Tag: lime

Day 20: Teardrop Lock & Load

  • 2 oz genever
  • 1 oz pineapple juice
  • 1 oz Bénédictine
  • juice of one lime
  • 2 dashes Angostura

Teardrop is a beautiful bar in Portland, a short walk from my Air BnB when I was visiting for a work conference last year. I watched a bunch of business people order Piña Coladas, which was somehow very satisfying to me.

This is the first time I’ve made this one. The description in the menu is “earthy & cooling, with a tropical bounce”. Mine was off the mark but I could see where it was going. Their recipe uses pineapple gomme and I don’t have any gum arabic just lying around the house, so I just used some pineapple juice instead. To make up for the missing sweetness I upped the amount of Bénédictine I would normally use. Looking at it now I might have been better off adding some extra simple instead. This turned out a bit too earthy. I’d like to try making my own gomme syrups at home, and use less genever next time.

Day 19: Daiquiri

  • 2 oz rum
  • juice of one lime
  • 1/4 oz simple syrup

I’m back home after the burn and I’m exhausted, a little sick, and sunburnt, so the last thing I wanted to do was make a complicated cocktail. I have about a dozen limes at the house so I immediately thought of a daiquiri. The white rum I used is kind of astringent. I might try a nice dark rum next time for a bit of a sweeter finish.

Day 17: Garage Voce Sabe?

  • 2 oz Cachaça
  • 3/4 oz lime
  • 1/2 oz grapefruit
  • 1/2 oz Becherovka

I have had this bottle of Cachaça for several years. I had a Caipirinha in Key West and wanted to replicate it. I have not thus far successfully made a Caipirinha at home that I’ve liked, and I don’t know if the problem is this brand of Cachaça or what. It’s a strange liquor, very grassy and also kind of cloying, but it worked pretty well in this. The actual recipe calls for a barrel-aged Cachaça, which might cut the fresh notes down a lot. I guess this is almost a Daiquiri variant.

I got a new channel knife as you might be able to tell by my ridiculous garnish. It works VERY WELL. I’m glad to know that I wasn’t just incompetent at making twists and that I am able to do so with a good tool.

Day 15: Death & Co The Gift Shop

  • 2 oz white rum
  • 3/4 oz lime juice
  • 3/4 oz simple
  • 1/2 oz Cynar
  • 1 dash Angostura
  • cucumber slices

Muddle cucumber slices, then shake over ice with all ingredients. Strain into a rocks glass and garnish with another cucumber slice.

Wait. Have I somehow made it a full two weeks without a rum drink? Tonight we fix that. Here’s another from the Death & Co book, and yet another reason for me to practice my shaking. (I am extra terrible at shaking drinks.) The recipe calls for Cardamaro, which of course I didn’t have. I was reading up on it and as soon as I saw “artichoke” I thought: CYNAR! LET’S DO THIS.

This reminds me a lot of a Pimm’s Cup. I’m also starting to get over my fear of heavy-handed simple syrup use after these last two drinks. Generally I only use one or two barspoons of syrup because I don’t want my sweet tooth to oversweeten drinks for other people, but both of these drinks were well-balanced. I will definitely start playing with more syrups in addition to the heavily-boozy cocktails I often make.

Day 14: Death & Co The Risk Pool

  • 2 oz gin
  • 3/4 oz lime juice
  • 3/4 oz simple syrup
  • 1/2 oz grapefruit juice
  • 1/4 oz Creme de Violette

William and I were running some errands to pick up supplies for Freezerburn this evening when I realized that I hadn’t done my drink for the day yet. Since he’s being a good sport and helping me out I wanted to make him something. He asked for a gin drink, so I flipped through the Death & Co book (yeah, you’ll be seeing a lot of recipes from there for a while) and found one where I had all the ingredients.

