under your breath.
Green Devil
The Green Devil is best mates with the Green Demon. They spend their weekends terrorising the board members and shareholders of companies who engage in environmentally harmful operations. Well, I wish they did. Those people are pond scum. This cocktail, however, is rather nice indeed.
Ingredients
1½ oz gin
1 oz green creme de menthe
½ oz lime juice
Shake all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice and strain into an old-fashioned glass over a few ice cubes.
Listen up people. Messing with the environment is a really nasty thing to do. Recycle. Be nice to the planet. Fight against evil corporations. We can all make a difference if we try. Word.
Bloody Brew
This sounds like a really great Halloween cocktail. It uses ingredients that almost everyone will bring to your Halloween party so whilst they are dancing to ‘The Monster Mash’, rummage through all the drinks, grab your cocktail jug and become the hero of the party with your “Bloody Brew”.
Ingredients
2 oz vodka
3 oz beer
4 oz tomato juice
1 pinch salt
Pour the vodka, beer and tomato juice into a mixing glass or jug that’s half-filled with ice cubes. Stir it up really well. Add salt to taste and stir well once more. Strain into a highball glass and for the final touch, garnish with a dill pickle spear. Serve to your awaiting fans. I suggest you also throw in a fake eyeball or two and make all the squeamish scream. It’s so much fun!
Green Fairy Blood
Absinthe is also known as the Green Fairy and in the early 1900’s it was banned in many countries due to its supposedly hallucinogenic qualities. If you plan on making this colourful cocktail make sure that you’re relatively sober when attempting to make it because not only does it have absinthe in, it also involves the use of fire.
Ingredients
1 oz absinthe herbal liqueur
1 oz creme de menthe
1 oz Green Chartreuse ®
1 oz fresh water
1 tsp sugar
Mix the ingredients in the order shown above over a sugar cube on an absinthe spoon. Carefully light the sugar cube and when the flame dies immediately stir the sugar into the waiting glass until it dissolves. Serve in an old-fashioned glass.
Black Sabbath
No, not the heavy metal band formed in 1968 in Birmingham, England. This Black Sabbath cocktail is nowhere as near as shocking as Ozzy Osbourne’s vocals, although it does have a bit of a kick.
Ingredients
2 oz bourbon whiskey
2 oz dark rum
2 oz Jagermeister ® herbal liqueur
Dust off your cocktail shaker, half fill it with ice cubes and combine all the ingredients. Shake well whilst belting out ‘Paranoid’, then strain into a chilled highball glass filled with ice cubes. Serve to your dumbfounded guests.
Ozzy, Tony, Geezer and Bill would approve.
Witch Hunt
Here’s a great game to play at your Halloween party. Ask all the witches that have come to your party to hide somewhere in the house or garden, and then all the other guests have to try and find them. As a prize, the last one to be discovered gets to enjoy this cocktail before anybody else!
Ingredients
1 oz Scotch whisky
1/2 oz dry vermouth
1/4 oz Strega ® herbal liqueur
1 oz lemonade
Grab a bottle of Scotch (no point in using something special as a mixer), the dry vermouth, Strega and lemonade and pour into an old-fashioned glass three-quarters filled with cracked ice. Serve to the winner of your hide-and-seek game. All others have to wait patiently.
Don’t go hunting witches in real life. They done nothing to hurt you. Unless they have of course, in which case, break out the pitchforks and light the bonfire!
Green Goblin
In the comic book world, the Green Goblin is a Halloween-themed supervillain whose weapons look like bats, ghosts and jack-o’-lanterns. You may have see him terrorising Spiderman in 2002’s Spider-Man and 2014’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2 movies. The thing that really frightens Spiderman though is not the Green Goblin villain, it’s this Green Goblin cocktail which is guaranteed to put most superheroes on their backs in a few pints.
Ingredients
½ pint hard cider
½ pint lager
1 shot Blue Curacao liqueur
Grab a pint glass. Pour in the cider first, then the lager. Finish it off with the Blue Curacao to add colour. Basically, this drink is a Snakebite with Blue Curacao. There’s also a similar drink called a Purple Nasty, which is a Snakebite and black (blackcurrant juice). A snakebite is a nasty/tremendous/evil/magical thing which will turn your world inside out and upside down if you’re not too careful!
Braindead
A few too many of these shot sized cocktails and you too will be brain dead… at least for a day or two anyway.
Ingredients
2 cl vodka
2 cl sweet and sour mix
2 cl triple sec
ice cubes
You’ll need a cocktail shaker to become Braindead, so get yourself one! Fill the shaker half full with ice cubes and then add all the delicious ingredients. Shake well and carefully pour in a shot glass, without the ice.
Grateful Dead
Jerry Garcia’s favourite cocktail perhaps? The Grateful Dead had a career spanning more than 30 years, selling more than 35 million albums worldwide, which is very impressive. The Grateful Dead were known for their fusion of country, folk, bluegrass, blues, reggae, rock, improvisational jazz, psychedelia and space rock, so perhaps this cocktail was named after them because of its unusual mix of five differing alcoholic drinks. Who knows? I bet it’ll put you into a psychedelic trance if you have too many though.
Ingredients
1 part tequila
1 part vodka
1 part light rum
1 part gin
1 part Chambord ® raspberry liqueur
Put Live / Dead on the record player. Shake all ingredients in a cocktail shaker and pour over ice in a Collins glass. Serve to your hippie friends.
Did you know, fans and followers of The Grateful Dead are commonly known as Dead Heads. Way out, man.
Death by Chocolate
Death by Chocolate is more commonly a dessert featuring chocolate as the primary ingredient, however there’s absolutely no reason why diners should have all the fun, is there?
