Here Comes The Sun!

Hello again from the 19th hole. It’s been a long, cold winter and sometimes it seemed like the warm weather would never come. As I am writing this it’s a blustery spring day with a lot of strong breezes, a lot of spring rain and this morning even a smattering of quick to melt snow. Tiger just wrapped up his nice comeback on 18 and has another win in his bag (talk about inspiration) and I’m beginning to get a real urge to start grooving my swing again. I know a lot of you have already been hitting the indoor facilities and that’s great but I can’t seem to get started until the college basketball season is over (superstition of course).

All this thinking and talking about the weather has me thinking about spring time drinks. Of course the gin and tonic certainly rates up there and is one of my favorites. As I think about great spirits and spring drinks, it makes me think about the most widely consumed liquor on the planet – vodka. There is certainly no limit to the number of things that can be mixed with it to make a refreshing, and thirst quenching drink…orange juice, grapefruit juice, lemonade, tonic water, tomato juice, cranberry juice … I’m really just scratching the surface here.

There are also a number of different things that vodka can be made from including wheat, barley, rye, grapes, soybeans and of course even the old standby – potatoes. Each of the different ingredients provides a unique flavor. I would encourage you to sample vodka from each so that you can learn which ingredient you like the flavor of the most. This is important because the king of all drinks, and here I’m talking about the vodka martini, should only be made with the finest of spirits.

As this article began to take shape, Kim (the Editor at Tee Times) and I talked about what we should present to you in this issue. We came up with a very unusual product that was introduced here in the Twin Cities.

“Are you troubled by strange noises in the night? Do you experience feelings of dread in your basement or attic? Have you or your family actually seen a spook, specter or ghost? If the answer is yes, then don’t wait another minute. Just pick up the phone and call the professionals – Ghostbusters.” – Dan Aykroyd as Dr. Raymond Stanz in Ghostbusters.

He’s done it again. Teaming with the dead again and announcing his new vodka, Crystal Head. Crystal Head Vodka was introduced in the Twin Cities in mid March and was quite the production by comic, movie star and all around great guy Dan Aykroyd. Yes, star of Blues Brothers, Ghostbusters, Saturday Night Live, Bassomatic 76, that Dan Aykroyd.

He blew into town and talked about his vodka in a bottle shaped like a human skull. Immediately I started thinking about the last Indiana Jones movie that included 13 skulls, adventure and extra terrestrials. Premium vodka in a skull? Sign me up – I want one! Out I went and found one at the local Haskell’s store. At $44.99 per bottle it seemed a little bit steep but after a little while I convinced myself that it was worth it, as you can see it’s a really cool bottle. The makers claim that the vodka is filtered through Herkimer Diamonds, which sounds pretty neat. Others claim they are really crystals…more mystery – cool huh?

In distilled spirits it is very important that the best types of filters are used as they remove the impurity from the liquid, leading to less “hangover effect”. Quality of filtering and how many times filtered is a process that can be quite expensive.

Ladies and gentlemen I found this vodka to be quite smooth, as you would expect. I would not recommend mixing it with anything else except perhaps a cube or two of ice.

Crystal Head Vodka is quite an “icebreaker”, the bottle offers a great way to start a conversation and I believe Aykroyd has hit upon another winner here. And after a great round of golf and those two or three shots you can’t forget – what a nice way to celebrate!