This fall cranberry cocktail is perfect for Thanksgiving. It’s light enough that it won’t compete with a plate full of turkey and mashed potatoes. But the unique mixture of cranberry, honey, bourbon, green tea and ginger ale is full enough to satisfy the taste buds.

Grateful Cranberry Cocktail

1 1/2 oz. bourbon
1 oz. cranberry-honey syrup (recipe below)
Green tea flavored ginger ale
Frozen cranberries
Crushed ice

Fill collins glass three-quarters full with crushed ice and frozen cranberries.  Pour in bourbon and syrup, then top off with ginger ale.

Cranberry-honey syrup

Boil equal parts water, honey and cranberries. Strain out solids, then refrigerate the liquid syrup.

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The word “punch” is derived from the Hindu word “panch or paunch” meaning “5”. Thus, there are typically five main components to a punch- Spirits, spice, citrus, water (or other dillutant, eg. Tea) and a sweetener. This is a modern interpretation of this classic 17th/18th century “punch service” style of imbibing.

Spirted Punch

5 oz. Rittenhouse 100 Rye
2 oz. Domaine de Canton
2 oz. 42 Below Manuka Honey
14 oz. orange oolong tea
1 ½ oz. vanilla sugar
4 oz. fresh orange juice
1 oz. lemon juice
3 pieces orange peel

Place sugar in punch bowl. Add orange peel and muddle to release oils. Add tea while still hot to dilute sugar. Add remaining ingredients, stir & finish with large cubes of ice.

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Recipe & photo courtesy Domaine de Canton

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• Jack-o-Lantern Punch

Name your poison! Named after a beautiful but deadly plant, this drink has a dark color that hints at something sinister.

We collaborated with Savvy Housekeeping on another fun Halloween cocktail.  But don’t worry, instead of using poisonous flowers or berries, we used black currant juice and black currant liqueur (also known as creme de cassis).

Deadly Nightshade

1 1/2 oz. bourbon
2 oz. black currant juice
1/2 oz. simple syrup
1/2 oz. creme de cassis
black or red grapes
club soda

Shake bourbon, juice, syrup and liqueur over ice and strain into cocktail or old-fashioned glass containing ice and chilled red or black grapes. Top off with club soda.

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• Berry Scary Sour (drinkoftheweek.com)

Whiskyfest San Francisco was Friday. There were a lot of men in kilts, but they were outnumbered by bottles of whiskey–200 different kinds available for tasting. We got a shot at tasting some that weren’t available to the general public. Throughout the next week, we’ll be sharing detailed reviews of our favorites. To whet your appetite, here are some of our picks from this year’s festivities:

Ardmore 30 — a truly layered and unique single malt available only in the U.S. Only 230 cases produced! Distillery manager Allistair Longwell (one of the men in kilts) shared this with me in a private tasting, and I was impressed by how the peat smoke came in gently and carried the other flavors one by one for a strong finish.

Duncan Taylor Lonach Glendronach 42 – The oldest scotch I tasted, though one of the more subtle and light. A little bit of nut taste and subdued finish were pleasantly surprising.

Ardbeg Supernova — Don’t like peat smoke? Then this isn’t the scotch for you. I like ‘em peaty, and this is a scotch that will punch you in the face … twice. But you know, in a totally awesome way.
Pappy VanWinkle 23 — A great limited edition bourbon that balances sweet brown sugar notes with a little bit of citrus. The finish has a little lingering heat.

Yamazaki 18 — A sweet honey and floral nose, followed with a mild melon flavor and pepper finish made this Japanese whiskey a standout.

Moonshine is pretty trendy right now. I’ve seen a number of spirits producers introduce Southern-themed “moonshines” lately, and it’s making me curious. I know liquor companies aren’t actually making distilled spirits without a license and running them under cover of night, so what do they mean when they say “moonshine?”

Piedmont Distillers in North Carolina, makers of Catdaddy Carolina Moonshine, say this spirit earns the name moonshine because of the corn base, copper-pot stills and small-batch production. The company also makes Junior Johnson’s Midnight Moon — which is next on my tasting to-do list.

Information you get from the bottle: It’s 80-proof, it’s flavored … and they’re calling it moonshine. One of these things is not like the other! The branding does not affect the taste, and I will judge the product by its taste. However, someone in the marketing department is confused about what people who buy moonshine are expecting. Hint: A sweet, 80-proof spirit you can use to make a Cosmopolitan isn’t it. I say this because I think they might not be reaching potential fans due to conflicting branding.

Catdaddy has a nutmeg and vanilla nose — very sweet and dessert-like. If you like flavored vodkas, I’d recommend this to you. It has a little more kick in the finish than most vodkas (particularly American vodkas) but is very mixable and uniquely flavored. It starts with a spicy note, followed by intense sweet and ending with a little heat. It’s quite versatile for mixed drinks. I can see it in a mojito or a gimlet.

Catdaddy Carolina Moonshine

Photo by Piedmont Distillers

In celebraton of another season of Mad Men, I have been making a whole bunch of Old Fashioned Cocktails. Some with Bourbon, some Irish Whiskey, some Scotch. This week’s drink is a Old Fashioned made with Canadian Whisky (yes, no ‘e’). I am drinking one now, although I substituted Angostura Orange Bitters for original Angostura Bitters. this recipe call for a simple lemon peel. Is desired, you can make this Old fashioned the ‘new’ way (circa 1910) with muddled fruit. For reference, back in the day a “wine glass” was 2 oz., not the 4 oz. we use today, so don’t do crazy.

Canadian Club Old Fashioned Cocktail

In a short wide-mouthed tumbler:

Place a lump of sugar, to which add as much Angostura Bitters as the lump will absorb. Then dissolve the lump of sugar in a little water. Add a few ice cubes, stir until the sugar is dissolved. Nearly fill the tumbler with small ice cubes. Add a wine-glass full of Canadian Club 12 year reserve whisky.
Stir to chill.

Twist a lemon peel over the drink and drop it in.

past drink of the week’s
recipe & photo courtesy Canadian Club Whisky

Summer is still here. And depending on where you live, so is the sun! That means it’s the perfect time for popsicles. Of course, we believe everything is better with booze.

Along with Savvy Housekeeping, we experimented with alcoholic popsicles (cleverly called shotsicles!). The results were tasty. Chocolate Bourbon and Tequila Melon were the flavors we triumphed with, but a few substitutions and you can devise your own tasty flavor.

Shotsicles have to be low in alcohol because alcohol doesn’t freeze very well. To get them to work, you need to combine the alcohol with juices and syrups, and even then they take longer than your average pop to freeze. But they are worth the wait–sweet and delicious with a tinge of booze in the background, just enough to give the popsicle some edge.

The result won’t get you drunk, but it will taste great!
Shotsicle recipes @ Savvy Housekeeping
More on Boozy Popsicles @ The Bitten Word

Photo credit: Savvy Housekeeping