Dusk to Dawn

With more hours of sunshine, buds appearing on trees, and my first seed garden happily sprouting on the windowsill, I’m in full spring mode and planning for patio entertaining. Springtime encourages me to transition from the richness of whiskey cocktails to the lightness of gin cocktails, but I crafted this cocktail with a barrel-aged gin to make that transition smoother. As I’ve mentioned in earlier posts, barrel-aged gin is an excellent option for guests who are weary of the juniper and other herbal notes of traditional gins. Aged gins tend to carry the richer oaky mouthfeel of whiskey with a smoother layer of herbal flavor.

KOVAL barrel-aged gin is one of my favorites, in part due to the flavor profile and in part due to the gorgeous bottle design (pro tip: keep the bottle once it’s empty and add a pour spout to use for storing olive oil on your kitchen counter).

Choosing a more rounded gin allowed me to add different herbal notes with one of my favorite new liqueur additions to the home bar: Italicus. This liqueur is technically an Italian aperitivo but it’s not bitter as you would expect. On the contrary, this liqueur is citrus and floral forward and incredibly bright. It’s primarily built with bergamot and another Italian citrus variety with the addition of chamomile, lavender, gentian, rose and melissa balm.

To continue along the path of juicy, fruit-forward flavors, I added muddled Champagne grapes to the mix. This grape variety is small, sweet, and crisp with just a hint of tartness. They’re wonderful muddled and double as a beautiful edible garnish for this cocktail. If you can’t find Champagne grapes in a store near you I’d recommend using ripe green grapes instead.

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I finished this drink off with a touch of lemon juice to balance the sweetness of the fruit and liqueur and a splash of club soda for bubbles.

The resulting cocktail is bursting with citrus, ripe fruit, and herbal notes yet is incredibly smooth and refreshing.

Dusk to Dawn

  • 1.5 oz barrel-aged gin

  • 0.5 oz Italicus liqueur

  • 1 palm-sized step of champagne grapes (with another step for garnishing)

  • 0.25 oz fresh lemon juice

  • Club soda, to top

Muddle grapes in a shaker until all juice has been released, then add ice and all ingredients other than the club soda. Shake until chilled and strain into a stemmed glass. Top with club soda as desired and garnish with additional grapes. Enjoy on the patio in the warm, tranquil dusk of springtime.

Thanks to Belen Aquino for the stunning cocktail photography and to Gather Vintage Tablescapes for the beautiful vintage glasses and tray.

Awaiting Spring

It may have been an absurdly mild Chicago winter and temperatures may still be oscillating but I have officially decided that spring is upon us. Is there a snowstorm in our future? Probably. Does that need to dampen my excitement for abundant sunshine and the return of color to the world? Not at all. 

I wanted to celebrate my heightened spring spirits with a refreshing and floral cocktail. My wonderful photographer and friend, Belen, offered up a bottle of Crop Organic Cucumber Vodka for the occasion. Generally, I stray away from flavored spirits because I find them overly sweetened, poorly flavored or simply limiting. A bottle of plain vodka can be used for a much wider array of recipes if you're not seeking to highlight a single infusion. However, successful flavored and infused spirits can save you effort and elevate the complexity of your cocktails. 

Crop's Cucumber Vodka impressed me with it's smoothness and accuracy of flavor. The cucumber element felt natural, fresh, and easy to work with. In the past, I've loved pairing cucumber and elderflower flavors. I decided to try something new with this cocktail but to stay in the floral realm for a fragrant spring feel. Conveniently, I have a ginormous jar of dried lavender flowers in my pantry. As a relevant side note, if you ever choose to work with lavender in home cooking or mixology, it's significantly cheaper to stock up on it in bulk. I picked up a pound on Amazon and haven't made a dent in it after over a year of semi-frequent use. 

