Being born and raised in Baltimore, MD it’s a given that you must like the colors purple and orange – Purple for the Baltimore Ravens and Orange for the Baltimore Orioles. I’ve had a brand new bottle of Viniq Shimmer Liqueur on my home bar for a while now and finally decided to crack it open and make a cocktail. If you’ve not familiar with Viniq it’s a shimmery liqueur fusion of vodka, moscato and fruit flavors. I was introduced to Viniq about three years ago when I went to their Baltimore launch party. I guess you can say I was missing my Baltimore Ravens and feeling the purple pride when I came up with the Pretty Purple Kiss …
Ingredients:
2 oz Purple Viniq
1.5 oz. Citrus Vodka
1 oz. Lemon Juice
Instructions:
Pour vodka, Viniq and Lemon Juice into a cocktail shaker
Shake well
Pour into Martini glass
*I added a little lemon zest to the drink above to add a little color.
Now I need to get my hands on the red Viniq so that I can make an orange cocktail. Have you tried Viniq Shimmer Liqueur? Did you drink it straight or mix it? Comment Below.
Be sure to follow my foodie and cocktail adventures on social media …
Over the weekend Beyonce released her visual album and documentary on HBO entitled “Lemonade”. The internet and social media were abuzz with comments and opinions. As for me I was enjoying my Lemosa and taking it all in. What’s a Lemosa? I had the pleasure of tasting this cocktail last week at Flavor Restaurant and Lounge. And I liked it so much that I recreated it over the weekend.
Ingredients:
Citrus Vodka
Simple Syrup
Lemon Juice
Champagne
Instructions:
Pour vodka, simple syrup and lemon juice into a cocktail shaker
Shake well
Pour into champagne flute and top with champagne
*Can also be served with sugar rim
Be sure to follow my foodie and cocktail adventures on social media …
Fireball Whiskey seems to be the new favorite shot to order at the bar. If you haven’t tried fireball, it’s a cinnamon flavored whiskey that tastes to me like Big Red chewing gum. It’s a little too strong for me and I personally like to mix my Fireball Whiskey with an Angry Orchard apple cider and I call it an “Angry Ball”. Recently, I received a package of Crabbie’s Original Alcoholic Ginger Beer in three delicious flavors. Crabbie’s Original Alcoholic Ginger Beer is a cross between a cider and a beer with a kick of ginger. I liked the Spiced Orange flavor so much I decided to add it to Fireball and it made a pleasantly smooth shot. I call it the “Orange Fireball”. If you like the taste of Fireball Whiskey but don’t like the sting, add a little ginger beer to calm the cinnamon.
Have you tried Crabbie’s Original Alcoholic Ginger Beer? What did you think? Comment Below.
Be sure to follow my foodie and cocktail adventures on social media …
Ginger Beer has been my go-to mixer for about two years now. It’s smooth, flavorful and mixes well with just about anything. Contrary to its name, most ginger beers are not actually what real malt drinkers would consider beer. Most ginger beers on the market are non-alcoholic. If you go to the bar and order a drink with ginger beer take a look at the alcohol content on the bottle, nine times out of ten it’s 0%. I’ve said before that I’m not a big beer drinker, but I do like cider and Crabbie’s Original Alcoholic Ginger Beer is a cross between a cider and a beer with a kick of ginger.
Just in time for National Beer Day on April 6th, I received a package of Crabbie’s Original Alcoholic Ginger Beer. Crabbie’s is a U.K. company that has made ginger beer since 1801. They currently offer three flavors: Original, Spiced Orange, and Raspberry. I’ll be posting recipes with each flavor over the next few weeks. For this post I decided to mix the Crabbie’s Original Spiced Orange with a bottle of Angostura Rum Punch that my friend brought back from Trinidad.
Ingredients:
2 oz Rum Punch
(If you don’t have ready-made Rum Punch mix Dark Rum, Coconut-Flavored Rum, Orange Juice and grenadine syrup)
2 oz Crabbie’s Original Spiced Orange Alcoholic Ginger Beer
Squeeze of Lime Juice
Instructions:
Pour Rum Punch over ice
Squeeze Lime over Rum Punch and Ice
Top with Ginger Beer
I used the Spiced Orange with the Rum Punch because the punch already has hints of orange and it added a spicy note to an already delicious punch.
Have you tried Crabbie’s Original Alcoholic Ginger Beer? What did you think? Comment Below.
Be sure to follow my foodie and cocktail adventures on social media …
Hail to the alcohol holiday! National Margarita Day was Monday, February 22nd and I had a valid excuse to wet my whistle with a variety of margaritas. I ventured to Washington DC’s restaurant Quarter+Glory ( 2017 14th St NW) to drink and judge the Margarita Standoff Competition hosted by MIAgency and US Bartender’s Guild DC.
