Tag: lemon juice

Cocktail of the Week: Scofflaw

Scofflaw cocktail

After last week’s cocktail, the Jack Rose, a couple of friends recommended other drinks they enjoy that have grenadine in them. The one that I found most intriguing was the Scofflaw: a combination of Rye whiskey, lemon juice, grenadine, and dry vermouth. The Scofflaw’s name come from the era of Prohibition here in the United States. The actual word “scofflaw” came into being through a contest to create a word to describe “a lawless drinker of illegally made or illegally obtained liquor.” This drink was created in Paris during Prohibition and named “Scofflaw” to honor those in the United States who continued to drink. Or so the story goes…

Scofflaw cocktail
The ingredients

Scofflaw

  • 2 oz. rye whiskey
  • 1 oz. dry vermouth
  • 1 oz. lemon juice
  • 1/2 oz. grenadine
  • 2 dashes orange bitters

Add all ingredients to a shaker and fill with ice. Shake, and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

Scofflaw cocktail

 

The Scofflaw is a delicious cocktail that seems to have a perfect balance between sweet and sour and it has a lovely, rich red color. I like to imagine drinking this cocktail in some quiet out of the way speakeasy with jazz music playing in the background. Prohibition may be dead but its drinks live on, eh?

Cocktail of the Week: Bee’s Knees

Bee's knees cocktail

I follow a cocktail maker on Tumblr, named DrinkShouts, they often show cocktails that look amazing. I’ve often wanted to make them but they usually require liquors that I don’t have and aren’t willing to purchase. They recently promoted the Bee’s Knees, a cocktail that dates back to Prohibition times. It is believed that the inclusion of lemon and honey was in order to mask the taste of bathtub gin. That might be the case, but it’s a delicious cocktail even with good gin.

Bee's knees cocktail
The ingredients

Bee’s Knees

  • 2 oz. Gin
  • 3/4 oz. Fresh Lemon Juice
  • .3/4 oz. Honey Syrup

Combine ingredients in a shaker full of ice. Shake. Strain into a chilled cocktail coupe, if you have one. I don’t so I used a margarita glass. No garnish, or a lemon twist.

Bee's knees cocktail

 

The Bee’s Knees has a nice smooth honey flavor with a hint of sour. Depending on the type of gin you use there’ll be a hint of juniper as it goes down. The honey syrup is delicious and I think I’m going to try using it in other cocktails that call for simple syrup. It has a distinctly honey taste to it, one I found quite appealing.

Cocktail of the Week: Simple Whiskey Sour

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I’m starting to see a lot of fruit on the citrus trees around town. I’m considering making a map of Davis that highlights all the best spots to glean fruit from people’s yards. All the oranges, limes, and lemons got me thinking about sours. And I had all this whiskey lying around…

The ingredients (minus powdered sugar)
The ingredients (minus powdered sugar)

Simple Whiskey Sour

  • 1 1/2 oz. Whiskey
  • 2 lemons
  • 1 lime
  • 2 tsp powdered sugar

Juice lemon and lime. Combine whiskey, juice, and powdered sugar in a shaker full of ice. Shake. Strain into a old fashioned glass. garnish with lemon wedge or wheel.

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This is not a real whiskey sour, as it lacks egg white and cheats on the simple syrup part. I don’t know if I had a pair of really strong lemons or I didn’t add enough powdered sugar but my drink was sour. Really, really sour. I was unprepared for the sour. Definitely made pucker faces while drinking it. That isn’t to say it wasn’t good, just to say that bar made whiskey sours are a sad, sad, imitation of the almost real thing. Future whiskey sours will probably have a little more sugar in them.

 

Cocktail of the Week: Pimm’s Cup

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I don’t know where I first heard of a Pimm’s Cup. It’s really starting to bother me… I’m not British and I don’t have any British friends, so, I don’t know why it would have come up in random discussion. I’ve never heard anyone order it at a bar. I’ve never even seen a bottle of Pimm’s until today when I decided to hunt one down. Maybe it was somewhere on the internet? Or in one of my cocktail books or magazines… Anyway, somehow I knew about them and somehow I also knew that they’re fairly standard drinking fare for the summertime in Great Britain. You’d think that the land of tea would have stumbled upon bourbon sweet tea, but I guess not… I had to visit three different stores but I finally located a place that not only knew what I was talking about but also carried the product. I picked it up and, well, you’ll see.

The ingredients
The ingredients

Pimm’s Cup

  • 2 oz. Pimm’s No. 1
  • 1/4 oz. fresh lemon juice
  • Ginger Ale

Fill a highball glass with ice. Pour in Pimm’s and lemon juice. Top with ginger ale and garnish with thin cucumber slice if desired.

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So, really simply, right? Pimm’s No.1, lemon juice, and ginger ale. There are recipes on-line that have a bunch of fruit and mint in them or require two or three types of liquor. I ignored all of those recipes and went with a simpler one that seems closer to what your average bloke would make for themselves at home. It also happens to be really close to the recipe printed on the bottle itself.

What to say about the Pimm’s Cup? It is refreshing. Reminds me a little of a lemonhead candy? I think it has something to do with the herbs used in Pimm’s? Something about the taste reminds me of candy for some reason.  In the future I think I’d swap out the lemon juice for orange juice and probably up the amount to an ounce or 1/2 an ounce.  The cucumber garnish also doesn’t add anything, easier to just use the orange or lemon you squeezed as a garnish.

It was good though! And I can certainly understand why its so popular! If I didn’t already have bourbon sweet tea I could see myself drinking a lot more of these. I suppose if I ever get too lazy to brew tea…

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