Tag: orange juice

Cocktail of the Week: Garibaldi

Garibaldi

If you can cast your mind to September, and this blog, you might remember a post I made on the Grapefruit Garibaldi cocktail. I enjoyed that cocktail quite a bit, enough to look up the original and make a note to return to at some point. It took a little longer than I wanted. Vacation and New York City cocktails got in the way. So, what would be a perfect fall cocktail seems a little out of place as we move into the chill of winter! Oh well!

The Garibaldi is named after Italian General Giuseppe Garibaldi who played a pivotal role in the unification of Italy and is considered one of the country’s founding fathers. This drink takes its name from the popular historical figure’s red shirt and is inspired by its crimson ingredients. It is believed the cocktail was invented at the beginning of the 20th century, by mixing all-Milanese Capari with orange juice, the symbolic fruit of Sicily, where Garibaldi’s red-clad men landed in 1860 to liberate it and annex the island what would soon become the newly constituted Italian state.

Garibaldi
The ingredients

Garibaldi

  • 1 oz. Campari
  • 3 oz. Fresh orange juice

Fill old fashioned glass with ice. Add Campari and top with orange juice. Stir. Garnish with half slice of orange.

Garibaldi

This drink tastes as lovely as it looks. Sweet orange citrus with a slight bitter bite. I sat on my back porch last night watching the sunset sipping this drink hoping that through the act I might invoke an Indian Summer but it doesn’t seemed to have worked. Next time I’ll just have one in Sicily during the Mediterranean summer. Yeah, that sounds about right.

Cocktail of the Week – Bronx

Bronx

Last week I highlighted that most iconic and classic of American cocktails, the Manhattan. As an aside in that post I mentioned that all five of New York City’s boroughs (Staten Island, Brooklyn, Manhattan,  Queens, and Bronx) have cocktails named after them. Everyone knows about the Manhattan but I don’t think many know about the other four. I tested this by visiting some local bars and asking for a Staten Island and a Queens, only to have blank stares in return. So consider this a public service message and just another example of my commitment to education and life-long learning!

The Bronx cocktail, like most older cocktails has multiple origin stories. One of which insists that the cocktail was created in Philadelphia! Though it seems that either a Joseph S. Sormani or a Johnnie Solan is responsible for the cocktail. The cocktail itself seems to be a riff on the Perfect Martini, adding orange juice to the drink.

Bronx
The ingredients

Bronx

  • 1 oz. Gin
  • 1/2 oz. sweet vermouth
  • 1/3 oz. dry vermouth
  • 1/2 oz. orange juice

Combine all ingredients into a cocktail shaker with ice cubes, shake well. Strain in chilled cocktail or martini glass. Garnish with orange peel.

Bronx

Before I drank this cocktail I had some worries because it puts me in a unique position. This, I think, is the one of the few cocktails I know solely through my own work. I’ve never had a Bronx made by anyone else. I only have my own efforts to compare with each other. What if I made the cocktail wrong? I worried I might be doing this cocktail a disservice.

It turns out my worries were for naught. The Bronx is delicious. It tastes a lot like a smooth Perfect Martini laced throughout with the citrusy tang of orange juice, which is especially strong at the finish. I only wish I were drinking it in a classier establishment than my apartment…

Cocktail of the Week: Tequila Sunrise

tequila sunrise

I know, I know that looks nothing like a Tequila Sunrise… I guess my homemade grenadine isn’t think enough? So instead of sinking to the bottom it suffused into the drink? When I first poured it in it looked right, maybe I just waited too long before taking the picture? So, let’s call this a Los Angeles Tequila Sunrise? Nice and muddy looking through all that smog! Anyway, Tequila Sunrises are perfect summer drinks. Also, perfect morning drinks but you didn’t hear that from me! To the cocktail!

tequila sunrise
The ingredients

Tequila Sunrise

  • 3 oz. orange juice
  • 1 1/2 oz. tequila
  • 1/2 oz. grenadine

Pour the orange juice and tequila into an ice filled collins glass. Slowly pour grenadine into mix, the weight of the grenadine (should) make it sink to the bottom leaving some rather lovely red/pink trails through the orange juice. Garnish with a orange wedge.

tequila sunrise

Again, mine doesn’t look quite as it should. But, it did taste lovely. The acidity of the oj, the sweet tartness of the grenadine and the sharp alcoholic taste of tequila. Ah, what a delicious cocktail! As I said at the beginning. Enjoy for breakfast or as an aperitif before dinner! If you have a poolside or ocean side view even better! Enjoy the summer it’s going to get too hot soon!

tequila sunrise

 

EDIT: I think I figured out why my Tequila Sunrise looked so muddy. I transposed the figures for tequila and orange juice… Leaving me with a very boozy but not very bright cocktail.

Cocktail of the Week: Gin and Sin

2014-04-06 19.09.58

I’m not quite sure how I stumbled upon this cocktail. I think I was looking for cocktails that had cranberry juice in them. Of course, that is a lot of cocktails, but this one had gin and fruit juice and I was hopeful!

The ingredients
The ingredients

Gin and Sin

  • 1 1/2 oz. Gin
  • 1 oz. Orange juice
  • 1 oz. Lemon juice
  • 1/2 tsp. Grenadine or Cranberry juice
  • Fresh cranberries

In a shaker half-filled with ice cubes, combine all of the ingredients. Shake well. Strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a few cranberries.

2014-04-06 19.10.08

But, either I made it wrong or it’s just not that good. D thought it tasted like cough syrup. I thought it was much too sour. Maybe the lemons were too tart? Maybe the orange was sour? I don’t know, but this was the first time I’ve made a cocktail and not liked the end result. When I try it again, I will use a sweet lemon and use less of its juice, more orange juice and maybe some cranberry simple syrup, something with a lot more sweet in it, than just juice or a splash of grenadine.

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