Six bartenders were paired against each other in a competition-style setting. They all had to reach into a bowl and choose blindly a slip of paper that would decide if they use Tequila or Mezcal for the competition. Ironically from left to right, the first three bartenders choose Tequila and the remaining three chose Mezcal. They then had to run to the end of the bar and choose what items they would use in their margarita.
There was a variety of ingredients to choose from such as fruits, vegetables, spices, juices and syrups. The competitors then had 30 minutes to make a large batch of their competition-worthy margarita. The preparation portion of the competition was tense. Each bartender was passionately focused on making their margarita. The finished margaritas were complete with cool names such as God Never Dies, Sinners Delight, Desperate Cowboy, Phil Promised Me Spring, Rico Tico Tavi, and The Oopsy Daisy.
“God Never Dies” bartender burning rosemary“Sinner’s Delight” bartender adding garnish and finishing touches
Judges and guests were given one hour to sample a glass of each margarita. We were also given ballots to vote for Best Tasting, Best Garnish and Best Name.
Photo Courtesy of MIAgency
My personal choices were God Never Dies for Best Tasting as well as Best Name and Sinners Delight for Best Garnish. I also liked Phil Promised Me Spring because the Mezcal gave it a smokey taste and the bartender also used blood oranges the sweet taste balanced it out.
After all votes were tallied, the winners were…
Best Tasting and Best Overall — God Never Dies
Best Garnish — Phil Promised Me Spring
Best Name — I honestly don’t remember who won this category, I did have 6+ margaritas after all
God Never Dies recipe via MIAgency
1.5 oz @vidatequila blanco, 1 oz Grapefruit Juice, 1/2 oz Lemon Juice, 1/2 oz Cointreau, and 1/2 oz Simple Syrup
Method: Add above ingredients to a shaker tin. Muddle slice of fresh ginger, Rosemary spring and jalapeño slice (with seeds) inside shaker tin with liquid ingredients. Fill shaker with ice and shaker vigorously for 10-13 seconds. Pour and double strain over fresh ice garnish : blood orange slice stuffed with a rosemary spring
Job well done to MIAgency and US Bartender’s Guild DC for the first #MargaritaStandoff! The event was organized and everyone seemed to have a good time.
Be sure to follow my foodie and cocktail adventures on Instagram.com/Arlisappetite and twitter.com/ArliBaby.
I started my libatious life drinking vodka and rum only, mainly because that’s what all the other 18-year old …ahem 21-year-old young women were drinking. As I grew older and started bartending, I began an appreciation for dark liquors such as whiskey and cognac. All of my friends know my favorite at the moment is Crown Royal Apple. Last week a friend invited me to a Balvenie Whiskey Tasting at the the American Craft Council Show. I’d never heard of Balvenie Whiskey, but I learned a lot from the 45-minute tasting.
We arrived at the craft show around 6:15 pm. and went directly to the tasting booth. There were four tastings that day and the last one was 7:00-7:45 pm. While waiting for the last tasting, one of the hosts offered us a pre-tasting of two Balvenie brands.
My first impression of Balvenie Whiskey was that it was smooth but bold with lots of flavor. The tasting was set-up in a booth with two long tables, ten people at each table. Around the walls of the booth were photos of Balvenie distillery employees. Our tasting host explained the history behind each employee and their contribution to the Balvenie Whiskey brand.
Belvenie is a hand-crafted single malt whiskey that originated in Dufftown, Scotland. It’s one of the only distilleries in Scotland that still grow their own barley and make their copper stills. They also employ Malt Masters to oversee the maturing process and maintain the malting floor – one of a handful still active in Scotland. Belvenie has participated in craft shows around the world because they are a long-standing company that takes pride in continuing the tradition of making hand-crafted whiskey.
At each seat was a tray with four glasses of whiskey and a glass of water. For the tasting we sampled the Double Wood aged 12 years, Caribbean Cask aged 14 years, Double Wood aged 17 years and Portwood aged 21 years.
The tasting host walked us through each sample explaining the unique flavors. He explained to us how to properly smell and taste whiskey. He instructed us to hold the whiskey glass 1 inch from our nose and pretend the rim is a clock. We moved it horizontal from 9 to 3 and vertical from 12 to 6. He pointed out the differences in the notes we smelled at each point.
The whiskey tray was also resourceful and described the notes that we were smelling and tasting. He also explained that some people like to add a little water to their whiskey to open up the flavor.
Balvenie Whiskey has a total of 14 whiskey varieties and is priced at $50.00 – $250.00 US Dollars.
Have you tried Balvenie Whiskey? Which one is your favorite?
Be sure to follow my foodie adventures at Instagram.com/arlisappetite
