The Knife

Cocktail report: Charbay charms

God bless liquor sponsors, which have become nature's way of ensuring that we'll never know what we're drinking at industry parties. Cocktail Report is The Knife's occasional attempt to do the decoding work.

The bottle Charbay green tea vodka

The place Tanzore, hosting a cocktail party for the Hell's Kitchen finale

The verdict Don't judge a booze by its bottle.

Is there nothing green tea can't do? It prevents cancer! lowers cholesterol! smells nice! This makes green tea very trendy, which makes Charbay green tea vodka an object of suspicion, if not derision; ordering green tea vodka for your health is a step away from being the Yoga Guy.

As it turns out, that's not why you order it; you order Charbay's green tea vodka because it tastes good with lime, mint and simple syrup. The site claims to have spent an absurd amount of time tracking down and extracting the tea leaves, which may explain why it lacks the weird Sno-Cone tang of say, Absolut Raspberri. However, Absolut comprises about 40% of the vodka consumed in the world; Charbay is a microdistillery owned by the Karakasevic family in Napa Valley, where they also make whiskey, port and grappa, and not that much of it.

Cocktail Report: What's a Veev?

God bless liquor sponsors, which have become nature's way of ensuring that we'll never know what we're drinking at industry parties. Cocktail Report is The Knife's occasional attempt to do the decoding work.

The bottle: Veev Acai Spirit

The place: Food & Wine's Grow For Good fundraiser at the Hollywood Hills home of Food Network host David Lieberman

The verdict: Hi-C for grownups packs a wallop.

There's a reason silly people like Faith Popcorn become obscenely wealthy: It's hard to name a product well. I hope Veev didn't spend too much on its consultants, since requesting this will make you sound like a bad Bob Dylan impersonation. That's too bad, because Veev isn't. It's a 60-proof liqueur made from Whole Foods-sounding things like acai, acerola cherry and prickly pear. However, when mixed with acai juice and served over ice, it become a tart-sweet cocktail that's not too much of either. It's also really refreshing, which is where it gets dangerous.

Veev launches "exclusively" at some 30-odd LA bars and restaurants, including usual suspects such as Les Deux, Ketchup and Sushi Roku.