Spirited Cocktails

Last weekend, we had our first snow here in New York City. It was a bitter, windy night on Saturday when I wandered into one of my favorite bars, chilled to the bone. This bar has an amazing cocktail menu, blending the best of classic cocktails and modern mixology, but as much as I wanted a drink, the idea of something shaken with ice at the moment was almost unbearable. What I wanted was a hot toddy.

Fortunately, I was in a high-end establishment where, despite not being on the menu, the bartender was kind enough to oblige my request. But there’s no need to venture out into the cold, wind and snow in order to achieve the satisfaction a hot toddy can bring. This is one of the easiest cocktails in the world to whip up at home.

Here’s what you’re going to need:

2oz. bourbon
4-6oz hot water
1 bar spoon of honey
3-4 whole cloves
Lemon wedge for garnish

Optional:
A cinnamon stick
Grated nutmeg
Grated fresh ginger

Boil some water in a tea kettle. In a tempered glass or ceramic mug (something resistant to heat), add your bourbon, cloves and honey. When the water is hot, add that to the glass as well, and garnish with a lemon wedge (which I tend to promptly drop into my hot toddy to add a bit of citrus.)

As always, this recipe is just a basic template, and on its own fits the bill just fine for me. But there’s lots of room for experimentation and adjustment here. Many people will add a cinnamon stick whole, or perhaps grate some fresh cinnamon on top to garnish. You could also add some grated fresh nutmeg (which really brings out the holiday feel) or ginger (which adds a nice spice, and is also good for an upset stomach.) It’s really just a matter of taste.

Whatever your preference, this is the cocktail I constantly crave on cold winter’s nights. I’m also convinced (despite a total lack of fact to back this up) that the hot toddy is the cure for the common cold.

Cheers!

Josh

We’re thrilled to welcome back guest-blogger Katy, who brings us another easy and delicious small plate to accompany your cocktails!

Eggplant season is just starting here in North America so you may start seeing it at you local farmer’s market. Why not try making Baba Ganoush?  This Arabic staple tastes delicious, is easy to make and fun to say.   Choose eggplants that are firm to the touch, have a smooth and shiny skin and are heavy. Avoid eggplants with brown or soft spots and have a dull color. 

Ingredients:

1 eggplant (either purple or white)

1 tsp. salt

2 cloves garlic, peeled

1/4 c. lemon juice

1 Tbsp. tahini

Method:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

1) Wash eggplant and split in half lengthwise.

2) Season both halves with salt and pepper and place on a foil lined baking tray.

3) Roast eggplant at 400 degrees for about 45 minutes – the eggplant should be tender and golden brown.

4) Allow to cool.  Scoop out the flesh and mix in a food processor with the remaining ingredients.

5) Serve with pita, chips or crudite.

Enjoy!

Note: The eggplant may be roasted ahead of time and stored, wrapped in foil,  in the refrigerator until ready for use.

The folks over at LiquorSnob.com have a recipe for the very timely Swine Flu Cocktail. It has all the necessary ingredients:

• Absinthe (medicinal, of course)
• Tequila (from our friends in Mexico)
• Bacon-infused Bourbon (obviously)
• And Lemoncello (why not?)

You can find the full recipe here. Enjoy!

Being a New Yorker, one doesn’t need much convincing to try something called a Brooklyn Cocktail. So when Lush Life (Follow @livethelushlife on Twitter) posted a new video in their 12 Second Cocktail series, I had to follow their instruction and try my own.

Here’s what you’re going to need:

1.5oz Rye
1/2oz Dry Vermouth
1/4oz Maraschino Liqueur
2 dashes Angostura Bitters

Simply combine the ingredients in your shaker with ice, shake well, and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

This is the first drink we’ve made here at Spirited Cocktails using Rye whiskey (certainly not the first ever, but the first we’ve made for you!), so it’s worth mentioning that rye has a very distinct flavor, which you’ll pick up on in this cocktail. Take some time to taste various brands of Rye on their own (I’ve chose Rittenhouse Rye here, but there are many to chose from!) You can also read more about Rye on Wikiepedia, or on the blog Rye Whiskey Is For Patriots.

Below is the 12 Second Brooklyn Cocktail video from Lush Life. This is a GREAT series of videos. I definitely recommend you check out the rest at http://12secondcocktails.tumblr.com/. And again, be sure to follow Lush Life on Twitter.

