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sat10AM - 8PM
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wed10AM - 6PM
thu10AM - 6PM
fri10AM - 7PM
sat10AM - 7PM
sun11AM - 6PM
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Martin Luther King, Jr. is the first modern private citizen to be honored with a federal holiday. It was a long struggle to set aside the third Monday in January as a day to honor and celebrate a man who advocated for not only racial equality but also economic equality and for all people to be treated with respect and dignity. While the legislation to set aside the day was signed by Ronald Reagan in 1983, its first official celebration was on January 18, 1986, and it took until 2000 for all 50 states to recognize it as a state government holiday. ...read more
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According to the National Centers for Environmental Information, areas in the Eastern United States reach their seasonal minimum temperatures in mid-January. It makes sense, then, to have International Hot and Spicy Food Day on January 16 for a little winter warm-up. ...read more
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When the founders of GiantMouse, a premium knife company, first began putting their heads together to conjure a vision for their future brand, it was fitting that their regular meeting destination was in a literature-themed bar in Brooklyn, New York, called BIBLIO. ...read more
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... Our favorite foods! Food is universal because everybody’s got ta eat! And the last two months of the year are filled with more than their fair share of family meals, work gatherings, special outings to favorite restaurants, tins filled with homemade cookies and fudge, and the anticipation of food traditions handed down from generation to generation ...read more
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Even before we bought the Mast General Store, we were taken by the beauty of Valle Crucis. We’ve heard people describe the drive out Broadstone Road as traveling through a time portal. In the 1970s, fields in the river bottoms would be filled with tobacco, cabbage, or high with hay to feed cattle that were grazing in the summer pasture. ...read more
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The lucky few who have seen the Earth from a different perspective – astronauts - all echo the same viewpoint upon their return. Yuri Gagarin, a Russian cosmonaut and the first human to go to space, commented, “Orbiting Earth in the spaceship, I saw how beautiful our planet is. People, let us preserve and increase this beauty, not destroy it.”
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It’s summertime – a time when cookouts and gatherings bring families, neighbors, and friends together for fun and to celebrate Independence Day. Alongside the hamburgers and hotdogs, chips, watermelon, and apple pie, you may want to serve up a refreshing drink or two. We visited with a Mast Store employee who’s also tended bar for more than 15 years for a few tips and tricks.
Josh, who works behind the scenes at the Mast Store Home Office as a data analyst, has worked on the other side of the bar for many years. He shared, “Mixing drinks doesn’t have to be hard, and you don’t need a lot of fancy equipment to do it. You just need the basics to set up your home bar and to not be afraid to experiment.”
1. A Jigger or some other way to measure your alcohol. This is particularly important if you are new to mixing drinks. The Japanese-style Double Cocktail Jigger provides easy measures for ½ ounce, ¾ ounce, and 1 ounce on one side and 1.5 ounce and 2 ounces on the other.
2. A Shaker to mix your drinks. A shaker will have a large container for ice and your drink ingredients, a top to enable you to shake the concoction, and a cover that can be removed to allow the drink to be poured/strained into the serving glass. Either a stainless steel shaker or a glass cocktail shaker are good options.
3. Small Bar Boards and a paring knife are needed to prepare some ingredients and garnishes. You’ll need to keep these handy for lemon or lime wheels or to cut citrus fruit for squeezing into drinks.
4. A Cocktail Bar Mat comes in handy for maintaining a tidy workspace. You can have glasses draining on the rubber side and salt/sugar for garnishing glass rims available in the round tray on the other side. It also provides a cutting surface.
5. Ice Molds add a professional touch to your bar, and they serve a purpose. These molds are specifically designed to create ice that will melt at a slow, even rate, so your drinks are not diluted. The molds are available in cubes and spheres.
6. A Zester/Reamer comes in handy for drinks requiring freshly squeezed juice and for zesting the peels of lemons and limes.
7. Recipe references are very important until you develop your own repertoire of mixology. The Cocktail Deck of Cards is a good starter reference for fizzy concoctions to share with friends.
8. Of course, there will be spills, drips, and melts, so you’ll want to have a bar towel of some sort handy. Swedish Dishcloths make a great option for your bar towel because they are super absorbent, have fun designs to match your attitude, and can be composted at the end of their usefulness.
9. A Bottle Opener and Corkscrew is a must to get things started… so to speak.
10. A muddling tool is important in the mixing of some drinks, like Moscow Mules, Mint Juleps, etc.
11. While most any spoon will get the job done, a Bar Spoon is a tool that can be used for mixing, muddling, and measuring. It can lead to moments of amazement for your friends when you use its specially constructed handle to layer different mixers in a drink.
12. Proper glassware is important to help be aware of consumption and for presentation.
“After you’ve spent some time behind the bar, you’ll become more adept at eyeballing the right amount of each ingredient for your cocktail or mocktail,” Josh said. “It takes lots of practice to get to that point. And you’re always learning.”
To get started with your mixology degree, Josh shared a few tips.
Breezy Sangria Mocktail
4 ounces Mast Store White Muscadine Juice
4 ounces Sprite
1 teaspoon Vanilla Syrup (not vanilla extract)
Raspberries
White Grapes
In a shaker, add a few ice cubes, muscadine juice, Sprite, and vanilla syrup. Cover and shake for about 15 seconds. Strain into a glass filled with crushed ice and garnished with raspberries and white grapes (you could even freeze the grapes if you’d like).
4th of July Patriot
1 ounce Grenadine
1 ounce Vodka of your choice (lemon, vanilla, citron)
3 ounces Lemonade, soda water, or Sprite
1 ounce Blue Curacao
Pour Grenadine into the bottom of a high ball glass, then fill the glass with crushed ice. In a shaker, add some cubed ice, vodka, and lemonade/soda water/Sprite and shake for about 15 seconds. Using a bar spoon or an upside down spoon, slowly and evenly pour strain in the mixture. Top it by using an upside down spoon to layer in the Blue Curacao.
Spicy Watermelon Lime Margarita Mocktail
1 4-ounce package of Divine Watermelon Tamalitoz Candy, crushed
Water
Fresh Watermelon
Fresh Lime Juice
Crush the candy using a rolling pin. Reserve just enough to coat the rims of the serving glasses (use a lime wedge to moisten the rim before coating with crushed candy). In a saucepan, dissolve equal parts candy and water, heat to melt into a simple syrup and set aside to cool. In a mixing bowl, add pieces of watermelon, lime juice, and pour in syrup. Cut together, or puree, then pour over ice in serving glasses.
Classic Bloody Mary
¾ cup Tomato Juice (we used home canned!)
1.5 ounces Vodka
2 dashes Worcestershire Sauce
2 dashes Mast Store Fire on the Mountain Hot Sauce
Salt and Pepper to taste
Fresh lime juice
Garnish with Mast Store Dilly Beans, Hot Pickled Okra, or Pickled Asparagus
In your serving glass, add ice then tomato juice, vodka, Worcestershire Sauce, Fire on the Mountain Hot Sauce, salt and pepper, and lime juice (to taste). Give the mixture a good stir with a bar spoon or, if you prefer, you can “roll” the mix by pouring it into your shaker and then back into your serving glass. Garnish with pickled beans, okra, and/or asparagus. This mixture is also great served as a mocktail.
Give a toast to summer and enjoy these concoctions with friends and family at your newly stocked bar.