Sweet Tea Vodka

Let's face it, even sailors get tired of drinking rum everyday. This summer, we found a quick, easy way to make our own Sweet Tea Vodka:

Pour vodka into a pint-sized mason jar.
Add two teabags (we used Lipton Tea).
Wait two hours. Shake. Serve with Lemonade and simple syrup (1 part sugar to 1 part hot water) to taste.

For Fall, try soaking Apple Cinnamon teabags in vodka or rum and mixing with apple cider.

Peachy White Sangria

It was sweltering hot here on the 4th of July so I wanted a drink that would be light and refreshing. Sangria is always good but I thought the red wine would be a little too heavy for the weather so I decided on this peachy sangria. It was delicious and it seems to be my new drink of choice ever since. Here's how you make it:

Ingredients:

1 Bottle of Chardonnay (or whatever white wine you prefer)
1/4 cup Peach Schnapps
1/2 cup of ginger ale or club soda (optional)
2 sliced peaches (frozen peach slices work well)
1 sliced orange
1 sliced apple
1 mango peeled and sliced

Preparation: 

Soak sliced orange, apple and mango in just enough wine to cover. Pour remaining wine and Schnapps in a pitcher and add sliced peaches. Chill mixture for at least one hour. Add ginger ale or club soda just before serving. Top each glass with some sliced orange, apple and mango as garnish.

Second Place

While most people make New Year's Resolutions beginning January 1st, we decided to make the shortest month of the year "Soberuary".  Actually, our friend Mike turned us on to Soberuary years ago but this is the first time we decided to give it a go.  Even though our drink of choice for the next 22 days (and counting!) will be water on the rocks, possibly with a twist, I wanted to mention a new rum we tried the last week of January...

Zaya.

It's 80 proof so it's got a little bite to it.  (Kilo Kai was only 70 proof.)  It's really delicious, but I'm going to give it Second Place behind Kilo Kai because of the extra zing.  If I'm sipping rum, I can't really afford the extra 10 proof.  It might be a winner among men, but I'm not looking for any hair on my chest.  (Although that bite might serve as helpful reminder that I am indeed drinking liquor and not candy.)

Kilo Kai

As modern-day pirates, we like
to consider ourselves connoisseurs of rum. 

Kilo Kai is, hands down, the best sipping rum there is.

Coffee

Coffee is serious business as far as I'm concerned and unlike many live-aboards, I find instant coffee hard to swallow.  When we first moved onto Mother Culture, the previous owner left behind a super-sized canister of instant coffee but I couldn't stomach it, so I immediately began a quest for an energy-efficient way to make a good cup of coffee.  What I found was the Aerobie Aeropress.  This nifty contraption makes coffee and espresso with hot water and the tiniest bit of elbow grease.  No electricity needed.  It's definitely a must-have for live-aboards who like a real cup of coffee!

Check out this video of the Aeropress in action: