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.