MixMo VI - Grapes

The latest Mixology Monday is up and this time it is at Saving the world, one drink at a time and the theme is Grape.  I didn't get my act together to join in the carnival, but there sure looks to be some yummy concoctions going on over there:

Saving the world, one drink at a time.: Mx Monday - Grapes

Technorati Tags: mixology+monday

More lemons

More in the lemon MixMo 5 line comes this series on making your own limoncello:

The Spirit World - Part I: Making Limoncello

MixMo 5 Roundup - When Life Hands You Lemons...

Welcome to Mixology Monday 5, where we have lots and lots of lemon goodness. You know the old saying - "When life hands you a lemon, it must be time to make a cocktail." (or something like that anyway). The Wikipedia has, as usual, plenty of lemon information, which you can find here. As I've said in a couple of my previous cocktail entries, I highly recommend trying to track down some Meyer Lemons, which have a special lemon goodness all their own. My Mom got me a box for my birthday, which is in February and is a very good month to get them (you can check out Melissa's for more info). Anyway, thanks for the great turnout - we have quite the international showing this time around, with entries spanning the globe, which is great to see. So let the show begin!

We live in a world where lemonade is made from artificial flavoring and furniture polish is made from real lemons
Alfred E. Neuman

Macky, from Macky's Garden in the Philippines, entices us with A Night in Old Mandalay, which mixes rums, juices and ginger in a tall highball glass.

Next, a stop in Sydney, Australia, where Anna of Morsels and Musings fame, takes us on a trip to northern Italy and whips us up a batch of sgroppino, an ice cold drink using lemon gelato, citron vodka, limoncello and more lemons.

Alicat of Something So Clever, located in Montana, US (one of the few places where it is even hotter than here in Boston!), invites us over with recipe that takes you from parched to refreshed in no time flat, a homemade hard lemonade, as well as an ice-cube laden Amaretto Squeeze, which combines Amaretto and lemon juice for that frangipane taste.

Marleigh, whose Sloshed is making a MixMo debut, whips up some frozen goodness with a Lemon Sorbet, by using citrus vodka, limoncello (not surprisingly, a real favorite for this MixMo!), peach schnapps, lemonade and cream to create a frothy refresher.

At my lemonade stand I used to give the first glass away free and charge five dollars for the second glass. The refill contained the antidote.
Emo Phillips

The blogger we like to blame for MixMo, Paul from The Cocktail Chronicles and Seattle Washington, invites us to try a special South American brandy, pisco, in a Pisco Sour.

Meeta jets in from Germany while writing for What's For Lunch Honey?, and shows us how to make an easy summer refresher for the entire neighborhood, with a delicious Limoncello Cooler.

Another visit from Down Under, this time from the beautiful city of Melbourne, where Haalo writes Cook (almost) Anything at least once. She finds two different bottles of lemon spirits in the cabinet, so she shakes us up a Lemon Vanilla Fizz using the Limoncello, mixing it with soda water, vanilla pods and lemon leaves, and uses the citron vodka to good effect in a simple yet elegant Lemon-tini.

Jen, the Californian who writes cocktail jen, points us to some limoncello recipes, unveils her own homemade limoncello for us, and encourages us to "try this at home".

Jimmy, a Californian who writes Jimmy's Cocktail Hour and hosted the previous MixMo on Apéritifs, goes on a quest in the priceless CocktailDB for the perfect lemon drink. After a short side trip to the land of the Whiskey Sour, he settles on an enduring classic and a true favorite of mine, the Sidecar.

Barbie, who writes barbie2be from the US west coast, entices us with a lemon twist on another classic, creating the Limoncello Cosmopolitan.

Darcy's Art of Drink creates a new cocktail for our carnival by combining the ever-popular limoncello, pear liqueur, vermouth, soda and bitters while walking us through the creative process, where he ends up with a Lemon & Pear Cocktail.

When life hands you a lemon, say 'Yeah, I like lemons. What else ya got?'
Henry Rollins

Michael, who writes a dash of bitters, visits us from a full freezer in Brooklyn, New York and takes us slowly through the limoncello creation process, and honors us by uncorking it for the first time. He then offers up two new cocktails, the Lemon Cart (a Sidecar twist using limoncello, cognac and lime juice) as well as a simple and refreshing Lemon Cooler.

Rick, the Kaiser Penguin of Pennsylvania and host of Mint MixMo III, brings us the Rum Keg, so break out those honkin' big hurricane glasses and fill it up with this yummy sounding mixture of juices, syrups, rum and ice.

And here at Jiggle The Handle, I got to unveil a new Dr. Cocktail recipe, and try both limoncello and yellow Chartreuse for the first time, with a Lemony Snicket cocktail. Also, be sure to try out the classic Lemon Drop as well.

So that wraps up another edition of Mixology Monday. Again, I want to thank everyone for showing up and giving us plenty to try out in the coming dog days of summer (at least here in the northern hemisphere). If you didn't get in here, don't give up - send me along the link or post it in the comments and I'll add your link. And be sure to check out MixMo VI, which will focus on the grape and is being hosted by Rick over at Saving the world, one drink at a time (an admirable philosophy).

Dogbert: "Well you know what they say, when life gives you lemon, make lemonade."
Dilbert: "But I'm allergic to citrus."
Dogbert: "Well you know what they say, when life gives you lemons, swell up and die."
Scott Adams (1957 - )

Technorati Tags: lemon mixology+monday

MixMo 5 Lemon cocktails

So the place was busy this past weekend! On Saturday we hosted our daughter's seventh birthday party, which meant the joint was packed with family, friends, and relatives. As I was busy at the grill for most of the day, I couldn't get very creative at the bar. The usual Bombay Sapphire martinis and gibsons for the in-laws, but other than that everyone had to make do with the beer (Sam Adams Summer Brew and Light, Otter Creek Porter and Budweiser) and hard lemonade cooler. But I did think of MixMoV, of course, so I made a small batch of a long time favorite cooling cocktail, the Lemon Drop:

Lemon Drop

• 2.5 oz citron vodka (Citrus Three Olives)
• 3/4oz freshly squeezed lemon juice (alas, no more Meyer Lemons...)
• 1tsp superfine (bar) sugar

Put all the ingredients into a cracked ice filled shaker and shake vigorously. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

Of course, as the vodka comes from the freezer, it makes for a cocktail shaker that is very hard to shake! It took me a bit to loosen up the ice cubes to get a good mixing action going, which is very important as you need to get the sugar mixed in. I suppose it would work pretty well with a healthy dollop of sugar syrup too, and make for an easier mixing. I rimmed the cocktail glasses with a nice coating of Lemon Drop rimmer, which works very very well too. I didn't have time to partake in this myself, but the guests were very pleased.

But yesterday was a recovery day, so we were able to take it pretty easy. Good thing too, as the weather has been stifling here, so a day puttering about and splashing in the pool was just what the doctor ordered. And speaking of doctors, the good Dr. Cocktail was kind enough to forward me along a new recipe he's been working on for the MMV Lemon carnival, so I figured this would be the perfect day to try it out.

Lemony Snicket

• 2.5 oz gin (Bombay Sapphire, of course, pulled from the freezer)
• 1/2 oz Limoncello (Pallini, again out of the freezer)
• 1/2 oz yellow Chartreuse
• 1/2 oz freshly squeezed lemon juice

Put all the ingredients in a cracked ice filled cocktail shaker, shake vigorously and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with stemless cherry.

What a wonderfully complex yet refreshing cocktail! It was so good, I just had to have a second. You can really taste the various kinds of lemon in there, but all shaded with the distinctive herbs of the Chartreuse. I suppose you could make it with a vodka instead, for those gin-hating infidels, but it would certainly lose some of its complexity.

I was looking for an excuse to buy both the yellow Chartreuse and the Limoncello, and this fit the bill perfectly. The Chartreuse proved to be a very expensive addition to my liquor cabinet (over US$40 here in Massachusetts), but I figure it will last and I've been coming across a few recipes that called for it. I've had a bottle of the green Chartreuse for ages. I use it mostly in the Emerald Martini, which works very nicely, but I've never tried the yellow Chartreuse (and no, that isn't an oxymoron:-), which is a sweeter version of the green one. I should have tried it straight but I did not, but the smell definitely marked it as a sweeter Chartreuse.

As for the limoncello, I didn't know which one to try. There were, I think, three different brands on the store shelf, all priced about the same (US$20 a bottle). So I grabbed the Pallini, for no particular reason. I love a good lemon cocktail, and this looks like a great addition to the liquor freezer, even if the bottle is too tall fit standing up on any of the shelves. A favorite "simple" summer drink for me is raspberry (I'm a raspberry nut) vodka splashed into lemonade, and I'll bet a splash of limoncello would make a refreshing lemonade mixer too. Although I'm not a soda or seltzer fan, I imagine it would work very nicely with a plain version of one of those sparkling waters too.

So this is my entry for Mixology Monday 5, which I'll be hosting here. You have a few more hours to get me your lemon tasting cocktails over to me. Check back here tomorrow, Tuesday July 18, for the completely listing of all the entries. It's looking like a great turnout again, so thanks to all that have come over already and here's looking for the rest of you!

Technorati Tags: cocktail mixology+monday limoncello chartreuse

MixMo 5 coming up

Entries are beginning to trickle in for the Mixology Monday I'll be hosting here this coming Monday. So join in the party and send along your lemon-y cocktails and drinks.

Technorati Tags: mixology+monday

The Carnival is coming to town

I'm excited to be hosting the next edition of Mixology Monday, the blog carnival featuring cocktails. The next show will be unveiled on Monday, July 17th. I've chosen lemons as the "theme" for it, and I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone does with this classic cocktail fruit. Something cool and lemon-y should go well on a hot summer's night.

Lemons are, I think, my favorite cocktail mixer. I've written about the Sidecar before and it remains one of my all-time favorite cocktails. And getting to use Meyer Lemons, both fresh and even from a bottle, was a special treat this year, and I'm disappointed I don't have any more to use. I really thought they brought out the best in a cocktail, and I'm already looking forward to when they are back in season.

I'll have to roll out a new recipe for Mixology Monday, 5^th edition. But I'm also looking forward to what others make using this wonderfully tart fruit. So get your entries in, either by emailing me or filling out the form on the Blogcarnival.com page by Sunday, July 16.

You can find last month's Mixology Monday on Jimmy's Cocktail Hour. Its theme was aperitifs and I added a taste of absinthe to it. Absinthe was highly regarded as an appetite enhancer, so it made the perfect aperitif if you could afford dinner, which many of the Paris Bohemians couldn't.

Technorati Tags: mixology+monday

I Wanna Go!

Here's another "conference" I want to go to!  "Tales of the Cocktail" sounds like a real "who's who" of the mixing 'n' shaking world, including TA Breaux of absinthe fame and other well known mixologits.  I doubt I'll be able to squeeze this into my busy schedule, though - sigh....

2006 Tales of the Cocktail

Cocktails of the Week - Blanchette absinthe and the Sazerac

This tasting was actually done on June 21. I haven't been real good about keeping up with the postings! I've also cross-posted this on our new web site InAbsinthia.com, where we will keep you up to date on the latest and greatest in the world of absinthe.

Another evening of the "devil in a bottle". This time, we tried a clear, Swiss-style absinthe called Blanchette. In general, absinthes can be either green or clear. Absinthe gets its natural green color because of a combination of the herbs used to make it and the very high (65% or more) alcohol content. Because of the high alcohol percentage, the green chlorophyll bits actually remain suspended in the elixir, only to be released when you add the water and sugar, a process known as "louching". A clear absinthe, which has a milky white louche, is often a Swiss La Bleue absinthe. These are usually of a slightly lower alcohol level (55-60%) than a traditional French absinthe, which may account for its clear color, or perhaps a different recipe.

