The Cocktail Thread
 

This is a tad late for some events, but World Cocktail Day (sponsored by the Museum of the American Cocktail) is upon us and there are still some ongoing events. Thankfully, World Cocktail Day seems to have become World Cocktail Week.

Both Devin Tavern (NY, NY) and Oliver's Lounge (Seattle) are hosting some events tonight. :eek:

Here are details for the Cocktail week in San Francisco. Continuing throughout the week.

There are some chances for folks to win a trip to Tales of the Cocktail, an annual event held in New Orleans. This will be the Fifth Anniversary Tales of the Cocktail, a culinary and cocktail festival held from July 18-22. The official cocktail this year is:

Starfish Cooler

1 oz. Moët and Chandon White Star
1 oz. Lemoncello
1 oz. PAMA Pomegranate Liqueur
1 oz. Un-sweet Iced Tea
½ oz. Simple Syrup
Muddle orange slice and mint leaf in Collins glass.
Combine all ingredients.

Created by: Stacey Smith, GW Fins, New Orleans

Lots of good opportunities for food and drink and sampling innovative cocktail creations as well as classics.

Anyone have favourite cocktail recipes to share? :)

Lychee nut martini
cat: booze
serves: 1

4 oz Grey Goose vodka
2 1/2 oz lychee syrup
splash lime juice

Shake on ice, serve straight up in a martini
glass, garnished with lychee.

Katy Jordan, Saint, Boston

On the plane: Kahlua and Milk. Fill a tumbler with ice. Pour Kahlua mini over the ice. Then slowly pour milk over the ice almost to full, leaving it layer. Serve to happy pax.

And you can always get a vodka mini to go along with that and be happy for two drinks worth! :)

I don't know why this one cracked me up, but it did! :)

I've never tried it, and I can't decide if it would be truly icky or not. It comes from the Absolut web site:

PEANUT BUTTER & JELLY MARTINI

1 oz ABSOLUT VODKA
1/2 oz Black Currant Liqueur
1/2 oz Hazelnut Liqueur
1/2 oz Strawberry Puree
Fresh Strawberry

Shake liquid ingredients with ice and strain to a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with strawberry.

Tropical Itch:

1 oz. light rum
1 oz. vodka
1/2 oz. Orange Curacao or Grand Marnier
3 - 4 oz passion fruit juice

Shake with ice and pour contents in a glass. Pineapple or umbrella garnish. Suck 'em up!

Best martini I ever had was a Lemongrass Martini, served at La Lucciola Restaurant, Bali, Indonesia. Don't have precise recipe but I watched the bartender make it. Ginger in Bali is very plump and fresh out of the ground and exudes quite a bit of juice when squeezed:

Into a martini shaker with crushed ice, add premium vodka of choice, squeeze the juice from a large piece of fresh Balinese ginger (using a squeeze juicer), take two reeds of lemongrass, tie in a knot, pull tightly so lemongrass oil drips into martini (from where the knot is in the lemongrass) shake, strain and pour into up martini glass, and insert the knoted lemongrass into the martini (straw like) as garnish. Fantastic!

Honeysuckletini
2 measures light rum
1/4 measure clear honey
1 measure lemon juice (Freshly squeezed!)
1 measure orange juice (Freshly squeezed!)

Important- dissolve honey into rum BEFORE adding any ice.
Shake ingredients with ice and pour into chilled martini glass
(also good with gin or whisky instead of rum)

If you're omni enabled you might like to see more suggestions in a similar thread.

I checked that one and I see missydarlin used to like Green Apple Martinis. I always liked the idea of them, but the reality was disappointing. I like missydarlin's suggestion of fresh apple puree. Here is another take on that, from a bartender in Eugene, OR:

Bad Apple

1 quarter green apple, seeded
2 oz Absolut Citron
1.5 oz lemon juice
1 oz simple syrup

Either muddle apple in a mixing glass or blend ingredients, without ice, until apple is pureéd smooth. Shake this mixture with ice and fine-strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a slice of green apple.

