stirred

#NegroniWeek 2015 – BanaNegroni

/ Dani DeLuna / 1 Comment

Bana-Negroni-2

Welcome to #NegroniWeek 2015! Negroni Week is put on by Campari and Imbibe Magazine as a charity drive for bars and restaurants to participate in. You can find out all about it here.

We’ve made it all the way to Le Negroni Week-end, so I feel like we should be getting funky with our recipes. Therefore we aren’t using that Bottled Negroni which was discussed in a post from May 31st. We’re getting out of the box, and I mean WAAAAAY out of the box.

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The BanaNegroni reminds me a lot of a drink you’d find at Sother Teague’s Amor y Amargo. Hell, it especially reminds me of one of his drinks that I included in a Spring Cocktails with Jägermeister post called Precision Timepiece. Even though there is no mention of the word “Negroni” anywhere in the description of Precision Timepiece, it’s totally in the Negroni format. Three main ingredients, in a Rocks glass with some rocks, stirred, citrus peel. So it is with BanaNegroni.

BanaNegroni

  • 1 1/2 oz Espolón Reposado Tequila
  • 3/4 oz Amaro CioCiaro
  • 1/2 oz Giffard Banane du Bresil
  • 1 dash Dale Degroff’s Pimento Bitters
  • Garnish: Orange Peel

Combine ingredients over ice and stir. Strain into double Rocks glass with ice. Express Orange Peel and garnish.

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I really hope you like this one cause it’s wild, very intensely flavoured, and tasty. I also hope it gets your creative juices flowing. Would love to see some variations on this one!

Cheers to y’all and all your #NegroniWeek cocktails!

#NegroniWeek 2015 – Negroni-Apri

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Negroni-Apri-2

Welcome to #NegroniWeek 2015! “Always and foreverrrrr, you will be my Negroni Babyyyyy.” (Excerpted from my upcoming hit single about the Negroni).  Negroni Week is put on by Campari and Imbibe Magazine as a charity drive for bars and restaurants to participate in. You can find out all about it here.

Now, if you’re like me, you may be running out of that Bottled Negroni that we discussed in a post from May 31st. That’s ok, we can make variations on Negroni without using Bottled Negroni, in fact, I’ve done so very many times.

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For the spectacular Negroni-Apri, I’m subbing Aperol + Apricot Liqueur for Campari, Carpano Dry Vermouth for Carpano Antica, and keeping the Plymouth Gin (never not Plymouth Gin). To this we add Orange Bitters, that lovely Orange Peel rose and BOOM, we’ve got a totally fabulous summery Negroni variation.

Negroni-Apri

  • 1 1/4 oz Plymouth Gin
  • 1 1/4 oz Carpano Dry
  • 3/4 oz Aperol
  • 1/4 oz Rothman & Winter Apricot Liqueur
  • 7 dashes of Regan’s Orange Bitters (yes, 7 dashes)
  • Garnish: Orange Peel rose

Combine ingredients over ice and stir. Strain into double rocks glass over ice. Garnish with Orange Peel rose.

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Practically perfect in every way. 

#NegroniWeek 2015 – Negroni Rosé

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Welcome to #NegroniWeek 2015! The week where we literally cannot drink anything other than a Negroni! (Jkjkjkjk) Negroni Week is put on by Campari and Imbibe Magazine as a charity drive for bars and restaurants to participate in. You can find out all about it here.

Now, if you haven’t read my post from May 31st about how I like to make and Bottle my Negroni, you should do that first, and then come back here. Did you read it? Word. Did you not? Ummmmmmm.

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Repeat after me, “Bottled Negroni is my best friend.” 

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Obsession comes in many colours, this time it’s in a light shade of pink. 

This fabulous Negroni variation was born from my love of Dry French Rosé. Pictured above is Saint Roch Rose Touraine, a very dry, lightly fruity (strawberries, citrus), and botanical Rosé from the Loire Valley. (Clearly I love this Rosé as I am nearly out of it.) Saint Roch Rose Touraine also pairs perfectly with Negroni, so that’s a glorious thing.

