Category Archives: recipes

Recipes from the Morning Brew 5/14/13

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Welcome Morning Brew viewers! Here are the simple cocktail recipes I made on the show this morning:

Gin Rickey

  • in a glass full of ice, add:
  • 1 1/2 oz gin (I used Wheeler’s from Santa Fe Spirits)
  • top with club soda
  • and the juice and shell of 1/2 a lime

Whiskey Sour

  • in a cocktail shaker, add:
  • 2 oz whiskey (I used Jack Daniel’s)
  • 1 oz lemon juice
  • 2 tsp sugar
  • shake vigorously with ice, strain into a glass filled with ice
  • garnish with 2 cherries

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Art in the Age SAGE

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art in the age sage in bloom cocktail

SAGE is one of 4 small-batch liquors that Philadelphia-based Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction produces, including ROOT, SNAP, and RHUBARB liqueurs as well. SAGE is a tough one to categorize, as it’s basically a juniper-less, sage-heavy gin, a base for a more herbal martini maybe.

SAGE, then, is a unique bottle for your home bar. If gin is not a liquor you enjoy, SAGE may give you a fresh-tasting and suitable alternative. For gin lovers, SAGE has a pretty distinct flavor, so give it a taste and let me know what you think. I used SAGE in this cocktail, which is a refreshing sipper for a spring garden party:

In Bloom (by Greg Mays)

  • 2 oz SAGE
  • 1/2 oz Royal Rose: Rose Syrup
  • 3/4 oz lemon juice
  • shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass
  • garnish with a lemon wedge

 

Breaking Bad: The Cocktail

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breaking bad cocktail

I was talking with someone from out of town recently, and they asked if Breaking Bad has given Albuquerque a bad name, y’know, since it’s a TV show about drugs, drug dealers, and violence, and since it proudly mentions that Albuquerque is the place that all of this is happening.

I snickered in my response: Breaking Bad has actually brought a strange local pride to Albuquerque, not shame. There are spas that sell “Bathing Bad” bath salts and soaps. A local donut store has their own Breaking Bad donuts. Local confectioner The Candy Lady sells little baggies of blue rock candy, in fact, they’re the company that made the props for the TV show.

It’s about time that we (Albuquerque) came up with our own Breaking Bad Cocktail. This is a simple recipe provided that you can find some candy “blue meth.” While you prepare to make the drink, crush the candy with a big knife butt just like Tuco Salamanca. Then using lemon juice, rim an old fashioned glass with the crushed candy.

breaking bad cocktail

In Albuquerque, Tequila is the second-best selling spirit (just behind vodka), so we should certainly use tequila as the base. Here’s the recipe, which is a Tequila Sour with the addition of blue meth candy. That makes it break bad, right?

Breaking Bad Cocktail (by Greg Mays)

  • fill a “blue meth” rimmed old fashioned glass with ice
  • in a shaker add:
  • 2 oz tequila
  • 3/4 oz lemon juice
  • 1/4 oz simple syrup
  • shake with ice and strain into the old fashioned glass

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Smirnoff Sorbet Light

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smirnoff sorbet light vodkas recipes

Low-calorie liquor is a big deal these days. From the multimillion dollar Skinny Girl empire down to the traditional liquor brands, it seems low-cal may be the “what’s next” after flavored vodkas. Smirnoff has introduced 3 flavors of low-calorie vodka recently to the market and dubbed it Sorbet Light.

Is it sweet? Yes. Does it taste like sorbet? Yes. Is it good? Yeah, I think so. For comparison purposes, 1 ounce of Smirnoff (the red label one) is 70 calories. An ounce of Sorbet Light is around 50 calories. So you’re looking at a 30% drop in calories overall. Each of the flavors makes for some good sweet cocktails, and I made the following drinks with Smirnoff’s recipes to try them out (pictured above).

Light Tropical Martini

  • 1 1/2 oz Smirnoff Sorbet Light Mango Passion Fruit
  • 1 1/2 oz coconut water
  • 1 oz pineapple juice
  • shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass

Light Lemon Mojito

  • add the following to an old fashioned glass:
  • 1 1/2 oz Smirnoff Sorbet Light Lemon
  • 3/4 oz lemon juice
  • 10 mint leaves
  • stir, fill the glass with crushed ice and stir more
  • top with club soda
  • garnish with a lemon wedge and mint sprig

Light RazPom Cosmopolitan

  • 1 1/2 oz Smirnoff Sorbet Light Raspberry Pomegranate
  • 2 oz cranberry juice
  • 1/4 oz lime juice
  • shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass
  • garnish with a lime wheel

Casa Noble Tequila

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With spring just starting to warm up and Cinco de Mayo on the horizon, that means it’s tequila season! I’m working hard to dig up more classic recipes with tequila because I’m pretty limited in what I can make, which is usually Margaritas with the blancos, Old Fashioneds with the reposados or añejos, or drinking the good añejos neat in a snifter.

