Category Archives: vodka

martini cocktails

The Iconic Martini

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The classic martini has cemented its place in the world of mixology, capturing the imagination of cocktail enthusiasts and cultural icons alike. It’s one of the most talked about, debated, and enjoyed cocktails in the world.

The origin of the martini is a mystery, with several tales competing for the title of the true origin story. One popular theory traces it back to the late 19th century where a bartender named Jerry Thomas, who allegedly concocted a drink called the “Martinez” for a gold miner heading to Martinez, California. Over time, the Martinez evolved, eventually becoming the martini we know today.

Another theory suggests that the martini originated at the Knickerbocker Hotel in New York City, where a bartender named Martini reportedly served it to John D. Rockefeller. Regardless of its true origins, the martini has become an icon in its own right.

The traditional martini is a simple yet refined concoction, comprising just a few key ingredients:

Gin: The spirit at the heart of a classic martini. Its botanical complexity provides a robust foundation.

Dry Vermouth: Adds a nuanced depth and dry sophistication.

Olive or Lemon Twist: The finishing touch, adding either a briny bite or a zesty aroma.

To make a classic martini, you’ll need:

  • 2 ½ oz. gin
  • ½ oz. dry vermouth
  • Ice
  • Combine the gin and vermouth in a mixing glass filled with ice. Stir gently to chill, then strain into a chilled martini glass.
  • Garnish with an olive or a twist of lemon peel.

While traditionalists insist on stirring to maintain the clarity and integrity of the ingredients, the notion of shaking gained fame through James Bond’s famous line, “shaken, not stirred.” Shaking, however, can result in a cloudy martini with a frothy top. Ultimately, the choice is yours!

Over the years, the martini has inspired countless variations, catering to different palates. The Vodka Martini swaps gin for vodka, making for a smoother, more neutral flavor. The Dirty Martini adds a splash of olive brine, giving it a savory twist. And the Gibson replaces the olive garnish with a pickled onion.

The martini remains a beloved cocktail, celebrated for its elegance, simplicity, and the endless possibilities it offers. Whether you’re sipping a classic gin martini or exploring a creative twist, each glass is a tribute to the enduring allure of this iconic drink. How do you enjoy your martini?

Humboldt Vodka and Hemp Seed Vodka

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humboldt vodkas

Humboldt Distillery is based out of northern California where they distill vodka and rum. I used their spiced rum to make a cocktail that I’ve been really enjoying lately: the Double Rum Old Fashioned.

Humboldt’s spiced rum I found to be sweet and syrupy, with a mild spiced palate; it goes well in cocktails for sure. I also had the chance to try their vodka, a sugarcane distillate that’s a touch sweet and quite smooth, as well as”Humboldt’s Finest”: a vodka infused with cbd oil.

I know, that raises some questions, so here’s what I do know: Humboldt’s Finest is legal in all 50 states. Does it make you high? Not that I noticed. Really, the biggest question we need to ask is: how does it taste? Well, Humboldt’s Finest is like a marriage between a tasty vodka and a mild, minty, herbal gin. In tonic, for instance, you might just find it a little more herbal than a Vodka Tonic (the premium CBD flower they use comes only from one specific region in California with a very specific tang) and bit milder than a Gin and Tonic. It makes for a slightly more interesting Dirty Martini, too. When I substituted it for their regular vodka in cocktails, people always noted it was “more herbal.”

All Humboldt’s spirits are organic, and I think the distillery had a unique enough approach together with a unique portfolio of spirits to add some fun cocktail twists to your home bar. Both vodkas retail for about $25.

Frey Ranch Gin and Vodka

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Frey Ranch Distilling, near Reno, Nevada, is a near-200-year-old family farm that began distilling in 2010. One of the few “estate” producers in the U.S., the ranch’s current caretakers Colby and Ashley Frey oversee production of everything in each bottle of Frey Ranch products, including growing and farming all of the grains.

I has an opportunity to taste both their vodka and gin. Frey Ranch Vodka is unique in it’s ingredients, using 4 grains in the distillate: corn, rye, wheat and barley. Its typical of a vodka to use one of these grains, usually corn, sometimes wheat, and only occasionally rye or barley. The end result, then, is an earthy, balanced, fresh and clean-tasting. Frey Ranch Vodka retails for $23.

