But the weather just isn’t cooperating! Over the past week, I’ve had three days that look like fall, and one that could almost pass for early spring! And if you’re like me, the seasonal uncertainty is very destabilizing. Not just in your cocktail choices, I’m sure, but still…

What to do? I’ll admit, I didn’t know either. And then I flipped through my notes, and came upon this old standard… made notable if only for its name (which, apocryphally, is a shortening of “suffering bar steward.”) I’ve tried to do my own research to find the origin of this drink. No luck. Not in my late-1800s-era bartending handbook by Henry Craddock, or my 1940s-era Burke handbook, or the 1950s bartending book from Dave Embury, or the Playboy bartending book, or the 1981 Mr. Boston bar book.

So what is this drink, and where did I even hear of it? To answer the latter question first, I think it was a line of dialogue from a terrible episode of forgettable late-90s television. The former, I would never have found without the Internet. But eventually, I found several sources pointing to a clip from a 1959 New York Times interview with Joe Scialom. Regrettably, their archive isn’t completely electronic and free, so I can’t confirm it (at least, not without surrendering a good portion of my pay for this post):

“When liquor was short during the war, he had to concoct “something to quench the boys’ thirst.” He combined equal parts gin and brandy with a dash of Angostura bitters, a teaspoon of Rose’s lime juice, and English ginger ale. He garnished the drink with a sprig of fresh mint, a slice of orange and a cucumber peel. The bartender advised Americans to substitute ginger beer for the ginger ale because the British version of the soft drink is more heavily seasoned with ginger than ours.”

So… the Suffering Bastard:

• 1 oz. brandy
• 1 oz. gin
• 1 dash Angostura bitters
• 1/4 oz. Rose’s lime juice (if a more tart drink is desired, substitute juice of 1/4 lime)
• 4 oz. ginger beer (ginger ale will do in a pinch, but your Suffering Bastard will have too much sweet, and not enough spice.)

Combine gin, brandy, bitters, and lime juice in a glass. Stir to combine, then fill with ginger beer. Garnish? Mint, orange, and cucumber peel are suggested, but a lime would work just as well. 

In addition to keeping it simple, I’m never caught with my pants down when the bartender comes up and asks what I’ll have. One cannot always be prepared, and one needs to be quick on their feet when it comes to these sorts of decisions, lest one be viewed as a dolt or worse by their company. This will be on the final, so pay attention.

As I was saying, I’m not much into big mixed drinks as I find them distasteful. There has been a perpetual exception for the past few weeks, however, and that is the Long Island Iced Tea. Made with vodka, gin, tequila, rum, triple sec, sour mix, and Coke, this is both one of the most complex drinks one can make as well as one of the simplest. It’s quite simple to remember all the ingredients, and it’s not like it matters, anyway. This is simply a delightful-tasting way to get silly.

When going out to various establishments, you may be tempted to try their various takes on the Long Island. This can be a fun experiment in certain places – particularly those which make it a habit out of crafting unusual and creative beverages. I would caution against this, however, in chain restaurants and bars, which tend to throw expensive ingredients into the mix in an effort to jack up the price, while disregarding the matter of taste, which is what the drink is supposed to bring to the table anyway.

So when a drink is advertised with Grey Goose vodka, know that you can use Ketel One and be fine. When Patron is parroted in the description, opt for 1800 instead. Long story short, you can get a great tasting drink cheaper, and it will go down all the same. And if you’re getting an extremely mixed drink like a Long Island, the kind of booze you add to it won’t matter much anyway.

You probably already have a fairly strong opinion on the Bloody Mary — either you love it, or you can’t stand it. Some people find the salty, spicy bite from the drink wakes up a bleary palate after a too-short night of boozy sleep. (Personally, I’m not sure it works any better than a strong cup of coffee.) Some people feel like the tomato juice, along with the celery garnish, make the Bloody Mary almost healthy, and thus a good way to “equal out” all the pain imbibed against the body the previous night. Of course, the alcohol helps. Hair of the dog and whatnot. (Though you could get that just as easily from a mimosa, or an Irish coffee, or even a beer.)

Now, I can’t address whether or not a Bloody Mary is your cup of tea, or whether it’s the best way to treat your hangover (or whether you should even be contemplating the “best” way to treat a hangover — really, how often do you get that banged up?) But hangover or no, if you’re planning on serving a holiday brunch (or just a simple breakfast for houseguests who would be amenable to drinks before noon), you’ve got a perfect occasion to serve up a bunch of these. They’re tasty, appropriately festive, and whether or not they actually help salve your alcohol-inflicted wounds, the ritual is somewhat comforting.

