Summer's coming, what's your Cocktail?

Ha HAH! Given all the vitamins of eight separate vegetables in every glass of my beer, I shall BURY you!

I had plain vodka in the fridge so I made it with that, lemonade, and about 7 fresh strawberries - all blended. It’s a new standard already. One of my friends used the same idea except with blueberry Stoli and said it was fantastic. So thank you!

Now, if I only knew what to do with the green apple vodka someone “gifted” me with…(more like a mathom)

My father is in the Isaac Walton League in Des Moines and every time I visit and join him there for dinner, people drink red beer by the gallon in the bar.

Blech.

I hate to quibble, but in my neck of the woods red beer is beer and tomato juice, not necessarily V-8. My father drinks red beer by the quart, I assume adding tomato juice to kill the taste of the Bud Lite.

Actually, it was in your neck of the woods that I was introduced to an appalling variant: the Clamato Beer, which is beer and clamato juice. (FYI for those who don’t know, and I didn’t, “clamato juice” is tomato juice with, yes, clam juice added to it.) It’s like liquid horror.

My mom uses fresh-squeezed orange juice, red wine (jug, box, whatever) and her secret ingredient is…brandy!

My summertime drink would be Campari and tonic. It’s my father’s pick for summer and he used t make me one too.

my gawd. so you’re the other french 75 drinker! :smiley: no bitters for me, tho. ick.

i also partial to g & t, altho i prefer tanqueray and tanqueray 10 to sapphire.
extra lime, please.

beer: blue moon w/an extra-big orange wedge. yum…

this summer i’m going to learn how to make a decent martini. so far, it isn’t going well at all. :stuck_out_tongue:

evidently, i have no talent for them.

Let me teach you how to make my wife’s favorite martini:

2 jiggers ice-cold Ketel One vodka
1/2 jigger Noilly Prat white vermouth
one splash olive juice

Combine in shaker with fresh ice, lots. Shake until your fingers freeze. Pour into chilled martini glass. Garnish with three olives stuffed with bleu cheese or jalapeños.

I make martinis 3 or 4 parts gin (I prefer Plymouth or Sapphire for martinis, but Boodles is a superior G&T gin IMO) to one part Noilly Prat. Per the excellent advice offered me in a long ago thread I started, I actually make them in bulk, then store in a glass bottle in the freezer. There’s a bottle of Noilly Prat in the fridge door, and quite a different one in my freezer. Pour into a chilled glass, add olives to your taste, and down the hatch. That way you always have the proportion right, and only have to adjust for quantity. :wink:

Our version of the Sombreros we loved so much in Mexico:

Blend Vodka, sugar, vanilla extract, cream and ice.

Gently pour over coffee liqueur in a martini glass.

BTW, another thing you can try is making a margarita with gin instead of tequila and adding a dash or two of bitters (this is a modified Pegu Club).

I tend to use a lower proportion of gin than tequila so it comes out sweeter; otherwise, I think it ends up with too much of a medicinal taste.

hmm. i may have just spotted the glitch: my gin (don’t care for vodka) and vermouth aren’t residing in the fridge.

:eek:

are these cardinal sins one and two in making The Perfect Martini?

In my book, yes. In other books…yes. :smiley:
The base liquor should be kept in the freezer. We have found that a fifth of Ketel One fits quite nicely in the upper part of the ice cube tray rack. The key to a truly great martini is that it be served freezing cold. Some may consider it heresy, but you also can make a martini too dry. If all you want is gin on the rocks, fine. But don’t call it a martini. I also recommend the “dirty” variation, that is, adding a splash of juice from the olive jar. It gives the drink a bit more depth of flavor.

Also, if you own any of those 16 oz. giant martini glasses, throw them out or relegate them to serving shrimp cocktails. A proper martini is served in a much smaller glass, so you can finish it before it gets warm.

uh-oh. :smack:

most humble apologies to the martini experts here. you can sure tell i don’t have much experience with them!

i’ll ice down the appropriate ingredients and report back either success or failure at a later date. uh, do i need to use a real martini glass?

because i don’t own one. :stuck_out_tongue:

Champagne glasses work fine for martinis as well. Some use cordial glasses I believe.

Proper glassware adds to the experience, but don’t let that stand in the way. But you really need something stemmed so that your hand doesn’t warm up the drink.