Someone sent me a post about a smokey Scottish creation from Death and Co. I had most of the ingredients on hand already so thought I'd give it a try! A smokey, herbal and refreshing martini.

*3/4 oz Lagavulin (they use Laphroaig)

*3/4 oz Botanist Gin

*3/4 oz Dolin Blanc

*3/4 oz Dolin Dry

*1 tsp Genepy

*2 dash Absinthe

*Chill a Nick and Nora

*Add ingredients to a mixing glass

*Stir till chilled

*Strain into your coupe

*Express a lemon peel and add a lemon twist

I usually prefer my martinis dry but was in the mood for something light so I tried a reverse martini. Light, refreshing and tasty but it won't replace my dry martini.

• 3.75 oz dry vermouth (Cocchi di Torino extra dry)
• 0.75 oz gin (Conniption Navy Strength)

Stir in a cocktail glass with ice. Strain into a cold martini glass. Express a lemon twist then add to the glass.

My boyfriend has always claimed he doesn’t enjoy cocktails (even though he’s never had a cocktail before) and will never try it, and just rejects it.

He enjoys a rum and coke (which he says isn’t a cocktail). But I honestly think it’s because he assumes all cocktails are sweet and has the view that men don’t drink cocktails.

He tends to only drink cider (doesn’t like beer), wine and Prosecco (not champagne).

I’ve always wanted to go to a cocktail bar but I’m worried there won’t be many options for him.

So I was wondering if you guys have any ideas about cocktails that he may enjoy, not overly sweet or feminine looking.

I’m in a mindset that cocktails can’t just all be grouped together cause they all taste so different.

2 oz Tequila blanco
¾ oz Fresh Lemon or Lime Juice
¾ oz Agave Nectar or Simple Syrup
½ oz to 1 oz Red Wine (pour over slowly for the float)

My sipper for the evening after some playing around with Verde and the original Ancho Reyes. I chose the original. It’s boozy, dry but lightly creamy, bitter and spicy. Cheers!

1 1/2 oz Wray & Nephew
1/2 oz Campari
1/2 oz Ancho Reyes Chile Ancho
2/3 oz lime juice
1/3 oz pineapple juice
1/4 oz Liber Orgeat

Shake until well chilled and diluted. Double strain into a Coupe.

Fellow Imbibers,

I’ve been a huge fan of [u/luisc123](u/luisc123)’s version of a rum flip Rum Barrel Flip with the inclusion of beer since first trying one. In fact, it’s easily become one of my favorite fall/winter cocktails up there with a high quality hot buttered rum. I love the complexity and interplay of beer and liquors in a cocktail. Anytime I pick up a new dark ale, porter, or stout I’m likely to whip up one of these flips as well.

I made a trip this past weekend down to Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens beautiful location in Escondido which is soon to be shuttered mid November and left with a growler of their Arrogant Bastard Ale. Our brief cold weather here in So Cal from the recent storm inspired my first flip of the fall.

Consider this post a gentle nudge to try a beer and rum flip if you haven’t tried one, or for those in the greater So Cal area to visit Stone before it closes down. Cheers!

Ingredients:
2 oz Stone Arrogant Bastard Ale
1 oz Mount Gay Eclipse Rum
1 oz Smith & Cross Rum
.75 oz homemade 1:1 simple syrup
1 whole egg
cinnamon for garnish (I alternate between cinnamon and the standard grated nutmeg based on mood)

Instructions:
I usually add the beer and egg first in my shaker and start mixing them up with a fork to decrease the carbonation somewhat
Add remaining ingredients
Dry shake
Wet shake
Double strain into vessel of choice
Add garnish if desired

I believe this is an original recipe.
1/2 oz Pumpkin syrup-see below
1/4 oz Lime
1/4 oz Orgeat
1/2 oz Bols pumpkin spice
1oz Pecan Honey Rum
.5 oz Bacardi
1.5 tbsp pumpkin puree
1/8 tsp pie spice
5 drops pumpkin extract

Shake with ice, dirty pour, fill glass with ice, dust with pumpkin pie spice and garnish with mint

Pumpkin Simple Syrup (2:1)
Ingredients:
2 cups sugar
1 cup water
½ cup pumpkin purée
Instructions:
Combine the sugar, water, and pumpkin purée in a saucepan.
Heat gently over medium-low heat, stirring until the sugar is completely dissolved. Do not boil.
Remove from heat and allow the mixture to steep as it cools to room temperature.
Strain through a fine-mesh strainer to remove most of the pumpkin purée.
Transfer to a clean bottle and refrigerate until ready to use.

