Piña Verde

Credit: Erick Castro, Polite Provisions

Ingredients

1 1/2 oz Green Chartreuse
3/4 oz cream of coconut
1/2 oz lime juice
3 chunks frozen pineapple
1/2 cup ice
mint garnish

Directions

Blend everything and garnish with mint.

Notes

Once again, Green Chartreuse in a tiki drink is bright and refreshing! The only catch—it was tough getting any coconut. I’m not sure if it’s the coconut cream itself, or lack of coconut rum, but I’d like to find a way to make the coconut shine through a bit.

Through generosity and lucky circumstances, I came into possession of a KitchenAid blender with a motor that means business. We still love our workhorse NutriBullet, but the KitchenAid nails the perfect texture for a frozen blended drink! There’s a blended drink setting with a cute tiki glass icon—it both crushes ice and aerates the drink.

Lesson learned: for blended drinks, use frozen pineapple instead of pineapple juice for a less diluted drink.

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Campari and Aranciata Rossa

Ingredients

2 oz Campari
6 oz San Pellegrino Aranciata Rossa
1-2 sprays Aftelier Blood Orange Essence Spray
orange peel garnish

Directions

Build in a collins glass. Add ice, orange peel, and spray the top.

Notes

Gorgeous color—the blood orange soda is a deep orange/pink, and of course adding the Campari makes the whole thing jewel-toned. The blood orange oil spray is truly the pure essence of blood orange, and adds a marvelous aroma. It’s bitter, sweet, refreshing…and I imagine would be equally fantastic as an apéritif, at brunch, or with pizza.

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Chartreuse Swizzle

Credit: Marcovaldo Dionysos

Ingredients

1 1/4 oz Green Chartreuse
1 oz pineapple juice
3/4 oz lime juice
1/2 oz John D. Taylor’s Velvet Falernum
mint and nutmeg garnish

Directions

Add ingredients to a collins glass and fill with crushed ice. Swizzle with a lélé or bar spoon until the outside of the glass frosts. Add more crushed ice, so there’s a layer of ice topping the drink. Serve with a straw. Garnish with a mint sprig and fresh nutmeg.

Notes

Oops, I forgot the garnish! Even so, wow, good ice work just makes this drink so awesome. I crushed the heck out of smaller ice cubes with a wooden mallet and my Lewis bag, and while I’m waiting for my lélê from Cocktail Kingdom, the bar spoon worked fine for swizzling, and it’s so fun seeing the glass frost up. The key is adding that top layer of crushed ice—it looks beautiful with so much ice packing the glass.

Moving on to the taste—herbal and tart—this would be a great drink for summer, but is perfectly fantastic before dinner in November.

…and didn’t note until after drinking this that Green Chartreuse is 55% ABV. So, be careful with this one!

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Hot Toddy

Credit: Jeffrey Morgenthaler

Ingredients

1 1/2 oz Elijah Craig Small Batch Bourbon
1 oz ginger syrup
3/4 oz lemon juice
1 tsp allspice or pimento dram
3 oz boiling water
orange peel garnish

Directions

Heat a mug with hot water, then empty it. Add all ingredients in the mug, stir, and give it a final zap in the microwave if needed. Garnish with the orange peel.

Notes

Despite forgetting the garnish, this was great. Quite spiced—an upgrade from bourbon, honey, lemon, and water. I made this after trying 3 different cocktail recipes that I didn’t care for (Batida de Milho Verde, Arbitrary Nature of Time, and Leilani Volcano 2.0), getting tired, and just wanting to collapse on the couch with something warm. This was comforting and easy to drink. I’m curious to try this with spiced rum, or short-cut this with American Honey.

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Ginger Syrup

Credit: Jeffrey Morgenthaler, citing Thad Vogler

Ingredients

8 oz peeled chopped ginger
8 oz granulated sugar
8 oz boiling water

Directions

Mix ingredients together and let sit for a bit, to avoid blending boiling water. Blend, strain through a fine mesh sieve, then through a coffee filter to remove any small particles.

Notes

Finally—a ginger syrup that tastes like ginger! Couldn’t be easier.

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Pimm's Cup

Ingredients

Version 1

1 oz Pimm’s No. 1 Cup
4 oz San Pellegrino Limonata
orange slice

Version 2

1 oz Pimm’s No. 1 Cup
4 oz Fever Tree Ginger Ale
4-5 cucumber slices
lemon slice
several mint leaves

Directions

Build in a collins glass and add ice.

Notes

Verdict: version 2!

I made version 1 of the Pimm’s Cup in travel mugs, as we were walking out the door to go trick-or-treating for Halloween. Refreshing and easy to drink—I make this a bit less strong than the official Pimm’s 1:3 ratio. Limonata is pleasantly bitter.

