Category: drinks

Day 67: 1492

  • 1 1/2 oz rye
  • 3/4 oz Campari
  • 3/4 oz Punt e Mes
  • 1 dash chocolate mole bitters
  • 1 dash orange bitters
  • pinch salt
  • lemon twist

When I’m not sure what to make for someone I’ve taken to asking what base liquor they want and then searching on Kindred. This came up when searching for rye and I was intrigued. I think the salt really makes this one.

Day 66: Aperol Lemonade

  • 1 1/2 oz vodka
  • 1 oz Aperol
  • 1/2 oz lemon juice
  • 1/4 oz lime juice
  • top with Sprite

Today I hosted a tea party, and several people ended up staying later for drinks. A girlfriend of mine is a big fan of vodka, so I found this recipe for her. She liked it so much she requested a second one later! I had a sip to test it, it was not as sweet as you would expect. The Aperol gives it a bit more of a grown-up taste than a typical vodka drink.

Day 64: Margarita

  • 2 oz tequila
  • 1 oz orange curaçao
  • 1 oz lime juice
  • barspoon agave nectar

Tomorrow at work we’re doing a salsa/guacamole/margarita “contest”. (Basically, we’re all going to win, because we get to have salsa/guacamole/margaritas.) I volunteered to make margaritas (obviously), so I wanted to make a test drink tonight. I already took the bottle of Cointreau in to work today, since I commute by transit and bike and carry a backpack and didn’t want too many bottles in my bag at once. So I made this one with curaçao instead. I really liked this a lot! I even enjoyed the salt rim (I never use salt rims). I hope the Cointreau tomorrow makes them even better.

Day 62: Abbey

  • 2 oz gin
  • 1 oz Lillet
  • 1 oz orange juice
  • dash Angostura

I bought some Lillet weeks ago and hadn’t opened it, so I wanted to use it for tonight’s drink. I found this recipe. I think the Citadel was too dry of a gin to use for this. The drink was piney and astringent, and I think the juice hid the Lillet too much. I might try again with a different gin.

Day 61: Corn & Oil

  • 2 1/2 oz rum
  • 1/2 oz Falernum
  • 4 dashes Angostura
  • squeeze of lime

Today William and I went to the grand opening of Isla, a new rum and tiki bar by the Péché team. I’ve been waiting for this bar to open for several months and was very excited! I was pretty much immediately in love with the place. Among the cocktails we tried was this one. It’s a great rum drink if you usually drink your rum on the rocks. The Falernum gives it some interesting sweetness and the little bit of lime gives it a fresh bite. I think this will likely be in heavy rotation at home.

Day 60: Grandma’s Ghost

  • 1 1/2 oz Mezcal
  • 3/4 oz Suze
  • 1/2 oz port

Here’s another one from a San Francisco menu. This menu has so many drinks I want to make for Dane: lots of things with Mezcal and gentian root liqueur (Suze). This was nearly undrinkable for me, but Dane immediately loved it. Very smoky and bitter, I feel like the port really only gives it a bit of color more than anything else.

Day 59: Dixie Cocktail

  • 2 oz rye
  • 1 oz orange curaçao
  • 1/2 oz simple syrup
  • 1/4 oz crème de menthe
  • dash Angostura

William was in San Francisco this week for work and brought back a bevy of new menus for me. I found this one on the Hard Water menu and got about halfway through making it before I realized I didn’t have any crème de menthe, so I just used some of a minty amaro I had. It turned out much nicer than I expected, very refreshing and boozy.