The original James Bond drink
The perfect Friday night clink-clink
It’s a little lillet and vodka and gin
Pour it in a pitcher - add ice - and begin
Not shaken, but stirred
More than one and your vision is definitely blurred.
1 ounce vodka
2 ounces gin
1/2 ounce lillet blanc
lemon peel
Combine all ingredients in a cocktail pitcher. Add ice and stir gently. Strain into two cocktail glasses and garnish with a lemon peel.
It’s Fourth of July weekend! My favorite weekend of the year. Clearly it calls for a special beverage. I made this one booze free because it’s the perfect drink for a shot of vodka, if you so choose, but also then my kids will stop bugging me that I make all these fancy drinks that they can’t drink. Annoying.
4 cups watermelon, cubed
2 cups lemonade
The zest of one lemon
Put everything in a blender together and blend until smooth! Serve over ice. Vodka or rum is optional.
I made this punch for a bridal shower I hosted for my cousin. It’s light and refreshing and just the tiniest bit boozy. It’s also great because you can make a big batch and sit back while guests serve themselves. I served it with tiny little melon balls on top. You could also slice the melon, use a cucumber slice, or just skip it all together!
2 tablespoons sugar
1 honeydew, sliced
1 cucumber, sliced
750 mL white wine
1/2 cup vodka
1/2 cup cointreau
1/2 cup mint
2 cups club soda
STEP 1
Blend together the sugar, honeydew, cucumber until smooth. Strain through cheese cloth.
STEP 2
Add vodka, wine, cointreau, and mint to the honeydew ‘juice’. Let rest overnight.
STEP 3
To serve, remove the mint leaves and add the club soda. Garnish with melon balls!
Daiquiris are now all frilly and sweet.
But the original is much more of a treat.
Invented in Cuba in 1898 when an American throwing a party ran out of gin.
Cuban rum was swapped into the punch and made it a win!
The drink turned up at the Army Navy Club in DC
where it became a favorite of Hemingway and Kennedy.
Overtime, the drink got blended and topped with frills
but I recommend the traditional, shaken and chilled.
1 ounce run
1/2 ounce simple syrup
3/4 ounce fresh squeezed lime juice
Pour all of the ingredients into a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake vigweously. Strain into a glass and garnish with lime wedges.
An amazing drink from the Soggy Dollar Bar. A hair of the dog cocktail from a swim up bar. Tr additionally made with Prusser’s Rum, one sip evokes sounds of a steel drum. Made with juice and coconut cream, it’s like a Pina colada without the sugar extreme. Shake one up and bottom’s up! It’s sunshine and sand, all in a cup.
2 1/2 ounces run
4 ounces pineapple juice
2 ounces orange juice
1 ounce coconut cream
Pour all ingredients into a cocktail shaker. Shake well over ice until combined. Strain into a glass filled with fresh ice and top with an umbrella, pineapple, lime wedges and anything else you can think of!
In the era of prohibition, gin was terrible. It was made in bathtubs and buckets and could have actually been poison. In order to cover up the taste of the terrible gin, a bartender added honey and lemon and shook it up - like a martini only so it was palatable.
There are lots of stories about where the cocktail came from and most people like to say Paris. HOWEVER - prohibition was in the US not in France so how would the above explanation, which is the common explanation, make any sense at all? Here’s the better story that ties things together:
Do you know who Margaret Brown is? Molly Brown was traveling alone on the Titanic when it hit the iceberg. She loaded passengers on to lifeboats before she was finally persuaded onto one herself. Following the sinking, Ms. Brown organized the first class passengers to secure funding and necessities for the second and third class passengers who had survived. Her passion for philanthropy started long before she set foot on the Titanic and continued long after.
Here’s how she ties into the Bee’s Knees. The Unsinkable Molly Brown was on the Titanic because she needed to leave Paris, where she was visiting with her daughter, to get home to a sick grandchild. In the years following the sinking, Ms. Brown continued to travel to Paris - and as the wealthy woman she was - she stayed at the Ritz. The Ritz claims it originated the cocktail in 1921. However, another story says that Ms. Brown, the strong and independent woman that she was, brought the drink to Paris and had the bartender shake her up one. Ms. Brown bringing the drink to Paris makes way more sense - gin was readily available in Paris and would have been much more delicious than what was available back home in Denver.
Now that gin is delicious, we don’t need the honey and lemon to cover up the flavor. I chose a gin that has the flavors highlighted by the lemon and the honey serves to smooth out the lemon. I also chose this Empress Gin because it’s blue and turns this pink/purple when mixed with the lemon! Empress gin is one of the coolest you can have on your bar cart. It stays blue or gets a little more blue when mixed with basic ingredients (like soda water) but gets pink-y when mixed with anything acidic! It’s almost impossible to find cool colored liquors that aren’t mixed with weird ingredients - this one gets it’s purple color from the Butterfly Pea Flower. And it’s delish!
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon hot water
2 ounces Butterfly Pea Flower Gin
3/4 ounce fresh lemon juice
In a cocktail shaker, stir together honey and hot water to melt the honey. Add gin and lemon juice. Stir a little - then add ice to the shaker. Shake well and strain into two cocktail glasses. Garnish with a twist of lemon.
