Raspberry Lava Flow

After my first ever dolphin banana garnish I was not about to let the banana go to waste once the cocktail was gone. So I looked for a drink with banana and came across the tropical Hawaiian drink called Lava Flow.

I liked the look of it and figured raspberry would both taste great and look equally as cool as the strawberries it is traditionally made with.

Easy peasy to make in a blender:

• 6 cl white rum - I used Plantation 3 Star
• 12 cl pineapple juice
• 2 cl coconut cream
• a small ripe banana

Put everything in a blender with ice and blend until it's smooth as a milk shake. Pour into tall glass and rinse out blender:

• Handful of frozen raspberries 
• juice of 1/2 lime

Blend and pour on top of drink - use a wooden skewer to force the flow of raspberries down the inside of the glass.

Serve with a straw.

Violet Kai

Spring has far from sprung in these parts, and the vacations people with school children enjoy in February are called winter vacation, not spring break.

But I do understand the brief for this month's Mixology Monday - to imagine what libations conjures up spring.

Joel of the Southern Ash blog puts it this way in his announcement post:

As we look past the frost in the air for the arrival of spring, I wanted to challenge you with the theme of Spring Break!..  The best part of Spring Break is that it means so many things to so many different people, so I have some high expectations this month.  Yes, tiki-heads, I am looking at you. I want all of you to dig deep, steeled by last month’s MxMO, and find your spring break drink! What sort of drinks do you enjoy when you start to break out of your winter shell? Do you crave a return to gin and tonics? Is there a drink that calls to you as the weather warms and the sun creeps through the sky longer and longer?  Perhaps there is a drink that you fondly recall from your days of being a callow youth on Spring Break that led you down this primrose cocktail path?.. This is the month to to share those warm weather finds!

I hardly qualify as a tiki-heads but I can not overlook the fact that the 22nd is Don the Beachcombers birthday - he would have turned 109 today.

So I did surf around in the Total Tiki app looking for some cocktail with ingredients signaling spring - in Denmark.

Rhubarb and violets are some of the sure sign of spring at latitude 56 N.

I came across Dons Royal Daiquiri and that got me thinking - so I present Violet Kai, named in honor of a dear colleague who is retiring in a weeks time and who will be missed for being a truly decent human being and for his amazing, smooth voice - yes I work in broadcasting where voices matter.

• 3 cl light rum - I used Plantation 3 star
• 3 cl golden rum - I used Appleton Signature blend
• 6 cl white grapefruit juice - I do not think it will work with pink grapefruit juice
• 0.75 homemade pineappe syrup - cook fresh juice with equal parts organic cane sugar
• 1,5 cl creme de violette - I used the one from Bitter Truth
• 1 cl coco creme - Coco Lopez of cause

Add all but 0,75 cl of the creme de violette to a shaker, fill it with ice and shake hard. Strain into highball glass filled with crushed ice. Float the last of the creme de violette on top and serve with striped straw and perhaps a fresh flower if you can find one. I could not.

Universal Soldier

On one hand this drink is a failure, on the other it is rather tasty.

It's a failure because I wanted it to be clear to show off the lemon flavored cocktail sugar and the sour armyman that my friend brought me back from her first trip to the US.

So I learned the hard way that even 1/4 oz or 0.75 cl lemonjuice is enough to make a cocktail cloudy.

Other than that the taste is quite close to Tom Walker's amazing Maid in Cuba which blew me away two Tales of the Cocktails away.

And yes it's named after Buffy Sainte-Marie's song - who by the way also co-wrote Mr. Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes' big hit Up where we Belong </showingoffwithuselesstrivia>

• 6 cl white rum - I used Plantation Three Star
• 0.75 cl clear creme de menthe - I used Tempus Fugit Spirits Creme de Menthe Glaciale
• 0.75 cl lemon juice
• 6 cl clear cucumber water - I used Qcumber 

Shake everything with ice and strain into lowball glass with a rim of yellow cocktail sugar. Add a green sour armyman. 

Rhubarb Rum Fizz

I spent Sunday in training camp trying to figure out what sour I wanted to make for Mixology Monday. As the theme of Sours, Daisies and Fizzes is of my own making I figured for once I would stick to a recipe and made myself a Penicillin.

It's a drink I love - and have made previously. I still adore it's medicinal taste from the ginger, the honey and the peat from the float. However as I mixed number two to be absolutely sure it was going to be my contribution, I realized two things: I can't stomach two cocktails each containing 1 oz of lemon juice anymore and I don't do well with recipes for MxMo. (Realizing I'm too old for 2 ounces of lemon is almost as traumatic as being too old for raw onions, I might add.)

