Herbs and Spices

— No. 109 —

Manly Deeds Womanly Words

Beer cock­tails are a pop­u­lar trend right now. As you may have noticed from my events, when sum­mer comes around I like to focus my cre­ative juices on a few beer cock­tail recipes. This one stood out from the rest. If you think you’re get­ting off easy on the alco­hol per­cent­age, don’t fool your­self. This cock­tail packs a man­ly suck­er punch. It’s sneaky, hid­den by all those pret­ty flo­ral and herbal tones. This is exact­ly why I named the cock­tail …

— No. 108 —

Justice For All

Jus­tice For All is a cock­tail I was com­mis­sioned to cre­ate and serve for a Baltimore/DC adver­tis­ing fir­m’s client par­ty. This recipe is a twist on the clas­sic Side­car. I ramped up the fla­vor pro­file and added my own per­son­al touch with a home­made hon­ey syrup that fea­tures notes of chamomile, clove and black pep­per­corn. To bal­ance the addi­tion­al sweet­ness I also includ­ed a bit­ter­ing-agent in Mon­tene­gro Amaro. Side Note: Wash­ing­ton D.C.‘s mot­to is “Jus­tice For All”, so it seemed …

— 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 …

— No. 86 —

Lolita

  • 2 oz vod­ka
  • 1/2 oz hon­ey syrup (1:1)
  • 1 oz fresh­ly juiced toma­to
  • 2 water­mel­on chunks for mud­dling
  • 3 basil leaves for mud­dling
  • Cou­ple dash­es of bal­sam­ic vine­gar
  • Gar­nish with a cher­ry toma­to and a basil leaf