Ingredients
1 oz Irish cream
½ oz brown creme de cacao
½ oz vodka
1 scoop chocolate ice cream
Get yourself a blender and combine all the ingredients with one cup of crushed ice. Blend well until smooth. Pour the delicious mixture into a parfait glass and top with whipped cream. Sprinkle with chocolate shavings and serve. Preferably to yourself with no one else around to interrupt your enjoyment of this delicious cocktail!
Grim Reaper
The Grim Reaper is a personification of death, and as we know from the marvellous works of the much-missed Terry Pratchett, Death only Speaks in capital letters. Of Death it is said: “Like most Grim Reapers, he is a black-robed skeleton usually carrying a scythe. He does not cause people to die, nor does he concern himself with their goodness or badness in life; it is simply his job to collect their souls at the appointed time. Somewhat like a garbage man making his rounds emptying the trash cans, Death performs a vital but thankless task.”
Ingredients
1 oz Kahlua ® coffee liqueur
1 oz Bacardi ® 151 rum
1 dash grenadine syrup
Take an old-fashioned glass and mix the kahlua and 151 proof rum. Quickly add ice and pour grenadine over the top to give the ice a red tint.
“No one is actually dead until the ripples they cause in the world die away.” ― Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man
Phantom
The most famous phantom is probably The Phantom of the Opera character created by the French writer Gaston Leroux (Le Fantôme de l’Opéra, 1909). I’ll be honest, I’ve never read the book, seen the film or witnessed the stage play, but I know that Sarah Brightman was involved at some point and that lady scares me to death!
Ingredients
3 cl Licor 43 ® liqueur
3 cl Absolut ® vodka
milk
Turn on your stereo and turn up The Phantom of the Opera CD. Whilst singing along with Sarah, pour the Licor 43 into a highball glass filled with ice cubes. Add the Absolut vodka, top up the glass with milk and mix well.
Spooky Juice
Possibly the best named Halloween cocktail, Spooky Juice must look pretty weird with orange juice and blue curacao. Hand out a few of these as your guests arrive at your Halloween party to get them in the mood and a good night is sure to follow!
Ingredients
1 oz Absolut ® vodka
2 dashes Blue Curacao liqueur
1 dash grenadine syrup
fill with orange juice
Simplicity is the essence here. Stir all the ingredients together with ice and pour into a tall glass – a highball glass is perfect.
I think that a Halloween Party with lots of strange and wonderfully coloured drinks really breaks the ice. “Oh, yours is green! What’s it called? I want one of those to match my makeup!”.
Little Devil
“Oh you Little Devil”. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard those words muttered at me in my life. This is a cheeky little cocktail recipe that includes lemon juice to add sharpness.
Ingredients
1 oz dry gin
1 oz rum
½ oz triple sec
½ oz lemon juice
Grab your cocktail shaker and half fill it with ice cubes. Pour in the gin, rum, triple sec and lemon juice and shake well. Stylishly strain the drink into a cocktail glass and serve. If you regularly make or serve cocktails at home it is important that you present them in the correct glasses. Not only does it make the cocktail taste better, but you are also automatically deemed to be a VERY COOL PERSON.
Bloody Dragon
Toothless. Smaug. Maleficent. Dragons – they’re great, aren’t they? If you like them as much as we do, grab yourself a glass and make this dragon-inspired cocktail.
Ingredients
2 oz gin
5 oz tomato juice
¼ oz lemon juice
1 dash Tabasco ® sauce
1 dash Worcestershire sauce
1 – 2 pinches celery salt
You can use a short or tall tumbler glass for this drink. Grab your glass and add cracked ice then stir in the ingredients and serve. This cocktail is quite similar to a Bloody Mary, hence the name I guess. I like how the tomato juice adds a deep red colour, because as we all know, short-tempered dragons are always red and bloody-minded!
Bite Your Mama Bloody Mary
Here’s a different twist on the classic ‘pick-me-up’ drink. This Bloody Mary recipe uses clamato juice instead of tomato juice to add a fishy flavour. I’m not sure what this has to do with biting your mother though. Perhaps the inventor of this cocktail was a vampire?
Ingredients
1 ½ oz vodka
2 oz clamato juice
2 dashes Worcestershire sauce
2 dashes Tabasco ® sauce
1 pinch celery salt
2 pinches horseradish
3 – 4 oz tomato juice
Retrieve your trusty cocktail shaker and combine all the ingredients together with ice cubes. Don’t shake the cocktail but carefully stir to mix the ingredients well. Pour into a highball glass filled with ice cubes and finally garnish with a pickle spear, olives, and a slice of lime.
The Bloody Mary has been called “the world’s most complex cocktail” and this version seems to take it just a little bit further with its three garnishes, however there’s not a stick of celery anywhere to be seen. That’s because it’s hard to bite your mama with a celery stalk poking out your nose!
Beast Juice
With Mountain Dew and Red Bull, I reckon this is a perfect cocktail for the PC gamer. All it’s missing is a bag of Doritos!
Ingredients
2 oz white rum
4 oz chilled Mountain Dew ® Code Red soda
4 oz chilled Red Bull ® energy drink
Tear yourself away from World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor for a moment and grab a Mountain Dew and Red Bull out of the fridge. Find that lost bottle of white rum that your uncle gave you last Christmas and stir all three drinks together in a tall glass. Head back to the PC, boot up Minecraft and enjoy your cocktail.
Gravedigger
Bacardi 151 rum is a very high proof rum that is 75.5% alcohol, or 151 proof (hence the name), that you can’t find in many places. Jim Beam is a lovely bourbon from Kentucky with an ABV of 40%. Put them together and you have a cocktail shot that is sure to put you in the grave at an early age.
Ingredients
½ shot Bacardi ® 151 rum
½ shot Jim Beam ® bourbon whiskey
It’s easy to make this cocktail recipe for the first two or three times, but after your fourth Gravedigger, you’re going to be struggling a little. Simply fill a shot glass half and half with Bacardi 151 rum and Jim Beam whiskey in whichever order you want. Enjoy – in moderation!
