Post Your New Cocktail Creations Here

[cinghiale]

For you baseball fans out there, the Al Hrabowski. But since few in my circle got the joke, it's now called:

The Mad Hungarian

4 parts Absinthe (I've usually got the 30-mg stuff on hand; otherwise, Absente)

1 part Hippokratész (a Benedictine-like Hungarian liqueur that's gotten damn hard to find in the Philadelphia region)

Shake over ice. Strain into -- well, I don't know whatcha call 'em, sorta small, Collins-like glass, bigger than a cordial glass but shape is important.

Drink sets up in three layers of green, in a way reminiscent of those 70s lime Jello "specialty desserts" that Cosby was hawking early in this career with them.

I like the way the sweetness of the liqueur cuts the harshness of the Absinthe, kinda spicy-sweet. I caution about over-indulging, yet on more than one occasion, guests have required assistance upon leaving. It apparently also makes for good dreams.

[sadistick]

When it comes to cocktails, I typically wont follow any recipe, but just go with what looks appealing, and alter as needed.

Last night was a perfect example of a drink that came out great on first go!

It consisted of:

1 part Campari

1 part Alize (Mango/passion fruit)

2 parts Soda Water

splash of grapefruit juice

and about 1/3 oz of simple syrup

Really tastey, not too sweet, not too bitter!

Feel free to post some of your inventions

[GordonCooks]

This is one we made up last year

The Seattle Slew

1 oz Rum

4 oz Cola

1 horseshoe to garnish

very good!

[Rebecca263]

3 ounces the darkest rum you can find, wherever you are

2 Tablespoons raw sugar

3 Tablespoons fresh lime juice

Mix it all up in a glass,(no shaker) add ice, stir, drink, ask for a spoon to get at the sugar on the bottom of the glass, wait a few minutes, repeat.

Excellent at boring art functions. Even more excellent at fascinating ones.

For a variation:

3 ounces of that dark rum

2 Tablespoons of that raw sugar

4 ounces of whole milk

Same treatment, same effect.

[M.X.Hassett]

Old Overholt rye infused with violet Earl Grey, a cube of crushed raw dark sugar, hit of bitters. This has been the old fashioned of preference the last few days.

Edited January 20, 2006 by M.X.Hassett (log)

[raxelita]

Old Overholt rye infused with violet Earl Grey,  a cube of crushed raw dark sugar, hit of bitters. This has been the old fashioned of preference the last few days.

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Did you heat to infuse, or just let the tea hang out with the rye for awhile?

I've been enjoying Champagne Negronis as an aperitif. Half ounce each of campari & sweet vermouth, then fill the glass with cava and garnish with orange twist.

Edited January 20, 2006 by raxelita (log)

[M.X.Hassett]

I just let the tea hang out in a mason jar with the rye for about 20-30 minutes, just so they can chat and get to know each other thus allowing a nice friendship to form.

Edited January 20, 2006 by M.X.Hassett (log)

[eje]

Current new drink I am working on is a version of the Ramos Gin Fizz.

I made a Lemon Grass infused simple syrup last week, and was thinking a Gin Fizz with that, coconut milk, lime and tamarind might be pretty tasty. Based proportions on the Ramos Gin Fizz for two from Joy of Mixology. Am not sure if it is a great cocktail but it is pretty tasty.

I'm experimenting with my new stick blender and am not sure about it, either. It seemed like the foam volume and texture was better with a 60 seconds of manual shaking than with the stick blender.

Thai Fizz

2 oz Gin

1 oz coconut milk

1 raw egg white

3/4 oz lemon grass infused simple syrup

1/2 oz fresh lime juice

1/2 tsp tamarind paste

dash orange flower water

1/2 cup crushed ice

Sparkling Water (selzer, soda...)

Mint Chiffonade

Blend the liquid ingredients together with the ice. Divide the mixture between two champagne flutes, top off with cold sparkling water, and garnish with mint chiffonade.

edited - Forgot the soda water and its not really a fizz without it.

Edited January 21, 2006 by eje (log)

[M.X.Hassett]

I'm experimenting with my new stick blender and am not sure about it, either.  It seemed like the foam volume and texture was better with a 60 seconds of manual shaking than with the stick blender.

