Chuhai
As the weather starts to warm up, cocktail desires turn from heavy and dark drinks to lighter and fruiter ones. However, overly sweetened, overly fruited, overly blasé versions are the type that give all fruit cocktails a poor reputation. That won’t do; it won’t do in America; it won’t do in Japan; it won’t do anywhere. Speaking of Japan, here’s a good on from the Land of the Rising Sun: Chuhai!
Monkey Gland
Back in the not so halcyon days of the Roaring Twenties, doctors used to perform some — let’s say — interesting procedures. Procedures like grafting the skin of fertility inducing spots from animals onto people. It was a thing, factual and true (look up Dr. Serge Voronoff to see). Odd, yes, but these peculiar practices did inspire some great cocktails, such as our winner for today the Monkey Gland.
The World’s Best Sweet Tea
Regardless of if it’s hot, cold, windy, rainy, dreary or amazing outside, being an eternal optimist (an internet quiz told me so), I prefer to think of everything as great, ideal and requiring an exceptional drink to celebrate everything being awesome. An exceptional drink worthy of toasting good times? Sweet tea! Not to say toasting alcohol free is a problem, but sometimes you’ve earned a special treat like moonshine. Oh yes. Hello to The World’s Best Sweet Tea!
Cocktail Tonic
I like to argue that a good cocktail is medicinal. When you think about it, people use alcohol to clean wounds externally, so really, internally it should do the exact same thing. Yeah, I know this is a specious argument, but I like to pretend. That’s not to say you can’t infuse your drink with health-inducing qualities, such as Chinese herbs and ingredients. To that, we turn to the Cocktail Tonic!
Kir Royale
Sometimes, you want to up your fancy cocktail game with an awesome champagne cocktail. I like to call those days “weekdays” personally. For you, it might be a special occasion, have some left over champagne from a party or just want a sexy little bubbly number because why not. Well then, have a Kir Royale!
Bellini
Ah New Years. If you’re like we are, you probably stayed up late last night recreating one of your favorite meals from the year (for us, it was Danish style hot dogs) and drinking champagne. Party animals, that’s us. However, because we do stay up late (hey, midnight is late!), the next day is always brunch — meaning an opportunity for a cocktail. This year, it’s Bellini time.
White Christmas Cocktail
Confession: I’m a big Christmas fan. I love the decorations, (much to Alice’s chagrin) the music, the tree, the movies, the lights, the whole of everything. One of my favorite holiday movies is “White Christmas” because, come on, Bing and Danny! How can you go wrong? Well, this year I decided that watching wasn’t good enough, we needed a drink to go with it. Hence, the White Christmas Cocktail!
Homemade White Crème de Cacao
Sometimes, you need chocolate. Ok, I’m kidding. You always need chocolate. That’s probably true if you replace “you” with “me” or “I” — as I always need chocolate. Some of my favorite cocktails, treats, candies, cookies or pretty much anything you can name are chocolate based. However, sometimes, especially when we’re talking cocktails, you don’t want a dark crème de cacao. Sometimes, you need a light one. Dissatisfied with sugary sweet store versions, we set out to create our own Homemade White Crème de Cacao!
Glühwein
When Alice and I visited Denmark recently, I knew she was in for a treat. We’ve been around the world together — Thailand, Japan, China, Peru and even New Zealand, but we’d never been to Europe with each other. As it was October (and heading into November) in Scandinavia, it was cool (shock of shocks). I’m happy to admit when we visited Tivoli one of our favorite treats was Glühwein! Here’s our version.