Category Archives: tools

Sauza Sparkling Margaritas

sauza sparkling margarita

Sparkling Margaritas are a line of pre-made cocktails from tequila brand Sauza, available in original, wild berry, mango-peach, and the newest flavor: watermelon. A bottle will run you about $12 for a 750ml, with alcohol is right at 10% for all of the flavors.

I expected these to be something like a wine cooler or Bacardi Silver, based on malt liquor or maybe wine, but I was pleasantly surprised to see the ingredient list: silver tequila, triple sec, carbonation, and flavor – those are the actual ingredients to a Margarita!

When I make margaritas at home, I usually include a splash of club soda, so this is a familiar experience for me, though I’d admit that the Sparkling Margaritas are sweeter than I’m used to. These are great party drink solutions because they’re so easy to serve, and if you drink them on the rocks, it cuts the sweetness down a bit.

sauza sparkling margarita

As far as the individual flavors, we had a tasting party and Original and the Watermelon were the favorites of the bunch (which the photo above helps to illustrate). The interesting thing is that Original and Watermelon are flavored “naturally”, while Wild Berry and Mango-Peach eliminate the word natural from their label.

It’s rare that you find decent bottled cocktails in stores, but this one fits the bill as good as any I have seen yet. Sauza Sparkling Margaritas get the ingredients right and outside of the usual cocktails, beer and wine, they’re a nice option to include at a party, too.

We tasted Sauza Sparkling Margaritas on the first episode of the Simple Cocktails Podcast.

Bar Spoons Compared

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As a companion piece to my recent post 7 Essential Bartending Tools, I thought it would be fun to compare and price several bar spoons. There are really 3 things that make a good bar spoon: the shape and size of the bowl, the shape of the handle, and additional utility. I’ve found that:

Smaller spoon bowls make stirring easier, but you can’t measure with them.
The more round a handle is, the better it stirs.
Additional tools are nice, but not necessary.

First we look at the “Red Knob” Bar Spoon. I got this one at Bed, Bath and Beyond for $2.99, and you can get it lots of other places, including Amazon, for about that much. It doesn’t stir well because it has a big bowl and a flat, twisted handle. I can promise you that the red knob will fall off, too, either in the dishwasher or at another time.

BarProducts.com generously sent me 6 spoons for this writeup, ranging from only $1 to $3 in price, plus shipping of course. From top to bottom:

Classic Bar Spoon. Like the Red Knob, but without a red knob to lose. It’s an ok spoon if it’s all you’ve got. (Note: link actually goes to the red knob version. Apparently I lost my knob in shipping. Told you they fall off!).
Ball Tip Spoon. An improvement from the red knob (the ball tip doesn’t come off), though it’s still a flattened handle with a large bowl, so it’s still not the best option for stirring.
Spoon With Steel Knob. One of my favorites in this batch. The handle is perfectly round and the spoon bowl is small, so it stirs drinks very well. The weighted knob on the reverse side is handy for crushing individual pieces of ice in your hand, too.
Bar Spoon with Disc. A helpful spoon if you don’t have a muddler to crush your mint or citrus with. The flat handle and large bowl make it not as great for stirring, though.
Bar Spoon with Fork Tip. This spoon still suffers from size and shape issues, but it adds a reverse-side fork for your garnishes. While the fork is handy, it’s a little too small, and I found the bar spoon end was better to scoop olives out of their jars.
Long Handle Oval. This spoon is another one of my favorites from Bar Products. Long, elegant, and round-handled. The small bowl makes this a really good stirring spoon, so I don’t really miss the lack of additional tools.

World Market Bar Spoon. For $3 at World Market, this has served as my favorite bar spoon for quite a while. It’s got some impressive weight and the handle is twisted but well-rounded, and the spoon is good for measuring. The lack of additional tools and the large bowl have made this one a target of some of the other spoons in this list though.

RSVP Endurance Spoon. I bought this spoon for $7 from Amazon, and I’ll just admit that I’m crazy about it. Not specifically marketed as a bar spoon, the RSVP Endurance is the slimmest of the bunch, and I can stir drinks long and fast with almost no ice noise or spillage. You get no measuring or additional tools with this spoon, but the RSVP Endurance the best stirring spoon I’ve used yet.

