The Friday Tipple: Lincoln’s Oscar

We’re heading back to the red carpet, Boozers. Last week we celebrated the excellent judging in at least one category at the Grammy Awards, and today we begin preparing for the Academy Awards. Oscar night should rightly be observed with glamorous gowns, trays of canapés, and a special cocktail. Or two.

Film aficionados seem to agree that Steven Spielberg’s monumental “Lincoln” will win big at the Oscars this year, which led us to wonder “What would Lincoln drink?”. People often characterize the 16th president as a teetotaler, but it is perhaps more accurate to say that he was not much interested in indulging in alcohol or tobacco, preferring to imbibe typhoid-inducing water. However, Lincoln was known to have spent a certain period of time drinking lager, which had been recommended to improve his health. Ah, how we love 19th-century medicine.

Lincoln’s Oscar is, therefore, a beer-tail that is an ode to a complex American born in a log cabin who loved to dance at balls — lager combined with liquor and elegantly served, red-carpet ready, in a coupe. And the winner is…

Lincoln’s Oscar

Lager has a light refreshing fizziness — the champagne of beers — that lends itself to festive cocktails. We chose to combine it with a rye-based gin, such as Catoctin Creek Watershed Gin and St. George Dry Rye Gin, because it has a certain bold peppery quality that we find quintessentially American, but it could work just as well with a more floral variety like Green Hat Gin or Dry Fly Dry Gin.

3 ounces chilled lager (we chose Flying Dog’s UnderDog Atlantic Lager, because Lincoln loved an underdog)

1 ounce gin

1 ounce reduced apple cider (instructions below)

1/2 ounce St. Germaine liqueur

few drops of celery bitters (yes, invest in this — perfect combination with the apple cider, and with gin in general)

one apple slice soaked in Leopold Bros. New York Apple Whiskey (apple brandy or calvados will also work)

Put one cup of apple cider in a small saucepan and simmer over very low heat until reduced by half. Cool completely before using. Soak the apple slice in an ounce or so of the apple whiskey or brandy for about 30 minutes.

In a cocktail shaker, mix together the gin, apple cider, and St. Germaine, then add the beer and stir briskly. Add the bitters (without stirring) and pour directly into a chilled coupe or a wide-mouthed wine glass. Float the apple slice on top and make your entrance.

The Friday Tipple: Green Goddess

This week has been a scorcher, Boozers. The kind of weather where you just want to dive into a nice cool mudhole and wallow there until the mercury has dropped below 95. But, if no mudholes are handy, then we just search for the next best thing: cucumbers.

Humans have been cooling off with cucumbers since ancient times, so who are we to argue with the Greeks and Romans? If there be a food of the gods, let it be cucumber, whose mild yet distinctive flavor can be sweet, salty, bitter, and sour. We recently have noticed cucumber soda gracing the shelves of food purveyors and the abundance of this particular summer produce inspired us to whip up a fresh cucumber bubbly base for a cocktail that we like to call the Green Goddess. Just imagine Aphrodite lounging on a chaise overlooking the blue Aegean with a cool glass in her hand. That could be you.

Green Goddess

As you know, we enjoy a gin cocktail, but this particular elixir is also excellent with vodka, so take your pick. We prefer our local Catoctin Creek Organic Watershed Gin, and, as for vodka, we often reach for Boyd and Blair Vodka. However, if you want to kick up the cucumber flavor a notch, you might try Square One Organic Cucumber Vodka for an extra-special cuke-tail.

1/2 of a large cucumber, peeled and roughly chopped

1 teaspoon light agave nectar

1 tablespoon water

1/2 ounce St. Germain liqueur

1.5 ounces gin or vodka

chilled club soda

lime wedge

cucumber wheel, for garnish

Place cucumber, agave nectar, and water in a blender or food processor and blend until completely puréed. Strain through a fine mesh sieve and pour cucumber liquid into a cocktail shaker. Add St. Germain and gin or vodka, then add about 1/4 (up to 1/3) cup of chilled club soda. Stir vigorously. Run the lime wedge around the rim of a glass filled with ice, then add the contents of the shaker. Garnish with cucumber wheel.

The Friday Tipple: Antioxidantail

We’re on a health kick, Boozers. The Good Booze HQ is crammed with fresh fruits and veggies from our local green grocer, inspiring our good intentions to create a tasty pick-me-up for cocktail hour. And why shouldn’t your happy hour drink of choice help boost your immune system at the same time it calms your nerves from another day navigating the rat race?

A selection of fresh mango and blueberries highlight our Antioxidantail; the mighty mango is rich in vitamins A and C, potassium, and omega-3 fatty acids, while blueberries are high in manganese, vitamin K, and anthocyanins. Not only that, but they taste good, too, especially when combined with calcium-loaded dairy-free coconut milk, which has anti-bacterial properties that aid digestion. Add a splash of vodka — we liked Boyd & Blair potato vodka with this particular treat, since, after all, potatoes are also high in potassium, so the vodka must be nutritious, right? We predict you’ll soon start finding this on the menu of your fancy health club’s juice bar, a perfect way to cool down after that hot yoga class.

Antioxidantail

While we love the smoothness of mango combined with coconut milk, we tweaked the flavor a little with the addition of elderflower liqueur and celery bitters (The Bitter Truth makes excellent versions of both). The elderflower liqueur lends a lightly floral undertone when used in moderation while the celery bitters adds a slightly piquant vegetal note, bringing a subtle counterpoint to the sweetness of the fruit. Besides, celery is actually also chock-full of antioxidants. Who knew?