This recipe is fairly basic, and can be altered however you’d like. I would caution against throwing the entire kitchen sink into your Bloody Mary, though. The first bar I worked at made Bloody Marys with a dash each of A1 steak sauce, barbecue sauce, Worcestershire sauce, cayenne, Tabasco, lemon juce, orange juice, Rose’s lime juice, horseradish, salt, and pepper. The process looked great, and customers liked all that attention their drinks received, but at the end of the day, what’s the point of all those redundant flavors?

Bloody Mary

• 1.5 oz. vodka
• 4 oz. tomato juice
• 1/2 tsp. celery salt
• 1 tsp. horseradish
• 1/2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce (3-4 dashes)
• Juice from 1/4 lemon
• 1/2 tsp. Tabasco sauce (you can substitute a similar vinegar-based hot sauce, but something like Sriracha or a darker chili-based sauce wouldn’t have the right acidic kick.)
• 1/2 oz. orange juice

I decided that because I was at a sushi place that it would be apropos to order something with Japanese flair. The night wasn’t as cold as the nights prior, so I opted for something cool and refreshing. A saketini would do just the trick.

A saketini is really any kind of drink you can come up with that involves sake and a cocktail glass. Sake, of course, being that benevolent rice spirit from Japan which is typically served hot, although being served cold is not unheard of – especially when used in a martini. A traditional saketini recipe calls for 2 and a half ounces of gin, with a quarter of an ounce of sake, along with an olive for garnish. I think this is stupid.

What’s the purpose of making a saketini if all you’re going to be tasting is gin? Thankfully, Hokka Hokka got it right. They blended roughly one and a half ounces each of vodka and sake and garnished it with a cucumber. I must say, this was one fantastic drink. I wonder, though, if you’re going to garnish it with a cucumber, wouldn’t it be more appropriate to be crafting the drink with a little Hendrick’s gin? No matter. It was fantastic as it was.

Don’t be afraid to get your feet wet on this one, by the way. There are many brands of sake to choose from, and many of them are very affordable. Two of the most popular in the United States are Gekkeikan and Hakutsuru respectively. Have a look around at your local mart and ask for advice. Typically you’ll find an employee who can impart on you his sake wisdom. Just don’t go calling him sensei – that would be weird.

- Ian Fleming, Casino Royale

James Bond (whose tastes ranged much more widely than the vodka martinis most associate with him) was right – an expensive mixer is the best way to perk up a cheap drink. The inverse is also true, though. Consider this a warning. Cheap mixers can ruin the best intentions and the finest liquors. Your $15 cosmo, even if it’s mixed with premium liquors like Ketel One and Cointreau, will only taste as good as the splash of cranberry juice that lends it its color.

This can be a serious problem, since many bars these days pour reconstituted cranberry juice from a soda gun – and even the bars that splurge on the bottled stuff often buy “cranberry juice cocktail”, a sweetened version of cranberry juice spiked with water, sugar, and citric acid. You might run into similar problems with the bar’s orange and grapefruit juice (though the pineapple juice bars use, sold in cans, is usually unadulterated.)

I’m not suggesting you fret too much about any of this. The last thing we want to do is make our readers into cocktail snobs. (Bond, while both a bad-a** and a bon vivant, would certainly have been an annoying customer.) Knowing all this, I suggest you either order what you’d like and enjoy the best version of it your favorite bar has to offer, or stick to bottled beer.

Either way, the next time you’re drinking at home, make yourself this – and remember to work with good, 100 percent pure, unsweetened juice. The result, while effortlessly simple to make, is a refreshing cocktail that manages to be fruity with almost no sweetness.  It’s a great seasonal drink, too, combining the flavors of summer and fall to make something that’s just as bracing as it is cooling. You can even add a splash of sparkling water (Perrier or otherwise) to give it a bit of fizz.

Sea Breeze

• 1.5 oz vodka
• 2 oz. cranberry juice (100% juice, unsweetened)
• 2 oz. grapefruit juice (100% juice, unsweetened)
• Splash soda water (optional)

For extra credit: This drink has a sweeter cousin called a bay breeze, which is made by substituting pineapple juice for the grapefruit. The sweetness in the pineapple is balanced nicely by the bitter cranberry. These days, a Bay Breeze made with Malibu (coconut rum) is the cocktail of choice for just about every bachelorette party I serve. Please don’t read that as a recommendation.

