Tag Archives: Drink of the Week

Drink of the Week: Hot Toddy

Posted on December 23, 2011 | Leave a comment

If you have children, brace yourself for two weeks of sugared-up hyperactivity, toy mahem and general upheaval. To get your zen on in a hurry amid the chaos, try a Hot Toddy on an empty stomach. The nearly 3 0z of booze will immediately go to your head, and you won’t care that your kid is trying out his new Christmas gift marker set on the wall.

The Hot Toddy recipe I like is from Mount Gay Rum. It’s an undeniably festive holiday cocktail that tastes rather like a hot Sidecar, with just a subtle hit of Earl Grey tea. The cinnamon stick garnish is a nice touch. I guarantee that drinking one will bring your back to your Christmas happy place, where sugar plum fairies cavort with magical snowmen. If the holiday hijinks continue, sip another. You deserve it Mrs. Claus (you too, Santa)!

Christmas stressing you out? Bliss out with a Hot Toddy.

Hot Toddy

1 oz Cointreau

1-3/4 oz Mount Gay Rum

1/2 oz fresh-squeezed lemon juice

Blue agave nectar to taste

4 oz hot Earl Grey tea

Cinnamon stick garnish

Combine all ingredients in an Irish coffee glass, stirring briefly.

Drink of the Week: Apricot Lady Sour

Posted on December 16, 2011 | 1 comment

Sours have been on my radar lately. Whiskey, tequila, and now this delish apricot sour using rum as its base. I love sours because they’re tart and because I love the way the egg white renders them foamy and smooth.

This sophisticated cocktail shakes rum with lemon juice and apricot liqueur.

I came across the recipe for this Apricot Lady Sour while paging through Cocktails Made Easy by Simon Difford. The ingredients looked like they would shake up nicely and they did. Difford uses Bacardi Superior rum, but since my husband just came back from Cuba I subbed in Havana Club rum. I also used North American-style simple syrup (1:1 ratio sugar to water) instead of the sweeter U.K. style.

This drink’s subtle apricot flavour is complemented by the rum, and the lemon’s pucker is lessened by the simple syrup. It’s nicely balanced, and light, but substantial enough — thanks to the egg white and apricot brandy — to drink on a December night close to Christmas. Enjoy.

Apricot Lady Sour

1-1/2 oz Havana Club light rum

1 oz Bols apricot brandy liqueur

1 oz fresh-squeezed lemon juice

1/2 oz simple syrup (1 sugar to 1 water)

1 fresh egg white

Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into an ice-filled rocks glass.

— Recipe modified from Cocktails Made Easy

Grab some rum, apricot liqueur and lemon juice and get ready to pucker those lips.

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Posted in Cocktails

Tagged Apricot Lady Sour, cocktail, cocktails and drinks, Drink of the Week, rum

Drink of the Week: Lisa’s Perfect Margarita

Posted on December 9, 2011 | 1 comment

I have been known to enjoy a margarita from time to time.

Margarita in Puerto Nuevo Lobster Village, Rosarito Beach, Baja, Circa 2001 (seriously what's up with the zigzag part?).

I used to drink them slushie-style, the jumbo kind you get at Senor Frog’s (and as pictured, above), but on a recent trip to Puerto Vallarta I discovered the merits of an on-the-rocks margarita. I fell in love with the sublime combo of lime juice, tequila and Controy (a made-in-Mexico orange liqueur), and even wrote about the cocktail in one of my Calgary Herald columns.

Since then, however, I have spent some time playing around with the recipe, increasing the amount of tequila, substituting Cointreau for Controy and decreasing its amount, and adding agave nectar as a sweetener. It’s an ideal balance of tart and sweet and you can still taste the tequila. As the crushed ice melts it dilutes the potency and enhances the flavour. I’m calling it Lisa’s Perfect Margarita.

Behold! Lisa's Perfect Margarita.

Lisa’s Perfect Margarita

1.5 oz tequila

1/2 oz Cointreau

1 oz fresh-squeezed lime juice

3/4 oz agave nectar

Combine ingredients in a cocktail shaker. Shake with ice, then strain into a rocks glass filled with crushed ice.

I use the below ingredients, but feel free to substitute your own. Also, depending how sweet you like your marg, you might want to play around with the amount of agave syrup. I hope you like it. Ole!