Bloody Demon From Hell
This is a cocktail to strike fear into the very hearts and minds of all that attend your Halloween party. A Bloody Demon From Hell. Not just a regular Demon. No, this Demon is Bloody — and it’s from Hell. It’s emphasising two points, warning you in advance that you WILL feel its effects after drinking it!
Ingredients
1 oz Jameson ® Irish whiskey
1 oz Captain Morgan ® Silver spiced rum
1 oz Jim Beam ® bourbon whiskey
1 oz Bacardi ® gold rum
2 oz tomato juice
2 oz Worcestershire sauce
1 oz hot pepper sauce
Similar again to a Bloody Mary, this cocktail is as much a meal as it is a drink. Just combine all ingredients in a large, tall glass, stirring well to make sure everything is well mixed. Garnish with a radish or a celery stick and serve to your friends, possibly with a warning pamphlet or something.
Yes, you did read that correctly. “Garnish with a radish.” A radish! Truly this is a demon drink. God save us all.
Death by Shot
Death by Shot. That’s a bit obvious really, isn’t it? If you get shot, there’s a good chance that you will experience death. There’s no beating around the bush with this drink. Basically it’s a warning – drink me and die!
Ingredients
1 oz white tequila
8 drops Tabasco ® sauce
1 red pepper
The preparation for this drink is hazardous at best! Pour the white tequila into a shot glass and carefully lay drops of Tabasco sauce on top. Do not mix, but allow the Tabasco sauce to settle. It looks really cool! Slowly introduce (meaning: place carefully) a red pepper into the glass.
How to drink: Eat the pepper as quickly as possible, immediately followed by shot. Depending on what chili pepper you choose, this cocktail could have a nice subtle spicy taste, or it’ll blow your head off! I recommend a Piri Piri for a gentle hit or a Trinidad Scorpion Butch T for a knockout punch.
Death Wish
Sadly, Charles Bronson is no longer with us, but if he were alive today I suspect that he might enjoy a glass or two of this cocktail. Oddly though, the ingredients in this drink are anything but violent or punishing like the film Death Wish.
Ingredients
1 part Southern Comfort ® peach liqueur
1 part Dr Pepper ® soda
Pour equal measures of Southern Comfort and Dr Pepper into a glass and stir. It’s suggested that you serve this cocktail in a beer mug. Sure… if you want the mother of all hangovers!
Silver Spider
The Silver Spider sounds like the lovechild of comic book characters Silver Sable and Spider-Man, which is entirely possible because they have teamed-up together many times to fight crime. Of course, if you don’t read comic books or watch these sorts of movies you won’t have any idea what I am talking about. Why not just make this cocktail and enjoy its minty flavour.
Ingredients
½ oz vodka
½ oz light rum
½ oz triple sec
½ oz white creme de menthe
Pour the rum, vodka, triple sec and creme de menthe into a stainless steel shaker over ice and shake until super chilly. Strain into an old-fashioned glass (tumbler) and serve to your waiting guests.
Silver Sable first appeared 1963 in The Amazing Spider-Man comic book, titled “After the Fox”, issue #265, which you can pick up now in as-new and unblemished condition for the bargain price of over $200. Yes, collecting comic books can be quite lucrative.
Gold Wizard
Some wizards are wise, some are kind, some are absent-minded bumbling fools, and some are downright evil. I put the person who designed this cocktail into that last category of wizard. Adding banana liqueur and vodka to Chardonnay must surely be an evil abomination!
Ingredients
4 oz Chardonnay white wine
2 oz banana liqueur
1 oz Absolut ® vodka
1 cherry
Get a cocktail shaker and shake the Chardonnay, the banana liqueur and the vodka together with 2 ice cubes for 30 seconds. In a cocktail glass place a cherry at the bottom and pour in the liquid. Serve with a flourish shouting “Abracadabra” each time someone takes a sip!
I assume that the liqueur makes the gold colour for a Gold Wizard, but seriously though, who decided to put banana liqueur and wine together?
The Crypt
In both 2009 and 2014, there were movies made called “The Crypt”. Both were utter rubbish so let’s hope that your Halloween party doesn’t turn out to be a disaster like these movies were. Serve a few of these cocktails and I think you’ll be just fine.
Ingredients
1 oz sloe gin
1 oz Southern Comfort ® peach liqueur
1 oz Amaretto almond liqueur
1 oz vodka
1 oz triple sec
1 splash 151 proof rum
1 dash lime juice
Pour all of the ingredients, except 151 rum into a cocktail shaker and shake it well. Strain over ice in a tall hurricane glass then carefully float the 151 rum on the top and serve to your friends. A drink we reckon that Indiana Jones would be happy to enjoy the next time he raids a crypt or two.
Did you know that, after water, tea is the most widely consumed drink in the world? Tea originated as a medicinal drink by ethnic groups in an area that encompassed north Burma and southwestern China, whilst records of tea drinking date back to the 3rd century AD!
Jumping forward to modern times, approximately 63% of Brits drink tea daily – that’s a lot of people. With that in mind we thought that a quick roundup of Amazon UK’s best selling tea accessories would be good for those seeking gift ideas for avid tea drinkers. We hope you find it useful.
Tea Bag Storage
Specially designed to hold teabags in their paper sleeves, these tea storage boxes not only look great but are very practical too. Some are available in different types or shades of wood, and often you have the choice of size depending on how many compartments you require. Those with a clear top allow you easily choose your teabag of choice, or give you the opportunity to show off your ‘collection’!
It is important to protect loose tea from moisture and sunlight. An airtight container such as a tea caddy is vital because it will preserve the flavour of the tea and keep it dry. They were originally designed to hold loose tea, but many people nowadays use tea caddies to store tea bags in. Whatever you wish to store in a tea caddy we are sure that you will find one to suit your home on Amazon UK where we found the following striking tea caddies.
