{friday cocktail: doc daneeka royale}

The new Death & Co Cocktail book just strolled into our place and claimed its spot as my all time favorite cocktail book.  It's not only filled with tons of inspiring cocktail recipes, but also intriguing behind the scenes stories at the NYC bar, chapters dedicated to understanding how to truly craft the perfect cocktail including building your bar and troubleshooting, and even an entire 5 or 6 pages dedicated to cocktail garnishes.  Most of these cocktails require a little shopping to get the right ingredients so the first cocktail I decided to try out of the book was based solely on having all the ingredients on hand (doesn't hurt that it's a sparkling cocktail as well!).  I love how this recipe is a take on one of my favorite champagne cocktails, a French 75, but with more emphasis on the gin.  This light and refreshing recipe is a great drink to greet guests with upon arrival at your place.

And if you don't order this book for yourself ASAP then you are doing it wrong....

Cheers!

{friday cocktail: rose derby}

I have yet to drink an herbal based cocktail I didn't like especially anything with lavender, but rosemary as an ingredient comes in at a close second!  We happened to have a ruby red grapefruit and fresh rosemary on hand so I whipped up a quick gin cocktail based off of a Brown Derby cocktail.  I added in some honey syrup since it's the best part of my favorite cocktail (the very first cocktail post on this blog!) and muddled in the rosemary to give it an interesting herbal note. 

Cheers!

{friday cocktail: spicy paloma}

A while back I posted a recipe for a refreshing Dill Paloma recipe that was my go to recipe at one of our fave bars in downtown Los Angeles and believe it or not I haven't had a Paloma since the last time I was there!  Seeing this recent party on The Glitter Guide inspired me to try out a new Paloma recipe, but this time I put a spicy twist on it:

Cheers!

{friday cocktail: fennel delight}

One of my favorite things about growing up in southern California is the smell of bonfires on the beach while driving down PCH; it's a very specific smell that conjures up memories of s'mores and summer nights.  You would think given my affinity for that smokey scent that I would love drinking cocktails with the ultra smokey flavor that Mezcal tequila has, but try as I might I just cannot get into it.  To me it's like candy corn- every year it comes around and you try one thinking you might like this time around, but its still gross and makes you reach for a glass of something to wash the taste away.  Anyways Chris loves Mezcal, so I made this cocktail as a labor of love just for him.  It might appear to be fruity and pink, but the heavy smoke taste of the Mezcal mixed with the licorice flavor of the fennel makes this cocktail quite manly.  You can see the original recipe here which I have modified slightly to make it a little less sweet.  

Cheers!

{friday cocktail: grapefruit whiskey sour}

It feels really good to be back to relaxing at home with Chris making cocktails after our insane wedding weekend and honeymoon.  This recipe is a simple twist on a whiskey sour using grapefruit instead of lemon and adding an egg white. 

Cheers!

{friday cocktail: cardamom rose}

If you didn't get enough of all the pink and red-hued cocktails surrounding Valentine's day last week then you are in luck because this Friday's cocktail is not only soft pink in color, but one of it's main ingredients is rose syrup (lets just keep the Valentine Day train rolling for as long as possible shall we?).  This recipe comes from a bar in Philadelphia called Apothecary (which is now closed) and you can see the original recipe here.  You will need to whip up a batch of rose water syrup for this cocktail by following this recipe and you should be able to find rose water at any local middle eastern grocery supply or right here.  Another option is to substitute the home-made rose water syrup with a pre-made rose flavored syrup like this one.  This is a very light cocktail, the flavors of the grapefruit and cardamom are very subtle while the rose syrup really steals the show.  Here is my slightly modified version of the recipe: