The Friday Tipple: Parade Punsch

Start waving your flags, Boozers. Some 800,000 people are expected to descend upon Washington, DC on Monday for the Presidential Inauguration festivities and the weather will actually be somewhat seasonable for a change, i.e. nippy.

Of course, even if you’re not anywhere in the vicinity of an Inaugural parade in the next few days, you may soon find yourself shivering at a some other parade (President’s Day is on the horizon), or at a football game, or while shoveling snow off the driveway. For any of these, we recommend a hot drink. Even better, we suggest you break out Kronan Swedish Punsch.

Because if the Swedes don’t know how to keep toasty in the frosty outdoors, then who does? Savvy bartenders know that Swedish Punsch is a must-have ingredient, a kind of sweet rum liqueur that was popular for a couple of centuries until it was killed off by Prohibition. Its lush flavor — like smoky cane sugar scented with frangipani blossoms — makes a sultry base for a twist on hot buttered rum that we like to call Parade Punsch. Fill up a thermos and get out there.

Parade Punsch

Using a caramel syrup gives this drink a buttery flavor without actually using butter, but feel free to dollop with freshly-whipped cream (we suggest unsweetened, to create more flavor contrast) if you’re feeling the need for added decadence.

4 ounces hot citrus herbal tea (we used a lemon tea)

1.5 ounces Kronan Swedish Punsch

1 ounce rum (Gosling’s Gold is always nice, although we suggest grabbing some Muddy Riverif you happen to be in North Carolina)

1 ounce caramel syrup (storebought or homemade)

pinch of nutmeg

fresh lemon twist

Put the caramel syrup and nutmeg in the bottom of a heat-safe cup and stir to combine. Add the rum and Kronan Swedish Punsch, top with hot tea, and stir briskly. Add a twist of lemon and serve immediately.

The Friday Tipple: Queen Anne’s Reward

Arr, Boozers. We’ve been plundering the Carolina coast this week, following in the legendary footsteps of Blackbeard. The folks are mighty friendly, especially the bartenders, so it’s no wonder that a pirate might stick his pegleg in the sand here and swill a cup or two of grog before sailing off in search of more booty.

You know how we feel about communing with the locals, and the fine inhabitants of Beaufort, North Carolina (not to be confused with Beaufort, South Carolina, which is surely a tasty watering hole itself) are the picture of hospitality. No wonder it was recently named The Coolest Small Town in America. We particularly enjoyed listening to the lore of Queen Anne’s Revenge, Blackbeard’s own ship, sunk just off the shore of nearby Fort Macon, while sipping on pineapple-and-ginger-infused rum at the Front Street Grill’s Rhum Bar. Nothing could be finer than being in Carolina, dozing on the deck of the Rhum Bar watching the dolphins cruise past Carrot Island.

And so we bring you Queen Anne’s Reward — an amalgamation of two staples of the pirate life: wine and rum. Call it a quick-and-dirty sangria if you like, but we’ve zapped a white rum overnight with fresh pineapple, then blended it with a slightly dry red wine for a snappy wine cocktail that will certainly save you from walking the plank. Sit back, Boozers — your treasure has arrived. Arr.

Queen Anne’s Reward

We looked high and low for a local rum, but arrived just a tad too early — next time we’re trawling along the Crystal Coast, we hope that North Carolina fledgling distilleries like Muddy River and Adam Dalton will have finished jumping through the many hoops of legality so that we can stay purely local, but Prichard’s Crystal Rum from Tennessee will do the trick, or any quality white rum of your choice. As to the wine, you can hardly spit in the breeze these days without hitting a vineyard, so look for a nice red in your own backyard. We opted for the locally-popular Chateau Morrisette, just up the road a piece in Virginia.

Semi-dry red wine

White rum

Several chunks of fresh pineapple, with natural juice

Small sprig of rosemary

Club soda

pineapple chunks and rosemary for garnish

To make the quick rum infusion: Put 1 cup of rum in a jar with several chunks of pineapple and the rosemary. Set aside for several hours or overnight, then strain, saving the pineapple chunks but discarding the rosemary.

Put one or two rum-soaked pineapple chunks in the bottom of a large wineglass and lightly crush. Add a teaspoon of reserved fresh pineapple juice and 2 ounces of pineapple-infused rum. Add a few ice cubes and 3 or 4 ounces of red wine and stir. Top with one ounce of chilled club soda and garnish with a few chunks of pineapple speared onto a rosemary stick.

The Friday Tipple: Bananarama

We’re beach-bound, Boozers. Shimmering waves and soft breezes are calling to us seductively, but we still have 24 hours of packing and planning to go. Vacation-itis has hit us hard, and we find ourselves daydreaming of breakfast in bed and leisurely hours spent gamboling along the shoreline. We roundly curse the last-minute projects dumped on our desks.

