MxMo: The Final Chapter

mxmologoAfter a hiatus, we’ve returned for the final Mixology Monday. It is with a touch of sadness and understanding that we send this booze blog tradition into the long dark night. After almost 11 years of loving stewardship from Paul Clarke, Fred Yarm and other wonderful folks, Fred has decided the time has come to lay things to rest. In Fred’s words:

…..the mourning process with the Boston bartenders and the New York City ones who traveled up was most certainly not. Irish whiskey flowed… So what better way to celebrate the life and times of Mixology Monday and its 11 year run as the premiere ‘monthly online cocktail party’ than with Irish whiskey. For this theme, the approach is two fold. You can go traditional and generate or uncover a cocktail recipe calling for Irish whiskey. Alternatively, you can talk about a personal moment either where Irish whiskey played a role in life or where drinks in general helped the grieving process

As we ourselves are taking a break because the blog was starting to “feel like work”, we felt we should return to help send off this tradition that was our second post for the blog.

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Posted in cocktail recipe, cognac, irish whiskey, licor 43, lillet blanc, Mixology Monday, molasses, salt, spanish bitters | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Hot Stuff

img_6204The cold weather is upon us here in Seattle. Well, cold weather for us at least, and we did get snow so that counts, right? Anyhow, with the temperature dropping we decided to dig through all of our posts on warm or hot drinks and do a little roundup, as well as play around with a new creation.

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Posted in amaro montenegro, caramel, cinnamon, cinnamon syrup, cocktail recipe, half and half, tequila - anejo | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Lazy Nog

img_6187It’s the time of year again for eggnog. As we’ve posted before, you definitely want to age your nog. In addition to just the eggs and booze, you want to age the dairy as well. That said, the recipe we use is a bit of a pain in the butt. You have to separate eggs, whip the whites and yolks separately as well as some cream, and then carefully fold everything together. But is all of that necessary?

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MxMo: Brunch

mxmologoIt’s time again for Mixology Monday! This month’s theme comes from Gary over at Doc Elliot’s. Gary’s theme is brunch cocktails. Excellent! We love brunch and cocktails. However Gary gave an important stipulation, “No fizzy wine“. Even better! We love fizzy wine cocktails as much as the next folks, but that’s a great constraint. So we set out to see what we could come up with.

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Posted in amaro montenegro, bourbon, cocktail recipe, grapefruit juice, kina l'aero d'or, Mixology Monday, orange bitters, orange juice, pisco, spanish bitters, sweet vermouth | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Carbonation revisited

img_6140A while back we played around with carbonating drinks using one of the home soda makers. It worked reasonably well and we were pretty happy with the results. However, those things aren’t really meant for cocktails; in fact, the directions specifically tell you not to put in things like fruit juice. We of course disregarded that, because cocktails without fruit juice would leave us pretty limited. As it turns out, there is actually a device meant specifically for carbonating cocktails, fruit juice and all. This magical appliance is called the Perlini.

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Posted in amaro, amaro nardini, angostura bitters, beaujolais, calvados, cocktail recipe, simple syrup | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

4th Anniversary!!

img_5895We just passed our 4th anniversary of writing this blog! As always, we’re going to whip up some yummy cocktails to celebrate and we’re also going to talk a bit about what we’ve learned over the years.

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Posted in aperol, cocktail recipe, cognac, orange flower water, punt e mes, scotch, spanish bitters, st. germain | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

MxMo: Let your nerd flag fly

mxmologoIt’s time again for Mixology Monday! This month’s theme comes from Rebecca at The Shrubbery (who makes exceedingly lovely shrubs by the way. You should definitely check them out.). Her theme this month is Drink Nerdy. Hmm, seems like something right up our alley. 😀 In her words:

The thing that unites everyone who participates in MxMo is our love of of cocktails. We love the history, the alchemy, the artistry, and of course the drinking. Loads of us go to conventions, collect memorabilia, read books about all manner of boozy subjects, and tour distilleries like they’re sacred places. One might say, we’re nerds. I say, what else are you nerdy for? For the purposes of this challenge I’m going to define a nerdy pursuit as: anything from or related to science, science fiction, fantasy, video games, role playing games/characters, or comics. Come up with a cocktail that celebrates or is inspired by a nerdy thing you love. A Cosmo variation for Neil deGrasse Tyson? The perfect sip for Sarah and her Goblin King to share? A beer based cocktail for that barbarian you played in your college D&D game? Star Trek? Anything you are enthusiastic about.

Wow! So many to chose from. Whatever shall we do?

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Posted in amaretto, angostura bitters, barenjager, cocktail recipe, honey cider, peychauds bitters, pomegranate juice, simple syrup, spanish brandy, whiskey | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Root beer cocktails

IMG_5833We recently picked up some root beer from one of our local farmer’s market vendors, Rockridge Orchards & Cidery. We’ve had their apple juice and cider, both of which are quite tasty (we have yet to try their apple brandy, hopefully soon ;)). Their root beer came highly recommended, so  we picked some up and were not disappointed. We haven’t come across many cocktails using root beer, and we like root beer, so we figured that as we head into the Labor Day weekend, why not combine two things we like into a wondrous whole.

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Posted in angostura bitters, cocktail recipe, gin, grand marnier, lime juice, orange bitters, peychauds bitters, root beer, spanish brandy | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Boozy Slushies

IMG_5816We were recently offered a bottle of Fernet Branca and a bottle of Brancamenta (Samples Policy) and challenged to come up with with a couple of blended drinks. Normally, we’re just not fans of blended drinks. Too many associations with Slurpees and the cheapest grain alcohol that money can buy (usually not what we’re about around here, in case that wasn’t obvious ;)). But this particular challenge piqued our interests, plus we’ve been embracing the tiki approach to lots of ice in drinks. We’ve come around to see that it can work great if you use the technique with the right type of drink. We’re big fans of both Fernet and Brancamenta too, so we figured why the hell not. Challenge accepted!

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Posted in bourbon, branca menta, cocktail recipe, fernet branca, lime bitters, lime juice, old tom gin, orange bitters, orange juice, peach liqueur, simple syrup, st. germain | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

MxMo: Alma Negra & Malt Shop

mxmologoAfter a well deserved hiatus, Mixology Monday is back! This month’s theme comes from Adam of the Mr. Muddle blog. The theme this month is vinegar, which we’re very excited about. In Adam’s own words:

For this month’s MxMo, let’s make the whole range of vinegary things fair game.  And I’m not just talking about throwing some olive juice into a Martini.  Making a balsamic glaze for your pork chops?  Save some for the bar.  Want to have a good time and treat your psoriasis?  Reach for that bottle of apple cider vinegar for your next cocktail.  Got some favorite pickles?  Use the juice as a component.

We’ve used switchels & shrubs before and were very happy with the results. But this was an interesting riff on that idea so we were looking forward to seeing what we could come up with.

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Posted in angostura bitters, balsamic vinegar, cocktail recipe, cognac, creme de cacao, grand marnier, Mixology Monday, rice vinegar, rice whiskey, simple syrup | Tagged , , | Leave a comment