Tonight’s Cocktail is the Pear Flower from my monthly Julibox delivery. Every month, I get a box filled with the ingredients for two cocktails. This month is Spring themed.

The Pear Flower

• 1 3/4 oz St. Germain
• 1 3/4 oz Gery Goose La Poire
• 3/4 oz Lemon Juice
• Top with Soda Water
• Garnish w/ a Pear Slice
• Shake all but the soda water, strain into ice, serve in a Collins glass and garnish with a pear slice.

The cocktail is makes me think of warm weather and would be delightful to sip on the porch on a nice day. Budmo!

The post Tonight’s Cocktail (3/26/13): Pear Flower appeared first on Nick Drinks.

The Gin Old Fashioned is basically what it sounds like. Swap the bourbon for some gin in an old fashioned and you are ready to rumble.  Chris Vanderginst at Cafe Muse makes it a bit more creative with Grapefruit bitters and a grapefruit peel instead of Angostura bitters & Orange peel. This compliments the gin (Death’s Door) really nicely.

This got my mind to thinking that I would love to push the bitter grapefruit further. I picked up some of Bitterman’s Grapefruit Liqueur and would love to see how I can tweak this drink.

For a more classic version of the cocktail check out good old Dave Wondrich.

This cocktail was perfect for sipping and great for that special gin you have been saving.  Budmo!

The post Tonight’s Cocktail (3/19/13): Gin Old Fashioned appeared first on Nick Drinks.

Tonight’s cocktail is with the whiskey that is quickly becoming my favorite. Larceny was a purchase from Caskers. However, it can be bought by a number of places (such as Drinkupny.com) but it can’t be bought in Michigan…bummer. We will work on that.

Old Fashioneds are super simple. I was making them with simple syrup but that takes effort. I now make them the following way.

Old Fashioned

• 2 oz Good Bourbon
• 1 Sugar Cube (Brown, if you can find it).
• Good Bitters (who am I Ina Garten?)
• Splash of Water
• Garnish (Orange 0r Lemon Peel)

Add a sugar cube to the glass, soak in bitters, add a splash of water and muddle. Top with bourbon and add a big cube of ice. Garnish with lemon/orange oil and peel.

Old Fashioned is a simple easy drink when you don’t want to look up something crazy hard to make. It is also an easy and tasty way to sample bourbon. Budmo!

The post Tonight’s Cocktail (3/14/13): Larceny Old Fashioned appeared first on Nick Drinks.

Scotch is one of the liquors I have been drinking for the longest. We checked out Jig and Reel in Knoxville and it has over 200 scotches. I tried the Auchentoshen 18 year old from the lowlands. It was delicious with lots of pest, smoke and “socks”.

The post Tonight’s Cocktail (2/5/13): Auchentoshen 18yo appeared first on Nick Drinks.

The post Tonight’s Cocktail (2/1/13): Hopslam appeared first on Nick Drinks.

What would be the best thing in the world? Cocktails shipped to your door. And by door, I mean shipped to the UPS office since no one is 21+ years old to sign for your package and they think some underage person will happen to steal this particular box from your house since they can smell booze like a 6th sense…but I digress.

Julibox.com is probably the best “… of the month” I have found on the web so far. I’ll do a complete review of their delivery next week. For the meantime, I present the Winter Sidecar.

Winter Sidecar

• 1 3/4 Oz – Xante Pear Cognac
• 3/4 Oz Disaronno
• 1 Oz Lemon Juice
• Shake with ice, double strain into a sugar rimmed cocktail glass and garnish with a lemon twist

This cocktail is super delicious. I had a fear it would be too sweet as I am not normally a fan of Disaronno (especially their current on-air TV spots) but it was a great flavor balance. Because of this cocktail, I am now in love with Xante. Can we get it in Michigan…no. But such is the life we choose to live in a controlled state.

I highly recommend the cocktail and the Julibox service.

Budmo!

The post Tonight’s Cocktail (1/18/13): Julibox’s Winter Sidecar appeared first on Nick Drinks.

Sometimes you just want to go old school and make a classic drink. The Manhattan was said to be created for an event for presidential candidate Samuel J. Tilden (remember him?). However, that seems to be debunked. A number of books seem to think that this was created at the same time by a number of bartenders since mixing sweet vermouth in the late 1800s was in the rage.

The classic recipe is a few shots of bitters, and 2:1 whiskey and sweet vermouth. I used Carpano Antica (fancy) and Laceny (my current bourbon of choice) and Bitter Truth’s Jerry Thomas Decanter bitters. The cherry on top (literally) was from Holiday Market. They are now bulk packaging a preserved cherry similar to Luxardo. It does taste different but it beats the pants off those neon red orbs.

Budmo!

The post Tonight’s Cocktail (1/15/13): Manhattan appeared first on Nick Drinks.

We are here for CES and had a dinner schedule at Del Frisco’s Double Eagle. I was intrigued by the Cognac Sazerac. It is super sweet and is definitely using a thicker simple syrup than normal.

The post Tonight’s Cocktail (1/7/13): Cognac Sazerac appeared first on Nick Drinks.

Dining at Gage in Chicago with my new wife and had a delightful rye drink called Winter Classic. Rittenhouse Rye, cherry, maple syrup and orange. Basically a maple syrup old fashioned with no bitters. Tasty.

Update: Turns out there was Angostura bitters in it (my taste buds are getting better) and it just wasn’t listed on the menu. So it is basically a maple old fashioned. W00t!  Shoot me your recommendations for Chicago. Unfortunately Aviary is closed during my trip but I am looking for other good places. So far Longman & Eagle is leading the charge for tomorrow.

The post Tonight’s Cocktail (1/1/13): Winter Classic appeared first on Nick Drinks.

We celebrated NYE at The Oakland and they discounted some of the fancier drinks for one night only. I went after the grand pooba. The 1940’s Yellow Chartreuse. Normally $210 a pour, it was discounted to $150 and I did a half pour to celebrate the holiday.

The drink is very similar to your basic yellow chartreuse with some exceptions. The herbal flavors are more pronounced along with the saffron. It is also more concentrated in the viscosity and the sweetness.

Very delicious and well worth it.

Budmo!

The post Tonight’s Cocktail (12/31/12): 1940’s Yellow Chartreuse appeared first on Nick Drinks.