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There’s more than one recipe for the Mojito. I even posted a different one a while back to accompany a fine article I wrote about simple syrup. It’s a refreshing summer drink and a great way to hide some rum inside a few mint leaves, lime and sugar. So, I figured it was about time I featured it as the Drink of the Week.
It’s not my favorite cocktail, but a lot of people love it, and why wouldn’t they? Rum, sugar, lime, mint—what’s not to love? I suppose you could consider the Mojito a cross between a Julep and a Daiquiri, but by that logic, every cocktail is just a combination of something else. I was going to get into some of the historic details about this Cuban classic, but I
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With so many spirits and liqueurs to try, it’s easy to forget about flavored vodka. After all, most of what you can buy can be easily replicated at home. If you are just getting into cocktails, infusing vodka with some of your favorite flavors is an easy way to develop a taste for more diversity as you challenge yourself to try new things. Yet, despite how simple it is to make flavored vodka, I don’t always consider it. Then rhubarb appears and I remember how delicious it can be!
You may recall from a previous post exactly one year ago that it doesn’t actually take much to get a decent infusion, so long as you are using fresh rhubarb. My results are much better this year because I am using crisp, fresh stalks—about five per quart jar batch. Chop them
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You could slap a name on any unique combination of ingredients and call it an original cocktail, but if you create something from scratch that you want people to remember, the name can be pretty important. Of course, it also has to taste good, so by the time you’re ready to pick the name, hopefully you’ve weighed your options. Memorable drinks of the past have celebrated geographical locations, an individual’s name, and even popular events throughout history. If you want the name to stick, it helps if it’s accompanied by a good story. As stories go, the one behind the Mexican Circus Tiger is pretty hard to beat.
This cocktail actually has two stories—mine, and that of the cocktail’s creator. I’ll start with mine since it’s shorter and not as intersting. A few weeks ago, my wife and I found ourselves at Beaker & Flask, a fantastic cocktail bar
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One of the ways I like to keep momentum going at Summit Sips is to post a different cocktail recipe every week. If you follow this site via RSS feeds, Twitter or Facebook, that’s probably why you are here now. I don’t know if everyone out there appreciates it or not, but I also like to build upon the knowledge and ingredients I have described in previous posts. This is especially handy when I can refer back to something homemade. This week, I am featuring the Gin Gin Mule, a delightful cocktail for summer created by Audrey Saunders of Pegu Club in New York. My version of the recipe is translated to make use of homemade ginger syrup. You might be surprised how easy it is to make your own fresh sodas with fruit juice and syrups, and ginger beer is a perfect example. So, if you still haven’t Click here and take a bigger gulp of this article. . .
It’s Cinco de Mayo, the holiday that celebrates Mexican heritage and commemorates the battle of Puebla, Mexico in 1862. It’s hard not to think about the Margarita on this day, but since I wrote about it last year, I thought I would feature a different tequila drink I have been enjoying ever since I spotted it in Imbibe Magazine. The drink I am referring to is the Red Pepper Daisy, and it’s wonderful. It was created by John Lermayer from the Florida Room in Miami and it recently made it’s way onto the menu at Forty Four in the Royalton Hotel, New York.
The Daisy is a class of drinks that goes all the way back to the days of Jerry Thomas. Technically speaking, a Daisy is a fizz—or rather, a soda-topped sour—that is sweetened with a bit of orange liqueur or grenadine
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Mount Gay 1703 Old Cask Selection, Barbados
I am no rum expert, but I am learning, and although I have managed to collect a few bottles, there seems to be no end in sight. Rum (and related sugar cane spirits) are distilled all over the world. Some are made from molasses while others are distilled from fermented cane juice. Distilleries use column stills, pot stills and sometimes both. They can match the alcohol content of other spirits or create overproof varieties. There are light rums, gold rums, spiced rums and dark rums (enough to make an adult Dr. Seuss story). Some are bottled immediately and others get better with time. With qualities that used to be merely a result of storage and shipping, the finest rums in the world today are aged in oak barrels and carefully blended to produce flavors that could drive a whiskey lover to give
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There may be snow on the ground, but I can’t help thinking about the garden. I just heard that kale will appear at the farmers market in Portland this week, and that makes me hopeful for an early spring. Although it’s already St. Patrick’s Day, it’s still too soon to start planting around here—the ground is still frozen! Cross your fingers that it won’t be long before the snow is gone so we can bask in the warmth of longer days and enjoy luxurious thirst quenchers. We will plant basil and start harvesting mint just in time for juleps—but I refuse to wait that long.
I suppose I should have featured something green, or at least something that contains Irish whiskey for the Drink of the Week. This cocktail does have mint, if that
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This week we finish up our short Caribbean series with a two-for-one daiquiri post.
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Cocktails stay cold in the wind and snow!
When cold weather dominates the land, it’s hard not to think about places you might rather be—instead of digging out from the latest snow storm. Why not bring home a little of the exotic, maybe from the not-so-distant Caribbean? This week and next, we will feature two Caribbean cocktails that share something in common: Cuba.
And that’s not all they share. Although US readers are legally barred from traveling to Cuba as tourists (let alone enjoying any products that originate there) you should know that Cuba has played an important role in shaping the cocktail landscape. Most notably, a bar called El Floridita in Havana has made many significant contributions—most of them attributed to the 1918 bartender/owner Constantino Ribalaaigua Vert. Constante, as his friends referred to him, featured numerous daiquiris and classic American cocktails on his menu. One daiquiri was named
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This week we feature a highball that is virtually unknown by most people, yet it is the foundation upon which many popular drinks are based. Our drink of the week is the Mamie Taylor, a Scotch cocktail with lime and ginger beer. According to Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails by Ted “Doctor Cocktail” Haigh, the Mamie Taylor was named after a Broadway singer and appeared around the turn of the last century, but within a few years it fell completely out of fashion. In 1900, it was the most popular cocktail of it’s day, and more than a century later, few people have ever heard of it—or Miss Taylor for that matter. Yet this drink has led to many variations that we do remember.
Mamie Taylor 2 oz Scotch Whisky .75 oz lime juice 1 oz ginger syrup 3 oz soda (to top)
Add the Scotch, fresh lime
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Antique/Vintage Store Spotlight:
 Coupe, Etched Bowl, Tall, Column Stem |
 Coupe, Curved V-shaped 6 oz |
 Coupe, Faceted Hollow Stem |
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