Homemade Honey Ginger Juice

/ Dani DeLuna / 3 Comments

Honey-Ginger-Juice-1

Y’all, my throat has been killing me lately and so has the rest of my body. I thought, “hmmm, Ginger juice? Ginger + Honey juice?” YEP. This Honey Ginger Juice goes well in both Dani’s-Patented-Get-Over-Being-Sick-Tea* and is super tasty in loads of Cocktails. Really, I know, we’re all here for The Cocktails**. Now, I don’t have a juicer, just a Blender, Food Processor and two Strainers so this recipe is going to be for those of you who have a Blender or Food Processor.

Also, we’re going to do this in milliliters because the metric system is better. 🙂

What you need:

  • 500 ml Water
  • 250 ml Honey
  • 1 medium-large sized ginger root (like the size of your hand, see photo below)

What to do:

  1. Peel Ginger and add it to 250 ml warm water. Blend in Blender or pulse in food Processor until you have very fine particles of ginger.
  2. Pour contents through two Strainers into a pot, add 250ml honey and remaining 250 ml water.
  3. Heat on low low low heat until honey is dissolved. Do not let water get anywhere near boiling. Just warm enough to dissolve honey.
  4. Double strain again into storage container.
  5. This is pretty strong, so add water to taste but keep in mind, you’re going to want to use the Honey Ginger Juice in small doses for cocktails.

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*Dani’s-Patented-Get-Over-Being-Sick-Tea: To one mug add a Ricola cough drop, 30 ml/1 oz Honey Ginger Juice, 15ml/ 0.5 oz Lemon Juice and stir until cough drop is dissolved.

**The Cocktails: The Honey Ginger Juice goes excellently in a Gold Rush, Gin Sour, Whiskey Smash, Gin Fizz, Dark & Stormy, as a substitute for Domain de Canton or really any drink which calls for Ginger.

The Oldest Living Confederate Widow

/ Dani DeLuna / 3 Comments

The-Oldest-Living-Confederate-Widow-1

This drink is possibly the greatest version of a Gin Sour to ever exist. Ever. It’s truly refreshing, so very dangerous and I want to drink them all year round! I got the recipe from Angel Negrín, my mentor in Birmingham, AL who got it from Toby Malone at the Violet Hour in Chicago. It’s a fabulous cocktail and “super healthy” as Angel likes to say. Get ready to shake, shake, boogie!

The Oldest Living Confederate Widow

  • 2 oz Plymouth Gin or Bombay Dry Gin
  • 1 1/4 oz Honey Syrup*
  • 1 oz Lemon Juice
  • 2 dashes of Orange Bitters
  • 2 dashes of Absinthe or Pernod Pastis

In tin, combine ingredients over cracked ice and shake, baby, shake! Strain into coupe. Feel the awesomeness. Try not to take down the whole cocktail in one big gulp, ok?

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*Honey Syrup: I like to make my Honey Syrup in a 1:1 ratio and shake it until the honey has dissolved. I find that if you heat the water and honey, some of the awesomeness in the honey is lost.

Classic Cocktails: Black Manhattan

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Black-Manhattan-1

So dark, so smooth, so rich in flavor, so Manhattan. Wait, what am I saying? There is NOTHING smooth about Manhattan, NOTHING. Sorry, are we talking about the Burrough or the Cocktail? As far the Manhattan Cocktail goes, there are as many variations as there are neighborhoods in NYC: Perfect Manhattan, 1920 Cocktail, Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, Red Hook, Bronx, Slope, Greenpoint, Carroll Gardens, to name a few. Even the Rob Roy is essentially just a Scotch Manhattan!

The Black Manhattan or Averna Manhattan is excellent variation on a Manhattan, in fact it might be my favourite. A classic Black Manhattan stays true to the 2:1 ratio of Rye to Averna but I really enjoy a bit of Carpano Antica in this cocktail as well. Remember to sip slowly and feel the Averna. Let its velvety richness guide you into the winter months.

Black Manhattan

  • 2 oz Rye
  • 3/4 oz Averna Amaro
  • 1/2 oz Carpano Antica
  • 2 dashes of Angostura Bitters
  • Maraschino Cherry

In tin, combine Rye, Averna, Carpano and Angostura Bitters over cracked ice. Stir and strain into coupe. Garnish with Maraschino Cherry. Cheers!

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Just Look at this List: The NoMad Bar

/ Dani DeLuna / 1 Comment

Nomad Bar List

This is just one page from a book of Cocktails at the NoMad Bar. LOOK AT THIS LIST! Just look at it!

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Look at these Cocktails! Look at them. The one on the left is Satan’s Circus and on the right is Scotch Dumpling. Woo! Insanely good Cocktails! Untouchable in fact! So impressed!

Thanks NoMad Bar!

Copa de Oro

/ Dani DeLuna / 2 Comments

Copa-de-Oro-1

My love of Calvados continues here at Home Bar Girl with a stirred Aperitif cocktail. We named it Copa de Oro after my girlfriend suggested that the drink resembled a California Poppy.

California Poppy Copa de Oro Cup of Gold

“Poppies, poppies will put you to sleep, sleeeeep, now they’ll sleep.” -The Wicked Witch of the West

ummmmmmmm. Perhaps we shouldn’t have named the drink after Poppies. This is not a sleepy drink, it’s a before dinner/start the night out kind of drink! Don’t listen to that Wicked Witch!