When I was a kid I drank V8 like it was juice. When I grew up and discovered you could combine it with vodka and garnish with my very favorite pickled vegetables, it was like a match made in heaven. I’ve had my share of regular Bloody Marys and I have not really had a bad one yet. Some mediocre ones - some weak ones - but never a bad one. If you want my classic Bloody Mary, click here.
But then I heard of a rumor of people who don’t like tomatoes. Can you believe that’s a thing? Well, if you’re reading this, then possibly you are one of those people? I can’t imagine not loving tomatoes - especially when they are fresh. But if you mix them with vodka, how can they be bad ever?
Anyway… I’m being accommodating and it turns out these are EPIC so I’m not worried about how you don’t like tomatoes.
Roasting the jalapeño and tomatillos is an extra step, but I highly recommend it - actually require it in the recipe - because it makes the drink so much better.
I also grilled some shrimp for the top because who doesn’t love something a little extra? And these shrimp are EXTRA. Don’t forget to share if you make these! I can’t wait to see what you do.
makes 4 large cocktails
8 tomatillos
1 jalapeño
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt
1/2 cup cilantro
1 cucumber
1 lime, juiced
1 teaspoon horseradish
2 teaspoons worchestershire
2 teaspoon Old Bay
8 ounces vodka
garnishes like olives, celery, or grilled shrimp
STEP 1
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Peel the husk off the tomatillos and slice them in half. Spread them out on a baking sheet with the jalapeño. Drizzle oil on top and sprinkle with salt. Pop in the oven and let roast about 10 minutes until toasty.
STEP 2
Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Don’t forget to pour any liquid from the roasted tomatillos into the blender too.
STEP 3
Combine equal parts vodka and tomatillo juice in a glass. Add ice and garnish!
A Classic Italian cocktail good enough for Bond? You know that’s something of which I’ll be fond. Originating in Milan at the Campari Bar, it’s a cocktila who’s name is bizzare. Bitter Campari is something American’s don’t love - but it’s something I’m very fond of! Equal parts Campari and vermouth & topped with a soda splash. It’s a perfect summer cocktail, mixed in a dash!
1 1/2 ounces Campari
1 1/2 ounces red Vermouth
soda water
twist of lemon
In a highball glass, combine Campari and Vermouth. Stir gently. Add ice then top with soda water. Garnish with a twist of lemon. Cin cin.
Just when you think a perfect Bloody Mary doesn’t exist - I figured it out. I actually think it’s harder to make a bad Bloody Mary instead of a good one, but once I undertook making my own Bloody Mary mix - I think I cracked into the best Bloody Mary ever.
The history of the Bloody Mary is really kind of hilarious. There are a million stories. The most likely originates at Harry’s Bar in Paris where a bartender named Fernand Petiot conceived of the cocktail and named it for the ruthless rule of Queen Mary I of England in the mid 1550’s. The tomato juice represents the blood shed, the vodka and spices mimic the brutal means the queen used. He devised it as a breakfast cocktail - but it was simple back then, just tomato juice and vodka with a dash of Worcestershire.
The funniest story of it’s origin is that Hemingway was in Harry’s Bar just before he got married. Hemingway ordered a drink mixed with juice so no one would smell the vodka on his breath - so tomato juice was added. While he was drinking, he was muttering “Bloody Mary,” the name of the girlfriend he was giving up in favor of marriage. Hilarious. For loads of reasons but the number one being, would Hemingway really give up a girl because of marriage?
See what you think about my best Bloody Mary and tell me if you think it’s named for a cruel queen or a future potential mistress.
makes 4 drinks
2 1/2 tablespoons worchestershire
juice of 1/2 a lime
1 tablespoon olive brine
1 teaspoon crushed celery seed
1 teaspoon horseradish
16 ounces tomato juice
10 dashes tabasco (more or less to taste)
8 ounces vodka
olives, celery, pickled beans, cucumber, lime wedges, bacon, pickled onions, and anything else you love!
STEP 1
In a pitcher, mix together Worcestershire sauce, lime juice, olive brine, celery seed, and horseradish. Pour in tomato juice and stir to combine. Add tabasco to taste.
STEP 2
Fill four highball glasses with ice. Split the vodka amongst the glasses (2 ounces) and top with tomato mixture (4 ounces). Garnish to your hearts content! Add more tabasco or lime wedges as needed.
I always thought the espresso martini was super bougie, but now I know it was made for Kate Moss in 1983, I’m more convinced than ever that this is the bougie drink for me. She famously asked the bartender to “wake me up and f*#k me up.” A pull of espresso and a shot of vodka & it was bottoms up! The 90’s resurgence is back in a serious way and it brought with it a cocktail that’s here to stay. Dotted on top with three coffee beans; health, wealth, and happiness is what that means. Cheers to the closest Kate Moss came to food and cheers to a drink that’s really good.
2 ounces vodka
1.5 ounces espresso
.5 ounce coffee liquer
Pour all ingredients in a cocktail shaker. Fill with ice and shake well. Strain into a martini glass and top with three coffee beans. Cin cin!
