Frozen cocktail sales heat up in the summer months, and the frosty drinks are gaining popularity with bars and restaurants as a way to bring in customers and build social media buzz. Inspired by the frozen drink trend and the enduring popularity of craft beer and cocktails, Taylor Company created the Zamboozy Adult Slushie Freezer. The machine allows operators to turn any draft beer or cocktail into a frozen beverage. In this interview, Taylor’s Vickie Sims describes the inspiration behind the Zamboozy and the benefits it offers operators — from unlimited creativity to rapid recovery that enables more sales.

How did current beverage trends inspire the creation of the Zamboozy?

Beer has been a rapidly growing segment. Creating a slush form offers operators another avenue to excite customers and maximize their existing draft menu. So, we thought it could be a big hit.

The biggest challenge was to solve the riddle: Can we actually turn draft beer into slush? Our R&D engineers worked their magic and the Zamboozy was born. We’re able to make any draft beer into a slush and any mixed cocktail into a refreshing frozen delight.

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http://www.novotaste.com/frozen-beer-and-cocktail-slushies-are-a-cool-addition-to-summer-menus-smartbrief/

PATRÓN Tequila – the world’s number one ultra-premium tequila, is continuing its collaboration with iconic celebrity tattoo artist, JonBoy, to bring Cinco de Mayo to your doorstep through the PATRÓN x JonBoy Margarita Collection Kit. Featuring the simply perfect taste of PATRÓN tequila and exclusive, original artwork by JonBoy, PATRÓN is putting Cinco de Mayo in your hands and making it easy to celebrate your way, wherever you are. The PATRÓN x JonBoy Margarita Collection Kit brings the ultimate handcrafted and handwritten experience. The partnership was inspired by the level of passion, dedication, and mastery of craft that both PATRÓN and JonBoy go to in order to achieve the perfect result, without cutting corners –whether that is through art with JonBoy’s tattoo designs or the PATRÓN tequila production process. Personalization is what tattooing is all about—and it is how PATRÓN encourages people to enjoy their margaritas. Consumers can customize their cocktails through their choice of unique JonBoy-designed cocktail toppers that feature everything from an artistic new take on PATRÓN tequila’s iconic be logo to JonBoy’s signature script and more.

“PATRÓN and JonBoy share a strong commitment to quality, craftsmanship and precision, which makes this a natural and exciting partnership for us,” said Chloe Lloyd-Jones, Vice President of PATRÓN Tequila in North America. “PATRÓN handcrafts its tequila the hard way – by hand using a meticulous, time-honored process, similar to the way JonBoy puts a painstaking level of detail and personalization into his incredible minimalistic tattoo designs and creations that continue to bring him worldwide acclaim. We’re thrilled to be partnering with JonBoy to create a custom Margarita kit to put Cinco de Mayo in your hands this year.”

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https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/patron-tequila-collaborates-with-celebrity-tattoo-artist-jonboy-to-put-cinco-de-mayo-in-your-hands-with-the-patron-x-jonboy-margarita-collection-kit-301266945.html

Margaritas are one of the most popular cocktails. In the United States, they rank number one, exceeding martinis, mojitos, old fashioned’s, and mimosas. US consumption of tequila also outranks that of Mexico, home of the blue agave plant which supplies the margarita’s primary ingredient of tequila.

No one agrees for sure when the margarita was invented. Some say an American socialite named Margarita Sames created the drink for her friends and served it at a party in her Acapulco home back in 1948. Tommy Hilton was a guest, and the story says he liked it so well he began serving it in his hotel bars. Other evidence shows Jose Cuervo using the tagline, “Margarita: it’s more than a girl’s name” three years prior. Still, a third account insists a man named Danny Herrera first made the drink at his Tijuana restaurant sometime in the 1930s or ’40s and named it after a showgirl, Marjorie, which translates to Margarita in Spanish.

Something most people do agree on is the enduring appeal of the margarita. Serve yours up in one of our recommended sets of margarita glasses. From fun and colorful to elegant and classy, these choices will make your occasion and your beverage seem all the more festive.