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Sounds like a tasty drink. I have never been a fan of the stick blender when it comes to drinks. I have always found shaking to give a better head to the drink, although I do use a stick when making T&Js.

[KatieLoeb]

Old Overholt rye infused with violet Earl Grey,  a cube of crushed raw dark sugar, hit of bitters. This has been the old fashioned of preference the last few days.

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Wow! Sounds great! Nice application of the Earl Grey with Violets, Matt. It's actually good hot with honey too...

BTW - the Calypso tea I got the sample of is very good. I'm going to go back and get more and perhaps inspired by your brilliance, try do some rum infused with the Calypso tea. I think those flavors would be complimentary.

[M.X.Hassett]

BTW - the Calypso tea I got the sample of is very good.  I'm going to go back and get more and perhaps inspired by your brilliance, try do some rum infused with  the Calypso tea.  I think those flavors would be complimentary.

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Yummmm.......The Calypso tea smelt like it would work wonderfully with rum. I am now sipping on a violet Earl Grey infused beefeater gin two parts, 3/4 part Lillet blonde, splash o' bitters.

[biscuit]

I came up with this variation on a Ward Eight:

1 ½-2 oz. Rittenhouse Rye

¾ oz. lemon juice

½ oz. simple syrup

½ oz. pomegranate molasses (not grenadine)

dash Peychauds

Works well with either a flamed lemon peel or a cherry.

[elixirofthetropics]

I've arrived at these cocktails as I've experimented with rum and whiskey. Most of them are simple, and I am not too creative with names.

The Spiced Peach

1 part Dark Rum (Myer's Dark, Gosling's Black Seal, Cruzan Black Strap)

4 parts Orange-Mango Juice

The Peach on the Oak Tree

1 part Whiskey

4 parts Peach Juice

Pina Colada Light

3 parts Cruzan Coconut Rum

8 parts Pineapple Juice

Serve over crushed ice in hurricane glass.

Rum Sour

1 part Heavily-oaked Rum

4 parts Lime-ade

Jamaican Sour

1 part Whiskey

4 parts Lime-ade

Serve over rocks: optional.

Clarksville Flies to Aruba

2 parts Medium or Dark Rum (OR 1 part dark rum and 2 parts Coconut rum)

4 parts Mango Juice

4 parts Orange-Pineapple Juice

1/2 - 1 part Lime Juice

Splash of Grenadine

Serve over crushed ice.

(named for my hometown where I was born and raised)

Holden Beach Sails to Barbados (My own variant of Bajan Rum Punch)

1 part Lime Juice

2 parts Sweetener (sugar, Equal, or Splenda)

2 parts Medium Rum (Mount Gay Eclipse or Appleton Gold)

2 parts Coconut rum

8 parts Water

Use less water if you serve over crushed ice.

(named for the beach to which our family has gone for the past 25+ years.)

Vanilla Coke

3 parts Vanilla Rum (Cruzan Vanilla, Mount Gay Vanilla, or Capt. Morgan Private)

8 parts Coca-Cola

Edited January 23, 2006 by elixirofthetropics (log)

[M.X.Hassett]

I came up with this variation on a Ward Eight:

1 ½-2 oz. Rittenhouse Rye

¾ oz. lemon juice

½ oz. simple syrup

½ oz. pomegranate molasses (not grenadine)

dash Peychauds

Works well with either a flamed lemon peel or a cherry.

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Damn this sounds yummy...........................................Oh my it is just made one real quick, and I think I may have had one last night

[KatieLoeb]

I stand corrected. The lovely aromatic tea I have the sample of is called Cyclone, not Calypso. Calypso must've been the other similar one.