Either way, if the Old-Fashioned were a first-generation cocktail, the Sazerac is an immediate descendant. The same formulation – whiskey, bitters, and sugar – with a swirl of absinthe to transform the drink with anise flavors. (In localities where the absinthe is frowned upon, Pernod, anisette, Chartreuse, or even Sambuca would suffice.) The drink is usually made with rye, rather than bourbon, but if you really want to make it like Don Draper would have drunk it, you should use Canadian Club – it’s not strictly a rye, but it’s a rye-based blend, and it’s also Don’s brand of choice.  We sampled a bottle of their new 10-year Reserve label, and it’s a great buy in the $25-$30 range, whether you’re making Sazeracs or an Old-Fashioneds.

Sazerac

2 oz. Canadian Club Reserve 10, or similar rye
1 tsp. sugar
2 dashes bitters (if you want to be a bitters snob, you should use Peychaud’s, but Angostura will do just fine.)
1 dash absinthe

Drink recipes are, after all, fluid (forgive the pun.) Do you like your mint julep with a spritz of soda water? A slice of lime? Then that’s the right way to make it. Sure, it might not have been the way to make a “traditional” julep – but if julep drinkers in the antebellum South had ready access to limes, chances are they’d try it.

With that said, let’s talk about vodka – unique amongst liquors for its understated characteristics and ability to blend with just about everything. Unless you’re drinking cheap stuff, any flavors you notice – other than the actual taste of alcohol – will be pretty mild. The process of making vodka (in which something with starch/sugar is fermented, the alcohol is chemically removed to almost pure strength, then diluted with pure water to bottle strength) doesn’t leave much room for taste. While some vodkas do retain a hint of the original ingredients that made them, the smoothness (or lack thereof) is the main thing you’ll notice in whatever vodka you’re drinking.

This week, I’m drinking a sample bottle of I Spirit vodka, a new brand purporting itself to be styled after old Italian distilling techniques. Distilled from a mix of white wine and fermented Italian grains, I Spirit is a smooth, neat vodka, with a hint of fresh garden flavors. A vodka like this would be great for a cocktail that focuses on fresh summer ingredients. Here’s one I came up with, but if you pick up a bottle of I Spirit – or any decent vodka, really – you should feel free to come up with your own.

Raspberry-basil vodka smash
1.5 oz vodka
5 – 6 raspberries, rinsed.
5-6 basil leaves
1 tsp. sugar
Soda water

Add the berries, basil, and sugar to a highball glass, along with a splash of water to dissolve the sugar. Muddle the mixture. (If you don’t have a muddle, just use the bottom of a spoon to smash the berries and press the basil leaves against the bottom of the glass.) Fill with ice, add the vodka, top with soda water, stir and serve.

What else should you try? Maybe watermelon and mint? Blueberry with lemon peel? Cucumber and honeydew? Want to add a splash of cranberry, or a float of Grand Marnier? If you come up with something particularly tasty, tell us about it in the comments.

The first, more refined category includes any drink with one primary spirit and secondary ingredients to complement it. Examples range from the Manhattan (vermouth and bitters to complement your bourbon) to the margarita (curacao and lime juice to punch up tequila) to the Godfather (a splash of amaretto to sweeten up a Scotch on the rocks) and countless others. Simple, classic cocktails, designed by bartenders who had limited ingredients and hoped to give their customers the best tastes possible (or at least mask the flavor of whatever rotgut booze was available in more austere times.)

The second category of drinks, like Lord Byron, are mad, bad, and dangerous to know: bizarre concoctions featuring several main spirits mixed together with no regard for the consequences. Today, a lot of drinks ordered in college bars fall under that category. A Long Island iced tea (vodka, gin, rum, tequila, and triple sec)? Three Wise Men (Jack Daniels, Johnny Walker and Jim Beam)? Sounds like a George Thorogood b-side.) A Red Death (Vodka, triple sec, amaretto, sloe gin and Southern Comfort)? Put that many different liquors in your head, and you deserve whatever hangover you get.

Many of those drinks seem to exist for no earthly reason, save for the sheer lunacy of it. Why would anyone attempt to mix three different whiskies together? Why must we live in a world in which bartenders can be expected to shake these things up? My God, why have you forsaken us?

But sometimes, those insane concoctions can yield something a bit refined. This week’s drink, Between the Sheets, is a good example. A mixture of brandy, rum, curacao, and lemon juice, Between the Sheets almost uses the brandy and rum as one liquor, with the unrefined grapey sweetness of the brandy dovetailing with the sugary vanilla flavors of the rum. It features brandy, which was once one of our most popular liquors, but has of late become an underused, forgotten spirit. If you’d like, you can look at it as a hybrid of a sidecar and a classic daiquiri. At the very least, it comes in a cocktail glass, so it’s got to be at least a couple of steps more refined than frat-boy swill like the Long Island.

