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

Like lavender? Like limoncello? Try Loft Lavender Cello, one of the organic liqueurs by Loft. You won’t be disappointed.

Simply put: It smells good. It tastes good.

It has the soft, sweet taste of limoncello with the light floral flavor and scent of lavender. Sweetened with agave nectar, it has a full sweetness that isn’t too sticky tasting and rolls over the tongue pleasantly.

Mixing with lime is a natural for recipes, and it would be a good compliment to the saltiness of a silver tequila. Experiment and let us know what you come up with!

I see this as more of a cocktail ingredient and less of a sipping liqueur. So if you like to be inspired by unique flavors, this is a good start.
Here’s a great recipe from the folks at Loft. Yum!

Lavender Lady

1 1/2 oz. Loft Lavender Cello
1 1/2 oz. gin
3/4 oz. fresh squeezed lime juice
1 oz. tonic
1 oz. soda
1/2 oz. pomegranate juice

Pour liqueur, gin, lime juice and pomegranate juice over ice. Top off with tonic and soda. You could use all soda or all tonic. However, tonic is different than soda because it contains quinine. You can read more about that here.

Photo and recipe courtesy of Loft Liqueurs

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)

more Drink of the Week cocktails

Xante is a pear and cognac liqueur. Sounds good, doesn’t it? Well, it is.

The pear nose on this liqueur goes right to the edge of being too sweet and stops just in time. It’s a pleasant aroma, like a pear stripped of its water leaving only the sugar.

I was afraid it would be sickly sweet tasting. But the initial burst of sweet pear gives way to a richer cognac and vanilla flavor. Then comes a little “oomph” of warmth, followed by a lingering light pear taste.

It’s 76 proof, placing it higher on the alcohol-content scale for a liqueur.
If you are drinking it straight, be sure to chill it and serve with ice. This is one drink that can benefit from a little water from the ice.

In cocktails, I think it would be a good pairing with the spice of ginger or the sourness of lime. One preparation I highly recommend is pouring some over ice, squeezing in some fresh lime and topping it off with some club soda. Yum!

I only had enough to make one cocktail (tiny sample bottle, and all). However, if I got my hands on some more, I would try it with some ginger beer or champagne.

Xante

more Liquor Reviews

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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• Mad Men and Drinking, Season Two, Part I (offthepresses.blogspot.com)
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• countdown to season 3: mad men (popbytes.com)

Born in Key West, although some say it was Los Angeles, she was both great as a shot and on the rocks. She had a great run, delighting sorority girls and frat boys on spring break for decades. However, her time has come and the Red Headed Slut has passed on. She was given a proper New Orleans burial least Saturday night, complete with a preacher and marching band. The funeral procession began at Harrah’s directly after the Spirit Awards at Tales of the Cocktail, with a full police escort we paraded up Canal Street and into the French Quarter ending up at Latrobe’s on Royal. Drink were served, of course, a nice Cucumber Cooler courtesy of Plymouth Gin, which were perfect in the New Orleans heat.

So we here at Drink of the Week, raise glass to an old friend.

Red Headed Slut

1 oz. Jaegermeister
1 oz. Peach Shnapps
2 oz. Cranberry Juice

Poor the Jaegar in a highball glass filled with ice, follow with Cranberry Juice. Top with Peach Schnapps and garnish with a cherry. Or split between 2 shot glasses.

Here’s a little video of the parade.

Tales of the Cocktail
past Drink of the Week Cocktails

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• 2009 Big Trends in Cocktail Service (drinkoftheweek.com)
• Tales of the Cocktail Kicks off (drinkoftheweek.com)

The first session I attended during last week’s Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans was a panel titled “2009 Big Trends in Cocktail & Spirit Service”. The panel consisted of Jim Meehan - PDT, NYC, Michael Waterhouse, Devlin Tavern, NYC, and Simon Difford - Source Guide and was moderated by Ryan Magarian - Aviation Gin. The program covered the 4 Ps of Cocktail Service Success, not unlike the 4 Ps of marketing, Product, Precise Execution, Promotion, Passion. It was here that I discover the magic of Tales of the Cocktail, this was no boring seminar and they were serving drinks! A few samples of the cocktail being discussed. Sure is was 10:30 am , but this was New Orleans.

The Panel started off with a discussion product trends.

Spirits
Overall the trend is for full-flavored spirits, moving away from the vodka craze of late. Mezcal, Gin (the new vodka?) and Rye Whiskey are at the forefront of the full-flavored Renaissance. In addition, aged rum is exploding and Jameson sales are through the roof. Cacacha is also making huge strides from just a few years ago.

Sweet
Fortified wines like Sherry, Lillet and vermouth are popular ingredients in cocktails, as well are rice wines sake and shochu. St. Germain elderflower liqueur appears on just about every cocktail menu, and other flower based liqueurs are popping up. Other trending sweeteners include specialty sugars, Agave nectar, Maple syrup and orgeat.

(more…)