Scofflaw's Den

Here we go, oh noes!

If you read this regularly you know how the illustrious tmfiii feels about vodka.  In short, he keeps some for its usefulness as a preservative, and only rarely if ever uses it for anything else.  My old friend Bill used to say "all vodka SHOULD taste the same", given that it's a neutral spirit yadda yadda yadda.

This despite my exhortations that Marshall simply must make a bacon-infused kosher vodka.  Did you know Smirnoff is kosher?  I could've sworn I saw a kosher logo on the back!  Maybe it was a different brand.  Whatever.  There's a bottle at Ace that has a big kosher thing right on the front of the bottle and that could really go for a bacon infusion, or maybe a bacon and cheese infusion.  The bacon cheeseburger vodka would be wonderful!  Or maybe not.  And maybe I'm digressing...

I, on the other hand, think that there is SOME variety amongst vodkas, if not that much.  Aristocrat and Bowman's might've been okay back in college, but for drinks that require vodka I typically keep a bottle of Charodei around.  I like it both straight and mixed and only buy it when it's on sale at Virginia ABC.

The other vodkas I have are all flavored.  Vanilla Absolut for a drink I came up with last year, black cherry Smirnoff for replicating a drink I had at Clare & Don's, Absolut Kurrant that I bought simply for the bottle, horseradish-infused Fris for a recipe from Imbibe!.

I have tasted a difference in even the "super premium" ones, I believed.  There was a vodka tasting at a liquor store in DC we hit on our way between a trip to Bourbon and to a Young Republicans room party (don't ask).  I can't remember the exact brands but I definitely felt there was a slight difference between the two.

As part of the usual retinue of websites I review each day, I hit The Consumerist as I tried to distract myself from the drudgery of cube life in corporate America.  One of their lead articles is "All Vodka is Pretty Much the Same", linked from a BusinessWeek article.

The most important part of the article is the conclusion, after he's done his taste test with his friends and etc. etc.:

The goal of vodka distilling, according to the spirits executives and distillers I have spoken with over the years, is to come up with a spirit that is as pure and clear as possible. The taste notes of vodkas can be so slight and subtle, most often depending on the grain used, and the number of times the spirit is distilled, that they really only exist when drunk straight with purified ice, at room temperature, served straight up or frozen straight up.

Compare that to the notes on the tasting of Charodei from the link up above.

The thing about that quotation, to me, is that last part - "frozen straight up".  It was my understanding that the colder a drink is, the harder it is to taste the subtleties in it, which is why a lot of American megabrews want their beer so cold.  But I haven't really experimented with that.

Some of the other parts of the article rang true to me.  My mom always drinks Grey Goose, for instance, but I've used various other brands of vodka in its stead and she's never seemed to notice (or mind, but then again, she is my mom).

I'm going to throw it out to you, gentle readers:  What do you think of vodka?  How do you drink it, if at all?  What do you think of its position in drinks and mixology?  Do you really think there's enough of a difference between brands to matter?  If your goal in making drinks is to use the best, most appropriate ingredients possible, should you be going for the most neutral vodka possible, embrace the slight differences between them, or just say "you can't taste it past the other ingredients" and let it be?

Since my "other unpaid second job" is a video game reviewer for GamersInfo.net, I spend at least a bit of time each day perusing sites such as Kotaku. Today on there I saw this post listing out the drinks EA came out for the EA Games Spring Break 08.

I was even more amused to see this after instantly recognizing the reference to a video game in the punch drink from Monday night's dinner. Let's see what my initial looksie here has me feeling...

Battlefield: Bad Company: Herradura silver tequila, cointreau and fresh squeezed lime served on the rocks.

Battlefield: Bad Company got some bad press initially due to the fact that it was going to give an advantage to players who paid more by giving them better weapons.  The basic concept of the game is much like Kelly's Heroes, the classic Clint Eastwood movie where soldiers basically go AWOL to go after a cache of gold.  This game is set in the modern day as an FPS and seems a bit grimmer given the descriptions, so having what is basically a margarita without simple syrup seems like an appropriate choice - though not necessarily one I'd drink.

Battlefield: Heroes: Hendrick's gin, fresh rasberry, cucumber, shaken and strained, served up with a splash of kumquat dry soda.

Unlike the other Battlefield game, Battlefield: Heroes is a more cartoon-ish game, a third person multiplayer-only free to play online game set between two sides, the Royals and the Nationals, who are having a dispute over the Olympics.  It's more of a casual, have fun, almost kind of care-free killfest from what I've seen, and thus the combination of light, fruity tastes in the Hendricks and its companions in the drink sound quite refreshing.  I'd just be careful of having too many while playing, but outside (gasp!) in the summertime I'd be all over this drink like grenade spam from a newbie.

Left 4 Dead: Fresh muddled lime wedges, mango puree, cachaca, shaken and poured over rocks.

I'd say that the Left 4 Dead cocktail reminds me of the caipirinha, or the classic cocktail of Brazil, but honestly, that's probably just due to the cachaca, as this one has no mint in it.  Still, it's another fruity drink, this time named after a first person shooter slash survival horror game that emphasizes teamwork for the humans and 28 Days Later-esque "Infected" zombies on the other side, some with grotesque powers, others who will curbstomp you while you're down.  Like the zombies, I'd bet this drink would pound your head into the curb if you're not careful.  Cachaca can be dangerous stuff.

Warhammer Online: Oronoco rum, freshly squeezed lime, simple syrup and muddled cucumbers, shaken hard poured over ice.

Ya see, we get into a game I'm really, really looking forward to and from a company that's local here to me (EA Mythic, over in Fairfax, all of whom are nice guys and gals the times I've met them) and it has a drink that I'm a bit confused as to how it relates to the game.  Warhammer Online is the upcoming PvP-focused MMORPG based off the legendary Games Workshop IP.  It's grim but with a sense of British black humor (would that be humour?) to it, and given Mythic's experience with Dark Age of Camelot it should be a lot of fun - and it has been the times I've tried it.  Somehow, though, the background, to me, doesn't say "rum", with what almost ends up being kind of a tiki drink here.  I'm not saying it'd be bad, though I may have to leave this one for tmfiii to try out.

Dead Space: Maker's Mark, Carpano Antica sweet vermouth, Disaronno amaretto, served up with a cherry.

