June 09, 2016 at 11:17PM
Nightcap. A little something I call a California Sunset. #cocktail #mixology
June 09, 2016 at 11:17PM
Tag: Ginger Ale
Cocktail of the Week: Cherry Elderflower Fizz
Summer means stone fruit! I love peaches, nectarines, apricots, cherries and more! On whim this weekend while I was grocery shopping I picked up a bag of cherries (probably too many cherries! I’ll have to freeze most of them) once I got home I didn’t quite know what to do with all of them. I did some light google searching to see what cocktails have cherries as a component. I saw some good looking drinks but many of them looked complicated or had liquor in them that I didn’t have access to. Well, necessity is the mother of all invention. Looking around my house I created a sweet fizz, the Cherry Elderflower Fizz.
Cherry St. Germain Fizz
- 2 oz. elderflower liquor
- 2 to 4 sweet cherries
- ginger ale
In a collins class muddle pitted cherries. Fill glass with ice. Pour elderflower liquor into glass. Fill glass with ginger ale. Stir once. Garnish with cherry if desired.
This was really good! Especially considering it’s a drink I just threw together! There is definitely room for improvement though. I think ginger beer would work better than ginger ale, the beer has the extra oomph needed to compete with the sweetness of the elderflower liquor. Speaking of elderflower liquor, I might play with the amounts there as well, maybe cutting out an 1/2 oz. of the drink to reduce the sweetness and replace with vodka if I want it to still have the same kick. I muddled two cherries in my drink and I think I could use a few more to add more character to the drink as well as a little bit of lemon juice or lemon oil.
The more I think about it, the more ideas I have! I’ll post again once I’ve tinkered some more and have a new and improved Cherry Elderflower Fizz.
Cocktail of the Week: Pimm’s Cup
I don’t know where I first heard of a Pimm’s Cup. It’s really starting to bother me… I’m not British and I don’t have any British friends, so, I don’t know why it would have come up in random discussion. I’ve never heard anyone order it at a bar. I’ve never even seen a bottle of Pimm’s until today when I decided to hunt one down. Maybe it was somewhere on the internet? Or in one of my cocktail books or magazines… Anyway, somehow I knew about them and somehow I also knew that they’re fairly standard drinking fare for the summertime in Great Britain. You’d think that the land of tea would have stumbled upon bourbon sweet tea, but I guess not… I had to visit three different stores but I finally located a place that not only knew what I was talking about but also carried the product. I picked it up and, well, you’ll see.
Pimm’s Cup
- 2 oz. Pimm’s No. 1
- 1/4 oz. fresh lemon juice
- Ginger Ale
Fill a highball glass with ice. Pour in Pimm’s and lemon juice. Top with ginger ale and garnish with thin cucumber slice if desired.
So, really simply, right? Pimm’s No.1, lemon juice, and ginger ale. There are recipes on-line that have a bunch of fruit and mint in them or require two or three types of liquor. I ignored all of those recipes and went with a simpler one that seems closer to what your average bloke would make for themselves at home. It also happens to be really close to the recipe printed on the bottle itself.
What to say about the Pimm’s Cup? It is refreshing. Reminds me a little of a lemonhead candy? I think it has something to do with the herbs used in Pimm’s? Something about the taste reminds me of candy for some reason. In the future I think I’d swap out the lemon juice for orange juice and probably up the amount to an ounce or 1/2 an ounce. The cucumber garnish also doesn’t add anything, easier to just use the orange or lemon you squeezed as a garnish.
It was good though! And I can certainly understand why its so popular! If I didn’t already have bourbon sweet tea I could see myself drinking a lot more of these. I suppose if I ever get too lazy to brew tea…
Cocktail of the Week: Red Apple & Bourbon Fizz
As we move further into Fall I find myself flipping through my cocktail book looking for drinks that fit with the season. There are 1000s of cocktails but so many of them seem better suited for Spring and Summer. So I find myself flipping through my cocktail book again and again hoping to stumble upon a warm or hot cocktail, one that isn’t iced or chilled, or one that uses seasonal fruits. Mostly without any success. I do have one more cocktail recipe from a cookbook I’ve previously mentioned, Fresh from the Market. And that’s the cocktail we’re making this week! It’s also the perfect drink for Fall as it places apples center stage!
Red Apple & Bourbon Fizz
- 2 oz. Bourbon
- 1 oz. Apple Juice
- 1 oz. apple syrup
- 3/4 oz. lemon juicw
- splash of ginger ale
- 2 thin apples slices
Combine the bourbon, apple juice, apple syrup and lemon juice in a shaker. Shake with ice and strain over fresh ice in a highball glass. Top with a splash of ginger ale and garnish with the apple slices.
This is a delicious cocktail! A perfect blend of sweet apple and bourbon! As soon as D had finished hers she wanted another one. Cool, crisp, and clean going down the cocktails warms its way down into your core. Bonus: turns out the sliced apples that garnish the drink taste delicious after soaking in your drink.