Veracruzana

Veracruzana

Hello again and good evening! It's been quite a while since my last post, but have no fear, another great cocktail is here! I present to you the Veracruzana!

I start by saying this drink has tequila in it. Personally I'm not the greatest fan of said alcohol and quite frankly, I don't think the Margarita is really that good of a cocktail. Of course the tequila brand will make a difference and those that aren't 100% agave = shit. So if you happen to make a tequila cocktail out of "blue agave" or "fresh agave", but it isn't 100% agave, don't be surprised if that drink didn't taste as good as you might've expected.

Anyhow, for the Veracruzana I did have 100% agave and with fresh fruit in the drink...what could go wrong?

• 60 ml tequila (100% agave)
• 22.5 ml agave syrup
• 30 ml lime juice (fresh)
• 4 chunks of pineapple
• 2 basil leaves
• pineapple/basil for garnish

First, muddle the pineapple and basil leaves in the cocktail shaker. Add the rest and shake with plenty of ice. Strain into your tumbler and garnish with a pineapple slice/basil sprig.

This was a very pleasant surprise for me! Fresh in both taste and aroma (the wonderful basil aroma coming up your nose when you take a sip from the drink), it's also visually aesthetic. I got to say, it's a very refreshing summer-ish cocktail that gets my approval, 4½/5!

Hot Toddy

HOT TODDY

Our episodes of warm drinks continues! Now with a Hot Toddy! This is a very versatile drink, easily modified to suit one's needs. This recipe I pulled off from Liquor.com, but adjusted it to my taste. Hot Toddies are excellent winter drinks and with a little tweaking you can make one helluva drink. What you need is:

• 4 to 6 cloves
• a lemon twist
• 0.75 cl lemon juice
• 2 tea spoons of demerara (or brown) sugar
• hot water
• 5 cl aged rum

Now you can easily use whiskey, cognac or any spirit you find best to your taste. The "original" recipe called for a 12yo single malt but instead I used an aged rum from Venezuela, which ended up being superb!

First pour boiling water in your mug and let it stand (for the mug to warm up nicely). While it sits, cut a lemon twist and stick your cloves through it. Now pour out your water and add new boiling water into your mug. Add your sugar, stir to dissolve, your lemon twist, stir once again and thirdly your lemon juice. Finally add your choice of spirit and stir for the final time.

You'll end up with one good Hot Toddy. You're welcome :)

Bloody Mary

BLOODY MARY

Today's "episode" is a rather special one! In honor of my 20th time donating blood I decided to make up just a perfect cocktail for the event, the Bloody Mary! Everyone's heard of it, some have tried it. I have one memory of drinking this some years back. Today I'm about to tackle this drink the second time.

I made some studies before getting really into this drink. As some might know, the base for any Bloody Mary consists of:

• vodka (some might use gin and I see no objections to this)
• tomato juice (salt free!)
• lemon juice
• Worcester sauce
• tabasco
• (white/black) pepper
• celery salt
• a traditional decoration; a celery stalk / lemon wedge

Wow, that's a lot of stuff. Nonetheless, that's the base. After that you can easily make your own little mini-meal buffet and add ingredients that you find interesting, worthwhile or otherwise awesome. I looked up a few different recipes and found out that many use horseradish in the mix.

Nonetheless, here's the recipe I used:

• 6 cl vodka
• 12 cl tomato juice
• juice from one lemon wedge
• 2 dashes tabasco
• 2 dashes Worcester sauce
• a pinch celery salt
• a pinch dried dill
• a pinch ground white pepper
• a teaspoon prepared horseradish

Poured everything in my mixing glass and rolled it. Meaning, I poured the content in my tin cup and then poured it back in the mixing glass. Repeated this a few time. This way I got all of the ingredients properly mixed without getting too much dilution. If you have a pint glass, pour your mixture in there (I used my mixing glass). Decorate with a celery stalk and/or lemon wedge. Optionally you can use a lime wedge and even a strip of fried bacon is okay (sounds amazingly good!)

I...just...can't say I'm a big fan of this drink. I don't know what it is, but in my opinion this drink is too heavy for cocktail consumption. But we all like different things. Perhaps you like this or perhaps you don't. Like the Laphroaig whiskey, you either like it or you don't. There's no in between.

