The Friday Tipple: Breakfast of Champions

The school year is in full swing, Boozers. We’ve seen hordes of little ones marching off in search of naptime and enlightenment, armed with shiny new backpacks and toothy grins. The sight has harkened us back to an earlier time when we drooped soporifically at the school bus stop in the pre-dawn hours, sipping from a styrofoam cup of Carnation Instant Breakfast Drink. Ah, we can almost taste the powdered chocolatey goodness.

The appearance of the “adult milkshake” on many menus has given barflies a chance to relive their favorite childhood flavors with a grown-up twist, like the Dirty Girlscout and the Bailey’s Caramel Macchiato. So we started to think, what if a classic breakfast drink were reimagined as a creamy cocktail? Hence, the Breakfast of Champions. We might not actually recommend it for breakfast if you’ve got an 8 a.m. meeting scheduled with the boss, but it could be a tasty way to start off the weekend.

Breakfast of Champions

For our homage to liquid breakfast nutrition, we chose to combine a nutty soy or almond milk with a smooth rye whiskey for a truly eye-opening brunch cocktail. To provide a little contrast, and to aid digestion, we opted to toss in some bitters — in this case, The Bitter Truth’s Chocolate Bitters or Cocktail Kingdom’s Coffee Bitters provide just the right counterpoint.

1/2 cup chilled almond or soy milk (plain, unsweetened)

1 heaping tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder

2 ounces rye whiskey (we like Catoctin Creek’s Organic Roundstone Rye)

2 tablespoons light agave nectar (add more or less to your taste)

1/2 teaspoon instant coffee

chocolate or coffee bitters

3 ice cubes

Make a slurry of the cocoa powder, rye whiskey, agave nectar, and instant coffee, mixing until well-combined. Pour the slurry and the almond or soy milk into a blender, then add the ice cubes and blend on high for a minute or two until the ice cubes are completely incorporated (no large chunks). Stir in a few dashes of bitters and pour into a chilled glass.

The Friday Tipple: Blizzard Shot

Stockpile the snowshovels, Boozers — a storm’s a-comin’. Some of you in the upper Midwest may already be digging out, while those New Englanders are getting their yardsticks ready in anticipation of a truly measurable snowfall. A storm of such proportions deserves a special tipple, so today we bring you the Blizzard Shot.

We were initially inspired by the Sagaform ice shot glass mould that we picked up in our ‘hood at Hill’s Kitchen. These clever shot glasses are made of water, which is frozen into nifty little drinking vessels — although we hope someone with a shot glass mold in the storm’s path will pack the molds with snow and send us a pic. While the resulting shot glasses are really cool — bloody cold, actually — we thought filling them with a hot shot could be a nice contrast, especially on a wintry day. It will cool off quickly, so gulp it down.

Elegant in its simplicity and made of essential pantry staples (everyone keeps cocoa powder, instant coffee, and whiskey on hand for emergencies, right?), the Blizzard Shot is sure to make your toes tingle as the inches pile up outside. Stay warm, Boozers.

Blizzard Shot

Don’t have a silicone shot glass mold? Don’t despair — here’s a DIY version to keep you busy when you’re not shoveling snow off the roof.

2 teaspoons instant coffee

2 teaspoons cocoa powder

1 tablespoon light agave nectar (you can substitute simple syrup)

4 ounces whiskey (we used our local Catoctin Creek Roundstone Rye)

Put the first 3 ingredients into a small bowl and stir together into a slurry. Pour into a small saucepan with the whiskey and blend thoroughly over low heat until hot but not boiling. Unmold the ice shot glasses, pour the hot liquid into each one, and drink immediately. Makes four shots.

The Friday Tipple: Arctic Char

It’s time for a reality check, Boozers. Reality television, that is. We enjoy curling up on the couch on a cold winter night to watch the sordid machinations of complete strangers trapped together in an alternate reality. Who’s in, who’s out, who came up with the snarkiest comment about a fellow castmate. Ah, guilty pleasures.

This week, we were captivated, as always, by Top Chef, and particularly intrigued by the burnt lemon garnish whipped up by the kindly and unassuming Sheldon for the Quick Fire Challenge. Pulverized into dust, he claimed it would have a concentrated smoky essence of lemon. How could we resist?

