Bellini/Kir Royale

I don't know if this picture is actually of a bellini, but I was having a hell of a time finding a really aesthetically pleasing photo that I could steal easily ;-) Bellinis are made of peach juice and champagne, like the fraternal twin of Buck's Fizz. Unfortunately, Safeway didn't have any kind of decent peach juice (only canned stuff that looked like it was 99% sugar and 1% artificial flavoring) so I thought I would just buy white peaches (they were in season and lovely) and make a peach puree to put with the champagne. Word of warning: peach juice is very different than peach puree, even if you do add sugar. I could barely taste the peach against the champagne and the texture was weird. Usually it's good to go with the freshest method possible when making drinks, but not when you have no idea what the hell you're doing. If you can find peach juice or find out how to make peach juice from peaches, go for it because I've had these at restaurants before and they're really delicious.

The Kir Royale was much better, but I don't really remember how it tasted because it was so long ago. It would be worth ordering though ;-) Just add champagne to a splash of Creme de Cassis.

Enjoy and bottoms up!

Strawberry Margarita

Last post for today! Hopefully I'll have more for you soon though.

The strawberry margarita was my cocktail entertainment just last night so I actually remember it (surprising considering tequila's reputation). I didn't buy enough limes at the Kiva and the grocery store across the street didn't have limes (serious problem), so I had to use mostly lemon juice (not ideal). However, the berries we really delicious and I felt happy and refreshed playing Sorry! with Mahala in my backyard on what felt like the first real day of summer in Oregon. In the future, I might also puree some of the fresh strawberries to put into the mix as well as have some floating slices.

Unfortunately, the effect tequila seems to have on me is not crazy party drunkness, but lame party slumber. After 3 of these babies, I was falling asleep on the couch while watching Arrested Development. Poor Mahala who came over expecting fun! I promise to be a more fun drunk in the future.

The tequila sleeps are not an unknown phenomenon with me: at the end of my 2nd year of college, Lesley and I decided to have Tequila Friday and make margaritas in our place. This turned into a total disaster of terrible tasting drinks and a huge mess in the kitchen. If only I knew then what I know now about making cocktails. We each had one drink, took a nap for an hour or so, then tried to come back and drink more, which still did not get any kind of party started. We'd been hyping it up all week, but nothing popped off.

1 ounce tequila

1/2 ounce triple sec

1/2 ounce strawberry liqueur

juice of 1/2 fresh lemon or lime (go with lime)

1 ounce frozen strawberries (but actually go with fresh if available)

-Salt the rim of a glass, shake ingredients in shaker, and pour with ice into the glass.

Enjoy and bottoms up!

Sangria

Sangria is such a memory drink for me. It was one of the first things I ever drank out: I went with my roommate freshman year to Little Italy for dinner. We had heard that they didn't really card at those restaurants, so we should be fine to order wine, but throughout the meal neither of us could quite get up the courage to ask for fear of being embarrassed. We kept going back and forth, should we or shouldn't we, when finally the waiter comes and gives us each a glass of sangria for free without asking for ID. It worked out, but how chicken were we?

But more than anything, I associate sangria with Sam & Lesley and Mexican restaurants. Sangria is a Spanish drink, but they serve it by the pitcher in quite a few New York Mexican restaurants and nothing goes better with anything than chips and salsa. I just think of walking around Gramercy in the spring of senior year looking for a spot to get sangria after seeing the cinematic masterpiece that is "Confessions of a Shopaholic." Being cut off by the waiter (in chips and salsa that is). Wine hangovers in the morning. I'm feeling a bit nostalgic for the city these days and this is the perfect drink to bring it out.

Here's to making more (hazy) memories this summer with sangria by my side:

1 bottle full-bodied red wine

2 ounces brandy

2 ounces simple syrup

sliced fruit

1 cup soda water/ginger ale/lemon-lime

-Stir ingredients in a pitcher with ice cubes and add soda just before serving (so it doesn't go flat).

Enjoy and bottoms up!

Flamingo Cocktail

Hey, so I'm back but with the sad news that my project is definitely not getting done on time (or on budget). I have 64 drinks to get through in 79 days, which means I have to have a new recipe every 1.2 days. My wallet simply cannot handle that unless someone cares to donate any of the following:

Chartreuse liqueur

Pernod

Galliano

Chambord

Benedictine

Cordial Medoc

Fangelico

Black Sambuca

Kümmel

Pimm's No. 1

Midori

It doesn't hurt to put it out there, does it?

