TRAVERSE CITY — Traverse City Whiskey Co. is hosting their family-friendly Winter Warm Up event on Saturday afternoon.

It’s free to attend, with outdoor yard games and live music. There will also be food and drinks available for purchase, and even an exclusive opportunity to taste some of their award-winning whiskeys.

“It’s so important to us, especially in the off season, to create an environment to bring people together. That’s why whiskey is such a magical spirit. And we’re also excited tomorrow to debut some fun spirits that have been hiding in our Rick House, which is our barrel warehouse, for years. We’re going to be debuting them as a bit of a teaser to anybody who comes,” said Chris Fredrickson, owner and co-founder.

The event is from 1 to 5 p.m., and an ID is required for tastings.

Comedians and podcasters Bert Kreischer and Tom Segura are jumping into the spirits game with a new vodka brand.

The duo, who co-host the hit comedy podcast 2 Bears, 1 Cave, have partnered with venture studio Drip MFG to launch their own vodka brand, Por Osos. While the pair are known for their jokes, they’re taking this new venture quite seriously.

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“We were very much fingers in the pie on every aspect,” Kreischer tells The Hollywood Reporter. “From the bottle cap, down to the kind of bear image. I mean, we really, really had our fingers in this.”

The pair note that they had been approached many times before to create something in the liquor space. They waffled between a few types of liquor before settling on vodka. Kreischer feels that vodka is a “natural fit,” while Segura notes that there “hasn’t been anybody disruptive in the vodka space.”

Por Osos has joined forces with Mexcor Distribution to expand the vodka’s reach to consumers. The product is primarily being launched in Texas, with future plans to expand to Florida, California, and Nevada. Alongside vodka, Kreischer and Segura have also launched a merchandise line for the company, which is available on their website.

Por Osos is also planning to release a new commercial, which the company has provided a sneak peek to THR. The commercial features the co-hosts of 2 Bears, 1 Cave, enjoying their new vodka, while Segura quizzes Kreischer about his knowledge on Segura’s middle name.

Before the official launch party of the brand on March 5, Kreischer and Segura showcased their comedy and their new vodka in Las Vegas during the Super Bowl weekend. They performed at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on the eve of the game, attracting guests such as Grammy-nominated singer Jelly Roll, upcoming Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel, and Jason Kelce.

Both Kreischer and Segura specifically expressed their excitement about one guest: Guy Fieri. Kreischer shares that Fieri expressed his admiration for the vodka. Kreischer acknowledges Fieri as a legend and Segura comments on Fieri’s infectious enthusiasm and positive reaction to their product.

Kreischer and Segura are currently occupied with numerous projects, with Segura being the owner of Your Mom’s House Studios – a podcasting company. Their respective websites are brimming with planned stand-up tours. “We are certainly leading busy lives but we are not complaining,” says Segura, “We are truly fortunate.”

In Segura’s opinion, by the time a year elapses, their goal is to be accessible nationwide or near-nationwide with their project Por Osos. He adds that the speed at which they are progressing feels appropriate.

“The response has been very promising. The demand in Texas is high. So, we’re just progressing one step at a time,” mentions Segura.

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Adored by some and reviled by others, Southern Comfort is a drink known to divide opinion. Some know it best as Janis Joplin’s signature stage companion; to others, it’s something you had in college once or twice and probably shouldn’t have. But before judging the sweet, brown booze, let’s get one thing straight: it’s whiskey, right?

The answer to that isn’t exactly simple. For one thing, the recipe has changed dramatically several times since the drink’s inception in the late 1800s, and today, Southern Comfort has multiple products on shelves, all with different specifications that affect how they’re legally classified. Bottles labeled “Southern Comfort Original” can contain a diverse range of beverages depending on the jurisdiction in which it’s being sold, including 30-proof and 42-proof malt liquors and a 70-proof whiskey-based drink. What all of these versions have in common, however, is that technically, none of them are whiskey.

Under U.S. law, for a spirit to be categorized as whiskey, it needs to be bottled at no less than 40% alcohol by volume, or 80 proof (in the U.S., “proof” refers to the ABV times two). So technically, only Southern Comfort Black and Southern Comfort 100, which are 80 and 100 proof, respectively, are actually whiskey. The other versions are either malt beverages or whiskey liqueurs. And if you haven’t had SoCo recently, you may not have tried any of them.

Read more: The Ultimate Vodka Brands, Ranked

Regardless of the type of Southern Comfort you’ve experienced, they all blend whiskey, fruit, and spice flavors together. However, the similarities stop there. The 30 and 42-proof Southern Comfort, being malt liquors, are not spirits. Legally, they fall under the category of beer and other malt beverages, similar to Mike’s Hard Lemonade and Smirnoff Ice. Hence, you can purchase them in places without full liquor licenses. The amount of real whiskey in them is minimal, if any, for flavoring purposes.

In contrast, the 70-proof SoCo is made using actual whiskey. But since the Alcohol By Volume (ABV) standard for whiskey is not met, it’s technically considered a whiskey-based liqueur, not whiskey itself, akin to Fireball. Southern Comfort Black and 100 are counted as proper blended whiskeys that have additional flavorings.

This classification only applies to the SoCo versions available in the U.S. Some of the brand’s products, including a 60-proof version and a few ready-to-drink cocktails, are solely available in other countries. Regardless of your location, always check the label to determine the version you are consuming. There is a stark contrast between a 15% ABV malt beverage and a 50% ABV flavor-infused spirit.

