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AlcoHOLidays | Veterans Day | Alliance

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Alliance Cocktail for Veterans Day

Veterans Day began life as Armistice Day, commemorating the cease-fire (aka an armistice) that halted actual fighting on November 11, 1918, even though the end of World War I wasn’t until the Treaty of Versailles was signed the following June.

WWI, also known as The Great War, was thought of as “the war to end all wars.”

How optimistic.

Never underestimate man’s ability to fight about anything and everything.

At any rate, after WWII and Korea, veterans service organizations headed the requests to change the name to include soldiers of the later conflicts. In 1954 President Eisenhower made it so.

The idea behind Veterans Day was that it was a day to thank those who’ve served our country and “dedicated to the cause of world peace” (via Dept of Veterans Affairs) Banks, the Postal Service, and government offices close, most schools, too, and many communities throw parades in honor of our servicemen and women.

So make sure to thank your nearest Veteran this coming Sunday, and raise a glass in honor of those who fought and gave their lives for the freedom we enjoy today.

The Alliance

3/4 oz Rye Whiskey
3/4 oz Cognac
3/4 oz London Dry Gin

Combine liquors over ice in a mixing glass and stir until everyone is shaking hands. Strain into a rocks or cocktail glass with 3 ice cubes inside.

As with other all-alcohol cocktails, we stir this one so that the drink reserves a silky feeling on the tongue without diluting it overmuch. In The Alliance, the Cognac greets you nice enough, the rye pushes its way in a bit, and the gin’s botanicals bring up the rear. Purists might cry havoc at the combination of 3 such strong flavors, but war makes strange bedfellows, and these 3 are making the best of it.

Cheers… and thank you.

AlcoHOLidays | Election Day | Political Party

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Back when I was first in college (in the dim mists of the late 20th century), I was incredibly political and planning to become an event planner. I even went as far, for a Intro to Business project, as creating a business plan based on my company-to-be, aptly named Party Politics. I’ve volunteered on campaigns, participated in straw polls, attended election parties, and become thoroughly disillusioned with the entire process.

And that’s about all I’m going to say on the subject of politics as I blog about cocktails to be convivial, not combative.

Election Day, the Tuesday after the first Monday of November (so somewhere between the 2nd and the 8th), was chosen for its “sweet spot” location of just after harvest but just before the bad weather. And while some states consider it a civic holiday, most folks have to squeeze in their voting before or after work (unless they use the increasingly available early voting options). I remember one Election Day in particular, again in college, where our economics professor was so disgusted that only a few of us had voted (it was only 9 am, by the way) that he cancelled class so people could go vote.

Didn’t matter than many of us didn’t have cars and taking the bus wasn’t practical when you had a 10 am class to be back for, but whatever.

This was also the same professor that held up class for a tirade on Valentine’s Day, so take that for what you will.

At any rate, when I decided to create a drink based on politics and elections, I had to think of what spirits would best reflect the process.

Political Party

1 1/2 oz Vodka
3/4 oz Kahlua
1/2 oz Goldschlager
1/4 oz Galliano

Combine all ingredients over ice in a mixing glass and stir until well-chilled. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish patriotically (I  used a skewer of star fruit, blueberries, and raspberries).

With a bit of reflection I settled on vodka for the clean-as-a-whistle background you want to have as a candidate, Kahlua for the numerous cups of coffee those all-night strategy sessions can take, Goldschlager for the money that powers the campaigns, and Galliano for the bitterness of losing. After all, elections are the one area where they’ve yet to play the “everybody wins/there are no losers” card.

While this cocktail retains a certain sweetness (gotta lure you in somehow), it may not appeal to every palate. That’s okay… partisan politics isn’t to everyone’s taste.

AlcoHOLidays | Halloween | Iced Pumpkin Spice

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Okay, now, I don’t really have to explain Halloween, do I?

Unlike some of the more obscure holidays I know we’ll examine in this series, Halloween (Hallowe’en, All Hallow’s Eve, Samhain–pronounced sow-in, by the way) is one of the biggies celebrated in many countries and cultures. While we celebrate mostly with candy and costumes these days, some still see it as a mystical night where the veil between this world and the next grows tissue thin.

Fall has long-been my favorite season, so it’s no big surprise that Halloween is my favorite holiday. There’s just something about the nip in the air (sometimes we  have to really search for that nip, down here in Florida), a good bonfire or fire-pit, impending sweater weather, and winter squash starting to appear in the stores that makes me extra happy. Not to mention the fun of being able to go to work in silly costumes.

A certain national coffee shop has made many folks–even those not terribly fond of coffee–salivate like Pavlov’s dogs over the mere mention of a Pumpkin Spice latte. About the only thing that drink is missing is a good shot of something. It just so happened that I was browsing the fall/Halloween display in World Market in September and found the Torani Pumpkin Pie-Flavored Sauce, 12 oz. for $5.99.

For those not familiar, Torani is a pretty common brand of flavorings used in coffees and Italian sodas. While there are many recipes available all over the Web for similar syrups (which make it easy to make your own pumpkin-spice anything year-round), getting to try the real deal was a happy surprise. Not only have I made amazing pumpkin spice lattes at home with it, we’ve also used it on vanilla ice cream and it’s heavenly.

Iced Pumpkin Spice Cocktail

It doesn’t do half bad in today’s cocktail, either!

