The Cocktail Artist

Now that we have most of the holiday decorations up its time to refocus our energy and make a cocktail! We were a bit parched after struggling with all of those strings of lights.  Mulling spice, cider, brandy, and citrus are all traditional ingredients in wassail – a warm punch that dates to the middle ages. Wassail is a great holiday drink, but it requires a bit of time and quite a few ingredients. We were looking to make something easier – preferably on the rocks since we worked up a sweat bringing those bins of decorations up from the basement!  We had some Apple Cider Simple Syrup leftover (previously used in our Apple Rye Cocktail ) and some terrific Spiced Rum from Far North Spirits , so we thought we would do a wassail riff on an Old Fashioned. A classic Old Fashioned contains a base spirit, a sweetener, bitters, and garnish. Our rum had plenty of spice, so we didn’t need the bitters, but we decided to throw in a bit more alcohol (and balance the spice) by using som

T his classic cocktail is well over a century old. It originated at Philadelphia’s Bellevue-Stratford Hotel – which was the meeting place for the men’s social group known as the Clover Club. It’s very similar to a Pink Lady, but without the Applejack. We have a Pink Lady variation on the blog – see our In the Pink cocktail where we replaced the gin with aquavit. Some Clover Club cocktail recipes call for grenadine (which is what is traditionally used for the Pink Lady), but most use raspberry simple syrup. We have a number of cocktails on our blog that call for raspberry syrup, so it’s an ingredient we make and keep on hand. Check out our Up North Raspberry and Rye or Raspberry Smash – or use the syrup in a Daiquiri .  Back in October, the Cocktail Artist team took separate overnight trips. Beth (the team mixologist) was in New York City visiting our daughter – where she went out for drinks at the Dingle bar in Fraunces Tavern . This historic tavern has been operating since 1

This cocktail is our variation on the prohibition classic Bee’s Knees. The traditional Bee’s Knees is a straightforward combination of gin, honey, and lemon juice. It was developed at a time when gin wasn’t what you would call high quality. Actually, it was barely drinkable and required the addition of the lemon and honey to mask its flavor. Thankfully we don’t have that problem now!  One of the drinkable spirits we have been enjoying is from the kind people at Bluewater Organic Distilling – who recently sent us a bottle of their new Wintersun Aquavit. This is a clear, crisp aquavit with citrus and anise notes. More people are discovering aquavit – a traditional Scandinavian spirit, and using it as a gin or vodka substitute in classic cocktails (with varying degrees of success). We thought herbal notes of Wintersun Aquavit would be best complimented by honey and some citrus – which brought us to the Bee’s Knees recipe. We then set about experimenting with ratios and ingredients an

According to the calendar it’s fall, but here in the Mid-Atlantic we are still experiencing summer weather. We’re ready for fall, and we got a taste of it before we left Northern Michigan a few weeks ago – the weather was crisp, leaves on the maple trees were starting to turn, and there were some delicious apples available in the farm markets. While we were in Michigan we created a delicious autumn-inspired cocktail using local ingredients. Now that we are back home in Washington, DC we wanted to replicate the drink, but we failed to bring home the honeycrisp apple syrup that we had picked up at a farm market. Fortunately, we were able to capture the taste by making our own apple cider simple syrup by simmering fresh apple cider with brown sugar and a dash of mulling spice (we had a jar of Williams-Sonoma mulling spice in the cabinet and it was just what we needed). By simmering the syrup to reduce its volume, you are left with an intense apple flavor. The brown sugar adds just eno

We are in our home away from home in Northern Michigan, and lucky for us there are plenty of local products to use to create new cocktails and plenty of inspiration to create new artwork! We are huge fans of Cherry Republic - home to all things cherry. If we haven't already schooled you on this, the northern part of Michigan's lower peninsula is the cherry capital of the United States, and Cherry Republic produces a huge array of products that utilize the local crop. This year we discovered their Cherry Ginger Bear - a ginger spiced cherry soda. We decided that this would be perfect to use in our Northern Michigan cocktail of the season, and the result did not disappoint. This soda is similar to ginger beer, but with the addition of cherry notes. So what better to do with ginger beer than make a Dark and Stormy - that classic highball made with dark rum and ginger beer. We were lucky to find a local white rum from Iron Fish Distillery to work into our drink, and the re

