Tag: lime

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: Honeydew Margarita

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Have you noticed anything different at your local grocery store? Specifically, in the produce aisle? Most of the stone fruit is gone, as is the citrus, and there are now a lot of apples and pears and if you were lucky for about a two-three week span the place was overrun with melons. So many melons! Watermelons, cantaloupes, honeydews, casabas, muskmelons! We have a friend who had been growing their own melons in a private garden plot and had more than he could handle himself and so gifted us some. More than we could normally eat before they went bad and so D and I went looking for alternative uses for melons. Cocktails immediately came to mind, and that is how this post ended up here today.

The ingredients
The ingredients

Honeydew Margarita

  • 2 ounces honeydew juice
  • 1 1/2 oz tequila
  • 1 oz fresh lime juice

Combine ingredients in a shaker with ice and shake. Strain over ice into glasses with either a salt or sugar rim (I used a mixture of sugar and chili powder to rim these glasses.)

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Wow! Wow! Wow! I’m a big fan of honeydew on it’s own but mix it with some tequila and lime juice and you’ve got yourself an amazing cocktail. The Honeydew takes center stage making the margarita sweet with only a hint of sour provided by the lime and almost no alcohol taste. Really refreshing. I’m sad I only found out about these now as there won’t be any melons in the fall or winter and margaritas aren’t really seasonal or appropriate again until spring… If you do happen to find a honeydew in the supermarket in the next couple of days though, grab it!

Cocktail of the Week: Bourbon Sweet Tea

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Well, here it is July in California’s Central Valley and it is starting to get hot. Today it got up to 100° F, tomorrow it’s supposed to get up to 104° F?! What are you supposed to drink in that kind of weather? What could possibly be appropriate? Iced Tea wouldn’t be a bad idea, even better if it’s sweet tea. Sweet Tea, while being delicious, isn’t a cocktail though…

Until you add bourbon to it.

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The ingredients

Bourbon Sweet Tea
(makes 1 pitcher)

  • 3 cups of black tea
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 lemon, sliced
  • 1 lime, sliced
  • 1 orange, sliced
  • 1 cup bourbon

Add sugar to tea. Put tea on stove and heat, stirring, until the sugar is dissolved. Let tea cool for a few minutes. While tea is cooling add, lime, lemon, orange, and bourbon to a large pitcher. Pour tea into pitcher. Chill. Serve in small glasses with a lemon wheel for garnish.

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This was a lot like drinking candy. Delicious citrus flavored sweet tea and with a little hint of bourbon on the way down. In the future, I’d pour the tea into chilled glasses or serve it on ice to really get it cold. This was so refreshing on a hot, California summer evening.

Cocktail of the Week: Planter’s Punch

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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.

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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.

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