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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

Dry Martini/Dirty Martini

Finally! A way to have a martini that isn't completely awful! I decided since I have several versions of a basic martini left to do (they just have different ratios of gin/vodka to vermouth), I would try some of the variations that they list that aren't part of my required drinking. This strategy was effective, so go me!

A dirty martini is just a regular martini with a bit of olive brine splashed in. I used more than a splash of brine because I really didn't want to taste much martini. It sounds like a weird combo, but the brine mostly just makes it less strong tasting and a little bit salty. Not a drink I would really care to order at a bar and pay $6 for, but I drank most of it and didn't have to make a face with every sip. So there you go, my recommendation if you have to have a basic martini is to get a dirty martini.

Dry Martini:

2 1/2 ounces gin

1/3 ounce dry vermouth

-Stir with ice cubes and strain into cocktail glass.

For Dirty Martini:

add up to 1/2 ounce olive brine.

Enjoy and bottoms up!

Leap Year

Ah finally! A good way to do the martini! I really enjoyed this one, and if you can get your hands on some Grand Marnier, I highly recommend it.

Unlike the apple martini or crantini, this one still maintains the basic ingredients of a martini: gin and vermouth. However, it adds Grand Marnier and a little bit of lemon, which makes absolutely all the difference. It's still a strong drink, but there's enough sweet and tart to make up for the bitter and herby.

1 1/2 ounces gin

1/2 ounce sweet vermouth

1/2 ounce Grand Marnier

Squeeze of lemon juice

-Stir over cracked ice and strain into cocktail glass.

In other news, I had a lovely night out! I went with some people to the First Friday Art walk and watch some short documentaries made by local filmmakers. Afterward, we went to Cafe Perugino and split a bottle of pinor noir while having a nice chat about books, movies, and commercials. Then off to the Speakeasy for beer, food and dancing to local music. All that and I was home before midnight!

Enjoy and bottoms up!

Alexander

I chose to have an Alexander the other night, in a sort of "eat your peas before you can have dessert" way, before the more famous Brandy Alexander. I thought it was going to be terrible. I thought I was going to suffer greatly in consuming it, but it actually turned out to be okay. A bit strange, but not unpleasant.

An Alexander is a dessert drink that contains gin, cream (milk or soymilk), and créme de cacao. The gin made me nervous, but I went for it and enjoyed myself. It's a bit like when they put basil or lavender in a dessert in that there is an herby quality that precedes the sweet taste. I feel like it would be really easy to get the measurements wrong on this one and push it too far in either the sweet or herby direction, but it was quite nice.

1 ounce gin

1 ounce cream

1 ounce créme de cacao

-Shake with cracked ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

Enjoy and bottoms up!

Gin and It

I drank this "cousin" of the martini (more like identical twin, I'd say) with a few of my friends, and it was variously described as tasting like "cough medicine" "herby" and "something you might clean floors with." Apt on all counts.

One of us only kept drinking it because she would forget how awful it tasted and go in for another. By the end, I didn't totally hate it, but I'm pretty sure that's just because my taste buds were drunk and making poor decisions. Here's what you do:

1 1/2 ounce gin

1 1/2 ounce sweet vermouth

-Stir over cracked ice and strain into cocktail glass. Add dash of bitters if desired.

In other news, I got glassware for Christmas! As well as some additional bottles for my bar, including small bottles of cognac and Grand Marnier and larger bottles of lemon vodka and amaretto!

Enjoy and bottoms up!

Medium Martini

Ugh, it's official: I don't like martinis. Vodka martinis are only marginally offensive, but proper gin martinis are terrible. I don't know why anyone would choose to drink this if it weren't part of a year-long cocktail project.

I had this one after watching the Ducks beat the Beavers to go to the Rose Bowl!!! I was also celebrating my first day of training for my new job!! However, every time I took a sip, I made a reflexive "ick" face and it left a really bad taste in the back of my throat. I still have several versions of the classic martini to go, and I'm not particularly looking forward to it.

What I am looking forward to: people coming back for winter break! First up? Game night at my parents' house among their Christmas decor!

2 ounces gin

1/2 ounce dry vermouth

1/2 ounce sweet vermouth

-Stir over cracked ice and strain into cocktail glass.

Enjoy and bottoms up!

Gin Buck

Oh, yesterday! I was in a really mopey mood so I spent the whole day sitting around watching Ally McBeal and eating massive quantities of food (chocolate chips out of the bag). It was also family portrait day, so I went over to the padres' house for a bit: I'm expecting some new entries for Awkward Family Photo. After all that, I came home, did some reading, and watched Popular, the teen melodrama that puts all others to shame. I was drinking this bit of yummy while we watched.

It was good, but I put a little too much lemon in. It was fine in the beginning, but by the end, I was making strange noises after each sip. The sad thing is, I've been living alone for so long that I made these noises without noticing or explaining, despite my roommate's presence. Sigh, oh me. Here's to learning what it's like to be around people again!