What happens if you rip a planet apart and there's something in there?  That's the basic premise of Dead Space, the space-horror game that keeps making me think of the ancient ICE title from the 1980s.  I'm still up in the air on this game from what I've seen - the big thing being the sci-fi background to it, it seems like they're going for a more hard sci-fi background but then you have a whole premise of mining entire planets by destroying them and a serious lack of natural resources which seems hard to justify (to me).  I will admit I haven't seen the whole background story yet but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt for now.  The drink, on the other hand, looks really good to me, a variant of the Manhattan with amaretto added.  We used to sometimes add amaretto to our bourbon and cokes in college, but I do have to admit that I'm wondering if they added bitters to this drink.  If not - for shame.

And it better not have been one of those fluorescent red "maraschino" cherries that any good reader of the Den would know isn't a true maraschino cherry.  Maybe that's the "horror" aspect of it if it was a fake cherry...

Rock Star: Drink like a rockstar, Skyy citrus, fresh lemon and lime, served sparkling in a tall glass.

If you haven't played Rock Star you're really missing out, it's a heck of a game.  Up to four players, with lead guitar, bass, drums, and a singer, it's a great party game.  I'm leaving this as quoted from the article because I'm really hoping that they didn't add that horrific "Rockstar" energy drink to the drink.  I'm not a huge Skyy fan, and I'm assuming that by sparkling they're adding club soda or seltzer water or something, but as a light drink this doesn't seem like it'd be overly bad unless you're an anti-vodka fanatic like Marshall.

Skate It: Jameson, fresh lemon, ginger beer, a touch of blood orange bitters and pomegranate.

I'm going to be honest here.  I'm not a skateboarding fan.  Sure, I have a long sleeved Tony Hawk t-shirt garnered from E3 one year, and I always seem to end up covering those games at E3 even though I don't like or really understand the appeal to them, but there you go.  So I know nothing about Skate It.  I don't know if Irish whiskey would really be "skater" but actually I like the idea of this drink a lot.  I'd have to think the Irish will be rather subtle when coupled with the ginger beer but this is another one that I might have to try to make sometime soon.

Mass Effect: Fresh basil, Lotus vodka and fresh lime juice served straight up.

Bioware's RPGs have always been a lot of fun and Mass Effect really sucked me in.  I've even read the novel twice and will probably buy the sequels.  At first glance, a combination of basil, Lotus vodka (I've never heard of Lotus vodka - but according to its website it has a "vitamin vodka" and an "energy (drink) vodka" though the article doesn't say which is used), and fresh lime juice seems a bit weird for the game, but the more I thought about it the more appropriate it seemed, especially for the more "biotic" characters.

So hey - at least one drink in here listed bitters.  I'm betting it was the Stirrings Blood Orange bitters.  If anyone out there got a chance to try one I'd love to hear how they are, and as I said, I might try to make one for myself.  I just wonder if EA would get mad if I drank an unauthorized one while playing GTA IV...

Marshall's gonna kick my ass; I begged off on something else (details if it works out) due to busy-ness here at work, and here I am now, posting TWO things in the Den!  I blame the fact that it suddenly got very quiet here...

...and that I'm probably going to leave in 17 minutes if I can.

I made jell-o shots for my kickball team.  Some of them have been reading the Den (hi guys!) and some of them asked for the recipe I used.  I'll post it right here, but I got it from WikiHow.  Just ignore all the spam in the article for the squeezable jell-o shot cups.

I used "Twist-n-Shot" cups.  They hold two ounces and you can twist them to get the shots out.  They're also re-usable, though not the one that somebody stepped on.  They're also a hell of a lot of fun (not) to clean, believe you me.

Here's what I used:
Boil 2 cups (16 oz.) of water
When it's boiling, pour into a mixing bowl with 6 oz (one big package) of orange Jell-o.
Mix until dissolved.
Add 6 oz. (3/4 cup) cold water and 10 oz. of orange Smirnoff.  (The last batch ran low on vodka; I used 7 oz. Smirnoff and 3 oz. Cointreau, and those were quite tasty).
Mix.
Pour into cups and chill.

Now that I've tried them, I've got three other things I want to do:

1. Find vegan gelatin.  We have at least one vegan on the team.
2. Make different flavors.  Orange is the official color of our team (DC Detention) so orange is the usual flavor, but next time I want to experiment.  One of our teammates is a huge margarita fan.  I'd love to try Sazerac ones, Gary Regan has a whiskey sour recipe (along with margarita) in The Joy of Mixology, and I've been threatening people with absinthe ones.
3. Black cherry ones, made as above - I've got most of a bottle of black cherry Smirnoff and one 3 oz package of black cherry jell-o thanks to various things.

Anybody else do any weird ones?

The New York Times today has an article about citrus vodka (link awareness thanks to Slashfood; they screwed up all the links in their post, however).

It's an interesting article about a citrus vodka tasting but I have to admit, I was disappointed that they didn't list all the vodkas that they tasted nor did they post the ratings for any but six of them (of the approximately 25 they tasted).  The article does feature quotes by some of our favorite mixologists, however, such as Audrey Sanders, Gary Regan, and David Wondrich.  (EDIT NOTE:  I originally misspoke and mentioned Eben Freeman, because I am dumb and misread the article.  The Eben mentioned is Eben Kremm.  Feel free to smack me in the head, either Eben!)

One of the top two they list there is the Hangar One Buddha's Hand which I might have to try out next time I buy a bottle of citrus vodka.  That being said...

Obviously, tmfiii has said often and loudly his disdain for vodka in general.  (He'd probably enjoy Gary Regan's quote about how when he goes for flavored vodka, he typically ends up with gin.)  I, on the other hand, tend to have a few different flavored vodkas around, mostly for specific drinks.

I keep Charodei for just "regular" vodka.  My mom prefers Grey Goose citrus vodka for her Cosmopolitans; I had bought a bottle of Ketel One Citroen for when she visited but that was stolen by some guys replacing our refrigerator.  When I had to make orange jell-o shots for kickball last night, I got a bottle of Smirnoff citrus vodka because, honestly, it was cheap.

(And making 60 shots, using a recipe I found on WikiHow, took 30 ounces of vodka - it seems a fifth only holds 27.  Damn.  I ended up finishing off the last batch with three ounces of Cointreau.)

(I'd also threatened to make absinthe and/or Sazerac jell-o shots.  I didn't, this time, because (again) honestly, this is my first time I've ever made jell-o shots.)

I've got a few other bottles lying around.  I have a bottle of Absolut Kurrant which I bought simply for the bottle itself to make a vase for some flowers for a girl I was going out with at the time.  It's now in another bottle and I have absolutely no idea what to make with it, except occasionally a Metropolitan.