Between the Sheets

• 1 oz. brandy
• 1 oz. white rum
• 1 oz. triple sec
• 1/2 oz. lemon juice

Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker over ice. Shake to chill and combine, and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon peel. If you feel fancy, rub the lemon peel around the rim of the glass before straining the drink.

Sure, it stars in a number of cocktails – a Manhattan, an Old Fashioned, a Sazerac – but there aren’t many cocktails in which whiskey is a complementary flavor. The very reasons we love it – the assertive, smoky kick of a good Scotch, the oakey, sour flavor of a bourbon, the sharp, tart sweetness of a rye, the liquid-lightning kick of an Irish whiskey – make any cocktail based on the spirit fraught with peril. The whiskey will simply overpower everything else in the mix.

This doesn’t hold true for mellow, blended whiskeys – often called “Canadian” whiskeys, after the blending techniques pioneered by Hiram Walker and his Canadian Club label. Distillers swirl together rye, corn, and barley whiskeys for a smooth, even flavor – the blend mellows out the harsher notes of the individual flavors.

When the blending technique is combined with a generous aging period, you get something like Crown Royal, or Canadian Club’s new Classic 12 – a smooth, nuanced mix of rye and bourbon flavors with none of the kick of a younger, more homogeneous whiskey, aged long enough for all the harsher elements from the distillation process to disperse.

Something like the Classic 12 would be perfect to revive the Ward 8 – a subtle mix of citrus, whiskey, and grenadine. A harsher bourbon would overpower the mix, and with Scotch? Forget it. But with the right rye-based blended whiskey, it’s great. (If you’re not going to use a blend, rye would be the best whiskey to use.) This recipe’s just as strong as a Manhattan, so consume accordingly.

Ward 8

• 2.5 oz. Canadian Club Classic 12
• .75 oz (1/2 jigger) orange juice
• .75 oz (1/2 jigger) lemon juice
• Splash of grenadine

Chill a cocktail glass, and combine ingredients over ice in a cocktail shaker.  Shake vigorously to mix, and strain into the chilled glass. Garnish with a cherry, if you’re so inclined.

For you Mad men fans out there, Canadian Club is Don Draper’s favorite whiskey (he’d probably drink it straight, but he might order a Ward 8 for his date.) If you’re interested in the history behind this drink, check out David Wondrich’s write-up of the recipe, and its origins in Boston’s eighth ward – which is now Roxbury and the South End. Like many cocktails, this went by the wayside once people started clumsily mixing their whiskey with ginger ale, cola, and the like, so half the bartenders in Ward 8 probably wouldn’t even know how to make this anymore.

(Editor’s note: The author was provided with a sample of Canadian Club Classic 12, with which he was able to make a Ward 8.)

Mixing mojitos can be an annoying, time-consuming process, whether you’re a professional bartender working a busy shift or a barbecue host mixing drinks for guests. The official recipe – which requires attacking mint leaves, sugar, and water with a muddler for at least 5-10 seconds before adding the liquor – takes time, and the mint leaves and sugar always wind up congealed at the bottom of the glass, making life miserable for whoever is doing the dishes (the busboy, or worse, you, half-drunk and cleaning up after your barbecue.) If you plan on making more than one of these things, you’ll need a better way.

If I plan on whipping up a huge number of mojitos, I start by making a mint simple syrup. Buy a couple bunches of mint from the supermarket, then chop them coarsely – you’ll get about a cup of chopped mint. Bring two cups of water to a boil in a saucepan, then turn the heat to low. Mix in the mint leaves, and let them steep in the water. If any of the water is boiling off, turn the heat down. After twenty minutes or so, strain out the mint, put the water back in the pot over low heat, mix in two cups of sugar, and stir until all the sugar is dissolved. That should be enough syrup to make as many mojitos as you need – and you won’t have to muddle one drink.

Mojitos

• 2 oz light rum
• 1 tsp mint simple syrup (see recipe above)
• 1/4 lime, sliced
• 6 oz soda water (more or less to taste)

1. Fill a tall glass with ice.
2. Add the light rum and mint simple syrup, and stir vigorously to combine. You could get fancy and shake this to combine, if you’d rather.
3. Fill the drink with soda water. Generally, drinks will include three parts soda to every one part of liquor, but you can add less if you want to taste a stronger drink, or more if you need a tall drink on a hot day.
4. Squeeze the lime into the drink. You can throw the wedge away or drop it in, depending on your preference.

