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Crux

B and I were thumbing through several of our cocktail volumes looking for a suitable tipple to kick off 2017, when we came across the Crux in Robert Hess‘s The Essential Bartender’s Guide.  It looked promising.  Nice classic cocktail structure; at least one odd-ball booze.   What’s not to love. I got to… Read More »Crux

The Derby Cocktail

B was thumbing through Ted Haigh‘s Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails, when she ran across what she thought might be a tasty tipple in The Derby.  A quick perusal of the ingredients reveals that it’s awfully similar to one of our all time favorite cocktails, the Oriental Cocktail.  Basically put half… Read More »The Derby Cocktail

A Civilized Respite…

Mom and Teresa flew in for Thanksgiving. Mom, fresh from Australia, and T, fresh-ish from Cuba.   After a decidedly gluttonous gorging of turkey, we set to decorating 22 feet of Christmas trees.   Obviously, with a campaign of magnitude, fortification is required.  Fortunately, T, brought me back a great souvenir… Read More »A Civilized Respite…

Negroni Sbagliato

As summer is winding to a close (okay, we live in California; please don’t hate us. Okay, go ahead.) we thought we would have one more fling with the those classics of summer frivolity, the spritz.  This item we are going with probably one of our favorites, the Negroni Sbagliato.… Read More »Negroni Sbagliato

Dasiy de Santiago

With this post, we bid a fond farewell to Summer.  It’s started raining and the limes are getting big enough to use, so we thought one final salute to that greatest of all seasons was in order. Having limes ready for picking, we went in search for a suitable cocktail… Read More »Dasiy de Santiago

Blackthorn (Irish Variation)

Astute readers will recall the we previously covered another version of the Blackthorn Cocktail, but which was gin based.  In fact probably the original namesake was called the Blackthorn  after the plum-bearing shrub  that produces the sloe berry (from which we get sloe gin). Philip Greene‘s book The Manhattan …… Read More »Blackthorn (Irish Variation)

Paloma

So funny story… My parents and aunt and uncle were traipsing about with wilds of Michigan’s upper peninsula.  Apparently want to cap off the evening and being fond of margaritas, they stopped by one of the local establishments and tried ordering one.  Owing to the fact that neither tequila, nor… Read More »Paloma

Rosita

There are few things that say summer more to me than tequila. And good tequila (not the bottle of liquid stupid that we all drank way too much of in college) needs no help. Just a warm summer evening and a glass.  It doesn’t need salt or a lime or… Read More »Rosita

Bitter Intentions

It’s been hot here.  And not just the usual “No problem; it’s a dry heat” hot, but that your eyes are hot; you can cook your brain kind of hot.   And it’s June. Looks like it could be a long one, so best make certain we have a sufficient… Read More »Bitter Intentions

Venetian Spritz

Summer’s decidedly underway here, and to celebrate (actually an anniversary gift), B gave me a copy of Spritz: Italy’s Most Iconic Aperitivo Cocktail, with Recipes.   We decided to go for a couple of classics, before wading into the modern machinations. Spritz’s originally started out in the 1800’s as a way… Read More »Venetian Spritz