Gaza Perfume named after Hamas Missile

 Submitted without comment.

A new perfume created in Gaza will bear the name of a missile designed by Jerusalem and Operation Pillar of Defense.

 A local cosmetics company, decided to name a new scent M-75, saying “the fragrance is pleasant and attractive, like the missiles of the Palestinian resistance.”

The perfume comes in masculine and feminine scents and costs twice the price of other perfumes as it uses ingredients “worthy of the victory in the Gaza Strip.”

Dave Arnold in Gotham Mag

The always interesting Dave Arnold talking cocktails with Gotham magazine. Nice recipe included for the home bar enthusiast as well. 
Dave Arnold's First Date

Real Actors Reading Yelp Reviews

Calling all service people! Ever had a bad Yelp review written about your establishment? Yeah, we thought so... Yelp reviews can be helpful, but they can also we written by absolute morons with too much time on their hands. Now someone had a brilliant idea and decided to use real actors to do dramatic readings of the "best" Yelp reviews. Don't click on the link unless you want to lose the next hour of your life watching them.
Real Actors Reading Yelp Reviews

A Sustainable Alternative to Ambergris?

Scientists have recently created a compound mimicking ambergris- that lovely perfume and drink ingredient that smells like sex in heaven, never mind it's made from regurgitated bits in the intestines of the sperm whale. Ambergris is wickedly expensive, costing up to hundreds of pounds an ounce. This is because whale hunting is now illegal, and the only ambergris that can be sold has to be found washed up on beaches. Now scientists say that using two enzymes extracted from clary sage they have managed to have bacteria recreate the molecule that is so prized in ambergris. I guess its no more or less gross to have it be vomited up by whale or made by bacteria, right?

Link to the ScienceDaily article is below. 

Synthetic Ambergris 

Marmite a Base Note in New Perfume

Celtic Fire, a new fragrance by Union Fragrance, is supposed to conjure up the Celtic spirit, down to cold salty ocean air, peat bogs, tea, toast- and Marmite. Yes, love it or hate it, Marmite has found its way out of your breakfast and onto your wrist. The company's website refers to it as a "startlingly original" perfume and we here at Drink Factory are inclined to agree. No word yet on whether the fragrance is as polarizing as the substance itself...

Celtic Fire

Tomorrow is Repeal Day!

This will certainly not come as news to our American readers, but just in case our UK community is confused as to why tomorrow is a good day to have a drink, Repeal Day is the day in 1933 that prohibition was overturned in the States. Silly Yanks, outlawing booze in the first place... If you want to read more about Repeal Day and all it means clink the link below. If you just want to skip that part and have a celebratory drink, that's ok, too.

http://www.repealday.org/

Flavour of the Week

The flavour of the week is violet. Violet is a genus of flowering plants in the violet family Violaceae, with around 400–500 species distributed around the world. Most species are found in the temperate Northern Hemisphere, however some are also found in widely divergent areas such as Hawaii, Australasia, and the Andes. Violets are used in perfumery, alcohol, medicines and cuisine.

When newly opened, Viola flowers may be used to decorate salads and soufflés, while ice cream and similar desserts can be flavoured with essence of Viola flowers. The young leaves are edible raw or cooked as a somewhat bland leaf vegetable. There are many types of violets and their culinary uses vary from type to type. For example, the flowers and leaves of the cultivar 'Rebecca', one of the Violetta violets, have a distinct vanilla flavour with hints of wintergreen. The pungent perfume of other types add sweetness to desserts, fruit, and teas while the mild pea flavour of V. tricolor combines well with savoury foods, like grilled meats and steamed vegetables.

One popular method of preserving the flower is to candy them. Candied violet or crystallized violet is a flower preserved by a coating of egg white and crystallised sugar. Alternatively, hot syrup is poured over the fresh flower (or the flower is immersed in the syrup) and stirred until the sugar recrystallizes and has dried. Candied violets are still made commercially in Toulouse, France, where they are known as violettes de Toulouse. They are used as decorating or included in aromatic desserts.

The French are also known for their violet syrup, most commonly made from an extract of violets. In alcohol, violet essence flavours Crème Yvette, Crème de Violette, and Parfait d'Amour. It is also used in Parma Violet confectionery.

The flowers, leaves and roots of various species are used for medicinal purposes, being rich in vitamins A and C and antioxidants. The flowers are also used to make an herbal tea that is used in Chinese herbal medicine to relieve hay fever, sinus problems, eczema, and more. Most violas and many plants of the Violaceae plant family contain cyclotides. These compounds have a diverse range of biological activities when isolated from the plant, including uterotonic, anti-HIV, antimicrobial, and insecticidal activities.

Viola odorata is used as a source for scents in the perfume industry. Violet is an interesting scent because ionone is present in the flowers, which is a compound that turns off the ability for humans to smell the fragrance for moments at a time.

The scent of violet leaves is different from the scent of the flowers. The leaves give off an intense green aroma which resembles mowed grass combined with a hint of cucumber. The fresh scent of violet leaves is an integral component in many fragrance compositions, ranging from fresh floral to oriental spicy and fougere.

Violet liqueur was an integral part of classic cocktails such as the Aviation, though its use in modern bartending is much diminished.