Prairie Oyster

PRAIRIE OYSTER

After heavy partying...you need balancing. Supposedly there is a hangover cure. And that cure has a name, the Prairie Oyster.

Let me take you back a few instances first. Today is Midsummer and yesterday me & my wife had friends come by to celebrate that day. Grilling, gaming, music and overall chilling and relaxing...with drinking. A lot of it.

This morning was a bit different. We needed a cure. My pal told me about this raw-egg drink and quickly looked it up. The Oyster was calling us...

• 1 raw egg
• tabasco sauce
• salt
• pepper
• Worcester sauce

Preferably use a small tumbler, crack open the egg (without breaking the yolk), pour some Worcester sauce, tabasco, salt and pepper and gulp it down. My friend did that first and I couldn't just post this drink without experiencing it myself!

Well this pretty much tastes like it should be. Eggs and a salty hotness afterwards. Either a placebo effect or a true pearl, I did feel better afterwards, though!

Not for the faint-hearted.

Cucumber & Green Tea Mojito

CUCUMBER & GREEN TEA MOJITO

What a pleasantly summery drink we have here! Here is a Cucumber & Green Tea Mojito, first introduced by a friend of mine who found it from here and let me know about it. At first my suspic-o-meter gave a signal. Cucumber...and tea...and a mojito?? Well, why the fudge not??

I had to do some before-hand preparations for this cocktail. The recipe serves four and the ingredients are measured accordingly:

• 1 cucumber (save some for garnishin)
• 20 cl water
• 20 cl sugar
• 20 cl white rum
• 20 cl green tea
• 4 limes
• 2 pots of mint
• (club soda)

The cucumber syrup:

• 1 whole cucumber
• 20 cl water
• 20 cl sugar (almost a full US cup)

Cut the cucumber into slices and with the water + sugar bring to boil and then let it simmer on medium heat so that the sugar completely dissolves. Strain the cucumbers and let the syrup cool at room temperature a little while before putting it in the fridge.

Brew a cup (25cl) green tea and let it cool similar as the syrup.

Get your mixing glass ready. Drop roughly 6-10 mint leaves in the glass (you can smack the mint leaves gently before doing this for the essential oils to come up better), add the juice of half a lime and gently muddle the mint/lime juice. Now add 5 cl of the cucumber syrup, 5 cl green tea and 5 cl rum and stir to mix. 

Take a tumbler, fill it with ice and pour in the mixture. Garnish with a few slices of cucumber, a sprig of mint, a wedge of lime and optionally a splash of club soda is okay too. Using a straw helps a lot too! On a side note, I never needed to use all of the limes listed in the recipe, I did well with 2½, using 1 half/drink + a small wedge. Also, I never used the club soda, didn't hurt the drink though.

I made this for friends that came over today and their commentary on this cocktail was unanimous; a very refreshing summer drink! 

To wrap this up, actually making four cocktails was a bit of a hassle, but all's well that ends well! A good cocktail this was! (and still is)

Thanks for the input, Tacy! :)

Champagne cocktail Shaker style

CHAMPAGNE COCKTAIL SHAKER STYLE

More sparkling cocktails! Here is a champagne cocktail I made using the recipe Shaker Bar in Helsinki/Jyväskylä use in one of their mixes. It's an interesting one and I had to try it myself:

• ~1 cm piece of cucumber
• 2 cl midori
• dash simple syrup
• sparkling wine (champagne)

First, cut a pice of cucumber, drop it in your cocktail shaker and muddle the juices out of it. Add the midori and dash of simple syrup and ice and shake it but don't break it! Take your chilled champagne flute and doublestrain your mixture in the glass. Then, carefully layer the champagne (I used sparkling wine) on top of the base liquids. Again, be careful when adding sparkling wine to something sugary, it'll foam like crazy.

At this point you can either use dried cranberries (their way) or one cocktail cherry (my way) and drop them in the drink. A beautiful contrast between green/red. Some stir the drink once for the ingredients to mix but I left it as it was. Better that way.

This was an interesting cocktail. Especially towards the end the flavors from the cucumber and midori...they work! A dry beginning with a sweet after-taste. Not bad. Not bad at all!