What is this crazy word you ask?! Well, if your drinks don’t tend to end up in the Tiki spectrum, then you might not be familiar with this cocktail ingredient. OH! But don’t leave us yet! Falernum is a sweet, spicy, and delicious liqueur (or syrup if made nonalcoholic) that can pep up your drinks this winter and we’re going to jump right in and let you decide… drum roll please… whether you should MAKE OR BUY Falernum!
Our monthly series brings us to the island of Barbados, where our “buy” suggestion, Velvet Falernum, the ubiquitous bottle associated with this particular cocktail ingredient is from. This has been the only alcoholic version available to purchase that I have seen. If you’ve come across another, please let us know! I was first introduced to Velvet Falernum when I started making drinks from Beachbum Berry’s Grog Log. While used in many a tiki drink, this ingredient is actually much older, and exact dates as to when people started making this are unclear (because it was made by, like, your mom at home). If you’d like to know more about the ingredient and its history, go visit Darcy O’Neil over at Art of Drink for his research. Although this bottle dominates the market, it’s a great buy with a pleasant flavor: lime, cloves, almond, ginger and a light sweetness. The pro to obtaining a bottle is that you don’t need to fill a shopping basket with ingredients to make this, and the flavor is consistent. And as it is distributed by Haus-Alpenz, you can probably find it in a major liquor store. It also will keep after being opened for at a minimum 6 months or longer. The con is that the the flavor is not as zingy or as bright as something freshly made. You also cannot control the sweetness or the flavors. And lastly, if you don’t want the extra alcohol, then Velvet Falernum is out for you.
On the other hand, making Falernum, whether as a lightly alcoholic liqueur or as just a syrup, is fairly easy to do and you might just have most of the ingredients on hand to do so (although I buy whole spices in bulk and often tend to have ingredients like whole cloves available). Besides being easy to make, another pro for a homemade version is that you can make it to your specifications (change out the base rum, more or less clove or ginger, etc…). The con is that it does take a few days to make, will only last refrigerated for about a month, and that from one batch to another it’s not going to necessarily taste the same. Also, you need to invest in some ingredients first to make this. Lastly, as with all the DIY versions, you have to make it. And if that’s a chore, the DIY version is not for you.
And how do they compare in a cocktail? The quintessential Bajan cocktail is the Corn ‘n’ Oil so of course I tested out the two in this drink. Recipe is below if you’d like to try your own. With the Velvet Falernum version, the drink was lighter in body with a lime heavy flavor. The black strap rum was also more prominent. For the homemade falernum cocktail, the taste was more complex and slightly sweeter with fresh lime and zingy ginger being dominate. The color on each of the cocktails was the same, probably to do with the darkness of the rum overpowering any differences in the color of the falernums.
A few notes:
- The way you toast your almonds and cloves is up to you. The easiest route is to put them on a baking sheet and stick them in the oven. I do not do this for two reasons. One, it means turning on my oven and making my kitchen unnecessarily hot. And two, it take awhile. I prefer getting out a frying pan and toasting them on the stove. It’s quick and done in a matter of minutes. However, if you are someone who turns a stove on and walks away and forgets about things… go the oven route.
- Invest in a nut bag if you enjoy doing these projects at home. Gone are the days where I would buy rolls and rolls of cheesecloth. I have one of these bags and I just wash it by hand immediately after using it and sure, it’s not pristinely white anymore, but it does a much better job of catching all the teeny tiny pieces of things while straining out liquids.
I hope I’ve gotten you mildly excited about Falernum and whether you decide to buy or go DIY, you’ve got two great places to start. If you do use one of these, please tag us so we can see your recipe! Cheers!
Falernum
1 scant cup blanched almonds, roughly chopped and toasted
1 tablespoon whole cloves, toasted
1 piece of ginger, approximately 3″ long, roughly chopped with skin on
3 medium limes, zested and juiced
1-3/4 cup of overproof rum (110 proof used here)
1-1/2 cup sugar
1 cup water
- In an airtight, nonreactive container, combine almonds, cloves, ginger, lime zest and juice, and rum. Seal, shake and let rest in a cool, dry place for 24 hours. After 24 hours, strain contents with a nut bag, squeezing the almonds to get as much liquid out as you can. Discard solids.
- Make the rich syrup by combining the sugar and water in a medium sized sauce pan over medium-high heat. Stir until all the sugar is dissolved and let syrup come to just a boil and then remove from heat. Let the syrup cool to room temperature and add the strained liquid to it. Stir to combine, seal, and let stand, refrigerated, for 24 hours. Falernum is ready to use after this second rest. Keep refrigerated for up to one month.
