The Moscow Mule for the Holidaze! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I love the Moscow Mule and I love making variations. It’s a perfect vehicle for my various vodka infusion experiments. So I had some friends over last year around Thanksgiving and found this recipe online and it was a big hit. I seem to recall that I made them with rosemary infused vodka, which was delicious, but this year I used cranberry vodka I had made for cosmos. I also changed the recipe a bit by adding the orange and lime – believe it or not the original recipe left out the fucking lime juice! Totally stupid, since their are only 3 ingredients in the traditional Moscow Mule: vodka, ginger beer and FUCKING LIME! So don’t forget the lime unless you are experimenting and having fun. ½ oz. simple syrup (preferably lemon infused) ½ oz. unsweetened cranberry juice ½ fresh squeezed lime juice ½ fresh squeezed orange juice 2 oz. cranberry infused vodka (don’t be lazy – make your own) 2-4 oz. chilled ginger beer (I like Reed’s extra ginger) 1 rosemary sprig, for garnish orange wheel, for garnish 1-2 cranberries (fresh or sugared), for garnish Fill copper cups ¾ with crushed ice, Mix vodka with juices, pour into cups, fill to top with ginger beer, stir, add garnishes, serve. To make sugared cranberry garnish, heat equal parts water and sugar (½ cup each is fine) over low heat until dissolved. Remove from heat before boiling, pour over equal part cranberries (½ cup in this case) and refrigerate overnight. Drain the cranberries the next day and let them dry a few minutes until tacky. Roll them in superfine sugar and let dry in a single layer for an hour or two. Store in freezer.

My version of "The Aviation" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I’m a huge fan of Crème de Violette ever since I discovered it in my local liquor store and I’m always looking for excuses to make a cocktail with it. I’m also a huge fan of high quality flavored vodkas and any small batch distilled spirits, and I ran across a brand called Hangar One vodka while on vacation. I bought myself their Kaffir Lime vodka, which now seems to be called Makrut Lime which I think is the same thing since makrut is another name for the same plant, probably changed due to racist connotations, although they now show a picture of the fruit on the bottle and not the leaf so the flavor may be different. In any case, kaffir/makrut lime leaves are the ingredient you find in the best Thai food such as tom yum soup. As a flavoring for vodka, it’s a bit intense: spicy, aromatic, with a slightly bitter aftertaste. I kept trying it in my favorite cocktail recipes, but nothing clicked, and in fact some were downright awful. Then I was looking at variations on the The Aviation, which is a WWI era cocktail made with gin and Crème de Violette and I became inspired. However, I was out of Crème de Violette at the time, but with some experimentation I found that Chambord worked really well with it’s smooth chocolatey texture. And thus my very peculiar variation on The Aviation that I call “Flight to Bangkok​” was born! Update: I’ve tried it again and played around a lot with variations that are more similar to the original Aviation recipe that used lemon, Crème de Violette or Crème de Yvette and Luxardo maraschino liqueur. The only thing I changed was the gin to kaffir lime infused vodka, which I made myself this time. I’ve found that the lemon makes it more tart, but overall it’s much sweeter, although it depends on the particular recipe that you follow. I’ve found recipes that show combinations of ¼ to ¾ of each of the 3 main flavor ingredients in all possible combinations, and tried many of them with surprising dramatic differences, so rather than list them all here, use your instincts and try your own variations! However, my original variation below turned out the best IMHO so try that one first – I think you’ll like it! 1 ½ oz. Hangar 1 Makrut Lime vodka (or kaffir lime infused vodka) ¾ oz. fresh squeezed lime juice ¾ oz. Chambord Shake with ice, strain, serve in martini glass with lime wheel.

