Happy father’s day to all dads, especially mine who his always working hard to make us happy! My dad isn’t a cocktail enthusiast. He likes the occasional wine glass in special occasions but that’s about it.
Like you know if you’re used to read this blog, I love cocktails, and it’s my first Father’s day this year! I’m the proud father of a beautiful 6 months-old baby girl. Since my little Daphnée is too young to handle a shaker and spirits, I will have to prepare my own Father’s day cocktail on her behalf. 😀
My all-time favorite old-fashioned cocktail is the Manhattan. I never get tired of its fine and intricate taste. And what a beautiful drink, classy! There is also something magical about the Manhattan. When you’re holding one, you’ll feel like you’re always correct, and you are, trust me. 😉
The Manhattan
2 part Rye Whiskey
1/2 part Sweet Red Vermouth
2-3 dashes of Angostura Bitters
Maraschino Cherry for garnish
Ice
Pour the ingredients into a mixing glass with ice cubes and stir well. Personally, I prefer to do it in a shaker, it’s manlier ;). Strain into a chilled cocktail glass and add a maraschino cherry.
My fiancée and I are currently enjoying L.A. Noire for Xbox 360. It is pretty good: the characters are interesting, the story is well written and has intrigue, it’s full of clichés that had to be there. The gameplay is simple but solid: interview suspects, collect clues, drive around L.A. and shoot bad guys. It reminds me of old point and click adventures, which is a good thing!
The cocktail for today actually comes from the game. Without spoiling anything for you, at some point there is a clue, a bar tab, with classic cocktails of the time (mostly whiskey based ;)). One of them is a classic I never had the chance to try: the Gin Rickey. It is incredibly refreshing! If you like Gin tonics, you are going to love this one!
Gin Rickey
2 parts Gin
1 part Lime juice
Carbonated Water
Lime wedge for garnish
Crushed Ice
This cocktail is prepared directly in a short glass. Pour the gin and the lime juice on the crushed ice and fill the rest with carbonated water. Stir gently and add a lime wedge for garnish.
See! Pretty simple! Make yourself one for your next L.A. Noire case and enjoy! 🙂
Last Friday there was a nice surprise waiting for me at home. My fiancée prepared me a drink I had never tried before, the Bamboo. It reminded me of a martini but with a serious aromatic punch.
This drink gets its strong aromatic taste from the Sherry and the Angostura that will please martini drinkers. I recommend it has an original alternative to it. Here is the recipe:
Bamboo
1 part Vermouth
1 part Sherry
A dash of Angostura
Ice
Mix all the ingredients and the ice in a shaker and shake well. Strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a jumbo olive.
We are big fans of Daiquiris at home. It reminds us of summer parties with friends and holidays abroad. We’ve tried a lot of different recipes for the classic, strawberry, mango or other daiquiris, but the following one is definitely my favourite of the bunch…yet.
There are a lot of recipes and tweaks out there on how to make a strawberry-kiwi daiquiri. This is my take on this fabulous drink:
Strawberry-Kiwi Daiquiri
Crushed Ice
1 Skinned Kiwi
6 average sized frozen Strawberries
2 ounces of Coconut flavoured Rum
1/4 ounce of Lime Juice
1/4 ounce of Lemon Juice
1 tsp Simple Syrup (or more!)
Remove strawberries’ stem and skin the kiwi. Put the crushed ice, the frozen strawberries, the kiwi, the alcohol, the lime and lemon juice, along with the simple syrup in a blender. Blend until smooth and serve in the cocktail glass of your choice (I prefer a margarita glass). For a perfect finish, garnish with a fresh strawberry.
Note that you can substitute the coconut flavoured rum by white rum. Depending on the sweetness of your fruits, and on your personal taste, you can put less or more simple syrup. If you don’t have simple syrup, use icing sugar or make some syrup! 🙂
Valentine’s day is coming, and without any doubt, you should be prepared with awesome drinks for your special someone. For the occasion, I’ve decided to risk it and try drinks out of the ordinary. Here are three recipes that I have tried along with my appreciation of each.
Agave Kiss
2 part Tequilla Silver
1 part white crème de cacao
1 part double cream
1/2 part Chambord
White chocolate flake for rimming
Raspberries for garnish
Grate some white chocolate and rim a martini glass with it. To moisten the rim, you can use white crème the cacao to enhance the taste. Pour the tequilla, white crème de cacao, cream and Chambord in a shaker filled with ice and shake well. Strain in the rimmed glass and garnish with fresh raspberries.
Note that you can substitute the silver tequilla for gold tequilla if you want a touch of caramel taste. For the crème the cacao, be sure to use the white variety or your drink will have a nasty brown color instead of pink. If you don’t know what Chambord is, it’s a black raspberry liqueur that should definitely be in your bar! The smell, taste and colour are great to experiment with and quite unique.
Appreciation
This desert drink will appeal to tequilla lovers for sure. It is creamy and “chocolaty” but the tequilla flavor comes out strong and was a bit much for my taste. personally, I would change the Tequilla for a more neutral alcohol and enjoy the Chambord/Chocolate taste instead. Next…
Amarula & Eve
1 1/2 part Amarula Cream
1/2 part citrus vodka
2 1/2 part Lychee juice
3/4 part Pink grapefruit juice
Lychee fruit for garnish
Pour ingredients in a shaker filled with ice and shake vigorously. Strain into a coupe glass and garnish with a lychee fruit on the rim. As you can see in the photo, I used a strawberry instead of a Lychee because, believe it or not, I am allergic to the thing. I had to substitute the lychee juice by more grapefruit juice.
Appreciation
I quite enjoyed this one, it’s creamy and smooth but not too much. It has a nice distinctive fruit taste that balance the amarula. In my case I couldn’t try it with the lychee juice which made my drink tart. You can always add simple syrup to make it sweeter to your taste.
B&S Champagne
Chilled champagne or Sparkling wine
2 dashes of blackcurrant liqueur
1 big Strawberry
Put a big strawberry in a champagne flute and then fill it with chilled champagne (or sparkling white wine). Add two dashes of blackcurrant liqueur and serve.
Appreciation
This super simple cocktail was the best out of the three in my opinion. As a bonus, you can easily drink 12 ;P. The blackcurrant liqueur adds a nice touch to the sparkling wine and is enough to make it original for this special day. Since it’s not as sweet as the other 2 drinks, you can enjoy it with chocolate covered strawberries.
The Bosstopus 