Their recipe calls for Old Tom gin, which I didn’t have, so I substituted Citadel. Presumably that makes for a bit of a drier drink than specified. I also initially balked at the amount of simple used here, but after trying it I am sold. This was so good I almost stole it from William! I love Aviations but haven’t had many lately, and this was a damn good variation on that theme. I really think the large amount of simple toned down the bitter/tart of the grapefruit, and the lime calms the floral of the Violette. I can see this becoming a standby for me.

Day 11: Tequila Sunrise

  • 2 oz blanco tequila
  • 1 barspoon creme de cassis
  • juice of half a lime
  • 1/4 oz grenadine
  • top with club soda

I came across this the other day when looking for tequila drinks, the first of which was Day 6. I was super surprised by this recipe, since I thought that sunrises were just tequila, orange juice, and grenadine. I thought it looked interesting enough to try. I added more club soda than they specified because it would have been a short drink in a tall glass otherwise.

This seems like a good drink for a hot day. It was fairly sweet, so next time I make it I’ll add more lime and decrease the grenadine.

Day 6: Devil’s Garden

  • 2 oz reposado tequila
  • 1/2 oz mezcal
  • 1/2 oz Cynar
  • 1/2 oz agave
  • juice of one lime
  • sprig of mint and a lime wheel for garnish

Shake all ingredients, then strain into a coupe glass and garnish.

 

This is the first time I’ve made this. Dane was making a Mexican-inspired salad for dinner and I wanted to make a Mexican-inspired cocktail that wasn’t just a Margarita. I found this recipe for a Devil’s Garden that includes a chipotle-infused mezcal. While that sounded interesting, I didn’t have time to wait for an infusion. Dane loves smokey drinks that aren’t very sweet, so I decided to up the tequila content and lower the agave in the recipe. He was very impressed with this one. I tasted just enough to know it wasn’t to my liking. Mezcal is often too smokey for me, while Cynar is too bitter.

I’m always on the lookout for drinks that include some of my more esoteric liqueurs, so this one is going in the file for Cynar.

Day 5: Lion’s Tail

  • 2 oz bourbon
  • 1/4 oz allspice dram (like St Elizabeth)
  • juice from half a lime
  • 2 barspoons turbinado syrup
  • 2 dashes Angostura bitters

This is one recipe that I am continuously tweaking, depending on who is drinking it. The one for this post was made for my partner, who without fail will say “this is heavy on the allspice” if I make him this drink. Recipes online actually use 1/2 oz allspice, which I think might overpower everything else.

The Lion’s Tail is a perfect drink for winter. The allspice is tempered a bit with the citrus, but still lends a warming quality to the drink.

Day 4: Ste. Ellie Jack Rose

  • 2 oz Laird’s Apple Brandy
  • 1/2 oz Pama pomegranate liqueur
  • juice of half a lemon
  • juice of half a lime
  • splash of grenadine
  • maraschino cherry to garnish

Combine in a cocktail shaker filled with ice and shake. Pour into a coupe or martini glass and garnish with the cherry.

The Jack Rose is a classic Prohibition cocktail. This version of it comes from Ste. Ellie, a wonderful basement cocktail bar in Denver, CO. I think they may actually use pomegranate juice, but I felt like boozing it up and used Pama instead. The citrus and the Pama make it a tart drink, so I added grenadine to the original recipe for a bit more sweetness. Feel free to add more grenadine to suit your own tastes.

Day 1: Cranberry Champagne cocktail

 

  • juice of half a lime
  • 1 oz cranberry juice
  • top with champagne and lime twist

For the longest time I thought that the cranberry juice variation of a Mimosa was called a Poinsettia, but there are multiple recipes for Poinsettias online that include things like vodka and orange liqueur. I wonder if that is a regional difference.

I wanted to start with something that might help you use up any leftover champagne from the previous night’s festivities before it gets too flat. This time I wanted to try a little something different than my typical cranberry and champers drink by adding a little lime. I really, really like limes, as you will probably begin to notice. I used a really dry, true champagne this time, which is unusual for me. I think it worked well with the double tart fruits.