I made a bottle of horseradish-infused Fris vodka thanks to a recipe in Imbibe!.  I haven't made a horseradish egg sour lately, but I often make Bloody Marys (in reality, I only "often" make them for mom) so hopefully that'll be slowly used up.

I've got a bottle of black cherry Smirnoff which I bought in my quest to replicate the recipe for a cherry lime rickey.

I don't think I have any other bottles but there might be another one hiding somewhere.  When I inventory my bar again (mental note: need to replace the Maker's Mark that my brother killed the other night) I'll have to check.  I have been very tempted to make my own bubble gum flavored vodka thanks to going to Tailor!

(That would probably lead to me dying.  I could see myself drinking a whole bottle of that in no time.  Or maybe it'd finally catch up with me.  I'd probably be better off giving it to some (over 21 year old) college girls.)

Personally, I feel that flavored vodka is another tool in the chest of the mixologist.  It shouldn't replace using natural flavors but in certain drinks a good flavored vodka can enhance the overall drink, and some people prefer the taste - or lack thereof - of vodka over more intricate and/or stronger liquors.

Any preferences from y'all?

Or is that rickey?

Anyways...at Clare and Don's Beach Shack last weekend I had this drink.  It was - as they made it there - black cherry Smirnoff vodka, Nellie & Joe's Famous Key Lime Juice, sours, Sprite, and grenadine.

Well, you know here in the Den we don't do "sours mix", and our grenadine tends to be the real stuff.  Still, I wanted to give this drink a shot - it was quite refreshing.

Here's what I have right now, and I can tell you - it needs a bit more Sprite to be as light as the one at Clare and Don's (I just added some Sprite, and yes, I was right) and it won't be as lively color of pink because I'm using rich simple syrup and not throwing in an artificial maraschino cherry, but it's still pretty darn good.

In a collins glass, over ice, build:
2 ounces Smirnoff Black Cherry vodka [1]
1 ounce lemon juice
1 ounce simple syrup
1 1/2 ounces key lime juice
1/2 ounce grenadine

Stir briskly for a minute or two.  (This could probably be shaken - they shook it, but the bartender used the glass she was pouring into to strain it out, and I'm feeling rather lazy - and low on ice.)

Top with Sprite.

Give it another stir or two.

Garnish, if you'd like, and drink.

If you have enough Sprite in there, it's a very light, beguiling drink.  IF you don't, it can get a bit sticky thick, but is still good.  I'd recommend, actually, probably halving the ingredient sizes I have here.  That might work well.

If you make it, or make a variant of it, let me know!

[1] - This is what they used at the bar, and in a moment of laziness (detect a trend?) I just went ahead and bought a bottle, especially as I could find nothing particularly "black cherry" to flavor vodka with at the store.  However, I would love to try this with black cherry infused light rum, homemade black cherry infused vodka, or maybe something else I haven't thought of yet...

But I'll be darned if I know where my USB cable is for my camera.  Thus, we'll stick with written descriptions.

Part one:  I was at the VA ABC store next to the Harris Teeter near my house today.  I was buying a bottle of dark rum (Gosling's) since I'd Twitter-ed some good tiki type drinks yesterday that used Myer's, but I'm not a huge Myer's fan.  I was also debating a bottle of Smirnoff Black Cherry vodka since I wanted to try to make a different drink they'd made at Clare & Don's.

On my way out the door there I noticed a bottle of Rittenhouse 21 year old rye.  I hemmed and hawed, I called tmfiii, I debated.  After my visit to the Harris Teeter, I bought it.

I'm very excited about it.  I'd try it tonight, but we hit part two...

Part two:  I've been promising for a while that I'd make a video for my friend Mike Strack about how to make a Long Island Iced Tea.


Thanks to my glorious skills at teh webcamz, here's the second part:


And that's what I'm drinking right now.

Mmmmm.  It ain't so bad, dudes.  If a bit strong.  Methinks I need more food...

I know, I know, this is a bit early.  I've got a good reason for that: you see, in all odds, I won't have time to work on this tomorrow, so I thought I'd go ahead and update with mine.  After all, it just has to be by Monday, correct?

I believe so, but correct me if I'm wrong.



(And a big thanks to jimmy's cocktail hour for hosting this month!  Woohoo, and stuff!)

As usual, I'm a person never to rely on just one drink.  So this time I have two: a variation of the Bronx and a variation of the Suffering Bastard.

Originally, I'd considered doing the Bronx and Satan's Whiskers, but those drinks are both very similar - notably in the latter's case by adding Cointreau or Grand Marnier.  There's also the Bronx and the Income Tax cocktail.  Basically, an Income Tax cocktail is a Bronx with bitters, but you'll often find that people just say "a Bronx with bitters" or even write up the recipe with bitters in it anyways.

Then there's the incredible number of variations of the Bronx already.  If you hit Robert Hess' website, he's got the Bronx as having 1 1/2 ounces of gin and 3/4 of an ounce each dry and sweet vermouth and orange juice.  His Income Tax cocktail, on the other hand, is 1 1/4 ounces gin, 3/4 ounce of orange juice, and 1/4 ounce of each vermouth, plus one dash of Angostura bitters.

Gary Regan's The Joy of Mixology has a recipe for each.  He says he increased the amount of vermouth in his Bronx cocktail, but it's still only 1/4 ounce each - plus 2 ounces gin, 1 ounce orange juice, and orange bitters to taste.  His Income Tax cocktail is exactly the same but is distinguished by using Angostura bitters.  Ted Haigh in Vintage Spirits & Forgotten Cocktails seems to agree with him, though his recipe - 1 1/2 ounces gin, 3/4 ounce each vermouth, the juice of 1/4 of an orange, and two dashes Angostura - makes the vermouth more prominent (something I tend to like).

But, in the end, I went with David Wondrich's recipe in Imbibe!, listed as "a la Billy Malloy, Pittsburgh, PA".

One-third [1 oz] Plymouth gin, one-third [1 oz] French vermouth and one-third [1 oz] Italian vermouth, flavored with two dashes of Orange bitters, about a barspoonful of orange juice and a squeeze of orange peel.  Serve very cold.

I went ahead and made one this style and I liked it a whole lot.  But this is "Variations" month, after all, so I needed to switch it up.  I thought long and hard about it, and then experimented changing one ingredient at a time.  The orange juice I used ended up being about 1/4 of an ounce.

