ORANGE BLOSSOM SPECIAL For this month’s featured craft cocktail we take a closer look at vermouth and its roll in craft cocktails. Historically, in cocktails, vermouth was used to cut the harsh flavors of unrefined spirits. Today, both spirits and liqueurs are superior to what they use to be. For …
Skeleton Key In celebration of Halloween, I revisited one of the most successful cocktails I’ve ever placed on a menu. Although the cocktail wasn’t originally inspired by Halloween the name as well as the appearance caters to both fall and Halloween. Last year the Skeleton Key was voted best …
Boulevardier A cousin of the Negroni, the Boulevardier simply substitutes bourbon in place of gin with slightly different portions. This cocktail is from Harry McElhone’s 1927 Barflies and Cocktails. For years I’ve selected the Negroni cocktail as the perfect balance of bitter sweet. The Boulevardier is slightly more spirit forward …
Yes that’s a really horrible use of an old grammatical technique to catch your attention: alliteration. Use so many words that start with the same letter and the human eye is tricked into reading what is written below…or maybe it’s just a wicked tongue twister. Either way, you’re reading this …
Yes, it’s cliché. Great rivalries are not born; they are made over years and decades and centuries. Local? Michigan vs. Ohio State (sorry Sparty). National? Lakers vs. Celtics. British? One word – Manchester. The list goes on and on, but when it comes to great booze there is no better …
Subtle Smoke Subtle Smoke is a cocktail I created years ago in an attempt to get non-scotch drinkers drinking Scotch whisky. These types of drinks I refer to as Gateway Cocktails. I’ve way liked watching patrons enjoy spirits they normally don’t through tasty drinks. This Cocktail is essentially a gin …
Blood & Sand Blood and Sand is one of the few classic cocktails that includes scotch and it is certainly one of my favorites. This drink was named for Rudolph Valentino‘s 1922 bullfighter movie Blood and Sand. The red juice of the blood orange in the drink helped link it …
While beginning to create this month’s cocktail I was staring at a bottle of The Scarlet Ibis Rum from Trinidad that was sitting at my desk. Typically, rum isn’t the first spirit I gravitate toward but when this fantastic complex yet delicate rum crosses my path I had all the …
Immediately when thinking of classic rum cocktails the first name that comes to mind is Daiquiri. In the 1930s, among the many variations on the popular Daiquiri cocktail served at the Floridita was the E Hemingway Special. The Floridita’s recipes frequently called for the use of BACARDÍ rum. Because of …
“We’ll have 4 Strawberry Daiquiris!” It’s not something you hear everyday in a discerning watering hole. Even in places of ill-repute, most people would opt for something with an airtight seal such as beer rather than wonder if that blender has been cleaned since 1990. As a former or current …