Bushes for the Ghost, or Bramble vs. Bloody Mary

A bramble, by any other name, would be bush, boscage, dingle, undergrowth, etc.  Bloody Mary, well....do you remember hearing, when you were a kid, that if you starred into a mirror in a dark room and uttered a name over and over and over and over, that you'd see a ghost?  Remember what that name was?  Bloody Mary?  Well maybe for you it was, but for me, it was actually Lois Klinderbërgen.  If you'd say her name over and over and over and over, she would appear in the mirror holding a half eaten pear tart...but!   Get ready for it...she had eaten all of the ice cream!!!  I know, horrifying, right?!?!?  Especially for a wee child of 11 or 12 years of age with a voracious appetite for dairy.

Hmm...maybe I'm putting too much energy into the titles...

Okay...the bramble - why haven't I heard of this before?  It's basically a gin sour with a little bit of crème de mure in it.  It's fantastic!  I'm surprised that I haven't seen it on more restaurant menus.  Do yourself a favor and try this!

Bramble ingredients (simple syrup in an old Elmer T. Lee bottle)

Bramble

1.4 oz. Gin

0.5 oz. Fresh Lemon Juice

0.3 oz. Simple Syrup

0.5 oz. Crème de Mure (Blackberry Liqueur)

Build over crushed ice, in a rock glass.
Stir, then pour the blackberry liqueur over the top of the drink in a circular fashion.
Garnish with a lemon slice, and two blackberries.

Bloody Mary and the Bramble

And now onto the Bloody Mary.  I'm not sure what it is about tomato juice based drinks, but I just don't like them...nothing personal against tomatoes...I like them...just not with alcohol.  So we have an easy winner with the Bramble in this match (my apologies to vegetables everywhere).

Bloody Mary ingredients

Bloody Mary

1.5 oz. Vodka

3 oz. Tomato Juice

0.5 oz. Lemon Juice

2 to 3 dashes of Worcestershire Sauce

Tabasco

Celery salt

Pepper

Stir gently, pour all ingredients into highball glass. Garnish with celery and lemon wedge (optional). 

 Again, the clear winner is the Bramble - an excellent cocktail - if you have a chance, give it a try!

Bramble - the winner!

The Ingredients

For the Bramble:

Gin - Citadelle

Freshly Squeezed Lemon Juice

Homemade Simple Syrup

Blackberry Liqueur - Drillaud

For the Bloody Mary:

Vodka - Prairie Organic Vodka

Tomato Juice - Campbell's

Freshly Squeezed Lemon Juice

Worcestershire Sauce - Store Brand

Tabasco Sauce - starring as itself

Celery Salt - McCormick

Pepper

Up Next - Side Trip #4 - Gin & Tonic vs. Cuba Libra

Passengers to the Republic, or Sidecar vs. Singapore Sling

Passengers to the Republic - wasn't that a movie with Jimmy Stewart?  No?  What am I thinking of?  Hmm...

Okay, so you know from the last match that the Sidecar loses by default.  Sorry - I just don't like Sidecars.  I know there are the cocktail elite out there that have probably discounted my blog because I said this (wait - haha - they probably did that the first time they read my blog - hahaha), but it's just too bitter for me.  So here's the recipe:

Sidecar

1.7 oz. Cognac

0.7 oz. Triple Sec

0.7 oz. Lemon Juice

Pour all ingredients into cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake well and strain into cocktail glass.

Sidecar Ingredients

Now with that all behind us, this next cocktail is a real treat. This is why I started the blog.  The Singapore Sling is a perfectly balanced drink - nothing over powers anything else in it.  Not too much alcohol, not too much fruit juice - everything is balanced.  What I don't know is why mine wasn't quite as red as ones I've seen in pictures.  If anyone has a suggestion, leave a comment.

Singapore Sling

1 oz. Gin

0.5 oz. Cherry Liqueur

0.25 oz. Cointreau

0.25 oz. DOM Bénédictine

4 oz. Pineapple Juice

0.5 oz. Lime Juice

0.3 oz. Grenadine

1 dash Angostura Bitters

Pour all ingredients into cocktail shaker filled with ice cubes. Shake well.
Strain into highball glass.
Garnish with pineapple and cocktail cherry.

Singapore Sling Things

The drink calls for pineapple juice.  I don't have a juicer, but I read online that you can juice a pineapple with a blender, so I assembled everything together, and got to blendin'.  It worked great! 

Pineapple

Pineapple in a blender

Pineapple through a sieve to separate the solids from the juice (an incredibly lengthy process)

Pineapple through the sieve, in the process of yielding about six ounces

 It took me about an hour to juice 1 pineapple, and yielded about 6 ounces, but yes, you definitely, and without a doubt, can juice a pineapple with your blender.  Will I ever do it again?  Absolutely not!

Pineapple on the edge

Winner!

 

The obvious winner is the Singapore Sling!  I would order (and have since) ordered this in a club.  A friend of mine ordered it, and the bartender used Maraschino instead of Cherry Liqueur - BIG difference!

By the way, did you get the title reference?  Singapore is a Republic unto itself - I didn't know that until I did this blog - look at me learning and everything!