The first thing I did was swap out the vermouths.  Instead of dry and sweet, I went with Lillet Blonde and Dubonnet Rouge.  I then changed up the bitters, using one dash of Fee's West Indian Orange bitters and one dash of Fee's Lemon bitters.  Instead of Plymouth I went with Hendrick's gin, and finally I also experimented with using freshly squeezed clementine juice instead of orange juice.

The latter was kind of "eh" so I left it; besides, as you might have seen, squeezing clementines was a huge pain in the butt.

This left me with my recipe, which I felt was very silky and would be good for a lot of people.  I named it after the color it ended up taking.  I can't wait until summertime, this will be really good when it's hot out.

Bronx Sunrise
1 ounce Hendricks gin
1 ounce Lillet blonde
1 ounce Dubonnet rouge
1/4 ounce fresh squeezed orange juice
1 dash Fee's orange bitters
1 dash Fee's lemon bitters
Mix and shake.  Garnish with an orange peel twist.



Look at the color the drink takes - it's much rosier.  I kind of like it.



One of my favorite hangover drinks is the Suffering Bastard.  That's a mix of gin, bourbon, lime juice and ginger beer, plus a dash of Angostura bitters.  It is good at making you feel better after a long night.

I had a long night, sort of, yesterday.  I got a chance to meet up with some of tmfiii's friends, including one friend of his who just got back from service in Iraq.  We hit a couple of my favorite places in the District, such as Shelly's Backroom and Bourbon.  Unfortunately, I think that i got hit with the unfortunate combination of "too much liquor too fast" and "not enough food", having only snacked on a plate of wings at Shelly's and some tater tots at Bourbon.  I basically had my switch flipped, as we tend to say, which means that I got pretty darn tired in no time, despite drinking a very pleasant Basil Hayden's and Coke Zero.  I wandered outside to the cab stand, cabbed it back to Virginia, and passed out on my living room floor.

D'oh!

I felt pretty much fine today but there's a problem with the usual Suffering Bastard.  It's very good, don't get me wrong, and I could drink 'em all day - but it lacks one thing I find vital.

Caffeine.

So I experimented.  Hey, that's the point of this month's MxMo, isn't it?

Let's call it the:
Wake Up and Suffer You Bastard
1 ounce vodka
1 ounce bourbon
1 teaspoon lime juice
1 ounce Stone's Original Ginger
1 dash Angostura bitters



Shake and pour into a collins glass over ice.  Top with Coca-Cola.

Thanks to the fact that we're using Coca-Cola, I swapped out the gin for vodka, as the gin didn't seem to work well with Coke.  You could up the amount of Stone's, if you wanted more ginger taste, and some people may want to decrease the amount of lime juice.



If you haven't seen the Stone's, it's basically an English ginger flavored currant wine.  I find it in the vermouth section; I picked up mine at Total Wine here in Virginia.

Anyways, hope you enjoy the drinks.  If you give them a shot, let me know!

I'm about to lose control and I think I like it!

No, waitaminute...nah, it's true.  Seriously.  I've got about 3 hours left in my work day, and then it's home - and I have tomorrow off for work for a trip up into the woods, wine tasting over the weekend, and then the Super Bowl.

On my trip to the woods I plan on taking my bottle of horseradish-infused vodka with me and offering to make bloody mary drinks.  Whether or not I take anything else I haven't decided, but I probably will bring at least some whiskey or something.  A good, easy to make cocktail is key in times like this.  Heck, depending on packing constraints I could throw the bison grass vodka in there - we pick up some apple juice and the ladies (oh, who am I kidding?  David too.)  will be ready to go!

One day we'll probably hit Rappahannock Cellars.  I've been to that winery once before but it should be a good time.  There's a few other decent wineries in the area, too.

Super Bowl day is Sunday, and despite the myriad cocktail opportunities pointed out in Slashfood today, I'll probably stick with beer.  But I did want to look at what they have.  And I have to bring something with me, and I'm thinking Muldoon's whiskey-marinated chicken wings with barbecue sauce from the LA Times - I'll talk about that recipe after the cocktails.

Slashfood's link was actually over to Cocktail.com.  There they had a page about American football cocktails written back in 2004.  To be honest, most of these appear to be more shooters and less of the traditional cocktails that we here in the Scofflaw's Den tend to prefer, but hey, whatever floats your boat.

The Blitz for instance is 1 ounce each of tequila, rum, gin, vodka, cranberry juice, and sours mix, shaken, poured into four shot glasses, topped with tonic, and then shot (done tequila style with a lick of sugar, shot, suck on a lime).  Almost like a variant of a long island iced tea made for shooting.  I'm not certain how this drink relates to football other than the name and perhaps the desire for some people to get tanked while watching/tailgating for football.

The False Start, surprisingly enough submitted by a Raiders fan, has four ounces of apple cider, two ounces of bourbon, and one ounce of apple brandy plus half a lemon, shaken, and makes two four ounce cocktails.  I could see myself trying this one, though I probably wouldn't make two out of it.  The apple and the bourbon, to me, says FOOTBALL.  Apples are all about the fall.

In a kind of random drink in my opinion, the First and Ten has a ton of different juices and just a bit of gin, plus a float of dark rum.  You start with three ounces of gin, then add two ounces each of orange, pineapple, grapefruit, cranberry, lemon, and lime juices.  Yikes!  You shake it, strain it into two Collins glasses filled with ice, and top with a dash of grenadine, a splash of soda water or seltzer, and float some dark rum on top.  Again, I don't see how this one gets it's name or what it brings to football - maybe it looks kind of brownish by the end.

The Fumble is yet another gin drink.  Two ounces each of gin and vodka, plus two ounces each grapefruit and cranberry juices, shaken and strained into two rocks glasses packed with crushed ice, then topped with soda water or seltzer.  I'd prefer, personally, to go with all gin in something like this, and I kind of wonder what Fee's Brothers' Grapefruit bitters would do to the drink (either in conjunction or in replacement of the grapefruit juice).  Again, I'm not seeing the football connection.

The Incomplete Pass is two ounces of bourbon, one ounce of pineapple juice, shaken and done as two shots.  I guess a pineapple and a football have some similarities (see that hysterical commercial they play every year) but unless you're doing one for every incomplete pass, it seems kind of like a wimpy shooter.

The Interception is clearly one you intercept someone's actually-alcoholic drink with (if, say, they've had too much already).  You rub the inside of a glass with a lime wedge, put in two ounces of tonic and a splash of pineapple juice.  I guess the Browns fan who submitted it was confused as to the whole business of "alcohol" in a drink.

