Hangover Cures

Tags

Hangover, New Year

If you’re like me, then you’ll probably do tonight up right and tomorrow will be done up wrong. How do we best avoid hangover in the morning?

Well, Playboy just wrote a story about 12 famous heavy drinker’s hangover cures. I have to agree with Tallulah Bankhead and “Like the common cold, it defies solution. Time alone can say it.” However, feel free to disagree with me. Often when drinking wine, if I consume too much, I’m out for an entire day.

My hangover cures that I swear by are the following:

1. Drink a glass of water between every drink, but honestly who does this?
2. 2 Tums, a glass of water, and an aspirin before you go to bed.
3. Toss off, a Chicken Ceasar salad, and about 60 oz. of Sprite.
4. Spend all day sleeping and watching movies! It doesn’t cure the hangover, but at least you’re enjoying it.

Anyone have any hangover recipes they swear by? if so, let me know.

Until 2012, have a good New Year and happy and safe drinking.

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Happy New Years

Tags

Champagne, Cranberry juice, New Year, New Years Eve, Orange Juice, Triple sec

I know that I said I was not going to write about cocktails for New Year’s Eve, but I decided to retract my previous statement. I have a fraternity brother who is throwing a small New Year’s Eve party, and he facebooked me asking if I could help him plan the drinks. I’m sure this is, in part, because I am attending said New Year’s Eve bash.

I think a New Year’s Eve party is the most difficult holiday party to pull off. I know many people think it’s Halloween, with which I would almost agree. However, unlike New Year’s, a Halloween party can be on either Friday or Saturday night before or after Halloween, and it can also be held on Halloween. Party throwers only get one shot at New Year’s Eve per year. It’s not like you can throw a New Year’s Eve party on December 30^th. It’s a one and done evening. So the question is: if you want to, how do you put your New Year’s Eve on the map? How do you make it special?

With all good parties, you need a group of people who will mesh will together, preferably with and without booze. I have often thrown the failed party, where one group of people is in the basement (like law students,) another group is in the kitchen (the gay friends,) and the third group is outside or in the living room (the friends of the straight roommates). Everyone leaves with no one really talking to each other. Unfortunately, this can only be accomplished through trial and error. Please remember this simple rule: New Year’s Eve is not the night for trial and error. It is better to have a small New Year’s Eve party that people will want to come back for, than a large party where no one mingles. People will remember that party and not come back the following year.

Second , the drinks. The drinks needed to be “themed.” I don’t mean that everything needs to be tropical, but New Year’s Eve is a night for celebration, and thus, should be celebrated. Obviously, the good party planner will make sure there is enough champagne for all to have champagne at midnight, but what do you do in advance? An important aspect of any good party planning is that the drinks need to be easy but also complement each other. There is no reason for people to switch from vodka to gin to bourbon to beer to champagne to wine, unless they’re an idiot. I will admit that I have had those nights, even recently, and they have not turned out well. Do not encourage people’s stupidity.

So, how do you piece the drinks together? A good drink menu, like a good dinner menu or mix of people, creates a diverse but harmonious experience. This is my suggestion for my friend:

New Year’s Eve List of Materials for 12

12 bottles of Champagne (1 case)

1 1.75 L bottle of Vodka

1 750 mL bottle of Raspberry Liqueur

1 750 mL bottle of Triple Sec

1 64 oz. container of Orange Juice

1 64 oz. containers of Cranberry Juice

1 64 oz. container of Pineapple Juice

From this list you can make a surprisingly large number of drinks.

In order:

Champagne, by itself

Mimosa

Poinsettia

A Mimosa, but with Cranberry Juice instead of Orange Juice.

Champagne Cosmopolitan

Add 1 oz. Cranberry Juice and 0.5 oz. triple sec, then pour champagne on top.

