Roadrunner Twice

Hey, did you notice that Jim Beam totally changed the labels for Old Overholt and Jim Beam Rye? They dropped the saturation and changed the lid on Overholt, and they ditched the fluorescent yellow of the JBR label in favor on this sort of tan color. It's almost as though someone in marketing came to their senses and realized that they looked totally trashy.

(The backstory here is that there seems to be something of a rye renaissance going on -- I expect Jim Beam is trying to surf the wave by making their bottles more attractive to people who aren't already converted. I'll kind of miss the bright yellow, though -- it made it look like I was drinking something really cheap and horrible, which always felt like I was pulling one over on everyone.)

Aaron and Steve, my neighbors in the next building over, are endearingly sketchy. Remember how I mentioned all the people doing dodgy shit in the abandoned halfway house across the way? When I left them tonight, they were working on unbolting a grating so as to access a hypothesized underground tunnel into the building, because their old way in got boarded-over. They claim they're going to make a zombie movie in there.

Here's the iced tea that's in my fridge right now:

If not precisely easy, being green is at least pretty feasible tea
Brew up a liter of yerba maté; pour it into several mugs to cool.
Brew up a liter of dragon well green tea, but before you pour the water onto it, grate a piece of peeled ginger whose size is somewhere between the last joint of your index finger and the last joint of your thumb into the leaves. (Adjust downwards if you don't have tiny girly-hands like me.) Let it cool in whatever glass or ceramic containers remain in the kitchen.
Once it's all cool enough to put in plastic, pour most of each mug of maté into the pitcher (leaving behind the slurry of dust and sludge at the bottom of each one), then pour in all the green tea. Fridge.

Here's my new (tonight!) drink:

The "Grassland"

• 4-6 ice cubes
• 1/2 shot lemon juice (the good, organic, unsweetened stuff in the glass bottle)
• 1 shot rye whiskey
• 10-12 fl. oz. "Green is feasable" tea

Put it all in an empty 16-oz salsa jar in the order listed, and you're in business. Dry, mellow, cooling, and unassuming—exactly what I want when I come home at 10 and it's still 70 degrees out there. I'm wondering if it might be improved by brewing some whole spices in with the tea; maybe some cumin seeds or cardamom pods.

I just got turned on to rye a little while ago, and I'm still on my first bottle of it*, but man, new favorite. Sis, you would be totally with me on this. Plenty of flavor, but with no counterbalancing flaws. (Most of the Bourbons and Irishes that I've had have some weird twinges to them keep me from drinking them on a regular basis. I haven't really explored Scotch much.) Plus, as any fule kno, rye is the hippest grain.


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* The Jim Beam one, with that great yellow label. Makes it look SO much dodgier than it is.