I had a dream once about a bell pepper cocktail served in a hollowed out bell pepper. Last night, I made half the dream come true. (Serving it out of a bell pepper seemed messy and inconvenient.)

My friend at Savvy Housekeeping grew some beautiful bell peppers and was game for helping me figure out how to best use the sweet and spicy flavor in a cocktail. What we came up with was tasty and unlike any cocktail I’ve had before. It was light, refreshing, and slightly spicy. The grapefruit and the bell pepper complimented each other, since both combine sweetness with a little hint of bitter.

Fresh-from-the-garden produce is always tasty, but I’m sure the peppers of your choice from a farmer’s market or grocery store will also give delicious results. We used green bell pepper in the cocktail and red to garnish, but any bell pepper will do. In general, green has the most spice followed by red, orange, and then yellow.  Color choice will affect the color of the drink more than the flavor in most cases.

Ultimate Bell Pepper Cocktail

2 bell pepper rings
1 tbs. mint
1 1/2 oz. grapefruit juice
1/4 oz. lemon juice (or orange juice if you want to accent sweet more)
1 1/2 oz. vodka
3/4 oz. Galliano liqueur (feel free to sub another herbal liqueur like Chartreuse)

In a cocktail shaker, muddle the mint and bell pepper with the juices. Add ice, vodka and liqueur. Shake vigorously. Strain into cocktail glass. Garnish with bell pepper ring.

past drinks

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

Created by Barbi Caruso at Luau in Beverly Hills, California this week’s drink will help us all cling to Summer for one more long weekend. The aptly named Pink Pineapple combines X-Rated Fusion, Skyy Infusions pineapple and fresh pineapple! If you are into pineapple, is your drink.

Pink Pineapple

2 oz X-Rated Fusion Liqueur
2 oz SKYY Infusions Pineapple
3 slices of fresh pineapple
1 pineapple slice for garnish

Blend all ingredients with ice in a blender for 20 seconds. Serve in a tall glass. Garnish with pineapple slice.

past drink of the week cocktails
Courtesy X-Rated Fusion Liqueur

Apricot is one of my favorite summer fruits, and what better way to enjoy it than in a champagne cocktail!

You can adapt this recipe to use any of your favorite fruits … or any of your favorite liqueurs, for that matter.
The Bubbly Apricot

2 oz. apricot and triple sec puree (instructions below)
champagne or sparkling wine

Pour apricot and triple sec puree into a champagne flute and carefully top off with chilled champagne.

Apricot and triple sec puree

1/4 cup triple sec
2 fresh apricots

Chop apricots and place blender along with the triple sec; puree. Makes enough for 2 cocktails. (Optional: put ingredients together and store in freezer for an hour or more, before pureeing)

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The sazerac is one of my favorite cocktails. So I was hesitant to mess with it.

But I had some raspberries in the fridge and a funny name in my head — Razerac … sounds like Scooby Doo saying “Sazerac.”

Thus the Razarac was born. And it’s awesome.

It’s still quite a stiff cocktail. Just like a sazerac, it’s just rye, simple syrup and bitters. However, it has a little sweet twist.

Accounting for the extra sweetness from the raspberries, I skipped the Peychaud’s bitters and stuck with the slightly more dry Angostura bitters. Also, rosemary is a more subtle herbal flavor than anise, making it a better match for the fruit note. It doesn’t cling to the glass the way a liqueur would, but it does impart a nice flavor.
The “special” syrups and waters used here are really just things you can make easily at home by boiling some water.

Razerac

2 oz. rye whiskey
Rosemary water (recipe below)
1/2 oz. raspberry simple syrup (recipe below)
3 dashes Angostura bitters
Lemon peel

Chill a rocks glass by filling it with ice and a little water, letting it sit for a minute, then dumping it out. Then pour rosemary water into the glass, coating the bottom and sides, and empty the glass. In a cocktail shaker with  several ice cubes in it, pour in the rye and simple syrup and add the dashes of bitters. Stir gently. You do not want to shake this one. Strain into the chilled, coated rocks glass. Squeeze the lemon peel over the drink. Unless you want the drink to have a Lemon Pledge kind of finish, don’t drop the lemon peel into the drink. Enjoy!

Raspberry Simple Syrup

Boil equal parts sugar and water along with some raspberries. Strain into container, disposing of the smooshed raspberry leftovers. Chill until ready to use. (I used 1/2 cup each water and sugar, with 10 raspberries — making enough for several cocktails)

Rosemary Water

Boil equal parts water and fresh rosemary. Strain into container, setting aside the rosemary. Chill until ready to use. (I used 1/2 cup each water and rosemary. You can use the rosemary in soups or sauces still.)

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Sunday is National Rum Day which is perfect for a hot August Sunday. To celebrate, we are featuring the Macuá, a long drink made with Flor de Caña 4 year old Rum, guava,orange and lime juices and a touch of simple syrup. What are the origins of the day? Not sure yet, but we have a few days to find out.

Macuá

1 ½ oz. Flor de Caña 4 year old
1 oz. guava juice
1 oz. orange juice
½ oz. lemon juice
1/3 oz. simple sugar

Fill ¾ of a cocktail shaker with ice and add Flor de Caña rum, guava juice, orange juice, lemon juice and simple sugar.
Shake well for 20-30 seconds, serve in a Tom Collins glass with ice and decorate with orange slice and cherry.

recipe & photo courtesy Flor de Caña Rum
past drink of the week cocktails

This Week’s Drink is brought to us by Guest Blogger Caitlin D. (@catincal)

I’m the kind of girl who giggles for no reason, loves twirly dresses and is the first to grab a karaoke microphone. Oh, and I love cocktails.

Watermelon Granita

I’m a huge fan of outdoor dinner parties in the summer and love matching a festive, seasonal drink to a traditional BBQ menu. One of my favorite bartenders, Esteban Ordonez, created the following recipe with DonQ rum that makes me want to sit in an Adirondack chair with grilled corn on the cob in one hand and this concoction in the other. While the drink is surely tasty with regular ice, the crushed ice really makes this drink perfect for the warm weather months. If you don’t have your 80’s style Snoopy Sno Cone machine handy (dotw actually had one of these as a child), a simple ice crusher, like thi Stainless Steel Retro Ice Crusher works great.

Watermelon Granita

1 oz. DonQ Cristal
1 oz. Fresh watermelon juice
1/2 oz. Grand Marnier
1/2 oz. Fresh lemon juice
1 dash of Yuzu esscence

Served over crushed ice, on a highball glass rimed with a citrus salt and a watermelon stick.

We don’t have a picture of this one, but we do have a video we took at Tales of the Cocktail of Esteban making a passion fruit rum slush (which is kinda like a granita) with liquid nitrogen. OK, so it may not be the same, but it is pretty cool anyway.

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• 2009 Big Trends in Cocktail Service (drinkoftheweek.com)