In any case, T.A. Breaux, the New Orleans chemist mastermind behind Jade Liquors, has helped out Combier to produce Blanchette. It is the first clear absinthe we have tried and we were looking forward to it, wondering what kind of spell a clear absinthe would cast.

Upon twisting off the cork, a strong aroma of anise (licorice) assails the nose, loud and clear. Blanchette does not have the hard wax sealed corked bottle Nouvelle-Orleans, but rather the plastic topped cork stopper as found on lower end port bottles. But the nose is definitely that of absinthe!

We poured about 1.5 oz into each glass, put the absinthe spoon on top with two sugar cubes on it and began gently pouring in filtered, ice cold water. I shake it in my cocktail shaker filled with cracked ice, getting it nice and cold. Then I decant the water into a small glass pourer and we pour the water over the sugar cubes, trying to be as slow as possible. Someday, we'll have to get one of the fancy absinthe glasses with the little reservoir at the bottom, and the holder for the ice cubes at the top. But for now, we'll make due with fancy goblets and trying to be careful while pouring the water over the cubes.

The louching action was pretty good, but subtle. It really just gradually clouded over, rather than the water showing up as droplets. The final result was a nice, cloudy drink, but without any pearly touches. Still with a powerful anise smell, though.

The first sips were pretty good as well with, once again, a nearly overpowering taste of anise. There was really no room left for tasting too much else, which made the Blanchette very much a one trick pony. There weren't nearly as many interesting flavors as we found in Nouvelle-Orleans, just a full-bodied anise (licorice) taste. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, and certainly not unexpected, given the aromas.

So it was an enjoyable blanche absinthe, but lacking the subtleties of Nouvelle-Orleans. A nice twist on the original verte absinthe, and one that we will visit again in the future, I'm sure.

We followed up the Blanchette by making the only real cocktail that features absinthe. The Sazerac, called "America's First Cocktail", dates back to the 1830s, as discussed on Sazerac.com. Sure, there are other cocktails recipes that use absinthe. Heck you could even write a book about them if you were so inclined. But they are mostly silly concoctions that don't add anything to the La Fée Verte experience. The Sazerac, though, is the real thing.

Sazerac

• .5 tsp Absinthe (we used the aforementioned Blanchette)
• 2oz whiskey or bourbon (we used Maker's Mark bourbon)
• dash Peychaud's bitters

Shake well in a cocktail shaker full of cracked ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

This particular recipe wasn't anything to write home about, really. All we could taste was the bourbon, which meant it was a waste of some good absinthe. We actually used (gasp!) Angostura bitters, and not the real Peychaud's. I should order some online, just for the authentic taste. A more interesting sounding recipe comes from the Wikipedia, which uses the method more often specified of swirling the absinthe around in a glass. It still doesn't sound like there would be enough absinthe to really show up in a cocktail glassful of bourbon, though. Maybe we should also try a more subtle taste, like Dewar's whiskey.

We then played a few more levels of Serious Sam 2 and we only have two more levels to go (yay!). And then we finished up season three of The Sopranos. The season finale was surprisingly low key - no cliff hangers, with no long storylines (like last season's FBI arc) to be wrapped up. It felt very much like another episode. But all in all, I'd say the third season has been the best so far. The show definitely has yet to jump the shark.

Technorati Tags: absinthe sazerac

Cocktails of the Week : la Fée Verte and Pineapple Mint Margarita

I have such great friends. I've been wanting to try some of la Fée Verte (The Green Fairy) for quite some time, but never pulled the trigger on ordering a bottle. But my Wednesday night drinking buddy, Michael, recently came back from Paris, and brought us back a bottle of the jade-colored "deadly stimulant" and we transported ourselves back to Moulin Rouge and the heyday of a bohemian living. We raise a glass of absinthe - oooo. Check the Wikipedia entry on absinthe for a pretty good short history of absinthe, but suffice to say it is illegal in the US to make, buy or transport, but you can own it and drink it, so I wasn't expecting the doors to come crashing in, arresting us on sight!

And Michael didn't skimp either. He brought back a bottle of Absinthe Nouvelle-Orleans by TA Breaux, the New Orleans chemist who reverse-engineered the long-forgotten recipe for the Pernod Absinthe. He was featured in a Wired magazine article and a New Yorker profile. It comes in a gorgeous tall thin bottle, with a very pretty label, sealed with wax and a long cork. He also brought over the required absinthe slotted spoon and even a couple of French sugar cubes - we went authentic all the way!

The absinthe serving process is a little complicated, because you want to dilute the 68% (nearly 140 proof!) liquor down a little before drinking it. So you put the slotted spoon over a glass, set the sugar cube on the spoon and slowly run cold water across the cube and into the green liquid. The liquor slowly begins to "louche", which is when it turns a milky-green. About a 4-1 ratio of water to absinthe is about right, but I think maybe we were a little short of that. It will definitely require lots and lots of practice!-)

After we filled our glasses, we took a sip of the forbidden elixir. And it was surprisingly good, especially for something some have described as "an incredibly nasty drink". Mint, licorice, and other herbs could be tasted. And yes, after a few sips, something weird goes on in the mouth; something tingly, a little numbing, and very much hard to describe. But definitely good, yet something that will require some practice to get right. Colder water, perhaps, with a better ratio. He also brought back another, smaller, bottle, so we'll have to do some taste tests.

I thought that maybe just one drink of a 136 proof liquor would be enough, but we have a system, and we stuck with it. Due to having some mint left over from my concoctions made for Mixology Monday III, I decided to try one of the other mint drinks. So many of them sounded good, but I settled on the Cook Almost Anything entry, as it looked like it could stand up to the strength of the absinthe:

Pineapple and Mint Margarita

• 1 oz Tequila (we used Jose Cuervo - time for a new bottle)
• 1/2 oz Cointreau
• 1 oz lime juice
• 1 oz pineapple juice
• 5 fresh mint leaves

In a blender add all the ingredients and process until well combined. Pour into a martini glass and serve.

Yum, this was good! And yup, it did manage to take over the mouth after the absinthe assault, which was also good. I'd love to make up a big batch of this for a party this summer.

Then we played a few more hours of Serious Sam II. I think Michael said we only have 8 more levels to go. Phew! And we watched an episode of The Sopranos for the first time in quite a while. These last few from season three have really been solid.

Technorati Tags: cocktails absinthe

The Ideal Bartender

Way cool! A classic mixology text, The Ideal Bartender by Tom Bullock, printed in 1917, was just added to Project Gutenberg. I'm looking forward to glancing through this text. Here's another way to look at it:

Slakethirst � The Ideal Bartender

Technorati Tags: the+ideal+bartender cocktails

Mixology Monday III : Mint

Lots of great sounding mint drink recipes can be found at the Mx Mint Monday. Hope my mint leaves are still good!

Kaiser Penguin � Blog Archive � Mx Monday III Round-Up

Technorati Tags: cocktails mx+monday

Cocktail of the Week - Blue Watch

So I went over to the Captain Morgan web site to see what I could make with my freezer-cold bottle of Tattoo, besides the usual Rum & Coke. The only recipe found there with Tattoo is something called and "Ink Drop", which uses Tattoo and an energy drink. For some reason, I feel these energy drink "cocktails" to be, oh I don't know, sophomoric or something. Something done by a 20-something to cover up the taste of the alcohol. Maybe it is because I don't drink them anyway. Even the next Carnival of Drinking is looking for energy drink recipes, so I guess I won't be joining those festivities. It just doesn't appeal to me.

So I did some prowling around the site anyway. Of course, I'm attracted like a moth to a flame when I see a blue drink. I'm always looking for an excuse to use my blue Curaçao of Curaçao! And I was, once again, drinking alone again, as my globe-trotting friend wasn't back yet and my wife doesn't indulge me during the week. So something big, fresh and easy attracted me, and this was it.

Blue Watch

• 3/4 oz Capt. Morgan Spiced Rum
• 1/2 oz blue Curaçao
• 4 oz. ginger ale

Pour rum & Curaçao over rocks in an old-fashioned glass. Stir lightly. Add ginger ale.

This was a pretty good drink. Too weak on first try, and when I added more of everything, it got better. But next time I make it, I'll use real amounts of rum and Curaçao, so the ginger ale doesn't take over and make itself to home so much.

Then I played Day of Defeat for a couple of hours. Man, a pointless, multiplayer mayhem game like DoD is just so addictive. Before I knew it, it was after midnight - time for bed! But the Blue Watch went well with this sort of activity.

Technorati Tags: cocktail+of+the+week capt.+morgan rum

Drinking Carnival

Boston Cocktails is hosting the 3^rd Carnival of Drinking, with a theme of Summertime Refreshments. Both he and I have a bit about the classic Pimm's Cup, but he's a Sprite man, while I'm a ginger ale man. But you can't go wrong either way! See the rest of the festivities here:

Boston Cocktails � Outdoor entertaining drinks (Carnival Roundup)

Technorati Tags: carnival+of+drinking cocktails

Summertime Libations

I went into the liquor store yesterday to stock up on some missing libations. Of course, I completely forgot to buy the main thing I went in there for - a new bottle of Tattoo for the freezer. My memory is even more suspect now than it ever has been. You shoulda heard my youngest lecturing me about "taking my time" and "not being in such a rush" when I complained about forgetting some things on our way to soccer pictures. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black!

Anyway, I decided to look into buying a new rum. Since I've been making the rounds at the cocktail blog circuit, I've noticed some disenchantment with Bacardi Silver. It is my favorite rum, as it is smooth and flavorful without being too sweet. Because its primary use is in a rum & coke, it can't be adding even more sweetener. But I was surprised to find there isn't another "top shelf" silver rum available. I cannot stand any of the "Ron" brands, like Ron Rico or Ron Virgin. Is "Ron" a Caribbean word for "Bottom Shelf"? And that's about the only other silver rums I could see. There were plenty of fancy dark and gold rums, but I've found them to be too sweet for an R&C. Fine for sipping, but not really for mixing. So I've stuck with Bacardi for now.

What did completely bowl me over was the astonishing variety of flavored rums. That was another one of my quest items, to try one of these. I am a big fan of Captain Morgan Spiced Rum, but that's not really a flavored rum. I think there were more flavors for rum than there were for vodka! Just about every imaginable tropical fruit was well represented - pineapple, mango, coconut (of course), banana, orange, berry. Bacardi itself had six or seven, including the new "Melon Blast" or something, that was a watermelon-flavored rum - yech! I have tried the Limon on occasion, as it isn't too bad in a R&C. I didn't want to get too wild, so I picked up a bottle of Cruzan Orange Rum. I tried it in an R&C last night - not all that wonderful. Too much orange. I'll have to try one of the recipes it came with, like the one with pineapple juice and cream of coconut. But I just didn't know so many varieties had exploded onto the scene.

For the Carnival of Drinking, where the theme is drinks that you like to serve at the barbecues, grill outs, picnics or what not that you'll be attending this weekend, or in the summer months in general (phew, that's a mouthful!), I thought I'd throw out a couple of long, tall drinks I make when I'm looking for something simple and refreshing. After a hard day in the garden, or mowing the lawn, or a full weekend working on that "Honey Do" list like I anticipate this weekend, you don't want some kind of fiddly drink to make, with measuring and mixing and blending. Just throw some stuff together and go relax already.

