By Greg Nicholls
The first thing that I want to point out to you is that you can get paid to market your business and in this article, we are going to cover a couple very basic ways to do this.
One way is AdSense it is one way to get paid for marketing and advertising, you have probably seen AdSense ads all over the place. What they are are content related ads that people pay to advertise for, the ad on the left side or right side of this website, it has a demonstration of what an AdSense Ad looks like.
You will notice that they are content related ads, so typically the ads are related to the content they are placed around. This is an effective way for marketers to get their message and advertising into places they never would have thought to place an ad.
Keep in mind that your competitors could essencially place an ad on your website if they know some keywords from your site and place some ads. Not to worry though, you can block some specific competitive URL's to prevent this from happening.
If you want to get signed up with AdSense, searh out "AdSense" on Google, sign up and Google will begin to send you money when people click on the ads you post on your websites, blogs, etc.
Why do it?
Since Google makes money when people click on the ads, they tend to give greater ranking to sites that have AdSense placed on their web pages, over sites that do not. .
Another way to get paid for stuff while you market your site, is to be a referral for products you would recommend that people buy, like books and DVD's; items that are relevant to what you are discussing on your website.
For example, Amazon has a referral program and will allow you to setup a "Book Store" where people can go to buy the books you recommend and you get paid a small percentage. Go to Amazon.com, scroll to the links at the bottom of the page, click on "Join Associates" and sign up.
There are many other affiliate programs out there, these are just a couple that I use that assist people in developing their business while keeping their costs down.
You just have to know where to look
In Your Service,
Greg Nicholls
Copyright 2007 - Nicholls Enterprises - www.EffectiveMarkeing101.com
If you have a large or small business and desire to learn some hot and exciting know-how and get it all from Greg Nicholls in one place, visit http://www.EffectiveMarketing101.com.
The first step to developing a successful business is to take care and control of your marketing; if nobody knows who you are, then who will buy from you?
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Vodkas feeling the flavor: Modern Spirits' unusual infused concoctions are perfect for food pairing. What goes with oysters? Rose vodka, of course!
By Charles Perry
WIELDING six-pronged chippers, three people are smashing up 2-inch slabs of Belgian dark chocolate on a stainless steel table and tossing it, along with coils of fresh orange peel, into gleaming 50-gallon tanks of vodka.
Just another Friday morning in a Monrovia industrial park.This sterile yet aromatic room is the Modern Spirits Vodka "fruit lab," where Litty and Melkon Khosrovian and assistant Randy Clemens -- the entire Modern Spirits staff -- create exotic flavored vodkas.
Introduced to this country only two decades ago, flavored vodka now accounts for 11% of vodka sales, but little of it is made by direct infusion. Instead, big vodka companies such as Smirnoff and Stolichnaya use commercial flavor extracts.
Only a few brands -- mostly in California -- infuse their vodka with fresh ingredients, examples being Hangar One and Charbay in the San Francisco Bay Area and 267 Infusions in Santa Ana. Modern Spirits is the only artisanal vodka infuser in the San Gabriel Valley (also the only one between Santa Anita and North Miami, Fla.).
While most flavored vodka goes into cocktails, Modern Spirits insists its vodkas are for sipping -- and for pairing with food, just like wine. To this end, it specializes in unusual flavor combinations.
One vodka starts out being steeped for months with pears, making something that tastes like a pear eau de vie, but with some sweetness extracted from the fruit (eaux de vie typically distill out bone dry).
Then they throw in fresh lavender. In a few hours, the flavor has dramatically changed -- the pear and the lavender have combined into something new, with the pear providing a plush background.
The Khosrovians can't remember how they came up with that combination, but their celery-peppercorn vodka arose in the kitchen. "Litty was cooking a celery and lamb tagine," Melkon recalls, "and I got so wrapped up in the flavor I started infusing with celery.
I was watching her, trying to use the same spices." The celery gives the vodka a sweet herbal quality, punctuated by a subtle pepper bite.The candied ginger vodka -- very fragrant, slightly sweet -- arose from food as well.
The Khosrovians were trying to capture the pungency of the pickled ginger served at sushi restaurants and found they preferred it with a sweet effect.Several flavors can be traced to the Hollywood Farmers Market.
Their favorite grapefruit producer there pointed out to them that nobody had ever made a grapefruit vodka, so they tried it, balancing the grapefruit bitterness with the round sweetness of honey. At a mushroom stand one Saturday, they splurged on two Oregon black truffles.
Next morning, after they'd had the first one with their breakfast eggs, Litty proposed making a truffle vodka with the other.The tea flavor, based on a mixture of black, green and oolong teas, is surprisingly rich, with a nose more like some sweet spice than like tea.
This was Melkon's attempt to commemorate their honeymoon in France, where they'd made a memorable visit to an old tea house.For the Khosrovians, it has been a long road to Monrovia. Melkon was born in Armenia and raised in Rhode Island; Litty was born in Ethiopia to a family of Indian Christians.
They met at a graduate journalism program at USC. By the time they got married, Litty had studied cookery at the Cordon Bleu in Paris and started working as a freelance writer, and Melkon was an Internet consultant.
But there was a slight culture clash in the new family. "Armenians like to drink vodka and brandy with meals," says Melkon, "and they love making toasts. But Litty hated the burning taste and the cheap flavors in a lot of vodkas."
"When my in-laws were making toasts," she says, "I would just quietly put my glass down."So Melkon tried doctoring vodka with flavorings she'd like that would also go well with the boldness of Armenian food.
Then they got further into the subject, studying the different kinds of vodka."We discovered how each kind of vodka tastes," Melkon says. "Corn spirit is sweet, but it has a harsh edge -- which is OK in bourbon, because it disappears in barrel aging, but we don't do that.
Potato spirit is smooth, rye is spicy. We decided we liked a potato-wheat combination, in different proportions for different flavorings to control flavor and mouth feel."And the infusions?
They had to scrap some flavors along the way. "The most disappointing was the melon family," says Melkon. "They all came out tasting like vegetables. Berries tend to taste like cough syrup. Shiso, this very aromatic Japanese herb, tasted like grass."
Friends and relatives started asking about the special vodka Litty was drinking and insisted on tasting it themselves. Flavored vodkas became a community project, with everybody putting in their two bits about the Khosrovians' experiments.
They held tasting parties with 20 or 30 flavors and 70 or 80 guests.After a couple of years holding down their day jobs and infusing vodkas every night, the Khosrovians found their friends were asking to place orders.
That was when they took the plunge and started Modern Spirits. They entered the market in November 2004, with the chocolate-orange flavor (derived from a lucky slip, when Melkon accidentally dropped a piece of chocolate into a friend's drink and found he liked the resulting warm flavor).
The flavors aren't as simple as their names make them sound. For instance, the tea vodka also contains fresh roses, violets and dried fruit. "We do have secret ingredients for each flavor," Melkon says, "for food pairing purposes. We're always looking for a bridge to food, connections with main ingredients, sauces, garnishes."
The flavor connections may not be obvious, either. Occasionally, when they can get enough fresh rose petals, Modern Spirits makes a rose vodka. To their surprise, they learned that several restaurants were serving it with oysters.
Why oysters?A few months after this discovery, Litty found herself seated next to a perfumer on a plane trip. "He said, 'You're using whole rose petals,' she recalls. 'When we make perfume, we extract the sweet aroma, but if you chew on a rose petal, you get a spectrum from sweet to saline. Oysters have the same kind of sweet-to-salty range.'
"What are the Khosrovians aiming at? "If we could legitimize the use of spirits with a meal," says Litty, "that would be an accomplishment."But if the caliber of chefs who have taken to their vodkas is any indication, they've already achieved that.
At Grace in Los Angeles, Neal Fraser has served a dessert of pear sorbet, dates and brown sugar cookies with the candied ginger vodka. He's also paired celery-peppercorn vodka with sashimi.Craig Strong of the Ritz Carlton, Huntington Spa & Hotel in Pasadena likes to pair a tuna salad with the candied ginger vodka.
"There's a little spice in the tuna," he says. "It plays off that." A bit of celery-peppercorn vodka goes into his tomato sorbet with oysters.Strong also uses a couple of them when making caramel.
"When the sugar caramelizes," he says, "you hit it with a little cream, some milk chocolate and then a little ginger vodka. I've used the chocolate orange in a cardamom caramel. The alcohol gives the caramel a soft, smooth texture, which contrasts with the delicate, brittle texture of a chocolate shell.
"The Raymond in Pasadena has a tasting menu that offers flavored vodka as an option to wine. "We pair a three-fourths-ounce glass with each course," says sommelier Steven Krikul. "For instance, with a crab and avocado salad in lemon soy vinaigrette, we serve grapefruit-honey vodka.
If you chose to pair with wine, you'd get an Austrian Gr–ner Veltliner instead."So there you go. Next time somebody asks you, "What's a good crab-avocado-lemon-soy-vinaigrette wine?" you can say, "Maybe it's a vodka."
WIELDING six-pronged chippers, three people are smashing up 2-inch slabs of Belgian dark chocolate on a stainless steel table and tossing it, along with coils of fresh orange peel, into gleaming 50-gallon tanks of vodka.
Just another Friday morning in a Monrovia industrial park.This sterile yet aromatic room is the Modern Spirits Vodka "fruit lab," where Litty and Melkon Khosrovian and assistant Randy Clemens -- the entire Modern Spirits staff -- create exotic flavored vodkas.
Introduced to this country only two decades ago, flavored vodka now accounts for 11% of vodka sales, but little of it is made by direct infusion. Instead, big vodka companies such as Smirnoff and Stolichnaya use commercial flavor extracts.
Only a few brands -- mostly in California -- infuse their vodka with fresh ingredients, examples being Hangar One and Charbay in the San Francisco Bay Area and 267 Infusions in Santa Ana. Modern Spirits is the only artisanal vodka infuser in the San Gabriel Valley (also the only one between Santa Anita and North Miami, Fla.).
While most flavored vodka goes into cocktails, Modern Spirits insists its vodkas are for sipping -- and for pairing with food, just like wine. To this end, it specializes in unusual flavor combinations.
One vodka starts out being steeped for months with pears, making something that tastes like a pear eau de vie, but with some sweetness extracted from the fruit (eaux de vie typically distill out bone dry).
Then they throw in fresh lavender. In a few hours, the flavor has dramatically changed -- the pear and the lavender have combined into something new, with the pear providing a plush background.
The Khosrovians can't remember how they came up with that combination, but their celery-peppercorn vodka arose in the kitchen. "Litty was cooking a celery and lamb tagine," Melkon recalls, "and I got so wrapped up in the flavor I started infusing with celery.
I was watching her, trying to use the same spices." The celery gives the vodka a sweet herbal quality, punctuated by a subtle pepper bite.The candied ginger vodka -- very fragrant, slightly sweet -- arose from food as well.
The Khosrovians were trying to capture the pungency of the pickled ginger served at sushi restaurants and found they preferred it with a sweet effect.Several flavors can be traced to the Hollywood Farmers Market.
Their favorite grapefruit producer there pointed out to them that nobody had ever made a grapefruit vodka, so they tried it, balancing the grapefruit bitterness with the round sweetness of honey. At a mushroom stand one Saturday, they splurged on two Oregon black truffles.
Next morning, after they'd had the first one with their breakfast eggs, Litty proposed making a truffle vodka with the other.The tea flavor, based on a mixture of black, green and oolong teas, is surprisingly rich, with a nose more like some sweet spice than like tea.
This was Melkon's attempt to commemorate their honeymoon in France, where they'd made a memorable visit to an old tea house.For the Khosrovians, it has been a long road to Monrovia. Melkon was born in Armenia and raised in Rhode Island; Litty was born in Ethiopia to a family of Indian Christians.
They met at a graduate journalism program at USC. By the time they got married, Litty had studied cookery at the Cordon Bleu in Paris and started working as a freelance writer, and Melkon was an Internet consultant.
But there was a slight culture clash in the new family. "Armenians like to drink vodka and brandy with meals," says Melkon, "and they love making toasts. But Litty hated the burning taste and the cheap flavors in a lot of vodkas."
"When my in-laws were making toasts," she says, "I would just quietly put my glass down."So Melkon tried doctoring vodka with flavorings she'd like that would also go well with the boldness of Armenian food.
Then they got further into the subject, studying the different kinds of vodka."We discovered how each kind of vodka tastes," Melkon says. "Corn spirit is sweet, but it has a harsh edge -- which is OK in bourbon, because it disappears in barrel aging, but we don't do that.
Potato spirit is smooth, rye is spicy. We decided we liked a potato-wheat combination, in different proportions for different flavorings to control flavor and mouth feel."And the infusions?
They had to scrap some flavors along the way. "The most disappointing was the melon family," says Melkon. "They all came out tasting like vegetables. Berries tend to taste like cough syrup. Shiso, this very aromatic Japanese herb, tasted like grass."
Friends and relatives started asking about the special vodka Litty was drinking and insisted on tasting it themselves. Flavored vodkas became a community project, with everybody putting in their two bits about the Khosrovians' experiments.
They held tasting parties with 20 or 30 flavors and 70 or 80 guests.After a couple of years holding down their day jobs and infusing vodkas every night, the Khosrovians found their friends were asking to place orders.
That was when they took the plunge and started Modern Spirits. They entered the market in November 2004, with the chocolate-orange flavor (derived from a lucky slip, when Melkon accidentally dropped a piece of chocolate into a friend's drink and found he liked the resulting warm flavor).
The flavors aren't as simple as their names make them sound. For instance, the tea vodka also contains fresh roses, violets and dried fruit. "We do have secret ingredients for each flavor," Melkon says, "for food pairing purposes. We're always looking for a bridge to food, connections with main ingredients, sauces, garnishes."
The flavor connections may not be obvious, either. Occasionally, when they can get enough fresh rose petals, Modern Spirits makes a rose vodka. To their surprise, they learned that several restaurants were serving it with oysters.
Why oysters?A few months after this discovery, Litty found herself seated next to a perfumer on a plane trip. "He said, 'You're using whole rose petals,' she recalls. 'When we make perfume, we extract the sweet aroma, but if you chew on a rose petal, you get a spectrum from sweet to saline. Oysters have the same kind of sweet-to-salty range.'
"What are the Khosrovians aiming at? "If we could legitimize the use of spirits with a meal," says Litty, "that would be an accomplishment."But if the caliber of chefs who have taken to their vodkas is any indication, they've already achieved that.
At Grace in Los Angeles, Neal Fraser has served a dessert of pear sorbet, dates and brown sugar cookies with the candied ginger vodka. He's also paired celery-peppercorn vodka with sashimi.Craig Strong of the Ritz Carlton, Huntington Spa & Hotel in Pasadena likes to pair a tuna salad with the candied ginger vodka.
"There's a little spice in the tuna," he says. "It plays off that." A bit of celery-peppercorn vodka goes into his tomato sorbet with oysters.Strong also uses a couple of them when making caramel.
"When the sugar caramelizes," he says, "you hit it with a little cream, some milk chocolate and then a little ginger vodka. I've used the chocolate orange in a cardamom caramel. The alcohol gives the caramel a soft, smooth texture, which contrasts with the delicate, brittle texture of a chocolate shell.
"The Raymond in Pasadena has a tasting menu that offers flavored vodka as an option to wine. "We pair a three-fourths-ounce glass with each course," says sommelier Steven Krikul. "For instance, with a crab and avocado salad in lemon soy vinaigrette, we serve grapefruit-honey vodka.
If you chose to pair with wine, you'd get an Austrian Gr–ner Veltliner instead."So there you go. Next time somebody asks you, "What's a good crab-avocado-lemon-soy-vinaigrette wine?" you can say, "Maybe it's a vodka."
The Universal Law of Thought and Manifestation
From LifeSkill Institute, Inc
Thoughts become things (results) in accord with the nature and feeling of the thought. More personally, your thoughts manifest in your life experience, in accord with the emotions and feelings you associate with your thoughts.
One of the simplest statements of the Universal Law of Thought is:
“For as (they) thinketh in (their) heart, so (are they.) ”
—Proverbs 23:7
To “think in their heart” means how they really feel inside about those particular thoughts—which emotions and feelings are associated with them. A further illumination of “in their heart” is given in Matthew 6:21:
”For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”
Your heart is the center of your true feelings and emotions. It is always focused on the things that are important to you, your value system, and how you feel about yourself.
For example, if you have the thought that financial independence is one of your primary objectives in life, then financial independence should begin to manifest in your life over a reasonable period of time. If it does not, then look into your inner feelings.
Inside you may feel, for whatever reasons, that you are not worthy of financial independence. If you do not feel, in your heart—in your basic feeling nature about yourself— that you deserve the things, conditions, or circumstances that you describe in your thoughts, then they will not happen for you. They will not manifest in your life experience.
The essence of the Universal Law of Thought and Manifestation is that a thought has two basic aspects:
1. A rational aspect—the statement of the thought itself, the idea, the words.
2. An emotional aspect—the personal feelings and emotions associated with the thought.
“What you recognize (in your thinking), you energize (in your feelings and emotions).What you energize (in your feelings and emotions), you realize (in your life experience).” —Rev. Ike
Three primary areas are covered by the Universal Law of Thought and Manifestation:
1. Thoughts you have about yourself—your self-image.
2. Thoughts you have about others—your attitude.
3. Thoughts you have about the world in general, your world perspective—your outlook on life, your frame of reference.
Thoughts become things (results) in accord with the nature and feeling of the thought. More personally, your thoughts manifest in your life experience, in accord with the emotions and feelings you associate with your thoughts.
One of the simplest statements of the Universal Law of Thought is:
“For as (they) thinketh in (their) heart, so (are they.) ”
—Proverbs 23:7
To “think in their heart” means how they really feel inside about those particular thoughts—which emotions and feelings are associated with them. A further illumination of “in their heart” is given in Matthew 6:21:
”For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”
Your heart is the center of your true feelings and emotions. It is always focused on the things that are important to you, your value system, and how you feel about yourself.
For example, if you have the thought that financial independence is one of your primary objectives in life, then financial independence should begin to manifest in your life over a reasonable period of time. If it does not, then look into your inner feelings.
Inside you may feel, for whatever reasons, that you are not worthy of financial independence. If you do not feel, in your heart—in your basic feeling nature about yourself— that you deserve the things, conditions, or circumstances that you describe in your thoughts, then they will not happen for you. They will not manifest in your life experience.
The essence of the Universal Law of Thought and Manifestation is that a thought has two basic aspects:
1. A rational aspect—the statement of the thought itself, the idea, the words.
2. An emotional aspect—the personal feelings and emotions associated with the thought.
“What you recognize (in your thinking), you energize (in your feelings and emotions).What you energize (in your feelings and emotions), you realize (in your life experience).” —Rev. Ike
Three primary areas are covered by the Universal Law of Thought and Manifestation:
1. Thoughts you have about yourself—your self-image.
2. Thoughts you have about others—your attitude.
3. Thoughts you have about the world in general, your world perspective—your outlook on life, your frame of reference.
Thursday, March 29, 2007
The Method to the Menu: Strategies for a Successful Cocktail Menu
A well-conceived beverage program can be told by its cocktail list. The drink menu helps define the bar’s image.
It’s like a brochure or Web page — an extremely important marketing tool. As human beings, we evaluate our bar experience visually and emotionally, and the menu plays an important role, becoming a very valuable detail to the overall guest experience.
As they say, it’s not all gold what glitters. Many cocktail lounges still believe that having 120 “Martinis” on the list will attract more guests in an effective way. First of all, the menu is a merchandising tool and doesn’t define the success of the establishment.
Also, if you try to have a drink before dinner, by the time you finish reading the entire list the kitchen is already closed. Let’s be clear: What makes the bar is the staff — enthusiastic bartenders who are cheerful, courteous and knowledgeable.
It is unnecessary to feature 100 single malts or 60 vodkas on the drink menu if your staff doesn’t recognize half of the brands and can’t pronounce them properly. A lack of confidence in pronouncing the brand correctly is also a deterrent for your staff.
Quality, Not Quantity I firmly believe that fewer choices make for more sales. Rotate your cocktail menu often, at least quarterly, to have new — but still few — choices. Promote seasonality.
Today’s consumers are becoming more sophisticated, seeking new beverage experiences. They strive for an adventure, relying on the bartender and waitstaff to transport them in an exotic, gourmet journey.
New flavors are setting up trends such as pomegranate, lychee, ginger and lemongrass, as well as home-made bitters and syrups recipes. The bar is such a major profitable business, whether it is in a vacation resort or in a downtown restaurant, and pricing mistakes, along with inefficient cost control and lack of staff training, allow a great opportunity for failure.
Committing to a sophisticated cocktail list is demanding but rewarding.Let’s start with the basics. The cocktail list, as a general rule of thumb, shouldn’t exceed a dozen of drinks. A mistake that many new bars tend to make is to offer lots of choices, and bartenders have a tough time with execution.
I would suggest increasing the offering gradually. Start with six to eight cocktails, including three or four classic cocktails — such as French 75, Negroni, Pisco Sour, Caipirinha, Mojito — and four new trend-oriented drinks with hot flavors like pomegranate, yuzu, etc.
Cosmopolitans and Lemon Drops, as well as Apple Martinis, are no-brainers, so rather than occupy premium real estate (as in space on the page), substitute bartenders’ signature drinks.
Also, provide your bartender with cocktail trivia. Remember: Stories sell!
Key Considerations
When putting together a beverage menu, there are several factors to consider, such as: • Mixology skills of your bartenders. Jumping from draft beers and B52s to Mojitos and Pisco Sours is unfair to your bartenders.
They must understand cocktail balance first.• Bar staff commitment to mise en place. Be able to provide fresh garnishes, juices, purees, infusions, etc., on a daily basis.• Plan to have a key review of your drinks with front-of-house staff.•
Consider creating extra space behind the bar for new liquor bottles, garnishes, glassware, etc.• Product availability. Know what is in your distributors’ portfolios and if they are able to bring in special items for you.•
Fresh produce availability. Rely on trustworthy purveyors.• Type of clientele and drink trends. Are they Baby Boomers, Generation X or what?•
Bring your customers to their senses. Cocktail descriptions must be stimulating and believable to your guest’s senses, or there will be no persuasion to try. Here are two examples.
Example 1 is very plain and static; Example 2 provides origins of the drink and stimulates sensory evaluation: 1. Mojito: Rum, mint, lime and soda. 2. Mojito: Enjoy a true 1900s classic Cuban long drink. Premium light rum enriched with freshly squeezed lime juice, mint leaves and cane sugar. Hemingway’s favorite! •
Define and understand your bar/restaurant concept, such as whether it is a pub, nightclub, piano bar, gourmet restaurant, casual dining, etc.• Promote products of your bar-restaurant ethnicity. For example, cocktails that have Thai, Latino, Italian or other specific origins.• Know exactly your pour cost and assess your pricing position.•
Time every cocktail you decide to feature on the menu. It shouldn’t take more than 35-60 seconds max for its execution.
It’s like a brochure or Web page — an extremely important marketing tool. As human beings, we evaluate our bar experience visually and emotionally, and the menu plays an important role, becoming a very valuable detail to the overall guest experience.
As they say, it’s not all gold what glitters. Many cocktail lounges still believe that having 120 “Martinis” on the list will attract more guests in an effective way. First of all, the menu is a merchandising tool and doesn’t define the success of the establishment.
Also, if you try to have a drink before dinner, by the time you finish reading the entire list the kitchen is already closed. Let’s be clear: What makes the bar is the staff — enthusiastic bartenders who are cheerful, courteous and knowledgeable.
