Cocktails, the libationary art!

I ended up with a 2L of Deep Eddy Grapefruit vodka. A year later, still have about 2L and want to leverage it for Thanksgiving in a punch or sangria, something that will use a lot of grapefruit vodka. Thinking about cranberry and rosemary maybe, I have many liqueurs and time enough to get any mixer.

Any suggestions for a crowdpleaser?

Well, I got cream soda to make my beloved Halloween cocktail, only to find I am out of vodka!

So having a Dead Rabbit, and made a Blood Orange Margarita for my (adult) daughter.

Are you having any holiday drinks?

This one I find worth the fuss. Made a partially batched version for Thanksgiving last year and it was a big hit. Easier to measure when making a bottle of it, I premixed the booze, then day of mixed the juices/honey, it was easy enough then to shake or tell someone how to make it.

Was looking for something to make today and realized I have both the Chinola Passion Fruit and fresh pineapple juice, and when I looked I had everything for this & for me it hits all my favorites - smoky, spicy, fruity, sweet/tart, touch of bitter.

https://imbibemagazine.com/recipe/cima-summer-special-tropical-cocktail/

I have no idea how to get it to look like the picture in the article, it has to be photoshopped. But it's delicious. Increased both tequila and raspberry syrup to 1 oz to make it easier to scale, did use the teabags in the syrup and let it steep longer than she said, still this beautiful pink not vampire red.

I am having another pineapple and whiskey drink and thinking that combination has to be my favorite. And everyone to whom I've recommended it seems to love it. I put whiskey in my pineapple upside down cakes now, even. There is just such an affinity between the flavors.

What is your match made in heaven?

I guess my palate is modern, because amaretto sour is way too sweet for me. I do mine as a bourbon sour with some amaretto. But I'm interested in this stuff.

To celebrate the return of electricity. All my remaining lemons & limes were lost to mold and I've not restocked yet, so something different. As close as I could get to Chancellor #2.

1.5 oz whiskey

1 oz tawny port

.5 oz Amaro Toscana

2 dashes Angostura bitters

Absinthe rinsed frozen coupe

Stir all ingredients with ice, pour into the glass.

A little sweeter and heavier than my ideal, obviously, but a nice aperitif, the flavors are good though. Not completely sure about the Toscana, close but maybe Amaro Nonino if I try it again. I never seem to have vermouth.

Here’s a little Manhattan-adjacent drink I whipped up yesterday, sort of inspired by one I had at a restaurant long ago:

• 2oz Forty Creek whisky
• 1/3 oz Barolo Chinato sweet wine
• 1/3 oz Strega
• 2 dashes Sichuan peppercorn bitters

I like it a lot! Between the spice and the Strega, there was a lot going on, and the Forty Creek has its own bit of spice to join the party. I made a batch of two, so the 1/3 oz measures were actually 3/4 oz ¯_(ツ)_/¯

2oz Tequila Ocho claro

1oz orange liqueur

1oz fresh lime

3 dropperful fire tincture (habanero and anatto infused vodka)

Shake with ice, dirty pour (still no power here, can't waste ice) into tajin rimmed glass. Perfect and refreshing.

I will say that as much of a PITA it is to be without electricity, the clean running water that the city managed to keep running is much more valuable, I'm glad for that.

I don't understand how they get this drink to look pretty in pictures, maybe the dark rum is not as dark? Anyway - sitting here watching the sideways rain and enjoying a hurricane.

2oz white rum (Miami Club)

2oz dark rum (Mahina)

1oz orange juice

1oz sweetened passionfruit puree

1oz lemon

1 spoonful grenadine

It's not bad, but not great.

We went to a cider pressing party at a friend’s farm last weekend, so I threw this together tonight. Really nice lil thing; I love the allspice dram, and its dark, almost bitter flavor is beautifully balanced by the cider.

• 2 oz blended scotch
• ½ oz Punt e Mes sweet vermouth
• ¼ oz St. Elizabeth allspice dram
• 3 oz apple cider

Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into a glass over ice.

2oz bourbon 1oz Heirloom Pineapple Amaro 6oz Tepache

Delicious. Usually I'd put some lemon but supper was very lemony. This is sweet and bitter but in a very approachable way, lightly sweet, lightly bitter.