If you use loose tea in a tea pot it is advisable to pour the tea out through a tea strainer even if your tea pot has a built in strainer. The finer mesh in a tea strainer such as the couple shown below ensures that even the finest of tea leaves does not escape into your cup.
There are a huge variety of loose teas easily available now and the two tea infusers seen here allow you to enjoy a great deal of specialist teas and other infusions without leaving leaves in your drink.
Some people insist that making tea in a teapot with loose tea leaves is the ONLY way to make a real cuppa whilst others prefer to use teabags in the pot for convenience. Arguments can get as heated as boiling water, I can tell you! We don’t care though. As long as we have a brew on the go, we are happy.
If you enjoy experimenting with different infusions, an infuser teapot makes things simple and easy. The glass pot allows you to see the colour of the liquid to ensure you get the strength you require.
We put our used teabags in the compost (or sometimes mix in with soil) so after being removed from the mug, we put the teabag to one side. One of my pet peeves is seeing used teabags discarded on the worktop so I insist that we have a teabag tidy close to hand at all times. You could use any small dish or saucer, but the following teabag coasters and tidys look much better!
I hope that you’ve enjoyed reading this short list of great gifts for tea drinkers and that it’s given you some ideas of what to buy the tea lover in your life.
With the release of Blade Runner 2049, I thought I would take a quick look at the history surrounding the Cibi Double Old Fashioned Glass as used by Rick Deckard in the original Blade Runner film released in 1982. I previously mentioned these Blade Runner whisky glasses in my light-hearted article Perfect Pairings, and it achieved a large amount of hits so I thought that I would try and discover more about these ‘Cibi’ glasses.
A Little History: The Cibi Glass Maker and Designer
The Cibi 030101 Double Old Fashioned Glass was first produced by Italian glass makers Arnolfo di Cambio, and was designed by Italian designer Cini Boeri in 1973.
Born in 1924, Cini Boeri is an award-winning industrial designer, architect, and interior designer. She is one of the few female Italian designers to achieve international success in the postwar era. Besides designing the sculptured whisky glass used in Blade Runner, Cini Boeri created has many modern Italian design classics, including furniture, luggage, chandeliers and buildings. In 1979, she won a Compasso D’Oro and in 2008 she also won a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Italian Cultural Institute of Los Angeles. You can find out more about Cini Boeri on her website at www.ciniboeriarchitetti.com (if you speak Italian) or en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cini_Boeri (for the English speaker).
Arnolfo di Cambio was founded in Colle Val d’Elsa, Tuscany, in 1963. The town is famous for crystal working and since its beginnings, the company has grown to become one of the world’s most respected international glass makers. Products by Arnolfo di Cambio have earned a range of prizes and awards, and they are enjoying their rightful place as one of Italy’s leading glass manufacturers. Visit their website at www.arnolfodicambio.com
Blade Runner and The Cibi Glass
Despite having a relatively small budget, every single set and location in Blade Runner is filled with props and art decoration. Director Ridley Scott says “When it comes to science fiction, the devil is in the details”, and this attention to detail included using the Cibi glasses we know and love.
However, the Cibi glass wasn’t just a prop. It was a commercially available, hand-made crystal, mouth-blown old fashioned tumbler that Ridley Scott chose to be used by Deckard in the movie. Arnolfo di Cambio were supplying many props for the movie and Scott chose the square Cibi old fashioned glass specially for its unique design which has proved to be timeless.
Blade Runner is a movie that almost overloads the senses with its amazing scenery, script, and concept. Your eyes are constantly discovering new sights each time you watch it, but one image that stuck with me from the very first viewing was Deckard and the incredibly large and unusually shaped glass that he drank his whisky out of. I don’t know about you, but I have wanted one of those glasses since my eyes first caught site of it!
The Cibi Double Old Fashioned Glass Specifications
The price of these magnificent glasses isn’t cheap, but they are very special and brilliant for movie buffs everywhere! A single glass costs around £75, whilst the twin pack is priced at about £130, with prices fluctuating from time-to-time, however these whisky glasses come in a very stylish gift box and they make an excellent gift for a Blade Runner fan.
Below are the must-know technical specifications and other available Cibi products:
Model: Cibi 030101 Type: Double Old Fashion Glass Volume: 37cl Height: 93mm Diameter: 82mm Weight: approx. 700 grams Material: Hand-blown crystal glass Available in:Twin Pack Available in:Single Glass
Also available: Model: Cibi 030001 Type: Single Old Fashion Glass Volume: 22 cl Height: 84mm Diameter: 70mm Weight: approx. 700 grams Material: Hand-blown crystal glass Available in:Twin Pack
You can see even all these and more Blade Runner inspired gift ideas in our Amazon Ideas List here.
What else should I know?
In the original Blade Runner, Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) is seen drinking Johnnie Walker Black Label Blended Scotch Whisky out of his Cibi double old-fashion tumbler. Why not get yourself a bottle of this classic whisky costs and relive the film in your own home in the most authentic way as possible!
Below you can see a video of Deckard in his apartment with the famed Cibi whisky glass in hand. As he walks through his apartment there’s fantastic attention to detail, the bottle of black label Johnnie Walker is picked up and you can see many other bottles placed strategically around the room. I’ve also included here the original 1982 Blade Runner movie trailer.
Did you know, in 2017 Johnnie Walker released a strictly limited edition Black Label “The Director’s Cut” Whisky in the very unusual shaped bottle portrayed in Blade Runner? (As in the clip above.) You can find out more details on the Johnnie Walker website.
Unlike the Cibi whisky glass, the unusual shaped Johnnie Walker bottle was not commercially available. Doing a little research online, I discovered that when props were presented to Ridley and his team, they only had 2 glass bottles available. Ridley and others loved the bottle so much that they wanted a few copies made for production so about a dozen vacuum-formed copies were made. Unfortunately they all leaked so the copies were used for set decoration only and simply became static props. (Source)
Blade Runner 2049
At the time of writing, Blade Runner 2049 is on general release in cinemas. It has received some very good reviews and looks set to become a modern classic, but we’re not concerned with that. The question we are asking is, does the Cibi Double Old Fashioned Glass appear in the 2017 movie?
