Full Sail

Full SailKids love special drinks as much as adults.  Especially if it’s made just for them.  The carbonated coconut water is a bit over the top, but once again, with a little effort the kids feel really special.  I used an an iSi Whipper and a CO2 charge since my siphon is full of water.  You can also put still coconut water in the shaker with the rest of the ingredients and then top the glass with a dash of plain carbonated water.

If you use falernum, it has an ABV of 10% so your finished drink will have an ABV of ½%.  If that’s too high, substitute the easy ginger lime syrup below.

  • 1½ oz. Fresh lime juice
  • ½ oz. Falernum or Ginger Lime Syrup – see below
  • ½ oz. Orgeat
  • ½ oz. Simple Syrup
  • 4 oz. Carbonated Fresh coconut water or carbonated water
  1. Add the first 4 ingredients to a shaker with ice and shake to chill
  2. Pour shaker, unstrained, into chilled Collins glass and top with more ice
  3. Add the carbonated coconut water to fill
  4. Stir and garnish with lime wheel or wedge

 Easy Ginger Lime Syrup

Makes 1 Cup

Time: 15 minutes

  • 1 Cup Fresh lime juice
  • 1 Cup thinly sliced peeled fresh ginger or 4 oz crushed ginger
  • 2 Whole cloves
  • 2 Allspice berries
  • 1/4 tsp. Ground nutmeg
  • 1 Cup Sugar
  1. Add all ingredients to a small sauce pan and bring to a boil over medium heat.
  2. When the sugar dissolves, reduce the heat, cover the pot and simmer for 10 minutes.
  3. Allow to cool slightly
  4. Strain through a fine mesh strainer and discard solids
  5. Store syrup in refrigerator.  Will keep about a week.

Cheers!



Mixology Monday CXIII – Bacon, Eggs & Booze

 

Mixology Monday

Mixology Monday

It’s Mixology Monday CXIII and we’re happy to be hosting!  The theme we chose is “Bacon, Eggs and Booze” ’cause nothing makes a holiday brunch taste better than amazing cocktails.  For this theme, we have 2 offerings: a sangria and a zero proof cocktail, (or nearly zero proof), for the kids.

Mango Peach Sangria

IMAG0264

Yes. November in San Antonio. It’s 75 degrees and the trees are green!

I particularly like this sangria.  It is surprisingly dry and fruity.  With frozen fruit available year round, it makes a perfect brunch libation for the holidays.  Plus, you can back off on the peach liqueur if you want to lower the ABV.  Be sure to use a rosé with an ABV >13%, otherwise you can make it too sweet.  We used Sacha Lichine single blend.

Makes 4 Glasses

Time: 2:15

  • 12 oz. mango junks, fresh or frozen
  • 12 oz. sliced peaches, fresh or frozen
  • 1 bottle dry rosé
  • 1 cup peach liqueur, such as Sterrings
  • 1/2 cup simple syrup
  • handful of fresh mint leaves – optional
  1. Combine all ingredients, except the mint leaves, in a large, lidded  pitcher, bottle or jar.
  2. Shake the bottle and refrigerate for 2-4 hours
  3. 1 hour before serving, give the mint leaves a smack in your hand and add them to the sangria.
  4. Serve cold in fancy glasses!

Full Sail

Full SailKids love special drinks as much as adults.  Especially if it’s made just for them.  The carbonated coconut water is a bit over the top, but once again, with a little effort the kids feel really special.  I used an an iSi Whipper and a CO2 charge since my siphon is full of water.  You can also put still coconut water in the shaker with the rest of the ingredients and then top the glass with a dash of plain carbonated water.

If you use falernum, it has an ABV of 10% so your finished drink will have an ABV of ½%.  If that’s too high, substitute the easy ginger lime syrup below.

  • 1½ oz. Fresh lime juice
  • ½ oz. Falernum or Ginger Lime Syrup – see below
  • ½ oz. Orgeat
  • ½ oz. Simple Syrup
  • 4 oz. Carbonated Fresh coconut water or carbonated water
  1. Add the first 4 ingredients to a shaker with ice and shake to chill
  2. Pour shaker, unstrained, into chilled Collins glass and top with more ice
  3. Add the carbonated coconut water to fill
  4. Stir and garnish with lime wheel or wedge

 Easy Ginger Lime Syrup

Makes 1 Cup

Time: 15 minutes

  • 1 Cup Fresh lime juice
  • 1 Cup thinly sliced peeled fresh ginger or 4 oz crushed ginger
  • 2 Whole cloves
  • 2 Allspice berries
  • 1/4 tsp. Ground nutmeg
  • 1 Cup Sugar
  1. Add all ingredients to a small sauce pan and bring to a boil over medium heat.
  2. When the sugar dissolves, reduce the heat, cover the pot and simmer for 10 minutes.
  3. Allow to cool slightly
  4. Strain through a fine mesh strainer and discard solids
  5. Store syrup in refrigerator.  Will keep about a week.

