#MCM Mint Chocolate Malt!💕💋❤️🌹

February 08, 2016 by Brynn Smith

What to do for Valentine's Day is always on everyone's mind! How will I make my lover swoon over my affection on this glorious day of Love! The holiday began as a feast of love and affection and to recognize and celebrate Saint Valentine! Only in the late Middle Ages did Geoffrey Chauncer begin the tradition in which lovers showed their affection by giving flowers and cards known as "valentines" and there ya have it!...Or if you are single even more the reason to treat yo self! After all it is a day to celebrate love and what's better then loving yourself! In fact another reason to celebrate this day I got from the amazing Liz Lemon (Tina Fey from 30 Rock). Instead of celebrating Valentine's Day celebrate Happy Anna Howard Shaw Day! One of the fearless leaders in the women's suffrage movement and it happens to be her birthday! Here here! Either way you look at it LOVE wins! Ok...now to the important stuff what cocktail to celebrate with?! I am thinking something dreamy and mint chocolate creamy. Check out my #mcm, the Mint Chocolate Malt!

Ingredients:

1 oz. Heavy Whipping Cream
1/2 oz. Simple Syrup
1/2 oz. Hershey's Milk Chocolate Syrup
1 1/2 oz. Branca Menta
Top with 1/2oz. Soda Water

Instructions:

Take a Nick and Nora or any small stemware glass and put in the freezer for an hour before making this drink. After that take out your shaker tin and measure out all ingredients and put in tin besides the soda water! You do that at the end after you pour the drink out. Dry whip shake all ingredients for like 10 seconds, then add ice and shake vigorously for 10-15 seconds until you feel the shaker tin is ice cold with a slight frost on it! You will feel it! Then take your Hawthorne strainer and fine strainer and pour out all ingredients into the super chilled Nick and Nora glass. Top the cocktail with a bit of fresh club soda and the drink will froth up some more! Slap a single mint leaf together in your hands to release its aroma and essential oils and lay it on top of the cocktail. So pretty and perfect like a classic malt shop refreshment! Cheers Lovers! ❤️💕

A little background on my preferred spirits:

Branca Menta: Invented in the mid 1960's as a result of the popularity of drinkers adding a mint syrup to Fernet Branca to sweeten up the pungent amaro. Resulting in a peppermint menthol dream that is perfect for sipping after dinner for dessert! Don't worry Fernet Branca lovers it contains part of the secret Fernet Branca recipe.

Old Fashioned

January 14, 2016 by Brynn Smith

The first documented definition of the word "cocktail" was in response from a letter in the May 6, 1806 issue of The Balance and Columbian Repository in Hudson, New York asking to define the word. In the next issue on May 13, 1806 the paper's editor wrote back that is was "a potent concoction of spirits, bitters, water and sugar..." On another occasion years later J.E. Alexander also describes the cocktail similarly in 1833, as he encountered it in New York City, as being "rum, gin, or brandy, significant water, bitters, and sugar, though he includes a nutmeg garnish as well." Now after reading this, what does that remind you of...The Old Fashioned we know to love! The name "old fashioned" came about referring to just that, the oldest reference to a cocktail! Of course we know the old fashioned as being made with whiskey and it gained the most popularity with that spirit in the 1880's, but what if we decided to go back and make it with brandy one of the first ways it was made! It is 2016 people and that means that it is the perfect time to switch up your normal drink routine and let me tell you with brandy this cocktail rocks even more!

Ingredients:

1 white sugar cube
2 dashes Angostura bitters
2 oz. Vecchia Romangna Italian Brandy

Instructions:

You can either build this cocktail in the glass you serve it in or mix separately in your mixing glass and pour out. I like to make separately and then pour out myself...ok here goes! Drop the sugar cube in the glass and soak the cube with the bitters then take your muddler and crush the cube and make a paste. Add the 2 oz. of brandy and stir and combine all ingredients without ice, really integrating the sugar into the spirit. Once you feel the sugar has dissolved enough in the liquid add some ice and stir until the cocktail is cold and properly diluted. Once it is ready and you haven't built it in the glass take a large round or square cube and place in a double old fashioned glass. Take out your julep strainer and strain the cocktail out onto the fresh big ice! Peel part of an orange and express the oil onto the cocktail and then rim the glass with the orange peel, then place peel in the drink. Advanced barkeeps can even flame the peel! Look for a flaming peel video tutorial coming soon...