Casa Noble is a 100% agave tequila (the only kind you should buy) that’s $40 in a sexy, thick hand-blown glass bottle with an shiny pewter stopper. Backed by Carlos Santana, Casa Noble is available in the usual varieties: unaged silver (which Casa Noble calls Crystal), “rested” resposado, and “old” añejo, as well as some high end premium single-barrel varieties.

If you taste it neat, Casa Noble Crystal begins with the initial, familiar blanco tequila smell – a little punchy, a little sour – but as you sip it, it’s very smooth with a fresh, grassy, roasted taste. It goes well in this classic tequila recipe:

Tequardo

  • 1 oz tequila
  • 1 oz rum
  • 1 oz orange juice
  • 1/4 oz triple sec
  • shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass
  • garnish with an orange twist

 

Tallarico Vodka

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Tallarico Vodka is a new entry into the premium vodka market.  It’s sold in a tall, black bottle that fades to clear at the bottom to give you a peek at the vodka inside. Tallarico is distilled from rye and wheat, and for the whiskey lovers out there, that often translates to spice and sweet. Sounds good so far, right?

Tallarico is a flavorful vodka, sold for $45 a bottle and distilled in the U.S. Spice is the primary taste, and because of this, a rye-like but un-woody vodka is a fun alternative to use in your cocktails instead of rye whiskey. Tallarico tastes good on the rocks, and while alcohol burn is almost non-existent, the rye spice gives it a good bite.

I took a recipe that I normally use rye whiskey in and replaced it with Tallarico. I ended up with a very good cocktail, a crystal-clear Old Fashioned is incredibly cool looking, and this drink really works with the “premium” branding of Tallarico.

Vodka Old Fashioned

  • in an old fashioned glass, add:
  • 1 1/2 tsp simple syrup
  • 3 dashes of orange bitters (this helps to keep the drink crystal-clear)
  • 2 oz Tallarico vodka
  • stir briefly
  • add a single, large ice chunk (2″ or larger)
  • stir again until well-chilled
  • garnish with an orange peel and a cherry

 

Portland Potato Vodka

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akdov telmig

It shouldn’t be a shock to hear me say that I’ve enjoyed tasting the products that Eastside Distilling in Portland makes. From whiskies to rums, they’ve all proved to be excellent liquors. My expectations, then, were pretty high when I tasted Portland Potato Vodka.

Many folks assume that potatoes are the most common base for making vodka, but it’s actually grains like wheat or corn that are most often used. Potato vodkas like Karlsson’s (an advertiser at Simple Cocktails) are considered more “boutique” than your typical vodkas. I’ve tried 3 potato vodkas at this point, and they have a common earthiness to them and are occasionally herbal or minty.

Portland Potato ($23 retail) is pleasantly mild without a harsh alcohol bite. There is a very slight earthy scent that is followed by a nice, fresh, sweet finish. The flavor is full and it finishes clean and flavorless, like you’d expect from a quality vodka. I used PPV in Ed Wood’s favorite cocktail, the Vodka Gimlet, or as he called it, the “Akdov Telmig”:

Akdov Telmig

  • 2 oz vodka
  • 3/4 oz lime juice
  • 1/2 oz simple syrup
  • shake and serve up or on the rocks
  • garnish with a lime wheel

Lovoka

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lovoka caramel liqueur

Lovoka is a caramel liqueur from South Africa that’s launching this year in the United States. Arriving in an aluminum bottle that reminds me of a bicycle flask, Lovoka (la-vah-cah) fills a pretty sparse niche – I can only think of one more brand of caramel liqueur on the market. “Serve chilled” is the instruction on the bottle, so if you store it in the fridge or freezer, the aluminum with frost up nicely.

Taste-wise, Lovaka is nice and sweet, just as you’d expect it to be. There’s a lot of opportunity to make some cocktails with it – stir it into a White Russian, mix with S’mores Vodka, or add a shot to a cup of coffee or a pint of Guinness. I made this simple cocktail with it (pictured above):

Betty Rubble (by Greg Mays)

Lovoka will be available this Spring in the U.S., starting in California, for $28 a bottle.

SilverCoin Tequila

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silver coin tequila with cocktail

SilverCoin is the first tequila available from Santa Fe Tequila Company. Made from 100% blue agave and sold in a hearty hand-blown bottle, this tequila is available in about 6 states right now. SilverCoin Silver (unaged) is a quality tequila with lots of flavor, a very clean taste, and a fresh finish.

I have been a bit stuck lately with tequila. Using it for either Margaritas or shots, I haven’t had much success making other tequila cocktails until I got a copy of the Café Royal Cocktail Book (Amazon link). I found a tequila and gin cocktail that has a surprisingly great flavor combination. Here’s the recipe:

Señorita

  • 1 oz tequila
  • 1 oz gin
  • 1 oz lemon juice
  • a dash of grenadine
  • shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass
  • garnish with a lemon wedge