Recipe Rants

Just like a crystal. Steve Casey’s bubbly number presents more than one stunning face to its beholder (right in line with the light and dark duality of aged rum). On one side, an earthy depth entices with the flavors and aromas of fig, honey, and espresso. But then, like magic, a flood of energy flows in from a ginger beer made with pineapple, mango, and passion fruit. It’s a rum punch’s worth of elements uniting for an easygoing cocktail that’ll shimmer and sparkle to the last drop!

Ingredients:

Espresso salt

1 ½ oz aged rum

½ oz honey-fig syrup

3 oz tropical ginger beer

Shaken

Collins glass

Instructions:

1. Spread ¼ of the bag of espresso salt out on a plate. Wet a small piece of a paper towel (or use a squeezed citrus rind) and run it around half of the rim of the collins glass to wet it. Drag and twist the glass across the plate so that half it’s rim gets coated in salt.
2. Add the rum and syrup to a shaker. Fill the shaker with ice cubes and shake vigorously until it is ice-cold and shows frost on the outside (15-30 seconds).
3. Strain the shaker’s contents into the rimmed collins glass over fresh cubed ice, then top with the tropical ginger beer, stirring softly to combine.

Enjoy!

Baileys S’mores Jar Recipe:

Simply pile graham crackers, toasted marshmallows, and melted chocolate into a glass jar and drizzle Baileys on top. Then dip your spoon in to savor the delicious layers of flavor.

The great benefit of choosing vodka as a base, something which even its biggest detractors often admit, is that, due to its crisp and unobtrusive nature, there’s no better way to celebrate supporting ingredients and create a strong overall concept for a cocktail. So it’s no shock that Chelsea Santos, who rarely if ever reaches for the spirit herself, has taken this opportunity to ruminate on the Italian style of liqueur-spiked expresso turning it into a peppy profile reminiscent of a personal favorite combination: cold brew and Campari. In lieu of liqueur, vodka soaks in a wide range of flavors, including coffee, cherry, bitter orange, chocolate, and vanilla for a lazy morning jolt that can only come from a cup of dreamy java.

Ingredients

2 oz. vodka

1 oz cherry-vanilla cold brew syrup

¼ oz orange spritz syrup

4 dashes (not drops) of chocolate mole bitters

1 spritz of orange oil

Method

Stirred

Rocks Glass

Instructions

Add the vodka, syrups, and bitters to a dry mixing glass. Fill the glass with ice and use a bar spoon to stir until the mixing glass feels ice-cold (20-40 seconds, depending on ice size).

Double strain into a rocks glass over fresh cubed ice

For the aromatic finishing touch, spray the orange oil over the top of the drink. If you’d like to and have one on hand, add a cocktail cherry on top of the drink as a bonus garnish.

As if chocolate could not get any tastier, the Mexican tradition of infusing cacao with chilis, nuts, and spices dates all the way back to the ear;y Mayan civilization. This old-fashioned-inspired cocktail will keep the full expression of bourbon loud and clear with just a whisper of warmth, coming from Mexican chocolate and coffee to prove that old adage true once and for all; when in Kentucky, do as the Oaxaxans do.

Ingredients

2 oz bourbon

1/4 oz Oaxacan chocolate syrup

3 dashes of barrel-aged coffee bitters

small pinch of chili threads

Method

Stirred

Glass

Rocks

Instructions

Add the liquid ingredients to a dry mixing glass. Fill the glass with ice and ice a bar spoon to stir until the mixing glass is ice cold. Strain into a rocks glass over a large ice cube. For the aromatic finishing touch, place a pinch of chili threads just on top of the ice cube.