Turns out, “citrus charcoal” is an ingredient found in the Mid East and Asia, and, as you can imagine, is pretty easy to make, and, when mixed with agave nectar, has exactly the same flavor as the lovely charred skin of roasted marshmallows, with a lightly citrus undertone. Inspired by the recent snowfall in our area, we wanted to create a cocktail that was both bright and smoky, able to combat the frosty chill: the Arctic Char. Because life is a reality show, Boozers. Drink up.

Arctic Char

To add to the smokiness of this cocktail, we roasted several pieces of orange over an open flame. We used Catoctin Creek Mosby’s Spirit, an unaged whisky: its warm bite provides the right counterpoint to the sweetness of fresh orange, and unaged whisky, or moonshine, is readily available these days from small distilleries across the country. 

3 ounces smoked orange juice (technique below)

1/2 ounce triple sec or Cointreau

1.5 ounces unaged or white whisky

2 – 3 drops of bitters (The Bitter Truth Lemon Bitters adds a nice dimension)

1/4 teaspoon orange charcoal (technique below)

1/2 teaspoon light agave nectar

Wheel of roasted orange for garnish (just quickly roast over open flame)

Put the smoked orange juice in a cocktail shaker with the triple sec and set aside for 15 minutes. In the meantime, mix the orange charcoal and agave nectar together into a paste and put in the bottom of a cocktail glass. Put the strained juice, whisky, and bitters into a clean cocktail shaker with a single ice cube, stir, and strain into the glass. Garnish with a wheel of roasted orange.

Orange Charcoal: You guessed it: Citrus charcoal is made by burning citrus peel (we used orange, but lemon, grapefruit, etc. will also work). This can be done fairly quickly by holding pieces of the peel with a pair of tongs over a flame; the peel will spark slightly as the natural oils in the skin heat up. As you burn each piece to a crisp, set it aside to cool slightly, then pulverize the pieces in a food processor or with a mortar and pestle until fine.

Smoked Orange Juice: Peel an orange and hold each section over an open flame for 15 seconds per side or until it begins to lightly char. Put warm sections into a glass or cocktail shaker and muddle thoroughly. Add the fresh juice of another orange and set aside for 30 minutes before straining thoroughly (you may want to use cheesecloth).

The Friday Tipple: Breakfast of Champions

It’s back to school time, Boozers. We’ve seen hordes of little ones marching off in search of naptime and enlightenment, armed with shiny new backpacks and toothy grins. The sight has harkened us back to an earlier time when we drooped soporifically at the school bus stop in the pre-dawn hours, sipping from a styrofoam cup of Carnation Instant Breakfast Drink. Ah, we can almost taste the powdered chocolatey goodness.

The appearance of the “adult milkshake” on many menus has given barflies a chance to relive their favorite childhood flavors with a grown-up twist, like the Dirty Girlscout and the Bailey’s Caramel Macchiato. So we started to think, what if a classic breakfast drink were reimagined as a creamy cocktail? Hence, the Breakfast of Champions. We might not actually recommend it for breakfast if you’ve got an 8 a.m. meeting scheduled with the boss, but it could be a tasty way to start off the weekend.

Breakfast of Champions

For our homage to liquid breakfast nutrition, we chose to combine a nutty soy or almond milk with a smooth rye whiskey for a truly eye-opening brunch cocktail. To provide a little contrast, and to aid digestion, we opted to toss in some bitters — in this case, The Bitter Truth’s Chocolate Bitters or Cocktail Kingdom’s Coffee Bitters provide just the right counterpoint.

1/2 cup chilled almond or soy milk (plain, unsweetened)

1 heaping tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder

2 ounces rye whiskey (we like Catoctin Creek’s Organic Roundstone Rye)

2 tablespoons light agave nectar (add more or less to your taste)

1/2 teaspoon instant coffee

chocolate or coffee bitters

3 ice cubes

Make a slurry of the cocoa powder, rye whiskey, agave nectar, and instant coffee, mixing until well-combined. Pour the slurry and the almond or soy milk into a blender, then add the ice cubes and blend on high for a minute or two until the ice cubes are completely incorporated (no large chunks). Stir in a few dashes of bitters and pour into a chilled glass.

