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. 

We are hosting a party for the Super Bowl.  Is there a football-themed drink that we could serve to our guests?

You mean, other than beer? At a Super Bowl party?
While I’d assume most of your guests will have the same reaction (or stick to soft drinks), serving other drinks wouldn’t be entirely wrong. There are not any football-themed drinks, no… but at an event like a Super Bowl party, your best bet is probably to mix up a big bowl of punch, set it next to a big tub of chilled beers, and let the guests decide which they’ll drink. (This has the added advantage of allowing you to fulfill all of your bartending duties as host before the guests arrive — so that during the party, you can just watch the game, enjoy your company, and let them take care of themselves.)

The recipe below draws from a couple of different recipes from Jerry Thomas’s bartending handbook, written in 1887, when punch was, apparently, a big deal. (Over half the book is dedicated to the stuff.) Esquire magazine’s drinks correspondent, David Wondrich, has written an entire book on the subject. I don’t know if his efforts will lead to a “punch” revival, but they could at least make your future party-hosting duties a bit easier.

In the meantime, try this recipe. While you can mix everything up right before your doorbell starts to ring, make sure to allow yourself at least a couple of hours before the party for the first couple of steps. The longer you can let the lemon peels sit in the sugar, and then steep in the hot water, the more flavor you’ll extract, and the better your punch will taste. Make sure you warn your guests that this is a quite potent punch, and as always, remind everyone to drive safely (and sober). To facilitate that, do make sure you have plenty of soda on hand, and maybe even some coffee. Remember, not everyone is as much of a lush as we are.

Super Bowl Punch

• 1 cup sugar
• Six lemons
• 4 cups hot water
• 2 bottles brandy
• 1 pint spiced rum
• 1/2 pint triple sec or orange liqueur
• 1 bottle champagne
• 1 quart green tea
• 1 quart cranberry juice

Peel the lemons, slicing rinds thin. Combine lemon peels and sugar in a bowl; stir thoroughly, and let sit at least 1/2 hour. The sugar will extract oils and flavors from the lemon peels. After at least 1/2 hour, pour the hot water over the lemons and sugar, and stir until all sugar is dissolved. Let that mixture steep for at least 1/2 hour, then strain and chill the liquid. (You can discard the lemon peels.)

Squeeze the already-peeled lemons, and add the juice to the chilled sugar water. In a large punch bowl, combine that mixture with all other ingredients, and stir thoroughly. Serve with ice on side; to keep punch chilled, consider freezing one big block of ice (maybe in a smaller bowl?) and letting it float in the punch bowl.

There are a few hot drinks out there (the hot toddy, the Tom and Jerry, the blue blazer.) There are any number of punches that can be served warm (Esquire cocktail writer David Wondrich has done plenty of research on punches, and wrote this book.) But the list ends soon after that… and except for the toddy, most of those drinks have a high degree of difficulty.

Not so with mulled wine. I have a recipe below, and it’s not a bad one. But it’s more of a starting point than anything else. Mulled wine is nothing but a warm, mildly boozy winter concoction meant to be gulped — well-flavored, yes, but weak enough that it can be gulped with impunity. Mulled wine can warm you up, but it will be very hard to drink enough to mess you up… unless you’re very dedicated. Again, here’s a recipe. You can alter it as you like.

Mulled wine

• 1 bottle wine (preferably something dry and complex — a cab? a malbec?)
• 2 cups apple cider (any fruit juice would work here, but I wouldn’t use citrus, and grape would be redundant.)
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 4 cloves, ground (and/or 1 tsp. nutmeg, and/or 1 tsp. allspice, and/or even 1/2 tsp. ginger, if you’re feeling frisky.)
• 1 orange, sliced. (For an extra-sweet flavor, roast the orange slices in a casserole dish for 15 minutes, then dump the slices and the resulting juice into the mix.)

