Monday, July 30, 2018

Tiger's Tail

What a fun cafe-style drink. I really appreciate a blended drink with a bold flavor and this fits the bill. It is full of bright orange and anise flavors. So much juice does Pernod the favor of taming its most intense notes and making orange juice taste more exotic.

But let's not pretend that a cocktail with a Pernod base is at all tame. Once you have one of these Tiger's Tails in your hand, you will know the danger you are in. It is easily slammable, but powerful in flavor and alcohol. Don't let your guard down.
  • 2 oz. Pernod
  • 4 oz. orange juice
  • 1/4 oz. Cointreau (use the real deal)
  • lime wedge
Combine liquid ingredients in a blender with cracked ice. Blend until smooth and pour into a chilled wine glass. Garnish with the lime slice. 

New Orleans Gin Fizz

If you are drinking a Fizz made with half-and-half and an egg white and someone throws a plastic bead necklace at you, you must be in New Orleans. That's how it works, right?

New Orleans is a cocktail Mecca known for taking cocktail a little farther than the standard ingredients usually indicate. In this case it is an extra tart helping of lemon and lime juice. The astounding thing about this is that this much citrus should curdle the cream, except that the egg white is designed to keep the drink tart and dry and add to a creamy fizz that tastes impossible: New Orleans makes the impossible happen.
  • 2 oz. gin (MurLarkey ImaGination gin used)
  • 1 oz. lemon juice
  • 1 oz. lime juice
  • 1 tsp. sugar syrup
  • 1/2 oz. half-and-half
  • 1 egg white
  • sparkling water
  • lime slice
Combine all ingredients except sparkling water and lime slice in a shaker with ice. Shake to chill, then remove the ice and shake again to add foam. Strain into a chilled Collins glass full of ice and top with soda before garnishing with the lime slice.

Apple Rum Rickey

A Rickey is a Rickey--unless it is this apple rum thing. First of all, what is apple rum. It's not a thing, actually. Or maybe it is no different from apple whiskey, which is also known as apple brandy. So that still doesn't make it a thing. What you can do to make this drink is use a rum with some real sugar flavors as sweetener (Rickeys have no added sugar) to the apple brandy like mine that is made with winesap apples.

This Rickey is strange in that you are supposed to taste the brandy and rum and not lime juice. The twist is there as only a suggestion of lime. The drink is dry and doesn't mess around despite it's lower alcohol content. Very good on a hot day.
  • 1 oz. apple brandy
  • 1/2 oz. light rum (Vitae Platinum Used)
  • sparkling water (Perrier used)
  • lime twist
Combine rum and apple brandy in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled highball glass full of fresh ice cubes. Top with sparkling water and stir gently. Garnish with the lime twist. 

Prince's Smile

Wow! That's all I can say for this refreshingly bright yet sweet gin cocktail. I was especially pleased (it made me smile) that it was well balanced and played to the strengths of all ingredients, including apple and apricot brandies.

So even though I used cheap apricot flavored brandy, I had real apple brandy that was infused with real winesap apple flavors. This, and spicy gin from MurLarkey, gave the drink a very classic taste that I couldn't get enough of. It was a great use of the last drops of my apple brandy.
  • 2 oz. gin (MurLarkey ImaGination used)
  • 1 oz. apple brandy
  • 1 oz. apricot brandy
  • 1 tsp. lemon juice
Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. 

Mississippi Mule

I feel like I've done this drink before but with inferior creme de cassis. I was in the mood for something that tasted French, however, and G. E. Massenez fits the bill. Here it was the Copper Fox Vir Gin, with its single malted barley and funky anise and herbal flavors that made the cocktail hold up as a very classic cafe-style drink. I'm particularly happy with how it went on the rocks as well.
  • 2 oz. gin (Copper Fox used)
  • 1/2 oz. creme de cassis
  • 1/2 oz. lemon juice
Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled Old Fashioned glass full of fresh ice. 

Cloister (Revisited)

I wanted to try the Cloister again with yellow Chartreuse instead of the green stuff. I have to say it makes a big difference and I really liked how sweet (not bitter) and refreshing the drink became with the change. Yellow Chartreuse has more honey and a lower proof, which is nice. I also used fresh squeezed grapefruit juice for this so it is really yummy and balanced now that I have all the right ingredients.
  • 2 oz. gin (Filibuster Dual Cask used)
  • 1/2 oz. yellow Chartreuse
  • 1/2 oz. grapefruit juice
  • 1 tsp. lemon juice
  • 1/2 tsp. sugar
Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. 

