The Iconic 80's COSMOPOLITAN Cocktail

UPDATE 2021The CosmopolitanLike Sex and The City, it's time to do it again . . .

Welcome back, ladies!!

Born in the late 1980's, the Cosmopolitan is an iconic cocktail in drink history which was inducted into mass happy hour culture by another icon, HBO's Sex and The City television series.

Recognized as an important part of cocktail history the Cosmopolitan, aka Cosmo, is sadly reviled by current cocktail folk. When mixed properly it is a delicious, soft pink (not red) drink that has been ruined by cheap ingredients, sour mixes and lazy bartending over the decades since its inception.
Classified as a sour, the Cosmopolitan is a modern descendant of The Daisy, a vintage cocktail made with gin, Cointreau, lemon juice, and raspberry syrup.
Like most classic drinks, the Cosmopolitan's history has a murky background. During the late 70's to mid 80's versions of this modernized take on Ocean Spray's famous Harpoon cocktail, were scattered from San Francisco to New York to Miami with almost as many claims to its creation. Both Cheryl Cook and John Caine were serving Cosmos in the eighties, with Cook being the accepted originator of the name, but the currently accepted Cosmopolitan recipe is credited to Toby Cecchini who, after being introduced to a version by Melissa Huffsmith, added the Citron and first served his version at the Odeon in Manhattan in 1987. The citrus flavored vodka is the essential ingredient as that is what distinguishes this cranberry and vodka cocktail from other vodka cranberry drinks like the Cape Cod and the Ocean Spray label recipe of the Harpoon.
The Cosmopolitan. It's time to do it again,  but do it right; with Citron Vodka, fresh lime juice, Ocean Spray cranberry juice and Cointreau.

The COSMOPOLITAN 
INGREDIENTS 1-1/2 Oz Vodka Citron 1/2 Oz Cointreau 1 Oz Cranberry Juice 1/4 Oz Fresh Lime Juice
Garnish: Lime Wedge
Tools: Cocktail Shaker
Glass: Martini (Cocktail)
DIRECTIONS Add all the ingredients to a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake well and double strain into large, chilled cocktail glass. Garnish simply with a lime wedge.
VOICEOVER VIDEO WITH INGREDIENTS AND INSTRUCTIONS:

OR HOW ABOUT JUST A SPOONFUL OF COSMO? Try something new and give my molecular approach to this classic a try.
National Cosmopolitan Day is May 7th.
Updated 12-2021 PLEASE DRINK RESPONSIBLY

The GOLD NUGGET, A Chocolate Bourbon Cocktail

When I'm out and about I am always looking for any kind of goodies for my cocktail recipes. I love hunting for unique and vintage cocktail glasses as well as interesting barware and tools, but I'm especially on the lookout for fun new garnish ideas. When I recently stumbled on some chocolate gold nuggets my mind went immediately to the California Gold Rush. A whiskey based cocktail was definitely indicated so I snatched those nuggets up like an impoverished gold miner and headed back to my bar.

Typically gold prospectors drank their whiskey neat, but I'm all about the cocktail, not just a few fingers of hooch, so that called for a few additional ingredients. There is a Gold Rush Cocktail but it's basically a whiskey sour and I wanted to feature the chocolate in the nuggets so I replaced the lemon and simple syrup with a chocolate liqueur. To play up the bitter conditions and results of most prospectors efforts, and to balance the sweetness of the liqueur, I added a bitter amaro element with some Fernet and some cocktail bitters.

The GOLD NUGGET COCKTAIL
INGREDIENTS 2 Oz. Bourbon or Rye Whiskey 1 Oz. Bols White Creme de Cacao 1 Bar Spoon (tsp.) Fernet Branca 2 Dashes Coffee Bitters 1 Dash Orange Bitters
Garnish: Chocolate Golden Nugget Candy, Orange Twist
Tools: Mixing Glass, Bar Spoon
Glass: Rocks
DIRECTIONS Chill glass in freezer. Add the ingredients to an ice filled mixing glass and stir with a bar spoon for 30 seconds. Strain over ice into the chilled glass, garnish and serve.
Historical Gold Rush Saloons Tidbit: One of the interesting things that's always stuck with me about the California, Klondike and Colorado gold rushes were tales of the fortunes of gold dust under the floors of the saloons near the mother lodes. In the California gold rush, prior to the opening of the San Francisco Mint, placer prospectors often paid for their dime shot of whiskey with a pinch of gold dust from their poke sack. The barkeep would reach in the sack and take a pinch between thumb and forefinger, considered roughly the equivalent of ten cents. In this transfer (and through other means) tons of gold dust apparently sifted down and through the wooden floor boards of gold mine era bars and reports are that many an enterprising bartender or saloon owner mined more gold than many prospectors. There's even a reference to this in the Clint Eastwood movie musical Paint Your Wagon.