Which is why it’s time for a daiquiri. Screw the projects. The vacation starts now.

Rum is a must-have in vacation cocktails. It reminds us of devil-may-care pirates sucking down grog with gay abandon as they swing on ropes across the bow of a schooner bedecked in the skull-and-crossbones.  It signals reckless freedom in the fierce sunshine of a tropical spring. Wherever you are and whatever the weather, rum transports us to the Caribbean of our souls. Revel in it.

Bananarama

Some people use up overly ripe bananas in muffins or quick bread. We prefer a daiquiri. This is not the frosty variety that you might find on a cruise ship, topped with a mound of whipped cream, but a more subtle version that slips softly down the gullet. We like to use Gosling’s Gold or Mount Gay rum, which truly taste of the tropics, but a good quality Puerto Rican white rum like Don Q Cristal will also do the trick. Because we like the flavor of coffee with banana, we added a dusting of powdered coffee mixed with a little sugar (this is a great way to use up those packets of Starbucks VIA instant coffee).

1 very ripe banana

2 ounces chilled coconut water

1.5 ounces rum (we recommend a gold or white rum)

1 teaspoon light agave nectar

juice of half a lime

1/4 teaspoon instant coffee mixed with a little granulated sugar (optional)

Put first 5 ingredients in a blender and blend on high until smooth. Pour into a margarita glass and dust the top with instant coffee. Yo ho ho!

Tipple d’Amour: Valentine Wine

Cupid’s arrow is aiming at you, Boozers. We all search for love on Valentine’s Day, whether we choose to admit it or not; some of us find it in the arms of a significant other, or in a cuddly mutt, or in a well-endowed cupcake and an evening spent watching the Millionaire Matchmaker marathon. Love is in the eye of the beholder.

If you’re a bit of a Valentine’s Day cheapskate still looking to sweep that Special Someone off his or her feet, then our Valentine Wine is for you. It combines inexpensive red wine with a high-quality whiskey for a loving cup that packs a bit of a punch — a perfect libation for spending the night in, perhaps with a gourmet selection of Chinese take-away. Add a Whitman’s Sampler and the double Snuggie: the rest is up to you.

Valentine Wine

As our loyal Boozers know, we’ve been having a bit of a love affair with Catoctin Creek’s Roundstone Rye and have found many uses for it — perhaps too many uses… There are several wine cocktails that incorporate rum, brandy, and whiskey, and we love the spicy flavor of rye with a rich red wine. You really can go for a $6.99 bottle of wine here if you like — read the label and pick the one that promises a hint of berries and chocolate.

Red wine (get what you like: a table red is good, as is a pinot noir or even a merlot)

Rye whiskey (yes, we like Catoctin Creek, but you knew that)

Fresh raspberries

Sugar

Place 3 or 4 raspberries in the bottom of a wine glass and sprinkle with a 1/2 teaspoon sugar. Top with 3/4 ounce rye whiskey (a single-malt whiskey like Wasmund’s is nice too, or a small-batch bourbon like Basil Hayden’s) and very lightly muddle the raspberries, but don’t mash them to pieces. Allow to macerate for 15 minutes, then top with red wine. Float an additional raspberry on top if you want to impress. Bon chance!

 

The Friday Tipple: Hot Buttered Rum Toddy

Achoo, Boozers! We’ve just suffered through our first sniffles of the season and were sorely in need of relief — so we grabbed the bottle of rum faster than you can say “decongestant”. It being the holiday season, we wondered if we could combine our purely medicinal hot toddy with a somewhat more festive hot buttered rum. The verdict? Why, yes you can.

Many people associate hot buttered rum with the winter season, but most have never actually had one. Granted, it does sound a little odd: boiling water, rum, butter, sugar, and spices. It seems even more strange to drink butter, but when you consider that you’ll happily dollop whipped cream — a close cousin of butter — on a hot chocolate (or, even better, our Tex-Mex Cocoa), then it begins to sound more palatable.

For our Hot Buttered Rum Toddy, we chose to use an orange spice herbal tea; we also think it would work equally well with an apple spiced tea, or a holiday-inspired tea like Comfort and Joy. We used Gosling’s Black Seal Rum, but you could substitute your favorite liquor, from a spiced rum to gin to bourbon to Grand Marnier. Forget the Nyquil — mix up your toddy and tuck yourself up in bed with a box of Kleenex and a few classic holiday movies. You might almost enjoy yourself. Gesundheit!

Hot Buttered Rum Toddy

The key to this drink is, naturally, the spiced butter compound. If you prefer to make this dairy-free, you can easily substitute a vegan butter spread.

