Provisions

provisions (n.) food drink, or equipment, especially for a journey.

PHOTO: AMANDA V MEAD

HOLIDAY COCKTAILS ON THE GO

A hallmark of the holiday season is gathering with folks you love to share hearty food and drink. COVID-19 makes that more difficult this year, but local businesses are stepping up to provide the next best thing: holiday cocktails on the go.

Lil Sumthin’ Saloon, barely open three months when bars and taverns shut down, recently rebranded as Lil Sumthin’ Cocktail Market. They deliver Texas-inspired hot dogs and cocktails to your front door. Specialty cocktails arrive neatly packaged with reusable glassware, drink garnishes, and assembly instructions. Drinks like the Maple Old Fashioned, a sweeter well-balanced take on the classic, and the Laredo Pumpkin Pie Martini can be poured into sugar pumpkins, surprisingly functional vessels that can be baked and eaten afterward. Also offered for the holidays is a rum hot toddy that explodes with flavor and bite.

Lil Sumthin’, 301 W. 2nd Ave, Spokane, offers free delivery to the downtown core and a flat $5 fee beyond. In addition to individual cocktails, they offer full-size bottles and ingredients. Visit Spokanecocktails.com for both intimate and family gatherings this season.

Cochinito Taqueria, another downtown favorite, also offers custom holiday cocktails for in-house dining, takeout, or delivery via Spokane-based Treehouse Deliveries. The North Utsire features gin, ginger simple syrup, fresh lime, and rhubarb bitters, while the Blood Orange Margarita blends tequila, fresh blood orange juice, sour, and triple sec. All drinks are built, shaken, then packaged with instructions for pouring. Go to Facebook or Cochinitotaqueria.com for more.

As you make holiday plans, support one of our local small businesses, especially in this time of giving and thanks. Amanda V. Mead

APPLE CIDER FALL MIX UP

A warm cup of apple cider is one of the most quintessential flavors of fall. And while it is wondrously pleasing on its own, there are some delicious and creative ways you can add flavor and spice to your cider this season.

Of course, there are the traditional “warming” spices, like cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, and ginger. Orange juice is also a common addition. Try swapping orange for cranberry or even a pinot grigio or pinot noir, and cider spices for a mulled wine spice mix.

Black, ginger, and rooibos teas can add depth and elegance to a simple apple cider. I grew up on teas from Celestial Seasonings, with blends like Caramel Apple Dream, Cranberry Vanilla Wonderland, Bengal Spice and Sleepytime, which pair nicely with apple flavors. And then there’s chai. Already infused with many of those spices we love to add to apples, chai is a natural pairing for cider. Top your steaming cup with a dollop of whipped cream, add a scoop of caramel, pumpkin, or vanilla ice cream, or simply enjoy with a splash of half and half.

Speaking of dairy, stir some butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and a pinch of salt into your hot cider and top it with a shot of rum for a decadent Hot Buttered Apple Cider. Cider also combines well with cinnamon liqueurs, mead, prosecco, brandy, and bourbon. For an easy Apple Bourbon Cocktail, combine the following in a rocks glass over ice: 3 ounces apple cider, 2-3 ounces bourbon, squeeze of lemon, and 2 ounces ginger beer. Top with a sprig of thyme and a slice of lemon-sprinkled apple, and enjoy the flavors of the season. S. Michal Bennett

PHOTO: JON JONCKERS

THE PURIST FROM NEW BELGIUM

If you care about the ingredients in your beer, then you’re going to love The Purist from New Belgium Brewery. Made with organic, traceable ingredients for a clean, refreshing taste, The Purist clean lager is a whole new idea about what a beer can be. While organic beers have been around since the 1990s, this beer features superior ingredients at every stage of the brewing process, creating a new class of its own.

Beginning with clean Colorado Rocky Mountain water (sounds familiar, I know), they brew with organic malts and organic hops from Oregon. Although low-calorie beers are not known for their taste, this beer is only 95 calories and a mere 3.8 percent ABV, yet it tastes fantastic. The straightforward, mild sweetness features a great aroma, negligible bitterness, and a dry finish. It has one less calorie than a Miller Lite, but it tastes a ton better, is USDA Organic, and the brewery is carbon neutral.

Admittedly, New Belgium’s most famous beer is the Fat Tire Amber Ale, but the company is also recognized as one of Outside Magazine’s Best Places to Work, one of the Wall Street Journal’s Best Small Businesses, and tops the list of Bicycling Magazine’s Best Companies for Cyclists. With the addition of The Purist clean lager to the list of awardwinning beers, it’s safe to say New Belgium is taking brewing innovations to the next level. Jon Jonckers

DOMA’S INSTANT CRAFT COFFEE

The ambition to brew a quickly soluble coffee drink is as old as the trenches of the American Civil War. Then, in 1881, a Frenchman named Alphonse Allais invented and patented the first instant coffee, followed by a long line of inventors who developed new processes for producing instant coffee. In 1965, Nestlé launched their freeze-dried version, NESCAFÉ, and the instant coffee industry grew dramatically. Today, Folger’s Instant, released in 1953, is the top-selling instant coffee in the US, but the style has gained a negatively “cheap” reputation. In 2015, a few people within the “third wave” coffee industry began asking, “Does instant coffee really have to be bad?” Thus, three major specialty instant coffee companies were born: Swift Cup Coffee, Sudden Coffee and Voilà. These three have made it possible for roasters around the country, like DOMA Coffee Roasting Company based in Post Falls, Idaho, to offer their core blends and rotating single origin roasts in instant form that you can take anywhere and enjoy immediately.

I recently had the opportunity to drink two of DOMA’s current offerings of instant coffee—their Carmela’s blend and small batch Rwanda—produced in collaboration with Swift Cup Coffee, a specialty instant coffee company based in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. While instant coffee will always have a slight freeze-dried-esque flavor edge to it, both of these coffees brewed true to their whole bean origins. The Rwanda was complex with some sweetness and distinctive citrus notes. Carmela’s is all caramel and chocolate and is well-complimented by a little cream. DOMA also currently offers Jackie Oh decaf and DEEP Guatemala as “instant craft coffee” at the roastery, but they have other coffees in their hopper from the past and for the future.

A box of 6 packs is $16, and single packs, when available, are $2.75. I found that one pack brewed a fairly viscous 8-ounce cup, but 12 ounces drew out more of the flavors and complexity of both brews. Visit the roastery in Post Falls or its website (domacoffee.com) to purchase and try it out for yourself on the trail, the slopes, the road, or a snowy morning at home. // S. Michal Bennett