alcoholidays series

AlcoHOLidays | Banana Cream Pie Day | Banana Cream-Tini

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Banana Cream Pie-inspired Martini against a striped yellow background, copyright 2013 Jennifer "Scraps" Walker, Sips & Shots

You gotta love it when the holidays lend themselves so easily to a cocktail, right?

March 2 is Banana Cream Pie Day and I’m having trouble coming up with any objections to such a day existing. Banana pies and banana cream custards go back to the late-1800s, but the first written record specifically for the banana cream pie is found in 1906, courtesy of The Blue Ribbon Cook Book. Every pie maven surely has their own version of the pie these days, a favorite for pot lucks and spring holidays, and there are plenty of cocktail versions around, too.

Of course, I wanted to play around and come up with my own.

Banana Cream-Tini

2 oz Coconut Milk
1 oz Banana Liqueur
3/4 oz Vanilla Vodka
1/4 oz Butterscotch Schnapps

Combine all ingredients over ice and shake until rich and frothy. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass and enjoy.

We’ve been using a lot of coconut milk in our house, lately, and had a hunch that it would give this drink a richer feel and flavor than regular milk without being as cloying as sweetened condensed milk or even Irish Cream would have been. My hunch proved correct and this is a delightful twist on the original. The coconut milk makes for a very opaque cocktail, of course, so this is a perfect candidate for serving in something decorative.

Garnish for a cocktail like this is tough. Banana would be the obvious choice but there’s little more unappealing (!) than a browning banana slice resting on the rim of your glass. While most banana cream pies are poured into a standard pastry crust that have been baked blind (unfilled), I suppose you could take a half-step to the left and rim your glass with graham cracker crumbs. Some demerara sugar might make a nice rim, too, come to think of it.

Bottom line, making a banana cream pie takes some effort. This cocktail? All the flavor and less than a minute of real work.

Not such a tough decision, is it?

Cheers!

AlcoHOLidays | National Margarita Day | The Choco-Rita

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The Choco-Rita Cocktail

The history of the margarita is hotly debated. Sometime in the 1930s or 40s someone concocted it, but whether it was a Texas socialite or one of the two south-of-the-border bartenders that claim the honor, it remains a wonderful drink for warm days.

The basic margarita consists of tequila–usually silver, though I prefer gold, lime juice, and orange liqueur. Do not–I repeat, do not–let me catch you using sour mix or triple sec in a margarita; that’s just rude. If you want a sweeter margarita to pair with the salted rim, add a bit of sugar syrup to your shaker but leave the sour mix on the shelf. And you know how I feel about triple sec. Just don’t go there.

In case you haven’t caught on, today, February 22nd, is National Margarita Day and we’re very happy to celebrate that here at Casa de Sips!

Of course, as much as I love a good, classic, Margarita on the rocks with salt, paired with some rich and spicy Mexican food, I also like to mix things up a bit and play with the classics.

Which is why I’m offering you this alternative to the classic:

The Choco-Rita

1 oz Orange Juice
3/4 oz Anejo Tequila
3/4 oz Chocolate Vodka
1/4 oz Orange Liqueur
cocoa powder and/or crushed cacao nibs for garnish

Rim a shallow cocktail glass (margarita-style or coupe) with cocoa powder or some crushed cacao nibs. Combine all ingredients in a shaker glass half full of ice. Shake until frosty and strain into the prepared glass. Sprinkle with remaining cacao nibs if you used them.

This cocktail is a meeting between a traditional margarita and those chocolate oranges you see at the holidays, the ones you get to smash on the table to break into segments.  As usual in one of my cocktails, neither the orange, nor the chocolate, nor that unmistakable tequila flavor overpower any of the other ingredients. Instead, each sip is a little different and your tongue will pick up hints of the chocolate and orange midst the warmth of the tequila.

You can use a blanco or silver tequila if you insist, but I do encourage you to try a golden tequila for that added depth of flavor. For my version of this I used Partida Anejo Tequila, Van Gogh Rich Dark Chocolate Vodka (which I’ll be sharing more about next Tuesday), and–of course!–Cointreau liqueur. In a pinch you could use a premium unflavored vodka and a bit of chocolate liqueur, but it won’t quite be the same.

