Fruit Flavored Vodka

Special thanks to the Orlando Ale House for introducing me to the following fruit flavored vodkas: Belvedere Black Raspberry, Absolut Pears, and Smirnoff Blueberry.

Here are a few of my new recipes:

Four and Twenty Black Birds
(As in "baked in a pie". Yes, this drink is named after a nursery rhyme.)

1 oz Belvedere Black Raspberry
½ oz Black Cherry Bourbon (try Jim Beam's Red Stag)
½ oz Blackcurrant Liqueur (try Mathilde's Creme de Cassis)
1 oz fresh lemon juice
splash of cranberry juice
splash of ginger ale

Combine vodka, bourbon, lemon juice and cranberry juice in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Slowly pour in the blackcurrant so that it falls to the bottom, creating a two-tone pink/purple effect. Top off with ginger ale and garnish with a raspberry and black berry on a cocktail skewer.

The Cherry Berry
1 ½ oz Belvedere Black Raspberry
4 oz raspberry ginger ale
Dash of grenadine

Basically Shirley Temple meets Chelsea Handler. Build this drink in a high ball glass over ice. The name comes from the Cherry Berry, a Swedish Fish-like gummy I used to buy from penny candy stores as a child. If you have access to these, put a couple on a cocktail skewer for garnish. If not, a pair of cherries will suffice.

Autumn Sunset
1 ½ oz Absolut Pears
½ oz sour apple schnapps
½ oz Chambord
1 ½ oz white cranberry juice

Combine vodka, apple schnapps, and cranberry juice in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Slowly pour in Chambord, which should fall to the bottom. Garnish with a pear wheel.

Harvest Sangria
4 parts Riesling
2 parts Absolut Pears
2 parts apple juice
1 part peach schnapps

This would make a great Thanksgiving Day punch. Ingredients should be chilled before hand and combined in a punch bowl or glass pitcher. Stir in slices of fresh apples, peaches, and pears.

Triple Berry Lemonade
1 ½ oz Smirnoff Blueberry
4 oz lemonade
2 large strawberries
¾ oz Chambord raspberry liqueur

Muddle (mash) strawberries in the bottom of a shaker. Add ice, vodka, and lemonade. Shake and strain into a highball glass over fresh ice. Pour in Chambord. Stir in a few blueberries, raspberries, and little strawberry slices. Add a straw and serve.

Blueberry Cobbler
1 ½ oz Smirnoff Blueberry
½ oz real whipped cream
Brown sugar rim

Rim a shot glass with brown sugar. Shake vodka and whipped cream with ice and strain into a shot glass. Enjoy!

An Apple-tini a Day

So we’re going to take a break from our flavored vodka unit for an autumn-themed post. I like to keep my drinks seasonal. This means that during the fall, I almost exclusively drink pumpkin spiced lattes in the morning and apple-tinis as part of my late night festivities. In its October issue, the Food Network Magazine recently published an article called “An Apple a Day” which included 31 recipes -- one for each day in October -- that called for apples. Here is my own version – a different original apple-tini recipe for every day of the week. Enjoy!

Sunday -- Apple Pie à la Mode
1 ½ oz Pinnacle Whipped vodka
Splash of sour apple schnapps (try Lady Velvet)
Dash of real whipped cream
2 oz apple cider

Also needed: 1 Graham cracker, cinammon

This is my newest original recipe, and I don’t want to brag or anything, but it’s fantastic. First, pound a Graham cracker into fine crumbs. Rim cocktail glass with cracker crumbs. (You can do this by first dipping the rim of the glass into a shallow bowl of cider. The crumbs will stick to the moist rim.) Combine vodka, sour apple schnapps, cider and real whipped cream in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into rimmed glass. The result will be a creamy apple-flavored concoction – think cold vanilla ice cream melting on warm apple pie. The Graham cracker crumbs serve as the crust. Further garnish with whipped cream and a sprinkle of cinnamon.

