Arrr! It do be Talk Like a Pirate Day and as such the cats are wearing eye-patches and I be swillin’ rum. To prepare this fine cocktail you’ll be needing to first pirate a fine merchant vessel, preferably one with rum, sugar cane and spices.
All credit for this drink goes to Paul from The Cocktail Chronicles who inspired me to give it a shot. The Paloma cocktail is fairly simple; basically adding some sort of grapefruit soda to tequila and a lime. The “por Mi Amante” is the signal that a wonderful shift has occurred and that strawberry infused tequila is being used instead. Oh goodness, but this is a delightful drink.
I live in San Diego, home of temperate weather nearly all year around. The flip side of this is that, when it’s hot and humid like it is now, I really feel it. We don’t even own a fan; normally the breeze from the sea is enough, but today it’s 85 degrees and muggy in our apartment. Naturally, I did what any thinking person does in situations like these: searched the internet for a cooling cocktail. The one I ended up drinking is an upcoming post, but my runner up was from Forbes 10 Cool Summer Cocktails list. The fancy picture is from that article and shows a drink I plan on making soon: the Campari Smash. It’s mainly Campari and limoncello, both of which I happen to have. They have lots of other drinks, so take a look, make a drink, and cool down.
Today is a milestone in that this website officially saw it’s two millionth visitor who found us by searching for “bruise gin”. Now, these fine enlightened visitors are obviously attempting to make (or have made for) themselves a fine martini. They’ve already taken the first important step and decided the martini will be gin. I like them already.
Due to travel and whatnot it’s been a while since we had any new cocktails posted here. I’m going to ease back into things gently, so what we have here is a beer-based cocktail called the Michelada. Around these parts it’s considered a Mexican thing, but I’m not sure how far down into Latin or South America it’s popular. I first heard of it in Playboy of all places (part of my never-requested, never-paid-for, and apparently never-ending subscription but hey they often have a cocktail recipe every month so who am I to complain?), but it seems like one of those drinks that everyone does a little differently.
This cocktail is actually what led me into researching a somewhat distant variant, the Monkey Gland. I first came about them both in Dr. Cocktail’s very enjoyable book “Vintage Spirits & Forgotten Cocktails.” The ingredients for the Income Tax are easier to find, so it’s more likely you’ll be able to try one of these out with even a modest liquor collection.
The Income Tax Cocktail
1 1/2oz gin
1/2 oz sweet vermouth
1/2 oz dry vermouth
Juice of 1/4 orange (about 3/4 oz)
dash of angostura bitters
Shake with ice, strain into cocktail glass and garnish with an orange wheel.
This drink is worth making for its history alone. Still, we’ll start with the recipe and then move on from there.
The Monkey Gland
1 1/2oz (dry) gin
1 oz (freshly squeezed) orange juice
1/4 oz grenadine
1/4 oz Pernod
Shake over ice, strain into cocktail glass and serve with an orange twist. I’ve seen it made 1:1 gin:orange juice and served with no garnish, but if you’re getting the juice from an orange, you might as well use the peel.
As a quick aside, some folks substitute Benedictine instead of the Pernod (I think this was started when Absinthe fell out of favor).
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Picked up a bottle of Pisco to try a Pisco Sour and are now looking for other Pisco-based drinks to try? By a strange coincidence, I am as well! This is a much simpler drink, and not as fun as the Pisco Sour, but still enjoyable. I’ve also seen it referred to as simply a “Chilcano.”
Chilcano de Pisco
Pour a shot or two of Pisco over ice into whatever tumbler or highball glass you have handy. Fill with ginger ale. Add in a squirt of lemon juice and a shake or two of angostura bitters. Garnish with a slice of lemon.
As you can see, it’s an exact recipe. The core of it is Pisco and ginger ale similar to a rum & coke. In fact, I’ve seen some recipes that stop right there, and that’s an enjoyable drink. If you’re feeling like you simply must measure things, 6:1 ale to Pisco seems about standard. The lemon juice and bitters make it more fun, but it’s a subtle change. This is a summery drink, which Christy also enjoys sampling.