First up is my very favorite summertime drink - the "Pimm's Cup". Pimm's is an English herbal concoction just brimming with refreshing flavors. During the height of its popularity around World War 2, they made six different kinds, No. 1 through 6, each using a different base liquor. These days, there's only No. 1 left, which is based on London gin. I've heard rumors of No 2, based on vodka, still being around, but I've never seen it.

So you take a tall Collins glass and top it with ice (not chopped or crushed, as it will get too watery). Fill the glass 1/4 to 1/3 full with Pimm's No. 1 and then top with your favorite light colored soda. You could use Sprite, Fresca, or, in my classic version, ginger ale. Garnish with a slice of cucumber and enjoy. Easy to make, easy to drink, and very refreshing!

My second libation is very similar in some ways to the Pimm's Cup. Fill a tall Collins glass with big cubes of ice, fill 1/4 to 1/3 full with your favorite berry flavored vodka, and top with lemonade. I'm partial to raspberry, but you can use whatever kind that wets your whistle. I've tried it with cherry and it works pretty nicely. I have a big bottle of Stoli Beri just waiting for a pour at some point during this long holiday weekend. Of course, the lemonade you use is very important too. Newman's Own is an easy to get favorite of mine, while the one from the local organic supermarket chain (Wild Oats) is also a very nice one.

The raz & lemonade drink isn't very sophisticated (it doesn't even have a name!), but it sure is refreshing. It also goes better with food than does the Pimm's Cup, which I tend to drink by itself later in the evening. I'll try to add some pictures once these drinks get poured. Enjoy!

Technorati Tags: cruzan bacardi pimms+cup cocktail

Free Booze Schwag

Here's a couple of cool giveaways I've come across over the past week or so, for cocktail related stuff:

First up is a couple of free videos from Ketel One. Just go here and fill out the form. There are two different videos, both of which are available on DVD and one can also be had on VHS. Not sure exactly what they are, but hey, how can you go wrong when they say "free"?

Secondly is a book called "Wines From Spain". It's put out by a marketing firm, but Days That End In Y gives it a good review nonetheless. But again, it is really free, as in Free Beer - no "shipping" charges, no "handling" charges, nothing. So what do you have to lose? Just go here and ask for it!

So get out there and get those forms filled out!

Technorati Tags: spanish+wine ketel+one

Cocktails of the Week - Apple-Soaked Mojito and The Vatican Julep

The theme for the upcoming (June 5) Mixology Monday is mint, so I thought I would check out a couple of mint classics. I'm sure both the Mojito and the Mint Julep will be well represented in the show as they immediately come to mind when you think of a mint drink. Getting fresh mint here in the Northeast US can be a bit of a hit or miss proposition. Sometimes it is just a small package of sickly looking, aroma-free wilted green things. Sometimes nothing at all. But this time, my trip to the grocery store was rewarded with a nice bundle of fresh mint. I suppose we should plant some in our backyard garden, but mint can be quite the pest, growing like a weed.

So of course, when I think of doing something a little different to a classic drink, I immediately pull out my favorite cocktail book, New Classic Cocktails by Allan Gage. I've used it on a number of occasions. If you aren't familiar with it, the book shows two recipes on each double page. The top one is the "classic" recipe, while the bottom one is a variation on the theme. Along with high quality pictures, thick, glossy pages, and a nice fold over bookmark, it makes for a great cocktail book. And of course, both the Mojito and the Mint Julep are in the book, along with their paired twists.

Apple-soaked Mojito

• 8 mint leaves
• 1/2 lime, cut into wedges
• 2 tsp. sugar syrup (used my Stirrings brand again)
• 2 oz gold rum (the book suggests Havana 3-year old, but I used Bacardi 8 year old)
• 1 oz apple juice (Motts Natural)
• mint spring and red apple slices for decoration

Muddle the mint, lime and sugar syrup in a cocktail shaker. Fill highball glass with crushed ice. Add the rum to the shaker and shake well. Do not add ice to the shaker. Strain the drink into the highball glass and top with apple juice.

This was a good cocktail, except as a rum fanatic I think it was a little too weak. More rum, I say! But it looked good (I wish I could get my cocktail pictures to come out better) and it went down easy.

The Vatican Julep

• 2 oz Bourbon (I used my usual, Makers Mark)
• 2 tsp. creme de menthe (Marie Brizard)
• .5 oz fresh lime juice (about 1/2 a nice fat one)
• .5 oz sugar syrup
• 6 mint leaves
• 4 dashes Angostura bitters

Fill highball glass with crushed ice. Put the bourbon, creme de menthe, lime juice, sugar syrup, mint and bitters in a blender and mix well. Pour the mixture over the ice and top up with more crushed ice. Decorate with mint sprig.

This was an excellent cocktail. It might not be a favorite if you are a huge bourbon fan, as there was only the hint of the whiskey, but it was enough for me. I was thinking I'd like to try this with Jack Daniels as well, to give it another taste. And, again, I might increase the whiskey a little, to give it a bit more kick. Another thing that just occurred to me is that I should have used a splash of the Fee Brothers mint bitters I have. I could probably have used some in both drinks, but it would work especially well in the julep. Need some way to use it!

As my friend Michael is off traveling the globe, I was on my own this evening. So I decided to watch Ju-on : The Grudge. And man, was that a scary movie! I completely lost track of the timeline (and I think maybe the director did too), but as a series of terrifying vignettes about a haunted house with a grudge, it was outstanding! If you like scary movies, you have to watch this one.

Technorati Tags: cocktail mint+julep mojito

Cocktails of the Week - Spider Bite and Tropical Dream

I was continuing my quest for cocktails less frou frou, so I turned to another favorite cocktail book, Shaken Not Stirred, A Celebration of the Martini by Miller and Brown. There's lots of cool "martini" recipes in there. And by martini, I think they just mean a cocktail based on either vodka or gin. It's a great book, with tons of interesting recipes from bars around the US and the world.

So I settled on the page showing martinis that combine vodka and rum. Specifically, Malibu Rum, the coconut flavored rum found in the solid white bottle. But I hadn't yet picked up a bottle, so I've been using Captain Morgan's Parrot Bay Coconut rum, figuring one coconut rum is as good as another. But maybe that's wrong, as neither of these two cocktails really tasted all that great. The coconut rum just put the body slam on all the other flavors, leaving a blech taste in the mouth.

Spider Bite

• 2 oz vodka (the book called for Moskovskaya vodka, but we used Stoli - same difference I'm sure)
• .5 oz Malibu Coconut Rum (as mentioned, I used Capt. Morgan Parrot Bay)
• .5 oz Triple Sec (I used Cointreau, as I almost always do when asked for either Triple Sec or white Curaçao)
• 2 drops Angostura bitters (from Fee Brothers)

Throw them all together over cracked ice in a cocktail shaker and shake vigorously. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass with a lime twist.

It really just didn't work. The Cointreau and coconut rum battled it out, while the vodka stood by and watched passively, as vodka often does. The rum finally wrestled the Cointreau to the mat and pinned it, leaving nothing but a vague fake coconut taste in the mouth. Not something we'll probably go back to.

Tropical Dream

• 3 oz. vodka (this time, Fris as asked for, but again, Stolichnaya was delivered)
• 1 oz Malibu coconut rum (again, I used Parrot Bay)
• splash pineapple juice

Shake over cracked ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

The pineapple put up a better fight than the Cointreau and help make this drink a little more palatable, despite the increase in coconut rum amount. Still not too crazy about it, but at least I might try this one again with real Malibu Rum. I did pick up a bottle of it this weekend, so I hope to try a taste test soon.

We had a long, arduous session at the keyboard too. We decided to ease up on the difficulty level but added the additional constraint where if the game ended at all, we had to start all the way back where we began the night. Sort of like playing "Pimple". It is dice game where you roll a die, adding the score of each roll. You can roll as many times as you want, ending when you want, but if you roll a one, everyone yells out "Pimple!" and your turn is over and you don't get any score. We modified it slightly to play to allowing us to replay boss levels, as those usually require figuring out the boss' weak spot rather than just straight on runnin' and gunnin'. And we played until the wee hours of the morning, which was a mistake, because kids don't care how late you've been up the night before. If they're going to get up at 5am, it is going to happen, no matter how groggy you might be! I'm still trying to catch up on my sleep.

Technorati Tags: rum vodka malibu+rum cocktails

Cocktail blogs ahoy!

I went on a Web oddyssey and all I got in return were these links:-) I was looking for some interesting Blog Carnivals to join and before you knew it, I was wandering around in some simply fascinating cocktail blogs, with dozens of great sounding recipes - phew, I'm simply dizzy with the possibilities.  Anyway, here's a sampler of the ones I came across:

• The Art of Drink
• The Cocktail Chronicles
• Cocktail Jen
• Days That End In "Y"
• Kaiser Penguin
• The Bottom Shelf

And a couple of the "Carnivals" I uncovered:

• The Bottom Shelf » Carnival of Drinking #2
• Mixology Monday II: Round Up :: The Art of Drink

And even a new magazine to subscribe to, Imbibe. Phew!

Technorati Tags: cocktails imbibe

Cocktails of the Week - Jack Rose and Apple Martini

This week's cocktail hook was to use the Green Apple rimming sugar I got for my birthday a couple of month's ago. We've already used both the Lemon Drop (good with Sidecars) and the Vanilla (good with the coffee cocktails) rimmers, so it was time to try the last one. There aren't too many apple drinks, but one comes immediately to mind.

Jack Rose

• 1 1/2 oz. Applejack
• 1 oz. freshly squeezed lime juice
• 1/2 oz. grenadine syrup

Throw the ingredients into an ice-filled cocktail shaker, shake vigorously and strain into chilled cocktail glasses. Decorate with a lime wedge.

You can also make the Jack Rose with lemon juice, but I find it tastes better with lime. I rimmed it with the Green Apple sugar rimmer and it looked really beautiful. I didn't take a picture because I haven't been happy with the way any of them have come out. But the deep red of the cocktail, along with the sharp green of the rimmer and lime slice made it feel all Christmas-y. Unfortunately, I used my bottle of Key Lime juice instead of squeezing fresh limes and it made the lime taste very overpowering. Gabrielle went so far as to say the lime juice was from concentrate, although it wasn't, but that's how strong the taste was. It just isn't prime lime season here, so the available limes are small and dry.

Apple Martini

• 1.5 oz vodka (regular or apple - we used Green Apple Smirnoff)
• .5 oz apple liqueur (Applejack again)
• splash lemon juice

Shake ingredients over cracked ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with apple slice.

This is a recipe from The Little Black Book of Cocktails, yet another cocktail recipe book I have. It is small (about 4" x 3") but has a nice metal ring binder so it lays flat. It also has an elastic on the back, to wrap around the pages as a bookmark. I haven't really perused it that deeply, but it seems like a good one.

I picked up a bottle of the Twist of Green Apple Smirnoff just for the occasion. Not too bad a taste, although a tad overwhelming. I thought about using Calvados, the French apple brandy, but decided against it, as I'm just not crazy about it. But this was an interesting cocktail and the rimmer went well with it.

We then played about three hours of Serious Sam 2, managing to get past two more levels, including the one that stumped us last week. It's been a long, hard slog, with something like 13 levels to go. This next level promises to be very tough, as it is in really close quarters. And it left no time for Sopranos.

Technorati Tags: cocktails smirnoff applejack

Cocktails of the Week - Emerald Martini and Nicky Finn

Michael has been wondering about all the "fern bar" drinks I have been serving over the past few weeks. And I'll admit they haven't really been strong "cocktails". So I decided to go back to some basics, or at least great twists on them anyway.