1 fresh mango, cut into chunks

1/2 cup fresh blueberries

1/2 cup unsweetened coconut milk (there are several good varieties out there, including Silk and So Delicious)

1 teaspoon maple syrup (yep, you guessed it, an antioxidant-rich natural sweetener)

1.5 ounces vodka (we used Boyd & Blair here, but also highly recommend Square One or Nude)

1/2 ounce elderflower liqueur (St. Germain is usually readily available if you can’t find The Bitter Truth)

a few drops of celery bitters

Put first four ingredients in a blender and blend on high until smooth. Add vodka, liqueur, and bitters and pulse a couple of times. Pour into a glass and enjoy.

Special Edition: The Twitter Tipple

We love Twitter, Boozers. It’s haiku for the masses. So we made a special drink for Twitter’s birthday. Recipe: @goodbooze

The Friday Tipple: Beetlejuice

Spring is in the air, Boozers. We hear that snow is falling across the Midwest, but, for today at least, it’s practically sultry in our neck of the woods. Daffodils are rearing their scrawny necks and ducks are eyeing each other amorously. The breeze is redolent with the scent of raw promise.

A box of fresh produce from Washington’s Green Grocers landed on the doorstep yesterday, inspiring us with some of its early spring offerings — namely, lovely little beets, bursting with rosy goodness. Their earthy sweetness is, we believe, a perfect complement to the bright woodsy notes found in gin, culminating in an infusion that recalls springtime hikes through primeval forests, where crocuses peep through the detritus of winter and toadstools beckon innocently from the shadows.

While we tend to think of vegetables as used only occasionally in more savory cocktails — the Bloody Mary, for instance — there are many that also lend a subtle sweetness to hand-crafted drinks. Our little box of produce also yielded several gorgeous watermelon radishes, which, with their sugary spiciness are sure to find themselves more intimately incorporated into an upcoming concoction, rather than only being relegated to a pretty garnish.

Throw off the confines of winter, Boozers — spring awaits.

Beetlejuice

Our housemade St. Germain-based lemon soda is a tasty complement to our beet-infused gin, which we think lends a floral undertone to our homage to spring. It’s incredibly easy to make, but you can substitute a commercial lemon soda if you prefer.

1 small raw beet, peeled and grated

1/2 cup gin (we prefer Catoctin Creek’s Organic Watershed Gin)

raw sugar (regular granulated sugar is fine as well)

juice of one fresh lemon

1 ounce St. Germain liqueur

1 teaspoon light agave nectar

3 ounces club soda or mineral water

To make the beet infusion: Put grated beets in a cup or jar with a large pinch of raw sugar. Top with gin and allow to sit, uncovered, for one or two hours. Strain and set aside.

To make the lemon soda: Put the lemon juice, St. Germain, agave nectar and club soda in a glass and stir vigorously until well-incorporated. Do this just before assembling the cocktail to maintain the carbonation.

Fill a tall glass with ice and pour in the lemon soda. Pour 1.5 ounces of beet-infused gin over the top — do not stir, but leave it layered. Garnish with lemon, fresh herbs, or a slice of watermelon radish (optional). Drink up.

The Friday Tipple: Jane’s Affliction

Ahoy there, Boozers! We’ve just returned from a bit of a jaunt to the Big Apple where we roughed it at The Jane, that most hipster of hotels overlooking the Hudson. It has a rather illustrious history as a classy hotel for sailors and actually hosted survivors of the Titanic immediately following that infamous sinking. If that’s not inspiration for a drink, we don’t know what is.

Imagining ourselves as proper British passengers, if we’d had to abandon ship in the middle of an iceberg-covered Atlantic, we’re quite sure we’d want a nice cup of strong sweet tea to help us cope with the shock once our rescuers had deposited us in the cozy confines of The Jane. And a generous measure of something somewhat stronger would not go amiss, leading to the creation of Jane’s Affliction.

The Titanic sank in 1912, the same year that absinthe was banned in the United States. Absinthe has had a bit of a resurgence, and we’ve been intrigued by several small-batch varieties, including Great Lakes Distillery’s Amerique 1912 Absinthe Rouge; its delicate undertone of hibiscus and anise recalls round-the-world voyages to exotic islands. The next time you’re in need of rescuing, Jane’s Affliction will surely come to your aid. Bottoms up!

Jane’s Affliction

The base of this cocktail is a tea-infused liquor; we’ve done it with both Catoctin Creek’s Mosby’s Spirit and Boyd & Blair’s Vodka, so take your pick. You can do a quick infusion by adding a teabag (Earl Grey works well, but Lifeboat Tea might be even better) to 4 ounces of liquor and letting it sit for an hour. For the more ambitious, add four or five teabags to the whole bottle and leave it in a dark place for two weeks — the tannins from the tea help give the liquid a lovely silkiness.

2 ounces tea-infused liquor, such as an unaged whiskey or vodka

3/4 ounce St. Germain liqueur (because every $14 cocktail in New York has to have St. Germain in it, and why not?)

Absinthe

2 or 3 orange wedges

1 sugar cube

piece of orange peel

Muddle the orange wedges in the bottom of a cocktail shaker and pour in the St. Germain. Let sit for a few minutes. Meanwhile, rub the rim of a cocktail glass with the orange peel. Put the sugar cube in the bottom of the glass and sprinkle a few drops of absinthe over it. Add a few ice cubes and the tea-infused liquor to the cocktail shaker. Shake vigorously and strain into the glass.