Category: food

Cocktail of the Week: Mint Julep

2014-04-22 20.34.27We had plenty of mint left over after making Planter’s Punch. D experimented with putting it in some of our food dishes but it’s a notorious difficult flavor to pair with. I had the bright idea of making Mint Juleps with the remaining, I mean it is Spring and all. The first step was getting a handle on what exactly goes into a Mint Julep, and like a lot of things that have been around for a while, there are quite a few varieties of the cocktail. Some call for white sugar, some call for brown sugar. Some insist that you use only powdered sugar, some mention soda water others leave it out. I decided to go with the most basic recipe I could find with the assumption that it’d be the closest to the original. Just bourbon, brown sugar, fresh mint, and a lot of ice.

2014-04-22 20.25.24

Mint Julep

  • 2 oz. bourbon
  • 1 tsp. brown sugar
  • 10 mint leaves
  • 4 cups of ice

Crush the ice. In a cocktail shaker muddle 8 mint leaves and brown sugar. Add bourbon and stir. Pack a cocktail cup with crushed ice until overflowing. Strain bourbon into cup. Stir until sides of cup frost over. Top with more ice and garnish with remaining mint leaves.

2014-04-22 20.34.47 Not really much to look at is it? It wasn’t really much to drink either… I suppose if I was at the Kentucky Derby under a hot sun, sipping on a Mint Julep might not be a bad idea. Or if I had a porch to sit on during a long warm, summer evening than a Mint Julep might make sense. There just isn’t much to talk about here. Sightly sweetened bourbon with a hint of mint that gets more and more watered down as you drink it. If I tried this again I think I’d crush the ice a little finer and see if club soda adds anything to the drink. In all likelihood though, the next time I have mint lying around I’ll make a Mojito.

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!

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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.

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