Bristow Iced Tea (Original Recipe)

 

Yes, the infamous Long Island Iced tea is known for being a chameleon: it looks like iced tea, but there's no tea in it. Instead, it is just about every cheap booze that can fit on a speed rail. Here, the concept is the same but the taste is craft. There's real tea and lemon flavor infused into MurLarkey three tea and lemon whiskies. The experience is a bit surprising. It tastes great--strong but refreshing. 

And of course you can try to play it off as if this is an iced tea, but it's more likely that you'll be drinking from your home bar, so what's the point. If people saw how much MurLarkey I have on by bar, there'd be no need for me to pretend. 

• 1 oz. MurLarkey lemon whiskey
• 1 oz. MurLarkey three tea whiskey
• 1/2 oz. triple sec
  
• 1/2 oz. lemon juice
• 1 tsp. sugar syrup (dark brown used for tea color)
• cold filtered water
  
• lemon slice and mint sprig for garnish

Combine juice, spirits and sugar in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a Collins glass full of fresh ice. Top with cold water and stir. Garnish with lemon and mint.

(Simple Times) Blueberry Lemonade Punch

My sister gave me a bottle of Blueberry Lemonade Simple Times mixer. This is awesome, especially when it comes to making a quick cocktail or punch while traveling for the holidays. You don't have time to shop for ingredients or count on someone else's bar to furnish what you need for a punch. So Simple Times is really a time saver that simplifies your mixing life.

This was a basic punch that went off really well with family members. All it took three cups of gin, three quarters of the Simple Times lemonade bottle, a liter of soda water and lemon slices. For extra garnish I made ice blocks with blueberries and cranberries frozen in them.

Pink Lemonade

Pink Lemonade is a flavored vodka and lemonade drink. The New York Bartender's Guide suggests maraschino liqueur, but the better maraschino cherry liqueurs are colorless and will not make the drink pink as its name suggests. Cherry Heering is the obvious solution to this problem. It does make the drink a red-pink color and really increases the amount of alcohol in the drink.

• 2 oz. vodka (Divine Clarity used)
• 1 oz. maraschino liqueur (Cherry Heering used)
• lemonade

 Combine vodka and liqueur in a Collins glass full of ice. Top with lemonade and stir.

California Lemonade

So-named California cocktails usually have rye or blended whiskey and a combination of lemon and lime juice. I don't know why, but it seems to be a thing. Check out the Frisco Sour and the Los Angles Cocktail if you don't believe me.

For this drink, I wanted to land somewhere between rye and bourbon with my whiskey choice. Luckily Filibuster Distillery from Virginia makes The Boondoggler. It's a blend of their dual cask bourbon and rye. This drink goes down easily, and is made even prettier with that orange slice.

• 2 oz. blended whiskey (Filibuster Boondoggler used)
• 1 oz. lemon juice
• 1 oz. lime juice
• 1 tsp. bar sugar
• sparkling water 
• orange slice

Combine juices, whiskey and sugar in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled highball glass full of fresh ice. Top with sparkling water and stir. Garnish with the orange slice. 

Lemonade (Non-Alcoholic)

Fresh Lemonade is easy to make, if just a little time consuming. You'll need a lot of lemons, so its the kind of thing you do when you get a big bag of citrus and you have plenty of sugar around. Lemonade is also a great ingredient in many alcoholic cocktails. This recipe makes a pitcher that serves eight.

• 2 cups lemon juice (About 10 lemons)
• 2 cups of sugar syrup (add to taste)
• 10 cups water
• lemon slices
• mint sprigs

Pour lemon juice into a pitcher and add sugar syrup in stages while tasting to get the sweetness to your liking. Add water until lemonade while tasting to determine if it is diluted according to taste. Refrigerate with lemon slices in the pitcher. Serve in glasses garnished with mint.

Hawaiian Lemonade & Heavenly Days (Non-Alcoholic)

I've got another two-for-one post on non-alcoholic drinks. On the left there's the pretty simple and tasty Hawaiian Lemonade, which is just fresh squeezed lemonade and pineapple juice. The recipe calls for a pineapple spear, but I made this with canned juice, so there's no spear.

Then the Heavenly Days, the more complicated drink on the right, turned out to be a sugar bomb. The recipe calls for two ounces of hazelnut syrup, which is way too much, but that is used to counter the two ounces of lemon juice. So you begin with a sweet hazelnut lemonade, add some grenadine for color and top with soda and an orange slice. It would be good--and it is rich--like a waffle-cone or ice cream soda. It's just too sweet. After a few sips the sugar rush was far more overpowering than anything alcoholic in the same proportions. The headache that followed was worse than a hangover from half a drink.

So my fix for the Heavenly Days is to use 1 1/2 oz. lemon juice and 1 oz. hazelnut syrup. You'll see the recipe below.

Hawaiian Lemonade (Non-Alcoholic)

• 3 oz. pineapple juice
• fresh lemonade (1 1/2 oz. lemon juice, 1 oz. simple syrup, 2 oz. water)
• pineapple spear (mint sprig used)

Build the drink in a highball glass with ice and stir. Garnish with pineapple spear.

 Heavenly Days (Non-Alcoholic)

• 2 oz. hazelnut syrup (Modify to 1 oz. for less sweetness.)
• 2 oz. lemon juice (Modify to 1 1/2 oz. for less sweetness.)
• 1 tsp. grenadine
• club soda
• orange slice

Combine syrup, lemon juice and grenadine in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a highball glass full of fresh ice. Top with soda and stir. Garnish with orange slice.

St. Mark's Place Lemonade (Non-Alcoholic)

I guess I am becoming a blogger on all home-made drinks, not just alcoholic ones. This lemonade is very tart, with passion fruit syrup and lime juice and not a lot of sugar for balance. Of course make it to your liking, but that tartness is pretty key to the idea behind the St. Mark's Place Lemonade.

• 2 oz. lemon juice
• 2 oz. lime juice
• 1 tsp. sugar
• 2 tsp. passion fruit syrup
• orange slice
• sparkling water

Combine all ingredients except sparkling water and orange slice in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a highball glass almost full of ice. Top with sparkling water. Garnish with orange slice.

Shark Attack

This is a kitchy and fun drink to make in front of people. It's basically a vodka and lemonade. I suggest using fresh squeezed lemon juice.

• 3 oz. vodka
• 1 oz. lemon juice
• 1 oz. simple syrup
• 1 tbsp. grenadine

Build drink in a clear highball glass with ice and all ingredients except grenadine. Swizzle the glass until it and the contents are cold. Serve the drink while pouring the grenadine on top to simulate blood in the water.