Category Archives: recipes

Cigar Pairing: Creme Cocktails

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coquito

Last month, I did a seminar at San Antonio Cocktail Conference about cigar and cocktail pairing. The gist of the seminar was this: cigars are typically paired with similar-tasting drinks (smoky scotch, spicy rye). If, however, you pair a cigar with an opposite-tasting cocktail, like a creamy or sweet drink, the pairing can enhance the flavors of both the smoke and the drink.

To be quite honest, the attendees weren’t totally convinced that cream-based cocktails were a good fit, but a recent conversation I had confirmed that a creamy cocktail actually pairs quite well with a stogie. The following are some cream-based cocktails I recommend pairing with a cigar, including a Puerto Rican cocktail that’s basically their equivalent of egg nog:

Coquito

  • 12 oz coconut milk
  • 12 oz evaporated milk
  • 12 oz cream of coconut
  • 4 oz sweetened condensed milk
  • 1 cup spiced rum
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • blend ingredients in a blender until well mixed, then bottle and refrigerate until cold
  • serve in small glasses and sprinkle cinnamon on the top

Brandy Alexander

  • 1 oz of brandy or cognac
  • 1 oz dark creme de cacao
  • 1 oz cream (half and half)
  • shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass
  • garnish with nutmeg on top

White Russian

  • in a shaker, combine:
  • 1 oz vodka
  • 1 oz coffee liqueur
  • 1 oz cream (half and half)
  • shake well with ice and strain into an ice-filled old fashioned glass

10th Avenue Tea Cocktails

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10th ave tea cocktails

Tea cocktails are most definitely a thing, from teas designed specifically for cocktails (like the Owl’s Brew) to many ways of infusing tea into booze, even smoking tea into it. Tea can add two great dimensions to a cocktail: lightening the alcohol content or adding a plethora of flavors into a drink that you don’t usually get through alcohol and mixers alone.

10th Avenue Tea is a new tea company with a specific passion for the environment. Available in 4 flavors: Green, Chai, English and Tropical, 10th Avenue gives you a unique option for how to work your tea into cocktails, though: because their tea is concentrated and dry, you can adjust tea strength on the fly and mix drinks quicker than if you were using pre-made teas or teas you have to brew before you use.

I experimented a little bit with 10th Avenue and I think I’ve found the perfect ratio for using their tea in a near-unlimited variety of cocktails: 2 parts spirit, 1/2 part citrus, 1/2 part simple syrup, and then the tea, which I’ve been making with 1 oz of water. Here are the drinks in the photo above:

Midsummer Dream (by Greg Mays)

  • in a shaker, add:
  • 2 oz spiced rum
  • 2-3 shakes of 10th Avenue Tropical Tea
  • 1 oz water
  • 1/2 oz lime juice
  • 1/2 oz simple syrup
  • shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass
  • garnish with a lime twist

Bourbon Bulldog (by Greg Mays)

  • in a shaker, add:
  • 2 oz bourbon
  • 2-3 shakes of 10th Avenue English Tea
  • 1 oz water
  • 1/2 oz lemon juice
  • 1/2 oz simple syrup
  • shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass
  • garnish with a lemon twist

Note I made the exact same drinks above but substituted Green tea for Tropical and Chai for English on a recent podcast episode. They also turned out great, but the Green/Spiced Rum drink was a runaway favorite. 

Fall Cocktails on the Morning Brew (Video)

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I talked about Fall Cocktails on The Morning Brew in Albuquerque last week! Check out the video which includes a Sidecar and Scotch Milk Punch recipe. Get the recipes here.

 

Hardly Wallbanger

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hardly wallbanger

November 8 is National Harvey Wallbanger Day. The signature cocktail of Galliano Liqueur,  and likely invented in the 1950’s in California, the Harvey Wallbanger grew in popularity throughout the 60’s (especially in California). The Sycamore Den bar in San Diego has given the original recipe a little twist in the Hardly Wallbanger. We also made this cocktail on our most recent podcast. Enjoy!

Hardly Wallbanger

  • in a shaker, combine:
  • 1 1/2 oz vodka
  • 1 oz Galliano
  • 2 oz orange juice
  • 1/2 oz lemon juice
  • shake with ice and strain into an old fashioned glass filled with ice
  • garnish with a lemon peel “rose” (pictured) or a lemon wedge

 Special thanks to our sponsor Galliano L’Autentico. 