Well, now we're back in the boat where I had this drink so long ago that I don't remember much about it. I know that the apricot brandy I bought had the most 70s-looking label I've ever seen (brand = Mr. Boston if you want to google). I think I was drinking it while watching either Skins or Bones (ha!) towards the end of my apartment living experience about 6 weeks ago. I seem to remember not hating it, but not being inspired by it. Take that for what it is.

1 1/4 ounce gin

1/2 ounce apricot brandy

dash of grenadine

juice of 1/2 a fresh lime

-Cocktail shaker it up and pour into cocktail glass. Ta da!

Enjoy and bottoms up!

Bohemian

So my financial woes have seriously derailed the progression of this project, and the damage might be fatal. We'll see as summer approaches how much money I have to put toward my efforts, but I might have to ask for an extension past September.

As to the bohemian, I didn't follow the recipe exactly as it stated because I had just gotten back from the store when I realized I didn't have cranberry juice. How do I not have cranberry juice? Talk about bar essentials. I subbed blueberry pomegranate juice that my roommates had in the fridge.

Overall, the drink was fruity and nice, but I think the tartness of the cranberry would've been a good addition.

2 ounces vodka

1 ounce pineapple juice

1/2 ounce passion fruit juice

1/2 ounce cranberry juice

Mix with cracked ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

Enjoy and bottoms up!

Mudslide

Grown up chocolate milk. Amazing. Do it up.

3/4 ounce vodka

3/4 ounce Kahlúa

3/4 ounce Irish cream liqueur

-Shake ingredients with cracked ice and strain into chilled cocktail glass.

Enjoy and bottoms up!

Orgasm and Gin & Tonic

The name of this first drink is deeply misleading: so not in any way comparable to an orgasm. Peppermint schnapps and Bailey's? Should be great, but it's just alright. Not even "good." What's more disappointing than being promised an orgasm and getting meh.

1/2 ounce Irish cream liqueur

1/2 ounce peppermint schnapps

-Serve in a shot glass.

I had a gin & tonic before at a bar, and I was really unimpressed, but those were the days before I liked gin at all. This time, it was better, but there was still a weird aftertaste that I didn't really care for. I sliced a strawberry to put in it, which made it better. Actually, the best part of the whole deal was eating the gin & tonic soaked berries at the end. Beautiful.

2 ounces gin

tonic water

-Add gin to iced highball glass and fill with tonic water. Garnish with lime.

Enjoy and bottoms up!

B-52 and French Kiss

I'm combining these two drinks even though I drank them on different nights because they taste very similar and because they are floats if I can call them that. They both involve floating one liquor on top of one or two other liquors, something I have not thus far been able to do. However the B-52 was my first success story:

1/3 ounce Kahlúa

1/3 ounce Irish cream liqueur

1/3 ounce Grand Marnier

-Float ingredients in the order listed.

It really looked like the picture above! In the past, I have read to use a spoon and hold it steadily with the tip just below the surface of the first liquor. Then, carefully and slowly pour the next liquor down the length of the spoon. I used this technique only with a butter knife and found it much easier. It still takes patience and a steady hand, but it can be achieved.

This picture for the French Kiss is not accurate. I was unable to find a suitable picture of the real drink, much to my dismay (surprisingly, drinks aren't what come up when you google "French kiss"). I thought this one did portray the deliciousness of said drink quite nicely so you can get an idea.

1/2 ounce Amaretto

1/2 ounce créme de cacao

1/2 ounce Irish Cream liqueur

-Carefully layer all ingredients into a shot glass. (I doubled the amounts and put it in a cocktail glass).

You will notice the use of a non-vegan ingredient, which leads me to inform you that I have officially taken myself out of the properly vegan category and into the "complicated eater" category. I still love the trees, but I need to eat something besides carbs.

Enjoy and bottoms up!

Wet Martini

Oh dear sweet, classic martini. We've had quite a go of it: me hating you, you getting me too drunk. They certainly have been classic times, but now we've come to the end. The wet martini is the last variation on the classic martini in my little black book. And after all the fun, I've finally come to appreciate the combination of vermouth and vodka.

A friend of mine described enjoying martinis because they taste "clean" which I laughed about at the time. Now, I have to agree - there's a purity to the taste of a martini. I think I might order this at a bar sometime.

1 1/2 ounces gin or vodka

1 1/2 ounces dry vermouth

-Stir with ice cubes and strain into chilled cocktail glass.

In other news, I just finished reading the play for which my blog is named: Long Day's Journey into Night by Eugene O'Neill. I enjoyed it, and didn't realize when I named my blog how appropriate the title would be. They drink like crazy throughout the entire thing, so I think I might have a whiskey rocks at the end of the project in acknowledgment of the namesake.