The rain is beautiful today, storm coming but today just a gentle rain cooling things off, it's only 23c/73f.

Got this from the Mixel app, credited to Brad Farran. Recipe sounds strange AF, I was looking for something with Galliano that wouldn't use my two oranges (as the storm Milton may call for a hurricane later this week I want to save them) and something with some amount of citrus. This is really quite nice. Would not have thought tequila and rum would work together like this. I put a little more Galliano and no agave - if doing it again I might sub honey syrup though.

3/4 oz tequila Reposado

1/4voz mezcal joven

1 oz dark rum

1/2 oz Galliano

Dash of Absinthe

1 oz lime (scant, since no agave, closer to 3/4 oz)

3/4 oz agave syrup

1 dash tiki bitters (I didn't have, used Angostura)

Shake all with ice, pour over one ice cube.

My other cocktail from Murlarkey Distillery. A little sweeter but definitely still heavy on the whiskey! Glad I have a designated driver because I am done for

Got to visit Murlarkey Distillery and tried this variant of an Old Fashioned. Was worried that it might be too sweet but the nice thing about a distillery is that they're gonna give you plenty of their whiskey

Ok - first of all, I didn't make this as written because it calls for 5.5oz of bourbon, which would put me under the table, and I'm out of good orange liqueur. So:

First pour a little absinthe in coupe and toss it in the freezer.

2oz bourbon

1/2 oz orange Curacao

Scant 1/2 oz lemon juice

Shake with ice. Retrieve glass from freezer and twirl it right side up then upside down to coat it with the absinthe. Pour drink in glass.

It tastes like Christmas. Bourbon mostly, even with less than half what's in the recipe. Hint of orange, hint of licorice/anise. This is a successful licorice orange cocktail. Would be much better with Cointreau, even though there's not much in here.

Here’s Maggie Smith, from Death & Co. As written, I found it a little sweet, so I made a variant after with dark rum, no honey syrup, and added aquafaba, that I found to be, personally, more palatable.

• 1 ounce pisco
• 1 ounce white rum
• ½ ounce orange liqueur
• ¾ ounce lime juice
• ¼ ounce orgeat
• 1 teaspoon honey syrup

Not a looker but it's nice.

2oz bourbon

1.5oz orange liqueur, 1oz vanilla liqueur

0.5oz lemon juice

One egg white.

Dry shake, then shake with ice.

Girlfriend asked for a cocktail with no specific preference and we had leftover lillet blanc in the fridge so I wanted to see what I could do with it. I can see why this is called corpse reviver because it hits strong despite it seeming like a cute pink drink.

Recipe found online, not sure how accurate it is but it's what I used:

• 1 part lillet blanc
• 1 part cointreau
• 1 part gin
• 1 part lemon juice

I thought this was interesting, a whiskey sour is how I evaluate a bar, my reference drink. Never thought of it as difficult, maybe I'm not picky enough because different doesn't equal bad, but I do rate a bar higher if there is egg white, it's not too sweet, and an amaretto cherry.

Margarita they can only be overthinking, I don't think it's difficult, but it's bad so often I always think there must just be budget constraints. I don't even order this as a margarita if there is visible margarita mix - I ask for tequila and orange liqueur with lime, shaken.

Very sweet, too sweet but the flavors work.

2oz good tequila (Gonzalez Reposado)

1oz Nixta

1oz honeydew syrup*

1oz lemon

Shaken together. Pour over ice, Tajin rim.

Thoughts- I'm not sure this needs fixing, it's good just too sweet for my palate. The tajin rim helps. The caramel corn and melon together, yum.

*There was leftover melon. Blendered it with equal weight in sugar. It's really good but hyper sweet.

Show off your collection, or organizational skills, or decorating prowess! This is my wall o' booze. I am lucky to have a little nook off the kitchen, and a glass cabinet from my grandmother.

What are you drinking? I had a whiskey sour with Jameson at a bar, as part of our "world's slowest bar crawl" we've been doing, trying all the bars at a local shopping and dining center. Pretty good. The place had a very good playlist though, when we walked in they were playing Joy Division, then Vampire Weekend, then Boz Scaggs! It was all over the place but good.