My mood turned further foul when my attempt to make souffléd potatoes - tasted them last year at French 75 in New Orleans when I was there for TOTC - failed spectacularly. Although I closely followed the steps shown in this video out of 11 potatoes two puffed slightly, the rest turned into very crisp rectangular potato chips. I had envisioned a brilliant picture of puffed potatoes and the golden-yellow Penicillin. (The reality is at the bottom of this post - I had to hide the potatoes behind the chipotle mayo and the cocktail)

So I decided to postpone my decision until today and drink some milk to settle my stomach.

And then this morning I knew what I wanted to make. A rum riff on The Ramos Gin Fizz with egg white and cream to mellow out the two types of citrus and some rhubarb soda and violet liqueur for taste and color. And for anyone new to The Ramos, this video is all you need to be in the know.

So I present the Rhubarb Rum Fizz (and then I close my blog as adviced by Doug over at The Pegu Blog but I hope he shows leniency when he reads of my sour troubles):

• 4.5 cl white rum - I used Banks 5 Island
• 1.5 cl lime juice
• 1.5 cl lemon juice
• 1.5 cl simple syrup
• 6 cl cream
• 0.5 egg white (my egg was huge)
• Dash of violet liqueur - I used Bitter Truth's
• Rhubarb Soda

Mix the first seven ingredient in a shaker - this is one of the few drinks I break out my Boston shaker for, as I feel I have more control over a cobbler with my short arms - start by dry shaking for as long as you can manage and then add the ice. Again shake as long and as hard as you can and then strain into a Collins glass or another tall glass. Finally add the Rhubarb Soda and enjoy.

Also remember to drink to Fred over at Cocktail Virgin Slut who keeps MxMo alive.

)

Skinny Middle Manager

Yes, the name is a joke, and no it is not a diet cocktail.

I've been admiring Barbaras Aperol Tequila Swizzle all weekend. A very pretty and tasty sounding drink. My only problem is that I really don't like Aperol.

But the image stayed with me, as I was challenge by a middle manager at work to make him a cocktail with the name Skinny Middle Manager.

So here is how a figured a drink in honor of all those middle managers who put up with someone like me day in and day out should be mixed.

Coffee - can't have management without caffeine, but I couldn't imagine mixing Kaluha and Aperol, so I went with an espresso syrup made from 2 oz espresso cooked with 2 oz sugar.

Aperol - moderne, talked about, very bleeding edge and it tasts really bad too.

Next i wondered what kind of base spirit to use - something macho like bourbon, or something more androgynous. I went with white rum.

Next something healthy - middle managers have to take care of their bodies or they won't become senior managers - I decided on coconut water. And finally it seemed obvious to make the cocktail as a highball with seltzers - as highball is sort of cocktail code for long winded.

• 6 cl white rum - I used Plantation 3 Star which may explain why I never get a pay raise
• 3 cl Aperol
• 3 cl coconut water
• 2 cl coffee syrup
• Seltzers

Shake the first four ingredients with ice and then strain the cocktail into a highball glass with plenty of ice - top it of with seltzers and add your most bling cocktail stirrer to impress the boss.

And strangely enough it does not tast half bad - pretty good actually. The coffee taste works wonders on the Aperol.

Maid in Cuba

During my visit to Tales of the Cocktail I wrote home to a friend, that I hadn't tasted a single cocktail that made me go wauw! And that is still true. However now that I'm home there was one, I couldn't quite forget.

It was served during a very interesting seminar about the relationship between forbidden absinthe and the Savoy hotel in London.

Absinthe connoisseur Alan Moss has counted 108 recipes with absinthe in the Savoy Cocktailbook and he and Eric Lorincz and Tom Walker had some interesting insights into how the green fairy made it's way to London in spite of the ban.

And to demonstrate that the American Bar at the Savoy has an enduring love affair with absinthe we got a taste of Tom Walkers creation Maid in Cuba.

A cocktail inspired by both the Mojito, the Daiquiri and one of my all time favorite new classics Audrey Saunders' Old Cuban.

Since the weather is almost tropical here in Denmark, I figured it would make an excellent sundowner, not that the sun sets this early in the far north but it does disappear from my patio around 6 pm.

• 6 cl white rum - I used Plantation 3 star
• 3 cl lime juice
• 1.5 cl simple syrup
• Absinthe rinse
• 3 slices cucumber - and 1 for garnish
• leaves from a sprig of fresh mint
• seltzers

In a shaker add cucumber, mint, rum, lime juice and simple syrup. Shake hard with ice but do not muddle cucumber and mint.

Give a chilled low ball glass an absinthe rinse and double strain cocktail into it. Top up with seltzers and garnish with the last cucumber slice.

This cocktail has a very endearing chlorophyll taste, very much a summer drink. However the next time I'll not add the water and I'll serve it up in a coupe.

