I’m old-fashioned. Kahlua splashed into some decent coffee and I’m good. Well, in case you haven’t heard, Kahlua has released a Cinnamon Spice version of their ubiquitous coffee

Montanya Mermalada

• 1 oz Kahlúa Cinnamon Spice
• 1 oz Avión Tequila Blanco
• 1 oz lemon juice
• 6-8 concord grapes

Muddle Grapes. Add rest of the ingredients. Shake and strain over fresh ice in a rocks glass

Created by mixologist Lynnette Marrero

While the above sounds high class and expensive, Kahlua Cinnamon Spice liqueur costs about $20 for 750ml.

[ Links: Kahlua ]

Halloween is around the corner (it’s on Monday) and instead of wearing some geeky costume with zero scare appeal, why not get a free application for your iPhone that assists in your scare endeavors?

NameScreamer yells popular names combined with horrendous phrases that send shivers down the spine. There are 6 chilling voices, 9 hair raising phrases and 6 dreadful animated characters to choose from: Ghost, Banshee, Zombie, Devil, Creeper or Raving Lunatic.

The timer button can be used to postpone the scream allowing users to hide their devices and horrify unsuspecting victims. There is also a possibility to send screams via email or post them on Facebook to terrify people who stay up later and live by themselves.

Name Screamer is free and currently available in the Apple iTunes Music Store. Go get it and scare some folks!

[ Links: Name Screamer at iTunes Music Store, Name Screamer ]

National Rum Day

I’m not a fan of celebrating many holidays. Even missed celebrating my own birthday last week. But one holiday I will never miss… National Rum Day. So why not join me and celebrate with some Brugal Rum today with the following yummy recipe.

S.S. Resolute
1.5 oz Brugal Añejo
.5 oz Smith & Cross
.5 oz Marie Brizard Apry
.5 oz Fresh Pineapple Juice
.5 oz Simple Syrup
1 egg yolk
2 dashes Agnostura
2 dashes Jerry Thomas’ Decanter Bitters

S.S. Resolute was created by Maura McGuigan at Bar Pleiades at The Surrey Hotel in New York.

While I can say that I’ll be enjoying one or more rum drinks today, I’ll be doing so responsibly and hope that you will as well on National Rum Day. Thanks to the guys over at MBooth for the reminder!

[ Links: Brugal Rum ]

Sometimes I get gifts or items that despite their novelty, I might never find a use for them. Useful Things sent along a package that included the silicone mold for some shot glasses that once filled up with water and frozen would allow you to imbibe and cool off at the same time.

After a few experiments, I finally figured out that I’d have to slightly thump the silicon mold to get rid of any air bubbles and toss it in the freezer to get nice and hard. Novel? Yes. Worth a purchase? After a week of 100 degree weather each and every day; hell yes.

Despite being made out of ice, the shot glasses do last for quite a while even in the aforesaid heat. You can easily pour two to three shots if you’re just a casual sipper or pound quite a few shots if you so wish and never worry about the shot glass dribbling out the contents. The ice shots can equally take on adult beverages or juice without any incident.

The Ice Shot Glass Mold sells for $9.95 at Useful Things and worth every penny.

[ Links: Useful Things, Ice Shots ]

Looking a legit reason to celebrate tomorrow? July 27th is National Scotch Day. That’s right… you now have a proper excuse reason to imbibe all day tomorrow. Normally, I’d just say go out, buy some scotch and drink it neat in a glass and call it a day. But let’s add some excitement to the mix for once.

Grab a bottle of The Macallan 10 Year Single Malt from their Fine Oak range and follow up with a couple of soothing drinks that will make National Scotch Day more relaxing:

Seething Jealousy

• 1 ounce Sweet Vermouth
• 1/2 ounce The Macallan Fine Oak 10 Years Old Single Malt
• 1/2 ounce Cherry Brandy
• 1/2 ounce Orange Juice

Pour the vermouth, scotch, cherry brandy and orange juice into a cocktail shaker half-filled with ice cubes. Shake well, strain into a cocktail glass, and serve.

Rob Roy

• 2 1/2 ounces The Macallan Fine Oak 10 Years Old Single Malt
• 3/4 ounce Martini & Rossi sweet vermouth
• dash Angostura Bitters
• lemon zest garnish

Pour all ingredients over ice in a mixing glass and stir as you would a Martini. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with lemon zest and a Maraschino cherry.

The Macallan Fine Oak 10 Year Old Scotch costs around $35 or so per 750ml bottle. Definitely worth every drop and remember to drink responsibly.

[ Links: The Macallan Fine Oak 10 Years Old Single Malt ]

I’ve had blueberry, raspberry or even citrus based wheat based beers in the past. But 21st Amendment Brewery’s Hell or High Watermelon Wheat Beer is the first time I’ve seen watermelon used in a beer.

Using 100% fresh watermelon puree, we start by brewing a classic American wheat beer, which undergoes a traditional secondary fermentation using fresh watermelon. A straw-colored, refreshing beer with a kiss of watermelon aroma and flavor.

