February 3, 2023
I love this drink – love it! And, as it’s the lover’s month, so to speak, felt I should kick things off with a drink I love. And this is it! Funny enough, was thinking about it recently over the past holiday season, when making it for some holiday pals. See, I always couched it in a sorta murder mystery persona (if cocktails have personas, which I believe they do), the drop of crimson blood on the slippers giving Miss Marple the needed clue (or whomever detective you desire, I’m feeling Marple-y) to solve the mystery. But, during this holiday season and discussion, a thought popped into my addled mind – wouldn’t Santa have slippers the color of crimson? Maybe? Maybe! So, that meant this could be a holiday drink, too. Either way, I love it. You will do. No matter what holiday you’re sipping it on.
The Crimson Slippers, from Dark Spirits
Ice cubes
2 ounces dark rum
1 ounce Campari
1/2 ounce triple sec
Dash of Peychaud’s bitters
Lime slice for garnish
1. Fill a cocktail shaker halfway full with ice cubes. Add the rum, Campari, triple sec, and bitters. Shake well.
2. Strain into a cocktail glass.
3. Squeeze the lime slice over the glass and drop it in.
Tags: Campari, cocktail, Cocktail Recipes, dark rum, Friday Night Cocktail, lime, Peychaud bitters, Rum, The Crimson Slippers, triple sec, What I’m Drinking
Posted in: bitters, Campari, Cocktail Recipes, Dark Spirits, Recipes, Rum, What I'm Drinking
December 2, 2022
Sometimes it’s good to go back to the basics. This here (or, below here) is my recipe for Champagne Punch, the one I picked up from family holiday gatherings when I was a wee one, the one I was making for parties long before even this blog started (so, dinosaurs were walking the earth), and long before I put the recipe in Good Spirits (and probably others books and articles), and long before I started typing this sentence (which is itself rather long now, though not as long as some by, say, Henry James). It’s a basic ol’ bubbly fruity rummy punchy number, not all la-de-da, but very solid, very tasty, and very much a sparkling treat that’s wonderful around the holiday season – which, low and behold, we are now in, or nearly in if you don’t want to jump the gun. A stance I understand, but good to be prepared pals! So, have the basic recipe below in your back pocket – it’s sure to be a hit at your holiday gatherings, which I’m sure will be anything but basic.
Champagne Punch
Serves 10
Ice (in block form if possible; if not, large chunks)
6 ounces freshly squeezed orange juice
4 ounces simple syrup
2 ounces freshly squeezed lime juice
2 ounces freshly squeezed lemon juice
6 ounces white rum
6 ounces dark rum
Once 750-milliliter bottle chilled Champagne
Orange, lime, and lemon slices, for garnish
1. Add the ice to a large punch bowl. If using chunks (as opposed to a large block of ice), fill the bowl just under halfway.
2. Add the orange juice, simple syrup, lime juice, and lemon juice. With a large spoon or ladle, stir 10 times.
3. Add the white and dark rums. Stir 10 more times.
4. Add Champagne, but not too quickly. Enjoy the moment. Add a goodly amount of orange, lime, and lemon slices. Stir, but only once.
5. Ladle into punch glasses or festive goblets. Try to ensure that every guest gets a slice of fruit and a smile.
Tags: Champagne, Champagne & Sparkling Wine, Champagne Punch, cocktail, Cocktail Recipes, dark rum, Friday Night Cocktail, holiday punch, lemon, light rum, lime, orange, Rum, simple syrup, What I’m Drinking
Posted in: Champagne & Sparkling Wine, Cocktail Recipes, Good Spirits, Recipes, Rum, What I'm Drinking
April 9, 2021
You know (well, if you don’t, I’m about to tell you, and in some ways this is a rhetorical question just to set up the drink we’re going to have as this week’s Friday Night Cocktail) that some drinks get sadly relegated to only being had on very specific occasions – paired in a type of liquid wedlock, if you will – and not enjoyed year round. Take this drink, the Blushing Bride, whose name has led me to only suggesting it be had at weddings and wedding-related events. Which is sad, cause this delicious, multi-base-spirit drink is a treat (and a rarity, in a way, with brandy or Cognac and vodka together), with enough heft to get you through a chillier day (or a long relationship!), but enough fruitiness to make a summer day dawdle by in the best possible way, and then a cuddle of sweet that matches, well, springtime, as it is right now. So, take my advice, and have drinks you like any day of the 365, no matter if they carry a particular daily connection.
