Category Archives: Cocktails

While I was still sleeping this morning, an email arrived from a friend living upstate requesting a cocktail idea featuring Finger Lakes Distilling’s Wildberry Vodka.   She’s involved with a benefit this weekend and wanted to get some more exposure for a local product.  She needed the cocktail to be easy; something she could pre-batch and pour.

Coincidentally, I’ve been searching for a good fall cocktail using the Wildberry, too.  Over the summer it contributed to a killer lavender lemonade, but sadly, it’s time to move on.  Fall and berries don’t really go hand in hand the way apples or pumpkins do.  My first thought was cranberries and I did make a tasty Cosmopolitan, but I thought I could do better. 

My next thought was harvest time, which led me to grapes, which then led me to white grape juice – Welch’s white grape juice made from Niagra grapes to be exact.  Interestingly enough, some of the grapes used to make FLD’s Wildberry vodka are Niagra.  I was very tempted to call my new concoction “The Chicken and the Egg”, but it would involve quite a lengthy explanation and not everyone shares my goofy sense of humor. 

8 oz. of white grape juice is the equivalent of 2 servings of fruit

Vintner’s Wildberry Harvest
2 oz. Wildberry vodka
4 oz. Welch’s white grape juice
0.5 oz. Cointreau (could sub triple sec if you’d like)
0.25 oz. orange juice (makes the flavors pop, gives the needed acidity)
0.5 oz. simple syrup

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice, shake, strain and serve up in chilled vessel.  Garnish with grapes – my first choice would have been white (or green), but red was all that was on hand. 

This grape juice is sweet and intensely grape-y, but the drink is well-balanced.  It reminds me of being a little kid, playing in the fallen leaves and coming back inside for a glass of grape juice.  Funny how what we consider refreshing changes as we get older.

I’m not sure if this name will fly once we actually put this cocktail on the list, but for now I’ve found it quite entertaining.

I recently got in a cool product called St. Elizabeth Allspice Dram from my friend Scott who distributes products from Alpenz.  Essentially, it’s a rum-based liqueur flavored with allspice berries.  These are no ordinary allspice berries, however.  They’re from Jamaica and they give the spirit a rich smell of baking spices – clove, cinnamon and nutmeg (“all” spices in one – get it?), along with a spicy, pepper finish.  It will make great fall and winter cocktails – mulled ciders, warm punches, etc. 

In some recipes this liqueur is listed as Pimento Dram.  The pimento refers to the berry from which the allspice is derived and is not to be confused with that flavorless red thing jammed into your olive.  I found a few definitions for dram, the most likely being an informal expression of a small amount of liquid (often in reference to Scotch).  The fact that dram can also be used as a measure of the powder charge in a shotgun shell was also quite compelling. 

The label claims it’s a tradition of the West Indies, yet it’s bottled in Austria.  Go figure.

Shortly after getting the product in house, Scott emailed over a recipe for me to try.  With a few tweaks, here it is:

guests in the background wondering why I'd want to photograph bottles of booze

1.5 oz. bourbon
1 oz. Finger Lakes Distilling Cassis Liqueur
just under 0.5 oz. St. Elizabeth Allspice Dram
1 oz. fresh lemon juice
1 egg white (gives great body and texture to the drink – don’t be scared!)
healthy pinch salt
club soda

Combine all ingredients in a shaker and do a pre-shake without ice – this helps to incorporate the egg white.  Add ice, shake again, strain into a chilled up glass and top with club soda.  It was so pretty on its own, I didn’t garnish it.  Maybe a lemon twist?

my bartender Gene doing the egg honors

pink, frothy, spicy, refreshing - what more do you need?

a sign outside a bar in Spain. what's your favorite coktele?

Cokteles, yes, actual cocktails, not so much.  ESL issues aside, I do feel ok saying that cocktails are not what comes to mind when I think about Spain.  Inexpensive cava and wine drawn from barrels into plastic soda or water bottles – heck, yeah.   At one bar, I ordered a Dark and Stormy and got what tasted like a Manhattan.  This may have just been bad luck, but the wine was good enough that it just didn’t matter.

I don’t like the new nip in the night air.  I also don’t like that it’s already dark just after 8 pm.  To help stave off the end-of-summer and the end-of-the-long-weekend blues, I looked to the cantaloupe on my counter for inspiration and this is what happened:

musky cantaloupe is a good match with herbaceous gin

Please don’t go (summer):
2 oz. G’vine gin
1 oz. St. Germain
5 1-inch pieces of cantaloupe
pinch salt
juice of 1/2 lime
club soda

Muddle melon with lime juice and salt, add ice, gin and St. Germain.  Shake and strain into rocks glass with ice and top with club soda. 

isn't it a great color?

