December 18, 2015
There’s a key to this particular garden that might be hard to wrangle if you don’t happen to live out northwest way. But you could come visit! We’d be happy to see you. Oh, to jump back, the key. It’s Salish Sea’s Thyme-Coriander liqueur, which is a rich, culinary-esque sipper, and which could do well as a marinade and such, but also makes a very particular cocktail ingredient, one that plays surprisingly well with particular others – here, those others are gin (I used Bluewater Halcyon gin, an award-winner also from up this-a-way), and monastic herbal hit Bénédictine. And a touch of lemon oil, courtesy of a twist. Dang, this is a good drink. You may need to move here.
The Bosun’s Garden
Cracked ice
1-1/2 Bluewater Halcyon gin
1 ounce Salish Sea Thyme-Coriander liqueur
1/2 ounce Bénédictine
Lemon twist, for garnish
1. Fill a cocktail shaker or mixing glass halfway full with cracked ice. Add the gin, Thyme-Coriander liqueur, and Bénédictine. Stir well.
2. Strain into a cocktail glass and garnish with the lemon twist.
Tags: Benedictine, Bluewater Halcyon gin, cocktail recipe, Cocktail Recipes, Friday Night Cocktail, Salish Sea Thyme-Coriander liqueur, The Bosun’s Garden, Washington distillery, What I’m Drinking
Posted in: Cocktail Recipes, Distillery, Gin, Liqueurs, Recipes, What I'm Drinking
December 8, 2015
Hey Seattle and WA State residents, drink lovers, and awesome people! It’s the party season, and you’re throwing your parties in the wrong places. You are! You should be throwing them at a local distillery. Cause that’s where the fun is! Don’t believe me? Check out this recent article I wrote for the sweet Seattle magazine, called: Where to Host your Next Party: A Distillery. Then start printing up the invitations.
March 20, 2015
I tend to shy away from pre-flavored spirits. So many, especially in my early years (but even now, for sure) are flavored chemically, with nothing natural involved, and the taste reflects this attitude. It’s a shame, but hey, them’s the breaks. However, with today’s focus on better taste, and so many smaller distilleries who’d rather serve up delicious bottled items instead of just getting out as much as possible, well, there are some good flavored numbers starting to show up. Example A: Skiprock Distiller’s Badger Pocket black peppercorn vodka. I would expect Skiprock (a distillery from Snohomish, WA) to have a good flavored vodka, since their regular potato-based vodka is awfully tasty and uses potatoes grown right here in WA. They use whole peppercorns in the Badger Pocket, and the end result is a vodka that’s spicy, but not as sharp as you might expect – there’s actually a hint of sweetness in there, too. When using it in cocktails, this gives it more flexibility than you might expect. It makes a great Bloody Mary (as you’d guess), but also goes well with fruit liqueurs and a whole wide range of things. But, funny enough, when I was playing around with it, I ended up going a whole different route than originally planned, pairing it finally with the Italian aperitif Aperol (whose just-about-bitter-and-citrus-ness is a dream) and a little Scrappy’s orange bitters, ending with a drink that’d ideal when the sun is shining.
