September 30, 2016
This, oh, topical drink goes far back for me. I created it for my very first drink book, Party Drinks, way back in 2003. In hindsight, it’s really just mini-variations on about 10,000 other drinks, starting with the whiskey sour and moving forwards, sidewards, and backwards. But I still dig it, and still love calling it the Presidential cause it’s such a boon to election seasons when you sometimes need a drink with a bit of a wallop underlying strong citrus and some sweet to make everything more cuddly.
However, to do it right, you need a bourbon you believe in (hey, I also sound election-y). I had mine this time with WA-state Heritage Distillery’s Duel Barrel Bourbon (which is only available at Total Wine & More, but that store is nearly nationwide, so track it down). It’s aged in charred new American oak barrels first, then in whiskey barrels that have held small batches of pure vanilla extract. As you’d expect, it has some vanilla notes, but not annoyingly so, and also some nice spice and oak. It really mingles well with lime, which surprised me for a second (until remembering that rum, lime’s cocktail partner on many occasions, often also has vanilla happening). Here, it all comes together. Trust me!
You may find this drink helpful over the next month and so. I suggest serving it in a tennis-themed glass, as elections are sometimes, oh, tennis-y as things are batted, knocked, and hit back and forth.
The Presidential
Ice cubes
2-1/2 ounces Heritage Distilling Duel Barrel Bourbon
3/4 ounce freshly-squeeze lime juice
1 ounce simple syrup (you could easily go less if you wanted, and older me might even suggest it, however after a big presidential debate, for example, I often feel I deserve the extra sugar)
Lime slice, for garnish
1. Fill a cocktail shaker or mixing glass halfway full with ice cubes. Add the bourbon, juice, and simple. Shake well.
2. Add a good amount of ice cubes, or one or two really large cubes, to an Old Fashioned glass. Strain the mix through a fine strainer over the ice. Garnish, turn off the TV, and drink happily.
Tags: bourbon, cocktail recipe, Cocktail Recipes, Friday Night Cocktail, Heritage Distilling, Heritage Distilling Duel Barrel Bourbon, lime-mint simple syrup, Party Drinks, The Presidential, Washington distillers, What I’m Drinking
Posted in: Cocktail Recipes, Party Drinks, Recipes, What I'm Drinking, Whiskey
January 7, 2013
Hey check it out – Party Drinks (that good ol’ book of lore and libations) is sitting pretty with some artsy action at an Artisan Gallery in Northhampton:
My super swell and awfully awesome agent, Lisa Ekus (who is the finest in the land), who lives out that-a-way, saw it and took a snap.
July 18, 2012
This is sorta obvious, but New York City’s a helluva place. I could start a list of great things there with bars, history, museums, eateries, comic book stores, and keep listing things out until the list trotted off the page like a pony. And I still wouldn’t cover it all. But with all that said, in my mind the best of the best of New York is found in an apt in Brooklyn: Chris, Shannon, and Josephine. I can’t tell you the exact location (cause they get enough rock star paparazzi already), but can say that Christ and Josephine were out the other day and wandered into a bourtique pharmacy called City Chemist and saw a wonderful summer-y display with Party Drinks right in the middle! How sweet is that? Sweet I tell you. Party Drinks doesn’t get as much mention as it should on this blog, as it kicked off the whole drink-writing thing for me, more or less. And while I may make a few of the drinks in it in a different manner today, I can still affirm that if you follow every recipe in it to the letter, you’ll end up with 50 delcicious drinks. Yeah, I’m modest. Anyway, Chris and Josephine (Shan wasn’t there, but she’s swell, too) are so awesome that they took a pic of the cute tableau and sent it my way. Now, here it is:
PS: Chris does a million things, once of which is write web comic called Productivity Zero. Go read it.
June 1, 2011
Now this looks like quite an awesome evening: lots of little bottles of booze, a fine DVD to watch (from what I’ve been told, inside that red DVD envelope is a Townes Van Zandt documentary), and copies of old friends Good Spirits and Party Drinks. I’m guessing the lady who took this pic (it was the mother of my pal Rebecca Staffel, chief tasting officer of Deluxe Foods, just in case you’re curious) had an awesome evening indeed:
PS: Do you have a book-in-action photo? Send it to me post-haste.