Emerald Martini

• Vermouth (Nothing but Noilly Prat here)
• gin or vodka (Bombay Sapphire for us)
• splash of green Chartreuse

Follow the directions for the Perfect Martini, only add a slight splash of green Chartreuse along with the gin or vodka.

As the recipe says, just add a splash of that unique French liqueur, Green Chartreuse to a perfect martini. Be careful with it, though, as a little goes a long way. You want it to look a very very pale green, and to offer up just the slightest hint of extra taste. This is one Martini recipe that might actually work better with vodka, as the vodka wouldn't cover up any of the Chartreuse taste. I'd go even lighter with the Chartreuse if I used vodka. But this made for an excellent drink to start the evening. Clear, crisp, with just the hint of the herbal liqueur. I wonder how it would work with the Yellow Chartreuse, which I have never tried?

Nicky Finn

• 1 oz brandy (Courvoisier)
• 1 oz lemon juice (the last of the Meyer Lemons - sigh)
• 1 oz Cointreau
• Splash Pernod

Shake all ingredients over cracked ice. Strain into chilled cocktail glass.

As you might recognize, a very close cousin to the classic Sidecar, with slightly different proportions and, of course, the addition of the licorice-flavored Pernod. Like the earlier use of Chartreuse, you need to go very easy with the Pernod, as just a little bit adds plenty of flavor to the drink. I've also added a splash to a regular Sidecar recipe to great effect. Another very successful cocktail.

We followed that up with a fairly short Serious Sam 2 session. We did get by one more level, and I think we made it to the final part of the next level, but weren't able to push through. And then we watched another episode of The Sopranos. It's the first one on the last disc for Season Three, and was a pretty good one where a couple of them get lost in the woods of New Jersey.

Technorati Tags: cocktail martini Chartreuse

Cocktails of the Week - Electric Lemonade and Patterson's Curse

Looking to finish off my organic lemonade, I searched Drinksmixer.com for that ingredient. Many of them were pretty awful sounding, but a couple appealed to me, and I ended up making on of them:

Electric Lemonade

• 1 1/4 oz. citron vodka (I used Three Olives)
• 1/2 oz orange curaçao (my Curaçao of Curaçao, of course)
• 4 oz. lemonade
• 1 tbsp. pureed strawberries

Blend with ice until smooth. Serve in a hurricane glass and garnish with a lemon wheel.

I got to use my hand blender again, this time the little food processing attachment. And once again, it worked like a charm! As Rhiannon is absolutely wild about strawberries, we always have them in the house. And this made a very nice, refreshing cocktail. I could really see mixing up a big vat of this and sipping it out on the veranda. Well, if we had a veranda, that is. In our case, the deck will just have to do.

Patterons's Curse

• 2 oz Scotch whisky (Dewars White Label)
• 1/2 oz creme de cassis (Gabriel Boudier)
• 4 dashes orange bitters

Shake well with cracked ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

Not a bad cocktail. It had a very interesting effect on the palette. At first taste, the cassis was pretty overwhelming. But as it went down, you could begin to tastes the Dewars and, even more strongly, smell it for some reason. I liked it, although I might cut back a tad on the cassis next time.

Then we played three more levels of Serious Sam 2. Yup, three whole levels! Only like 19 (!) more to go - ouch! At three levels a night, we still have 2 months of playing this. Again, no time for movie watching - we're Serious now!

Technorati Tags: whisky cocktail drink+of+the+week

Drinks of the Week - Blak & Kahlua and First the Money

So I got a note a couple of weeks ago from a reader of this blog (yup, there are a couple - hi Peggy!), who asked if I had checked out the new Coca-Cola product, Coca-Cola Blak yet. Funny she should mention it, as I had just noticed it on my local grocer's shelf. My main question then was how to pronounce it. See, there's that little bar over the A, indicating a long 'a' sound, but maybe it's just a fancy typographic thing.

The package itself gives you very little to go on, calling it merely a "Carbonated Fusion Beverage". The list of ingredients gives a little bit more of a hint of what it might taste like, listing the usual Coca-Cola stuff, plus coffee extract and aspartame. Not sure why they felt the need to add both high fructose corn syrup and aspartame; maybe some people crave the icky aftertaste of aspartame? Not me. So I guess this "fusion" is between a Coke and a coffee-flavored drink.

I'm surprised that I haven't seen any ads for it. I suppose I should count my blessings; given the colossal Coke ad budget, I'm probably going to get inundated with the ads. My last attempt at a new beverage was some strange clear brew from Pepsi, and it had to be the most horrid thing I had ever pass over my tongue. So I wasn't counting on much, but I thought what the heck.

First I tried it by itself. It comes in a package of 4 tiny (8oz) glass(!) bottles, looking a little like the old fashioned Coke bottles. And it both tastes and smells like the ingredient list had warned - slightly Coke flavored, laced with coffee, with an artificial sweetener chaser. Not particularly wonderful, especially given the US$1.50 per bottle cost.

But Peggy said it really came into its own when paired with Kahlua, so I suckered Michael into trying a Kahlua and Blak for our first cocktail Wednesday evening. Kahlua and Coke is a not unheard of drink, although I'm not a huge Kahlua fan and thus it had so far escaped my table. But Kahlua and Blak worked out okay, I guess. The Kahlua was strong enough to pretty much overcome the aspartame aftertaste, and it really brought out the coffee flavoring. It also seems like Blak is a tad more fizzy than Classic Coke. So the drink was good enough to finish but not, I don't think, worth spending that kind of money on a "fusion beverage".

Our second cocktail was another variation on a rum and coke, the previously mentioned First The Money. But this time I tried a slight twist to this recipe, by using Tattoo, the spiced dark rum from Captain Morgan. I really like this in a straight R&C, but I think it really screwed this drink up. The dark spiced rum didn't work very well with the creme de menthe. And I still need to find the particular brand of coffee liqueur the book calls for, but I haven't yet found a purveyor of Toussaint's.

Then we went on to have a hard, long session at Serious Sam 2. We finished one level and came remarkably close to finishing a second, tough level. In typical Serious Sam fashion, the first time we played the level, we did very well, only falling short at the lava jumping puzzle. And then we proceeded to over-think the level, and struggled for about an hour. But then we got better and came within a whisker of finishing it, we think. Sometimes it can be hard to tell in Serious Sam if it is done throwing massive numbers of enemies at you, as wave after wave of impossible odds sweep down on you. But I'm pretty sure we were ooooooh so very close, but we never did pull it off. With any luck, another common Serious Sam happenstance will occur, whereby the first time back at a hard level, we finish it.

As it was (relatively) late, there was no time for any video watching. Michael lucked out, as I had forgotten to return the Nowhere Man DVD, so I was going to make him watch the last episode on this DVD. But I finally dropped it in the mail Friday, so we're done with that series. We'll go back to the Sopranos, then maybe watch Lost. Micheal likes that show, and I've been meaning to watch it once it came on DVD. I like to watch TV shows on my schedule, without reruns, thank you very much!

Technorati Tags: coca+cola+blak nowhere+man cocktails drink+of+the+week

Cocktails of the Week : Blue Monday and Whiskey Sour

Still finding recipes where I can use my fancy Curaçao of Curaçao blue curaçao. It is usually pretty easy to find them - flip through the book and find a blue cocktail, or look up in the back under "Blue...".

Blue Monday

• 1 oz tequila (nothing fancy here, just Jose Cuervo)
• 1 oz Drambuie
• 1 oz blue curaçao
• 3 oz lemonade

Shake the liquors over cracked ice, then strain into a highball glass filled with ice. Top with lemonade.

A disappointing effort. Plenty of different tastes, but nothing really worked together and it ended up tasting mostly like a weak lemonade, oddly enough. Can't say as we'll revisit this one.

Whiskey Sour

• 1.5 oz Scotch whiskey (we used Jack Daniels, actually)
• 1 oz lemon juice (almost done with my frozen Meyer lemon juice:-()
• .5 oz sugar syrup

Shake together over cracked ice. Pour into a tumbler with ice.

This is one of those "classic" drinks with a million different recipes. My little black book, with a gazillion recipes made for the bar, has it simply 1 oz whiskey with sour mix - yech! Michael has a recipe with both lemons and limes. Even what glass to serve it in is controversial, from tumbler to chilled cocktail glass! This particular recipe worked okay, but I can't say as I was wild about it. I guess just not being wild about whiskey in general would explain a lot of that!

We did do a taste test on a couple of whiskeys I have here. Forced to pick a whiskey, I would go with Dewars White Label. That's what I use in my Rusty Nails, and it makes a great one. So we tasted it "neat", side by side with the Jack Daniels. The Dewars was definitely "smoother", but the JD would stand up better in a mixed drink, like the Sour.

Michael was going to make one for his girlfriend, who isn't much of a drinker. I told him they should watch Days of Wine and Roses before embarking down that trail! In the movie, executive Jack Lemon introduces secretary Lee Remick to booze via a Brandy Alexander. Things eventually turn into an alcoholic haze for them both, and only Lemon finally, and barely, pulls out of it. A dark tale of drink, but an excellent movie.

Jack Lemon: You remember how it really was? You and me and booze - a threesome. You and I were a couple of drunks on the sea of booze, and the boat sank. I got hold of something that kept me from going under, and I'm not going to let go of it. Not for you. Not for anyone. If you want to grab on, grab on. But there's just room for you and me - no threesome.

Then we finally got through the level we were playing on Serious Sam 2. It was a tough one, and Michael is a tough game master. He made us do it, and do it, and do it again until we got through it with only 2 lives, at the hardest level. We quit for the night after making it to the next level and watched another episode if Nowhere Man. Sorry to say, but it seems to be going nowhere for us. I'm not sure we'll even try another episode. This one had an interesting twist, where he was kidnapped to a city hidden away, populated by other "Disenfranchised" people like himself. But there was a dark secret that he uncovered. Weird, and ultimately unsatisfying.

Technorati Tags: cocktail+of+the+week cocktails whiskey tequila

Cocktails of the Week - Classic Bourbon and Blue Lagoon

The pictures are so nice in my Fantastic Cocktails and Mixed Drinks magazine, that my daughter Rhiannon likes to look at them. So she picked out some cocktails to try, based upon the pictures and some input from me. And these are the ones she picked.

Classic Bourbon

• 1 1/2 oz bourbon (Maker's Mark used here)
• 1/2 oz lemon (some of my frozen Meyer Lemon Juice)
• 1/2 oz white curaçao
• Dash Benedictine
• Dash bitters

Shake it over cracked ice, and pour it into a chilled cocktail glass.

I found out while reading one of my other new books, that "white curaçao" is actually triple sec or, in this case, Cointreau. I guess any orange-y tasting sweet liquor can be called a "curaçao". And Cointreau is my favorite in this group, so that's what I used. And it made an excellent, and very interesting cocktail. Lots of different flavors in here, but not something that clashed horribly, as can also sometimes happen. No, this was really good and smooth, and one we'll revisit some day, I'm sure.

Blue Lagoon

• 1 oz vodka (Stoli of course)
• 1/2 oz blue curaçao (of course, it is Curaçao of curaçao, not a bottom shelf brand, please!)
• lemonade

Pour the vodka and curaçao over ice in a nice tall glass. Top with lemonade.

