Need a pick-me-up to go with all those Thanksgiving leftovers? Try this — utterly holiday appropriate — little concoction.
The Turkey Trot
1 1/4 oz. bourbon
3/4 oz. cranberry juice
1/4 oz. Licor 43
Shake with ice in a cocktail shaker, strain into a cocktail glass, and garnish with a cranberry.
Add more bourbon for something a little less sweet, more stout.
Photo: Eric Meyerson.
There are as many recipes for Cosmos on the web as there are people to drink them. Here’s my take on creating a Cosmo that goes down easy and allows for plenty of creative tinkering if you like. SPOILER: Secret ingredients ahead!
Drinkhacker’s Perfect Cosmopolitan
1 1/4 oz. vodka
1 oz. cranberry juice
1/2 oz. triple sec
1/2 oz. fresh lime juice (fresh is essential)
1/4 oz. Chambord
Shake all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice. Strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a cranberry, lemon or lime twist, or nothing at all.
Chambord makes the drink: A splash of raspberry is just what you need to cut through that sometimes harsh cranberry flavor with some sweetness, plus it keeps the pinkness in the drink. Try it and I promise you’ll get no complaints!
If you want to have fun with it, substitute whatever you’d like for the vodka, particularly any of the fruit-flavored vodkas. Orange vodka is a common choice, but blueberry works well, too. (The photo shows one I made with 267 Vodka Cranberry, as previously reviewed.)
Sorry, chocolate haters, here’s another nice little dessert drink.
The Chocolate Brownie
1 oz. vodka
1 oz. chocolate liqueur (I use Godiva)
1/2 oz. walnut liqueur (I use Nocello)
1/4 oz. Licor 43
1/4 oz. butterscotch liqueur
Add all ingredients with ice to a cocktail shaker, strain into a coupe glass.
Tastes just like a brownie. You’ve got chocolate, walnuts, vanilla, and a little butterscotch kick.
If you haven’t tried St. Germain’s Elderflower liqueur yet, run, don’t walk, to your nearest liquor store and buy a bottle. Or rather, ask them to order you a bottle, because chances are it won’t be on hand. I lucked out and found some last week and have been enjoying experimental cocktails with it ever since. It’s got a strong taste of lychee, but also peach, apricot, and other fruits plus herbal notes, which makes it more intriguing than Soho lychee liqueur.
Here’s my favorite concoction to date:
Grand Elderflower Cocktail
2 oz. vodka
1 oz. St. Germain elderflower liqueur
1/2 oz. dry vermouth
dash Grand Marnier
Shake with ice in a cocktail shaker. Strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with an orange wheel.
Be careful. These go down easy but will knock you out in short order.
To make a simple Elderflower Martini just mix 2 oz. vodka with 1 oz. St. Germain and shake. Simple, and also delicious.
Here’s a fun holiday cocktail, courtesy of Blue Ice Vodka, which I’ll be reviewing in the near future.
Pumpkin Pie Martini
1 oz. vodka
1/4 oz. Da Vinci Pumpkin Pie Syrup
Rim a cocktail glass with cinnamon sugar. Shake ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice and strain into glass. Garnish with an orange wheel.
I forgot the garnish. Also, you can find the Pumpkin Pie Syrup at Barista Pro Shop.
The flavor is very clean, not chemically, and quite a lot like pumpkin pie. Don’t skip the cinnamon sugar rim; it really makes the cocktail!
OK, let’s say you want to make something vaguely tropical, but you don’t have any tropical juices, coconut cream, or little umbrellas. Here’s a quick and dirty way to get a little tropical flavor into a glass with stuff you have on the shelf.
The Ghetto Mai Tai
1 oz. white rum
1 oz. dark rum (or spiced rum)
splash Malibu (if you have it)
ginger ale
Build over a Collins glass filled with ice. Add rums, then fill with ginger ale. Garnish with whatever’s handy.
I tossed some marinated pineapple in for my garnish (you can sort-of see them at the bottom of the glass). You can use maraschino cherries, an orange wedge, lemon, lime, or any other fruit, to be honest. Maybe drop in a dash of grenadine for color. Sub in Soho lychee, Chambord, Alize, or Maraschino liqueur for the Malibu, if you like. Knock yourself out. No, it won’t get you to Hawaii, but at least it’ll get you to Haiti.
My wife was having heartburn so I mixed up this as a curative: Ginger ale, bitters, and aromatics are all good for the stomach. The other stuff just tastes good.
