The Cocktail Artist

This was one of our very early blog posts. Now that the holiday season is here it seems like a good time to revisit it. Our cocktail recipe remains unchanged, but we wanted to add some information about the ingredients and include a bit more artwork. This martini, with it’s pine forest aroma, is our antidote to holiday stress. Mix up a couple of these to help you through your decorating, gift-wrapping, etc… Doesn’t enjoying a cocktail while you relax in front of the fireplace sound much nicer than struggling to get the Christmas tree in the stand? Along with The Cocktail  Artist's watercolors maybe we can give you the feeling you're walking through a pine forest instead of stressing out over some holiday preparations. At the heart of this cocktail is Clear Creek Distillery’s Douglas Fir Brandy . We discovered this unusual liqueur in our local liquor store a couple of years ago and just couldn’t resist giving it a try. Clear Creek calls it “a tree in a bottle”. It's m...

Aviation Cocktail - original watercolor by The Cocktail Artist We purchased a set of Nick and Nora glasses as Christmas gift this past year, and before we gave them away we memorialized them in this painting. For those of you who aren't fans of Turner Classic Movies, Nick and Nora are the witty couple, played by William Powell and Myrna Loy, who drink cocktails and solve crimes in the "Thin Man" movies (which premiered between 1934 and 1937). Nick and Nora glasses are tulip shaped and hold a relatively small cocktail - probably because Nick and Nora never stopped at one! It's worth your time to take a look at this YouTube video of Nick and Nora's Alcohol Moments  - or, better yet, mix up some cocktails and get on Netflix and stream the Thin Man movies. The Aviation Cocktail is a classic 1930's gin cocktail that has a lovely lavender sky color thanks to creme de violette.  We tried a couple of different creme de violetts (yes several trips to the liquor ...

The Chesapeake Bay is well known for it's seafood - particularly crabs. It's a summer ritual in Maryland to enjoy a bucket of steamed Chesapeake Bay crabs  caked  with Old Bay Seasoning. Old Bay has been produced in Maryland by McCormick & Company since 1939. It's a spice blend with a very distinct flavor - which includes paprika, pepper and celery salt. Old Bay no longer seems limited to crabs and it has been showing up in some new and interesting places, in mayonnaise, beer, and in chocolate, among others.  We decided to get on board this Old Bay renaissance and give it a try in a cocktail, and we were pretty pleased with the results. Our Chesapeake Bay cocktail uses rye whiskey and aquavit. We have tried it with several ryes, and particularly like how Catoctin Creek Roundstone Rye works with the other ingredients. This rye is produced in Virginia, not that far from the Chesapeake, so in addition to giving the cocktail the right flavor, it seems like...