Happy Hour Tuesday: Colony Records

Happy Hour Tuesday!

1621 was a year that marked forever our history as Americans. This coming Thursday, three hundred and ninety two years later, we will still gather around a table, reminiscent of all the great people and good times that this past year has been blessing us with, and give thanks for everything/everyone that makes our life special.
To make sure that you will be cheering at this Thanksgiving with a delicious cocktail, we found an amazing recipe online called Colony Records, by Allan Katz, distiller and Liquor.com advisory board member, and nonetheless Director of mixology & spirits education for Southern Wine & Spirits of New York. Colony Records has a fruity, bittersweet flavor  -especially with our own addition of Rometti Limoncello to it!- combined with a spicy touch will be the perfect complement to a Thanksgiving meal.

Ingredients:

2 oz Cruzan Single Barrel Rum
1.5 oz Fresh grapefruit juice
.75 oz Cranberry Syrup*
a splash of Rometti Limoncello
2 dashes Angostura Bitters

Combine 1.5 cups of Fresh Cramberries, 1 cup of water, 3/4 cup of sugar in a small saucepan on medium hear. Bring to a boil, reduce to simmer for 10 min until the cranberries start to fall apart. Strain into a bowl and let cool. You just made cranberry syrup! Cover and store in the refrigerator.
Add rum, grapefruit juice, cranberry syrup, Rometti Limoncello and Angostura bitters in a shaker filled with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a grapefruit twist.

~Enjoy!

Recipe and image from Liquor.com

Happy Hour Tuesday: French 75

Happy Hour Tuesday!

“Whatcha drinking?”, how many time have you heard this question at a party or at a bar? Cocktails are always a good way to start a conversation, but how many times have you stopped and thought why your favorite drink was named like that? This week’s drink, for example, is called French 75. If like me you are not so widely informed about guns and weapons, you probably would have never imagined that yes, it does take its name after an artillery piece, French 75mm. Why? Because the mix of its ingredients is as strong as being shelled by a French 75!

Although barman Harry MacElhone, who worked at the New York Bar in Paris back in 1915 seems to be the actual creator of such a powerful drink, there are rumors that claim it to have been created by a World War I fighter pilot who thought that champagne was not that strong enough for soldiers who like him ended up stuck in a trench with only bottles of champagne and gin (or cognac), thus he mixed the two.

Two of the most famous books with drink recipes, The Savoy Cocktail Book from 1930, and The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks from 1948 present French 75 respectively with gin and with cognac. Whether it was gin or cognac, we probably will never know, but what we do know for sure is that next time you are at a party you should be holding in your hand this strong, masculine drink so that when someone asks you “Whatcha drinking?” you can proudly respond: French 75.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 oz gin

1 1/2 Rometti Limoncello

Champagne (more or less, depending on how concentrated you like the drink)

Shake the gin and Rometti Limoncello with ice and strain into a champagne flute. Top with champagne and garnish with a lemon twist.

~Enjoy!

Image from Madtini.com

Happy Hour Tuesday: Rosemary and Mint Martini

Happy Hour Tuesday!

Another week, another Tuesday. Rometti Limocello is here to light up once again the second day of the week, aka the average day per excellence. In fact while Monday is also known as don’t-wake-me-up-i-do-not-want-to-go-to-work day, Wednesday is hump day, Thursday is pre-weekend day, Friday is TGIF, and of course Saturday and Sunday were invented to have fun with family and friends, Tuesday is that day of the week that no one would like to be stuck on as it does not taste like pretty much anything. So we decided to give it a connotation and make it taste like… Limoncello!

After saying goodbye to Veteran’s Day, this week does not anticipate any other holiday event to look forward to. Perhaps on this average Tuesday you are working at your desk until late. Perhaps you have already closed all your college books and are just about to meet up with friends for a coffee before going out to happy hour. Or perhaps you just picked up your kids from school and are starting to cook a homemade meal for tonight. No matter what your plans are, you can find some time to sit back and relax: Happy Hour Tuesday is bringing you a cocktail that smells like Fall, Rosemary and Mint Martini.

Rosemary and Mint Martini‘s main ingredient is gin, with its particular pine smell that inevitably brings us back to our childhood’s Christmas holidays, while mint and limoncello lift up our spirit like a breath of fresh air. To top if off, a hint of rosemary with its comforting smell gives to this drink that cozy sensation that takes you home, no matter where you are.

Whatever today brings to you, perhaps this average Tuesday you will be finding some time to sit down and enjoy a delicious Rosemary and Mint Martini!

Ingredients:
(Makes 2 Martinis)
1/4 cup Rometti Limoncello
6 oz. gin
splash of Vermouth
ice
2 sprigs of rosemary, for garnish

Combine Rometti Limoncello, gin, Vermouth, and ice in a cocktail shaker. Shake until you can’t shake anymore! Pour equally into two martini glasses. Garnish with the rosemary sprigs.

~Enjoy!

Recipe adaptation and image by Rachael, http://www.tokyoterrace.com

Happy Hour Tuesday: Maiden’s Blush

Happy Hour Tuesday!

Among the list of drinks with a name of uncertain origins, make sure to add Maiden’s Blush, a fruitily savory cocktail that must have a deeper story behind its name than the color from a blushing maid!

1930 Savoy Cocktail Book features two recipes for Maiden’s Blush, one with absinthe and one without, as the absinthe probably overwhelmed the rest of the ingredients.  The cocktail had been revised by another book, the Cafe’ Royal Cocktail Book, where Maiden’s Blush appears to have absinthe once again but in less quantity (1/8 vs 1/3). Also we find raspberry syrup and powdered sugar in this recipe, instead of grenative and orange curacao. The most interesting story is the one that features Maiden’s Blush to be Toulouse-Lautrec’s favorite drink, also made with absinthe, plus mandarin, bitters, red wine and cognac.

For this week’s recipe we decided to keep it low key considering all the partying and celebration from las week, so we would like to present you with the Maiden’s Blush recipe from the Savoy book from 1930 with our own Limoncello twist of course.

Ingredients:

2 dashs Rometti Limoncello
4 dashes Orange Curacao
4 dashes Grenadine
1 glass Dry Gin

Fill a cocktail shaker halfway with crushed ice. Add the ingredients, cover the shaker and shake for 10-15 seconds.
Strain the mix into a chilled martini glass. Garnish with a twist of orange peel or lemon and serve ice cold.

~Enjoy!

Image from 12BottleBar.com