That syrup recipe will work for any other kind of simple syrup you can dream up. A lot of bars were playing with basil simple syrup last summer. I make a great ginger syrup the same way – just chop up a ginger root, steep it in hot water for a while, strain out the ginger, stir in some sugar, and you’re all set. Makes a great ginger old-fashioned, or you could just mix it into soda water for a homemade ginger ale.

Now it makes perfect sense to me. Bartenders back then didn’t have all the mixers we work with now. They didn’t have cola, for the most part, and they certainly didn’t have sour mix (or margarita mix, or daiquiri mix, or Collins mix, or whatever else you want to call it.) All they had was sugar, ice, and fruit. If they wanted to serve cocktails or mixed drinks, they had to make their own mixers, on the spot.

And they did. Take a look at a drink like a Tom Collins. You’re mixing lemon, sugar, and water (melted from the ice) together. That’s sour mix. It’s better, in fact, because you’re making it from fresh-squeezed juice, and you’re getting extra flavor from the lemon rind that isn’t normally included in a premade bottle of sour mix (which is basically lemonade with slightly less sugar.) Yes, it’s a simple recipe, but that’s kind of the point – you don’t want anything too complex to cover up the taste of the gin, do you?

Tom Collins

• 2 oz. gin
• Juice of one lemon
• 2 tsp. sugar (if possible, use powdered sugar – it dissolves faster)
• Cracked or cubed ice
• Soda water

Juice one lemon (using some sort of juicing tool will save you time and yield more juice.) Combine the lemon juice, gin, and sugar in a cocktail shaker and shake vigorously. Strain the mix into a tall glass filled with fresh ice, then fill with soda water.

This is a pretty versatile recipe. Sub whiskey in for the gin, and you get a John Collins. A brandy Collins or vodka Collins would work just as well, though neither of them has a special name. And for extra credit, you can make a Tom Collins, but fill it with champagne instead of soda water at the end. That gives you a French 75, a drink named after a cannon used in World War I. Consume accordingly.

P.S. – If you plan on making many drinks with fresh citrus, you might want to go out and find some sort of juicer. Mine’s just an $8 handheld version that helps to squeeze every last drop from your fruit without killing your knuckles. Also, I read on a box of limes once that if you slice your citrus into thirds instead of halves, you’ll get every last drop of juice out of it. I haven’t done enough testing to be sure about that, but I’ll pass on the tip nonetheless.

The Tradicional Paloma is made with tequila, giving it that typical Mexican drink flavor.  However, instead of requiring a handful of other ingredients, all that is needed is soda.  Add a spark to the celebration with little effort, how much better could it be?

Tradicional Paloma

1 oz. Jose Cuervo Tradicional Silver

3 oz. Squirt (or other grapefruit soda)

lime wedge

Pour tequila and soda over ice in a highball glass.  Garnish with lime.

*The glass rim can be coated with salt, if desired.

The Herradura Bloody Maria isn’t your typical Bloody Mary.  First of all, there are special ice cubes for this drink.  Yes, you read that correctly, ice cubes.  Made with jalapeños and cilantro, they offer more flavor to this drink.  Second, instead of using vodka as the kick in the beverage, this drink is made with tequila for a bit of flair.  Finally, to add another layer of spice, a splash of jalapeño-cilantro juice is added.

So, for your next unscheduled weekend day, plan ahead and buy all of the necessary ingredients for a hearty brunch and a tasty cocktail.  Then after a little bit of cooking and mixing, you will have a delightful brunch to savor.

Herradurra Bloody Maria

2 oz. Herradura Reposado tequila

4 oz. Bloody Mary mix

1 oz. jalapeño-cilantro juice*

1 whole jalapeño

2 cocktail onions

1 small red pepper

1 jalapeño-cilantro ice cube

Fill martini shaker with plain ice and add tequila, mix, and juice.  Shake well and strain into a martini class.  Add jalapeño-cilantro ice cube.  Garnish with jalapeno, onions, and red pepper.

*Jalapeño-Cilantro Ice Cubes

24 oz. water

1/2 cup sliced jalapeños

rind of 1/2 lemon

1 lemon, quartered

1/4 cup fresh cilantro

1 tsp. sea salt

Combine ingredients in a blender, and blend until liquefied.  Strain and pour into ice cube trays, reserving one ounce of liquid for each Bloody Mary you plan on making.

