Category: cocktails

Cocktail of the Week: Pumpkin Patch

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Fall is here! That means either hot cocktails or appropriately Fall-ish cocktails. I was somewhat stumped as to what that entailed outside of hot toddies or Irish coffee until D reminded me that we’ve got this fabulous book, Fresh from the Market, that is full of seasonal recipes, including cocktails! I turned to the Fall section and looked over the cocktail recipes. This one stood out!

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Pumpkin Patch

  • 2 oz. Irish cream liquor
  • 1 1/2 oz. Vanilla Vodka
  • 1 oz. pumpkin syrup (we used a recipe from Annie’s Eats)
  • Freshly grated nutmeg

Combine Irish cream liquor, vodka, and pumpkin syrup in a cocktail shaker. Shake with ice and strain into martini glass. garnish with grated nutmeg.

2013-09-29 18.54.09-2As you can see from the picture of the we didn’t have fresh nutmeg so I ended up just sprinkling some of the spice over the drinks. Also, in the future D and I would like to take a stab at infusing vodka ourselves (vanilla, raspberry, pumpkin, etc.) but we just didn’t have time to do that this week before I made the cocktails… Maybe next time. Anyway, these cocktails taste amazing! Sweet, sugary, pumpkiny bliss! I’m not joking when I say this cocktail could take the place of dessert! I only made one for the each of us that we drank pre-dinner but both of us were immediately talking about making two more after dinner! By far the best cocktail I’ve made during this project.

If you’re looking for some seasonal fun with your cocktails you can’t go wrong with a Pumpkin Patch! If the rest of the seasonal cocktails I find are as good as this one I won’t end up pining for summer!

Cocktail of the Week: Mai Tai

2013-09-22 19.43.05We had a big rainstorm this weekend, the nights are cooler, and the days aren’t boiling. Summer is definitely on its way out! And to send it off in style I decided to make one last fruity, summery drink: the Mai Tai. Okay, I was actually scrambling to find some decent Martini glasses to make the classic martini in when D recommended we try a Mai Tai instead. It helped that we had most of what we needed for them anyway, I’m glad she recommended them!

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The ingredients

Mai Tai

  • 1 oz. dark rum
  • 1 oz. amaretto
  • 3 oz. orange juice
  • 3 oz. pineapple juice
  • grenadine

Fill glass with ice cubes, add rum and amaretto, add juices until glass is full, and finally add a splash of grenadine.

I'm having a hard time thinking of a better way to say goodbye to summer!
I’m having a hard time thinking of a better way to say goodbye to summer!

Turns out Mai Tais are a great way to say goodbye to Summer and welcome Fall! These were delicious. Fruity, sugary, and addictive! The amaretto and rum are the perfect complement to the orange and pineapple juices. Moving into Fall I’ll be making more warm drinks but on those cloudy days when I’m dreaming of blue skies and the sun I think a Mai Tai just might help me remember…

 

Cocktail of the Week: Shandy

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Seems the Shandy gets a bad rap.  Before making them I thought this might have something to do with the low regard in which people hold mainstream American beer. Also, the low regard mainstream beer has of itself… The cocktail has a long history in the UK and Germany (where it is known as the Radler). But, on this side of the Atlantic I’ve never heard anyone order it or seen anyone drink it.The most common recipe for the cocktail is really simple: equal parts beer and soda, usually a ginger ale or lemon/lime soda. That’s fine but I wanted to class the drink up a little and I didn’t have any Sprite or 7Up. I did some looking around the internet and found a few alternative recipes and using them as a guide and a little experimentation I came up with this.

The ingredients
The ingredients

Shandy

  • 8 oz. blonde beer (I used a lager from the local brewery)
  • 4 oz. ginger ale (I had ginger beer so I used that)
  • 2 oz. fresh lemon juice
  • lemon slices for garnish

Pour into glass and stir.

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Turns out, It looks as tastes as good as it look…

These were a disappointment. D couldn’t finish her’s; she said it tasted too much like beer. I thought mine tasted like ginger beer with lemon in it. Perhaps I could have used more beer? Perhaps I should have just gone with the traditional recipe and used ginger ale or Sprite? Or maybe I needed a different beer? I don’t know… I like to have my cocktails be a little escape from the day and the Shandy didn’t offer that. It’s a mediocre beer or a mediocre soda. Why drink that when you can have a superb beer or a superb soda? Or better, a superb cocktail?

Cocktail of the Week: Bellini

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D and I enjoyed the Mimosas so much last week that we wanted to try another cocktail that had champagne in it. The only other champagne cocktail I know of is a Black Velvet but D didn’t seem keen on mixing champagne with stout beer (I’ll have to work on her.) Out came the bar guide! After vetoing a few more cocktails we found the Bellini. Fresh peaches and champagne?! I don’t see how this could go wrong and we  found the recipe at the perfect time as peach season is about to end! Continue reading “Cocktail of the Week: Bellini”

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