The 12 Second Brooklyn Cocktail from Lush Life on Vimeo.

So the Kentucky Derby is coming up this weekend, which means that everybody and their brother will be making Mint Juleps. There’s a long and storied history behind the Mint Julep – it’s preparation, and it’s relationship to the Kentucky Derby – on Wikipedia, so I won’t bore you with it here. I’m not going to make a Mint Julep either; it’s too cliché. Instead, we’re going to make an Apple Julep.

Many of my readers from the South will cry sacrilege here, but I find the Apple Julep to be a refreshing and creative adaptation. Don’t yell at me until you’ve tried it!

Here’s what you’re going to need:

2oz Applejack (apple brandy)
1 bar spoon of maple syrup
1 spring of mint for muddling and 3-4 sprigs for garnish

It’s really pretty easy. If you have a silver julep cup (as you can see here), great. If not, a normal rocks glass will do. Pour your bar spoon of maple syrup (the real stuff; none of that fake supermarket syrup) into the bottom of your glass. Add the leaves of one sprig of mint. Press the leaves gently with your muddler to release the oils. (If you have a muddler with teeth on the end, consider using the handle side; you don’t want to crush the mint, or you’ll end up with a bitter drink.)

After you’ve pressed the mint leaves into the syrup, fill the glass with cracked ice. (If you’re working with full ice cubes, use the back of your bar spoon to crack each cube; you want the ice in fairly small pieces here.) Add your 2oz of Applejack, and stir well until a nice frost forms on the outside of your glass. Some of your ice will have melted down, so top off the glass with more ice, and add your 3-4 springs of mint as garnish. The garnish is essential here (as in the Badminton Cup), because you want the fresh mint to act as an aromatic.

The result is a very tasty cocktail, fit for any fan of the Triple Crown.

Cheers!

The daiquiri is one of the simplest of all cocktails, and also one of the most misunderstood. All too often, people confuse the daiquiri for that mix of sugar, cheap booze, and food coloring that comes out of a Slushy machine in Vegas. In truth, not only is the real thing easier to make at home, but it’s much tastier too!

The basic daiquiri follows the formula for a traditional sour:

2oz base spirit
3/4oz sweet
3/4oz sour

In the case of the daiquiri, the spirit is Rum, the sweet is simple syrup, and the sour is fresh lime juice. Simply combine those three ingredients in the 2/.75/.75 proportion (with ice!), shake vigorously and strain, and you’ve got yourself a very fine cocktail. But it wouldn’t be much fun if we stopped there!

I’ve been on a summer cocktail kick lately, and the strawberries are finally starting to look good again. To make a fresh strawberry daiquiri, simply add strawberries to the recipe above!

2oz rum (I prefer a dark rum like Santa Teresa or Barbancourt, but be sure to sample a variety of brands)
3/4oz simple syrup
3/4oz fresh lime juice
1 large (or 2 small) hulled strawberries

Add the strawberries and simple syrup to your shaker and muddle the strawberries well. Then add the lime juice and rum, and top off your shaker with ice. Give it a good shake, and strain into a daiquiri glass (which essentially looks like a rounded-off martini glass; no worries if you don’t have them – any cocktail glass will do!) Garnish with a small, fresh strawberry (hull still in-tact), sliced vertically from the bottom up towards the hull.

Prefer your daiquiri to be of the frozen variety (a bit more akin to the kind you see in Vegas but maybe… good?) Simply add the ingredients to your blender along with crushed ice and give it a few good spins!

Cheers!

If you do any reading at all about the art of cocktails (and I assume you do, since you’ve ended up here!), you’ve probably come across the name Dale DeGroff. If you haven’t, you need to read more! And you should start with Dale’s book, The Essential Cocktail: The Art of Mixing Perfect Drinks.

Anyway, Dale is commonly known as the King of Cocktails (rightfully so), and you really can’t go wrong mixing one of his recipes. Among my favorite is his take on the classic Gin Sling.

Here’s what you’ll need:

1 1/2oz gin
1oz fresh lemon juice
3/4oz simple syrup
1/2oz sweet vermouth (the Italian kind)
A dash of Angostura bitters
Club soda

Mix all of the ingredients except the club soda in your shaker and top with ice. Give a good hard shake. Strain into a Collins glass over fresh ice, and top off with club soda.

Generally you’ll want to garnish this with a lemon twist or a spiral lemon peel.

The end result is refreshing, and simply delicious.

Cheers!