Product Review: The Drinking Jacket

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Before I received the Drinking Jacket for review, I couldn’t even spell the word “neoprene.” But now, after imbibing in its sweet, sensual delights and the life-altering trajectory I’ve been on since we met, I can’t sleep in a bed if the sheets aren’t neoprene with a thread count of 1,000.

Having this jacket added so much fun to my tailgating experience, and made me much stealthier in my approach to entering sporting events with previously purchased libations.

But this isn’t just a jacket that will help you import your favorite export. It’s stylish, goes with anything and is extremely comfortable. Not only that, but it does an amazing job of keeping you warm and your beverages cold.

Let’s go over the highlights:

Bottle Opener Zipper: This was the feature that got the most compliments and the one I used the most. And it isn’t just another light, crappy zipper made by that YKK zipper magnate. This zipper actually has some weight to it for leverage purposes, is long enough to be useful and non-descript enough that no one will notice its true purpose.

Deep Inside Pockets: They are deeper, darker and bigger than you think. Think of them like your ex-girlfriend or ex-spouse – a bottomless pit that is vacant and empty, the depths of which no one can truly see from the outside.

Sunglasses Holder: You don’t realize how important something like this until you spend a cumulative total of over $500 on three separate pairs of shades that you lost at three separate Kansas City Chiefs’ games.

Foldable Drinking Mitts: The end of each sleeve has a hole for your thumb and is intentionally longer to cover your hand. Not only that, but they are lined with slip-resistant drink grips.

Neoprene Beer Koozie Pocket: Go ahead, stick a can or a bottle in there and watch your friends gawk when you whip it out at a choice moment. And, it’s still cold, gurrrl.

I.D. & Money Pocket: Located on the right sleeve just below the shoulder, this will help you “shoulder” the responsibilities of the day; namely, not losing your identification or your scrilla. It’s genius because it’s a pocket you won’t need for anything else (and that you can’t easily access once you enter “Full Retard” mode), and that you won’t mindlessly shove stuff into during your excursion.

In total, the Drinking Jacket has 12 features that you didn’t even know you needed, until now. You guys, you need this in your life. Buy it via the website here.

  

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Product Review: Bud Light’s Bud-E Fridge

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The most difficult part of ushering the new Bud-E Fridge into my life was fitting it into my car. Once that was sorted, the smoothness took hold. The Bud-E Fridge will gently force your life to conform around your love of Bud Light.

This month, Bud Light launched the ultimate in smart technology innovation: the Bud-E Fridge. It’s a first-of-its-kind home smart refrigerator that enables you to view real-time information from your fridge via your phone, no matter where you are.

Developed from the ground up by Bud Light, the Bud-E Fridge provides you with real time updates – including the number of Bud Lights in your fridge, temperature and even when your favorite sports teams’ games are approaching – to make sure you never run out of Bud Light.

The interesting thing about the Bud-E fridge is the way people reacted to it. Without alerting house guests of its presence, I ushered them into my living room quietly to gauge their natural, organic reactions, and every single person smiled and laughed immediately when they saw it. Half of them asked for a Bud Light, which I happily served.

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The coolest physical feature of the fridge is the LED readout on the outside front of the door, which displays the exact number of Bud Lights you have in your fridge (seven at time of publication) at that exact moment in time. Go ahead, help yourself to a BL, and let the door close. Notice anything? The Bud-E fridge LED readout subtracts from your overall total and makes a sad sort of “wah-wah” sound as the number decreases.

The coolest non-physical feature is the Bud-E app. From your smartphone, numerous features are available. You can see exactly how many Bud Lights are in your fridge to plan a potentially necessary trip to the store, and the Bud-E Alarm sends a push notification that lets you know when someone is getting into your fridge and reducing your precious stock of ice cold beer.

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Summer grilling with Guinness Blonde American Lager

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They say that blondes have more fun, and we were given a chance to test that theory when Guinness sent over some samples of the latest addition to their beer family – Guinness Blonde American Lager – and challenged us to come up with the best summer barbeque dish to pair alongside it. After taking just a few sips of the crisp, savory beer, which “blends floral and citrus notes with a unique biscuit malt flavor,” we quickly realized that, unlike their heavier stouts, this would go well with just about any summertime dish.

So we decided to keep it simple and make a classic burger-and-fries combo, because Guinness Blonde – which is produced in Latrobe, Pennsylvania – is described as an American lager, and what’s more American than that? It’s something that anyone with a grill and basic cooking skills can make, and it tastes even better with gourmet burgers from Omaha Steaks, who graciously provided the meat for the challenge.

Granted, our finished dish probably won’t be winning any awards for originality, but we tried to get a little creative with our all-beef burger, which was topped with Guinness Blonde-infused BBQ sauce (yeah, we went there), Vermont sharp white cheddar cheese and crispy onion straws on a brioche bun. We paired our BBQ burger with grilled corn on the cob, roasted red potatoes and, of course, a bottle of Guinness Blonde American Lager, and it was every bit as delicious as it looks in the picture below.

