A Cocktail-a-Day #12: Sex for the First Time

Computer is acting up, so this is going to be short post. No photos either for that reason. If you didn’t know already, WP has a great feature where you can email your blog post to a secret WP address instead of logging into their web interface. It’s pretty handy.

The party yesterday was pretty awesome. Good times were had. The Grande Marnier infused mini-melons didn’t turn out all that awesome though. I left the bottle in for over an hour but couldn’t get any alcohol in. I think the mini-melons don’t have enough volume/capacity to absorb more any more liquid. I read on wikihow that you can insert a syringe and withdraw fluid from the meat, but I didn’t have one handy so couldn’t verify that. I think the easiest solution is to just buy a regular-sized melon.

We did get inspired to create an awesome shot though. Pretty simple to make, but frickin’ delicious. Some would call it girly, but heck, if it’s delicious, who gives a shit.

Recipe

1 oz. SOHO lychee liqueur

1 oz. Crabbie’s ginger beer (Crabbie’s only – all others suck)

Combine both ingredients in a 2 oz. shot glass.

Serve liberally.

SOHO tends to be pretty sweet, so you might want to up the ginger beer concentration. Or vice-versa. It’s all good. Either way, it’s a delicious shot that will keep you coming back for more.

As for the name, in my drunken state, I felt the expression on the party girl’s face was that of having sex for the first time. A little painful, but ultimately really good…haha.

Enjoy!

[Cocktails] Feng Shui–A Perfect Harmony of Chinese, Japanese, Mediterranean, and Dutch Flavors

It feels good to be blogging again…I have been MIA for the last 3 months or so – winter is never slow in the oil patch.

I love mixing drinks…even though most uninformed and close-minded people think it’s gay, they don’t really understand the art and the joy in mixing different flavours to produce something that is beautiful.

One of my favourite books to try mixes from is the Food & Wine Cocktails ‘09 Guide. No one drink is the same as the other and almost each drink invariably requires some special ingredients that you will need to stock up on. But it’s always worth it afterwards, so even after 3 years of owning this book, I continue to try new drinks from this little handbook.

Feng Shui is an aperitif mixed up by Jamie Boudreau who got his chops making pre-dinner drinks at Vancouver’s legendary restaurant Lumiere. Boudreau apparently falls under the category of “molecular mixologist” and has experimented with some cool shit including bacon and bourbon (!).

I have wanted to try out Feng Shui for a long time, but didn’t do so out of shear laziness. I managed to finally gather all the necessary ingredients:

- 1 lychee fruit OR 1/4 oz. lychee liquor (like SOHO)

- 1 oz. sake

- 1 oz. gin

- 1/4 oz. lemon juice

- 1/4 oz. simple syrup

- 1 fresh thyme sprig

- 1 thyme sprig and skewered lychee for garnishing (optional)

In a cocktail shaker, muddle the lychee and thyme sprig.

Add ice and the rest of the ingredients (except the garnishes) and shake well for 20-30s until the shaker is all nicely frosted. Double-strain the drink into a chilled coupe and Viola!

I couldn’t find any lychees at the local Co-op and was too lazy to drive to T&T, so ended up using SOHO for the lychee flavour, which ended up working deliciously.

This is definitely a great way to start your pre-dinner drinking. The wonderful aroma of lychee harmonizes really well the gin and thyme. I couldn’t necessarily pick out the individual flavours and aromas of the thyme and juniper berries, but that could be because I was using SOHO and not lychee fruit.

Either way, a must try for all the budding mixologists and cocktail hackers out there!

-Kiran