July 24, 2012
At my wonderful Locatails class last weekend at the wonderful Pantry at Delancey, one of the wonderful assistants (there was a lot of wonderful last weekend) asked me in passing about drinks made using rosé. I was going to round a few up for her, then people started coming in, I started talking, and somewhat forgot. Until now, when looking at the weather and realizing that we might, actually, be in for some more sun this week in Seattle. And when the sun’s out, a light-but-interesting drink like the Rosé Squirt is in (said drink from Wine Cocktails doncha know). So, now, I’m belatedly answering the question from last weekend and getting a wonderful drink on.
Ice cubes
1 ounce maraschino liqueur
3 ounce dry rosé wine
Chilled club soda
Maraschino cherry, for garnish
1. Fill a highball glass three-quarters full with ice cubes. Add the maraschino liqueur and rosé. Stir briefly.
2. Fill the glass almost to the top with chilled club soda. Stir again, a bit more than briefly. Drop a cherry on top and serve.
Tags: cocktail recipe, Cocktail Recipes, maraschino liqueur, rosé, What I'm Drinking, wine cocktail, Wine Cocktails
Posted in: Liqueurs, Recipes, What I'm Drinking, Wine, Wine Cocktails
June 22, 2012
This is another summer favorite featured in Wine Cocktails (following up the Cactus Berry below), a continental number that’ll go down in a lovely manner while you sit outside under the bright bright sun. It’s also a drink that can be enjoyed year round and is a standard (many would say the standard) in the pre-dinner hour, the apertivo hour, the time when Italians gather at the bar for snacks and a little imbibing. It has been known to cause some disagreement (not too heated mind you, but friendly disagreement) due to the garnish. Depending on where you’re at, you might get a green olive, an orange slice or twist, or something else altogether. I go for the orange slice, but am friends with many who go other routes. There’s no need for tempers during the hot months. In the spirit of this friendliness, this recipe is for two.
Serves 2
3 or 4 ice cubes
3 ounces Aperol
6 ounces chilled prosecco
2 orange slices for garnish
1. Add 1 or 2 ice cubes to two flute glasses (skip this if your Prosecco is super chilly). Add the Aperol.
2. Fill the glasses with the prosecco and stir gently. Garnish with the orange slice.
Tags: Aperol, cocktail recipe, Cocktail Recipes, Italian Cocktails, Italian spritz, Prosecco, What I'm Drinking, Wine Cocktails
Posted in: Champagne & Sparkling Wine, Italy, Recipes, What I'm Drinking, Wine Cocktails
June 18, 2012
It seems like summer is upon us (at least everywhere outside of my little corner of the northwest, as it’s, oh, 50 degrees and cloudy here. Which might lead you to think I’m complaining. But I’m not. Cause I know July and August will be wonderful and everyone living outside of here will be melting, melting, like a bad witch. Not that I want everyone to head this way duing those months, though. A few, sure, but not everyone. The bars would be too crowded. But I digress). Which means it’s time to start focusing the sipping on seriously refreshing liquid solutions. And when I want refreshing and light and summery stuff, I usually start by browsing Wine Cocktails, which is a book of my very own. It’s full of prescriptions for the summer months (not actual prescriptions, for those head-shaking pharmacists in the room. But I think you know what I mean), including the below number, the Cactus Berry. A relative of the Margarita (another fine sunshine-y drink), the Cactus Berry goes like shoes and socks with spicy food and rising temperatures. This recipe’s for two, cause summer’s more fun in pairs.
Serves 2
Ice cubes
3 ounces Merlot
3 ounces white tequila (blanco, yo)
1-1/2 ounces Cointreau
1 ounce fresh lime juice
2 lime slices for garnish
1. Fill a cocktail shaker halfway full with ice cubes. Add the Merlot, tequila, Cointreau, and lime juice. Shake exceedingly well (as if you were shaking cactus thorns from your hands).
2. Strain the mix into a cocktail glass. Garnish with the lime slice and serve.
PS: I think using Herencia Tequila or Dos Manos Tequila will make your summer even more memorable.