Enjoy and bottoms up!

Alabama Slammer

1 ounce Southern Comfort

1 ounce amaretto

1/2 ounce sloe gin

dash of lemon juice

-Shake and strain.

Children's cherry flavored cough syrup.

Enjoy and bottoms up!

Slow Comfortable Screw and Sloe Gin Fizz

My most recent trip to the liquor store (the one downtown that is kind of shady but easiest to get to) resulted in the purchase of two new items: Southern Comfort and Sloe Gin. SoCo I've had before, mostly in the form of SoCo and Lime shots over the summer. Is alright. Sloe gin, however, is a completely new experience. Despite the name, it's actually not gin at all but rather a liqueur made from slow berries. It looks all purply in the bottle but makes most drinks look pink. The bottle I have looks something like this:

As for the taste, it wasn't bad when I just had a tiny taste by itself. Pretty sweet and syrupy but I could imagine it tasting good when mixed with other things. Kind of like a naughty Italian Soda.

The first drink I had, the Slow Comfortable Screw, is first of all a ridiculous name for a drink and a member of that completely unhelpful category of drinks in my book: drinks with naughty names. I still don't understand how that is a useful category to a bartender. Anyway, the drink is so named because it is basically a screwdriver with Southern Comfort and sloe gin added. Cute, eh?

1 ounce vodka

3/4 ounce Southern Comfort

3/4 ounce sloe gin

4 ounces fresh orange juice

-Shake with cracked ice and strain into iced highball glass.

I found this similar to a Sex on the Beach - very fruity and girly. However, since the fruity flavor is achieved more through booze than juice in this drink, it doesn't have that freshness and lightness of SotB. It's almost too sweet like strawberry and grape soda.

The sloe gin fizz is basically another version of a collins, and is one of the few that actually tastes substantially different than the original. I found it okay, but again the sloe gin is a little too sweet for me and left me feeling that my drinking palate had developed a bit beyond sweet pink drinks with fizz.

2 ounces sloe gin

1/2 ounce fresh lemon juice

splash of simple syrup

soda water

-shake all ingredients well in cocktail shaker and strain into iced highball glass. Fill with soda water.

Enjoy and bottoms up!

Mai Tai and Piña Colada

Unfortunately I had only had blue Curaçao instead of regular, so we drank blue mai tais the other night. Blue drinks will just never seem classy, I don't care what they are called or what they contain.

In fact, the mai tai is a pretty tasty drink, and a nice choice for the nicer weather we had here on Saturday. A lot sweeter than what I am now accustomed to, but still delicious. I can only imagine how amazing these would taste in their proper environment, but those musings will have to stay in my mind until I get some cash money in my bank account.

2 ounces golden rum

1/2 ounce Curaçao

1/2 ounce orgeat (almond flavored) syrup

1/4 ounce simple syrup

juice of 1 fresh lime

-Shake in cocktail shaker and strain into old fashioned glass.

Two drinks in one post! I haven't done that in awhile, but these two happened in the same night I have very similar things to say about them. Yum, but sweeter than I usually drink. Might be making these come summertime. Yay! Recipe:

1 1/2 ounces golden rum

1 1/2 ounce coconut milk

4 ounces pineapple juice

4-5 ice cubes

-Blend it, pour it, drink it.

Enjoy and bottoms up!

Highland Cooler

I didn't necessarily do it on purpose, but the Scotch & Soda ---> Stone Fence ---> Highland Cooler progression has been very nice, especially since I wasn't all that thrilled with the first. Like the Stone Fence, the Highland Cooler adds an extra flavor to give back what the soda water dilutes. In this case, add sugar to gives back some pow to your mouth. A lovely drink for sitting and (re)-watching some TV featuring my favorite Scot. I think I might prefer the Stone Fence though. Further investigation required.

Splash of simple syrup

2 ounces Scotch

Soda water

-Add Scotch and simple syrup to an iced highball glass and fill with soda water.

Enjoy and bottoms up!

Stone Fence

Okay, this is the way to to do a Scotch and soda: just add bitters. You may remember that my scotch and soda experience was less flavorful than I had hoped. Problem solved with just a dash of bitters, giving back some of the pizzazz that the soda waters down.

1 1/2 ounces Scotch

Soda water

Dash of bitters

-Add Scotch to an iced highball glass and add soda water. Add bitters and stir.