I finished the cocktail off with some lemon for a hint of tartness and club soda for a lighter, more refreshing feel. If you're feeling adventurous with your garnish, you can fairly easily recreate this cucumber ribbon at home - all you need is a medium sized, preferably firm cucumber and a veggie peeler. Simply peel a few strips off the long edge of the cucumber to get to the flesh, then run the peeler carefully along the cucumber from end to end. You'll be left with a long ribbon that has peel on the outside and flesh on the inside. Form the ribbon into a squiggle shape with your hands, then run a cocktail spear through and adjust as needed. 

Awaiting Spring

  • 2 oz Crop Cucumber Vodka
  • 0.5 oz lavender syrup*
  • Juice of 1/2 small lemon
  • Club soda, to top
  • Fresh cucumber, for garnish

Mix vodka, lemon juice and lavender syrup in a shaker and shake with ice until chilled. Strain into a collins glass over ice, then top with club soda and garnish with a cucumber ribbon or slice. Enjoy repeatedly until spring finally arrives. 

To make in bulk for an event, mix an entire 750 ml chilled bottle of Crop Cucumber Vodka, 1 cup of lavender syrup and juice of 7 small lemons in a large pitcher or punch bowl (you can add fresh cucumber slices for presentation). Top with chilled club soda and serve over ice. 

*To make lavender syrup, add 1 cup water and 1/4 cup sugar to a small saucepan on medium heat. Stir until sugar dissolves, then add 1 tbsp dried lavender flowers. Allow to simmer for 5 minutes, then strain and allow to cool. Store excess in fridge for up to 3 weeks. 

Thanks to Belen Aquino for the stunning cocktail photography.

A Wrinkle in Thyme

Have you ever cooked with or otherwise used thyme? If you enjoy herbal flavors but haven't given this particular one a chance, drop everything you're doing and go to the store. Thyme is a fantastic complement to many different fruits. It's likewise magical in soups and just about anything roasted. Within the realm of cocktails, I tend to use thyme alongside pear and apple flavors. The results never disappoint.

This cocktail, apart from paying homage to the Madeleine L'Engle novel that got me started on science fiction (5 points if you got that reference), combines thyme, pear, gin and bitter lemon with dangerously drinkable ratios. Pear is a tricky fruit to work with raw, so I tend to buy natural pear juices/nectars to make my life easier. If you have a juicer, you can reap the extra health benefits of homemade fresh pear juice (fiber, vitamins and minerals galore). 

I chose to use gin as the spirit as it's always beautifully elevated when paired with fresh herbs and botanicals. If you're curious about which types of gin I tend to favor, I highly recommend trying Koval Dry Gin (local to Chicago) or any variety of St. George gin (CA). St. George is especially great for narrowing down the botanical mix you prefer (spice, floral, or earthy notes).

To add some natural fizz with a twist, I topped the cocktail with Seasons Soda Bitter Lemon Tonic. This soda is local to Chicago and features a blend of maple, orange blossom honey, aromatics and bitters. I loved that it heightened the complexity of the cocktail rather than watering it down. Plus, no refined sugars or preservatives!

If you're feeling extra fancy when you make this one, you can garnish with a lemon peel spiral and a thyme sprig as shown in the photos. I prefer to make my spirals using a channel knife - starting at the top of the lemon, I trail the channel knife in a spiral path, maintaining constant pressure. You may need to physically twist the peel into a spiral after you separate it from the lemon. I also find that lemons with thicker peels lead to better spirals due to the relative rigidity of the skin.

A Wrinkle in Thyme

  • 2 oz gin
  • 1 oz pear juice
  • 1/2 oz thyme syrup*
  • 3 oz bitter lemon soda
  • fresh thyme sprig (garnish)
  • lemon peel (garnish)

Shake first three ingredients with ice until chilled. Strain into rocks glass over a large ice cubic or spherical ice cube. Top with soda and garnish. Enjoy while discussing the implications of time travel with your nerdy friends.

*To make syrup, heat 4:1 parts water:sugar in a small saucepan until sugar dissolves. Add thyme and keep on heat for 5 minutes, making sure thyme is fully submerged. Strain, allow to cool and store excess in the fridge for up to 3 weeks.

