Cocktail Hacker

Have you ever sipped an $8 Gin and Tonic and felt like you were somehow getting screwed? Well, chances are good that you were. Drinks are a very high profit item for restaurants and bars. To give a better idea of the true costs check out the Cocktail Calculator that Rob whipped up over on Cockeyed. I have to admit I spent about 20 minutes playing with different combinations to see the results. True geek fun.

To give an example, one of my perennial favorites the Gin and Tonic contains about 36 cents worth of ingredients when made with well spirits. That’s even cheaper than my budget recipe that rang in at 83 cents.

Fellow cocktail enthusiasts, I’m back from a relaxing week and ready to talk cocktails. With New Year’s Eve and Day coming up quick I thought it would be good to look at some Champagne cocktails this week. Before we get rolling too quickly, I’d like to clear something up. I’m going to use the term Champagne for these posts. That said, I’ll likely be mixing with slightly cheaper domestic sparkling wines. I know it’s “technically” incorrect to use the name Champagne for these wines, but it’s just a lot simpler. So, in this case, my laziness wins.

Here’s a quick overview of the week. I’ve got a book review for you on a title dealing exclusively with Champagne based recipes. I’m going to cover a couple cocktails, obviously. :) Finally, I’m going to point you to some good advice on Champagnes for your parties.

To kick the week off and get you, and me, in the right frame of mind, I want to point you to a cocktail that I covered about a year ago. The French 75 is definitely my favorite Champagne cocktail that I’ve mixed thus far. It combines gin, which you know I love, Champagne, which I’m also a huge fan of, and some citrus for freshness. It’s truly a fantastic drink and you definitely need to mix one up. In fact, I’m sipping one right now for some motivation. I think this drink would be a great addition to a New Year’s party. They’re quick to mix, can be customized easily by switching up the syrup and are a great way to switch up the traditional Champagne. A word of warning that is echoed in my previous post. These drinks pack a punch. Serve and enjoy in moderation.

I’m going to take a break from cocktail blogging this week and enjoy some time with friends and family. Fear not, I will definitely not be taking a break from cocktail drinking! :)

I have a couple interesting tidbits to post and I’ll be back in full force next week with some Champagne cocktails to get your New Years party started right.

Usually I try to fit my product reviews in to the week’s general topic (eg a gin review during the week of a gin cocktail). That leaves me with great products that don’t get reviewed in a timely manner. So, since we’re on the eve of a giant gift giving season it seems like an appropriate time to review some products!

I have my first recipe published! :D

If you pick up the most recent issue (January 2010) of Chile Pepper magazine you’ll find my recipe for the Fire Island Daiquiri listed on page 34 in Kara Newman’s article about Hellfire bitters. I have to give most, well all, of the credit to Kara for getting this recipe published. She was writing an article about Hellfire bitters and asked if she could include my recipe as part of the piece. Naturally I was thrilled at the chance. So there you have it. If you’d like to read the article you can also find it on Kara’s site here.

If you’re interested in some other spicy cocktails take a look at Kara’s book Spice & Ice. It’s entirely devoted to spicy drinks with key ingredients including chiles, ginger and wasabi.