Regardless to how this day makes you feel, there is one thing everyone can have in common: a great cocktail recipe.  Whether you make this beverage as a special something for your loved one or as a way to drown your sorrows, Love Potion #9 is a tasty drink.  Made with Cruzan 9, which included nine different spices, it provides a delightful array of flavors for your tastebuds to enjoy.

No matter if you celebrate the day or wish it would go away, this cocktail could be the perfect way to the day.

Love Potion #9

1 1/2 oz. Cruzan 9

3/4 oz. DeKuyper Coconut Amaretto

3 oz. pineapple juice

1 oz. cranberry juice

orange slice

cherry

Fill a martini shaker with ice, and add all ingredients.  Shake well.  Pour into a hurricane glass, and garnish with an orange/cherry stack on the rim.

We’ll start with the recipe.  Love in the FIG City is a delicious cocktail made with tequila, ginger liqueur, prosecco, and fig and was created by by Tomas Delos Reyes of the Standard Hotel in New York City.  This combination of ingredients produces a drink that is both pleasurable to taste and sight.  Its light pink hue gives the drink a feminine touch, while the tequila gives it a nice bit of a kick.  It’s perfect as a pre-dinner cocktail, an accompaniment for tapas dishes, or simply a drink to be enjoyed on its own, particularly on a certain day of the year.

Which brings me to the reminder part of this article.  Love in the FIG City would be the perfect cocktail to serve to your valentine.  Yes, for those of you that are calendar challenged, Valentine’s Day is only seventeen days away.  So, rather than fighting the crowds at the local card and chocolate shops on the 14th, perhaps now would be the good time to shop.  While you’re out there, get the ingredients for this drink and make your night extra special.

Love in the FIG City

2 oz. Partida Reposado Tequila
1/2 oz. fresh lemon juice
1/2 oz. ginger liqueur
1/2 oz. cinnamon syrup
3/4 oz. fig puree or half a fresh fig
Mionetto Brut Prosecco

Muddle fig or fig puree in the bottom of a martini shaker.  Add tequila, lemon juice, ginger liqueur, and cinnamon syrup, and shake well.  Fine strain over ice into a rocks glass. Top with prosecco and garnish with a fresh fig wheel.

To help with drink planning, we have selected our ten favorite holiday cocktails.  Help us choose the best from this elite group, and on Wednesday, December 22nd we’ll share the full recipe, which will give you more than a week to gather all of the necessary ingredients.  Place your vote, and return on the twenty-second to see who won.

1. Baby, It’s Cold Outside- Alizé Gold Passion, apple schnapps, vodka, triple sec (Alizé Liqueur)

2.Cuervo Confetti Drop- Jose Cuervo Especial Tequila, Goldschlager (Jose Cuervo)

3. Don’t Talk, Just Kiss- Sobieski Polish Vodka, Grand Marnier, pomegranate juice, brut-style champagne (Sobieski Vodka)

4. Ginger Dazzle- Kilimanjaro Foods Sunrise Ginger Syrup, pineapple juice, champagne (Kilimanjaro Foods, Inc.)

5. Hibiscus Sparkler- hibiscus syrup, ginger beer, prosecco (Prohibition)

6. Holiday Flip- Amaretto, creme de cacao, half & half, egg (Ago of Hard Rock Hotel)

7. It Takes Two- reposado tequila, silver tequila, cherry liqueur, Angostura bitters, orange bitters (Page 71 Lounge)

8. Rouge Noir- Combier Rouge, Combier Orange Liqueur, brut champagne (Junior Merino)

9. Sparkling Ginger Daisy- gin, ginger liqueur, lemon juice, grenadine, Mionetto Prosecco Brut (Mionetto)

10. Sparkling Sangria- Tequila Avión, sparkling wine, lemon lime soda, orange, lime, pear, raspberries (Tequila Avión)

Please note that there are strict regulations on voting. Additionally, our system audits for fraudulent votes.

We received two samples:  12 noon to midnight original and 12 noon to midnight rouge.  As noted on their website,  “12 noon to midnight is a sophisticated and culinary inspired non-alcoholic beverage perfect for every occasion noon to midnight. Developed by legendary American chefs David Burke and Alfred Portale, 12 noon to midnight is a delicious and healthy alternative to soda, wine, beer and sparkling apple and grape juices.”  These would be fun beverages for both the kids and adults to try.

We sampled the 12 noon to midnight rouge first.  This was our favorite beverage of the pair. With hints of pomegranate and ginger, it was flavorful yet not overpowering.  What everyone liked about this beverage was that it had a nice amount of carbonation but a subtle amount of sweetness.  With only 60 calories in an 8-ounce serving, there’s no guilt in having a glass.  The adults also sampled the rouge mixed with vodka, which gave this tasty drink a nice little kick.

