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It’s Hot so Pisco Sours are Up!

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Pisco Sour

Many wonderful things come from Peru. Potatoes, lomo saltado, music, colorful clothing, and so much more. But the thing I might love the best is the national liquor of Peru, called Pisco.

It’s a brandy is our Pisco. Which might make it seem too refined for mixing in a cocktail. I mean, after all, aren’t we used to brandy being in snifters and snobby people drinking it after pretentiously swirling it around a large glass which has been warmed over little candles. But not Peru’s brandy. Oh, no, my friends. Pisco is for all of us.

The best way to have Pisco is in a sour. Now, I didn’t invent the Pisco Sour, but I think I have a pretty damn good recipe for said Pisco Sour, if I say so myself. And I do. I like these with or without food. I think they are an excellent mid-afternoon cocktail as you think about evening plans.

Some tips before we go into how to make them. You can use fresh egg whites. I have. But I actually prefer store bought egg whites which have been pasteurized. Also, I hunted down the Amargo Chuncho bitters which are made with Peruvian ingredients. You do not need to be so particular. It is perfectly okay to substitute bitters readily found in most markets. Peychauds would be good. Peychauds aged bitters might be better. Aromatic bitters would be perfectly acceptable. Barrel-aged aromatic bitters might be better. Obviously, the Amargo is the best and preferred. But if you can’t get your hands on it, it’s cool.

Pisco Sour

  • 3 oz pisco
  • 1 oz lime juice
  • .5-.75 oz simple syrup
  • 1 egg white or the carton equivalent
  • 2 dashes amargo bitter and more for garnish

Put all the ingredients into a shaker with one or two ice cubes. Shake until frothy and the ice has melted. Add more ice and shake properly. Many people dry shake without the ice cube or two, but I have found the foam better with it. Pour over fresh ice. Garnish with 3 drops of bitters on top. Enjoy!

I Can’t Tell You How Great Smoke on the Water Is

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Smoke in the Water

I think the first time I had a Smoke on the Water I was eating tacos by the dozen. Sadly or luckily or whatever, I wasn’t drinking Smoke on the Waters by the dozen. But I did start having a hankering for them while eating tacos on a hot summer day.

Once you love tequila, it’s not that far to acquiring a mezcal fetish as well. Then when you stumble upon a cocktail at a joint that is particularly good and the name of the cocktail is particularly clever, well, you hunt down that recipe. Tout suite. To drink. Even when you aren’t eating tacos. And the weather isn’t particularly nice outside. Because the memory of that drink is on your mind and making it recreates those feelings that were present the first time you had it. At least, that’s the way it is for me.

The recipe calls for fresh-squeezed watermelon. Which I think is cool if it’s summer. If it’s not, there are perfectly acceptable alternatives. Also, some juiceries have fresh-squeezed watermelon juice available. I think shortcuts are the spice of life. If you find one that works cool. Also, this recipe calls for hibiscus syrup. You have to make this in advance and cool it before making the drink. Not all the way, but it can’t be boiling. And ideally, it should be down to room temperature or too much ice will melt in the mixing. And the balance between the ingredients of a cocktail and water are super important.

Smoke on the Water

  • 2. oz mezcal
  • 1 oz Cointreau
  • 1.25 oz watermelon juice, freshly squeezed if possible
  • .75 oz hibiscus syrup, recipe below
  • .75 oz lime juice
  • dried lavender or soaked hibiscus or a pickled watermelon rind or a tiny watermelon wedge

Add big ice to a rocks glass. Then add all the other ingredients to a shake with ice, and shake for 40-60 seconds. Double strain over the big ice. Garnish.

Hibiscus Syrup

  • 1 cup water
  • 1 cup sugar
  • .5 cup hibiscus flower or 4 bags of hibiscus tea

Combine water with sugar in a small saucepan, and bring to a boil. Take off the heat. Add the hibiscus. Steep for 10 minutes then strain into a glass jar or jug. Keep in fridge for about a month.

