Category Archives: recipes

UBONs Bloody Mary [+ Giveaway]

ubons bloody mary

The Bloody Mary is THE drink for Sunday brunch. Up until now, I’ve avoided posting a Bloody Mary recipe for one primary reason: they’re not simple. The simplest recipe I’ve found was from The Cocktail Spirit, and it has 9 ingredients: vodka, tomato juice, lemon juice, celery salt, worchestershire sauce, black pepper, horseradish sauce, ancho chili powder, and a celery stalk garnish.

When I want a Bloody Mary, I buy a mix and put vodka in it. I’m generally very cautious about using mixes, though, because many commercial mixes contain nasty goblins like high fructose corn syrup or MSG. Usually, Trader Joe’s mix is the one I go with.

I do think that if care is used in the mixture and it remains natural, a mix can make for the simplest cocktails of all. Which brings us to Ubon’s BBQ Bloody Mary Mix: an all-natural mix that’s made by award-winning Ubon’s (pronounced YOU-bons) of Yazoo, Mississippi. The mix itself is incredibly tasty and it makes a great Bloody Mary, the best one I’ve ever had. The recipe is simple (of course), but make sure to add the vodka first because Ubon’s is thick and it’s easier to mix this way:

Ubon’s Bloody Mary

  • 1 oz of vodka (I used Cathead, also from Mississippi)
  • 4 oz Ubon’s BBQ Bloody Mary Mix
  • garnish with a celery stick, pickle, asparagus, olives, onion, lemon wedge, crab claw, etc.

I’m giving 3 lucky readers 2 bottles each of Ubon’s BBQ Bloody Mary Mix. Just leave a comment below telling me what you drank during the Super Bowl last night and you’ll be entered to win. Drawing will be held on or about February 18, 2013.

Daiquiri

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below deck silver rum and a daiquiri

A Daiquiri is a classic cocktail that’s simple to make: it’s rum, lime juice, and simple syrup. There are several ways to adjust the ratios of those 3 ingredients, but the best recipe I’ve tried is from Portland bartender Jeffery Morgenthaler. It seems fitting to use a Portland rum in this drink, so I used Below Deck Silver from Eastside Distilling. You can also experiment with aged rums like Zacapa.

Daiquiri

  • 2 1/2 oz rum (I used Below Deck Silver)
  • 3/4 oz lime juice
  • 1/2 oz simple syrup
  • shake with ice
  • double strain into a chilled cocktail glass (pour through the shaker and a mesh strainer)
  • lime wheel garnish

Cathead Vodka

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cathead vodka

Cathead is a moderately priced vodka from the state of Mississippi. One dollar of every bottle is given to foundations that support live music, and right on the label it says “Support Live Music.”

Cathead is very smooth and tasty with no alcohol burn, and being U.S. made and very well-priced, it’s a great choice for the liquor cabinet. Cathead’s available primarily in the South for about $20 a bottle, though they’ve recently started distributing to Colorado as well. I used Cathead in a Vodka Sour (pictured above), and you can make it at home:

Vodka Sour

  • 2 oz vodka
  • 1 oz lemon juice
  • 1/2 tsp of powdered sugar
  • shake with ice and strain into a glass
  • garnish with a lemon wedge and cherry

I was surprised at how much I liked the Honeysuckle variety of Cathead, too. It’s slightly lower proof than the standard vodka, and there’s a trace of sweetness to it (which is pretty normal with flavored vodkas). I just had the Honeysuckle on the rocks, all by itself, and it’s a really wonderful late-night or dessert drink. The flavor is fresh, clean, and very natural, all of which make it a welcome contender to a way-too-crowded flavored vodka game.

Death’s Door Gin

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death's door gin

Death’s Door distills gin, vodka, and white whiskey in Wisconsin – their gin winning a silver medal at the 2012 San Francisco World Spirits Competition. This is one of the “cool new American gins,” and I’ve heard great things about it lately.

In contrast to gins which tout their long list of botanicals, Death’s Door uses only three: juniper, coriander, and fennel, all distilled in a wheat base. The bottles are labeled with the particular juniper harvest that goes into the bottle – mine’s 2010. Death’s Door is a London Dry, so juniper is the king in this gin. It’s very straightforward, serious, and unapologetically tied to its short ingredient list, I’d call it the London Dry-est London Dry I’ve tried.

If you prefer softer, complex gins like Hendrick’s, Aviation, or Bluecoat, you may want to pass. This is not a citrusy gin or floral gin, though the straight-ahead juniper makes it a pretty great cocktail base. Try this drink with Death’s Door:

Gentleman’s Club (pictured above)

  • 1 1/2 oz gin
  • 1 oz brandy
  • 1 oz sweet vermouth
  • 1 oz club soda
  • combine in an old fashioned glass, on the rocks

Dandy Candy Cocktail

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candy dandy cocktail

I adapted this recipe from Bulleit’s Facebook page. It’s low-volume and quite easy to drink.

