Tag Archives: cocktail

Pisco Sour

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I didn’t forget about y’all! It’s just been busy and good all around. Hoping the same for everyone out there reading this. So here’s a cocktail for you, to bring us back together.

Rich@richbrainerd.com

We stumbled across the Pisco Sour while watching Zane Lamprey’s Three Sheets (a hilarious show from the early years of our courtship). It looked good, so we googled a few recipes and put something together. Years later, we still think of this as a refreshing summer staple.

Pisco isn’t something you run into every day, but it’s worth the hunt. It’s considered a brandy, but un-aged so the spirit is clear.

Tasting notes: The Pisco on its own smells a bit like a nice blanco tequila; sweet, a little floral, a little pear. But on taste, it’s more of a tequila with the characteristics of a nice dry European white wine. Earthy, smooth, a touch sweet and floral. The cocktail itself carries some of those same characteristics, but is very light and refreshing.

Pisco Sour

  • 2 oz Pisco Portón
  • 1/2 oz fresh lime juice
  • 1/2 oz fresh lemon juice
  • 1 oz simple syrup
  • 1 egg whites
  • 1-2 dashes of Angostura bitters in the shaker 4 dashes on top of the froth

Check out the Pisco Porton website for more info.

Cheers!

Get your tiki on!

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First, I hope you all had a marvelous holiday! Mele Kalikimaka! Happy Christmakuh! Etc.

The rest of this post is long overdue. Heather and I went to New Orleans in July. It was a marvelous get away, despite being all too quick. But it had a purpose, besides going to one of the most fun cities that we’ve been so far: I wanted to shoot some new pictures for the RAF On The Side Expo. As the incoming president (current president, given it’s December!) of the board of the RAF, I was super excited about our first partnership with the Rochester Contemporary Art Center, and I wanted to have some new work to highlight. It was a show for RAF members to share the artwork they do “on the side”, or those things that aren’t paid work.

What does that have to do with tiki drinks? Latitude 29 is one of the coolest places in NOLA, and we went there. Twice. It served as great inspiration, even 5 months later, to create this post (and tomorrow’s, where you can see more).

Here are a few pictures from the On The Side show.

These are the 4 pieces that were in the show along with 2 others in the series. Reflections of Abe and Spirits of the Bar sold during the show!

Reflections of Abe Lincoln
A Beer with Jean Lafitte
St Louis Cathedral
Time Worn Tuba
Spirits of the Bar
Jackson Square Jazz

Here are a few other highlights from our trip.

Anita beer. Drink local!
The sign at the Cornstalk hotel.
Our room at the Cornstalk.
The view from Stanley
Bottles at So Bou
breakfast at Stanley
Dinner at the Green Goddess
US on the balcony at the Cornstalk.
St Louis Cathedral-wide
The Rillette at Latitude 29

 

And last but not least, your tiki inspiration! This is my take on the huge variation of Mai Tai recipes that are out there.

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  • The Mai Tai
  • 2 ounces Don Q Cristal or other light rum
  • 2 ounces Blackwell rum
  • 2 ounces Myers’s Dark rum
  • 1 ounce Grand Mariner
  • 1 ounce fresh pineapple juice
  • 1 ounce fresh orange juice
  • 1 ounce fresh lime juice
  • splash of grenadine

Mix all ingredients well (except grenadine) and pour over crushed ice in a  hurricane glass. Top with a splash of grenadine. Playfully garnish and serve with a straw. Cheers!

It’s wild out there!

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Only as wild as the vines in our back yard. Every year the wild black raspberry vines creep a little closer. It’s almost overwhelming to keep up with, but this time of year it’s all good. Because there is pie (made by our friend Dan) and wild black raspberry mojitos! The pie was gone from the 4th of July party before I got a picture, but the mojitos made their debut this evening.

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See the recipe here. Just add a handful of black raspberries after the limes…and muddle them in as well. Cheers!

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Happy Negroni week!

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Did you know that this week is Negroni week? If you didn’t, you know now (and it’s the last day)! I hope you’ve had one, if not because they are awesome….at least because it’s for a good cause. I had a couple at The Revelry the other day, as you can see from my Instagram post. (I’d love to have you follow along!) And also from Shannon’s post!

I wanted to share a variation on the classic Negroni that I make on occasion. It’s fun to swap out different ingredients to see what you can come up with. In this case, tequila for gin, and Ancho Reyes for vermouth. Cheers….enjoy!

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Ancho Tequila Negroni
– 2 ounce reposado tequila
– 1 ounce Ancho Reyes Ancho Chile Liqueur
– 1 ounce Campari
– 2 dashes Fee Brothers Grapefruit Bitters
– wedge of ruby red grapefruit for garnish
– chili powder and sugar for rim
Rub the rim of your glass against a cut grapefruit and dip in a mixture of chili powder and sugar to coat rim. Add ingredients over ice and stir well. Garnish with wedge of grapefruit.