Thanks to Belen Aquino for the stunning cocktail photography and to Gather Vintage Tablescapes for the inspiring glassware.

Kyoto Chiller

As I'm sure you've realized by now, one of the guiding principles of my approach to mixology is to provide recipes that are fresh, natural, and lower in sugar content. While cocktails can't be considered definitively healthy, I make sure my recipes aren't definitively unhealthy (in other words, you can enjoy a few and still feel good the next day).

I'm constantly on the look for new ingredients that live up to my standards in terms of content and nutrition. My latest find, launched in Chicago's own Green City Market and serving as the inspiration for my next series of posts, is Seasons Soda. All three of their creative flavors are free of refined sweeteners, colors, preservatives, and artificial flavors. Plus, the sugar content is wonderfully reasonable - just 14 grams per bottle. 

The Honeymint Demi-Sec flavor begged to be paired with cold-brewed green tea for a magically refreshing libation. Because let's be honest, you can never go wrong with the combination of tea, honey and mint. All types of green tea are high on my list but the Japanese Sencha is specially delicious due to its deep and grassy flavor. The strength of flavor ensured that it didn't get lost among the other ingredients of this cocktail.

I chose to stay with the Japanese theme and keep the alcohol content light by using sake (a huge thanks to our Binny's helper who recommended this particular variety). Finally, I added a touch of lemon to balance out the soda's light sweetness. The result was lightly effervescent, energizing and perfect for a hot summer day. 

The Kyoto Chiller

  • 2 oz sake
  • 2 oz cold-brewed green tea*
  • 2 oz Honeymint Demi-Sec soda
  • 1/4 lemon
  • fresh mint sprig

Shake all ingredients other than the fresh mint in a shaker with ice until chilled. Strain into a tall, cylindrical glass over crushed ice and garnish the mint sprig. Enjoy while reading up on Japanese history and culture on your next lazy weekend.

* To make cold-brewed green tea, follow a ratio of roughly 1 tea bag to 8 oz room temperature water. Allow to steep for 30-40 minutes. Cold-brewed tea can also be stored in the fridge for future use.

Thanks to Belen Aquino for the stunning cocktail photography and to Gather Vintage Tablescapes for the inspiring glassware.

Strawberry Season

I have a confession.

I don't like tequila. While it has grown on me tremendously since college, you won't find me sipping any on the rocks or volunteering to consume it in shot form. Maybe being Eastern European gives me a poor tequila tolerance to offset my excellent vodka tolerance?

That being said, a lot of other people find tequila enjoyable so I can't leave it out of my cocktail repertoire. It's good to stick with the ingredients you know you love but challenging yourself to move beyond your comfort zone can have surprisingly good consequences. This cocktail is one of those good consequences.

In the past, I've started with a traditional margarita recipe and tried adding egg whites. Why? I thought the foam created by egg whites could smooth out some of the bite of the tequila flavor and bring it down to a level I could find agreeable. The egg whites accomplished exactly what I was hoping for and so much more. 

I particularly enjoy this margarita variation when paired with another fruit flavor. Since strawberries are currently wonderfully ripe and abundant, they served as my fruit of choice. As an extra step, I spent a few hours infusing my tequila with a few bags of wild strawberry tea (steps: put tea bags into tequila -> taste until desired flavor is achieved -> take tea bags out of tequila). The bottle I had on hand was a cheap one but excellent for mixing, especially when given some extra flavor with an infusion. You can snag it for under $10 at Trader Joe's!

One final word of advice - having tested multiple ways of preparing strawberry cocktails, I highly recommend either boiling them to create a syrup or blending them if you prefer to have the fresh fruit. You simply can't get as much goodness out of them if you muddle and then strain. 