The Blushing Bride, from Dark Spirits
6 fresh raspberries
3 lime wedges
Ice cubes
2 ounces Cognac
1 ounce vodka
1/2 ounce Simple Syrup
1. Put the raspberries and 2 of the lime wedges into a cocktail shaker. Using a muddler or wooden spoon, muddle well.
2. Fill the cocktail shaker halfway full with ice cubes. Add the Cognac, vodka, and simple syrup. Shake very well.
3. Strain the mix into a cocktail glass through a fine strainer. Garnish with the remaining lime wedge.
Tags: Blushing Bride, cocktail, Cocktail Recipes, Cognac, Dark Spirits, Friday Night Cocktail, lime, raspberries, simple syrup, vodka, What I’m Drinking
Posted in: Cocktail Recipes, Cognac, Dark Spirits, Recipes, vodka, What I'm Drinking
September 18, 2020
You know (I know you know) that I’m not what one might refer to as “summerific.” While I do love warm-weather drinking, and sitting on the porch on a mild summer’s eve, and don’t have constant AC or some such, also, I mean, I’ve been known to get sweaty easily, complain about temperatures over 80 (but living in Seattle, I swear one’s temperature gauge changes), burn like a baby, and truth be told no-one wants me in a swimsuit. With that said, however, I’m missing summer already, even though according to calendars fall doesn’t yet start for a few days. But that summer, school’s out, sun’s out, relax-why-dontcha, feeling feels to have faded like old paint, with the colder days ahead looming largely. Which is why, today, I’m having a Dark and Stormy. Cause it’s a classic refresher, bubbly, beautiful, tangy, booze-y, spice-y, summer-y – and yet, the name points to the clouds, the nighttime-in-daytime hours, the rain, the wind. It straddles the seasons, in a way, a way which makes it the ideal drink for today. Have one, see if I’m right!
The Dark and Stormy
Ice cubes
2 ounces dark rum
Chilled ginger beer (I’m using Rachel’s Ginger Beer cause it’s awesome and support you locals for gosh sakes)
Lime wedge, for garnish
1. Fill a highball or comparable glass three-quarters full with ice cubes. Add the rum.
2. Fill the glass with ginger beer, smoothly and regularly.
3. Squeeze the lime wedge over the drink, and then drop it like the hand of an hourglass. Stir, but gently, as all things, us, time, are fragile.
Tags: cocktail, Cocktail Recipes, Dark and Stormy, dark rum, Friday Night Cocktail, ginger beer, lime, Rachel's Ginger Beer, Rum, The Dark and Stormy, What I’m Drinking
Posted in: Cocktail Recipes, Recipes, Rum, What I'm Drinking
January 10, 2020
It’s funny, in a curious way, because it’s January, and January is known as a bit of a cold-hearted month for a number of reasons; one, cause it’s cold! But, the curiously funny thing is, that for the second time in two weeks, I’m having not a winter warmer, but a light, refreshing, mix with ginger beer and ice cubes and sunshine (admittedly, chilly sunshine, but sunshine, pals, is sunshine). This devilish mix, though, is such an old favorite, and (perhaps more important? I’d say most important) my wife’s top drink, or at least top five, that it gets consumed at our house – or at nearby bars – year round. It’s a treat year round, too, as the tequila smoke and warmth play so perfectly with the ginger beer, and then that unexpected in a way, slight sweet fruity boop from the cassis and tangy tang of lime (or lemon, in a pinch, hence the “esque” in this this title, but, you know, needs must), all combining into a, well, treat! No matter what the day of the year.
One note: some folks (many?) shake the tequila, juice, and cassis first. That’s not my style. I’m not saying my style is better, oh no! But I do how I do. You do you. We all can still toast drinks.
The El Diablo-esque
Ice cubes
1-1/2 ounces tequila (often, reposado, but I think blanco is nice, too)
1/2 ounce freshly squeezed lemon juice
3-1/2 ounces ginger beer
1/2 ounce crème de cassis
Lemon slice, for garnish
1. Fill a big-ish highball or comparable glass three-quarters full with ice cubes. Add the tequila, lemon juice, and ginger beer. Stir thoroughly, but no need to chase the devil in an over-rambunctious manner.
2. Carefully drizzle the cassis over-the-top of the mix (I tend to angle towards the edges, but that’s me, again). If you want, give it a brief stir. Garnish with the lemon. Go January, go!