Inspired by M.X.Hassett's tea based infusions, I decided to try something different this evening. This Cyclone tea is akin to a lovely potpourri, but not in a gagging way. Very aromatic and floral, with some tropical notes. I will contact the tea merchant and get a better idea of what's in the blend later. My mind made me go to rum for this infusion, but I only had coconut rum in the house. But I also had some Mae de Ouro Cachaca in the house. So I infused two tablespoons of Cyclone tea in two ounces of cachaca for a couple of hours. Then I created this lovely concoction which I am sipping on right now:

Cyclone Sour

2 oz. Cyclone tea infused Cachaca

1 oz. fresh lemon juice

.75 oz. 1:1 Demerara simple syrup

3 dashes Fee Orange bitters

1/2 a Large egg white

Shake viorously over ice until frothy and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Enjoy!

Delicious! Definitely one of my better efforts of late. Thanks for the inspiration Matt! This one's a keeper.

edited to add:

Cyclone tea = Sencha green tea, violets, marigold, rose petals and orange rinds

[lostmyshape]

wow... great idea to marry a floral tea with cachaca. i often think cachaca is "missing something," and this might do the trick. i'm gonna try this one.

[M.X.Hassett]

Cyclone Sour

2 oz. Cyclone tea infused Cachaca

1 oz. fresh lemon juice

.75 oz. 1:1 Demerara simple syrup

3 dashes Fee Orange bitters

1/2 a Large egg white

Shake viorously over ice until frothy and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.  Enjoy!

Delicious!  Definitely one of my better efforts of late.  Thanks for the inspiration Matt!  This one's a keeper.

edited to add:

Cyclone tea = Sencha green tea, violets, marigold, rose petals and orange rinds

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Looks awesome too.

[KatieLoeb]

wow... great idea to marry a floral tea with cachaca.  i often think cachaca is "missing something," and this might do the trick.  i'm gonna  try this one.

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Actually my thinking was more along the lines that cachaca is less "sharp" than rum and a better/more subtle "blank slate" on which to layer the floral flavors. I think the green tea base is less flavorful and tannic than an Earl Grey or other black tea might be, so I'd go the way Matt did and marry that with gin or a brown liquor that could stand up to it.

The Cyclone tea is sooooo delicious. It smells like a lovely potpourri. I bought it from my local tea shop House of Tea. This is a new product for them and isn't listed on the site yet. But I understand they'll be fully functional for online ordering around 2/1/06 when the site gets updated.

The Cyclone infused cachaca is the bomb. I need to make lots more of it.

[debbiemoose]

I am a novice at cocktail creation, so if this has already been posted, my apologies. And I didn't exactly come up with this. As part of an article I was writing on infusions, I talked with a restaurant bartender who infused gold rum with cinnamon, black peppercorns, vanilla bean and Thai chilis, then mixed the result with pear nectar. I did the infusion at home - for a fifth of gold rum, I used 1/2 vanilla bean, 2 cinnamon sticks (broken up) and about 3 or 4 peppercorns (whole, not crushed). I left out the chilies, because I didn't have them. Took a good 3 weeks to get a good flavor, and it's just gotten better as it has sat. Shake the pear nectar with ice. You might have to strain the rum as you use it if you shake up the debris at the bottom too much. I used the Looza pear nectar from the supermarket.

Any advice for bar tinkerers? I want to come up with a great bloody mary. I plan to try the horseradish infused vodka mentioned earlier. But I'm not crazy about most tomato juices/mixers. Could I puree fresh tomatoes? I had a wasabi bloody mary that was awesome and the tomato juice base definitely was not a mixer - tasted very fresh. How about coating the rims of the glasses with something, like celery salt?

[judiu]

I am a novice at cocktail creation, so if this has already been posted, my apologies. And I didn't exactly come up with this. As part of an article I was writing on infusions, I talked with a restaurant bartender who infused gold rum with cinnamon, black peppercorns, vanilla bean and Thai chilis, then mixed the result with pear nectar. I did the infusion at home - for a fifth of gold rum, I used 1/2 vanilla bean, 2 cinnamon sticks (broken up) and about 3 or 4 peppercorns (whole, not crushed). I left out the chilies, because I didn't have them. Took a good 3 weeks to get a good flavor, and it's just gotten better as it has sat. Shake the pear nectar with ice. You might have to strain the rum as you use it if you shake up the debris at the bottom too much. I used the Looza pear nectar from the supermarket.

