Two At The Most

Friends on the other side of the International Date Line have already celebrated the arrival of 2009. I will be meeting up with friends later tonight to ring in the new year with laughter and great drinks.1

In looking for some ideas, I came across one of the drinks I invented for Thursday Drink Night, Gin Edition.

Étourneau Cocktail

Étourneau

1.5 oz London dry gin (No. … Continue Reading

My initial association with the word Tuaca is a horse. Why someone named a Quarter Horse after an Italian liqueur, I’ll never know. I’ll admit I was surprised to discover the current owner of Tuaca the horse had never heard of Tuaca the liqueur. Then again, even though I had heard of it, I don’t think I’d ever tasted it until receiving a sample recently.

Tuaca claims to be the resurrection of a recipe initially created for Lorenzo de’Medici (1449 - 1492). Often called “the Magnificent,” he was the de facto ruler of the Florentine Republic, and remembered as a patron … Continue Reading

Bitter Apricot Cocktail

Every Thursday night, starting around 7 pm EST (00:00 GMT), we meet in the Mixolseum chat room and make up drinks. Usually we have a theme centered around an ingredient that we try to experiment with.

The theme for November 6 was gin. Participants were asked to find a gin they haven’t previously purchased.

This was a big challenge for me. I’ve made an effort to try as … Continue Reading

Believe it or not, I still have a little bit of my bottle of Swedish Punsch left. Tonight I decided to find a recipe to appreciate it. I hit a real prize with the Pooh Bah cocktail.

Pooh Bah Cocktail

3/4 oz gin (Bombay)
3/4 oz light rum (Flor de Caña 4 year Extra Dry
3/4 oz Swedish punsch (Carlshamns Flaggpunsch)
1/4 oz apricot brandy (Rothman & Winter Orchard Apricot)

stir over ice, strain into chilled cocktail glass, sip with a smile.

This is really a delightful cocktail. Yes, it’s a sweet cocktail, but not overpoweringly so. In this case the … Continue Reading

This past Thursday Drink Night at the Mixoloseum was a resounding success.

And not just because my submission, the Black River Sidecar, was named best off-the-cuff drink of the night.

But I’m thrilled at the wonderful write-up Rick did over at Kaiser Penguin, including a great photo.

Black River Sidecar

1 1/2 oz cognac
3/4 oz lemon juice
1/4 oz pimento dram (St. Elizabeth’s Allspice Dram)
1 tsp. agave nectar

shake over ice, strain into cocktail glass, garnish with whole allspice berry tied in lemon twist

The St. Elizabeth’s is very potent; people who … Continue Reading

I spent much of today eagerly refreshing my RSS feed and reading the new Mixology Monday posts, hosted this month at Jimmy’s Cocktail Hour. I wasn’t sure what to post on myself - as a rank newbie to the cocktail world, most of my variations have involved trying out the variations I’m finding in many other blogs. It’s scary to try completely new things.

I thought maybe I’d experiment a little more with the Corpse Reviver #2. Lillet is one of those revelatory discoveries for me. I reread the Kaiser Pengiun … Continue Reading

Wanting to try out something new with my bottle of Grand Solage Calvados, I looked at a few recipes on the CocktailDB. I’m also in the mood to play with vermouth, which I’m only just beginning to appreciate.

I was underwhelmed with the two calvados/sweet vermouth combinations; there was just no there there. Not enough flavor in either to really wow the tastebuds.

I gave the Inspiration (Grand Marnier, calvados, dry vermouth, and London dry gin) a try, but once again, it was just not going in a direction i liked.

Tonight I thought I might try a rum-calvados-vermouth combination. The Kicker … Continue Reading