Lounging with the Scorpian, or Between the Sheets vs. Stinger

Hello and how are you doing?  What can you say about these two cocktails?  Both are made with a base of Cognac.  Both are golden in color.  Both are pre-World War II drinks.  Both are pretty average cocktails if you ask me.

C'mon IBA - give up the love!  Where are the wow drinks?!?  Where are the drinks I'll want to write about? (oh. um. nevermind)  I mean, look - these aren't horrible or anything, just not as good as I was hoping.  Maybe I'm expecting too much?

The Between the Sheets is a version of a Sidecar (spoiler alert) - I don't like Sidecars either.

Ingredients that are between the sheets - hahahaha!

Between the Sheets

1 oz. White Rum

1 oz. Cognac

1 oz. Triple Sec

0.7 oz. Fresh Lemon Juice

Pour all ingredients into shaker with ice cubes, shake, strain into chilled cocktail glass.

Moving right along to the Stinger...remember the Vodka Stinger my in-laws prepared on Christmas day that tasted like Scope?  Yeah, well this is pretty much the same only not green.  It did certainly have a stronger alcohol taste and less mint than the Vodka Stinger did, but still just not my thing.

Unassembled Stinger

Stinger

1.7 oz. Cognac

0.7 oz. Crème de Menthe (White)

Pour all ingredients into a mixing glass with ice. Stir.
Strain into a cocktail glass.

Between the Sheets and Stinger - Stinger is on the left

Okay, so I wasn't a fan of either of these, but I have to pick a winner - Between the Sheets it is [insert sounds of party horns and videos of confetti].

Winner - because the other was worse

Next challenge has to be better....doesn't it?

Ingredients

For Between the Sheets:

White Rum - Don Q Cristal

Cognac - Landy VS

Triple Sec - Cointreau

Fresh Lemon Juice

For the Stinger

Cognac - Landy VS

Crème de Menthe - DeKuyper Menthe White

Up Next - Passengers to the Republic, or Sidecar vs. Singapore Sling

Cena para desayuno, or Tommy's Margarita vs. Tequila Sunrise

Two tequila drinks in one challenge - I'm not a tequila guy, so this should be interesting.  I've never understood taking a shot of tequila - you know, salt on the hand, lick the salt, take a shot, eat a lemon wedge.  Maybe it's the brand I've always had it with (Jose Cuervo), but I've never been able to enjoy doing tequila shots.  Someone once told me to skip the salt and lemon and just chase it with a shot of tomato juice - that worked but then what was the point?

First up is Tommy's Margarita.  Who is Tommy, and why does he get his own Margarita?  I searched high and low, just for you (well okay, for me too). The deal is that this Margarita was created by Julio Bermejo whose family owns Tommy's Mexican Restaurant in San Francisco, and if you're in town and feel like tequila, this is the place to go.  Tommy was Julio's dad who passed on in 2011, and is the namesake of the drink.

Tommy's Margarita Ingredients

Tommy's Margarita

1 1/2 oz. Tequila

1/2 oz. Freshly Squeezed Lime Juice

2 Bar Spoons of Agave Nectar

Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

Tommy's Margarita

Now the Tequila Sunrise is a gorgeous looking cocktail tha....OH I JUST REMEMBERED!!!  IT NEEDS GRENADINE!!!  Man oh man!!!  Remember when I said that I let myself down because I used the bottled stuff and I said that the next time I'd be making grenadine?  Well this is the next time!  Aren't you excited?!?!?!?  Woo hoo!!!

Ready?  Here we we go:

Ingredients

Grenadine

1 Cup Granulated Sugar

1 Cup Freshly Squeezed Pomegranate Juice

1/4 Teaspoon Freshly Squeezed Lemon Juice

2 to 3 Drops Orange-Flower Water

1. Heat pomegranate juice in a small saucepan over medium heat until steam rises from the surface and a few bubbles have formed around the perimeter of the pan, about 5 minutes. (Do not boil.) Remove from heat.
2. Add sugar and stir until it has dissolved and the liquid is no longer cloudy, about 5 minutes.
3. Stir in lemon juice and orange-flower water and let the syrup cool to room temperature, about 40 minutes. 
4. Transfer to a container with a tightfitting lid and refrigerate for up to 1 month.