I've been using an organic lemonade from Wild Oats, which tastes really good. I also like the Newman's lemonade. This will make an excellent summertime drink. But be sure to add plenty of vodka and curaçao. My first attempt tasted mostly like lemonade, so on the second attempt, I added a touch more curaçao and it came out even better. I'd probably even up the amount more next time. It will make a great sipper while sitting out on the back deck during a hot summer evening. ("Would you offer your throat to the wolf with the red roses?" - sorry, bit of a Meatloaf flashback there:-)

Then Michael and I went back to Serious Sam 2, and didn't finish a single level in over two hours of playing. Yikes, this is a tough level. Of course, maybe the extra cocktail didn't help! And we watched another episode of Nowhere Man. As Michael said, it seems like each episode was written by a completely new set of writers, with almost no continuity. It was a more interesting episode, stand alone, than the previous ones. I guess we'll give it two more shots.

Technorati Tags: cocktail makers+mark curaçao

I Drink Alone

Michael couldn't make it over last night, so I was forced to entertain myself. Oddly enough, I did the same old things - play computer games and try a new drink. I didn't watch anything afterwards, though, so I'm not completely a creature of habit!

For the cocktail, I tried a variation on my favorite "simple" drink, the rum and coke. Normally, here at Chez A-n-A'ze, we use either Bacardi White rum or Captain Morgan's Spiced rum, depending on the mood and sometimes merely which bottle is easier to reach. Much like vodka, certain rums hit that sweet spot between being rotgut and being too fancy to mix, and for us Bacardi and Captain Morgan do the trick. Anything cheaper, and it begins to taste pretty awful. Anything more expensive, and it tends to sweeten up and not really mix well with coke.

The other day I noticed a new kind of Captain Morgan, called Tattoo. It is, I believe, a dark rum (or rums) given the "spiced" Captain Morgan treatment. I thought it would be fun to try, so I picked up a bottle. And so I figured last night would be a good chance to give it a try. My recipe, such as it is: fill a big glass full of ice cubes, pour in about 1/3 rum and top with Coca-Cola Classic (not Pepsi, or any variation on Coke here). Plop a lime wedge in there, drop in a bendy straw, and you're good to go.

And I thought the Tattoo worked very nicely. It wasn't too sweet, although it came close enough that this would probably be something I would start the night with, before swapping to one of the regulars. It stood up very nicely to the Coke and will remain in my liquor cabinet.

For gaming, I've been hooked, as I mentioned earlier, on The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion. It's bloom has faded somewhat, though, as I'm not sure my character is going to work out in the world. And I'm not sure I'm gung ho enough on the game to begin anew with a new character. But still, I've been playing it pretty much any time I have a bit of free time, and it has been pretty fun, so I guess I can't complain yet. I played until about midnight last night, actually getting partially through the first major quest.

Technorati Tags: captain+morgan+spiced+rum baccardi captain+morgan+tattoo the+elder+scrolls oblivion

Cocktails of the Week - Pimm's Reef and Fruit Tingle

A couple of unusual drinks from my Step by Step : Fantastic Cocktails & Mixed Drinks magazine. It is a pretty, full color glossy magazine with lots of drinks and pictures of all of them. No attempt is made at being "classic", as there are plenty of drinks in here I've never heard of, including these two.

Pimm's Reef

• 1 oz Pimm's No. 1
• 1/2 oz Blue Curaçao (my Curaçao of Curaçao of course!)
• 1 oz cream

Put the ingredients all together in a cocktail shaker with cracked ice and shake vigorously. Strain into chilled cocktail glass.

I'm not sure I've ever seen any recipe for Pimm's No. 1 besides a Pimm's Cup, which is probably my favorite summertime drink (just Pimm's & ginger ale). It's a wonderful tasting gin-based "tonic", that really hits the spot. But in this drink, the cream (yes, I used real, light cream this time, not whole milk) overwhelmed pretty much everything, leaving just the barest hint of the Pimm's and the curaçao. Maybe it would work better for my spoiled palate if I used milk instead.

Fruit Tingle

• 1 oz Midori
• 1 oz Cointreau
• 1 oz blue curaçao
• 3 oz pineapple juice
• dash lemon juice
• dash grenadine

Put everything into a blender and blend well (I used my new hand blender, of course). Pour into a large goblet or highball glass. Serve with a straw.

This was a pretty good drink. In fact, it would make a perfect summertime drink - very fruity and refreshing. The problem I had with it was the Midori. I just can't take too much of that cloyingly sweet melon liqueur. However, both Michael and my wife enjoyed it very much, so take that as you want. Another interesting note about this drink is that the picture did not at all match the final product. In the magazine, the drink is a dark purple, while this drink comes out more of a sea-green. I'm not sure what they were taking a picture of, but it wasn't of a Fruit Tingle!

The different color in the picture prompted me to try a couple of variations on it, replacing the Midori, but neither of which were very successful. First I made one using crème de mûre, a blackberry crème. It has a nice purple color to it, but combined with the blue curaçao, it came out more of a purplish-gray. It tasted okay, but not fruity enough.

The second variation was using crème de cassis. The color was a little better, but still looked muddled. And, again, it wasn't really fruity enough, although the fact that I was using the last of the pineapple juice, which I failed to shake strongly enough at the start, meant it was very thick too. I think I may have to try this with Parfait Amour, which is a purple colored curaçao flavored with rose petals and the like.

Technorati Tags: cocktail+of+the+week

Kahlua Drinks of the Week - Dark Knight and Red Star Alexander

Both of the drinks we had last week are from my New Classic Cocktails book, and are the "twist" recipe. And both use Kahlua, which isn't something I'm normally crazy about. Too heavy and cloying for me, as I prefer a sharp, clean drink (like, say, a martini). But these turned out to be excellent drinks, ones I will be sure to revisit in the future.

Dark Knight

• 1 oz. Kahlua
• 1 oz vodka (Stolichnaya)
• 1 oz espresso coffee
• 2 tsp. sugar syrup

Just shake them all together over cracked ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Yummie! I dropped Michael an email, asking him to make up a batch of espresso for this drink, and it was worth the effort. I don't usually do espresso, but he does, so that was handy! It was a twist, obviously enough, on a Black Russian, which is just vodka and Kahlua. This one is better, as there are more liquids in there to cut the Kahlua down to size. In fact, I'd probably add a little more vodka next time, to cut it even more. I like to use Stolichnaya in mixed cocktails, as it is a very good compromise between taste and cost. Much more expensive and it would be a waste to water it down with other mixers, especially something as powerful as Kahlua. But much less and it would wreck the drink.

Red Star Alexander

• 1 oz vodka (Stoli again)
• 1 oz Kahlua
• 1 oz dark creme de cacao
• 1 oz single cream
• grated nutmeg on top

Again, just shake them all up over cracked ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. This was truly a winner! Although I do have to fess up to a couple of changes. First off, I didn't have dark dark creme de cacao, but rather the clear one. No difference there besides color, I don't believe. Of course, it was one of the bottom shelf brands (Arrow), as anything else is impossible to find. But the drink stood up to artificial taste very well.

I also didn't use light cream, but rather whole milk. As a skim milk drinker, I think whole milk is thick enough; not sure I could have done light cream. And Michael said he could do without the nutmeg, although I like it, especially on my eggnog. This one really went down easily. I could see several of them going down and man, the pain the next day would be a brutal reminder of the overdose! This one is a twist on the White Russian, which is basically a Black Russian, with milk or cream. I can envision several variations on this. Maybe adding the milk/cream to the Dark Knight. Or even a splash of an orange curaçao.

We then finished up the next two episodes of Nowhere Man, #2 and #3. They weren't too bad, although the premise in general requires a huge suspension of disbelief, and so far there seems to be too many "Now why the heck would he|they|them do that?" feelings. Like in the 3^rd episode, where for some reason, while on the run from some rogue military unit, they headed back to some old house in the swamp where Thomas Veil had almost been gunned down, only to hide in a hidden cellar. Very weird. But maybe we'll try one more DVD worth.

Technorati Tags: cocktail nowhere+man cocktail+of+the+week

Cocktails of the Week - Golden Tang and Gloom Chaser

Cocktails of the Week - Golden Tang and Gloom Chaser

Now that Michael is back from vacation, we're back on schedule and we have a couple new cocktails. I wanted to try and use my newly acquired creme de mure, but I didn't find anything too interesting. So I went with some orange drinks.

Golden Tang

• 2 oz. vodka (Stolichnaya in this case)
• 1 oz Strega
• 1/2 oz creme de banana (LeRoux - yech!)
• 1/2 oz orange juice

Interesting drink, but ultimately I think doomed due to the LeRoux. I'd like to try the 99 Bananas brand, which probably would taste much better and, again, much less artificial tasting. Another problem was probably that I used freshly squeeze blood oranges, part of our Boston Organics delivery from last week. Not only is it not "golden" or even orange (rather, as you might expect, a pretty deep red), but they are more sour too. So all in all, not a very good mixture.

Gloom Chaser

• 1 oz Grand Marnier
• 1 oz orange curaçao
• 1/2 oz lemon juice
• 1/2 oz grenadine

First off, I screwed this one up and used the Strega again, although it wasn't too bad in the end. I did get to use my fancy Curaçao of Curaçao orange curaçao, so that wasn't too bad. I also used some lemon juice from the freezer. I received so many delicious Meyer Lemons for my birthday (thanks Mom!) that I tried their recommended method for saving them - squeeze the juice and freeze it in an ice cube tray. It seemed to work pretty well. You just have to remember to melt them before you can use them. But a quick few seconds on Defrost in the microwave did the job nicely.

I also tried a new grenadine, called "Giroux", but now that I look more closely, it is certainly not the mythical brand I've been looking for ever since I finished the bottle and foolishly threw it away. No mention at all of pomegranates in the ingredients. And made in NJ, whereas I'm positive my number one brand was a French grenadine. I still have to make my own.

It turned out way red from the picture. But it still tasted pretty good, so I think we may have to try this a few more times.

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Cocktail of the Week - First the Money

This week's cocktail is from my New Classic Cocktails book. This time, it is the "twist" to the classic rum and coke, or, as they call it, a Cuba Libre, so named as the toast used by American soldiers after the Spanish-American War - "Free Cuba"! My friend Mark came down, and the Rum & Coke is a favorite of ours, so I made us up the twist to this classic recipe.

First the Money

• 1 lime
• 1 teaspoon white creme de menthe (I use Marie Brizard brand here)
• crushed ice
• 1oz dark rum (Myers)
• 3/4oz Toussaint coffee liqueur (don't have this, so I used the more popular Kahlua brand)
• Coca-Cola (always Coke here, never Pepsi)

First, you cut the lime into quarters and muddle it, along with the creme de menthe, on the bottom of a tall highball glass (luckily, I received a set of these for my birthday!). To do this, you just plop them into the glass and take your muddler (a small wooden bat; the Lewis Ice Bag comes with a very nice one), and smoosh against the bottom of the glass, being careful not to bust the glass itself. Then fill the glass with crushed ice, add the dark rum and coffee liqueur, stir it up, fill with Coke, add a straw and you're good to go!

I like this drink. It's a nice twist on the standard R&C. Not a complete replacement, mind you, but it works pretty well as a starter. Surprisingly, you can taste all the ingredients, which means you can go pretty lightly with the creme de menthe, as a little of this powerful minty liqueur goes a long way.

As an added bonus, I will throw in the recipe for a very good, more direct, variation on the Cuba Libre:

Cuba Libre Improved

• 1 oz rum (I use Bacardi silver, although Capt. Morgan Spiced Rum is an approved variation)
• 1/2 oz gin (doesn't have to be Bombay Sapphire in this case!)
• 1/4 oz lime juice
• Coca-Cola

This adds a splash of gin, along with lime juice, to the straight rum & coke normally served here at Chez Arnold. Limes can, of course, go in any R&C, but adding juice & gin really give this a true sparkle.

