Item: Liqueurs » Cointreau

Gin Fix

I have a secret: my favourite summer drinks are based on gin so it’s not Mojito or Paloma but Tom Collins, Gin Fizz, Gin Fix, Gin Daisy, Gin Smash etc. I found it a bit weird when I saw people going mad about Mojito or Cuba Libre. Sure, rum is exceptional in tiki but I can’t imagine summer without dry Gin & Tonic or Negroni.

So I’m going to talk about simple long drinks with gin, lemon juice and sugar. Honestly, I don’t know how far I’ll go but Gin Fix is the first drink I want to talk about.

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Ritz Cocktail

Ritz, Cointreau, Cognac, maraschino – от этих слов согреется сердце коктейльного энтузиаста, это синонимы коктейльной роскоши, основы коктейльной традиции.

Ritz Cocktail was invented by Dale Degroff, and this fact is the only thing I knew about it when I enjoyed the cocktail for the first time. That was enough to awake my interest. A list of the cocktail’s ingredients looked so luxurious, it was pure temptation. Since that time I have no intention to look for more information about Ritz Cocktail. It’s one of my favourite cocktails with sparkling wine and that’s all I need to know about it.

The recipe appears like having some resemblances to Sidecar cocktail. Also Ritz Cocktail has similar noble and fine taste as well as Sidecar. I have no idea whether there is accidental likeness or not but definitely that’s an advantage in my opinion.

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S.I.P.#2: Sidecar

We’re continuing our Russian online cocktail party. The 26th of November  is the date of the second event, and Sidecar is the theme for it.

Sidecar, a cocktail legend. Its roots are in the beginning of last century. I have no intention to seek for stories about the men who invented Sidecar. I’m going to learn how vintage recipe will work now and find my own perfect recipe.

I have had my first Sidecar experience when I was newbie in cocktail culture (I mean «more newbie than now»). I’ve red a nice article about Sidecar then took equal parts of awful Russian brandy, Cointreau and lemon juice and eventually got teeth-damaging acid liquid  impossible for drinking.

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S.I.P. #1: Margarita

This post is my contribution to the first Russian Internet imbibers event called «S.I.P.».

At first blush similar to «Mixology Monday», our event is targeted to few Russian-speaking cocktail bloggers who already knew each other. We just want to share our passion and ideas with other Russian imbibers and to invite new people to join our cocktail community. And the main differences from MixMo will be very close and friendly atmosphere and much more opinions and discussions.

Well, the topic for the first event is Margarita, famous tequila-based cocktail.

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Honeysuckle Cocktails

In our garden we have some honeysuckle shrubs. That plant is very important in the beginning of the June when it usually starts to fruit, first of all shrubs. Blue and sour berries are similar to bilberry in taste and appearance but honeysuckle berries are sourer though .

This summer our honeysuckle had time to fruit before heavy heat burnt down all plants and shrubs and forced trees to drop their fruits.

I’ve managed to gather a lot of honeysuckle berries and enjoyed it in daiquiri. Later I’ve thought that I would make some new cocktails and started to experiment on it.

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D’Artagnan’s Wish

As I wrote earlier, I love to spend my time lurking on cocktail blogs and sipping a nice drink. One day I was reading Kaiser Penguin blog, one of my favourite blogs, thanks and respect to Rick , the author (Sorry if I’m wrong…).

There is a nice recipe called “D’Artagnan’s Wish”.

I’ve red it carefully and said – “Wow! I have all ingredients for it, and it looks very-very-very interesting. I should make it immediately!” Then I went and made it.

After first sip my reaction was “Oh dear Lord! Man, bookmark this page quickly! No, no, don’t bookmark, just save it as PDF!!!”

It was a great experience, a moment of pleasure. And I later I felt that I have to write about it.

The essence of this cocktail is a combination of very different flavours of Demerara rum and heavy peated and smoked Islay single malt whisky. They look like different but their combination set me thinking about their similarity.

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