It is unnecessary to feature 100 single malts or 60 vodkas on the drink menu if your staff doesn’t recognize half of the brands and can’t pronounce them properly. A lack of confidence in pronouncing the brand correctly is also a deterrent for your staff.
Quality, Not Quantity I firmly believe that fewer choices make for more sales. Rotate your cocktail menu often, at least quarterly, to have new — but still few — choices. Promote seasonality.
Today’s consumers are becoming more sophisticated, seeking new beverage experiences. They strive for an adventure, relying on the bartender and waitstaff to transport them in an exotic, gourmet journey.
New flavors are setting up trends such as pomegranate, lychee, ginger and lemongrass, as well as home-made bitters and syrups recipes. The bar is such a major profitable business, whether it is in a vacation resort or in a downtown restaurant, and pricing mistakes, along with inefficient cost control and lack of staff training, allow a great opportunity for failure.
Committing to a sophisticated cocktail list is demanding but rewarding.Let’s start with the basics. The cocktail list, as a general rule of thumb, shouldn’t exceed a dozen of drinks. A mistake that many new bars tend to make is to offer lots of choices, and bartenders have a tough time with execution.
I would suggest increasing the offering gradually. Start with six to eight cocktails, including three or four classic cocktails — such as French 75, Negroni, Pisco Sour, Caipirinha, Mojito — and four new trend-oriented drinks with hot flavors like pomegranate, yuzu, etc.
Cosmopolitans and Lemon Drops, as well as Apple Martinis, are no-brainers, so rather than occupy premium real estate (as in space on the page), substitute bartenders’ signature drinks.
Also, provide your bartender with cocktail trivia. Remember: Stories sell!
Key Considerations
When putting together a beverage menu, there are several factors to consider, such as: • Mixology skills of your bartenders. Jumping from draft beers and B52s to Mojitos and Pisco Sours is unfair to your bartenders.
They must understand cocktail balance first.• Bar staff commitment to mise en place. Be able to provide fresh garnishes, juices, purees, infusions, etc., on a daily basis.• Plan to have a key review of your drinks with front-of-house staff.•
Consider creating extra space behind the bar for new liquor bottles, garnishes, glassware, etc.• Product availability. Know what is in your distributors’ portfolios and if they are able to bring in special items for you.•
Fresh produce availability. Rely on trustworthy purveyors.• Type of clientele and drink trends. Are they Baby Boomers, Generation X or what?•
Bring your customers to their senses. Cocktail descriptions must be stimulating and believable to your guest’s senses, or there will be no persuasion to try. Here are two examples.
Example 1 is very plain and static; Example 2 provides origins of the drink and stimulates sensory evaluation: 1. Mojito: Rum, mint, lime and soda. 2. Mojito: Enjoy a true 1900s classic Cuban long drink. Premium light rum enriched with freshly squeezed lime juice, mint leaves and cane sugar. Hemingway’s favorite! •
Define and understand your bar/restaurant concept, such as whether it is a pub, nightclub, piano bar, gourmet restaurant, casual dining, etc.• Promote products of your bar-restaurant ethnicity. For example, cocktails that have Thai, Latino, Italian or other specific origins.• Know exactly your pour cost and assess your pricing position.•
Time every cocktail you decide to feature on the menu. It shouldn’t take more than 35-60 seconds max for its execution.
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
8 Steps to Improving Your Enjoyment of Life
By Dr. Joseph Mercola
From time to time, I share the many health benefits you can enjoy merely by achieving happiness. The variable most people miss on the way to really feeling and being happy in a sustained way, however, is the ability to enjoy it for all it's worth.
Noted for his work on creativity and well-being, Mihaly Csikszentmihaly believes the true enjoyment of life isn't necessarily a cognitive skill and it's not enough to know how to do it. The real trick is to learn how to do it consistently, a process that can be painfully slow for some.
What follows is a sampling of a list of eight components of enjoyment that can make your life fuller and richer than ever before. After reading them, access the link below for the whole list.
Complete tasks you have the ability to finish.
Concentrate on the clear goals of the task.
Pay attention to any immediate feedback after the task is completed.
Notice that your sense of time after finishing certain tasks, based on your improved ability to enjoy the task at hand, is pleasantly altered.
In learning how to really enjoy life, all the accumulated positives you manifest can boost your body's natural immunities too.
Ionsys.com
Related Articles:
EFT and Self-Acceptance
Laugh and Smile Your Way to Health
Work-Life Balance Movement Growing
From time to time, I share the many health benefits you can enjoy merely by achieving happiness. The variable most people miss on the way to really feeling and being happy in a sustained way, however, is the ability to enjoy it for all it's worth.
Noted for his work on creativity and well-being, Mihaly Csikszentmihaly believes the true enjoyment of life isn't necessarily a cognitive skill and it's not enough to know how to do it. The real trick is to learn how to do it consistently, a process that can be painfully slow for some.
What follows is a sampling of a list of eight components of enjoyment that can make your life fuller and richer than ever before. After reading them, access the link below for the whole list.
Complete tasks you have the ability to finish.
Concentrate on the clear goals of the task.
Pay attention to any immediate feedback after the task is completed.
Notice that your sense of time after finishing certain tasks, based on your improved ability to enjoy the task at hand, is pleasantly altered.
In learning how to really enjoy life, all the accumulated positives you manifest can boost your body's natural immunities too.
Ionsys.com
Related Articles:
EFT and Self-Acceptance
Laugh and Smile Your Way to Health
Work-Life Balance Movement Growing
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
What Does It Take To Live To Be 100
Monday, March 26, 2007
Touting 13 Hot New Vodkas
By Robert Plotkin
Born from water, air, earth and fire, no purer representation of time or place exists than the quintessential eaux-de-vie, vodka. Its transparency and brilliant character are an intriguing combination, two reasons why vodka continues to be the bestselling category of spirits in the United States.
It accounts for over 25% of all distilled spirits sold in the country, eclipsed only by the combined sales figures for all whiskies—Scotch, Irish, Bourbon and Canadian. All major indicators suggest that the current bull market vodka finds itself shows no signs of abating.
Despite their transparency, top-shelf vodkas are not created equally. Where they’re distilled usually speaks volumes about style and technique. How the vodka is distilled and from what—e.g. potatoes, rye, corn or wheat—is significant.
Surprisingly enough, what likely has the greatest affect on the finished vodka is its water source. Water provides the spirit with its genetic marker and contributes to aroma, taste and mouth-feel.
One of the factors propelling the vodka category is the steady flow of new brands crossing our borders, most professing legacy and a singular twist. This procession of new arrivals—both imported and American—as helped fuel consumer interest.
To help tell one classy contender from another, we’ve assembled a scouting report on the latest field of entries.
Blue Ice Vodka — Produced at the Silver Creek Distillery in Rigby, Idaho, Blue Ice Vodka is made from Russet Burbank potatoes and Rocky Mountain spring water.
Círoc Snap Frost Vodka — The first and only vodka made entirely from grapes. The “snap-frost” Mauzac grapes are picked late in the season, allowing them to attain a higher sugar content. Cîroc is distilled five times in traditional copper pot stills.
Domaine Charbay Dry/Clear Vodka — Made at the family-owned distillery in Ukiah, California, Dry/Clear Vodka is micro-distilled from American Midwest grain and spring water.
Hangar One Vodka — Long known for their eaux-de-vies and alembic brandies, St. George Spirits in Alameda, California is becoming better known for Hangar 1 Straight Vodka, a small batch, pot distilled grain vodka.
Heavy Water— A Swedish vodka distilled from hearty winter wheat and spring water drawn from a subterranean lake.
Ikon Premium Vodka — Produced 1500 kilometers from Moscow, Ikon Premium Vodka is a continuous-distilled vodka made from grain and artesian water, which is then filtered four times through Russian birch charcoal.
Jewel of Russia Vodka — The spirit is crafted in a traditional Russian style, from a blend of rye, hardy winter wheat and artesian spring water. The vodka is distilled in continuous stills and then repeatedly filtered through high absorption screens.
Level by Absolut — Produced in Sweden, Level is a 100% wheat vodka made both by continuous distillation and small-batch distillation. Blending the two types of vodka creates a light, clean vodka with texture and a broad taste profile.
Liquid Ice Vodka — Also crafted at the Silver Creek Distillery, Liquid Ice is a 100% organic vodka made from a blend of five grains—wheat, oat, barley, corn and rye.
Shakers Vodka — The first ultra-premium American vodka, Shakers is distilled entirely from the heart of Minnesota wheat. The wheat is fermented in spring water, distilled in a six-column still and meticulously filtered.
Stolichnaya Elit Vodka — The first ultra-luxury vodka available in the United States, small batch Elit is double-distilled from purified glacier water and select winter wheat. The vodka is “freeze filtered,” a technique first employed in the days of the czars.
Xellent Vodka — A small batch artisan spirit made in Switzerland from high-grade rye and glacier water. The handmade, limited production vodka is crafted to exacting standards, which is evident in every facet of its personality.
Zyr Vodka — Made near Moscow, ultra-premium Zyr is distilled five times from premium rye, winter wheat and spring water. The vodka is rigorously filtered for purity through a proprietary system of filters, one of which is birch tree charcoal.
ROBERT PLOTKIN is the author of numerous books including The Original Guide to American Cocktails and Drinks --5th Edition. He can be reached at BarMedia, 1-800-421-7179, or e-mail him at robert@barmedia.com.
Born from water, air, earth and fire, no purer representation of time or place exists than the quintessential eaux-de-vie, vodka. Its transparency and brilliant character are an intriguing combination, two reasons why vodka continues to be the bestselling category of spirits in the United States.
It accounts for over 25% of all distilled spirits sold in the country, eclipsed only by the combined sales figures for all whiskies—Scotch, Irish, Bourbon and Canadian. All major indicators suggest that the current bull market vodka finds itself shows no signs of abating.
Despite their transparency, top-shelf vodkas are not created equally. Where they’re distilled usually speaks volumes about style and technique. How the vodka is distilled and from what—e.g. potatoes, rye, corn or wheat—is significant.
Surprisingly enough, what likely has the greatest affect on the finished vodka is its water source. Water provides the spirit with its genetic marker and contributes to aroma, taste and mouth-feel.
One of the factors propelling the vodka category is the steady flow of new brands crossing our borders, most professing legacy and a singular twist. This procession of new arrivals—both imported and American—as helped fuel consumer interest.
To help tell one classy contender from another, we’ve assembled a scouting report on the latest field of entries.
Blue Ice Vodka — Produced at the Silver Creek Distillery in Rigby, Idaho, Blue Ice Vodka is made from Russet Burbank potatoes and Rocky Mountain spring water.
Círoc Snap Frost Vodka — The first and only vodka made entirely from grapes. The “snap-frost” Mauzac grapes are picked late in the season, allowing them to attain a higher sugar content. Cîroc is distilled five times in traditional copper pot stills.
Domaine Charbay Dry/Clear Vodka — Made at the family-owned distillery in Ukiah, California, Dry/Clear Vodka is micro-distilled from American Midwest grain and spring water.
Hangar One Vodka — Long known for their eaux-de-vies and alembic brandies, St. George Spirits in Alameda, California is becoming better known for Hangar 1 Straight Vodka, a small batch, pot distilled grain vodka.
Heavy Water— A Swedish vodka distilled from hearty winter wheat and spring water drawn from a subterranean lake.
Ikon Premium Vodka — Produced 1500 kilometers from Moscow, Ikon Premium Vodka is a continuous-distilled vodka made from grain and artesian water, which is then filtered four times through Russian birch charcoal.
Jewel of Russia Vodka — The spirit is crafted in a traditional Russian style, from a blend of rye, hardy winter wheat and artesian spring water. The vodka is distilled in continuous stills and then repeatedly filtered through high absorption screens.
Level by Absolut — Produced in Sweden, Level is a 100% wheat vodka made both by continuous distillation and small-batch distillation. Blending the two types of vodka creates a light, clean vodka with texture and a broad taste profile.
Liquid Ice Vodka — Also crafted at the Silver Creek Distillery, Liquid Ice is a 100% organic vodka made from a blend of five grains—wheat, oat, barley, corn and rye.
Shakers Vodka — The first ultra-premium American vodka, Shakers is distilled entirely from the heart of Minnesota wheat. The wheat is fermented in spring water, distilled in a six-column still and meticulously filtered.
Stolichnaya Elit Vodka — The first ultra-luxury vodka available in the United States, small batch Elit is double-distilled from purified glacier water and select winter wheat. The vodka is “freeze filtered,” a technique first employed in the days of the czars.
Xellent Vodka — A small batch artisan spirit made in Switzerland from high-grade rye and glacier water. The handmade, limited production vodka is crafted to exacting standards, which is evident in every facet of its personality.
Zyr Vodka — Made near Moscow, ultra-premium Zyr is distilled five times from premium rye, winter wheat and spring water. The vodka is rigorously filtered for purity through a proprietary system of filters, one of which is birch tree charcoal.
ROBERT PLOTKIN is the author of numerous books including The Original Guide to American Cocktails and Drinks --5th Edition. He can be reached at BarMedia, 1-800-421-7179, or e-mail him at robert@barmedia.com.
Sunday, March 25, 2007
How To Implement Free And Effective Marketing And Advertising Methods Into Your Business
By Greg Nicholls
The topic will be explained over about a 3-4 week period (so you are not bogged down with too much info all at once) and it all starts now.
You will learn all about MySpace, Blogs, YouTube, Ezine Articles, Podcasts, RSS Feeds, Newsletters, eBooks, eStream Downloads, Banner Advertising, Free Classifieds, Business Card Flyers, Resource Pages and have access to all the associated links and websites.
Plus, you will get a full explanation about what all these things are, how simple they are to do, how effective they are, how they all tie in together, where to find all the resources, but best of all, demonstrate that they are all free and effective.
When we are done, you will be an expert in this area too and your business will rocket forward with momentum and activity.
We will talk about how to take this type of information and make it so someone would become a subscriber to get the expert level information that you now have, after all, it is all about getting prospects for our businesses, right?
But what if they paid you to become a prospect? You will learn about how to do that too!
The "How To Implement Free And Effective Marketing And Advertising Methods Into Your Business" series will be an awesome series to be on.
So if you are serious about being successful in your business and want to learn how to do it low cost and effectively, then be sure to subscribe to this feed.
Best Regards,
Greg Nicholls
Nicholls Enterprises
1-800-388-4563
http://www.NichollsEnterprises.com
Copyright 2007 - Nicholls Enterprises
Greg Nicholls has a great amount of experience in many facets of marketing and advertising. "Having owned four businesses, I know that marketing and advertising is the most important component, next to a rock solid business plan and product." - Greg Nicholls
If you have a large or small business and desire to learn some hot and exciting know-how and get it all from Greg Nicholls in one place, visit http://www.EffectiveMarketing101.com
The first step to developing a successful business is to take care and control of your marketing; if nobody knows who you are, then who will buy from you?
The topic will be explained over about a 3-4 week period (so you are not bogged down with too much info all at once) and it all starts now.
You will learn all about MySpace, Blogs, YouTube, Ezine Articles, Podcasts, RSS Feeds, Newsletters, eBooks, eStream Downloads, Banner Advertising, Free Classifieds, Business Card Flyers, Resource Pages and have access to all the associated links and websites.
Plus, you will get a full explanation about what all these things are, how simple they are to do, how effective they are, how they all tie in together, where to find all the resources, but best of all, demonstrate that they are all free and effective.
When we are done, you will be an expert in this area too and your business will rocket forward with momentum and activity.
We will talk about how to take this type of information and make it so someone would become a subscriber to get the expert level information that you now have, after all, it is all about getting prospects for our businesses, right?
But what if they paid you to become a prospect? You will learn about how to do that too!
The "How To Implement Free And Effective Marketing And Advertising Methods Into Your Business" series will be an awesome series to be on.
So if you are serious about being successful in your business and want to learn how to do it low cost and effectively, then be sure to subscribe to this feed.
Best Regards,
Greg Nicholls
Nicholls Enterprises
1-800-388-4563
http://www.NichollsEnterprises.com
Copyright 2007 - Nicholls Enterprises
Greg Nicholls has a great amount of experience in many facets of marketing and advertising. "Having owned four businesses, I know that marketing and advertising is the most important component, next to a rock solid business plan and product." - Greg Nicholls
If you have a large or small business and desire to learn some hot and exciting know-how and get it all from Greg Nicholls in one place, visit http://www.EffectiveMarketing101.com
The first step to developing a successful business is to take care and control of your marketing; if nobody knows who you are, then who will buy from you?
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Information for treating acne
Here are 37 articles for treating acne by Sarah Rhodes
http://www.article-mania.com/index.php?page=author&author_name=Sarah%20Rhodes
http://www.article-mania.com/index.php?page=author&author_name=Sarah%20Rhodes
Friday, March 23, 2007
‘Signature’ red varieties can make stars out of wines that risk being overlooked
By Mary Ewing-Mulligan and Ed McCarthy
Many wine lists are organized by grape variety—and generally the categories are those of such major international grapes as Cabernet, Merlot and Chardonnay.
Wines that are not made primarily from these varieties fall into the category of “Other Whites” or “Other Reds,” as if they were second-class citizens. We would prefer to see menus list a category called “Signature Native Varieties” or a similar name.
Many exceptional wines are available from grape varieties that are famous mainly in their country of origin, even if they grow elsewhere. Tempranillo from Spain and Sangiovese from Italy are just two examples.
One of today’s exciting calling-card wines is Malbec, Argentina’s most important red varietal wine. Originally from Bordeaux, the Malbec has practically disappeared from there because Bordeaux’s climate is not ideal for the grape.
The only other region in the world where Malbec is still popular is Cahors, in southwest France. But the warm, dry weather of Argentina’s Mendoza region has given Malbec a new lease on life. Malbec can be compared to an intense version of Merlot. It’s more tannic, but its black fruit flavors resemble those of Merlot.
Carmenère is another Bordeaux misfit; although it is a permissible grape variety there, Carmenère effectively disappeared from Bordeaux over 100 years ago.
But it is becoming the signature red grape of Chile, where it is gaining rapidly in popularity, although Cabernet Sauvignon still rules there. Until the early 1990s, it seemed Carmenère had disappeared from the planet.
Then, while trying to understand why some Chilean Merlot vines ripened several weeks earlier than others, ampelographers discovered Carmenère growing alongside Merlot, misidentified as Merlot.
The late-ripening Carmenère thrives in the Colchagua and Cachapoal valleys, Chilean regions with warmer climates and longer growing seasons. About 98 percent of the world’s Carmenère is in Chile.
With flavors reminiscent of blueberries, it’s fruitier and slightly lighter-bodied than Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot, which makes it a good companion for seafood and meaty fish as well as meat.
Cabernet Franc—the “other Cabernet”—is a signature variety of France’s Loire Valley, where it makes delightful, medium-bodied red wines such as Chinon, Bourgueil and Saumur-Champigny.
You can find Cabernet Franc varietal wines in Washington State, and a few come from California and Long Island as well. What we particularly like about Cabernet Franc wines is that they tend to be less tannic and lighter-bodied than Cabernet Sauvignons, and therefore more versatile at the dinner table.
Spain’s highest-quality red variety, Tempranillo, is beginning to get some play in wines from other countries, such as Australia and Argentina, but most Tempranillo-based wines still come from Spain.
Tempranillo can make dark, soft red wines or paler, vibrant aged wines, depending on the wine-making. Many of Spain’s classic Tempranillo-based wines are named for their region of production, such as Rioja or Ribera del Duero, rather than the grape variety, but increasingly the grape name is appearing on wine labels.
Italy has so many native varieties that many grapes are “signatures” but Sangiovese, Italy’s most-planted red variety, tops the list. It is the sole variety in Brunello di Montalcino and the main variety in Chianti, plus a major part of many elite “Super Tuscan” wines and inexpensive varietal bottlings.
Piedmont’s Nebbiolo, the variety of Barolo and Barbaresco, is also important.
Barbera and Dolcetto, two native Italian varieties making easy-to-drink, versatile red wines from Piedmont, also fit nicely into the “signature red” category. Barbera is also growing successfully in Argentina, California and even in Mexico’s Baja Peninsula.
WINE OF THE WEEK
2003 Concha y Toro Terrunyo Carmenère (Chile)
Concha y Toro’s upscale Terrunyo line features one of Chile’s best Carmenères. The 2003, 85 percent Carmenère with the remainder Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc, has rich, ripe blueberry and chocolate aromas and flavors, soft tannins, and excellent depth. It complements seafood and fish as well as meat entrées.
Wholesale price per case of 6, $121
South Africa boasts Pinotage as its signature red variety. A crossing between Pinot Noir and the Rhône Valley’s Cinsault, Pinotage wines can combine the cherry fruit of Pinot Noir with the earthiness of a Rhône wine.
Even California has a signature red variety in Petite Sirah. Apparently a descendant of obscure French varieties, Petite Sirah has a cult following. Petite Sirah belies its name in that wines made from this variety are anything but petite; they are invariably dark-colored, massive, tannic wines.
Even just a few wines from these varieties can turn a “Signature Native Red Varieties” category into the most exciting section of a wine list.
Many wine lists are organized by grape variety—and generally the categories are those of such major international grapes as Cabernet, Merlot and Chardonnay.
Wines that are not made primarily from these varieties fall into the category of “Other Whites” or “Other Reds,” as if they were second-class citizens. We would prefer to see menus list a category called “Signature Native Varieties” or a similar name.
Many exceptional wines are available from grape varieties that are famous mainly in their country of origin, even if they grow elsewhere. Tempranillo from Spain and Sangiovese from Italy are just two examples.
One of today’s exciting calling-card wines is Malbec, Argentina’s most important red varietal wine. Originally from Bordeaux, the Malbec has practically disappeared from there because Bordeaux’s climate is not ideal for the grape.
The only other region in the world where Malbec is still popular is Cahors, in southwest France. But the warm, dry weather of Argentina’s Mendoza region has given Malbec a new lease on life. Malbec can be compared to an intense version of Merlot. It’s more tannic, but its black fruit flavors resemble those of Merlot.
Carmenère is another Bordeaux misfit; although it is a permissible grape variety there, Carmenère effectively disappeared from Bordeaux over 100 years ago.
But it is becoming the signature red grape of Chile, where it is gaining rapidly in popularity, although Cabernet Sauvignon still rules there. Until the early 1990s, it seemed Carmenère had disappeared from the planet.
Then, while trying to understand why some Chilean Merlot vines ripened several weeks earlier than others, ampelographers discovered Carmenère growing alongside Merlot, misidentified as Merlot.
The late-ripening Carmenère thrives in the Colchagua and Cachapoal valleys, Chilean regions with warmer climates and longer growing seasons. About 98 percent of the world’s Carmenère is in Chile.
With flavors reminiscent of blueberries, it’s fruitier and slightly lighter-bodied than Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot, which makes it a good companion for seafood and meaty fish as well as meat.
Cabernet Franc—the “other Cabernet”—is a signature variety of France’s Loire Valley, where it makes delightful, medium-bodied red wines such as Chinon, Bourgueil and Saumur-Champigny.
You can find Cabernet Franc varietal wines in Washington State, and a few come from California and Long Island as well. What we particularly like about Cabernet Franc wines is that they tend to be less tannic and lighter-bodied than Cabernet Sauvignons, and therefore more versatile at the dinner table.