A couple weeks later we sampled the 12 noon to midnight original.  This beverage has peach and apricot notes, but they seem to be much more subtle.  Served straight up, it was light, but almost too light.  Therefore, we decided to give this beverage a little assistance via some added ingredients.  Once mixed, this 12  noon to midnight cocktail was delightful.  Between the lightness of the 12 noon to midnight, the kick of the vodka, and the sweetness of the schnapps, it made a wonderfully refreshing cocktail.

12 noon to midnight cocktail

1 oz. vodka

1/2 oz. peach schnapps

12 noon to midnight original

Fill a lowball glass with ice.  Pour vodka, schnapps and 12 noon to midnight into glass.  Stir to combine.

Recently on Idea Offer, there was an idea request to get people’s thoughts on the best way to garnish the morning elixir we call a Bloody Mary.  The winning idea was from Lacey Thompson.  Her response was both well-written and mouth-watering:

“I prefer a garlic and lime soaked shrimp, a slice of yellow onion, and a portion of kosher dill pickle, and lastly a cube of muenster cheese. The cheese smooths the whole drink and brings all the flavors together. Top it off with dripping Tabasco or habanero sauce over the garnishes. “

So the next time you want to spice up that morning meal, try Lacey’s garnish and make your Bloody Mary memorable.

Check out this recipe, purchase the needed ingredients, and get your shaker ready for  a sumptuous cocktail on Halloween!

Smashing Pumpkin

1-1/2 oz. Bulleit or Maker’s Mark Bourbon

1 oz. pumpkin puree (measured in a jigger)

3 tangerine segments with peel

1/2 oz. Grand Marnier

1/2 oz. brown sugar simple syrup*

Ground nutmeg

Muddle tangerine pieces in a glass with brown sugar simple syrup.  Add remaining ingredients and ice and shake.  Garnish with nutmeg.

*To make brown sugar simple syrup, mix two parts brown sugar with one part water.  Bring to a boil, then let cool before it into the drink.

Recipe courtesy of Robert Leavey, lead bartender at the Summit restaurant at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs.

Since I can remember, I have loved blueberries above all fruit. When picked at their peak they have a combination of sweetness
and tartness that can make for some unusual drinks as well as desserts. This month, I have chosen a drink that will offer thirst quenching refreshment and is easy to drink, but has a complex and satisfying taste (as well as health benefits)! You’re gonna want to exhale and take a deep breath from this drink’s bouquet before you even sip it. Enjoy!

The Antioxinator

blueberries, fresh

3 basil leaves

2 Tb. simple syrup

2 oz. Grey Goose L’Orange

1 oz. sparkling elderflower*

cranberry juice

orange wedge

Place 4 blueberries into pint glass. Place 2 basil leaves into glass.  Add 4 squirts, or 2 tablespoons, of simple syrup into glass. Muddle everything in the glass for 10 seconds, or until crushed. Pour 2 ounces of Grey Goose L’Orange into glass and shake for 10 seconds.  Add 1 ounce of sparkling elderflower.  Strain into highball glass packed with ice.  Add a splash of cranberry juice for color and taste.  Garnish with orange wedge cut into a small triangle or quarter.  Place 1 basil leaf next to orange wedge and top leaf with 1 blueberry.  Add a straw and enjoy!

This cocktail makes for a great sipper anywhere outside in the summer. The orange, blueberry, cranberry, basil, and elderflower offer sweet, tart, floral and spicy flavors in a classic presentation.

*If you are unable to find sparkling elderflower, soda water works fine.

What time will the party begin?  Who will you invite?  What food will you serve?  With so many things to consider, you may decide to take the easy route on beverages and simply provide coolers filled with soda and beer.  However, for a once a year event, doesn’t it seem worth the effort to make a special cocktail for the occasion?

Feeling Blue is the perfect cocktail for a Fourth of July party.  First, it is a bright blue drink that will coordinate nicely with your red, white, and blue decorations.  Second, it has a refreshing orange flavor, which will help keep your guests cool on a hot summer day.  Third, it can be made as an individual drink for each guest, or the recipe can be multiplied to make a pitcher for all of the adults in attendance.

Get ready to celebrate the red, white, and blue with your own festive cocktail!

Feeling Blue

1-1/2 oz. of Van Gogh Blue Vodka
1/2 oz. orange liqueur
1/2 oz blue curacao
1 oz orange juice
2 splashes of sour mix
orange slice

Fill a lowball glass with ice.  Add first five ingredients, and stir well.  Garnish with orange slice.