Any advice for bar tinkerers? I want to come up with a great bloody mary. I plan to try the horseradish infused vodka mentioned earlier. But I'm not crazy about most tomato juices/mixers.  Could I puree fresh tomatoes? I had a wasabi bloody mary that was awesome and the tomato juice base definitely was not a mixer - tasted very fresh. How about coating the rims of the glasses with something, like celery salt?

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Try using Clamato juice, or mix regular tomato juice with clam juice at about 3:1. Also, beef broth, same ratio. I like my celery salt in the drink itself, but the "rim job"(sorry) is a pretty good idea. Lots of lemon or lime, and maybe a bar-b-cue sauce substituted for Worst. sauce? Maybe that'd be too sweet; a drop of liquid smoke? Oh, a Bloody Maria with tequila instead of vodka. Infuse a decent tequila with horseradish? I'm just throwing out ideas here...

[KatieLoeb]

Infuse a decent tequila with horseradish?

I did this too, just to see what would happen. Since horseradish is part of the aroma flavor profile of tequila it seemed a natural match. It was pretty good. I preferred it as shots between oysters, but a couple of my regular customers bravely guinea pigged for me and said they liked it with the oyster in the tequila as a shot, so it's good either way I guess.

I was going to suggest the very same tomato juice dilutions as judiu. I personally like beef broth and I also prefer V-8 for Bloody Marys over tomato juice. I'd want to dilute the celery salt with a salt-free seasoning blend like Mrs. Dash or similar so that each sip of the drink isn't too overwhelmingly salty. I like the idea though. I'd probably buzz the celery salt and seasoning through a coffee grinder to get a nice evenly textured powder and then rim the glass with Worcestershire sauce and then seasoning. The Lea & Perrins White Worcestershire is a bit milder and might be good for this application.

You can also use Aquavit (a caraway infused vodka) and make Danish Marys. Quite tasty!

[Rob Simmon]

I've posted this recipe before (a sidecar variation), but thought it was worth another mention:

1.5 oz. solera (Spanish) brandy

1 oz. Liquor 43

0.75 oz. lemon juice

shake with ice, garnish with a fat lemon twist

and something I tried last night but needs work:

1.5 oz. scotch (a moderately peaty Highland Park)

1 tsp. warm honey

1 sprig lavender, de-stemmed

dissolve the honey in the scotch, then muddle with lavender.

shake over ice, then strain (with a fine-mesh).

perhaps it would work better as an infusion?

[KatieLoeb]

I posted this over in the Maraschino thread, but since it's a new creation I thought I'd mention it here too:

Red Feather Boa

2.0 oz. Old Overholt Rye

0.5 oz. fresh lemon juice

0.5 oz. Luxardo maraschino

0.25 oz. (or one barspoon) Fee Brothers American Beauty Grenadine

2 dashes bitters

Shake with cracked ice and strain into chilled cocktail glass.

[eje]

May have some folks over to watch the Scorsese's Dylan Documentaries.

Thinking of two cocktails so far:

Tangled up in Blueberries

Creme de Myrtille (Blueberry liqueur)

Lemon Juice

Fees Old Fashioned Bitters

Rye(?)

Hard Rain (Guttering Bush)

Rain Vodka

Peychaud Bitters

Simple Syrup

Flamed Herbsaint wash

First, I will need to make sure doesn't taste too much like blueberry pie. Second I'm imagining to be close to Mr. Wondrich's Delancey but served up. Not sure if I can get Herbsaint to burn without heating it or adding additional high proof liquor. Might be one of those, better concept than actual cocktail things.

[eje]

Tangled up in Blueberries

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Did some experimenting with proportions and base spirits for this one last night. This formulation isn't bad:

1 1/2 oz bourbon

3/4 oz Creme de Myrtille

1/2 oz Lemon Juice

1 dash Fees Bitters

It's pretty sweet; but, if I increase the proportion of base spirit or lemon, the blueberry from the liqueur is completely lost. I'm disappointed with the (lack of) fruit character of the particular Creme liqueur (Verdrenne). Knudsen has a product called "just blueberry" and I think a half ounce of lemon and a half ounce of that in a slightly larger cocktail might punch up the blueberry character.