Spain’s highest-quality red variety, Tempranillo, is beginning to get some play in wines from other countries, such as Australia and Argentina, but most Tempranillo-based wines still come from Spain.
Tempranillo can make dark, soft red wines or paler, vibrant aged wines, depending on the wine-making. Many of Spain’s classic Tempranillo-based wines are named for their region of production, such as Rioja or Ribera del Duero, rather than the grape variety, but increasingly the grape name is appearing on wine labels.
Italy has so many native varieties that many grapes are “signatures” but Sangiovese, Italy’s most-planted red variety, tops the list. It is the sole variety in Brunello di Montalcino and the main variety in Chianti, plus a major part of many elite “Super Tuscan” wines and inexpensive varietal bottlings.
Piedmont’s Nebbiolo, the variety of Barolo and Barbaresco, is also important.
Barbera and Dolcetto, two native Italian varieties making easy-to-drink, versatile red wines from Piedmont, also fit nicely into the “signature red” category. Barbera is also growing successfully in Argentina, California and even in Mexico’s Baja Peninsula.
WINE OF THE WEEK
2003 Concha y Toro Terrunyo Carmenère (Chile)
Concha y Toro’s upscale Terrunyo line features one of Chile’s best Carmenères. The 2003, 85 percent Carmenère with the remainder Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc, has rich, ripe blueberry and chocolate aromas and flavors, soft tannins, and excellent depth. It complements seafood and fish as well as meat entrées.
Wholesale price per case of 6, $121
South Africa boasts Pinotage as its signature red variety. A crossing between Pinot Noir and the Rhône Valley’s Cinsault, Pinotage wines can combine the cherry fruit of Pinot Noir with the earthiness of a Rhône wine.
Even California has a signature red variety in Petite Sirah. Apparently a descendant of obscure French varieties, Petite Sirah has a cult following. Petite Sirah belies its name in that wines made from this variety are anything but petite; they are invariably dark-colored, massive, tannic wines.
Even just a few wines from these varieties can turn a “Signature Native Red Varieties” category into the most exciting section of a wine list.
Thursday, March 22, 2007
How to Survive Your Visit to the Hospital
By Dr. Russell L. Blaylock
What You Need to Know to Get Out Alive . . .
Odds are high that at some point in your life, you’ll need to go to the hospital. You could be struck down by an illness or an injury — or perhaps just require some complicated elective surgery.
Whatever the case may be, a hospital visit should not be taken lightly. Why? See for yourself why you must avoid their hazards — if you want to get out alive.
Hospitals — the 8th Leading Cause of Death
Beyond the potentially life-threatening reasons you might enter the hospital, many new perils and pitfalls await you once you’re admitted.
Here are just a few facts that hospitals don’t want you to know:
FACT: Hospital complications and errors comprise the 8th leading cause of death in the U.S. (exceeding even motor vehicle accidents, breast cancer and AIDS) . . .
FACT: Hospital-acquired infections account for 100,000 American deaths each year . . .
FACT: Medical complications kill 30,000 more people a year (and cost us over $9.3 billion) . . .
FACT: Medication errors lead to 7,000 deaths annually . . .
And what makes these statistics even more tragic is this:
A single factor skyrockets your risk of developing a hospital-acquired infection (yet nearly every doctor will forget to warn you about it) . . .
This same factor causes the elderly to be more prone to in-hospital complications and require readmission to the hospital after discharge.
It also causes younger patients to require longer hospital stays and to die more frequently — or feel unwell as long as 18 months after leaving the hospital.
The factor?
What You’ve Been Eating Contributes Heavily to Your Hospital Outcome
Your doctor probably won’t tell you this, but your risk of developing a hospital-acquired infection directly correlates to your diet prior to entering the hospital.
And sadly, even if you think your diet is adequate, you could be at least borderline malnourished. Particularly with today’s SAD (standard American diet) — and the prevalence of junk food, sugar, food additives and other nutrition-busters.
This is only one of the reasons why our NewsMax health editor, Dr. Blaylock, devoted this issue of The Blaylock Wellness Report to showing you the best natural strategies to survive your hospital stay.
Discover How to Survive Your Hospital Visit Now!
You’ll get the truth about preparing for surgery and other hospital stays.
How to strengthen yourself to survive. And how to avoid the breeding ground for the countless infections you’ll be exposed to.
This knowledge is particularly essential if you have pre-existing heart or lung problems, diabetes, or even cancer . . .
Here’s a small preview of what you’ll discover in this issue:
The two most common and most deadly infections you can acquire in the hospital (What simple steps can you take to avoid them?) . . .
Yearly mammograms make good common sense, right? Wrong! (What every woman should know) . . .
11 simple and natural things you can do to boost your immune competence (And defend yourself against a hazardous hospital stay) . . .
Why those trendy total body CT scans could double your likelihood of contracting cancer later in life . . .
3 deadly medical errors to avoid (If you want to survive your time in the hospital) . . .
What you should eat prior to undergoing surgery . . .
Why you should avoid canned “nutritional” drinks like Ensure, Isomil and Sustical . . .
The ugly truth about hospital food (And how to protect yourself while you’re stuck in bed) . . .
3 supplements you should stop taking at least two weeks prior to surgery (Hint: they lead to thinning of the blood) . . .
The miraculous mineral that reduces your need for pain control (And also protects against anesthesia toxicity) . . .
WARNING: What you must know about blood transfusions — before you need one . . .
How the additives in hospital food can contribute to an increase in your pain levels (Plus, expose you to brain, heart and organ damage) . . .
The top 10 nutritional supplements that protect you from cell damage (Consider all those x-rays and CT scans you’re subjected to) . . .
The little-discussed toxin in most modern anesthesia gases that can injure your brain and heart . . .
How to increase your odds of proper wound healing after surgery . . .
And much, much more . . . Get Dr. Blaylock’s Issue on Surviving Your Hospital Stay Now!
What You Need to Know to Get Out Alive . . .
Odds are high that at some point in your life, you’ll need to go to the hospital. You could be struck down by an illness or an injury — or perhaps just require some complicated elective surgery.
Whatever the case may be, a hospital visit should not be taken lightly. Why? See for yourself why you must avoid their hazards — if you want to get out alive.
Hospitals — the 8th Leading Cause of Death
Beyond the potentially life-threatening reasons you might enter the hospital, many new perils and pitfalls await you once you’re admitted.
Here are just a few facts that hospitals don’t want you to know:
FACT: Hospital complications and errors comprise the 8th leading cause of death in the U.S. (exceeding even motor vehicle accidents, breast cancer and AIDS) . . .
FACT: Hospital-acquired infections account for 100,000 American deaths each year . . .
FACT: Medical complications kill 30,000 more people a year (and cost us over $9.3 billion) . . .
FACT: Medication errors lead to 7,000 deaths annually . . .
And what makes these statistics even more tragic is this:
A single factor skyrockets your risk of developing a hospital-acquired infection (yet nearly every doctor will forget to warn you about it) . . .
This same factor causes the elderly to be more prone to in-hospital complications and require readmission to the hospital after discharge.
It also causes younger patients to require longer hospital stays and to die more frequently — or feel unwell as long as 18 months after leaving the hospital.
The factor?
What You’ve Been Eating Contributes Heavily to Your Hospital Outcome
Your doctor probably won’t tell you this, but your risk of developing a hospital-acquired infection directly correlates to your diet prior to entering the hospital.
And sadly, even if you think your diet is adequate, you could be at least borderline malnourished. Particularly with today’s SAD (standard American diet) — and the prevalence of junk food, sugar, food additives and other nutrition-busters.
This is only one of the reasons why our NewsMax health editor, Dr. Blaylock, devoted this issue of The Blaylock Wellness Report to showing you the best natural strategies to survive your hospital stay.
Discover How to Survive Your Hospital Visit Now!
You’ll get the truth about preparing for surgery and other hospital stays.
How to strengthen yourself to survive. And how to avoid the breeding ground for the countless infections you’ll be exposed to.
This knowledge is particularly essential if you have pre-existing heart or lung problems, diabetes, or even cancer . . .
Here’s a small preview of what you’ll discover in this issue:
The two most common and most deadly infections you can acquire in the hospital (What simple steps can you take to avoid them?) . . .
Yearly mammograms make good common sense, right? Wrong! (What every woman should know) . . .
11 simple and natural things you can do to boost your immune competence (And defend yourself against a hazardous hospital stay) . . .
Why those trendy total body CT scans could double your likelihood of contracting cancer later in life . . .
3 deadly medical errors to avoid (If you want to survive your time in the hospital) . . .
What you should eat prior to undergoing surgery . . .
Why you should avoid canned “nutritional” drinks like Ensure, Isomil and Sustical . . .
The ugly truth about hospital food (And how to protect yourself while you’re stuck in bed) . . .
3 supplements you should stop taking at least two weeks prior to surgery (Hint: they lead to thinning of the blood) . . .
The miraculous mineral that reduces your need for pain control (And also protects against anesthesia toxicity) . . .
WARNING: What you must know about blood transfusions — before you need one . . .
How the additives in hospital food can contribute to an increase in your pain levels (Plus, expose you to brain, heart and organ damage) . . .
The top 10 nutritional supplements that protect you from cell damage (Consider all those x-rays and CT scans you’re subjected to) . . .
The little-discussed toxin in most modern anesthesia gases that can injure your brain and heart . . .
How to increase your odds of proper wound healing after surgery . . .
And much, much more . . . Get Dr. Blaylock’s Issue on Surviving Your Hospital Stay Now!
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
The Four Stages Of Life (Part 2 of 2)
The first stage of life is the stage of education and the second stage is the stage of Sensation
The Third Stage of Life is the stage of power.
It is in this stage that you perfect your ability to make things happen. This stage ranges from 40 or 50 years to 60 or 75 years of age. It should all come together in this third stage of life. During this stage, you generally attain your greatest successes and experience your greatest failures.
Having learned the basics of life and mastered your appetites and emotions, it is during this third stage that you learn how to reach down to the very core of your being and pull out just a little bit more of whatever is needed.
Here, you master the laws of success and help others do the same. You master the skill of multiplying your powers through the efforts of others.
The challenge of this third stage of life is:
“. . . chose you this day whom you will serve . . .”
—Joshua 24:15
You either serve good or evil. It’s your choice.
The third stage is where your true mettle comes out. It is also where you are forced to repeat lessons that you should have mastered in previous stages, but did not.
The challenges that confront you, and how you handle them, bring about a reality adjustment as to who you really are inside. It is in this stage that you establish or accept the type of human being that you would like to be.
The Fourth Stage of Life is the stage of immortality.
Only when you have fully mastered the power stage will you be able to effectively move into the stage of immortality. This fourth stage is generally from 60 or 75 years to 75 or 100 years of age. In this stage, you assess what you wanted to accomplish in your life—your purpose.
Evaluate the donations or contributions you have to give to the world. What can you give, or how can you live so that those contributions outlive your existence? It is at this point in your evolution that you must become a visionary, and see things as they can be, rather than as they appear to be.
Create in yourself something that extends beyond the boundaries of one lifetime.
Reach within and summon the forces and vibrations, that you can initiate and direct in the present.
Cultivate those strong forces and vibrations to create a presence that will continue to grow beyond your lifetime. Your vision of immortality cannot be centered on the self, personal desires, or ego.
Center it on the positive aspects of service and benefit to humanity. You must address a positive, worthwhile need in the world. In this fourth stage of life, you may become obsessed with realizing your vision for immortality.
This obsession is created by a deep desire to manifest your vision, fueled by total faith in the Creator and in your own abilities. The dynamic of obsession stimulates your mental, physical, spiritual, and psychic powers to an ultimate level.
Consequently, you become magnetic, attracting the people and resources needed to realize your vision. You will be invincible. You will not be stopped or defeated, no matter what obstacles appear in your wake.
Next week: “The Universal Law of Thought”© 2007 LifeSkill Institute, Inc. Based on The Twelve Universal Laws of Success, Second Edition, Expanded, ISBN 0-9748362-1-4 a new book by Herbert Harris, available at Amazon.com or through the LifeSkill Institute, Inc.
Call (800) 570-4009 to order books. Visit our website www.lifeskillinstitute.org for weekly success message and download Twelve Affirmations To Live By Poster. E-mail: lifeskill@earthlink.net
The Third Stage of Life is the stage of power.
It is in this stage that you perfect your ability to make things happen. This stage ranges from 40 or 50 years to 60 or 75 years of age. It should all come together in this third stage of life. During this stage, you generally attain your greatest successes and experience your greatest failures.
Having learned the basics of life and mastered your appetites and emotions, it is during this third stage that you learn how to reach down to the very core of your being and pull out just a little bit more of whatever is needed.
Here, you master the laws of success and help others do the same. You master the skill of multiplying your powers through the efforts of others.
The challenge of this third stage of life is:
“. . . chose you this day whom you will serve . . .”
—Joshua 24:15
You either serve good or evil. It’s your choice.
The third stage is where your true mettle comes out. It is also where you are forced to repeat lessons that you should have mastered in previous stages, but did not.
The challenges that confront you, and how you handle them, bring about a reality adjustment as to who you really are inside. It is in this stage that you establish or accept the type of human being that you would like to be.
The Fourth Stage of Life is the stage of immortality.
Only when you have fully mastered the power stage will you be able to effectively move into the stage of immortality. This fourth stage is generally from 60 or 75 years to 75 or 100 years of age. In this stage, you assess what you wanted to accomplish in your life—your purpose.
Evaluate the donations or contributions you have to give to the world. What can you give, or how can you live so that those contributions outlive your existence? It is at this point in your evolution that you must become a visionary, and see things as they can be, rather than as they appear to be.
Create in yourself something that extends beyond the boundaries of one lifetime.
Reach within and summon the forces and vibrations, that you can initiate and direct in the present.
Cultivate those strong forces and vibrations to create a presence that will continue to grow beyond your lifetime. Your vision of immortality cannot be centered on the self, personal desires, or ego.
Center it on the positive aspects of service and benefit to humanity. You must address a positive, worthwhile need in the world. In this fourth stage of life, you may become obsessed with realizing your vision for immortality.
This obsession is created by a deep desire to manifest your vision, fueled by total faith in the Creator and in your own abilities. The dynamic of obsession stimulates your mental, physical, spiritual, and psychic powers to an ultimate level.
Consequently, you become magnetic, attracting the people and resources needed to realize your vision. You will be invincible. You will not be stopped or defeated, no matter what obstacles appear in your wake.
Next week: “The Universal Law of Thought”© 2007 LifeSkill Institute, Inc. Based on The Twelve Universal Laws of Success, Second Edition, Expanded, ISBN 0-9748362-1-4 a new book by Herbert Harris, available at Amazon.com or through the LifeSkill Institute, Inc.
Call (800) 570-4009 to order books. Visit our website www.lifeskillinstitute.org for weekly success message and download Twelve Affirmations To Live By Poster. E-mail: lifeskill@earthlink.net
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
The Hpnotiq Firecracker Margarita
Hpnotiq's versatile mixing appeal can again come in handy this summer around the Fourth of July, so hang on to this recipe suggestion for use when the time comes.
Your patrons may end up pledging allegance to Hpnotiq's Margarita. The visual impact comes from its red, white and blue swirls, and the refreshment factor originates from Hpnotiq combined with natural fruit juices and a hint of Cognac swirled with the luscious flavors of coconut, lime, pineapple and strawberry.
It goes like this:
1 ounce Hpnotiq
1 ounce super-premium dark rum
1 ounce coconut milk
1 ounce fresh lime juice
1 ounce pineapple juice
1 ounce sweetened strawberry puree
1/2 cup crushed ice
Combine rum, coconut milk, lime juice, pineapple juice and ice in blender. Pour Hpnotiq into a Margarita glass. Layer 2/3 of the blended mix over the Hpnotiq. Blend remaining mix with strawberry puree and layer on top. Garnish with coconut or use salt-rimmed glass as a variation.
Your patrons may end up pledging allegance to Hpnotiq's Margarita. The visual impact comes from its red, white and blue swirls, and the refreshment factor originates from Hpnotiq combined with natural fruit juices and a hint of Cognac swirled with the luscious flavors of coconut, lime, pineapple and strawberry.
It goes like this:
1 ounce Hpnotiq
1 ounce super-premium dark rum
1 ounce coconut milk
1 ounce fresh lime juice
1 ounce pineapple juice
1 ounce sweetened strawberry puree
1/2 cup crushed ice
Combine rum, coconut milk, lime juice, pineapple juice and ice in blender. Pour Hpnotiq into a Margarita glass. Layer 2/3 of the blended mix over the Hpnotiq. Blend remaining mix with strawberry puree and layer on top. Garnish with coconut or use salt-rimmed glass as a variation.
Monday, March 19, 2007
Obesity Drug Kills Cancer
From NewsMax Health
Scientists have made a surprising discovery — a drug that is already approved for the treatment of obesity also stops the growth of cancerous tumors.
The drug is Orlistat, and it's already been in the news recently because a version of it has just received FDA approval for over-the-counter sales in a lower dosage.
Research scientists at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine made the discovery while analyzing prostate cancer cells, a project they began five years ago.
They were trying to find out which proteins and enzymes were expressed at high levels in prostate cancer, with the idea in mind of somehow reducing those levels and stopping tumor growth.
Their first important finding was that a tubular network within cells called the endoplasmic reticulum, or ER, is regulated by an enzyme linked to the growth of tumors.
Their second important finding was that an enzyme known as "fatty acid synthase" was the key enzyme they were searching for, and that blocking it prevents tumor cell growth and triggers cell death.
"No one had made the connection before between fatty acid synthase and the function of the ER in tumor cells," said senior researcher Steven Kridel, Ph.D. Their third important finding was that the drug they needed already existed.
Kridel said, "We then made the surprising finding that Orlistat, a drug approved by the FDA to treat obesity, can block the function of fatty acid synthase, prevent tumor cell growth, and promote tumor cell death."
Now that the role of the ER in cancer has been uncovered and linked to the discovery that blocking fatty acid synthase can stop the growth of tumors, researchers are working to develop new cancer drugs.
Orlistat itself, which the researchers tested successfully on mice, cannot be used to treat cancer in humans because it only works in the digestive tract. But the discoveries have opened new doors.
Kridel said, "Out latest findings that connect fatty acid sythase and ER function gives us a better understanding about how the drug kills tumor cells and gives us clues to make better drugs."
Editor's Note:
Want to Reduce Your Risk of Cancer by 50%? Doctor Offers Advice.
Editor's Notes:
Your Gums Can Indicate Heart Disease, Inflammation.
5 Secrets They Don't Teach Doctors (Could Save Your Heart!)
Overweight? Doctor Reveals ‘Fat Burner’ Supplement.
More: Get the Renowned Dr. Oz’s Manual for Waist Management.
Trans Fats Causes Heart Disease, Not Cholesterol.
Want to Reduce Your Risk of Cancer by 50%? Doctor Offers Advice.
If You Had One Year to Live, These 4 Supplements Could Save You.
Blood Pressure Woes: Most People Who Have It, Don't Know It Can Be Cured Naturally.
Scientists have made a surprising discovery — a drug that is already approved for the treatment of obesity also stops the growth of cancerous tumors.
The drug is Orlistat, and it's already been in the news recently because a version of it has just received FDA approval for over-the-counter sales in a lower dosage.
Research scientists at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine made the discovery while analyzing prostate cancer cells, a project they began five years ago.
They were trying to find out which proteins and enzymes were expressed at high levels in prostate cancer, with the idea in mind of somehow reducing those levels and stopping tumor growth.
Their first important finding was that a tubular network within cells called the endoplasmic reticulum, or ER, is regulated by an enzyme linked to the growth of tumors.
Their second important finding was that an enzyme known as "fatty acid synthase" was the key enzyme they were searching for, and that blocking it prevents tumor cell growth and triggers cell death.
"No one had made the connection before between fatty acid synthase and the function of the ER in tumor cells," said senior researcher Steven Kridel, Ph.D. Their third important finding was that the drug they needed already existed.
Kridel said, "We then made the surprising finding that Orlistat, a drug approved by the FDA to treat obesity, can block the function of fatty acid synthase, prevent tumor cell growth, and promote tumor cell death."
Now that the role of the ER in cancer has been uncovered and linked to the discovery that blocking fatty acid synthase can stop the growth of tumors, researchers are working to develop new cancer drugs.
Orlistat itself, which the researchers tested successfully on mice, cannot be used to treat cancer in humans because it only works in the digestive tract. But the discoveries have opened new doors.
Kridel said, "Out latest findings that connect fatty acid sythase and ER function gives us a better understanding about how the drug kills tumor cells and gives us clues to make better drugs."
Editor's Note:
Want to Reduce Your Risk of Cancer by 50%? Doctor Offers Advice.
Editor's Notes:
Your Gums Can Indicate Heart Disease, Inflammation.
5 Secrets They Don't Teach Doctors (Could Save Your Heart!)
Overweight? Doctor Reveals ‘Fat Burner’ Supplement.
More: Get the Renowned Dr. Oz’s Manual for Waist Management.
Trans Fats Causes Heart Disease, Not Cholesterol.
Want to Reduce Your Risk of Cancer by 50%? Doctor Offers Advice.
If You Had One Year to Live, These 4 Supplements Could Save You.
Blood Pressure Woes: Most People Who Have It, Don't Know It Can Be Cured Naturally.
Sunday, March 18, 2007
The Real Work - The Secret To Becoming Successful Is
By Greg Nicholls
I have done so many things in my life and all have been in the pursuit of success.
I have owned four businesses, been an employee many times in between owning businesses, I have read many books, I have attended many conferences, I have had many mentors and now I can say, without a doubt that I have determined what everyone that truly desires success in their lives really should know about.
"The Real Work" - The Secret to becoming successful is... Think.
Powerful, eh? (Yes, I am from Canada)
Think!
I have found out that we do way too much doing and way too little thinking. The secret to becoming successful is at first as simple as sitting down and writing out what it is you want to accomplish in your life, figure out the things that you want to do, get real specific with them, then write out some dates that they will be accomplished by.
Yes, I am suggesting that you write out your specific goals.
If you are thinking to yourself "that never works, I never write out my goals", well... um, are you truly successful? Have you accomplished your life's work and left a legacy for future generations?
Will you be remembered for what you have done thousands of years from now? If you already have, we are done here, there is nothing more you need to know. If not, but what I describe is what you want, then write out your goals and keep reading.
Here, I will help you out, print off this page and write out your goals right now.
Goal:__________________________________________________________________________________
Date Goal Is Accomplished:________________________________________________________________
Goal:______________________________________________________________________________
Date Goal Is Accomplished:________________________________________________________________
Goal:______________________________________________________________________________
Date Goal Is Accomplished:________________________________________________________________
Goal:______________________________________________________________________________
Date Goal Is Accomplished:________________________________________________________________
Goal:______________________________________________________________________________
Date Goal Is Accomplished:________________________________________________________________
OK, now think about how you are going to attain these goals. It is great that you have written them out, but what action are you going to take to attain them? This is again where some thinking comes in, yes, this does take work, this is "The Real Work".
The key to taking action is determining ahead of time that the action you are going to take will produce the results that you expect to attain. In other words, if you want to drive a Porsche, don't take action by getting a job at the movie theater taking tickets.
Crappy jobs get crappy results. Well in fact, any job gets crappy results in my opinion. You have to own your own business to get Porsche results, especially if you want to park it in a Mansion, not at a Condo.
The next thing is you have to set aside some time to get quiet; meditate, imagine yourself having already attained your goals; really get to the point of "feeling" what it is like to have attained your goals.