Having stated that, I will confess that knowing I had one project to complete before starting my weekend, I was seeking the easiest way to complete that project.  Luckily for me (and you, the reader), the easiest way also happens to be tasty and fun.

The remaining project was creating and writing about a new cocktail recipe.  Conveniently, this week I received a few new recipes via email, and after reviewing the recipes, I found one that needed to be shared.  The Pomchi Smash is the creation of mixologist, Paolo Votano of Bocca di Bacco in New York City.

So, while I could write more about how delicious drink this is, I simply will share the recipe.  You get the benefit of getting to the recipe more quickly, and I get to start my 3-day weekend.  Enjoy!

Pomchi Smash

10 fresh raspberries

5 mint leaves

1-1/2 oz. Ron Abuelo Añejo

2 oz. cranberry juice

1 oz. fresh lemon juice

1/2 oz. simple syrup

dash Angostura bitters

ginger ale

In a shaker, muddle raspberries with the mint.  Add ice and all remaining ingredients, except ginger ale.  Strain into an ice-filled highball glass, and top with ginger ale.  Garnish with a raspberry and mint leaf.

Visiting local restaurants and reading trade journals, I have discovered that besides the infusion of fruits, sweets, and vegetables into liquors, there is another ingredient that has gained popularity with the cocktail crowd: edible flowers.  Whether they are added via muddling, infusing, or garnishing, flowers are appearing on many cocktail menus and in recipe books.

There are a multitude of flowers that can add a beautiful color, aroma, and flavor to your cocktail.  Included in this list are roses, hibiscus, and lavender.  Of course,  if you are making drinks at home, you want to make sure that the flowers have not been treated with harmful preservatives or herbicides.

If you’re ready to give a floral cocktail a try, we have the perfect recipe.

Lavender Raspberry Collins

3/4 oz. fresh lemon juice

3/4 oz. lavender syrup

1 oz. Bombay Sapphire gin

lemon wedge

3 oz. club soda

Pour lemon juice into a Collins glass, add lavender syrup and Bombay Sapphire gin.  Stir and fill with ice.  Top with club soda, and garnish with a lemon wedge.

This vodka has been certified as organic by the United States Department of Agriculture.  It is made from certified organic #2 yellow corn that is grown by the farmers who own the distillery.  In addition, this vodka also has been certified as kosher by The Orthodox Union.  There aren’t many vodkas that can make both of those statements.

Produced by Phillips Distilling Company, there are several key points to note about the sustainable production of Prairie Organic Vodka:

• Corn kernels are removed, dried, then milled and blended with water.
• The leftover cobs and other biomass are converted to biogas energy for heating the stills.
• Natural enzymes are added to convert starches to sugar, then natural yeast converts the sugar to carbonic acid and alcohol.
• Alcohol is removed via column distillation, and leftover distillers grains are returned to farms for re-use as feed.

Not only is this vodka enjoyable because it is kosher and organic, it also is smooth and makes a wonderful ingredient in many different cocktails.  From martinis to spiked tea, it can be used in many creative combinations.  My favorite recipe suggested by Prairie Organic Vodka is their recipe for a bloody Mary.  With a name like Prairie Mary and a great vodka, how could you resist?

Prairie Mary

2 oz. Prairie Organic Vodka

1/2 cup tomato juice

1 squeeze fresh lemon juice

Worcestershire sauce, to taste

hot sauce, to taste

1 celery stick

Fill a martini shaker with ice.  Add vodka, juices, and sauces, and shake well.  Pour ice and drink into a highball glass, and garnish with a celery stick.

Having tried the recipe, it is the perfect way to fix that craving for a tropical drink.  Although I love the flavors in a pina colada, I find that the frozen versions are heavy and filling.  If I am going to indulge in a frozen drink such as that, I probably am not eating much of a meal with it.  However, this drink is light and makes the perfect compliment to munchies or dinner.

Even though I favored it for its lightness, it also is quite tasty.  Friends who are less concerned with the heaviness of the drink will find this drink to be enjoyable for the delicious combination of pineapple and coconut.

Whatever your motivation is for trying this drink (fewer calories, lightness, tropical cravings), you will find it to be a fun, new beverage to add to your drink-making repertoire.

Ciroc Skinny Colada

1-1/2 oz. Ciroc Coconut

1 oz. pineapple juice

1/2 oz. skim milk

Fill martini shaker with ice and add vodka, juice, and milk.  Shake vigorously.  Pour into martini glass, and garnish with a lime wedge.