Trident Barspoon. From Cocktail Kingdom, this is the top-of-the-line spoon on our list at $19. This spoon is elegant and shaped well for stirring. The spoon bowl is not tiny, but is a good shape for both measuring and stirring, and I found the trident to be more useful than the fork tip model above for garnish-fishing.

7 Essential Bartending Tools

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home bar tools

While there are dozens of bar tools available from liquor stores to housewares, there are really only 7 tools that you need to get your home bar started (other than liquor and ice). Here’s what I recommend.

Measuring cup. Measuring your liquids for cocktails is essential for making balanced drinks. While I have jiggers and other fancy measuring tools, I use these 4 oz measuring glasses all the time. They’re dishwasher safe and I’ve had them for years.
Mixing glass. Some cocktails should be shaken and some should be stirred. For stirred drinks, a standard pint glass will be fine, though something with a wider base is better in the long run. A Yarai Mixing Glass is elegant and professional, but they’re also $40. I bought a six-pack of 600ml beakers for $14 that I use to stir my cocktails.
Strainer. You really can’t stir drinks (see #2 above) without a strainer to pour the finished product through. The best strainers I’ve found are usually the cheapest. I bought this one for about $4.
Shaker. While most professional bartenders use a Boston Shaker, I’ve found a 3-piece shaker (also called a cobbler) like this one has worked best for me at home. These will run you $10-20.
Knife. You’ll be cutting lots of citrus to pour into your cocktails, so make sure you have a knife to do it with. I have 5 or 6 Kuhn Rikon paring knives, and I love them.
Squeezer. I realize that you can just use your hand to squeeze the citrus for your cocktails, but you’ll get way more juice if you use a squeezer like this one.
Glassware. Using the proper glassware for your cocktail is essential. Save plastic, paper, or other vessels for the frat house. Now that you’re making great cocktails, use the proper glasses.

Photography by Jasmine Nicole.

The Murph’s Bloody Mary

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The Murph's Bloody Mary

Recently, I’ve had the opportunity to try several different Bloody Mary mixes, from BBQ varieties to one with ghost peppers. With 5 different bottles mix in my fridge as of now, I’ve gotten used to pouring myself a Mary on a Sunday afternoon.

My current fave is The Murph’s, particularly the Hot and Spicy variety. Available primarily in New York and New Jersey right now, The Murph’s is very much a traditional-tasting Bloody Mary. It’s very tomato-forward overall, which is exactly what you’d expect. The ingredient list is the same for both versions of Murph’s, though it seems Hot and Spicy just has a heavier dose of horseradish, cayenne, and black pepper (which I love).

There is unfortunately one drawback to The Murph’s: one pesky thing I found in the ingredient list, and that’s corn syrup. Now I’m no scientist or doctor, so I can’t give you a technical reason why, but I don’t like corn syrup. In fact, I avoid the high-fructose variety (HFCS) altogether. Now, the corn syrup in The Murph’s is one ingredient of one ingredient (the Worcestershire sauce), so I can forgive it to some extent, but I just wish it wasn’t in there.

I like The Murph’s and I like the traditional flavor of the mix. On the whole, it make for a tasty Bloody Mary, and it’s a valid choice when you see it on the shelf, I just wish they could dump that one pesky ingredient to perfect the recipe (in my eyes).

Home Bartender Christmas Gifts 2013

Last year, I offered you a few Christmas gift ideas for home bartenders. I have some more ideas this year and you get the chance to win a great home bartending gift set, valued at $60 (see below for details)! Here are the gifts, pictured left to right above:

Ice molds. Tovolo offers the Colossal Cube and the Sphere ice molds. Each set comes with 2 molds. They’re a cool gift for a whiskey lover as they cool your drink without too much watering-down. Colossal Cube molds are available from Amazon here for $15, and the Spheres for $10 here.

Citrus Squeezer. I joked about this recently on Instagram: for us home bartenders, our squeezers will wear out, so make sure you get a good one. This is a high-quality squeezer by Dalla Piazza that will cover all your squeezing needs: limes, lemons, or oranges, and it’s available from Amazon here for $22.

Muddler. Epicurean has this awesome “wood fiber” muddler that dishwasher safe and really sexy. Muddlers are either wood (so not dishwasher safe), or something much less elegant like aluminum. This is a great mix of style and functionality that’s available direct from Epicurean for $25 here.