Embrace that feeling because believe it or not, this feeling is the exact same feeling you will have when you actually have attained your goals, no better, no worse. The nice thing to know, is the more often you create this feeling, the faster you will get what it is you desire.
Your subconscious mind goes swiftly to work to make the feeling real by sending out this request to the universe to materialize whatever feelings you have about something, into reality. You may have heard about this Law, it is called the Law Of Attraction.
By the way, if you have not seen "The Secret" DVD or read the book yet? You can buy it here at our bookstore, along with a few other good resources: http://www.DeserveMoney.com
If you liked this article because now you have an idea of what you can do to attain true success, but you feel that you still want a mentor that can keep you on course, to attain the results that you desire; get in touch with Greg, find out what he can do to assist you in getting into the right vehicle.
That does not necessarily mean that the vehicle Greg has is what you will be looking for, but it does mean that regardless, you should get the information. Start by visiting his personal website at http://www.GregNicholls.ca and make a request for him to contact you today.
I have done so many things in my life and all have been in the pursuit of success.
I have owned four businesses, been an employee many times in between owning businesses, I have read many books, I have attended many conferences, I have had many mentors and now I can say, without a doubt that I have determined what everyone that truly desires success in their lives really should know about.
"The Real Work" - The Secret to becoming successful is... Think.
Powerful, eh? (Yes, I am from Canada)
Think!
I have found out that we do way too much doing and way too little thinking. The secret to becoming successful is at first as simple as sitting down and writing out what it is you want to accomplish in your life, figure out the things that you want to do, get real specific with them, then write out some dates that they will be accomplished by.
Yes, I am suggesting that you write out your specific goals.
If you are thinking to yourself "that never works, I never write out my goals", well... um, are you truly successful? Have you accomplished your life's work and left a legacy for future generations?
Will you be remembered for what you have done thousands of years from now? If you already have, we are done here, there is nothing more you need to know. If not, but what I describe is what you want, then write out your goals and keep reading.
Here, I will help you out, print off this page and write out your goals right now.
Goal:__________________________________________________________________________________
Date Goal Is Accomplished:________________________________________________________________
Goal:______________________________________________________________________________
Date Goal Is Accomplished:________________________________________________________________
Goal:______________________________________________________________________________
Date Goal Is Accomplished:________________________________________________________________
Goal:______________________________________________________________________________
Date Goal Is Accomplished:________________________________________________________________
Goal:______________________________________________________________________________
Date Goal Is Accomplished:________________________________________________________________
OK, now think about how you are going to attain these goals. It is great that you have written them out, but what action are you going to take to attain them? This is again where some thinking comes in, yes, this does take work, this is "The Real Work".
The key to taking action is determining ahead of time that the action you are going to take will produce the results that you expect to attain. In other words, if you want to drive a Porsche, don't take action by getting a job at the movie theater taking tickets.
Crappy jobs get crappy results. Well in fact, any job gets crappy results in my opinion. You have to own your own business to get Porsche results, especially if you want to park it in a Mansion, not at a Condo.
The next thing is you have to set aside some time to get quiet; meditate, imagine yourself having already attained your goals; really get to the point of "feeling" what it is like to have attained your goals.
Embrace that feeling because believe it or not, this feeling is the exact same feeling you will have when you actually have attained your goals, no better, no worse. The nice thing to know, is the more often you create this feeling, the faster you will get what it is you desire.
Your subconscious mind goes swiftly to work to make the feeling real by sending out this request to the universe to materialize whatever feelings you have about something, into reality. You may have heard about this Law, it is called the Law Of Attraction.
By the way, if you have not seen "The Secret" DVD or read the book yet? You can buy it here at our bookstore, along with a few other good resources: http://www.DeserveMoney.com
If you liked this article because now you have an idea of what you can do to attain true success, but you feel that you still want a mentor that can keep you on course, to attain the results that you desire; get in touch with Greg, find out what he can do to assist you in getting into the right vehicle.
That does not necessarily mean that the vehicle Greg has is what you will be looking for, but it does mean that regardless, you should get the information. Start by visiting his personal website at http://www.GregNicholls.ca and make a request for him to contact you today.
Saturday, March 17, 2007
Rye, resurrected: America's historic firewater enjoys newfound popularity
By Gary Regan
I have a friend who never pays for a drink. At least not when I'm around. When the bar bill arrives he'll start telling me about the definitive way to fix a certain cocktail in the style of a specific New Orleans restaurant, circa 1897.
And he'll keep the yarn spinning just long enough for me to pay the bill. I seldom even realize what went down until a day or two later. Damn! Dave Wondrich did it again, I'll think to myself.
Still, Wondrich, a onetime history professor who is now the drinks correspondent for Esquire magazine, was the man who made me see the light about rye whiskey.
One of the historical truths that Wondrich likes to fling my way is the fact that most whiskey-based cocktails created in the late 19th and early 20th centuries called for rye, not bourbon.
We're talking about classics, like the Sazerac, old fashioned and my very favorite drink in the whole darned world, the Manhattan.
Until Wondrich got my attention, I always made Manhattans with bourbon. Whiskey, in very general terms, is any distilled spirit that's made from grain and aged until it develops a flavor that we recognize as being, well, whiskey.
When we define different styles of whiskey, though, we must get a little more specific. Technically, straight rye must be made from 51 percent rye grain; in the case of bourbon, corn must be the predominant grain.
In reality, most of these whiskeys exceed that, to about 70 percent of these grains. After falling out of favor for nearly 70 years, rye's popularity has returned.
American distillers have been issuing some incredible new bottlings, such as the 18-year-old Sazerac and the 21-year-old Rittenhouse rye. Without missing a beat, bartenders are getting very creative with this spicy whiskey.
Jimmy Patrick, a bartender at the Lion and Compass in Sunnyvale, created the Rye Tye, a variation on the rum-based mai tai, to introduce his customers to the once and potentially future King of American whiskeys.
Many bartenders, Patrick included, are also using rye in classic drinks so their customers can taste the time-honored cocktails in their original forms.
"People are starting to hear the hype about rye, but don't know what to drink it in," Patrick says, so he also encourages his guests to try Manhattans, old fashioneds and Sazeracs made with rye.
Prior to Prohibition, straight rye was said to be even more popular than bourbon. And in the two decades that preceded the great drought, it was whiskey -- not gin, not rum, not Tequila and certainly not vodka -- that was the King of the American Barroom.
Rye was a very popular dram indeed. When Prohibition was repealed in 1933, American whiskey distilleries fired up their stills, but concentrated their efforts on making bourbon, and more or less ignored rye.
Why no rye? Nobody's telling. It was probably because corn is less expensive than rye. The whiskey men had been out of business for quite some time, remember, and because whiskey isn't worth drinking until it's been aged a minimum of two years in oak, it would be at least that long until the newly made whiskey was deemed salable.
While American distillers were waiting patiently for their bourbon to mellow in charred oak barrels, Canadian rye whisky was being poured in the United States. Its popularity stuck, even though many Canadian whiskies are now made with no rye whatsoever.
Until recently, many American bartenders automatically reached for a bottle of the Canadian impostor when their guests ordered rye. Among whiskeys, Canadian whisky is generally sweet and somewhat generic.
It almost always slides down the throat singing some ballad by Robert Goulet, another easily palatable Canadian. Bourbon also has harmonious sweetness from corn, but with a bit of an attitude.
You might hear the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, for instance. Or Robert Johnson could make an appearance on a 78-rpm gramophone record, complete with earthy scratches. He's likely singing "Love in Vain."
Straight rye whiskey is more elegant, with subtle spice notes and a flavor that's smooth but not sweet. It leans a little toward opera. Think Enrico Caruso. Rye is elegant in a very masculine sort of way.
Although straight rye whiskey seems to be a new addition to the barroom, a few bottlings have been lurking in the background all along.
Relatively small quantities of stalwarts such as Old Overholt (made by Jim Beam) and Rittenhouse and Pikesville (both from Heaven Hill Distilleries in Kentucky) have been long available.
And brand names usually associated with bourbon, such as Wild Turkey and Jim Beam, have also had straight ryes on the market for a number of years.
Until a new breed of whiskey connoisseur delved into this style, most ryes were sold to a knowledgeable few, and rye was a rare sight in bars or liquor stores until around a decade ago.
Then a series of rye whiskeys began to hit the market, and bars and their tenders took note.
"I have expanded my rye whiskey collection considerably, both out of personal favor and customer interest," says H. Joseph Ehrmann, owner of Elixir, a neighborhood bar in San Francisco's Mission District.
Elixir's list of straight ryes includes Michter's, a relative newcomer available in two bottlings -- a 10-year-old bottling and also in a bottle sans age statement. (No age statement on bottles of any straight American whiskey denotes a minimum age of four years.)
Both are highly recommendable. Michter's is made in Kentucky, though it's based on a brand originally from Pennsylvania, once a great source for rye. In fact, most of these spicy drams are made in Kentucky, except for Old Potrero, which is made from 100 percent malted rye grain in the pot stills at San Francisco's Anchor Distillery.
Old Potrero features three bottlings. Two, the "18th century style," and "19th century style," bear no age statements.
But the third, Old Potrero Hotaling's Rye Whiskey, so named to honor the A.P. Hotaling & Company's warehouse on Jackson Street, a building filled with whiskey that survived the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, spends a full 11 years in charred oak casks.
Old Potrero is so popular that Greg Lindgren, owner and bartender at Rye, a Geary Street watering hole, ran out of his allotted number of cases shortly after introducing a rye-based cocktail, the Dogpatch, a drink that's named for a neighborhood near the Anchor Distillery.
All was not lost. Lindgren went straight to the source. "The folks at Anchor assure us that we will be able to get enough (rye) for the remainder of the year," he said. The Rittenhouse 100, an old staple out of Kentucky, is also worth seeking out.
The 100-proof bottling has gained much favor among rye aficionados. If you're really lucky you might stumble across a bottle of the limited Rittenhouse 21-year-old rye.
Or hunt down Sazerac brand 18-year-old rye, a superb expression of rye whiskey issued by Kentucky's Buffalo Trace distillery. Sazerac also issues a 6-year-old rye that's been a great hit in the barrooms of America.
It works neat, it works on the rocks, and it serves as a very sturdy backbone for rye-based cocktails. Other recommendable well-aged American straight ryes include the Black Maple Hill, available in 18- and 23-year-old expressions, and the Hirsch 21-year-old Kentucky Rye.
And there are also a couple of Canadian ryes that contain no neutral spirits, and no added flavorings, so for our purposes, the Hirsch Selection Canadian rye whiskies, currently available in 10- and 12-year-old bottlings, fit the bill nicely.
Finally, there is Van Winkle. In the late 1990s, I found myself in Bardstown, Ky., to attend the annual Kentucky Bourbon Festival.
As I strolled around town with my friend, spirits writer Paul Pacult, we happened upon one Julian Van Winkle, the guy who's responsible for bringing us 13-year-old Van Winkle Family Reserve Rye.
It's a superb example of a classic rye, though it can be very hard to find at times. Van Winkle told us that he had started to bottle a straight rye whiskey for the Japanese market, but that it wouldn't be available in the good old U.S.A.
Pacult and I beat the man to a pulp. And that's why you can now get this delectable whiskey. True story. Aside from the beating part. I've used this rye successfully as a base for cocktails, but I usually save it for sipping neat or over ice.
I poured a shot of Van Winkle rye for a good friend when he stopped by my house for a late afternoon chinwag recently. "I love this stuff," he said. "Dave Wondrich bought me a dram of this when I bumped into him last week."
"Wondrich actually paid for it?" I asked. "Oh, yes. He's very generous at the bar, you know. Unless he thinks you're a scoundrel, that is. You know the Wondrich creed, dontcha? Never buy drinks for rogues and scoundrels. He pretty much lives by that one."
Rye tasting notes
I chose the following ryes because of their versatility. Whether sipped neat, over ice or in a cocktail, any of these will fill the bill nicely.
Michter's 10-year-old Straight Rye Whiskey
This is one of the most versatile ryes out there. It's nutty, chocolaty, fruity and spicy. If Maker's Mark is the best all-rounder of bourbons, and Highland Park fits the same bill for single-malt Scotches, then Michter's 10-year-old takes the title for the ryes.
Sazerac 6-year-old Straight Rye Whiskey
Perhaps the quintessential cocktail rye, this whiskey has enough bite and punch to shine right through a Sazerac cocktail, but it's intricate and marvelously spicy enough to be a rye that stands tall on its own two feet. Forgive the review-speak but I get oranges, white pepper and violets.
Rittenhouse 100-Proof Straight Rye Whiskey
This is a gutsy bottling. Since there's no age statement on the label, it's a minimum of 4 years old. It jumps out of the glass and gets right in your face. You gotta fight through the spices to get to that incredible buttery mouthfeel, but it's there all the same. A bartender's dream rye.
Van Winkle Family Reserve 13-year-old Straight Rye
Here's a dram that's full of flowers and toffee and spices that never bows down to the vermouth in a Manhattan. It's full of character, and seems to offer something you never noticed before every time you go back to it.
Wild Turkey Straight Rye Whiskey
I have a hard time finding anything wrong with any whiskey that this Kentucky distillery puts on the market, and this is no exception. There's an old-leather quality to this rye that can be found in Wild Turkey bourbon, too, but its rye has that perfumed quality that's hard to find in any other style of whiskey.
I have a friend who never pays for a drink. At least not when I'm around. When the bar bill arrives he'll start telling me about the definitive way to fix a certain cocktail in the style of a specific New Orleans restaurant, circa 1897.
And he'll keep the yarn spinning just long enough for me to pay the bill. I seldom even realize what went down until a day or two later. Damn! Dave Wondrich did it again, I'll think to myself.
Still, Wondrich, a onetime history professor who is now the drinks correspondent for Esquire magazine, was the man who made me see the light about rye whiskey.
One of the historical truths that Wondrich likes to fling my way is the fact that most whiskey-based cocktails created in the late 19th and early 20th centuries called for rye, not bourbon.
We're talking about classics, like the Sazerac, old fashioned and my very favorite drink in the whole darned world, the Manhattan.
Until Wondrich got my attention, I always made Manhattans with bourbon. Whiskey, in very general terms, is any distilled spirit that's made from grain and aged until it develops a flavor that we recognize as being, well, whiskey.
When we define different styles of whiskey, though, we must get a little more specific. Technically, straight rye must be made from 51 percent rye grain; in the case of bourbon, corn must be the predominant grain.
In reality, most of these whiskeys exceed that, to about 70 percent of these grains. After falling out of favor for nearly 70 years, rye's popularity has returned.
American distillers have been issuing some incredible new bottlings, such as the 18-year-old Sazerac and the 21-year-old Rittenhouse rye. Without missing a beat, bartenders are getting very creative with this spicy whiskey.
Jimmy Patrick, a bartender at the Lion and Compass in Sunnyvale, created the Rye Tye, a variation on the rum-based mai tai, to introduce his customers to the once and potentially future King of American whiskeys.
Many bartenders, Patrick included, are also using rye in classic drinks so their customers can taste the time-honored cocktails in their original forms.
"People are starting to hear the hype about rye, but don't know what to drink it in," Patrick says, so he also encourages his guests to try Manhattans, old fashioneds and Sazeracs made with rye.
Prior to Prohibition, straight rye was said to be even more popular than bourbon. And in the two decades that preceded the great drought, it was whiskey -- not gin, not rum, not Tequila and certainly not vodka -- that was the King of the American Barroom.
Rye was a very popular dram indeed. When Prohibition was repealed in 1933, American whiskey distilleries fired up their stills, but concentrated their efforts on making bourbon, and more or less ignored rye.
Why no rye? Nobody's telling. It was probably because corn is less expensive than rye. The whiskey men had been out of business for quite some time, remember, and because whiskey isn't worth drinking until it's been aged a minimum of two years in oak, it would be at least that long until the newly made whiskey was deemed salable.
While American distillers were waiting patiently for their bourbon to mellow in charred oak barrels, Canadian rye whisky was being poured in the United States. Its popularity stuck, even though many Canadian whiskies are now made with no rye whatsoever.
Until recently, many American bartenders automatically reached for a bottle of the Canadian impostor when their guests ordered rye. Among whiskeys, Canadian whisky is generally sweet and somewhat generic.
It almost always slides down the throat singing some ballad by Robert Goulet, another easily palatable Canadian. Bourbon also has harmonious sweetness from corn, but with a bit of an attitude.
You might hear the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, for instance. Or Robert Johnson could make an appearance on a 78-rpm gramophone record, complete with earthy scratches. He's likely singing "Love in Vain."
Straight rye whiskey is more elegant, with subtle spice notes and a flavor that's smooth but not sweet. It leans a little toward opera. Think Enrico Caruso. Rye is elegant in a very masculine sort of way.
Although straight rye whiskey seems to be a new addition to the barroom, a few bottlings have been lurking in the background all along.
Relatively small quantities of stalwarts such as Old Overholt (made by Jim Beam) and Rittenhouse and Pikesville (both from Heaven Hill Distilleries in Kentucky) have been long available.
And brand names usually associated with bourbon, such as Wild Turkey and Jim Beam, have also had straight ryes on the market for a number of years.
Until a new breed of whiskey connoisseur delved into this style, most ryes were sold to a knowledgeable few, and rye was a rare sight in bars or liquor stores until around a decade ago.
Then a series of rye whiskeys began to hit the market, and bars and their tenders took note.
"I have expanded my rye whiskey collection considerably, both out of personal favor and customer interest," says H. Joseph Ehrmann, owner of Elixir, a neighborhood bar in San Francisco's Mission District.
Elixir's list of straight ryes includes Michter's, a relative newcomer available in two bottlings -- a 10-year-old bottling and also in a bottle sans age statement. (No age statement on bottles of any straight American whiskey denotes a minimum age of four years.)
Both are highly recommendable. Michter's is made in Kentucky, though it's based on a brand originally from Pennsylvania, once a great source for rye. In fact, most of these spicy drams are made in Kentucky, except for Old Potrero, which is made from 100 percent malted rye grain in the pot stills at San Francisco's Anchor Distillery.
Old Potrero features three bottlings. Two, the "18th century style," and "19th century style," bear no age statements.
But the third, Old Potrero Hotaling's Rye Whiskey, so named to honor the A.P. Hotaling & Company's warehouse on Jackson Street, a building filled with whiskey that survived the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, spends a full 11 years in charred oak casks.
Old Potrero is so popular that Greg Lindgren, owner and bartender at Rye, a Geary Street watering hole, ran out of his allotted number of cases shortly after introducing a rye-based cocktail, the Dogpatch, a drink that's named for a neighborhood near the Anchor Distillery.
All was not lost. Lindgren went straight to the source. "The folks at Anchor assure us that we will be able to get enough (rye) for the remainder of the year," he said. The Rittenhouse 100, an old staple out of Kentucky, is also worth seeking out.
The 100-proof bottling has gained much favor among rye aficionados. If you're really lucky you might stumble across a bottle of the limited Rittenhouse 21-year-old rye.
Or hunt down Sazerac brand 18-year-old rye, a superb expression of rye whiskey issued by Kentucky's Buffalo Trace distillery. Sazerac also issues a 6-year-old rye that's been a great hit in the barrooms of America.
It works neat, it works on the rocks, and it serves as a very sturdy backbone for rye-based cocktails. Other recommendable well-aged American straight ryes include the Black Maple Hill, available in 18- and 23-year-old expressions, and the Hirsch 21-year-old Kentucky Rye.
And there are also a couple of Canadian ryes that contain no neutral spirits, and no added flavorings, so for our purposes, the Hirsch Selection Canadian rye whiskies, currently available in 10- and 12-year-old bottlings, fit the bill nicely.
Finally, there is Van Winkle. In the late 1990s, I found myself in Bardstown, Ky., to attend the annual Kentucky Bourbon Festival.
As I strolled around town with my friend, spirits writer Paul Pacult, we happened upon one Julian Van Winkle, the guy who's responsible for bringing us 13-year-old Van Winkle Family Reserve Rye.
It's a superb example of a classic rye, though it can be very hard to find at times. Van Winkle told us that he had started to bottle a straight rye whiskey for the Japanese market, but that it wouldn't be available in the good old U.S.A.
Pacult and I beat the man to a pulp. And that's why you can now get this delectable whiskey. True story. Aside from the beating part. I've used this rye successfully as a base for cocktails, but I usually save it for sipping neat or over ice.
I poured a shot of Van Winkle rye for a good friend when he stopped by my house for a late afternoon chinwag recently. "I love this stuff," he said. "Dave Wondrich bought me a dram of this when I bumped into him last week."
"Wondrich actually paid for it?" I asked. "Oh, yes. He's very generous at the bar, you know. Unless he thinks you're a scoundrel, that is. You know the Wondrich creed, dontcha? Never buy drinks for rogues and scoundrels. He pretty much lives by that one."
Rye tasting notes
I chose the following ryes because of their versatility. Whether sipped neat, over ice or in a cocktail, any of these will fill the bill nicely.
Michter's 10-year-old Straight Rye Whiskey
This is one of the most versatile ryes out there. It's nutty, chocolaty, fruity and spicy. If Maker's Mark is the best all-rounder of bourbons, and Highland Park fits the same bill for single-malt Scotches, then Michter's 10-year-old takes the title for the ryes.
Sazerac 6-year-old Straight Rye Whiskey
Perhaps the quintessential cocktail rye, this whiskey has enough bite and punch to shine right through a Sazerac cocktail, but it's intricate and marvelously spicy enough to be a rye that stands tall on its own two feet. Forgive the review-speak but I get oranges, white pepper and violets.
Rittenhouse 100-Proof Straight Rye Whiskey
This is a gutsy bottling. Since there's no age statement on the label, it's a minimum of 4 years old. It jumps out of the glass and gets right in your face. You gotta fight through the spices to get to that incredible buttery mouthfeel, but it's there all the same. A bartender's dream rye.
Van Winkle Family Reserve 13-year-old Straight Rye
Here's a dram that's full of flowers and toffee and spices that never bows down to the vermouth in a Manhattan. It's full of character, and seems to offer something you never noticed before every time you go back to it.
Wild Turkey Straight Rye Whiskey
I have a hard time finding anything wrong with any whiskey that this Kentucky distillery puts on the market, and this is no exception. There's an old-leather quality to this rye that can be found in Wild Turkey bourbon, too, but its rye has that perfumed quality that's hard to find in any other style of whiskey.
Friday, March 16, 2007
5 Quick Weight Loss Tips
By: Davion Wong
Quick weight loss tips are much sought after by folks eager to lose some weight in the shortest time possible. You could be a bride preparing for your wedding and needed to slim down to fit into your gown nicely, or in your mid-40s and want to lose that beer belly.
Whatever the reason may be, it is not wrong to desire to lose weight quickly. But the key is to do so healthily. This article is packed with 10 goodie tips that would put you on the right track to losing those extra unwanted pounds on your body and regaining the dream body you always loved to have.
Here’s 5 simple quick weight loss tips:
Quick Weight Loss Tip 1 - Losing Weight is an Equation
Losing weight means you have to eat lesser calories than what your body needs. This translates to consuming lesser calories than your daily energy requirement.
Follow the Basal Metabollic Rate (BMR) formula which you will find on my blog to calculate your BMR. This tells you how much calories you need to intake in order to maintain your body weight.
You will need to step down your daily calorie intake by about 500 calories in order to lose one pound in one week’s time.