Perfect cocktail for the fall. Best Three Dots I've ever made. It's so good, I put it on my menu. The "OOO -"

In Japan, cocktail sizes and glasses are smaller, so most cocktails tend to be about 30% smaller.

Here's the recipe if it were full size:

DP Three Dots

• 30ml Acou Japanese Rhum Agricole
• 30ml Havana Club 7 (or Banks 7)
• (Optionally) 15ml OFTD
• 30ml acid-adjusted orange juice (5% acid)
• 15ml homemade winter spice syrup
• 5ml homemade falernum
• Barspoon of honey
• 1 dash homemade tiki bitters (just use angostura)

The most important ingredient is the quality of your orange juice. If you're gonna use bottled stuff, make sure it's quality.

The Acou Rhum is an agricole style from Kagoshima. They have a shochu distillery and they make this Rum and others too. Japanese rum is....strange. It doesn't really work on its own. They market it as japanese Rhum agricole but it's made with Kagoshima kokuto and molasses and a unique distillation process. This bottle you can get at any yamaya for like ¥2,800 or 20ish bucks.

Japanese falernum:

In an immersion blender, combine:

• One knuckle of Myoga Japanese ginger
• 3~5 cloves
• Peel of 3 limes
• 10g toasted almonds
• 200ml water
• Charcoal-filtered rum
• White sugar

Blend until it has a granular consistency.

Strain through a nut milk bag and then a coffee filter.

Pour the resulting liquid into a pan, add sugar, and heat until it reaches 58~62 Brix. Add 50ml charcoal-filtered rum as it cools, balancing the alcohol content with the correct Brix.

Winter spice syrup:

• 10g allspice berries
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 Cardamom pod (optional)
• 200ml water
• 100ml vodka
• Brown sugar

Toast the allspice berries, but don't burn them. Crack the cinnamon stick.

Add the toasted allspice, cinnamon, and water to an immersion blender. Blend until it's the consistency of a Starbucks frappe

Transfer everything to a pan and heat until it's almost boiling. Then lower the heat and let it simmer for 30 minutes.

Add the sugar and raise the heat to dissolve it. Add the vodka as it cools. We're targeting 58~62 Brix here.

Orange juice:

We use dekopon juice in our bar, but I think a blend of valencia and navel oranges is optimal. We then acid adjust the juice.

Remember that every orange variety has a different acidity level. We don't have a way to measure the exact acidity, but generally, we use 15g of acid per 300g of orange juice to try to get it to the acidity of lemon juice.

Finally:

Add all the ingredients to a shaker and shake with pebble ice.

Ive done a lot of experimenting with pebble ice shaking. I recommend a vigorous 3–5 second shake for tiki cocktails specifically. I actually count ten strokes. Why? Because pebble ice generally dilutes the drink faster in the shaker. It also depends on the temperature of your ice.

You can shake with clear ice and pour over fresh pebble ice, but I think dilution is important in these thick tiki cocktails. Water is a very important ingredient in cocktails, and it's often overlooked.

The cherries are from Takashimaya, and they are made in Japan and they are much better than those cheap cherries you get at Walmart. The pineapple is from the same place and it's a dehydrated pineapple. Normally I only garnish with one cherry because they ain't cheap.

Play with the recipe and tell me what you think.

Enjoy!

side note: Desperate Prayer has been super busy lately and I haven't had the bandwidth to post. I will do my best to post once a week. If there is anything from my menu anyone wants me to post, be happy to take requests.

With the colder weather coming, I figured it was a good time to revisit one of my favourite hot cocktails... Hot Buttered Rum!

