Published by Matt March 12th, 2007
in recipes, vodka and liqueur.
Different people will have many different associations with the word “golden”. Things like the phrase “you’re golden”, the golden rule, golden retriever, golden age, golden arches, golden tee, golden oldies, the golden globes, the golden girls…the list goes on. Well, here’s another little something that’s golden, a golden shot. Just look at it. An striking clear gold foundation (Drambuie), a warm and creamy middle (Bailey’s), and a misty white layer on top (Vodka).
Like many shots, its strength is masked by pure smooth deliciousness. Since there’s not a non-alcoholic mixer and two of the ingredients are powerful (Drambuie and vodka), this shooter aims to kill. The layers are very attractive and although the order of the ingredients was determined by their weight (and therefore the laws of physics), from a tasting perspective, it worked out very well. The vodka hits first with a slight burn. This is quickly followed by the sweet and creamy Bailey’s which immediately extinguishes the vodka. Then the Drambuie slides in last bringing its honey-flavored whiskey for a smooth but not too sweet finish.
This is the kind of shot that makes for a short evening if you’re not careful. It’s great for anyone tired of the weak, fruity shooters that cheesy clubs like to serve or it’s good for a twist on all the classic Bailey’s shots that everyone’s had way too many of.
The Golden Shot is:
2/3 oz. Drambuie
2/3 oz. Bailey’s Irish Cream
2/3 oz. Vodka
Pour the ingredients in the order above into a shot glass. Use a spoon to layer the Bailey’s and vodka over the Drambuie. Bottom’s up!
Now head over to the Martini Lounge for the rest of the shots…
Published by Matt December 28th, 2006
in recipes, vodka and cocktails.
Earlier this year, we celebrated my brother-in-law’s twenty-first birthday by spending the day in Orlando. My wife and I went with her brother, two sisters, and one of their boyfriends, Fred. Somehow during the course of the day we ended up at the Mall of the Millenia after lunch and while the ladies shopped their little hearts out, us boys found the “Blue Martini” lounge and planted ourselves at the bar. My brother-in-law doesn’t really drink, but Fred and I were determined to have him at least try a couple of cocktails to make the passage to “being official” official. Soon enough, we were rejoined by the ladies and for the second round and my wife ordered the “Blue Moon Martini”.
She liked it so much she copied the ingredients from the martini “menu” and we have since recreated the recipe for this fruity and refreshing cocktail.
Blue Moon Martini
Vodka - 2 parts
Watermelon Pucker - 1 part
Blue Curacao - 1 part
Pineapple juice - splash
Sour mix - splash
Combine all the ingredients with ice. Shake hard and pour into a chilled martini glass. Garnish with pineapple.
Recommended listening for the Blue Moon Martini…The Cowboy Junkies
I like to say that the Cowboy Junkies are neither cowboys or junkies. They’re a Canadian band mostly consisting of siblings that have blazed their own style of music that blends rock, alternative, country, and folk. The perfect song kicks off the album: “Blue Moon Revisited”.
Published by Matt December 11th, 2006
in recipes, vodka, cocktails and liqueur.
Here we are again. Another “Mixology Monday” already. This time around the theme is “festive occasion” for obvious reasons and I decided to provide two options: naughty or nice. So depending on which list of Santa’s you’ll think you’ll land, you can still enjoy an appropriately festive cocktail.
First up is the D’Artagnan cocktail. This is the nice one. For all you do-gooders, the D’Artagnan cocktail is a nicely balanced champagne cocktail that incorporates some classic flavor combinations.
The D’Artagnan is:
1 tsp of brandy
1 tsp of cointreau
3 tsp of orange juice
1/2 tsp of simple syrup
Combine these ingredients in a shaker with ice to chill. Then pour into a flute glass and top with champagne. Garnish with an orange or lemon peel.
Next up is naughty. This is the decadent choice. It doesn’t get much more indulgent than a mint chocolate martini. If you’ve been naughty all year then you’re probably used to treating yourself, so why stop now? Here’s how I did it.
The Mint Chocolate Martini is:
1 1/2 oz. of vanilla vodka
1 1/2 oz of creme de cacao
1/2 oz of creme de menthe
I started by garnishing the rim of a martini glass with peppermint crumbles. Then I swirled chocolate syrup around the inside of the martini glass. The rest is simple. Combine the ingredients with ice in a cocktail shaker. Shake and strain into the garnished glass.
That’s it. And if your wondering which list I think I’m going to be on, the answer is neither…I don’t believe in Santa Claus 
Published by Matt November 28th, 2006
in recipes, vodka and cocktails.
