Hurricane Minnie

Hurricane Minnie

We all love a drink with a history and an extra kick and it helps if it has something “witchy”  This drink was named after Minnie Castevet from one of our favorite movies, Rosemary’s Baby, and the inspiration for one of or more popular drinks, the Vodka Blush. Like her namesake the Hurricane Minnie is a pushy powerful drink that will leave you knocked out and wondering “ This is real, this is really happening”

1. 1 oz dark rum
2. 1 0z light rum
3. .25 oz 151 rum
4. .50 oz Strega
5. 0 oz passion fruit syrup
6. .50 lemon juice

Shake with ice and serve over ice in a hurricane glass

Strawberry Julep Punch

Strawberry Julep Punch

There really isn’t anything better than sharing seasonal delights with your friends and guests — we’ve waited through a long, hard winter for ripe fruits, fresh herbs and the warm weather to enjoy them. For summer deck parties, putting everything in a bowl and allowing participants to serve themselves is the best way to go. With all this in mind, the Cocktail Vultures have a new summer punch for you. You can take care of several steps in the process earlier in the day or the night before.

Amounts for this recipe depend solely upon how big a bowl of punch you want to make. We formulated it using equal amounts of the three major ingredients. If you and your guests are lightweights, you can cut back on the bourbon a tad, but not by more than half.

Prep: Minted Bourbon

To a large glass container (a big Mason jar works great), add a few handfuls of fresh mint. Add bourbon and muddle — don’t go crazy, just press it. If you’re using a Mason jar, you can seal and shake it a bit.

Prep: Strawberry Purée

To a large saucepan, add 2 pints of hulled strawberries, 1 cup of water and 1 cup of sugar. Heat gently to dissolve the sugar. Muddle the strawberries lightly, then let cool and place in a blender. Blenderize until smooth. Chill in an airtight container.

Prep: Tea

Brew a quart or two (depending upon your plans) of strong, black tea, such as Irish Breakfast. Chill.

To a punch bowl, add equal amounts of minted bourbon, strawberry purée and cold tea. Toss in a few scoops of crushed ice to get the chilling started. Stir to combine. Now add a mountain of crushed ice to the center of the bowl and garnish with fresh mint and whole strawberries.

Let frosty, fruity fun prevail!

Always drink responsibly; always drink well.

The Electric Screwdriver

Electric Screwdriver

What’s great about the Screwdriver? It’s easy to make, with readily-available ingredients: vodka and orange juice. But these can also prove its downfall: overly-medicinal vodka, and worse, fake OJ squirting out of a gun behind a bar, or glop-glop-glopping from a plastic bottle.

We say nay. The Cocktail Vultures like nothing more than a good home improvement.

Naturally, we turned to fresh fruit when we decided to make a better Screwdriver. We torqued it up a bit by adding zesty lemon and grapefruit. That lent it zing, along with floral notes. And we tossed in orange bitters because we just can’t leave well enough alone.

When choosing a vodka for this drink, open the bottle and take a deep whiff. If all you can think of is rubbing alcohol, chances are it will make your cocktail too medicinal and undermine all that fresh fruitiness you just squeezed into it.

To get the right amount of zest, which adds a wonderful fragrance, just grab your grater and draw it lightly a few times over the skin of the fruit, doing your best to only reap the colored part and not the white stuff.

To an iced shaker, add:

3 ounces freshly-squeezed orange juice
1/2 ounce freshly-squeezed lemon juice
1 ounce freshly-squeezed grapefruit juice
2-3 ounces vodka (adjust to your personal taste)
2 dashes orange bitters
Zest of grapefruit
Zest of lemon
Zest of orange

Shake it vigorously, and strain into an ice-filled highball glass. Garnish with a cherry and some fruit wheels.

Want to use your Electric Screwdriver at its highest efficiency setting? Make a pitcher of these for that brunch table or deck party.