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The reason I’m suggesting a dry Rosé is that the Negroni is a bitterSWEET drink, emphasis on the sweet. If you used a sweet Rosé, well then you might have the sweetest drink on earth and that would be no good. Nope.

Negroni Rosé

  • 2 1/2 oz Bottled Negroni
  • 1 1/2 oz Saint Roch Rose Touraine (or any dry French Rosé, bonus points for sparkling)
  • Garnish: Red Grapefruit wedge

Combine ingredients over ice and give it a long stir. Strain into coupe and garnish.

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This is one of those drinks that takes you somewhere and it’s taking me right to the Mediterranean. Cheers to THAT!

#NegroniWeek 2015 – Negroniac

/ Dani DeLuna / 1 Comment

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Welcome to #NegroniWeek 2015! The week where all we talk about, drink, and post recipes of are the infamous Negroni! Negroni Week is put on by Campari and Imbibe Magazine as a charity drive for bars and restaurants to participate in. You can read all about it here.

Now, if you haven’t read my post from May 31st about how I like to make and Bottle my Negroni, you best do that first, mmmk? Did you read it? Fabulous Did you not? wellllllll…

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The Negroniac is one of my all time favourite recipes that I’ve ever come up with. It is literally a Sazerac + a Negroni and hoooo boy, does it pack a punch. Essentially, instead of Peychaud’s Bitters, you use a hefty amount of Bottled Negroni and keep the rest of the Sazerac formula intact. (Rye, Absinthe and a Lemon peel.)

Are you ready for this? The Negroniac is high octane madness.

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Keep in mind that this is a very exact recipe. Too much of anything and the drink is thrown way off.

Negroniac

  • 1 3/4 oz Negroni
  • 1 1/4 oz Rye
  • 2 Dashes of Regans’ Orange Bitters
  • St. George Absinthe Verte Rinse
  • Garnish: expressed and discarded Lemon Peel

Rinse a double Rocks glass with Absinthe and chill. Combine Negroni, Rye and Orange Bitters over cracked ice and give it a very looooooooong stir. Strain into chilled glass. Express and discard Lemon Peel. Santé!

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Hello powerful and tasty Negroniac! I will sip you slowly and relish every drop.

#NegroniWeek 2015 – Breakfast Negroni

/ Dani DeLuna / 1 Comment

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Hello Breakfast Kweens and welcome once again to #NegroniWeek! NEGRONIS ALL WEEK Y’ALL! All damn week! Negroni Week is put on by Campari and Imbibe Magazine as a charity drive for bars and restaurants to participate in. You can check it out here.

Now, if you haven’t read my post from May 31st about how I like to make and Bottle my Negroni, you best get to it! Did you read it? Yasssss Kween. Did you not? grrrrrrl, get on it!

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This Negroni is for those of us who, like myself, are 1. obsessed with Grapefruit Juice, 2. love a good Breakfast Cocktail, and obviously 3. can’t get enough Negroni in their life!

Breakfast Negroni

  • 2 1/2 oz Bottled Negroni
  • 1 oz Red Grapefruit Juice
  • 1 dash Orange Bitters
  • Garnish: Orange Peel rose

Combine ingredients over ice and shake. Strain into chilled Coupe and garnish with Orange Peel rose.

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I want to drink two of these right now. I shall control myself but goodness, self control is hard y’all! Cheers!

#NegroniWeek 2015 – Saint Negroni

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Welcome one and all to #NegroniWeek! This is perhaps the best week of the whole year as far as cocktails go because NEGRONIS ALL WEEK Y’ALL! Negroni Week is put on by Campari and Imbibe Magazine as a charity drive for bars and restaurants to participate in. You can read all about it here.

Now, if you haven’t read my post from May 31st about how I like to make and bottle my Negroni, read it now and then return here. Did you read it? Good. Did you not read it? Hmmmmmm.

