The last two weeks in the California legislature’s calendar are very, very busy times for me. I get to look forward to 12 to 24 hour days… So, that being the case I decided to keep this week’s cocktail simple. It also helped that I also already had everything I need to make them.
Mimosas are sophisticated drinks for sophisticated people. Also, an alcoholic’s breakfast. I went a quarter in college where I had a Mimosa for breakfast every day. I didn’t do any better in my studies. But, I did feel superior to everyone else in my classes!
So simple even the most decadent, hung over, wastrel could throw it together!
Mimosa
orange juice
champagne (chilled)
orange wheel, but I prefer fresh berries
In a champagne saucer or flute, fill about a quarter with orange juice and top up with champagne. Garnish with wheel or toss berries into drink.
It tastes better when you drink it from real crystal…
Mimosas taste as good as they did when I was in college! Well, better actually cause I’m not using $5 champagne anymore! Freshly squeezed orange juice would have made this drink even better. I’m busy this week though so that’ll have to wait. Mimosas are great because, like Bloody Marys, you can have them any time of the day and not be considered a lush!
Gin and Tonic’s have this fascinating background to them. Back when there was a British Empire, the jewel of it was India. India though is a tropical country and has a malaria problem. In the 17th century Jesuit monk, Agostino Salumbrino, noticed quinine being used by the Quechua people of South America to treat the shivering caused by malaria and sent the plant back to the Old World where it became the standard treatment for the disease. Quinine though tastes bitter, British Officers in the 19th century started cutting their tonic water (medicine) with Gin. And the Gin and Tonic was born.
Except most people who drink it don’t have malaria… Or are stationed in the Tropics… This ends the educational portion of the post.
Anyway, Gin and Tonics are a common summer drink and a classic cocktail so I had to make them!
Gin and Tonic
2 ounces gin
3 ounces tonic water
Pour the gin and the tonic water into a lowball or old fashioned glass almost filled with ice cubes. Stir well. Garnish with lime wedge.
Fever tree tonic water is good but these needed a little more sweetness to them. So we dripped a little honey into them and after squeezing my lime wedge into the drink it was beautiful. Cool, clean, refreshing probably the perfect summer drink. Plus, they’re super easy to make so a few minutes at the bar and you can take these back out to the porch and enjoy the day.
I’m beginning to think every good cocktail has ginger beer in it
After kicking off Cocktail of the Week with the Moscow Mule I received some feedback from a reader who recommended this week’s cocktail. Specifically, they wanted to know what I would think of the Moscow Mule after having a Dark ‘n’ Stormy. Now, the Dark ‘n’ Stormy is a trademarked cocktail by Gosling’s Export Limited of Bermuda and it calls for using only Gosling’s Black Seal Rum. I didn’t have any of Gosling’s black rum and neither did any of the local grocers… So, this technically this can’t be a Dark ‘n’ Stormy. I guess we’ll call it a Dark ‘n’ Kraken, you’ll see why in a second.
The components
Dark ‘n’ Kraken
1.6 ounces (50 mL) of black rum
5 ounces (150 mL) of ginger beer
lime wedge
Pour the ginger beer into a glass over ice. Top off with black rum. Squeeze in the lime wedge and drop in.
These were good! I don’t think they’re as good as Moscow Mules though. I’d like a little more lime flavor to help with the sweetness of the rum and ginger beer. In the future I might add more lime juice and cut out some of the ginger beer.
Our bar is still pretty small. I’ve only been looking at cocktails with ingredients that we already have. So, my choices are a little limited until I start going out and expanding our liquor choices. With such a limited selection of I had to find a cocktail that was either vodka, rum, bourbon, or gin. Since the last two cocktails have had bourbon in them I wanted to avoid any cocktails with that as the main ingredient. I originally was interested going with that old standard, gin and tonic but, D vetoed it as not being sweet enough for her liking. Another search through the bartending guide and a few more vetoes left us with the Seabreeze.
The ingredients
Seabreeze
1 1/4 oz vodka
1 splash of grapefruit juice
1 splash of cranberry juice
ice cubes
Build the drink over ice in a highball glass or mason jars if you don’t have highball glasses…
There were a few issues with this my construction of this cocktail. First, I purchased just cranberry juice, as in no added sugars or other juices. This was a mistake. Pure cranberry juice is very bitter and very sour and I would never, ever purchase this again. In the future I’ll make sure I use cranberry cocktail juice instead. Second, a splash is not very descriptive… I tried doing a splash of each as the directions indicated and ended up with hardly any cocktail and what was there was undrinkable. Some changes were going to have to be made!
Seabreeze False(b)logic edition
1 1/4 oz vodka
1 splash of cranberry juice
grapefruit juice
splash of simple syrup (optional)
ice cubes
Place ice in glass, pour in vodka and cranberry juice, fill glass with grapefruit juice.
This tweaked version turned out much better than the original! The fresh grapefruit juice really balanced out the tartness of the cranberry juice, if your grapefruit juice is not sweet enough, or you just like your cocktails sweeter a little simple syrup should help.
D loved this drink and wished we had a nice front porch on a beach house to be drinking them from… I promised to make them for her again as soon as I figure out how to get the beach house. I loved this cocktail. The seabreeze is simple, refreshing and delicious. For a summer evening I think I’d prefer these to a peach julep.