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CARROT COCKTAILS

For some reason most people, myself included (as you will see below), tend to bring carrots to use in the bar at Easter. It makes sense because carrots are a spring vegetable, but in our modern world they are available year-round, are very healthy and have a sweet earthiness that works well with many spirits. Carrots also come in a wide array of colors and pair well with a number of herbs and spices, making it a versatile and naturally beautiful colored juice for drinks. It's past time we should give the carrot a little more happy hour respect.
The most important thing to remember when making a carrot cocktail is to use fresh carrot juice, and to use that juice immediately as the flavors and nutritional value begin to break down almost immediately. After that the sky's the limit on creative carrot cocktail choices.

CARROT COCKTAILS
BUNNY TRAP CARROT CAKE COCKTAIL CARROT CAKE MARTINI CARROT COLADA DRUNK BUNNY
International Carrot Day is April 4th, Carrot Cake Day is February 3rd.
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JELLY BEANIE MARTINI

You can't have Easter happy hour without a jelly bean cocktail, right? How do you make an Easter Jelly Beanie Martini? First, steal the jelly beans from your kids' Easter baskets ...

The
Easter
JELLY BEANIE
MARTINI

INGREDIENTS
1/2 Oz. Strawberry Vodka
1/2 Oz. Raspberry Vodka
1/2 Oz. Pineapple Rum
1 Oz. Coconut Water
Splash of Lemon Juice
1 Tsp. Coconut Honey Syrup*

Garnish: Multicolored Easter Cake Sprinkles, Multicolored Jelly Beans

Tools: Cocktail Shaker, Hawthorne Strainer

Glass: Coupe

DIRECTIONS
Dip the rim of your martini glass into the coconut cream and then into the Easter cake sprinkles. Chill glass in the freezer.
* Mix 1 teaspoon of Honey Ridge Honey Creme Coconut with 1 teaspoon of hot water for the coconut honey syrup.
Put 1 of each color of jelly bean onto a cocktail pick and set aside.
Add the ingredients to an ice filled cocktail shaker and shake until well chilled.
Strain into the chilled glass and set the jelly bean loaded cocktail pick across the glass rim to serve.  

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JELLY BEAN MARTINI

 
This Jelly Bean Martini is basically a playful adaptation of a Champagne Cocktail which is a bitters soaked sugar cube with Champagne poured over the top.  I just twisted things around and used jelly beans infused into the vodka as my sugar element instead of a sugar cube.  You then get an extra kick in the vodka from the flavor of the jelly beans.
P. S. I use Jelly Belly jelly beans in both my garnish and my Jelly Bean Vodka because they are made from natural fruit flavors instead of artificial flavorings.
Plan ahead for this one because you'll need the whole day to make your own Homemade Jelly Bean Vodka, then, at happy hour, it's just a simple matter of adding some bubbly and a few dashes of cocktail bitters. You can use a combination of jelly bean flavors like my recipe below, or you can get very specific on your cocktail flavor by simply choosing one, two or three flavored jelly beans. One of my favorite flavors was the fresh pear Jelly Belly and the hot buttered popcorn Jelly Belly was wildly delicious too. Pick a flavored bitters that complements the jelly bean flavor(s).

  The
JELLY BEAN
MARTINI

INGREDIENTS
1 Oz. Homemade Jelly Bean Vodka
3 Oz. Dry Champagne
2 Dashes of Angostura Orange Bitters

Garnish: Jelly Beans

Glass: Cocktail (Martini)

DIRECTIONS Make your Jelly Bean Vodka in the morning.Chill your glass in the freezer for about 10 - 15 minutes. Tap in the bitters.
Pour in the jelly bean vodka then top off with the chilled Champagne.
Garnish with a few of your favorite jelly beans.
I also have a fun JELLY BEANIE MARTINI for Easter!  

