Continuing the celebration of the 250 years of Guinness this week’s drink is a wonderful twist on the average pint that was introduced to me by my friend Jason. Yes, it is simple and wonderful a bit of fine port combined with a well poured pint of Guinness. This drink would certainly make Arthur Guinness proud, although I have a feeling he may have tried this himself.

Midnight

1 oz. Port
1 pint Guinness

Add the port to a pint glass, if you got a rounded Guinness glass even better, then fill with Guinness.

Enjoy a bit of video from yesterday’s Arthur day celebration in Dublin.

more drink of the week cocktails

Today, September 24th 2009 marks the day 250 years ago that Arthur Guinness started the great brewing tradition that is Guinness. The folks at St. James Gate are planning a world wide party to celebrate with such acts as the Black Eyed Peas, Tom Jones, and Sean Paul. The party starts at the St. James Gate Brewery and continues with live music throughout Dublin and in other cities such as Lagos and Kuala Lumpur.

The party continues west to the USA with over 5000 pubs celebrating and hoisting a toast at 17:59 (5:59pm) local time to honor Arthur’s achievement.

The events of the day will be telecast on Direct TV channel 101, with feeds from Dublin and pubs around the US.

So tomorrow at 5:59 pm, grab a Guinness at you local pub and relish in the gift that Arthur Guinness has given us.

For more visit Guinness.com

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At the recent SF Chef’s food, wine and cocktail extravaganza, Skyy held a cocktail competition. The competition was held over 3 days and featured 6 top San Francisco bartenders. Each day featured spirit and secret ingredient, Iron Chef Style. The semifinals pitted 3 bartenders from a larger field of 15, the six would vie for a spot in the Finals. The finalists and winner would be picked by a panel of 3 judges. Cocktails would be judged on balance, presentation, use of the secret ingredient and other attributes.

Enjoy this day be day account.

Semifinal 1: Spirit - Whiskey, Secret Ingredient - Fresh Herbs

Drink 1 - Brandon Skaggs of Cortez - Irish Peach (Tullamore Dew, Cynar, peaches, sage, bitters, honey)
Drink 2 - Nick Varacalli of RN74 (Wild Turkey Rye, American honey, honey, canton, thyme) winner
Drink 3 - Joel Baker of Bourbon & Branch (Russels Rye, Luxardo, lemon juice, peaches, mint, Curaçao, bitters)

Semifinal 2: Spirit - Skyy Infusions, Secret Ingredient - Fresh Cherries, Apricots & Peaches

Cocktail 1 Carlo Splendorini of Gitane - (Skyy citrus, canton, ferlum, peach, orange, hot salt, chartreuse, ferlum) The Bouquet winner
Cocktail 2 - Scott Baird of Romolo 15 (Skyy passion fruit & pineapple, ferlum, cherry and more)
Cocktail 3 - Borys Saciuk of Zapatistia - The Passionate One (Skyy pineapple & passion fruit, peaches, apriocot, cherry, allspice dram & more)

Finals: Spirit, anything from Gruppo Campari, Secret Ingredient - Peppers

Nick vs. Carlo

Ambassador Pepper
by Nick Varacalli of RN74

1.5 oz. Wild Turkey Rare Breed
0.5 oz. Luxardo Maraschino Liquer
0.25 oz. Orange Curacao
0.25 oz. Velvet Falernum
0.75 oz. Lemon Juice
Dash of Orange Bitters
Muddled Red Pepper

Carlo Splendorini of Gitane Restaurant & Bar

1.5 oz. Cabo Wabo Reposado Tequila
1 oz. Malthilde Pear Liqueur
0.5 oz. Green Chartreuse Liqueur
1 tbsp. Honey
¾ oz. Lemon
Jalapeño

and the winner is …
Ambassador Pepper
by Nick Varacalli of RN74

photos & recipes courtesy Skyy Spirits

Today, August 16th, we celebrate Rum, the wonderful spirit that is the base of many classic cocktails including the Daiquiri, Mai Tai and Pina Colada. Rum was instrumental in the growth of the American colonies, Australia and was a staple for British sailors until 1970.

So what is rum?

It is a spirit distilled from molasses, which is a by product of the sugar manufacture. There are a few instances where Rum is made from straight cane juice. Rum is produced just about any where people grow sugar cane, but it’s true home lies in the West Indies. The style of Rum differs from island to island, with lighter rums coming from Spanish speaking islands, darker from English speaking islands and cane juice based from the french speaking islands.

Rum is produced in 3 main styles. White, Gold and Dark.

White Rum, the best coming from Cuba or Puerto Rico, are unaged and are create base for many cocktails.

Gold Rum, is basically white rum that has been been barrel aged giving it a but more flavor and character.

Dark Rum, is aged the longest in heavily charred barrels. This type of rum is synonymous with Jamaica and Bermuda, but some very fine Dark Rums are now being produced in Nicaragua and Honduras. Dark Rum is also used in cooking quite often.

There are also seveal other types of rum that are really variants of the main 3, including Spiced Rum, flavored and the oh so scary 151, which is an over proof rum. Many distilleries are also making super premium Rums that compete with fine Cognac and Whiskeys.

Interestingly, Rum is the base of many “Polynesian” drinks found in Tiki bars around the world. Still, most of these drinks originated in the Caribbean or in the case of the Mai Tai, Oakland, CA.

Rum is a now experiencing a Renaissance, much like Bourbon and Tequila before it. There is som much more to it that Coke.

Rum cocktails

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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

Finally! Season 3 of “Mad Men” premieres August 16. And it’s just not “Mad Men” without booze.

Who can forget when Sally Draper mixed a Tom Collins for the grown-ups? Or when Don Draper wooed Rachel Menken with one of the prettiest Mai Tais I’ve ever seen? And of course there was Freddy Rumson’s … incident in the office after one Screwdriver too many.

So what better way to celebrate the start of this new season than with a 1960s Mad Men cocktail party!

Here are a few cocktails we’ve seen characters order, plus some additional suggestions appropriate for the era.

Old Fashioned (Don Draper)

1 sugar cube
1 dash bitters
1 tsp. water
2 oz. rye whiskey

Muddle the sugar cube, bitters and water in an old-fashioned glass. Add rye and stir. Add ice plus a twist of lemon peel. (Don’t leave the peel in the glass) Garnish with an orange slice.

Vodka Gimlet (Betty Draper)

1 oz. lime juice
1 tsp. simple syrup
1.5 oz. vodka

Shake with ice then strain into a cocktail glass.

Gibson (Roger Sterling)

2.5 oz. gin
1/2 oz. dry vermouth

Stir with ice, then strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a cocktail onion.

Brandy Alexander (Peggy Olson)

1/2 oz. Creme de Cacao
1/2 oz. brandy
1/2 oz. heavy cream

Shake with ice and strain into cocktail glass.

Other 1960s cocktails:

Greyhound
Moscow Mule
Bloody Mary
Negroni

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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.

more Drink of the Week cocktails

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