Monday -- Candy Apple Martini
1 oz Skyy vodka
1 oz DeKuyper ButterShots
1 oz apple juice
1 oz cranberry juice

This has been my signature fall recipe for the past two years. This drink tastes like a smooth, sugary caramel apple and is red in color. Shake ingredients with ice and strain.

Tuesday -- Jack Sparrow’s Treasure
1 ½ oz Captain Morgan Spiced Rum
¾ oz Goldschlager cinnamon schnapps
4 oz apple cider

Also needed: Cubed apples and a cinnamon stick

I live in Disney. It was only a matter of time before I started naming my drinks after Disney characters. (Not to mention that I ride Pirates of the Caribbean at least once a week.) Also, Goldschlager contains real flecks of gold, gold = treasure …you see how I got the name. Combine ingredients in a high ball glass with ice and a few pieces of apple cut into cube-like shapes. Speed shake and garnish with a cinnamon stick.

Wednesday -- Cran-Apple-tini
1 ½ oz Finlandia Cranberry vodka
¾ oz DeKuyper Sour Apple Pucker
1 ¾ oz cranberry juice

This makes a great Thanksgiving Day cocktail and was inspired by the Boston Basher at Jellyrolls on the Boardwalk. Shake ingredients with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Real cranberries on a cocktail skewer make a great garnish.

Thursday -- Apple Gingersnap
1 ½ oz Skyy Ginger vodka
¾ oz DeKuyper Sour Apple Pucker
1 ¾ oz apple cider

Shake ingredients with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a dash of whipped cream and a mini gingersnap cookie. Optional sugar rim.

Friday -- Forbidden Fruit
1 ½ oz Smirnoff Green Apple Twist
¾ oz PAMA pomegranate liqueur
1 ¾ oz cranberry juice

Apple and pomegranate are probably my two favorite cocktail flavors. The name is a reference to both the Garden of Eden and the myth of Persephone, whose consumption of pomegranate seeds forced her to return to the underworld. (I was a Religious Studies major. I am also a dork.) Shake ingredients with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a fresh green apple wheel.

Saturday -- Caramel Apple Cider
1 ½ oz Bacardi Big Apple rum
¾ oz DeKuyper ButterShots
1 ¾ oz apple cider

Lace a cocktail glass with caramel sauce. Do this by taking a spoonful of caramel and drizzling it over the cocktail glass so that there are caramel swirls around the sides. Combine rum, butterscotch schnapps, and cider in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into caramel-coated glass. Garnish with an apple wedge dipped in caramel.

Bubble-licious

October is upon us, meaning that for the next month, any drink I make will either be orange colored or candy flavored. In that case, it seems like the perfect time to discuss Three Olives Bubble vodka.

I'm not a big fan of bubblegum flavored anything. I never used my quarters to buy gum balls as a child, I always avoid the Jelly Belly Bubblegum jelly beans, and I refuse to allow bubblegum flavored toothpaste in my mouth, even at the dentist's office. That being said, I wasn't in any rush to try Three-O's Bubble. But I received a bottle as a gift this summer, and, being the good little mixologist that I am, I decided to play around with it.

The first thing I did was default to The Intoxicologist, which is my favorite drinking blog and everything I could ever hope My Mid-Morning Martini could be. As expected, Cheri Loughlin did not disappoint, and set me in the right direction, especially when she suggested combining Bubble with cranberry juice and peach schnapps.

The Woo-woo is a somewhat old-fashioned drink that I learned to make in bartending class. It gained popularity in the 80s during the advent of the liqueur and is comprised of 1 1/2 oz vodka, 3/4 oz peach schnapps, and 4 oz cranberry juice -- basically a Sex on the Beach without the OJ. Here's my variation of the Woo-woo, using bubblegum vodka instead of regular.

Bubblemania
1 1/2 oz Three Olives Bubble
3/4 oz Peach Schnapps
1 1/2 oz Cranberry juice

Shake with ice and strain ingredients into a chilled cocktail glass. I use less cranberry juice than the traditional Woo-woo since this makes the drink stronger and turns it a soft pink color, as opposed to red. In this way, it looks that way you'd expect a bubblegum flavored drink to taste. The Intoxicologist recipe calls for Club Soda, but I think this waters down the taste of the vodka.