Iced Pumpkin Spice

1 1/2 oz Spiced Rum
1 oz Sweetened Condensed Milk
1/2 oz Pumpkin Pie-Flavored Sauce
Cinnamon Stick

Combine rum, condensed milk, and sauce over ice and shake until the nip in the glass matches the nip in the air–even if the latter is just wishful thinking. Strain into a  chilled cocktail glass and garnish with a cinnamon stick.

Novelty glass and mellowcreme pumpkin patch optional.

AlcoHOLidays | Sweetest Day | Candy Coated Cocktail

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Not something we commonly celebrate down here in the South, Sweetest Day (3rd Saturday of October) is one of those holidays you tend to hear about at the last minute and assume that it’s some trumped-up corporate money-grab by the candy and card companies.

Turns out, there’s a little more to it than that (thank goodness).

Back in the 1920s a group of confectioners (candy makers) in Cleveland, Ohio, got together and decided to give candy to “newsboys, orphans, old folks and the poor” (The Cleveland Plain Dealer, via Wikipedia). On the one hand it does seem a little odd to be giving candy out to folks who could likely use other, more substantial, gifts, on the other hand we all know how nice it is to buy or receive something absolutely frivolous–even in otherwise dire circumstances.

Sweetest Day Editorial, 1922, Cleveland Plain Dealer

So, yes, it’s corporate, but it was done with an eye towards philanthropy it would seem. Take that for what you will.

Candy Coated Cocktail

Having learned a little more about it, I see it on the level of Valentine’s Day–optional if both you and your partner agree to skip it, but nice to have the reminder to express gratitude to friends, family, and loved ones*.

So in honor of the confectionery delights that started that Sweetest Day of the Year back in 1922, I’m transforming my Candy Bar Shot into a full-fledged cocktail.

Candy Coated Cocktail

1 1/2 oz Irish Cream Liqueur
1 oz Whipped Cream Vodka
3/4 oz Butterscotch Schanpps
1/2 oz Godiva Chocolate Liqueur
1/4 oz Frangelico Hazelnut Liqueur

Drizzle a chilled cocktail glass with some extra chocolate liqueur or chocolate syrup and place back into the fridge while you mix up the cocktail.

Combine all of the ingredients over ice in a mixing glass and stir until until nice and frosty. Strain into the prepared cocktail glass and garnish with something sweet.

Now, this is solidly alcoholic and solidly sweet. And, yet, it’s not too sweet or too strong to prevent you from enjoying it. It’s a wonderful dessert drink.

*Yes, we should always appreciate those important to us and shouldn’t need to set aside a single day where the value of our love is measured by gifts, etc. But we get busy. And we take people for granted. And sometimes we need a reminder as subtle as a sledgehammer to remember why we like having these people in our lives and that it’s worth celebrating these moments together. And I don’t give a flying flip about your over-commercialization rant.

AlcoHOLidays | Leif Erikson Day | That Norse Thing

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In my original blog schedule, I had today pegged for the upcoming Columbus Day holiday (observed on 10/8 in 2012, the landing was actually 10/12). While I’m not averse to hit on some more obscure holidays over this next year, I figured it made sense to hit up all the US Federal holidays, too.

That Norse Thing Cocktail for Leif Erikson Day

Until I started brushing up on my Columbus Day research, and realized that (obviously) not everyone considered this a positive celebration (several states don’t even observe it). While I don’t think it’s necessarily right that our generation be held responsible for things done by generations (centuries) past, it’s one thing to accept the unfortunate-to-our-modern-eyes culture of the day back in the age of exploration and move forward and another to celebrate that which displaced nations. At first I thought maybe to do equal time: Columbus Day this week, Indigenous Peoples Day next. But then I realized how much poor taste it would be in to raise a cocktail in celebration of a culture for whom alcoholism is a severe problem.

So I decided we’re just going to back slowly away from that whole minefield and focus on another upcoming holiday: Leif Erikson Day!

You know, the Viking that actually discovered North America almost 500 years before Columbus sailed the ocean blue?

From what I can tell, though the son of Erik the Red did land and settle, for a time, in present-day Canada around the turn of the last millennia  he didn’t really set down roots. And the family of his that went back were, in fact, wiped out by native tribes and that was pretty much the end of that.

And although October 9th was not the day Erikson set foot in the New World, it was the date chosen to celebrate the Norwegian discovery of the New World.

That Norse Thing

3 oz Apple Juice
2 oz Gin
1 oz Pomegranate Tequila

 Combine all ingredients over ice in a tall glass and stir until frigid.

The way I see it, if your off on a voyage of discovery, you don’t need to be fiddling around with a lot of gear, glasses with tiny stems, or anything overly complicated. You need your drink ready to go in a few moments because that’s all you might have. So this cocktail is built in the serving glass and stirred to combine. Juniper and apples are common(ish) in Norse cooking, and the pomegranate is my nod to Erikson (son of Erik… the red… please tell me I don’t have to keep explaining that one). Tequila may seem an odd choice–he didn’t land in Mexico–but the Pomegranate Tequila I have is far smoother and blends better than the pomegranate liqueur on its own.

And about the name. One thing I noticed when I was reading up on Erikson and Norway was that they have a lot of Things–in this case, thing meaning an assembly or group, later the matter or object being discussed at the assembly or meeting–and I just had to work that in somehow. They weren’t the only ones with Things (there are similar Germanic roots, too), but it was just something to good to pass up.

Regardless of what you choose to celebrate this coming week, make sure you celebrate with awareness.

And, you know, don’t drink and boat.

Cheers!