The Friday Tipple: A Walk on the Beach

Remember Sex on the Beach, Boozers? So do we. Of course, we’re referring to those sickly sweet cocktails that were all the rage in the 80s, a cheap one-night stand in a rocks glass. The kind of thing Tom Cruise would have whipped up on screen, accompanied by sly innuendoes and a suggestive smirk.

But here’s the thing — a drink with such a name can only conjure up images of illicit fondling and sand in all the wrong places, hardly a recipe for romance. But a Walk on the Beach with the true object of your desire… that’s the real deal. Fingers intertwined, the salty tang of the evening breeze, skin tingling from the last rays of the setting sun, two sets of footprints lapped by warm waves. A perfect prelude to a night full of promise.

Back at the beach house, prop your feet up on the deck railing with this lovely summer nightcap — subtly sweet, lightly bitter, a perfect representation of this crazy little thing called love. Embrace it.

A Walk on the Beach

The original Sex on the Beach featured peach schnapps, but this modern update is based on a fresh peach and vodka purée that highlights our favorite summer fruit and makes us long for just-out-of-the-oven peach pie from Grandy Farm Market on the Outer Banks… but we digress. This is the next best thing, and if you can’t walk on the beach, then take a romantic stroll down to the corner.

3 chopped fresh peaches, pits removed

6 ounces vodka (we like Boyd & Blair for this, especially when infused with a vanilla bean)

1 teaspoon light agave nectar

1 fresh orange

1/2 ounce Campari

To make the peach-vodka purée: Put chopped peaches, agave nectar, and vodka in a blender and blend on high until liquefied. Strain through a sieve; can be kept in a jar and refrigerated for up to a week.

To assemble the drink: Put two ounces of the peach-vodka purée into a cocktail shaker filled with ice and squeeze in all the juice from the orange. Shake vigorously and pour the contents into a chilled glass. Pour Campari over the top and enjoy.

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: Celebration Shot

Celebrate good times, Boozers. June is a month often jam-packed with family celebrations — graduations, weddings, anniversaries — and the parties can seem non-stop. We don’t mind, as we enjoy a good reunion, and the options for tasty beverages tend to explode as early summer produce starts to hit the streets. A charming little piece of fruit called a champagne mango made its way into our bar recently and it just seemed to cry out for some special treatment. Hence, the Celebration Shot.

There’s nothing more fun than toasting good times with a brimming shot glass, but slugging down straight whiskey or tequila in the warm June sunshine seems like a family brawl just waiting to happen. We chose instead to temper such firewater with seasonal flavors that also create a nice palate cleanser for barbecued ribs and Grandma’s famous potato salad. So treat the relatives to a special toast of good times and remember that today’s not the day to remind your brother-in-law that he still owes you fifty bucks. Alla famiglia!

Celebration Shot

The trick to making this shot refreshing is to pour some of the whiskey-mint infusion into the bottom of the shot glasses and then place them in the freezer for about 30 minutes — just long enough to make it very cold and create a light frost across the surface. Once you add the mango-tequila mixture on top, it will melt the frost so that it can all be swallowed down quickly, or even sipped. The recipe below should yield about 4 shots.

1/2 cup white or clear unaged whiskey (we like Catoctin Creek Mosby’s Spirit)

1/2 cup packed clean fresh mint leaves

scant teaspoon light agave nectar

2 mangos, peeled and cut into chunks (yes, you can use defrosted frozen mango if you can’t find fresh)

1/2 cup silver tequila

Place the whiskey, mint leaves, and agave nectar in a blender and blend on high until the leaves are completely broken down and the liquid is a fresh green color. Set aside. Then place the mango chunks and tequila in a clean blender and blend on high until liquefied. Pour through a strainer to remove any chunks and set aside.

To assemble the shot: put about 1 ounce of the whiskey-mint infusion in the bottom of a shot glass and put in the freezer for 30 minutes. Then add 1.5 ounces of the mango-tequila infusion on top and drink up.

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!

The Friday Tipple: Bikini Shot

Bathing suit season is on the horizon, Boozers. Buxom babes are overtaking magazine covers, glowing with cocoa butter on far-flung tropical beaches. Whether you hope to be a buxom babe or merely to attract a buxom babe, the approach of Spring Break prompts us to ponder the winter flab so cleverly hidden by chunky sweaters. It’s time to detox.