Corn ‘n’ Oil Cocktail
2 ounces of black strap rum
1/2 ounce of falernum
2 dashes of Angostura bitters
lime wedge for garnish
In a rocks glass, build your drink by pouring in black strap rum, falernum and bitters over ice. Squeeze your lime wedge over the top and optionally add to the drink. Stir gently to combine.
This post was made in partnership with Truvia®. Recipes and ideas are my own.
My husband and I have been together for over a decade and the thought of going to a crowded restaurant on this particular day makes us both uneasy. We haven’t written off going places or doing romantic things together, we just choose to do them on days when we’re not fighting for a parking space to make a 9pm table (because that was the only reservation left last minute). What we do instead is put a little effort into making each other feel special at home.
Which brings us to today’s cocktail, a Raspberry Pisco Sour. I am working with 
Using fresh berries here is key. The trick to getting more flavor out of them is to macerate them with the Truvia and let them sit for a little bit. I do that step first and then let the mixture sit while I prep the other ingredients. Also, let’s talk about egg whites here! If you’re new to working with egg whites in cocktails, first, don’t panic. You can buy pasteurized egg whites from the grocery store and use those instead of fresh egg whites. I know where my eggs come from and trust the source so I use whites from whole eggs. If you prefer to make this vegan, you’re lucky, because I have several ways of substituting egg whites for cocktails on the site. The easiest is subbing in aquafaba, which is just the liquid from a can of chickpeas. You can read all about that 
Other than crushing a few berries and either grabbing some egg whites or some aquafaba, this cocktail comes together fairly easily, but it looks and tastes like you put way more effort into it. And you did put some effort into it, so congratulate yourself for that. I think it’s a great drink to make when you want to show someone you think they’re pretty special. And this drink does just that. Cheers!
Raspberry Pisco Sour Cocktail
This post is brought to you by Specialty Retailers, Inc. Recipes and ideas are my own.
Today I’m taking part in 
We still have two whole weeks until Christmas and who knows how many parties we’ll be going to or hosting up to then. If you’re in charge of drinks, Stages has all the accessories you need to make prepping and decorating easy! We did a quick shopping trip online to get all our gear for our virtual party including glasses, those cute gold foil holiday napkins, a caddy to hold the napkins and straws, a chalkboard sign to write out the name of our Signature Cocktail, the containers to store the rosemary sugar, a dipping tray for all the ingredients for the Cranberry Sauce Margaritas, as well as some festive decorations like this teeny tiny lights and the nutcracker. Even my holiday sweater came from there! SO MANY GREAT ENTERTAINING OPTIONS.
The recipe for the Cranberry Sauce Margaritas has just a touch of sweetness in it from the cranberry sauce and the Grand Marnier. You can adjust going up or down with either to your liking. I also think adding just a touch of the rosemary sugar into the drink doesn’t hurt either, just remember to shake it really well to combine it all! TIP: use the spent lime wedges from the cocktail recipe to help rim the glasses. Then you won’t need to waste additional lime wedges just for rimming. Also, when rimming your glass, use a shallow bowl or rimmed plate and push the sugar out towards the edges so that the sugar will evenly coat around the glass.
Cranberry Sauce Margaritas
Rosemary Sugar
Cocktails that stick with me tend to fall into two categories: those that tasted amazing and those that appealed to me visually. For example, I can tell you the first time I tasted bell pepper in a cocktail and fell in love with a whole new world of savory cocktails (Las Perlas in downtown L.A.). I can’t recall what it looked like, but I can remember how it tasted. I’ve gone to that flavor combination many times (and a few cocktail riffs have shown up on this website too).
And then there are those cocktails that, visually, wowed the pants off me. When I was in Chicago years ago for a trip I decided to pop over to 
Today I’m hoping to bridge that gap for you all with this newest cocktail. With flavors both familiar and a little outside the box, and a touch of theatrics in the garnish, this cocktail, which I’m calling The Purple Halo (that will make more sense later) is both tasty and a stunner to look at.