Continuing to work our way through the abundance of limes, my wife found a great recipe (actually via one of the google ad links on this site )for a lime-ginger martini that sounded like a must try. So we did. She took care of preparing the ginger syrup and I swooped in and finished off the drink from there. The martini makes a nice pre-meal drink since its on the spicy side. Making the ginger syrup does increase the time it takes to make the drink but you can always make a larger batch since it’ll keep up to one week in the fridge. I recommend you adjust the amount of ginger syrup in the drink to taste. The ginger is a powerful flavor…
To make the ginger syrup use the following ingredients:
1 lime
2 cups of coarsely chopped fresh ginger with peel (approximately 8 oz.)
1 cup of sugar
2 cups of water
Remove the outer peel of the lime with a peeler and finely chop along with the chopped ginger in a food processor. Transfer to a saucepan and combine with the sugar and water. Boil mixture, then reduce heat to a simmer while partially covered. Then strain the mixture and let it cool.
Now to the drink…the ingredients are:
3 oz. of vodka
1/2 oz. of ginger syrup
1/2 oz. of lime juice
Combine the vodka, ginger syrup, and lime juice into a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake hard for 20 second and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Enjoy!
Recommended listening for the Ginger Martini…smart, peppy power pop from Brendon Benson:
Before he joined forces with Jack White in the Raconteurs, Brendon released a couple of almost perfect indie rock albums. “The Alternative to Love” is one of them. Great songwriting and polished production make this disc a must have.
Published by Matt November 22nd, 2006
in recipes, vodka and cocktails.
Sometimes good things come from necessity. Take today’s recipe for example. Thanks to my wife, aka “Lord Overstock” (a moniker I use with the utmost affection), our household had recently experienced an oversupply of limes. This abundance thrust a dilemma in front of us; either we suck down copious amount of cheap Mexican beer or we could use up the excess trying a few lime-based cocktail recipes. Fortunately the vote was unanimous in favor of the latter. Having already celebrated the joys of the amaretto sour, I felt it appropriate to turn to the Vodka Sour next. Most Vodka Sour recipes call for fresh lemon juice but as in many cases, a lime juice substitute makes for a nice twist, providing a sharper citrus flavor. The egg white creates a beautiful layer of foam over the top of the drink, giving the cocktail a unique look. The taste is similar to a vodka gimlet but since we’re using lemon juice here instead of Rose’s lime syrup, the drink is much more apt to make you pucker.
The ingredients are:
2 ounces of Vodka
1/2 ounce of sugar syrup
1 egg white
1 1/2 ounces of fresh lime juice
3 or so drops of Angostura bitters to garnish
Combine all ingredients, except the bitters, in a cocktail shaker with a cup or two of ice. Shake hard for 20 seconds or so and pour into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish the foam laden top of the drink with drops of bitters. Be gentle; you’d be surprised how potent more than three or four drops can be.
Recommended listening for the Vodka Sour cocktail…icy, cool trip hop from Portishead:
An album perfectly chilled for vodka based drinks. Plus, fitting to this cocktail, one of its best songs is the remarkably Bond theme-esque “Sour Times”. The rest of the disc is equally good, featuring haunting female vocals layered over a variety of beats and samples.
Published by Matt November 21st, 2006
in vodka and reviews.
Prompted by a friend’s insistence that Hangar One vodka is one of the best available, I decided to take a close look at another vodka produced right here in the good ol’ U.S.A. I won’t delve deep into the company’s history since you can find it here. Suffice it to say, their story is similar to Tito’s vodka, just change the location from Texas to California.
Hangar One has a powerful alcoholic smell that combines suggestions of fruit and floral aromas. The taste of Hangar One is remarkably smooth, both freezing cold and at room temperature. It has a sweet overtone that has distant hints of berries of some sort. It finishes with a mineral taste that balances out the sweetness. The last flavor is slightly peppery on the aftertaste.
So far, I’d rate this as my second favorite vodka behind Pravda. Hangar One lost out in the “silkiness” category. Pravda continues to be the ultra smooth vodka and it lacks the slight harshness of the Hangar One aftertaste. The price of a 750ml bottle of Hangar One runs about $30, so it’s in the same ballpark as most higher end vodkas. It still gets a strong recommend, but for now I’ll continue to go import when I purchase vodka.
Published by Matt November 2nd, 2006
in vodka and reviews.
Here’s another attempt to review vodka! This one, like Tito’s, I first saw in an ad in the Wall Street Journal. The company boasts that their vodka is made in small batches with pure spring water. This is pretty common stuff with premium vodkas. The beverage is manufactured in Poland using a five step distillation process. The 750ml bottle set me back $30 which puts it in the Grey Goose range. The liquor store was running a promotion on the brand the night I stopped in which is what induced me to review this vodka (as opposed to the many others still on my “to review” list).