Country Club Cooler

This is almost an aptly named cocktail in that it is something mildly alcoholic, a little glitzy and European, and perfect for early afternoon drinking in the summer. I'm not sure which country club this drink is associated with or why, but the reasons above are about as good as any.

First off, the alcoholic part of the drink is Lillet Blanc, which is a great Bordeaux spirit flavored with bitter oranges and sugar. It doesn't need grenadine for sweetness, but I like the color it gives. It is all packaged in this orange spritzer with a twist that make it rather tempting and more refreshing than potent.
  • 4 oz. Lillet Blanc
  • 1 tsp. grenadine
  • sparkling water (Perrier used)
  • orange twist
Build drink with chilled Lillet Blanc and grenadine in a Collins glass full of fresh ice. Top with sparkling water and stir gently. Twist orange peel over the glass and drop it in.

Sunday, July 22, 2018

Apple Brandy Cocktail

Sometimes a weird cocktail is exactly what is needed to transport you from the ordinary. That is the case with the Apple Brandy cocktail, at least it was when I made it. I wish I could make it again, but I had a small jar of homemade apple brandy aged in white oak. This had all the funkiness of a craft cider in whiskey form. The flavors were strong and I had to break out a fresh slice of apple as a tasty garnish to pair with the drink.
  • 2 oz. apple brandy
  • 1 tsp. lemon juice
  • 1 tsp. grenadine
  •  apple slice (optional)
Combine liquid ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with an apple slice if you are so moved.

Babbie's Special Cocktail

This is a funny cocktail with a funny name. I enjoyed it, though it is much too sweet for my taste. Using apricot brandy as the base of a cocktail comes across as very old-world, especially when using cream to make a dessert drink. One saving grace that I appreciate is the teaspoon of gin which can make a big impact on the flavor of a dessert drink.

In this case I used Copper Fox Vir Gin because it is so richly flavored and really suited to dessert drinks. You get anise, basil, malted barley: lots of flavors that go well with a creamy fruit drink from just a touch of Vir Gin gin.
  • 2 oz. apricot brandy
  • 1 oz. half-and-half
  • 1 tsp. gin (Copper Fox Vir Gin used)
Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. 

Banana Milkshake

What a fun little cocktail! I love it! At first glance, this milkshake drink seems like a dessert pudding of a cocktail. Maybe it is, but the addition of nutmeg and banana flavor comes across as tropical. This smacks of beach resorts and summer milkshakes sipped on yachts more than a nightcap or winter eggnog.

The big tip-off is the use of rum in the recipe. It connects it to the Caribbean sea and white rum makers that use tropical spices in their spiced rum recipes. And then there are bananas, of course.

For this one, I happened to have a banana rum by Cruzan which I substituted for the white rum because why not. It tastes a little artificial and has a good amount of sugar in it, so actually it is a good stand in for creme de bananes as well. I decided to go extra bananas with MurLarkey Distillery's banana whiskey as well. This is all natural and doesn't have sugar added so it balanced things well. The result was a rich and strong banana flavor that was more than just candy in a glass.
  • 2 oz. light rum (1 1/2 oz. Cruzan banana rum used)
  • 1 oz. creme de bananes (1 1/2 oz. MurLarkey banana whiskey)
  • 2 oz. half-and-half
  • dash grenadine
  • ground nutmeg
  • banana slice
Combine grenadine, half-and-half and spirits in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with the banana slice and dust with nutmeg. 

Grasshopper

A standard Grasshopper (of which there are many variations that I have yet to do for the blog) is an all liqueur dessert drink. That doesn't mean it is weak. All that sugar, though, is pretty dangerous for your brain and your waist size. I forget how good these things are and manage to go years between making them for myself or guests. They are addictive, however. Proceed with caution.
  • 2 oz. green creme de menthe
  • 2 oz. white creme de cacao
  • 2 oz. half-and-half
Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. 

Banshee

The Banshee is an Irish mythological creature of ill omen, but the cocktail named after it is very sublime. Banshee stories are a bunch of malarkey, as the Irish say. While the ingredients, creme de bananes in particular, have nothing to do with monsters that I can tell, your choice of spirit can be somewhat Irish.