Photo here.

I drank one of those recently - as a shot.

It was not icky at all. It tasted like, well, pb+J :)

My personal favorite in the category of 'tastes like what it's named for' is:

Oatmeal Cookie

1/4 oz Goldschlager® cinnamon schnapps
3/4 oz DeKuyper® Buttershots liqueur
1/4 oz Bailey's® Irish cream


var. 1 - Pour the Goldschlager into the bottom of a 1.5-oz shot glass. Add the Buttershots butterscotch liqueur, float the Bailey's on top, and serve.

var. 2 - Combine ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake, strain and serve.

It's Friday :) and I found some references to an obscure (classic?) cocktail (featured in Drinks Magazine) that I thought might appeal to some FT'ers:

Burnt Fuselage

1 ounce VSOP Cognac
1 ounce Grand Marnier
1 ounce dry vermouth

Stir with ice; strain into chilled cocktail glass and twist a strip of lemon peel over the top.

FRENCH MARTINI:

French Martini

2 oz Vodka
½ oz Chambord
2 ½ oz Pineapple Juice

My wife loves this one. Actually just mixed one for her, except I did 1 oz Vodka, 1 oz Chambord and 2 oz Pineapple Juice

http://www.theartofdrink.com/blog/20...ch_martini.php

I don't know what this is called but it tastes absolutely delicious. And it smells amazing as well. Can be made a shooter or a mixed drink.

Mixed drink:
1.5 oz jaegermeister
1.5 oz peach schnapps
3 to 4.5 oz cranberry juice (depending how you want it to taste- sweeter or not as sweet).
Add to shaker and mix with ice. Strain and serve. Garnish with a slice of peach if available.

Shooter:
.5 oz jaegermeister
.5 oz peach schnapps
.5-.75 oz cranberry juice (again depending on how sweet you want it)

Add to shaker and mix with ice. Strain into a 2 oz shot glass. Goes down like juice ^

Oh..and for those who don't like jaegermeister: you won't taste it all in this drink if mixed properly.

LPR:
1 part malibu
1 part butterscotch schnapps
1 part vodka
2 parts pineapple juice

and to shaker, add ice, mix very well, strain into glasses. better as a shot...be warned, this is one sweet drink.

Something from my younger days that I remember fondly. I suddenley had the craving for one. Maybe it's because I soon return to my motherland.

You can never go wrong mixing fire with a tasty beverage...

Flaming Dr. Pepper

1oz Amaretto
1/4oz Bacardi 151
12oz beer (something yellow like a Bud or Miller High Life)

Pour amaretto into a shotglass. Float 151 on top. Prep yourself a dribble mat, preferrably near a sink. Pour beer into a pint glass. Light the shot on fire and ceremoniously dunk into the glass of beer which should then be immediately entirely consumed as quickly and as dramatically as possible. :D

Replace the Chambord w/ Cointreau, and she'll love it even more!!

Reminds me of a kid a couple years back at my school who decided to just take the flaming 151 shot instead of trying to make the damn drink.
Yes, he believed he could just down a FLAMING SHOT (of 151 no less) without first putting the fire out. It didn't end well to say the least. IIRC, no hair left and (luckily) only 1st degree burns to the face.

Natural selection at work...

I remember that video, still one of the funniest things ever.

Back on topic:
Screwy Monkey *no I did not invent this or come up with the name*

1 part 151
1 part root beer
1 part tequila

enjoy.

Mmmm.... some good cocktail suggestions here! (and a scary one, too! :) )

If you're going to be in London for June 21-24, you might want to check out Taste of London, an outdoor culinary festival at Regents' Park with music and some top chefs/restaurants and bartenders. (Associated festivals in Edinburgh, Bath and Birmingham.)