I have to say that we’ve been very pleasantly surprised with this vodka. The Pravda site claims that using rye grain instead of corn gives their vodka a smoother, more elegant taste. I had not read that before I tasted the vodka so I know the power of suggestion was not at work. The vodka is definitely very smooth and mellow. It doesn’t seem to display any hints of impurities and certainly goes down with a silky finish that puts it at the head of its class. In a straight vodka martini, Pravda was just perfect, probably the best I’ve had to date (sorry Tito and Goose). One minor complaint is the unwieldy bottle. Although its richly adorned with faux glass etchings and is bejeweled, its wide bottom and extremely long neck makes it a pain to store in semi-full freezers. Small irritations aside, Pravda comes with an extremely strong recommendation, particularly to those who prefer their cocktails with more liquor and less mixer…
Published by Matt October 15th, 2006
in recipes, vodka, cocktails and liqueur.
Before heading out to dinner the other night I decided to make a quick after work/pre-dinner drink for the wife and I. Knowing that I needed to clear out some space in the liquor cabinet, I checked the ol’ fluid levels of the bottles and formulated this drink on the spot. You can’t go wrong with the orange and coffee liqueur combo. I decided to throw in vanilla-infused vodka since that is complimentary to both flavors. It turned out very satisfying. The drink is a little heavy handed since there’s not a non-alcoholic mixer in the recipe. But that’s okay. The vanilla and orange is a nice, citrusy, sweet taste and the coffee flavor adds a little sophistication. So why the name? Because it cracks me up…I don’t even know what it means! I’ve just been waiting to concoct a drink that I can call this name.
The Nasty Butler is:
1 1/2 oz. Stoli Vanilla Vodka
3/4 oz. Orange Liqueur or Cointreau
3/4 oz. Kahlua
Combine ingredients in a cocktail shaker and shake with ice. Then pour into a chilled cocktail glass. Voila!
Published by Matt September 19th, 2006
in recipes, vodka and cocktails.
I love blueberries. I love how they’re sweet and tart at the same time. How they’re not overpowering. I love the blueberries’ ability to compliment many other flavors well. Before I rushed out to try one of the blueberry-infused vodkas that is out, I thought I’d try my hand at my own blueberry-vodka cocktail. So here’s a subtle fresh blueberry concoction that probably needs a little tinkering around with depending on your personal taste.
2 1/2 oz vodka
1/2 oz Stoli vanilla vodka
1/2 cup of fresh blueberries
1 tsp simple syrup
Muddle/Puree the blueberries until they are completely indistinguishable from one another. Add the vodkas and simple syrup. Shake aggressively with ice for 20 to 30 seconds. Double strain into a cocktail glass (with a few blueberries on the bottom).
Viola! A strong vodka cocktail with a pleasant vanilla-blueberry combo. Depending on your taste, play with the straight vodka to vanilla vodka ratio. My wife found the half ounce of vanilla vodka overpowered the blueberry flavor for her. Let me know if you have any suggestions!
Published by Matt September 17th, 2006
in recipes, vodka and cocktails.
In keeping with the theme of summer’s over from the Gimlet post, here’s a perfect summer cocktail my wife and I discovered too late this year. I recently read an inflight magazine article which sang the praises of combining strawberries and basil. Needless to say, since my wife had planted a couple types of basil in her herb garden, I couldn’t wait to get home and try this combo in a cocktail.
After heading out to the herb garden, we discovered that, for better or worse, our poor purple basil plant was a skeleton. We agreed the still living lemon basil would make a fine substitution. We picked our lemon basil and proceeded to make a most excellent summer cocktail.
The ingredients:
2 oz vodka
1 tsp cranberry juice
3 strawberries
3 or 4 large basil leaves
4 tsp apple liqueur
1 tsp simple syrup
1 pinch freshly ground black pepper
Start by muddling your basil leaves until they’re finely crushed (see previous Mojito post formore info on muddling). Then add the strawberries and puree. Once the berries and basil are combined, take a whiff. NICE. Add the vodka, apple liqueur, simple syrup, cranberry juice, and pepper. Shake vigorously and double strain into chilled cocktail glasses. Be sure and use a fine strainer over the glass to avoid small pieces of basil in your drink.
This is a very lite cocktail. No one flavor overpowers the drink. Feel free to try different liqueurs that may combine well with strawberries. Enjoy!
To see the drinks preferred by those mightier than I, head over to Cocktail Chronicles for mixology Monday.
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