Two At The Most

Fall is closing in fast, but October refuses to leave until we honor it with a Mixology Monday. Over at Cocktailians, Vidiot is hosting a most excellent theme, Vermouth. He bids us:
Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to present a delectable vermouth cocktail for us all to drool over. Sweet/Italian or dry/French vermouth are fair game of course, as are quinquina, aperitif wines like Pineau des Charentes, or for … Continue Reading

I was paging through the delightful Barflies and Cocktails by Harry McElhone, one of the wonderful reprints by Mud Puddle Books. Amongst all the wonderful illustrations by Wynn Holcomb, I found a variation on the martini that was new to me.

Gloom Raiser

Gloom Raiser

1.5 ounces London dry gin
0.75 ounces dry vermouth
2 dashes absinthe (I prefer a white over verte here)
2 dashes grenadine

stir and strain into cocktail glass, garnish with lemon twist.

This is a great variation … Continue Reading

This month’s Mixology Monday is being hosted by Tristan at The Wild Drink Blog. He’s put forth the following challenge:
This month’s Mixology Monday is all about twists on classic cocktails, that for one reason or another do an even better job than the drinks upon which they are based.

This could be as simple as a classic Margarita with a dash with a special touch that completes it, or maybe … Continue Reading

Right Gin is not afraid to say it – they want to be the gin for people who think they don’t like gin. It is, after all, created by people who thought they should like gin but couldn’t find one that worked for them. As you know, I already know I like gin, but was happy to receive a bottle of this gin produced in Sweden to sample.

Personally, I have to wonder what gins they did try, considering their big complaint was a heavy, oily aftertaste. That’s a problem I find exists … Continue Reading

I’m eagerly looking forward to this week’s Thursday Drink Night. Our sponsor is Beefeater Gin. I’m expecting there will be a lot of fun and interesting drinks invented based on this London dry gin, which is one of my favorites because it brings high quality at an affordable price.

San Martín Cocktail

To get into the spirit, I wanted to try a a new-to-me gin cocktail. I picked up my copy … Continue Reading

Has this ever happened to you? You invent a new drink, and you think it’s the greatest thing ever. You sweat over a good name, you brag about it to all your friends. And then you forget about it. You remember a few months later, and try it again, and cannot imagine what lead you to think it was a great drink.

Campari Dolce

Happily, this is not the case with the Campari Dolce. I invented this drink at a … Continue Reading

I never get tired of mentioning that I first discovered pisco on a trip to Peru. It was also in Peru that I discovered my other love, Peruvian horses.

Imagine my delight when a bottle of BarSol Quebranta Pisco arrived for review. Not only was it a pisco, but it featured a logo of a Peruvian horse and rider, which gave me an excellent chance to … Continue Reading

Lo and behold, it’s another Mixology Monday! This 35th incarnation is being hosted by The Scribe at A Mixed Dram, and he bids us: Broaden Your Horizons. Try a new base spirit, a new technique, anything, just as long as it’s something new for you.

The Scribe is apparently precognitive, because the base spirit he gave as an example, tequila, is one that’s fairly foreign to me. Just last week I put up … Continue Reading

I rarely make the same drink two nights in a row. I’m developing a large home liquor selection, as well as a robust home library of cocktail books. This leads me to want to continually challenge myself to new-to-me cocktails.

But for nearly a week, I’ve been drinking the same drink almost non-stop. It all started when I bought a bottle of pineau des Charentes. I had seen reference to this vin de liqueur, and it finally stuck … 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