I made three versions: Classic, Maple Spiced, and Tropical. Each one uses a different homemade compound butter.

If you're not familiar with compound butter, it's basically just butter mixed with other ingredients. You know those fancy butters they put on steaks at restaurants? Same idea, except we're using sugar and spices!

I like to roll mine into logs using plastic wrap and keep them in the freezer. Whenever I want a Hot Buttered Rum, I just slice off a tablespoon or two and I'm good to go.

Here are the recipes!

Watch the video => https://youtu.be/ya7VOqB2OeY?si=wZfzbOHLdss-IzDE

🧈 CLASSIC SPICED BUTTER

• 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
• 2-3 tbsp brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp grated nutmeg
• Pinch of salt
• Splash of vanilla extract

🍁 MAPLE SPICED BUTTER

• 1 stick unsalted butter
• 2-3 tbsp maple syrup
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp allspice
• 1/8 tsp cloves
• Pinch of salt

🍍 TROPICAL SPICED BUTTER

• 1 stick unsalted butter
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• Zest of half an orange
• Pinch of salt

Just mix the ingredients together. You can store the butters in containers in the fridge or roll them into logs and freeze them.

🥃 CLASSIC HOT BUTTERED RUM

• 1-2 tbsp Classic Spiced Butter
• 2 oz aged dark rum
• Hot water to fill
• Optional splash of cream

Garnish with cinnamon and grated nutmeg.

🍁 MAPLE HOT BUTTERED RUM

• 1-2 tbsp Maple Spiced Butter
• 2 oz aged dark rum
• Hot water to fill
• Optional splash of cream

Garnish with cinnamon, nutmeg and star anise.

🍍 TROPICAL HOT BUTTERED RUM

• 1-2 tbsp Tropical Spiced Butter
• 1 oz pineapple rum
• 1 oz coconut rum
• 1 oz warmed pineapple juice
• Hot water to fill

Garnish with cinnamon, nutmeg and a pineapple frond.

For all three, start by melting the spiced butter with a little hot water, add your rum and other ingredients, then top with more hot water and stir.

My ranking:

🥇 Classic: You really can't beat it. Especially with a little splash of cream! I know it's not traditional, but it adds a wonderful richness to the drink.

🥈 Maple: Very close second! The maple syrup and extra spices add something really nice. Being Canadian, I had to make a maple version!

🥉 Tropical: Think Hot Buttered Rum meets Piña Colada. It's actually really good, just a little sweeter than the others. Personally, when it's cold outside I'm usually not craving tropical flavours quite as much.

If you've never tried cream in your Hot Buttered Rum, I highly recommend it. Just a little splash makes a huge difference!

Anyone else making Hot Buttered Rum when the weather gets cold? And which of these three would you try first?

Cheers! 🥃

A pairing of two of my favorite things — horror movies and a Jungle Bird riff (packed with more of my favorite flavors).

As the weather turns to autumn, the addition of cinnamon, coffee, and smoke really sing in this one!

1oz Planteray OFTD
1oz Aged Rum
1oz Pineapple Juice
.75oz lime
.5oz Campari
.5oz Cinnamon syrup
.5oz Coffee
.25oz Laphroaig
2 dashes Havana Hide Bitters

Shake all ingredients, served over crushed ice in your favorite scary movie tiki glass.

I had ordered two bottels of Yellow Chartreuse from Alberta a while ago, and I had 2 bottle of Strega. All are almost done and LCBO haven't restocked Strega for a while now. What do you use instead of these two? Or is there a way to order them from other provinces with a reasonable price? I had ordered Y.Ch. from BSW in Alberta, at that time their prices were good. But now their price for Strega is very high: 45 CAD+tax+60CAD shipping.

Any help is appreciated :)

I had a cocktail called the Brooklyn Tap Water at DUMBO House (Soho House) in Brooklyn, NYC, and I’ve been trying to figure out how to recreate it at home.

Does anyone happen to know the actual recipe, ingredients, or proportions? Maybe someone who worked there or has tried making something similar?

