Whiskey Curacao Fizz

Not exactly a Fizz, but very fizzy. It gets a great reception from those who are not big whiskey drinkers and are looking for something refreshing and clean tasting in the afternoon. That doesn't mean it isn't potent or full of flavor. It is bursting with vanilla and orange from the juice and curacao!

• 2 oz. blended whiskey (Seagram's Seven Crown used)
• 1/2 oz. curacao (Vitae Orange Liqueur used)
• 1 oz. lemon juice
• 1 tsp. sugar
• club soda
• orange slice

Combine juice, sugar and liquor in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a highball glass full of ice. Top with soda and stir gently. Garnish with the Orange slice.

Cagnes-Sur-Mer

Believe it or not, this cocktail belongs to the race track family of drinks. Cagnes Sur Mer is the motorway in Fance where the Monaco Grand Prix is held. This long drink is full of citrus flavors from curacao and Forbidden Fruit. I've extolled the exotic virtues of Forbidden Fruit in many of my posts, (in this drink it lends a sweet grapefruit flavor to the orange juice) but this time the unusual ingredient is the Vitae Orange Liqueur that I used in place of the curacao.

This cocktail is good to drink in hot weather. It has a fresh gin flavor with refreshing juice and citrus liqueurs. The sweetness comes from the honey and cognac in Forbidden Fruit and it all comes together with orange bitters and soda.

• 1 1/2 oz. gin (MurLarkey ImaGination gin used)
• 1/2 oz. Forbidden Fruit (Homemade recipe used)
• 1/2 oz. curacao (Vitae orange liqueur used)
• 2 oz. orange juice
• 1/2 tsp. lemon juice
• several dashes orange bitters (Hella used)
• club soda
• orange slice

Combine the first six ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled Collins glass full of fresh ice. Top with soda and stir gently. Garnish with an orange slice. 

Captain's Grog (Smuggler's Cove Recipe)

There's a lot going on in the Captain's grog, the signature drink from the Captain's Inn at Long Beach, CA. It is really rich, a little sweet, and loaded with intense flavors. On the sweet side, there's maple syrup, falernum, and black rum. There's spice from the vanilla and almond extract, and a ton of citrus with lime juice, grapefruit juice, and dry curacao. I've used Vitae's Virginia hearty orange spirit with a rum base to substitute for the curacao.

Curiously, there an ounce of sparkling water thrown in, which is odd for a blended drink. I believe it is to help in the blending of the ingredients rather than to add fizziness. That all gets wiped out when you blend. But the sparkling water could help with spacing out the extracts and sugars. It also seemed to help create a smooth blend with a consistency in the size of the ice chunks.

• 1/2 oz. lime juice
• 1/2 oz. grapefruit juice
• 1/2 oz. maple syrup
• 3 drops vanilla extract
• 3 drops almond extract
• 1 oz. sparkling water
• 1/2 oz. falernum (homemade falernum used)
• 1/2 oz. dry curacao (Vitae orange liqueur used)
• 3/4 oz. black blended rum
• 3/4 oz. blended light rum
• 3/4 oz. blended aged rum

Combine all ingredients in a blender with ice. Blend and open gate strain into a double Old Fashioned glass. Garnish with swizzle sticks, umbrellas and fruit as you like. 

Napoleon (DIY Amer Picon Recipe)

Lots of cocktails purport to be quintessentially French, which is to say they belong to a French tradition of drinking or use a selection of French-made ingredients. The Napoleon goes so far as to claim France's most notorious Emperor.

But setting all that bluster aside, Napoleon's namesake cocktail is an excellent mix of France's hard-to-find bitter aperitif wines. Amer Picon--so rare in its pre-prohibition form outside of Paris that we have to resort to making it ourselves--adds an orange bitterness to this classic gin drink. Dubonnet Rouge and curacao lend color and orange sweetness.

I could have picked a French vodka and used Cointreau if I wanted to go the full French, but I decided that a rum based orange liqueur like Vitae would work better as a substitute for curacao. Copper Fox Vir Gin is also a nice treat, it's star anise botanical gives it an absinthe-like flavor fit for cafe sipping. I'm glad I came back to this recipe to try it with these ingredients. Take a look at my attempt at this cocktail in 2015. It wasn't bad back then, but this is a surefire improvement on the concept.

• 2 oz. gin (Copper Fox Vir Gin used)
• 1/2 oz white curacao (Vitae orange liqueur used)
• 1 tsp. Dubonnet Rouge
• 1 tsp. Amer Picon (Homemade recipe used)

Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass full of ice. Stir and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. 

White Lilly

This is a floral cocktail that is designed to be strong and herbal. The herbal notes are very subdued and are replaced by an extremely potent combination of liquors.

I took the White Lilly as another invitation to combine a number of Vitae Spirits, as I've done before. The recipe calls for gin, rum and triple sec, all of which Vitae makes at their distillery in Charlottesville, VA. The gin and orange liqueur are dry and use the Virginia hardy orange as one of the flavors. It is bitter and a little funky, a unique taste in the gin world. Their rum is rich for a white rum, with a little toasted or warmed sugar scent. Together these spirits and a dash of Pernod make an unusually deep drink that will take a moment to appreciate but about an hour to finish.

• 2 oz. gin (Vitae modern gin used)
• 1 1/2 oz. triple sec (Vitae orange liqueur used)
• 1 1/2 oz. light rum (Vitae platinum rum used)
• 1/4 tsp. Pernod 

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. 

