Cocktail for southern-style brunch?

[amccomb]

Hello!

I'm doing monthly brunches for a group of friends, and we all like a light cocktail with brunch to start the day out right.

The next brunch will be more southern-themed, more breakfast-y, and kind of heavy with grits, biscuits and gravy, hamsteaks, etc.

Do you have any suggestions for a couple of cocktails to serve with this meal? I might do a cajun-style Bloody Mary, but I wanted something lighter and maybe fruity or frothy for the guests who don't like tomato juice.

Thanks!!

[Mayhaw Man]

Hello!

I'm doing monthly brunches for a group of friends, and we all like a light cocktail with brunch to start the day out right.

The next brunch will be more southern-themed, more breakfast-y, and kind of heavy with grits, biscuits and gravy, hamsteaks, etc. 

Do you have any suggestions for a couple of cocktails to serve with this meal?  I might do a cajun-style Bloody Mary, but I wanted something lighter and maybe fruity or frothy for the guests who don't like tomato juice. 

Thanks!!

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As a veteran, lifelong, 45 years worth, of these things-you only need three things to drink:

Milk Punch (you can use brandy, but you'll mostly see bourbon-and, if at all possible, serve in silver beakers-rent some if you have to-but most of the people I know got them when they got married and have added on over the years)

Spicy Bloody Marys (tall collins glasses for these, or better yet, big honking water glasses)

Mimosa's-Champagne flutes

That's all you need. Regardless of socio-economic status, once you clear the firmly entrenched middle class and move your way up, that's what you'll see over and over again. There will be beer and white wine available, but, you don't even really need it.

[Chris Amirault]

Brooks, is this recipe from cocktaildb a respectable version of the Milk Punch?

[Mayhaw Man]

This is more like it, but my Mom, who I just emailed for the actual recipe, iirc, uses milk and half and half in equal proportions-and it's almost always bourbon-Old Grandad. Also, over the rocks is the way that I have always seen them served. I don't think that I have ever seen one up.

Also, one nice thing about this drink, other than the fact that it's delicious, is that you can make them ahead of time and have the stuff cooling in the ice box-to serve-if you don't have a bartender (which, generally, is what happens here), you can just put the mix in a large silver pitcher with some nutmeg in a nice shaker and call it a day. It's easy.

And, really, the things are sublime and, when consumed over good conversation and an equally as good meal, deadly. They can make for very short afternoons.

In the town where I grew up, we used to call that condition, "The Garfield Flu"-named after a very popular, and still active but getting older, private bartender. He has a very heavy hand, that guy, but I loved him because, among his other talents, he could slip you a drink when your parents weren't looking better than anyone on Earth.

When I hear from Mama I'll post the recipe.

[ludja]

Milk Punch was the classic I also thought of when seeing the title of this thread. Make sure you have some whole nutmeg to freshly grate over the top. Yum.

Two other lighter drinks of New Orleans fame that are also nice at brunch are the Ramos Gin Fizz and the Absinthe Suisse. They both incorporate egg whites and orange flower water and are a nice frothy drink.

There is a whole thread on the ins and outs of making the Ramos Gin Fizz and here is a recipe for the Absinthe Suiisse: click

(Note that the traditional liqueur for absinthe in New Orleans is Herbsaint but you can substitute Pernod or Ricard as well.)

I saw a less traditional but nonetheless interesting sounding drink in "Frank Stitt's Southern Table" cookbook. They call it an Alabama Sunset. You muddle some fresh blackberries and sugar together and let them macerate for a bit in a shaker. Add some brandy and strain some into a champagne flute. Slolwy top with champagne.

Edited June 9, 2006 by ludja (log)

[zilla369]

Ladies Love Mint Juleps.

[Megan Blocker]

Bellini's. I prefer those to Mimosa's in a major way. I serve them at my Southern friend's bridal shower, and they were a huge hit.

[Kent Wang]

Green Pastures, an old Southern restaurant here in Austin, does a version of milk punch with vanilla ice cream instead of -- or in addition to -- the milk. It's pretty darn good.