Did you know that today is World Cocktail Day–the culmination of an entire week dedicated to celebrating the existence of the cocktail? I didn’t either, but according to The Museum of the American Cocktail, (apparently there’s a whole museum dedicated to cocktails too–my kinda place) World Cocktail Week “was established in order to help broaden understanding and appreciation for the cocktail and its historical and culinary significance throughout the world.”

I’ll raise my margarita glass to that!

In an effort to make shipping to our online customers more time and cost effective, we’ve been researching fulfillment companies to outsource packing and shipping of our margarita mixes to. Using a fulfillment service sounds like a great idea…in theory. Fulfillment houses are experts in packing products with the best techniques to prevent breakage, they get better shipping rates (which they can then pass on to their customers) because they ship high volumes of various products,  and because they typically run in an automated fashion, shipments can be processed and shipped to customers very quickly. But perhaps the most compelling reason to use a fulfillment house of all (in my humble opinion), is that I would never have to stand in line at the post office EVER again.

Sounds great, right? But remember, I said “in theory.” One of the challenges we face is our choice of packaging. We chose to package our mixes in glass bottles, because we feel glass is a more sustainable, environmentally conscious, and healthier alternative to using plastic. The problems of course, are that glass is extremely fragile, much heavier, and more expensive to ship than plastic. To complicate things even further, we decided to only use recycled and/or recyclable materials to package said glass bottles in. Many fulfillment companies  won’t pack and ship glass containers, and still others will always choose the least expensive packing materials over environmentally friendly (and more costly) options.

So, the process of finding the right fulfillment company to do business with is moving at a snail’s pace. And the fact that we currently pack and ship our products ourselves has forced us curtail any advertising efforts or promotions that we might like to pursue. I’m sure that within the next couple of months we’ll find the perfect fulfillment business to partner with–one that shares our vision, and one that we can afford! In the meantime, if your order comes a day later than it should or your box runneth over with too many cornstarch packing peanuts, I hope you’ll be patient while we figure it out!

Cheers!

~Christy

Have you been to the liquor store lately? I can’t believe the multitude of flavored vodkas taking up shelf space–it seems like there’s a new one every week! We love our tequila over here, but I gotta tell ya, the endless possibilities of cocktail creation available with these fruit flavored spirits is pretty rad (but I’ll pass on the cotton candy flavor, thanks.)

In our quest for a vast selection of Drink Skinny cocktail options, we’ve had fun experimenting with several of these flavored vodkas. We especially like the little 50 ml size bottles that ABSOLUT created because you can mix a single drink to try a new recipe, and not get stuck with a $25 bottle of vodka that you don’t like if your mixing experiment is an epic fail.

Here’s a new concoction we came up with the other night using ABSOLUT CITRON and Drink Skinny Pineapple Mango Margarita Mix:

Drink Skinny Pineapple Citrus Martini

1 oz ABSOLUT CITRON

2-3 0z Drink Skinny Pineapple Mango Margarita Mix

ice

1) Add vodka, Drink Skinny, & ice to a cocktail shaker & shake. 2) Pour into a martini glass, and voila–you have a pretty little drink that looks like this:

Over the last several months, many of our customers have requested that we consider making a Drink Skinny™ Mojito Mix. I absolutely LOVE mojitos! They’re so light and smooth. When someone mentioned it again on our Facebook page the other day, I decided it was a good time to share the mojito recipe I created using our original Drink Skinny™ Margarita Mix.

I can’t take full credit for this recipe. A customer sent me a version of a mojito recipe that she made with our mix a while back, and I played around with it. The result of my experimentation was a refreshing mojito with a kick–but not an overpowering flavor that makes it taste heavier than it should. The secret is in the spiced rum (one of my adaptations.) Most people use traditional rum in their mojitos (and if you really have an aversion to spiced rum, you could use it in this recipe as well) but I think the spiced rum takes the flavor up a notch without being obtrusive. Enjoy!

Drink Skinny ™ Mojito:
1/4 c. spiced rum
1/4 c. Drink Skinny™ Margarita Mix
1/4 c. seltzer
ice
8 mint leaves
1 lime

1) Muddle mint leaves in a tall glass, pour ice in, & set aside. 2) Add rum, Drink Skinny™, seltzer, & the juice of 1/4-1/2 of the lime. 3) Stir gently until mixed; garnish w/lime & a sprig of mint.

I keep telling myself that at least my cocktails can be light and summery…although this one makes use of those yummy little tangerines that are in season this time of year. This is my favorite Drink Skinny™ recipe right now…we’ve dubbed it the Drink Skinny™ Ruby Red Tango. Enjoy!

Drink Skinny™ Ruby Red Tango

1/4 cup Ruby Red ABSOLUT
1/2 cup Drink Skinny™ Pineapple Mango Margarita Mix
1 tangerine
ice
raw or large granule turbinato sugar (optional)

1)Rim cocktail glass w/raw sugar (if desired) & fill w/ice    2) Pour in vodka & Drink Skinny™ & stir   3) Squeeze in the juice of 1/2 of the tangerine, then slice the other half of the tangerine & use as a garnish

Cheers!

~Christy

As a business owner, one thing I doubt I’ll ever get used to is how much longer things actually take vs how long I think they should…lo and behold, the world does NOT seem to revolve around my “I need it done yesterday” time frame.

We began introducing the new flavor–Drink Skinny Pineapple Mango Margarita Mix to stores just before Christmas, but it wasn’t available to purchase online via our site until just a few days ago. I thought adding it to the site would be as simple as taking a few pictures and pasting them up, but it turns out that almost every page of our website needed some tweaking to accommodate the new information about the new flavor. I guess it’s a good thing I didn’t start a web design company.

So for all you who have been waiting, you can finally order it online. We’re so excited about the new flavor because it’s so versatile. We’ve experimented and mixed pineapple mango with everything from coconut rum to the plethora of flavored vodkas available now (as well as tequila, of course) and they’re ALL amazing! Next week I’m going to share my favorite cocktail recipe thus far…and I’m warning you, it’s like candy. Yes, it’s really that good.

And as with our original Drink Skinny Margarita Mix, pineapple mango is all natural, and made with only good stuff: water, pineapple juice, lime juice, lemon juice, mango puree, and stevia.
Cheers!
~Christy

On New Year’s Eve of 2009, (as a joke) Steve & I brought a lemon juice bottle filled w/some margarita mix we’d made to a party. Our repurposed bottle sported a label we created on the computer that read: Steve’s Skinny Margarita Mix. At that point we had been making the mix for our own parties for 6 months or so, and everyone kept telling us that we should bottle it–hence the joke. But something about seeing a tangible representation of our idea (however totally not serious we were being at the time) gave us the clarity and the motivation to go for it. Of course, the first thing I insisted on was changing the name.

2010 was an exciting year in so many ways. Somehow we made it through a crash course in creating our own product and bringing it to market. This past New Year’s Eve, when I looked back on all that we’d accomplished, I was amazed at how much we didn’t know that we didn’t know when we started out. It’s a good thing we were clueless, or we never would’ve made it past the incorporation paperwork!

We really want to thank everyone who helped to make last year such a success for us on so many levels. Here’s to a phenomenal 2011! Happy New Year!