This drink was crying for fresh mint, but I was out.  I think it could’ve used a touch more sweetness, too.  That being said, there was a refreshing brightness – dare I say hopefulness – to this drink – maybe an Indian Summer?

A few months back I shared my love of Aperol.  I have an update on my Spritz cocktail.  Just when I thought the drink couldn’t get any tastier, I subbed San Pellegrino’s Aranciata (are-un-CHOT-uh) for regular old orange juice.

My tasty Italian trio

The proportions remain the same – 2 oz. Aperol, 2 oz. Moscato d’Asti, 1 oz. Aranciata – and so does the process – mix all ingredients together, shake with ice, strain and serve over ice in a rocks glass.  The original calls to be topped with club soda, but I hated to dilute this drink.  I tried a few itierations (in the name of blogging) and preferred either no topping off or a small bit of Aranciata on top.  I attempted an orange wheel garnish but my orange was too big and it looked ridiculous.

It tastes like a creamsicle!  In addition to being very refreshing, it’s great for a hot afternoon because it’s low in alcohol – Aperol is 11% abv and the Moscato d’Asti I used clocks in at 5.5% abv.

The additional carbonation from the Aranciata also helps to make this drink light on its feet.  Drinks with bubbles are usually more fun.

Aranciata only contains 18% orange juice, so this version is a bit less sweet, too. 

Salute!

Label for new FLD Corn Whiskey

In honor of the opening weekend of Finger Lakes Distilling and its owner’s birthday today, let me introduce another one of their spirits.

When I tasted the corn whiskey, this is what I came up with:

The aroma of this whiskey is reminiscent of pulling back the husk from an ear of sweet summer corn.  On the palate, it’s crisp yet mellow, with toasty, caramelized notes and a meaty finish – think cornbread with bacon! 

This is what master distiller Thomas had to say about it (I promise he really said this.  You have to meet him):

“Corn whiskey is a true southern favorite; this is an honest, true corn whiskey, made like they do it in the hills and hollers of south Alabama. It smells like Dunkin Hines cake mix comin’ off the still.  Yankees beware, put some south in yo mouth!”

This corn whiskey is unaged and bottled right from the still, but don’t be afraid – it’s surprisingly easy to drink.  The Glen refers to the racetrack at Watkins Glen.  I thought it would pair well with something a little sweet and a little spicy, so I opted for fresh blueberries and ginger ale.  Here’s the recipe:

Blueberry Corn Muffin
2 oz. corn whisky
juice of ½ lemon
pinch salt
dash simple syrup
ginger ale
handful blueberries

Don't be fooled by its innocent pink color

Muddle blueberries (enough to fill a rocks glass, single layer) with juice of ½ lemon, salt and simple syrup.  Add corn whiskey and shake with ice.  Pour back into rocks glass, top with ginger ale and garnish with blueberries and lemon. 

This drink goes down real easy, so watch that you don’t go off to the races.

My friend Scott stopped by L’Ecole this week so I could taste him on some Finger Lakes Distilling Products.   He’s got plenty of experience, as he’s behind DH Krahn gin (the website is under construction, but for more info in the meantime, click here).  When we got to the Crème de Cassis, he exclaimed, “This would make a delicious bramble!”

Thanks for the tip, buddy and here goes:

See the cassis trickling down the inside of the glass?

Is your mouth watering yet?

The cassis will have a pretty label soon instead of my post-it note

Brambles are thorny plants in the rose family and the bramble fruits that come from those plants are raspberries and blackberries.  The bramble cocktail was created by Dick Bradsell in the 1980s at a club in London.  The original calls for blackberry liqueur, but I opted for blackcurrant with FLD’s Cassis. 

With the help of a Chef-Instructor and a robot coupe, I got some crushed ice.  If you don’t have either of those at home, I suggest a blender or a mallet.  The crushed ice really is an important part of the cocktail and you’ll see why in a moment.  Here’s the recipe:

2 oz. Seneca Drums gin
1 oz. fresh squeezed lemon juice
1 oz. simple syrup
dash salt

Combine the above ingredients with ice and shake vigorously.  Strain over crushed ice in a rocks glass.  Top with 1 oz. Crème de Cassis – the crushed ice slows the dissipation of the cassis, making quite a pretty show.  The trickle would have been more obvious in the first photo above, but I was a one-woman cocktail-making, photo-taking show.  Garnish with lemon slice and blackberries. 

This is an easy cocktail that’s got everything you want – a little sweet, a little tart, a little herbaceous and a little bite.