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.

Spicy Orange Daiquiri

Daiquiris have been drunk by manly men such as Earnest Hemingway but I could never get over how girly they seemed. This one has a bit more bite because of the hot pepper yet it’s still girly looking. Oh well.

Ingredients:

• 1/8th of a Orange
• ½ lime
• ¼ Ounce Agave Nectar
• 2 Ounces of Rum (sometimes I put 1 ounce white 1 ounce Dark Rum for more depth)
• ½ ounce pepper Vodka *see recipe below

Squeeze the Orange and Lime into the glass part of your Boston Shaker then add the rest of the ingredients (I usually eyeball the Agave Nectar because its so sticky) and shake vigorously with ice. Double strain into your glass of choice and garnish with a sliver of orange.

*Pepper Vodka Recipe:

Put one yellow pepper, one jalapeno pepper sliced it (removing seeds) into a Bell Jar. Add a good quality Vodka (no need for high end) into the jar to the top. Close the jar and shake. leave the ingredients in for about a day then strain into a bottle.

You can do this in a larger jar with more alcohol but just make sure it infuses for a long enough time. The above recipe is for a quick batch.

I’ll make a detailed larger batch post in the future.

Basil-Strawberry & Balsamic Vinegar Cocktail

This is a great cocktail for the summer. Lots of things going on but all the notes complement each other.

Ingredients:  

• 2-3 Strawberries
• 3-4 Basil leaves
• ½ of a fresh Lime or ½ ounce of Lime juice
• ¾ ounce Caramel Balsamic Vinegar Syrup (see previous post)
• ½ ounce Orange Liquor (I use Gran Gala)
• 2 ounces White Rum (or Cachaça which is even better!)

Muddle the strawberries and basil in a Boston shaker

Add the rest of the ingredients

Shake vigorously to homogenize the ingredients

Double strain into a glass using your traditional cocktail strainer and a “Conical Cocktail Sieve”. The strainer gets the big chunks and the sieve takes care of all of the little bits of basil and ice that can interfere with your drink. Definitely needed for this drink.

I like to use a large square ice cube and garnish it with a slice of strawberry and a basil leaf.

Enjoy!