A little background on my preferred spirits and inclusions:

Vecchia Romangna 10yr. Italian Brandy: Distilled from the Trebbiano grape with the "Charentais" method using a slow distillation process using small copper stills. Aged 10 years in small Limousine or Slavonian oak casks. Dry, full bodied, smooth with notes of vanilla and rich fruits.

Angostura bitters: Most commonly used bitters at the bar. (I am obsessed!) Recipe developed as a medicinal tonic by German surgeon general, Dr. Johann Gottlieb Benjamin Siegert in 1824. Distilled in Trinidad and still made from the same 1824 recipe. Flavor notes clove, gentian root, cinnamon, and tamarind.

Ciao Bella ❤️

December 13, 2015 by Brynn Smith

Tis the season to be jolly and to drink a brandy flip variation! Holidays to me are all about the egg drinks! So decadent, very festive and perfect if you love boozy egg nog! A flip is a class of cocktails that can be interchanged with almost any spirit. The first mention of the term "flip" as a cocktail term was in the Oxford English Dictionary in 1695 to describe a concoction of rum, sugar, and beer that was heated with a red-hot iron rod, "Thus we live at sea; eat biscuit, and drink flip". The iron caused the drink to froth and flip and there you have it! The next mention of a flip cocktail was in the famous, Jerry Thomas' 1862 How to Mix Drinks; or, The Bon-Vivant's Companion and the best part of his recipe eggs were added! Whole eggs, egg yolks or egg whites make any cocktail extra delicious! A flip cocktail only contains the whole egg or just the yolk...egg whites would be a sour or fizz and that's another blog post! So go for it! It is completely safe when using fresh eggs and shaken up with alcohol. This Italian Brandy flip variation is the perfect thing to serve at any holiday gathering. Family and friends alike will jump for Christmas joy after this cocktail!

Ingredients:

1 egg yolk
1/2 oz. heavy whipping cream
1/2 oz. Lazzaroni Amaretto
1/2 oz. Galliano Restretto
1 1/2 oz. Vecchia Romangna 10yr. Italian Brandy

Instructions:

Take out your shaker tin and add all ingredients and dry shake/whip everything together for around 8-10 seconds. Then add 4-5 medium sized ice cubes and shake vigorously for 10-15 seconds until shaker tin is extremely cold and has a bit of frost on it. Then take your hawthorne strainer and fine strainer and strain the cocktail out and up into a cute footed glass like a coupe or Nick and Nora or like I have below. Then with a dry fine strainer lightly sift a mixture of cocoa powder and powdered sugar over the top of the cocktail not too little and not too much and there you have it! Ciao Bella!

A little background on my preferred spirits:

Lazzaroni Amaretto: Created in 1851 by Palol and Davide Lazzaroni in Saronno, Italy it is made made from an infusion of their famous Amaretti di Saronno cookies. Delicious!

Galliano Ristretto: A delightful espresso flavored liqueur from legendary producer Galliano made in 1896. Made using a combination of strong and bitter Indian and Kenyan Robusta beans and creamy chocolate notes from the Brazilian and Colombian Arabica beans.

Holiday Drinkspiration!

December 02, 2015 by Brynn Smith

"Holiday! Celebration! Come together in every nation!" Love this time of year celebrating and spending time with dear friends and family, nothing is better than that! As the holidays are fast approaching it is the perfect time to start to prepare something special for your guests at your holiday party and what better way then with a hand crafted cocktail! Above are six different cocktails to get inspired by! (Top left to right Negroni, The Big Chill, Bees Kiss-Bottom left to right Manhattan, Bitter Bubbly, The Other Margarita). Just scroll down a bit and take a look back on my last six blog posts and read about the recipes and the liquor that is in it...Three of which you will learn the history of how these classic cocktails were made and even the story behind their creation! The other three are my personal cocktail recipes and you will learn how I was inspired to create each of these delicious concoctions. Each post also has write ups on some of my favorite liquors, so go check them out and spread that holiday cheer!

