Bourbonball

Happy president’s day!  My wife asked me today – who is your favorite president?  I didn’t have a good answer off the top of my head, and neither did she.  It makes you realize that we probably are not the students of our own history that we should be.  I could play the English card, but I have been living here since the late ’80s and I did take AP US History in high school.

We could go with the original GW, as in George Washington (nobody is going to seriously consider Bush Jr), but after reading “The History of Democracy” recently, I realized that he was pretty much just a figure head, a disaster of a president, and basically yearned for a form of monarchy to return.  Hard to root for a guy that thinks he’s smarter than the rest of us.

Then there is Jefferson – he had a cool house as I recall and was quite the renaissance man.  Wrote the declaration of independence – definite plus.  However, he was also the ultimate hypocrite as he was unable to reconcile opposition to slavery with owning hundreds of them himself.  He even had kids with one of them.  I guess we need to move on to another.

We could make an argument for Harding – the original Warren G.  Unfortunately, I think he was best known for his rap song hit “Regulate”…  Bonus points if you have any more trivial on him!

So what do I think really?  Lincoln, who freed the slaves?  John Adams, who had an HBO series about him (that must count for something)?  Nah.  For me I am going to go with King Roosevelt II, more commonly known as FDR.  Led us out the Great Depression and guided us through the most of WWII – his passion for his job accomplished much – and his unprecedented 4 terms proved it.  So, feel free to argue, but that’s what I think.

Damn it – I almost forgot this was a drink blog!  Tonight for my new book “The Kentucky Bourbon Cocktail Book” courtesy of my brother in law, is the Bourbonball.

• 1.5 ounces bourbon
• 1.5 ounces Tuaca
• 1.5 ounces crème de cacao

Shake over ice and strain into  a chilled martini glass.

Dave’s Thoughts:

• Whoa – this is sweet.  The orange and the chocolate flavors really take over the drink.
• After the initial shock, I would call this a complex sweet martini.  The bourbon adds a dimension that vodka never could.
• After a couple of sips, its readily apparent that this should be a desert cocktail.

Tasting Notes:

• Dave’s Rating: 6/10
• Strength: 6/10
• Sweetness: 9/10
• A great alternative desert cocktail, when a boring vodka martini won’t do!

Elegant Without Number

This is the beginning of a big week in the Dave Drinks world.  Today is Dave’s sister’s birthday, then we have my birthday on Wednesday, followed by my “first meeting” anniversary on Friday and culminating with Valentines Day on Saturday.  Is there such a thing as too much celebration?  At least there is the three day weekend at the end of it to help soften the blow.

So as we try tonight’s drink, I can’t help but wondering, what the hell the name of this drink even means… any ideas?  No?  I guess let’s just start the drinking!

• 2 ounces vodka
• 0.75 ounces calvados
• 0.5 ounce Grand Marnier
• Maraschino Cherry for garnish

Shake over ice and serve in a chilled martini glass.

Dave’s Thoughts:

• I’m having a hard time getting behind this one.  The Calvados is the dominant flavor, but the taste is a little off.  I cannot call this a well balanced drink.
• While there is a hint of sweetness from the Grand Marnier, ultimately this drink is rather dry, and if I am being honest, a little flat.
• I kept hoping that each sip would help make the taste get better, but unfortunately it just felt like a slog to get through this.  Oh well.

Tasting Notes:

• Dave’s Rating: 4/10
• Strength: 7/10
• Sweetness: 3/10
• I don’t think that I would serve this to someone unless they really knew what they were doing.

Rumrita

Ah, it’s the weekend.  Time for another cocktail to start the evening off.  As you may have noticed, this has been quite the alcohol assisted week, so it would be disappointing that after a series of weeknight concoctions that Saturday was left out in the cold.

So tonight it’s the “sort of a margarita” drink, except that it’s made with rum instead of tequila.  The original recipe calls for Mount Gay rum, but that doesn’t feature in my bar right now, so I had to make do with some “soon not to be contraband” Havana Club.  I’ve been savoring the Havana Club for years, always picking up a bottle in Europe or the Caribbean, enjoying the fact that it is an exotic addition to my bar unavailable at the liquor store.  Now that the embargo seems to be moving towards extinction, I just want to make something clear – Havana Club is ok.  Just ok.  I wish so very much that my exotic addition to the bar was also exotic tasting, and I can serve a Cuba Libre to my friends as an exotic alternative to a rum and coke that elevates the flavor to new levels.  It doesn’t.  I’m not saying it’s bad, in fact I would say it is above average, it’s just not as fantastic as I would hope.

So now if you find that I am missing, go look for me in Guantanamo Bay, because ,if I didn’t offend Cuba, I most certainly have offended US Customs.

• 1.5 ounces gold rum (Havana Club!)
• 1 ounce Cointreau
• 0.5 ounce lime juice

Shake over ice and serve in a chilled cocktail glass.