To a large, ice-filled glass pitcher, add:

12 ounces orange juice
2 ounces lemon juice
4 ounces grapefruit juice
8-12 ounces vodka, to taste or the drinking habits of your crowd
4-5 dashes orange bitters

Stir this thoroughly and throw in some slices of citrus or a few fresh mint leaves.

Always drink responsibly; always drink well.

Gin Dilettante

Gin Dilettante
Vegetal and Refreshing, Crisp and Bright, perfectly blends with the more herbal and floral gins. We chose Hendricks for this drink. Sometimes the fresh ingredients in your kitchen just cry out to be made into a cocktail. Who are we to deny them?

To an empty shaker, add:

3-4 slices of cucumber
Sprig of dill leaves
1/2 ounce freshly-squeezed lime juice
1/2 ounce simple syrup

Muddle well. Add ice, then 2 ounces of Hendricks gin. Shake vigorously and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with fresh dill.

Always drink responsibly; always drink well.

Old Fashioned in ChinaTown

We were comparing youthful experiences with alcohol and discovered that it was not uncommon to have your first mixed drink in a Chinese restaurant. Not a sleek, spare sushi bar or even a Szechuan café — no, it was a quasi-Polynesian Chop Suey Palace with tired décor and waiters in threadbare red jackets who didn’t ask for ID.

If we could walk back into that dark and dreamy place in the Chinatown of our youth and get behind the bar, this is the drink we’d put together. Serve it with a pu-pu platter or your next bag of take-out. Try ordering one in a good cocktail bar — we think your bartender will be intrigued when you ask for “an Old-Fashioned in Chinatown.”

To an empty shaker, add:

1 heaping teaspoon canned Mandarin Oranges
2-3 chunks canned Pineapple
2 Maraschino Cherries
1 barspoon maraschino cherry syrup
3 ounces Bourbon
1 ounce homemade ginger syrup (recipe to follow)
1 heavy dash Angostura Orange Bitters
Pinch 5 Spice Powder

Muddle well. Add ice.

Shake vigorously. Strain into an ice-filled glass. Top with club soda and stir. Garnish with a cherry and pineapple spear. Another tiny whisper of 5 Spice Powder over the top of the drink adds fragrance.

Homemade Ginger Syrup

Take a generous “hand” of unpeeled fresh ginger and chop it thoroughly — alternately, hack it up and throw it in a food processor. Measure the result and add it to a saucepan along with 1.5 times the same amount of water (for example: if you wind up with 1 cup of ginger, use 1.5 cups of water). Bring to a boil then simmer for 30 minutes.

Let cool for a minute or two, then strain and measure the remaining water (I strain mine into a large heat-worthy measuring bowl). Add an equal amount of sugar (1 cup water gets 1 cup sugar) to the warm ginger-water and keep stirring until all the sugar is dissolved. If you’re not going to use it right away, add a jot of white rum or vodka as a preservative and refrigerate. Keeps for about a week.

(Quickie-Cheat: substitute  ginger ale for the club soda in the cocktail above and leave out the ginger syrup.)

Always drink responsibly; always drink well.

Widow Jane’s “Older Fashioned”

Widow Jane’s Older Fashioned

Today’s drinkers and distillers are changing their minds about rye, that very American booze formerly favored by older gentlemen with barroom tans and smelly sweaters. We recently sampled a great new rye with local provenance; Widow Jane Rye (http://widowjane.com/products/) is made with pure water from a limestone mine in nearby Rosendale, NY and distilled and aged in Brooklyn. An “Older Fashioned” seemed the best way to enjoy its smooth, dry flavor.  We call it an “Older” Fashioned due to the rich and robust flavor derived from the Cranberry and Plum compote which gives an elegant depth to the drink, as opposed to the candy counter sweetness of the standard maraschino cherries. This would be a great cocktail to hand around before or after the Big Holiday Dinner.  Cranberries aren’t just for turkey!

In a rocks glass:

Muddle an orange slice with a dash or two of Bitters (we used Whiskey Barrel Aged Bitters)  and a heaping  teaspoon of Cranberry Plum Compote (instructions to follow).