Gooseberry Margaritas Are New For May

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Gooseberry Margarita

Margaritas are really up there for being a favorite Spring and Summer drink. I love them with more than Mexican food. I think they blend well with LOTS of different types of cuisines. And of course, they are spectacular on their own or with salty, deep-fat fried foods.

Over the course of some years, I have found my favorite margarita recipe. And I have experimented with lots of different variations. I’ve made blood-orange margaritas, skinny margaritas, spicy margaritas, and so many more. Then I stumbled upon the gooseberry margarita. Mostly because I was living in Kuwait and most of my produce was coming from Europe and Africa. My go-tos for produce when I was in the Americas weren’t readily obtained. So, I discovered the cape gooseberry

Cape gooseberries are these cute little berries which are in a paper cover and are this vibrant, orange color. They are not like those sour green ones. Perfect for cocktail making, imo. Well, they both are but for different reasons. As soon as you find them in the supermarket, run out a grab some.

Cape Gooseberry Recipe

  • 2 oz tequila
  • 1oz lime juice
  • .75 oz Cointreau
  • .5 oz agave syrup
  • 6 cape gooseberries
  • lime wedges

Muddle 3-4 cape gooseberries in a shaker with the agave syrup. Let it sit a minute or two for the flavors to incorporate. Then add the rest of the liquid ingredients. Shake, Shake, Shake. Double Strain into a rocks glass that has fresh ice and few cut up cape gooseberries. Taste. Squeeze a lime cheek into the glass, if needed. Otherwise, just add a few lime wheels for garnish. I wouldn’t add salt because this is a sweeter margarita. But if you’d like, add the salt to the rim of the glass before the ice and pouring.

Warm Weather means Cool Spritzes

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Warmer weather always ushers in the season of the Spritz. It’s just goes hand in hand with the higher degrees outside. For me, it also brings up memories of Italy and good times. But it’s not just me. I was out for a girls’ night the other evening and I saw two ladies enjoying a spritz or two. They were having them in the normal big bulbous gin glasses and not the one I used for mine in this picture. The glass is less important than the ingredients.

The one pictured is a Campari Spritz. Which I love. But I have been known to enjoy other spritzes as well. The Spritz is great using Aperol instead of the Campari making it an Aperol Spritz. You can used St. Germain and make an elderflower spritz. Bonus points if you make it in their carafe with the proportions written on the outside. There is a new kid on the block, a bergamot- savory orange- forward liqueur called Italicus, which makes a pretty good spritz as well. I prefer the Italicus Spritz with gin to tame the sweetness. And lastly, my cocktail club–Shaker & Spoon–have a spritz called the Myrtle Spritz made with spiced blueberry syrup. No matter which spritz you chose, it is sure to be refreshing.

Campari Spritz

  • 1.5 oz Campari
  • 2 oz Prosecco/Sparkling White Wine
  • Splash of Sparkling water/Soda water/Fizzy water
  • garnish with a slice of orange and a green olive

Add the Campari and the Prosecco to a gin glass. Add green olive and stir. Top with ice cubes. Add splash of Sparkling water. Put orange slice along the side of the glass. Add a straw. Give it a small stir. Enjoy!

You can substitute Aperol,/St. Germain/ Italicus+Gin for the Campari in the recipe above. I would start with the same proportions and then add or subtract depending on your palate and whether you like it sweeter, more bitter forward, etc. With the St. Germain and Italicus+Gin, I would leave off the olive as a garnish. And maybe play around with some cool bitters. A peach one or a juicy orange one. Lots of new ones on the market out there. There is no end to the experimentation possible. And a whole Spring, Summer, and Fall in which to try things out.

Bitter Bitches are Delicious… No, Really

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There was a whole movement of women who began drinking Bitter Bitches in response to the Supremes losing their damn minds and doing what no other Court has ever done before, claw back right already bestowed. Right or wrong. It was singular. Or was. Or will be… was. Who knows what crazy people will decide. Back to this delicious drink, it’s kinda of yum. And it’s a pretty color. What’s not to love?!?! Well, the reason it was invented. But if one was to mount a response, this isn’t a terrible one with which to begin.