Kir Royale

The Arthur

Equal parts Vodka, Cranberry Juice, and Champagne

Screwdriver

French Martini

Cape Code

Cosmopolitan

1.5 oz. Vodka

1.5 oz. Cranberry Juice

0.75 oz. Triple Sec

You get a lot of variety from this menu, and all of them are two to three ingredients so it’s easy for people to serve themselves. You can always premix Cosmopolitans and then set them out when the party starts.

Michael says that the good party host will have a bartender, but that’s unnecessary.

Total Cost:

12 bottles of champagne: $60

1 1.75 L bottle of Vodka: $20

1 750 mL bottle of Raspberry Liqueur: $10

1 750 mL bottle of Triple Sec: $5

1 64 oz. container of Orange Juice: $5

1 64 oz. container of Cranberry Juice: $4

1 64 oz. container of Pineapple Juice: $4

Total Cost: $108

This should suffice for a party of about 12.

Happy New Year’s Eve, enjoy ringing and drinking in 2012, and, as always, happy and safe drinking.

Another Skill Post

Tags

Cranberry juice, Manhattan, Vermouth

Sorry for the delays and lack of posts recently. I have a few notes, but I haven’t gotten around to writing them. I don’t know if I wrote this, but I did get into law school, so I’m prepping to start a joint JD/MLS at North Carolina Central University in the Fall. I’ll be earning two terminal degrees at the same time. WHAT’S UP?! I’m excited. Until then, let me tell you about of the best things about living in the Southeast during the Summer: Beaches! I g0t back from Myrtle Beach last Wednesday. I was so burned I couldn’t walk for almost 48 hours, and in about an hour and a half, I’ll be headed to Wilmington, NC for this coming weekend.

It’s good to be a gay North Carolinian (Thanks, Paul, Bill, and Arthur!)

Now, when I go to the Beach, I can’t very well talk my bar with me. 1) we would need a car for the liquor alone, and 2) it’s ridiculous to take 70 bottles of alcohol for a 3-day trip. So I premix my booze.

When I went to the beach with Paul last weekend, I made Raleigh Iced Tea and the Sicily. As I’m going to the beach with Arthur this weekend, something a little stronger is in order. I made a batch of Manhattans and Cosmopolitans. When I make these to take with me, I used empty alcohol bottles. This is great because it helps reduce waste and consumption. It’s also much cheaper than purchasing something to cart all over the Carolinas. If you want to, you can recycle it at your port of call, rather than bringing it back.

So, as this post is about skills, let’s talk about making pre-mixed drinks for travel by car. (I only take a carry-on when I fly, so I can’t help you with airplanes.)

A couple of things:

1) a 750 mL bottle holds about 25 ounces. This is great because many drinks are proportioned in ratios of 3 or 5. With the batch of Manhattans I made, using the Manhattan, Again post, it’s 1.5 ounces whiskey, 0.5 ounces sweet vermouth, and 0.5 cherry juice, for a total of 2.5 ounces. Multiple that by 10, and you have 15 ounces whiskey, 5 ounces sweet vermouth, and 5 ounces of cherry juice. 25 ounces, 10 cocktails pre-made. You can then pour the drink over ice, and you have a Manhattan with minimal work at the beach or you can refrigerate it and drink it up.

2) Martinis are great because you got a lot more bang for your buck when traveling in terms of space. You also don’t have to worry about topping with a mixer like club soda or ginger ale, etc. If you do decide that you want to do something like that, like a Sloe Gin Fizz, premix everything except the club soda in a bottle. Then, when you are ready to drink add the club soda to the liquor at the beach.

3) When making drinks to travel, start with the cheapest ingredient and add by price, ascending.(This is good general advice for all cocktails.) The following is a true story from the afternoon, an inspiration for this post, and might be a little gross. I haven’t been in my bar for a while because I’ve been gardening, prepping for law school, and taking Atlantic excursions. I had a big party about a month ago and forgot to put open juice in the fridge. I poured 8 oz of vodka in first and then went to add the cranberry juice. As you can imagine, the cranberry juice got a little funky. When I poured it into the measuring cup, I saw a green solid mass floating in the cocktail. I was confused and went to look at it. It looked a little weird, so I looked at the cranberry juice. The juice had molded. Awesome. I then had to dump a third of a bottle of vodka. As a general rule, I don’t like to chance giving myself food poisoning. (Don’t worry, Arthur, I switched measuring cups as well.)