Add 3 ounces Widow Jane Rye. Stir, stir, stir.

Add your desired number of ice cubes. Stir, stir, stir.

Top up with an ounce or so of club soda. Stir, stir, stir.

Test for temperature — it should be very cold — and add a swizzle stick. Another pristine piece of orange peel may be used as garnish.

 

Cranberry Plum Compote

To a saucepan, add:

2 cups fresh cranberries
1/4 cup dried plums or other dried fruit
3/4 to 1 cup light brown sugar
Water to cover berries

Keep stirring over medium heat until the cranberries start popping their skins. Remove from heat and let stand to cool. Store in refrigerator up to 3-5 days.

The Haunted Orchard

Haunted Orchard

A flavorful cocktail that combines those seasonal elements — apples and cinnamon — and makes a perfect accompaniment to an evening of ghost stories and crackling logs.  Enjoy your stroll through the Haunted Orchard…

To an iced shaker, add:

2 ounces bourbon
1 ounce Fireball Whisky http://www.fireballwhisky.com
2 ounces apple cider
1/2 ounce freshly-squeezed lemon juice
2 dashes Peychaud’s Bitters

Shake vigorously and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a twisted strip of apple peel.

The Hudson Witch, a Strega based cocktail

Hudson Witch

Strega, that sweet, herbal liqueur from Italy, was an under-utilized ingredient until the Cocktail Vultures came along. We enjoy it not only for its witchy name and origins, but for the breath of spring meadows it lends to a drink, without the bitterness of other aperitifs and amaros. This is one of the first recipes the Cocktail Vultures concocted together, and so we gave it the name of the mighty river near our homes. It was a hit at a local charity event here in Poughkeepsie, and cast its spell over a hundred costumed revelers.

To an iced shaker, add:

2 ounces bourbon
3/4 ounce Strega
3/4 ounce lime juice
1-2 dashes bitters — we prefer aged, whisky-flavored varieties

Shake vigorously and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

Garnish with some maraschino cherries speared on a contorted twig from a spooky hollow, or just a nice plastic sword pic.

Apple Bobber

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you’ve been wondering how to work the delicious, fresh apple cider available this time of the year into your cocktail strategy, without serving up a cup of sticky sweetness more suitable for a children’s party, the Cocktail Vultures have figured it out for you. We’ve been toying with the bounty of our beautiful Hudson Valley for awhile now, using both refrigerated fresh cider from local markets, and the even-better liquid Autumn being squeezed in our very own cider press. Here’s the result of our (hic!) labor, and don’t be surprised when your happy guests start asking for another Babble Popper, or Papple Bopper, or…

To a shaker filled with ice, add:

1 ounce caramel vodka
1.5 ounces Amaretto
2.5 ounces of fresh apple cider
1/2 ounce freshly-squeezed lemon juice

Now shake that vigorously for a good 20 seconds. The density of the fruit juice needs to break up in the drink and completely emulsify with the liquors. When shaking is complete, strain the result into a rocks glass filled with fresh ice cubes. Dust with cinnamon. Add a cocktail straw and a twist of lemon. Dapple Doppers to you, too!

Voodoo Volcano

VooDoo Volcano Bowl

The original Volcano Bowl was featured at Don the Beachcomber’s — we added a little VooDoo with some Deadhead Rum and a Zombie formulation for an easy pour.

To a large shaker, add:

3 ounces Deadhead rum
3 ounces gold rum
3 ounces silver rum
3 ounces pineapple juice
3 ounces grapefruit juice
3 ounces freshly-squeezed lime juice
1 ounce maple syrup
3 dashes orange bitters
3 dashes allspice dram
A hearty scoop of crushed ice

Shake vigorously and pour unstrained into a volcano bowl filled with ice cubes. Garnish as desired; we enjoy a few pineapple slices and maraschino cherries. Add 151 proof rum to the volcano reservoir and light carefully.

Serves two to four — time to get out the loooooong straws!

Always drink responsibly; always drink well.