At the London festival, there will be a live event on June 22 to showcase and choose the bartender finalists for the Cocktail World Cup (sponsored by 42 BELOW vodka).

And the Cocktail World Cup itself will be held in Queenstown, NZ over the week of September 9-16. If you know a bartender who might like to compete and possibly get flown to NZ for the finals, check the web site, although you can see from the following quote, it's not just about standing behind a bar. :)

Dale DeGroff (well known 'mixologist') will be one of the judges. One of the drinks from his website:

GRAPEFRUIT JULEP

1.5 oz. of vodka
1 oz. 100% Pom Wonderful Pomegranate Juice
1.3 oz.Florida grapefruit juice
1/4 ounce fresh lemon juice
1/2 oz. honey syrup (Prepare by mixing two parts honey with one part warm water, cool.)
2 mint sprigs

Bruise one mint sprig in the bottom of a mixing glass with the lime and honey syrup. Add the juices and shake. Strain over ice into a chilled rocks glass. Garnish with the remaining mint.

(Actually, I make something like this quite often, but I skip the honey syrup and mint and usually use lime juice instead of lemon. It's similar to a SeaBreeze Martini really, with Pom juice replacing the cranberry juice.)

(Gay Ski Week is from September 1 -9 in Queenstown, if anyone wanted to attend both...... )

Chocolate Cake shot:
1 oz hazelnut liquor
1 oz vanilla vodka
a lemon wedge and packet of sugar.

Pour out the sugar and coat the lemon. take the shot and bite the lemon. This magic combo tastes unmistakebly like chocolate cake.

From: Charles H Baker Jr, The Gentleman's Companion, 1946

Apparently reciting one of Hemingway's favourites! :)

Hmmm.... another variation on the Green Apple Martini - make your own apple-infused vodka!

Pick whatever type of apples you like and make your own apple vodka to use as a base for apple martinis.

Or, infuse some vodka with a cinnamon stick and some cloves and replicate the following recipe.

Cider Martini

1 1/2 oz Skyy Cinnamon Clove Infused Vodka (or do your own)
1/4 oz apple cider
ice
splash apple brandy

Rinse chilled martini glass with apple brandy and pour out. In shaker combine vodka, cider and ice. Strain into glass and garnish with apple slice.

*************

It's easy to infuse vodka - basically you just add ingredients to vodka in a clean glass jar with an airtight lid and store out of direct sunlight (in fridge is OK for many things) for 1-2 days or up to 2 weeks, depending on type of ingredient and desired intensity. (For the cinnamon/clove combo, a couple of days would probably be plenty.)

Then strain back into original bottle (a coffee filter works OK) and store in fridge.

We discovered these thanks to a bartender at Dragoncon a couple years ago:

They are called Blue Mother ****ers (rhymes with truckers)

3 oz Absolut® Citron vodka
3 oz Blue Curacao liqueur
3 oz sweet and sour mix

Shake ingredients, strain over ice in a highball glass, and serve.

It's bright neon blue and kicks you hard :)

That's a lot of alcohol! Is that recipe for one or two drinks? Or more? ;)

I have to admit to a love/hate relationship with Blue Curacao. On the one hand, I like the look of it, but then I think something with an orange flavour shouldn't be blue, somehow. :)

Or I think could just use food colouring myself. But then, I do love the colour blue and B.C. is an easy way to add a bit of blue to drinks and orange is a nice flavour, etc. I think Blue Lagoon is a nice cocktail - vodka, blue curacao and lemonade over ice. Mmmmm.....

Layered shooters seem a bit passé at times, but I like the look of blue curacao in them. Blue curacao with tequila on top, for example.

Speaking of layered drinks, I was looking for a good gravity chart for layering, but still haven't found one that is very extensive. Here's a start on one, has anyone found a more complete one?

Larger numbers are heavier and lighter numbers are lighter. Lighter will float on top of heavier and the larger the difference in number, the easier it is to layer.

