Making Your Single Malts...Sassy?

According to an article we just found at the Dallas Morning News, bartenders are taking the "only the finest ingredients" trend in cocktail mixing to its logical conclusion and starting to mix cocktails with single malt Scotches. For those not in the know, single malts are most often drunk neat or with a splash of water by purists, and the idea of mixing one into a cocktail is heresy. Maybe it's just our Scots lineage, but we'd have a little trouble using a $100 bottle as a mixer.

However, if it's your bag, baby, we've included their list of Scotches to use after the jump. We pretty much agree with their taste in Scotch, if not their decisions on what to do with it. Plus, click through to the story at Dallas Morning News for recipes for two cocktails - a Rob Roy and a Highlander's Delight. Our guess is you could find similar enjoyment by mixing these up with some blended Scotch, but what do we know?

Continue reading: "Making Your Single Malts...Sassy?"

Lap of Luxury Cocktail

Most of the time our stories skew a little bit, well, dude-ish. We tend to cover items that get you drunk at a high rate of speed and whatnot - OK, so the Flabongo is pink but it's definitely designed for chugging. We've decided to spruce things up a bit by covering a drink that appeals a bit more to the ladies. Seems like a lot of steps and we have no idea what Elderflower cordial is, but at least it contains one of the manliest of liquors - gin.

Lap of Luxury
From Plymouth Gin

2 oz. Plymouth gin (I figured go with what the recipe calls for, but you can use a different gin if you'd like)
1 1/4 oz fresh squeeze Pink grapefruit juice
1/2 oz. Elderflower cordial
1 dash of simple syrup (mix equal parts boiling water and sugar)
1 slice of watermelon

1. To a shaker filled with ice add gin, elderflower cordial, watermelon wedge, simple syrup and pink grapefruit juice.
2. Shake vigorously to break up the watermelon.
3. Strain into a tall glass filled with crushed ice. Garnish with a watermelon ball and a slice of lemon.

Makes one cocktail.
Substitute: Black currant or apple liquor for the elderflower cordial.

from YumSugar

Bacardi Limon Gold Standard Cocktail

Here's a little tidbit for you - did you know you can eat gold? Not ALL gold (it's hard on the teeth) but there is actual edible gold leaf out there. Why do we bring this up, you ask? We just found an email offering details about how to use edible gold leaf in a cocktail that features Bacardi Limon. They were spinning it fit in with the Golden Globes but we discovered it a bit too late unless you have edible gold lying around. We're thinking you can A) make the cocktail tomorrow without the gold treatment, or B) throw a Bacardi party and watch Goldfinger(or Goldmemberwe suppose).

The Bacardi Limon Gold Standard Cocktail
1 1/2 oz. Bacardi Limon
1 oz. Cointreau
1 1/2 oz. POM Wonderful
Dash Sprite
Pomegranate seeds
Lemon Swirl and 24K Gold Flecks (optional)

Shake the BACARDI Limon, Cointreau, Pomegranate juice and Sprite over ice and strain into chilled martini glass. Finish with pomegranate seeds, Lemon swirl and 24K Gold Flecks.

Get your edible gold leaf at The Gold Leaf Company, Edible Gold, or Fancy Flours.

The Art of the Bar Book Review

The Art of the Bar: Cocktails Inspired by the Classics
by Jeff Hollinger & Rob Schwartz
Website
Typical Price: $24.95 (Hardcover)
The Art of the Barat Amazon

The Liquor Snob staff has a new goal for 2007, and it's a simple one. We want to get out to San Francisco and have a drink at the Absinthe Bar and Brasserie. Why, you ask? Because that's where the two gents who wrote Art of the Bar work, and if they know this much about booze it's worth a cross-country pilgrimage to drink from the source. We're sure the food is great too, but to be honest we probably won't eat - we'll probably just pull out our copy of the book, ask them to make the drinks on page one, and keep going until we run out of money or liver cells.

In case you're having trouble figuring it out - we liked this book. Read on for details.

Continue reading: "The Art of the Bar Book Review"

Death in the Afternoon

We've heard about a drink called the Hemingway cocktail, and we knew it involved a combination of absinthe and champagne. It seemed like a high end way to kill an afternoon, but there were two things we didn't think about (or know). One thing we didn't think about was how champagne's bubbles might distribute the absinthe buzz. Two was the fact that another name for the drink was the Death in the Afternoon (named after a bookby Papa himself).

We haven't touched absinthe in a while, ever since a fateful night last march, but after reading about this drink in the NYT, it made us rethink the drink.You need a free subscription to read the article, but it's interesting, at least if you want to read about why absinthe goes milky when you add another liquid, and are curious about the effect of the bubbles. We're interested in both.

READERS of Ernest Hemingway know “Death in the Afternoon” as a book about bullfighting. But to drinkers with a taste for obscure booze, it is also a cocktail that Hemingway contributed to a 1935 collection of celebrity recipes. His directions: “Pour one jigger absinthe into a Champagne glass. Add iced Champagne until it attains the proper opalescent milkiness. Drink three to five of these slowly.”

New York Times - Trying to Clear Absinthe’s Reputation [subscription]

Beyond Nog-a-Sake

For any of you who saw this year's Christmas special for The Office on NBC, you may have noticed an interesting-sounding drink recipe as you squirmed your way through the episode. We're talking about Nog-a-Sake, the vile-sounding holiday combination of three parts Japanese Sake and one part Egg Nog. It sounds disgusting and has a quasi-offensive name, and according to Ed Helms's Andy character from the show, some places won't make it for you "because egg nog is seasonal." F'ing brilliant, that is.