Combine all ingredients in a medium- or large-size saucepan, and warm under low heat until hot, but not scalding. Serve in a large mug. Grate extra nutmeg on top to garnish, if desired.

Today’s recipe is a simple example of how you can use preserves to create your own fruit-based cocktails in the winter. I’m using raspberry preserves, but you can use blueberry, lemon, apple… whatever you’d like. Since it’s a winter cocktail, we’re using cognac as the base liquor (it warms you so), but any whiskey (save Scotch) could work in its stead. I’m using St. Germain, an elderflower liqueur that’s grown popular in the last few years, to offset the tart raspberry notes with something a bit more complex and delicate, but you could substitute in whatever floats your boat. Want to mix strawberry jam with Midori (melon liqueur)? Apple jelly and limoncello? Get creative — and if you come up with a winning combination, let us know in the comments.

Raspberry-Elderflower Warmer

• 2 oz. cognac
• 1 oz. St. Germain liqueur
• 1 tbsp raspberry jam or preserves

Combine ingredients in a cocktail shaker over ice, starting with the jam. Shake thoroughly to combine, and strain into a cocktail glass.

So why are we talking about kamikaze shots? Well, the jingoistic name aside, they’re slightly more refined than your average shot recipe. They feature real liquors and liqueurs (sure, you could use imitation triple sec, but at least Cointreau, a real orange liqueur, exists… in shots that use sour apple or peach schnapps, there IS no “better” bottle to substitute. ) Mainly, I mention kamikazes because if you ARE planning a party, and you DO want to serve shots, but you DON’T want to serve straight liquor, these are about as good as you can do.

Kamikaze shots

• 1 oz. vodka
• 1/2 oz Cointreau or orange liqueur
• 1/2 oz Rose’s sweetened lime juice

Combine ingredients in a cocktail shaker over ice. Shake to combine and chill, and strain into a shot glass.

Note that you can make flavored kamikaze shots by either using flavored vodka, or by using a different flavored liqueur instead of Cointreau (Midori would make a melon kamikaze, Chambord would make a raspberry kamikaze, etc.) Just remember, more than one or two of these will have exactly the effect you think they will. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. I take no responsibility for what happens, and remember — each of these counts as a full drink. So drink responsibly, never drive drunk, and have a great New Year. We’ll see you in 2012.

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 can’t help with eggnog’s reputation, but I can give you a few words of comfort regarding egg. Egg (or separated egg whites) were once a very common ingredient in cocktails. They create a smooth, frothy texture in a drink — much like a drink that’s just been shaken and aerated, but stable. And the egg used in drinks isn’t exactly “raw,” so it won’t have the cold, slimy texture of an uncooked egg. When egg is mixed with sugar, the proteins in the yolk uncoil and solidify, quite like the reaction when an egg is cooked. Now, that reaction doesn’t kill salmonella (or any other pathogens that might find their way into the eggs), but you don’t have to worry about any of that if you buy pasteurized eggs.

Here, then, is a simple recipe for eggnog — a misunderstood drink that can be pleasing, warming, and rich, and just perfect on a cold night or at a holiday party. If you’re lactose intolerant, you’ll want to avoid them, and they certainly won’t look good if you spill them on your holiday formalwear… but otherwise, enjoy! (And don’t worry about embarrassing yourself. These are so rich that you’ll have to quit drinking them well before you overindulge.)

Eggnog

• 1.5 oz brandy or rum
• 1 tsp. sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 egg, pasteurized
• 4 oz. milk
• Cinnamon or nutmeg

Now, we’ve talked about rum cocktails before, and as we discussed then, the Zombie can be hard to decipher from just about any other strongly mixed rum grog. As a singular recipe, though, it’s hard to beat. The drink is almost all liquor, but deceptively fruity – obviously, a dangerous combination that should not be taken lightly. And that’s the main quality a Zombie has — its smooth, lethal strength. The combination of rums doesn’t impart any particularly interesting flavors, and while papaya juice is a somewhat strange ingredient, it doesn’t do much for us here. (You can even use lemon juice instead.)

