Number Two in my Stephen King flight. This one was obvious, in reference to The Shining. This is one of the ones chosen for the night, but I might modify it a bit before full release.
Tag: champagne
Under the Dom (Perignon)
My friends are theming their annual Halloween party after Stephen King’s opus this year, and they asked me to do a few cocktails. While I can’t actually make as many as I came up with for the party itself, I couldn’t resist the puns, and I tested most of them out at home. So here we go! Note: I’m not putting news in these because I feel like the Halloween tie-in is close enough.
The French .45
Last weekend, our friends hosted a Speakeasy party, and we were tapped to provide the drinks. For those of you that don’t know (most of you, I assume), Speakeasy is a party game where you lie to each other (always fun) and try to figure things out about the other team without knowing who’s actually on which team, and obviously lends itself very well to having 1920’s theme decor and comestibles.
Since I didn’t want to be stuck behind the bar the whole time, I opted for two batched drinks, attempting to satisfy both those guests who wanted a lighter, fruitier drink and those who wanted something a little more spirit-forward. Both of these ended up rather on the first end of that spectrum, but I was okay with that. This one, the French .45 (like the gun) represented “The Feds” in the game, and is apparently the more original recipe for a French 75 (usually with gin). The second drink, the Al Capone, was obviously for “The Mob” and, well, you’ll just have to take a look at that post to find out.
Some not so great news coming out of the French town of Grasse yesterday, when a teenager committed a school shooting, which is rather uncommon outside of the US. The silver lining is that no injuries were considered life threatening.
A Toast!
2016 was probably not the best year. A lot of bad stuff happened, but there was a lot of good stuff too.
I, for one, managed to churn out more than my goal of 52 posts, so that was fun for me — and hopefully for you too. I learned more about how to make drinks, what to do and what not to do, and what flavors or combinations are probably best left in the 1800s.
So, on to the next one. Here’s to the year that passed, the year that is coming, and that each one will always be better than the last.
Happy New Year!
110. Champagne Cocktail
Another variation on the Old Fashioned theme, this one a little more out there than the others. Why? Well, it’s exactly the same but with champagne instead of a hard liquor. So it adds bubbles and sweetness, among other things. A very different experience.
Apparently this year’s Champagne harvest was very bad, so we could see increased prices and limited supply in the coming years! Horror of horrors! Luckily, the wineries tend to have a big reserve, so it shouldn’t hopefully have a gigantic impact. But we’ll see…
12. Champagne Punch
We were going to have a dinner party a few weekends ago. The party didn’t end up happening, due to the flu (LOOK OUT!), but that meant we had a lot of ingredients lying around. So why not still make a drink? We weren’t the ones that were sick, so we could have all the alcohol we wanted.
Easy to find news this week. A 78-year-old Trump supporter punched a protestor for essentially no reason at a rally on Wednesday. Thankfully, he’s now been charged with assault and disorderly conduct, even though he wasn’t detained at the event itself. He said, after he punched the protestor, “We don’t know who he is, but we know he’s not acting like an American…. The next time we see him, we might have to kill him.” I will refrain from being political. Mostly. Let’s hope Trump never drinks champagne to celebrate a nomination.
12. Champagne Punch
(Per bottle.)
- 1 quart bottle of wine. [This is, annoyingly, 1.25 750ml champagne bottles. I ended up roughly proportioning everything else in 4/5ths as well. My guess is it would work fine if you just took this as a regular champagne bottle.]
- ¼ lb. of sugar. [~half a cup.]
- 1 orange sliced.
- The juice of a lemon.
- 3 slices of pineapple. [I took this to mean rings? Up to you.]
- 2 oz. raspberry or strawberry syrup. [I used the syrup I made for the Brandy Punch!]
- Ornament with fruits in season, and serve in champagne goblets.