The Punt is the kind of drink you'd expect for someone looking to get hammered.  2 ounces tequila, two ounces vodka, two teaspoons of sugar, 1 lemon - you shake the lemon juice and sugar, stir in the vodka and tequila, and strain into two sugar-rimmed shot glasses.  The shooters should sit up straight and try to drop a lemon hard candy into the drink from their mouth before shooting.  I could see this being done in bars to celebrate a touchdown or something.

Now, the Quarterback Sack is a drink I think that might have some potential - kind of a psuedo-Bloody Mary.  It's two ounces of vodka, two ounces of gin, four ounces of Bloody Mary mix, an ounce of triple sec, all shaken up and topped with tonic water.  The recipe says it serves four shots, but I could see doing that as one or two slightly bigger morning drinks.  (In other words, the kind of drink we'd do at an 8 AM meet-up to go tailgating before a 'Skins game.)

Next we have the Time Out.  This is three ounces of Jaegermeister and one ounce of anisette, turned into - something.  The recipe says shake with cracked ice and strain into two sugar rimmed martini glasses.  I have no idea what this would turn out like, as I have a hard time imagining the taste of the anisette.  Maybe tmfiii can help me.  Though he'd probably tell me to use Pernod and laugh at me as I sputter while drinking it.  He's a mean one.

Like the False Start, the Touch Down is one I can see myself drinking and reminds me of football season.  You mix four ounces of bourbon with eight ounces of unsweetened ice tea, strain into hurricane glasses with ice, and top with eight ounces of lemonade.  It's like a bourbon and "Arnold Palmer" I guess.  The reason why I associate bourbon with football is my glorious alma mater, the University of Virginia, and our tradition of bourbon and Coke for football games.  I've also always enjoyed Lynchburg Lemonades, often cheaply made with Evan Williams green label and lemonade, so I could see this working, too, for those luscious fall days.

Finally, there's the Two-Point Conversion.  Now HERE is a weird one for football season!  You start with four ounces each dark and white rum, three ounces cranberry juice, six ounces of sours mix and blend it.  In a second blender you mix pina colada mix with ice.  Then in two glasses you alternate with the layers and serve with a straw, an orange wheel, and a cherry.

First off, how many tailgaters or anyone else watching football have two blenders?  And this is like, maybe, a beach drink or something.  It doesn't seem like a very manly man drink, even with four ounces of rum in each.  I do believe this recipe entitles you, as a football fan (be it any kind of football around the world) to make fun of Kansas City Chiefs fans.

They have any problem with it, you tell them to talk to ME, Marshall aka tmfiii, full contact information available upon request.

(Just kidding!  I live near enough heavily armed large people to not have a problem making fun of others.)

Whew.  This post went a lot longer than I expected - guess I gotta get to the wings in another post!

My neighbor and his brother came over tonight.  My neighbor was sick.  I'd been reading Imbibe! the other day, so I made him a cherry smash:

Cherry Smash
by Julie Reiner via Imbibe! by David Wondrich

1 1/2 ounces Courvosier VS cognac (I used the Castarede XO armagnac)
3/4 ounce orange curacao (Cointreau)
3/4 ounce lemon juice
1/2 ounce cherry heering
Muddle four brandy soaked cherries in the bottom of a mixing glass.  Add the other ingredients and shake.  Strain into a cocktail glass and add two more cherries.

He liked it a lot; the big thing was that it was a bit strong in normal for what he usually drinks (as a note: he showed up drinking Jameson's in a glass filled with ice - so it's not a completely weenie drink that he's looking for).

I didn't try it, because he was sick, but I'm thinking of making one for myself.

I made myself a Rochester Cocktail, from Robert "Drinkboy" Hess in Imbibe!.

Rochester Cocktail
2 ounces rye whiskey  (I polished my old bottle of Sazerac rye.)
1 ounce Dubonnet (rouge, I assumed)
1/2 ounce Licor 43 (Cuarenta y Tres)
1/4 ounce absinthe (Pernod)
Stir, up, garnish with a lemon twist

I still suck at doing lemon twists but goshdarnit, I'm sure I can figure it out at some point.  Still, this was a good lush drink.

After he finished his cherry smash, I made my neighbor a Winter's Touch:

Winter's Touch
2 ounces bourbon (Maker's Mark)
3/4 ounce vanilla vodka (Absolut Vanil)
1/2 ounce rich simple syrup (I put in 3/4 oz.)
2 dashes mint bitters
Shake, strain into a cocktail glass

I figured it'd be too much for him but he liked it - it was just strong.

But that led to me wondering: for someone not used to cocktails the way WE like cocktails, how do you inch them into cocktails that may be a lot stronger than what they're used to?  I know I've made ones for other neighbors and my brother that they've liked - but they always comment on how strong they are.

Any thoughts?

I have, what I call, a resilient tongue.  I can drink a lot, I admit, and by the end, I don't taste a lot of what I'm drinking, but I still do taste it.  Conversely, when drinking a lot of stuff, I can still analyze what I'm drinking fairly accurately - for me.

The other problem is that I'm not that accurate of a taste tester.  I can taste, well, what I think I taste...but a lot of the subtleties are lost on me.  When a drink is great versus just good I can notice it (see: cocktail a la louisiane) but at other times, well - crap.

What's good about that?  Well, I can drink a good bit - but I like to try lots of things.  So we'll see what you think about what I think about what I had.

Apple Sidecar
1 1/2 oz. vodka
1/2 oz. Clear Creek Apple Brandy
1 oz. lemon juice
1 oz. simple syrup
1/2 oz. tangerine juice



Shake and strain into a sugar-rimmed cocktail glass.  Garnish with shredded tangerine zest.



The zest kind of fell apart there.  But yeah, it was delicious.  Awesome, in fact.  Sweet, a bit tart, with some bite to it.  A pretty good apertif to my pizza.

Then I had a Digiorno frozen pizza with some beer.



Yay, beer.  (Sam Adams Boston Ale)

So let's experiment.  Earlier today, the Washington Post had an article about bartenders, and one of the questions they asked them was "What would you suggest for someone who didn't know what they wanted?"  One bartender suggested Zubrowka buffalo grass vodka (a Polish vodka I first bought back in 2000 for dan_oz's wedding) and apple juice - he says it comes out coconut-ty.



I made a promise to tmfiii that I'm only buying flavored vodka; I keep my unflavored to Charodei.



A nice light drink - I made it off a recipe I thought of, since they didn't post one.

Zubrowka and apple juice (yes, a great freakin' name, screw you)
2 oz. Zubrowka bison grass vodka
4 oz. apple juice

Stir and strain.