So we have an unremarkable, yet very strong cocktail here, named after sufferers of a mindless, subhuman state. Remember, drink names are usually intuitive. With that warning, though, it can be a fun party drink for Halloween. If you want to be especially cruel to your guests, you can whip up a whole punch bowl of these, with a couple of pieces of dry ice floated in for effect. But before you do that, make yourself a single and try it out.

Zombie

• .75 oz. light rum
• .75 oz. gold rum
• .75 oz. dark rum
• .75 oz. apricot brandy (or Amaretto)
• .5 oz. 151-proof rum
• 1 oz. pineapple juice
• 1 oz. papaya juice (or lemon juice)
• 1 oz. grenadine

- 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.

Most drinks have a traceable “original” recipe (cocktail writer David Wondrich has tracked down many of them on Esquire’s drinks database.) Many have a popularly accepted recipe, and some even have a “sanctioned” recipe from the International Bartender’s Association (which I picture to be something akin to SPECTRE in the James Bond movies.) But the “right” recipe? Drinks change over time, as do tastes, and at the end of the day, the only thing that really matters is my recipe (if I’m mixing your drinks) and yours (because you should really know what you like, and how you like it.)

I mention all that because whenever I bring sangria to a party, and people ask me for the recipe (more to make conversation than because they’re actually interested), I’m at a loss. It’s a little flip, but my answer is something along the lines of “wine and fruit.” Because that’s all you really need. And that’s really how I think of sangria.

My recipe changes a bit every time I make sangria. I usually buy whatever fruit is on sale in the produce section and pick out a fairly inexpensive wine as well. (There’d be no sense in buying something complex or expensive, since we’re going to fuss with the flavor anyway. And besides, I’m a writer, so I can’t afford it.) A little bit of brandy adds some punch, and a bit of fruit juice helps to balance the flavors, but for the most part we’re just infusing wine with fruit. You’ll be surprised how well it works.

Please note that this recipe makes over a gallon of sangria; plan your guest list accordingly.

Sangria

• 4-5 bottles inexpensive red wine (if you’d prefer, you can use white instead.)
• 1/2 pint (8 oz.) brandy
• One bottle sparkling wine
• 2-3 pounds mixed fruit (for the sake of an example, let’s say a pound of strawberries, a half a honeydew, and an orange.)
• 2 cups fruit juice (anything would work, but again, if you need an example, let’s say pineapple)

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

Start with a mai tai – white rum (or gold rum, or both),  mixed with orange liqueur (and amaretto, depending on the recipe) and fruit juice (orange and/or pineapple), served with a dark rum float. Keep the amaretto, and substitute a high-proof rum like Bacardi 151 for the dark rum, and you’d have a Zombie.  Scratch the amaretto, add grenadine and use coconut rum (Malibu?) instead of dark, and you’ve got a Bahama Mama. Use Chambord instead of Malibu, and it’s a rum runner.  Add some passion fruit syrup (and more Bacardi 151, if you’d like), and it’s a Hurricane.

All those drinks use the winning combination of fruit juices and other flavors to mask a high alcohol content – and while they all have their own charms, they’re fairly interchangeable, and they’re all serviceable as a summer party drink (to be served with care, of course – high proof drinks with high sugar content can lead to some terrible mornings-after.)

None of them are that distinct, however… or memorable. This week’s drink, the Planter’s Punch, gets lumped in with those cocktails – which is understandable, since most modern recipes add fruit juices and dilute the dark rum flavors with equal parts white rum. I recently stumbled upon a more classic version of  the recipe (found in my trusty Savoy Cocktail Handbook), which I’ve adapted here.