Copa de Oro

  • 2 oz Calvados
  • 1 oz Cocchi Americano
  • 1/4 oz Cynar
  • 2 Dashes Angostura
  • Orange Peel

In tin, combine ingredients and stir over cracked ice. Strain into coupe. Express Orange Peel and garnish.

Cheers to you all!

Variations on a Theme: Negroni Bianco

/ Dani DeLuna / 4 Comments

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The Negroni Bianco: So many Variations, so many options, so little time. After acquiring some Cocchi Americano and Salers Aperitif, I knew, I just knew that I would be destined to make at least a dozen Negroni Bianco Variations in a very short amount of time. Don’t worry, I won’t force you to read through all of my trials and tribulations, just the top 4.

These cocktails are all stirred on cracked ice and served up.

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Variazioni #1: Salers Bianco

  • 1 oz Mayfair London Dry Gin
  • 1 oz Dolin Dry
  • 1 oz Salers Aperitif
  • Celery Bitters

The Salers and Celery Bitters really shine through on this one. Very Herbaceous, very Gentian, very Provençal.

Mt-Tam-Negroni-1

Variazioni #2: Mt Tam Negroni

  • 1 oz St George Terroir Gin
  • 1 oz Cocchi Americano
  • 1 oz Dolin Blanc
  • Lemon Peel

St George Terroir Gin is the star of the show here. Cocchi Americano and Dolin Blanc create a nice undercurrent of subtle flavours upon which the supremely awesome Mt Tam botanicals rest.

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Variazioni #3: New York Negroni

  • 1 oz Dorothy Parker Gin
  • 1 oz Dolin Dry Vermouth
  • 1 oz Cocchi Americano
  • 2 dashes of Orange Bitters

This totally tastes like what any serious Martini-type New Yorker would drink if they wanted a different cocktail. Dorothy Parker comes through first, Dolin Dry second and then Cocchi Americano and Orange Bitters. Sublime.

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Variazioni #4: DiLuna Negroni

  • 1 oz Plymouth Gin
  • 1 oz Dolin Dry
  • 1 oz Suze
  • Lemon Peel

I’ve made it a habit of ordering this particular variation at bars which serve Suze and on multiple occasions have been asked by the bartender, “Wow! Did you make this up?” Yes, yes I did. One bartender at Marco’s in Brooklyn even strongly suggested that I name it before someone else does.

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Enjoy these variations and please submit any of your own in the comments or send them to homebargirl@gmail.com!

Beer & A Shot Halloween Edition

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Halloween-Beer-&-Shot

Happy Halloween! Everyone is making the fanciest cocktails ever today, so I thought we’d just go with “Beer & A Shot”.

Halloween Beer & A Shot

  • 1 Pumpkin Ale or Pumpkin Beer or Pumpkin Cider, really anything fizzy, alcoholic and Pumpkin
  • 1 Shot of Bourbon

Drink.

Stay away from spooks and ghosts! K bye!

Improved MarTEAni

/ Dani DeLuna / 1 Comment

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photo by Virginia Linzee. Makeup Artist extraordinaire. 

While at a lady Tea Party for ladies today, I made my own improved version of Pegu Club’s MarTEAni. This is already a fantastic cocktail and my improvements simply consist of using a Whole Egg instead of Egg White and adding St-Germain.

Improved MarTEAni

  • 1 1/2 oz Black Tea Infused London Dry Gin*
  • 3/4 oz St-Germain
  • 1/2 oz Lemon Juice
  • 1/2 oz Simple Syrup
  • Whole Egg
  • Lemon Peel

In tin, combine Gin, St-Germain, Lemon Juice, Simple Syrup and Egg. Dry shake vigorously for appoximately 30 seconds to emulsify egg. Add ice and shake vigorously again.

*Black Tea Infused London Dry Gin: place approx 1/4 cup of loose tea into a 750ml Bottle of Gin. Shake, then let sit for approximately 2-3 hours occasionally shaking. Strain and bottle.

Gin-Gin Crisp + Crispin Pear Cider

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Gin-Gin-Crisp

So a month ago I bought some Crispin Hard Pear Cider. Being a fan of their Hard Apple Cider, I could not wait to taste this bottled goodness! But then, it sat in the back of the fridge whilst I made Raspberry Liqueur, a ton of drinks with Salers Aperitif, entered a Bourbon Manhattan competition and tried to find the best Negroni Bianco Variation. (P.S. I may have found it and will post my discovery soon!)

Well today, I could not take it any more! I had to open that bottle! And Ohhhhhh sweet Stars, this Pear Cider is so wonderful. Made from 100% Pear juice, the Crispin Pear is so dry and crisp and California and PEAR and muhhhhhhhhhhhh. I would literally drink this every day if it wouldn’t kill me. Best of the Best. Five Stars.

But, being the Home Bar Girl that I am, I immediately thought about how to use it in a cocktail. What came to me was: Gin, Ginger, Lemon, Pear. WHOOP! This drink is truly crisp and delicious while still being Autumnal! High Five! We did it!

Gin-Gin Crisp

  • 2 oz Smooth Gin (Plymouth Gin used here)
  • 1 oz Ginger Liqueur (Domaine de Canton used here)
  • 1/2 oz Lemon Juice
  • Crispin’s Pear Cider or other Pear Cider suitable cider will do
  • 2 Dashes Angostura Bitters
  • Lemon Peel

In tin, combine Gin, Ginger Liqueur and Lemon Juice over Ice and shake baby shake. Strain into Collins glass with ice, pour Pear Cider on top and add 2 dashes of Angostura Bitters. Express Lemon Peel and garnish.