We’ve got flowers, pastel colors and a few eggs. Here’s what you should be drinking on Easter this year!
Sparkling Gin Lemonades with Flower- Infused Boozy Gelées for Easter Brunch
Electric Pink Fields Rum Cocktail
Fresh Passion Fruit Sour Cocktail
Fresh Lemongrass Sour Cocktail
An Isle Away: Rum Cocktail with Coconut Cardamom Foam
Frozen Cucumber and Green Chartreuse Daiquiri Cocktail
Ok, so here’s some chocolate for you too…
It’s March. It’s almost spring. Let’s refresh that bar cart with a little smattering of green and gold. Lucky Charms cocktail garnish optional.
Thank your lucky (edible) stars we’ve been scouring the internet for some new bar cart items this month. First, skip the green beer and get yourself some green liqueur instead. Now that you’re adulting, a gilded bar cart is much prettier than a cardboard box. Next, grab yourself some equally pretty gold jiggers and a functional pitcher (for like, water or holding straws). And OK, yes, you can have ONE novelty glass. And a stir stick or two. And if you insist, some mint bitters for that adult Shamrock Shake you secretly want.
1. Shamrock Glass 2. Gold Cheers Stir Stick 3. Green Glass Pitcher 4. Gold Jigger 5. Edible Gold Stars 6. Mint Bitters 7. Bar Cart 8. Green Chartreuse
Catch up on all the gift guides here!
Happy St. Patrick’s Day everyone! Let me help you pick out what you should be drinking and eating today. I am a 1/4 Irish after all…
Irish Whiskey Truffles with Baileys Crystals
And a few Green Drinks…
Frozen Cucumber and Green Chartreuse Daiquiri Cocktail
It’s not very often that I do a theme week around here, but I think we can all agree that brunch is definitely worth the effort. I hope you all enjoy some pineapple or a little pisco this weekend. But if you’d like some more options, here are a few below.
Sparkling Grapefruit and Lillet Rosé Sangria
Not-So-Classic Strawberry-Rhubarb Fizz Cocktail
Frozen Peach, White Pepper and Green Tea & Cucumber and Green Chartreuse Daiquiri Cocktail
Sparkling and Spiced Winter Sangria
**Also, today is the last day to get your nominations in for the Saveur Best Blog awards. If you’d enjoyed the content on here, please consider Stir and Strain for best cocktail site!
So you’re not into frozen fruit daiquiris. Although the peachy one looked tempting, it’s not for you. That’s cool; I’m not going to judge you. You want something more on the savory side? I can help with that too.
Cucumbers!
Cucumbers are that gateway vegetable where fruit isn’t going to cut it in your cocktail, but you sure as hell are not going to put kale in there. Please don’t put kale in here.
A daiquiri base is a simple yet beautiful combination of rum, lime juice and sugar. If you have great ingredients to begin with, you’re outcome will be fantastic. Although, one bad lime will completely ruin a drink (I speak from experience on that one). The base though is also super versatile and a little savoriness will do it no harm.
Now, we’re not just going to add in cucumbers and call it a day. I’m not that lazy. Instead I tweak it just a little more with the introduction of Green Chartreuse. A little bit added here gives the whole cocktail a spicy punch: hints of licorice, some bitter citrus in there, and lots of other mysterious herbal flavors that make up the ridiculous amount of ingredients found in one bottle. Green Chartreuse balances everything out, taking a somewhat demure drink into very bold territory.
Yes, it might seem like suddenly frozen drinks are popping up on my Instagram feed like mushrooms in a forest, but trust me, this is all in the name of science (not really). I’m just here to make blended alcoholic drinks not suck. Again, as with the frozen peach daiquiri, chilling beforehand will give you a freezing cold base to start with, offering very little dilution when you add the ice. However, if you’re short on time, feel free to skip this step.
8 ounces white rum, such as Caña Brava
4 ounces freshly squeezed juice from 4 limes
1 1/2 ounces Green Chartreuse
2 ounces simple syrup (1:1 ratio)
2 cucumbers, cut into 1/2-inch rounds
4 cups ice cubes
4 cucumber spears and lime zest for garnish
At least 1 day before you’d like to serve the cocktail, combine rum, lime juice, Green Chartreuse, and simple syrup in an airtight container. Store in the freezer for at least 8 hours. Pour pre-chilled base into blender with cucumber rounds and ice. Blend until even in texture. Pour into serving glasses, garnish each drink with a cucumber spear and lime zest, and serve.
And if you’re on board the frozen daiquiri train now, you can always go back and check out that peach one.
*This post was originally part of a longer article I wrote over on Serious Eats.
My fist submission this month for Mixology Monday actually became a recipe idea about a few months ago from a recommended drink at a bar. It’s a part of why this month’s theme was SMOKE. Out at a local restaurant, asking for the bartender’s recommendation while waiting on some friends to show for dinner, we were served a dram of a Whisky called Brimstone. My eyes rolled back in my head as I tasted this incredibly strong, insanely smoky liquid. It was akin to someone just pouring smoke down my throat, and I loved it. I’ve waxed poetic enough on this site to let you all know that woodsmoke is a heavenly smell for me. And being able to drink down that wonderful aroma is like a drink of the gods. Or something in a similar vein.
So we picked up a bottle to have on hand and realized one thing about it, it is really strong, like, one and I’m done strong. Mainly in part because the smoke really is so powerful. Sometimes even I can’t handle that much smoke. That is when the quest to find a cocktail to put this guy in began.
There are many bottles on my shelf that are relegated to the back positions. Not because I don’t know what to do with them…. only I don’t know what to do with them right now. My beautiful bottle of Chartreuse was one of those bottles. Then one day looking through some older cocktail recipes I happened upon the Bijou drink and gave it a whirl. It was sweet and vegetal and I couldn’t stop making them. It also seemed like a great match for the Brimstone.
Initially I tried tweaking the ingredients to see if I could add an Amaro in for the vermouth, but the sharpness of the vermouth is really needed here to balance out the herbal chartreuse and sweeten the whisky.
And the name of the drink? The combo of the green chartreuse and a smoky whisky called Brimstone immediately made me think of the song Green Hell by the Misfits
1-1/2 oz. Balcones Brimstone Corn Whisky
1 oz. Carpano Antica Sweet Vermouth
1/2 oz. Green Chartreuse
2 dashes Regan’s Bitters
3-4 mint leaves for garnish
In a mixing glass 2/3 filled with ice, add all ingredients except mint and stir until cold (20-30 seconds). Strain into a chilled coupe. Garnish a side of the glass with mint leaves so that they stick up like little green flames. To do this, drag the bottom half of the leaf through the drink and up on to the side of the glass. The leaf should stick to the inside of the glass. (This could take a try or two).
Woodsmoke is the first aroma that will hit your nose. The color is a deep amber (nope, not green at all). The taste is of woodsmoke with a bittersweet finish. And there are light herbal notes from the chartreuse with hints of citrus.
So this is my first entry for this month’s Mixology Monday. I will have some more smoky fun coming up later in the week. To check on what other’s are submitting, see the announcement post! You can also follow me and Mixology Monday on twitter for retweets and updates.