Quick Weight Loss Tip 2 – Eat More Meals and Don’t Skip Them
Before you start wondering if you are reading correctly, let me assure you that your eyes are not playing tricks on you.
It is a myth that skipping meals would help you to lose weight quickly and effectively. Your body would slow down its metabolism when you skip meals, in a bid to conserve energy, hence burning away lesser calories.
You end up hungry and yet not achieving the desired weight loss. Spread your meals from 3 big meals, breakfast, lunch and dinner into 5-6 smaller meals comprising the 3 main light meals and 2-3 other snacking time.
This would distribute your calorie intake and reach a good balance.
Quick Weight Loss Tip 3 - Eat Green
Stock up your fridge with lots of leafy green vegetables and fruits. Vegetables and fruits are rich sources of fiber and water and add weight and volume to our food.
This makes our stomachs full while maintaining a lower calorie count since fruits and vegetables are inherently low in calories and fat content. They also pack our bodies with healthy nutrients making our diet a balanced one.
Quick Weight Loss Tip 4 – Sleep Well
Sleeping is a favorite quick weight loss tip since it is one of the most effortless. Do not understand the power of having enough sleep. It is vital to your overall weight loss plan.
Medical research has proven that sleep deprivation would induce hunger, and improve appetite. This often results in excessive eating. Likewise, having sufficient sleep of at least 8 hours helps to bring a balance to the leptin level and aids weight loss.
Quick Weight Loss Tip 5 - Exercise Enough
Some folks hate this quick weight loss tip and are immediately turned off. Sad to say, in order to maintain a healthy weight, exercise is necessary. Dieting and making adjustments to your eating habits would only win you half the game.
Regular exercising is the missing part of the quick weight loss puzzle. You may be wondering how much is enough? Physical trainers or even your doctors would advise you to go for moderate exercise sessions of 30 minutes each time.
Repeat the routine for a minimum of 3 times a week for effective weight loss. You would be surprised how fast you start to lose inches off your waist and hips once you begin your exercise regime.
These quick weight loss tips are useful to you only when you apply them after reading. Many people fail in doing so because of poor motivation and lack of moral support from their family and closed friends.
Share with them about your weight loss plan and encourage them to remind you from time to time about your goal to lose weight quickly. This would spur you on to be focused.
Read up my blog if you desire to find out more about natural and healthy ways to lose up to 28 pounds within 3 short weeks.This article may be freely reprinted or distributed in its entirety in any ezine, newsletter, blog or website.
The author's name, bio and website links must remain intact and be included with every reproduction.Davion is a successful webmaster and author. Find out how you can lose extra pounds, regain good health and confidence using natural and quick weight loss tips at his blog quick-weightloss-tips.blogspot.com.
Quick weight loss tips are much sought after by folks eager to lose some weight in the shortest time possible. You could be a bride preparing for your wedding and needed to slim down to fit into your gown nicely, or in your mid-40s and want to lose that beer belly.
Whatever the reason may be, it is not wrong to desire to lose weight quickly. But the key is to do so healthily. This article is packed with 10 goodie tips that would put you on the right track to losing those extra unwanted pounds on your body and regaining the dream body you always loved to have.
Here’s 5 simple quick weight loss tips:
Quick Weight Loss Tip 1 - Losing Weight is an Equation
Losing weight means you have to eat lesser calories than what your body needs. This translates to consuming lesser calories than your daily energy requirement.
Follow the Basal Metabollic Rate (BMR) formula which you will find on my blog to calculate your BMR. This tells you how much calories you need to intake in order to maintain your body weight.
You will need to step down your daily calorie intake by about 500 calories in order to lose one pound in one week’s time.
Quick Weight Loss Tip 2 – Eat More Meals and Don’t Skip Them
Before you start wondering if you are reading correctly, let me assure you that your eyes are not playing tricks on you.
It is a myth that skipping meals would help you to lose weight quickly and effectively. Your body would slow down its metabolism when you skip meals, in a bid to conserve energy, hence burning away lesser calories.
You end up hungry and yet not achieving the desired weight loss. Spread your meals from 3 big meals, breakfast, lunch and dinner into 5-6 smaller meals comprising the 3 main light meals and 2-3 other snacking time.
This would distribute your calorie intake and reach a good balance.
Quick Weight Loss Tip 3 - Eat Green
Stock up your fridge with lots of leafy green vegetables and fruits. Vegetables and fruits are rich sources of fiber and water and add weight and volume to our food.
This makes our stomachs full while maintaining a lower calorie count since fruits and vegetables are inherently low in calories and fat content. They also pack our bodies with healthy nutrients making our diet a balanced one.
Quick Weight Loss Tip 4 – Sleep Well
Sleeping is a favorite quick weight loss tip since it is one of the most effortless. Do not understand the power of having enough sleep. It is vital to your overall weight loss plan.
Medical research has proven that sleep deprivation would induce hunger, and improve appetite. This often results in excessive eating. Likewise, having sufficient sleep of at least 8 hours helps to bring a balance to the leptin level and aids weight loss.
Quick Weight Loss Tip 5 - Exercise Enough
Some folks hate this quick weight loss tip and are immediately turned off. Sad to say, in order to maintain a healthy weight, exercise is necessary. Dieting and making adjustments to your eating habits would only win you half the game.
Regular exercising is the missing part of the quick weight loss puzzle. You may be wondering how much is enough? Physical trainers or even your doctors would advise you to go for moderate exercise sessions of 30 minutes each time.
Repeat the routine for a minimum of 3 times a week for effective weight loss. You would be surprised how fast you start to lose inches off your waist and hips once you begin your exercise regime.
These quick weight loss tips are useful to you only when you apply them after reading. Many people fail in doing so because of poor motivation and lack of moral support from their family and closed friends.
Share with them about your weight loss plan and encourage them to remind you from time to time about your goal to lose weight quickly. This would spur you on to be focused.
Read up my blog if you desire to find out more about natural and healthy ways to lose up to 28 pounds within 3 short weeks.This article may be freely reprinted or distributed in its entirety in any ezine, newsletter, blog or website.
The author's name, bio and website links must remain intact and be included with every reproduction.Davion is a successful webmaster and author. Find out how you can lose extra pounds, regain good health and confidence using natural and quick weight loss tips at his blog quick-weightloss-tips.blogspot.com.
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Two Ways to Healthier French Fries
From NewsMax Health
Good news for French fry lovers: you now have two ways of getting rid of some of the probable carcinogen acrylamide from your fries.
Acrylamide forms from a naturally occurring amino acid called asparagine when grains and vegetables (especially potatoes) are cooked at very high temperatures.
But as reported in the February 2007 issue of Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, Chinese researchers found that when potato chips and fries were immersed into bamboo leaf extract solutions before thermal processing, acrylamide formation could be reduced by up to 76 percent.
The best results were obtained when chips and fries were immersed in the solution for 60 seconds.
Taste tests showed there was no difference in crispness and flavor between the treated and untreated potato chips and fries.
The researchers believed the natural antioxidants present in the bamboo leaves are responsible for this reduction of acrylamide.
Also, microwaving before frying slashes levels of acrylamide by up to 60 percent, according to a recent study in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, and you can do this at home. A 10-second “nuke’ will cut acrylamide by 36 percent, and 30 seconds drops it by 60 percent.
Editor's Note: Trans Fats Causes Heart Disease, Not Cholesterol.
Good news for French fry lovers: you now have two ways of getting rid of some of the probable carcinogen acrylamide from your fries.
Acrylamide forms from a naturally occurring amino acid called asparagine when grains and vegetables (especially potatoes) are cooked at very high temperatures.
But as reported in the February 2007 issue of Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, Chinese researchers found that when potato chips and fries were immersed into bamboo leaf extract solutions before thermal processing, acrylamide formation could be reduced by up to 76 percent.
The best results were obtained when chips and fries were immersed in the solution for 60 seconds.
Taste tests showed there was no difference in crispness and flavor between the treated and untreated potato chips and fries.
The researchers believed the natural antioxidants present in the bamboo leaves are responsible for this reduction of acrylamide.
Also, microwaving before frying slashes levels of acrylamide by up to 60 percent, according to a recent study in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, and you can do this at home. A 10-second “nuke’ will cut acrylamide by 36 percent, and 30 seconds drops it by 60 percent.
Editor's Note: Trans Fats Causes Heart Disease, Not Cholesterol.
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Bartending Competitions are Everywhere
By Scott Young
If you're looking for a new promotional idea that will pack your club on a slow night, bartending contests may be worth looking into. They are popping up all over the place locally, nationally, and internationally.
Simply put, bartending competitions have evolved from virtual nonexistence a few short years ago, to the promotional event of choice, because when it's done right, everybody wins.
The bar will increase sales for the night or nights (many competitions are held three or four consecutive Tuesdays to allow the anticipation to grow).
W. Dale Mallock, owner of the popular "Sugar" nightclub in Victoria says, "When I run a contest, we typically break every sales record we have and people keep talking about it for weeks."
The sponsors have an exciting vehicle to promote their products and services to the right target market. Ryan Bourbonnais, Bols sales and marketing manager for western Canada says, "what we really love about being involved with your contests is that when we support bartenders, we end up getting top of mind priority when they suggest drinks to their customers."
The bartenders love it because they have a chance to make a "name" for themselves, maybe win some prizes, or even get a job offer. Marc Mital, winner of two Vancouver Working Flair contests says, "Before my first contest, I was working at a really slow lounge. The night I competed, I received three different job offers at popular bars."
The customers are the ones who really win with a night of entertainment they won't soon forget or stop talking about. Competitions also consistently attract invaluable media attention locally and nationally.
It's not uncommon for three or four different TV or newspaper reporters to cover your event.Competitions come in all shapes and sizes and focus on different aspects of bartending such as speed, accuracy, creating original cocktails, etc.
There doesn't seem to be any right or wrong format to use, but the most popular ones are definitely focused on flair/performance/EXTREME BARTENDING. For there contests, many important qualities of an exceptional bartender are spotlighted in one format.
This style of bartending has become so popular that the Flair Bartenders Association is now represented in over 50 countries. Toby Ellis, President of the FBA says, "We are flair bartenders helping flair bartenders.
We want the world to know that it's just good business to entertain your customers." When it's done properly with control, without wasting time, and with no spillage, the customers and bar managers love it.
That's why I believe that flair bartending is growing so rapidly in popularity.I was recently invited to be a judge at two international competitions, Quest for the Best Bartender in the World at Mannequin's Dance Palace, Orlando, Florida, located on Disney's Pleasure Island, and Legends of Bartending World Championship at Club Rio, Las Vegas at the Rio Hotel.
Both contests were extremely well run and were great successes, attracting bartenders from all over the world. Contestants came from countries such as England, Greece, Taiwan, Spain, Turkey, and Australia just to name a few.
A couple of classy and well rounded American bartenders took first place; Alan Mays of the Voodoo Lounge in Las Vegas (Quest) and Bell Long of Yabba in Naples, Florida (Legends).
The Canadian presence was not far behind with Sean Graco of Jack Astor's in London, Ontario hitting top five in the Quest and Chuck McIntosh of Ozone Nightclub in Vancouver, BC placing 2nd at the Quest and 5th at Legends, also winning the flair category.
There are many other Canadians doing well in international contests. They are respected for their attitude and sportsmanship as well as for their skills. Good job Canada! It would be nice to see more women compete, as there are some pretty good female bartenders out there (i.e. Manda Holman of East Side Marios, Windsor, Ontario) who could show the guys a few moves.
Also, Keep your eyes open for an International Working Flair Bartending Competition to be held in Canada this year. So, spread the word. Canada's service industry is on the map and being covered by Bar & Beverage Business Magazine.
Scott Young is a longtime bartender at the Roxy night club in Vancouver and travels extensively with his company BAR SMART, teaching seminars and giving demonstrations, He also has a book and a video training series on the way with 240 Extreme Bartending™ moves.
He can be reached at (604)879-1036For more information about competitions and how to get involved or run your own, visit www.extremebartending.com
If you're looking for a new promotional idea that will pack your club on a slow night, bartending contests may be worth looking into. They are popping up all over the place locally, nationally, and internationally.
Simply put, bartending competitions have evolved from virtual nonexistence a few short years ago, to the promotional event of choice, because when it's done right, everybody wins.
The bar will increase sales for the night or nights (many competitions are held three or four consecutive Tuesdays to allow the anticipation to grow).
W. Dale Mallock, owner of the popular "Sugar" nightclub in Victoria says, "When I run a contest, we typically break every sales record we have and people keep talking about it for weeks."
The sponsors have an exciting vehicle to promote their products and services to the right target market. Ryan Bourbonnais, Bols sales and marketing manager for western Canada says, "what we really love about being involved with your contests is that when we support bartenders, we end up getting top of mind priority when they suggest drinks to their customers."
The bartenders love it because they have a chance to make a "name" for themselves, maybe win some prizes, or even get a job offer. Marc Mital, winner of two Vancouver Working Flair contests says, "Before my first contest, I was working at a really slow lounge. The night I competed, I received three different job offers at popular bars."
The customers are the ones who really win with a night of entertainment they won't soon forget or stop talking about. Competitions also consistently attract invaluable media attention locally and nationally.
It's not uncommon for three or four different TV or newspaper reporters to cover your event.Competitions come in all shapes and sizes and focus on different aspects of bartending such as speed, accuracy, creating original cocktails, etc.
There doesn't seem to be any right or wrong format to use, but the most popular ones are definitely focused on flair/performance/EXTREME BARTENDING. For there contests, many important qualities of an exceptional bartender are spotlighted in one format.
This style of bartending has become so popular that the Flair Bartenders Association is now represented in over 50 countries. Toby Ellis, President of the FBA says, "We are flair bartenders helping flair bartenders.
We want the world to know that it's just good business to entertain your customers." When it's done properly with control, without wasting time, and with no spillage, the customers and bar managers love it.
That's why I believe that flair bartending is growing so rapidly in popularity.I was recently invited to be a judge at two international competitions, Quest for the Best Bartender in the World at Mannequin's Dance Palace, Orlando, Florida, located on Disney's Pleasure Island, and Legends of Bartending World Championship at Club Rio, Las Vegas at the Rio Hotel.
Both contests were extremely well run and were great successes, attracting bartenders from all over the world. Contestants came from countries such as England, Greece, Taiwan, Spain, Turkey, and Australia just to name a few.
A couple of classy and well rounded American bartenders took first place; Alan Mays of the Voodoo Lounge in Las Vegas (Quest) and Bell Long of Yabba in Naples, Florida (Legends).
The Canadian presence was not far behind with Sean Graco of Jack Astor's in London, Ontario hitting top five in the Quest and Chuck McIntosh of Ozone Nightclub in Vancouver, BC placing 2nd at the Quest and 5th at Legends, also winning the flair category.
There are many other Canadians doing well in international contests. They are respected for their attitude and sportsmanship as well as for their skills. Good job Canada! It would be nice to see more women compete, as there are some pretty good female bartenders out there (i.e. Manda Holman of East Side Marios, Windsor, Ontario) who could show the guys a few moves.
Also, Keep your eyes open for an International Working Flair Bartending Competition to be held in Canada this year. So, spread the word. Canada's service industry is on the map and being covered by Bar & Beverage Business Magazine.
Scott Young is a longtime bartender at the Roxy night club in Vancouver and travels extensively with his company BAR SMART, teaching seminars and giving demonstrations, He also has a book and a video training series on the way with 240 Extreme Bartending™ moves.
He can be reached at (604)879-1036For more information about competitions and how to get involved or run your own, visit www.extremebartending.com
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Find Out How Natural Remedies Help Health And Skin
By: Jon Arnold
Generally speaking, natural remedies and herbal remedies are a form of alternative medicine. The use of herbal remedies focuses on long-term health and treating the underlying cause of illness rather than the symptoms.
This differs significantly from the practice of traditional medicine, which treats the symptoms and not the illness. Which method makes more sense? That’s what I thought too.What is so amazing about natural herbal remedies is their close association to our modern medicines.
Natural herbal remedies are good medicine. The herbal product is usually available in dried form, although sometimes is also available in liquid form.
The reason it is not as readily available in liquid form is because of the natural ingredients with the use of chemical preservatives, and therefore the shelf life is not as long as it is for non-natural remedies that contain preservative chemicals.
The warm herbal tea will help clear mucus out of your baby’s lungs. Another very effective and gentle natural cough remedy for babies is an herbal rub. Or you can purchase over the counter herbal formulations with dosages designed for infants at your local health shop.
There are many natural herbal ear cleaners and wash on the market. Natural remedies include herbal remedies, behavioral therapies, relaxation techniques, good lifestyle habits, and ideal sleep hygiene.
Try to have a sleep inducing herbal tea or drinks such as milk, before going to bed. There are herbal and botanical products that some experts consider as natural remedies and alternatives to prescription drugs.
For heartburn symptoms, many people try a botanical or herbal natural remedy. If you have never used natural herbal remedies before but are curious about them, invite friends over for a party to sample the products you're interested in.
You have heard the saying, "Your health is all you have". Consider beginning your day with a cup of ginger tea (add honey and/or lemon for taste), or with toast sprinkled with crystallized ginger slices or ginger jam (you can purchase these at health food stores).
You may also want to consider trying a G-Zyme capsule with syrup, which is a wonderful health supplement that is known for its effectiveness in indigestion and related problems. A doctor known as an aesthetician can help you to identify your skin type and make recommendations about cleansers and moisturizers.
This is proven again and again on a daily basis, judging by the amount of acne skin cleansers, solutions and exfoliation masks that are sold. If you suffer from a skin blemish then you already know that acne is a problem that plagues millions of consumers all over the world on a daily basis.
Instead of using plain water to wash your skin, a fresh parsley infusion is the best substitute. Acne is the most commonly encountered skin condition during adolescents and young adults between ages 12 and 35.
But for those of us whose skin requires a little further help – are there any natural acne treatments available that can help us improve our skin.
Natural home remedies, whether it is for acne, skin care, infection or cold or even chronic irritants like arthritis or headaches, work or at least, provide relief to some extent. However, a regular use of TCA peels can really give you a skin free from blemishes and keep it looking fresh and young.
Jon is a computer engineer who maintains web sites on a variety of topics based on his knowledge and experience. You can read more about natural health remedies at his web site at http://www.natural-remedies-today.com/
Generally speaking, natural remedies and herbal remedies are a form of alternative medicine. The use of herbal remedies focuses on long-term health and treating the underlying cause of illness rather than the symptoms.
This differs significantly from the practice of traditional medicine, which treats the symptoms and not the illness. Which method makes more sense? That’s what I thought too.What is so amazing about natural herbal remedies is their close association to our modern medicines.
Natural herbal remedies are good medicine. The herbal product is usually available in dried form, although sometimes is also available in liquid form.
The reason it is not as readily available in liquid form is because of the natural ingredients with the use of chemical preservatives, and therefore the shelf life is not as long as it is for non-natural remedies that contain preservative chemicals.
The warm herbal tea will help clear mucus out of your baby’s lungs. Another very effective and gentle natural cough remedy for babies is an herbal rub. Or you can purchase over the counter herbal formulations with dosages designed for infants at your local health shop.
There are many natural herbal ear cleaners and wash on the market. Natural remedies include herbal remedies, behavioral therapies, relaxation techniques, good lifestyle habits, and ideal sleep hygiene.
Try to have a sleep inducing herbal tea or drinks such as milk, before going to bed. There are herbal and botanical products that some experts consider as natural remedies and alternatives to prescription drugs.
For heartburn symptoms, many people try a botanical or herbal natural remedy. If you have never used natural herbal remedies before but are curious about them, invite friends over for a party to sample the products you're interested in.
You have heard the saying, "Your health is all you have". Consider beginning your day with a cup of ginger tea (add honey and/or lemon for taste), or with toast sprinkled with crystallized ginger slices or ginger jam (you can purchase these at health food stores).
You may also want to consider trying a G-Zyme capsule with syrup, which is a wonderful health supplement that is known for its effectiveness in indigestion and related problems. A doctor known as an aesthetician can help you to identify your skin type and make recommendations about cleansers and moisturizers.
This is proven again and again on a daily basis, judging by the amount of acne skin cleansers, solutions and exfoliation masks that are sold. If you suffer from a skin blemish then you already know that acne is a problem that plagues millions of consumers all over the world on a daily basis.
Instead of using plain water to wash your skin, a fresh parsley infusion is the best substitute. Acne is the most commonly encountered skin condition during adolescents and young adults between ages 12 and 35.
But for those of us whose skin requires a little further help – are there any natural acne treatments available that can help us improve our skin.
Natural home remedies, whether it is for acne, skin care, infection or cold or even chronic irritants like arthritis or headaches, work or at least, provide relief to some extent. However, a regular use of TCA peels can really give you a skin free from blemishes and keep it looking fresh and young.
Jon is a computer engineer who maintains web sites on a variety of topics based on his knowledge and experience. You can read more about natural health remedies at his web site at http://www.natural-remedies-today.com/
Monday, March 12, 2007
The Four Stages Of Life (Part 1 of 2)
The four stages of life are the stages of Education, Sensation, Power, and Immortality
The First Stage of Life is the stage of education.
This stage generally lasts from conception to 20 or 25 years of age. During this stage you learn the basic fundamental rules of the game of life. You formulate or accept a value system. You get your basic instruction in reading, writing, counting, logic, and decision making.
Generally, in the education stage, you lay the foundation—thoughts, attitudes, emotions, and associations—on which the rest of your life is based. It is in this first stage that you develop your basic attitude towards yourself—your self image.
You also develop your attitude toward other people, and toward the world in general. It is here that you develop self- confidence or fear; faith or doubt; cowardice or courage. Your nature—positive or negative, thief or benefactor—is molded.
The challenge in this first stage is that most of your education comes from other people. You, as a child or young adult, had very little input in the matter. Thus, the thoughts, attitudes, emotions, and experiences, positive or negative, of your parents, teachers, ministers, or any other authority or admiration figure, tend to be perpetuated in the child and young adult.
If this foundation stage is not laid down solidly, then very often, at some point later in life, that crack in the foundation will manifest. It will show up like a thief in the night and snatch away your peace of mind, your good health, your glory, and your possessions.
When this foundation is built on truth, honesty, love, faith, discipline, confidence, compassion, and all of the positive aspects and attributes, then nothing is impossible. The young adult who has properly completed this stage of education is now properly prepared for the next three stages, and the rest of their lives.
Learn — Practice — Master
The Second Stage of Life is the stage of sensation.
Chronologically, the second stage ranges from 20 or 25 years to 40 or 50 years of age. This is the stage where you begin to experiment and find out things for yourself. It is in this second stage that you truly experience the living process.
You generally strike out on your own and face the challenges of an adult reality. Here you experience love, sex, alcohol, drugs, competition, insecurity, success and failure, frustration, and all the other sensations which make life exciting, intense, and challenging.
It is in this second stage that many people get stuck for a major portion of their lives. As the stark realities of life confront them at every turn, they can get hooked on a feeling, a sensation, a person, a drug, or other addiction. They use their addiction as a means to escape or cope with their life situation.
It is in the second stage when your habits tend to make you or break you. Here you must develop and master the art of self-discipline. You must learn to control your thoughts, emotions, and appetites. It is in this second stage that you are challenged by the realities of survival.
What does it take to keep a roof over your head and food on the table for you and your family, and still have time, energy, and resources for continual personal growth and development?
Some people get stuck on the treadmill of day-to-day survival, where appetites and crises constantly confront them from the cradle to the grave.