Cheers!

 



Key Lime “O”

This should be served flaming.  Either double the recipe and serve in a scorpion bowl, or float an inverted lime half with 151 rum soaked piece of bread.  You can sub the Key Lime Bitters with orange bitters.

Key Lime 'O'

Key Lime ‘O’

  1. Shake all ingredients with crushed ice
  2. Pour unstrained into tall glass


Mai Tai

This is Trader Vic’s original recipe.Mai Tai

  • 1 oz. Appleton Extra
  • 1 oz. Mount Gay Gold Rum
  • ½ oz. Curacao
  • 1 oz. Lime Juice
  • ¼ oz. orgeat
  • ¼ oz. simple syrup
  1. Shake all ingredients with crushed ice
  2. Pour unstrained into old fashioned glass
  3. Add crushed ice to fill
  4. Garnish with a mint sprig


Planter’s Punch

This is my version of rum punch which I would like to claim I invented somewhere in the islands, but it was actually at home in Texas!  I recently added the Orgeat and Key Lime Bitters.  You can sub Angostura Bitters but you do need something to offset the sweetness of the fruit juices.

  • 2 oz. Mount Gay Gold Rum
  • 1 oz. Orange juice
  • 1 oz. Pineapple juice
  • ½ oz. Grapefruit juice
  • 1/2 oz. Grenadine
  • ½ oz. Orgeat
  • 2 dashes key lime bitters
  • 6 oz. crushed ice
  1. Shake all ingredients with crushed ice
  2. Pour unstrained into tall glass
  3. Sit back, put up your feet and imagine you’re Jimmy Buffet


Saturn

Rockets and jet aircraft were all the rage in the Tiki era and every bartender had appropriately named drinks.  This  was Popo Galsini’s  and won 1st Place in the World Cocktail Championship in 1967.Saturn

  1. Blend until smooth
  2. Pour unstrained into pilsner glass


Scorpion

This is from the Luau in Beverly Hills cr. 1958.  Single serving:Scorpion

  • 1 oz. gold rum
  • 1 oz. gin
  • ½ oz. brandy
  • 1 oz. OJ
  • ½ oz. Lime juice
  • ½ oz. simple syrup
  • ¾ oz. orgeat
  • 4 oz. crushed ice
  1. Blend on high for 5 sec.
  2. Pour unstrained into glass and add ice to fill


Wild Turkey in Heat

Wild Turkey in HeatThis cocktail is a bourbon and orange sour with the almond sweetness of the orgeat and the kick of habanero.  The name originated during a family ski trip to Steamboat Springs a number of years ago.  We would always eat at the Tugboat Saloon on our first night and, so, cold and tired, I spotted a bottle of Wild Turkey behind the bar.  I asked the waitress if they had Wild Turkey 101.  She replied, “Yes.”  To which I said, “I’ll have that neat.”  She then repeated my order, “A Wild Turkey neat.”  Now, from the other end of the table, with great incredulity, our teenage daughter asked: “What’s a Wild Turkey in Heat?”

  • 2 oz. Wild Turkey 101
  • 2 ½ oz. Orange juice
  • ¾ oz. Lemon juice
  • ¼ oz. orgeat
  • ¼ oz. simple syrup
  • 2 dashes habanero bitters or habanero shrub
  1. Chill a Double Old Fashioned glass with ice and water
  2. Add all ingredients to shaker and shake with ice
  3. Add unstrained to chilled Double Old Fashioned

Cheers!

 



Easy Orgeat Syrup

When making orgeat, you start with almonds and make almond milk.  So, why not start with almond milk! Plus, commercial almond milk is supposedly made from bitter almonds which contains benzaldehyde which is tasty.  They also yield cyanide, which is why you can’t buy them at the local store!

  • 1 ½ cups unsweetened almond milk
  • 3 cups sugar
  • 3 oz. 100 proof vodka (optional but it will help preserve your orgeat)
  • 2 Tbls. Orange Flower Water
  1. In a small pot over medium-low heat, bring the almond milk and sugar to a near boil, stirring frequently.  As soon as the mixture begins to boil, it turns to foam.  Try to hold the temperature just below boiling until the sugar is dissolved.
  2. Pour the mixture through a sieve into a heat proof bowl or quart measuring cup.  (this will help remove any undissolved sugar).  Allow to cool to room temperature
  3. Add the remaining ingredients.
  4. Store in a bottle in the refrigerator.  Keeps a month.
  5. Shake well before using.