1 1/2 ounce gin

ginger ale

lemon juice

-Add gin to an iced highball glass, fill with ginger ale and add a splash of lemon juice.

Enjoy and bottoms up!

Tom Collins

Taking a break from reading from class ("Inferior temporal neurons show greater sensitivity to nonaccidental than to metric shape differences" don't ask me what that means), I'll write up a drink that has been in the subtext of several other entries. But first, the all important back story ;-)

Yesterday was a day of productivity: I submitted my Penn application and got Columbia ready but couldn't quite press the button yet. I ran and cleaned my room. Go me! On an unrelated gripe that suddenly hit me, what's happened to netflix?! Everything used to always be available, but suddenly quite a few things are on short waits and even a few on long or very long waits. Has anyone else experienced this? Boo.

Okay, so that was more of an outburst than a back story, but I'm a little all over the place right now. To continue my emphasis on pairings, I will tell you that a Tom Collins is alright with ramen, but not great. I should say, I always eat Top Ramen Oriental Flavor because it's vegan, s that's what I will always be referring to when I talk ramen.

The Tom Collins is also a drink that I have frequently when I go out to bars. I first heard of it through lovely Lesley as it was her drink of choice after doing some cocktail research. I didn't like them at first, but now I've come around and they always remind me of her ;-) Here's how you can become nostalgic as well:

2 ounces gin

splash of simple syrup

juice of 1/2 a lemon

soda water

-Combine simple syrup and lemon in an iced highball glass. Add gin and fill with soda water.

Enjoy and bottoms up!

Gin Rickey

If you know what a gin rickey is, and you've been reading my blog, you probably can guess that I would like it. I love lime. I love soda water. I actually even love gin these days. It's another in a line of really refreshing but also really generic cocktails. Not so much different than a collins really, but still good. I can picture drinking this one outside on a hot day. Here's how it goes:

1 1/2 ounce gin

1/2 ounce lime juice

soda water

-Put gin and lime in iced highball glass, fill with soda water.

After having a few sips, I decided to do a bit of very amateur mixology to make it a little more exciting. I add just a splash of peach schnapps, and it was a nice little something extra. Add a little more interest to the situation. If you, like me, only have poor quality peach schnapps, I would be very very careful to only add a splash.

Enjoy and bottoms up!

Saketini

This wasn't only my first saketini, it was my first time trying sake! I don't really know that much about sake, only that it's a rice wine from Japan. I went with the one that had the cutest bottle, haha. It went something like this:

The smell of it reminded me of beer at first, like halfway between between white wine and beer. It's really nice actually and am drinking it alone right now. In combination with the gin, it mostly tasted like the gin, but with a little smoother element. The sake takes away some of the alcohol's bite while leaving the spiciness. Pretty good.

1 1/2 ounce gin

1/4 ounce sake

-Stir over cracked ice and strain into cocktail glass.

Enjoy and bottoms up!

Orange Blossom

So, do you remember that time I made a screwdriver? Do you remember how I fresh squeezed the orange juice to make it extra spectacular but how it turned out really bland and unremarkable? Well, that didn't happen this time! I squeezed my own orange juice from valencia oranges at Market of Choice and there were fireworks!

This is still a pretty basic drink, but you can never underestimate the power of a simple drink made well, and I think I did it this time! Here's how you can too!

2 ounces gin

1 1/2 ounce orange juice

splash of simple syrup

-Stir with cracked ice and pour into chilled cocktail glass.

Enjoy and bottoms up!

Cranberry Collins

Really crazypants busy this week, so here's the gist: thumbs up. Good drink. Recipe:

1 1/2 ounce gin

1/2 ounce cranberry juice

1 ounce lime juice

Club soda

-Mix first three ingredient in highball glass with cracked ice. Fill with soda.

Enjoy and bottoms up!

Martini Royale

Part II of my Halloween drinking shenanigans: a martini with gin and champagne. Now, I haven't yet had a classic gin martini (only vodka martinis), so I can't specifically speak to how this version departs from the classic in flavor. I will say that I couldn't taste the champagne too much and it tasted almost entirely of gin for me; however, I have learned to like gin quite a bit making this one a nice experience. Strong though.

2 ounces gin

champagne

-Pour gin in cocktail glass and fill with champagne.

Stay tuned tomorrow for a third installment of Halloween drinking! I will be making the big reveal as to what my costume was! (For those of you who don't know already)

Enjoy and bottoms up!

Pegu Club Cocktail

A cocktail that surprised me! The first two sips, I was very unsure: I was leaning toward dislike. With the third sip, I was sold. Because it contains lime, I was expected that flavor to be stronger, but it was really the gin and bitters that I tasted. The triple sec just made it a little smoother I think. I will say that this is definitely a strong drink -- I felt it after only a few sips --not for the faint of heart.

1 1/2 ounce gin

3/4 ounce triple sec (curacao works too and cointreau is great if you can get it)

1/3 ounce lime juice

2 dashes of bitters

-Stir w/cracked ice and strain into cocktail glass.

Enjoy and bottoms up!