To properly move through this second stage, you must master the skill of survival.
Mastering the skill of survival requires that you develop and implement a financial program in which your income exceeds your expenses. All of your financial dealings should be in accord with a realistic pre-established budget.
You must develop discipline in overcoming the urge for immediate consumption or gratification. Systematically, set aside a portion of your income for wealth building. Take advantage of the benefits of investing and compound interest to establish a body of wealth for your personal peace of mind and enjoyment.
Use a portion of your wealth to help fund and provide capital for your children and their future. Invest in worthwhile projects. Men have a tendency to get stuck on the feelings generated by sex, alcohol, power, and physical conquests.
Women get stuck in the search for love or attention. The essence of the second stage of life is the search for a particular feeling. The challenges of this stage are centered on self-discipline and personal mastery of your physical and emotional appetites.
Next week: “The Four Stages of Life (Part 2)”© 2007 LifeSkill Institute, Inc. Based on The Twelve Universal Laws of Success, Second Edition, Expanded, ISBN 0-9748362-1-4 a new book by Herbert Harris, available at Amazon.com or through the LifeSkill Institute, Inc.
Call (800) 570-4009 to order books. Visit our website www.lifeskillinstitute.org for weekly success message and download Twelve Affirmations To Live By Poster. E-mail: lifeskill@earthlink.net
The First Stage of Life is the stage of education.
This stage generally lasts from conception to 20 or 25 years of age. During this stage you learn the basic fundamental rules of the game of life. You formulate or accept a value system. You get your basic instruction in reading, writing, counting, logic, and decision making.
Generally, in the education stage, you lay the foundation—thoughts, attitudes, emotions, and associations—on which the rest of your life is based. It is in this first stage that you develop your basic attitude towards yourself—your self image.
You also develop your attitude toward other people, and toward the world in general. It is here that you develop self- confidence or fear; faith or doubt; cowardice or courage. Your nature—positive or negative, thief or benefactor—is molded.
The challenge in this first stage is that most of your education comes from other people. You, as a child or young adult, had very little input in the matter. Thus, the thoughts, attitudes, emotions, and experiences, positive or negative, of your parents, teachers, ministers, or any other authority or admiration figure, tend to be perpetuated in the child and young adult.
If this foundation stage is not laid down solidly, then very often, at some point later in life, that crack in the foundation will manifest. It will show up like a thief in the night and snatch away your peace of mind, your good health, your glory, and your possessions.
When this foundation is built on truth, honesty, love, faith, discipline, confidence, compassion, and all of the positive aspects and attributes, then nothing is impossible. The young adult who has properly completed this stage of education is now properly prepared for the next three stages, and the rest of their lives.
Learn — Practice — Master
The Second Stage of Life is the stage of sensation.
Chronologically, the second stage ranges from 20 or 25 years to 40 or 50 years of age. This is the stage where you begin to experiment and find out things for yourself. It is in this second stage that you truly experience the living process.
You generally strike out on your own and face the challenges of an adult reality. Here you experience love, sex, alcohol, drugs, competition, insecurity, success and failure, frustration, and all the other sensations which make life exciting, intense, and challenging.
It is in this second stage that many people get stuck for a major portion of their lives. As the stark realities of life confront them at every turn, they can get hooked on a feeling, a sensation, a person, a drug, or other addiction. They use their addiction as a means to escape or cope with their life situation.
It is in the second stage when your habits tend to make you or break you. Here you must develop and master the art of self-discipline. You must learn to control your thoughts, emotions, and appetites. It is in this second stage that you are challenged by the realities of survival.
What does it take to keep a roof over your head and food on the table for you and your family, and still have time, energy, and resources for continual personal growth and development?
Some people get stuck on the treadmill of day-to-day survival, where appetites and crises constantly confront them from the cradle to the grave.
To properly move through this second stage, you must master the skill of survival.
Mastering the skill of survival requires that you develop and implement a financial program in which your income exceeds your expenses. All of your financial dealings should be in accord with a realistic pre-established budget.
You must develop discipline in overcoming the urge for immediate consumption or gratification. Systematically, set aside a portion of your income for wealth building. Take advantage of the benefits of investing and compound interest to establish a body of wealth for your personal peace of mind and enjoyment.
Use a portion of your wealth to help fund and provide capital for your children and their future. Invest in worthwhile projects. Men have a tendency to get stuck on the feelings generated by sex, alcohol, power, and physical conquests.
Women get stuck in the search for love or attention. The essence of the second stage of life is the search for a particular feeling. The challenges of this stage are centered on self-discipline and personal mastery of your physical and emotional appetites.
Next week: “The Four Stages of Life (Part 2)”© 2007 LifeSkill Institute, Inc. Based on The Twelve Universal Laws of Success, Second Edition, Expanded, ISBN 0-9748362-1-4 a new book by Herbert Harris, available at Amazon.com or through the LifeSkill Institute, Inc.
Call (800) 570-4009 to order books. Visit our website www.lifeskillinstitute.org for weekly success message and download Twelve Affirmations To Live By Poster. E-mail: lifeskill@earthlink.net
No Need to Diet and Exercise to Lose Weight
From NewsMax Health
A new study debunks the widely held belief that diet plus exercise is the most effective way to lose weight. Researchers report that dieting alone is just as effective as dieting plus exercise.
"For weight loss to occur, an individual needs to maintain a difference between the number of calories they consume everyday and the number of calories they burn through metabolism and physical activity," Dr. Leanne Redman of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, La., explains in a press release.
"What we found was that it did not matter whether a reduction in calories was achieved through diet or burned everyday through exercise." Thirty-five overweight but otherwise healthy adults — 16 men and 19 women — completed the six-month study.
Twelve were assigned to a diet-only group; they reduced their calorie intake by 25 percent. Twelve were assigned to diet plus exercise; they reduced their calorie intake by 12.5 percent and increased their exercise by 12.5 percent.
The remaining 11 subjects made no significant diet or exercise changes. Redman and colleagues found that the diet-only group and the diet plus exercise group lost roughly the same amount of weight, albeit by different means.
They lost about 10 percent of their body weight, 24 percent of their fat mass and 27 percent of their abdominal "visceral" fat — the deep internal fat linked to heart disease risk. Therefore, if the goal is purely shedding pounds, diet or exercise will work, according to this study.
However, as the researchers point out, regular exercise can improve aerobic fitness and lower the risk of heart disease, diabetes, and certain types of cancer. The study also found that exercise did little to tone specific areas of the body.
Fat was reduced consistently across the whole body and not more in any one trouble spot. "Our study then would indicate that weight loss cannot override the way in which any individual stores fat.
Perhaps an apple will always be an apple, and a pear, a pear," Redman concludes. This suggests that people are "genetically programmed for fat storage in a particular pattern and that this programming cannot be easily overcome by weight loss," the authors note in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.
SOURCE: Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism 2007. © Reuters.
Editor's Note:
Overweight? Doctor Reveals ‘Fat Burner’ Supplement.
More: Get the Renowned Dr. Oz’s Manual for Waist Management.
A new study debunks the widely held belief that diet plus exercise is the most effective way to lose weight. Researchers report that dieting alone is just as effective as dieting plus exercise.
"For weight loss to occur, an individual needs to maintain a difference between the number of calories they consume everyday and the number of calories they burn through metabolism and physical activity," Dr. Leanne Redman of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, La., explains in a press release.
"What we found was that it did not matter whether a reduction in calories was achieved through diet or burned everyday through exercise." Thirty-five overweight but otherwise healthy adults — 16 men and 19 women — completed the six-month study.
Twelve were assigned to a diet-only group; they reduced their calorie intake by 25 percent. Twelve were assigned to diet plus exercise; they reduced their calorie intake by 12.5 percent and increased their exercise by 12.5 percent.
The remaining 11 subjects made no significant diet or exercise changes. Redman and colleagues found that the diet-only group and the diet plus exercise group lost roughly the same amount of weight, albeit by different means.
They lost about 10 percent of their body weight, 24 percent of their fat mass and 27 percent of their abdominal "visceral" fat — the deep internal fat linked to heart disease risk. Therefore, if the goal is purely shedding pounds, diet or exercise will work, according to this study.
However, as the researchers point out, regular exercise can improve aerobic fitness and lower the risk of heart disease, diabetes, and certain types of cancer. The study also found that exercise did little to tone specific areas of the body.
Fat was reduced consistently across the whole body and not more in any one trouble spot. "Our study then would indicate that weight loss cannot override the way in which any individual stores fat.
Perhaps an apple will always be an apple, and a pear, a pear," Redman concludes. This suggests that people are "genetically programmed for fat storage in a particular pattern and that this programming cannot be easily overcome by weight loss," the authors note in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.
SOURCE: Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism 2007. © Reuters.
Editor's Note:
Overweight? Doctor Reveals ‘Fat Burner’ Supplement.
More: Get the Renowned Dr. Oz’s Manual for Waist Management.
Sunday, March 11, 2007
Turning St. Patrick on His Head
By Stephen Beaumont
It's March again, which means that for at least one day right around the middle of the month, millions of people across the globe will turn their backs on their ordinary golden lager or pale ale and choose instead a pitch black potation known as stout.
They will do this largely because: a) Despite having been eclipsed in sales by lager, stout is still viewed far and wide as the beer of Ireland, and hence the beer of St. Patrick's Day; and b) Massive amounts of marketing money will tell them to do so.
(Personally, I'll be spending March 17 in Seattle sampling barleywines at Brouwer's Café's Hard Liver Barleywine Festival, but that's just the way I am.) The irony is that many of those selfsame stout converts-for-a-day won't actually be enjoying their pints.
At least that's the way I figure it, or else they would be drinking the porters, stouts, oatmeal stouts and Imperial stouts more at other times of the year, rather than just at mid-March.
For those who want to partake of the black stuff but don't necessarily find it to their taste, then, I offer the deep, dark secret of stout: It's a great mixer! Yes, a mixer, as in complement to other beverages in the same glass.
Don't believe me? Have your local barkeep fix you up with one of the following concoctions crafted with stout and sip in silent pleasure while your disbelief melts away. One tip, though: Don't try this at the packed-to-the-rafters Irish-style pub at 8:00 p.m. on the 17th. That would be just asking for trouble.
A Six-Pack of Stout Cocktails
Any Port in a Storm
Named for the impressive and intense Imperial stout of Pennsylvania's Victory Brewing, Storm King, but malleable enough to be made with any rich and malty Imperial stout. Try it as a most attractive and enjoyable nightcap.
2 oz. late bottle vintage port (eg: Taylor Fladgate LBV Port)
12 oz. Imperial stout (eg: Victory Storm King, North Coast Old Rasputin).
In a 16 oz. glass, pour the port and top with the full bottle of stout, allowing a generous head to rise.
Black Forest CakeDessert in a glass!
1 oz. Chambord Royale de France liqueur
12 oz. rich and roasty stout (eg: St. Ambroise Oatmeal Stout, Rogue Shakespeare Stout)
In a large glass, combine the Chambord and stout. Sip slowly.
Irish Black & Tan
This is an Irish variation of the Bourbon Black & Tan I created for beerbistro in Toronto, which turned out to be for a time the chef's favourite after-shift drink.
1 oz. Irish whiskey (eg: Kilbeggan, Bushmills)
6 oz. oatmeal stout (eg: Wolaver's Organic Oatmeal Stout, Samuel Smith Oatmeal Stout)
6 oz. brown ale (eg: Brooklyn Brown Ale, Bridgeport Beertown Brown)
Into a large glass, pour the whiskey and top with stout and brown ale. Adjust whiskey to beer ratio to taste.
Coffee and a Smoke
The relative proliferation of smoked and peated malt beers, not to mention coffee-flavoured porters and stouts, makes this recipe just that much more accessible. But let's face it, it's still a rather obscure combination, if a delicious one!
Coffee-flavoured porter or stout (eg: Kona Pipeline Poster, Mill Street Coffee Porter)
Smoked or peated malt porter or brown ale (eg: Alaskan Smoked Porter, Rogue Smoke)
Combine the two beers in equal proportions
Compass Box Cocktail
Okay, I'm the first to admit that this is one "out there" cocktail, but that doesn't change the fact that every whisky drinker I've served it to has enjoyed it tremendously! I invented this for a whisky dinner I co-hosted with the Compass Box Whisky Company's John Glaser.
1 oz. Compass Box Peat Monster (or other highly peaty malt whisky, eg: Lagavulin)
3 oz. Imperial stoutAngostura Bitters
Into an iced cocktail shaker, add the whisky, stout and three shakes of bitters. Stir very gently and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish a maraschino cherry and orange twist.
Spontaneous Sebbie
Named after the indefatigable east coast sales representative for Rogue Ales, Sebbie Buhler, whose face graces the label of the Rogue Chocolate Stout, I crafted this beauty for a beer dinner I hosted at Monk's Café in Philadelphia. We had to fool with the proportions a bit, but the end result was well worth the fiddling.
4 oz. traditional lambic kriek (eg: Cantillon Kriek, Hanssens Oude Kriek)
8 oz. chocolate stout (eg: Rogue Chocolate Stout, Young's Double Chocolate Stout)
Into a tulip-shaped glass, carefully pour the kriek and let the foam settle. Top with chocolate stout
It's March again, which means that for at least one day right around the middle of the month, millions of people across the globe will turn their backs on their ordinary golden lager or pale ale and choose instead a pitch black potation known as stout.
They will do this largely because: a) Despite having been eclipsed in sales by lager, stout is still viewed far and wide as the beer of Ireland, and hence the beer of St. Patrick's Day; and b) Massive amounts of marketing money will tell them to do so.
(Personally, I'll be spending March 17 in Seattle sampling barleywines at Brouwer's Café's Hard Liver Barleywine Festival, but that's just the way I am.) The irony is that many of those selfsame stout converts-for-a-day won't actually be enjoying their pints.
At least that's the way I figure it, or else they would be drinking the porters, stouts, oatmeal stouts and Imperial stouts more at other times of the year, rather than just at mid-March.
For those who want to partake of the black stuff but don't necessarily find it to their taste, then, I offer the deep, dark secret of stout: It's a great mixer! Yes, a mixer, as in complement to other beverages in the same glass.
Don't believe me? Have your local barkeep fix you up with one of the following concoctions crafted with stout and sip in silent pleasure while your disbelief melts away. One tip, though: Don't try this at the packed-to-the-rafters Irish-style pub at 8:00 p.m. on the 17th. That would be just asking for trouble.
A Six-Pack of Stout Cocktails
Any Port in a Storm
Named for the impressive and intense Imperial stout of Pennsylvania's Victory Brewing, Storm King, but malleable enough to be made with any rich and malty Imperial stout. Try it as a most attractive and enjoyable nightcap.
2 oz. late bottle vintage port (eg: Taylor Fladgate LBV Port)
12 oz. Imperial stout (eg: Victory Storm King, North Coast Old Rasputin).
In a 16 oz. glass, pour the port and top with the full bottle of stout, allowing a generous head to rise.
Black Forest CakeDessert in a glass!
1 oz. Chambord Royale de France liqueur
12 oz. rich and roasty stout (eg: St. Ambroise Oatmeal Stout, Rogue Shakespeare Stout)
In a large glass, combine the Chambord and stout. Sip slowly.
Irish Black & Tan
This is an Irish variation of the Bourbon Black & Tan I created for beerbistro in Toronto, which turned out to be for a time the chef's favourite after-shift drink.
1 oz. Irish whiskey (eg: Kilbeggan, Bushmills)
6 oz. oatmeal stout (eg: Wolaver's Organic Oatmeal Stout, Samuel Smith Oatmeal Stout)
6 oz. brown ale (eg: Brooklyn Brown Ale, Bridgeport Beertown Brown)
Into a large glass, pour the whiskey and top with stout and brown ale. Adjust whiskey to beer ratio to taste.
Coffee and a Smoke
The relative proliferation of smoked and peated malt beers, not to mention coffee-flavoured porters and stouts, makes this recipe just that much more accessible. But let's face it, it's still a rather obscure combination, if a delicious one!
Coffee-flavoured porter or stout (eg: Kona Pipeline Poster, Mill Street Coffee Porter)
Smoked or peated malt porter or brown ale (eg: Alaskan Smoked Porter, Rogue Smoke)
Combine the two beers in equal proportions
Compass Box Cocktail
Okay, I'm the first to admit that this is one "out there" cocktail, but that doesn't change the fact that every whisky drinker I've served it to has enjoyed it tremendously! I invented this for a whisky dinner I co-hosted with the Compass Box Whisky Company's John Glaser.
1 oz. Compass Box Peat Monster (or other highly peaty malt whisky, eg: Lagavulin)
3 oz. Imperial stoutAngostura Bitters
Into an iced cocktail shaker, add the whisky, stout and three shakes of bitters. Stir very gently and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish a maraschino cherry and orange twist.
Spontaneous Sebbie
Named after the indefatigable east coast sales representative for Rogue Ales, Sebbie Buhler, whose face graces the label of the Rogue Chocolate Stout, I crafted this beauty for a beer dinner I hosted at Monk's Café in Philadelphia. We had to fool with the proportions a bit, but the end result was well worth the fiddling.
4 oz. traditional lambic kriek (eg: Cantillon Kriek, Hanssens Oude Kriek)
8 oz. chocolate stout (eg: Rogue Chocolate Stout, Young's Double Chocolate Stout)
Into a tulip-shaped glass, carefully pour the kriek and let the foam settle. Top with chocolate stout
Saturday, March 10, 2007
Four Ways to Profit from Oil Bust 2007
From NewsMax
As long as the wildcards of the world continue to control even a thimble full of oil, prices of the most demanded, precious commodity on the face of this planet will remain turbulent.
For example, the day after Christmas, the fourth-biggest oil producer and earner of $50 billion a year in exports — Iran — announced that it would bully full steam ahead with its civilian-based nuclear generating plan.
Meanwhile, an oil pipeline exploded in Lagos killing more than 200 people who were siphoning crude from a thug-punctured pipe.
The unnerving news on both fronts sparked an initial rise in price to as high as $63.20 a barrel, then dropped throughout the day when fresh reports of warmer-than-usual winter weather might lower demand.
The government of Iran, oil thieves and Mother Nature...now that’s a trio guaranteed to toss a few surprises our way.Predicting the price of oil isn’t going to get any easier nor is it going away in our lifetime or yours, but we at Financial Intelligence Report think we’re pretty close to mastering it.
In fact, we are calling “checkmate” on further short-term hikes in oil prices in 2007.
No doubt, a huge part of winning this game hands-down was not getting caught holding the slippery oil stocks you bought when crude was at $60 or $70 a barrel.
But that is yesterday’s news. The good news today, and what we specifically focus on in, “Four Ways to Profit From Oil Bust 2007,” is how you can profit during the next substantial slide in oil prices in 2007.
In this FREE special report, we reveal four investment opportunities capable of 50% to 100% profits in 2007 and beyond. Get your FREE report today by clicking here. Here at FIR, we’ve been right about the price of oil for some time.
Two years ago, our readers made a killing when we predicted oil would shoot to $60 a barrel with gains like +75% in Oil Service Holders Trust, +169% in Diamond Off Shore Drilling, +49% USGI Global Resources Fund, +83% Devon Energy Corp. and +41% in Exxon Mobil just to name a few.
At that time, the energy climate — and our convictions — changed in one fell swoop. After selling these stocks and locking in monster profits for FIR readers, we then released the inaugural version of “Profiting from the Coming Oil Bust,” in September 2005.
At that time, Financial Intelligence Report said, “If we are right in our conviction (of falling oil prices) … we are about to embark on a punishing bear market for certain oil stocks.” Since then, oil has spiraled from a peak of $78.40 a barrel set on July 14, 2006 to a bottom of $57.05, after inching up to around $60 a barrel recently.
That’s a 27% plunge in a matter of months! This double-digit shift from crude black to blood red, so far, has had relatively minor implications on some of the biggest oil stocks: From peak to valley, Hess Corp (HES) plunged 28%; British Petroleum (BP) fell 17%; Murphy Oil (MUR) dropped 13%; and ConocoPhillips (COP) and Occidental Petroleum (OXY) lost 13% and 12%, respectively, in less than six months.
But it could get much, much, much worse. We feel that it is very possible that oil is on the verge of receding to the high $30s or low $40s. So we are once again alerting investors about this huge opportunity for profit. Get our four top recommendations in our FREE special report: “Four Ways to Profit From Oil Bust 2007.”
A couple of the exciting opportunities in this new special report focus on the survivors, those companies that implemented plans or strategies that prevented rising oil costs from breaking their banks, and, now they’re perfectly positioned for big profits.
We’re talking the potential of delivering 50% to 100% gains. Discover the names of these stocks in the next five minutes. To get your FREE copy of “Four Ways to Profit From Oil Bust 2007,” go here now.
Oil Bust Opportunity #1: Retailer Revival
As much as high oil prices mean that it costs more to fill your gas tank and heat your house, lower prices put more hole-burning cash in the pockets of consumers. Now, we’re not suggesting that this could result in a spending spree of 1990s proportions, but it will be enough to lift the stocks of certain retail stores.
In addition to a steadier flow of cash from consumers, stores would no longer have to bear the burden of additional costs from transporting goods from abroad. It’s a win-win situation. We don’t think, however, that higher-end retailers stand to benefit nearly as much as the Wal-Marts of America.
While we believe oil prices will fall further and give the economy and retail sector a mini-boost, we still need to keep the wildcards in mind and put our money in safer but profitable positions.
When it comes to retailers, there’s nothing better than owning a basket of these stocks, rather than just one or two in case a Target or Wal-Mart or Home Depot drop an earnings surprise on us.
This one simple investment allows us to spread the risk among a large number of retailers.
This fund holds a multitude of retailers, many of which deliver the staples of life. At an average price-to-earnings ratio of 17.7 times historic earnings, it is hardly overpriced as are the goods sold by the companies held in it.
Even if one of our wildcards drives up the cost of oil again, consumers will flock to these stores for what they need before they even consider stepping foot in a mall for what they may want.
Get your FREE copy of “Four Ways to Profit From Oil Bust 2007.”
Oil Bust Opportunity #2: Flying the Profitable Skies
Airline stocks are set to take off as their costs are so closely tied to the price of jet fuel.
We’ve been following the fortunes of one major airline that has cornered the market on oil and has a unique margin-preserving handle on its fuel costs.
This company’s savvy strategy has protected its business, customers and shareholders.
Looking forward, this airline has as much as 85% of its 2007 fuel needs pegged at $49 per barrel in comparison to a cash price of $65 per barrel.
Meanwhile, fuel requirements through 2009 are tied to $35 per barrel. That foresight gives them a running head start against other airline carriers. Look for this one to deliver 50% or more in the next six months. Discover the name of this stock right now.
Oil Bust Opportunity #3: Capitalizing on Rising Interest Rates
The unfounded fear that the economy is gutter-bound delivers our third oil bust investment opportunity.
If we’re on target about the fact that this oil frenzy has run its course, falling prices could catapult the economy and even force the Fed to pull the trigger on interest rates, pushing bond prices lower and yields higher.
The benchmark government 10-year note currently yields just 4.42% while the overnight Fed funds rate stands at 5.25%. Although the investment world at large seems to expect a cut in rates, the Fed hasn’t said “boo” about its probability.
Speculators and cash-rich oil producing governments have saturated the bond market, sending prices into orbit and yields into the toilet. Should the dominoes fall the way we suspect they will — lower oil prices will trigger consumer spending and an up tick in inflation, causing the Fed to revert to a rate-hiking strategy — we’ve got just the ticket for profiting from this potential bond bomb.