I made version 2 tonight, and just loved it. The cucumber is essential I realize, as is the mint. I’d like to play around with orange, lemon, and even strawberry as is the official recipe. It’s like a slightly alcoholic iced tea. And when you finish your drink, you can fill the glass with water, and that tastes fantastic too.

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Cynar and Limonata

Ingredients

1 oz Cynar
4 oz San Pellegrino Limonata
lemon wedge

Directions

Build in a collins glass. Add ice and garnish with a lemon wedge.

Notes

Limonata is cheaper and easier to find than lemon tonic water, and just as refreshing. It’s a bit sweeter though.

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Cereal Milk Café au Lait

Ingredients

2 oz cereal milk
6 oz coffee

Directions

Froth hot cereal milk in a mug, then add hot coffee.

Notes

When I started drinking this hot, it tasted like a nice mug of milk and coffee, but I couldn’t taste the cereal milk unless I spooned froth off the top. However, when it cooled down a bit, the Corn Flakes came though. It’s also a nice proportion of fat, as this cereal milk is 1 part cream, 4 parts milk. In the future, I’d save the cereal for drinking in mixed drinks with alcohol that enhances the flavor—such as American Honey, Mellow Corn, or maybe even Biscotti liqueur—as I think coffee mutes the flavor too much.

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Cynar and Lemon Tonic

Ingredients

1 oz Cynar
1/2 6.8 oz bottle Fever Tree Sicilian Lemon Tonic Water
lemon wedge

Directions

Build in a collins glass. Add ice and garnish with a lemon wedge.

Notes

Bitter and refreshing! I’d read about mixing Cynar with lemon soda. I have yet to pick up some San Pellegrino Limonata but had the tonic water on hand. At 16% ABV, the Cynar makes this the equivalent of 1/4 of a glass of red wine—an easy drink to have before dinner! It looks like iced tea.

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Bittersweet Sicilian

Credit: Brad Thomas Parsons, Amaro

Ingredients

1/4 cup Talenti Coffee Chocolate Chip gelato
1/4 cup Talenti Salted Caramel gelato
3/4 oz Amaro Averna
1 tsp malted milk powder
whipped cream
caramel drizzle and cherry garnish

Directions

Blend the gelato, Averna, and milk powder. Squeeze a thin layer of whipped cream on top, then add a caramel drizzle and cherry.

Notes

So, not to put the entire meaning of life in a drink, but wow, this drink is GOOD. I didn’t do the caramel drizzle (even though I did have homemade caramel sauce), because, sugar, but I did add a Bordeaux cherry, a bit less sweet than a Luxardo. The Talenti coffee gelato is on the bitter side, which pairs so well with the caramel. I try to make as small a portion as possible—the recipe calls for about 3 times this much—then I split it with my husband. This way, I can have these more frequently. In theory.

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Branca Menta Cooler

Credit: Brad Thomas Parsons, Amaro

Ingredients

1/2 cup Talenti Mint Chocolate Chip gelato
3/4 oz Branca Menta
whipped cream
chocolate shavings and fresh mint garnish

Directions

Blend the gelato and Branca Menta together and pour into a glass. Squeeze a thin layer of whipped cream on top, then add chocolate shavings and a mint sprig.

Notes

Mint chocolate chip ice cream was always my favorite as a kid—along with peppermint stick, which for whatever reason is much easier to find on the East coast. So this drink might be my favorite dessert drink. The Branca Menta adds a bitter edge to cut the sweetness of the gelato, without making it boozy. I shared this with my husband but next time I’m doubling the amount all for myself.

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Magari

Credit: Brad Thomas Parsons, Amaro

Ingredients

1 part Branca Menta
1 part Meletti Cioccolato liqueur

Directions

Build in a glass over ice.

Notes

Just like a fancy Thin Mint.

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Amaro Root Beer Float

Credit: Brad Thomas Parsons, Amaro

Ingredients

1 1/2 oz Amaro Ramazzotti
3 oz A&W Root Beer
1/2 cup Talenti Madagascan Vanilla Bean gelato

Directions

Build in a chilled collins glass. Serve with a straw and spoon.

Notes

A sophisticated root beer float. I bought Ramazzotti after I did the amari tastings, but I’d probably put it toward the top of easy to sip on its own, as it definitely has root beer notes along with citrus and spice. I’d be curious to try other root beers.

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Cereal Milk Punch

★ Original Cocktail ★

Ingredients

3/4 oz Wild Turkey American Honey Liqueur
1/4 oz Mellow Corn Whiskey
3 oz cereal milk
grated nutmeg for garnish

Directions

Stir ingredients and pour over a large ice cube. Grate nutmeg over the top.

