And then George Washington took out his Margarita machine and said, “Let there be frozen drinks!”. Happy 4th folks!
The Blue Crush Tequila Swizzle
Frozen Negroni Cocktails (regular and watermelon)
Frozen Cucumber and Green Chartreuse Daiquiri Cocktail
Frozen Peach, White Pepper and Green Tea Daiquiri
Frozen Blood and Sand Cocktail
Peach and Tequila Frozen Cocktail
Frozen Peach, Rum, Coconut Blended Cocktail
This post is brought to you by Don Q Oak Barrel Spiced Rum. Recipes and ideas are my own.
I’ve decided I hate the term “binge watching” television. The term makes it sound like it’s a bad thing to watch a few hours of House Hunters International. And that, folks, is not a bad way to spend a few hours of relaxation time (i.e. kids are asleep).
The couples on that show are fantastic to watch. Either they are attempting to look into the camera and say something positive about this bungalow in the jungle with giant flying bugs because they are fulfilling some dumb dream when they spent two weeks there in college and now are realizing how difficult it will be dragging their whole family there… OR their significant other is making them get a second house and they are just seething on the inside while obviously trying not to look angry for a national audience. But we can tell!
At the end of the island episodes, the couple is always cheers-ing with some fantastic looking cocktails and they somehow look content with their decision to be the crazy Americans on that island. If they were in Puerto Rico, by the way, they probably were sipping on a cocktail made with Don Q rum.
Today’s recipe is in partnership with Don Q Rums and we’re featuring their newest rum offering the Don Q Oak Barrel Spiced Rum. Don Q Rum has only been in the States a little over a decade, but has been a popular choice in Puerto Rico for 150 years, making it their #1 rum. This spiced rum packs a punch of flavor with vanilla and pepper and just enough sweetness for my palate. While you can definitely sip this rum, it’s also a great mixing rum to make unquestionably delicious cocktails. So that’s what we’re doing with it now!
With such strong flavors to start with in the rum, I decided to use some equally strong flavors to compliment that spiciness. When you think powerful, do you think about gunpowder? In cocktails?! I do, but this version of gunpowder comes in the form of tea. Gunpowder green tea to be exact. Teas are great options for giving subtle (and sometimes not so subtle. Hello lapsang souchong tea!) flavor to cocktails. I steeped this savory, smoky tea in a simple syrup to lend a savory note to the drink and to balance the sweetness of the other components. Thinking of Puerto Rico, I opted to add some guava nectar for tropical sweetness and a big squeeze of lime finished with a touch of orange curaçao. The drink starts sweet, but ends with a lingering earthiness. To give it a finishing kick, the glass is rimmed in a mixture of salt and cayenne.
Ok, so now that we have our tropical inspired drinks, we can get back to the tv watching. While these house hunters might make very questionable choices, make sure your cocktail is unquestionably delicious.
Spiced Gunpowder Guava Cocktail1-1/2 ounces Don Q Oak Barrel Spiced Rum
3/4 ounce guava nectar
3/4 ounce freshly squeezed lime juice from about 1 lime (reserve lime shell)
1/2 ounce gunpowder green tea syrup (recipe follows)
1/4 ounce orange curaçao
1 teaspoon kosher salt and a pinch of cayenne pepper for garnish
Yields approximately 5 ounces
3 bags of gunpowder green tea (or two heaping tablespoons if you have loose tea)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup water
In a small saucepan, combine sugar and water. Bring to a boil and remove from heat. Stir in teabags (or loose tea if using). Steep for 10 minutes. Strain and use immediately or store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to one month.
For more information about Don Q Oak Barrel Spiced Rum and all their exceptional rums, their commitment to sustainability and quality, and for additional drink & garnish ideas and proper glassware tips please visit their website at donq.com.
Make someone you love a drink. I didn’t say it had to be another person.
The Foaming Pineapple Cocktail
Sparkling and Spiced Winter Sangria
And to drive the point home…
Go the extra mile this year and make them something delicious for the holidays. Just make sure there’s booze in it.
Angostura and Luxardo Cherry Brownies
I’m not one to tell you guys what to do, but if you’re looking for something to make this week for your holiday table, here are a few suggestions! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Cranberry-Black Pepper Shrub Cocktails
Lemony Suze Sparkling Pitcher Cocktails
Sparkling Pomegranate Caipirinha
Well kids, it’s been awhile since we’ve seen a Low Rent Cocktail around these parts and Halloween seems like the right time to throw one at you.
I can’t take the credit for this month’s name; it’s all my husband’s doing. And appropriately so. See, this month we are celebrating 10 years together. Just how did this man woo this lady? Strange movie dates. Our first date he asked me to go see this limited release movie from the guy behind office space (that movie was Idiocracy and although when I found out what we were seeing I thought to myself, really? For a first date? I said yes to a second.). Our second date was a screening of Phantom of the Paradise. This movie is strange, but more so up my alley. I think after these first two dates we actually started doing normal date things like going out to eat but these two back to back dates are a small part of why I kept saying yes to another date.
Awwww. How sweet. Now on to the ridiculous cocktails.
