This post was made in partnership with Kerrygold Irish Cream. Recipe and ideas are my own.
This past Monday, in our Monday Booze News, I referenced that the newest wave of tiki cocktails and culture is turning down a darker road (I joked that it had become a moody teenager). This new turn, which is apparently referencing a much older version of tiki… just proves that the fantasy can be whatever you’d like it to be in your head.
What I’m getting at is this, Tiki cocktails have come a long way and these new modern nods are just as interesting, and sometimes, much more complex and delicious, than the originals. And today I have a very out there, very delicious, addition to this new wave, the Port Dues Cocktail.
If you’re a familiar reader around here you may have noticed that I partnered with Kerrygold Irish Cream a few months back and I have been experimenting with this Irish cream liqueur to show how versatile (and OMGGGGG so good) it is. There’s a lot of times people see a liqueur and box it into a known and familiar category, and I feel part of my job here is to break those rules. Sure, I made frozen Irish Coffee cocktails with it and Grasshopper brownies, but did you check out the edible cocktails and the egg cream??
So I’m super excited about this cocktail, with nods to some of my favorite tiki drinks and especially to the Missionary’s Downfall with the herbal, minty notes from the fernet. You’d be surprised, but there are actually quite a number of tiki drinks out there that incorporate a hint of chocolate in them too. Using the creamy, rich Kerrygold Irish Cream here gives this dry, rum forward cocktail with a sour punch an unexpected twist with a hint of chocolate at the end.
Could the Port Dues be the dark, brooding cousin to the bright and poppy drinks of the midcentury? Try one and find out!
Port Dues
1-1/2 ounces aged rum, Haitian 8 year used here
1/2 ounce tawny port
1/2 ounce Kerrygold Irish Cream
1/2 ounce freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/4 ounce fernet
1 dash Angostura bitters
Garnish: mint and brandied cherries
In a shaker filled 2/3 with ice, combine rum, port, Kerrygold Irish Cream, lemon juice, fernet, and bitters. Shake 20 seconds and strain over a rocks glass filled with fresh crushed ice. Garnish with mint and brandied cherries.
This post was made in partnership with Truvia®. Recipes and ideas are my own.
My husband and I have been together for over a decade and the thought of going to a crowded restaurant on this particular day makes us both uneasy. We haven’t written off going places or doing romantic things together, we just choose to do them on days when we’re not fighting for a parking space to make a 9pm table (because that was the only reservation left last minute). What we do instead is put a little effort into making each other feel special at home.
Which brings us to today’s cocktail, a Raspberry Pisco Sour. I am working with 
Using fresh berries here is key. The trick to getting more flavor out of them is to macerate them with the Truvia and let them sit for a little bit. I do that step first and then let the mixture sit while I prep the other ingredients. Also, let’s talk about egg whites here! If you’re new to working with egg whites in cocktails, first, don’t panic. You can buy pasteurized egg whites from the grocery store and use those instead of fresh egg whites. I know where my eggs come from and trust the source so I use whites from whole eggs. If you prefer to make this vegan, you’re lucky, because I have several ways of substituting egg whites for cocktails on the site. The easiest is subbing in aquafaba, which is just the liquid from a can of chickpeas. You can read all about that 
Other than crushing a few berries and either grabbing some egg whites or some aquafaba, this cocktail comes together fairly easily, but it looks and tastes like you put way more effort into it. And you did put some effort into it, so congratulate yourself for that. I think it’s a great drink to make when you want to show someone you think they’re pretty special. And this drink does just that. Cheers!
Raspberry Pisco Sour Cocktail
This post was made in partnership with Kerrygold Irish Cream Liqueur. Recipe and ideas are my own.
While making these cookies I thought about how great the baking spices would be in a cocktail. Sure, we see lots of dashes of cinnamon or nutmeg this time of year, but those in combination with an intense ginger flavor…well we’ve got a perfect pair for some whiskey and a hot cocktail. I refer to these heated cocktails during holiday time as winter warm ups. They’re a great companion to a fireplace and a pair of hands in need of warmth.
This month I’ve teamed up with 
After making this cocktail I need to rethink my gingerbread recipe and add a little chocolate and whiskey and there too now. Then it will be perfect.
Let’s get warmed up!
Whoa. Yeah, I know. It’s not Halloween anymore so what’s up with the “blood” in the title? Well, I’ll start the story at the beginning here by asking a simple question: Who Are You?
Years ago when I first started writing in the small space on the internet known as cocktail blogging, I feel like I had a pretty good grasp on who else was also writing in this space. And folks, this was pre-Instagram days, you had to sometimes do a little leg work to find the other folks. I also had a good grasp on who my readers were. Mainly because people talked a whole lot more on blogs than they do now. But this wasn’t my full time gig, I was creative directing for a living for a company here in Los Angeles and this site was just a fun hobby that I popped in and out of. What that meant was that I also wasn’t super consistent and would disappear for months at a time. Readers came and went and then social media got super crazy and this little space expanded SO much and SO rapidly that it no longer felt so intimate and cozy.
Lately then, when I do speak on here, it’s kinda just like yelling down a deep, dark well. And that’s no fun. I’m writing this for anyone who reads this site, and I’d like us to get to know each other just a little bit. So if you ever wanted to know a few tidbits about me, here you go:
Ok, now you!!! I’ve got a super short survey for you all. You don’t even have to answer all the questions if you want! And to make it worth your while, everyone who responds and leaves an email will get the chance to win a $50 e-gift card to 
Also! Old Fashioned Week is almost over so I thought I’d squeeze this recipe in before it’s too late. It’s rich and smoky and the chocolate comes through nicely. Don’t forget to express a little grapefruit oil with that garnish. It works best with that touch of bitter citrus.
This post was made in partnership with The House of Angostura. Recipe and ideas are my own.
Well, I don’t know whether to chalk these scorching summer days up to climate change or just admit that Los Angeles is the desert and this is part of the package you get when you move here. Sure, you get warm, sunny days in January, but then you have to take those 100+° days in the summer (and early Fall). To help ease these heat-aches, I partnered with 
Ready to dive into your own float? Let’s make one!
This post was made in partnership with Cask & Crew. Recipe and ideas are my own.
What’s funny about this is, and how it connects to today’s drink, is the fact that these men are stationed comfortably in a library somewhere, discovering from the comfort of their armchairs. Are they really discovering new worlds? Maybe it’s a discovery for them, even if they are not actually there. My equivalent would be browsing travel sites, for hours, and not actually going on any trips. Sometimes one just needs a mental vacation.
So about today’s drink. Today we’re taking a tour around the world with our ingredients: we start in America, then head off to Britain, Spain, Italy, and then we dash down to some tropical islands. A delicious trip, but from the comfort of our armchair.
Oh, and the other decorative plate…it’s a white tiger in a tuxedo.
It’s February and that means we’re waking up from our January slumber around here and getting ready for all the fun this month brings! Like Groundhog Day! Our SEVEN YEAR blogiversary! Valentine’s Day! All those other anti-Valentine’s Day holidays I get press releases about! SUPER BOWL!
OK, so it’s the last holiday there that we’re focusing on today (although, dang, I’ve been writing here for seven years now!). We’re not super big sports people around my house but since we like throwing parties for our friends, we’ve definitely been known to throw a few Super Bowl parties over the years. This year we’ve teamed up with 
