Mint

— No. 126 —

Old Faithful

Are you hav­ing peo­ple over for the Raven’s game this week­end? The last thing you’ll want to be doing while your Ravens are tak­ing it to the Patri­ots in the AFC Cham­pi­onship game is mak­ing drinks for every­one. The best way to keep your guests hap­py and liquored up while main­tain­ing fives on your seat is to pre­pare a punch. I got this recipe from Dan Sear­ing’s book The Punch Bowl. The Old Faith­ful is a recipe by Gina Cher­se­vani …

— No. 124 —

El Comediante

Kitchen Kon­fi­dence recent­ly post­ed a won­der­ful arti­cle fea­tur­ing my cock­tail El Come­di­ante. Kitchen Kon­fi­dence comes high­ly rec­om­mend­ed. It’s an excel­lent source of inspi­ra­tion. This cock­tail is a recipe I cre­at­ed for the Nicaraguan restau­rant La Fin­ca y El Mar. I recent­ly went down to their beau­ti­ful restau­rant and trained their bar staff and cre­at­ed their cock­tail menu. El Come­di­ante has been one of their most pop­u­lar cock­tails to date. Recipe 2 oz red bell pep­per infused rum 1/2 oz gin­ger syrup …

— No. 116 —

El Matrimonio Clandestino

If you fol­low my Twit­ter or Face­book you may know that I recent­ly went down to Ran­cho San­tana, a Nicaraguan resort, to con­sult on their bar, train their bar staff and cre­ate their cock­tail menu. The El Mat­ri­mo­nio Clan­des­ti­no is a cock­tail I cre­at­ed for Ran­cho San­tana’s restau­rant and bar, La Fin­ca y El Mar. Cre­at­ing drinks for this client was a good oppor­tu­ni­ty to explore the cur­rent trend of low alco­hol con­tent recipes. Con­sid­er this recipe for your next …

— No. 115 —

Mint Julep

Call me what you will, but I shake my mint julep. I don’t like my straw get­ting clogged with all that mint. It hin­ders the drink­ing expe­ri­ence. So this is how I make my julep. Recipe 2 1/2 oz over­proof bour­bon (Noah’s Mill) 3/4 oz sim­ple syrup (1:1) 12 mud­dled mint leaves Crushed ice 1 mint sprig for gar­nish Dust top with pow­dered sug­ar 1 small drink­ing straw Add the sim­ple syrup in a shak­er tin. Then add 12 mint …

— No. 114 —

Bonne Fée

Ah, to live the bohemi­an lifestyle, sip­ping a Bonne Fée and lis­ten­ing to the lit­tle birds chirp away in my gar­den. Maybe I’ll reread my favorite book and smoke a hand rolled cig­a­rette. Maybe I’ll meet up with friends for mac­chi­atos and polit­i­cal­ly dri­ven con­ver­sa­tion. Maybe, but first the Bonne Fée. Recipe 1 oz Absente 1 oz water 1/2 oz lemon juice 3/4 oz house made grena­dine 1/2 oz Cam­pari 6–8 mud­dled mint leaves Top with 1 oz of club …

— No. 110 —

Ginger Rogers

The Gin­ger Rogers is the per­fect pool­side cock­tail. It’s refresh­ing and it’s easy to make. Not to men­tion mint, gin, gin­ger, and gin­ger ale are per­fect com­pli­ments. Ide­al­ly you’d want to use a collins glass for this cock­tail, but when you’re pool­side you’ll take what you can get. This recipe was cre­at­ed at Port­land’s Zefiro in 1995 by Mar­co­v­al­do Dionysos. It gained its pop­u­lar­i­ty at Absinthe Brasserie and Bar in San Fran­cis­co where it was one of the most ordered drinks. …

— No. 107 —

Trader Vic’s Mai Tai

It’s get­ting hot out, so I’m shak­ing up a Trad­er Vic’s Mai Tai. Before I get into the recipe there are a few things we should prob­a­bly dis­cuss first. The Mai Tai comes with its fair share of dra­ma. First, this clas­sic cock­tail has been slaugh­tered so many times that most patrons would­n’t rec­og­nize the clas­sic ver­sion if you put it down in front of them. You know what I’m talk­ing about. That neon pink con­coc­tion dom­i­nat­ed by bot­tled pre-mix­es, …

— No. 105 —

Mojito

Like the Mai Tai and the Man­hat­tan, there are mul­ti­ple schools of thought on build­ing the per­fect Moji­to. If you’re look­ing to learn the old method of mix­ing the Moji­to direct­ly in the glass, check out the Havana Club web­site for some inter­est­ing videos. They’ll show you what you need to know. As for me, I don’t like a mint sal­ad in my drink. I’ll take the fla­vor, and leave the flot­sam behind. So, for this post, we’re going to make a …

— No. 88 —

The O’Hara

Ele­gant and time­less. The embod­i­ment of Scar­lett O’Hara from Gone with the Wind… not to men­tion its beau­ti­ful scar­let hue. Next time you throw on Gone with the Wind dim the lights and shake up The O’Hara. 1 3/4 oz Wood­ford Reserve Bour­bon 1/2 oz Bene­dic­tine 1/2 oz fresh lemon juice 1/2 oz home­made black­ber­ry syrup 1/4 oz Fer­net Bran­ca 5–6 choco­late mint leaves 1 choco­late mint sprig for gar­nish Place all ingre­di­ents in a cock­tail shak­er except the 5–6 mint leaves and …