Well, that was nice, a good change of pace from beer and pizza, sort of a dessert.  It's time to change to something I've wanted to try since I saw it in The Joy of Mixology,  You've got black and tans, you've got shandys, this is a Pernod & Cider.

Pernod & Cider
2 oz. Pernod
12 oz. cider



Yeah.

So.

Uh.

Not so great.



It tasted like, uh, bubbly Pernod.  It got better as it went on, but I was eating vegetarian buffalo wings with Peppadew mustard sauce with them while drinking it.  It made it better.

But what next?

I debated for a while, and then decided:

Sidecar
1 1/2 ounce cognac
1 ounce triple sec
1/2 ounce lemon juice
1 lemon twist

Hey, I can compare it to the Apple Sidecar, and my plan had been to make one with the Remy Martin cognac I bought tonight, and one with the Hennessey cognac mini I'd bought earlier this month.



Unfortunately, I forgot the lemon twist.  It was a bit more balanced, maybe, than the apple sidecar, and had a nice warmth to it.  I liked it a lot.

BUT WHO STOPS THERE?!

WHAT DOES THIS MAKE?  YOU CANNOT GUESS!



Brighton Punch
1 1/4 ounce orange juice
1 ounce lemon juice
3/4 ounce bourbon
3/4 ounce Benedictine
3/4 ounce cognac
fill with ice, top with club soda, garnish with wedges of lemon and orange

I added a straw/spoon.



It's pretty interesting as a drink.  As a punch, it's a sipping drink and it can last a while.  It's good and fruity for sipping.

Well, that done me well, but I still had one cocktail glass in the freezer, so it was time for one more before switching back to beer.



Ignore the stuff in the background; this is 2 ounces brandy, 1/2 ounce Chambord (creme de cassis can also work), 1 ounce Lillet blonde, 2 dashes orange bitters, 1 lemon twist.

Since I got the recipe from Gary Regan's book, I used his bitters (Regan's Orange Bitters #6).



Eh.  It tasted like a "grown up" drink to me, I'd almost say cough syrup-ish, but not as harsh or tart, something that keeps your eyes open.

Oh well.

Back to beer.



I love me some beer!

Well, time for me to go to bed - gotta hit Schneider's tomorrow with tmfiii for shopping.  See y'all later.

If you remember my post from yesterday I was preparing a bottle of Fris vodka as horseradish vodka as per Imbibe!'s recipe for a Horseradish Egg Sour courtesy Ryan Magarian (mixologist at large).

I remembered to drain that bottle back into the Fris bottle.  I didn't have a cheesecloth but didn't have a problem keeping the large pieces out; it is a bit cloudy, and does definitely smell like horseradish!



I could've waited to try the drink, but hey, I can sleep in tomorrow (doctor's appointment for the win!) and what the heck.

As per the book:

Horseradish Egg Sour
1 1/2 oz. horseradish infused vodka
1/4 oz. Noilly Prat sweet vermouth
3/4 oz. fresh lemon juice
1/2 oz. simple syrup
1/2 oz. fresh orange juice
1 dash Angostura bitters
1 white of an organic brown egg



Unfortunately, my oranges don't fit in my new juice squeezer, so I went with the Simply Orange.  To be honest, it's good enough, in my opinion.

Following the instructions, I poured the ingredients into a mixing pint glass, added ice, and shook.  They suggested shaking for 10 seconds; knowing that there's egg in there, I went ahead and did it for a while longer.  Then pour, and carefully garnish with a flamed orange peel.



Yes, I did burn my finger, but it worked otherwise.  As you may be able to see (the garnish was falling in!) I used my channel knife to peel off a piece of the skin; I'd considered using a larger piece via a paring knife but figured I'd leave that for a future endeavour.

With a caveat that, yes, you must like horseradish for this drink, ladies and gentlemen, I say to you: DAMN this drink is good!

It's pretty much all horseradish, at least, in these proportions, but the other ingredients even it out, give it a bit of a sour edge, yet leave you with an aftertaste of the horseradish in the mouth.  It's creamy, smooth, and hot.

Oh yeah baby.  Screw the bloody marys with this vodka, I'll make these!

I'd make another one tonight but oh well, the roomies went to sleep.  I'll just clean my crap up and leave it for another day.

So, PX last night kicked mucho ass.  We spent 5 hours there, getting there at 9 PM (despite our 9:45 reservation) and closing it out.  I can't get over how great it was, and how much fun we had.  I believe tmfiii will have more on it...I might do a Four Letter Gourmand or something on it, too.

Inspired today, out I went.  I hit the liquor store and picked up some Maccu Pisco (actually, had to go to a second one for that since it somehow got left off my order), some Calvados, Bols Sloe Gin, and some other stuff.  Then it was to Total Wine where I got Cinzano sweet vermouth, Dubonnet red, and some other stuff.  Then off to tmfiii's house to give him his Christmas present (what's left of it) and to get mine.

Hey, I'm an intoxocologist!



My first boston shaker, plus a lemon/lime squeezer and some other things.

So while Cathy made cupcakes...

i did a couple of things.

I finished reading Imbibe! the other day, so I decided to make some horseradish infused vodka.



I used the vodka that was suggested but man, slicing up horseradish is a pain in the ass if you haven't done it before.



Now we let that sit for a "turn of the Earth" or so in a dark place.  Such as my closet.

Whew!  Hard work.  I need a drink!



A Pisco sour?  Don't mind if I do!  They were good last night!



Mmmmmm, tasty.  Yes, I drank both of them, Cathy didn't want one.

Pisco Sour
2 ounces Pisco
1 ounce lime juice
1/4 ounce simple syrup
1/2 egg white
1 dash Angostura (as a garnish)

I, of course, made two thanks to the egg white.

But I need something else.



Hey, it's a chance to use two of my new things - an Ante!

Ante
1 1/4 ounce Calvados
1/2 ounce Dubonnet
1/4 ounce Cointreau
1 dash Angostura



Interesting drink.  It still tastes strongly of Calvados, but it's metered by the Cointreau and Dubonnet.  I like it!

Now it's off to Thai food, which means a Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA.  If I make more drinks later, I'll maybe post more...

I haven't had a cigar in ages.  One of my joys at night is to sit outside of my condo, using one of the nifty folding chairs I got from Harris Teeter with a table on the side, smoking a cigar, sipping a drink of some sort, and reading a book by the light of the street lights and house light.  That might sound dark but it's actually rather well lit outside.