It’s Friday and National Margarita Day, what are you drinking tonight?

AlcoHOLidays | National Battery Day | High Voltage

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jwalker_highvoltagecocktailGot your history caps on? Today’s cocktail comes with a real charge!

Unlike the seemingly arbitrary assignment of some holidays (yes, PB&J Day, I’m looking at you), National Battery Day makes perfect sense as it falls on February 18th, the birthday of Alessandro Volta, the inventor of the battery.

Volta (from whom we get the word volt–the measure of electrical potential) was a physicist born in Como Italy, who discovered the gas methane in 1778 as well as created what he called a voltaic pile in 1800–an electrochemical cell or, in other words, a battery. With some acidic or brined cloth between them, the stacked zinc and copper get to zapping, and we get electricity. He also had another version called, appropriately enough, the Crown of Cups.

High Voltage

3/4 oz. Pepper Vodka
1/2 oz. Chocolate Liqueur
a couple pieces Crystallized Ginger
2 1/2 oz. Ginger Beer

In the bottom of a mixing glass, muddle the crystallized ginger with the vodka and chocolate liqueur until the ginger is broken up. Fill the mixing glass 3/4 full with ice, top with ginger beer and shake until nice and frothy. Strain into a prepared cocktail glass and garnish with a bit more of the crystallized ginger and a red chili.

When brainstorming this drink for a few days leading up to my own experiments, I was thinking of flavors that would instantly communicate a bit of a zap to the tongue: ginger and chili. Well, turns out, when I did the research, both ginger and chili powder natural sources of copper in the diet, and dark chocolate gives us copper as well as zinc*. Obviously the distillation process has probably done away with the actual health benefits of this drink, but it’s the thought that counts, right?

As for particulars, for the vodka I used Absolut Peppar, the chocolate was–of course–Godiva, and the ginger beer Bundaberg. If you must use ginger ale, at least use something with some bite to it or make up a small batch of ginger sugar syrup (small because the ginger zing fades away quickly) and add it to your own seltzer water to taste.

So if you need something to zap you into action, why not raise your glass to Count Volta (so honored by Napoleon in 1801) and get to your good times quick like a bunny.

Sips & Shots: come for the cocktails, stay for the history lessons. Or not.

Cheers!

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*For the love of all that’s good and right, please do not take your nutritional guidelines from a cocktail article, m’kay? If you think you need additional zinc, copper, or anything else that your body may be lacking, please see a doctor not a bartender.

AlcoHOLidays | Review | VanGogh PB&J Vodka

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image001 (1)

When we think back on foods that define childhood and have the capacity to bring on a rush of nostalgia, there’s just nothing like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. And in the I-never-expected-to-see-that-flavor-of-vodka file, peanut butter and jelly also comes to mind.

And, yet, here we are, February 12th, National PB&J Day (at least according to some sources, others say it’s actually April 2nd, but as there is no actual Congressional mandate, it’s anybody’s guess who’s right or wrong), and I’ve had the pleasure of trying out Van Gogh PB&J Vodka. And, early misgivings aside, it really was a pleasure.

PB&J, the sandwich, wasn’t really a “thing” until the soldiers came back from WWII–it existed, but it wasn’t yet a staple of the American diet. And while these sandwiches appeal to the kid in all of us, I’ve often thought that one of the perks of achieving adulthood was the option to revisit those parts of our childhood we most enjoyed.

But PB&J Vodka? Upon first opening the bottle I noticed a definite aroma of peanuts–good start. The jelly part comes in the form of raspberries, which I was a bit worried about as many raspberry liqueurs can be overpowering and sticky-sweet. Van Gogh’s PB&J Vodka, however, takes a lighter hand with the raspberry flavor, but it’s still the prominent flavor of the two. Rolling the liquor around in the mouth does bring out the peanut butter notes on the back of the tongue and the effect is all-around pleasant.