Bar Set*. This is a 7-piece set by Swissmar that includes a full-size shaker, strainer, bar knife, jigger, stirrer, bottle opener – all in a nice stand. It’s a perfect collection of necessities to start you home bar, available for $60 from Amazon here or win a set from Simple Cocktails (see below)!

Bar Knives. This is a 2-knife set by Joseph Joseph – 1 straight edge, 1 serrated – that magnetically sticks together to protect the blades and your fingers. I think it’s actually designed as a cheese knife set, but it’s also perfect for a traveling bartender. The set retails for about $12 at local cooking shop, from Amazon here, or or direct from Joseph Joseph here.

Measuring Jug. Also by Joseph Joseph, this jug measures any fluid from 1 oz to 1 liter, with a cool double-reservoir design. Much like the knife set, this is a good gift for both foodies and home bartenders. This runs about $15 at your local cooking shop, from Amazon here, or direct from the company here.

Zester. This zester by Kitchen IQ has a removable reservoir on the back to catch and measure your citrus zest (which you’ll see occasionally in a cocktail recipe). It’s $15 at your local cooking shop, or get it from Amazon here.

*For a chance to win your own Swissmar cocktail set, pictured above, shipped direct to you from the manufacturer, post a comment below listing your favorite Christmastime cocktail. 1 entry per person, U.S. residents only. I’ll draw a name randomly on December 16th. Good luck!

Grenadine Compared

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granadine

Grenadine is probably the second home bar syrup you’ll get, right after you make some simple syrup. Wikipedia says Grenadine is “a commonly used bar syrup, characterized by a flavor that is both tart and sweet, and a deep red color…..Grenadine was originally prepared from pomegranate juice, sugar, and water.” As you can see, this can cause some confusion: does grenadine contain pomegranate? Not always. In fact, many popular brands have no pomegranate at all, which you’ll see below.

Here’s a bottle-by-bottle comparison of several popular grenadine brands, including some of the newer craft varieties. They’re pictured here from left to right.

granadine

Sonoma Syrup.

Visual: Light red, almost orange.
Ingredients: Pure cane sugar, pomegranate juice from concentrate, filtered water, citric acid, vanilla extract, vitamin C (ascorbic acid), sea salt.
Cost per ounce: 95¢
Sonoma is the most expensive and is marketed as “Pomegranate Grenadine Simple Syrup” and you can tell. It’s the most subtle and mild flavor of all those we tasted, and it tastes the most like pomegranate. You may have to increase the amount of this syrup just to get the flavors right in your cocktails.

Jack Rudy.

Visual: Natural reddish-brown.
Ingredients: Pomegranate, cane sugar, citric acid, orange flower water.
Cost per ounce: 94¢
You may recall when I tried Jack Rudy tonic too, which is great. This grenadine, like Sonoma, actually tastes like pomegranate. This syrup is sweeter than Sonoma, but natural ingredients lead to a different colored drink than some may expect, leaving Shirley Temples more copper-colored than red as a result. This one has good balance and isn’t overly sweet.

Fee Bros. American Beauty.

Visual: Dark syrupy red.
Ingredients: Corn sweetener, water, natural and artificial flavor, citric acid, less than 1/10 of 1% Benzoate of Soda as a preservative, FD&C Red #40 and Blue #1
Cost per ounce: 83¢
“Corn sweetener” in this ingredient list is just another word for corn syrup. Comparing the ingredient list with Rose’s (below), it’s a very similar product at nearly triple the price. Fee Bros. definitely has a very familiar grenadine flavor, and it’s the most syrupy and sticky of this bunch.

Monin.

Visual: Bright red.
Ingredients: Pure cane sugar, water, citric acid, natural and artificial grenadine flavor, FD&C red #40
Cost per ounce: 63¢
I like Monin’s syrup the best of these 5, because it’s a happy medium of the traditional (syrupy, red, sweet) and the craft grenadines (more fruity in flavor, less sweet, less red). Plus, because the Monin bottle is so big (750 ml), the cost per ounce is very low.

Rose’s.

