Breaking Bad (Blue Magic)

One of the cocktail sites I like to peruse is www.gastronomista.com it’s filled with over the top cocktails that are beautiful but not always accessible. Who really drinks out of a nautilus shell? But this cocktail was do-able for me so I gave it a shot and modified it ever so slightly. The blue curacao is usually gross (may be the brand “bols”) so I toned it down and used it mostly for coloring. Oh and yeah it’s named after TV show about meth, what can go wrong?

Ingredients:

• 2 oz Gin
• 1 oz White Rum (or half ounce white and a half 151 rum)
• ½ oz Orange Liqueur (gran Gala) and ¼ ounce of Blue Curacao
• ½ oz Lime Juice
• Tonic Water
• 1 spoon St. George Absinthe
• grated nutmeg

Shake the first four ingredients, strain into a glass with ice. Add just enough tonic water to give it a little sparkle, maybe an ounce or two. Stir gently then float the absinthe on top and add a pinch of grated nutmeg.

L.I.I.T!!!

The Long Island Iced Tea. The name alone evokes memories of dares you shouldn’t have done, things you shouldn’t have said and the porcelain god that you bowed down to. It’s a strong drink and goes down easy, too easy. But after a long day when your nerves are shattered its a good way to level out/pass out. Making this drink you basically go across the main spirits with a few splashes of this and that. Just go slow on drinking it please.

Ingredients:

• 1 ounce Vodka
• 1 ounce Gin
• 1 ounce Rum
• 1 ounce Tequila
• 1 ounce Orange liqueur (gran gala here)
• 1 table spoon of sugar
• Juice from half a lemon 
• 1 ½ ounce cola (I used throwback pepsi, It doesn’t have hi fructose corn syrup)

Add all ingredients except for the cola into your cocktail tumbler, shake it and pour into a tall glass. Add ice and leave some room for the cola, pour the cola in and garnish with a lemon wedge and a straw.

Cool down

So I went to this “speak easy” bar in Chinatown NYC, had some great drinks and snagged a menu as inspiration. You don't get the ratios, you don’t have all the weird ingredients but you make it your own. After some tweaking you get something really good. I’ve done this a couple of times and I sometimes even like my drink better. This drink is great for a warm day in the summer when you just want to relax, then have another one.

Ingredients:

• 2 ½ ounces of Vodka
• 1 drop of vanilla extract
• 2 dashes of Dram “hair of the dog” bitters
• ½ ounce of agave nectar
• ½ Lime
• 3 slices of cucumber
• 3-4 mint leaves

Muddle the cucumber and mint then add the rest of the ingredients. Shake it like crazy then double strain into your glass with a big ol Ice cube. garnish with a slice of cucumber a mint sprig or both.

Smoking Sazerac

I love me a Sazerac. Its one of those drinks that I don’t get tired of. That being said, I decided to experiment with the recipe but not too much. I’m glad I did because this one is a keeper. Traditionally a Sazerac is done with a wash of absinthe but I did a wash of the smokiest scotch I ever tasted “ardbeg corryvreckan”. It gives such a nice fragrance when you dip your nose in to drink and since it has scotch I thought it would be best served neat. 

Ingredients

• wash of Scotch (Ardbeg Corryvreckan)
• ¼ - ½ ounce Absinthe (St. George)
• 2 ½ ounce Rye Whiskey
• brown sugar cube
• 2 dashes Peychaud’s Bitters
• orange peel.

Coat the inside glass with scotch, you should only need a half teaspoon to do this (use a clean finger to get it all covered). Then put the sugar cube at the bottom of the mixing glass dash it with bitters then muddle it down. Add the absinthe and whiskey and stir with ice. Then strain the drink into an old fashioned glass and twist the orange peel over the drink and drop it in.

Sweet-n-Smoky Mezcal cocktail

So, I ordered a drink in a restaurant and went home and replicated it but its been years and I don’t remember the restaurant anymore. I do that sometimes and sometimes I snap a shot of the menu (or take one home) to fiddle with it till it tastes right. It’s a good way to teach yourself balance. This drink is great. The mezcal is smoky the salt is smoky and the lemon/honey balance brightens it up.

Ingredients:

• 2 ½ ounces mezcal (I used Monte Alban)
• ½ ounce honey or to taste
• ½ of a lemon
• Smoked sea salt (Alder Smoked Sea Salt from “India Tree”)

Add the lemon, mezcal and honey into the mixing glass then stir with a barspoon. The reason I do this is because honey is really hard to mix when cold so just shaking it up would cause clumps to form. Then shake it with ice in your, um, shaker, yeah. Rim the glass with the smoked salt* and pour the drink in. I like to double strain it to get the small crunchy ice flecks out and drop a few fresh cubes in.

*The smoked salt that I used is really coarse so I need to grind it in a mini pestle and mortar that I have.

Corpse Reviver #2

This is one of those “hair of the dog” cocktails that have given a new life (no pun intended, ahh maybe intended) beyond a just a hangover cure.  There are a couple of versions of this drink hence the “#2” but this one looks the best. Its typically equal parts Gin, lemon juice, Cointreau and Lillet and a dash of absinthe  but I altered the proportions a little bit to give it more Gin Umph. This drink will animate your moldy corpse or zombify you depending on the number of drinks you consumed.

Ingredients:

• 1 ½ ounces Gin
• ½ ounce Lillet blanc
• ½ ounce orange liqueur (Gran Gala used here) 
• ½ of a lemon (hold on to the peel for garnishing)
• 1 teaspoon Absinthe (St. George Absinthe)

Add all ingredients into a mixing glass and stir with ice. Before pouring add the Absinthe to your martini glass. Swoosh it around so that the interior has fully been covered with Absinthe. Then strain the drink into a martini glass and twist the lemon peel over the drink and drop it in.

-To quote an ancient zombie philosopher “Grrrhuuuhhhh”

Singapore Sling

Ever since I heard “shore leave” from Tom Waits I have wanted to make this drink. The combination of finding the recipe in a 70’s (really groovy) cocktail book and buying some Benedictine allowed me to give it a whirl. It’s a refreshing drink born in South-East Asia and it has a very “Tiki” quality but I did employ a few modifications here. Traditionally it has pineapple juice but I’ve omitted it because: 1.) I didn’t have any. 2.) My girl is allergic to fresh pineapple. 3.) The recipe I  from didn’t include it! Also, it calls for Heering Cherry Liqueur but again I didn’t have any so I got a unique replacement! Vișinată! It’s a homemade Romanian cherry liquor that some friends made for me and it fit perfectly in this drink.

Ingredients:

• 2 ounces Gin
• 1 ounce Cherry Liquor (Vișinată)
• ½ ounce Benedictine 
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• ½ of a lemon
• A couple dashes of Angustora bitters
• Soda water
• Lemon peel 
• Mint sprig

Add everything except the soda water, Lemon and mint into your shaker with ice. Shake it until it’s nice and cold then strain into a tall glass with ice. There should be a little room to add the soda water on top and then stir it slightly. Garnish with a lemon peel and mint sprig and you are done. When you are drinking it you can push the garnishes in to get a hint of their flavor.

And I’ll leave you with some lyrics from Tom Waits:

Well I was pacing myself

trying to make it all last

squeezing all the life

out of a lousy two day pass

and I had a cold one at the Dragon

with some Filipino floor show

and talked baseball with a lieutenant

over a Singapore sling

and I wondered how the same moon outside

over this Chinatown fair

could look down on Illinois

and find you there

and you know I love you Baby