Erica’s brother and sister-in-law live in Mwanza, Tanzania and sent over this unique Tanzanian liquor, Konyagi. Much of the information in English tells us what it is not, it’s not vodka or gin. The Konyagi company website tells us that “Konyagi is a 35% ABV. crystal clear spirit with a citrus taste and aroma. The flavour is distinctively Konyagi…”. So, you know, Konyagi tastes like Konyagi. I hope that clears it up. (Konyagi seems to be closest to a rum, at least in it’s base.) You also seem to be supposed to whack the bottle on the bottom for some reason:
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Drunk Monkeys - Epsiode 75 - Amarula.
Jen and Erica are drinking Amarula, a cream-and-fruit liqueur from South Africa. Many thanks to our far-flung correspondents Christopher and Katie who gifted us the bottle.
- Erica’s shirt from Threadless.
Drunk Monkeys - Episode 25 - Live Show Promo.
Drunk Monkeys is pleased to announce Season 4 of their weekly video podcast AND a special live show at the Chicago Women’s Funny Festival.
The podcast features Jen Ellison and Erica Reid reviewing odd and unusual liquors and spirits with charm and humor. This season, Jen and Erica sample Bakon Bacon Flavored Vodka, Maker’s Mark White, and Crème de Cassis, among others. New episodes are released on Fridays, with this new season starting May 11. The podcast is available for download on iTunes and at drunkmonkeyshow.com.
Drunk Monkeys will also be recording in front of a live audience as part of the Chicago Women’s Funny Festival on Wednesday, June 6th at 10pm at Stage 773. The performance will be released on the podcast at a later date. Tickets to the show are $12 and available online at www.stage773.com and at the Stage 773 box office at 1225 W. Belmont Ave.
Jen and Erica are taking suggestions for liquors to try at drinks@drunkmonkeyshow.com and on Twitter at @drunkmonkeyshow.
Jen Ellison has been performing, writing and directing in Chicago for over 15 years. In addition to her work with WNEP, The Mammals, Trap Door Theatre, Collaboraction, The Neo-Futurists, and Theatre Seven, she also directs local sketch groups Kerpatty and Electric Fantasy. Jen currently teaches at DePaul University, Columbia College, and Second City. Erica Reid has been performing, producing and choreographing in Chicago for 12 years, and is a member of Blewt! Productions, where she performs in and produces the shows Don’t Spit the Water! and Impress These Apes! She has also performed with KOKO, The Neutrino Project, FuzzyCo Productions, WNEP, IO, The Silly Funny Goof Gang, and The Galileo Players. As a choreographer, Erica has worked with numerous sketch comedy groups and burlesque shows, most recently the Kiss Kiss Cabaret.
We're super excited to announce a new video series. Drunk Monkeys is hosted by Jen Ellison and Four Squirrels' own Erica Reid. They drink things that you're supposed to drink with other things but they drink them alone. I mean, with each other, but without those other things. You know what, I'll let them explain:
Drunk Monkeys - Episode 0 on Vimeo.
New episodes will be coming out on Fridays, starting in just two days.
We're a married couple--Erica Reid Gerdes and Fuzzy Gerdes--who love food and drink adventures. Well, we love food and drink, period--Fuzzy will as happily eat mac & cheese as lobster and Erica won't pass up a Miller Lite, if you're buying. But we do like seeking out new tastes and new stories.
We both blog pretty regularly, but about all sorts of topics, and we thought it might be nice to have a separate place just for our food and drink posts, for the people who share our curiosities and tastes.
We've pulled in some entries that we've posted on our blogs and on the Chicago Metblog over the last few years, to give you a flavor for the kind of flavors we like.
And why Four Squirrels? Why not!
Last night, Fuzzy and I did something that we've been dreaming about for years.
We made our own ice cream.
I have to start by making a confession. I think the world knows that I hate Woot.com but the other night, Fuzzy came in and said the following: "Um, I don't want to upset you, but there is a really deal right now for ice cream makers on Woot." My hatred for Woot was overshadowed by my love of homemade ice cream and a good bargain. So we got it.