The Other Margarita!

November 16, 2015 by Brynn Smith

You often think of tequila and a margarita as a hot summery day cocktail that you would be drinking with delicious Mexican food, but this ain't that Margarita...it is The Other Margarita! If you are like me and tequila is your main love why wouldn't you want a Margarita for fall and even for Thanksgiving...one that is citrusy, savory, refreshing, herbatious and amari forward of course! Amaro literally translates to bitter in Italian. It is in the category of a digestivo and helps aid digestion and stomach ailments, so the perfect cocktail to drink while grazing all day during the food filled holidays! When I was creating this cocktail I tried to get in the mind of an Italian and how they would make a Margarita cocktail if someone were to order one in Italy. I just picture an older Italian bartender stubbornly making their own intrepretation of a Margarita cocktail..."We puttta a little a basil and then a some Amari and a little a citrus and fine a little a tequila and Prego!!" (If you didn't catch that I just quoted my idea of how an Italian would sound making a Margarita! Ha!). I knew I wanted lime and tequila obviously in the cocktail and I thought putting basil would be fun to make reference to the Margherita pizza. Then I thought, in most Margarita cocktails there is always some sort of Curaçao or orange liquor. I immediately thought of Amaro Nonino and how the bitter orange flavor would be so delicious to play with, I also added a lil orange juice for taste to elevate the citrus notes just a tad bit more. There was still another layer I needed in the drink...I wanted to add something that elevated the herbatiousness of the basil and once I tested with some different amari, Amaro Abano it was! Here you have it the delicious, refreshing, easy drinking and ever so popular Other Margarita! Cheers! Prego!

Ingredients:

2 large basil leaves
1/2 oz. Orange juice
3/4 oz. Lime juice
3/4 oz. Espolon Blanco Tequila
3/4 oz. Amaro Nonino
3/4 oz. Luxardo Amaro Abano

Instructions:

Take 2 large basil leaves, slap them in your hand to release essential oils and put in your shaker tin. Then measure and pour out every ingredient above into your tin with the basil. Add 4-5 medium sized ice cubes and shake long and hard. Until your shaker tin has frost on it and is cold to the touch. Use your Hawthorne strainer as well as your fine strainer and strain out all ingredients up into a coupe glass. Your fine strainer will catch any small ice chips and the basil, leaving the cocktail smooth and frothy! Take out an orange and your peeler and peel a long orange peel. Express the orange peel onto the cocktail and rub the rim of the glass with the peel thoroughly. Then place the orange peel on the edge of the glass and serve!

A little background on my preferred spirits and inclusions:

Espolon Blanco Tequila: Made at the San Nicolas Distillery using the blue weber agave plant in Los Altos in the Highlands of Jalisco, Mexico. Espolon tequilas were created by Cirilo Oropeza and was introduced in 1998. In The Other Margarita, I use Espolon Blanco meaning it is not aged and has a clear color. On the nose it has hints of tropical fruit, sweet agave, lemon zest, pepper and floral notes. On the palate pineapple, vanilla bean, pepper, spiced agave and vegetal notes.

Amaro Nonino Quintessentia: An Italain digestivo made in Fruili, Italy by the premiere Grappa producing family the Nonino’s. Amaro Nonino is grappa based and then infused with a blend of many different roots, herbs and spices including bitter orange peel, gentian, saffron, chichona bark, rhubarb, licorice, quassia bark and tamarind along with other secret ingredients. Very drinkable and very approachable for a digestivo. Has a color of a light reddish brown and is aged in oak barrels for five years producing a beautiful result!

Luxardo Amaro Abano: Originated in 1952 and named after an old Roman spa from Veneto. If you look closely at the label it depicts the spa around the year 1600. The herbs in this amaro grow in the Euganean Hills and there are notes of basil, cinnamon, bitter orange peel and cardamom. One of my all time favorite amari!