This post was made in partnership with Kerrygold Irish Cream Liqueur. Recipe and ideas are my own.
For a little over 3-1/2 years now I’ve been freelancing full time and while I love the multitude of perks that come with that (slippers! showers at 10am! Punch R&D before noon!) around holiday time I miss one of the best perks about working in an office: the vendor gift baskets.
They start sometime around Thanksgiving. You can always tell which vendor made a whoops that year by the size of the gift basket. Oh hey guys, let’s forget about trying to install that wrong range in the restaurant, instead, look at all this CANDY AND BOOZE we’ve sent you!!!!
There was the ubiquitous popcorn balls (bleck), the really cheap wine (Ok, we can try that come 3pm on Friday) and my favorite, the bon bon boxes. You know the ones: giant, golf ball sized chocolates filled and flavored with all kinds of fruits and nuts. The chocolate raspberry? Oh yeah, that’s mine thanks.
This week we’ve teamed up with Kerrygold Irish Cream Liqueur to recreate a drinkable version of that indulgent treat. Kerrygold Irish Cream is made in Ireland with milk from grass-fed cows so it is SO rich and SO creamy, and the chocolate is real, not just flavoring, which you definitely want if you’re making a cocktail like this. With a hint of oaky Irish Whiskey it’s rich treat on it’s own but also fantastic for mixing in a cocktail. This drink is super simple to whip up and I’m giving you guys the option to either make your own raspberry syrup, or buy it, because sometimes… you just can’t.
Also, FOLKS!!! If I’ve inspired you to grab a bottle of Kerrygold Irish Cream Liqueur just a head’s up that they’re giving away a trip to NYC for TWO to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day! Stir up your own cocktail and submit it online for a chance to win this fab trip (21+ USA residents only please!). Full details here:Â https://www.kerrygoldirishcream.com/NYC Contest runs from November 13, 2017 to December 31, 2017.
So let’s treat ourselves and make a cocktail!
Chocolate Raspberry Bon Bon Cocktail
1-1/2 oz Kerrygold Irish Cream Liqueur
1 oz vodka
1/4 oz Allspice dram
3/4 oz Raspberry syrup (recipe below or use store bought, we recommend Monin)
3 raspberries and Cinnamon for garnish
In a mixing glass 2/3 filled with ice, combine Kerrygold Irish Cream, vodka, allspice dram, and raspberry syrup. Stir 20 seconds to chill and strain over fresh ice in a rocks glass. Garnish with raspberries and a dusting of cinnamon for garnish.
Raspberry Syrup
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup water
1 pint raspberries
In a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, combine sugar and water. Stir to dissolve and add raspberries. Reduce heat to low and simmer 10 minutes, remove from heat and let sit 30 minutes. Strain into an airtight container. Store in refrigerator up to 2 weeks.
This post was made in partnership with Exotico Tequila. Recipe and ideas are my own.
So today I thought I’d get a little unconventional and create a cocktail that evoked “fruitcake” but in some surprising ways. I also have your time in mind dear readers and wanted to make sure you had a holiday-ish cocktail in your back pocket you could whip out next week, or in the coming weeks, and not have to do any heavy lifting (No syrups or infusion making today! That’s next week!).
For more information on Exotico Tequila, please visit them at 
For a brief period of time in my late 20’s, my husband and I threw some really fun Halloween parties (and Tiki parties, and Christmas parties, and OH BOY do we love a themed party). But now that we have our little family here we tend to go out for parties now, leaving the themes for others to make. Halloween night, though, we’ve started having a party for 2.
If you’ve been visiting this site for some time, you know I L-O-V-E making adult jellies (or jell-o shots or what-have-you). You can forget everything you knew about those terrible things you choked down in college, and instead congratulate yourself on making a sophisticated treat with this recipe. And just for balance, I’m going to cut mine out in bat shapes for Halloween—I don’t want to be that serious. (You could just as easily put them in a spherical mold or pour your mixture in a non-stick baking pan and cut squares out too.)
Another fun part of this recipe is that you get to go out and buy a bag of candy for the infusion. My Scandinavian side of the family dictates that IÂ must enjoy black licorice but on the rare occasions that I do have a bag of it in the house, I am the only one who touches it and I almost always have too much left over. However, any extras that are leftover this time, go into today’s infusion!
Today we’ve teamed up with 
Licorice Infusion (2 options)
Certain scents may sound strange when referencing a drink, but think about how we throw around terroir with wine (and now, there’s lots of spirits doing that as well). You may like a drink because it reminds you of cut grass from your childhood, or bell peppers, or–and this is a favorite of mine–hot tar. Many times, the aroma of a drink will keep me going back again and again. So I thought I’d try capturing a smell from one of my favorite places, the Central Coast of California, and putting it into a drink.
Tinctures are easy ways to get new layers of flavor and aroma into your cocktails without changing the amount of liquid already present. They also will not alter the ABV of your drink in any considerable way. You only need a few drops or a spray or two and your drink is transformed. All you really need is a few ingredients, a bottle of Everclear, and some time.
So, let’s make this tincture and then I’ll give you a few quick and simple ways to use it once it’s done! Who knows, maybe this will inspire you to create your own tincture from your favorite place, or, err, hand soap.
California Coastal Tincture
Those seedy bits were usually fennel seeds, plain, sometimes with brightly sugar coated seeds, other times a mix of those and aniseed. Each restaurant had its own mix. It was not usually presented to the diner. It would sit quietly at the register, or sometimes at the end of a buffet. It was a ritual that didn’t need to be spoken of, one just consumed it. I learned it was to help digestion, fennel seed naturally helping in that department, with the potential to cleanse one’s breath after a meal.
So I began to try a spoonful after a big meal (a little too much that first time), and I think it did help digest the meal a little quicker, and easier, than if I hadn’t eaten any. And today I thought I’d turn towards making a liquid version of this helpful digestif: Fennel Liqueur.
Making this liqueur is easy, but takes some time. I’ve made a smaller batch to cut down on the steeping time, and also because I make a lot of infusions and don’t need so many full size bottles. I’d imagine if you’re trying this out for yourself you’d like to keep the sample down to a manageable size as well.
The liqueur is just sweet enough, as the fennel itself has its own sort of sweetness along with that slightly numbing anise flavor. The aroma is exactly as you’d expect: strongly fennel. After a few sips I do feel like it’s helping move the meal along, as a proper digestif should.
Fennel Liqueur