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The Saint Negroni is actually a cocktail I came up with during last year’s #NegroniWeek whilst I was mixing Bottled Negroni with different liqueurs. The elderflower flavour from St-Germain pairs so well with the Bitter, Orange and Gin flavours of Negroni that I’m drinking the Saint Negroni again this year. Plus this drink is a really bright and cheery way to start #NegroniWeek.

Saint Negroni

  • 2 1/2 oz Bottled Negroni
  • 3/4 oz St-Germain
  • 2 dashes of Scrappy’s Grapefruit Bitters
  • Garnish: Orange Peel rose

Combine ingredients over ice and stir. Strain into chilled double Rocks glass. Garnish with Orange Peel rose.

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I hope y’all have a fabulous time making up tasty Negroni variations of your own! Cheers!

#NegroniWeek 2015

/ Dani DeLuna / 7 Comments

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Negroni. It’s a word uttered rather often on Home Bar Girl. It’s perhaps one of the best classic cocktails of all time and definitely a drink I like to riff on. Well, did y’all know that there is an entire week dedicated to the Negroni? Each year for the past few years, Campari and Imbibe Magazine have put on Negroni Week as a charity drive for bars and restaurants to participate in. You can read all about it here.

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I love the Negroni because it’s simple, supremely well balanced, bitter, and sweet all at the same time. It’s made with equal parts Campari, Sweet Vermouth, and Gin, served on the rocks, and usually has an Orange peel garnish. It’s great in the winter, excellent in the summer.

Here’s how I like to make it: I use Carpano Antica because it has a wonderful spice set and is very supple in the mouth. Same goes for Plymouth Gin, very smooth and easy in the mouth and not too much bite.

Home Bar Girl’s Negroni

  • 1 oz Campari
  • 1 oz Carpano Antica Formula
  • 1 oz Plymouth Gin
  • Garnish: Orange peel rose

Combine ingredients over ice and stir. Strain into double rocks glass over one big rock. Express Orange peel, curl into a rose, and garnish.

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Now since it’s #NegroniWeek, I like to have a lot of Negroni on hand so I can mix it with other things. Actually, I usually keep Bottled Negroni in my home bar because it actually seems to mellow a bit as all those ingredients sit together in the bottle.

This recipe is for a 375ml bottle. I used an old bottle of Carpano Antica, that way if any residual flavours are still lingering about, they would just mix with the Negroni Ingredients.

Home Bar Girl’s Bottled Negroni

  • 125 ml Campari
  • 125 ml Carpano Antica Formula
  • 125 ml Plymouth Gin

Combine ingredients in bottle. Let it sit for as long as you like. It will get more awesome the longer it sits. I promise.

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Now that we’ve got our Bottled Negroni all ready for #NegroniWeek, I encourage everyone to start thinking of things you’d like to mix it with. I’ll be posting recipes for Negroni variations from June 1-7, so keep checking in!

Cheers!

Drinking with Mad Men Season 7: Old Fashioned

/ Dani DeLuna / 1 Comment

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Hello and Happy Father’s Day 2016. My dad is a Wine Guy but on a recent trip to visit me in NYC, we discovered that he’s an Old Fashioned Guy too! This post was written during my send off to the show Mad Men and contains a few Old Fashioned recipes that every dad can enjoy. Cheers!

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To celebrate “The End of An Era”, welcome to a series of drinks from the television show Mad Men. Each week I’ll be featuring a different cocktail from the show, so we can all drink along with our favourite Madison Avenue Ad-men and women.

As I write this post, I’m drinking an Old Fashioned and re-watching the very first episode of Mad Men. I can’t really put into words how much this show means to me. This is actually the first time in my life that I’ve followed a show to the very end while it was on air. Mad Men is my Sopranos and I really hope Matthew Weiner writes a knockout of an ending.