Strawberry Season

  • 1.5 oz strawberry tea infused tequila
  • 2-3 blended strawberries
  • 0.5 oz orange liqueur (I swear by this one)
  • 1 small lime
  • 1 egg white

Cut a slice out of the center of the lime and set aside for garnish. Juice the rest of the lime into a shaker and add all other ingredients. Shake without ice for 10-15 seconds, making sure to periodically release the pressure from the top of the shaker (pressure will build as the egg white starts to foam). Add ice and shake until chilled, then strain into a stemmed glass and garnish with a lime wheel. Enjoy outdoors with good company.

Photography by Belen Aquino, glassware by Gather Vintage Tablescapes

Gin + Pineapple: Level Class

Let’s continue our gin and pineapple adventure from the previous post but add a touch of class. This variation is a great choice to impress a date or a gaggle of guests (which is convenient given that many of you will likely be cooking with your sweethearts for Valentine’s Day or gathering for football festivities this Sunday). While the flavor profile of this cocktail has more dimension, it’s still surprisingly easy to prepare. Winning all around.

The story of how this cocktail came to be starts with a confession: I have trouble staying focused at grocery stores. By “trouble staying focused,” I mean that I tend to wander into the aisle containing natural/exotic juices and mixers and majorly nerd out. This often results in me carrying home significantly heavier groceries than I had bargained for. Luckily, it’s usually worth it and my excitement to try something new propels me home in record time.

On one such trip to an average grocery store (Jewel, for those of you who are local to Chicago), I discovered Sipp soda. I generally use Izze or San Pellegrino in my drinks as they’re both relatively low sugar and high flavor for a reasonable price. Sipp drew my eye in the natural aisle due to the creative combination of flavors in each soda. I settled on the Lemon Flower (lemon, elderflower and tarragon) and Ginger Blossom (ginger, vanilla and lime) though it took a lot of self-control to not buy them all. Yes, it’s pricier than a bottle of ginger ale. However, it uses high-quality ingredients, avoids artificial flavors/low quality sweeteners (meaning less chance of a hangover) and elevates your cocktail making adventures without much effort. One bottle will also give you enough for 4 drinks without compromising on flavor.

This recipe uses Lemon Flower Sipp soda, along with gin, pineapple juice and a touch of lemon. It’s wonderfully easy to make in bulk (I whipped up 12 glasses for my family’s Christmas party) and doesn’t require any complicated tools (just something to stir with).

Gin + Pineapple: Level Class

  • 2 oz gin
  • Roughly 3 oz pineapple juice (evenly split the 8.5 oz can between 3 glasses -> you can also split between 2 glasses to avoid waste without a significant effect on the drink’s flavor)­
  • 3 oz Sipp Lemon Flower
  • ¼ lemon

Fill a rocks or tall glass approximately 1/3 full of ice. Top with first 3 ingredients and add the squeezed lemon quarter. Stir to chill and blend. If you’re feeling extra classy, top your glass with a lemon slice or a sprig of fresh tarragon. Serve to those you wish to impress and consequently feel extra impressive.

Blood Orange Pimm's Cup

One of the greatest things about mixology is getting to try spirits from around the world and to learn about how they spread from their origin to new destinations. For example, let's take Pimm's - a low proof British gin-based liqueur with spice and fruit flavors originally created almost 200 years ago.  The traditional way of enjoying Pimm's No. 1 is to mix it with a variety of fresh fruit and top with ginger ale or lemonade. It's dangerously drinkable, refreshing and perfect for warm summer nights (this particular version is also perfect for frigid winter nights). These qualities made it a worthy candidate of being adopted as a staple cocktail of New Orleans in the 1940s, though it's now also enjoyed all around the world. Thank you, globalization.

Where am I going with this? One, booze history is always fascinating. Two, I was throwing a New Orleans themed potluck for Will's birthday and was looking for the perfect cocktail -> enter the Pimm's Cup. I knew I wanted to use winter fruit to adapt it to the season and chose to add basil rather than mint for a more interesting flavor combination. I decided not to follow the typical method of putting fruit in a glass and topping with Pimm's and ginger ale because I wanted fuller fruit flavors and less sugar (three cheers for guilt-free cocktails, relatively speaking). Instead, I muddled strawberries and basil (meaning, I squished them into pulp with a muddler to release more goodness), added fresh squeezed blood orange juice and garnished the drink with a slice of fresh blood orange to play with the sense of smell. The result was ridiculously delicious and I encourage you to try it while blood oranges are in season!

