Command of Color

This was my first entry into the Van Gogh Art of the Cocktail competition for Chilled Magazine. It's a fantastic competition where they encourage you to explore the art of making drinks. It's clever in the era of Instagram. I won a weekly prize for this submission. We'll see about the finals.

1.5 oz. Van Gogh Pineapple Vodka

0.75 oz. Strawberry infused Campari

1 oz. Acid Adjusted Orange Juice

0.25 oz. Orange Blossom Honey Syrup

Mango Habanero BBQ Sauce

Shake all the ingredients together with ice. Brush a coupe with a couple strokes of Mango Habanero BBQ Sauce. A squeeze bottle will also do the trick. Double-strain the cocktail into the painted coupe. Serve. 

To make Acid Adjusted Orange Juice:

Mix 1 liter of freshly squeezed and strained orange juice with 32 grams of citric acid and 20 grams of malic acid. Stir until mixed and uniform.

To make Homemade Mango BBQ Sauce: 

Brown 1/4 cup of chopped onion in a pan with 2 minced garlic cloves and olive oil. Stew 1/2 tsp grated ginger, 1 1/4 cups peeled, chopped mango (1 whole), 1/2 cup peach nectar, 1/4 cup tomato paste, 2T dark brown sugar, 2T honey, 3T cider vinegar, 1 T molasses, juice of 1 lime, 1.5 t Worcestershire, 1.5 t mustard, and 1 finely diced habanero chile until mango is soft. Blend everything together until creamy and uniform. Store in the fridge for up to 10 days, or boil the sauce to 190 degrees Fahrenheit and store in sterilized jars indefinitely. 

I studied Art and Art History in college but never much cared for the art that came from Van Gogh. His realism and perspective were always completely out of sorts. The Doctor Who episode "Vincent and the Doctor" drilled home a bit about the artist himself. If you haven't seen it, watch it. You will weep. The color orange was used prominently in Van Gogh's work, from the sunflowers to his own hair in self-portraits. As a hobby during quarantine, I took up hot sauce making, and that mango habanero balance works beautifully. Bringing out that sweetness of tropical fruits with a light tingle of heat has been a joy at every step. 

BOLS of Pears

This cocktail was a collaboration between myself and my dear friend Micah. For the first round of the Bols Around The World competition, we were required to make a cocktail that was a variant of a classic cocktail that would be drunk in the year 2025. It was a very humorous notion but one that did inspire thoughts of new techniques and the trends of today. 

2.25 oz. Pear, lime leaf Genever

3/4 oz. Dolin Blanc Vermouth

1 dash Angostura Orange Bitters

Lemon Twist

Stir all of the ingredients in a mixing glass with ice. Strain the cocktail into a coupe. Garnish with an expressed lemon twist.

Instructions for infused Bols Genever:

Preheat a water bath to 130°F/54°C. Place 8 oz. of Bols Genever, 2 Asian pears (diced), and 5 fresh kaffir lime leaves in a sealed plastic bag. Let the Bols Genever infusion cook for 3 hours. Remove the bag from the water bath and let it come back to room temperature. Strain the infusion.

Bols of Pears is an homage to the Turf Cocktail no. 2, a classic relative of the martini. Normal infusion of Bols Genever, Asian pear, and kaffir lime leaf can take up to 2 months. Using the modern cooking technique of sous vide you can infuse much faster due to heating up the infusion and having it sealed so none of the alcohol steam escapes. By the year 2025, this technique will be used more and more to create faster infusions for unique cocktails.

The unashamed sweet flavors of this cocktail while still maintaining impeccable balance is why Bols Genever has been a favorite since I discovered it. We decided on mixing it up with kaffir lime leaf and Asian pears because so many modern technologies are being created and perfected in Eastern Asia. I love how much parts of Eastern Asia continue to strive to create new ideas while maintaining customs and cultures of the past. This is exactly what Bols of Pears represents: striving for exciting cutting edge ideas while still maintaining respect for tradition.

"Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut."
- Ernest Hemingway

Bhang! Cannabis Smoothies, a Diwali Tradition (NSFW)

Cannabis smoothies are becoming a bit popular in the states these days. People are adding weed to their breakfasts and just about anything else. Weed has been around for ages and is a part of more than one religion it turns out. Aside from the Rastafarians, the Hindu religion has a lot of affiliation with cannabis. Many of their gods smoke, which may explain some of their stories. During the Diwali holiday, which is a sort of Hindu New Years, they drink a milk based smoothie with cannabis leaves. Be aware, this is not a single serving, This should serve about 20 people. 

1/4 oz Cannabis (buds for this recipe)

1 cup Water

2 1/4 cup Whole Milk

1/2 cup Cream

10 Almonds

1 teaspoon Sugar

1 teaspoon Saffron

1 teaspoon Cardamom

1 teaspoon Fennel seeds

2-3 dashes Rose Water

You will also need some cheesecloth, a mortar and pestle, and your usual kitchenware like bowls, funnels, strainers, and a bottle to serve. 

To prepare you will need to soak the almonds overnight. Then remove the skins. Muddle the skinned almonds into a paste.