MurLarkey banana whiskey gives this creamy drink more traction. You taste real bananas, not fake liqueur, you get a real-looking yellow color, and there's a bit of whiskey spice to keep it interesting. Heed this banshee's call.
  • 2 oz. creme de bananes (MurLarkey banana whiskey used)
  • 1 oz. white creme de cacao
  • 1 oz. half-and-half
Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

(Heritage) New York Sour

I'm revisiting the New York Sour now that I have a Sour glass and I understand how this drink is intended to be made. That means no ice cubes, with a layer of dry red wine on top. Ice cubes can screw up you wine float, as can a straw with which it is tempting to stir the drink. Using the Sour glass almost guarantees the drinking experience will be consistent with each cocktail: you have to drink through the dry wine to get to the sweetened and sour whiskey.

A typical Whiskey Sour is made with blended whiskey. You won't find peated or rich ryes in the early examples of Sours. So Irish comes to mind, and and Irish-American whiskey like MurLarkey's Heritage is perfect for this occasion.

A note about the float. It is difficult to get a wine to float on a dry cocktail. More sugar might necessary to give the Whiskey Sour beneath enough density to support the wine. I recommend a half ounce of simple syrup--which is fully dissolved--to make sure that you don't get a red Sour.
  • 2 oz. blended whiskey (MurLarkey Heritage used)
  • 1 1/2 oz. lemon juice
  • 1 tsp. sugar (1/2 oz. simple syrup recommended) 
  • 1 tbsp. dry red wine
Combine sugar, whiskey and lemon juice in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled Sour glass. Use the back of a teaspoon to float red wine on top.

Netherlands

I don't usually associate brandy or oranges with the Netherlands, but I'll go with it for the sake of this cocktail. I like that it is an all-spirits drink and because of that I felt that cognac, a French spirit, would be best represented here. This is Martell single distillery edition. It is a young-ish cognac that has a fairly rustic flavor--more alcoholic heat and less sugary in the nose and taste. It really works well in cocktails where strength plays well.

Netherlands is a lot like a Manhattan except for the orange flavor. The recipe calls for curacao, so I used the rum-based orange liqueur from Vitae. Not surprisingly it overwhelmed the Martell, but I'm pretty sure that that would happen anyway. I had to think of the drink as an orange cocktail, not a cognac cocktail. The cognac then is simply the spirit needed to spread out the orange flavor of the curacao and bitters.
  • 2 oz. brandy (cognac please! Martell single distillery used)
  • 1 oz. curacao (Vitae orange liqueur used)
  • dash orange bitters (Hella used)
Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into an Old Fashioned glass full of fresh ice. 

Midnight Cocktail

It's almost midnight at work and I'm whipping up this cocktail with the house made apricot brandy for the occasion. This apricot brandy is richly flavored with real apricots and sugar. It is a grape brandy, however, but not a bad one.

A cocktail that relies entirely on apricot brandy is only enjoyable when the apricot spirit is delicious in itself. Those artificially flavored apricot spirits are pretty gross and wouldn't stand up well to this kind of a spirits-forward drink recipe.
  • 2 oz. apricot brandy (house made version used)
  • 1 tbsp. triple sec
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice
Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. 

Saturday, July 14, 2018

Maiden's Prayer

This is a tropical tasting gin cocktail that could easily be done with rum, and it probably has. I wanted to keep that sense of the exotic and use an unfamiliar gin flavor of Vitae Modern Gin as the base for my example. It takes you out of the mode of thinking that gin tastes like juniper  (though this one does) and gives you a lot of other fresh botanicals to consider while sipping. And Vitae is molasses based, just like their Orange Liqueur. This liqueur enhances the hearty orange flavor that is already present in the gin.
  • 2 oz. gin (Vitae Modern Gin used)
  • 1 oz. curacao (Vitae Orange Liqueur used)
  • 1/2 oz. lemon juice
  • 1 tbsp. orange juice
Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. 

Manhattan Cooler

What is it with New York drinks and dry red wine? This cocktail reminds me of the New York Sour without the blended whiskey. This, then, is a low ABV cocktail that makes a red wine more palatable for summer drinking. I can't figure out why the gold rum is called for in such a small quantity. I can see using fresh-pressed cane juice rums instead for their distinctive sugar flavor that would add richness to a dry red wine. The one I picked is the Breaux Vinyard cabernet franc.
  • 4 oz. dry red wine (cabernet franc used)
  • 2 oz. lemon juice
  • 1/4 tsp. gold rum (Cruzan 151-proof used)
  • 1 tbsp. lemon juice
Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass (or in a chilled highball glass for simplicity's sake). Stir well (and strain into the highball glass if you opted for the mixing glass.) 