Tags: Cactus Berry, cocktail recipe, Cocktail Recipes, Merlot, Tequila, What I'm Drinking, wine cocktail, Wine Cocktails
Posted in: Recipes, Tequila, What I'm Drinking, Wine, Wine Cocktails
April 26, 2012
Hello young cocktail lovers. I’ve detailed in posts below and then farther below some Seattle Magazine articles that I’ve written. But I’ve not mentioned a number of blog posts I’ve recently being doing as well. And darnit, they need your attention (if you’ve already seen all of them, then of course ignore this and go read your copy of The Essential Doctor Strange Volume 1. While having a drink. Cause the Doc isn’t a teetotaler. Oh no, not at all. He may drink mostly mystical mixes, but he likes to unwind with a cocktail after whipping up Dormammu or Shuma-Gorath. That’s how the Doc rolls people). So, here’s a nice list of recent posts from the Seattle Mag blog, posts that just may change your life:
Spring Cocktails: 4 Aperitifs to Enjoy Before Dinner
5 Sophisticated Spring Break Cocktails
Toast National Poetry Month with Five Cocktail and Poem Pairings
Four Divine After-Dinner Cocktails
Three New Locally-made Spirits
April 23, 2012
Even here in sunny (hah! got you looking) Seattle the hints of summer are hinting at the sunnier days to come. Enough so that I’ve been looking towards summer cocktails and starting to plan what might make up the mainstays of my summertime menus. I naturally start with some of the classics (the Summer Beer, as those who know me well know, makes any hot weather drink list of mine, as does the basic and basically wonderful Tom Collins) but then move into trying out new drinks that could make the roster, so to speak. One that’s making a strong push for inclusion is called Ten Nights in June. It come into play thanks to a liqueur somewhat new to me, The King’s Ginger (disclosure: I was sent a bottle in the mail). Carrying a bit more of a hearty hello and wearing more of a citrus hat than other ginger liqueurs, along with its ginger accents, The King’s Ginger was, as legend and lore tell us, created by the Berry Brotheres way back in the year 1903 especially for King Edward VII, the Peacemaker, who desired a pic’um’up before his morning jaunts. Ever since I had the first sip I’ve been playing around with using it in various cocktails in my mind and in the real world.
But it took me awhile to find one that I wanted to keep in the rotation (as they say, whoever they are), and it was somewhat of a left turn in a way. First, the drink is more highball than cocktail. Second, it’s simple as simple can be. Third, and most importantly, the other key ingredient is sparkling hard cider. Are you shocked? C’mon, admit you’re shocked. I was a little shocked. You can be shocked. But not so shocked so as not to try it. Really, it makes sense in a way. Apples and ginger are a good match. Something bubbly and cool is good as summer rolls in to town. And underlying a light drink with a wee boom is good. Good, good, and good. I suggest you put this one onto your summer roster as well.
Ice cubes
2 ounces The King’s Ginger liqueur
3-1/2 ounce chilled hard cider (I used Strongbow, but most dry English-style ciders would be good)
Lemon slice, for garnish
1. Fill a big ol’ Old Fashioned or comparable glass about halfway with ice cubes. Add the King’s Ginger and then the cider. Stir well, but respectfully.
