Me and Him

Adapted from "Me and Her" recipe in the January/February edition of Imbibe magazine but with there being no Scotch* in the house and me doing the mixing on this one I changed the name slightly.

1.5 oz Highwest Whiskey Double Rye
1 oz Black Bush Irish Whiskey
.75 oz Fresh Lemon Juice
.5 oz Crème de Cassis
.25 oz Campari
Club soda
Lemon twist

Combine all the ingredients except the club soda and shake with ice. Strain into ice filled glass and pour the club soda over it. Garnish with lemon.

* We spell our whiskey with an 'e' in this house!

Honey I Drunk the Whiskey

Made this on a cold Thursday night and was tempted to call it "Sweet Jesus, is it not Friday yet!" but thought better of it. I had half a Meyer lemon left over from what I was cooking and it inspired a honey and Meyer lemon simple syrup - as in, melt about two teaspoons of honey with a little hot water and add the juice of half a lemon. All it needed was whiskey and there was some Powers Gold Label within easy reach!

2 oz Powers whiskey (My Dad's tipple)
1 oz Honey and Meyer Lemon Simple Syrup
Ice

Stir or shake and enjoy with ice and slice. 

Blonde Irish

Is it too late for a St. Patrick's Day cocktail? Never!

Being from Ireland and blonde, I liked the name of this cocktail Irish Blonde and we had all the ingredients on hand - well near enough anyway. It called for Michael Collins blended Irish whiskey - we had Jameson, Orange Curaçao, we only had the blue one but we had Cointreau, La Ina Fino Sherry? A dry cooking sherry might suffice and only Angostura orange bitters. For garnish, we had clementines but no oranges and instead of a flamed orange peel we went with a twist after nearly burning the tips of our fingers.

I guess when you look at it we had none of the ingredients (hence the slight change in name) but we did have the chilled martini glasses and the right thirst for whiskey.

2 oz Michael Collins Blended Irish Whiskey

.75 oz Orange Curaçao

.25 oz La Ina Fino Sherry

1 dash Regans’ Orange Bitters

Garnish: Flamed orange peel

Glass: Martini

Catcher in the Rye

 

It's baseball season. Should you tire of the beer and hot dog, try one of these.

1 1/2 oz Sazerac rye whiskey
1 oz yellow Chartreuse
1 oz fresh lime juice
Dash of agave nectar
Little lime twist for garnish

Shake all the ingredients in a shaker with ice and serve well chilled. Now play ball.

Irish Coffee

I'm keeping it real on St. Patrick's Day - afterall, I am from Ireland.

1 part Irish whiskey
3 parts hot black coffee
1-2 tsp sugar
Lightly whipped heavy cream

Dissolve the sugar in the coffee and add the whiskey. Heat the spoon in hot water and pour the cream slowly over the back of the spoon. The cream is supposed to lay straight on the top and the hot whiskeyed coffee is sipped through the coolness of the cream.

Never shaken. Never stirred.

 

Blackthorn Bush

It's March, let's get the whiskey out!

1 part Irish whiskey (Black Bush)

1 part dry vermouth (Molly Prat)

A splash of pastis (Ricard)

A dash or two Angostura bitters

Mix in shaker over ice and pour over a cherry in a cocktail glass. 

If Ireland was an island off Southern France this would be the perfect drink there.

Hot Whiskey

Not a cocktail per se but on these damn frigid cold evenings it’s the perfect pick-me-up-and-wrap-me-in-a-blanket kind of drink! It's rare the person in Ireland who doesn't want one when those little chills set in. Whether medicinal or not, it's definitely comforting.

For the classic Irish preparation you will need:
Glass and spoon (obviously you say but the spoon is important!)
1 1/2 -2oz decent whiskey - Irish of course i.e., whiskey spelled with an 'e'.
Tsp of brown sugar
Slice of lemon
5-6 whole cloves
Just boiled water from the kettle.
It's rare the kitchen in Ireland without an electric kettle.

Stud the slice of lemon with the cloves.
It's rare the bar in Ireland in winter that doesn't have the lemons ready.

Mix the sugar with whiskey and pour in the hot water with the spoon in the glass - this helps not to shatter the glass. The more water you use the hotter (and weaker) the drink.

It's rare the person in Ireland who calls them anything but a hot whiskey (instead of 'toddy').

Hicko-rye Cider

1 1/2 part Sazerac rye whiskey
1 part St. Germain
1/2 part lemon juice
1/2 part hickory syrup
1 part apple cider
After thought: 1 part cava (I wanted the bubbles so if you have a more effervescent apple cider it would do the trick I think)

We have this hickory syrup made from the bark of Virginia hickory trees that we are experimenting with in cooking (so far it's good with pork!) but we thought it might do something good in a cocktail too.

And yes, it does.

Grand Autumn

I've never been a fan of bourbon but was told I was drinking the wrong kind (i.e., the cheap stuff!) so I have been making amends. I'm pleased with what I'm tasting and this is a grand drink to taste it in.

2 parts rye whiskey
1 part St. Germain
3/4 part lime juice
Ginger beer
Optional: Dash of angostura bitters
(Copied directly from here)