If you haven’t had Southern Comfort since before 2016, you might not remember its distinct taste. The original formulation was created in 1874 by a New Orleans bartender named Martin Wilkes Heron. He mixed low-quality Kentucky bourbon with fruit and spices to enhance its flavor. However, Heron passed away in 1920. After prohibition ceased, the brand was relaunched under new ownership. The new owners decided to forego whiskey, opting for less expensive neutral grain spirits, such as vodka. As a result, for a significant portion of its history, this illustrious Southern beverage contained no whiskey.

But in 2016, SoCo was purchased by Sazerac, another historic alcohol brand with New Orleans roots, and the SoCo known for most of the 20th century was no more. The new ownership reformulated the flavored booze, again making real whiskey the base of the 70-proof SoCo Original and later introducing the boozier Black and 100 versions. So if it’s been a minute since you’ve mixed up an Alabama Slammer, it’s worth another go. Try it with the 70, 80, and 100-proof versions to see which strikes your perfect balance between fruity sweetness and a boozy kick.

Read the original article on Daily Meal.

It appears that everyone is ready to embrace the spring season. Recipe creator, food journalist, and author Lidey Heuck is certainly on board. Today, Heuck graces the TODAY kitchen to demonstrate a couple of simple spring dinner dishes from her cookbook, “Cooking in Real Life: Delicious & Doable Recipes for Every Day“. She introduces us to a tantalizingly creamy pasta alla vodka with plum shrimp and fresh, garlicky green beans with fried capers.

Please note that TODAY has affiliate relationships, so we might receive a small portion of the revenue from your purchases. Items are retailed by the retailer, not by TODAY.

Saucy Shrimp alla Vodka by Lidey Heuck

In times when I crave something warm, comforting yet not as heavy as a full bowl of pasta, this recipe perfectly hits the spot. Vodka sauce, surprisingly easy to craft at home, primarily requires pantry staples (who doesn’t consider vodka a pantry staple?). Interestingly, the Italians don’t typically pair seafood and cheese. However, pasta alla vodka is undeniably an Italian-American invention, easing our rule-breaking guilt. The refined, sea-kissed taste of the shrimp proves to be a delicious addition to the velvety vodka sauce—albeit untraditional. This dish is an excellent choice when you’re yearning for the comfort of pasta but prefer something a bit lighter and simpler to prepare—a quintessential spring recipe.

Garlicky Green Beans with Crispy Capers by Lidey Heuck

These garlicky, lemony green beans pack a ton of flavor for a dish with so few ingredients. Fried capers add a nice salty crunch (you’ll want to sprinkle them on everything!) and a touch of vinegar gives the beans an addictive quality. That’s more than I can say about most green beans. I think of these as an everyday side dish, but they’d also be a fresh alternative to Thanksgiving green bean casserole.

If you like those savory spring recipes, you should also try these:

Spring Vegetable Baked Rice by Daniel Humm

Cheesy Orzo with Asparagus and Black Truffle Butter by Amanda Freitag

This article was originally published on TODAY.com

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NEWBERG, Ore. — Recent summer wildfires have devastated many Oregon wineries, leaving the local wine industry with tainted grapes and unsellable wine. Now one Newburg winery has teamed up with a distiller and found a creative use for the smoke-filled grapes. Instead of throwing away hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of wine, they turned it into whiskey.

Jim Anderson, owner of Patricia Green Cellars in Newberg, recalled that he began the summer of 2020 full of anticipation for a bountiful wine season. The 2020 Vintage was coming along nicely, and it was looking to be another early harvest in Oregon. But the anticipation quickly turned into fear.

“The fires start,” he said. “You couldn’t see the top of our vineyard from the bottom of it.”

The 2020 Labor Day wildfires destroyed more than a million acres. The Oregon Department of Transportation called the blaze the most destructive wildfire in state history.

“For over around two weeks, we had some of the worst air quality index in the world,” Anderson said.

The Patricia Green Cellars property was spared, and after the smoke cleared, Anderson tried to get back to business — but he quickly found that there were a lot of pieces to pick up.

“We knew from California and Australia fires that smoke and grapes are a bad thing, but we didn’t know exactly what we’re getting into,” he said. “We had at around twelve to fourteen thousand gallons of wine that in our in our view, was not potable and was not sellable.”

The wine tasted terrible, and Anderson said he didn’t know what to do. But as fate would have it, he met distiller and Corvallis native Lynsee Sardell, who had some ideas for new possibilities.

“I’m not really interested in being constrained by what other people have done or haven’t done,” Sardell said.

Together, they transformed the wine into whiskey.

“I was aware that distillation could yield some remarkable aspects of the wine, while eliminating those tainted by smoke,” expressed Sardell.

The first endeavour was to demonstrate that the wine could be distilled into brandy — “then utilize that as a platform to marry single varietals of barley whiskey into a blend that creates a structure of a whiskey that is flavorful, delightful and reflective of Oregon,” Sardell stated. “Being capable of crafting something that symbolizes this landscape is simply an honor.”

The duo created two innovative whiskeys called Multifarious and Purple Karma Pinnacle.

“Taking something old, something damaged, something broken and finding another home for it, another use for it, another life for it,” Anderson said.

The whiskey is currently exclusively sold at Patricia Green Cellars. There are future plans to expand into Oregon bars, restaurants and stores.