2. Squeeze the lemon slice over and then drop it it. Drink up, pals and gals.
Tags: cider cocktail, cocktail recipe, Cocktail Recipes, hard cider, summer drinks, Ten Nights in June, The King's Ginger, What I'm Drinking
Posted in: cider, Liqueurs, Recipes, What I'm Drinking
March 21, 2012
I’ve been embracing the simple life lately (outside of the whole, “I have a million books and comics I’ll never get rid of”). Or, at least, a simpler cocktailing way of life. Not that I don’t still like the wacky, molecular, multi-flavored bitters, and obscurity driven ingredients list drinks that have started to dominate bar menus. If someone else is making it, I’ll try about anything, really. But at home, lately, I’ve been scaling it back. Partially because my daylight hours are often spent at a job that’s on the far far side of busy. But also just because it’s good to distill flavors, instead of trying to overlayer them (if that makes sense). So, some easiness without sacficing any taste. To demonstrate, the Refroidisseur de Mardi: a super simple number, but also one that’s super refreshing, and super in its ability to allow a couple ingredients to shine. It takes advantage of the newish Perrier Lemon sparkling water (full disclosure: I recently came home to a box of Perrier on my front porch) and the oldish gin. And not much more. Both wife Nat and I have been relaxing with these after long days at the office, while watching Perry Mason, and absolutely loving them. I strongly suggest, if you want to simplify, you do the same.
Ice cubes
1-1/2 ounces gin (Voyager is what we’ve used, but any London style gin will shine)
1/2 ounce freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/2 ounce simple syrup
Chilled Perrier Lemon
Lemon wheel, for garnish
1. Fill a cocktail shaker halfway full with ice cubes. Add the gin, lemon juice, and simple syrup. Shake well.
2. Fill a highball or comparable glass three-quarters up with ice cubes. Strain the mix into the glass over the ice.
3. Top the glass with Perrier, and stir carefully, bringing everything together. Garnish with the lemon wheel.
March 19, 2012
Another St. Patrick’s day has come and gone (along with another Italian Unification Day, by the way—151 years!), and with it the drinking public at large is shuttling away from ordering drinks that feature Irish whiskey as well as odd green beers. For the latter, let’s be thankful, but for the former, the Irish whiskey, well, it’s a crying shame. I say, order and mix up the good Irish-based drinks year round! Don’t be shy about it. And if you’re not sure what to order, or make yourself, check out this Irish drink blog post I wrote pre-Paddy’s on the Seattle Mag blog. Now you’re ready to venerate that particular Saint Patrick throughout the year.
PS: This post may have been influenced by the Irish whiskey I had recently.
March 5, 2012
Those who known me well (or who have ever met me, or ever read this blog, cause honestly, I’m somewhat of an open book, and have been known to go along and along and along a bit, even though you may have a hard time beliving that now) know that I spent my formative drinking years, if not my formative cocktail-creating years, in Kansas. Which may lead you to hypothizing that this particular mix was monikered after the big city in northeastern corner of that state. But, mysteriously, it’s not. Hah! And neither is it named after the ingredients (which include scotch, some homemade cherry hazelnut bitters, and superstar and super-misprounced Italian sweet vermouth Carpano Antica). Hah! Instead, it’s named after two separate gentlemen. First, a fella named Ken who writes the Price Family Farms blog (when he has time and sunshine) and who created those homemade bitters alluded to just two sentences before this one. And secondly, a fella named Callanan (first name Dave, but don’t stalk him or anything). They both seemed to need strong drinks, and while at least the latter, Dave, strays more towards beer (don’t hold it against him as he’s still quite rad), I figured neither would turn down having a drink that boasted a serious wallop of blended scotch with the edges slightly sanded by the stitch-sweet and herbally Carpano and the also-a-hint-cuddly-but-boastin -nutty-goodness-bitters named after them. Who, in their right mind, in Kansas or anywhere else would turn that down though? No-one in their right mind, that’s who.
Cracked ice
2 ounce blended scotch (I’ve been enjoying the famous Famous Grouse here)
1 ounce Carpano Antica
2 healthy dashes cherry hazelnut bitters
1. Fill a cocktail shaker or mixing glass halfway full with cracked ice. Add all the ingredients. Stir well.
2. Strain into a cocktail glass.
A Note: Want your own cherry hazelnut bitters? Well, go on over to Price Family Farms and beg for the recipe.
A Second Note: Feel this absolutely has to have a garnish? Try a really good brandied or whiskied cherry if you can find one.
Tags: bitters, Carpano Antica, cocktail recipe, Cocktail Recipes, KC Classic cocktail, Scotch, What I'm Drinking
Posted in: bitters, Recipes, Scotch, vermouth, What I'm Drinking