In the first scene of S1E1, Don establishes his iconic drink of choice with the phrase, “Yeah, we’ll do this again. Old Fashioned please.” Then he drinks them over and over and over again throughout the show. I would even say that along with many of other Classic Cocktails back in vogue, Don Draper put the Old Fashioned on our minds.

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Mad Men Don Joan Old Fashioned

Both images via AMC.

The thing about the Old Fashioned it that is the original cocktail and to me, that says a lot about Don Draper. It says he likes to keep things simple. He wants to be respected. He is a whiskey man like many other people from farm country. He likes to present a persona of being classic and is attached to a certain time period.

According to historical records, the first written mention of the word cocktail included a definition that it “should be a potent concoction of spirit, bitters, water and sugar.” Well, we have our recipe, let’s start with the most classic version of an Old Fashioned.

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Ingredients: Water, Bitters, Sugar, Barspoon, double Rocks glass. 

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Old Fashioned

  • 2 oz Rye
  • 2 dashes Angostura or Aromatic Bitters
  • barspoon Sugar or 1 Sugar Cube
  • 1/4 oz Water
  • Garnish: Maraschino Cherry and Orange peel

Build in double Rocks glass:

  1. Add Sugar, Water and Bitters to glass and stir until sugar is nearly dissolved.
  2. Add Rye and stir until everything has mixed properly
  3. Add ice and stir until proper dilution has been achieved (around 10 seconds)
  4. Add Cherry, express Orange peel and garnish

Mad Men Modern Old Fashioned

Image via AMC

In the photo above, Don is muddling a Cherry into his Old Fashioned and even adds Soda Water to the drink before he stirs it. This scene actually caused quite a stir amongst the Cocktail community because “it was a gross Old Fashioned! Never muddle the fruit! No Soda Water ever!” Y’all, come on, let the people do what they want to do with their fruit. Besides, there is actually a Modern Old Fashioned with muddled fruit in it.

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Simple Syrup, Bitters, two Cherries, one Orange wedge, muddler and double Rocks glass.

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Modern Old Fashioned

  • 2 oz Rye
  • 1 dash Orange Bitters
  • 1 dash Angostura Bitters
  • ~1/4 oz Simple Syrup (less if your Orange is really sweet)
  • 2 small Orange slices
  • 2 Maraschino Cherries

Build in double Rocks Glass:

  1. Add Simple Syrup, Orange Slices, Cherries and muddle.
  2. Add Rye, Bitters, and ice and stir until proper dilution has been achieved.

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Now let’s talk about other Old Fashioned options including one of my favourites, the Cocktail Crate Spiced Old Fashioned. I’ve written about these mixers before and I will write about them until the end of time because they are INCREDIBLE. The Spiced Old Fashioned mixer is truly delicious, it tastes just as delicious as a classic Old Fashioned and is very simple to make.

HINT: BUY THIS MIXER.

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Cocktail Crate Spiced Old Fashioned

  • 4 parts Whiskey
  • 1 part Mixer
  • Garnishes: Orange peel and Maraschino Cherry

Build in glass:

  1. Combine ingredients over ice and stir.
  2. Add Cherry, express orange peel and garnish.

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Recommended types of bitters for your Whiskey Old Fashioneds.

Back in Nov 2014, I wrote a post about how Old Fashioneds are the best kind of drink to make when hosting a big party because you can use so many types of Spirits, Sweeteners, Bitters and Garnishes. Check it out if you’d like to make a few with Aged Rum, Añejo Tequila or Apple Brandy.

Mad Men Old Fashioned Hawaii

Well, like pensive Don having an Old Fashioned in Hawaii, I shall be be awaiting the end of this magnificent show. Bye Bye Mad Men!

If you’d like to peruse the other Mad Men cocktails I’ve written during this last season, check them out here.

Drinking with Mad Men Season 7: the Martini

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Martini-Olives

To celebrate “The End of An Era”, welcome to a series of drinks from the television show Mad Men. Each week I’ll be featuring a different cocktail from the show, so we can all drink along with our favourite Madison Avenue Ad-men and women.