Anyway, I’m almost ready to head to the ocean for the weekend. So, learn from my mistakes, and, as always, happy and safe drinking.

Spalsh? Dash?

Tags

bartending, Cooking, jigger, measurement chart

I know when I’ve gone through bartending books and various drink recipes, I see measurements for a splash and a dash and a shot and pony and a jigger and what does this all mean?!

Sometimes we need help, so I’m here to help. I have a created a measurement chart for you, below.

Terminology	Imperial	Metric	Cooking
Dash*	1/32 oz.	0.92 mL	¼ tsp
Splash**	1/16 oz.	1.84 mL	½ tsp
Teaspoon	1/16 oz.	4.92 mL	1 tsp
Tablespoon	½ oz.	14.78 mL	3 tsps
Pony	1 oz	29.57 mL	2 tbsps
Jigger	1 ½ oz	44.36 mL	3 tbsps
Wineglass	4 oz	118.29 mL	0.5 cups
½ Fresh Lime	½ oz.	14.78 mL	3 tsps
½ Fresh Lemon	½ oz to ¾ oz.	22.18 mL	3 to 4.5 tsps

 

*A dash can refer to 4 or 5 drops. This is to taste.

**A splash can refer to a small amount as well. This is to taste.

I hope this helps! If you have any questions feel free to email me and let me know at alldrinksconsidered@gmail.com

As always, happy and safe drinking.

Garnishes: Wheels and Twists

Hello, Gentle Reader.

Like I have mentioned in my “New Years Resolution” post, one of the things that I’m working on this year includes garnishes. This post is about how to create wheels and twists.

We drink cocktails first with our eyes, then with our nose, and finally with our mouths. A good cocktail should be a symbiotic relationship between all three.

As I have been told by some of you, I do myself a disservice by not creating garnishes. Almost without exception, garnishes are for looks and do NOT change the flavor of the cocktail. I ignored them, and I will own that. But after researching more about cocktails and listening to you all, I rectify my faults. My problem was that I had to practice. Out of obstinance, laziness, and business, I never did.  Now that I am unemployed, I am practicing.

Rather than just having these appear on drinks on my blog, I thought I would help you create your own garnishes.

Wheels

Before we get to twists, let’s right about the wheel. The wheel is a great topper for all martinis, doubles, and singles. You need to use a citrus. Typically, these garnishes are lemons, limes, and oranges. ‘

How to create the wheel:

1. Wash the fruit.
2. Cut off the ends.
3. Slice like a loaf of bread.
4. Following the natural fold of the fruit, cut a small slit almost to the center of the wheel.
5. Now, you have a wheel.

 

Twist

Now to go from a wheel to a twist, we’re going to follow the same instructions. After we have our wheel, we can go to our twist.

1. Take your knife that you were using and cut between the rind and the fruit, cutting out as much pith (the white stuff) as possible.
2. Go carefully around the wheel, not cutting through the rind.
3. Twist the rind.
4. Now, you have a twist.
5. With the leftover fruit from the wheel, you can rim the glass to get the flavor of the fruit and then you have used everything.

 

Practice

Like all useful skills, this takes time and practice. I want to let you know how I have started practicing and will continue to practice.

Since you can do this with all fruits, I used oranges. I like oranges and will actually eat them. I know a handful of people who eat lemons and lemons, but I’m not one of them. The rind of all citrus fruits are similar enough that moving from an orange to a lemon to a lime is similar and fluid. I personally don’t want to drink a cocktail every time I make a twist. By using oranges, you’re not wasting the fruit or spending lots of money. One of the disadvantages that we have as amateur mixologists.