Blood Orange Pimm's Cup

  • 3 oz Pimm's No. 1
  • 2 strawberries
  • 1 small blood orange
  • Handful of fresh basil
  • Club soda, to top

Muddle strawberries and basil in a tall glass (set aside one basil leaf for garnish). Add 3-4 ice cubes to the glass then top with the Pimm's. Cut a slice out of the middle of the blood orange and set aside for garnish. Juice the remainder of the blood orange into the glass. Stir the cocktail gently until it starts to cool, then top with a bit of club soda for fizz. Cut a small indent into the blood orange slice to hang it on the rim of the glass and lower the remaining basil leaf into the front-facing side of the glass using your stirrer (or chop stick). Turn on some blues, munch on jambalaya and sip away to your heart's content!

Valcohol Holiday Punch

If there's one lesson I learned about mixing for parties, it's to choose 1-2 cocktails and create them in bulk to accommodate your guest count. My cocktail journey started with making drinks for my friends on big events like New Year's Eve, graduation and, you know, the occasional Thursday night in college. I loved focusing on the process and making sure everyone got a beverage that fit their palette, but I found that I had very little time to partake in the festivities myself. Granted, sometimes mixing one drink at a time is a nice escape from a large party - you focus on something you love while people come to you and chitchat when they're ready for another drink. You also get to look after everyone's levels of drunkenness and make sure they're getting water if they need it. It all depends on the event and what role you're looking to play.

Last weekend, Will and I traveled back to Minnesota for the annual O'Connor family Christmas, hosted by his parents. Socializing with his family is always a blast so I knew it would be best to whip up a large batch of Valcohol goodness and then sit back to enjoy the quality company. I had never before used a bowl for serving cocktails in bulk, but Will's mom discovered a beautiful punch bowl and glasses that had belonged to her grandmother, and so commenced operation Valcohol Holiday Punch.

My considerations in creating the Punch recipe were to:

  • Stay away from colors that would stain clothes, carpets and furniture (always a safe bet for a large get-together),
  • Stick with a liquor that is likely to appeal to the most people,
  • Use ingredients that are easy to find in bulk, and
  • Mix with flavors that made me nostalgic for the holiday season.

Given these considerations, I landed on the following general ingredients: vodka, apple, ginger, lemon and thyme.

Nom.

I highly recommend using Trader Joe's when you're looking for juices to mix with as they tend to have interesting flavor combinations and less sugary options than your typical grocery store. Another perk is that TJ's juice is usually way cheaper for the quality. For this cocktail, I chose their Honeycrisp Apple Cider because it actually tastes like apples and mixes wonderfully! TJ's also has great deals on ginger beer - they have Reed's brand available for cheaper than most grocery stores and their private label is just as good. When it comes to vodka, you don't need anything fancy for something this flavorful - just a decent bottle that will mix well. I used Kirkland Signature brand from Costco which would roughly be on par with Absolut. 

Now let's talk ratios. When making a cocktail in bulk, I start with the ratios for a single cocktail, figure out roughly how many cocktails I expect to be consumed (1-2 per drinking adult is a good start) and then do some multiplication (I may or may not use Excel). The key is not to blindly trust your math. Always sample your creation before serving as you never know if it'll taste slightly different when made in bulk versus on the individual scale. Lucky for you, I've already done all the math for this punch and can tell you exactly what and how much to buy. All you need to do is mix it up and be the hero of your next holiday party!