Bitter Bitch

  • 2oz gin
  • 2oz limoncello
  • 1oz tangerine juice
  • 1oz lemon juice
  • orange bitters
  • .5 oz Aperol

Put first five ingredients into a shaker with ice and shake for 50 to 60 seconds. Pour into a martini glass. Take a spoon and invert it. Touch the spoon to the inside edge of your glass. Slowly pour Aperol over the spoon. It’s supposed to float, but will sink instead. The sinker is pretty, as I can attest. I have never made one that floats the Aperol so I can’t speak to that one.

If you have a small, bitter place in your heart for how some stuffy fuckers are taking away rights or for some romantic reason as it is February and Valentine’s Day is near and some fucker is breaking your heart in a different way… make a bitter bitch. And at least that shit will go down delicious.

Dirty Martinis are My Favorite Drink

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I’m not sure when I fell in love with the dirty martini, but I feel like it’s been years. And I haven’t been sad about it. At. All.

In the beginning, I would just order them at restaurants. Making them at home seemed to involved. Plus, they seem to taste better when someone else made them. Capital Grille in DC was a fav. A place I would return to again and again. They are also the reason I have upped my dirty martini game.

Stuffing your own blue cheese olives starts the endeavor known as a dirty martini. In some circles, a dirty martini with blue cheese olives are called a Dirty Executive. However, I think blue cheese olives are a standard in a dirty martini and doesn’t signify a different name. Grey Goose was also the vodka of choice for said dirty martini. It’s a clean vodka. And works well to carry the olive flavors necessary to this classic.

Adding a cocktail onions made total sense. A hit of pickled sweet after all the savory… Yummo! Then I learned about adding anchovies to the cocktail pick loaded with olives and onions. This was from a cookbook based on the Venice region of Italy. With these two additions to the cocktail pick line-up along with blue cheesed stuffed olives make my Dirty Martini complete.

Each drink and bite… or not… is unique. Adding little bits of flavor and texture and umami-ness. And since I use both vermouth and olive brine in my Dirty Martini, well shaken and not stirred, I also get a uniform canvas upon which to appreciate all the differences… and some sameness.

Dirty Martini

-makes a large pour

  • 4 oz Grey Goose
  • .75 oz olive brine
  • .5 oz dry or blanc vermouth
  • 3 dashes olive bitters
  • 1 spritz lemon oil
  • blue cheese olives, anchovies, cocktail onions

Put ice in a martini glass. Stick it in the freezer as you make the martini. Put the first four ingredients into a shake. Fill with ice. Shake it up. Take glass our of freezer, dump the ice, and pour the martini into the glass. Spritz with lemon oil or express some lemon oil from a cut rind. Garnish with olives, onions, and anchovies Enjoy!

Apples, Apples… Apple Cider Martini

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Fall and winter holidays, like Thanksgiving, Christmas, and all the others always brings to mind delicious apple cider. I love freshly-pressed juice of ALL THE APPLES. It was such a no-brainer to come up with a delicious apple cider cocktail.

After much experimenting, I came up with lovely Apple Cider Martini recipe that should hit the spot for the holidays. Add in a cinnamon stick and you have a festive cocktail you can have alone or batch for a group.

  • 2 ounces vodka
  • 3 ounces apple cider
  • a pinch of cinnamon
  • .5 ounces lemon juice
  • cinnamon stick

Put all the ingredients into a shaker with ice and shake. Strain into a martini glass. Light one end of the cinnamon stick, swirl the smoke over the glass, blow it out, and then use as a garnish. Drink and think of fall.

This drink is light and not very alcohol forward. Which makes it perfect for parties or the occasional martini alone. Plus, apples say fall.

The French Gimlet was my Fall Down the Rabbit Hole

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I knew I’d fallen irrevocably into the spirit world, and by that I mean HARD LIQUOR type spirits and not the kind who haunted a person or place, when I started loving Gin. Gin isn’t for the faint of heart. And many will tell you they hate the stuff. I was was on of those not too long ago.

But then it all changed.