Dave’s Thoughts:

• This is a great drink, and honestly I am surprised that it is not a more popular combination.  The rum makes a great substitute to the traditional choice of tequila.
• Very well balanced, both tart and sweet simultaneously.  The rum is perfect compliment.
• If you are a margarita fan, you owe it to yourself to try this tasty alternative.

Tasting Notes:

• Dave’s Rating: 9/10
• Strength: 5/10
• Sweetness: 5/10
• I am surprised it took me this long to discover this great alternative to the margarita.

Hemmingway Daiquiri

Oh my word, three nights and three drinks.  What has the blogosphere come to?  Get over it – I’m making drinks again on a (somewhat) frequent basis.  And as always, past results are no indication of future performance.

This week my boss gave me a brown bag full of goodness to use in my cocktails.  The optimistic among you would anticipate that this was a bottle of some new and exciting liquor, but in fact, it was just a bag of limes.  Really good limes.  Less exciting, but equally useful.  While I have been telling you about all of the exciting new drinks in my repertoire from my new book, the real reason for the selections is that they all call for me to use up these delicious limes.  So, what better drink to use some limes with but a daiquiri!  Hemmingway’s Daiquiri in fact.

• 3 ounces light rum
• 1.5 ounces lime juice
• 1.5 ounces grapefruit juice
• 1 ounce maraschino liquor

Blend with 12 ounces of ice.  Serve in a Collins glass.

Dave’s Thoughts:

• Not sure if I have mentioned this before, but the Dave of Dave Drinks is not a big fan of grapefruit.
• This drink is tart and refreshing.  While tonight is a cool winter San Diego evening, I can imagine this being an excellent compliment to a warm summers’ day.
• This drink is definitely a wolf in sheep’s clothing.  The liquor hides in it’s midst, sneaking up on unsuspecting sippers.

Tasting Notes:

• Dave’s Rating: 6/10
• Strength: 5/10
• Sweetness: 4/10
• I prefer the traditional daiquiri, but if you are sophisticated and prefer a tart drink with a bit of depth, and you are not above giving yourself brain freeze, then maybe this is your drink.

Millionaire Cocktail

So tonight we are celebrating with the rich folk, and enjoying ourselves a nice Millionaire Cocktail.  For me, this is a little more “act as if” than living the reality, but we can play let’s pretend at least for one evening.  Of course, we are not going to escalate this to Ben Affleck’s level in Boiler Room… a fantastic movie by the way, that takes the same theme’s as The Wolf of Wall Street, but tones things down to a more relatable level.  Where were we again?

Tonight’s cocktail is the second from the new book, and it claims to be well balanced and delicious.  I have no reason to doubt this, as the first drink was a surprising winner.  So rab yourself some rum, some apricot brandy and some gin made with sloe berries (what exactly are those???) and let’s make a cocktail!

• 2 ounces Myers Rum
• 1 ounce sloe gin
• 1 ounce apricot brandy
• 1 ounce lime juice

Shake everything over ice and serve in a chilled martini glass.

Dave’s Thoughts:

• Before even the first sip, this drink has a beautiful deep pink color.  Looks amazing in the glass.
• The deep molasses flavor of the Myers is the glue that holds this together in the background, never dominating, but always present.
• The initial hit is sweetness that slowly transitions to the tartness of the lime.

Tasting Notes:

• Dave’s Rating: 9/10
• Strength: 6/10
• Sweetness: 7/10
• I am not sure that drinking one will make you a millionaire, but it tastes damn rich to me.  We have a winner.

Canteen Cocktail

I guess the 12 days of Christmas were clearly oversold as I didn’t get to 12.  I certainly made more than 12 drinks, I just got lost somewhere in the festivities.  Next year I will have to pick up with the remaining 9 cocktails of Christmas.

Speaking of the fat guy in the red suit, today’s drink comes from one of my Christmas presents from the wife – The Joy of Mixology.  This has the potential to be another great source of recipes, and is very highly regarded – so as we continue the adventure we will have to see.

So enough banter, the drink of the night is the Canteen Cocktail.  I have to say, looking at the contents, this is a drink I would not immediately be drawn to as I am not a fan of either Southern Comfort or amaretto, but I must continue on in the name of Dave Drinks.  Let’s see how the first drink of 2015 does…

• 1.5 ounces white rum
• 1.5 ounces Southern Comfort
• 0.5 ounce amaretto
• 0.5 ounce lime juice

Combine ingredients and shake over ice, serve in a chilled martini glass.

Dave’s Thoughts:

• Except for the rum, each element of the drink can easily be identified in the taste, and I actually have to say, the taste of both Southern Comfort and amaretto are both well received.
• A sweet drink, but far from sickly so, this has the potential to sneak up on you if you have a few.
• If I were to describe a sip – starts with amaretto, middle is SoCo and the end is tart  lime.  The white rum is forgotten.

Tasting Notes:

• Dave’s Rating: 8/10
• Strength: 6/10
• Sweetness: 7/10
• I am amazed how much I like this drink – I really was expecting this to be a solid 4/10, who knew!