Planter’s Punch is a classic rum concoction that traces its roots to the West Indies. The first recipe for Planter’s Punch was written in verse in 1878 in  Fun – a London magazine.  As with all things cocktail-related, the story of the origins of Planters Punch are fuzzy. The Planters Hotel in Charleston, South Carolina and Planter’s Hotel in St. Louis have both claimed to be where this drink originated, but rum punch can be traced back to Jamaica – the birthplace of rum. One story tells of a Jamaican planter's wife who concocted it to cool down the workers. This seems rather dubious since knocking back a couple of cups of rum punch wouldn’t exactly make planters very productive.  Recipes for Planter’s Punch include all kinds of add-ons, but the basic ingredients are dark rum, lime juice, and some sweetener. We ran across one recipe that said the secret to the perfect Planter’s Punch is fresh nutmeg. That got us thinking about using spiced rum in our variation. Fortunately,

Blackberries from the farm market and mint from the garden can be turned into a simple syrup that works perfectly for cocktails, mocktails, and for topping your pancakes.  For our cocktails, we used the syrup (recipe below) for Mojitos and Mint Juleps. We liked both cocktails, but the Blackberry Mint Julep really hit the spot. On a hot day it is refreshing to hold that frosty silver cup in your hand; however, we recently learned that proper Julep cup holding involves only gripping the top or the bottom so that the crushed ice can create a frost on the outside. While we do appreciate proper etiquette, our julep technique generally involves simply trying not to spill our drink and pacing its consumption so as to not allow the cocktail to become over-diluted. The Mint Julep was originally made with spirits like rum and brandy, and got its start as a medicinal concoction used to settle the stomach. It traveled west from Virginia to Kentucky – where it eventually became the offic

We recently returned from a trip to Tahoe City, California – where we spent a week hiking, enjoying the beautiful blue water of Lake Tahoe, and attended a lovely family wedding. We rented a cozy (and well equipped) mountain cabin – which was perfect for our family in almost every way. The kitchen had all the culinary tools we needed to prepare meals, but upon our arrival, we found that there were absolutely no cocktail supplies. Being located in California, there were plenty of wine glasses (and champagne flutes) but no cocktail glasses, no mixing glass or shaker, and no measuring jigger. We had considered packing some of these items, but when push came to shove, we needed the space in the suitcase for those shoes for the wedding. Being a resourceful group, we were able to manage just fine. We didn’t want to purchase more liquor (and other ingredients) than we could use during our stay, and we needed to keep the cocktails simple enough to eyeball the measuring. We came up with a

In case you don’t know us personally, or haven’t read the bio on our blog , you may not realize the “The Cocktail Artist” is really a partnership between two architects (who also happen to be married to each other). One of us comes up with the recipes, does the photography, and writes the blog posts – the other one creates all of the original artwork and offers opinions on the cocktail recipes. Being architects, we sometimes let our design-sense get the better of us – meaning we have been known to purchase a bottle of booze because we like the design of the bottle.  Occasionally this backfires, but rest assured (with some creative mixology or a bit of barrel-aging) we have always been able to make use of the contents of those impulse-buy bottles. Right now, two of the most attractive bottles in our liquor cabinet contain Italian spirits – Malfy Gin Con Limone and Italicus . Italy has always been a design trendsetter, so it’s not surprising that these bottles stand out (they ev

A seascape is an artist’s view of the sea - typically a beautiful scene either tranquil or menacing. What you don't generally see in a seascape is pollution. If we want this to be our reality we need to think about how we live – and how we drink. We were invited to participate in Strawless Cocktail Week to raise awareness for the damage that is done to our waterways from plastic pollution. According to the Plastic Pollution Coalition   over 500,000,000 plastic straws are used each day in the United States. People have come to expect plastic straws in drinks - an example of extreme waste being generated for minimal convenience. These short-lived tools are usually dropped into a garbage can with no further thought, instantly becoming a source of plastic pollution.  Let’s make a commitment to say "no" to plastic straws. We don’t use them in our cocktails. For drinks that require a straw there are options other than plastic (reusable metal straws or paper straws).