This recipe combines the bright, rich flavor of the dark rum with sweet, rich cherry flavors, a hit of acid sour lemon flavor, and as much or as little soda water as you’d like to stretch out the flavor. Still a rum drink and refreshing in many of the same ways, but it’s a bit richer and less cloying.

Planter’s Punch

• 2 oz. dark rum
• 1 oz. lemon juice
• 1/3 oz. grenadine
• Soda water to fill

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.

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.

The O3 arrived, and the bottle itself was quite attractive.  A rectangular, amber-colored bottle with a nice weight to it, it would look beautiful on a bar shelf.  The weekend couldn’t come soon enough to give this liqueur a try.

Combined with tequila, lemon juice, and seltzer (for us weaker drinkers), the O3 added a wonderful combination of orange and sweetness to the margarita.  There was no syrupy feel, as can happen when using lesser quality orange liqueurs.  The O3 made our homemade margaritas brighter and tastier.

With the long weekend ahead of us, I’m sure a round or two of these will be made.

O3 Margarita

lime wedge

2 Tb. kosher salt

2 Tb. sugar

2 oz. tequila

1 oz. O3

1 oz. lemon juice

seltzer

Rub lime wedge along rim of margarita glass.  Combine sugar and salt on a plate, invert glass, and coat rim with sugar/salt mixture.

Fill martini shaker with ice.  Add tequila, O3, and lemon juice.  Shake well and pour into margarita glass.  (Strain, if you prefer your margarita up.)  Fill with seltzer.

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.

After a fabulous Kentucky Derby weekend, it seems the ideal time to create a cocktail that will keep the spirit of the derby alive for months to come.  With the combination of Maker’s Mark (the official bourbon of the Kentucky Derby) and fresh fruit, one can’t helped but be transported to Kentucky on a warm spring afternoon.  Although the next derby is a year away, this drink will keep it vividly in mind.

Named for my favorite horse in the Derby’s history, Smarty Jones, I hope it presents as well as this great horse did.

The Smarty Jones

2 lime slices

1/2 oz. simple syrup

2-1/2 oz. Maker’s Mark

1 oz. Pimm’s

3 blueberries

3 raspberries

1 oz. soda water

2 mint sprigs

Muddle the lime slices in a pint glass with simple syrup, then strain into a Collins glass packed with ice.  Pour in Maker’s Mark and Pimm’s.

Muddle 2 bluberries and 2 raspberries in a pint glass.  In the same pint glass, add soda water.  Pour blueberry/raspberry mixture into Collins glass.  Top with shaved ice.  Add 2 mint sprigs for garnish and float a raspberry and blueberry on top.

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.

I thought this month I would go against the grain of the weather a little bit and offer something on the tropical side.  I believe that it is good to mix it up a little bit in mid-winter sometimes.  When a winter is as historic as this one, a nice tropical drink can lift the spirits.

Back in the summer of 2005, I was working as a daytime bartender because I was performing music at night. The establishment I was working at was a unique place for Nashua, as it offered tapas with a trendy list of cocktails. We were very busy at night but seemed to struggle with our lunches.  I often wondered how to improve business with food and drink specials.  After tweaking the food menu a bit with the chef, I decided that I would create a cocktail that would look striking.  This, I thought, would help improve the lunch sales when all of the downtown merchants walked by and saw a bewitching female sipping on a Blue Bicycle and nibbling on sashimi.

Well, many years later, I can’t say if it really brought our sales up or not, but I can tell you this. Just last night this cocktail was a special and something funny happened.  A women who looked faintly familiar and asked what the nightly cocktail specials were.  I said, “We are offering Van Gogh’s Blue Bicycle.”

Her response, “No way, that’s my all time favorite drink, some bartender, come to think of it, he looked a little like you, served it to me several years ago.  He wrote down the recipe, and I misplaced it.  I keep asking for it, but nobody seems to know exactly what it is…”   Well, the rest is history, but now it’s time to put it out there for public consumption.