Tuesday, July 10, 2018

Velvet Hammer

I've made this drink before with vodka and dark creme de cacao. Everyone I made the Velvet Hammer for enjoyed it as a strong dessert drink, as the name suggests. Using MurLarkey cocoa whiskey changes it a little (add a tsp. of sugar syrup if you do this). The flavor of cocoa nib whiskey adds more traction that I liked. The drink is less velvety (which I take it to mean smooth and soft like a creamy dessert.) I think that cocoa whiskey works here for the whiskey drinkers who like to taste the spirit in the drink.
  • 3 oz. vodka (MurLarkey Divine Clarity used)
  • 1 oz. creme de cacao (MurLarkey cocoa whiskey and 1 tsp. sugar syrup used)
  • 1 oz. half-and-half
Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. 

Anna's Bannana

This is a very approachable tropical cocktail that tastes a lot like a frozen Banana Daiquiri. It is a simple blender smoothie with vodka as its power and lime juice and banana as its base. There's no artificial flavor used here, which is nice, and the drink is pretty tart. Honey adds richness, though and is another natural ingredient. No fake bananas!
  • 2 oz. vodka (MurLarkey Divine Clarity used)
  • 1 oz. lime juice
  • 1/2 small banana slice
  • 1 tsp. honey or almond syrup
  • slice of lime
Add all ingredients except the lime slice in a blender with cracked ice. Blend until smooth and pour into a chilled wine glass. Garnish with the lime slice.

Georgia Peach Fizz

Here comes another Fizz variation, this one is a mash up of a Brandy Fizz and a Georgia Peach. I used Bird Dog peach whiskey here instead of peach brandy, which is a fine substitution. Most peach brandy is flavored brandy, not a brandy made from peaches, so the flavor is mostly the same.

Strangely, and very fitting in a culinary sense, creme de bananes is also in the recipe. Which is fine. I love that banana can add richness without tasting like a different fruit. My change is to use MurLarkey banana whiskey--probably their most versatile flavored whiskey. The rest is typical Fizz ingredients, lemon, soda and sugar.
  • 2 oz. brandy (Christian Brothers VSOP used)
  • 1 oz. peach brandy (Bird Dog Peach Whiskey used)
  • 1 tbsp. creme de bananes (MurLarkey banana whiskey used)
  • 1 oz. lemon juice
  • 1 tsp. sugar syrup
  • sparkling water
  • peach slice
Combine liquors, lemon juice and sugar syrup in a mixing glass with ice. Stir and pour into a chilled Collins glass. Top with sparkling water and stir gently. Garnish with the peach slice.  

Fuzzy Martini

Not a real Martini (with dry vermouth). Just sayin'! But that aside, this is a pretty good cocktail in much the same spirit of the Martini. The recipe calls for three kinds of flavored vodkas: vanilla, peach and coffee. I am not someone who keeps flavored vodkas around; I flavor them myself, which I did in the case of the vanilla vodka. I happened to have two whiskies that are flavored, however. This changed the character of the original 90's era cocktail to something a little more pioneer-style with young whiskey notes on top of rich vanilla vodka. This cocktail had all the hallmarks of a craft drink, not some fake Martini.
  • 3 oz. vanilla flavored vodka (homemade infusion used)
  • 1/2 oz. coffee flavored vodka (MurLarkey Coffee Whiskey used)
  • 1 tsp. peach schnapps (1/2 oz. Bird Dog Peach Whiskey used)
  • peach slice
Combine liquid ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with the peach slice.

Friday, July 6, 2018

Red Lion

I've been waiting to do this cocktail since making it's brother, the White Lion, a few years ago. It is really awesome and especially tasty when it's constituent parts are local and share the same base spirit.

O.K. It is really only possible to use Curacao and gin from the same distillery with the same base if you use Vitae Modern Gin and Vitae Orange liqueur. The effect, though was strong. The orange liqueur is twice as strong as most triple sec and contains almost no sugar. It is flavored with natural oranges, including Virginia's hearty orange--so it is bitter, not sweet. That's a positive change for this drink, which I imagine would be very sweet with a sweet triple sec or Curacao.
  • 2 oz. gin (Vitae modern gin used)
  • 1 1/2 oz. orange liqueur (Vitae orange liqueur used)
  • 1/2 oz. lemon juice
  • 1/2 oz. orange juice
  • 1/2 tsp. grenadine 
 Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. 