My friend Michele makes a signature drink she calls the Jolly Rancher. It consists of three basic ingredients -- vodka, club soda, and a fruity liqueur such as DeKuyper Watermelon or Sour Apple Pucker. By substituting bubblegum flavored vodka, you can turn the Jolly Rancher into the Blow Pop, perfect for a Halloween or back-to-your-childhood themed party.

Sour Apple Blow Pop
1 1/2 oz Three Olives Bubble
3/4 DeKuyper Sour Apple Pucker
1 1/2 oz Sprite

Watermelon Blow Pop
1 1/2 oz Three Olives Bubble
3/4 oz DeKuyper Watermelon Pucker
1 1/2 oz Sprite

Shake vodka and liqueur with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Top off with chilled Sprite. (I use Sprite instead of Club Soda for the extra sugar factor, since Blow Pops are significantly sweeter than Jolly Ranchers.)

In keeping with the Blow Pop theme, Bubble also mixes well with grape soda (1 part vodka to 2 parts soda) and in either cherry or watermelon Jell-O shots (following the recipe on the box and using refrigerated vodka instead of cold water).

Also, since October is breast cancer awareness month and the Gloria Gemma Flames of Hope Waterfire is almost here, here's a celebratory pink cocktail to finish things off. For my Christmas punch, I've always loved combining vodka, cranberry juice and champagne (or ginger ale, if you want less alcohol. Here's the same recipe with a Bubble-y twist:

Bit O' Bubbly
1 part Three Olives Bubble
1 part dry champagne
2 parts cranberry juice

Keep ingredients refrigerated before hand, then combine in a champagne flute. Adjust proportions if needed to achieve a light pink hue.

Just one taste.....and you're Whipped

Possibly the best vodka slogan ever. But more on that in a minute.

It would have made the most sense if I had updated this blog regularly while I was taking a bartending class. Unfortunately, this did not happen. My apologies. So now that I'm all settled in to Florida life and have a (somewhat) set work schedule, you can expect many, many retroactive posts.

Although this blog was created out of my love for flavored martinis, which are traditionally vodka-based, I've pretty much neglected the spirit up till now. So given this, and the recent rise in popularity of flavored vodkas, we will now begin a unit on some of the most interesting flavors out there. (Yes, a unit. Multiple blog posts!)

Let's start with my new favorite: Pinnacle's Whipped

Pinnacle is a brand of imported French vodka. They carry a long list of flavors -- 23 so far -- which include the usual apple, orange, and citrus, but also cherry lemonade, espresso, butterscotch, and COTTON CANDY (haven't tried it yet, or even seen it in a liquor store, but stay tuned for a blog entry about this sometime in the near future). Their newest flavor is whipped cream, and it's already gaining popularity in the US (at the liquor store last night, there were several other people also asking the cashier if they had it in stock).

The flavor is light and creamy - a great alternative to traditional vanilla vodkas.

I first tried Whipped over the summer at Kartabar, my favorite martini bar, located on Thayer St. in Providence. Their drink was based on a coconut cream pie, and included 1 1/2 oz of Whipped vodka, 3/4 oz Malibu coconut rum, and was shaken with ice and real whipped cream. There was no juice or mixer present, but the flavor and lightness of the spirit, combined with the Malibu and real whipped cream made the drink refreshing and easy to drink. The martini glass was garnished with an additional dash of whipped cream which was sprinkled with toasted coconut.

You could also make a banana cream pie version of this drink by replacing the 3/4 oz Malibu with 3/4 oz Creme de Banane.

Banana Cream Pie
1 1/2 oz Pinnacle Whipped
3/4 oz Creme de Banane
Dash of real whipped cream

First, rim a cocktail glass with crushed graham cracker pieces, then lace glass with chocolate syrup. Combine vodka, creme de banane, and real whipped cream in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into rimmed glass. Garnish with additional whipped cream and a banana chip.

