Cooking & Baking, Learning to Drink

Cocktail Roundup: ~Miscellaneous~

My mom gave us some Chambord because she thought it was gross, so obvs I looked up some cocktail recipes for it. This is a Clover Club: gin, Chambord [or just raspberry syrup], egg white, lemon juice. The photo in the recipe was a deep raspberry color and as you can see mine came out super pale, barely pink. I thought I had done something wrong so did some internetting—turns out most versions of the drink use straight raspberry syrup and in some cases muddled fresh raspberries, so they get a deeper color. This wasn’t bad but I wanted this to be more raspberry-y than it was, so I will def try this cocktail again with actual raspberries/syrup.

French Martini (vodka, Chambord, pineapple juice) and a not-pictured Nuts and Berries (Chambord, Frangelico, and cream). Not pictured because our Chambord was some mini bottle and I didn’t have enough for a full cocktail which is a bummer because it was DELICIOUS, like drinking a dessert. The French Martini was also nice and fruity. 10/10 off to buy more Chambord.

Peanut butter jelly time! One time at a pizza joint the bartender/waiter gave everybody shots of Skrewball peanut butter whiskey. Alas I was pregnant and couldn’t has, but it smelled great and I def wanted to try it someday. I saw it at the liquor store today, plus a little sign that said “mix with grape or cranberry juice for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich” and I was like SAY NO MORE. I did cranberry juice. It’s very sweet and very peanutty–I like it but I think I might prefer it over ice.

Sour Skrew (Skrewball named it, not me): a New York Sour with the peanut butter whiskey. Looks the same as a regular one but please observe my kick-ass wine float–I didn’t even spill any!!–and that nice egg white foam. All the hard work starting to pay off.

You would have been disappointed in me if I DIDN’T do this cocktail. Pro-tip: when the recipe calls for lemonade, don’t get the sugar-free lemonade flavor squirts. It seems obvious in retrospect but the sugar content is what allows the layering to happen. This is my 4th attempt and the middle layer is just straight up vodka + simple syrup (the lemonade stuff I got was already sweet and it just seemed like it was gonna be too much). With the grenadine and blue Curacao this is CRAZY SWEET but it’s not really about flavor on this one.

Aqua Velva: because now I have to use up the blue Curacao I got for my patriotic cocktail. Gin, vodka, blue Curacao, simple, lemon juice, and seltzer–I topped it off with enough to fill the tiki glass (not the prescribed vessel) and it was too watered down. So I drank some of it and made another one and added it in (without adding more seltzer). Except it needed more simple, so then I stirred that in at the end. By the way the simple was still warm because I just made it. A real mixologist would have been horrified. Or maybe they’d have been impressed by my unique blend of devil-may-care and stick-to-it-iveness. IDK

Reese’s Cup: peanut butter whiskey, chocolate liqueur, half and half. Simple & delicious.

I made my first shrub aka “drinking vinegar”—you macerate fruit (in this case, mixed berries) and mix the juice with vinegar. With some vodka and seltzer it’s a surprisingly refreshing cocktail that only has the slightest salad dressing aftertaste (personally I find the tartness appealing)

Dirty Wastelander: Nuka Cola, Whiskey, and mutfruit. If you’re out of mutfruit, you can use blackberries. My Nuka Cola syrup came out a little light because I had an incident with the browning sauce (also a great name for an album) but it’s still pretty good.