This time of year is the only time I can tolerate liquor, and in fact I love mixing up some nice holiday cocktails from late November through early January. But after that, I go back to drinking my boring old American pilsners for the rest of the year.
Well, this year, I’ve had a little fun mixing up a variety of tasty little cocktails that I dreamed up in my own little head, complete with fancy names.
So far the best of the lot:
French Russian
Sugar cube placed in the bottom of a wine glass
Vodka poured up to the top of the sugar cube.
1oz of cherry juice concentrate
Fill the glass with champagne
French Russian Sour
Same as a French Russian, but substitute lemon juice for the cherry juice
SoCo Semi-Sour
1.5oz Southern Comfort
1.5oz lemon juice
4oz water
Now they say there’s nothing new under the sun, so I fully expect a mixologist to come in tout de suite and tell me how I didn’t really invent anything at all.
But anyway, do you have any tasty cocktails that you’ve invented that you wish to share with the class?
Ginto A generous measure of gin
Lemonade
Vimto
Splash the gin into whatever receptacle you have to hand. Add a glug of Vimto and top off with lemonade.
Chamaretto Amaretto
Cherry Coke
Add one to the other. Proportions will depend on how sloshed you want to get. Tastes like Dr Pepper, sort of.
Once I took a bartending course and, as a final project, everybody had to invent their own cocktail. Mine was the “Scotch Engineer”: One oz. Scotch, one oz. gin, club soda over ice.
It was about as palatable as you would expect of a recipe based on a pun.
One of my co-workers came up with this for a holiday party and emailed the recipe around so she could stealth-brag: Hot chocolate with cinnamon and peppermint schnapps, marshmallow cream and cinnamon:
1 packet hot chocolate. Add slightly less water than called for (about 2/3rds whatever the packet says, or I’m sure you could also go to the trouble of making real hot chocolate.)
Add 2 capfuls of peppermint schnapps and 2 capfuls of cinnamon schnapps.
Stir.
Add one heaping spoonful marshmallow cream (just scoop it and drop the spoon in, the cream will float up)
Sprinkle cinnamon on top.
Apparently it was a real big hit, but I have neither of the required schnapps at home right now. Someone, report back!
Pour Absolut Vanilla vodka into martini glasses to 2/3 full. Empty into shaker and add 1 packet Swiss Miss cocoa mix per 2 drinks (use the kind with the little marshmallows in a separate packet). Shake vigorously with ice and pour through a strainer to remove any undissolved powder. Sprinkle the marshmallows over the top and enjoy.
Fill a Collins glass with:
Ice
2 parts gin
1 part lemon juice
1 part limoncello
Top off with soda water and garnish with a lemon wedge and (optionally) a cherry.
Basically, substitute the sugar/syrup in a Tom Collins with limoncello. It’s dangerously good.
In a short glass, on the rocks:
1 Shot Strawberry Vodka
1 Shot Coconut Rum
Fill glass with a 50/50 mix of OJ and Pineapple Juice
My God, it’s fantastic and will get you saucey. Invented in a bowling alley in Bloomington, Indiana by a friend and I. You must pronounce the name of the drink like Quagmire from Family Guy.
Staring at a two-liter bottle of Diet Dr Pepper and a bottle of cheap vodka inspired me to invent the DVDP: cold glass, two shots of vodka, fill up with cold Diet Dr Pepper. It works scarily well–Four Loko didn’t need to be invented, honestly. You could probably drink a gallon of it before the DTs set in.
The other drink I’ve come up with was my attempt to replicate something I had at Jaleo in DC, and in my confusion I also added some ideas from a sangria I had in Spain. We also had a bumper crop of mint that year, so…
Dry Land White Sangria
In a pitcher, muddle several mint leaves with a teaspoon of sugar. Add one shot each Liqor 43, gin, and Cointreau. Fill the rest of the pitcher with cava (Spanish champagne). Drink until really bad decisions are made.