Apricot Cocktail

At my restaurant, I get to play around with fresh, local ingredients. That was the point of doing this cocktail here! I made this apricot brandy using pitted apricots soaked in brandy for a few days. After pressing the soggy fruit into the brandy, I added sugar and cognac and strained out the pulps.

The difference a homemade apricot brandy makes is very important to a cocktail in which the main ingredient is apricot brandy. You wouldn't want to do this with some cheap sugary liqueur.

I'm also showing off Cirrus, a potato vodka produced locally in Virginia. It is a great sipping vodka on its own, but it is super in a cocktail like this. Here's to summer!
  • 1 oz. apricot brandy
  • 1 tbsp. vodka or grain neutral spirits (Cirrus used)
  • 1tbsp. lemon juice
  • 1 tbsp. orange juice
  • 1 apricot slice (optional)
Combine liquid ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with the apricot slice. (optional)

Grand Royal Fizz

Now that I'm focusing on Fizzes right now, there's no reason not to do the Grand Royal Fizz. It's been so hot and a Fizz, even a creamy one, will cool you down and relax your brain quickly. This Fizz differs from many others by having no egg. Instead there is half-and-half and orange juice. I fresh squeezed all the juice for this drink so it was amazingly fresh tasting!
  • 2 oz. gin (ImaGination gin used) 
  • 1 tsp. maraschino liqueur
  • 1 1/2 oz. orange juice
  • 1 oz. lime juice
  • 1/2 tsp. sugar
  • 2 tsp. half-and-half
  • sparkling water (Perrier used)
Combine all ingredients except sparkling water in a shaker with ice. (Hint: add half-and-half last to avoid allowing it to curdle in the citrus.) Shake and strain into a chilled highball glass full of fresh ice. Top with sparkling water and stir gently. 

Tuesday, July 3, 2018

Coronado

This tropical cocktail is all about cherry, tropical scents and garnishes. It looks like a rocks sipper and a tiki cocktail rolled into one.

I wanted to choose spirits that did the drink justice to Coronado's tiki roots. First I used real kirschwasser over cherry brandy or liqueur because it tastes exotic and boozy. The small amount in this drink is noticeable and does not change the color like a cherry brandy would.

The other thing I did was use America's only molasses based gin, Vitae Modern Gin. I also threw in Vitae orange liqueur where the recipe calls for Curacao because it is also rum based like a Curacao and very dry. I figured that the pineapple juice was all the sweetness this drink needed and I was right. People don't like sugary tropical drinks anymore, for good reason. The Coronado is reclaiming tropical drinks when made this way.
  • 2 oz. gin (Vitae modern gin used)
  • 1/2 oz. white Curacao (Vitae orange liqueur used)
  • 2 oz. pineapple juice
  • 3-5 dashes kirschwasser
  • maraschino cherry
Combine all ingredients except cherry in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled Old Fashioned glass full of fresh ice. Garnish with the cherry.

Golden Fizz

The Golden Fizz fits in the spectrum of Fizz cocktails exactly where the word "golden" typically applies. Silver Fizzes have egg white. Golden ones have the yolk. And since lime is the citrus here, i'm guessing the lemon slice garnish is really about aesthetics more than flavor.

You have to use an interesting gin here to stand up to the citrus (lime juice) and that funky thickness of egg yolk that can take on a smell of its own if your gin doesn't add flavor to it.

Here's MurLarkey ImaGination--a deep and satisfying gin with 12 botanicals that take charge of your tongue throughout the sip.
  • 2 1/2 oz. gin (MurLarkey ImaGination used)
  • 1 oz. lime juice
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 1/2 tsp. sugar
  • sparkling water (Parrier used)
  • lemon slice
Combine all ingredients except sparkling water and lemon slice in a shaker with ice. Shake to chill and strain out the ice. Shake again to add foam and pour into a chilled highball glass full of fresh ice. Top with sparkling water, stir gently and garnish with the lemon slice.