I drank this while watching Inglorious Basterds, which was fantastic. Like way better than I thought it was going to be: I've always avoided Tarantino movies because of how violent they are, but I didn't even mind the violence. The movie was 2.5 hours and I didn't even notice despite my usual distaste for long movies.

Also, sidenote: I added an app on my computer that makes it sound like a typewriter when I type. It's only for macs, but you can get it here. I got it via the fug girls!

Enjoy and bottoms up!

Scotch and Soda

It's amazing, I'm so on top of my blogging that I'm writing this as I take my last few sips of the drink I'm posting about. A major miracle! Of course, I haven't really been drinking cocktails for over a week, so not really as impressive.

The scotch and soda is a classic, the kind of thing I would order at a bar, having never tried it, just to sound like I know what I'm talking about. But frankly, it tasted a little watered down to me, but I may have put too much ice in it. I wanted it to taste more like whiskey or else replace the lack of booze flavor with either sugar or lemon. The carbonation was nice, but the flavor just seemed a little less than the punch I've come to expect. Maybe a more expensive Scotch would've held its own against the soda? Things to consider for the rest of my drinking life.

1 1/2 ounces Scotch

Soda water

-Add Scotch to an iced highball glass and fill with soda water.

Enjoy and bottoms up!

Affinity Cocktail

Okay, so this drink happened as part of a string of drinks that involved Scotch, most of which were my own improvisations. I seem to remember enjoying it, but I was enjoying everything at that point. Cut to my drinking buddy and I playing Mariokart and talking about politics until 5AM -- it was spring forward too, so just about the worst weekend for screwing up your sleep schedule.

1 ounce Scotch

3/4 ounce dry vermouth

3/4 ounce sweet vermouth

2-3 dashes bitters

-Stir with cracked ice and strain into cocktail glass.

Enjoy and bottoms up!

Hot Spiced Cranberry Punch

I decided I needed to make this recipe before the weather got too nice and it's no longer appropriate to make warm drinks. So exciting that we're getting to that time of year! It just makes me want to be back in The City, walking down the street with the restaurants all open to the air. Perfection!

But before the warm weather loveliness, we have hot spiced cranberry punch, which tasted like mulled wine more or less. I decided to get fancy and make cranberry compote instead of canned cranberry sauce: it would have been good if I had blended it before putting it in the punch. As it was, the whole cranberries were kind of awkward in the glass, and it all turned into a sludge in the bottom of the mug at the end.

You might be wondering if I drank this whole punch myself, but I did not. I was smart enough to invite a drinking buddy. We each had a mug and played video games before moving onto other drinks. More on that later ;-)

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp allspice

3/4 tsp cloves

2 cans jellied cranberry sauce

2 cups light rum

-Bring sugar, 1 cup water, salt and spices to a boil. Blend cranberry sauce with 3 cups water and add to hot ingredients and add the pineapple juice. Add rum.

Enjoy and bottoms up!

Godfather

1 ounce scotch

1 ounce Amaretto

-Shake in cocktail shaker with cracked ice and strain into iced old fashioned glass.

If I were to have a godfather again, which doesn't sound like such a bad idea, I would half the amount of amaretto. The scotch was almost a moot point because the almond taste was too strong. It was almost a dessert drink, to be honest. But I guess that's okay, if you're into that kind of thing.

Enjoy and bottoms up!

Rob Roy

So a Rob Roy is a version of a Manhattan that substitutes Scotch whiskey for Bourbon whiskey. I don't remember liking the Manhattan, but I definitely liked the Rob Roy. It was my first experience with scotch, and I was happy. So far, my whiskey preference is as such: scotch > bourbon > Seagram's 7. Scotch is just smoother and generally delicious, although there will be more to say on this subject soon.

1 1/2 ounce Scotch

3/4 ounce sweet vermouth

Dash of bitters

-Shake with cracked ice and strain into cocktail glass.

Enjoy and bottoms up!

Pink Gin

Post #3 in blog fest evening! Sitting around re-watching episodes of 30 Rock and trying to remember what these drinks were like.

This picture makes pink gin look delicious, but really it's very similar to a martini, a fact I was aware of when I decided to have this one. Knowing my dislike of martinis, I was surprised to enjoy pink gin -- I had it with a slice of lemon, not squeezed just floating for prettiness. Really, I don't think I'm actually recommending pink gin, I was just pleasantly surprised.

2 ounces gin

Dash of bitters

-Swirl bitters in a cocktail glass until glass is coated. Add gin.

Enjoy and bottoms up!

