Nothing says holiday like a champagne cocktail. It’s the perfect cocktail for breakfast, brunch or dinner! Which means I’m pouring them all the time. Literally, all the time.

This one is a perfect combination of holiday flavors with the cranberry and the orange. And if you’re just making two, then you can buy a split of champagne or prosecco and not have any waste. It’s not like I’ve ever reached a point when I “wasted” champagne, but still…

cran-orange Mimosa

1 ounce cranberry juice

1/2 ounce orange liquer

champagne

twist of orange for a garnish

Pour all ingredients into a champagne flute and garnish.

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This cocktail is the equivalent of an apple picking adventure at a pumpkin patch while riding on a hay ride. It’s all fall. There can’t possibly be flavors that more embody fall than fresh apple cider and bourbon.

This is a version of a Manhattan cocktail, only adding in fresh apple cider. Get it, the Big Apple?!? I know, corny. But so totally no the nose, you can’t help but love it. The bourbon, vermouth and bitters are the so good with the fresh cider.

Fresh cider is critical here. You can find it almost anywhere - even Tree Top juice makes a version of a fresh cider that’s worthy of this cocktail. Just please don’t use apple juice. Gross.

The Big Apple

2 ounces apple cider

1 ounce bourbon (or rye)

1/2 ounce red vermouth

a dash of bitters

STEP 1

Pour all ingredients into a cocktail shaker. Fill it with ice and shake!

STEP 2

Strain into a cocktail glass filled with ice and serve with a wedge of apple. Cin cin!

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There’s something about a spicy, smoky margarita that feels perfect for Halloween! These are something you can make in a pitcher too - so you can serve them at a party and not have to keep shaking. Just mix the ingredients and then let guests shake to order. Better yet, find a friend who likes to work the bar - it’s usually someone who wants to chat with everyone, but also needs to keep their hands busy. I know who I always choose - it’s a great friend to have!

Try a few mezcals before you settle on one. Everyone likes something a little different and mezcal is unique because it’s so smoky. Like when you pick a scotch, they all taste a little different. It’s handy to buy the tiny little bottles first to try out the varieties. Those big bottles seem even larger when you don’ like what’s inside!

Mezcal Margarita

serves 2

4 ounces mezcal

1/2 ounce jalapeno syrup

1 dash triple sec

juice of 1/2 a lime (2 ounces)

lime wedges

coarse sea salt

STEP 1

Rub the ridge of one glass with the lime and dip half of the rim in salt. If you dip the whole thing, you can end up with a mouth full of salt and no one needs bloated fingers tomorrow. Fill the glass with ice and set aside.

STEP 2

In a cocktail shaker filled with ice, pour mezcal, jalapeño syrup,, triple sec and lime. Shake aggressively for a few seconds. Strain the cocktail into the salted glass. Squeeze a lime wedge over the top and serve.

ALTERNATIVLY

I often will not fill the glass with ice in the beginning, but pour the ice the cocktail was shaken with into my glass. There’s a little melt that happens when you shake and I like to capture all of the flavors. But it’s not traditional, so you do you.

to make the jalapeño syrup

Combine together in a saucepan, 1 cup water, 1/2 cup sugar and 1 jalapeño, sliced but not seeded. Simmer until the sugar has melted and the liquid has reduced. Let cool before using.

If there was a better name for a Halloween cocktail than this, I can’t think of it. I have friends who adore this drink. They are constantly ordering it at the bars and I haven’t really seen the allure.

Then I made my own. Here’s what I discovered - the amount of lemon juice traditionally called for (1 ounce) is too much. It curdles your stomach. I made this with both fresh lemon juice and the stuff in the carton. Both ways, it needed less than the original recipes called for. With fresh lemon juice 1/2 ounce is plenty, with the juice in the carton, I recommend a little less than 1/2 an ounce.

The absinthe rinse seems optional because it’s a rinse, but it’s totally not. The slight licorice flavor with the absinthe and the citrus from everything else is a perfect combination. You can’t beat it when it’s done right. I buy a tiny bottle of absinthe because I don’t really need more than a little bit for this drink. And I don’t need more than a little for the rest of the cocktails I make either.

You will not regret shaking one of these up for Halloween - or really any time! Cin cin!

Corpse Reviver no. 2

makes one cocktail

1 ounce lillet blanc

1 ounce cointreau

1/2 ounce lemon juice

1 ounce dry gin

1/4 ounce absinthe

STEP 1

Pour the absinthe into the cocktail glass and swirl it around. Then dump it out. Or dump it in the next glass if you’re making more.

STEP 2

Pour all of the remaining ingredients into a cocktail shaker and fill it with ice. Shake until chilled. It’s about 21 times.

STEP 3

Strain into a cocktail glass and serve cold.

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The original James Bond drink

The perfect Friday night clink-clink

It’s a little lillet and vodka and gin

Pour it in a pitcher - add ice - and begin

Not shaken, but stirred

More than one and your vision is definitely blurred.

