Strawberry Margarita Jell-O Shots

Here's another one of my quarantine Jell-O shot recipes. It does balance the quality of craft cocktails with the fun, levity, and nostalgia of Jell-O. It's super easy to make and makes a huge difference. I'm never going back in terms of my own creations. Fresh juice and quality spirits always beat out vodka and powder. 

6 oz Jose Cuervo Tradicional Tequila Plata

2 oz Fresh Lime Juice, strained

1 oz Orange Curacao, Pierre Ferrand

1 pack Strawberry Jell-O

8 oz Water

Boil water and add the pack of Jell-O. Stir until dissolved and uniform. Add the remaining ingredients and stir again. Pour into serving cups. 15 to 18 should give you decent portion sizes. Chill in the fridge overnight or until set.

Jell-O has quite a bit of sugar and sweetness, so I tend not to add sugar to Jell-O shots. Acid from fresh juice does really help bring out the potential of Jell-O shot cocktails. It's still classic fun but way more elevated than you got in college. 

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. 

Philadelphia Fish House Punch Jell-O Shots

So, during quarantine, I found myself missing the dive bars most of all. I can make all kinds of craft cocktails at home and have been doing much of that. Friends are sharing their recipes, and it's fun trying these fantastic ideas, but the atmosphere is what I miss. I miss the silliness, the laughs, the community, everything. My regular bar, Garage Bar North, always had Jell-O shots made up behind the bar. I'd probably have an average of at least one a week. That and Pickle Backs. I decided to make some Jell-O shots at home. Yes, there's the standard spec of a pack of Jell-O with half water and half vodka, but let's improve on that. 

3.5 oz Plantation O.F.T.D. Rum

2.5 oz Remy Martin VSOP Cognac

2 oz Fresh Lemon Juice, strained

0.25 oz Simple Syrup (1:1)

1 pack Peach Jell-O

8 oz Water

Boil water and add the pack of Jell-O. Stir until dissolved and uniform. Add the remaining ingredients and stir again. Pour into serving cups. Chill in the fridge overnight. My baking tray holds 15 2 oz cups perfectly, so that's how I divide it, at just a bit over 1 oz per shot. Feel free to divide and scale it however you like, but about 1 oz is suitable for a Jell-O shot. 

This really is a pretty good representation of the classic punch recipe. The cocktail typically had peach brandy and crushed ice. I upped the ratio of brandy to accommodate, and the peach flavor from the Jell-O is an adequate substitute. Like the ice dilution, the water used to dissolve the gelatin powder helps soften the drink. This drink still uses 69% ABV rum (excellent), so it's got a fun little kick in there for you. 

Jell-O shots should taste like Jell-O and not just be a drink given consistency from gelatin sheets. Plenty of experts and chefs might disagree. But I've had calvados gelee and the like at some great restaurants as a side to a dessert, which is good, but I'd never order a cube of that when I'm bellied up to the bar. Jell-O shots are fun and fake, nostalgic and silly. They can be delicious, too, but they must be kind of fake to give the guests what they want when ordering a Jell-O shot. Just an opinion.

Loaded Dice

This was my entry for the Patron Perfectionists Tour. It is about consistency in the culinary and beverage world and how fresh ingredients are inconsistent. This cocktail was my attempt to help flatten the curve. 

1.5 oz. Patron Reposado

0.5 oz. Amaro Sfumato Rabarbaro

0.75 oz. Acid Adjusted Pineapple juice

0.75 oz. Orange Blossom Honey Syrup

Add all the ingredients to a shaker tin. Add ice and shake thoroughly. Double strain into a large rocks glass with a large carved cube.

To make Acid Adjusted Pineapple Juice:

To every 100g of pineapple juice, add 4.5g citric acid and 0.7g malic acid. Stir vigorously to dissolve the powder. Shake the solution lightly before each use.

To make Honey Syrup:

Mix Dutch Gold Orange Blossom Honey with an equal weight of boiling water and stir until uniform.

This drink was inspired by every molecule's randomness or lack of predictability. The fermentation tanks of the Patron distillery are open and surrounded by countless varieties of plant life that produce different strains of wild yeast. Each strain will create a different character. Even every piece of fruit will be unique. Two pineapples from the same tree can have wildly different sugar contents and acidity. This just won't do for a competition called Perfectionist. I aim to erase chance and balance flavors as I see fit. Craft comes from taking what nature gives you and using it to create a consistent quality product.

The Dutch Gold Honey comes from a local apiary as well.

Dream Maker in the Sky

This is one of the many drinks I came up with for the Chilled Toast the Industry competition. It was a brilliant idea to have a contest during the quarantine. Bartenders made up to 50 unique cocktails for this one, using a vast range of spirits from 10 brands. Scapegrace is an interesting gin from New Zealand, and I love any gin that does a Navy Strength. 

