Category: cocktails

Cocktail of the Week: Planter’s Punch

2014-04-13 19.02.56

It certainly is beginning to feel a lot like Spring! Nice hot days, lingering warm nights. This bodes ill for our summer but we’re enjoying the lovely weather while we can. So, what’s the perfect drink for a long, warm evening? Planter’s Punch comes to mind…

The ingredients
The ingredients

Planter’s Punch

  • 3 oz. dark rum
  • 1 oz. simple syrup
  • 3/4 oz. lime juice
  • 3 dashes Angostura bitters

Combine ingredients in a glass and fill with crushed ice. Swizzle with a bar spoon until a frost forms on the outside of the glass. The ice will settle as you do this; add more crushed ice to fill, garnish with a mint sprig.

2014-04-13 19.03.17

Ah, the perfect cocktail to enjoy while sitting out on your porch or back patio enjoying the lovely weather. What’s great about this cocktail is that you can sit back, relax, and drink it at a nice, slow pace. Let the ice melt a little, let the ingredients mix into each other. The last sip is just as enchanting as the first! Cool, sweet, refreshing. Love it.

Cocktail of the Week: Gin and Sin

2014-04-06 19.09.58

I’m not quite sure how I stumbled upon this cocktail. I think I was looking for cocktails that had cranberry juice in them. Of course, that is a lot of cocktails, but this one had gin and fruit juice and I was hopeful!

The ingredients
The ingredients

Gin and Sin

  • 1 1/2 oz. Gin
  • 1 oz. Orange juice
  • 1 oz. Lemon juice
  • 1/2 tsp. Grenadine or Cranberry juice
  • Fresh cranberries

In a shaker half-filled with ice cubes, combine all of the ingredients. Shake well. Strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a few cranberries.

2014-04-06 19.10.08

But, either I made it wrong or it’s just not that good. D thought it tasted like cough syrup. I thought it was much too sour. Maybe the lemons were too tart? Maybe the orange was sour? I don’t know, but this was the first time I’ve made a cocktail and not liked the end result. When I try it again, I will use a sweet lemon and use less of its juice, more orange juice and maybe some cranberry simple syrup, something with a lot more sweet in it, than just juice or a splash of grenadine.

Cocktail of the Week: Jersey Girl

2014-03-29 18.35.21

I bought Laird’s AppleJack without ever having it in a drink before. Apple liquor sounded good to me and I was already a fan of hard ciders. After purchasing a bottle though I was at a loss as to what to make with it…Thankfully, in this modern age we all have access to a near infinite well of information! Turns out you can use AppleJack in just about anything you’d use whisky for as well as anything you might use vodka in!

2014-03-29 18.24.48

Jersey Girl

  • 1 1/2 oz. AppleJack
  • 1 oz. Cointreau
  • 1/2 oz lime juice
  • 2 splashes of cranberry juice

Shake well with ice and strain into a chilled martini glass. Garnish with lime wedge.

2014-03-29 18.34.52

Turns out I like everything about this cocktail but its name. “Jersey Girl,” really? This drink looks and tastes great and the oldest joke in America is that there is nothing in Jersey that those two descriptors apply to…  The Jersey Girl reminds me of a Seabreeze, probably because of the cranberry juice. You wouldn’t think that apple and citrus wouldn’t mix well together but somehow it does. Somehow you can pick every ingredient out in this cocktail all while tasting them together. It was quite remarkable. A lovely little drink.

Cocktail of the Week: Elderflower Margarita

2014-03-23 18.54.21

Spring is here! Spring is here! To celebrate the warm days and cool nights I decided to make Margaritas! But, I’d already made margaritas for this here project. So, what was I to do? No, a Daiquiri is not the correct answer! I made a different type of Margarita, one with St. Germain in it!

The ingredients
The ingredients

Elderflower Margarita

  • 1 1/2 oz. silver tequila
  • 1 oz. St. Germain
  • 1/2 oz. fresh lime juice

Combine ingredients in an ice-filled cocktail shaker and shake until cold. Strain into chilled cocktail glass (salted rim if you like.) Garnish with lime wedge.

2014-03-23 18.54.12

Except I didn’t have silver tequila and I didn’t want to buy silver tequila. So, I used the tequila we already had. If you’re a real stickler you could call this a Golden Elderflower Margarita. I’m not a real big stickler though, so I won’t.

This was sweet and easy and delicious. A description that also describes springs here in Davis. So, it’s the perfect cocktail for this evening. D really liked them too and that is always a plus!

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