Vesper Cocktail

1 ounce vodka

2 ounces gin

1/2 ounce lillet blanc

lemon peel

Combine all ingredients in a cocktail pitcher. Add ice and stir gently. Strain into two cocktail glasses and garnish with a lemon peel.

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It’s Fourth of July weekend! My favorite weekend of the year. Clearly it calls for a special beverage. I made this one booze free because it’s the perfect drink for a shot of vodka, if you so choose, but also then my kids will stop bugging me that I make all these fancy drinks that they can’t drink. Annoying.

Watermelon Lemonade

4 cups watermelon, cubed

2 cups lemonade

The zest of one lemon

Put everything in a blender together and blend until smooth! Serve over ice. Vodka or rum is optional.

I made this punch for a bridal shower I hosted for my cousin. It’s light and refreshing and just the tiniest bit boozy. It’s also great because you can make a big batch and sit back while guests serve themselves. I served it with tiny little melon balls on top. You could also slice the melon, use a cucumber slice, or just skip it all together!

Honeydew Punch

2 tablespoons sugar

1 honeydew, sliced

1 cucumber, sliced

750 mL white wine

1/2 cup vodka

1/2 cup cointreau

1/2 cup mint

2 cups club soda

STEP 1

Blend together the sugar, honeydew, cucumber until smooth. Strain through cheese cloth.

STEP 2

Add vodka, wine, cointreau, and mint to the honeydew ‘juice’. Let rest overnight.

STEP 3

To serve, remove the mint leaves and add the club soda. Garnish with melon balls!

Daiquiris are now all frilly and sweet.

But the original is much more of a treat.

Invented in Cuba in 1898 when an American throwing a party ran out of gin.

Cuban rum was swapped into the punch and made it a win!

The drink turned up at the Army Navy Club in DC

where it became a favorite of Hemingway and Kennedy.

Overtime, the drink got blended and topped with frills

but I recommend the traditional, shaken and chilled.

Classic Daiquiri

1 ounce run

1/2 ounce simple syrup

3/4 ounce fresh squeezed lime juice

Pour all of the ingredients into a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake vigweously. Strain into a glass and garnish with lime wedges.

An amazing drink from the Soggy Dollar Bar. A hair of the dog cocktail from a swim up bar. Tr additionally made with Prusser’s Rum, one sip evokes sounds of a steel drum. Made with juice and coconut cream, it’s like a Pina colada without the sugar extreme. Shake one up and bottom’s up! It’s sunshine and sand, all in a cup.

prusser’s Painkiller

2 1/2 ounces run

4 ounces pineapple juice

2 ounces orange juice

1 ounce coconut cream

Pour all ingredients into a cocktail shaker. Shake well over ice until combined. Strain into a glass filled with fresh ice and top with an umbrella, pineapple, lime wedges and anything else you can think of!

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In the era of prohibition, gin was terrible. It was made in bathtubs and buckets and could have actually been poison. In order to cover up the taste of the terrible gin, a bartender added honey and lemon and shook it up - like a martini only so it was palatable.

There are lots of stories about where the cocktail came from and most people like to say Paris. HOWEVER - prohibition was in the US not in France so how would the above explanation, which is the common explanation, make any sense at all? Here’s the better story that ties things together:

Do you know who Margaret Brown is? Molly Brown was traveling alone on the Titanic when it hit the iceberg. She loaded passengers on to lifeboats before she was finally persuaded onto one herself. Following the sinking, Ms. Brown organized the first class passengers to secure funding and necessities for the second and third class passengers who had survived. Her passion for philanthropy started long before she set foot on the Titanic and continued long after.

Here’s how she ties into the Bee’s Knees. The Unsinkable Molly Brown was on the Titanic because she needed to leave Paris, where she was visiting with her daughter, to get home to a sick grandchild. In the years following the sinking, Ms. Brown continued to travel to Paris - and as the wealthy woman she was - she stayed at the Ritz. The Ritz claims it originated the cocktail in 1921. However, another story says that Ms. Brown, the strong and independent woman that she was, brought the drink to Paris and had the bartender shake her up one. Ms. Brown bringing the drink to Paris makes way more sense - gin was readily available in Paris and would have been much more delicious than what was available back home in Denver.

Now that gin is delicious, we don’t need the honey and lemon to cover up the flavor. I chose a gin that has the flavors highlighted by the lemon and the honey serves to smooth out the lemon. I also chose this Empress Gin because it’s blue and turns this pink/purple when mixed with the lemon! Empress gin is one of the coolest you can have on your bar cart. It stays blue or gets a little more blue when mixed with basic ingredients (like soda water) but gets pink-y when mixed with anything acidic! It’s almost impossible to find cool colored liquors that aren’t mixed with weird ingredients - this one gets it’s purple color from the Butterfly Pea Flower. And it’s delish!

The Bee’s Knees

1 tablespoon honey

1 tablespoon hot water

2 ounces Butterfly Pea Flower Gin

3/4 ounce fresh lemon juice

In a cocktail shaker, stir together honey and hot water to melt the honey. Add gin and lemon juice. Stir a little - then add ice to the shaker. Shake well and strain into two cocktail glasses. Garnish with a twist of lemon.

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