I knew this would happen. I was spoiled by a balmy round of golf on December 29, and now that the snow and cold have hit central Illinois, I'm completely bummed out. Utterly depressed.

Fortunately, over the years I've developed a remarkable skill for self-medicating. When the snow flies, so do the ice cubes, olives, limes, and various mixers. And within minutes, I am feeling much, much better.

A few days ago, I made a wonderful discovery at the local booze-mart, namely Pearl Pomegranate Vodka.

Although hard to find and adorned with a homely label (too much text and an old-fashioned font), this Canadian vodka is amazingly smooth. Best of all, it is infused with pomegranate rather than flavored with it. The result is perfectly balanced – you can taste both the five-times distilled (and six-times filtered) vodka as well as the subtle fruit.

There are also coconut and "plain" versions, which I haven't tried (yet). But the pomegranate version recenlty won Best of Show Platinum award in the 2007 World Beverage Competition, so it's a good place to start. (The "plain" Pearl won a Gold award in the same competition.)

Drink recipes using this nectar of the gods can be found on the Pearl website, but my original favorites to date are:

Happy Soda

1 part Pearl Pomegranate
2 parts cranberry juice
2 part club soda
on the rocks

Antioxidant Buzz

Lots of Pearl Pomegranate
equal part (or less) of organic 100% pomegranate & blueberry juice
squeeze of lime juice

Who needs verdant fairways, or even golf on TV? A few of these babies, and the snow doesn't bother me one little bit. Not even when I'm sleeping in it.

Pearl Pomegranate Vodka is so good, it can make you forget about golf for a while.

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