In a photo on the Warner Bros website you can see actors Harrison Ford and Ryan Gosling chatting with director Ridley Scott whilst a Cibi Double Old Fashioned glass sits on the counter top in front of them. I suspect that this is a photograph taken on set so our hopes are high that it will make an appearance.
Update: Sources tell me that, yes, the Cibi glass does appear in the movie, and it can be seen in the headquarters of Wallace Corporation, so that’s great news!
I hope you’ve enjoyed learning a little about the Cibi Double Old Fashioned tumbler as much as I’ve enjoyed researching it!
Do you crave a cappuccino when you thirst for a coffee? If so, then this Zeller 12-Piece Cappuccino Set would be an great addition to your home.
In this lovely gift set you will find six stylish cappuccino cups with saucers incorporating a unique ‘faces’ design. This coffee set comes in a gift box, meaning that this would make a wonderful present for coffee lovers as well as for yourself! The cappuccino cups are beautifully shaped so that you can enjoy an authentic Italian coffee in style at home whenever you feel the need for a refreshing cappuccino.
At just £36.76* we feel that this makes an excellent gift. We love presents that can be put to everyday use, as well as being nice enough to be displayed when not in use!
A cappuccino is an Italian coffee drink which is traditionally prepared with espresso, hot milk and steamed-milk foam. The name comes from the Capuchin friars, referring to the colour of their habits, and in this context referring to the colour of the beverage when milk (originally: cream) is added in small portion to dark, brewed coffee (today mostly espresso). (Wikipedia)
How to make a cappuccino
Folgers, makers of fine coffees, give the following instructions on how to make a great cappuccino coffee:
First, steam the milk. Heat 236ml (1 cup) of milk in a 2 litre saucepan over medium heat. Let the milk simmer until bubbles form around the edges, but don’t boil the milk. Remove the pan from heat and set it on a flat surface.
Next, whip the milk with an electric mixer, increasing the speed as the milk begins to thicken. Continue mixing until you get the desired volume of froth.
Now, make the coffee. Measure 2 tablespoons of grounds for 150 to 175 ml of water. Try using French Roast Coffee for a full-bodied taste, or make it with Decaf Coffee for a caffeine free cappuccino. You can brew the coffee in an automatic drip coffeemaker or a French press.
Now, make the cappuccino! A classic cappuccino calls for 1/3 espresso, 1/3 steamed milk, and 1/3 foam. You can mix it up by using 2 or 3 tablespoons of flavored syrups or even different kinds of milk, like chocolate or vanilla.
Krista Ricchi on her blogsite Alla Fiorentina also describes how to make cappuccino at home without using a coffee machine. It’s a great read and describes the process really well.
Essential reading
We imagine that if you’re reading this article then you probably like drinking coffee! Below are some books which aim to inform you more about this tasty, traditional brew and tips and advice on how to make the perfect drink. Enjoy your coffee!
In recent articles we have given you some great examples of heart shaped kitchenware that might suit your lucky Valentine this year including the following gift idea articles (see below), however if you are still searching for heart shaped gifts then read on.
In this article we are going to offer you some more lovely heart shaped gifts suitable for people that love to cook and bake, and we also think that they make attractive heart shaped items for your home.
These are some of our favourite love heart products for the kitchen and dining room. I think that heart shaped chopping boards are both very pretty and very useful, whist the heart ravioli stamp is a lot more specific to a particular person – one whom makes their own ravioli of course! Other gift ideas (especially for Valentine’s Day) are more to do with food presentation rather than cooking, such as the serving platters and heart shaped coasters. Whatever heart design gift you chose, I am sure that the recipient will be very pleased.
That wraps up this year’s suggestions of heart shaped gifts. I hope you have found the perfect cookery gift for lovers of love hearts! Don’t forget to check out our full list of Valentines ideas for baking, cooking and gifts in our Amazon shop.
Whether you’re baking a cake for your Valentine or making a tiered wedding cake, heart shaped cake tins are a brilliant way to represent love in cake form! Cake pans come in different designs and you may prefer one type over another. Some cake tins have removable bases whilst others have a springform clip to allow the baked cake to be removed easily. Whatever you preference, below are a few different heart shaped cake tins that are sure to make baking brilliant!
Single Piece Heart Shaped Cake Pans
Some bakers prefer to use single piece baking tins to avoid any cake batter leakage. Baking in a single piece cake pan is as old as time, however as you need to invert the cake after baking you may find that it is not so easy to remove compared to a springform cake tin or pan with a removable base.
Springform cake tins have an adjustable latch or buckle that allows you to remove the sides of the pan after baking thus making it easier to remove the baked cake. One advantage that springform cake pans have is that you do not need to invert the cake to remove it from the pan which is an essential need for some delicate bakes, such as cheesecakes, or cakes which toppings on them, however some bakers experience leakage with these types of cake tin.
If you are making a tiered cake for a wedding or engagement party the following heart shaped cake pans might be just what you need to make the perfect centre piece. With three and four tier options the following cake tins are sure to make your tiered heart shaped cake dazzle!
The final three cake tin offerings below are all a little bit different. Firstly we have a five piece cake pan set for when you want to really ‘wow’ your guests with a heart shaped cake of mighty proportions. The second cake tin from Wilton has a very clever design where you can bake a cake with a heart shaped center. The cake itself is round, but when you cut into the cake you will find a perfectly formed heart and everyone will congratulate you on your baking skills! Finally we have a 4 piece fluted edge mini heart shaped baking tin set when you want to make a frilly and delicate cake (or four).