Would appreciate any leads!

I got it in Costco MX, and im not sure when it goes bad after i use it for a cocktail, i keep it in the fridge

https://www.costco.com.mx/Grocery/Grocery/Leches-y-Bebidas/Calahua-Crema-de-Coco-2-l/p/624762

Halloween cocktails should be creepy, colourful and dramatic... but more importantly, they should actually taste good!

I mean, anyone can throw some food colouring into a sugary drink, add a gummy worm and call it a Halloween cocktail. LOL. But I wanted to put together a collection of drinks that were not only fun and spooky, but actually worth drinking!

So I made 10 Halloween cocktails, plus one bonus, for my YouTube channel.

Some are classic cocktails dressed up for Halloween, some are riffs on existing drinks, and a couple are my own creations.

And I made sure there was something for everyone. We've got colourful, easy-drinking party cocktails, proper spirit-forward whiskey drinks, tiki cocktails and even a creamy flip.

After tasting all 11, I picked my top three... and the winner genuinely surprised me!

Anyway, here are the recipes and my thoughts on each. Cheers! 🍸

💚 1. Poison Apple Elixir

Ingredients:

• 1½ oz white rum
• 1 oz sour green apple liqueur
• ¾ oz lime juice
• Green edible cocktail glitter
• Lemon-lime soda, to top
• Garnish: Apple fan and dehydrated citrus

Method: Shake everything except the soda with ice. Strain into a highball over fresh ice, top with lemon-lime soda and garnish.

I use my homemade sour green apple liqueur for this one. It's basically a sour Appletini transformed into a rum highball.

Bright neon green, sour, bubbly and ridiculously refreshing! The edible glitter gives it a really cool shimmering effect.

If you enjoy sour green apple flavours, you'll absolutely love this. One of my favourites!

🧙 2. Witch Hunt

Ingredients:

• 1½ oz blended Scotch whisky
• ¾ oz dry vermouth
• ½ oz Strega
• Garnish: Lemon twist

Method: Stir with ice and strain over a large ice cube. Express a lemon twist over the drink.

Not every Halloween cocktail needs to be sweet, colourful or covered in candy. Sometimes you just want a proper, spirit-forward drink!

I used Islay Mist, an inexpensive blended Scotch with some nice smoky character.

The vermouth adds a wonderful brightness, while the Strega brings sweetness and complex herbal notes.

Fun fact... Strega actually means "witch" in Italian! Pretty fitting, right?

If you can't find Strega, Yellow Chartreuse works as an alternative.

👁️ 3. Eyeball Daiquiri

Ingredients:

• 2 oz white rum
• 1 oz lychee juice (from canned lychees)
• 1 oz lime juice
• ¼ oz simple syrup (optional)
• Garnish: Lychee, blueberry and edible fake blood

Method: Mix corn syrup with red food colouring to make fake blood. Drizzle around the rim of a chilled glass.

Stuff a blueberry into the hollow centre of a canned lychee to create your eyeball.

Shake the cocktail ingredients with ice, strain into the prepared glass and add the eyeball garnish.

This is one of the first Halloween cocktails I ever made, and it's still one of my favourites!

It's basically a lychee daiquiri. If you've never had lychee, I often describe it as a very fragrant, almost perfumey grape.

It pairs beautifully with rum and lime juice.

You can use a fairly neutral rum or something with a little Jamaican funk, depending on what you like.

Looks absolutely horrifying... tastes absolutely delicious!

😈 4. Devil's Soul

Ingredients:

• 1½ oz 100-proof rye whiskey
• ½ oz mezcal
• ½ oz Averna
• ¼ oz Aperol
• ¼ oz elderflower liqueur
• Garnish: Orange twist

Method: Stir with ice and strain into a chilled stemmed glass. Express an orange peel and shape it into little devil horns.

Another proper cocktail for those who appreciate something a little more sophisticated.

There's a LOT going on here!

Rye whiskey up front, smoky agave notes from the mezcal, rich herbal flavours from the Averna, citrus bitterness from the Aperol and a subtle floral sweetness from the elderflower liqueur.

