Sinsational Summer Sunday!

Well, I've only got one recipe for you today, but it's a doozy. Take one in the afternoon and one just as the sun goes low against the sky and you'll sleep like a baby and wake up refreshed, relaxed and ready for work on Monday.

Although you might want to work from home if possible--or perhaps set up with a cell modem and a cellphone at the beach...this one has a kick. You can't taste the alcohol, so be careful.




This one is called a Baltimore Zoo

ice cubes
1/2 fluid ounce silver tequila
1/2 fluid ounce gin
1/2 fluid ounce white rum
1/2 fluid ounce vodka
1/2 fluid ounce triple sec
3 fluid ounces orange juice
3 fluid ounces grenadine syrup
4 fluid ounces beer (such as Budweiser®)

Directions

Fill a pitcher with ice, and pour in the tequila, gin, rum, vodka, triple sec, orange juice, and grenadine. Stir to mix, then pour in beer to serve.

All right? All right. This is sort of like a Long Island Iced Tea only stronger.

'Til next time, SEE YA!

Rum, Rum, Rum!

Today is a great day for a rum drink. The one I'm going to suggest is actually very simple but *very* refreshing, especially on a day like today--pleasant, not too hot, not humid. It's a rum and coconut water. Golden Barbados rum we sell, and coconut water you can get, obviously, by cracking a coconut and draining the water--or simply punching a hole in it--or you can get coconut water from the Spanish groceries in town.

When you see old pictures of people drinking with a straw in a coconut, in a club in Havana or South America, rum and coconut water is what they were drinking. Classic tropical drink.

2 ounces golden rum
2 to 4 ounces coconut water

Instructions

Combine the golden rum and coconut water in a Collins glass, then add 2 to 3 ice cubes, stir, and serve.

Sangria for Me-a!

A late sunshower turned into a rainy summer evening. The heat of the day is gone leaving only the cool, electric air after a powerful storm. Sounds like sangria out on the patio.

Bradley Liquors' makes and sells its own sangria, but if you'd like to make it yourself, you can try it with this recipe:

3 1/4 cups (26 fl. oz) dry white wine
1/3 cup (3 oz) sugar
1/3 cup (5 tablespoons) Triple Sec
1/3 cup (5 tablespoons) peach-flavoured brandy
2 medium peaches, peeled and sliced
2 medium oranges, sliced thin and crosswise
1 cup (8 fl. oz) sparkling orange soda
1 cup (8 fl. oz) ginger ale



Preparation

In a large serving bowl, combine all the ingredients except the orange soda and ginger ale and mix well. Refrigerate overnight.

Immediately before serving, mix in the orange soda and ginger ale. Serve over Ice.

This next is a very *spicy* Sangria--very hot. Good for putting the fire in you!

3 3/4 cups ( 30 fl. oz) dry white wine
3 tablespoons brandy
2 small red chilies, seeded and quartered
2 medium tart green apples, diced
2 large yellow plums, peeled, pitted and sliced
2 medium peaches, peeled, pitted and cut into chunks
1 cup (8 fl. oz) club soda

Preparation

Combine all the ingredients except for the club soda in a large serving pitcher, mixing well. Refrigerate overnight.

Immediately before serving, mix in the club soda for added fizz. Serve over ice.

You guys take care and remember to stop in over the weekend! 'Til then, SEE YA!

More Paris Cocktails With Lillet!

Lillet (pronounced lil LAY) is a french apertif wine--essentially a tonic wine, made from a blend of various white wines and extract of the bark of the Chinchona tree (which contains quinine--the "tonic"). In France they serve
Lillet on ice with a slice of orange or grapefruit. Here we mostly use it as an ingredient in cocktails.

Lillet was the drink of Hannibal Lecter of Silence of the Lambs fame--the author Thomas Harris who wrote the books that featured Lecter as a character wrote more than one (the others included The Red Dragon which came before Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal which came after, and Hannibal Rising which gives Lecter's backstory) and as Lecter was ever a cultured, sophisticated soul, he drank a French apertif.

In any case, here are two cocktails containing Lillet. Rent the Lecter movies, mix yourself a Comet, and enjoy.

Comet

1/2 orange gin
1/2 Lillet
2 dashes maraschino

Mix and serve with olive
Serve in a cocktail glass


This next is called the Abbey.

Abbey

1/2 dry gin
1/4 Lillet
1/4 orange juice
1 dash Angostura bitters

Shake and strain into cocktail glass.

All right? All right. Watch out for this heat wave, it's a bad one. Last one in the ocean's a rotten egg! SEE YA!

From Our Parisian Friends!

In the cafes in Paris, they drink this in the mornings to fortify themselves for the day--the spirit is called Pernod, and it's a licorice liquer that was created when absinthe was banned. This cocktail is pretty basic, pretty simple. The goal is to put just enough water in the Pernod that the drink becomes cloudy--this happens at a specific concentration of the spirit. Use cool but not cold water and in theory you shouldn't need ice.






French Style Pernod recipe

1 oz Pernod® licorice liqueur
5 oz wate

Pour both ingredients into a highball glass filled with ice cubes. Stir well, and serve.

Okay? All right. Take care and until next time, SEE YA!

Off We Go! Into The Wild Blue Yonder!

This one's a good one, it'll work with any vodka but do remember that we sell Skyy Vodka frozen--we keep it chilled on ice so you don't have to. (Frozen means we keep it in the freezer; it isn't generally actually solid when we sell it).








Blue Skyy

Ingredients

2 oz. Skyy Vodka
1 splash Blue Curacao

Instructions

Splash Blue Curacao in a martini glass. Pour the Vodka down the slope of the glass so that as little of the Curacao and Vodka mix as possible.

Credit

Chris Beirnes

All right? That should hold you for a while. Take it easy, we're almost there. I had a friend who used to call six o'clock "Schlitz o'clock." We're almost there. Till then, SEE YA!

TEQUILA!

Hi everybody, I'm back after a week long break. For days like today, warm, long, lovely summer days, there can be nothing but TEQUILA.

Tequila is made from the fermented nectar of the agave plant, which grows in Mexico. Most Tequila is made in the Mexican state of Jalisco, although there is limited production in other parts of Mexico.

So put The Champs on the juke (or your preferred music player of choice) and drink up.

The first is a shooter called a 9 Millimeter. It's pretty simple.

9 Millimeter

1 oz. tequila
1 oz. cinnamon schnapps

Instructions

Mix in a shot glass.

This next one is called an Acapulco Gold. It's a fine sipper.

Acapulco Gold

Ingredients

3/4 oz. tequila
3/4 oz. light tum
1/2 oz. grapefruit juice
1/2 oz. coconut cream
1 oz. pineapple juice
1 oz. orange juice

Instructions

Blend with ice and pour into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a slice of pineapple.

Okay? Okay. Enjoy these drinks and until next time, SEE YA!