Pink Veranda

With a pink umbrella and pink flowers in the background, my veranda is very colorful. This drink gets its color from cranberry juice, an unusual ingredient in the world of tiki and rum cocktails. It is also unusual (not in the tiki sense but in the cocktail sense) to have have more than one kind of rum in it, and that it is in an Old Fashioned glass. See what you think. I happen to like it a lot.
  • 1 oz. gold rum (Cruzan 151-proof used)
  • 1 oz. dark rum (Pampero Aniversario used)
  • 2 oz. cranberry juice
  • 1/2 oz. lemon juice
  • 1 tsp. lemon juice
  • 1/2 egg white
Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake to chill and strain out the ice. Shake again to add froth and pour into an Old Fashioned glass full of fresh ice (large cubes pictured).

Silver Stallion

This is the strangest Fizz I've ever seen. It's blended, it includes ice cream, it is packed with lime juice too! And it is also so good, I can't even describe that tangy frozen cream flavor.

I wondered a bit about going full-flavored with the gin selection. With Copper Fox Vir Gin you could have a real flavor bomb of a creamy Fizz. But usually when gin and cream are involved, I err on the side of mellowness. So Filibuster Dual Cask gin gets my vote. It has oak and really subdued botanicals. They don't stick out or draw your attention when you are enjoying a dessert drink. I wouldn't use it in a majority of Fizzes where it gets lost against so much citrus, but here it was quite good.
  • 2 oz. gin (Filibuster Dual Cask used)
  • 1 oz. lime juice
  • 1 scoop of vanilla ice cream
  • sparkling water
Combine all ingredients in a blender with ice. Blend until thick and smooth and pour into a chilled highball glass. 

Apricot Fizz

This is a basic Fizz recipe using my homemade apricot brandy that I made at work. It's probably the best spirit infusion I've made because it tastes like ripe apricots and the cheapness of the brandy is completely fixed. Now it tastes like fine cognac spirit.

You can pretty much do a Fizz with anything, so it stands to reason that apricot brandy would work well. The whole recipe seems designed to make it easy to do for bar service with minimal tools and ingredients, with sugar syrup and stirring. There's no egg in this drink, but you could do that...[plans for the future].
  • 2 oz. apricot brandy
  • 1 oz. lemon juice
  • 1 tsp. sugar syrup
  • sparkling water
  • lemon peel
Combine liquid ingredients in a mixing glass with ice. Stir and strain into a highball glass full of fresh ice. Top with soda and stir again. Twist the lemon peel on top.

Bachelor's Bait

You have to love the name of this cocktail. For one, It's my drink when I have the place to myself. And then there's the pink fluff...

But the real beauty of this cocktail is bitterness with no citrus tartness. You get orange bitters on the nose and gin in the sip. Copper Fox Vir Gin is a very intense single malt gin, so the grain is present as well as anise, coriander, cardamon, and rosemary and basil. So many bitter botanicals that this drink takes on the flavor of an old world spiced candy. It may look pink and frilly, but it demands your attention and appreciation.
  • 2 oz. gin (Copper Fox Vir Gin used)
  • 3 dashes orange bitters (Hella Bitters used)
  • 3/4 tsp. grenadine
  • 1 egg white
Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake to chill and strain out the ice. Shake liquid again and pour into a chilled cocktail glass.

Strawberry Colada

This cocktail is a fruity improvement on the Pina Colada. And it really is an improvement except that it adds a good amount of fruit. The recipe calls for gold rum and I used Cruzan 151 proof, which is dangerous but also great to keep the alcohol presence high. However I did not use a full three ounces since I don't have a death wish. Instead I did split the serving by doing it half 151 and half white rum.
  • 3 oz. gold rum (Cruzan 151-proof rum used)
  • 1 oz. coconut cream
  • 4 oz. pineapple juice
  • 6 strawberries
  • pineapple spear
Core the strawberries and set one aside for a garnish. Combine all ingredients except pineapple spear in a blender with cracked ice. Blend until slushy and pour into a chilled hurricane glass. Garnish with the strawberry and pineapple spear.

Tahoe Julius

This can't be a common cocktail. Something about a blended creamy egg and orange juice and vodka drink just says that it is oft overlooked, and making it well is challenging. The effect, if you get it blended very smoothly like I did, it goes down like an orange ice cream. The vodka is sort of an afterthought, however this Divine Clarity is itself very creamy.
  • 2 oz. vodka (Divine Clarity used)
  • 4 oz. orange juice
  • 1 oz. half and half
  • 1 whole egg
  • 1 tsp. sugar
Combine all ingredients in a blender with ice (like a whole cube tray) and blend until smooth. Pour into a chilled wine glass.