Tags: cassis, cocktail, Cocktail Recipes, creme di cassis, Friday Night Cocktail, ginger beer, lemon, lime, Tequila, The El Diablo-esque, What I’m Drinking
Posted in: Cocktail Recipes, Liqueurs, Recipes, Tequila, What I'm Drinking
September 24, 2019
Hey kids, you like laughs right? Well, recently (if you think about the grand breadth of time that us ridiculous humans have been on earth, super recently) I got to go down to new-ish Seattle hotel bar Ben Paris and have a Last Laugh cocktail made by Abigail Gullo. Now that’s a laugh worth savoring – and you can savor, too, cause I then wrote about it for Seattle magazine, and they printed what I wrote, and all that. For reals! Go check it out now, why dontcha.
Tags: Abigail Gullo, Bars, Ben Paris, Cava, Cocktail News, cocktail recipe, Gin, green Chartreuse, Last Laugh, Last Word varient, lime, maraschino liqueur, Seattle Bars, Seattle Magazine
Posted in: Bars, Cocktail News, Seattle Magazine
August 23, 2019
Hello summertime! Sum, sum, summertime! What’s shaking? Or, in the case of this drink, not shaken at all. But it is a swell summertime sipper, one that I featured already on this blog – but like 8 years ago if you can believe it. 8 years! Holy cow, time flows like rum in an upside-down bottle. But here’s the skinny (or, in my, case, not so skinny). I had some extra limes lately, and the mint plant in the backyard is in full summer mint-in, so I thought, the other day, when the sun high in the sky was demanding a bubble drink – howsabout the Bubble Colonial, and it’s tasty lime-mint simple syrup? And then I thought, heck ya! And so, here we are, making summer even better with bubbles (and rum, lime-mint simple, Cointreau, and soda – and more lime). Yay!
The Bubble Colonial
Ice cubes
2 ounces Cruzan 9 Spiced Rum (this is what I originally used, but regular white or dark rum works actually)
1/2-ounce lime-mint simple syrup (see Note below)
1/4-ounce Cointreau
Chilled club soda
Lime wheel, for garnish
1. Fill a highball glass halfway full with ice cubes. Add the rum, syrup, and Cointreau. Stir thrice.
2. Fill the glass almost to the rim with club soda. Stir again, slowing but seriously, working to bring everything together. Squeeze the lime wheel into the glass, and then drop it in.
A Note: To make the lime-mint simple syrup, add two whole lime peels, 4 ounces freshly squeezed lime juice, 3 cups sugar, 2-1/2 cups water, and 2 cups fresh mint to a medium-sized sauce pan. Put it on the stove over medium-high heat. Let it just come to a boil, simmer for five or so minutes, and then let everything steep in the pan for at least an hour. Strain and stir in the fridge if you don’t use it right away.
August 2, 2019
Holy where-does-the-time-go! It was eleven years now that I wrote on this very blog (you can pat me on the back for my longevity later) about drinking Margaritas via a trolley in my backyard. ELEVEN YEARS! My mind is blown. And the trolley has fallen to ruin, and I haven’t had a Margarita since.
No, no, I kid, cause that would be insane. I’ve had a fair amount of this classic tequila charmer that’s known near and far and then near again. However! I hadn’t until sort-a recently had one made with wonderful WA distillery (sidenote: WA has the best distilleries in the world) Brovo Spirits wonderful Orange Curaçao. And I feel bad (though many weren’t bad) for the various me’s from history who drank their Margs without it, as this orange curaçao brings said classic drink up even another level when used as the crucial orange component, thanks to a trio of dried orange peels: sweet Californian, bitter Laranha from Curaçao itself, and legendary Seville from Spain. Those mingles with spices and Maui brown sugar on a base of neutrals: cane and grain. End result: rich and balanced orange action underpinned by just the right amount of spice. Try it in your next Margarita, but be warned. You’ll like it so much, you’ll want to make a giant jug of it.
The Margarita with Brovo Spirits Orange Curaçao
Ice cubes
3 ounces tequila blanco
2 ounces Brovo Spirits Orange Curaçao
1 ounce freshly squeezed lime juice
Lime slice, for garnish
1. If making one, fill a cocktail shaker halfway with ice cubes. Add the tequila, Brovo Spirits Orange Curaçao, and lime juice. Shake well.
2. Strain through a fine strainer into a cocktail glass. Garnish with the lime slice.
A Note: My Margaritas tend to be pretty and strong. Just as an FYI.
Tags: Brovo Spirits Orange Curaçao, cocktail recipe, cocktails, Friday Night Cocktail, lime, Margarita, Tequila, The Margarita, this Margarita is better than yours, What I’m Drinking
Posted in: Cocktail Recipes, Distillery, Liqueurs, Recipes, Tequila, What I'm Drinking