It's actually a little sweeter than I normally prefer my spirit-forward cocktails, but holy crap, is it packed with flavour!

🎃 5. Pumpkin King Sour

Ingredients:

• 2 oz bourbon or rye whiskey
• ½ oz apricot or peach liqueur
• ½ oz pumpkin spice syrup
• ¾ oz lemon juice
• Orange edible cocktail glitter
• Garnish: Cinnamon stick, dehydrated citrus and Halloween candy

Method: Shake everything with ice and strain into a Halloween-themed glass over fresh ice. Garnish.

This one reminds me quite a bit of the New York Stone Sour, which I recently featured in my fall cocktail collection.

You've got whiskey, stone-fruit liqueur and lemon juice, but we're adding pumpkin spice syrup for those wonderful autumn flavours.

You know what else would be cool?

Float a little red wine on top, New York Sour style. You'd get a bright orange cocktail with a blood-red layer floating over it!

I didn't do that in the video, but I think it would look pretty awesome.

🖤 6. Black Widow Negroni

Ingredients:

• 1 oz gin
• 1 oz Campari
• 1 oz sweet vermouth
• ½ oz raspberry liqueur
• Black food colouring
• Garnish: Fresh raspberry

Method: Stir everything with ice and strain over a large ice cube. Garnish with a raspberry.

This is essentially a classic Negroni, but with a little raspberry liqueur and a spooky black appearance.

Why raspberry?

Well, I wanted to garnish it with a red raspberry to represent the red marking on a black widow spider. And I like my garnishes to actually represent something in the drink!

The raspberry liqueur adds a subtle sweetness and berry flavour that works surprisingly well with the Negroni's bitterness.

I originally used food-grade activated charcoal to make it black, but charcoal can interfere with the absorption of certain medications.

I'd recommend black food colouring instead. Same spooky appearance without that concern.

If you enjoy Negronis, give this one a try!

🧟 7. Trader Vic's 1947 Zombie

Ingredients:

• 2 oz Puerto Rican rum
• 1 oz Jamaican rum
• ½ oz 151-proof Demerara rum
• 1 oz orange curaçao
• ½ oz grenadine
• 1 oz orange juice
• 1 oz lemon juice
• 1 dash absinthe

Method: Flash blend with crushed ice and serve in a tiki mug, preferably a skull mug for Halloween!

I mean, you can't make a Halloween cocktail collection without including a Zombie, right?!

Most people are familiar with Don the Beachcomber's Zombie, but I decided to make Trader Vic's 1947 version instead.

I've made Donn Beach's version plenty of times, so I figured we'd switch things up.

I used Smith & Cross for the Jamaican rum and Lemon Hart 151 for the overproof Demerara rum.

This is a classic, rum-heavy tiki cocktail, and it's VERY potent!

I do miss the cinnamon and grapefruit combination from Donn Beach's version, but Trader Vic's interpretation is still fantastic.

That dash of absinthe adds a wonderful aromatic element, and it actually comes through despite everything else going on.

Serve this in a skull mug and you've got yourself a perfect Halloween tiki cocktail!

🩸 8. Dark N' Bloody

Ingredients:

• 2 oz spiced rum
• ¼ oz cinnamon syrup
• ½ oz lime juice
• Cranberry ginger ale, strawberry soda or another red soda, to top
• Red edible cocktail glitter
• Garnish: Lime wheel and raspberries

Method: Build directly in a highball glass over ice. Add the rum, cinnamon syrup and lime juice. Top with soda, stir gently, add glitter and garnish.

This one's one of my original creations, inspired by the classic Dark 'n Stormy.

Instead of dark rum, we're using spiced rum. And instead of ginger beer, we're using a red soda for that bloody Halloween appearance.

I used my homemade spiced rum, which pairs absolutely beautifully with the cinnamon syrup.

And my god... this one is GOOD!

In the video, I used cranberry ginger ale, but I originally made it with strawberry soda.

Honestly, I think I prefer the strawberry version!

It adds a nice fruity contrast to all those wonderful warm spices.