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Best Margarita Glasses for True Island Vibe

So you’re trying to set up a nice home bar (long gone are the days of drinking wine out of mugs), but the process is feeling a bit overwhelming. Is there any difference between a highball and a collins glass? Are those V-shaped martini glasses actually a reasonable thing to own? What size coupe do you need? The good news is that buying cocktail glasses doesn’t have to be all that complicated — or expensive. According to Matt Piacentini, owner of the Up & Up, a cocktail bar in the West Village, his team uses just five different types of cocktail glasses to make most of the drinks on its menu. Joaquín Simó, partner at Pouring Ribbons and Tales of the Cocktail’s American Bartender of the Year in 2012, makes it even simpler. “You can make 90 percent of drinks in a rocks, a collins, and a good all-purpose cocktail glass.”

Regardless of what you make in them, the right cocktail glasses for you are a matter of taste. The first rule of thumb, says David Fudge, co-founder of nonalcoholic-spirit brand Aplós, is picking something you would actually enjoy drinking out of, because “it’s all about elevating the whole experience. For me, when you’re drinking out of an antique crystal glass, there’s something about the drink that’s more special, and it does taste better.”

To help you find your own perfect matches, we took a deep dive into cocktail glassware, speaking with more than a dozen professional bartenders and boozehounds about their go-to pieces of cocktail glassware.

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https://nymag.com/strategist/article/best-cocktail-glass-types.html

Wondering what ingredients you need for a margarita? We’ll outline the basics, plus a couple of extra add-ins.
Whether you’re setting up a home bar or want to re-create your favorite bar cocktail, knowing what ingredients you need for a margarita is crucial. From tequila and orange liqueur, citrus juice and mix-ins, we’ll break down the basic margarita ingredients you should have on hand.

While you’re at it, these are the classic cocktail recipes you need to know.

A classic margarita is made with tequila, orange liqueur and lime juice, in a 3-2-1 proportion. For a single serving, that means 1 ½ ounces of tequila, ½ ounce of orange liqueur and ¼ ounce of lime juice.

This ratio can also be used to make a pitcher of margaritas for your next party. Simply combine 2 cups of tequila with 1 cup of orange liqueur and ½ cup of lime juice in a pitcher, top with ice and split evenly between 16 festive glasses. If you’re in need of a new set, these are our picks for the best margarita glasses.

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These Are the Essential Ingredients for a Good Margarita

185,000. That’s how many margaritas Americans drink per hour every day, according to the mega spirits and wine corporation Brown-Forman. In a recent Nielsen study, it’s also Americans’ go-to cocktail with 60 percent claiming it as their favorite tipple.

And let’s face it —although not the most exotic choice on the menu, the drink’s perfect sour, salty, bitter, and sweet ratio (four of the five flavor profiles we can identify) is extremely satisfying. More importantly, the drink—no matter in what form, be it on the rocks or frozen —says, “good times are in my future.”

The Margarita also crosses social and economic divides. For example, you can serve it on almost any occasion, be it at the beach or a black-tie affair, as an instant crowd-pleaser.

Perhaps that’s why there are 5.2 million #margarita tags on Instagram -people love to love their Margarita. And hey, what other cocktail has its own song (Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville) touting its ability to induce blissed-out vacation vibes?

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Drink in History: The Margarita

It’s hard to say definitively who created the margarita, Mexico’s classic Tequila sour that has become one of the most beloved cocktails in the world. Stories of its origin are as numerous as the variations of the drink.

One story claims that the drink was created in 1938, as Mexican restaurant owner Carlos (Danny) Herrera mixed it for gorgeous Ziegfeld showgirl Marjorie King. Supposedly, Tequila was the only alcohol that King would abide, so Herrera added lime juice and salt.

Other claims include that Texas socialite Margaret Sames (a k a Margarita) mixed the first drink at a house party in Mexico during 1948. Or maybe it was named for actress Rita Hayworth (whose real name was Margarita Casino) during a gig in Tijuana in the 1940s.

In his book, Imbibe, cocktail historian David Wondrich agrees that the margarita was invented during the above timeframe. He says that the drink evolved from The Daisy, a classic cocktail popular at the time that mixed alcohol, citrus juice and grenadine, and served over shaved ice.

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winemag.com/recipe/the-history-of-the-margarita-and-how-to-make-it-right