Tag: Ketel One

Cocktail of the Week: São Paulo Mule

São Paulo Mule

The São Paulo Mule cocktail is my first attempt at creating a cocktail. For Christmas I was gifted a 12 pack of Guarana Antarctica, the best soda on the planet, and I wanted to see if I could integrate it into a cocktail. My favorite cocktail is the Moscow Mule; it just seemed obvious that I should try and combine them. For a first attempt it wasn’t bad but it wasn’t great either. I have some ideas on how to improve the cocktail that I’ll share below.

São Paulo Mule
The ingredients

São Paulo Mule

  • 3/4 oz. vodka
  • 1/2 oz. fresh lime juice
  • Guarana Antarctica

Shake vodka and lime juice in a shaker w/ ice. Strain over ice. Add Guarana Antarctica to top. Garnish with lime wedge.

São Paulo Mule

The problem with this cocktail was that the Guarana overpowers everything. It has a strong, distinct flavor and that overwhelms the lime. They only thing the lime juice adds is a discordant sour note. I could fix this by using a fruit juice that complements the soda but I worry that it might end up too sweet. I’m thinking that a better foundation for this drink would be a highball and maybe a more flavored liquor, say bourbon or a dark rum? I’ll let you know how it goes!

Cocktail of the Week: Blue Mule

2014-09-18 21.10.07

I needed an excuse for using my copper mugs so I poked around on the internet for ideas and tweaks of the Moscow Mule. I saw this blueberry syrup on something and thought it’d be neat to try in a Moscow Mule. So, I bought some blueberries cooked them down and strained them into a syrup and then I made some Mules! I called it a Blue Mule because that seemed the easiest, my first inclination was to call it a Mule of a Different Color but I don’t know how I feel about putting Wizard of Oz references into my drinks…

The ingredients
The ingredients

Blue Mule

  • 1 oz vodka
  • 1/2 oz fresh lime juice
  • 1 cup Ginger beer
  • 1/2 oz – 1 oz. blueberry syrup

Pour vodka, lime juice, and ginger beer into copper cup and stir. Add crushed ice to top of cup. Pour a small amount of blueberry syrup on top and stir again. Garnish with a lime wedge and blueberries.

2014-09-18 21.10.00

Wow! This was a good idea! To get the perfect blend of blueberry, lime and ginger you might have to play with the proportions some but it’s worth it! Also, you can adjust those three ingredients depending on which flavors you want to be strong or subtle. I put in a little bit more lime juice than 1/2 oz and a 1 oz of blueberry syrup and I thought it was just about perfect though. If you need a recipe for making blueberry syrup I’ve included one below.

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Blueberry Syrup

  • 1 cup fresh blueberries
  • 1 tbsp sugar
  • 1/4 cup water

Combine all into a small pot and bring to a boil for five minutes. Then lower temperature and simmer for another ten. Stir throughout or else you’re going to have a burned pot. Using a strainer or cheesecloth strain over a bowl and then cool.

Cocktail of the Week: Little Word

2014-07-26 19.15.00

This weekend was the hottest one so far here in Davis, with temperatures reaching 104° F. So, I really didn’t want to do anything but lie around in a kiddie pool full of ice… But, life doesn’t always give us what we want! I had to make a cocktail for the blog and do a bunch of other chores and errands, etc., etc. I knew I wanted the cocktail to be simple and cold though. Something like a nice ice, cold lemonade. Something like the Little Word.

the ingredients
The ingredients

Little Word

  • 2 oz. vodka
  • 3/4 oz. lemon juice
  • 1/2 oz. St. Germain
  • 1/2 oz simple syrup

Shake all ingredients with ice. Strain into a chilled glass. garnish with lemon slice.

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Perfect. Just perfect. Sweet lemon with notes of elderflower when it first hits the tongue with a pleasant alcohol finish as it washes down the throat. Cool, crisp, subtle. Plus, this drink is incredibly simple to make and takes almost no time at all. I could see this becoming the cocktail of Summer 2014.

Cocktail of the Week: Bloody Mary

2014-06-21 14.05.20

Summer means Gazpacho soup for dinner and Gazpacho means V8 juice. And when you have a container of V8 in the fridge it’s the most natural thing in the world to start thinking about Bloody Marys. The definitive morning cocktail.

The ingredients
The ingredients

Bloody Mary

  • 2 oz. vodka
  • 6 oz. tomato juice or V8
  • 2 dashes Worcestershire Sauce
  • 1 dash Sriracha  Sauce

Stir all together in an iced highball glass. Sprinkle celery salt on top. Garnish with celery.

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You’ll notice this recipe has one small alteration from the traditional recipe: Sriracha. We don’t keep, or use, Tabasco sauce in this house. I don’t know if there is anything I can say about the Bloody Mary that hasn’t been said before by a better writer. Spicy, fruity, and with lots of umami it’s like a meal in itself. Also, makes for a pretty good pick me up first thing in the morning on a weekend…

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