Two At The Most

Another month, another Mixology Monday. This month is hosted by Craig at Tiki Drinks and Indigo Firmaments, who offers up the theme of Spice. For guidance, he tells us:
Spice should give you plenty of room to play - from the winter warmers of egg nog, wassail and mulled products to the strange and interesting infusions of pepper, ceubub, grains of paradise, nutmeg — what have you! I would … Continue Reading

One of the real joys of cocktails as a hobby is comparing recipes and discovering what you like best.

Last time I wrote about the Blinker, I used a recipe that called for 2 parts bourbon, 1 part grapefruit juice, and 1 part grenadine. Before trying the recipe, I worried that the grenadine would be too much at that level, but was happy that the sweetness balanced the grapefruit in a way that convinced grapefruit-phobic people that it could be used to good effect.

This time, I decided to try using rye, and dial down on the … Continue Reading

It’s time for Bourbon this Mixology Monday, thanks to the fellers at Scofflaw’s Den. This was one MxMo that Bryan, my chief taste-tester, was very eagerly awaiting.

As always, I used MxMo as a justification to buy a nice bottle. This time it was Ridgemont Reserve 1792. This is a very smooth bourbon, a definite rival to Woodford Reserve, which is currently my favorite mixing Bourbon. Named after the year of Kentucky statehood, this is an 8 year Bourbon that comes in … Continue Reading

Last night’s intensive study of Good Spirits by A. J. Rathbun led me to try the Ed Dexter.

Rathbun states he found this recipe in a small 1934 pamphlet titled Irvin S. Cobb’s Own Recipe Book. Based on this one drink, and the fact the man wrote a book titled Red Likker, I’d like to get a copy of my own.

This is a very simple cocktail, just bourbon, orange curaçao, and some simple syrup. But it’s a heck of … Continue Reading

I’ve always like grapefruit, as long as the ingestion of said fruit included adding lots of sugar. As a kid, it was a frequent weekend breakfast food, always served halved, covered in sugar, eaten with a spoon.

Bryan, on the other hand, hates grapefruit. He made this clear when I brought home a six pack of grapefruit juice in the off-chance it was called for in a recipe. “I hate grapefruit,” he said, in no uncertain terms. Totally uninterested in how great it tasted halved, with sugar, much less in a cocktail. When I read him Paul Clarke’s discussion of … Continue Reading

I picked up a bottle of Aperol at Washington State Store #101, which for those in the know is the store to know about, since it’s the most likely to have interesting items on the shelf.

Tonight I opened the bottle of Aperol, and on first taste new I was going to like this “little sister” of Campari.

I knew I’d seen something about it one one of the many cocktail blogs i read, but when I went to find a recipe, I found it wasn’t even listed as an ingredient in the CocktailDB. A quick search, however, revealed … Continue Reading