The above was borrowed stolen from Chow.com - awesome site if you have a chance.

Clear - kinda

Cooling

So the Tequila Sunrise has been around for a while, in two versions - the one the IBA uses was introduced sometime between 1930 - 1940 and it is fantastic!

Tequila, Orange, and Grenadine

Tequila Sunrise

1 1/2 oz. Tequila

3 oz. Orange Juice

1/2 oz. Grenadine

Pour tequila and orange juice directly into highball with ice cubes.

Add a splash of grenadine to create chromatic effect (sunrise), do not stir.

Garnish with orange slice and cherry.

Tequila Sunrise

Wow this was tough deciding which one I liked better.  Tommy's Margarita has it's charms, but the Tequila Sunrise is so good that I just couldn't eliminate it.  So what could I do?

Well...if it can be done on American Idol, gosh-darn-it, it can be done on Drinking the IBA - both drinks are moving on to the next round!  Don't tell Simon I'm using his idea.

To keep things even, I had to decide on a drink to drop - that was fairly easy - the White Lady was gone.  No tears spilled over that one!

The Winners!

Now - if I could only remember where I left that worm...

The Ingredients

For Tommy's Margarita:

Tequila - Espolon Reposado Tequila

Freshly Squeezed Lime Juice

Agave Nectar - Madhava 

For the Tequila Sunrise:

Tequila - Espolon Reposado Tequila

Freshly Squeezed Orange Juice

Homemade Grenadine

Up Next - Lounging with the Scorpian, or Between the Sheets vs. Stinger

Side Trip #3 - Christmas Day at Dave's

Christmas Day!  Presents under the tree!  Aunt Judy passed out under the tree!

So this year, my mother-in-law was in charge of the cocktails.  She is usually a fantastic chef, so I was excited to see what she would come up with.

The first cocktail was something she called a Santa Stinger which had equal parts green crème de menthe and vodka.  My father in law mixed the drinks and we all started to sample them.

"This is terrible!" yelled my dad - we all turned to look at him and figured out that he was talking about Fred Claus that was playing on TV and not the cocktail - although, he could have been talking about either.

The Green Monster

My wife thought it tasted like Scope.  I'm not sure when she tried imbibing Scope, but it being Christmas and all, I thought I'd let that one slide and decided to ask her in the new year.  No one cared for this drink at all.  My mother-in-law confessed that its name actually wasn't a Santa Stinger, but a Vodka Stinger.  Upon further research, I found that a Vodka Stinger uses clear Crème de Menthe, so perhaps Mom DID come up with a new drink by using the green Crème de Menthe after all!  All - err - um - Scope - ... tasting - and everyth-...yeah, nevermind.....

The Orange Thrill!

 The next drink that she made was fantastic!  It's called an Orange Thrill and it was made with 3/4 parts Vanilla Liqueur, 3/4 parts Vodka, and 5 parts Orange Juice.  You really couldn't taste the alcohol in it, so it could really catch up on you.  We were verrrrry careful with this one!  I couldn't find any information on this cocktail, except on the DeKuyper website.

The next day, the next family meal.  It was my turn to come up with the dessert cocktail.  I decided to split the cocktail into three smaller ones - the Grasshopper, Brandy Alexander, and Pink Squirrel.  To my surprise, the Pink Squirrel was everyone's favorite - everything else tasted too boozy.  Personally, I'm still trying to decide which one's my favorite.

My son's hat keeping watch over the drinks

The Pepto-Bismol looking drink is actually the winning Pink Squirrel

Anyway, I hope you had a great Christmas, and a cool New Year's Eve!

Up Next - Cena para desayuno, or Tommy's Margarita vs. Tequila Sunrise