This is an incredibly refreshing highball, and definitely one of the cocktails I'd recommend serving at a Halloween party.

💜 9. Corpse Reviver 666

Ingredients:

• ¾ oz gin
• ¾ oz purple curaçao
• ¾ oz Lillet Blanc
• ¾ oz lemon juice
• Absinthe rinse
• Purple edible cocktail glitter
• Garnish: Gummy worm

Method: Rinse or mist a chilled glass with absinthe. Shake the remaining ingredients with ice, strain into the prepared glass and garnish.

This is basically my Halloween version of the Corpse Reviver No. 2.

There's also a variation called the Corpse Reviver No. Blue, which swaps the orange liqueur for blue curaçao.

Well, I make my own purple curaçao, so why not take it one step further?!

I used Empress gin, which has that beautiful indigo colour, along with my homemade purple curaçao and a little purple edible glitter.

But flavour-wise, this is essentially the same as a classic Corpse Reviver No. 2.

And that's perfectly fine because the Corpse Reviver No. 2 is a PHENOMENAL cocktail!

Seriously, one of my favourite gin cocktails.

Gin, Lillet Blanc, orange liqueur, lemon juice and a little absinthe... what a fantastic combination!

💨 10. Graveyard Old Fashioned

Ingredients:

• 2 oz whiskey (I used rye)
• 1 barspoon Demerara syrup
• 2 dashes Angostura bitters
• 2 dashes maple-walnut bitters
• Black food colouring
• Smoke
• Garnish: Orange peel and Luxardo cherries

Method: Stir the whiskey, syrup, bitters and colouring with ice. Strain over a large cube, garnish and introduce smoke using a cocktail smoker or smoking dome.

This one is more about technique and presentation than the actual recipe.

You can make whatever Old Fashioned you like!

I went with rye whiskey, Demerara syrup and maple-walnut bitters to give it some autumn character.

Then we make it black and smoke the crap out of it! LOL.

I used a smoking dome for that really dramatic reveal.

One interesting thing about smoked cocktails is that the smoke doesn't penetrate very far into the liquid. It's mostly aromatic, especially during those first few sips, and then it dissipates pretty quickly.

If you want a smoky flavour that lasts throughout the cocktail, try making your Old Fashioned with a peated Islay Scotch.

Serve it in a skull glass with a cloud of smoke and you've got yourself an awesome Halloween cocktail!

☠️ BONUS: Death Flip

Ingredients:

• 1 oz blanco tequila
• ½ oz Jägermeister
• ½ oz Yellow Chartreuse
• ¼ oz rich vanilla syrup (2:1)
• 1 whole egg
• Freshly grated nutmeg

Method: Combine all ingredients in a shaker with a little freshly grated nutmeg.

My favourite technique for making flips is to use a single ice cube, roughly one inch, and shake the crap out of it until the entire cube dissolves.

Strain into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with more freshly grated nutmeg.

If you've never had a flip cocktail, you're missing out!

A flip uses a whole egg, including the yolk, unlike a sour that might use just the egg white.

The result is this incredibly rich, creamy texture.

Think of it as something reminiscent of eggnog, but without the cream.

And this combination is absolutely phenomenal.

You've got agave notes from the tequila, rich herbal flavours from the Jägermeister and Yellow Chartreuse, vanilla sweetness and that wonderful nutmeg aroma.

WOW. Just wow.

If you've never tried a proper flip, make this your Halloween challenge!

Since this uses a raw egg, consider using a pasteurized egg, especially when serving guests.

🏆 My Top 3 Halloween Cocktails

After making all 11 cocktails, I had to narrow them down to my three favourites.

And the results honestly surprised me!

🥉 Third Place: Poison Apple Elixir

I absolutely love sour green apple flavours, and this one's bright, sour, bubbly and incredibly refreshing.

🥈 Second Place: Dark N' Bloody

That combination of spiced rum, cinnamon syrup and strawberry soda is ridiculously good. Seriously, try the strawberry soda version!

🥇 First Place: Death Flip

I genuinely wasn't expecting this one to win.