1 oz. Scapegrace Gold

0.5 oz. Luxardo Bitter Bianco

0.5 oz. Triple Sec (Combier)

1 oz. Fresh Lemon Juice

0.5 oz. Simple Syrup (1:1)

1 Large Egg White

Orange Bitters

Add all the ingredients aside from the bitters to a shaker tin without ice. Dry shake vigorously, add ice, and hard shake even more vigorously until the drink is chilled and foamy. Strain into a chilled coupe glass. Add a few drops of bitters on top of the foam for garnish and aromatics.

This started as a navy-strength Negroni Sour, but I really wanted to bring out the lemon, orange and dried tangerine in the gin. The vermouth got swapped for orange liqueur. Luxardo Bitter Bianco has always acted as a better balancing agent for softer flavors than the more aggressive Campari or Suze. Also, it gives a pretty white color you don't see in many cocktails. "Dream Maker in the Sky" comes from a song called "No Hopers, Jokers, and Rogues." A Scapegrace is a rogue. It fits.

"Come all you no-hopers, you jokers and rogues
We're on the road to nowhere; let's find out where it goes
It might be a ladder to the stars. Who knows?
Come all you no-hopers, you jokers and rogues."

- Fisherman's Friends

New Blood

This is a cocktail I made for the Make It Exotico Competition. It's a lovely balance of sweet, bitter, and sour. It's fairly low alcohol by volume compared to a lot of my other cocktails. Nothing too complicated or fancy. All the ingredients are readily available at any liquor or grocery store. cheers. 

1 1/2 oz. Exotico Blanco

1/2 oz. Cynar

1/2 oz. Grapefruit Juice

1/4 oz. Fresh Lemon Juice

1/2 oz. Agave Nectar

3/4 oz. Blood Orange Soda

Add all the ingredients aside from the soda to a mixing tin with ice. Shake until well chilled. Double strain into a large rocks or collins glass with ice. Top with the blood orange soda. Garnish with a quarter slice of grapefruit.

Upon recent reflection, I'm starting to see why this kind of cocktail doesn't garner much attention. It's not incorporating some exotic juice or homemade syrup or liqueur. That said it's actually pretty tasty and very easy for a home bartender to whip up at home or even batch into a punch.

"They drew first blood!"
- Frank Reynolds

Cockney Stairs

This was my entry for Bombay Sapphire's Most Imaginative Bartender competition a few years ago. I just never got around to posting it. It really is just a touch of English time in a cocktail. Not the most imaginative thing I've ever done but it is a pretty tasty drink. It's definitely better as a batched drink. 

1/8th Honeycrisp Apple

1/8th Red Delicious Apple

1/8th Bartlett Pear

1/8th Starkrimson Pear

15 Black Peppercorns

5 Cardamom Pods

4 Allspice Berries

1 Star Anise Pod

1 1/2 oz. Bombay Sapphire

1/2 oz. Raw Honey

4 1/2 oz. Hot Water

1 1/2 oz. Whole Milk

Using a mortar and pestle, pulverize the peppercorn, cardamom, allspice, and anise. Dice the apples and pears. Bring water to a boil. Add 4 1/2 oz. of the water and all the other ingredients aside from the milk and gin to a french press coffee maker. Stir lightly and apply the cap. Froth the milk using a steamer or motorized frother. Add the gin to an Irish coffee glass. Once the cocktail has steeped for approximately 2 minutes strain the cocktail into the glass. Top with the frothy milk.

The inspiration for this drink was a trend I've seen in coffee shops repurposing their tools. I've seen coffee shops use a milk steamer to make hot chocolate and even small servings of mulled wine. The heat helps the infusion process and aromatics. A go-to nightcap of a friend is boiling water, with a lemon peel, and just a touch of gin. I decided to take the flavors just a little further with some juicy, sweet, and floral apples and pears along with some spices. Adding some warm milk turns this drink adds a touch of British heritage, softening out any intense edges that may have over intensified in the infusion process, as if you were having a nice midday tea. 

The name come from cockney rhyming slang where one would use phrases like "Apples and Pears" to replace works like "Stairs". There is some peculiarity in that the phrase "Apples and pears" became so widely known to people who didn't understand cockney slang it's actually fallen out of fashion. 

Excerpt from Austin Powers Goldmember:
Nigel: Don't you remember the crimbo din-din we had with the grotty Scots bint?
Austin: Oh, the one that was all sixes and sevens!
Nigel: Yeah, yeah, she was the trouble and strife of the Morris dancer what lived up the apples and pears!