Long Island Iced Tea

I was really expecting to be completely shit faced after drinking this one -- it's known for having a much higher alcohol concentration than most highballs. I planned this one out so that I wouldn't be hungover at work, which turned out to be completely unnecessary. I wasn't even that buzzed, let alone drunk. But I wouldn't take my experience to heart: proceed with caution when ordering this one.

As to the actual taste, it was like the booze version of a graveyard. You know, when you mix all the sodas together at the soda fountain. I used to love, love that circa middle school and I'm not really sure why. Really bizarre, inexplicable taste. I don't really even know whether to recommend or not because I was left very confused.

3/4 ounce rum

3/4 ounce gin

3/4 ounce vodka

3/4 ounce tequila

3/4 ounce triple sec

1 ounce lemon juice

Cola

-Mix all ingredients in cocktail shaker except cola. Strain into iced highball glass and fill with cola.

Enjoy and bottoms up!

Black Russian

For some reason, the first two sips I took of the black Russian tasted like soy sauce. Luckily I like soy sauce, but it's not exactly what I look for in a drink. After the first few sips, the drink was just fine, but I would prefer a white Russian or a midnight martini. Coffee flavor good, but could use the creaminess of milk or the extra yumminess of triple sec.

1 1/2 ounce vodka

3/4 ounce Kahlúa

-Shake with cracked ice and strain into iced old fashioned glass.

Enjoy and bottoms up!

Halfway Home Rankings Post

So I'm officially halfway through the drinking process, and I thought it would be a good time to do a little retrospective -- a time to summarize what I've done so far and evaluate the overall drinking experience I've had. Here are some lovely lists for those of you who like to get to the bottom line. Obviously all lists are completely subjective and refer only to the opinions of my taste buds. I also don't vouch for these lists being consistent -- I am too lazy to cross reference them.

Best Well Drinks/Cheap and Easy Bar Orders:

1. Tom Collins

2. Cape Codder (vodka cran)

3. Gin Buck

Best from the Classics Section:

1. Gimlet

2. Sidecar

3. Black Velvet

Best Drinks to make for a Party:

1. Mulled Wine (winter)

2. Champagne Punch

3. Cuba Libre

(Caveat: I haven't made that many drinks for parties)

Pleasant Surprises:

1. Black Velvet

2. Alexander

3. Dirty Martini

Best Girly Drinks:

1. Matador

2. Sex on the Beach

3. Flirtini

Best Vodka Drinks:

1. Midnight Martini

2. Vodka Gimlet

3. New Fashion/Lemon Drop (tie)

Best Rum Drinks:

1. Strawberry Daiquiri

2. Mojito

3. Cuba Libre

Best Gin Drinks:

1. Leap Year

2. Orange Blossom

3. Gin Buck

Best Whiskey Drinks:

1. Southern Style Mint Julep

2. Quickie

3. Irish Coffee

Best Drink Photos:

1. Apple Martini

2. Mint Julep

3. Crantini

Drinks most likely to make you Drunk too Quickly:

1. Quickie

2. Mint Julep

3. Tequini (plus bad hangover)

Worst Drinks:

1. Blue Hawaiian

2. Gin and It

3. Classic Martini

...and the drinks where everything came together perfectly and life was brilliant.

Overall Best Drinks:

1. Matador

2. Strawberry Daiquiri

3. Metropolitan

4. Mulled Wine

5. Mojito

6. Gimlet

7. Sidecar

8. Midnight Martini

9. Mint Julep

10. Leap Year

There you go! Enjoy and bottoms up!

Black Velvet

Oh black velvet, how cheeky of you! You sound so terrible on paper (stout beer and champagne?!) but taste so good! How'd ya do that? Also, I have to congratulate you on being my 91st drink, aka the halfway point in the project. We've come so far together!

In all honesty, I've been dreading this little baby since I first flipped through my recipe book because it just seemed like the stout would completely overpower the champagne. At that point, I was also under the impression that I wouldn't like stout, assuming it would be like a more intense version of lighter colored beer: the same flavor, but more. How can I be from the Pacific Northwest and also be so completely ignorant where beer is concerned? Stout is great: smooth, certainly no more bitter than other beers, with a far more complex flavor. Geez! I wish someone had told me sooner.

The stout I used was Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout, whose label looked something like this:

Who wouldn't want to buy that? Does my Russian stalker know what the part in Russian says? I'll be disappointed if it's just the same thing translated into Russian. Anyway, the beer was good and I drank the portion not allocated to the cocktail.

The cocktail itself tasted more like champagne than beer until the very dregs. It was just a little less sweet, more rich and smooth. A lovely companion for the evening.