Notes

This is fantastic, but took some trial and error. I first tried a recipe with bourbon, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract, which made the drink too boozy and interfered with the sweet, toasted flavor of the milk. Then I found another recipe with bourbon, corn whiskey, and Bärenjäger honey liqueur. Using what I had on hand—and adhering to my preference for less boozy drinks—I first tried mixing just the milk with American Honey liqueur. I could taste the cereal milk, but almost no booze. Just 1/4 oz of that Mellow Corn 100-proof Bottled in Bond corn whiskey does the trick!

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Mintonic

Credit: Branca Distillery

Ingredients

1 oz Branca Menta
1/2 tsp brown sugar
juice from 1/2 a lime
several mint leaves
4 oz Fever Tree Indian Tonic Water

Directions

Muddle mint leaves with the brown sugar, lime juice, and Branca Menta. Add tonic water and ice.

Notes

So refreshing and easy to drink! Easily a favorite before or after dinner.

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Campari Orange Float

Credit: Brad Thomas Parsons, Amaro, citing Pam Wiznitzer

Ingredients

1 1/2 oz Campari
3 oz Sunkist orange soda
1 small scoop Talenti Madagascan Vanilla Bean gelato

Directions

Build in a chilled collins glass. Serve with a straw and spoon.

Notes

Wow, this is pretty awesome. I like how the drink gets sweeter as you sip on it. Without ice cream I’d keep the Campari at 1 oz but the extra 1/2 oz works here. And of course, it’s gorgeous to look at.

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Smoked Maple Manhattan

Credit: Modernist Pantry, Foodlyn

Ingredients

2 oz Maker’s Mark Bourbon
1 oz Dolin Vermouth Rouge
1/2 oz maple syrup
2-3 dashes Angostura bitters
1/16 tsp monosodium glutamate (MSG)
2 sprays Alice & the Magician Autumn Bonfire cocktail aromatic mist
Luxardo cherry garnish

Directions

Stir bourbon, sweet vermouth, maple syrup, bitters, and MSG with ice. Strain and pour into a chilled coupe glass. Add cherry and spray with the aromatic mist.

Notes

This was rather smooth considering the alcohol content! The aromatic spray is spot on. I like sweeter drinks so I went heavier on the maple syrup; some recipes call for 1/4 oz. I’d be curious to try it with and without the MSG to compare.

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Junior Mint (Grasshopper)

Credit: Difford’s Guide

Ingredients

1 oz Tempus Fugit Creme de Cacao
1 oz Tempus Fugit Creme de Menthe Glaciale
1 1/2 oz whole milk
1/2 oz heavy cream

Directions

Shake and strain into a chilled coupe glass.

Notes

I used Simon Difford’s recipe for lightening up this drink from the traditional equal parts creme de menthe, creme de cacao, and heavy cream—above is the equivalent of 1 oz each half and half and whole milk. However, when you upgrade to Tempus Fugit spirits, the old-school grasshopper becomes something much more refined. First you taste pure, fresh mint, creaminess, then sweet chocolate. It’s the cocktail version of a Junior Mint.

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Cafè Corretto

Credit: Brad Thomas Parsons, Amaro

Ingredients

1 espresso
1/2 oz Amaro CioCiaro

Directions

Add amaro to espresso and enjoy.

Notes

This was such a happy moment. We had dinner with friends, who fortunately have an espresso machine. I’ve never been a huge fan of espresso as it’s too bitter—I typically have coffee with soy milk. I only added 1/2 oz of amaro since I don’t like drinks too boozy—however Brad Thomas Parson’s Amaro recommends equal parts espresso and amaro.

I can’t think of a more perfect pairing! Looking forward to trying amaro in coffee.

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Tasting: Amari

The Flight

Amaro Averna (29% ABV)
Amaro CioCiaro (30% ABV)
Cynar (16.5% ABV)
Amaro Montenegro (23% ABV)
Amaro Nonino Quintessentia (35% ABV)

Notes

My husband and I did a blind tasting of all these amari by placing stickers on the bottom of mini glasses, and putting about 2 teaspoons of each one over a mini ice cube. It was fun removing any potential biases and just tasting each one!

The Verdict

The amari fell into a spectrum of ones we could sip, and ones that would do better in concert with other ingredients in a cocktail. Really, only the Cynar was a bit vegetal to sip on its own, but can’t wait to try it in a cocktail. So, in that order:

Amaro CioCiaro
Amaro Montenegro
Amaro Nonino Quintessentia
Amaro Averna
Cynar

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