 

An elegant ending to Easter

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Happy Easter! I hope the Easter bunny brought you some chocolate almonds (Piedras de Chocolate from Spain). They came all the way from Wegmans in our case. (If not, malted chocolate eggs will probably work okay, too.) Pair them with a Twisted Sidecar by the fire (as it was snowing today!) for a relaxing and elegant ending to your Easter.

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Twisted Sidecar

  • 1 1/2 ounces Pierre Ferrand Ambre cognac
  • 3/4 ounce Cointrau
  • 1/2 ounce fresh lemon juice
  • 1/4 ounce fresh orange juice
  • Demerara sugar for rim

Run a lemon wedge around the top of your glass, then dip it in a small amount of Demerara sugar to coat the rim. In a shaker over ice mix ingredients and shake well. Strain into glass and garnish with twists of lemon and orange (twisted together).

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Pierre Ferrand Ambre Cognac is an awesome value. For $40 you’ll get a blended cognac aged, on average, 10 years. It’s smooth, light, and bright with flavors of vanilla, honey, oak, and a mix of citrus and flowers. It’s very nice on its own, and excellent in cocktails.

Cheers!

Merry (Holiday of your choice)!

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Whatever holiday you are celebrating this Christmas eve, I’m sure this will make it better. It’s a little treat brought to you in a round-about way from 1961 Vodka, Restaurant 2Vine, my friend Ann, and Heather and me, called the Queen Ann.

2B_1961 Queen Ann

I mentioned 1961 Vodka a few posts back, here. I was working with Ann on all of the cocktail and bottle photography for 1961Vodka.com, which I recommend you check out…as I helped develop the recipes, too. (It was a fun shoot!) It’s fabulous vodka, I suggest you look for a bottle!

Restaurant 2Vine created the cocktail in Ann’s honor. Just for fun, I decided to photograph it in a similar fashion to the others. Pour one ounce 1961 Vodka and 1 ounce strawberry puree in a champagne glass. Top with sparkling wine, garnish with a strawberry, and celebrate. Cheers!

Happy Haunting from the Vieux Carré

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All Hallows Eve will be filled with hauntings, especially in the Vieux Carré, or French Quarter. But…we will be protected with our voodoo doll for protection from evil spirits and phantoms. While we drink sazeracs (and eat candy.)

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I thought a Halloween post would be the perfect way to introduce the Sazerac, a drink that is as much a part of New Orleans as Halloween celebrations are. Its roots can be traced back to a French Quarter apothecary, Antoine Peychaud, in the early 1800s. But the drink was modified to its current recipe in the early 1900s to feature Rye instead of Cognac. It’s extremely flavorful and highly recommended.

Our voodoo doll came from Marie Laveau’s House Of Voodoo on Bourbon Street. It’s a  great little shop with many voodoo dolls, talismans, and charms.

There are many variations on the Sazerac recipe, but I chose to base mine on Vieux Carré Absinthe Supérieure, an excellent absinthe from Philadelphia Distilling. Start by chilling an old fashioned glass by filling it with ice, then gather your ingredients.

  • 2 oz. rye whiskey. I used Russel’s Reserve small batch.
  • 1/2 oz. simple syrup
  • 3 dashes Peychaud’s bitters
  • Vieux Carré Absinthe Supérieure
  • lemon

In a separate glass, over ice, mix the rye, simple syrup and bitters. Stir until chilled. Dump the ice from the old fashioned glass and give it an absinth rinse. Pour in enough to coat the entire inside of the glass, dumping if there is a lot of excess. Strain other ingredients into glass. Garnish with some lemon peel twisted over the glass. Sip to appease the spirits (and yourself). Á votre santé!

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Typical French Quarter halloween decorations adorning 2 balconies. The top photo is complete with a bubble machine. The bottom photo is complete with an undead Boston Red Sox fan, which is very fitting for today. Congratulations to the World Champions!

The Aviation. Purple drinks are cool!

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Purple is a cool color….so I think a purple drink is cool too! We were introduced to this cocktail in New Orleans at the Green Goddess. As we sat and watched one being made, we couldn’t help but ask about it. Which led us to try one and realize how good it is! It is perfectly refreshing on a warm evening!

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I did a fair amount of research to find the right recipe for this. There are many variations and theories on when it was invented. But most lead back to the start of the twentieth century and Hugo Ensslin’s 1916 Recipes for Mixed Drinks. Ensslin’s recipe called for 1½ oz. El Bart gin, ¾ oz. lemon juice, 2 dashes maraschino liqueur, and 2 dashes crème de violette. I settled on the NY Times recipe and added a touch of simple syrup to balance out the citrus. I like it both ways, but since I’m generally creating cocktails for Heather this is the official 2eat2drink recipe!

  • 2 ounces gin
  • 1/2 ounce freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • 2 teaspoons maraschino liqueur, preferably Luxardo
  • 1/4 ounce simple syrup
  • 1/4 ounce Crème de Violette

FIll a cocktail shaker with ice, gin, lemon juice, Luxardo and simple syrup. Shake to chill, then strain into a martini glass. Slowly pour Crème de Violette into the glass to create a purple swirl that settles near the bottom. Garnish with a twist of lemon or a flamed lemon peel.