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Cocktails of the Week - Brandy Crusta and Great Barrier Reef

More great findings for my liquor cabinet! I finally found a good Curaçao, replenshed my Maraschino liqueur, got some fresh Meyer Lemons, and a new hand blender. So I had to mix up a couple of cocktails using these.

Brandy Crusta

• 2oz brandy (I used Hennessy Cognac - yeah, I know, what a plebeian!)
• 1/2 oz orange Curaçao
• 1/2 oz Maraschino liqueur
• 1oz lemon juice
• 3 dashes Angostura bitters

Moisten the rim of the cocktail glass with the lemon and dip into a rimmer, like superfine (caster) sugar or any of the fine Stirrings rimmers. Mix the brandy, Curaçao, Maraschino liqueur, lemon juice and bitters in a shaker filled with crushed ice. Strain into the cocktail glass and decorate with a lemon rind.

I was able to use lots of cool new discoveries and gifts in this classic cocktail! I've been on a quest to find a good Curaçao. As I've mentioned before, most available Curaçaos (usually of the blue variety) are pretty horrid tasting. Generic label artificial everything, they make pretty much anything undrinkable. The blue Curaçao is an important weapon in the cocktail mixers arsenal, as it gives drinks a unique color, but if I couldn't find one that didn't taste like chemically hopped-up sugar water, I wasn't going to use it any more. But a web quest uncovered a real version made in Curaçao called, of all things, Curaçao of Curaçao. Many more clicks later, I found the distributor, and found the one local retailer. My first trip to Marty's Liquors didn't turn up any Curaçao, but questioning the manager led me to their Newton store, where I was able to snatch up bottles of their blue and orange (same flavor, different color) Curaçaos.

And what a difference they make! Both of them taste like a stronger Cointreau, with a very pleasant orange aroma and a sharp, sweet orange taste. No artificial aftertaste at all. A "blind" side by side tasting against the Arrow brand was no contest. Even your nose could tell you, as the Curaçao of Curaçao smelled like an orange, while the Arrow smelled like chemical sugar water. I am so very happy to have found this! Check the distributor's web site, Preiss Imports, for a retail outlet near you - it'll be worth the effort and money, trust me!

I also got to use my freshly delivered Meyer Lemons! Yup, my folks tracked down a supplier (Melissa's) and I received a nice big box of Meyer Lemons the other day! And they are as good as advertised. I especially like how easy they are to juice - very plump and soft. The juice is still more lemon than orange, but I like it alot and am looking forward to using them in many of my upcoming cocktails.

And I finally bought a fresh bottle of Maraschino liqueur. I know what you picture when initially reading the name - some sort of red, syrupy production akin to grenadine syrup. But no, it is a colorless liqueur from Italy, made using Maraschino cherries, which are not normally red. In fact, you wouldn't want to know how these red dollops of sweetness are made (it involves soaking in brine and other yucky sounding steps). Maraschino liqueur is very interesting tasting, and an important ingredient in a real Daiquiri. Unfortunately, it is hard to get a top brand here in the States. Like sake, the locals keep the good stuff for themselves, so you have to make due with the brand in the twine called Luxardo, which isn't too bad, I guess.

Great Barrier Reef

• 2 oz gin
• 1 oz Cointreau
• dash bitters
• dash blue Curaçao
• 2 scoops vanilla ice cream

Combine ice, gin, Cointreau, bitters, blue Curaçao and ice cream in a blender; blend well and pour into a nice tall glass.

I was looking for a slightly offbeat blue Curaçao recipe and I found this one in one of my Christmas present cocktail books. In this case, it is a good looking magazine-style cocktail recipe book called Fantastic Cocktails & Mixed Drinks. A nice collection of recipes, with pictures for every drink. It's easy to find blue Curaçao drinks - just flip through the pages and look for a blue drink! In this case, the blue color is muted, unlike some of the more popular blue ones, like a Blue Lagoon, where the blue Curaçao contributes virtually all the color. As an extra added bonus, I got to use another birthday gift, my hefty stainless steel Cuisinart Smart Stick hand blender. After some struggles with the tightly packed ice, it finally started churning things up, and it made a very smooth, great tasting cocktail shake.

After cocktails and playing Serious Sam 2, we watched the first episode of the short lived UPN series, Nowhere Man. I'm not sure how I came across this series - surfing around and read a review on it, and it sounded interesting, so I ordered up the first DVD from Netflix, which contains the first 3 episodes. The story of a man who is erased from society's memory for mysterious reasons, it was interesting enough to keep us watching for the next couple of episodes anyway.

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Cocktails of the Week - Russian Spring Punch and Parisian Spring Punch

We did a couple more champagne cocktails last night. My wife brings home some bottles of the Roederer Estate Anderson Valley Brut sparkling wine every year from the company Christmas party, so we usually have a sufficient supply of champagne around. And it makes a surprisingly good mixer for plenty of interesting cocktails. So here's a couple more, both from my New Classic Cocktails book.

Russian Spring Punch

• ice cubes
• 1/2 oz creme de cassis (Gabriel Boudier)
• 1 oz lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons simple (sugar) syrup
• chilled Champagne (the aforementioned Roederer Estate)
• 2oz Vodka (Stolichnaya)

Fill a sling glass (a nice tall thin one) with crushed ice and add the cassis, lemon juice and simple syrup. Add the vodka and top with Champagne at the same time. By adding them together, you prevent the Champagne from fizzing over the top. You can decorate it with a lemon slice and berries.

I made a couple of discoveries during the week and this cocktail (the "classic" one) used both. The Gabriel Boudier Creme de Cassis is a delicious French cassis, missing from my liquor cabinet for far too long, and I finally found a dusty bottle of it at a New Hampshire liquor store. It goes great over vanilla ice cream too, I have to add! Also, I finally tracked down a bottle of the Nantucket Off-Shore simple syrup, as I'm too darned lazy to make my own. I did find a note in one of my cocktail books to the effect that these days you can use caster (or superfine) sugar rather than going the whole way to simple syrup (which is merely sugar water). But I'm glad I found a local purveyor of the Stirrings products, and appreciate them getting back to me about local sellers. If you want to find someone local to you, be sure to just drop them an email. Their web site is Stirrings.com. I, of course, am too proud and picky to try their mixers, but the Simple Syrup, bitters and rimmers are some great products.

This was a pretty good cocktail, and went down easy. Maybe a few too many ingredients, as it was hard to tell them apart.

Parisian Spring Punch

• 1 1/2 oz Calvados
• 1/2 oz fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 oz vermouth (always Noilly Prat here, as recommended by the book)
• 1 teaspoon fine caster (super-fine or bar) sugar
• chilled Champagne

Put the Calvados, lemon juice, vermouth and caster sugar in a shaker with crushed ice and mix thoroughly. Strain into a sling glass over crushed ice and top with Champagne. Decorate with apple slices.

I have to admit, we didn't use Calvados. I have some, but am not crazy about it. I prefer Lairds Applejack, and so we used that instead. And this "twist" was a much more subtle cocktail the classic, and I liked it alot.

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Cocktails Of the Week - Sidecar and Spiced Sidecar

A couple of repeats this time around. As Michael wasn't around the last time I did the Spiced Sidecar, and I hadn't yet used my Meyer Lemon Juice that I received in my stocking for an official Sidecar, I figured this would be a good time to try them both out again.

And yup, it worked out pretty well. I again used the Williams-Sonoma Lemon Drop Cocktail Froster, and both drinks wer very yummy. Now if only I could get some real Meyer Lemons!

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Cocktails of the week - Rolls Royce and Bacardi Cocktail II

We had a couple of new cocktails last night. I've had a hard time finding inspiration for our cocktails the past couple of weeks. Not sure why; perhaps I haven't had a "hook" to use. I often start with a particular ingredient (say, orange bitters or Chambord or even lemon juice) and try to find something interesting from there, but I haven't even had that for an inspiration. Luckily, with my new collection of cocktail books, I have plenty of places to turn for new recipes.

The first one is from one of my new books, this one by David Biggs called, plainly enough, Classic Cocktails. It is almost as high quality as my previously mentioned book, New Classic Cocktails - heavy glossy paper, beautiful pictures, fold over leafs on both the front and the back covers to keep your page. It's a little bit smaller than NCC, measuring about 7 1/2" by 4 1/2" but still a very nice book. Biggs does a nice thing with the recipes - he just does them in "parts" and lets you figure out exactly how to measure it out. That way, it doesn't matter where you are, just get the ratios right.

Rolls Royce

• 1 part cognac (Hennessy Cognac)
• 1 part Cointreau
• 1 part orange juice

Do the usual - get some crushed ice, pour the ingredients over it, shake well, strain into a chilled cocktail glass. I think Cointreau has to be just about my favorite mixer. In my all time favorite movie, Casablanca, several of the patrons at Rick's order Cointreau straight up, but I'm not sure I'm brave enough for that - a little too sweet, I'd think. But it adds the perfect touch to many of my own classic cocktails, like the Sidecar and the Evan. Unfortunately, I didn't have any oranges to squeeze, so we used Tropicana orange juice, which is at least "Not From Concentrate". But still, this cocktail lacked anything memorable. It went down just fine, but probably nothing we'll go back to.

Then we followed it up with another one from my NCC book, which is fast becoming my favorite cocktail book. This time, it was the twist on the classic Bacardi Cocktail:

Bacardi Cocktail II

• 1 1/2 parts Bacardi 8
• 1 part apple juice
• 2 tsps. Chambord
• 1 tsp. simple syrup

Bacardi 8 is 8 year old rum, and a very fine rum indeed. Chambord is a good raspberry liqueur, and together it made a very nice cocktail. I later tried the Bacardi 8 in my old standby, a Rum and Coke, but found it to be too sweet, something I've discovered is true with many premium rums. I prefer plain ol' Bacardi white or Capt. Morgan Spiced Rum in my R&C.

I still haven't gotten around to making my own simple syrup, which is a very simple concoction of sugar and water. I think it is because I haven't purchased and sterilized a nice bottle to store it in. I have found a cool looking source to buy some simple syrup - Stirrings, by Nantucket Offshore, makes rimmers, mixers and simple syrup. I received an email from them, telling me about some local places that purport to sell their stuff, so I'm going to have to check them out.

After managing to get through two more levels of Serious Sam II, we watched episode 4 from Season three of The Sopranos. Lots of domestic problems in this one!

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Cocktails of the week - Classic Champagne, Classic's Classic, JD Classic

We had a few bottles of champagne left over from New Year's (yeah, we're not quite the same partiers we used to be; but then again, who is?), so I figured we'd try a couple of the champagne cocktails. My new book, New Classic Cocktails, had a number of good sounding ones, so we tried those.

Classic Champagne Cocktail

• 1 sugar cube
• 1-2 dashes of Angostura bitters
• 1 oz brandy (Hennessy again
• 4 oz chilled Champagne (in this case, Roederer Estate Anderson Valley Brut sparkling wine)
• orange twist to decorate

Put the sugar cube into a chilled cocktail or Champagne glass and saturate with the bitters. Add the brandy, then fill the glass with the chilled Champagne. Decorate with the orange twist.

A strange concoction, to be sure. Who would've thought to put a sugar cube into champagne? And soak it in bitters, as well? But it worked very well, and we both enjoyed it. I was postulating that it was invented by someone who wanted to mask the taste of a lower end champagne, but the Roederer Estate held its own pretty well.