You guys, WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN IN THE LAST TWO EPISODES!?! Will Don drive to California for that “golden state dream” that he’s always had? Will he go to the family farm and encounter something terrible? Will he go back to Manhattan and jump out of the window at McCann? You know he’s always had a thing about death…

OMINOUS!

As we near the end of the show, you knew that one of these posts had to include Martinis and so here we are!

Mad Men Roger Martini

Look at Roger’s Casual but serious Martini with an Olive. Image via AMC.

Mad Men Jim Martini

And here Jim is looking very sharp with his Martini with an Olive. Image via AMC.

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I like to drink my Martinis in the following format:

Martini

  • 2 1/4 oz Plymouth Dry Gin
  • 3/4 oz Carpano Dry Vermouth
  • Garnish: Lemon peel or Olives

Combine ingredients over ice and give it a nice long stir. Strain into chilled coupe and garnish.

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Here it is again with a Lemon peel. If you’re going to add the lemon peel, perhaps add two dashes of Orange Bitters.

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Here are the PPL chaps and Duck having a Gibson Martini which is essentially a martini with more Gin, less Vermouth and a cocktail Onion. Image via Netflix screen grab.

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I don’t have any Cocktail Onions at home but I do have some delicious pickled Red Onion that my girlfriend made so we’ll go with that! This is quite tasty by the bye, definitely onion-y but certainly tasty.

Gibson Martini

  • 2 3/4 oz Dry Gin
  • 1/4 – 1/2 oz Dry Vermouth
  • Garnish: Cocktail Onion or (in this case) pickled Red Onion.

Combine ingredients over ice and give it a lonnnnnng stir. Strain into chilled coup and garnish with Onion.

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Well, I hope you’ve enjoyed Martini Time! May your drinks be delicious and our Mad Men viewing not give us all heart attacks! Cheers!

I’ll be doing this series until the end of Mad Men, so see you next week!

I’m on a Podcast + The Other White Negroni

/ Dani DeLuna / 2 Comments

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Woo! Y’all, it’s me, my new fave Hawaiian Shirt and The Other White Negroni at Smock Podcasting for the show Strong Takes! That’s right, I’m on a podcast! (Episode 10 – Dani DeLuna) A very nice dude named Corey Smock interviewed me and asked me all sorts of questions about being a Home Bar Girl. I brought a drink for us to share called The Other White Negroni and we chatted about various topics.

Topics like:

It was loads of fun and Corey is the nicest man in the world, so head over to iTunes and check it out!

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Recording gear and The Other White Negroni

If Corey liked it, I’m sure y’all are going to love The Other White Negroni. (Corey used to be a bartender and he knows what’s up.) The inspiration for this drink is my total obsession with White Negronis aka, Negroni Bianco. I actually have an entire post dedicated to several White Negroni Variations and since then I’ve probably created five or six more. For this particular cocktail, I used Fennel infused Dolin Blanc cause it’s divine.

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Fennel infused Dolin Blanc

  • 300 ml Dolin Blanc
  • approx 1/2 Fennel Bulb

Roughly chop Fennel Bulb and combine in jar, stirring every hour or so. Infuse for around 5.5 hrs, then fine strain.

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The Other White Negroni

  • 1 oz Denizen Aged White Rum (Banks 5 Year Rum would also be awesome)
  • 3/4 oz Fennel infused Dolin Blanc
  • 1/2 oz Hayman’s Old Tom Gin (Plymouth Gin would also be awesome)
  • 1/2 oz Salers Aperitif (Suze Aperitif would also be awesome)
  • Garnish: Lemon peel

Combine ingredients over ice and stir. Strain into Double Rocks glass over ice. Express Lemon peel and garnish.

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Damn. I cannot get enough of these Negroni Bianco and I cannot tell you how excited I am to be on this episode of Strong Takes!

Cheers!