Are you planning on baking something sweet for your loved one this Valentine’s Day? If so, creating a tasty gift in the shape of a heart is perfect! Heart shaped baking moulds can be used to make chocolate sweets, flavoursome desserts, baked cakes, cake decorations and much more. Of course, these heart moulds can be used all year round for embellishments on engagement and wedding cakes, to make wedding favours and so on. Read on to view our favourite selection of great heart shaped moulds for baking.
Bulk Baking Hearts
If you plan on baking lots of heart shaped treats at any one time, look no further than the following baking moulds that offer you the chance to bake up to 165 hearts from one single purchase! You can also see a full list of valentines baking, cooking and gift ideas in our Amazon shop.
A heart shaped mould may not be an item you use often, except around Valentine’s Day, but it is useful to have in your kitchen cupboard. The following heart moulds will not take up too much space to store but are very useful when the need arises for one. Having a baking mould shaped like a heart might even get you to bake more often, which is always a good thing!
These three heart moulds are a little bit different. The Wilton mould makes baking a breeze – just add chocolate buttons! I think the alphabet heart shaped moulds are great, and the ten cavity hearts mould in the shape of a heart looks neat. Any of these baking moulds would make baking for Valentine’s Day more productive.
How better to show someone you care than by preparing for them something tasty made in heart shaped bakeware. Individual ramekins are a lovely way to create an intimate atmosphere over dinner, and a dish in the shape of a heart can show lots of people that you care about them. It doesn’t matter if you’re making something sweet or savoury, baking your food in heart shaped dishes really does show that you are “cooking with love”!
Heart Shaped Ramekin Sets
Whether you’re planning a cosy evening in on Valentine’s Day with your loved one, or a throwing party with lots of guests, all who happen to really like crème brûlée, these heart ramekin sets are perfect!
Ramekins are perfect for individual sized portions, but personally I like something bigger to eat! Any dish prepared or served in one of the following heart shaped dishes would be perfect. There’s no denying that all these heart dishes look very stylish and they are sure to make your food look even more appetising.
Heart shaped cookie cutters are an essential item for both the aspiring or experienced baker. Of course, when we think about heart shaped bakes we immediately think of Valentine’s Day, but heart designed bakes are also very commonly used in wedding cakes and engagement bakes. Or perhaps you might simply want to bake the love of your life some cookies to let them know how much they mean to you – and that sounds perfect to us! Below are some of our favourite heart shaped cookie cutter sets.
Heart Shaped Plastic Cookie Cutters
Plastic is a very common material for making cookie cutters and other pastry design shapes. They are easy to clean and safe for kids to use so get your youngsters into the kitchen and get them baking lovely heart shaped goodies with you this Valentine’s Day!
Some people prefer to use metal implements in the kitchen. These heart cookie cutter sets are made from either stainless steel or aluminium. They are stylish and durable and offer many years of heart shaped baking pleasure.
Here we have picked out for you three brilliant sets of cookie cutters that are perfect for your Valentine’s Day baking! Theses cookie cutter sets have heart shapes, of course, but you can also cut out more complex biscuit shapes and even the word “LOVE” with the metal cutters included.
Batman and Robin, Rogers and Astaire, Bonnie and Clyde. What do all three of these have in common? They are all perfect pairings of course, and on Kitchen and Cook Shop we have come up with our own dynamic duos of the home.
So without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, I invite you to meet the Kitchen & Cook Shop Couples!
The Nespresso inissia by KRUPS and Nespresso Coffee Capsules
Pairing Nespresso coffee capsules with a Nespresso coffee machine is pretty obvious really so we won’t dwell on it. If you are looking for an affordable entrance into the world of great coffee at home without the hassle of bean grinding, tamping and other fulfilling – but ultimately time consuming – tasks, then a KRUPS inissia is perfect for you. Once you have your coffee machine, what better to get you started than 50 wonderfully tasting coffee pods in 5 different flavours. Bellissimo!
I don’t think I need to say any more, but I will. This classic pairing of food and drink can only be improved by presenting your favourite cheeses on this beautiful cheese board with handy drawer and knife set, and why not pair your choice of cheeses with a case of fantastic red wines from Spain from the wonderful Rioja region. Cheese and wine, the ultimate food pairing? Chicken and watermelon just doesn’t have the same feel to it, does it?
In the classic Sci-Fi movie Blade Runner, Rick Deckard is seen drinking 12 year old Johnnie Walker Black Label Scotch whisky out of a Cini Boeri-designed “Cibi” double old-fashion tumbler. We consider this a classic pairing, and one that you too can create today at home in your own living room. Put Blade Runner on the Blu-ray or DVD player and enjoy the experience even more!
Quintessentially British, a good cup of tea and biscuits is well known to solve any problem, from a broken nail to global meltdown. Yes, a cup of Earl Grey delicately poured from a teapot and a tray of home-baked biscuits alleviates all worries.
The ingredients for the perfect biscuit need to mixed properly before cutting out the shape and we like the look of this stylish VonShef stand mixer. It is very well priced and is also available in other colours to match your kitchen. Once the mixture is ready and rolled out, the biscuits need to be cut to shape. These double edged plain and crinkled biscuit cutters are the choice for us.
The biscuits are baked and sitting upon a floral patterned plate ready to be served to our guests. Presentation is everything so I brew my Earl Grey in this pretty Wrendale by Royal Worcester hare design fine bone china teapot and place it together with the biscuits and finest china tea cups on a Wrendale serving tray. Perfect!
I hope that you’ve enjoyed reading our light-hearted look at items that can be paired together well in the home. What kitchen or cooking products do you consider to be your very own Sonny and Cher, John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John or Laurel and Hardy?
In autumn 2015, there were quite a few new cookbooks released, which is always very interesting to us at Kitchen and Cook Shop. In this short article I’m going to take a quick look at five of the more popular recipe books published and see what kind of exciting dishes there might be for us to cook at home.