Grenadine- 1.18
Creme de Cassis- 1.18
Anisette- 1.175
Crème de Almond- 1.16
Crème de Noyaux- 1.165
Crème de Banana- 1.14
Crème de Cacao- 1.14
White Crème de Cacao- 1.14
Coffee Liquor- 1.13
Parfrait d'Amour- 1.13
Cherry liqueur- 1.12
Green Crème de Menthe- 1.12
Strawberry liqueur- 1.12
White Crème de Menthe- 1.12
Blue Curacao- 1.11
Galliano- 1.11
Amaretto- 1.1
Blackberry Liquor- 1.1
Apricot Liquor- 1.09
Tia Maria- 1.09
Triple Sec- 1.09
Amaretto di Saranno- 1.08
Drambuie- 1.08
Frangelico- 1.08
Orange Curacao- 1.08
Benedictine D.O.M.- 1.07
Campari- 1.06
Apricot brandy- 1.06
Blackberry brandy- 1.06
Cherry brandy- 1.06
Peach brandy- 1.06
Yellow Chartreuse- 1.06
Midori Melon Liquor- 1.05
Rock and Rye- 1.05
Benedictine- 1.04
Brandy- 1.04
Cherry Liquor- 1.04
Cointreau- 1.04
Kummel- 1.04
Peach liqueur- 1.04
Peppermint schnapps- 1.04
Sloe gin- 1.04
Green Chartreuse- 1.01
Water- 1
Tuaca- 0.98
Southern Comfort- 0.97

Here's another list. I think it's pretty similar: http://www.drinkstreet.com/article.cgi?article=17

Here's some recipes for layered drinks: http://www.drinkstreet.com/category.cgi?category=31

Anyone have a favourite wine cocktail?

There's the standard white wine spritzer, with white wine and some soda/sparkling water, but do you do anything more innovative?

I like red wine spritzers with red wine (natch) over ice, sparkling water, a dash of Grand Marnier (or other orange-flavoured liqueur) and maybe a splash of lime juice. Garnish with a slice of orange/apple/strawberry.

I also like sparkling wine with fruit juices or a mix (ruby red grapefruit juice plus a bit of pomegranate juice is a nice rosy colour and not too sweet). Fresh mango juice with sparkling wine over ice is very nice, also, with or without a dash of lime juice. On Kauai, I buy guava juice from Guava Kai and mix it with wine and serve on ice. (The guava juice in the stores is usually too sweet.)

Instead of Kir Royale (champagne with crème de cassis), I keep thinking I'd like to try a simple Kir - a tsp or so of crème de cassis in a champagne flute and then topped up with chilled dry white wine (the cassis can be a bit sweet, so not sure of the best proportions).

Or the Italian (Venetian?) Spritz - still or sparkling dry white wine (Prosecco?). "Uno spritz con bitter" means Campari added to the wine, topped up with soda/sparkling water and served with a slice of lemon and maybe an olive. Or substitute Cynar liqueur (made from artichokes). Aperol (bitter orange/herb flavour) can also be used and garnished with an orange slice. Has anyone had these?

The typical Spritz from Venice is made with Aperol. I love it! But it always tastes nicer in el Venetto. I've had the campari version in Milan, but I prefer the rhubarb of Aperol.

I like Cynar as an aperetivo, but not mixed with Prosecco or any other wine.

My favourite wine cocktails are Bellinis, Sangria (enter Sangria as a search keyword in the Air Canada forum for an authentic recipe) and Kalimoxo (red wine and coke - it's a teenager drink). Otherwise I prefer Sake as a real cocktail ingredient - blends well with raspberries and is an interesting substitute for vodka in a Bloody Mary.

It's June! That means summertime, right? What could be better for hot summer days than a frozen cocktail on a stick?

I've seen this recipe around a few places and sometimes with some minor modifications. My only complaint is that it doesn't have NEARLY enough tequila in it!!!