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It’s experiment time! I created an animated gif of the pour. It may only work if you click on it, based on my preview. Let’s see what happens…

Click to animate!

Click to animate!

Cheers!

Old San Juan, El Batey, and Ron del Barrilito (take me away)!

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We discovered Barrilito “three star” rum on our actual honeymoon and were instantly hooked. Enjoying a glass of this smooth aged rum in our living room always takes us right back to Old San Juan…and more specifically to El Batey, the best little dive bar in Puerto Rico (or possibly the world). Conveniently located right across the street from Hotel El Convento (our Puerto Rican home away from home), this place has cheap drinks, an eclectic mix of songs on the juke box, and loads of character (and characters!)

After our tour of the Bacardi factory in 2008, the Cuba Libre (basically a rum and Coke with lime) became a favorite cocktail of ours . Despite our fond recollections of the tour, we really prefer to make ours with Ron del Barrilito (Rum from the little Barrel) “three star.” That seems to be the consensus of many people we’ve talked with in Old San Juan. The picture below shows a Cuba Libre “El Batey style”: a small glass filled almost entirely with “three star” and ice, then topped off with Coke and a lime.

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The Cuba Libre, El Batey style.

I would also recommend just drinking the “three star” from a snifter.  It’s the older of the two Edmundo B. Fernández, Inc. rums, featuring a blend of rums aged between 6 and 10 years. Sipping will let you enjoy the layers of honey, butterscotch, molasses, spice, vanilla, smoke, nuts, and oak. The finish is warm, smoky, sweet and very lengthy.

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Ron del Barrilito “three star.” Note the neck label, the only difference from the two-star, less-aged variety.

That long finish takes us away to El Batey. The most intimidating bar we’ve ever walked into, it is also one of the most friendly and interesting. Each visit has provided great conversation with the patrons and the bartenders, and endless visual appeal. The highlight of our most recent visit was a brief chat with the owner, David Jones. He is obviously a man who knows how to enjoy himself as he was surrounded by friends, drink, and a bag of cigars. I think this photo captured him perfectly as this is how he chose to sit when I asked to photograph him; elusive, gruff, intense and relaxed all at once.

Owner David Jones.

Owner David Jones.

I leave you with a toast to David Jones, especially for choosing to leave the graffiti on the walls for over 40 years! Peruse through these highlights and imagine yourself sipping a Cuba Libre. Cheers!

Our names, still on the wall after our honeymoon visit in 2008.
Every time I look at this I see something new.
Layers of character!
The light fixtures….with business cards hanging off them.
The wall above the bar, featuring character portraits. Owner David Jones is on the left. Notice the resemblance?
There aren’t too many things that can take my eyes off the wall at El Batey. But, I will for Heather.
The El Batey entry, beckoning.

Café Puerto Rico, Old San Juan. A must do!

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For the first post of the new year, I am finally following up on the new years eve post with a must do for all of you traveling to Old San Juan. Heather had done lots of research on where to go for local cuisine, and the first place the hotel concierge mentioned lined up with one of her options. Café Puerto Rico. A few blocks walk from El Convento (more on this wonderful hotel to come), we ended up on the edge of Plaza Colon and entered the cafe. It was crowded and lively and we were told to come back in 38 minutes. Yes 38. Never have we received such an exact return time. We wandered a few doors down to the Parrot Club for a cocktail, and listened to a jazz trio for 36 minutes, then quickly returned.

Heather at the Parrot Club.
A mojito seemed like an appropriate first drink, along with a coconut martini.

We were rewarded for our patience with a private table on the balcony overlooking Plaza Colon. I can’t say how lovely a view I, in particular, had without showing you my view.

Heather at Café Puerto Rico, overlooking Plaza Colon.

Heather at Café Puerto Rico, overlooking Plaza Colon.

We ordered mero (grouper) and tiritas de churrascos (skirt steak) mofongos rellenos, and a couple of tropical drinks. This ended up being our favorite meal of the trip!

Refreshing!!
Mofongos, lit with the dimmest of streetlights. Stellar.

Here are a few more visual highlights from the evening. More from Old San Juan to follow soon. Cheers!

A garita at sunset overlooking Bahia de San Juan.
Garita detail.
Bahia de San Juan at sunset. The Bacardi factory is across the bay.
La Rogativa monument.
A view down Calle Las Monjas. Cats are a prominent feature of the area.
One of the many spectacular house number signs that can be seen throughout Old San Juan.

P.S. If those of you who subscribe (thank you so much for following along!), could let me know if the galleries appear correctly in your e-mail, I’d appreciate it.  They look lovely in the on line post, but it showed up in my and Heather’s e-mail all broken and random. I’ve contacted WordPress about it, so hopefully we can get it resolved. Thanks!