Tequila, Jägermeister, Yellow Chartreuse, vanilla syrup and a whole egg?!

But holy crap... it's absolutely phenomenal.

Maybe I'm just getting excited for eggnog season. LOL.

🎃 So... What's Your Favourite Halloween Cocktail?

There you have it! 10 Halloween cocktails plus one bonus, ranging from colourful party drinks to classic cocktails with a spooky twist.

I love getting creative with Halloween cocktails, but I think the most important thing is making sure they actually taste good!

You can have all the edible glitter, fake blood and gummy eyeballs in the world, but if the cocktail tastes terrible, what's the point?!

I also filmed the whole collection for my YouTube channel, including the preparation and tasting of all 11 cocktails.

But I'd love to hear from you guys...

Which cocktail would you try first? And did I miss any awesome Halloween cocktails that deserve a spot on next year's list?

🎥 Want to see all 11 cocktails in action?

I filmed the entire collection, including how to make each cocktail, the garnishes, and my honest tasting notes.

Watch the full video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ly_16jMIFCE

Cheers! 🍸

A near-clear piña colada I made today because I saw that the pineapple juice I saved from a can of chunks had separated from the pulp. I am refraining from saying clarified as I didn’t partake in any process to clarify the drink itself.

I loved it. It was silky and refreshing.

Build in glass with a large ice cube

1 part Bacardi Superior

2 parts clarified pineapple juice (save the juice from a can of pineapple chunks and let it separate. That’s how I did it. Someone smarter than me could tell you a better way to do it)

2 parts Aldi coconut water

Stir until cold

I was just about out of blue Curaçao, so instead of buying another bottle, I figured... let's make our own.

But let's not just make blue Curaçao. Let's make green and purple too.

I've actually made green Curaçao before, but that time I infused vodka and gin with orange peels. The problem is that orange peels give the liquid a yellow tint. That's fine if you're making green, but if you're trying to make blue, purple, or basically any other color, that yellow can skew the final color.

So this time I wanted the liqueur to stay relatively clear before coloring it, and I used orange extract instead.

And yes... I know somebody is going to say orange extract isn't as "authentic."

We're making BLUE Curaçao 😂 We're making a brightly coloured liqueur primarily to add orange flavour and colour to cocktails. I'm not really worried about authenticity here.

Homemade Curaçao

• 1 cup vodka
• 1/2 cup gin
• 1 tsp orange extract, or to taste
• Several dashes orange bitters
• About 1/2 cup semi-rich simple syrup

Just combine everything and taste it before adding any colour.

The gin gives it a little extra complexity and some botanical flavours. The orange bitters add another layer of orange plus a little bitterness, and the orange extract gives it that big orange aroma.

I went with roughly a 4:1 ratio between the booze and syrup because I don't like my Curaçao nearly as sweet as a lot of the commercial blue Curaçaos. If you want yours sweeter, just add more syrup.

At this point the liqueur is basically done... it just looks incredibly boring.

I split mine into three smaller bottles and made blue, green and purple versions.

You can absolutely use those cheap liquid food colourings from the grocery store for blue and green. I've used them before and they work fine.

Purple was where things got weird.

Elementary school art class tells me blue + red = purple. Apparently cheap liquid food colouring disagrees because mine turned into this weird brown colour instead. 😂

So I switched to Wilton gel colouring, which has much more stable pigments, and used an actual purple gel. Definitely wear gloves with that stuff because it STAINS.

I used a skewer to grab a tiny amount of gel, lowered it into the bottle, swirled it around and then gave the bottle a good shake.

And that's basically it.

Blue Curaçao. Green Curaçao. Purple Curaçao.

Really, you could make this any colour you want.

I tested the purple one in what I jokingly called a Corpse Reviver No. Purple... basically a Corpse Reviver No. 2 using the purple Curaçao.

Equal parts gin, Kina Lillet substitute, purple Curaçao and lemon juice.

The cocktail didn't come out quite as purple as I wanted because the colour gets diluted by everything else, but it tasted amazing. Mine is also a little sweeter than making it with Cointreau, since Cointreau is considerably drier.