And it is glorious. Shiny and red, like our toaster oven. And last night, we let 'er spin. We started with a simple vanilla, but I can't wait to try fun flavors and the slushy cocktail that they included a recipe for.
Tonight we try the full frozen version, but we couldn't help but give the "soft serve" a little taste. It was Super Yum!
UPDATE: The homemade ice cream is AMAZING! Icy and sweet and delish. WE DID IT!
Fuzzy adds:
The model of ice cream maker we got was a Cuisinart ICE-25-R. It's the kind of ice cream maker that has a special bowl that you freeze ahead of time. The advantage over the older style of icecream maker is that you don't have to keep supply of rock salt on hand. The disadvantage is that you have to clear out space in the freezer and freeze the bowl for 6-24 hours ahead of time, depending on how cold your freezer is. And if you want to make two batches in a row, you'll have to have an extra bowl and even more space in the freezer.
We started with the simplest recipe in the booklet that came with the machine: a cup of milk, 3/4 cup of sugar, 2 cups of cream, vanilla extract. Right out of the machine after 25 minutes of churning, the consistency of the ice cream was much like soft serve, and it melted pretty quickly. But after overnighting in the freezer (the recipe book said at least 4 hours) it was a nice ice-creamy consistency.
Drunk Monkeys is the internet's finest two-women-drinking-weird-liquor review web series. Drunk Monkeys is Jen Ellison and Erica Reid.
Listen to our appearance on Tomefoolery Here!
Read our feature on Serial Optimist Here!
Like us on Facebook Here!
Jen Ellison and Erica Reid like to drink weird things and tell you about them. What started with a simple fascination with Disaronno has turned into a fun and educational web series (we are saving lives!!!). Jen has been performing, writing, and directing in Chicago for over 17 years. She is the brains behind the popular Tumblr Drunk J. Crew. Erica Reid has been performing, choreographing, dancing, and directing in Chicago for over 15 years. Their husbands Dave (Jen) and Fuzzy (Erica) are the oft heard but never seen others in the room. Cheers!
Subscribing
We love it when you come visit the website here and comment and all but if you’d like to subscribe to a podcast of just Drunk Monkeys, you can now do so through iTunes or with the podcast-retriever of your choice:
To subscribe with iTunes, click this link (if you wanted to rate us in iTunes, that would be awesome — we’d love to bubble up on the listings there).
To subscribe manually in iTunes or with another podcast software, here’s the feed URL: http://drunkmonkeyshow.com/itunes.xml
The Entirety of Our Press Kit
Hi-res Press Photos: laughing and totally super serious.
John Hodgman drank Jeppson's Malort* when he visited Chicago last week. Poor son-of-a-bitch.
I was first forced to drink Malort as the last shot of the night at my bachelor party at The Sovereign. It tasted, let us not beat around the bush, like ass. But maybe, I thought, my taste buds were off from the cigars, and it has that cute little Chicago flag-shield on the label, and it's made in Chicago (well, in Florida, but for Chicago), and the little pamphlet the bartender handed me (yes, there's a booklet) challenged my manhood: "Most first-time drinkers of Jeppson Malort reject our liquor. Its strong, sharp taste is not for everyone. Our liquor is rugged and unrelenting (even brutal) to the palate. During almost 70 years of American distribution, we found only 1 out of 49 men will drink Jeppson Malort after the first 'shock-glass.'"
So, I bought a bottle. And we had a little tasting.
Kate: "Nail polish remover. It's a little sweet, you know like they add that scent to nail polish remover."
Shaun: "Bug spray, with Robitussin. Because bug spray on its own would probably be a little thin, so they mix in the Robitussin to thicken it up."
Fuzzy: "Varnish remover. With herbs."
Erica: "Why did you make me drink that!? I can still taste it!" (From the pamphlet: "It is not possible to forget our two-fisted liquor. The taste just lingers and lasts - seemingly forever.")
* It clearly says "Malört" right on the bottle, but everyone spells it "Mallort". Probably, after one shot they see double Ls.
(Originally written for the Chicago Metblog)
(Originally posted on FuzzyCo, Oct 4, 2006: Jeppson's Malort)