The Badger’s Feather
Cracked ice
2 ounces Skiprock Badger Pocket vodka
1 ounce Aperol
1 dash Scrappy’s orange bitters
Lemon twist, for garnish
1. Fill a cocktail shaker or mixing glass halfway full with cracked ice. Add the vodka, Aperol, and bitters. Stir well.
2. Strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with the twist.
Tags: Aperol, cocktail, cocktail recipe, Cocktail Recipes, cocktails, Friday Night Cocktail, Scrappy's Bitters, Skiprock Distillers, The Badger’s Feather, What I'm Drinking
Posted in: Aperol, Cocktail Recipes, Distillery, Recipes, vodka, What I'm Drinking
February 20, 2015
This border-busting concoction combines a couple of ingredients that are from fairly different points on the compass: tequila (that’s the southern one), and Washington State’s own Skip Rock Distillery’s Spiced Apple liqueur. The former I’m guessing you know about, but the latter uses local Jonagold apples, and a little bit of sweet and spice, in a dandy manner – meaning, it’s a liqueur that lets the flavor shine through, one that makes a great pairing with tequila and other things. However, when making this cocktail with those two ingredients, I realized that the whole Mason/Dixon quandary was keeping it from fully delivering the awesome, and that I needed one or two last mediators to really make things hum. After some hemming and hawing (and by that I mean, testing and testing), two unexpected other ingredients fell into place: Lillet and Scrappy’s orange bitters. The end result is . . . well, try it and see (okay, a hint: it’s darn tasty).
Up North, Down South
Cracked ice
2 ounces tequila blanco
3/4 Skip Rock Spiced Apple liqueur
1/4 ounce Lillet
Dash Scrappy’s orange bitters
1. Fill a cocktail shaker or mixing glass halfway full with cracked ice. Add everything Stir well.
2. Strain into a cocktail glass.
Tags: cocktail recipe, Cocktail Recipes, Down South, Friday Night Cocktail, Lillet, Scrappy’s orange bitters, Skip Rock Distillery, Skip Rock Spiced Apple liqueur, Tequila, Up North, What I'm Drinking
Posted in: bitters, Cocktail Recipes, Distillery, Liqueurs, Recipes, Tequila, What I'm Drinking
February 10, 2015
Hello party people! It’s that time again, where you are reminded by me of recent pieces I’ve had in or on the wonderful Seattle magazine. There’s a wide range of imbibing reads I’ve been lucky enough to work on, so dive right in to the bottles below and drink up:
• 12 Hangover Cures From Seattle’s Top Bartenders
• Washington’s Award-Winning Coffee Liqueurs Wake Up the New Year
• 3 Effervescent New Year’s Eve Drinks
• 2 Recipes for Moonshine Cocktails
*See all my pieces on Seattle magazine
February 6, 2015
People who know me best know that as the song says, I’m a lover not a fighter. So, don’t take the sorta aggressive nature of this title to mean I’m all up in your face. I’m not! I just had a friend suggest this as a title, and it’s a dandy name for a cocktail in my mind (and that’s the only mind I got). Also, at the time I was looking for a name for this very drink, a drink I created using the swell Old Ballard Liquor Co. Riktig Aquavit (I wrote a lot about the Old Ballard Liquor Co. here), which has a strong and memorable flavor. Not so strong as to give you a thrashing, but strong enough that you’ll remember it – and hopefully this drink, too.
I Will Give You a Thrashing
Cracked ice
2 ounces Riktig Aquavit
1/2 ounce sweet vermouth (I used Cocchi Torino)
1/2 ounce Pierre Ferrand orange curaçao
1. Fill a cocktail shaker or mixing glass halfway full with cracked ice. Add everything. Stir well.
2. Strain into a cocktail glass. Drink while facing Ballard.
Tags: Aquavit, cocktail recipe, Cocktail Recipes, Friday Night Cocktail, I Will Give You A Thrashing, Old Ballard Liquor Co., Pierre Ferrand orange curaçao, Riktig, What I'm Drinking
Posted in: Cocktail Recipes, Distillery, Recipes, What I'm Drinking
November 18, 2014
Hello! You, yes you, are invited to a very special event celebrating my mom and her upcoming film, Speaking of Dying. The film is a documentary showcasing community-based end-of-life planning as pioneered by Trudy James, my mom that is, chaplain and facilitator. You’ll be able to watch the film trailer, meet filmmaker Jennifer Jones and editor Catherine Wadley, connect with people featured in the film, see old friends, and make new ones! Plus, have delicious alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks by me, including the Last Word, the Desert Healer, and the Sparkling Sunset, using products from local distilleries Seattle Distilling Company and Sidetrack Distillery. It’s Saturday, November 22 from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM at the Spring Street Center, 1101 15th Ave, here in Seattle, WA. Hope to see you there!