1/4 cup butter, softened

3 tablespoons brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon each of ground nutmeg, cinnamon, and ginger

Tea of your choice

Boiling water

Rum, or other liquor, of your choice

To make the spiced butter compound: mix the softened butter, sugar and spices in a small bowl until well combined. Cover and refrigerate until firm, about one hour.

Steep the tea in 5 ounces of boiling water for 3 or 4 minutes. Add up to two ounces of rum (depending on how bad your cold is), stir well, then top with a spoonful of the chilled butter compound. Enjoy!

Arrr, pirates & rum punch!

Avast, me hearties, we are still caught up in yesterday’s Talk Like a Pirate Day because today is, ironically, National Rum Punch Day. With the autumn equinox just around the corner, what could be better than sucking down a little Caribbean delight as summer gently slips away? Now, we are inclined to stroll to the local market and grab some late summer berries — strawberries and raspberries are still running rampant in many parts of the country — which we can throw into a blender with a little freshly-squeezed orange juice to make a great mixer. To that, we’d add a lime-infused simple syrup (or even our own Blackberry Lavender Simple Syrup) and, our old favorite, Mount Gay Rum (ah, Barbados…), topping it all off with a sprinkle of Bittermens Orange Cream Citrate, a little fresh nutmeg, and maybe some fresh fruit impaled on one of those little pink plastic swords. Perfection!

However, if you want to go a little more traditional, or don’t feel like hunting down fresh fruit, then check this out for the next best thing: Mount Gay Rum Punch.

Yo ho ho!

The Friday Tipple: Raspberry Vinegar Rickey

With Hurricane Irene bearing down on the Good Booze kitchen, you might be expecting us to break out the rum and passionfruit to make that classic New Orleans cocktail consumed by the gallon up and down Bourbon Street. However, we’ve decided to adopt a rawther British stiff upper lip and stockpiled gin instead.

The Gin Rickey was recently named as the official cocktail of Washington, DC; this classic combination of gin, lime juice, and club soda is native to DC, created in 1893 by Colonel Joe Rickey and bartender George Williamson at Rickey’s bar, Shoomaker’s, just a stone’s throw from the White House. DC drinks guru Derek Brown likes to call the Rickey “air conditioning in a glass”, as it is particularly refreshing in the midst of our swampy summers, but we think it’s pretty tasty in any weather.

This Friday’s Tipple, the Raspberry Vinegar Rickey, takes advantage of the abundance of late-summer fruit that we used in our recent Roaring Twenties Raspberry Vinegar. Raspberry pairs beautifully with gin, its tart sweetness combining with the gin’s juniper berry essence to create a cool pine forest freshness. We caramelized some lime wheels as a garnish, which add a slightly burnt sugar undertone to counter the acidity of the vinegar.

Mix up a Rickey anytime you’re caught in the middle of a natural disaster. It somehow makes it seem much more… civilized. Pip-pip!

Raspberry Vinegar Rickey

Gin (try Juniper Green Organic or, here in the DC area, Catoctin Creek Watershed)

Roaring Twenties Raspberry Vinegar (didn’t make it yet? we have an alternative below)

Club soda

Lime wheels

Sugar

To make the caramelized limes: Dredge the lime wheels in sugar. Heat a sauté pan over medium heat; when the pan is hot, cook the lime wheels on each side until just lightly golden. They will be a little sticky; set aside to cool (they can also be refrigerated at this point for a day or two).

To assemble the drink: Place the caramelized lime wheel in the bottom of in a tall glass or a large wine glass and lightly muddle the fleshy center, then remove and set aside. Add one tablespoon of Raspberry Vinegar, 1.5 ounces of gin, and stir. Add several ice cubes and top with club soda. Stir well, then top with the reserved lime wheel.

No Raspberry Vinegar? Shame on you. Luckily, we are steeped in American ingenuity, just like old Colonel Rickey, and have a plan. Take four or five fresh raspberries, a 1/2 teaspoon of red wine vinegar, and a teaspoon of sugar and muddle together in the bottom of the glass (after you’ve muddled the lime wheel). Let the sugar dissolve, then complete the rest of the above recipe.

Yo Ho Ho — It’s National Rum Day!

When you woke up on the morning of August 16th, you probably expected another ho-hum day at the office — but the rum-makers of the world have come up with a brilliant scheme to banish the mid-August blues: National Rum Day. So stuff an eye patch in your pocket and swagger past the liquor store on your way to your cubicle to grab a bottle o’ grog. A drop in your cup o’ Starbucks will surely put a little pep in your step — or have you crawling under the desk for a wee siesta. Don’t sweat it, me hearties — no one really works in August anyway.

In need of more inspiration, and a rummy recipe for dinner and drinks? Check this out: It was a dark and stormy night. Arrr!