Please note that in this post I will be looking at the hardcover printed editions of the books, but you may find that some (or even all) of these recipe books are also available in Kindle format, eBook format or in paperback too.
NOPI: The Cookbook Hardcover by Yotam Ottolenghi and Ramael Scully
Yotam Ottolenghi is a London-based restaurateur and food writer for The Guardian. He is the owner of the Ottolenghi restaurant delis in London and the highly regarded NOPI restaurant in Soho. This new cookbook contains over 100 of the most popular dishes from the Soho restaurant. It has been developed and written with long-time collaborator and NOPI head chef Ramael Scully. With a Malaysian, Chinese, Indian and Irish heritage, ‘Scully’ brings a distinctive Asian twist to the Ottolenghi kitchen.
The hardback book contains over 350 pages and the recipes within have been adapted so that the home cook can recreate the amazing dishes in their own kitchens. Ottolenghi fans will be familiar with starter dishes such as aubergine with black garlic or roasted squash with sweet tomatoes. Main courses include beef brisket croquettes and Persian love rice.
Chapters include starters and sides, fish, meat and vegetable mains, puddings, brunch, condiments and cocktails so there are plenty of recipes for all occasions. This cookbook sounds great to me, although I am a little concerned about how easy these recipes will be for me to cook at home, because I’m not that proficient in the kitchen!
A Year of Good Eating: The Kitchen Diaries III by Nigel Slater
This huge tome of 560 pages is a completely fresh take on seasonal cooking by respected food writer and presenter, Nigel Slater. In this cookbook, the third installment of Nigel Slater’s classic Kitchen Diaries series, Nigel explores the pleasure of eating well throughout the year.
The stories and recipes in the Diaries are interspersed with short sections of seasonal quick, easy meals and larger dinners. Nigel’s characteristically simple recipes and inspiring writing make his new recipe book a great guide to good eating every day of the year. A Year of Good Eating is also available in Kindle format.
I have read Nigel Slater’s columns in The Observer newspaper before and I find his writing excellent, so I expect this book to be very well received.
My Kind of Food: Recipes I Love to Cook at Home by John Torode
Most of you will know John Torode from mega-popular BBC1 TV shows MasterChef, Celebrity MasterChef and Junior MasterChef where he is the judge and presenter. He is also the presenter of A-Z of Cooking on BBC2. John is also regular writer for Good Food, Olive, Waitrose Magazine, and Good Housekeeping among other popular magazines.
In this 300+ page book he offers us recipes for his favourite dishes that he cooks at home. Some recipes he learned from family and others are inspired from his many years of experience in restaurant kitchens. Chapters of the book include Brunch and Lunch, Quick Meals, Outside Cooking, and Desserts.
I’ll be honest and admit that I personally don’t like to watch John Torode on the TV. I find him rude to the contestants, however many people love him so I’m sure that this book will fly off the shelves, but personally I won’t be buying it!
Tom’s Table: My Favourite Everyday Recipes by Tom Kerridge
Tom Kerridge is a two Michelin-starred chef who now regularly appears on TV. He was recently called ‘the man of the moment’! I don’t know about that, but I know that I’m interested in Tom Kerridge’s cooking.
The recipes in this book really appeal to me too because I like meals that I can cook with ingredients that are easily available and affordable. In Tom’s Table you will find recipes such as cheddar and ale soup, the ultimate roast chicken, lamb ribs with roasted onions, stuffed green peppers, and home-made ketchups and much more. Perhaps it’s the pub lover in me that appreciates Tom and his passion for food that people like me enjoy eating.
When Christmas comes around, this will be one of the recipe books that I would love to receive as a gift. How about you? Is Tom’s Table a recipe book that you would like to read?
The Uncook Book: The Essential Guide to a Raw Food Lifestyle by Tanya Maher
Tanya Maher is a leading health coach and blogger with a large fan base of people from all over the world. She specialises in creating irresistible raw food recipes which are often on the menu in her two London cafés. In this book, Tanya draws on her years of experience as a raw food nutritionist to bring you recipes covering categories such as basic raw food recipes, fun family favorites and elegant entertaining with living foods.
Her recipes are easy-to-follow and have a modern edge; perfect for those that wish to embrace this healthy way of eating for breakfast, lunch and dinner. There is even a section on delicious superfood cocktails, however I do not know if these cocktails include alcohol or not!
I have a couple of friends that already make raw food dishes, and to be honest, sometimes their menus are rather dull, so perhaps I shall invest in this book as a Christmas gift for them!
I think that these five recipe books all bring something different to the kitchen table – from seasonal British dishes to Asian-inspired menus and lots more in between.
Summer is here and it’s the time of year where we head outdoors as much as possible. Barbecues and picnics and Al Fresco dining are essential to our enjoyment of summer. Here at Kitchen & Cook Shop, we realised that taking your dining room outside often means turning to plastic cups and plates for safety and ease of transport. This is by no means an environmentally friendly option, especially if the plastic plates and cups are the throw away variety. Although plastic outdoor tableware is reusable, there is no doubt that it will eventually find it’s way to land fill when it has reached the end of its usefulness.
Bamboo – a popular alternative material.
Whilst looking for alternatives to plastic, we discovered that there is a wide range of products made from Bamboo. As a material bamboo is environmentally friendly, biodegradable and comes from sustainable sources. It is also lightweight and so makes a great alternative to plastic for your picnic and tableware.
Another option is glass, but although it is also an environmentally friendly option, it is not always suitable for outdoor dining if there are children involved and breakages could happen. Glass is also quite heavy and could weigh down your picnic hamper or rucksack if you plan to walk with your picnic.
Lightweight metal such as aluminium and stainless steel is also a good alternative to plastic. Think metal flasks to keep drinks cool, instead of plastic bottles. Aluminium wine coolers and metal cafetieres all make great environmentally friendly options.
