Tobago Shipwreck

     Following the  idea of the month,"herb garden," I came up with the Tobago Shipwreck . An herbaceous tea mixture combined with rum, lime and a sweetened soda. The rum on this was definitive with a nice backing of sweetness rounding out to a descent herbaceous bitterness. Try it and tell me what you think.

Tobago Shipwreck 
2 oz. Pyrat XO rum
1 oz. "tea syrup" (lime basil, pineapple sage, toasted coconut, and lime peel steeped for five minutes and sweetened with Truvia)
0.5 oz. lime juice
2 basil leaves
- muddle, add 2 dashes Jamaican bitters, and top with "7Up" (Sierra Mist)

Triple Berry Sidecar

     Ever since I picked up a copy of cocktails, shaken and stirred by Douglas Ankrah in 2005, I've always wanted to mix many of the them highlighted throughout this book. It's a great cocktail book with an emphasis on quality products and fresh ingredients. Being the rum nut that I am, one of the first cocktails I made this year was the Madagascar Sour; a mix of aged rum vanilla sugar, lime juice and vanilla liqueur. Working with the ingredients I had available I concocted a homemade vanilla simple syrup in which to use in place of the liqueur and infused sugar. I also traded out the rum for, of course my all time favorite, Pyrat XO. Who's up for a vanilla daiquiri? Sign me up, that's for sure.
     The drink was bright, acidic and finishing with a suprising vanilla richness I was not expecting. I knew the syrup was there but wow was that interesting.

     Next for Mother's Day we at Dante macerated some berries in cognac, to use to improved the complementary glass of prosecco we were offering. A last minute adjustment changed the whole ballgame and now I was sitting on three quarts of infusing fruit. The Triple Berry Daiquiri from the same book came to mind. A play on that cocktail was designed, around a mix of that recipe and the traditional Sidecar. Cognac infused blueberries and raspberries mixed with Gran Gala infused strawberries, how could this ever go wrong?

Triple Berry Sidecar
2.25 oz. Berry infused Cognac/Gran Gala mix(puree)
0.75 oz. lemon juice
splash simple syrup
- shake hard and strain into chilled cocktail glass

     This drink was delicious. Perfect for the warm weather that is to come, and a great way to utilize some seasonal fruits. We has sample this cocktail two different ways; once as a screwdriver and finally as the sidecar it became. We found the screwdriver version a bit to sweet. The Triple Berry Sidecar is here to stay.

Omaha Sling

     Searching around the wonderful plethora of cocktail websites (I love the endless inter-webs , I stumbled upon a semi-simplistic version of a Singapore Sling (Fenway Sling) that utilized a shrub. I recently had made a batch of shrub following a recipe I tried last year.
      Now the first cocktail I had tried with it was a play on the Arbusto Oaxaca, as we didn't have any mezcal I chose to mimic it the best I could and used a mix of mid-grade tequila cut with a smoky "Scotch-like" whisky, McCarthy's Whisky from Clear Creek Distillery. I followed the recipe's suggested measurements only substituting Patron XO Cafe for the Tia Maria. I figured that added tequila punch couldn't hurt.

     The drink came out a deep rich crimson to purple color,(the one on the right)to the point that the recipient stated was," a drink with character that only the adventurous would appreciate." As many other sampled the offering I soon began to understand what he had meant. West Omaha palates still aren't ready for roller coaster ride of flavor that craft bartenders are accustomed to.
     So as I had stumbled upon the Fenway Sling I took the challenge to attempt to create a similar drink that would be appealing to the masses. I have lately been working with a lot of tea-infused liquors and decided to whip up a batch of tea infused rum. We had a good amount of Bacardi Gold lying about(as it's not my preferred rum of choice I hoped it would make a good vessel to incorporate). Two and a half hours later I had an intriguing strawberry pu-erh tea infused rum to play with.
     I immediately imagined the ingredients I would use; infused-rum, falernum and shrub. Now let's build something around it. Hoping a simple 2:1:1 ratio would suffice, I threw together my cocktail, added some lemon juice for added zip(my shrub tends to be sweet in a cocktail), shook it all up strained it into a lowball glass and topped it with gingerale. what have we here?

