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!