It’s a Treasury index ETF that stands to fall sharply if rates rise, and we’re recommending that FIR readers sell this fund short, then sit back and watch the profits roll in. I want you to be there with us too.
Oil Bust Opportunity #4: A Triple-Tiered Shorting Strategy
If oil prices tumble so will shares of the drillers, explorers, well-site managers and distribution companies. And, there’s no better fund to implement this strategy than the one that holds 20 of the largest stocks serving the oil industry.
The price of oil greatly affects the overall revenue generated by these companies. If our prediction proves correct, these same companies will experience severe sympathy pains and put smiles on the faces of FIR readers — and big profits in their pockets.
Discover this simple strategy in “Four Ways to Profit From Oil Bust 2007.” You’re your FREE copy of this new special report. Go here now.
Why Oil Prices are Destined to Fall and Your Profits to Rise
In “Four Ways to Profit From Oil Bust 2007,” we also reveal how industry-wide manipulation has affected oil prices:
Who says oil is drying up? One monster has grown its reserves from 5.1 trillion barrel since the beginning of 2002 to 9.3 trillion barrels at the end of 2005. It has somehow managed to boost its reserves by some 82.5% in three years – while it’s still pumping!
Another biggie has grown reserves from 15.6 trillion barrels to 21.6 trillion barrels. In fact, the seven companies in the S&P 500 integrated oil and gas index have on average increased their reserves by 29% since 2002.
Research also tells us that this it the fifth time the world has "run out of oil." Dire warnings of impending shortages like those we’ve been inundated with were also issued just after World War I. And the "permanent oil shortage" of the 1970s gave way to the glut and price collapse of the 1980s and on and on.
There’s no question demand for oil is exploding worldwide, but the largest factor of rising oil prices is actually a political ploy. Why is it that OPEC members stood up last year and waived their production quotas for the first time in at least two decades, then reinstated them when oil prices sank?
What’s particularly scary is how investors can and have affected prices. As oil peaked in July, the crude oil futures market sucked in a whole new wave of buying from speculators. It won’t be long before they realize that the best of the bull market is behind them, forcing a retreat from their long positions.
FIR readers, though, have abandoned their oil positions long ago and turned their collective attention to the four monster profit opportunities uncovered in “Four Ways to Profit From Oil Bust 2007.”
Market-Beating Success Year After Year
Since launching FIR, we have had a remarkable record of success understanding trends and piggybacking our investment recommendations on them.
We had great success in 2004 across a diversified spectrum of investments, with an average 46% rise in our recommendations compared to the S&P 500’s 15% climb. Then in 2005, the scorecard wound up 22% to 6% in FIR’s favor.
In 2006, we saw the same successful pattern with our average recommendation gaining 27%, while the S&P to date is up around 14%.
Our success has nothing to do with luck or a "crystal ball." We just believe in understanding trends, and riding the right ones at the right time — avoiding the imposters along the way — and then acting on our intelligence to know when it's time to step aside.
But it's not that easy for the average investor to accomplish on his or her own. You need to have a source you can rely on. Unlike most other financial newsletters, with Financial Intelligence Report, there is no hype.
There are no absurd claims. It’s just thoroughly researched, accurate information, reasonable projections and excellent investment advice from some of the best financial minds in the country.
In fact, Financial Intelligence Report is more like a white-paper report that major trust companies send to their billionaire clients. Most investment newsletters providing this type of incisive coverage typically cost $200 to $800 a year. Some cost well over $1,000.
So how much does Financial Intelligence Report cost?
Typically, FIR costs just $199 for a one-year subscription. But today we have an even better offer for you!
No-Risk, Limited-Time Offer
For a limited time only you can sign up for a one-year trial subscription to FIR at the special introductory price of just $99 (12 monthly issues), save more than 50% off the regular price of $199 and get “Four Ways to Profit From Oil Bust 2007” absolutely FREE!
Your FIR subscription is completely risk-free. If for any reason you don't like the service, just let me know and you'll get the full, unused portion of your subscription returned to you! No questions asked.
At just $99 a year, Financial Intelligence Report is a tremendous value. Just a single recommendation from one issue or any of these valuable special reports could easily earn you 100 times the cost of the subscription.
And remember, you may cancel whenever you like with no risk or obligation. Whatever you decide, you can keep the bonus reports as a gift. It’s my way of saying “thank you” for giving FIR a try. So what are you waiting for?
We look forward to welcoming you aboard. Join now!
Thank you,
NewsMax.com
As long as the wildcards of the world continue to control even a thimble full of oil, prices of the most demanded, precious commodity on the face of this planet will remain turbulent.
For example, the day after Christmas, the fourth-biggest oil producer and earner of $50 billion a year in exports — Iran — announced that it would bully full steam ahead with its civilian-based nuclear generating plan.
Meanwhile, an oil pipeline exploded in Lagos killing more than 200 people who were siphoning crude from a thug-punctured pipe.
The unnerving news on both fronts sparked an initial rise in price to as high as $63.20 a barrel, then dropped throughout the day when fresh reports of warmer-than-usual winter weather might lower demand.
The government of Iran, oil thieves and Mother Nature...now that’s a trio guaranteed to toss a few surprises our way.Predicting the price of oil isn’t going to get any easier nor is it going away in our lifetime or yours, but we at Financial Intelligence Report think we’re pretty close to mastering it.
In fact, we are calling “checkmate” on further short-term hikes in oil prices in 2007.
No doubt, a huge part of winning this game hands-down was not getting caught holding the slippery oil stocks you bought when crude was at $60 or $70 a barrel.
But that is yesterday’s news. The good news today, and what we specifically focus on in, “Four Ways to Profit From Oil Bust 2007,” is how you can profit during the next substantial slide in oil prices in 2007.
In this FREE special report, we reveal four investment opportunities capable of 50% to 100% profits in 2007 and beyond. Get your FREE report today by clicking here. Here at FIR, we’ve been right about the price of oil for some time.
Two years ago, our readers made a killing when we predicted oil would shoot to $60 a barrel with gains like +75% in Oil Service Holders Trust, +169% in Diamond Off Shore Drilling, +49% USGI Global Resources Fund, +83% Devon Energy Corp. and +41% in Exxon Mobil just to name a few.
At that time, the energy climate — and our convictions — changed in one fell swoop. After selling these stocks and locking in monster profits for FIR readers, we then released the inaugural version of “Profiting from the Coming Oil Bust,” in September 2005.
At that time, Financial Intelligence Report said, “If we are right in our conviction (of falling oil prices) … we are about to embark on a punishing bear market for certain oil stocks.” Since then, oil has spiraled from a peak of $78.40 a barrel set on July 14, 2006 to a bottom of $57.05, after inching up to around $60 a barrel recently.
That’s a 27% plunge in a matter of months! This double-digit shift from crude black to blood red, so far, has had relatively minor implications on some of the biggest oil stocks: From peak to valley, Hess Corp (HES) plunged 28%; British Petroleum (BP) fell 17%; Murphy Oil (MUR) dropped 13%; and ConocoPhillips (COP) and Occidental Petroleum (OXY) lost 13% and 12%, respectively, in less than six months.
But it could get much, much, much worse. We feel that it is very possible that oil is on the verge of receding to the high $30s or low $40s. So we are once again alerting investors about this huge opportunity for profit. Get our four top recommendations in our FREE special report: “Four Ways to Profit From Oil Bust 2007.”
A couple of the exciting opportunities in this new special report focus on the survivors, those companies that implemented plans or strategies that prevented rising oil costs from breaking their banks, and, now they’re perfectly positioned for big profits.
We’re talking the potential of delivering 50% to 100% gains. Discover the names of these stocks in the next five minutes. To get your FREE copy of “Four Ways to Profit From Oil Bust 2007,” go here now.
Oil Bust Opportunity #1: Retailer Revival
As much as high oil prices mean that it costs more to fill your gas tank and heat your house, lower prices put more hole-burning cash in the pockets of consumers. Now, we’re not suggesting that this could result in a spending spree of 1990s proportions, but it will be enough to lift the stocks of certain retail stores.
In addition to a steadier flow of cash from consumers, stores would no longer have to bear the burden of additional costs from transporting goods from abroad. It’s a win-win situation. We don’t think, however, that higher-end retailers stand to benefit nearly as much as the Wal-Marts of America.
While we believe oil prices will fall further and give the economy and retail sector a mini-boost, we still need to keep the wildcards in mind and put our money in safer but profitable positions.
When it comes to retailers, there’s nothing better than owning a basket of these stocks, rather than just one or two in case a Target or Wal-Mart or Home Depot drop an earnings surprise on us.
This one simple investment allows us to spread the risk among a large number of retailers.
This fund holds a multitude of retailers, many of which deliver the staples of life. At an average price-to-earnings ratio of 17.7 times historic earnings, it is hardly overpriced as are the goods sold by the companies held in it.
Even if one of our wildcards drives up the cost of oil again, consumers will flock to these stores for what they need before they even consider stepping foot in a mall for what they may want.
Get your FREE copy of “Four Ways to Profit From Oil Bust 2007.”
Oil Bust Opportunity #2: Flying the Profitable Skies
Airline stocks are set to take off as their costs are so closely tied to the price of jet fuel.
We’ve been following the fortunes of one major airline that has cornered the market on oil and has a unique margin-preserving handle on its fuel costs.
This company’s savvy strategy has protected its business, customers and shareholders.
Looking forward, this airline has as much as 85% of its 2007 fuel needs pegged at $49 per barrel in comparison to a cash price of $65 per barrel.
Meanwhile, fuel requirements through 2009 are tied to $35 per barrel. That foresight gives them a running head start against other airline carriers. Look for this one to deliver 50% or more in the next six months. Discover the name of this stock right now.
Oil Bust Opportunity #3: Capitalizing on Rising Interest Rates
The unfounded fear that the economy is gutter-bound delivers our third oil bust investment opportunity.
If we’re on target about the fact that this oil frenzy has run its course, falling prices could catapult the economy and even force the Fed to pull the trigger on interest rates, pushing bond prices lower and yields higher.
The benchmark government 10-year note currently yields just 4.42% while the overnight Fed funds rate stands at 5.25%. Although the investment world at large seems to expect a cut in rates, the Fed hasn’t said “boo” about its probability.
Speculators and cash-rich oil producing governments have saturated the bond market, sending prices into orbit and yields into the toilet. Should the dominoes fall the way we suspect they will — lower oil prices will trigger consumer spending and an up tick in inflation, causing the Fed to revert to a rate-hiking strategy — we’ve got just the ticket for profiting from this potential bond bomb.
It’s a Treasury index ETF that stands to fall sharply if rates rise, and we’re recommending that FIR readers sell this fund short, then sit back and watch the profits roll in. I want you to be there with us too.
Oil Bust Opportunity #4: A Triple-Tiered Shorting Strategy
If oil prices tumble so will shares of the drillers, explorers, well-site managers and distribution companies. And, there’s no better fund to implement this strategy than the one that holds 20 of the largest stocks serving the oil industry.
The price of oil greatly affects the overall revenue generated by these companies. If our prediction proves correct, these same companies will experience severe sympathy pains and put smiles on the faces of FIR readers — and big profits in their pockets.
Discover this simple strategy in “Four Ways to Profit From Oil Bust 2007.” You’re your FREE copy of this new special report. Go here now.
Why Oil Prices are Destined to Fall and Your Profits to Rise
In “Four Ways to Profit From Oil Bust 2007,” we also reveal how industry-wide manipulation has affected oil prices:
Who says oil is drying up? One monster has grown its reserves from 5.1 trillion barrel since the beginning of 2002 to 9.3 trillion barrels at the end of 2005. It has somehow managed to boost its reserves by some 82.5% in three years – while it’s still pumping!
Another biggie has grown reserves from 15.6 trillion barrels to 21.6 trillion barrels. In fact, the seven companies in the S&P 500 integrated oil and gas index have on average increased their reserves by 29% since 2002.
Research also tells us that this it the fifth time the world has "run out of oil." Dire warnings of impending shortages like those we’ve been inundated with were also issued just after World War I. And the "permanent oil shortage" of the 1970s gave way to the glut and price collapse of the 1980s and on and on.
There’s no question demand for oil is exploding worldwide, but the largest factor of rising oil prices is actually a political ploy. Why is it that OPEC members stood up last year and waived their production quotas for the first time in at least two decades, then reinstated them when oil prices sank?
What’s particularly scary is how investors can and have affected prices. As oil peaked in July, the crude oil futures market sucked in a whole new wave of buying from speculators. It won’t be long before they realize that the best of the bull market is behind them, forcing a retreat from their long positions.
FIR readers, though, have abandoned their oil positions long ago and turned their collective attention to the four monster profit opportunities uncovered in “Four Ways to Profit From Oil Bust 2007.”
Market-Beating Success Year After Year
Since launching FIR, we have had a remarkable record of success understanding trends and piggybacking our investment recommendations on them.
We had great success in 2004 across a diversified spectrum of investments, with an average 46% rise in our recommendations compared to the S&P 500’s 15% climb. Then in 2005, the scorecard wound up 22% to 6% in FIR’s favor.
In 2006, we saw the same successful pattern with our average recommendation gaining 27%, while the S&P to date is up around 14%.
Our success has nothing to do with luck or a "crystal ball." We just believe in understanding trends, and riding the right ones at the right time — avoiding the imposters along the way — and then acting on our intelligence to know when it's time to step aside.
But it's not that easy for the average investor to accomplish on his or her own. You need to have a source you can rely on. Unlike most other financial newsletters, with Financial Intelligence Report, there is no hype.
There are no absurd claims. It’s just thoroughly researched, accurate information, reasonable projections and excellent investment advice from some of the best financial minds in the country.
In fact, Financial Intelligence Report is more like a white-paper report that major trust companies send to their billionaire clients. Most investment newsletters providing this type of incisive coverage typically cost $200 to $800 a year. Some cost well over $1,000.
So how much does Financial Intelligence Report cost?
Typically, FIR costs just $199 for a one-year subscription. But today we have an even better offer for you!
No-Risk, Limited-Time Offer
For a limited time only you can sign up for a one-year trial subscription to FIR at the special introductory price of just $99 (12 monthly issues), save more than 50% off the regular price of $199 and get “Four Ways to Profit From Oil Bust 2007” absolutely FREE!
Your FIR subscription is completely risk-free. If for any reason you don't like the service, just let me know and you'll get the full, unused portion of your subscription returned to you! No questions asked.
At just $99 a year, Financial Intelligence Report is a tremendous value. Just a single recommendation from one issue or any of these valuable special reports could easily earn you 100 times the cost of the subscription.
And remember, you may cancel whenever you like with no risk or obligation. Whatever you decide, you can keep the bonus reports as a gift. It’s my way of saying “thank you” for giving FIR a try. So what are you waiting for?
We look forward to welcoming you aboard. Join now!
Thank you,
NewsMax.com
Friday, March 09, 2007
Seven Simple Steps to Small Business Success
from
Enhancing your Financial Success
Many businesspeople achieve their greatest successes in unexpected areas. They begin a business and then they find that it isn't as profitable as they had anticipated, so they change direction, using their experience and their momentum, and strike paydirt in something else.
The most important thing is to begin. To take action. To move forward one step at a time, learning and growing as you go. There is enough information available in virtually every field for you to become knowledgeable enough to achieve success.
But action is necessary.The Two Parts of SuccessSuccess author Orison Swett Marden once wrote, the first part of success is get-to-it-ivness. The second part is stick-to-it-iveness. Every business beginning requires an act of faith and courage, a bold leap into the unknown.
Only one in ten people who want to start their own businesses ever develop enough courage to begin and enough persistence to continue. Get-to-it-iveness. And stick-to-it-iveness. The fear of failure, more than anything else, holds people back. It paralyzes action. And it makes failure inevitable.
Begin With a Dream
Fortunately, even if you know nothing about business, you can begin with a dream, a castle in the air, and then build a foundation under it.
Seven Simple Steps
The starting point of many great fortunes has been these seven simple steps.
Number one, set a goal and back it with a burning desire.
Number two, begin accumulating capital with a regular savings program. Nothing else is possible without this. You cannot move forward until you start a savings program.Use Your
Current Job As A Springboard
Number three, use your current job as a springboard to later success. Learn while you earn. Take the long view. Number four, experiment in business on a limited scale so you can learn the key abilities necessary for success.
Number five, search for problems, needs unmet, products or services you can supply of good quality at reasonable prices.
Read Everything You Can Find
Number six, read everything you can find on your chosen field. Remain flexible. Be willing to change your mind if you get different information. And number seven, implement your plans with courage and persistence.
Have complete faith in your ability to succeed and never, never give up.
Action Exercises
Now, here are two actions you can take immediately to start moving toward entrepreneurial success:
First, set a goal, make a plan and then launch your plan. Get started. Do something. Begin on a small scale with limited risk and investment but get going!
Second, resolve that, no matter what happens, you will never, never give up until you are successful. Before you accomplish anything worthwhile, you will have to pass the persistence test. And the test will come far sooner than you imagine.
Enhancing your Financial Success
Many businesspeople achieve their greatest successes in unexpected areas. They begin a business and then they find that it isn't as profitable as they had anticipated, so they change direction, using their experience and their momentum, and strike paydirt in something else.
The most important thing is to begin. To take action. To move forward one step at a time, learning and growing as you go. There is enough information available in virtually every field for you to become knowledgeable enough to achieve success.
But action is necessary.The Two Parts of SuccessSuccess author Orison Swett Marden once wrote, the first part of success is get-to-it-ivness. The second part is stick-to-it-iveness. Every business beginning requires an act of faith and courage, a bold leap into the unknown.
Only one in ten people who want to start their own businesses ever develop enough courage to begin and enough persistence to continue. Get-to-it-iveness. And stick-to-it-iveness. The fear of failure, more than anything else, holds people back. It paralyzes action. And it makes failure inevitable.
Begin With a Dream
Fortunately, even if you know nothing about business, you can begin with a dream, a castle in the air, and then build a foundation under it.
Seven Simple Steps
The starting point of many great fortunes has been these seven simple steps.
Number one, set a goal and back it with a burning desire.
Number two, begin accumulating capital with a regular savings program. Nothing else is possible without this. You cannot move forward until you start a savings program.Use Your
Current Job As A Springboard
Number three, use your current job as a springboard to later success. Learn while you earn. Take the long view. Number four, experiment in business on a limited scale so you can learn the key abilities necessary for success.
Number five, search for problems, needs unmet, products or services you can supply of good quality at reasonable prices.
Read Everything You Can Find
Number six, read everything you can find on your chosen field. Remain flexible. Be willing to change your mind if you get different information. And number seven, implement your plans with courage and persistence.
Have complete faith in your ability to succeed and never, never give up.
Action Exercises
Now, here are two actions you can take immediately to start moving toward entrepreneurial success:
First, set a goal, make a plan and then launch your plan. Get started. Do something. Begin on a small scale with limited risk and investment but get going!
Second, resolve that, no matter what happens, you will never, never give up until you are successful. Before you accomplish anything worthwhile, you will have to pass the persistence test. And the test will come far sooner than you imagine.
Thursday, March 08, 2007
Daytime bar crawlers find perfect setting for a Pearl
By Gary Regan
"I never heard of such a thing as a daytime bar crawl," the Professor, our cocktailian bartender, tells the half dozen professional mixologists who just descended on his bar. "Well, it's like this, Professor.
There's no one night of the week when we're all off from work together, so we figured, hey, lets have a bar crawl during the day so we can all get together," says Marco, a guy who holds forth at an upscale Mexican joint that's well known for its sterling margaritas.
"And how many of you are working tonight?" the Professor asks. "Just Victoria, and she's our designated driver, so there's no problem, right?" Marco explains. "I guess not, Marco. And a bartender's bar crawl just wouldn't be the same without Victoria, I guess."
Victoria is well known for her offbeat cocktail recipes that make sense only to her. Until they're tasted, that is. Duggan, a well-known bartender who's put his stamp on a couple of great bars in the city, shouts the first round.
"OK, Professor, this is our first stop, and we've a ways to go this afternoon. Could you fix us a round of whatever takes your fancy?" The Professor grins and ambles down the bar to fix a round of gin-based cocktails that call for Aperol as a secondary ingredient.
Aperol has only recently been reintroduced to the American market, and it's a big hit with cocktailian bartenders. There are similarities to be drawn between Aperol and Campari, but Aperol is a somewhat "kinder, gentler" aperitif that bears the flavors of orange zest, gentian and rhubarb, among other botanicals.
The Professor presents the cocktails to his bartender buddies, and since he made one too many, a common mistake among bartenders in circumstances such as this, he resigns himself to taking it for himself. "The Pearl," announces the Professor. "From the mind of Jon Santer. One of the crew at Bourbon and Branch."
The bartenders raise their glasses and toast Jon Santer. "Poor old Jon has to work tonight," Duggan observes before taking a sip. "Golly, this is a bit of all right, though, huh? What's in here, Professor?"
The Professor recites the ingredients -- Plymouth Gin, Aperol, Lillet Blanc, an aperitif wine with beautiful orange notes, and Prosecco, an Italian sparkling wine. "Now, Professor, it's still my shout, so let's have a round of Irish whiskeys and get this party rolling," says Duggan.
The Professor obliges, and everyone downs their whiskey. A cell phone rings. Duggan reaches into his pocket and answers the call. He pales.
"The daytime bartender cut his hand. They sent him home. I gotta go to work. Oh, dear."
"Such is the life of the bartender," the Professor grins. "It could be worse, though, Duggan."
"How could it possibly be worse, Professor?
I've two drinks inside of me and I have to go to stand behind the bar for six or seven hours."
"Yes, Duggan, but at least you managed to buy the first couple of rounds before you got called for duty. Call it an even hundred, my friend. Yours are on the house."
Duggan shakes his head and reaches for his wallet.
---------------------
The Pearl
Makes 1 drink
Adapted from a recipe by Jon Santer, bartender at Bourbon and Branch, San Francisco.
INGREDIENTS:
1 1/2 ounces Plymouth Gin
3/4 ounces Aperol
1/2 ounces Lillet Blanc
2 ounces Prosecco, or any dry sparkling wine
5 silver dragees (see note)
1 drop lemon oil (see note)
INSTRUCTIONS:
Instructions: Fill a mixing glass two-thirds full of ice and add the gin, Aperol and Lillet. Stir for approximately 30 seconds, strain into a chilled Champagne flute, and add the Prosecco. Drop the dragees to the bottom and add 1 drop of lemon oil.
Note: Dragees are confectionary pearls and can be found at baking supply shops. Lemon oil can be found at gourmet supermarkets.
Gary Regan is the author of "The Joy of Mixology: The Consummate Guide to the Bartender's Craft." E-mail him at wine@sfchronicle.com.
"I never heard of such a thing as a daytime bar crawl," the Professor, our cocktailian bartender, tells the half dozen professional mixologists who just descended on his bar. "Well, it's like this, Professor.
There's no one night of the week when we're all off from work together, so we figured, hey, lets have a bar crawl during the day so we can all get together," says Marco, a guy who holds forth at an upscale Mexican joint that's well known for its sterling margaritas.
"And how many of you are working tonight?" the Professor asks. "Just Victoria, and she's our designated driver, so there's no problem, right?" Marco explains. "I guess not, Marco. And a bartender's bar crawl just wouldn't be the same without Victoria, I guess."