Omaha Sling
2 oz. Strawberry Pu-erh infused rum (Bacardi Gold)
0.75 oz. Velvet Falernum
0.75 oz. homemade blackberry shrub
0.25-0.33 oz. fresh lemon juice
- shake and strain into lowball galss with ice
top with gingerale
lemon twist garnish

     The resulting drink took the imbiber on a fantastical ride of flavors with a great underlying amount of sugar that was heavy, but not cloying (almost but not quite, i did cut the falernum back a bit to aid this). The cocktail was so good we literally got the "Wow!," from nearly all who tried it. Some said it reminded them of something from their childhood, What could that be I wonder? Anyway the resulting effect treats you, this cocktail is EPIC!

Pineapple Peril

     Playing around with our happy hour menu on an all day happy hour Sunday; I came up with the beauty on a challenge from a roller derby girl, to create a drink that would make her "wanna lose her clothes." Her first round was our ever popular Rosemary Gin Fizz, containing New Amsterdam gin, lemon juice, rosemary syrup, and topped with soda water; served over ice. It was a hit, as the table ordered three of them, but the challenge ensued.
     I poured a shot of rum, a half shot of pineapple syrup, a dash of Aperol and topped it with pineapple juice and soda water. How could this go wrong?

Pineapple Peril
1.5 oz. light rum (Trader Vic's)
0.75 oz. pineapple syrup
dash Aperol
1.5 oz. pineapple juice
- shake and strain over ice
top with soda water; lime garnish

Madagascar Sour

     The Madagascar Sour is a drink I have always wanted to play with since I got the book, Cocktails, by Douglas Ankrah. His book inspired me a lot especially for the craft cocktails containing aged rum. I especially like his favor for Bacardi 8.
     The drink seemed simple enough, the hardest part would be to make the vanilla simple syrup. Easy enough after infusing some raw sugar with vanilla essence and cooking down with boiling water, we have our syrup. As his recipe is in tablespoons and for multiple cocktails I have interpreted as follows;

Madagascar Sour
1.75 oz. aged rum (Pyrat XO)
0.75 - 1 oz. lime juice
0.5 - 0.75 oz. vanilla syrup
- shake and strain


A great Daiquiri variation with a definitive vanilla note on the finish and a nice sharp lime bite up front. Pyrat rum helps to round the cocktail out with its citrus notes as well as the aged rum blend.

Vanilla Rose

     Working on the new drink menu for Dante, "W" came up with another whiskey cocktail, This one was to use Four Roses Small Batch, a product that doesn't sell that well in the bar. He mixed up trial after trail over the weeks and we finally came down to it, a splash of lemon juice really opened up the drink. He deemed it:

Vanilla Rose

2 oz. Four Roses Small Batch 

0.75 oz. Tuaca

0.5 oz. Vanilla simple syrup

0.5 oz.  lemon juice

3 cracked espresso beans

shake and double strain into cocktail glass

- espresso bean garnish

A great whiskey cocktail with a sweet tone, a slight tang and great depth from the espresso. 

Dusted Mums

     Playing around with a few ideas for beer cocktails for the impending summer patio season we tried a plethora of combinations.  Wanting to show the amazing German doppelbock style I chose to use Wasatch Devastator Double Bock. A couple different combinations and the final yeh, Mt. Falernus.

Mt. Falernus
0.75 oz. Captain Morgan Black Spiced Rum
0.75 oz. Velvet Falernum
top 4 oz. Wasatch Devastator



For the second round of Dante approved beer cocktails we revert to the first delicious libation, Dusted Mums. I wanted to exemplify the delicate nuances of the Mid-American IPA. It is definitely a great IPA for beginners as it is not nearly as aggressive as your everyday IPA, a great product to play with. The first thing that came to mind was to mix it with our recently finished barrel-aged Chrysanthemum cocktail, a great cocktail I'm sure will yield. And was I right;

Dusted Mums
1.5 oz. Barrel-aged Chrysanthemum cocktail
     (2oz. Dolin Blanc Vermouth, 1 oz. Benedictine, 3 dashes Absinthe)
               -  age 2-3 months in a charred oak barrel
top with 3 oz. Cropduster Mid-American IPA