I found Hendrick’s gin. And all its iterations. And while the juniper-forward gins made famous by the London Dry style left a lot to be desired for a young gin drinker like me, the floral-forward Hendrick’s was right up my alley. It was everything I’d been missing in gin. A little cucumber, a little rose, and juniper took a back seat. I mean, that pine flavor was still there, letting everyone and their brother know that this spirit was gin, but it was tempered and softened. And the limited edition release known as Midsummer’s Eve edition was all that and two bags of chips. I LOVED it. And I am so sad it is no more.

I like Hendricks for my French Gimlets. I tried it with Plymouth gin, which I normally favor for anything with sage in it, and I thought it would play well with the Elderflower liqueur, and it did. But I think it played too well. The French Gimlet with Plymouth gin was too soft. If you know what I mean. And then I tried it with a French gin, Citadelle, and I knew I had a winner, winner chicken dinner.

And that’s when I knew.

I’d been able to make a cocktail with various gins I had in my repertoire and some I didn’t and found the one I liked the best in the recipe.

I’d become a gin lover.

For a delicious French Gimlet shake in a shaker:

  • 2 oz gin
  • 1.5 oz elderflower liqueur
  • .5 oz lime juice

Strain into a martini glass. Garnish with a lime wheel.

Amaretto Sour and the Beginning

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I think the search for a better Amaretto Sour might’ve been the beginning of my deep dive into the craft cocktail world. The ones I keep getting were too sweet, too hazelnut forward, not well-balanced–although, I wouldn’t know it then, or too something. I’ve never been a fan of whiskey so whiskey sours we’re just out of the question. Then I stumbled onto the Morgenthaler Amaretto Sour. Jeffrey adds in just enough cask-proof bourbon to the usual amaretto to make the drink more balanced and have more depth and more tasting notes. Just more of everything.

But I don’t like bourbon. And what I don’t like about bourbon is doubly present in over-proof bourbon.

Still, I made them the Morgenthaler way for years. That is until I discovered Japanese whiskey. They oak they use makes Japanese whiskey sweeter to me. The Mizunara oak imparts a taste not present in any other whiskey. And I love it.

My recipe for an Amaretto Sour is:

  • 2 oz amaretto
  • .5 oz cask-proof Japanese whiskey
  • .5 oz Suntory Toki whiskey
  • 1 oz lemon juice
  • 1 tsp enriched simple syrup (2:1)
  • .5 oz egg white

Shake in a shaker. Strain into a rocks glass filled with ice. Garnish with a cherry. Or three.

The Morgenthaler Amaretto Sour was a huge improvement over the regular one. But I think I’ve taken it to the next level with my substitution of Japanese whiskey for bourbon. And because I don’t like the boozy forward-ness over over-proof whiskeys, I did a mix instead. It’s damn near perfect when cherries are added to the mix. Luxardo cherries, to be exact. They are my favorite as well. And I’ve tried a LOT of cocktail cherries.

It’s been a few years since I perfected my Amaretto Sour recipe, well, perfect for me. And in that time, I’ve made a few more drinks. And then, I fell down the rabbit-hole of craft cocktails. And now my home bar has more bitters than most commercial ones.

I’m not sad about it. At. All.

Espresso Martini… and My Hunt for the Perfect One

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I discovered the Espresso Martini in the last couple of years. I’m pretty sure it’s a throw-back to the 1980s and my Kailua fueled college years. It’s taste reminds me of my past. Plus, they are super delicious.

The recipe I’ve been using lately is pretty simple:

  • 2 oz vodka
  • 2 oz espresso
  • .75 oz coffee liqueur

Add all the ingredients to a shaker with ice. Shake. Pour. Garnish with 3 beans. Viola.

Sometimes, if I’m feeling myself, I will add a thin layer of fresh soft cream on top. I like cream with my morning coffee, so it’s not a stretch that I would like a little with my espresso martini. Other times, I add some Frangelico and add a little hazelnut flavor. That’s the beauty of this drink. With just a little of this or that, you can make it fresh and new.

Or be like me and just drink the classic.