My first original cocktail concoction (with help from Matt) and the featured image for this blog! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . This was my seminal original cocktail that birthed the idea of a cocktail blog. The actual launch of this blog was one year to the day of the creation of this cocktail. Well, sort of, since Thanksgiving falls on a different date each year. As I look back on that night, one year later when this was actually posted, I can remark on how much I’ve learned and grown, both as a mixologist (and as a drunk). The genesis of this cocktail was mostly visual: I like the color green, as you can tell. I also like lime and melon, and I had recently discovered and fell in love with Grey Goose’s melon flavored vodka as a digestif at an Italian restaurant. I became curious about other melon flavors in drinks, and recalled hearing reference to a “melonball” as a cheesy suburban housewife cocktail and I wanted to try one without any idea what it was or how it was made. I assumed I had to buy some Midori melon liqueur, which I did, but beyond that I was clueless. I looked up a few recipes, but they were all very simple – basically a screwdriver with Midori. Boring! Some had variations with pineapple or grapefruit juice, and of course the actual ball of melon, but they all sounded very sweet and with more juice than alcohol. Yuck! So I kept looking, and based on my love for martinis and the Lemon Drop in particular, I looked up Melon Drop and Melontini to see what was out there. They were all gross sounding and involved bullshit like pureed melon, sweet and sour mix and fucking Pucker’s watermelon schnapps! So, it was time for me to create my own cocktail by experimentation. Fortunately I had a willing taste tester and co-creator visiting for Thanksgiving, so off we went. It took us many subtle variations and many many drinks, and we couldn’t agree which recipe we liked best so I’m including both. Actually we had hangovers the next day and forgot which one was the “real one” because all the napkins with recipes scrawled on them had ingredients crossed out and lists of names that we had considered, such as “The Atomic Melon” and only two seemed accurate, so here they are as best as I can remember: Sour version (Matt’s favorite): 1 ½ oz. Grey Goose melon vodka 1 oz. Midori® Melon Liqueur ½ oz. Grand Marnier ½ oz. fresh lime juice Sweet version (the one pictured and my personal favorite): 1 ½ oz. Grey Goose melon vodka 1 oz. Midori® Melon Liqueur ¾ oz. fresh lime juice 1 tsp sugar Dip rim of tumbler glass in mixture of salt and sugar with lemon and lime zest like a margarita. Mix sugar in lime juice until dissolved, or create lime simple syrup instead (see method used in my Lemon Drop recipe and substitute lime peels instead of lemon). Combine all with ice in shaker, shake, strain and pour into tumbler with ice, garnish with lime wheel and twist as pictured

A simple drink that I make very complicated... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I love vodka martinis, and I love lemon, so this should be a no-brainer, right? But like any popular cocktail there are so many subtle variations out there that I naturally had to try them all and concoct my own multiple variations that involved lots of taste testing. The basic recipe is almost always the same, and this one is pretty much what I do. It’s almost always 4 ingredients: a high quality vodka (preferably lemon infused), orange liqueur (most use Cointreau, but I use Grand Marnier), fresh squeezed lemon juice and sugar or simple syrup. So let’s break it down and make it seem a lot more complicated than it really is, or just skip to the recipe at the bottom and avoid my long-ass description that follows: Before you actually start, it’s a good idea to set yourself up for the presentation. Put your martini glasses in the freezer so that when you actually pour the drink the glass will be all frosty and will help keep the drink cold. Ideally you will also have your vodka in the freezer for an hour or two as well. Also you’ll want to sprinkle some sugar in a ring the size of the rim of your glasses on a plate for dipping before you start. You can mix in the zest when you cut the lemons, or do them separately on two plates, dipping in the sugar first then the zest. Remember to zest BEFORE you cut the lemons, otherwise it’s a pain in the ass. Here’s a breakdown of the importance of each of the 4 ingredients: Lemon Vodka: I typically use one of my favorite citrus flavored vodkas like those made by Grey Goose, Belvedere, Hangar One or Crop Organic. However, the best lemon vodka is the one I make myself. I simply take a 1 quart mason jar and fill it with my favorite mid-grade vodka, such as Luksusowa which is a polish potato vodka, or something like Tito’s or Svedka. For the lemon flavor, just use a vegetable peeler to carefully peel the yellow part off of a lemon or two, being careful not to get too much of the white pulpy part (the pith) and drop the peels into the jar of vodka. Then all you need to do is put it in the fridge for a few days to a week or so and then strain out the peels. It beats any of the pre-packaged flavored vodka from the liquor store, but make sure you store it in the fridge, or better yet the freezer. There’s nothing like ice cold vodka to make a martini special. Orange Liqueur:   This is where you get to experiment and make the cocktail your own. The orange adds a sweeter citrus complement to the sourness of the lemon. Traditionally the recipes call for Cointreau but I like Grand Marnier better since it is made with cognac and is a bit heavier and sweeter and more flavorful in my opinion. Here’s a little article about the differences between the two in case you give a shit. You can also use any old boring Triple Sec if you’re a cheap bastard, but I don’t recommend it unless it’s high quality, but I’m somewhat of a snob. I’ve also enjoyed using Limoncello if I really want a more pure lemony sweetness, or St. Germain for a more floral nose… Yeah, I said nose, like I know what that fucking means… Just try any goddam flavored liqueur that you like, but don’t you dare use anything by “Puckers”! Bleah! Sugar:  Not everyone likes to put sugar in their cocktails, but you need at least a little bit in this one to cut the sourness. Make no mistake, it’ll still be plenty sour, but if you like it sweet just double the amount of sweetener to 1 oz. If you are lazy and don’t know what “superfine” sugar is, just add a ½ teaspoon of any sugar or agave syrup to sweeten. If you are adventurous and want something special that adds a lemony zest, then make yourself some lemon infused simple syrup. All you need is equal parts water and sugar (I did ½ cup of each) with some lemon zest and heat it up while stirring on low heat on the stove like so: Next just pour into a small jar while straining out the zest so you have a perfectly clear yellow/brown lemony syrup: It only take about 2 minutes to do and you can store it in the fridge for a long time for use in a variety of things, like flavored seltzer or various other cocktails that call for simple syrup where lemon would complement the other flavors, which is most cocktails. Fresh Squeezed Lemon:  Don’t use shortcuts. Nothing from a bottle. Cut a fucking lemon and spend the $5 on a lemon squeezer and while you’re at it get a zester with a scoring blade so you can make the fancy twisted lemon spirals for a garnish. Generally speaking ½ a lemon yields ½ oz. of juice. Okay, now you’re ready to actually make the fucking drink: 1 ½ – 2 oz. vodka (use a high quality lemon infused vodka – see above) ½ oz. orange liqueur (Grand Marnier, Cointreau, Triple Sec, etc.) OR Limencello OR St. Germain OR any fucking fancy liqueur. ½ oz. Simple syrup (lemon zest infused – see above) OR ½ teaspoon superfine sugar OR agave syrup ½ oz. freshly-squeezed lemon juice Ice cubes superfine or powdered sugar and lemon zest for dipping glass. Twisted peel of lemon or lemon wheel for garnish Read the process above for more details, but the short version is chill your martini glass in the freezer for 10 minutes, rub rim with lemon rind that you already squeezed, dip in sugar/zest, shake all ingredients with ice for 15-30 seconds, fine strain and pour, repeat with a new variation! Yum!

