It’s the holiday season y’all! Which means one fantastic thing: it’s time for another episode of The Cocktail to Cocktail Hour, with very special hunky holiday guest Jeremy Holt! Mr. Jeremy stops by to teach us how to make perhaps the finest Thanksgiving cocktail known, the Gizmo, which features Voyager gin, cranberry sauce, and simple syrup. If you want your Thanksgiving to be awesome, watch this now. Right now!
Pals, it’s getting chilly. No way to escape it, in the general sense. But in the specific sense, the best way to escape it is to cuddle up with someone cuddly and have this very drink, which is a warmer meant to be had while cuddling. And yeah, it uses both Drambuie and schnapps, which may bother your snootier sensibilities. But if so, no one wants to cuddly with you anyway and you can ignore this whole thing.
It’s late June, a sleepy sort of summertime, full of days where waking up early and going to work seems downright silly. Though maybe you have these feelings all the time? Anyway, a good suggestion* for overcoming that feeling is starting things off right with a London Fog – this very drink. For celebrity endorsement, Burgess Meredith used to swear by this concoction as a morning pick-you-up. And Norton Pratt, who edited the Boston Telegram once up a time, says this will cure you when you feel “like a basket of busted bungholes.” I can’t think of anything to say that would top that, so just go make the drink whydontcha?
2 ounces gin (something London-y, of course, like Voyager)
1/2 ounce Pernod
1. Add about a cup of cracked ice to a mixing glass or cocktail shaker. Add the gin and Pernod.
2. Stir well (so well that it seems you’re frappe-ing the mix). Pour everything into an Old Fashioned glass. Drink quickly, before the body realizes what’s going on.
*The actual validity of the “good” here varies depending on the job naturally. I’m sure not suggesting you drink before operating heavy machinery. But if you’re just heading to the cubicle farm? Why not?
If you didn’t read The Old Curiosity Shop, Part I, you might want to, or just check out all Charles Dickens Spiked Punch posts. Cause I don’t want to take a lot of pre-amble, as this post will have a quote from that classic book, as well as a recipe that relates to the quote (cause I like to have Friday Night Cocktail recipes on Fridays, and wanted to somehow tie it all together. Make sense?). So, here’s the Cocktail Talk, Dickens’ style.
Presently he returned, followed by the boy from the public house, who bore in one hand a plate of bread and beef, and in the other a great pot, filled with some very fragrant compound, which sent forth a grateful steam, and was indeed choice Purl, made after a particular recipes which Mr. Swiveller had imparted to the landlord at a period when he was deep in his books and desirous to conciliate his friendship. Relieving the boy of his burden at the door, and charging his little companion to fasten it to prevent surprise, Mr. Swiveller followed her into the kitchen.
Now, to follow that up, here’s a recipe for Purl from Good Spirits, so you can make your own to sip on while reading Dickens on a cold spring night. Or, to have with friends while you’re acting out scenes from your favorite Dickens’ books. This is something you do, right?
Purl
6 ounces porter
6 ounces ale (a pale ale works)
1 ounce gin
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated ginger
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1. Add the porter, ale, and ginger to a small saucepan. Heat over medium-heat, until warm but not boiling.
2. Carefully pour the porter-ale mixture into a pint glass that has been slightly warmed (by running it under warm water).
3. Add the gin. Stir once with a spoon. Sprinkle the freshly grated nutmeg over the top.
The newest episode of the Cocktail to Cocktail Hour is here, and this time, we’ve gone international with another Everyday Drinking segment, where I solve the drinking problem of an everyday person. But this time, that everyday person is someone who has come all the way from the United Kingdom! Amazing, isn’t it? A fine British gentleman by the name of Alastair Edwards (really!) is the star of this episode, where I teach him how to make the Sweetie-Pie cocktail from Good Spirits, so he can delight his American gal pal with it. There are also many hijinks, of course, as we wade into the waters of American/British differences and erupting hats – over drinks.
Back when I was younger (this was before things like cocktail blogs – really, before electricity. Ba dump bump), there was a drink called The We Have to Be at Work by 10 A.M. It was all about mornings and how sometimes you need to pack breakfast, juice, and a pick-you-up into one glass, and was printed first in that award-winning cocktail cuddler, Good Spirits. Recently, though, I re-visited the drink, thinking about how it’s more often now that I’m thinking of a pre-going-to-bed drink, and that I now have to go to work much earlier than 10 A.M. I didn’t want to change its nature too much, cause it’s a fun drink. First, I thought I’d make the switch from vodka to gin, cause gin’s a bit more of a refined evening number. Then, though, to make things a bit easier (it’s evening, remember, and we’re winding down) and because it’s tasty, I moved to the Bitter Truth’s new Pink Gin, which is a gin-aromatic-bitters mix, served in a beautiful bottle (if you don’t see it in your store, try Astor Wine & Spirits). It has a florally-juniper-y taste underlined by and mingled with spice notes. Yummy. I also, when, updating the recipe, added a little simple syrup, because before bed one likes some sweetness. I kept the orange juice and part of the egg (the white), though, because healthiness is good any time of day.
The We Have to Be in Bed by 10 P.M.
1-1/2 ounces Bitter Truth Pink Gin
1 ounce freshly squeezed orange juice
1 egg white
1/2 ounce simple syrup
1. Fill a cocktail shaker halfway full with ice cubes. Add the Pink Gin, orange juice, egg white, and simple syrup. Shake really well (it’ll wear you out for bed).
2. Strain (through a fine strainer if you have one) into a cocktail glass. Drink. Sleep. Dream dreamy dreams.
The time is now! This is the time! This time it is time for the time being now! All of which is to say, the sparkling new season of A.J. Rathbun’s Cocktail to Cocktail Hour (starring me, A.J. Rathbun) starts today. And what a start it is: in this first episode I’ll teach you how to make the Supersonic cocktail, named after my favorite NBA team of all time, The Seattle Supersonics. Yeah! It’s a delicious mix, which should be enough to woo you to watching and making, but to make things even more exciting, the episode has a very special guest: the Glove, the best defensive point guard in history, Gary Payton! You have to watch it to believe it folks. So what are you waiting for – hit play already!
PS: As always, the Cocktail to Cocktail Hour was directed, co-wrote, edited, produced, and gaff’d by Dr. Gonzo and is an Artificial Khaos production.
Halloween, friends and neighbors (especially those neighbors who currently—it’s October as I write—have tombstones or spiders in the yard, all kinds of pumpkins around, maybe a skeleton or two, and more spooky stuff), is almost here. Which means I’m un-burying my favorite eerie fall cocktail, the Sleepy Hollow. I’ve written about it before hither and yon, but always like to bring it up this time of year, cause it’s delicious and matches the holiday so well. Just don’t lose your head over it!
1. Add the mint, lemon juice, and simple syrup to a mixing glass or cocktail shaker. Using a muddler or hefty wooden spoon, muddle well.
2. Fill the cocktail shaker or glass halfway full with ice cubes. Add the gin and apricot liqueur. Shake as if you heard the horseman’s hoof beats coming.
3. Strain into a large cocktail glass. Garnish with a sprig of mint and a swizzle stick topped with a plastic head.
Also, if you want to see how to make the drink visually, then I strong suggest you watch the below video—if you’re not too scared, that is.