The Cambridge range of Bamboo tableware comes in a range of options with a trendy flamingo design which we love. You can have a set of plates and bowls for four or eight people, a set of four cups, serving jug and carry tray, chip n dip tray, with serving bowl and utensils, or just a serving bowl and utensils. You can also have the full set of everything in a setting for four or eight.
The bamboo is strong and durable and will not break. It is also dishwasher safe which is an added bonus.
Sustainable Colourful Drinking cups
This set of four drinking cups are made from bamboo and environmentally friendly products. They come in three colours, pink, blue and green. You can use these cups for hot or cold drinks, and they are dishwasher safe. You are less likely to drop these cups as they have a slightly rough feel to the outside which acts as a non-slip surface. They won’t break or splinter like glass. A great environmentally friendly alternative to plastic.
Set of 2 Amaoma Jujube Wood Cups
These wooden cups would make a fine alternative to the traditional glass. We think they’d be great for drinking small coffees, wine, fruit juice or punch without the worry of glass breakages.
These cups are made from grade A Jujube wood and have a 200ml capacity, which is quite small so they are perfect for taking on picnics. There is also a small tray available which really sets off this set of wooden cups.
VonShef Wine Cooler Bottle Holder
The VonShef Wine Cooler is made from stainless steel with a double walled construction to keep your wine cold. It’s lightweight and portable and will keep your wine cooler for longer without the need for ice. It is designed to fit all standard wine bottles. We like this stylish plastic free stainless steel wine cooler.
See our full list of environmentally friendly Outdoor Dining ideas here, dinner sets, cups, cutlery, food covers, and more! Let us know if you have any favourites we’ve not included.
A Halloween party provides a great occasion to have some really good fun. From dressing up as spooky characters, to creating a three course ‘Adams Family’ type dinner, there’s fun to be had for all ages.
So, if you’re putting together a Halloween Party this year, for kids or adults, we have a few suggestions for you to really add an extra touch of spookiness to the occasion! (You can also find our extended list of recommended halloween party essentials in our spooky amazon ideas list here.)
Cool Cubes
It’s important to keep your guests cool after they have got all sweaty from dancing to “The Monster Mash” and other Halloween classics and we really like these shaped ice cube trays and ice ball mould. Just make sure you have enough ice ready for after you’ve been dancing to The Rocky Horror Picture Show’s “The Time Warp”. Jumping to the left and stepping to the right can really take it out of you!
You can also use these moulds for making cakes or sweets so you are getting even more spooky potential for your money.
You’ll get much more Halloween kudos if you serve your drinks and ice from skull designed glassware. This ice bucket, decanter and refillable bottles should cover all the bases.
If you plan on having some drinks at your Halloween Party then why not spend a little effort and make the occasion more memorable with this selection of halloween glassware. Shot glasses, wine glasses, beer glasse, they are sure to strike fear into the brave souls that come forward when you shout out “Shots, anyone?”. Mind you, after I’ve had a few shots, the evening becomes a blur and I can’t remember much at all so take it easy with the shots, okay!
Are you arranging an extra special party for Halloween this year? If so, perhaps you may wish to savour the occasion with some more noteworthy spirits. The vodka, rum and tequila below are all very special spirits that come in unique bottles that you are sure to want to keep and show your guests. We won’t tell anyone if you want to reuse the bottles for other drinks!
If you know of a Winnie the Pooh fan, or perhaps you are a huge fan yourself, we have chosen here some Winnie the Pooh mugs and sets that will make fantastic gifts for all occasions. The great thing about giving a mug as a gift is that because it is used often it tends to make the recipient smile each time they have a cuppa!
Winnie the Pooh Single Mugs and Mug Sets
There are many beautifully designed mugs for Winnie the Pooh fans. Some have well-known quotes from the bear about love and life, friendship and food, whilst others simple have a lovely depiction of his happy, smiling face. For those who are also fans of Tigger, Eeyore or Piglet there are character mugs that will make them smile.
If you want to give a gift to someone important to you, then these Disney Classic Collectable Mugs are perfect. They ooze style with their gold accented handles and classic black and white artwork. These Winnie the Pooh mugs are gift boxed and would make a very special gift for someone you care a lot about.
During our adult working lives we will spend approximately a third of our time at work. That’s a lot of hours to be away from our home comforts and easy accessibility to food. It is important to eat during the day as we have to ‘recharge’ our bodies with energy-giving food. Grabbing a burger from the local fast food joint isn’t going to do our bodies any favours in the long run so many people take their own packed lunch with them to their job, be it sandwiches, salads, homemade healthy smoothies or shop bought goods.
Whatever food you take to work, it’s important that it arrives fresh, secure and undamaged. I can confirm from experience that cheese and ham sandwiches smothered with strawberry yogurt from a cracked pot is as disgusting as it sounds!
Lunch Boxes
Lunch boxes come in all shapes, sizes and colours and we particularly like Bento boxes that are becoming popular. It’s important that lunch boxes are tough, close securely and of a size that suits the bag you most often take to work. Below are some of our favourites.
Many people enjoy the benefits of a slow cooker at home – I know I do – so why not take some of your tasty creations to the office. If you have a microwave at work you can reheat your meals and make everyone at your job envious of your cooking skills when they catch the aroma your food, and if you don’t have any way of reheating your food, a food flask is ideal as it keeps your food hot for a decent length of time.
I would hope that your office has some kind of drink making facilities, but if not you might wish to take your own drinks bottle or flask with you. Flasks are great for hot beverages such as tea or coffee, but they are also excellent for soup which is perfect for warming you up on a cold wintry day, whilst bottles keep your fluids safe and leak-free.
Hopefully some of the products here offer you an idea on how you can make your daily trip to work a little more safer for your lunch, with the added advantage of keeping your fluids warmer or cooler – depending on your needs!
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Take a look at Kitchen & Cook Shop's Ideas Lists on Amazon. All of our best recommendations in handy lists ready for you to buy with a quick click. Including gift ideas, party essentials and more.