Start by removing any stems from the buds of cannabis. Discard these. If you are using dried buds, like most people do, you will need to hydrate the buds a bit. Boil a cup of water and add the weed and heat till it soaks up the water. Heat a 1/2 cup whole milk and heavy cream mixture (you could use half and half). Add the cannabis, milk mixture, and almond paste to a mortar and muddle until it becomes one consistent paste in the milk. More muddling doesn't really hurt, it just allows more time to infuse. You may need to do this in stages depending on the size of your mortar. The almonds and the fats in the milk with start to pull out the oil in the plant. Heat 2 cups whole milk mixed with 1/4 cup cream in a pot.

There are a few ways to go from here. You can steep this entire paste in the warm milk and let the flavors all mellow out, which does add some grassy flavor, or you can sort of wash the paste in cheesecloth with the warm milk which is much more labor intensive to get the cannabis effects but does greatly reduce the grassy taste. I personally don't mind a little grassiness so I'll just go with the method we used for this last batch.

Add the weed milk almond paste concentrate to the milk mixture over heat. add the spices and rose water and stir constantly for 30 minutes. Do not let it boil or allow scum to form on the surface. Set up a rig of three layers of cheesecloth over a mesh strainer over a funnel over a sealable bottle. Pour the mixture through the cloth slowly, allowing it to filter into the bottle. Allow this to cool and then squeeze the cloth to extract as much of the fluid as you can. you may want to repeat this filtering process. Chill the bhang. Shake before serving.

 Take note this is exceptionally potent and it takes a while to kick in. Start with no more than a shot glass worth and wait an hour to 90 minutes before taking anymore to gauge the effects. This is a fat based edible so it takes longer for the body to process than smoking.

"We didn't have rehab in the 70's. Back in the 70's, rehab meant you stopped doing coke, but you kept smoking pot and drinking for a couple more weeks."
- Denis Leary

Superfruit Creamsicle

This was a cocktail I designed to be submitted to the VEEV, A Better Way to Drink, bartender challenge cocktail competition. The cocktail must feature 1 1/2 ounces of VEEV. Which was a hard thing restriction when you have such a strong liqueur. I was a bit confused by this challenge as it asked you to recreate a classic cocktail using VEEV, an ounce and a half of VEEV. Yet, points were awarded for originality. I took inspiration from a few classics and put my own spin on them while incorporating the liqueur. 

1 1/2 oz VEEV
1/2 oz Thyme infused Cointreau
1 oz Fresh Orange juice
1/2 oz Heavy Cream
1 Egg White (1 oz)
Chocolate Bitters

Dry shake all the ingredients except the bitters for one minute. Add ice and hard shake for 15 seconds. Double strain into a sours glass and add four drops of chocolate bitters. Use a pick to make a pattern in the bitters. Serve with a smile.

The original inspiration came from the standard Creamsicle recipe but drew inspiration from the Fizz as well. I knew I wanted to really bring out the dessert snack notes of the acai. One of my favorite snacks is chocolate covered acai berries. I included some cream and orange flavors as well as a bit of grassy flavor from the thyme and Voila!

“When you are attracted to, and eat, fruits, occasionally a seed will be carried within you to a fertile ground.”
- David Wolfe

#015 Beedrill

This is a part of an ongoing project I'm working on to make a Pokemon cocktails for each and every Pokemon. I'm starting with just generation one and we'll see how the response is. 151 drinks is a tall order, but people have done crazier things. If I succeed I will most likely publish an eBook or possibly hard copy collections of each drink. Give them a try and let me know what you think. 

1 1/2 oz. Pepper Infused Tequila

1/2 oz. Blood Orange Liqueur

1 oz. Honey Syrup
1 oz. Lemon Juice
Top Sparkling Wine

Add all the ingredients except the bubbly to a mixing tin. Shake well with ice. Double strain into a tulip glass with ice. Top with bubbly. Garnish with two spears of serrano pepper. 

To make a pepper-infused tequila simply fill a small mason jar with whatever type of peppers you'd like. Make sure you cut it up to about 1/2" pieces to increase the surface area. Personally, I'm a fan of serrano pepper for this cocktail. Many people may prefer to use a Jalapeno or Habanero pepper, but I find that serrano offers a very balanced flavor and heat for this drink. If you don't want too much spice to dominate the drink I recommend seeding the peppers first. Pour tequila over the peppers, seal the jar and give it a little shake. I like a Reposado tequila here. The slight smokiness brings out the pepper flavors, but an Anejo could work as well. I find that about 6 hours is enough to get a full pepper flavor without it becoming too potent. For seeded Jalapenos and Habaneros, less time may be prudent.

This drink again takes a lot of inspiration from the margarita. A common variation I've seen in chain restaurants these days is a champagne margarita with a little split of sparkling wine stuck into the drink just like the Coronarita. Beedrill is a bee, so for a sweetener, honey was the obvious choice. It also has a potent poisonous sting that can supposedly kill, so I wanted a little more spice in this one. I find that blood orange plays a bit better with spice that Cointreau or another triple sec. Add a little lemon juice and bubbly and you have yourself a great drink to sip on out on the patio on a hot spring day. 

"Beedrill. This Pokémon is an evolved form of Weedle, following its Kakuna stage. Its sting is highly poisonous."

Pidgey -->

<-- Kakuna

Recommended Brands: Milagro Reposado, Solerno, wildflower honey, fresh lemon juice, Comte de Bucques Brut