While we could consider exercising a little more — or at all — we prefer to go the route of a desperate last-minute liquid diet in order to shed those unwanted pounds. Protein shakes, spinach smoothies, and lemon juice spiked with cayenne are all on the menu, but as happy hour approaches, we feel the need for a little special cocktail to reward ourselves for all that self-denial.

Our detox drink of choice is our Bikini Shot — combining the health benefits of kiwi fruit, laden with vitamin C and E and colon-cleansing dietary fiber, with a vodka-laced grapefruit granita. It starts off tart and cold and ends up sweet and smooth, not unlike easing yourself into a pool. The Bikini Shot may not actually make that saggy old Speedo fit any better, but it sure will make you feel like a million bucks. Go ahead — hit the beach. Hang ten!

Bikini Shot

A granita is similar in texture to a shaved ice, made with fresh fruit juice, sugar, and, in this case, alcohol. We used Square One Cucumber Vodka for this recipe, as the cucumber essence adds a fresh note to the grapefruit, but it would work beautifully with gin. We’ve also had success with a blackberry granita made with Catoctin Creek’s Mosby’s Spirit, which has a certain grappa-like quality that makes us feel like we are vacationing on the Amalfi coast.

One whole grapefruit, juiced and retaining some of the pulp

3 ounces vodka or gin

2 ripe kiwi fruits, peeled and cut into chunks

1 orange, juiced

1 teaspoon light agave nectar

To make the granita: combine the grapefruit juice, pulp, and vodka or gin and pour into a shallow freezer-safe dish (like a pie pan). Place uncovered in the freezer for an hour, then scrape with a spoon to loosen the ice crystals. Return to the freezer for another hour. It can be scraped into a freezer-safe container at this point and kept in the freezer until ready to use.

To make the kiwi fruit juice: Put kiwi, orange juice, and agave nectar in a blender and blend until smooth. Strain through a sieve to remove seeds (optional). Chill for 30 minutes.

Pour two ounces kiwi juice into a shot glass or aperitif glass; top with a spoonful of grapefruit granita. Enjoy.

The Friday Tipple: The Wolfhound

Holy Mozart, Boozers. It’s the great composer’s 256th birthday and it got us to wondering what kind of cocktail that celebrated imbiber might have enjoyed on his special day. Except, of course, that cocktails were invented long after Mozart’s death, but the well-traveled musician must surely have been introduced to spirits such as vodka and gin, and most certainly tipped a glass or two of grappa with his friend Salieri.

In the days of Amadeus, a refreshing treat would have been the earliest version of carbonated soda — created by adding a pinch of common baking soda to lemonade. This fizzy delight piqued our interest and seemed like a perfect historical base for a modern cocktail. Now that it is late winter, the produce aisles at the grocery stores are piled high with seasonal ruby red grapefruit; we think Wolfgang would have loved the exotic color and sweetly tart flavor, as complex as his Piano Sonata No. 13.

The grapefruit juice naturally led us to the addition of vodka, a cocktail traditionally known as a Greyhound, but that sprinkling of bicarbonate of soda gives it an unexpected edge: say “Wilkommen” to the Wolfhound. Salty, sour, sweet, seductively simple — a veritable symphony of taste sensations. Prost!

The Wolfhound

The addition of baking soda gives this cocktail a slightly salty flavor — and perhaps even soothes a hangover before it has begun. Be careful to add just a small amount or the drink will begin to take on a bit of an Alka-Seltzer quality. If you are not a fan of vodka, don’t despair: this drink is wonderful with gin as well, which pairs perfectly with the grapefruit.

1/2 cup freshly-squeezed ruby red grapefruit juice (about 1 whole grapefruit)

2 ounces vodka (we love Boyd & Blair, which is local to our area, but Square One and Twenty 2 are also terrific American-made vodkas)

scant 1/2 teaspoon light agave nectar

a large pinch of baking soda (no more than 1/4 teaspoon)

Put the grapefruit juice, vodka (or gin if you prefer), and agave nectar in a cocktail shaker filled with ice and shake vigorously. Strain into a glass and quickly stir in the baking soda until it dissolves and the liquid begins to foam. Enjoy immediately.