Ingredients

For the Sidecar

Cognac - Landy VS

Triple Sec - Cointreau

Freshly Squeezed Lemon Juice

For the Singapore Sling

Gin - Citadelle

Cherry Liqueur - Luxardo Cherry Liqueur

Cointreau - starring as itself

D.O.M. Bénédictine - starring as itself

Freshly Blended Pineapple Juice

Freshly Squeezed Lime Juice

Homemade Grenadine

Up Next - Bushes for the Ghost, or Bramble vs. Bloody Mary

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

Coffee in Venice, or Black Russian vs. Spritz Veneziano

♪ I'm beginning to drink a lot like Christmas ♫

Oh, hello everyone!  I thought this entry would be pretty straight forward - I only like coffee flavor in coffee - not desserts, ice cream, or liquors, and I enjoy most orange flavored everything (except orange flavored tofu - don't even get me started), so I'm thinking that the Black Russian would lose, and the Spritz Veneziano would win with little problem.

The Black Russian is made with vodka and coffee liqueur.  Kahlua is often used as the coffee liqueur for this, but I decided to go a different route.

Two parts of the Black Russian

Black Russian

1.7 oz. Vodka

0.7 oz. Coffee Liqueur

Pour the ingredients into the old fashioned-glass filled with ice cubes.
Stir gently.

Next at bat was the Spritz Veneziano or, as my research would show, the Aperol Spritz.  Aperol is the little brother of Campari.  You all know how much I love Campari, so I was a little nervous about this even though it wasn't supposed to be as strong a flavor as Campari.

Spritz Veneziano Ingredients

Spritz Veneziano

2 oz. Prosecco

1.4 oz. Aperol

Splash of Soda Water

Build into an old-fashioned glass filled with ice.
Top with a splash of soda water.
Garnish with half orange slice. 

The Tasting

I was amazed how much I liked the Black Russian - again, I really dislike coffee flavor in anything other than coffee, so this really surprised me.  It was, really, almost like a dessert.  The sweetness of the coffee liqueur came through nicely - I think more than 0.7 oz. would be too much.  

Side by side cocktails

I loved the taste of the Spritz Veneziano while it was in my mouth - sweet, orangey, light.  Here's the problem; when I swallowed it, it was like swallowing tobacco.  That was wet.  Because it had already been chewed.  By this guy:

Yeah, so I'm not so sure how Aperol tastes really great before swallowing, but horrid after, but it freaks me out, so the winner in this post, to my utter surprise is the Black Russian!

Black Russian Winner!

As a side note; I tried Kahlua as the coffee liqueur as well - it had that alcohol "bite" that I write about and dislike so much.  The Café Granita was so much smoother, and sweeter.  It also had a "bigger" mouth feel too if that makes sense...try it yourself, and you'll see what I mean.

Have a fantastic Christmas everyone!!!

The Ingredients

For the Black Russian:

Vodka - Prairie Organic Vodka

Coffee Liqueur - Café Granita Coffee Liqueur

For the Spritz Veneziano:

Prosecco - Riondo Prosecco

Aperol - Aperol Aperitivo

Soda Water - Canada Dry

Up Next -  Side Trip #3 - Christmas Day at Dave's

Fishing in Sicily, or Barracuda vs. Bellini

 Riiiight?  So you get the fishing reference but what about the Sicily one? I thought I was so clever! Vincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini was an Opera composer in the 1800's from...Sicily!!!  Ha-HA-hahaha!  The drink wasn't named after him, but a toga on a saint in a painting done by 15th-century artist Giovanni Bellini. Thought I'd throw a curve ball in there.

I wasn't sure how the Barracuda was going to be - the Galliano intimidated me - I think that was one of the main reasons why I disliked the Yellow Bird so much, so I was a little apprehensive to try it.

The Uncaptured Barracuda (get it?  It doesn't have a glass around it...aww...nevermind...)

Barracuda

1.5 oz. Gold Rum

0.5 oz. Galliano

6 oz. Pineapple Juice

1 dash Fresh Lime Juice

Top with Prosecco

Stir all ingredients except Prosecco with ice in a mixing glass.  

Strain into a chilled cocktail glass and top with Prosecco.

Now onto the Bellini - did you know how it was named?  Oh yeah.  This was truly a great tasting cocktail - I really enjoyed it. - great great tasting cocktail.

The Two Parts of the Bellini

Bellini

3.4 oz. Prosecco

1.7 Fresh Peach Puree

Pour peach puree into chilled glass and add sparkling wine. Stir gently.

The Tasting

My Barracuda fears were unfounded - this was a great drink...a little heavy for me, but overall, a really good drink.  The Bellini was a fantastic tasting drink.  I just couldn't get past the mouth feel of the peach puree.  It was really thick, and stuck around for a while - hey...kind of like my wife's meat loaf....ummm....only in a bad way....(nice save Dave - I don't think she reads this blog anyway so...hmm...note to self - remember to delete this and put something more clever in later...just.in.case...)

The Challengers

The recipe does say to use fresh puree, but it's December so it's obviously unavailable - I'd like to revisit it sometime with fresh puree, but the Bellini won't be moving onto Round Two, so the winner for this match is the Barracuda!

Barracuda

The Ingredients
For the Barracuda:
Gold Rum - Pusser's British Blue Label Rum
Galliano - Itself
Pineapple Juice - Dole (I know I always said to use fresh, but I don't have a juicer yet - stay tuned)
Fresh Lime
Prosecco - Riondo Prosecco

For the Bellini:
Prosecco - Riondo Prosecco
Peach Puree - Finest Call Peach Puree

Up Next - Coffee in Venice, or Black Russian vs. Spritz Veneziano