The Brazilian One

I can’t talk about a caipirinha without talking about my Catalan friend Anna who introduced me to them in the summer of 1994 in Siena, Italy. Apparently, they were all the rage in Barcelona that year because Ronaldo, the Brazilian soccer player, was all the rage with Barça. Anna introduced a barman to them and it was our drink of choice there – when we weren’t drinking wine that is.

It is made with cachaça rum and limes muddled with sugar and poured over ice. It’s not summer if we don’t have one or two of these.

Cheers to a great Labor Day weekend!

Flibberty Gimlet

We got a present last year of a bottle of Absolut Citron and have at last found the perfect drink to make from it – riffing the French gimlet recipe found here

2 parts Absolut Citron

1 part St. Germain elderflower liqueur (Patron saint of tasty according to Baly)

Half part freshly squeezed lime juice

This drink is hands down our favorite of the summer and makes us into flibberty gibbets. Speaking of which – we’re all going to the Sound of Music sing-a-long again tomorrow and looking forward to singing our little hearts out. We're being a little more adventurous with dressing up this year so I'll be sure to take some photos but as a sort of preview I made a t-shirt with the flibberty gibbet label especially for Eamon to wear – think he’ll prefer it to lederhosen or a nun costume.

White Poinsettia

Last year my sister, Siobhan, introduced me to a cocktail called Poinsettia and I served it a few times over the holiday season and it always went down very well. A little too well in fact when you’re drinking it and trying to get dinner on the Thanksgiving table. I believe I even served it here.

Here’s the recipe (direct from Europe with metric units!)

125 ml Cointreau
500 ml Ocean Breeze Cranberry Juice
1 bottle of Prosecco

Mix together (it’s best if the juice and Prosecco are well chilled) and pour into champagne flutes over some frozen cranberries. Easy peezy lemon squeezy.

Some time over the summer I replaced the red cranberry juice with a white one (we had lots left over after this cocktail) and it took the Christmas out of it if you know what I mean. I served it poolside and again it went down well. Some frozen raspberries would have been great in this. While this cocktail is great to serve company, I doubt myself and himself would have trouble drinking it all to ourselves.

Pastis

Sometimes all that's needed is a simple pastis with water, the latest bicycle magazine and the evening to yourself.

Pimms Cup

It’s Olympics o’clock! Nothing says London in the summer more than a refreshing ‘cup’ of Pimms No. 1 so that’s exactly what we’re planning on imbibing tonight while watching the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games. I am sure there are many ways we could mix this into some great cocktail (like this one) but I think I’ll stick to the original and have it with 7-up, citrus fruit, cucumber and a sprig or two of mint. Nice thing about this is you can make a big jug of it and drink it all night long - though I may think differently about this in the morning!

I’ll be honest about Pimms, it was never a preferred drink of mine – those summer evenings in the Pavilion at Trinity College, or times visiting friends in England watching cricket on the village green from the local pub – I usually favored beer. But tastes do change and I’m willing to give it another go!

By the way, we’ll be going for a Ruby Murray beforehand so I might partake of a beer or two too!

Sangria

For me, the perfect sangria is a refreshing fruity beverage that you can sip for hours over lunch under the hot Spanish sun and when you get up you fall over. With this in mind (and consulting many Spaniards on it over the years), this is how I make sangria:

A bottle of full bodied red wine -Spanish obviously preferable

A glass of brandy – again let’s stick with a Spanish coñac

A glass of triple sec

A whole lotta (but not too much) orange juice

Slices of fruit – whatever is handy

Lots of ice

Mix together with thirsty friends (wearing cool shirts!), food on the grill, a dry evening and kids now old enough to occupy themselves in the pool and you get a successful evening - though no-one fell over when they got up from the table.

Pinpom Fireworks

or to give it its full title - Pineapple-Pomegranate Fireworks. After cocktail #3 I went in search of something else to make with pineapple vodka – not that I wouldn’t try another couple Hawaiiah-tinis - but this summer is about variety after all and I came across this one which was perfect for the birthday celebrations over 4^th of July week.

This is what it asked for…

½ oz. Van Gogh pineapple vodka

½ oz. Van Gogh pomegranate vodka

½ oz. pineapple juice

Champagne

What we had was the SKYY vodka from last time, pomegranate liqueur and sparkling wine and I might even have left out the pineapple juice on one of the occasions I made it (eek!). Anyway – the poor man’s Pin-Pom Fireworks was born and was suitably served in plastic cocktail glasses!

When we were going this high style only the best linens and table ware would do!