1 ounce stout

3 ounces champagne

-Pour stout into champagne flute without creating much foam. Very very slowly add the champagne on top so that they separate.

Enjoy and bottoms up!

Mimosa & Bucks Fizz

The breakfast drinks of champions! Nothing beats a mimosa with bunch on a hungover Sunday morning -- although that was not the setting for me this time. They are bubbly, sweet, and go well with sweet breakfast foods like pancakes or french toast. Yummy yummy.

But, what's the difference between Bucks Fizz and Mimosa? Grand Marnier. Mimosas contain Grand Marnier, which is expensive. Frankly, I liked my Bucks Fizz better, so I don't think I would go to the trouble and the expense to make a proper mimosa.

Mimosa:

Champagne

Orange juice

Dash of Grand Marnier

-Use more champagne than orange juice to taste.

Bucks Fizz:

Champagne

Orange juice

-Use 3 parts champagne to 1 part orange juice.

Enjoy and bottoms up!

7&7

1 1/2 ounces Seagram's 7 blended whiskey

7 up soda

-Add whiskey to iced highball glass and fill with 7 up.

My father drinks a variation on the 7&7 (the CC&7 or Canadian Club and 7 up), so it makes me think of him. I think he drinks it with a lot less 7 up though because mine was very very sweet. A little to easy to get down the gullet in my opinion. Similar to a horse's neck, but less of a whiskey flavor, and I think prefer it that way to be honest.

Enjoy and bottoms up!

Mint Julep x 2

Ingredients:

4 ounces bourbon

splash of simple syrup

fresh mint sprigs

Regular mint julep:

Muddle the mint with the simple syrup at the bottom of an iced highball glass. Add bourbon and stir until glass is frost, then garnish with more mint.

Southern Style mint julep:

Add bourbon to an iced highball glass and stir until glass is frosted. Add simple syrup and fill with soda water. Add mint sprigs so that the tops extend out of the glass.

I drank these both in one night, and they sent me to bed early. You hear mint julep and you think of Southern gentility and the Kentucky derby, but it's a stiff drink. Basically pour some bourbon in a glass and stick some mint in it. For me, that means bedtime.

On another note, why didn't the regular mint julep taste at all like mint? I muddled the shit out of those sprigs, but all I tasted was bourbon in my glass. Unexpectedly, in the Southern style drink, where you are not actually consuming mint at all, you get a much better minty sensation. Because the leaves extend over the glass, you end up burying your nose in them as you take a sip. The fragrance of the mint is stronger than the taste, so the Southern style gets you a better mint experience. I loved that.

Enjoy and bottoms up!

Petit Zinc

1 ounce vodka

1/2 ounce Cointreau

1/2 ounce sweet vermouth

1/2 ounce orange juice

-Stir with cracked ice and strain into cocktail glass.

I looked at these ingredients and had such high expectations. I thought it would be like a leap year or new fashion, but it tasted more like Sunny D and vodka. The orange juice I bought (not Sunny D but also not freshly squeezed) was probably to blame, but I shouldn't have to juice my own oranges to make a decent drink. This one also wasn't very much liquid in my glass. Good because I was going out after, but bad if I were staying in and that was my one drink for the night. You can always double I suppose ;-)

Enjoy and bottoms up!

Sweet Martini

Here's an issue with my note taking process: I usually write a few thoughts down only after my first few sips of a drink, leaving the tail end of my experience completely undocumented. I do so largely because I want to have a somewhat authentic experience and not create a Hawthorne Effect by observing myself to death. All of which is just a preamble to this: I remember actually enjoying my sweet martini, but all my notes are contrary to that notion. Hmm. I think I disliked the first few sips, but got into it by the end. I distinctly remember finishing this martini completely, which is something I don't usually do.

I want to stress that this is the sweet version of the classic martini and not some pseudo martini in the modern vernacular. I did make it dirty, but with less olive brine than before. I also had a sip of a friend's martini last week in New York, and I liked it. Maybe martinis just taste better there? They also seem to lead to being sick on the subway platform, so maybe I don't need to learn to like New York martinis (Note: I was not the sick one, just to be clear).

2 ounces vodka (or gin)

3/4 ounce sweet vermouth

-Stir over ice and strain into cocktail glass.

Well, as it goes my tastes seem to be developing if only I could remember drinks when it came time to order at the bar. Doing this blog has made me a target for drink questions, and I always draw a blank. 89 unique recipes since September and you'd think I could come up with something. Not so much.

Well, enjoy and bottoms up!