The Red Vulcano - MxMo LXXIV

I have so looked forward to this months edition of Mixology Monday - as the host I got to choose the theme of cherries and I also managed to secure one of Cocktail Kingdom's Navy Grog Cone Kits.

That gave me so many options.

The inspiration to the Red Volcano I found in a drink by Hardeep Rehal (sorry in Danish only but try Google Translate) who is head bartender at bar 1105 in the center of Copenhagen.

His Musa Daiquiri is basically a banana daiquiri mixed on aged rum and garnished with dried parsley.

It got me thinking and this is what I ended up with:

• 6 cl white rum - I used Plantation 3 Star
• 3 cl lemon juice
• 1,5 cl gomme syrup
• 3 cl Frederiksdal Cherry Liqueur - similar to Cherry Heering
• 1/4 very ripe banana
• 1 teaspoon dried parsley (I dried it in my oven at 75C for about an hour and then pulverized it) 
• 1 ice cone

Get your cone ready before mixing - just fill it with crushed ice and let it freeze for an hour with the metal straw inserted to make room for a drinking straw.

With a muddler smash the banana in the lemon juice, rum and gomme syrup. Add ice and shake until the banana is completely mixed into the liquid and all is very cold.

Insert straw into cone and place it in a glass,  than strain cocktail over it without soaking the part sticking out.

Next drip the cherry liqueur over the top of the cone to imitate hot lava and sprinkle the dried parsley for an deforestation imitation.

Enjoy!

Hawaii O - Mixology Monday

As a child I did not much like chocolate. Most of my little school friends liked milk chocolate and most adults liked dark chocolate. I found the first overly sweet and the latter too bitter.

I preferred liquorice - the black, salty kind.

But then I tried a Hawaii ring. A candy shaped like a slice of pineapple out of the Del Monte can - consisting of a pineapple tasting jelly center coated with dark chocolate.

I loved it.

For some reason I thought about this candy, that has long been discontinued, when I read the theme for this months Mixology Monday.

I asked Stewart - the gracious host - of the party if it was okay to invert candy into cocktail and got the go ahead.

So here is my contribution - a liquid dessert:

• 6 cl white rum (I used Banks 5 island white rum, but a slightly drier white rum would be a tiny bit better)
• 3 cl white creme de cacao
• 12 cl fresh pineapple juice
• Dash of Bitter Truth Xocolatl Mole Bitters

Shake everything over ice, double strain into a cocktail coupe and garnish with freshly grated dark chocolate.

Enjoy and thanks for hosting Stewart! (For some reason I always imagine that the hosts of Mixology Monday try all the cocktails people come up with and then set to work on the write-up;) )

Lavender Rum and Tonic

Firstly let it be known, that I do not usually make or drink cocktails at 1 pm on a weekday, but I had to, if I wanted to participated in this weeks Mixology Monday.

I thought it long gone, and did not discover until late last night, right before bedtime, that it had been postponed, so today was my only chance to mix and garnish.

Secondly, please disregard that for the second time the Ginhound participates with a rum drink.

I wanted to show of my first truly successful batch of tonic syrup, once that was decided the rest was simple.

On two earlier attempts I have used a recipe developed by one of my cocktail heros, Jeffrey Morgenthaler.

It's not that those two tonic brews did not turn out well really, it's just that they spoiled before I finished them, at there was just an overall too busy taste going on with them between the citrus and the allspice.

Then I stumbled across a recipe that takes tonic back to the basics. It's extremely quick and easy to make and the result is startlingly good. Without the citrus and just the balance between quinine and sugar this tonic is tart, refreshing and a darn good canvas.

It's so good in fact that I will most likely drink most of it sans booze because it's just that thirst quenching and palate pleasing.

Todays drink is a long drink - a summers drink, but the sun actually shines in Denmark on this fine day:

• 4 cl white rum - I used Banks 5 Island Rum
• 20 cl tonic water (I mix 1 part of my syrup with 4 parts lightly carbonated water)
• Dash of lavender bitters
• And a squeeze each of lemon, mandarin and lemon

In a lowball glass add ice, rum and tonic, then add the lavender bitters and squeeze the citrus over the glass so that a fine spray coats the top.

Garnish with a line of citrus rind sails on a short stick. (And if that is not grandiloquent enough I will pretend I don't know what the word means).

Hemingway Daiquiri

A scruffy looking man enters a bar to use the facilities, notices a lovely looking drink on his way out, asks for a sip...and the rest is history.

Because the man was Ernest Hemingway and the bar was the Floridita in Havanna, Cuba.

Rum expert Matt Robold makes a very convincing argument that a Hemingway Daiquiri and a Papa Doble is not the same in this essay.

Another great essay about the origins of the Daiquiri and the Hemingway special is found here.

