Classic American

The O’Neill

Ingredients:
Rye whiskey (e.g., Old Overholt)
Lemon juice
Simple syrup
Maraschino liqueur* (e.g., Luxardo)
Ice
Cocktail cherries – Sable & Rosenfeld’s Tipsy Cherries are a step up from the typical cherries they call maraschino.* Or if you can find them or make your own, try fresh sweet cherries preserved in whiskey or maraschino liqueur.

Tools:
Cocktail shaker
Strainer
Juicer

Steps:
Squeeze one half lemon to yield 1 oz of juice.
Add several ice cubes to a shaker or mixing glass, then add 2 oz rye, the lemon juice, ½ oz simple syrup and ½ oz maraschino liqueur.
Shake vigorously.
Strain into an old fashioned glass filled with fresh ice.
Garnish with a cocktail cherry.

*Maraschino is a bittersweet liqueur flavored with marasca cherries from Dalmatia, Croatia. The recipe for this distilled liqueur dates back to the 16th century. Maraschino cherries may have originally been marasca cherries preserved in maraschino liqueur. Now they’re just light-colored cherries soaked in red dye, syrup and artificial flavors.

I couldn’t decide what to call this classically inspired cocktail, which was created for Our American Theater Co. They went with “the O’Neill.”

Cardinal Virtue

Ingredients:
Metaxa or a good quality brandy
Fresh blood orange juice
Fresh lemon juice
Housemade grenadine
Bitters
Ice

Tools:
Shaker
Strainer
Juicer

Steps:
Use your juicer to extract 3/4 oz blood orange juice and 3/4 oz lemon juice.
Add several ice cubes to a shaker, then add 2 oz brandy, the blood orange juice and lemon juice, 1/2 oz grenadine and a dash of bitters – I recommend Peychaud’s, but if you can’t find it, use Angostura.
Shake vigorously.
Strain into a chilled martini-shaped glass

This cocktail draws upon the all-time classic sidecar and adds the vibrant colors and flavors of blood orange juice and grenadine (housemade from pomegranate juice). Around here, we only see blood oranges from November to early spring, and their juice is terrific in this zingy winter cocktail. Bottled blood orange juice may also work, although I have not yet tried it. Or you can substitute with tangerines or satsumas.

True grenadine adds color and sweetness as well as a fairly intense pomegranate flavor. If the flavor is too tart, you can add a little simple syrup.

Variation:
Strain into a rocks glass, top with a few splashes of club soda and you have a delightful punch!

It is always a good idea to practice the cardinal virtue of moderation when consuming alcohol.

Miss Jane

I’ve been making this for some of my cocktail-loving friends who are wary of gin. The response has been very positive.

Ingredients:
Quality gin*
Good vodka
Lillet blanc**
Lemon juice
Simple syrup
Ice

Tools:
Cocktail shaker
Strainer
Juicer
Citrus twister

Steps:
Squeeze one half lemon to yield 1 oz of juice.
Add several ice cubes to a shaker or mixing glass, then add 1 oz gin, 1 oz vodka, 1 oz Lillet, the lemon juice and 3/4 oz simple syrup.
Shake vigorously. Put some elbow into it.
Strain into a chilled martini-shaped glass.
Garnish with a twist of lemon peel.

*It’s not just juniper anymore: If you’re not a lover of gin, you may be surprised at the range of flavors to be discovered in various brands of the spirit. In recent years, some small-batch distillers have entered the market with new offerings, like the velvety, iconoclastic Hendrick’s, from Ayrshire, Scotland, which adds cucumber and rose to the mix. I must say I think it’s a brilliant choice for this cocktail.

**Lillet, an apéritif wine from the Bordeaux region of France, is available in blanc (white) and rouge (red) varieties. Lillet blanc also features in the Vesper, the cocktail created by James Bond in Casino Royale.

Featured in Bohemian hellhole magazine | Fall 2008

Fellini

Mimosas and Bellinis are fine choices for brunch time imbibing, but for a zippy change, try this fresh combination with Prosecco, lime and ginger.

Prosecco is a dry Italian sparkling wine, the original ingredient in the Bellini (made with peach puree). Prosecco is gaining popularity in the United States, and with good reason: It is delightful, crisp, low in alcohol – perfect for summer! And it’s affordable – a good wine merchant or supermarket may stock several bottles in the $12-15 range.

Ingredients:
Ginger juice
Crystallized ginger
Superfine sugar
Limes
Chilled Prosecco

Tools:
Sparkling wine glasses
Juicer
Your favorite knife and cutting board
A shallow dish

Steps:
Juice some fresh ginger root (put it through an electric juicer or grate it and press the gratings through some cheesecloth or a fine-meshed garlic press) or purchase bottled juice.

Chop some crystallized ginger, grind it together with an equal amount of sugar in a food processor (a couple tablespoons of each should be enough for 6 to 10 drinks, depending on the glass shape* you use), then spread it out in a shallow dish.

Juice some fresh limes, then sweeten the juice to taste (superfine sugar works best, but you could try another sweetener). Each lime will yield an ounce or two of juice.

Fresh juice is a must for quality cocktails. If you don’t have a juicer, a stainless steel or glass reamer is a great purchase, and not too expensive.

Run a lime wedge around the rim of each glass, keeping the glass upside down so the juice doesn’t run down the sides, then dip the glass into the ginger sugar. If your crystallized ginger is too fresh, it might not stick. You can pour a little simple syrup into a shallow dish, and dip the glasses into that instead of using the lime wedges.

For each drink, combine a half ounce (about a tablespoon) of the sweetened lime juice with a 1/4 teaspoon of the ginger juice*. Use a measuring cup or a glass and mix together the total amount for all the drinks you’ll be making.

Pour a half ounce or so of the lime-ginger juice into each glass. Then SLOWLY pour in Prosecco to not quite fill the glass.

*Small champagne glasses from the mid-20th century, like the one pictured, are lovely. But they hold less volume than the more common flute shape. If you use flutes, you won’t need as much ginger sugar for the rims, but you’ll need more of the lime-ginger juice for each glass – about an ounce.

Featured in Bohemian hellhole magazine | Summer 2008