Beverage

Take a trip back through all the cocktail trends of the last few years, and the variety is dizzying. Produce-driven cocktails. Revivals of classic cocktails. New twists on classic cocktails. Craft frozen cocktails. Tiki drinks. Even the once-scorned staples of college bars, like the Long Island Iced Tea, have gotten a makeover from modern mixologists.

Is there anything left to try? Oh, yes: The last frontier in cocktails is all about science. Mixologists at places like Washington, D.C.’s barmini and Chicago’s Aviary are adapting the techniques of molecular gastronomy to serve up drinks that change color, fizz and smoke. But there’s a method to this madness. Here are five principles they follow.

In case you missed them, these were the top 5 most-read blog posts for the month of October. Kahlua Colada rules the roost as the number one most popular post, YET AGAIN, with the most views for the month.

Read on. If you see content you like, be sure to join the HBC Community for regular updates, whether it's Beverage, Food, Hospitality or Recipes.

In case you missed them, these were the top 5 most-read blog posts for the month of September. Once again Kahlua Colada is number one most popular post, with the most views for the month.

Read on. If you see content you like, be sure to join the HBC Community for regular updates, whether it's Beverage, Food, Hospitality or Recipes.

In case you missed them, these were the top 5 most-read blog posts for the month of August. We may have to stop including it, because Kahlua Colada is number one. Again!

Read on. If you see content you like, be sure to join the HBC Community for regular updates, whether it's Beverage, Food, Hospitality or Recipes.

Dr. Thomas Campbell remembers how, in his medical-school days, he would make up for his poor eating habits by drinking a kale smoothie: “I put about 6 cups of raw, cleaned kale tightly packed in a mixer along with a little water and nothing else and made the ultimate green smoothie,” he recalls. It was, unsurprisingly, awful: “It was like a grassy tasting slime, or perhaps cow cud.”

Adding fruit would have solved the flavor problem, but that can turn a veggie smoothie into a high-sugar beverage, notes Campbell, the medical director of the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies. A typical smoothie with spinach, strawberries, blueberries, a banana and orange juice might include 32 grams of sugar, he calculates.

Many sugar-conscious consumers want smoothies with no fruit at all. What’s the secret to offering healthy, fruit-free smoothies that don’t taste like a cow’s breakfast? We’ll tell you.

Crowning the menu at Malibu-based chain SunLife Organics is the Billion Dollar Smoothie, a blend of 16 ultra-premium ingredients that some health enthusiasts promise will nourish the body and mind. It won’t enrich the wallet, though — the Billion Dollar Smoothie costs $28. (The Million Dollar Smoothie is a comparative bargain, at $15.95.)

The $28 price tag is due to exotic ingredients like goat colostrum, adaptogenic mushrooms and silica. (Oddly, the smoothie just tastes like vanilla.) While the health benefits of ingredients like these aren’t always proven, many customers are avidly seeking out ultra-premium smoothie ingredients.

Here is your monthly recap of the top 5 most popular blog posts for the month of July. I'm beginning to wonder if Kahlua Colada keeps bubbling up because it keeps showing up in the Top 5? Because it's number 1 again this month! 

Read on. If you see content you like, be sure to join the HBC Community for regular updates, whether it's Beverage, Food, Hospitality or Recipes.

Here is your monthly recap of the top 5 most popular blog posts for the month of June. "Fading" to second is the Kahlua Colada -- if anyone out there has an explanation for why this post keeps popping up, we would love to hear it...

Read on. If you see content you like, be sure to join the HBC Community for regular updates, whether it's Beverage, Food, Hospitality or Recipes.

In case you missed them, here are the top 5 most popular blog posts for the month of May. Keeping its hold on the top spot is the Kahlua Colada -- apparently folks just love Kahlua, coconut and pineapple!

Read on...and if you see content you like, be sure to join the HBC Community for regular updates, whether it's Beverage, Food, Hospitality or Recipes.

Sometimes, action is the best relief for grief. When Jeremy Lefkovits’ beloved mother Andi was diagnosed with a rare cancer in 2009, she sought natural healing through raw superfood nutrition in addition to conventional medicine. Andi lost her battle with cancer, but Jeremy and his wife, M’Lee, found their calling: growing organic wheatgrass and sprouts.

In 2012, M’Lee and Jeremy left their high-paying corporate jobs to found Andi’s Way, a small farming operation outside of Atlanta, Ga.  “There was no guarantee of success,” Jeremy says, but the couple’s commitment to quality and stringent safety standards won them a loyal following.

Andi’s Way now has customers in 27 states, including juice bars, health food stores and Whole Foods. They’ve also helped Hamilton Beach Commercial perfect our commercial wheatgrass juicer.

Here’s what the Lefkovits have learned in their five years running the business.