Visual: Bright red.
Ingredients: High fructose corn syrup, water, citric acid, sodium citrate, sodium benzoate, Red #40, natural and artificial flavors, Blue #1.
Cost per ounce: 33¢
Rose’s is the iconic brand of bar grenadine, and you’ll be able to find it in grocery stores nationally. As you can see, it has the dreaded HFCS in it as ingredient #1. There’s no pomegranate in it, it’s really just a sticky, syrupy red and features water as the only natural ingredient. Cost is the only advantage here – Rose’s tastes like snow cone flavoring.

Click here to get the Simple Cocktails Guide to Grenadine as a downloadable PDF.

Moonshine Bloody Mary

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moonshine bloody mary

Using Moonshine in the place of vodka when you serve up a Bloody Mary is one way to change up a classic recipe. Fortunately, Ole Smoky makes a Bloody Mary mix that you can buy alongside a jar of their moonshine.

To garnish this cocktail, I used some of Tillen Farms‘ pickled vegetables which, like their cherries, is made with cocktails in mind. Here’s the recipe:

Moonshine Bloody Mary

build in a glass:
1 1/5 oz of moonshine
4 oz bloody mary mix
garnish of choice, preferably pickled, like those shown above, olives, gherkins, or a lemon wedge

Ok time for a heart-to-heart here. As someone born in East Tennessee, I get the fascination with moonshine. As a practical element of a home bar, though, moonshine has yet to earn it’s place beyond novelty. In this cocktail, I found the corn-sweetness of the moonshine actually clashed with the savory Bloody Mary. If you want to stick with the Ole Smoky brand for a Bloody Mary, use White Lightnin’, which is more flavorless than their Moonshine.

Ole Smoky’s Bloody Mary mix is good. It’s nice and thick, it has quality, natural ingredients, but lacks the spiciness of Zing Zang or the thick-deliciousness of Ubon’s. I added some Tabasco to pick up the burn.

Cocktail Cherries Compared

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cocktail cherries

I’m pretty staunch about using quality, natural ingredients, and as a result, it seems I’m always in search of the “perfect cocktail cherry.” I’ve even made my own brandy cherries here on the blog. A group of us tasted 7 different types of cocktail cherries and compared them in price, flavor, and cocktail usefulness. Here’s what we thought (cherries are pictured above from left to right):

Rainier Reserve.

Visual: yellow cherries with stems.
Ingredients: cherries, water, sugar, citric acid, natural flavors, beta carotene.
Cost per cherry: 13¢
The first of 4 cherries from Tillen Farms, Rainier Reserve are particularly interesting because of their color. A bright yellow cherry looks really cool in tiki drinks, and these have an tropical-like flavor to match. The cherry flavor in these is pretty subdued, and they’re not overly sweet.

Bada Bing.

Visual: rich crimson cherries with stems.
Ingredients: cherries, water, sugar, vegetable/fruit concentrate (color), malic acid, citric acid, natural flavor.
Cost per cherry: 13¢
Also a Tillen Farm cherry, Bada Bing were the largest of the bunch. Tasters said they taste the most like cherries off the tree, and have just the right balance of sweetness and good looks to make them great cocktail cherries.

Pink Blush.

Visual: pink cherries with stems.
Ingredients: cherries, water, sugar, citric acid, vegetable/fruit concentrate (color), natural flavor.
Cost per cherry: 13¢
Tasters were surprised that these cherries actually taste pink, almost like cotton candy. These are the sweetest in the Tillen Farms line, and like the Rainier Reserve cherries, they’re best use is for their visual impact as your cocktail garnish. An added bonus is that Oregon Cherry Growers donate 5% from the sale of Pink Blush towards breast cancer.

Merry Maraschino.

Visual: red cherries with stems.
Ingredients: cherries, water, sugar, vegetable/fruit concentrate (color), natural flavor.
Cost per cherry: 13¢
Tasters found Tillen’s Maraschino cherries really juicy and thought they tasted almost like apples or candy…or apple candy. Of the list, these cherries are the most natural, most red cherries with stems, so they’d be a good choice in a home bar.

Luxardo Maraschino.

Visual: dark red cherries, almost black, without stems.
Ingredients: cherries, sugar, marasca cherry juice, glucose, citric acid, natural color, maraschino flavor.
Cost per cherry: 29¢
Luxardo is the true craft cocktail cherry. These are actually marasca cherries, grown around the Luxardo distillery in Italy. These are uniquely packaged in syrup that, instead of sugar and water, is actually sugar and cherry juice. These have tons of flavor and are dark and rich. Tasters felt like these worked best in cocktails like Old Fashioneds, as they were a little intense as a snack.