Victoria is well known for her offbeat cocktail recipes that make sense only to her. Until they're tasted, that is. Duggan, a well-known bartender who's put his stamp on a couple of great bars in the city, shouts the first round.
"OK, Professor, this is our first stop, and we've a ways to go this afternoon. Could you fix us a round of whatever takes your fancy?" The Professor grins and ambles down the bar to fix a round of gin-based cocktails that call for Aperol as a secondary ingredient.
Aperol has only recently been reintroduced to the American market, and it's a big hit with cocktailian bartenders. There are similarities to be drawn between Aperol and Campari, but Aperol is a somewhat "kinder, gentler" aperitif that bears the flavors of orange zest, gentian and rhubarb, among other botanicals.
The Professor presents the cocktails to his bartender buddies, and since he made one too many, a common mistake among bartenders in circumstances such as this, he resigns himself to taking it for himself. "The Pearl," announces the Professor. "From the mind of Jon Santer. One of the crew at Bourbon and Branch."
The bartenders raise their glasses and toast Jon Santer. "Poor old Jon has to work tonight," Duggan observes before taking a sip. "Golly, this is a bit of all right, though, huh? What's in here, Professor?"
The Professor recites the ingredients -- Plymouth Gin, Aperol, Lillet Blanc, an aperitif wine with beautiful orange notes, and Prosecco, an Italian sparkling wine. "Now, Professor, it's still my shout, so let's have a round of Irish whiskeys and get this party rolling," says Duggan.
The Professor obliges, and everyone downs their whiskey. A cell phone rings. Duggan reaches into his pocket and answers the call. He pales.
"The daytime bartender cut his hand. They sent him home. I gotta go to work. Oh, dear."
"Such is the life of the bartender," the Professor grins. "It could be worse, though, Duggan."
"How could it possibly be worse, Professor?
I've two drinks inside of me and I have to go to stand behind the bar for six or seven hours."
"Yes, Duggan, but at least you managed to buy the first couple of rounds before you got called for duty. Call it an even hundred, my friend. Yours are on the house."
Duggan shakes his head and reaches for his wallet.
---------------------
The Pearl
Makes 1 drink
Adapted from a recipe by Jon Santer, bartender at Bourbon and Branch, San Francisco.
INGREDIENTS:
1 1/2 ounces Plymouth Gin
3/4 ounces Aperol
1/2 ounces Lillet Blanc
2 ounces Prosecco, or any dry sparkling wine
5 silver dragees (see note)
1 drop lemon oil (see note)
INSTRUCTIONS:
Instructions: Fill a mixing glass two-thirds full of ice and add the gin, Aperol and Lillet. Stir for approximately 30 seconds, strain into a chilled Champagne flute, and add the Prosecco. Drop the dragees to the bottom and add 1 drop of lemon oil.
Note: Dragees are confectionary pearls and can be found at baking supply shops. Lemon oil can be found at gourmet supermarkets.
Gary Regan is the author of "The Joy of Mixology: The Consummate Guide to the Bartender's Craft." E-mail him at wine@sfchronicle.com.
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
How To Attain Wealth Quickly And Effortlessly - The Wealth Theory - Part 3
By Greg Nicholls
"If a tree falls in the forest, but nobody is around to hear it, does it make a sound?"
This quote symbolizes the ineffectiveness of unheard opinions/thoughts; if you do not get quiet and get to know who you are, you will never hear your opinions or thoughts, only those of the circumstances around you and this will hold you back from wealth.
To "get quiet to know who you are" can be read many different ways. It could be looked at the most simply or it could be made into something way to complex.
So to clarify, it is as simple as just being with yourself; sit in a quiet room without any interruptions and wait for the silence of your mind. If you are hearing your self-talk, music, monkey chatter, etcetera, then you have to wait until it is gone.
By the way, if you are thinking to yourself, "I don't have any of that stuff going on in my head", well, that is the voice I am talking about. We all have it, if you think you don't you are just ignoring the voice telling you that.
OK, so sometimes you will be able to get quiet in 5-10 minutes, but in the beginning, it will likely be 1-2 hours. All I can say is you will know when it has happened because it may never have happened before and that you will recognize.
So what does this have to do with becoming wealthy? (you non-existent voice asks) Well, think of yourself as a magnet, a strong and powerful magnet. Right now though, you have all kinds of junk stuck to you.
To get quiet is not only to allow all that junk to fall off of you, but to change the magnetic frequency from attracting junk to attracting wealth. This (believe it or not) is very easy to do; all you need to focus on is getting quiet, you frequency will actually tune itself.
When you get better at getting quiet, then you can add some intentions as to what you want. You could liken this to hitting the pre-set button on your radio to find a favourable radio station when right now you are just listening to a bunch of static.
I recommend "The Seven Spiritual Laws Of Success by Deepak Chopra for more guidance on this.
Because YOU Deserve Money,
Greg Nicholls
Copyright - Nicholls Enterprises - http://www.deservemoney.com/
| Greg Nicholls will give you weekly insights on wealth and how to attain it, so be sure to setup an RSS feed to stay on top of the information as it is made available. Greg also has a weekly 60 second video that you can subscribe to called "The Wealth Theory" that will also demonstrate further insights into wealth and abundance, all this and more is available on his website's blog at http://www.deservemoney.com/blog/ Become a subscriber today to his text and video newsletters if you want to change your life to one of affluence and abundance. |
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Think Like A Millionaire
from
The most important attitude for financial success is long-term thinking. Successful people think a long way into the future and they adjust their daily behaviors to assure they achieve their long-term goals.
In a longitudinal study done at Harvard University in the 50s and 60s, they studied the reasons for upward socio-economic mobility. They were looking for factors that would predict whether or not an individual or family was going to move upward and be wealthier in the future than in the present.
They studied factors like education, intelligence, being born into the right family, or having the right connections. In every case, they found individuals who had been born with every blessing in life who did poorly.
They also found individuals who had been born or come to this country with no advantages at all who had been extremely successful. What was the distinguishing factor?
They finally determined that there was only one key attitude that mattered. They called it "Time Perspective." Time perspective refers to the amount of time that you take into consideration when planning your day to day activities and when making important decisions in your life.
People with long-time perspective invariably move up economically in the course of their lifetimes. When you spend weeks, months and years developing your skills and ability and expanding your experience in order to be successful, you have long-time perspective.
The average professional person has a time perspective of 10, 15 and 20 years. Begin to see that everything that you are doing today is part of a long-time continuum, at the end of which you are going to be financially independent or financially unfortunate.
People with short-time perspective think only about fun and pleasure in the short term. They have what economists call "The inability to delay gratification." They have an irresistible tendency to spend every single penny they earn and everything that they can borrow.
When you develop long-time perspective, you develop the discipline to delay gratification and to save your money rather than spending it. The combination of long-time perspective and delayed gratification puts you onto the high road to financial independence.
Now, here are two things you can do to develop the attitudes of financially successful people:
First, think long-term about your financial life. Decide exactly how much you want to be worth five years, ten years and twenty years from today. Write it down. Make a plan. Take action on your plan every single day.
Second, develop the ability to delay gratification. Instead of buying something on impulse, put off buying decisions for a day, a week or even a month. Decide in advance to "think it over" before you buy anything. This can change the way you spend money almost immediately.
Monday, March 05, 2007
Reinventing bitters: House-made concoctions give cocktails a signature spin
By Camper English
Bitters, the cocktail flavoring agent once considered a crucial ingredient in drinks, fell out of favor after Prohibition. Though a few brands like Angostura and Peychaud's have been continually produced since their inception, most bitters makers closed up shop long ago.
Dr. Schwartz's Cherry-Vanilla Bitters
Bitters, the cocktail flavoring agent once considered a crucial ingredient in drinks, fell out of favor after Prohibition. Though a few brands like Angostura and Peychaud's have been continually produced since their inception, most bitters makers closed up shop long ago.
With the recent classic cocktail revival, bartenders and home mixologists have renewed interest in the ingredient. Bartender Jennifer Colliau of San Francisco's Slanted Door says, "It may be that we've run out of ways to infuse vodka.
Now there are more people who are interested in booze that tastes like booze. (Bitters) alter the flavor of the liquor but in an aromatic way, rather than adding sugar or acidity -- lemon or lime juice -- or adding a mixer like soda."
The classic Sazerac calls for Peychaud's bitters, the Manhattan and old-fashioned cocktails require Angostura, and an early version of the martini (now making a big comeback) requires orange bitters.
With a variety of bitters to use, bartenders can put subtle spins on well-worn cocktails by swapping in one flavor of bitters for another. They can also use bitters in new cocktails to form a bridge between ingredients that don't align perfectly on their own.
Only a few brands of bitters have come on the market in recent years, including new fruit flavors from Fee Brothers and Chronicle Cocktailian columnist Gary Regan's Orange Bitters No. 6.
But these and other sought-after bitters like the European brand Bitter Truth can be hard to find in the Bay Area, forcing consumers to call around or order the products online.
Old recipes are new again
Even bartenders with access to all the commercial bitters have begun experimenting with making their own, often following and modifying recipes in out-of-print bartending books from the early 1900s.
Absinthe's Jonny Raglin made bitters by infusing herbs in gin and rum for just a few hours, then reducing the proof of the resulting liquid using an espresso machine.
His co-worker Jeff Hollinger includes a recipe for cherry-vanilla bitters that can be swapped in for Angostura or other bitters in his book "The Art of the Bar: Cocktails Inspired by the Classics" (Chronicle Books, 2006).
Bourbon & Branch's Todd Smith made "pretty basic" grapefruit hazelnut bitters in his apartment. Duggan McDonnell, formerly of Frisson and Absinthe, and who plans to open a bar called Cantina this year, made Key lime bitters last winter to pair with Latin-style cocktails.
Bay Area bartenders aren't alone in this pursuit. Mixologists throughout the country and internationally have also been mixing up batches of house bitters. They're on the menu at the Dorchester Bar in London; Employees Only, Trestle on Tenth and other venues in New York; and Eamonn's A Dublin Chipper in Alexandria, Va., to name a few.
By adding homemade bitters that require several weeks of preparation to their repertoires, bartenders continue the trend away from convenience and toward craftsmanship in cocktails.
Late last year, San Francisco bartenders gathered at a local distillery to make bitters together and refine their techniques.
Colin Smith, formerly the on-premise sales manager for San Francisco's Distillery No. 209, got the idea to put together a bitters-making event. "I thought we had the great facility to work with," says Smith.
"And I thought it would be a great opportunity for them to come down and experiment and make some. Everyone is talking about revisiting the classics and putting their own spin on it. Bitters is another personal signature you can add to your repertoire."
He put the word out to local bartenders, and began collecting herbs and other ingredients for the project. Bartenders from Absinthe, Bourbon & Branch, Nopa, the Orbit Room, Range, Rye, Scott Howard, the Slanted Door and Tres Agaves gathered at the distillery on Pier 50.
Special ingredients
Many bartenders had ideas about what they wanted to create, so they brought or requested special herbs and other ingredients. (Common ingredients in bitters include angostura bark, gentian, orange peel, quassia and quinine.)
Raglin made three different versions of apricot bitters. McDonnell focused on North African flavors including Ethiopian coffee beans, and also sweetened his bitters with raisins and figs. He hopes they'll work well with bourbon, as well as with the nutty qualities of Port and sherry. Other bartenders created bitters flavored like apple pie and pumpkin spice.
At the distillery, bartenders added their herbs to a four-times-distilled neutral spirit that is the base for 209 Gin. The bitters infused in glass jars at the distillery for two weeks, before bartenders returned to test, dilute and add sweetener, and bottle the results.
Slanted Door's Colliau, along with bar manager Erik Adkins, made about eight kinds of bitters, with varying degrees of success. "I tried a kaffir lime bitters that didn't work out. It smelled amazing but didn't taste so good.
We made one called the Fall Blend with persimmons and warm spices in it. I think there is potential for using that in a cocktail. It was definitely a learning experience and something I would love to do again now that I know how my decisions affected the outcome."
Bitters meet Tequila
"I was trying to make a bitters that I thought would go well with whiskey; bourbon in particular," Abinsthe's Raglin says. "I had high hopes that they would go well, but as it turns out they don't. (Instead) the bitters are great with Tequila.
" His three apricot bitters contain different combinations of orange peel, quinine bark, gentian root, turmeric root, cardamom pods, black caraway, coriander, licorice root, sarsaparilla root, chamomile flowers and a "mystery ingredient" that he picked up while in Dubai.
"If we all got together and tasted the bitters, hopefully we could all convince Arne (Hillesland, of Distillery No. 209) to manufacture the bitters," Raglin continues. "I hope to move forward with this because I hope to see more bitters available on the market. I think there needs to be more available than Angostura and Peychaud's."
None of the bartenders I spoke with has added their homemade bitters to cocktails offered on their drink menus just yet. Some are still working to adjust the flavor of their bitters by adding different sweeteners.
"I'm working with Arne (Hillesland) on balancing that out," McDonnell says. "Cutting it a little bit with water and adding a little glucose in. They're still a work in process."
Dr. Schwartz's Cherry-Vanilla Bitters
Makes 6 cups
From "The Art of the Bar: Cocktails Inspired by the Classics" (Chronicle Books, 2006) by Jeff Hollinger and Rob Schwartz.
INGREDIENTS:
2 teaspoons quassia (see Note)
2 teaspoons cardamom seeds
1 1/2 teaspoons anise seed
Pinch gentian (see Note)
Pinch cassia (see Note)
1 teaspoon grated ginger
3 cups 100-proof rye, preferably Rittenhouse
5 vanilla beans
1/2 cup cherry bark
3 cups water
INSTRUCTIONS:
Instructions: Toast quassia, cardamom, anise, gentian and cassia in a dry frying pan over medium heat for a few minutes until fragrant. Cool and transfer to a sterile mason jar. Add the ginger and rye, screw on the cap, shake well and store in a cool, dark place.
Agitate once a day for one week. Strain the mixture through cheesecloth and transfer to a clean jar. Gather the ends of the cheesecloth to squeeze out as much liquid as possible.
Cut the vanilla beans in half lengthwise and add them to the rye mixture along with the cherry bark. Seal and store again, shaking once a day, for another two weeks.
Strain the rye through cheesecloth and transfer liquid to clean mason jar (do not throw out the cherry and vanilla mash). Cover and set aside for a couple of weeks. (No need to agitate.)
Take the cherry-vanilla mash remaining in the jar and transfer to a medium saucepan. Add the 3 cups water and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 20 minutes.
While the mixture is simmering, smash the vanilla beans against the sides of the pot with a muddler or wooden spoon. Cool completely and transfer to a clean jar. Store in a cool, dark place for another 2 weeks, agitating once daily.
Strain this mixture through several layers of cheesecloth, as many times as is necessary to remove all sediment from the vanilla beans. Finally, combine the liquid with the reserved rye mixture and transfer to an empty bitters bottle.
Note: You can order quassia, gentian and cassia from Tenzing Momo at tenzingmomo.com.
Camper English is a nightlife and spirits freelance writer, and the author of "Party Like a Rock Star: Even When You're Poor as Dirt." E-mail him at wine@sfchronicle.com.
Sunday, March 04, 2007
Caffeine Protects Against Heart Disease
From NewsMax Health
Drinking caffeinated beverages on a regular basis may provide significant protection against death from heart disease in the elderly who have normal levels of blood pressure, according to data from a large
Drinking caffeinated beverages may induce a "healthy" rise in blood pressure that counteracts the drop in blood pressure that occurs after a meal, a phenomenon that becomes more pronounced as people age, researchers note.
Among 6,594 adults participating in the study, 426 died of heart disease during a nine-year period. For subjects 65 years of age or older, the researchers found that greater daily consumption of caffeinated beverages was associated with a lower risk of death from heart disease.
This acted in a dose-response fashion — the higher the caffeine level, the lower the risk, and visa versa.
People who consumed four or more servings of caffeinated beverages daily had a 53-percent lower risk of death from heart disease compared with those who consumed less than half a serving daily. Subjects who consumed two to four servings per day had a 32-percent lower risk of dying from heart disease.
Caffeinated ground coffee and caffeinated instant coffee, both of which have relatively large amounts of caffeine per serving, were the only specific beverages associated with a statistically significant protective effect, the authors note.
This apparent protective effect of caffeinated coffee consumption was not seen in people with severe high blood pressure or those who were younger than 65 years of age.
Studies on caffeine and heart disease have yielded conflicting results, note principal investigator Dr. James A. Greenberg and colleagues from Brooklyn College of the City University of New York.
"It is possible that the conflict is due to differences between nonelderly and elderly persons," they point out, noting that one study found that drinking coffee increased the risk in younger subjects and that the level of risk decreased with increasing age.
As mentioned, caffeine may protect against heart disease death in the elderly by preventing a decline in blood pressure after meals, a phenomenon that becomes increasing more pronounced with age.
If confirmed, the current findings could have important ramifications, the authors conclude, given that coffee is widely consumed and heart disease is one of the leading causes of death in the elderly.
SOURCE: American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, February 2007. © Reuters.
Editor's Note:
Saturday, March 03, 2007
Excellence Combined With Integrity
Enhancing your Personal Success
How to set standards for excellence and back them with total integrity.
A Commitment to Excellence
Leaders have specific responsibilities and must fulfill certain requirements. One requirement of leadership is the ability to choose an area of excellence. Just as a good general chooses the terrain on which to do battle, an excellent leader chooses the area in which he and others are going to do an outstanding job.
The commitment to excellence is one of the most powerful of all motivators. All leaders who change people and organizations are enthusiastic about achieving excellence in a particular area.
Be the Best!
The most motivational vision you can have for yourself and others is to “Be the best!” Many people don’t yet realize that excellent performance in serving other people is an absolute, basic essential for survival in the economy of the future.
Many individuals and companies still adhere to the idea that as long as they are no worse than anyone else, they can remain in business. That is just plain silly! It is prehistoric thinking. We are now in the age of excellence.
Customers assume that they will get excellent quality, and if they don’t, they will go to your competitors so fast, people’s heads will spin.
Have A Vision of High Standards
As a leader, your job is to be excellent at what you do, to be the best in your chosen field of endeavor. Your job is to have a vision of high standards in serving people. You not only exemplify excellence in your own behavior, but you also translate it to others so that they, too, become committed to this vision.
This is the key to servant leadership. It is the commitment to doing work of the highest quality in the service of other people, both inside and outside the organization. Leadership today requires an equal focus on the people who must do the job, on the one hand, and the people who are expected to benefit from the job, on the other.
The Most Respected Quality
The second quality, which is perhaps the single most respected quality of leaders, is integrity. Integrity is complete, unflinching honesty with regard to everything that you say and do. Integrity underlies all the other qualities.
Your measure of integrity is determined by how honest you are in the critical areas of your life.
Integrity means this: When someone asks you at the end of the day, “Did you do your very best?” you can look him in the eye and say, “Yes!” Integrity means this: When someone asks you if you could have done it better, you can honestly say, “No, I did everything I possibly could.”
Integrity means that you, as a leader, admit your shortcomings. It means that you work to develop your strengths and compensate for your weaknesses. Integrity means that you tell the truth, and that you live the truth in everything that you do and in all your relationships.
Integrity means that you deal straightforwardly with people and situations and that you do not compromise what you believe to be true.
Action Exercises
Now, here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.
First, identify the area of your work where excellent performance can contribute the very most to productivity and profits. Focus all your efforts in this area.
Second, do your very best on every task. Imagine that everyone is watching even when no one is watching. Imagine that everyone in your company was going to do their work exactly the way you do yours.
Never compromise your standards!
Friday, March 02, 2007
A drink for your chakras
By Gary Regan
"Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome," the Professor, our cocktailian bartender, sings the popular song from the musical "Cabaret" to Doc, his most regular of regular customers, as his good friend takes his place at the end of the bar.
"How many times have I told you that you can't hold a note, Professor?" Doc demands.
"Happy to see you -- bliebe, reste, stay," our man behind the bar continues, ignoring his friend. Doc scowls. The Professor takes the hint.
"OK, sorry. Rented 'Cabaret' last night. What a great flick, huh?"
Before Doc can answer the barroom door opens and a half-dozen women, fresh from their yoga class at the studio across the street, walk in.
"And now presenting the Cabaret Girls!" shouts the Professor. "Here's Rosie. She's called Rosie because of the color of her cheeks. And following Rosie, we have Lulu. Do you like Lulu?" The Professor is paraphrasing from the narrated part of the song.
"OK, Professor, that's just about enough," says Laura, the woman who was just renamed Lulu. "How's about a round of something special?" We're just about om'd out for today."
"Coming up, Lulu. Coming up. You bring Texas with you?"
"Just make the drinks, Professor."
The Professor grins and goes about making a round of somewhat labor-intensive drinks that call for 10 Cane rum, a wonderful bottling from Trinidad. It's made from sugarcane juice as opposed to molasses, the base for the majority of rums.
It's erroneous to say that sugarcane juice-based rums are always superior to their cousins, but 10 Cane, nonetheless, is a well-knit rum, with clean vanilla notes and a very smooth palate. The rum is distilled in French pot stills, and aged in French oak before bottling.
Other recommendable rums made from sugarcane juice include Barbancourt, from Haiti, and a host of rums made in Martinique -- J. Bally Rhum, Rhum Clement, Rhum J.M. and Depaz.
The word "rhum" is sometimes, but not always, used to denote sugarcane juice-based rums, and this category is known to some as rhum agricole.
"Ready for the drinks?" the Professor asks the pooped-out yogis at his bar.
"We sure as heck are, Professor. What took so long?" asks Laura.
"Muddling, Laura. Oops, I mean Lulu. These are muddled drinks. Came all the way from Trinidad, they did. By way of Xavier Herit, head bartender at Daniel Boulud's restaurant Daniel in New York City. You're gonna like these, I think."
He lines up the six drinks and takes a seventh over to Doc. "Try this, Doc. Think you'll like it." Doc takes a sip and smiles large.
"Wow. This is wonderful, Professor. Does it have a name?"
"The Welcome 10, Doc. It's called the Welcome 10. Or, if you prefer, it's the Willkommen Zehn. Ou peut-etre le bon docteur prefere de Bienvenu Dix?" Our bartender breaks into song again. "Life is a cabaret, old chum, come to the Cabaret."
Doc lays a few bills on the bar, throws the rest of the drink down his throat, and takes his leave. Sometimes the Professor gets a little out of control.
The Welcome 10
Adapted from a recipe by Xavier Herit, head bartender at Daniel in New York.
INGREDIENTS:
4 chunks fresh pineapple
3 thin slices peeled fresh ginger
1 packet Sugar in the Raw
Splash fresh lime juice
Splash simple syrup
2 ounces 10 Cane rum
Splash pineapple juice
1 pineapple leaf, for garnish
INSTRUCTIONS:
Instructions: Put the pineapple, ginger, Sugar in the Raw, lime juice and simple syrup into an empty mixing glass and grind them with a wooden muddler until all the juices have been extracted from the fruit and the sugar is dissolved.
Add ice cubes, rum and pineapple juice. Stir for approximately 30 seconds, strain into an ice-filled 10-ounce glass, and add the garnish.
Gary Regan is the author of "The Joy of Mixology: The Consummate Guide to the Bartender's Craft." E-mail him at wine@sfchronicle.com.
Thursday, March 01, 2007
Harmonic Relationships
The basic principle of the universe is that of order. When order is extended over a time period, it becomes harmony. This universal harmony is like a great symphony in which all notes, vibrations, and sounds are being played at the same time, for all time.
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