Whipped is also the perfect spirit to take as an after-dinner shot. I tried this at Planet Hollywood about a month ago. The shot should be served ice cold and, acording to Pinnacle's recipe for the Whippit, it should be topped with a dash of whipped cream. Although presentation-wise, the whipped cream on top looks best, I think it tastes better when the whipped cream is thoroughly mixed with the vodka. Therefore, I would serve the shot with a demitasse spoon so that the drinker can blend the whipped cream into the vodka before shooting.

Given the flavor of and connotations associated with whipped cream, it seems that Whipped will be relegated to the dessert-beverage category. But it does make an amazing after-dinner treat. Here's one more recipe, just in time for Halloween parties, called the Monster Mash. The name is an ode to the Friendly's sundae of the same name, which was my favorite when I was about 11.

Monster Mash
1 1/2 oz Pinnacle Whipped
3/4 oz Green Creme de Menthe
3/4 oz Godiva Chocolate Liqueur
4 oz milk

Shake with ice and strain into a chilled highball glass. Garnish with a dash of whipped cream and an Andes Candy. (This is my ode to the Olive Garden. Obviously.)

The Friendly's sundae was garnished with whipped cream and a Reese's peanut butter cup (which, cut in half, made the ears of the monster with the whipped cream serving as the hair). Whipped cream and a peanut butter cup would also be an acceptable garnish for the drink, especially if served at a Halloween party.

Wedding Toasts

For those of you getting married this summer, here are some alternatives to the traditional champagne toast.

I created the following recipe for the wedding of Erika Clark and Mark Bamat, as part of the final project for my wedding planning class.

Once Upon a Dream
1 oz PAMA pomegranate liqueur
1 oz Peachtree
splash of orange juice
2 oz dry champagne

Shake pomegranate liqueur, peach schnapps, and orange juice with ice. Strain into champagne flute and top with champagne.

The next recipe was featured on a Disney Destination Wedding special on WE TV by celebrity wedding planner David Tutera.

Something Blue
2 oz Blue Curacao
2 oz Prosecco
garnish with orange zest

**This drink will be a bright, medium blue. For a softer, more Tiffany blue color, try Hypnotiq instead of the curacao and garnish with a pair of blueberries.

The College Hill Cosmo

Created especially for the class of 2010.

1 1/2 oz Grey Goose L'Orange (in honor of Sydney Frank)
3/4 oz PAMA pomegranate liqueur
4 oz Cranberry juice
dash of lime juice

Shake ingredients with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with lime wedge.

Beer Cocktails

Recently, pubs have been following a trend and incorporating mixed drinks made from beer in their menus. If made well, these drinks taste great, leave a lasting impression with the customers, and can justify charging a little more for a pint. Here are a few of my favorites.

Snakebite
1 part lager
1 part cider
topped off with blackcurrant liqueur (creme de cassis in the US)

At the Waterfront Bar at Kings College London, this beverage was mixed in a pitcher. The bartender filled the pitcher with half Carlsberg, half Strongbow (both on tap). The blackcurrant was poured directly on top of the foam, in an "S" or "snake" shape. The color bled down, turning the drink a pinkish-purple.

The Lava Lamp
1 part Magners Cider
1 part Guinness
raspberry malt float

To "float" something means that the ingredient is added last, gently pouring it over the back of a spoon so that it drizzles on top of the already made drink.

The Lava Lamp was created by Dan, the awesome bartender at the Duck and Bunny on Wickenden St. in Providence. This drink has an interesting look. The Guinness and Magners don't mix, so the Guinness bounces on top. The raspberry malt bleeds all the way through, greatly enhancing the color and overall flavor of the finished product.

Chocolate Covered Raspberry
3/4 pint Young's Double Chocolate Stout
1/4 pint Floris Framboise (a raspberry Belgian beer)

Featured at the English Cellar Alehouse on Angell Street in Providence.

Banana Split
3/4 pint Young's Double Chocolate Stout
1/4 pint Well's Banana Bread Beer

This drink can currently be found on the menu at Doherty's Irish Pub on East Ave. in Pawtucket.