Ole Smoky Moonshine.

Visual: bright red cherries without stems.
Ingredients: cherries, 100-proof moonshine.
Cost per cherry: 22¢
This one is unique because you’re really buying a mason jar full of cherries and getting some cherry moonshine, too. These cherries are not sweetened, so tasters found them comparatively abrasive. These were the most crisp and red of the bunch, so they work well in cocktails, but most often people did not eat them when they were finished with their drink.

Grocery Store Maraschino.

Visual: bright red cherries with stems.
Ingredients: cherries, water, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, citric acid, natural and artificial flavors, potassium sorbate, sodium benzoate, red 40, sulfur dioxide
Cost per cherry: 9¢
I included these simply for comparison purposes, though these are the most easy-to-find of the lot. Visually, these are very appealing, but there’s not many natural ingredients. Since I avoid HFCS, I don’t use these cherries. They’re crisp, sticky and sweet like candy, but the flavor ends up being very un-cherry-like.

cocktail cherries

Click here to get the Simple Cocktails Guide to Cherries as a downloadable PDF.

How to: Make Simple Syrup

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making simple syrup

Simple syrup is one of the must-have ingredients for your home bar. Liquefied sugar mixes better in cold cocktails than granulated sugar. It’s an essential ingredient in all sorts of classic drinks, like a Daiquiri, Mint Julep, or Pisco Sour.

While you can actually purchase simple syrup already made, it’s cheaper and easier to just make it yourself. It’ll take you 5 minutes and last a few weeks.

Step 1: pour 1 cup of sugar and 1/2 cup of clean water (distilled or spring) into a mixing glass.

Step 2: microwave the mixture for about 30 seconds to a minute, stirring with a fork at least once.

Step 3: stir well again once heated. Allow to cool.

Step 4: pour into a refrigerate-able container. I use these plastic squeeze bottles.

making simple syrup

Here is a great party punch recipe you can use that simple syrup in:

Pitcher of Mojitos

In a pitcher with a strainer lid, add:
1 1/2 cup fresh lime juice
50-100 mint leaves
muddle those two indredients in the pitcher, then add:
1 1/2 cup simple syrup
1 bottle white rum
2 limes, sliced into thin wheels (this is just for looks)
1- 1 1/2 liters mineral water. I used the big bottle of Trader Joe’s lime mineral water
add lots of ice. Stir.
Pour into glasses filled with ice. I use a straining pitcher or a big beverage dispenser to serve them.

How To: Make Ice Blocks

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ice block in jack daniel's

I love to drink my whiskey with a single, rough-cut ice block (I call them icebergs). It makes me proud when I serve a drink at my home bar and someone asks “did you make this ice?” I realize that’s borderline crazy, as making ice involves nothing more than freezing water, but I know you other home bartenders also take pride in the details, like getting your liquors and garnishes just right, so here’s a step-by-step guide to how I make my icebergs:

Step 1: add about 2″ of spring or distilled water in a breadpan and freeze overnight.

Step 2: once frozen, run the breadpan under cold, then warm, then hot water to break the ice free.

Step 3: Lay your ice block on a cutting board. Put a towel under it to tame the shrapnel.

Step 4: I’ve tried a lot of ways to do this, including ice picks, scoring lines in the ice, or gently chopping in the ice with a knife. I’ve found the best way is to just chop it in one blow with a really sharp knife, samurai-style.

Step 4, continued: keep chopping the ice into blocks until you’re satisfied with the size. As you can see, I usually get about 7 or 8 big ice blocks that are 2-3″ and a few other scraps that I use in Gin and Tonics.

Step 5: store in a plastic container in the freezer. I use semi-disposable food storage boxes like Ziploc or Rubbermaid. Enjoy your ice blocks!

Simple Cocktails: recipes & reviews for home bartenders

Enjoy a Drink!

Category Archives: tools

Sauza Sparkling Margaritas

Bar Spoons Compared

7 Essential Bartending Tools

Photography by Jasmine Nicole.

The Murph’s Bloody Mary

Home Bartender Christmas Gifts 2013

Grenadine Compared

Moonshine Bloody Mary

Cocktail Cherries Compared

How to: Make Simple Syrup

How To: Make Ice Blocks