- This can be made in any quantity by observing the proportions of the ingredients as given above. Four bottles of wine [So five of OUR bottles] make a gallon, and a gallon is generally sufficient for fifteen persons in a mixed party. For a good champagne punch [Umm… Is this one NOT good? Sending mixed signals here, Jerry.], see “Rocky Mountain Punch,” No. 43.
Tasting Notes:
BN: First, we really need champagne glasses… I liked this a lot. He stuffs a lot of his drinks (or at least the punches) full of fruit, which is often a little much for me, but all of these have worked out well so far. It actually tastes very different from the brandy punch, which is surprising since it’s almost the same exact ingredients. I wish it were a little bubblier, and a little less sweet, but that could just be the André.
PiC: I really liked it. I imagine it’s a deadly drink because it’s very sugary and doesn’t taste at all like alcohol. It’s almost like drinking a juice. Plus, it’s very pretty – almost a rose gold which is very trendy right now.
The Congratulations, Princess – Royal Baby is Born
One very important thing happened today — I learned that I don’t have normal champagne flutes in my house. Also, the new royal baby was born to Prince William and Kate! Hurray for the monarchy, God save the queen, and all that jazz. In honor of the as-yet-unnamed baby princess, I give you the Congratulations, Princess (which you would feel silly ordering at a bar but might anyway, because it’s pretty good).
Champagne is for celebrations, pink is for girls (only traditionally, of course), and also these are the ingredients I happened to have around. Enjoy!
The Congratulations, Princess
- 3 oz fresh-squeezed ruby grapefruit juice
- 3(ish) strawberries
- 6 oz champagne
- Dice strawberries (reserving one for a garnish) and muddle in a mixing glass with the grapefruit juice. The ratio is about one strawberry for every 2 ounces of juice, maybe err on the side of more juice.
- Strain juice/strawberry mixture into a (real) champagne flute.
- Pour in champagne; if you want a larger or smaller drink the ratio is 2 parts champagne to 1 part juice.
- Slice the remaining strawberry into, well, slices, and use one as a garnish.
- Eat the rest of the strawberries.
- Enjoy, while imagining what your life would be if you were a member of the royal family.
Tasting Notes:
BN: This is not dissimilar to the Academy Awards drink I made a while ago, but still very enjoyable. As I noted above, I could have used a little more grapefruit in this, as the strawberry was a strong flavor, but it was a very nice brunch drink, something I enjoyed much more than regular mimosas, which are okay but not amazing. In general, I think I need to work on making drinks with all sorts of crazy ingredients, but in this case, a three ingredient cocktail is perfect.
PiC: This is probably my favorite drink so far. This is delicious and I could drink it all day.
The Red Carpet – The Academy Awards
It’s the Oscars! Time for me to lose $10 with my extremely researched ballot that never manages to win. In the meantime, let’s drink to all of the nominees, and the winners-to-be.
When I think of the Oscars, I think of gold, red, and actors and actresses drinking weird health drinks. I also wanted to try alcoholic kombucha, and this was an excuse. Not that bad!
The Red Carpet
- 1/4 oz ginger syrup (I’m still trying to use this up)
- 1 oz strawberry kombucha (I used GT’s Strawberry Serenity Kombucha, which is presumably one of the few that exist)
- 2 oz champagne
- red glitter/sprinkles
Dip a champagne flute in the ginger syrup, and rim it with the sugar sprinkles. Mix the kombucha, champagne, and syrup in a separate glass (lightly stir, since they’re bubbly), and then pour it into the glass over the back of a spoon (this makes it easier not to mess up the rim).
Tasting Notes
BN: I really liked this! It was sweet and strawberry-y, and brought together the three tastes in a surprising way (I thought the kombucha was very strawberry itself, but it wasn’t really, not without the other flavors. They actually built on each other very nicely. It’s a tad sweet for something I would drink every day, but for a special, movie-related occasion, it was perfect!
PiC: This was awesome – so pretty and sweet but not too sweet with just a tiny hint of the ginger. I would drink a thousand of these and then be dead. In fact, make me another one right now.
The Boozy Newsie 