Conclusion:

I think being able to make twists and wheels are good skills. Below, is a drink with no garnishes and then a drink with a garnish.

Which one do you want?

As always, happy and safe drinking.

Creme de Cacao and Irish Whiskey

Gentle Reader, I hope you had a good New Years. This post does not contain a drink recipe but is for the lactose intolerant community. I hope you still enjoy–

If you log online and search for “Lactose Intolerant Cocktails”  on Google, I was on the front page! It was very exciting. Unfortunately, I’m not there anymore.  Because of that, when someone did a search trying to find out about whether or not Creme de Cacao was lactose-free, they stumbled across my blog. At the time I did not have an answer, but, now I do.

Going to Wikipedia, a creme refers to “a liqueur that has a great deal of additional sugar added to the point that it has a near-syrup consistency. (If you don’t like the Wikipedia article, you can always refer to Classic Cocktails by Salvatore Calabrese — same definition. Unlike cream liqueurs, creme liqueurs include no cream in their ingredients.” Creme de Cacaos are lactose-free and safe for human consumption if you’re allergic to lactose.

What you need to look for though are the CREAM liqueurs. A really great example of this are the Godiva liqueurs. The entire Godiva is made with cream and milk chocolate, so clearly these are potentially fatal. Always read the label, CREME is good, CREAM is bad. Be careful. The Godiva liqueur labels do not say cream or have any indication that cream is included. It is best to err on the side of caution and just focus on the “Creme de Cacao” liqueurs for safety.

I don’t feel I need to spell this out, but I will just in case. Irish Cream is NOT lactose-free either. It’s made with cream in the distilling process. Other coffee liqueurs are not necessarily a replacement because Irish cream gets its flavor, by using Irish whiskey. As an example, Kahlua is made from coffee but has no Irish whiskey in it. I have not really looked at a lactose-free replacement for Irish cream, but if any of you want me to,  let me know. Right now, it’s just not high on my priority list. I’m always up for interesting challenges, though. Send me an email or a facebook message.

So far, I’ve had really good luck with soy milk and Creme de Cacao for all chocolate martinis which are lactose-free and delicious. As always, happy and safe drinking!

A Practical Guide to Lime Juice

Tags

lime, storing limes

Hello, All.

This week I have been fortunate enough to show off making my cocktails to a visitor from out of town and visitors from inside the Beltline. This has been a bad week for creation, and I have no new recipes that I want to show off yet. I haven’t tasted enough yet.

The week has been a disappointment for cocktails. The Campari that I had hoped to buy was too expensive for my tastes right now. Therefore I was unable to make an Americano or a Negroni. James Bond has to wait.

Also, I tried to layer my first drink today. I only practiced for about two or three cocktails, and I was terrible. This is a skill that I will have to find good information on, so I can really get good at it. Then there will be a video!

I still have good advice though from last week, a practical guide to lime juice.

• Lime juice should come from a piece of fruit. To quote Rachel Maddow:

“If your lime is actually secretly plastic and filled with lime juice and it sits in your fridge, that is not a lime, it doesn’t count. If your lime isn’t a lime but it’s a little bottle that says Rose’s something on it, that’s not a lime either, it doesn’t count. It has to be an actual piece of fruit.”

• A lime sitting out in the open air should last about a week.
• A lime in the refrigerator can last up to three weeks.
  • If you decide to refrigerate the limes, keep them in a plastic bag.
• When you are ready to juice them,

1. 1. Wash the lime. This will help remove any bacteria, etc, that is on the lime.
   2. Roll the lime on a solid surface, this will help break up the pulp.
   3. Cut the lime in half.
   4. Remove the seeds. Especially any you may have cut when you cut the lime in half.
   5. Juice.
   6. Verify any seeds are removed, you do not want those for cocktails.

• Lime juice will keep for about a week.
• If you need to store the limes longer than a month (3 weeks as fruit in the fridge and 1 week of refrigerated juice,) put them in an ice tray and freeze the lime juice.