Death’s Door Spirits: Bringing Sustainability to Spritis & Drinks to You at TECH cocktail Chicago 8

May 14, 2008

One of our favorite local businesses, Death’s Door Spirits, has created an awesome drink menu that will be available at the TECH cocktail 8 mixer on May 29th (register here if you haven’t already - space is limited).

Not only are these drinks all phenomenal but they are also made with Death’s Door vodka, gin and whiskey. Why should you care if the drinks are made from DD spirits? Well, I am glad you asked.

Death’s Door is based in Wisconsin and their products are are distilled from grain grown for them in Wisconsin so they are truly local sustainable spirits and this is why we’re proud to be working with them (longer company story here). Plus we really like the founder, Brian (who is quite the mixologist), and his products are simply amazing - top shelf without a doubt.

Death’s Door Spirits

Without further adieu here is the drink menu that Brian created for us including two TECH cocktail signature drinks. This menu will be available on May 29th at the TECH cocktail mixer (along with beer and wine as well per usual):

TECH-Tonic

2 oz Death’s Door White Whiskey
¼ oz blue curacao
5 oz tonic water

Add ingredients to a highball glass filled with ice. Garnish with lime wedge

TECH-tini (that’s right - it is the signature drink from our logo!)

2 oz Death’s Door Vodka
1/4 oz triple sec
1/4 oz blue curacao

Mix all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice. Strain into a chilled martini glass.

Classic Wisconsin Martini

3 oz Death’s Door Gin (or Vodka)
¼ oz dry Vermouth

Pour vermouth into shaker and coat insides. Shake out and add ice and gin. Stir until cold and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a skewer of olives and Wisconsin cheese.

The Gin Sling

1 1/2 oz Death’s Door Gin
1 oz sweet vermouth
3/4 oz fresh lemon juice
1 oz simple syrup
1 dash angostura

Shake and strain into rocks-filled collins glass
top with seltzer.

Looking forward to seeing you all in a couple of weeks!

Posted by Eric Olson | Filed Under Chicago, Event, TECH cocktail, TECH cocktail News, techcocktail8 | 1 Comment

TECH cocktail adding more SIG-nificance for attendees

May 13, 2008

OK, so the headline is pretty poor and I have heard from some journalism friends that trying to be too witty with headlines is usually a recipe for disaster. I guess they were right. That said, I am really excited about a new facet we’re going to trial at TECH cocktail Chicago 8 (RSVP now - 350 people already have and space is limited plus it’s free!).

We’re going to try embedding a SIG (Special Interest Group) into TECH cocktail 8. No, this isn’t the kind of special interest group you hear about from the political pundits. This SIG is simply one where birds of a feather can get together during the event at a certain place in the room to talk shop.

The first SIG we are going to run is one for IT Security ISVs. Why you ask. Well, for one our friends at Athena Security came up with the idea of SIGs embedded in TECH cocktail events and they offered to run one for IT Security ISVs. Simple right? We like simple.

We recognize that industry associations for security professionals exist (ISSA, ISACA, for instance); and these are great venues for topic-oriented discussions. That said, we think there is an opportunity for a SIG to share ideas about trends, personal achievements and even market frustrations in a social, friendly and informal environment (i.e. within TECH cocktail).

If you are a security professional and want to check out the Security SIG inside TECH cocktail 8 please e-mail Jed Abernethy (jabernethy [at] athenasecurity [DOT] net) letting him know that you’ll be dropping by the Security SIG table at the event.

We’d love to hear feedback on this idea and if you have an idea for a SIG that should be held at the next event please let us know. If this one is successful we’ll want to do it at other events and with other industries.

Posted by Eric Olson | Filed Under Chicago, TECH cocktail, TECH cocktail News, techcocktail8 | 1 Comment

TECH cocktail Chicago 6 Wrap-up

November 16, 2007

We just wrapped up TECH cocktail number six in Chicago and it was another successful event with over 500 guests. Thank you to everyone that came out for a few hours on a blustery November Chicago evening to mingle and show their enthusiasm for the Chitown tech scene.

Thank you to the TECH cocktail sponsors which included Centro, Carepages, Athena
Optimus Solutions, SingleHop, ChicagoMicro, myAOL, Interactive Mediums, Saper Law, Fiodan Corp., SitterCity, NUDirection Consulting, MK Capital, Origin Ventures, SeatQuest, Accounting Services Provider: Frost, Ruttenberg & Rothblatt, P.C. and
Preferred Legal Services Provider: Hinshaw & Culbertson.

Thanks you to all the demo’ers. The demos were wonderful at this event. They included:

42 Friends, LLC - Facebook app creations like “Growing Gifts“, “Goals” and more
Cappex - a safe and effective tool for finding the right college for you
Dawdle - buy and sell new and used video games, systems and accessories
DirectVM - video email system
PropertizeMe.com - online property management system
SeatQuest - online ticket search engine that virtually shows you your seats
Songza - online music search engine and player created by Humanized
ViewPoints.com - personalized online review system
Waves.TV - create a Web TV channel and broadcast online in a matter of seconds

Check out the photos from TECH cocktail 6 and add TECH cocktail as a contact on Flickr.
TECH cocktail Chicago 6 Scene

Also just to show you how dedicated our TECH cocktailers are we got a chance to chat with Daliah Saper from Saper Law about how she came to TECH cocktail just a few short hours before boarding a plane to get married in Mexico. She was at TECH cocktail rather than looking for wedding music (might want to check out Songza) and packing for her trip. Oh and she says we are all invited - WOOHOO!