John Collins

Two posts in one day! How amazing am I? Please, in lieu of flowers and gifts, just make a donation to the charity of your choice ;-)

I have to draw your attention to the John Collins photo. Let me tell you, if there were John Collinses sitting elegantly in mountain streams, I would spend a lot more time hiking. I feel like someone took a Coors commercial and photoshop a cocktail in -- taste of the Rockies and all. Ridiculous.

As to the quality of the actual drink, my ability to judge is diminished because I did some sketchy substitution. My soda water was flat, so I borrowed some of my roommate's (sorry B). Would've been fine except that hers was Pomegranate flavored, which didn't mix with the bourbon at all. For other types of Collins, I think the pom would have been fine, but the stronger flavor of whiskey was just really odd and off-putting. If not for my blunder, I'm sure this would've been a good drink just like other Collins.

2 ounces bourbon

splash of simple syrup

juice of 1/2 fresh lemon

soda water

-Add to an iced highball glass, soda water last. Stir and serve.

Enjoy and bottoms up!

Beachcomber

My version did look surprisingly similar to this picture, so hooray for me! Unfortunately, I haven't gotten the blending thing down very well yet, and nothing I make comes out with the right consistency of a blended drink. Is it me or is it my blender? The soul searching continues...

Beyond the texture, the beachcomber simply joins the ranks of drinks I don't remember very well and that I took no notes on. Too sweet? Too strong? Boring? Pretty good? No idea. I imagine it wasn't as delicious as the recipe makes it sound or I would've had clearer memories.

1 1/2 ounces light rum

1/2 ounce Cointreau

1/2 ounce lime juice

2 dases grenadine

-Blend with ice and pour into wine goblet.

Enjoy and bottoms up!

Martinez

I'm sorry to be such a cocktail failure, but all I remember about the martinez is that it tasted slightly better than I expected. I'm not even going to make anything up. I'll just pack it in and do better next time.

3/4 ounces gin

3/4 ounces dry vermouth

1/2 ounce Cointreau

Dash of bitters

-Stir with cracked ice and strain into cocktail glass.

Enjoy and bottoms up!

Delilah

I don't really remember this drink much, but my notes say it was tasty -- imagine a lemon drop with gin instead of vodka. You got it. I'm trying really hard to catch up on writing these up since I forget them very quickly. I could just start making things up perhaps? This drink tasted like a jungle safari from the early 20th century viewed from onboard a spaceship millions of miles away and hundreds years in the future (since it would take a long time for the light to travel there...) by humans who secretly developed the technology to leave earth in the 1960s and who also have super telescopes that allow them to still observe the planet they left while sipping on a futuristic cocktail made from the tears of unicorns (spoiler alert: they exist!), stardust, and yoijno (couldn't even begin to explain that one). The delilah is the closest you'll ever get to this experience, unless you happen upon the time vortex.

ANYWAY, the cointreau is a little wasted in this drink, and I don't see any reason why subbing triple sec would hinder it in any way. Save yourself the money on that one. Otherwise, the only problem you might have is sounding like a sissy ordering this one in a bar: it just sounds like a girly drink in a way that a manhattan or an old fashioned never will.

2 ounces gin

1 ounce Cointreau

1 ounce lemon juice

-Stir with cracked ice and strain into cocktail glass.

Enjoy and bottoms up!

Quickie

The drink in which I discover that I really like bourbon, a fact I'm quite pleased about for no better reason than that drinking bourbon sounds cool. Compared to other whiskey I've had, bourbon is smoother, a little less spicy, but not because it seems watered down. I'll report more when I have further experience.

I introduce bourbon because that's the dominating flavor of a quickie, a drink whose name is pretty to the point. This is one to down only if you want to be buzzed in the most immediate of futures.

1 ounce bourbon

1 ounce light rum

1/4 ounce triple sec

-Mix with cracked ice and strain into cocktail glass.

Enjoy and bottoms up!

Cosmopolitan

You have no idea how many times I started to write this post but got too bored and gave up. That's kind of where I'm at with the drink itself as well: blah blah Sex and the City blah blah New York blah blah pink yay! The bottom line: it doesn't taste so different than a crantini. Cointreau is really good, so don't waste it on this drink. Go ahead, use triple sec and save the expensive stuff for when it matters.

Honestly, I drank my cosmo easily, in my apartment, while watching some movie or other. Maybe you have to be at some New York hotspot to really appreciate the genius of the cosmo, but somehow I doubt it. Maybe when you're having as much sex as those girls did, the taste : price ratio is irrelevant. Next time, I'll save my 3/4 ounce of cointreau for a different drink and throw this one together for half the price.