The (Indian) Summer Tonic
1 oz. gin
3/4 oz. creme de cassis
1/2 oz. melon liquer (or Midori)
2 dashes orange bitters
ginger ale
Add the first four ingredients to a tall highball glass over ice, fill with ginger ale. Stir to blend or leave it separated for a nifty color effect. Garnish with an orange wedge or wheel. (I used a Grand Marnier-soaked orange slice.)
Use ginger beer for a stronger spice kick.
The drink is exceptionally light and is perfect for afternoons and hotter days. It’s also great for your less tipsy friends who don’t want something too alcoholic, but it’s also not super sweet like so many “girly” drinks. Don’t be afraid of the Midori, people.
As part of my blueberry kick, and largely by happenstance, the good folks at Beefeater sent along some recipes for what they’re trying to kick off as “sharp’ners,” defined as “a London term for a quick, social drink that allows friends to connect without committing an entire evening.” The idea is that “getting a drink” has come to mean having four or five drinks and getting smashed out of your gourd. With a sharp’ner, you’re meant to have just one and then split for the door, because you have a life apart from your drunk friends.
This one caught my eye and I tried it out for you:
The B.B.C. (Beefeater, Blueberi, Cranberry)
2 parts Beefeater Gin
1 part Stoli Blueberi
3 parts Cranberry Juice
Pour ingredients into a shaker filled with ice. Shake vigorously and strain into martini glass. Garnish with a lime twist.
I had no limes and no Beefeater (I used Plymouth), and used a cranberry-pomegranate juice blend, but the whole affair came together nicely. It’s fairly sweet but not too sweet, and indeed you really feel like you’ve had “enough” after one. Though I do not mean that in a bad way at all. It’s sharp!
You can add your name to Beefeater’s petition to have dictionaries recognize the new term if you’d care to at www.houseofbeefeater.com.
Recently I read that the blueberry was the healthiest of all fruits. Number one, baby! So I immediately set my mind to thinking about cocktails to take advantage of the humble berry of blue. It’s harder than you’d think; blueberry doesn’t play well with others. Eventually I hit on it. Here’s my concoction, and darned if it isn’t a smooth, sweet sensation.
The Violet Blue
2 oz. blueberry vodka (such as Stoli Blueberi)
1/2 oz. Soho lychee liqueur
1/4 oz. Parfait Amour (Marie Brizard makes a fine one)
Shake with lots of ice in a cocktail shaker and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a fresh blueberry.
The trick is not to totally overpower the blueberry with the lychee, so feel free to tone down the Soho to taste. My wife downed one of these in a minute flat, and although I’ve got less of a sweet tooth than she does, I’m really enjoying this too. Did I mention it’s got blueberry in it (however minimal)? That means it’s healthy, people! Healthy! Plus, the lightly violet, shimmering look to the cocktail (courtesy of the inimitable Parfait Amour) makes it look way more sophisticated than, say, a Cosmo. Check the picture if you don’t believe me.
Note, the Stoli people had their own little contest to come up with a good use for their vodka. Some of the submitted recipes are quite intriguing (my favorite: Put 4 cups ice in blender. Add whole bottle of Stoli Blueberi. Blend until slushy. Serves one…). Check out the winners here.
About the name: Violet Blue is a local writer and “sex educator” here in San Francisco. I stole her moniker for the drink primarily because of the applicability of the two colors to it… but as with Ms. Blue, and as with all my concoctions, this is also strictly for the over 21 set.
By now you know the saga of Tay Zonday’s “Chocolate Rain.” Well, the best way to listen to “Chocolate Rain” is to have at least two of these under your belt beforehand.
This recipe didn’t take much experimentation and it came out great. Plus, it’s appropriate for either an aperitif or a dessert drink.
The Chocolate Rain
1 1/2 oz. bourbon
3/4 oz. chocolate liqueur (I use Godiva’s)
1/4 oz. Licor 43
Shake in a cocktail shaker with ice. Strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with brandied raspberries. Maraschino cherries will work, too.
My wife, who’s not a whiskey drinker, but is most certainly a chocolate drinker, even enjoys it. Give it a spin.
Licor 43, by the way, is a Spanish liqueur with a pronounced vanilla flavor. It works perfectly with chocolate-based drinks and very well with coffee liqueurs as well. Many liquor stores are stocking it now, and it’s well worth grabbing a bottle of if you’re trying to build up a home bar.