Halloween means excessive sweets and bad taste, and that’s just what these two Low Rent Cocktails have to offer you. First up we have the Fanta of the Opera staring, you guessed it: Fanta Soda and because we’re trying oh so hard to be fancy with our cheap plastic masks and not flame retardant costumes, we’re bringing out the Italian Vermouth. It’s fancy because it comes from Italy.
Fanta of the Opera1 part Cinzano Dry Vermouth
3 parts Fanta Grapefruit Soda
Pour over ice in a highball glass or whatever hollowed out gourd you having laying around.
And for today’s double dose of trouble we have the Fanta of the Paradise. Rock stars. Revenge. Gore. What more could you ask for in a cocktail movie? Plus it’s strawberry and coconut flavored, just like your spring break paradise.
Fanta of the Paradise1 part Malibu Rum
3 parts Fanta Strawberry Soda
Pour over ice in a highball glass or the skull of your enemy.
***If you want to add some spooky pizazz to your cocktails, feel free to throw some dry ice in. Just please dear god do not drink the dry ice or you’ll be taking a trip to the emergency room instead of drinking and that is NO FUN.
Hope you all have a fun Halloween! Stay safe!
The Low Rent Cocktail series is an occasional column on Stir and Strain where the boundaries of “good taste†are pushed to the limit, or more often than not, pushed out the window. Enjoy at your own risk.
Sadly, peaches are quickly disappearing from the farmer’s market this month so I thought I’d give them one final nod before we go full into Fall this week.
I don’t know about yours, but since it is the end of the season, my peaches are starting to look a little worse for wear. They’re RIPE, and maybe not so pretty looking anymore. When this happens, I fire up the grill and send them on their way Viking style (on fire).
Today just happens to be yet another drink holiday, but one I tend to enjoy: Rum Punch. Yes, even Rum Punch gets its own day now. But you know, Tuesday is a good enough reason too to enjoy one of these cocktails.
Keeping it simple, but full of flavor, this punch gets a double peach kick from grilled and caramelized peaches and a few good glugs of Bundaberg’s Sparkling Peach brew. We’re big fans of Bundaberg’s ginger beer so we thought we’d try their sparkling brewed drinks too.
The final rum punch comes together with an aged rum, fresh lime juice and the peaches. It tastes a bit tropical, with juicy peach flavors and a sour bite from the lime juice. The rum rounds it out with earthy notes and the sparkling peach gives it a pleasant, but not overpowering, bubbly lift. Nice and simple.
Yields 2-3 drinks
1/2 peach, sliced
2 ounces freshly squeezed lime juice
4 ounces aged rum
Bundaberg Premium Peach Sparkling Brew*
Fire up those grills and break out your blocks of ice.
Black Cherry + Green Tea Cocktails
Brûléed Grapefruit and Mixed Citrus Punch
Frozen Blood and Sand Cocktail
Fassionola. You might be wondering what that word is, or whether or not I am misspelling something. But if you’re not familiar with that word, you’re making your Hurricane cocktail all wrong.
Wrong?! Well, we’ve had to swap out ingredients for a long time since Fassionola, a syrup made from a blend of strawberries and tropical fruits, hasn’t been on the market for, oh… 30+ years now. The syrup is one of the original ingredients in the famed Hurricane cocktail as invented at Pat O’Brien’s in the French Quarter. It has a history, and now Cocktail & Sons have resurrected it, and one lucky Stir and Strain reader can score a bottle. And since everyone is in a generous mood, they’re also giving away bottles of their Mint & Lemon Verbena and the Spiced Demerara Syrups. All superb fits for your summer drinking needs.
Since Cocktail & Sons prides themselves are only using the best seasonal ingredients in season, the Fassionola syrup will only be available until June 30th (strawberries don’t grow in October…)! So stock up if you can. And in the meantime, enter below to win your own bottle: you get up to 8 entries to help you along (open to US residents only)! Giveaway ends at 11:59pm PST Sunday May 29th, 2016. For more information on Cocktail & Sons, check out their website at cocktailandsons.com today! Good luck!
And once you do get a bottle of the Fassionola, you can craft the BEST Hurricane cocktail to sip all summer long:
1.5 oz. Rum (Cocktai & Sons recommend aged rum or rhum agricole, nothing too dry)
.75 oz. Cocktail & Sons Fassionola
.5 oz. Fresh lime juice
Glass: Tall
Garnish: Lime wheel
Add all the ingredients to a shaker and fill with ice. Shake, and strain into a tall glass filled with fresh ice. Garnish with a lime wheel.
Well guys, it’s been two years since I’ve done one of these, so here’s your 2016 cocktail roundup for all your Moms. Drink up!
Sparkling Lemony-Suze Cocktails
Sparkling Pomegranate Caipirinha
Fresh Ginger Amaretto Sour Cocktails
 
Brûléed Grapefruit and Mixed Citrus Punch with Vanilla and Piloncillo Reduction
Sparkling Pomegranate and Cocchi Rosa Cocktails
A Pitcher of Pisco with Grapefruit, Lime and Thyme