Frey Ranch Gin is distilled from Frey grain, too, then blended with estate-grown juniper berries and sagebrush with other botanicals sourced from around the world. The Fray’s Gin has a nice bite (it’s 90 proof) and an expected juniper note, with sweet sap and floral notes in the midpalate and a long finish with clove and anise spices. It’s bold enough to hold up in a Gin and Tonic, though delicate enough to make a solid Martini as well. Frey Ranch Gin retails for $35.

Like their vodka, some varieties of the soon-to-be-released Frey Ranch Whiskies will contain all four of these grains in the mashbill, plus their take on ryes, bourbons, and more. Their whiskey products are currently being aged, to be released in the coming years.

There is a real value in controlling all aspects of the production of a spirit, including the moment the seeds are planted for the grains, and the Frey family is working hard to make a solid product that’s both unique and versatile enough to make great classic cocktails, plus the price is hard to beat when you consider the work that’s gone in to it’s production.

For more details on the Frey farm and history of the family, check out my friend Geoff Kleinman’s visit to Frey Ranch at Drink Spirits.

Modern Harvey

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modern harvey cocktail - harvey wallbanger for president

Galliano has launched a new campaign to compete tongue-in-cheek with this national election stuff that we seem to be in the midst of. At the Vote 4 Wallbanger site, Harvey promises to “Make America Chill Again,” and we can certainly all get behind that. Here’s a modern twist on the classic Harvey Wallbanger cocktail:

Modern Harvey (pictured)

  • 1 oz vodka
  • 1/2 oz Galliano
  • 3 oz fresh orange juice
  • 1/2  oz lemon juice
  • Shake & strain into a old fashioned glass filled with ice
  • Top with 2 dashes Peychaud’s Bitters

harvey wallbanger for president

 Special thanks to our sponsor Galliano L’Autentico. 

Prince Memorial Cocktails

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purple rain prince cocktail

You know, I’ve always found cocktails that memorialize an occasion, or person, to be a bit cheesy and so I rarely partake in “theme” drinking. I found myself in a situation last week when Prince died, that folks who were coming to our already-planned cocktail party that night began asking if I was going to be making any Prince-themed drinks to remember him by.

Drinking and partying in memory of someone who’s passed away is a thing, and people have done it for thousands of years (at least), so I softened to the idea of some themed cocktails, both for the sake of our party guests and because of fun in creating new cocktails! After 3 recipe revisions for each, we got them just right. The first drink we made is the Purple Rain (pictured above).

Purple Rain (by Greg Mays)

  • in a shaker, add:
  • 2 oz coconut water
  • 1 1/2 oz vodka
  • 1 oz açaí juice
  • shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass

Next up, we made a riff on a Gin Sour by including some muddled raspberries:

raspberry beret prince cocktail

Raspberry Beret (by Greg Mays)

  • in a shaker, add:
  • 5 raspberries
  • 1/2 oz simple syrup
  • muddle the raspberries well, then add:
  • 2 oz gin
  • 1 oz lemon juice
  • 1 egg white
  • dry shake (no ice), then add ice and shake again to chill
  • double strain into an old fashioned glass filled with ice and add 3 raspberries for garnish
  • add 2 drops of Whiskey Barrel Aged Bitters on the foam

So there you are: 2 simple cocktails you can drink in memory of The Purple One. Cheers!

Fancy Grasshopper

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fancy grasshopper cocktail

Recently, we made one of last century’s most iconic cocktails: the Grasshopper. A low-booze, sweet-as-hell, electric green cocktail that has since inspired cookies and cakes that bear it’s name. When people call a food or drink “Grasshopper,” we know it’ll be chocolate and sweet mint.

As I anticipated making the Grasshopper, though, I was reminded of a seminar I attended at San Antonio Cocktail Conference. I heard that some cool craft cocktail bars are taking over-sweet, 1990s or uncool cocktail recipes and redeeming them. Whether they’re just serving them tongue-in-cheek on their menus, or “upgrading” every ingredient to make them cool again, it’s fun to “craft-ize” some older, yuckier cocktails.

I began to imagine how one could make the bright green Grasshopper cocktail out of edgier, craftier ingredients. I stuck with the chocolate-and-mint flavor profile, of course, but stabilized it a little bit and made it boozier and more complex. Here’s what I came up with:

Fancy Grasshopper (by Greg Mays)

  • in a mixing glass, add:
  • 1 1/2 oz vodka
  • 1/2 oz Brancamenta (a minty amaro)
  • 3/4 oz brown Creme de Cacao
  • 2 dashes of black walnut bitters
  • stir with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass

You end up with a Grasshopper that’s equally tasty, and nice and balanced in it’s flavors, and as you see from the photo, it takes on the color of the chocolate instead of mint green. You’ll discover it’s equally tasty and suitable for St. Patrick’s Day, though. 