I’ve partnered again this week with 
While delicious on its own, I wanted you to also remember this visually, and that’s where butterfly pea flower tea comes in. If you’ve come across those color changing cocktails on Instagram, this is where they are getting their magic from. You don’t need to be a cocktail wizard to pull this trick off; you just need to be able to order online and make a cup of tea. I was introduced to this tea a few years back when I was still making cocktails with the local Los Angeles pop up The Coconut Club. We made a welcome Ti’ Punch that changed color before the guests’ eyes. They got a kick out of it; we got written up in the local paper. And now your guests will remember your drinks and talk about it for years to come (I cannot guarantee this). The tea changes color, from a dark cobalt to purple or pink, depending on the pH of the liquid you add to it. In this cocktail, the lime juice will start that color change as the ice cube of tea melts into the drink, creating rings of color in the glass.
The butterfly pea flower tea is very, very mild and with the slow dilution does not contribute significantly to the overall flavor of the drink… but it does look cool! So, if you don’t want another box of tea bags taking up real estate in your pantry, you can leave this out and enjoy the cocktail as is.
The Purple Halo
We’ve partnered with the award winning 
Have you guys ever tried quick infusions with dehydrated fruit?! A few weeks back I collaborated with a local bartender on a drink and she hyped me to this technique. I thought I had pretty much exhausted all the fast and furious ways you could get some flavor infused into drinks but I’d never thought of trying it with dehydrated foods. When you crush the dehydrated fruit into the drink, it sucks up the liquid and starts to seep its flavor out. Pretty neat huh?
So today I’m swizzling up tequila and dehydrated blueberries alongside creamy coconut milk and a little spice from a cinnamon syrup you can whip up in less than a half hour. For an extra kick, Angostura bitters is floated on top. We chose to work with 100% estate grown agaves Tres Agaves Tequila because of it’s slightly spicy flavor profile and subtle sweet and grassy aroma; it was the perfect match for our cocktail creation.
Hope you guys enjoy this over the (long) weekend! If you try it, let us know what you think!
1-1/2 ounces Tres Agaves Blanco Tequila
For more information on Tres Agaves Tequila, please visit their site at 
I was compensated by Nielsen-Massey Vanillas for my time in developing this recipe and post. All opinions are my own.
So today we’ve got a fun punch you can throw together for a wedding or a graduation party or “hey look I’ve got a stoop we can sit on for a few hours let’s make a punch and call it a party” party. You’ll find a reason guys to make this punch. It’s also a lovely pink-hued punch for our SoCal June gloom, but it will work for sunny days too. Let’s just all agree not to call it a millennial pink punch. Ok? It was inspired by Turkish cuisine with pomegranates, pistachio and orange blossom water, otherwise known as “Essential Oil of Neroliâ€.
I’ll tell you upfront, it’s gin based, and I can already hear some of my pals whining about how they don’t drink gin. But trust me! It layers nicely in here and if you use a London dry, like I tell you to, then it won’t be an overpoweringly “gin” punch. Pairing it with a rich pomegranate reduction give a sharp sweetness with a nutty layer from some pistachio orgeat. The whole punch gets tied together with the amazing scent of 
Are you ready to start your summer punch party? Let’s get mixing.
If you’re visiting Los Angeles, or happen to already be a resident, and want to find a bar with a decent jukebox, I have a few I can recommend. There’s my beloved 
I always have my favorite songs and will seriously put on $20 worth of music; alright, alright, I’m a total jukebox hog. Footsie’s in particular I always start with the Cisco Kid by War. I have no idea why, I just like to start my set off with that. I heard that song out of the blue the other day and have been reminiscing about jukebox playlists ever since. That song is also probably why I’ve created this cocktail.
You’ve read on here before my thoughts on pisco- it’s a versatile mixing spirit that I don’t think gets enough credit. I’ve also used the base recipe for a pisco sour to show you how you can use BEER! as an 
You might not be a vegan but you might be someone who cringes at the thought of an egg white in a cocktail. Even though most bars are either using pasteurized egg whites or eggs from their own back yard chickens (I’m sure that’s a thing) to prevent salmonella from entering your cocktail. Still, I get it, you don’t want to drink the egg whites. So now you can give Instafoam a try. But won’t it just make the cocktail taste all chemically? NO! I know way back in the dark days when there was only Fee Foam you were going to get a weird aftertaste (and I’m not knocking on Fee Brothers, they were a beacon of bitters in a world that didn’t understand the need yet.) but here you just taste the cocktail.
Yes, this is a riff on pisco sour cocktail. We’ve got the usual culprits: pisco, lime juice, simple syrup, bitters. However, we’ve spiced it up a bit with the addition of jalapeño jam. I often add marmalade or something of the sort to a whiskey sour just to give it an extra layer of flavor. Here it does the same with a spicy, slightly sweet bite with just a bit of earthy aftertaste from those peppers.