It's basically bourbon on ice, but oh so tasty if done right. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Okay, so this is the first post on my blog, but truth be told the post has been pre-dated to match the day that I actually made the cocktail and took the photo, which was also the day that I actually had my first Mint Julep. I’ve had to pre-date a few posts leading up to my official live release of this blog, which was Thanksgiving of 2017, the one year anniversary for creating my first original cocktail, The Melon Blast. So think of the posts leading up to that time as dated based on when it happened rather than when it was posted. Blah blah blah no one gives a shit, Dave! More Drinking, less Thinking! Fine, enjoy one of the simplest but sweetest cocktails ever created that has all that southern charm and heady drunkenness that you might expect from the antebellum south. I’ve always liked the idea of a mint julep ever since I read Hunter Thompson and his exploits at the Kentucky Derby, but had never actually tasted one. Basically it’s bourbon on ice with some mint and sugar for extra flavor, but there’s a whole process involved, and to me that’s what makes a good cocktail. As with all great cocktails, it starts with high quality liquor; bourbon in this case. I have a lot of friends who are bourbon purists (some would call them snobs) who sneer at the thought of adding anything but ice to a good bourbon, and there’s something to that, but if you wanna try something special it’s best to start with something good. I must confess I don’t know my bourbons very well, but I did some research and read about some of the different types of bourbon, and discovered a type called “cask strength” which is essentially bourbon that is taken directly out of the cask, which means that the alcohol strength is higher, but not consistent from cask to cask. The typical booze bottling process involves blending a shitload of casks together and diluting the mixture with water to get a consistent ABV (alcohol-by-volume) strength which provides an easier mass production model. That means a mass produced product for the masses with less alcohol, and who the hell wants to drink that?!? Not me! So I went on a hunt to find some cask strength bourbon, and lo and behold I found that Maker’s Mark had a tiny batch of cask strength bourbon with individualized labels showing the higher than usual ABV of 56.6% (103.2 proof) available in one of my 5 favorite local liquor stores: Now when you add lots of shaved or crushed ice to this bourbon, which is essential to a good mint julep, you won’t water down the flavor as much! Duhhh! Of course there are many other better (and stronger) bourbons out there, and I’ve had a few that I liked such as Woodford Reserve (which is the official bourbon of the Kentucky Derby), Basil Hayden’s and (surprisingly) Four Roses, but you should pick your favorite and remember that the stronger, the better. The other important factor is the pewter cup. The whole point about it is to let the sides stay frosty and cold, and you can read about that and the other finer etiquette points if you want to, or you can be a hasty Yankee like me and just pour it on the rocks into any old glass and suck it down quick before it warms up. So here’s the recipe: 2-3 oz. bourbon (good and strong!) 4-10 fresh mint leaves (depending on your taste) 1 tsp. cane sugar 1 cup crushed or shaved ice 1 mint sprig for garnish powdered sugar for garnish Start with a big thick glass or metal cup, preferably silver plated, pewter or copper (keeps it frosty so ice doesn’t melt) and muddle the mint with sugar and a few drops of bourbon in the bottom of the cup with a wooden spoon or muddler. Fill with ice, add bourbon, stir briskly for a few seconds to integrate the sugar and mint with the bourbon. Garnish with a sprinkle of powdered sugar and mint sprig. Add a straw to make it easier to drink. Tip: don’t aggressively muddle the mint. It works best if you muddle the sugar first to dilute it, then add mint and muddle gently to bruise leaves without crushing. Do it lightly for a minute to just release oils without turning leaves to a pulp.