I’m a big comic book nerd from way back. I first fell in love with superheroes watching Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno play the Incredible Hulk on TV. That love grew with the Spider-Man strip in my grandpa’s Sunday paper, and by the time I saw Christopher Reeve fly across Metropolis as Superman, I was hooked.
I loved the idea of a truly good person with amazing powers who just wanted to help. Superman rescuing a cat from a tree in that first movie might be campy, but it showed that helping people was his goal—a goal instilled by his loving, if adoptive, parents. My father once threatened, in front of guests, to “cut off that little pecker” of mine because he was worried I might be gay. (Gotta show that he’s a big tough man in spite of the rather bookish and effeminate oldest son somehow, I guess.) As someone from a broken home with that kind of parent, seeing loving adoptive parents on the big screen meant a lot. Living up to those kinds of values became something I wanted for myself. And Spider-Man? “With great power there must also come great responsibility.” Yeah, that was right up my alley too.
Unfortunately, the Superman movies after the first one never quite measured up, and the less said about later attempts, the better. Even the one in theaters now is only a shadow of that 1978 original. Don’t get me wrong—I saw the new one last night, and it was a pretty good movie, visually stunning, lots of action—but it assumed we all still remembered Superman as a fundamentally good person without actually showing it. Given how cynical the last round of DC movies—and the world in general—have been, I’m not sure anyone actually does.
So yeah, I went to the movies to see a superhero flick last night. I plan to see another one, Fantastic Four, tonight. And the best part of my closest theater? They’ve got beer and bourbon behind one of the concession counters. I usually grab a beer, but I might go for bourbon tonight. I like a cocktail during a movie. Now, don’t get me wrong—I don’t trust them to actually make one—but I think it would be easy enough to bring along the (supposed) subject of tonight’s article and make my own.
Yes, I’m aware that the intro is longer than the review. I’m a nerd. I get passionate about superheroes.
I first learned about Hail M Cocktail Infusions from a social media ad shown to my wife (I’m about 99% tuned out from social media these days). As someone who travels a lot, I was intrigued. Tossing a tea bag filled with cocktail ingredients into a glass of bourbon sounded too good to be true. If it lived up to the promise, I could see using it on an airplane or in a hotel room. Heck, my last vacation was in an RV, and the next one will be as well. And I don’t know about you, but those covers on Angostura Bitters bottles always seem to leak all over my stuff, so I never bring them along.
So I bought a bag of five from their website, HailMCocktails.com, for $22.99 plus shipping. It’s more than I usually spend per cocktail, but this isn’t meant for “everyday use.” It’s for people stuck in a hotel room (or RV) who didn’t bring all the fixings. The Hail M kits are made with dehydrated fruit and, at least in the case of the Old Fashioned, a bitters-soaked sugar cube. It’s all packed into a tea bag, and you just toss it into your bourbon for five to ten minutes.
We’ve covered a lot of premade cocktails and cocktail kits in the past, and most of them were lackluster at best. So I hear you asking: “Does it work?” And the answer, surprisingly, is: yes. The longer you let it steep, the better it tastes. I tend to go with the ten-minute mark before starting to sip, and then I leave the bag in the glass to pull even more flavor as I finish. I wouldn’t bother buying this for in-home use, but for on the go? A “just-add-bourbon” solution that actually tastes good is a welcome addition to my luggage. I like this one. And I have one left—I do believe it will come along with me to the movies tonight so I can have that cocktail during Fantastic Four.
If you want to support our work at BourbonGuy.com, please consider a one-time donation at ko-fi.com/bourbonguy or paypal.me/BourbonGuy. Or you could buy some merch that I’ve designed and/or built (tasting journals, t-shirts, stickers, pins, signs, posters, and more) at BourbonGuyGifts.com. Use code BOURBONGUYREADER at checkout for 5% off any order of $50 or more.