The Classic's Classic

• 1 sugar cube
• 2 dashes of Angostura bitters
• 1 oz Grand Marnier
• 4 oz of champagne (same Roederer Estate)

This was the "twist" recipe from the book (remember, it has a classic and a "with a twist" variation). You make it the same way, only it has an orange-y flavor to it. This worked out so well, I decided to twist the twist:

JD Classic

• 1 sugar cube
• 2 dashes of orange bitters
• 1 oz Grand Marnier
• 4 oz of champagne

Make it the same way again, only soak the sugar cube in orange bitters. This would, I think, work out very well. But I got too enthralled with playing Serious Sam II that I forgot to take the champagne out of the freezer where I had put it to chill some more :-( So we ended up with a slush! It actually worked out pretty well, and I think I'd like to try this recipe again. I'm a big fan of orange bitters with the orange-y liqueurs like Grand Marnier and Cointreau.

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Cocktails of the Week - Banana Custard, Lynchburg Lemonade, Spiced Sidecar

I received a bunch of cool cocktail books from Santa this year, so I was anxious to try out a few new recipes. My favorite new book so far is New Classic Cocktails by Allan Gage. Within the glossy pages are beautiful photos and recipes for 80 "classic" cocktails, each combined with one that has a slight (or big!) twist on the classic recipe. Very nice book, with great pictures and interesting recipes, along with flaps on the inside of the covers to hold the book flat.

First up was the remix for the classic Egg Nog:

Banana Custard

• 1 oz brandy (I used a pretty cheap brand, E&J Brandy)
• 1 oz golden rum (in this case, Sea Wynde)
• 1/2 oz banana liqueur (basic Leroux)
• 1 egg
• 1 oz light cream
• 1/2 ripe banana, mashed

Put everything into a shaker with crushed ice and shake well. And then shake some more. And then a little bit more for good measure, to get a good froth worked up. Pour it into a red wine or brandy goblet and decorate with a couple of banana slices.

Well, this didn't work out very well, for any number of reasons. The brandy isn't that good, I forgot how much I disliked this rum, I used pieces of frozen banana which didn't add enough flavor, and I couldn't find the banana liqueur I was looking for (99 Bananas), so I had to settle for a low tier brand name. All in all, it wasn't that good, although there was enough potential in the taste that I still would like to try it again.

Then we went for something completely different. This on is actually the "classic" cocktail part. The twist to this recipe was to use kiwi schnapps. Not sure I've ever seen that in any of my local liquor stores.

Lynchburg Lemonade

• 1 1/2 oz Jack Daniels Tennessee whiskey
• 1 oz Cointreau
• 1 oz lemon juice
• lemonade to top up

Put the JD, Cointreau and lemon juice in a shaker with crushed ice and shake well. Pour into a nice tall highball glass filled with ice cubes. Top with lemonade and decorate with lemon slices.

This one worked quite a bit better. It sure went down smoothly. It promises to be a great summer time, late afternoon drink this summer! I especially like the Wild Oats organic lemonade. It's a great lemonade. Another good one is the Paul Newman brand.

We brought our Lynchburg Lemonade down to the computers and made it through another level of Serious Sam 2, although I was then, and am still, feeling quite a bit under the weather. Rotten head cold that will neither get worse nor get better. And we watched episode 4 from season 3 of the Sopranos. Some pretty wild goings on these days!

Bonus Cocktail!

And as a bonus, I'll throw in a cocktail that I made last night. I was anxious to give this one a try, as it was a very good looking riff on one of my favorite classic cocktails, The Sidecar, and called for one of my favorite rums, Capt. Morgan Spiced Rum.

Spiced Sidecar

• juice of 1/2 a lemon
• 1 oz Captain Morgan Spiced Rum
• 1 oz brandy (this time I used a much better brand, Hennessy Cognac)
• 1 oz Cointreau

Put everything into your cocktail shaker with crushed ice and shake well. Strain into an old fashioned glass filled with ice and decorate with orange twists.

Now this worked out pretty darn well. It takes the basic ingredients of the Sidecar and adds Captain Morgan, which isn't a bad thing at all. I used Meyer Lemon Juice from a cool bottle of it I got from Santa. I'm still looking for fresh Meyer lemons, but this will do for now. I also put it into a chilled cocktail glass rimmed with Lemon Drop Rimmer (what a smart Santa!), which worked out pretty well, I thought.

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Cocktail of the Week - Clover Club

Feeling a little frazzled because of the holidays, I reached back for another old classic, a cocktail I've been making and enjoying for quite some time. It's a bit of a fern bar drink, but at least it has gin in it, so how bad could it be? Well, it does use raw egg, a bit of ano-no these days, but still the Clover Club looks good and tastes great!

Clover Club

• 1 1/2 oz gin (Bombay Sapphire here of course)
• 1/4 oz grenadine (Fee Brothers, as I still haven't gotten around to making my own!)
• 3/4 oz lemon juice
• egg white from one egg

Yup, it's true - you use raw egg white. Pour the gin, grenadine and lemon juice over ice. Crack an egg in half and strain the egg white out with using the shell. It's pretty easy actually. Shake vigorously, at least until your hand freezes a couple of times. Pour it out into nicely frosted cocktail glasses. If you're making two of them, carefully split the first couple of pours so everyone gets the same amount of the cool froth. It's a great looking drink; I should've taken a picture. A nice blush red, with a white foam on top. And it tastes really good - trust me, you won't even notice the egg white.

We then played 3 hours or so of Serious Sam 2, the sequel to our all time favorite co-op game. This one isn't too bad, but it's missing something. It's still early and it seems to be getting better, so we'll give it some more time.

Then we watched the third episode of the third season of The Sopranos. There seem to be some more interesting story lines coming along, so it is definitely picking up steam.

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Drinks of the week - Macaroon and Rusty Nail

Well, it was cocktail and computer games again last night. I will often flip through my cocktail books if the drinks of the week from Drinksmixer.com are particularly horrid, as they have been recently. I mean, with names like Kamakazie (sic) Razzberry and Pink Panties, I was hesitant to even look at the ingredients for this week's drinks! So I pulled out one of my most trusted books and we tried the:

Macaroon

• 3 oz. vodka (in this case, Stolichnaya)
• 1/2 oz. chocolate liqueur (Godiva's)
• 1/2 oz. Amaretto

I figured on trying a martini from one of my two my favorite martini books, The Martini Book, a skinny little hardcover book that has lots of cool recipes, great pictures and pithy jokes, notes and sayings, like:

A slightly tipsy guest at a party approaches
the host and asks, "Do lemons have legs?"
"Lemons with legs?
You must be completely gone!," replies the host.
"Oh dear," sighs the guest,
"I'm afraid I just squeezed your canary
into my martini!"

This cocktail was a little overwhelming, but I can't really fault the recipe just yet. I was shocked to find that I didn't have any Amaretto in the cabinet, so I was forced to improvise. My first impulse (and the better one I think, in retrospect) was to use Frangelico, a wonderfully nutty (hazelnut) liqueur. But instead I tried Tuaca, a subtler vanilla/citrus liqueur, and I don't think it had enough umph to stand up to the overpowering chocolate liqueur. I'd be willing to try it again in awhile, both with Amaretto and Frangelico, as they have enough flavor to stand up to the chocolate bully.

I have to get a new copy of my Berk Martini Book, as we dried some artwork on top of it and lots of glitter glue (oh the horror!) dripped on it and now many of the pages stick together. The other martini book I really enjoy is Shaken Not Stirred, a wonderful little book with a gazillion "martini" recipes in it from bars all over the world. Lots and lots of interesting ones to try out!

After swimming in the shallow end of playful martinis, we moved on to a real classic:

Rusty Nail

• 1 1/2 oz. Scotch (I prefer Dewar's White Label)
• 1/2 Drambuie

For this one, you first pour the Scotch over some large, clean ice in a nice clear, "Old Fashioned" glass, which is the short one. I have some cool square ones that I like alot. After pouring out the requisite amount of Scotch, carefully add the Drambuie to it. Add a swizzle stick and you're good to go. And real classic cocktail, and one I enjoy at any time.

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Cocktail of the Week - Vodka Martini

As I mentioned last week, I bought a couple of new vodkas (Rain and Tito's Handmade) and in order to give them a real test, I decided to make a real classic - an extra extra extra dry Martini. I'm much more of a Bombay Sapphire gin man, but I figure a martini is the best way to "taste" vodka. Here's my long evolved process on making the perfect martini:

1. Most importantly, you need cold ingredients. This is where most bars fail. Store your vodka and gin in the freezer. Store your vermouth in the refrigerator (it's a wine, so it will freeze up solid if you put it in the freezer). You don't necessarily need to store your cocktail glasses in the freezer, although I do. If you put them in the ice tray about a half hour before you need them, you'll have nicely frosted glasses.
2. Fresh, perfectly cracked, ice. Not ice that's been sitting in your freezer for months, slowly desiccating away, absorbing strange odors. And you need it cracked just the right size. Too big, and it won't chill things nicely. Too small, and it will water down your drink. Up until recently, I found the best tool for doing this was the Lewis Ice Bag. You put ice cubes in the heavy canvas bag, give it a few whacks with the wooden club, and you have correctly sized ice pieces. You can easily control how big or small the pieces are, just by how many times you whack it. It comes in a nice container, with some classic cocktail recipes, including the martini one I now use. Electric ice crushers don't work very well, as they tend to make the ice chips too small - more like slush than ice cubes, which means they melt too rapidly. But now I use the ice machine in our new refrigerator, which makes some pretty good crushed ice. Maybe a tad too small, but servicable nonetheless for making the perfect martini.
3. Top shelf ingredients. Because there is nothing masking the taste of the liquor in a martini, you have to use great booze. We're a Bombay Sapphire family here. There just isn't enough taste to regular vodka to make it all that interesting as a martini. Tanqueray is a solid gin, especially the No. Ten label. However, gin seems to be affecting us a little more and for a little longer, as we get older, so moderation is the key here. Vodka doesn't seem to have this effect on us, so it has become a preferred mixer. I'm not nearly as wedded to a premium vodka brand as I am to Sapphire as a gin. We've done some taste testings in the past, and while you could taste some differences, it was more that - a difference - and not something that would create a preference either way. I've enjoyed all the big names in premium vodkas, like Belevedre, Grey Goose (what is it with these liquor web sites? Addicted to Flash and asking a stupid question about how old you are, like they are pron peddlers or something), and the like. I also like Three Olives Vodka, for something that tastes great and is a good price.
4. The vermouth you use is amazingly important, despite the fact the the modern martini uses very very little (the Winston Churchill martini recipe calls for gin in a cocktail glass, and then look at a bottle of vermouth:-). This is especially true for a vodka martini, with the (dry!) vermouth adding most if not all of the flavor. I'm a Noilly Prat man myself. Remember, vermouth is a wine, so you need to keep it cold but it can also get old. Don't let it sit around in your refrigerator!
5. Okay, now that you have your ingredients, it is time to make the drink. Put the perfectly cracked ice pieces into your cocktail shaker. I love to collect cocktail shakers, but I really only use the standard stainless steel tall cup, topped with a glass mug. Like James Bond, I like my martinis shaken not stirred. I used to stir it, but then I tried this recipe from the Lewis Ice Bag and have been shaking it ever since. Pour your cold vermouth into the shaker, give it a couple of vigorous shakes and then strain out all the vermouth you can get out, leaving just coated ice in there. That'll be plenty of vermouth.
6. Now add your vodka or gin that you've pulled from the freezer. Don't be stingy, add plenty, because you have nice big cocktail glasses, chilling in the freezer right? Now shake it again, until your hand gets too cold to hold the steel cup. Set it aside to let it rest.
7. While the martini is resting in the cocktail shaker, get out your olives. I don't like fancy olives. Give me a nice giant, pimento-stuffed green olive any day. All the other kinds add more flavors I don't want in my martini - anchovy, pepperoncini, etc. I have to admit, we did try almond-stuff olives last night. I figured the almonds wouldn't add flavor to the drink anyway. I still prefer standard ones. Put the olives (don't be stingy here either!) on a paper towel and squeeze. Try to dry them off. Again, you don't want olive brine to ruin your perfect martini, do you? While some like a "dirty" martini, where you actually add extra brine on purpose, the very idea of mangling a perfect cocktail like this makes my skin crawl. Stick the olives on a colorful toothpick and set them aside.
8. Take your chilled cocktail glasses out of the freezer. You want a clear glass, so you can enjoy the transparent perfection of your creation. Don't hide it behind a colored cocktail glass please! Now strain your martini into the cocktail glasses. Don't worry about a few ice chips getting in there; that just adds to the beauty of the whole thing.
9. Gently place your toothpick of olives into your cocktail glass and bask in the perfection that is a martini. Take a sip. It should almost take your breath away, even a vodka one. Freezing cold on the tongue, yet burning down the throat. Ahhhh, I can taste it now!