2 ounce vodka

2 ounce cran juice

1 ounce lime juice

3/4 ounce cointreau

-Stir with cracked ice and strain into cocktail glass.

Enjoy and bottoms up!

Sidecar

The sidecar is a classic that I've always wanted to order, but was always a little more than I wanted to spend. If you have the money, you should definitely go for it because it's a great drink.

The sidecar was my companion the other night as I watched Jonny Depp Jack the Ripper flick "From Hell." It was a good thing I was drinking something good because the movie was not. Jonny, you're pretty to look at and a good actor, but no. Honey, no. I'm sorry, but prostitutes in Victorian London did not look like this:

Age her by 25 years, yank out some of her teeth and infect her with any number of maladies and then maybe she would look like a 19th century Whitechapel resident. Seriously.

Umm...well that was a tiny rant that had nothing to do with the booze. Here's how you can survive mediocre (I won't use the term "bad") movies too!

1 1/2 ounce cognac or brandy

3/4 ounce Cointreau

Juice 1/4 lemon

-Shake in cocktail shake and strain into cocktail glass.

Enjoy and bottoms up!

Espresso Martini

I vote that this drink needs to move to the dessert drinks chapter because it was just a cup of delicious. I didn't really get much coffee flavor, just chocolate. Boozy chocolate delicious.

1 1/2 ounce vodka

1/2 Créme de Cacao

-Stir with cracked ice and strain into cocktail glass.

I'm really starting to have a beef with the modernization of the martini, and it's not because I have any kind of fondness for the original. How does the espresso "martini" resemble the classic drink? It's served in the same glassware. Well yes, but so is the sidecar and that's not in the martini chapter. Maybe because it has vodka? There are plenty of drinks that have vodka and are not martinis. Is it the stirring instead of shaking? Nope, you stir old fashioneds and manhattans as well.

I move that it should not be a martini unless it is served in a cocktail glass, contains BOTH gin/vodka and vermouth, and is stirred. The name martini should denote something about the flavor profile, and in it's modern usage it doesn't. When I'm ordering a cocktail, I want the name to tell me something about how it's going to taste, not how it's prepared.

Tequini

Do you want to do shots of tequila while pretending to be classy? Have a tequini. There's a little bit of vermouth (that is almost completely overshadowed by the tequila), but otherwise there's not much difference between this drink and taking a swig from the bottle.

Not that this is necessarily a bad thing...I've certainly had much much much worse drinks throughout this project. The downside: I had one tequini and a glass of wine and woke up with a legit hangover the next day. I'm not one to be felled by only two drinks, but I didn't get out of bed until 11 and felt like crap for several more hours. Beware is all I'm saying. Here at LYJIA, we (I) promote functional alcoholism ;-)

1 1/2 ounce tequila

1/2 ounce dry vermouth

-Stir with cracked ice and strain into cocktail glass.

Also thanks to a new blog by my lovely friend Alex (read it!), and a potential new blog from El (who's still working out the details), I've been reinvigorated with drink project enthusiasm! (Also I had enough money to actually go to the liquor store and buy some new stuff). Get ready to hear about some fantastic new drinks, and hopefully the halfway point in the project!

Enjoy and bottoms up!

Sapphire Martini

I have a to do list for today, and I will get it done. It's not even that long or filled with distasteful things, I've just become so so so lazy. Definitely a reason I'm eager to re-enter the world of academics before my body shrivels until only my eyes, ears, hands, mouth and stomach work. Those will never atrophy because you need them to watch things on the internet and eat food. Brain? Size of a pea. Stomach? Reaching out to the outer edges of the universe and expanding along with it.

But today, today I have showered and have almost finished cleaning my room. And now I'm blogging, which has unfortunately turned into something I put on my to do list. A couple of days ago, I realized I was actually behind in my drink making. For shame. I've completed 77 recipes when I should have 80 done. It's getting tough because I need to make a trip to the liquor store but I'm trying to save money for my trip to the East Coast. At least I have three jobs now, if only I could get hours at two of them.

So all of that was basically just prelude to me not really remembering the drink that I'm supposed to be writing about. I think it was okay, much better than I thought it was going to be and certainly drinkable, but nothing to write the folks at home about. Do what you will with that. Thanks for reading my drivel to get two wishy washy sentences about the actual drink. Here's the recipe:

1 1/2 ounce Bombay Sapphire gin

1/2 ounce blue Curaçao liqueur

-Stir with cracked ice and strain into cocktail glass.

Enjoy and bottoms up!