Oh, and according to the folks at Yum Sugar, it's revolting (hint: the Sake makes the Nog curdle).

However, the recipe got us thinking about other things we could mix with the chokingly thick and sickeningly sweet holiday drink beyond the traditional Bourbon or Brandy. We won't subject you to every permutation we tried, but we did want to share one recipe that everyone loved - combining Porter or Stout with Egg Nog. We searched around for recipes indicating people had already tried this and couldn't find any, which surprised us. The two flavors mixed together to cut the sweetness of the Nog, and the smokiness of the porter really brought about a complexly flavored drink that reminded us a bit of Guinness Ice Cream. If you've got some Egg Nog left over from the holidays, we recommend getting your hands on some porter or stout (Guinness would do the trick) and mixing up a few glasses before your New Year's resolution to slim down kicks in. Just mix them in equal parts (it might even be fun to layer them) and roll.

Also, we're having trouble coming up with a name, so if anyone can think of anything clever let us know in the comments below. If we get any good ones we'll pick it and send the winner a prize.

Merry Christmas from Liquor Snob

We're hoping you've been nice all year, because this is the day of reckoning. Did you find bottles under the tree, or lumps of coal? Either way, we hope you're having a great holiday, and if you don't celebrate we hope you're having a great day anyway.

In the spirit of the season we've wrangled up one more cocktail recipe for you - they call it the Minty Mistletoe. It's an unfortunate name but the drink tastes great.

Minty Mistletoe
Ingredients:
• 2 oz. Baileys Irish Cream
• .25 oz. peppermint schapps
Directions:
• Add Baileys Irish Cream and peppermint schnapps
• Shake with ice and strain into martini glass

This recipe comes to you via TheBar.com, which we mentioned to you back in the salad days of early '06, and they have over 400 good recipes - at least if you're into Diageo products. And not to get too Grinchy, but this is exactly the reason why we hate Flash sites - we can't link to the recipes for you and you'll have to go dig them up yourselves. First you have to register, and then you can access the recipes by clicking on "Occasions." Luckily the content is good, and we'll stop our Bah Humbugging to once again wish you a Merry Xmas.

Caramel Apple Cocktail: A Drink for the Season

It's T minus one day to the Big Birthday (and many more, Jebus), and while you're out doing your last-minute holiday shopping, you big slacker you, we suggest you stop by the liquor store. Knowing you, you were probably going to do that anyway, but we have a specific Christmas list for you.

Pick up a bottle of Bacardi Big Apple (you might not have heard of this mom 'n pop operation - learn more at Bacardi.com) and a bottle of Butterscotch Schnapps (we used Buttershots from DeKuyper). You're about to treat your loved ones to a Caramel Apple Cocktail, and they'll thank you for it, even the ones who don't think they like cocktails. We took some to a party, and while most of the manly-type dudes didn't get too into it, the ladies in the joint had a feeding frenzy on them. We felt like we were watching Spring Break Shark Attack with fewer bikinis and better acting. Plus, it's in the spirit of the season so Mom can't frown on your introducing hard liquor to the festivities - especially after you get one or two in her.

The recipe is extremely simple the way we made it, which we got from DrinksMixer; just combine 2oz of Bacardi Big Apple and 2oz of the Buttershots in a shaker with ice, shake and pour into a cocktail glass. If you want to go even one step further, buy some caramel sauce at the grocery store and rim the glass with it. Sticky but tasty.

Note: Most of the people we were with insisted on calling these Caramel Apple Martinis. We understand the confusion, but we refuse to call anything that includes rum and lacks gin, vodka, or vermouth a martini. It's a cocktail. Even the glass it's served in, which everyone calls a martini glass, is really a cocktail glass. Just a friendly xmas tip.

The Art of the Bar Book

Some days, you just want to plunk a couple pieces of ice in a glass and splash some booze on them. But some days you want something a little more complex, something with a few more steps. In fact, it can be said that mixing a good stiff drink is what separates man from the common beast. In fact, if we have one bit of advice for you, it's "don't be afraid of the classy cocktail." That's where the Art of the Bar (Amazon) comes in.

Its authors, Jeff Hollinger and Rob Schwartz, are bartenders at the Absinthe Brasserie and Bar, a famous San Francisco landmark for the discerning drinker. They know what they're talking about, and we've only heard good things about the bar and the book. We've got a copy on its way to us, and we'll et you know once we whip up a few of these legendary libations. If you can't wait, pick up a copy of your own at Amazonand get to mixing; for more info go to TheArtoftheBar.com.

More Scary Halloween Cocktails

We're having a grand old time finding Halloween cocktail recipes for you to add a little spice to you Halloween festivities, and we've found a whole new batch of greats including the Bloody Brain (pictured), the Zombie and the Undercurrent. We've included the recipe for the Bloody Brain, a drink that we love the look of but sounds a bit sweet for us, and you can head on over to TheState.com's Eat, Drink, and Be Scary for a bunch more recipes, as well as some...interesting Halloween drink garnish ideas.

Bloody brain

Ingredients:
3/4 ounce peach schnapps
Float of Bailey's Irish Cream
1 dash grenadine
Glassware: highball glass

Directions:
Pour peach schnapps into a highball glass. Add Irish Cream to the center. Top with grenadine and serve.