Updated 4-2019
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MOMMY'S (Boozy Bourbon Chocolate Soda) SIPPY CUP!

When you become a mom your time ceases to be your own. There is rarely a moment in your day that doesn't include kid stuff and you sometimes forget how to adult. This can make happy hour a fond but distant memory, an oasis of time and cocktails that seems to be relegated to singles and the lucky few who can afford a nanny/manny.

Picking up scattered toys, wiping gooey faces, handing out juice boxes, washing sippy cups and folding the latest trendy toddler togs is fine for most of the day, but sooner or later you're going to need a little "me" time and a sippy cup all your own. You need something sinful, loaded with chocolate and energy and spiked with booze because you deserve it, you need it and you should have it. So let's get you that little moment of time and alcohol before you implode and run away from home, shall we?

Schedule nap time right around happy hour, call in the childcare reinforcements as your temporary mom stand-in and give yourself a well deserved break from motherhood. Set out the ingredients, get your comfy zone ready and start sipping away. And if one or more of the little cherubs inconveniently wake up or wander in asking what you're sipping on, just shoo them back to dreamland or temp mommy.

"No, honey, this is MOMMY'S  (Boozed Up Chocolate Soda) SIPPY CUP!"
INGREDIENTS 1-1/2 Oz. Homemade Toasted Maple Walnut Bourbon Cold Pepsi (or Coke) 1 Oz. Chocolate Syrup 7 Dashes Coffee Bitters Pinch of Smoked Salt
Garnish: Chocolate covered potato chip topped with the bourbon infused walnuts (from the homemade bourbon), biodegradable paper straws
Tools: Bar spoon
Glass: Tall glass stein
DIRECTIONS Fill your stein with ice. Add in the chocolate syrup, the salt, the bourbon and the bitters then stir. Top off with the cola. Stir again for about 15 seconds. Add the chocolate covered potato chip on top of the ice then add the bourbon walnuts on top of the chip. Slide in the straws and serve.
I have to thank my new friend and neighbor, Trista, for the inspiration for this recipe. Not only does she have 3 children, but she and her hubbs are also busy creating a sustainable space for their family. Working, rearing kids, raising their own food and helping out their neighbors in their spare time is their  lifestyle. That always deserves a cocktail or two in my estimation so I made her this and promise more in the future!

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BASEBALL COCKTAILS for Opening Day

Every Spring all other sports must make way For the Boys of Summer to come out to play. It's as American as apple pie, or so they say, And we need some BASEBALL COCKTAILS for Opening Day!

The COOPERSTOWN COCKTAIL
INGREDIENTS  1.75 oz gin 0.75 oz vermouth 0.75 oz dry vermouth 2 Fresh Mint Sprig Garnish: Mint sprig and orange twist Glass: Cocktail (Martini) DIRECTIONS Chill glass. Stir the ingredients, including 1 mint sprig, in a cocktail mixing glass filled with ice, strain into chilled glass, garnish with 2nd mint sprig and orange twist.

TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALLGAME (aka The Peanuts & Cracker Jack Cocktail)
INGREDIENTS 2 Oz Whiskey 1 Oz Frangelico  1 Oz Amaretto ¼ Oz Squeezed Lemon Juice Pinch of Sea Salt 4 Oz Club Soda  Garnish rim with a handful of finely crushed Cracker Jacks. Glass: Highball DIRECTIONS Rim glass in lemon then dip in the Cracker Jacks, chill glass in freezer. Add the whiskey, Frangelico, Amaretto, lemon juice and salt to an ice filled cocktail shaker, shake until cold then strain into an ice filled glass and top off with the soda.

The  YANKEE COCKTAIL
INGREDIENTS 2-1/4 Oz Gin 3/4 Oz Orange Flavored Brandy Splash of Orange Juice Glass: Coupe DIRECTIONS Pour all ingredients into a shaker filled with ice. Shake well, then strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

The BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS (aka The Mickey Mantle Cocktail)
INGREDIENTS 1 (or more) Shots of Brandy Splash of Kahlua Cream This is directly from a Sports Illustrated article written by Mickey Mantle written in 1994 called "Time In A Bottle" where he discusses his battle with alcoholism.

HAPPY OPENING DAY!

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