Valcohol Holiday Punch

(Makes roughly 25 cocktail servings)

  • 2 64 oz bottles Trader Joe's Honeycrisp apple cider
  • 4 12 oz bottles ginger beer
  • 6 cups vodka
  • 12 oz lemon juice
  • Fresh thyme (for garnish)

Mix all liquid ingredients (preferably chilled) in a large punch bowl (it may be a good idea to start with half the quantity to see if more will fit in your bowl or if you need to split it up between multiple containers). Prep punch glasses with a couple sprigs of fresh thyme. If you have an ice bucket, set that out for guests to use as they prefer, otherwise, also prep punch glasses with ice. Sit back and enjoy your party!

Clementine Old Fashioned

You know what's delicious? The timeless combination of the oh-so-complementary flavors of orange, cherry and bourbon or brandy (who says you have to choose). You know what's not delicious? Drinking syrup. All too often, I find bars serving Old Fashioneds that taste sweet and processed beyond belief. So how do we give this classic cocktail the respect it deserves? We use a decent bourbon or brandy, fresh ingredients and low sugar options. This post is about one of my favorite spins on the timeless Old Fashioned cocktail but I encourage you to try your own!

Why did I get so inspired to make a cocktail on a Sunday afternoon while catching up on work in pajamas? Because I found Amarena cherries at Eataly and was overly excited about finally hunting them down. I came across this amazing alternative to Maraschino cherries at a cocktail class with Eat, Drink, Educate and have been trying to find them for sale in the US ever since. Amarena cherries are made from smaller, sour black cherries, are not saturated with corn syrup (yipee!) and actually have an authentic sour cherry flavor. Thank you, Italy. I have since then found out that the same cherries are available on Amazon if you want to give them a try for yourself.

The fresh squeezed clementine juice makes this cocktail wonderfully refreshing while the Izze soda and Amarena cherry syrup are sweet enough that you don't need to use any added sugar. The result is dangerously drinkable:

The Clementine Old Fashioned

  • 2 oz bourbon (or brandy)
  • Juice of 1 clementine
  • 1 Amarena cherry with 1 tbsp syrup
  • 3 dashes of Angustura bitters
  • 1/2 clementine Izze

Add bourbon, clementine juice, bitters and several ice cubes to shaker. Shake until frosted and strain into rocks glass with a couple of ice cubes. Add Amarena cherry/syrup and stir. Top with clementine Izze and enjoy while partaking in your favorite mustachey activities.

 

Wingding Juniper, Inspired by Holiday Cheer

Flavor profile: tart, herbal, refreshing

Holiday cheer before Thanksgiving confuses me. However, after a wonderful dinner celebration with friends and family, cold weather setting in and December just around the corner, I embrace it 110% - the aroma of fresh cut frasier firs, holiday lights twinkling in the windows, Celtic Christmas tunes and, of course, holiday-themed booze.

Today's cocktail is brought to you by me switching to full-on holiday mode and Will's father mis-hearing another cocktail I had mentioned (whiskey ginger) as "Wingding Juniper." An excellent name if I ever heard one.

There is no liquor that makes me more nostalgic for the holidays than, you guessed it, gin. It is commonly accepted knowledge that gin tastes like Christmas, especially when paired with cranberry flavor. I chose to add egg white to mellow out the tartness and it worked perfectly. We were also lucky to get to try all sorts of fancy new gins thanks to our engagement bottle shower - Nolet's is delicious! So here's a little gin-filled taste of Christmas for you all to enjoy:

The Wingding Juniper

  • 2 oz gin
  • 4 oz cranberry juice (I recommend spending a bit more to get the more flavorful 100% cranberry juice)
  • 1/2 oz lemon juice
  • 1 pasteurized egg white
  • 2 tbsp ginger liqueur (Domaine de Canton is the best choice)
  • Several drops of orange bitters

Add all ingredients to a cocktail shaker. Shake vigorously without ice to start forming foam. After 30 or so seconds, add ice and shake until the shaker frosts over (it's nice to use a kitchen towel to hold the shaker so your hands don't freeze). Strain into a stemmed glass and serve up while decorating your tree and listening to holiday tunes!