And it seems like an awful lot of sugar. I'll have to try it out and see what works. You can use a purchased popsicle mold for these, also.

I have a few ideas for similar popsicles, which I'll post soon! Anyone else?


Margarita Popsicles

Recipe courtesy Emeril Lagasse, 2004
Show: The Essence of Emeril
Episode: Frozen Treats

3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup fresh lime juice
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons fresh orange juice
2 tablespoons tequila [consider increasing this, significantly ;) ]
2 tablespoons orange liqueur (Grand Marnier)
Kosher salt, for garnish

Special Equipment: 4 small cups (recommended: Dixie), 4 popsicle sticks

Combine sugar, lime juice, water, lemon juice and orange juice in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring, until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

Once cool transfer to a blender with tequila, orange liqueur, and lime wedge and process until smooth. Pour into the cups and cover the top of each cup with foil. Place the popsicle stick in center of cup (down through foil, which will hold it in place).

Freeze until hard, preferably overnight. Remove from freezer and run cup under warm water to loosen popsicle. Garnish with kosher salt and serve.

I keep vodka in the freezer as well as other liqueurs with 20% alcohol - they don't freeze.

Frozon cocktail on a stick might seem like a good idea - but I'm guessing that frozen margaritas are slushy for a reason.

Perhaps you should experiment with something like frozen alcohol jellos - or take a leaf out of the milkshake thread and indulge in cold alcoholic shakes instead (I occasionally like a real chocolate and ice-cream shake laced with cointreau or peppermint liqueur)

Well, you raise a good point. Alcohol (including vodka, etc) will freeze, but it requires a much lower temperature than that obtained by most home freezers.

However, beverages with lower alcohol contents will freeze or nearly so, as they are largely water-based. (As anyone who has accidentally forgotten the beer or wine that they put in the freezer to 'chill' can attest!) ;)

Basically, the higher the alcohol content of the liquid, the lower the required temperature in order to attain a frozen or near-frozen product.

The means of calculating this is contained in a chemistry term called freezing-point depression, I believe. (Related to boiling-point elevation.)

So, the goal is to increase the alcohol content in the popsicles to the point where they will still freeze (or near-freeze) within the temperature range of the normal home freezer, but no more.

I'm far too lazy to try and calculate it by formula (especially after the generous portions of wine my friend served at her place last night), so I might just try and play with the proportions and leave the rest to my freezer.
;)

But if anyone is interested in trying to provide an answer that suggests the correct proportions to use, I'd be grateful. And impressed. :D

My thoughts upon seeing the receipe were that it wouldn't freeze either. But then again, it sounded really good, and if it didn't freeze, then I'd just pull the stick out and drink the contents!! No harm, no foul....!!

Hahahahaha!!! I really LIKE the way you think! ;)

OK, in the name of science, I decided to put this to the test.

In the original recipe, the proportions are about 12 oz water or water-based liquids (juices) to 2 oz alcohol. Grand Marnier is 40% alcohol/volume and I think tequila would be about the same. I used a flavoured vodka for my experiment and it's label reads 35% alc/vol. So I may be using a slight touch less alcohol than the original recipe.

(I don't think there is any need to go into the differences between US and Canada/Europe in terms of reporting alcohol content, but I'll mention that I believe the US uses alcohol/weight while Canada/Europe uses alcohol/volume, and I don't know how much variation this results in. My products are Canadian.)

I didn't have the ingredients for the original recipe, so I decided to use up a mini of Smirnoff Twist of Lime (which has been in my cupboard for awhile) in similar proportions to the recipe. I used 50 ml of vodka, 100 ml of Pom Wonderful pomegranate juice and topped up with water to make a total of about 300 ml. (I probably should have added a touch of Grand Marnier, but forgot.)

I didn't add sugar, because the flavoured vodka is already sweetened with sugar. I don't know if that changes anything - if sugar-water freezes more or less easily than water.