Enjoy!

Vodka 360

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vodka 360

In the last few weeks, we’ve had the opportunity to try out Vodka 360 and their line of flavors at Simple Cocktails, including this episode of the podcast and this cocktail. Billing their vodka as “Eco Friendly” because of the brand’s commitment to recycling and other green behaviors at McCormick Distilling (the distiller of V360), the brand also offers recycling initiatives tied the the bottle’s glass and swing-top cap.

Vodka 360 is available in a plethora of flavors (11 to date) which range from the traditional to the obscure…glazed donut or buttered popcorn, anyone? Mostly, though, their flavors are of the fruit or dessert variety. We tried the original (unflavored) vodka, plus Huckleberry, Sorrento Lemon and Double Chocolate flavors.

The standard Vodka 360 is a good buy for $20, though if your brand loyalty is elsewhere in that price range, there’s nothing particularly new in the flavor of 360. The environmental initiatives, or even the cool swing-top cap, might be what call some to switch.

The biggest thing we noticed about the flavored Vodka 360s is that the flavors are very intense, bold and obvious. I feel like there are two options for a vodka with this much flavor. First, if you intend to use this in place of a flavored vodka in a traditional recipe (like for citrus vodka in a Cosmo), the Lemon V360 alone will overwhelm the drink, so you should mix it 50/50 with standard, non-flavored vodka.

Another option, though, is to use these flavored vodkas them as replacements for liqueurs in cocktail recipes. They’ll be higher-alcohol, but the flavor intensity is about at liqueur level. Like many other flavored vodkas, V360 sweetens their flavored varieties, so it’s going to be fun to swap out Double Chocolate V360 for Creme de Cacao in a recipe, for instance.

There is no limit to the stunts that a vodka company may pull to get their piece of the large market share that vodka holds in the liquor world, but to take a less selfish position, in this case, and environmental one, is notable.

Let me know in the comments what you think of V360!

Kamikaze Cocktail

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kamikaze cocktail

We had the opportunity to go to San Antonio for their annual Cocktail Conference recently, and one thing I heard a little bit about in the seminars was “redeeming” cocktails from the 1990s, the over-juiced, over-sweetened decade that just about killed cocktails as we know them.

The Kamikaze is a cocktail/shot that got popular during that Dark Decade and I was excited to recently read 12 Bottle Bar‘s redemptive re-do of the recipe in their book. You see, the usual recipe for the Kamikaze is equal parts vodka, lime juice, and triple sec, which is a little bit like a margarita, but the proportions are off-kilter because the booze ratio is half what it should be. Give this one a try and I think you’ll find it balanced, tart, and refreshing:

Kamikaze (12 Bottle Bar version)

  • 1 1/2 oz vodka
  • 3/4 oz triple sec
  • 1/2 teaspoon simple syrup
  • 3/4 oz lime juice
  • shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass
  • garnish with a lime wedge

 

Skyy Vodka

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skyy vodka

It’s not often that I find myself surprised by a liquor, particularly by a vodka. Once you’ve tried several dozen, they all taste pretty similar to each other.

It caught me off guard, then, when we opened and tasted Skyy for the first time on a recent podcast episode. A pretty common staple in bars across America, Skyy is a 20-year-old brand in a familiar cobalt blue bottle, distilled in San Jose, California.

From what I can tell, Skyy is distilled from wheat, which contributes to the surprising sweetness of the vodka. I find it to have a smooth, sweet vanilla flavor, and it’s got more flavor character than the usual “odorless, flavorless” vodka I’m used to.

Vodka is a subtle product, more so than anything that I’ve encountered. The varieties of taste are wide, but overall, the differences in flavor are sometimes difficult to tell. It’s also a pretty polarizing product, ignored by craft cocktail enthusiasts in some cases and yet beloved by lots of drinkers everywhere. In the case of Skyy, it’s a moderately priced ($15), good-tasting vodka that you can find from coast to coast and it’s also a vodka that can easily find it’s rightful place in your home bar.

 

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.