Day 127, Cocktails 125, 126 & 127
Whew, what a day! We had planned to swim and grill out this afternoon and invited our friends Greg and Patty to join us. When they arrived we all got into the pool and cooled off from another hot day (at least hot for us !) and got caught up with all the news. About mid afternoon it was time to try out our first cocktail of the day (fortunately, I don’t have to twist Greg and Patty’s arm very hard). I decided to give a drink recipe sent to me by a high school classmate Mary Sheldon Hyatt a try. It’s called the Dia Del Amore (which is what Valentine’s Day in Mexico is known as). As best I can tell, this recipe comes from the fine folks who produce St. Germain, so it should come as no suprise that it uses…ta da…St. Germain.
Dia Del Amor
- 1-1/2 oz Cazadores tequila
- 1 oz St. Germain liqueur
- 3/4 oz lime juice
- 2 dashes Tabasco
Combine all the ingredients in a shaker with 4-5 ice cubes and shake, shake, shake. Prepare a rocks glass by salting the rim. Add 4-5 ice cubes and strain the drink into the glass. Garnish with a lime twist.
This drink was fantastic! Mary, thanks for sending me the recipe. We all enjoyed it! The sweet, elderflower of the St. Germain was a terrific compliment to the tequila. I was pleasantly suprised by this as I have not worked with tequila and St. Germain before. The tabasco added just a hint of smokey, pepper flavor, but really no heat at all. This cocktail is really a great substitute for your typical margarita, and really blows away nearly any typical restaurant ‘rita made with overly sweetened mixes.
While we were on the patio enjoying the Dia Del Amor, I handed Greg my new copy of The Ultimate Bar Book by Mittie Hellmich (and a huge thanks to Ashish for giving me this book – it is fantastic!). Greg, not being one to miss an opporunity to drink my booze started flipping through the tequila section. It didn’t take long before he started to quiz me.
“Do you have silver tequila?”
“Of course.”
“Pineapple juice?”
“Actually, yes.”
“Angosturo bitters?”
“Yep.”
“Club soda?”
“Yes, why?”
“Because we should try a La Conga next.”
And try we did.
La Conga
- 2 oz silver tequila
- 1/4 oz pineapple juice
- 3 dashes Agnosturo bitters
- seltzer water
Fill a rocks glass with ice cubes. Add the tequila, pineapple juice and bitters. Top with seltzer water, stir and garnish with a lemon slice.
This is an unusual cocktail in that it is mixed directly in the glass. That said, it didn’t really catch the fancy of any of us today. The bitters really dominate the flavor of this drink and I don’t think it really had enough pineapple juice since we didn’t catch any flavor of it in the drink. If I were to try this again I would double the pineapple juice and cut the Agnosturo to 2 dashes and see how that goes.
We took a break from cocktails to have some dinner, but it didn’t take long to head down to the Twilight Lounge and try our third tequila cocktail of the day, also from The Ultimate Bar Book.
La Bomba
- 1 oz gold tequila
- 1/2 oz Cointreau
- 1/2 oz pineapple juice
- 1/2 oz orange juice
- 1/8 oz grenadine
Combine the tequila, Cointreau, pineapple juice and orange juice in a shaker with 4-5 ice cubes. Shake, shake, shake to combine and chill. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass and add the grenadine.
The grenadine ends up sinking to the bottom which gives the drink a very nice visual appeal (it’s the cocktail in the picture above). It also adds a layer of flavor as you work your way through the drink. This was another delicious drink that was very well balanced and enjoyed by all of us today.
So, to paraphrase Meatloaf, two out of three ain’t bad. Give these cocktails a try and let me know what you think.
Cheers!
Day 199, cocktail 194
There and Back Again, A Cocktail Journey 