What do Jessica Alba, Salma Hayek and Eva Mendes all have in common… and more importantly, why ask this question next to a photo that depicts none of the above?

They’ve all been calendar girls for the ultra-classy Italian liqueur Campari; but look out, gals. A stirring new addition to the lineup is about to shake things up, as Campari has released new images of 29-year-old Olga Kurylenko, co-star of the most recent James Bond film Quantum of Solace, posing with a bottle of their ruby-colored aperitif. Shaken indeed; looks like you’d better shake this one with orange, rather than stirring with soda.

The Ukraine-born actress managed to stir up controversy after her appearance in Quantum of Solace, as one Russian extremist group publicly decried her role as the first Russian to play a “Bond girl,” stating that “James Bond is an enemy of the Russian people” (and an imaginary one, no less, but this seems to have little bearing on the intention behind the statement). Nonetheless, her role in the film seems to have been well-received by the media, attracting attention from enterprises such as Maxim Magazine and, yes, Campari.

To view more of the images of Olga Kurylenko posing seductively with Campari spirits, visit this link.

As if moved to do so by some subliminal suggestion from within my subconscious (perhaps the hedonistic, expensively-robed bastard with a cigarette holder who lives, repressed, in the decadent backdrop of my psyche), I was unable to counter the urge to stock up on some cool, late-summer spirits today; particularly of the foreign variety. Campari Italian liqueur sat almost glistening on the shelf, thanks to the recessed lighting of the liquor store (its luminescent quality was made stranger by the hail pounding the street outside, piling mounds of ice that fell so quickly they gave the impression of a strange, late summer snow). I knew I’d found my concoction.

In addition to its unique flavor served by itself (though the stinging bitterness of the herbs used in its creation tend to warrant ice, orange, or even soda water), Campari is a unique aperitif that doubles as (you might have guessed) a bitter for a variety of fine Italian cocktails. One such favorite is the Venetian Spritz.

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Yesterday the New York Times featured a recipe for a cleverly-named cocktail, which they call “The Market Crash”. As much as alcohol and its particular relation to the present economic situation the world-over is discussed on this Web site, I felt that this one must be added to the cavalcade of crash-cocktails we’ll no doubt continue to enjoy for the next several months (at least). That being said, do you have a recession-themed beverage that you would like to recommend to Culture of Spirits? If so, email it to us by clicking here.

And now, on to that recipe…

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