So that's my process for making the perfect martini. And I've never gotten any complaints, either! The main thing is to use cold ingredients, the right vermouth and to make it dry.

The Rain vodka martini was amazingly smooth. Too smooth perhaps, going so far as to have almost no character at all, even for a vodka martini. The drinking was good, though. The almonds in the olives were pretty bitter, but thankfully didn't add any taste to the martini.

The martinis made from Tito's Handmade Vodka had all the character you could possibly hope for from a vodka martini. There was a fullness on the palate that I don't remember from other vodkas. I'm looking forward to trying another martini from Texas again real soon.

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Cocktail of the Week - Rain Drop

I had to do my own thing for a cocktail "party" this week, as my friend Michael was away on a family trip and my wife Gabrielle was too busy. I had picked up a couple of "premium" vodkas during the week - Tito's Handmade Vodka (an annoying, Flash-only site) and Rain Vodka (site under construction), so I decided to try and make something with one of them. I didn't like the recipes on the Tito's web site, so I tried the one that came with the Rain vodka:

Rain Drop

• 3 oz. RAIN vodka
• 2 oz Blue Curacao
• 2 tsp superfine (or bar) sugar
• 1/2 a lemon (sic) and its juice

One problem with vodka is that pretty much any mix will completely overpower nearly tasteless vodka. And Blue Curacao, to be honest, is a pretty dreadful cocktail mix. I'm sure there's probably a "premium" brand that actually tastes like the orange liqueur it is supposed to be, but all you ever find in the stores are the bottom shelf brands like Leroux, Mr. Boston and Arrow (the one I have). And its really overpowering and artificial tasting, so I'm not sure why I did this. I did see, after a Google search, an interesting sounding premium brand called Newport Blue Curacau that sounds like they might even make it with real ingredients, but unfortunately I don't see a distributor anwywhere in New England. I'll have to continue my search for a better tasting Curacau.

But it sure does look purty, as long as you don't actually taste it. It tastes okay at the start, but as Gabrielle said, the finish is awful, due to the artificial taste of the Blue Curacau. For my second attempt, I added more lemon juice and only enough Curacau to give it the cool blue look, and it was much more palatable. And yes, the recipe did say "1/2 a lemon", so I threw the lemon right into the cocktail shaker. I don't see why not, and it worked out fine.

I suppose I probably should have just made a vodka martini. I'm not a big fan of vodka martinis, much preferring to use Bombay Sapphire (another damned Flash page) and just the barest hint of Noilly Prat dry vermouth. But that might be the only way, besides as a shooter, that you can actually taste vodka. I did find an interesting looking site with lots of cool martini accessories, Swank Martini Company. You can see my favorite martini glass in the picture. It's got a big bowl, easy to handle, fits nicely into the door shelf of most freezers and has a nice heft to it. And, most importantly, it is clear. Colored martini glasses don't make much sense to me, as you either want to see the crystal clear perfection of a great martini or you want to see the neat color of your latest cocktail creation. But I'll have to check this site out for other cocktail glasses.

For entertainment, I watched Sideways. It was a fun movie even if, like most Alexander Payne movies, there were very few likable characters. But it was an enjoyable couple of hours anyway, despite having our dog Spenser curled up next to me. His close encounter of the skunk kind the other night has left him with a nose-curdling smell, despite it not being a direct hit and him getting a full groomer's treatment.

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Cocktail of the week - Cosmopolitan

Okay, so we went boring last night for our cocktail choice. We drank a classic fern bar cocktail, the Cosmopolitan:

Cosmopolitan

• 2 oz. Vodka (I used Three Olives tonight)
• 2 oz. cranberry juice
• 1 oz. lime juice
• 3/4 oz. Cointreau

Just shake over cracked ice, strain and serve. Not a real challenging drink, in any way; I generally prefer cocktails with a little more character and personality, but it did the job just fine. I also used a slightly different recipe, as found in The Ultimate Book of Cocktails, a big, lavish cocktail book I picked up at remainder for about US$4. Very cool book, well worth the price. I've seen it in a small version as well. Its recipe:

• 1 1/2 oz Vodka
• 1 oz Cointreau
• 1 oz cranberry juice
• 1/2 oz lime juice

So it steps down the tartness and ratchets up the sweetness, but to be honest, I didn't taste too much of a difference. Generally not a cocktail I make much, but still a solid standby.

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Cocktail of the Week - Jack Rose

The cocktail of the week is yet another classic cocktail. It is an especially appealing Christmas time drink, looking very cheery:

Jack Rose

• 1 1/2 oz. Applejack
• 1 oz. freshly squeezed lime juice
• 1/2 oz. grenadine syrup

Just mix it all together in lightly crushed ice, and strain into chilled cocktail glass, decorating with a lime slice. Now you have a very pretty red and green drink. I should've taken a snapshot of our drinks, as they came out very nice.

Some notes on this very delicious cocktail:

• You can make it with any apple brandy, including Calvados, a French apple-based brandy. But I find the Lairds to add just that right touch of sweetness and stick with that.
• You can make it with lemon juice as well, just shrink the amount to 1/2 oz. But the lime juice version tastes and looks best to me.
• Don't use Rose's Grenadine. It's truly awful. I had a very delicious French (I think) grenadine syrup, but unfortunately I didn't keep track of the brand and I've been on a fruitless (ah!) quest for it ever since the bottle ran dry. My current favorite is the Fee Brothers brand, but it is still just a pale imitation. But please, do try to find some other brand besides Rose's. It'll ruin this wonderful drink. It'll require some work, but trust me, it is worth it.

We also started season three of The Sopranos. The season opener lack a strong hook, which we both found odd.

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Cocktails of the week - Jolly Rancher and Evan

We had two different cocktails last night. First up is one from the Pick of the Week list found on DrinksMixer.com. I used to check out the drinks at Cocktail, but that site has fallen into disrepair. It's really unfortunate, because the writing was fun, and The Alchemist told some great bartending stories, recipes and hints. Each week, there would be a new cocktail to try, with suggested recipes for accompanying food and the works, but no longer. Oh well....

So now I check out DrinksMixer. The proposed drinks (there are three cocktails each week) are not quite as sophisticated, and there is little or no accompanying commentary, but it's a push into a new cocktail sometimes, so it's worth a visit. The drinks are often not that interesting, like two of them this week are for some kind of frozen mudslide thing and another concoction with 5 different liquors, topped with 7-Up - yech! But the first one in the list I decided to try, and Michael is always willing to join in.

The Jolly Rancher

• 2 oz. Vodka (Three Olives)
• 1 oz Midori
• cranberry juice

It's a little sweet and the color is unappetizing (a light brown), but it went down smoothly. Midori is a typical ingredient in many of the DrinksMixer cocktails, and to me is indicative of its lack of sophistication. It is a vibrant green liqueur, tasting of sweet melons and tends to overpower most cocktails. I use it sparingly, but it worked pretty well in this cocktail. But I could only take one of them, so we moved on to another one, this one a classic from the Cocktail site, suggested in the Cosmopolitan recipe (which again, given the disarray of the Cocktail site, you can't get to any more), where they said that it was a fine standby, but why not choose other, more modern cocktails, like the Lemon Drop, Petit Zinc and the one we tried:

The Evan

• 2 oz. Citrus Vodka (Ketel One)
• 1 oz. Cointreau
• 1 oz. fresh squeezed lemon juice
• splash of cranberry juice

This is a really good cocktail, one of my favorites. I like the sweet and sour cocktails that use lemon juice and Cointreau, and this one is very pleasing to the palate, and not nearly as overpowering as The Jolly Rancher. I highly recommend it.

After playing an XBox game for a few hours, we wrapped up the night with the season 2 Sopranos finale. There were a few too many dream sequences in it for me. I really don't like reading or watching dreams - they are often licenses for excess to the author or filmmaker. They get to do all kinds of symbolic voodoo that never seems to resonate with me, and instead comes off as awkward or just plain dumb. These weren't too much better, I'm afraid, but so far, The Sopranos on DVD has been a real winner.

Here's an interesting bit of foodlore I just came across while reading the Cocktail entry for The Evan - they like to make their own citrus vodka by steeping 100 proof vodka in lemon rinds, and they like to use the rinds of Meyer Lemons, which are a variety I've never heard of. I'm going to have to see if I can find a source here in the Northeast for these lemon/tangerine crosses.

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Drink of the Week - Sidecar

The drink of the week this week is a real classic - The Sidecar:

• 1 1/2 oz cognac
• 3/4 oz freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 3/4 oz Cointreau

The proportions are perfect - 2 to 1 to 1. And then you rim the glasses with superfine "bar" sugar by rubbing the rims with rind of the freshly squeezed lemon and carefully rolling the glass in a nice big mound of the sugar. A simply delectible combustible - very drinkable and right up there with the martini as members of the cocktail royalty.

A nice variation on the Sidecar theme is to add a splash of Pernod to it. While the "official" recipe I've seen for this concoction, called a Nicky Finn, whittles down the proportions to a 1 to 1 to 1, I like to just make a classic Sidecar and add the licorice-like, absinthe cousin, kick to it that Pernod gives it.

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Drink of the week

The Perfect Jonathan

• 1.5oz Vodka


• 3oz Orange Juice


• .5oz Grand Marnier


• dash of orange bitters

I made two different variations on this theme, by trying a couple of Grand Marnier substitutes. First we tried one with Galliano and then one with its more obscure cousin, Strega. I've always found Galliano to be too bitter and overpowering, even if it does come in a very nice bottle. But I can highly recommend Strega. It's more subtle and slightly sweeter and made for an excellent Perfect Jonathan.

As for the orange bitters, you'll find it is used in some very good cocktail recipes, but you probably won't find it on your local liquor store shelf. I get my supply of bitters and other cocktail mixers from Fee Brothers. They make an excellent Angostura (or classic) bitters, as well as the orange (you can also get peach and mint bitters). Their cordial syrups are also highly recommended. Their Grenadine is an excellent version, much better than the standard one you usually see on your store shelves. I still haven't found the great French Grenadine I bought a few years ago, and unfortunately, I don't remember the name. You'd be surprised at what a diference a good grenadine syrup makes.

An interesting note - Fee Brothers must ship to bars and the like more than to just folks like myself, because they send it to you Net 30! In other words, they send you the product with an enclosed bill and you send them a check back. Now that's Old Fashioned!

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