Dandy Candy Cocktail

  • 1 oz bourbon
  • 1/4 oz sweet vermouth
  • 1/4 oz triple sec
  • 1 dash Bitter End Jamaican Jerk bitters (buy from Cocktail Kingdom), or other bitters of choice
  • stir with ice and strain into a small cocktail glass
  • garnish with an orange twist

Crater Lake Gin

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crater lake gin
Crater Lake Gin is a straw-colored gin from Bendistillery in Bend, Oregon, who also makes several varieties of vodka. While its label calls it “Handcrafted American Gin,” one of those words can be misleading: American.

I’ve said before that my personal gin preferences lie with London Dry gins, though I love nearly all gins I encounter. American gin, or “western gin,” as it’s sometimes called, usually has another botanical flavor that’s supreme over the juniper that London Drys are known for.

Not so with Crater Lake. For my personal taste, this gin makes the best-tasting martini I’ve ever had. It’s a juniper-lovers gin, with a bit of spice in the finish. It’s silky and smooth, and I’ve nearly drunk half the bottle making strictly martinis. Tasted neat, the spice is more obvious, and the gin is a bit more potent when it’s not ice-cold.

Crater Lake, which was known previously as Cascade Mountain Gin, and can be found throughout the U.S. at retail, or online for about $30. Make it in a martini like this:

Martini

  • 2 1/2 oz gin
  • 1/2 oz dry vermouth
  • olive garnish
  • stir with lots of ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass

Absinthe Cocktails

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tenneyson absinthe

Absinthe, a high-proof herbal liquor, is most traditionally served straight under a water drip with a perched sugar cube. Because of absinthe’s strong anise (black licorice) flavor, cocktails featuring it are few and far between.

I decided to use Austin-based and French-distilled Tenneyson Absinthe Royale to make these cocktails. Tenneyson is a bit more mild than other absinthes (Lucid comes to mind) because it’s bottled at a lower proof (53% alcohol vs. Lucid’s 64%) and because the typical anise flavor is less pronounced in the taste. Here are the 2 simple absinthe cocktails I made, with a bonus recipe at the end:

Sazerac
This recipe can seem overwhelming, but the detail is actually in the ritual of preparation, which most consider essential to making a proper Sazerac.

  • fill an old fashioned glass with ice water to chill
  • in another old fashioned glass, muddle 1 sugar cube and 3 dashes of Peychaud’s Bitters
  • add 2 oz rye whiskey
  • top with ice and stir
  • empty the ice water from the first glass
  • splash in absinthe, rinse the glass with it, pour out the excess (I found Tenneyson to be mild enough that I just left the “splash” in the glass)
  • strain the sugar/bitters/rye mixture into the absinthe-washed glass
  • twist and squeeze a lemon peel into the glass
  • either discard the lemon peel or drop it into the cocktail, according to your preference

Obituary (the Absinthe Martini)
Tenneyson is especially great in this drink as the presentation is crystal-clear.

  • 2 1/2 oz gin
  • 1/2 oz dry vermouth
  • 1/4 oz absinthe
  • stir over ice, strain into chilled cocktail glass
  • garnish with lemon twist

Bonus recipe: Death in the Afternoon
This recipe was created by Ernest Hemingway.

  • pour 1 oz absinthe in a champagne flute
  • top with 5 ounces chilled champagne
  • drink 3 to 5 of these slowly

2 Black Eyes Cocktail

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2 Black Eyes Cocktail

Moonshine nowadays is another name for an unaged whiskey, sometimes also called silver whiskey or white lightnin’. Here’s a simple moonshine recipe for the fighter in all of us:

2 Black Eyes (by Greg Mays)
  • 3 oz moonshine
  • 1 1/2 oz blackberry liqueur (I used Clear Creek)
  • 4 dashes of Fee Bros. Whiskey Barrel Aged Bitters (buy at Amazon)
  • stir with ice and strain into 2 chilled cocktail glasses
  • garnish with brass knuckles and a switchblade

Make sure you make 2 of these. Otherwise, you’ll just have one black eye, and what’s the point of that?

Big Gin

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Big Gin

Big Gin is the first product distilled by Captive Spirits in Seattle, Washington, with its first batch of gin distilled this year (2012). The only distillery in the Ballard neighborhood, Captive sells Big Gin at the distillery and throughout Washington at several retailers.

Gin always contains juniper, but it’s the combination of herbs, spices, and flavors that makes each brand unique. Big Gin is the spiciest gin I’ve ever tried: though it starts with juniper, it finishes with a big cinnamon/clove finish. Oh, now I get the name! Big Gin is bold and flavorful, certainly not as mild as Hendrick’s or Caorunn. Whiskey lovers may want to buy a bottle of Big if they haven’t yet found a gin they like.

My favorite way to drink Big Gin is on the rocks with an orange slice, and I imagine I may drink the whole bottle this way. Here’s a simple martini variation featuring Big Gin:

Big Martini (by Greg Mays)

  • 2 1/2 oz Big Gin
  • splash of dry vermouth
  • 2 dashes of orange bitters
  • stir with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass
  • garnish with an orange peel twist