In honor of St. Patrick's Day, here is a green cocktail from Kevin's Cocktail Compendium. Enjoy! HOW GREEN IS MY COCKTAIL 2 parts Beefeater Gin 1 part Midori Melon Liqueur ¾ part Ocean Spray White Cranberry juice ½ part fresh-squeezed Lime juice 3 cucumber slices (muddled) dash of Hella Bitter citrus bitters Shake everything over ice. Fine strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish by floating a thin slice of cucumber on top. And check out the VIDEO for this drink in KEVIN'S COCKTAIL MINUTE by clicking on the link below! "How Green is My Cocktail" "How Green Is My Cocktail"
I must confess, I'm a big fan of St. Germain, from the liqueur itself, to the bottle, to how it's made. (The image of those rustic men gathering the elderflower blossoms from the Alpine cliffsides, then descending with them stuffed in sacks slung over their shoulders, then mounting their bicycles and speeding off to the collection depots. It can't get much better than that.) Also, I'm a diehard New York Jets fan, so this upstart elderflower liqueur called St. Elder, made a couple hundred yards and a tight spiral away from Boston, Massachusetts... Well, you KNOW they're all Patriots fans at the St. Elder factory! Tom Brady... Pretty boy! But I decided to put all that aside and give this an ho
There are so many instances of Teddy Roosevelt's badassitude. From his exploits in the American West, to San Juan Hill, to the arduous trek through the Amazon that nearly killed him (not to mention that his mother and his wife both died on the same day). But for me, the best Teddy Roosevelt badass story is when he was campaigning for a third term as President. On his way to the podium to deliver a speech, an assassin burst through the throng and shot him. The bullet went through his coat, his spectacles case, and the 50-page speech he had folded in his coat pocket, lodging in his chest. However, being a military man, he ascertained immediately that it hadn't penetrated his lung, so with unpa
The 1976 Formula One season was one of intense excitement and controversy, as arch-rivals James Hunt and Niki Lauda battled throughout, with Hunt winning the World Championship in the final race by a single point.* Being an avid F1 fan, in honor of these two champions and this season for the ages, I've created this cocktail. *After making this drink, you can check out what inspired it by watching the excellent BBC documentary Hunt vs Lauda: F1's Greatest Racing Rivals, and Ron Howard's 2013 film Rush (with my friend Jack Morgan's favorite actor, Chris Hemsworth; Jack's third book of poetry coming soon: The Chris Hemsworth Sonnets). See BLOG post for March 6, 2017: A Drink For Jack Morgan o
Since last summer, I have been working on perfecting my own version of a Margarita, and it was realized in February (just in time for "National Margarita Day") with the addition of "the secret ingredient". When creating a cocktail, it is often the subtle final flourish that brings it all together—that unexpected addition, that splash of liqueur, that dash of bitters—and suddenly it's complete, like a painting after that final brush stroke, when you stand back, nod your head, and smile to yourself, content. ¡Eso es! MANNY’S MARVELOUS MARGARITA 2 parts Tres Agaves Tequila Blanco 1/3 part Yellow Chartreuse ("the secret ingredient") ¼ part Cointreau ¾ part Tres Agaves Organic Agave* Nectar 1
Amsterdam is my favorite place in the world. The canals, the houseboats, the architecture, the history, the people riding bicycles, the way it feels like a global village. And of course, Tess Posthumus and Door 74 (see The Making of a Mixologist, the BLOG entry for March 2, 2016). In keeping with my love affair with all things Amsterdam, I've created a cocktail in its honor... AMSTERDAM 1½ parts Cîroc Redberry Vodka ½ part Sauvignon Blanc wine ½ part Chambord ½ part Triple Sec ¼ part fresh-squeezed Lime juice liberal dash of Hella Bitters citrus bitters. Shake everything over ice, then pour into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a lime wedge. "Amsterdam", the cocktail. Amsterdam, the
Recently, I celebrated the invention of my 200th cocktail, which I will share with you now. My first cocktail was created in the summer of 2012, and now, almost four years later, here is Number 200, from Kevin's Cocktail Compendium. A blonde sexpot of a drink, that’s sultry, sexy, beguiling, and French. Enjoy! BRIGITTE BARDOT IN A CONVERTIBLE 1 part Reyka Vodka 1 part Green Chartreuse ½ part Domaine de Canton ½ part St. Germain ½ part fresh-squeezed Lemon juice 1 part Ocean Spray White Cranberry juice Shake everything over ice, then strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a sexy lemon peel. Brigitte Bardot in a convertible. "Brigitte Bardot in a Convertible"... th
Perhaps no drink in the annals of, well, drinking, has inspired such experimentation as the simple martini. Its origins are hazy. Somewhere back in the 19th Century—perhaps in San Francisco; perhaps in New York City—there are rumors of a drink made with "half a wine glass of Gin, half a wine glass of Vermouth." This, of course, is a half century or so before the iconic “martini glass” was even created, which now at times defines the drink itself over its contents.* (More about this in a moment.) But then sometime around the 1920s or 1930s, the “dry martini” began to be defined by famous urbane alcoholics such as Winston Churchill and H.L. Mencken. Churchill was said to “whisper the word Verm
Stills from the episode "The Italian Job", from KEVIN'S COCKTAIL MINUTE. Click on the link below to watch... "THE ITALIAN JOB" Thanks to my beautiful Italian friend Fabi, who told me that my drink has the same colors as Rome's football team. Salute, Fabiana!
We live in what may be called a Golden Age of Vodka, where from the point of view of the mixologist, anything goes. Certainly we are light-years from the days of bottom-shelf two-buck Popov and OJ concentrate. Today, the shelves at the liquor store extend from one end to the other, from top to bottom, loaded with every imaginable kind of vodka, from the steadfast veterans like Stoli, to the up-and-comers like Tito's. There are vodkas made from potatoes, wheat, rye, corn, rice, grain (including barley and oats), sugar beets, grapes (like Cîroc), herbs and fruits, honey, sugar cane, horseradish, and even a Filipino vodka made from coconuts. And then there is the legion of infused and flavored
One of my favorite cocktail creations is a drink of elegant simplicity called "The 21st Century". It makes its first official appearance in my memoir: TALES OF INSOMNIA DESPAIR & THE PERFECT COCKTAIL. What follows is a brief excerpt from the book (slightly amended): I think of that Hitchcock thriller, North By Northwest. And the train, The 20th Century Limited, the luxury liner that went from New York City to Chicago. It existed in a time when travel was romantic and exotic and the stuff of mystery suspense novels and Hollywood movies. And such was the allure, that in 1937, a British bartender by the name of C.A. Tuck created a drink called “The 20th Century”, after the eponymous American t
Need you ask? And FYI, Richard Nixon drank Chateau Lafite Rothschild by the bottle and got looped on martinis. A Complete List of Every President's Favorite Drink (click on link) Cheers!
I must confess, before Door 74 in Amsterdam, I was not big into cocktails. I was more of a beer and wine guy, and of course champagne, but as for the cocktail culture, it had yet to penetrate my psyche. That all changed after Door 74. Swanky. Sophisticated. Upscale yet casual. Most of the people there were sharply dressed—the men in suits or jackets and ties, the women in sexy dresses and heels. It was already after midnight and the place was packed, and my pal Jack Morgan and I sat at the bar and became fast friends with the lovely bartender named Tess. And the more I watched Tess in action, the more I realized that she was a drink-making virtuosa. She took genuine delight in creating the p