Limey

Limey is the ultimate lime cocktail. It's like a Daiquiri that uses a lime liqueur, lime zest and juice to really get an intense lime flavor. I used Vitae platinum rum for the rum and Vitae orange liquor for triple sec. This triple sec is made of Virginia bitter hearty oranges and other sweet orange flavors in a rum base that tastes the same as the platinum label. 

Since there are few lime liqueurs available, I made my own. My experience making falernum came in handy here, since falernum is a lime and spice liqueur. I just made it without the spices. Instead of rum, this time I used MurLarkey Justice white whiskey. This is unaged barley and corn spirit that tastes a little like a cane juice rum. I made the liqueur by soaking the zest of two limes in six ounces of Justice for a week. When you are ready to use the liqueur, add the juice of one lime and simple syrup to taste and shake it. Store in a sealed container in the refrigerator for up to two weeks. 

• 2 oz. light rum (Vitae platinum rum used)
• 1 oz. lime liqueur (homemade MurLarkey Justice lime liqueur used)
• 1/2 oz. triple sec (Vitae orange liquor used)
• 1 oz. lime juice
• lime twist. 

Combine liquid ingredients in a blender with ice. Blend until slushy and pour into a chilled wine glass. Garnish with the lime twist.

Maiden's Blush

 

(Photo by Ned Drumond)

As you'd expect, the Maiden's blush is a pink drink. It is part of the family of Maiden drinks that have gin and orange liqueur. For this drink I used Rose's grenadine to make sure it had the right pink shade. Instead of triple sec, I used Vitae orange liqueur because it is stronger and a little goes a long way with aromatics.

• 2 oz. gin
• 1/2 tsp. triple sec (Vitae orange liqueur)
• 1/2 tsp. grenadine
• 1/2 tsp. lemon juice

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

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. 

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. 

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. 

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.

X.Y.Z. Cocktail

The name suggests a bookend to the A.B.C. concept to cocktail making. Yes, this is a simple recipe, but it isn't your usual ingredients. The X.Y.Z. is a light and refreshing sour drink made with rum, a little like a Margarita or a Daiquiri.

The thing that sets this cocktail apart is the large component of curacao, a rum based orange liqueur. In this case, I substituted Vitae orange liqueur because it is also rum based and stronger than triple sec. It has its own texture and scent that comes partly because of its aromatic rum distillate and mostly from its unusual use of hearty oranges that grow in Virginia. These bitter oranges really add character to this cocktail that is now my favorite new discovery. 

• 2 oz. light rum
• 1 oz. curacao (Vitae orange liqueur used)
• 1/2 oz. lemon juice

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. 

Fair And Warmer

The weather is fair and it is getting warmer. What a time to break out this cocktail. This is on an upstairs window ledge of my restaurant in Old Town Alexandria. The Fair And Warmer is a rum-rich Martini variation with lots of kick and flavor. The cocktail avoids falling to too sweet or too dry with the addition of merely a few dashes of curacao. I used Vitae orange liqueur from Charlottesville, Virginia. This bittersweet liqueur and classic sweet vermouth is all that is needed for this simple warmer weather drink.

• 2 oz. light rum 
• 1/2 oz. sweet vermouth
• 3 dashes white curacao (Vitae orange liqueur used)
• lemon twist

Combine all ingredients except twist in a mixing glass with ice. Stir and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with the twist. 

Classic Cocktail

You read the name right: this is the original classic cocktail. Well, at least it purports to be classic. If you think about it, this drinks is somewhat modern. It brings together liqueurs and brandy in ways that taste familiar to brandy cocktail drinkers of the 19th century. Lemon and lemon zest keep it tart while a sugar rim means you can choose how sweet each sip will be.

The look and feel of the drink are certainly classic; the crust of sugar and three parts of lemon (the juice, the wedge and the peel) reminds me of last century architecture that possesses such ornate beauty for no other reason than appearing beautiful or prestigious. That's this drinks to a tee.

So I did a few unusual things with my liquor choices here. First, cognac please. You don't use ordinary brandy when you are making a classic drink. Use cognac. Next, I thought a half ounce of maraschino liqueur (which tastes like bitter marzipan) would be too intense, so I cut the proportion of it in the drink down and replaced that portion with Cherry Heering, which darkened the drink and made it sweeter with a more rich dark cherry flavor. Finally I chose Vitae orange liqueur because of its rum base. It is much closer to real Curacao, which is rum based, than cheap triple sec.

• 2 oz. brandy (Cognac, please.)
• 1/2 oz. lemon juice
• 1/2 oz. maraschino liqueur (half Cherry Heering and half Luxardo used)
• 1/2 oz. curacao (Vitae orange liqueur used.)
• sugar
• lemon wedge
• lemon twist

Rim a cocktail glass with sugar by coating it with juice from the lemon wedge and dipping it in a bowl of sugar. Combine liquid ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into the cocktail glass. Garnish with the lemon wedge and peel.

Claret Cup

Claret is a rich red wine that can be made into a punch with the addition of liquors, fruits and soda. There's a good bit of liquor in this punch all around: the recipe calls for a pitcher that serves four people. I used Copper and Kings brandy, Vitae orange liqueur, and Airfield Cabernet for the spirits.

Add orange slices and mint leaves to each individual glass and top with soda, don't try to mix the soda into the punch where it will go flat. 

• 16 oz. of Claret or Cabernet wine
• 2 oz. brandy or cognac (Copper and Kings brandy used)
• 1 oz. Cointreau (Vitae orange liqueur used)
• 3 tsp. sugar
• 8 oz. sparkling water
• mint sprigs
• orange slices

Combine all ingredients in a pitcher with ice and stir (leaving out the sparkling water is recommended, though.) Garnish with fruit and mint and serve in wine glasses.