Beverage

The Tempest is finally receiving the attention it deserves. No, not Shakespeare’s incomparable play, which has been justly heralded for centuries, but the hard-working Hamilton Beach Commercial® blender by the same name. The Tempest® Blender is modestly priced for a commercial blender—so much so that it was a top pick on Consumer Reports’ 2013 list of best blenders. 

But its modest price may camouflage its true value as a commercial blender. As blogger Stana Peele points out, the Tempest “cannot be compared to other blenders due to its specially designed features.” Here are just a few of those drool-worthy attributes: a 2-speed jump cycle that provides precise and thorough blending every time, a timer with automatic shutoff that lets the user step away and tend to other tasks, patented quad-angle stainless steel cutting and mixing blades, and a temperature gauge that alerts the operator if the blender is starting to overheat.

A sidekick of the comfort food trend, boozy milkshakes are appearing across a broad range of bars and restaurants, from posh clubs to burger chains. The Powder Room in Hollywood, California, offers the Velvet Goldmine, a $500 concoction made with dark chocolate ganache, cognac, English lavender split black bean Tahitian vanilla ice cream and chocolate caramel fudge, topped with fresh whipped cream and edible 23 carat gold flakes. It includes a Swarovski Crystal Nirvana ring for every customer.

There are many stories about the invention and naming of the margarita. Two of the most popular accounts locate the cocktail's beginings in Mexico and Texas. According to one legend, Pancho Morales was working at Tommy's Place in Juarez, Mexico, in 1942, when a woman ordered a "magnolia." Morales could not remember any of the ingredients in the drink except cointreau. After mixing in tequila, he named the new concoction after the daisy, "margarita" in Spanish. The second story says the drink was created by Dallas socialite Margarita Sames for her 1948 holiday party. Sames wanted to combine tequila and cointreau to make a soothing drink that was neither too sweet nor too sour.  Eventually she added lime juice and a little salt on the rim to give it a kick. 

Grown-up gourmet milkshakes, some spiked and some not, are all the rage. For many adults, a milkshake is an instant trip to childhood, a comfort that can be innocent and inexpensive, like the $3.49 Birthday Cake Milk Shake from Steak’n Shake, or indulgent and decadent, like the The Powder Room’s $500 Velvet Goldmine.

Industry insiders have called the milkshake “the new cupcake,” and many creative chefs and amateurs alike are putting cupcakes into—and on top of—milkshakes. The new “cupcake milkshake,” which lets the indulger drink a milkshake (into which cake as been blended) through a straw impaled in the crowning cupcake, is really a culmination of many years of creative exploration and accompanying improvements in mixers that have made it easy to add cakes, pies, cookies, candy—just about anything—to the classic milkshake.

There are several stories surrounding the birth of the mojito. One of the most colorful says the drink was developed in the 1500s when the famed explorer Sir Francis Drake landed in Havana to sack the city of its gold. While the invasion was unsuccessful, an associate of Sir Francis Drake may have created an early version of the mojito called "El Draque."

When outfitting a new location or upgrading old equipment, a restaurant owner has to choose between saving on the cheap option or investing in tools that will last longer. But which is better for the bottom line?

Latin America has enjoyed tremendous economic growth over the past several years, led by Paraguay, Panama and Peru, which grew at rates of 11, 9 and 6 percent respectively in 2013. Argentina, Chile, Columbia, Bolivia, Brazil and Mexico have also seen their economies expand and their restaurants and bars fill up with newly affluent customers.

Ask a bar full of “norteamericanos” to name a Latin American cocktail and surely the Margarita will top the list, along with the requisite debates: frozen or on the rocks, salt or no. But go a little deeper—a little father south—and you’ll find some unique cocktails sure to win over customers. And for guests in search of gluten-free indulgences, these drinks are a boon—all are made with brandies or grain-free liqueurs. 

Even when summer temperatures reach the triple digits, most beer enthusiasts think of ice as something you put beer on, not something you put in beer.

Ice—or anything else one might add to beer—dilutes the flavor, traditionalists say. And taste is increasingly important to American beer drinkers, as the growing popularity of craft beers would seem to indicate.

But adding other flavors to beer actually has a long tradition going back to those beer-loving Germanic cultures. The “radfahrer,” or “radler” as it’s commonly translated, which means “cyclist” in German, is a mixture of beer and lemonade or beer and lemon soda.

The legend is that an Austrian innkeeper had a large group of cyclists arrive and had to stretch his limited beer supply by cutting it with lemon soda. The mixture became popular in warm weather, especially among young and active imbibers, and is now sold all over the world in some form or another.

The Test Lab at Hamilton Beach, led by mechanical engineer Arthur Hudgins, Manager Engineering Test Lab and Model Shop, is a kind of punishment chamber for food service equipment and hospitality appliances. It’s a noisy place consisting of several rooms—some piping hot, some ice cold, some dry and others tropically humid—where appliances made by Hamilton Beach and its competitors are tested for performance, safety and durability.

Balsamic vinegar. Arugula. Smoked jalapeno. Blenheim apricots.

Matthew Biancaniello isn't cooking with these ingredients. He's making drinks.

Call him a cocktail chef: a self-taught alchemist who has perfected the art of combining fresh herbs and produce with liquor to make garden-crisp cocktails. Through his company, Eat Your Drink, he now serves as a consultant and bartender for high-profile clients. He shared his expertise on creating and successfully launching an innovative produce cocktail program.