Unfortunately, one of the chairs broke at the party last weekend and both are still over at that house, the house light is out, and it's been crappy weather.

Last night was milder than I expected and I was bored, so I said, you know what, I'm going to figure out a way to do this.  I grabbed the two metal folding bistro chairs we have in our kitchen to hold my "ash tray" (a plastic bowl of water) and drinks, grabbed my copy of Imbibe!, poured myself a couple of drinks, and grabbed a cigar I haven't tried before.

The cigar was a Rocky Patel Edge.  I picked it up for a good price at Georgetown Tobacco over at Tyson's Corner Center.  I was actually impressed with all their prices; it'd been a while since I'd been there, but it was remarkably cheaper than the Total Tobacco near my office in Rosslyn and seemed cheaper than Old Virginia over in 7 Corners.

The cigar was lighter than the RP Vintage 1990s that I'd smoked a lot of in recent times but was still an enjoyable smoke.  As I typically do in situations like this, I did smoke it a bit fast, so it was a little hot by the end, but I greatly enjoyed it.

To go along with it I made two drinks: first, a Pimm's and Sprite Zero - a combination that worked REALLY well, I thought, and another notch in my continuing quest to figure out which diet lemon-lime soda goes best with Pimm's (I also have some Sierra Mist Free) - as well as a double sized Winter's Touch.  Instead of shaking it, which I had an aversion to doing last night for some bizarre reason, I made it in the glass with plenty of ice and stirred it.  It came out well, especially after I let the ice melt a bit and dilute it down.  I probably could've added a bit more simple syrup, too.

But that definitely hit the spot last night.  I hadn't done that in a long time.  Imbibe! is a great read, too - I haven't finished it yet, but once I do I'll make sure to do a Runo Knows... on it.

I made several of these this weekend.  I started with the basic formula that I posted before:

2 oz. bourbon
3/4 oz. vanilla vodka
1/2 oz. rich simple syrup
2 dashes mint bitters

Things I discovered:

Applejack, or in my case, 100 proof Captain Applejack Apple Brandy, can replace the whiskey.

The vodka and syrup can really be to taste; I was free pouring a couple of them and they still came out pretty tasty.  The trick was to make sure to have some ice in the glass to cut the burn (since I wasn't actually mixing).

The bitters can be cut back nicely to just one dash.

Later this week I may experiment with this using Dr. McGillicuddy's Vanilla Liqueur.

I've reviewed The Complete Book of Spirits over on my personal blog, if you're so interested in such things.

I hit the liquor store today, basically for random reasons.  I picked up a bottle of Benedictine, despite the fact that it's about $6 more in Virginia than it would be in DC (but I won't have to hour Metro both ways to get it).  I also got a bottle of Pimm's No. 1, since I tried that over at the Elephant and Castle this weekend and really enjoyed it.

(Currently I'm drinking a Pimm's No. 1 and diet 7-Up.  It's good, but I don't think diet 7-Up does it justice.  Stupid diet!  I might make one more with more Pimm's and less 7-Up.)

I also got a bottle of Kopper Kettle Virginia bourbon, distilled in nearby Culpepper, VA, at Belmont Farms (the distillery you see signs for on route 29 in that region if you're so inclined - I keep meaning to stop by there).  I've had their Copper Fox before, and it wasn't bad, so I figured I'd give it a shot (and that's Yet Another Bourbon so that Mr. Macbeth can stop giving me a hard time about not having much bourbon!).

Finally, I forgot to list one bottle last time - in our freezer we have a bottle of Ketel One Citroen, untouched since the last time mom was in town and we made Cosmopolitans (which also made my brother sick somehow, he claims), but it had a good review on the book - so hey, next time I need citrus vodka, I guess...

Slashfood posted a "Red Hot Santa Tini" which sounds good to me...cayenne plus cocoa?  Yummy.  It has Mazama vodka - never heard of that, myself - and Godiva chocolate liqueur plus some other stuff.

MSN (the default site in my web browser at work) had a story about five cocktails ripe for a comeback.  The first was the Bronx, which I definitely agree with - you can look through here to see my article on the Income Tax Cocktail, which is the Bronx plus bitters.  Their recipe for the Rob Roy seems to be missing a word or two, and also insinuates that the only orange bitters you can get are from Angostura.  That's odd since I have orange bitters from Fee Brothers, Regan, and Stirrings, but not Angostura...

But hey - one of the writers is a UVA alum, so I have to plug it, I think!

And you're on a cleaning rampage like I was, you think, hey, let's catalogue ye olde bar.



I even zoomed in a bit, but you don't need all THOSE pictures. 
While I was at it, I took the time to write down what I have.  Stars via The Complete Book of Spirits by Anthony Dias Blue, but given that I don't always agree with him (or think that the liquor has changed since he wrote the book).

Gins
Tanqueray 10                              ****
Tanqueray Rangpur                   ***
Bombay                                         ***
Bombay Sapphire                        **
Hendricks                                     ***
Plymouth                                       ***

Vodka
Stolichnaya Vanil                          **
Absolut Vanilla                             ***
Charodai                                       ***
Absolut Kurrant                            ***

Bourbon
Evan Williams Green Label      **
Buffalo Trace                                *
Maker's Mark                                ***

Other whiskeys and whiskys
Glenfiddich 12 year old             **
Redbreast Irish Whiskey          **
Bushmills 10 year old               ***
Canadian Club                           **
Sazarec Rye                                ***            

Rum
Dogfish Head Wit Spiced Rum            not listed
Dogfish Head Honey Brown Rum       not listed
Bacardi Superior Blanca                       **
Marti Licor de Rum Mojito rum             **
Foursquare spiced rum                        **

Tequila
Jose Cuervo Tradicional                   ***

Schnapps
DeKuyper Peppermint Schnapps            not listed
Arrow Peppermint Schapps                      not listed
Arrow Original Raspberry Schnapps       not listed
DeKuyper Peachtree Schnapps               *
Goldschlager                                                not listed

Brandy
E&J VSOP                                          **
Arrow Coffee Flavored Brandy       not listed

Liqueurs
Original Stock Maraschino                     not listed
Wild Turkey Honey Liqueur                    not listed
Irish Mist                                                     **
Dr. McGillicuddy's Vanilla Liqueur         **

