Shaker & Spoon, the popular monthly cocktail subscription box designed to elevate the art of at-home cocktails, has partnered with a trio of critically acclaimed bartenders for their Steeped in Vodka 2 Box. Featured among the Box’s three cocktails is the Dragon Tears, an oolong-infused take on an old fashioned featuring house-made pepper cake syrup, a blend of chai and lemon bitters, and a fiery aromatic ending. This recipe was developed by Sother Teague, beverage director of award-winning New York bar Amor y Amargo, co-host of The Speakeasy on Heritage Radio Network, and Wine Enthusiast’s “Mixologist of the Year” for 2017.
Each Box contains the ingredients needed to make 12+ cocktails – teas, bitters, oils, tonics, syrups, and more – with the subscriber purchasing the base spirits on their own. For the Dragon Tears cocktail, Teague recommends Blood x Sweat x Tears, a Eugene, Oregon-based small batch grain-to-glass vodka that earned a Gold Medal at the prestigious San Francisco World Spirits Competition in 2020. “Blood x Sweat x Tears Vodka has a grain-forward nose that’s backed up with a slate and mineral attack followed by soft herbs and slight notes of fir and pine,” says Teague. “It finishes quickly and cleanly as a vodka should.”
Subscribers can sign up between now and April 3 to receive the Steeped in Vodka 2 Box; boxes will start shipping the week of April 5. In addition to the Dragon Tears, subscribers will receive two additional cocktails: a citrus green tea and grapefruit-driven Citrus Paradisi created by renowned beverage director Kellie Thorn (Atlanta) and an alluring Forbidden Fruit cocktail created by award-winning bartender Chelsea Santos (Raleigh, N.C.). Each Box contains enough ingredients to make at least four drinks from each recipe, for a total of 12+ drinks – enough cocktails to work through one bottle of Blood x Sweat x Tears.
Self-taught distiller Ben Green considers Blood x Sweat x Tears Vodka his greatest labor of love. Working from a once-abandoned-laundromat-turned-distillery in Eugene, OR, the vodka is made of 100% soft white winter wheat, mono-sourced from Hamilton Ranch, which is on Rattlesnake Ridge in Washington State. The water source is Oregon’s Cascade mountains, and the small-batch vodka is crafted grain-to-glass in the distillery. Another unique aspect is a “freeze filtration” technique developed by Green: similar to the way chilling chicken broth separates out the fats to create a cleaner, more intense liquid, this process creates a cleaner, more intense vodka. Blood x Sweat x Tears Vodka is sold in more than 32 states and in honor of Ben’s rescue pit bull, Mr. Pickles, the brand supports Best Friends Animal Society in their mission to Save Them All.
Each Shaker & Spoon Box is available via subscription, which can be cancelled at any time. Month-to-month subscriptions are $50.00 per month, while prepaid 3-, 6-, and 12-month subscriptions are $135.00, $250.00, and $480.00, respectively. Blood x Sweat x Tears Vodka is available to purchase in more than 32 states.