Holiday cheer(s)

The holidays are Dickensian. Let's skip the obvious "A Christmas Carol" reference and head straight to "A Tale of Two Cities." To paraphrase, it is the best of times and the worst of times.

Yes, it's the most wonderful time of the year. But it's also the most stressful. Every time you approach the mall parking lot, you're taking your life into your own hands. You have more people on your list than money in your bank account. And the simmering resentment between Grandma and Aunt Louise always seems to escalate to a boil sometime between Christmas Eve dinner and midnight Mass.

Times like these call for one thing, and it ain't figgy pudding. It's Cold River Vodka.

Leave it to a pair of County boys, Presque Isle natives Lee and Donnie Thibodeau, to dream up a silky smooth vodka distilled from Maine potatoes. They teamed up with former ski exec Bob Harkins and distiller Chris Dowe and this premium liquor — made in Maine using water drawn from a local aquifer — was born. It gets its name from the tiny river in western Maine that feeds the aquifer.

Cold River Vodka recently received double gold in the San Francisco World Spirits competition. In 2007 it got a five-star rating from Spirit Journal. And from personal experience, it makes a mean Cosmo. Since it's December, however, we recommend CRV's Maine Vodka Vesper recipe. It's like a martini on steroids.

And if that doesn't put you in the holiday spirit, we don't know what will.

For a list of retailers in Maine and beyond that carry Cold River Vodka, click here.

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