Inventory for February 7th, 2016

Cheers folks! This week Ralph Lauren took a stab at a desktop cocktail kit, Beefeater’s MIXLDN’s winner was announced, and Beefeater released its Crown Jewel gin.

Let it be Sunday! And because of that, let’s rejoice in some meaningless YouTube Videos. After the rainbow bagels we’ve found our new favorite: The Food Surgeon. A Seattle-based engineer named Jeff, The Food Surgeon would prefer to remain anonymous while he dissects peanut butter cups and refills them with Oreo cream. Trust us, it’s worth these five minutes. Oddly mesmerizing.

Ralph Lauren Releases totally affordable Desktop Cocktail Kit

The mixologist box is priced at a completely reasonable US$4,995 and, as The Spirits Business reports, is “made up of three compartments and a drawer containing a range of bar accessories designed by Ralph Lauren Home”. The box is made from rosewood and “features a 24% crystal ice bucket, a custom made Laguiole corkscrew, a silver-plated cocktail shaker, a Boston strainer, cocktail picks, holder, ice tongs, bar spoon, jigger, a cocktail knife, a Maple muddler and a hickory wood cutting board”. Of course, it’s a limited edition.

Beefeater MIXLDN 2016

Bartender Evelyn Chick, from Toronto’s Harbor Room, won this year’s Beefeater MIXLDN Global Bartender Cocktail Competition in London last week. Competing against 30 other bartenders, Chick’s interpretation of a classic gin cocktail  “Endless English Summers” was able to convince the jury. The press release happily announced that half of the top eight countries were represented by females. Over the next year Evelyn Chick will take over the job as Beefeater Apprentice Brand Ambassador and travel the world visiting numerous bartending events.

Beefeater’s Crown Jewel

In 1993 Beefeater launched its original product, the freshly released Crown Jewel uses that original recipe “incorporating Beefeater’s nine classic botanicals with the addition of grapefruit to impart crisp notes of citrus”. The bottle design was updated as well, with a more prominent logo and eight ravens decorating the sides. Beefeater’s global brand director J.C. Iglesias (no relation to Enrique we assume?) says “Launched before the super premium gin boom, Beefeater Crown Jewel was ahead of its time. We are excited to offer Beefeater Crown Jewel exclusively to the on-trade globally, inspiring the greatest creatives within mixology to celebrate the peerless qualities of this gin”. The gin is said to be velvety smooth with “delicate citrus aroma delivering hints of grapefruit and complex botanical flavours”. The 1L limited edition bottle will be available exclusively to the on-trade except for a very limited number of bottles being sold at Beefeater: The Home of Gin Visitor Centre at an RRP of €55.