I found a plastic popsicle mold in the back of one of my cupboards, washed it, and poured the mixture in. It was enough to fill five segments, so approx 60 ml each. It's in the back of my refrigerator freezer compartment right now, and I'll give an update tonight or tomorrow.

Next is to see how much I can increase the alcohol content and still get a decently frozen result. ;)

On a related theme, the good folks at My Science Project did some experimentation to determine the max amount of alcohol that can be used to make jello shots. :D

http://www.myscienceproject.org/j-shot.html

I may have been a better student had that been a lab in my high school chemsitry class. :D

OK, the results are already in!!!! I checked the freezer a little while ago and sure enough, my Pom-vodka pops already appeared nicely frozen. So of course I HAD to try one. Mmmmm..... but I really should have added a splash of lime juice and some Grand Marnier. Sugar would have been OK for people who like things a bit on the sweet side, but I liked it a bit tarter....

The one I ate was a tad soft, so I am going to leave them overnight and try another one tomorrow.

Back tomorrow with more details, maybe some photos and probably another recipe or two..... :)

Add the lime juice and Grand Marnier and perhaps you should be christening them Cosmopomitans-onna-stick.

Hehehehehe!!! Well, the problem is that I can think of TOO MANY different things to try with this general idea. :)

Anyway, my pom-vodka pops are really good - even better today than yesterday. Here's a photo of a finished one, and it has a nice firm frozen texture.

The recipe below is something I ran across and have modified slightly. I'm thinking of making these for next weekend, when I have a few girlfriends coming over for a bit of a deck party. If it's a warm afternoon, it'll be a nice starter!


TEQUILA SUNSET POPSICLES

Approx half a dozen strawberries
mango
3 tbsp (45 mL) granulated sugar or to taste
4 to 6 tbsp (60 to 90 mL) tequila
2 tbsp (30 mL) freshly squeezed lime juice

Wash, hull and purée strawberries along with 1 tablespoon of sugar. Blend in 1 or 2 tbsp of tequila. Spoon into the bottom of a popsicle mould or whatever you are using. Cover and freeze for an hour or two or until firm enough to add second layer.

Peel mango and slice fruit from pit. Purée with 2 tbsps of sugar and the lime juice. Blend in 2 - 4 tbsp of tequila. Spoon over the strawberry mixture in each mould. Add the lids/sticks/handles and freeze until firm.

Or, I suppose you could put the mango in the bottom and the strawberry on the top and call them Tequila Sunrise Popsicles. ;)

That's right! Nothing screams summer more, than a nice refreshing cocktail in your hand, on a hot humid evening. Here's a recipe I came across on the Better Homes and Garden's website, its for a white strawberry sangria. Oh does it look good!

Mmmmm.... strawberries and wine, sounds like summer to me!

Here's a Peach Sangria recipe I have modifed slightly...... (and yes, I know sangria maybe isn't the best term anymore, given that the original is red and is named for the 'blood-red' look.... :) )

Peach Sangria

1 750-ml bottle dry white wine
3/4 cup peach brandy (or peach schnapps?)
6 tablespoons frozen lemonade concentrate, thawed
(or use fresh lemon juice/lemon slices and possibly increase the sugar)
1/4 cup sugar (or to taste - add half this amount first)
2 firm-ripe sliced peaches
Seedless green and/or red grapes, halved (optional)

Mix first 4 ingredients in large pitcher until sugar dissolves. Add peaches and all grapes.

Refrigerate sangría until well chilled, about 2 hours or leave longer (up to 24 hours) to let flavour develop.

Serve over ice. You can add a bit of soda water before serving, if you want to dilute it a bit.


LapLap, why not put your sangria recipe in this thread, it's better suited here than lost in the AC forum? ;)

I find a very,very dry martini in the American Bar at the Savoy in London is heaven on earth and,by chance,a fantastic loosener of knicker elastic as well.