The Sip

From beers and breweries to specialty cocktails and wine, here’s the latest news from the beverage industry around Chicago and around the world.

We visited seven Chicago smoothie and juice bars to sample some fruit-filled goodness.
The rise to the top for spirit-makers was fueled in part by the resurgent cocktail culture — including the growing popularity of ready-to-drink concoctions.
Even though the Shamrock Shake was introduced more than 50 years ago, it was only in 2012 that the treat became available nationwide.
The Negroni’s origin dates back to 1919.
He recently stumbled into creating a cocktail that is as fizzy as it is unique.
From the right glassware to the correct style of ice, master mixologists reveal key tips to making luxury cocktails at home.
A Chicago expert answers the key questions about sparkling wine: How do the varieties differ? Does higher price mean better quality? And is last year’s bottle still good?
Though the beverage may appear to be just like iced coffee, cold brew has its own method.
“Cure: New Orleans Drinks and How to Mix ’Em,” by Bodenheimer is full of recipes for cocktails created at Cure, the craft cocktail bar he founded in 2009.
The easiest way to tone down the sugar and the calories that go along with it is to replace sugary sodas, tonic water, and simple syrups with sparkling water, 100% fruit or vegetable juice, or kombucha.
Brewing the concentrated coffee is fairly easy once you have the right tools.
The return of old favorites, new flavor profiles make for an eclectic mix.
Brewery CEO Petteri Vanttinen described the new lager as having “a taste of security, with a hint of freedom.”
The All-Star forward for the Miami Heat—whose obsession with coffee started as a joke of sorts at the NBA’s restart bubble inside Walt Disney World two years ago and has become an actual company since—is bringing his BigFace brand to the player-dining and some VIP areas at the tournament.
MGM Resorts International recently announced the promotion of Kim, a master sommelier, to the role of director of wine for its Las Vegas resorts.
Last call will be Jan. 15, two days after the establishment’s seventh anniversary.
“There’s been a splurge of interest from overseas in recent years as wine media and critics have started to talk more fondly and more positively about the wines from England,” one expert says.
According to Harry’s Bar history, bartender Fernand Petiot invented the drink and the recipe was first published in a book called “Harry’s ABC of Cocktails” in 1921.
Chicago’s Boka Restaurant Group says it plans three operations in the space starting next summer.
The makers of Italy’s hugely popular sparkling wine Prosecco are fighting to prevent Croatian winemakers from using the name Prosek for their sweet dessert wine.
Just one game of Chicago Handshake is enough to get you “a little toasty,” one of its creators says. The loser of each game has to down a tallboy beer and a dreaded shot of Jeppson’s Malört.
Bluegrass State bourbon producers filled nearly 2.5 million barrels in 2020, setting a new production record.
After hovering for years near $1 per pound, coffee futures — the price large-volume buyers agree to pay for coffee upon delivery months down the road — doubled in late July, reaching heights not seen since 2014.
Here’s what’s fun about infusing: It’s about mixing flavors. It’s about taking pieces of wisdom you might have picked up from cooking and applying them to mixology.