The Friday Tipple: DIY Craft Cocktail

We’re feeling crafty, Boozers. What with the upsurge of interest in barrel-aged cocktails and gin-and-tonics on tap, we began to yearn for a ready-made cocktail of our own. What could be nicer after wearily trudging home from a long week at the cube than being able to open up the fridge and find a tasty infused cocktail just waiting to be consumed?

Because we like to mix practicality into our cocktails, a mason jar seems to be a perfect vessel for both crafting and imbibing — no fuss, no muss. Our DIY Craft Cocktail can be set up before you leave for work and all you have to do is twist off the lid when you get home, add a few ice cubes, and drink up, straight out of the jar. Put together several jars and invite some friends over, or line them up next to the La-Z-Boy while you binge-watch “The Office”. It’s a Friday night made in heaven.

DIY Craft Cocktail

This drink is a model of infusion — by putting all the ingredients, including the mixer, into the jar, you end up with a cocktail where the flavors have begun to meld together, but the shorter infusion time allows for some of the specific characteristics to remain freshly distinct. Whatever. It tastes good. Drink up.

2 ounces gin (our local Catoctin Creek Watershed Gin or Green Hat Gin are generally at the top of our list, but go local wherever you are, of course)

1 ounce freshly-squeezed grapefruit juice

2 ounces club soda

2 wedges fresh grapefruit

1 – 2 tablespoons orange blossom honey (adjust to your taste)

1/2 teaspoon freshly grated ginger

1 sprig of fresh thyme (optional, but nice if you have it)

1 quassia chip (also 0ptional — we keep them on hand for making bitters — otherwise, just add a couple of dashes of your favorite bitters)

Place all ingredients into a 12-ounce mason jar, stir vigorously, and then put the lid on tightly. Put in the refrigerator for at least 8 hours or overnight. To drink, remove the lid, fish out the quassia chip (and grapefruit wedges, if you wish), stir well, add a few ice cubes, and enjoy.

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: Make Mine a (Skinny) Margarita

It’s Labor Day weekend and, after a long sweaty summer, some of us are ready for a margarita. It’s that most classic of summertime beverages, thirst-quenching on that last hot day we get to spend by the pool or at the beach before the onset of autumn activities. However, we also want to keep our svelte summer figures in shape, so that means making our margaritas “skinny”, à la Bethenny Frankel. And, honestly, once you make a really fresh margarita (which is actually what a “skinny” margarita is in reality), it’s almost impossible to drink that bottled mixer ever again. Hold on to your sombrero — you’re about to become a margarita snob.

If you paid attention to our post earlier this week, then you may have already made your own version of the Last Gasp of Summer Liqueur; we infused triple sec with peaches and hot peppers in preparation for today’s Tipple, because, frankly, we knew we were going to need a drink. You can use regular triple sec, Grand Marnier, or Cointreau also, so don’t despair if you didn’t make your own infusion, although we encourage you to try it out sometime — the peaches and peppers give a nice little spicy-sweet kick that feels just right on a hot day at the end of summer.

Basically, a “skinny” margarita uses fresh lime juice (we find that it takes about 4 limes per drink — it’s worth the work), light agave nectar (easily found in most grocery stores these days, in the sugar and honey section), silver (clear) tequila, the triple sec or other liqueur, and a little club soda. It will take a few sips to get used to it, because it is not cloyingly sweet like a typical margarita made with sweet-and-sour mix, but you will soon love its refreshing light flavor and turn your nose up at the other stuff. It’s also far lower in calories than a standard margarita (150 calories vs. 550 calories, by some estimates), so maybe we can have two… or perhaps three. It’s been a long week. Cheers!

Make Mine a (Skinny) Margarita

1/3 cup fresh lime juice (usually about 4 or 5 limes)

2 ounces silver (clear) tequila

1 ounce Last Gasp of Summer Liqueur, triple sec, Grand Marnier, or Cointreau

Light agave syrup to taste (start with 1 tablespoon per glass)

Club soda

Place first 4 ingredients in a cocktail shaker with plenty of ice. Shake vigorously, taste to check for sweetness and adjust if necessary. Pour it all into a glass, then top with up to 1/4 cup of club soda.