Van Gogh’s Blue Bicycle

2 oz. Van Gogh Pineapple Vodka
1/2 oz. Galliano
1/4 oz. orgeat Syrup*
2 oz. white cranberry juice
2 oz. pineapple juice
1/2 oz. Rose’s Blue Raspberry mixer
juice from half of an orange
Apple Pop Rocks
colored baking sugar
raspberry

Fill a martini shaker with ice. Add vodka, Galliano, orgeat syrup, cranberry and pineapple juice, and blue raspberry mixer.  Shake vigorously.

Rim the top of a large, slender hurricane glass with orange juice.  (The glass should be tapered in the middle almost like an hour glass.  This will give the appearance of a sexy drink.  This, of course, is preference, but for my particular needs in the summer of 2005 it worked.)

Combine Apple Pop Rocks and colored baking sugar on a small plate.  (Sugar needs to be added to Pop Rocks, or they will dissolve quickly when liquid touches them.)  Invert glass to coat rim with Pop Rock mixture.  Pour contents, with ice, into glass.  Garnish with a raspberry.

*If you can not find this, please add 4 table spoons of Almond extract to 1/4 pound of suger to a quart of water and cook down for 15 minutes.

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.

I thought the new year, and finally the first snow here in New Hampshire, would allow me to offer you one more ‘Hot Libation’. As it is January, and is a new year and decade, I thought it would be fun to offer a little nostalgia.

When I was a youngster, sitting in the ski lodge at Black Mountain in Jackson, New Hampshire, I recall sitting in front of the blazing fireplace, unbuckling my ski boots and lying back on the ‘kiddycouch’ resting my tired legs and slurping down my hot chocolate. I loved their hot cocoa so much, that even though I enjoyed the terrain at Wildcat and Attitash more, there was something about Black Mountain’s hot cocoa that always made me want to go back.

A few things contributed to this, the other resorts had wonderful cocoa offerings, but they came out of a self-serve machine and offered only whipped cream.  Black Mountain’s version was creamy, darker chocolate, much like the mountain’s name
and was made in a big, steel pot that was then ladled out to order.  In addition, you could get whipped cream, or an ice cream scoop of fluff. The fluff was always my choice, as it made the sipping experience a little more fun with its soft texture and seemed to extend the finish, warming those chilled bones.  So, here is my quick, tasty recipe.

Hot Nut Chocolate

marshmallow fluff, room temperature

6 oz. hot chocolate*

1/2 Tb. Nutella

1 oz. Pinnacle whipped cream vodka

1 oz. Frangelico

whipped cream

shaved chocolate or crumbled biscotti, optional

Place a coupe spoonfuls of fluff onto a plate, and dip the rim of an 8-ounce coffee mug (preferably glass, if you are concerned with presentation) into it.  Pour hot cocoa into glass, add Nutella, and stir well.  Add vodka and Frangelico, and stir.  Place a dollop of whipped cream on top.  Garnish with chocolate or biscotti, if desired.

*Choose your favorite brand of hot chocolate, whatever your prefer is fine.  However, keep in mind that adding a little cream, or half and half instead of just water is important to add a thickness, creamy texture, and mass to the cocoa.  Another alternative is to take a 1 pound block of dark baking chocolate and cook it down with water and cream, if you know you would like to make a large amount of cocoa for a party.

Hope you enjoy this winter warmer!

The Ginger Dazzle from Kilimanjaro Foods, Inc. was the winning cocktail from our New Year’s Eve cocktail contest.  It was a tough choice with ten excellent recipes that had flavorful ingredients and beautiful garnishes.  When the votes were tallied, Ginger Dazzle was the most popular.

Ginger Dazzle

1 oz. Kilimanjaro Sunrise Ginger Syrup
2 oz. pineapple juice
3 oz. dry champagne

Pour ginger syrup and juice into a 6 ounce champagne flute, and stir well.  Add champagne, and stir gently.

Enjoy!