For more about Guinness Blonde American Lager, be sure to follow Guinness on Twitter at @GuinnessUS and use #BlondeBBQChallenge to show off your own food pairings. And for other Guinness-inspired dish ideas, check out GuinnessHooley.com.

  

Bullz-Eye returns for another round of Bud Light’s Whatever, USA

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For the second year in a row, Bullz-Eye was invited to Bud Light’s Whatever, USA. Last year’s #UpForWhatever adventure took us to Crested Butte, Colorado, where they painted the town blue, literally. It was a weekend of epic proportions, and we couldn’t wait to see how this year’s event would compare.

For Whatever, USA 2.0, Bud Light took over the quiet town of Avalon on Catalina Island, California, throwing a two-day rager for some 1,000-plus contest winners from all across the United States who earned their invitations by proving that they were Up For Whatever.

Day One started painfully early, with a 7am flight from Philadelphia to Los Angeles. Despite the fact that we had 10 other winners on the flight, it was pretty chill at first, as most of us were still half asleep at this point. But once we arrived in LAX and hopped on the party bus that would take us to our ferry in San Pedro, it was a whole other story! The Bud Light started flowing almost immediately, and everyone was amped up for whatever the weekend had in store for them.

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After getting checked in at the port, we boarded the ferry that would take us to Catalina Island, our home for the weekend. Once we got there, we dropped off our bags at the hotel, changed into our swim trunks, and immediately headed off to a pool party they were hosting, where there was plenty of food, Bud Light and a bevy of gorgeous bikini-clad women. Yes, suddenly that early wake-up call didn’t seem so bad anymore.

The festivities officially began Friday evening, with a crazy color-themed welcome parade and performances by Elliphant and T-Pain. People were having a blast, and the energy was contagious. Later that night, we went down the beach for a DJ show featuring Diplo and Jack Novak. It was pretty awesome, with a 42-foot LED dragon, electro hula hoopers, light shows and more. Eventually, we had to call it a night and get some rest for the next day’s activities.

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Drink of the Week: The Spicy Cerveza Cocktail

the Spicy Cerveza Cocktail.I’m sure that many will never forgive my decision last week to favor Derby Day over Cinco de Mayo which, alas and alack, passed us by last Tuesday. Still, this week I have been gifted by the PR gods of Big Cocktail with a drink so muy delicioso that it’s worth celebrating on el Ocho de Mayo, el Nuevo de Mayo, or pretty much any day of the year.

As the name implies to anyone with a basic Los Angeleno knowledge of the Spanish language, the Spicy Cerveza Cocktail contains, you guessed it, beer. While I’ve been messing around with cocktails combining brews with various hard liquors for some time, the combination of Hornitos Plata Tequila — last featured here back on el Cinco de Julio — and the good Mexican lager of your choice makes for a drink that manages to be flavorful, refreshing, and pretty strong. Kind of like a more macho variation on a really good margarita. Let’s get started.

The Spicy Cerveza Cocktail

1 1/2 ounces Hornitos Plata Tequila (“plata” means the clear stuff)
4 ounces Mexican lager
1/2 ounce lime juice
1/2 ounce simple syrup (2 1/2 teaspoons of superfine sugar will also work)
1 slice of fresh jalapeno
Salt

Start with a good sized glass — I had the best luck using a double rocks glass — rimmed with salt. Toss in your jalapeno slice and muddle it with a certain degree of vigor. Next, combine tequila, lime juice and simple syrup/sugar in a cocktail shaker with plenty of ice. Shake very vigorously. Strain into your glass, which by now should be filled with sufficient ice…but leaving room for four ounces of your all-important cerveza. Top the drink with the beer, and begin to sip, but not too quickly.This is a drink that benefits from taking your time.

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This is also a beverage that develops as you drink it. If you’re the patient type, sip slowly. You’ll start out mostly tasting the beer but, as you go,you’ll get closer to the chewy tequila/lime/sugar/jalapeno center. The cool part is that the fizziness of the Mexican lager will still be there as you continue. If you’re impatient to get to the drink’s margarita center, though, feel free to stir it, but do so very gently.

Finally, this is a drink that can stand up to some variation. For my beers, I went with Corona and Pacifico, and both were just dandy. I suspect Dos Equis, Tecate, et al, will also be just fine. Since this drink comes to from the PR gods who have gifted me with a free bottle or two, I naturally recommend you use Hornitos Plata as your tequila and not just because I’ve been corrupted; its very slight sweetness complements the Spicy Cerveza Cocktail pretty beautifully. However, I did experiment with a very well known Brand X plata on one try, and the results were not horrific.