Tag: orange

Cocktail of the Week: Americano

Americano Cocktail

I was going to do the Negroni for this week’s cocktail but while researching the history of the drink I cam upon the Americano. I thought an Americano was just watered down espresso, which it is, it’s also though the direct predecessor of the Negroni. While the Negroni is a mixture of gin, campari, and sweet vermouth the Americano uses club soda instead of gin.

Americano Cocktail
The ingredients

Americano

  • 1 oz. Campari
  • 1 oz. sweet vermouth
  • splash of soda water

Pour Campari and vermouth over ice in an old fashioned glass, add a splash of soda water. Garnish with an orange slice.

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The Americano is interesting. It’s not sweet, it’s not sour, it has a little bit of savory. The Campari, an herbal liquor, and it’s flavor profile skews heavily to bitter. This is slightly offset by the sweetness of the vermouth but the drink remains bitter. It does take a while to get used to though. Bitter really isn’t a taste that the American palate appreciates or enjoys. I wonder if the gin in a Negroni helps smooth the edges off the Campari at all?

I’ll find out soon! Next week I’ll try the Negroni!

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: Maiden’s Prayer

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There was no Cocktail last week. I can’t recall exactly why now. I’m going to assume it was because D and I were very busy and/or I didn’t have time to do any research or go to the store and expand our home bar. I’m back this week with a drink I had never heard of containing a liquor I have never imbibed before. The cocktail is the Maiden’s Prayer and the liquor is Cointreau, a French orange liquor. We were gifted the bottle when friends of ours were moving across the country (literally, they drove from California to Florida) and didn’t want to drag along extras like wine and booze. The bottle has been sitting on the bar because we already had a bottle of Triple Sec and I’d never used the stuff before. D wanted to try it though and so she did some searching around and found this recipe!

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Maiden’s Prayer

  • Gin 1 1/2 oz.
  • Cointreau 1 oz.
  • Orange juice 1 oz.
  • Lemon Juice 1 oz.

Combine all ingredients into a shaker with ice. Shake. Strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon/orange twist.

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These were good! Not really what I’d call Fall cocktails… The Cointreau blends perfectly with the juices and the gin is a good compliment. They were boozier than I expected or maybe the juices just didn’t mask the alcohol as much. D says that I’m a real sweetheart for making her lots of girly drinks. Whatever. A cocktail is a cocktail and so far they’ve all been really good. I’m not so insecure with my masculinity that I can’t enjoy booze mixed with fruit juice!

Art shot!
Art shot!

The fact that next week’s cocktail is going to be a Martini is completed unrelated!

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