Fall Cocktails on the Morning Brew

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Greg appeared on The Morning Brew with Friends in Albuquerque today and made two Fall cocktails: the Sidecar and Scotch Milk Punch. If you saw the segment, welcome! Here are the recipes:

Sidecar

  • 1 1/2 oz brandy
  • 1 oz triple sec
  • 1 oz lemon
  • rim with sugar
  • shake with ice, then strain into a glass
  • lemon wedge garnish

Scotch Milk Punch

  • 2 oz scotch
  • 4 oz milk (the fattier this is, the better the drink will taste)
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • shake with ice until extremely cold, then strain into a glass
  • top with whipped cream and nutmeg

 

Merican Negroni

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merican negroni, negroni with ipa

At Tales of the Cocktail this year, we were treated to a great cocktail menu from Martin Miller’s Gin, featuring both classics and modern. As soon as I saw the menu, one really caught my eye: a Merican Negroni.

Yeah, I realize “Merican” has taken on a life of its own, particularly on the internet…images of gun-slingin’ pickup truck drivin’ rednecks. But once you get past the name, this is an incredible cocktail and all the ingredients pair perfectly well together, plus it’s one of the few beer cocktails I’ve ever done here.

So here’s the concept: take a bitter Italian cocktail, the Negroni, ice it and top it with another bitter drink: an American IPA. Here are the details:

Merican Negroni

  • in a collins glass filled with ice, add:
  • 1 oz Campari
  • 1 oz gin
  • 1 oz sweet vermouth
  • top the cocktail with an American India Pale Ale – I used a local brew: Marble Brewery’s award-winning IPA.
Thanks to JCPenny for the glassware used in this photo.

Deanne Cocktail

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deanne cocktail - absolut

Here’s a tasty cocktail I dug up from Gary Regan’s Bartender’s Bible this week. I keep thinking that I’ve done a cocktail with similar ingredients before (maybe gin-vermouth-triple sec?), but I don’t see one on the Recipes page, so I present the Deanne:

Deanne Cocktail

  • in a mixing glass, add:
  • 1 oz vodka (I used Absolut)
  • 1/2 oz sweet vermouth
  • 1/2 oz triple sec
  • fill with ice and stir
  • strain into a chilled cocktail glass
  • garnish with a lemon twist*

lemon twist

* I learned my lemon twist method from Robert Hess. Once you cut your twist with your channel knife, wrap it gently around your bar spoon and tighten it up with a squeeze. This will give it a great curl that will hold up on the glass.

 

National Bourbon Heritage Month on the Morning Brew (Video)

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I talked about National Bourbon Heritage Month on The Morning Brew in Albuquerque yesterday! Check out the video which includes the background behind the Month, some raving about Bourbon Curious, and drinking Four Roses at 7 am!

Here’s a link to our National Bourbon Heritage Month blog post if you’d like to read more about it. Lisa took some great behind-the-scenes photos as well: Continue reading →

Brugal Especial Extra Dry Rum

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brugal extra dry rum

It seems every liquor bottle comes with a legend of some sort, and Brugal Rum is no exception. A five-generations-old rum that’s both sourced and produced in the Dominican Republic, Brugal has a line of rums with vary age statements.

For your entry-level $25, you get Brugal Especial Extra Dry. Keenly wrapped in a net of string, Brugal is unique in a way that many silver rums are not: it’s barrel-aged. After distillation, Extra Dry is aged 2-5 years in oak casks, then the color imparted from the casks is filtered back out. Usually a silver rum is not aged, and because of that, it’s not particularly flavorful, maybe a step up from vodka. But in the case of Brugal, you get a huge nose of woodiness, and a spicy, bold, and very dry rum. Though a common rum complaint, you won’t catch anyone saying this particular rum is “too sweet” for them.

As I tend to prefer my Daiquiris to have a lot of character, meaning I prefer to mix them with aged rum, Brugal gives me a great alternative to the usually-murky brownness that you get with aged rum, then allows me to mix a flavorful-yet-light Daiquiri instead.

You may recall from our Tales of the Cocktail interview that Fabian preferred Brugal in his Daiquiris as well! Cheers Fabian!

 

Rye 505

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rye 505 cocktail

Another fun cocktail from my list of 7 Delicious Creative Albuquerque Cocktails, the Rye 505 is a Southwestern take on a Manhattan: tart, spicy, and sweet all at the same time!

Rye 505

  • in a shaker, combine:
  • 2 oz rye whiskey
  • 1 oz sweet vermouth
  • 1/2 oz of lemon juice
  • 1 dash of cocktail bitters
  • shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass
  • garnish with a lemon wedge