sponsored | SusieDrinks

SNAIL MAIL COCKTAIL
CHEERS by Southern Fried Paper & SusieDrinksDallas, a collaboration I’ve been working on with Southern Fried Paper, is now available for purchase! With boozy cards, prints, coasters, swizzle sticks, and more, you can send a friend a note telling him he’s your cup of ~~tea~~ whiskey!

I mean … if you like me at all you’ll check out what we’ve done. No pressure.

Price: $3.50 – $20
Purchase: At the Southern Fried Paper retail section of 2524 Converse Street or online starting December 15.

BUZZED AND WIRED

Nespresso’s new Vertuoline brewing system is sleek, slim, and pretty damn sexy looking. Oh, and it brews a damn good cup of espresso. It was one of Oprah’s “Favorite Things” this year … and, well … if it’s good enough for Oprah, it’s good enough for me.

If you need ideas for cocktails to get you buzzed and wired, check out some of my Buzzed Boozing recipes here!

Price: $299 for the VertuoLine system
Purchase: Online or at the NorthPark Center boutique

I obviously need something to put my yummy espresso in … duh. I chose Nespresso’s Pixie Espresso cups in black (Ristretto), but they come in a bunch of colors, including rose gold! (I won’t judge your color choice.) I also just realized that it looks like a pod upside-down.

Price: $35
Purchase: Online or at the NorthPark Center boutique

CHEWABLE COCKTAILS
Anyone can make an Old Fashioned in a glass, but how many of you can say that you can make it as a rich, chewy caramel? Shotwell has a cute 4-flavor caramel sampler that includes each of their four featured flavors, including Old Fashioned and Craft Beer & Pretzel that is perfect for boozy gifting!

Price: $19.75
Purchase: Shotwell Candy Co.

DON’T BE A TOOL … JUST GIVE A TOOL
My whole apartment is black, white, and gold, and that makes finding bar tools a bitch to find. Luckily West Elm’s Deco Barware Collection is a set of gold-finish bar tools to help me round out my bar cart (which coincidentally was also purchased at West Elm).

Price: $79
Purchase: at West Elm or online

BOOZY JAM
With flavors like “Drunken Monkey Jam” and “You’re My Boy Blue-berry Bourbon Jam”, you can’t go too far wrong with this 4-flavor boozy jam sample pack. Because toast deserves better than boring jelly.

Price: $15 for the 4 flavor sampler, $10 per full-size jar
Purchase: The Jam Stand

WEAR YOUR COCKTAIL ON YOUR SLEEVE
A local t-shirt company started by two Frisco teachers is making a splash with their soft, wearable tees. Tumbleweed TexStyles lets you show your Texas pride … and your drink order!

BONUS: I’m giving away one WINE t-shirt (pictured right) this holiday season! To enter to win the shirt, you can either post this gift guide on Twitter and tag #FestiveFinds and @drinkdallas -OR- post your favorite gift on this guide to Instagram and tag #FestiveFinds and @susiedrinksdallas

Price: starting at $9.50 (and get 20% off any apparel, gear, and glassware with the code SUSIE)
Purchase: Tumbleweed TexStyles

LOBALL A HIGHBALL
While cold balls can be a problem, these are a solution. The LoBall Whiskey Sphere is a stainless steel ball is filled with a cooling liquid that has a lower freezing point than water, so it stays cooler for longer.

Bonus: you can have it engraved with any text you’d like or even a custom image for just $10.

Price: $24.99 – $34.99
Purchase: sipdark.com

IN-FLIGHT BUZZ
Complete with a spoon/muddler hybrid, bitters, cane sugar packets, a coaster, and recipes, this Carry-On Cocktail Kit is a tin that helps make the crying baby and the dry, recirculated air a little less awful. Plus, getting drunk at 10,000 feet is easier.

Price: $24
Purchase: Food52.com

AN ICE CREAM DREAM
This is all you need to know: alcohol + ice cream. Brilliant, right? BuzzBars offers sorbet and ice cream bars in flavors like Blitzed Berry (strawberry ice cream & rum), The Drunken Cookie (Cookies ’n Cream ice cream & whiskey), and the Larry King Heart Bar (berry sorbet & merlot wine). You can order their BuzzPacks now (12-bar cases)! Order ASAP because they’ll go out December 15-24.

Price: $100/BuzzPack (includes gift wrap & overnight shipping)
Purchase: At Spec’s or at buzzbaricecream.com.

PAST HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDES:

2013
2012
2011

For more gift ideas, you can click here.

Last Monday, the bf and I made the trek to Allen to visit every hunter’s Mecca (Cabela’s, of course), and were faced with the nearly unsurmountable decision of deciding where to eat on the way back. We agreed on TGI Friday’s on 75 at Park, bedded down at the bar, and ordered a couple of drinks.

TGI Friday’s debuted a new menu on May 14. Some new food items (of course), but some great new cocktail offerings make new menu. I had the chance to try the new offerings at Little Fridays during my brand immersion last month, and there some good stuff there.

I started with the Grey Goose Cooler (Grey Goose Vodka, St. Germain Elderflower Liqueur, lime juice, lemon juice, cane sugar, peach purée, fresh basil, lime, and Sprite), and it was the perfect drink to enjoy on a balmy summer night. I’ll be using the recipe myself if I can only summon the energy to put as much effort into it as the TGIF bartenders! For the most part, their drinks aren’t too strong, but they are well balanced and the ingredients really shine.

We ordered a couple appetizers and dinner (yes, we left full and with plenty of leftovers), which had to include their newly revamped Broccoli Cheese Soup. I had the Spice Craft Beer-Cheese Burger, which was pretty damn delicious, from the perfect pink center to the drippy beer-cheese sauce and fried jalapeños.

My second drink (that, quite honestly, packed enough punch that it was my last) was the Peach Honey Smash (Jack Daniel’s Whiskey, Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Honey, fresh mint, peach purée, citrus juices, and a peach slice). It’s on the new menu, and teeeeechnically wasn’t available yet, but I convinced our bartender, Nick, to make it for me. It was … delicious. I do love my bourbon, and this was delightfully full of it. They serve some of their drinks over pellet ice, which any Texan simply calls “Sonic Ice”, and I kind of love that.

We were treated to a few of Nick’s bottle tricks (aka “flair”), which weren’t too shabby. (Stay tuned for a peek at my tricks soon!) If you want to see some serious bartending skills, TGI Friday’s holds the World Bartending Championship competition each year around February, which starts on the store level. Check your local TGIF to see when theirs will be held. (The store at Park & 75’s event is on June 12.)

***This is a sponsored post and part of my TGI Fridays Embassadors program.****