Sporting a 4.9% alcohol content, this pale straw colored beer (I’m surprised it’s not pinkish red) that comes in a can seems like it would be an odd addition to your next cookout. Sold in 12 oz. cans for about $9.99 per six pack in limited states and locations.

[ Links: 21st Amendment Brewery, Hell or High Watermelon Wheat Beer ]

Enjoy this July 4th responsibly and don’t explode your front or backyard without filming it first.

Good riddance 2009. It was not the best of years for certain things.

2009 brought only the marginally better Apple iPhone 3GS – whoa, it looks the same, but has a faster processor than the iPhone 3G, big whoop-de-doo. AT&T continued to drop so many phone calls that they finally made an app for that. Crunchpad The Joojoo finally came out to a hailstorm of litigation and a Paypal pre-purchase that totally violated their terms and conditions for accepting money on unreleased items. 2009 brought out the Nokia N900… and not many applications for it – nor utilize the darn forward facing camera in Skype… before let’s say Apple does it perhaps?

2009 became the year where a rumor inflated the stock prices of a company… somehow. And FINALLY I got my 17,000 song music library in order.

But… 2009 showed where the #4 wireless telecom start to get some traction by offering cellphones and wireless/internet packages at a price that was a step or two below the other wireless telecoms. 2009 saw a maturity in Google Android, a shot in the dark by Google that had finally gone from a 1.0 version to 2.1 in real quick steps by actually listening to their customer and vendor needs. 2009 saw Barnes & Noble finally bring out their Google Android based Nook and saw the Amazon Kindle become the highest selling “gadget” at Amazon.com. 2009 saw Motorola come out with a phone that people actually wanted… the Droid.

2009 saw that the Sony PlayStation 3 finally step down from that high price pedestal and figure out that you know… some people would love to be able to afford the hardware to play the killer games like Killzone 2, Uncharted 2, Tekken 6 among many others. 2009 saw the release of Square Enix Final Fantasy XIII which sold over 1.5 million units in under a week… yes, one week. 2009 saw that Microsoft was willing to admit that the XBOX 360 might still fail, but they stood behind it and continued to grow their XBOX Live Network to a point where if you’re a gamer that loves being online, you owned a 360. Nintendo continued to do whatever Nintendo and Shigeru Miyamoto wanted to do. And sell whatever it was by the boatloads.

2009 saw Barack Obama sworn in, a global economy crisis, a underwear bomb, Lindsay Lohan set loose on the world, less drama surrounding Britney Spears, more drama around Google Voice, and above all… 2009 brought forward growth, reviews, fun… and some other craziness to Remove The Labels.

From me to you… Happy New Year. 2010 will be fun with the January announcements by Google and Apple with many more things, such as the CES in Las Vegas, in tow. Have a good one and please do not drink and drive. Hire a taxi… or get a designated driver. And don’t light an entire bag of fireworks on fire (see above).

2009 was a good year. An oft-delayed redesign, a few good reviews, a few reviews that didn’t make the cut and I never published them… and the end of being around for over 5 years… hoping that the next decade is indeed an odyssey that includes more readers, more reviews and more cool stuff.

Merry Christmahanakwanizika to you all. And if I missed some religion, non-religion… or whatever, take a look at the girl. That’s my gift to you

Remove The Labels, gadgets and life. See ya’… and thanks.

This time of year… the family, the friends, the long lines from shopping and all of the other headaches that come along definitely makes the Tuthilltown Spirits perfect for this season. Tuthilltown offers a range of un-aged and aged spirits made much in the same methods that predated the Prohibition and never truly resumed by American spirit makers; namely rum that was crafted in the US from molasses from the Caribbean.

The standout is the Hudson Four Grain Bourbon Whiskey that retails for $40-45 per bottled that is hand-numbered and twice distilled in upstate New York for that old-fashioned taste and flavor that makes you forget about the long lines and bad weather.

[ Tuthilltown Spirits ]

“But does it play Doom?” Even advertisements don’t escape that question now, it seems.

It appears that a number of advertising billboards in Germany can now play Doom, thanks to the artistic stylings of Herren Mr Talion, Epoxy, Baveux and Kone.

I am looking forward to seeing where they aim the BFG 9000.

Link to the original article…

Once again, I’ll be sitting back watching the news and surfing the internet while somebody unfortunately gets trampled for a relatively inexpensive gadget somewhere in America. Let’s save some lives as well as some money… the following links will hopefully save both.

Dealnews Black Friday Deals – Some Black Friday deals are already active, more tomorrow
Black Friday 2009 – Another collection of Black Friday deals and announcements of best deals
Dealighted’s Black Friday Deals – True to form, Dealighted.com also has some collected Black Friday Deals online
Fatwallet Black Friday/Cyber Monday Reviews – The great thing about Fatwallet is that the members will outright tell you the pros and cons of the ongoing sales
Black Friday Watcher by Deals2buy.com – Yet another ongoing list of Black Friday sales, with some online sales that aren’t highly publicized
Amazon.com Black Friday Deals – Get your refresh button finger ready… some killer deals indeed pop up there

Even though I joke, who knows… this might just save a life or two. Hope that you get everything that you’re looking for.

[ Related: RTL Deals ]