Featured Issues

— 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. 123 —

Hidden Charms

This cock­tail is named after one of my favorite Howl­in’ Wolf songs Hid­den Charms. It’s the Nux Wal­nut Liqueur, how­ev­er, that’s the hid­den charm in this recipe. It’s hard not to fall in love with the com­bi­na­tion of wal­nut and whisky. I usu­al­ly enjoy this smokey lit­tle trea­sure dur­ing the cold­er months, but don’t let that stop you from sip­ping one when sum­mer comes back around. Recipe 1 3/4 oz blend­ed scotch whisky 1/2 oz Carpano Anti­ca Sweet Ver­mouth 1/2 oz …

— No. 122 —

A Sound & Pristine Health

It’s no secret that amaro and liqueurs like Zuc­ca have been con­sumed for their med­i­c­i­nal prop­er­ties. Zuc­ca’s fea­tured ingre­di­ent rhubarb has been known to be used in medieval pre­scrip­tions and is the inspi­ra­tion behind this cock­tail’s name. In Mac­beth (Act V. Scene III), Mac­beth says to his doc­tor: “If thou coudst, doc­tor, cast the water of my land, find her dis­ease and purge it to a sound and pris­tine health, I would applaud thee to the very echo, that should applaud again. …

— No. 121 —

Strega

Hal­loween is just around the cor­ner, so what bet­ter liquor to fea­ture than Stre­ga (Ital­ian for witch). Leg­end has it that the town of Ben­even­to, where Stre­ga has been made since 1860, was the meet­ing ground of all the witch­es of the world. I keep pic­tur­ing a gag­gle of witch­es sit­ting around a bub­bling caul­dron, cack­ling and stir­ring the 70 ghoul­ish ingre­di­ents that make up this liquor. Beyond the con­nec­tion to Hal­loween, You’ve got to love the tra­di­tion. Today Stre­ga is …

— No. 120 —

Suze

Suze Gen­tiane Liqueur is a bit­ter aper­i­tif that’s been pro­duced in France since 1889. Although, I did hear this lat­est recipe has been toned down a bit for the mod­ern con­sumer. It’s cre­ator, Fer­nand Moureaux, cen­tered this liqueur around the fla­vor from yel­low gen­tian root. The wild gen­tian is har­vest­ed from the moun­tains of the Jura and Auvergne regians. Gen­tian root is the main ingre­di­ent in bit­ters and is the main cul­prit for the bit­ter prop­er­ties. Oth­er notable fla­vors are vanil­la and …

— No. 118 —

Zucca

Zuc­ca’s bit­ter­sweet fla­vor pro­file is some­where between Cam­pari and Amaro with a high­light of smokey, earthy, wood tones. So con­sid­er this when you are com­ing up with cock­tail recipes to uti­lize this liqueur in. When sip­ping you may detect the fla­vors of gen­tian, car­damom, vanil­la, smoke and a hint of cit­rus.

— No. 117 —

The Lady Detective

After a late night stake­out it’s not uncom­mon for a dame to let her hair down and knock back a prop­er cock­tail before end­ing the night at the down­town flop house. It’s no mys­tery that rum pairs well with coconut, gin­ger, lime and mint. If you weren’t aware, well I guess the jig is up now. Recipe 2 oz El Dora­do 12 year rum 3/4 oz fresh lime juice 1 oz gin­ger syrup (1:1) 6 to 8 mint leaves Top …

— 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 …