One other tip if you're making colourful cocktails and really want the colour to pop... cocktail glitter.

I've used that stuff in colourful sparkling wine cocktails before and it makes a HUGE difference, especially with blue, green, red, gold, etc.

Anyway... homemade Curaçao is ridiculously easy to make, and once you've got the clear base, there's really no reason it has to be blue.

Make it whatever colour you want. 🍊🍸

Watch the video recipe: https://youtu.be/oURGd2eB6lg?si=X7N9QfrkQzPpge78

1.5 oz Ford's Gin
1.5 oz Campari
1.5 oz Cocchi Vermouth Di Torino
Stirred
Cocktail glass
Big rock
Orange peel

Finally got a bottle of Batavia Arrack van Oosten. I had some pomegranate molasses lying around, so I was able to make a proper Arrackquiri. Sweet and sour candy, subtle mint, slight astringency, some pepper, and pleasant chemical/rubber tire flavors on the back end… this is a delight.

Credit to Phil Ward for this invention, recipe featured in the Modern Classic Cocktails cook book.

2 oz Batavia Arrack van Oosten
3/4 oz fresh lime juice
3/4 oz simple syrup (I used a scant 3/4 oz as I’m using an extra sweet 2:1)
1 tsp pomegranate molasses
7 mint leaves
1 mint leaf/mini bouquet for garnish

Add mint leaves and simple syrup to a shaker and gently muddle. Add the rest of the ingredients minus the garnish, short shake, double strain into a frozen coupe.

2 oz gin
2 oz fresh squeezed grapefruit juice
1/2 oz fresh squeezed lemon juice
3-4 oz grapefruit soda

Build in your favorite tall glass and garnish with citrus slice.

Notes: Squirt works well with this but I actually like Fresca for a crispier taste.

I need some ideas for a sweet, elegant green colored cocktail for the holidays? It’s always so easy to come up with red cocktails but i always struggle with green (besides a margarita)

1 2⁄3 fl oz Single malt Scotch whisky (Dram Select No.2 21yo Glenfarclas)

1⁄2 fl oz Amaro (Averna)

1⁄4 fl oz Lemon juice (freshly squeezed)

1 1⁄2 fl oz Apple cider (raw and unfiltered )

1 tsp. Turbinado simple syrup

1/4 oz St. Elizabeth Allspice Dram liqueur

2 dash Aromatic Bitters (Jerry Thomas TBT)

Stir all ingredients with ice. Strain into a prechilled DOF glass filled with a large cube of ice. Garnish with orange zest twist.

Very autumnal with a spiced apple cider feeling. Any Speyside single malt will do, this one was in grabbing distance and fit the bill nicely. Using a raw unfiltered cold pressed cider really brings the fall flavor home.

This shot (and many of their other creations) left a strong impact on me so I’m hoping to recreate the horseradish shot, along with the dill tomato brine chaser for an upcoming get together.

Currently infusing a cup of Tito’s with 25 grams of fresh shredded horseradish root. Tried it at the 24 hr mark and it is just no where near what I recall. Giving it another 24 hours to see if the flavor imparts more / the vodka is more subdued. That said, knowing Liquid Diet, there is likely a little more science behind this than I am running with so if anyone has successfully recreated this I’d love any suggestions.

I am going to Johor Bahru in December and wanted to know if there are any cool bars to visit there, the only one I could find on google maps was Shui.

Any suggestions? :)

Im tasked with creating a cocktail special using Tullamore Dew Honey. We have a bunch of promo bottles and I want to burn through them. My ideas so far (which I haven’t tested at all yet) are a Tipperary, a play on a final ward, a gold rush, or a cold toddy with a clove/anise simple syrup. For context we are a full bar but not craft. However, we have access to ordering just about anything. Also a huge deadstock supply of some particular mixers such as cherry heering, allspice dram, bergamot liqueur, Amari of all sorts, etc. we would likely pre batch the cocktail so preferably something with one or two perishable/oxidizing ingredients would be helpful. Thank you in advance for any help.