Joker's Wild (Death & Co. Recipe)

This cocktail contains an unusual spirit that gives it this pretty red glow. Zoco Pacharan Navarro liqueur is a Spanish sloeberry, anisette, vanilla and coffee infusion. I don't have any way of getting it, but I figured I could pull off a replica with Aguardiente topped up with Galliano, and sloe gin and infused with whole coffee beans. This ingredient makes up the bulk of this cocktail, so I made enough for two. The recipe for the Pacharan Navarro knock off is as follows:

• 2 oz. Agurdiente
• 1/2 oz. Galliano
• 1/2 oz. sloe gin
• 10-15 coffee beans

The infusion only takes about 12 hours and is not a big deal to pull off ahead of serving the drink as long as you have the ingredients and the time. I will say that this is a pretty sticky-sweet liqueur, like an anise and sloeberry amaretto. The coffee comes through ever so subtly and adds bitterness, and the sloe gin doesn't completely overpower. The pisco, however is simply an afterthought that gets lost in the mix and the final result is little more than a spicier Sloe Gin Collins of some sort.

Lastly, there is a little foam from the liqueur and absinthe that is produced by shaking. It is, however, short lived and didn't stand up to being photographed. I'm still a little confused about this cocktail and what it is going for, but sometimes a drink is simply a method of enjoying a strange liqueur. And in that case Joker's Wild has that is spades.

• 1/2 oz. pisco (Capel used)
• 1 1/2 oz. Zoco Pacharan Navarro Liqueur (homemade recipe used)
• 2 dashes absinthe
  
• 3/4 oz. lemon juice
• 1/2 oz. simple syrup
• 1/4 oz. vanilla syrup (vanilla-infused vodka used)
• club soda

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a highball glass full of fresh ice. Top with soda and garnish with a spoonful of foam left over in the tin. 

 

 

Lemon Lime Cooler (Non-Alcoholic)

Ever want to make your own Sprite with fresh ingredients? This is your chance. It's just about the best lime soda I've ever had. Natural sugar and fresh lime juice make it hard to beat.

• 3 oz. lime juice
• 1/2 oz. simple syrup
• bitter lemon soda
• lime slice

Build drink in a Collins glass with juice, syrup and ice. Top with soda and stir. Garnish with lime slice. 

Brandy Buck

So I would expect any Buck made with brandy to adhere to the ingredients specified for all Buck class drinks: spirit, lime juice, ginger ale. This is completely off the mark. For one, there's soda rather than ginger ale, then creme de menthe, and finally there's the grapes.

For some reason I imagined that the recipe calls for white grapes. And it might. But its not so specific. The grapes themselves add sweetness to a pretty dry fizz drink, if you eat them while sipping. Then the grape skin has tannin bitterness that goes with the crispness of the mint liqueur.

Look, I don't recommend making this cocktail to impress anyone. There's a time and place for it, or maybe it's the confluence of having the ingredients on hand and the willpower to drink this down. Certainly it doesn't rank using a good brandy, and any base spirit, it would seem, will suffice.

• 2 oz. brandy (E & J XO used)
• 1/2 oz. lemon juice
• 1/2 oz. creme de menthe
• sparkling water
• seedless grapes (white used)

Combine all ingredients except soda and grapes in a shaker with ice. Shake and pour into a highball glass. Top with soda and garnish with grapes. 

Remsen Cooler

I've heard people say that a scotch and soda drink is great after a tennis match at the club. That aside, the Remsen Cooler was great after a jog in the neighborhood. The only difference between Remsen and a Scotch and Soda is that there's more scotch--its like having the amount of scotch in a Rob Roy but spaced out in a tall soda cocktail.

Chivas and Soda has long been my favorite easy mixer at bars. You can really taste the oak and sherry notes when it is diluted. The lemon twist also gives you the best scent while sipping, keeping it from seeming too rich. Barrelhound is basically the lightest unpeated Chivas blend, so it was easily the best drink I had that night.

• 3 oz. scotch
• 1 tsp. sugar syrup
• club soda
• lemon twist

Build drink with ice, scotch and sugar in a highball glass. Pour soda to top and garnish with the lemon twist.