Stuff I don't feel like or know how to categorize
Noilly Prat dry vermouth
Noilly Prat sweet vermouth
Lillet blanc                              not listed
St. Germain                            not listed
Hiram Walker Creme de Cassis      not listed
Leroux Triple Sec                  not listed
Cointreau                                 ***
Grand Marnier                         ***
Bols Blue Curacao                not listed
Arrow Creme de Cacao        not listed
Arrow Creme de Menthe      not listed
Copa de Ora Licor de Cafe coffee liqueur     not listed
Cuarenta y Tres                       ***
Amaretto di Amore                   **
Chambord                                 ***
Stirrings Grenadine
Fee Brothers Orange Flower Water
Laird's Applejack                    not listed

Bitters
Pernod                                       ***
Zalios Devynerios 999           not listed
Fee Brothers Original Aromatic Bitters
Fee Brothers West Indian Orange Bitters
Fee Brothers Mint Bitters
Fee Brothers Whiskey Barrel Aged Bitters
Regan's Orange Bitters No. 6
Angostura Aromatic Bitters
Peychaud's Aromatic Bitters
Stirrings Blood Orange Bitters

Things I still want to get
Campari
better selection of tequila, vodka (non-flavored), bourbon, scotch, brandy, dark rum
Benedictine
Chartreause
Aquavit
different vermouths

Even the Washington Post is getting into winter drinks right about now.  I've had a winter drink on my mind for a while now.

I knew from the get-go what I wanted to combine - bourbon and vanilla.  A lot of bourbons have a vanilla taste to them, and bourbon is one of my favorite liquors.  I also have found as I got older that I truly appreciate the flavor of vanilla more and more, so I wanted something to accent the two of them together.

At first I tried putting them together using vanilla extract and orange flavor.  The orange took over and gave the drink a taste more appropriate for an Orange Julius, perhaps, and definitely something more familiar to summertime than a cold Virginia winter.  I wanted something that would be refreshing, yet warm you up on the inside.  That didn't mean the drink itself needed to be hot, however.

I took out the orange, and later, the vanilla extract when I realized it was giving an unpleasant alcohol tang to the drink.

I wanted to wait to post the drink until around the weekend, but with the WaPo's article today, I couldn't resist.  I just had to come up with the final bit: the name.  You see, names are my weakness - I have a hard time coming up with titles for my stories, names for characters, etc.

But I've gotten one.  And I don't care if you like it or not, I like it, and I like me!

The Winter's Kiss
2 ounces bourbon
3/4 ounce vanilla vodka
1/2 ounce rich simple syrup
2 dashes Fee's Mint Bitters

Shake in a cocktail shaker and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

Alternatively, depending on the type of bourbon you're using, you can make a variant of this.  For The Winter's Kiss I was using Maker's Mark.  For the following drink, I'd suggest something a bit stronger - Buffalo Trace, perhaps (90 proof), or another stronger tasting whiskey.

The Winter's Flip
2 1/2 ounces bourbon
1/2 ounce vanilla schnapps
1/2 ounce rich simple syrup
3 dashes Fee's Mint Bitters
one egg white

Shake in a cocktail shaker and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

The latter hasn't been experimented with as much; if I muck around with it a bit more this week/weekend, I'll let you know - but if you try it first, please, let me know!

If you're the type that needs to garnish a drink with something, I'd suggest a twist of orange.  A mint leaf or a single vanilla bean might work, too, though I'd be careful with the latter that it doesn't overwhelm the taste of bourbon.

So I'm perusing Northern Virginia magazine while buying cat treats (don't ask) and I see in their "(Relish)" (yes, it's in parenthesis) section a "cocktail corner" by Natalie Bovis-Nelsen aka The Liquid Muse.

Hey that URL sounds familiar...oh yeah.  It's in my bookmarks.

She's got two recipes in there from the "resident mixologist" for Bombay Sapphire.  Since I was thinking of picking up a bottle of that (mostly for martinis) soon, I went ahead and picked up the magazine (well, for that, and for the article on take-out).

Here are the recipes.

White Sapphire Ginger Martini
1 ounce Bombay Sapphire
Slither of fresh ginger
8 white grapes
1/2 ounce fresh apple juice

Muddle ginger and grapes at the bottom of a cocktail shaker.  Add remaining ingredients, then shake with lots of ice.  Strain into a chilled martini glass.

I'm not certain if I see the point of this one.  You'll get...sort of grape-ginger-apple flavor?  I'm guessing that the Bombay Sapphire is going to be fairly overwhelmed by everything else, especially the grapes, though you might get a hint of flavor/burn.  And by shaking, it's going to be all cloudy, as the attached picture shows in the magazine, but I guess with 8 muddled grapes it's going to look worse if it was stirred.

The suggestion is for it to go with rich, meaty crab cakes.

Sapphire Bubbles
1 1/4 ounce Bombay Sapphire gin
1 teaspoon fine sugar
1/2 ounce lemon juice
2 ounces dry champagne
1/2 ounce mandarin liqueur

Mix lemon juice and fine sugar into stirring glass then fill with ice.  Add gin and mandarin liqueur.  Shake and strain into chilled champagne flute.  Top with champagne.

Again with the shaking!  On his site, Robert Hess often complains about the grittiness that one can get from using sugar in a drink versus simpnle syrup.  You may need to shake to get the sugar fully dissolved, but I'd rather stir (maybe) with simple syrup.  On the other hand, maybe the bubbles in the champagne would cover up the sugar's grittiness.

This is one I could see myself making for Cathy - though it may be too strong for her.

I haven't had any experience with Mandarin liqueur.  Any suggestions on a brand out there?

There's also a review of a vodka that's trying to be a gin called Sonnema VodkaHERB.  I'm kind of wondering the point...

I went to the UVA event at Johnny's Half-Shell and they had a drink there that was called the "Electric Cavalier".

The Electric Cavalier (portions estimated)
1 1/2 ounces vodka
1/2 ounce blue curacao
4 ounces lemonade
garnish with an orange slice

It's a bit fruity for me, but tasty.  No pictures of it, of course.

We're watching football right now, so it was time for a UVA tradition that I haven't had in ages - the bourbon and coke.

This time it's about 3 ounces of Evan Williams green label - my favorite for this drink - and filled the rest of the pint glass with Coke Zero.  For some reason Diet Coke seems more appropriate many times, but hey, this works too.

Mmmm, bourbon and coke and football.  Yay.

Bad drink of the weekend

After the DCHoos alumni event last night a group of us went to the Dubliner right nearby.  The first drink I got was bought for me by Roy - a "Black and Blue", supposed to be Guinness and Blue Moon.  They didn't have Blue Moon Belgian White, so they used a Leinenkugel's variation.

Not good.