It’s still vodka, though, and a bit bracing at that! So, we mix it.

Van Gogh was kind enough to send along some recipes for me to share. Here are the two I tried.

Nuts & Berries cocktail

Nuts & Berries cocktail

Nuts & Berries

1 ½ oz of Van Gogh PB&J Vodka
¾ oz of Berry Liqueur
¾ oz of milk or cream

Shake well with ice and strain into a chilled martini glass and garnish with a raspberry.

This was like a light milk-punch and the milk really did bring out a bit more of the peanut butter flavor. Made with milk it’s a bit on the thin side, but if you went with the cream option it might be a bit more satisfying.

PB&J Frappe

PB&J Frappe

PB&J Frappe

Created by Cooking Channel’s Nadia G, Star of “Nadia G’s Bitchin’ Kitchen”

½ oz Van Gogh PB&J Vodka
1 cup of milk
½ cup of your favorite vanilla ice cream
½ banana
1 heaping tbsp. of smooth peanut butter
1 heaping tbsp. of raspberry jam/or fresh strawberries

Blend. Serve in a tall glass with a banana slice or raspberry garnish.

This frappe, on the other hand, I wanted just wallow in. It was so rich and creamy (I’ll thank the Breyer’s Lactose Free Vanilla ice cream for that) and the flavors worked so well together. I had a bag of frozen strawberries in the freezer so grabbed a couple of those for the fruit. Even though the PB&J vodka takes up a very small amount of the total recipe, the rest of the ingredients enhance the vodka’s flavors. On the other hand, this cocktail saves you from the most dangerous part of frozen bevvies: the masking of how much alcohol you’re really consuming!

I would not hesitate to serve these as dessert for an Inner Child party or any other time you’re craving something that combines the best that childhood and adulthood has to offer.

Whether you prefer your PB&J toasted or frappe, enjoy responsibly.

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I was provided a sample of Van Gogh PB&J Vodka for purposes of review. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.

AlcoHOLidays | Valentine’s Day | Loving Cup

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jwalker_lovingcupcocktail

Ah, yes, Valentine’s Day…

Thought by many to be a wonderful day of expressing our love for others in various public and private ways. Thought by others to be a trumped-up excuse by the candy and card manufacturers to bilk out a little more money between the Christmas holidays and Easter. I’ll never forget the time my economics professor held up the start of class because he had to go on a tirade about how silly it was that the depth of his love for his girlfriend was decided by what he did or did not do on a single day of the year.

I’ve always been of the mind that days like Valentine’s Day, birthdays, anniversaries and the like are all wonderful for reminding us to show people how glad we are they’re in our lives. Yes, it’s fabulous if we do it the other 364 days of the year, but we’re human, we get busy and preoccupied and maybe we forget to show our feelings as often as we intended.

Obviously, I’m pro-Valentine’s Day.

And for those who blame major corporations for trumping up the Feast of Saint Valentine (and I’m not saying it’s not incredibly commercial these days), giving cards, candies and flowers on February 14th goes back to the 1400s–well before Ye Olde Hallmarke Shoppe ever opened.

So, whether you go “all out” with the flowers delivered to the office, a candlelight dinner at a corner table for 2, maybe something sparkly or shiny, or prefer a more laid-back approach (picnic in the living room or backyard, depending on the weather, a favorite movie and avoiding the crowds, and a handwritten note of affection are all grand ways to mark the day), if you’d like a creative drink to serve your sweetie, try this on for size.

Loving Cup

1 oz Vanilla Vodka
1 oz Cranberry Juice
1/2 oz Grenadine
1/2 oz Cointreau
1/4 oz Goldschlager
splash of Rosewater

Combine all ingredients over ice and shake like your heart is on fire. Strain into a chilled, sugar-rimmed cocktail glass and garnish with a heart-shaped marshmallow.

The Loving Cup takes an old stand-by, the Cosmopolitan, and adds a little more sweetness, some spice, and a subtle perfume–all the things I think a perfect Valentine’s Day should contain.

Cheers!