I just figured, that since I had to kill a whole, lovely grapefruit for my drink, using a teaspoon full of the juice was a waste:

• 6 cl white rum
• 2 cl grapefruit juice
• 1 tsp lime juice
• 1 tsp gum syrup
• 1 tsp Maraschino liqueur

Shake everything with ice and strain into glass filled with crushed ice, garnish with a wedge of grapefruit or a slice of lime and add two bar straws.

White Rum and Lemonade

Denmark is under a - short probably - tropical spell at the moment with rare temperatures around 30C. Lemonade is such a wonderful way to cope with heat and a little booze added does not ruin the effect:

• 6 cl white rum, I used Plantation 3 star
• 12 cl homemade lemonade *
• Rhubarb bitters (Angostura would be good too)

Everything is stirred with ice until very cold.

Lemonade: I use a non cook recipe that I have found at Smitten Kitchen once. Basically freshly squeezed lemon juice is mixed with Maple Syrup at the ratio of 2.5:1 - maybe a little less than one actually. And then water or slightly carbonated water is added to taste. I like my lemonade strong - and my boozy lemonade boozy, but it is so easy to work out your own golden ratio.

Rum Ting (without Ting)

Even in a temperate climate like the Danish with no heat wave on the horizon a tall, cold drink can be the only thing that keeps a day from being a total write off.

Today is just such a day.

So a Rum Ting to the rescue. Only problem: I have yet to source Ting.

But I do have freshly squeezed pink grape fruit and sparkling water.

• 6 cl rum - I used Plantation Three star White Rum
• 6 cl freshly squeezed grape fruit juice*
• 14 cl sparkling water *

Fill a tall glass with crushed ice - beating the h... out of the ice in a Lewis bag is very satisfying on a day like this - add the rum and the juice.

Stir until the glass is frosted and then add the sparkling water. Garnish with a sprig of mint - add straws and a green monkey. 

* Or 20 cl (2 dl) Ting

Strawberry Daiquiri

Pretty soon I will have to rename my blog Gin and Rum Hound. But the weather in Denmark at the moment is just perfect for iced rum drinks.

The Strawberry Daiquiri holds a special place in my heart. 35 years ago when I was an exchange student in the suburbs of Seattle the elder sister in the family I lived with came home for a weekend and for some reason she, her three sisters and I had a whole evening to ourselves.

As the cool college student she was, she and one of the sisters somehow in spite of being underaged sourced the stuff for Strawberry Daiquiris.

We felt very grown up, as we sipped them and made spaghetti with garlic bread and swore the youngest to secrecy.

I don't have any blood sisters but over Strawberry Daiquiri they became exactly that and this summer I'm meeting two of them in New York where I'm in charge of finding the good bars ;)

So to work - and just out of curiosity I checked in my cocktail books, not a single one of them lists this marvel:

• 6 cl white rum
• 2 cl lime juice
• 4 strawberries 
• 1 cl orange Curacao

Start by smashing the strawberries in the lime juice and the Curacao at the bottom of a nice glass. Fill it with crushed ice and the rum and stir to cool and mix. Garnish with a strawberry.

La Florida

A few days ago Tiare of A Mountain of Crushed Ice dazzled me with colored ice eggs - an idea she got a few Easters back from Camper English who resurrected it this year.

I knew I wanted to make some, but was also wondering what kind of cocktail would show them off.

This afternoon as I browsed through The PDT Cocktail Book I was intrigued by the mix of white creme de cacao and white rum i La Florida while I also imagined an egg would look good in it, so I set about my mixing.

And I have to say - as someone who enjoys The 20th Century cocktail  - La Florida was almost as good. And one of those Tiki-drinks that keeps sneaking up on me.

However to my palate gin adds an extra edge to the creme de cacao - but La Florida would make a wonderful hot summer evening cocktail.

• 6 cl white rum
• 1,5 cl creme de cacao
• 1 cl dry vermouth
• 2 cl lime juice
• teaspoon grenadine *
• Colored ice egg **

Pour first five ingredients into cocktail shaker over ice and shake well. Place colored ice egg in chilled cocktail coupé and strain cocktail into coupé.

*Grenadine - In saucepan boil twice as much juice from fresh pomegranate as sugar for 5-10 minutes. Let cool and then add dash of orange blossom water (or rose water) and dash of vodka. Bottle and keep in the fridge.

** Colored ice eggs - mix food coloring with water in as many colors as your want - remember blue and yellow makes green and blue and red makes lillac - then rinse and test inflate the appropriate number of balloons. Using a funnel pour colored water into balloons and suspend them from stick across freezer drawer. Wait at least three hours. Rinse eggs as you free them from balloon to minimize risk of rubber taste in cocktails. The process looks like this: