Cocktails

Ring in the New Year with some sweet and bubbly Pomegranate Champagne Moscow Mules!

Yes, I’ve been super absent these last few months. Sorry, friends. As it does so often, life has gotten in the way of blogging. Fortunately, it’s been for very positive reasons.

At the risk of sounding like Taylor Swift (sorry, guys), 2017 has been a pretty great year. Yes, I know that most of the year has been trash, and that the world is a dumpster fire… but things have been good from a personal standpoint.

In addition to us having our health, jobs, family, friends, and all of that standard (but super important!) good stuff, there have been other important developments. My career development award was funded in August, I was promoted to Assistant Professor in October, and we bought our first house later that same month. All in all, life is treating us very well. Stay tuned for photos of our incredible new kitchen!

Though things have been crazy and busy, I wanted to close out things out with a delicious and bubbly cocktail that is perfect for ringing in the new year. Pomegranate juice provides color and sweetness (plus antioxidants!), ginger beer and lime lend a bit of bite, and champagne makes things extra bubbly. You won’t regret toasting the new year with this pretty cocktail.

Looking for more riffs on the Moscow Mule? Check out the Old Kentucky Mule, Caramel Apple Moscow Mule, Cranberry Vanilla Moscow Mule, and a slight variation on the original Moscow Mule.

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Pomegranate Champagne Moscow Mules

Prep Time

5 mins

Total Time

5 mins

 

Course: Beverage, Cocktail

Cuisine: American

Servings: 1 cocktail

Author: laurenpacek

Ingredients

• 1.5 oz plain vodka
• 2 oz pomegranate juice
• 2 oz champagne/sparkling wine
• 3 oz ginger beer
• juice of 1/2 lime
• pomegranate arils and lime wedge, for garnish (optional)

Instructions

1. Pour vodka, pomegranate juice, bubbly, ginger beer, and lime juice over ice and stir to combine. 

2. Garnish with pomegranate arils and a lime wedge if you’re feeling fancy.
   

Recipe Notes

Note: If you’d like a sweeter cocktail, you can decrease the amount of ginger beer and increase the amount of pomegranate juice.

I hope you all have a safe and very happy new year’s celebration. See you in 2018!

The Kalimotxo Cocktail comes together simply enough, just combine red table wine + cane sugar cola + a squeeze of lime juice for a refreshing, super easy cocktail.

I was flipping through a couple of cookbooks earlier this month and came across this recipe again. It’s the Kalimotxo cocktail. The Internet tells me that the Kalimotxo is popular in the Basque region of Spain. So, there you go. There’s that.

AND! A Kalimotxo is composed of… wait for it… red wine and soda! I know that this combination may sound strange, but trust me!

I’m telling you, this drink is like sangria, but perfect for lazy people. Two ingredients (three if you count the lime juice) poured in a glass over ice and you’re done.

Because the ingredient list is so short, you really want to make sure that you’re using the correct ingredients. For the wine, you don’t need to use anything fancy. A cheap to moderately priced red table wine (I used a Rioja) will suffice. But for the soda, make sure you grab something that is made with cane sugar and not high fructose corn syrup. Have you ever had the Coke that’s made in Mexico (affectionately called MexiCoke)? It tastes SO much better than the stuff that’s made in the U.S. I’d go for that. It’s pretty widely available in regular grocery stores.

This recipe comes from the cookbook Over Easy: Sweet and Savory Recipes for Leisurely Days, by Joy Wilson (aka Joy the Baker).

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Kalimotxo Cocktail

Prep Time

5 mins

 

Course: Beverage, Cocktail

Cuisine: Basque

Servings: 1 cocktail

Ingredients

• 1 part red table wine, see notes
• 1 part cane sugar soda, see notes
• 2 lime wedges, for juice and garnish

Instructions

1. Over ice, fill a glass half full with wine. Top with soda and squeeze a lime wedge.

2. Garnish with another lime wedge if desired.

Recipe Notes

Notes: 

• I used an inexpensive Rioja
• I used MexiCoke

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This Palace Cafe Cocktail is fresh, herbaceous (thanks to rosemary infused vodka), and very refreshing.

I declare this my official summertime cocktail.

This recipe makes good use of the Rosemary Infused Vodka and Homemade Sour Mix that I shared with you over the past couple of weeks.

They’re fizzy, sweet, and perfumed with herby rosemary flavor. They are also slightly dangerous in that they go down very easily.

This cocktail is inspired by one that I enjoyed at The Palace Cafe in New Orleans. The food was delicious there, too.

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The Palace Cafe Cocktail

Course: Beverage, Cocktail, Drinks

Cuisine: American

Servings: 1 cocktail

Author: Lauren Pacek

Ingredients

• ice
• 1.5 oz rosemary infused vodka, see notes
• .75 oz Domaine de Canton  (a ginger liqueur)
• 1.5 oz sour mix, see notes
• ginger ale
• 1 sprig of rosemary, for garnish

Instructions

1. Add ice, vodka, Domaine de Canton, and sour mix to a cocktail shaker. Shake until very cold. 

2. Strain into a glass with ice. Top with ginger ale and garnish with a sprig of rosemary.

Recipe Notes

Notes:

• The recipe for Rosemary Infused Vodka can be found here
• The recipe for Homemade Sour Mix can be found here

Homemade Sour Mix is so easy to make, and is so much better than the neon green store bought stuff.

Just like it says above: super easy to make and waay better than the store bought stuff. Stash it in the fridge and break it out whenever you feel like whipping up a cocktail.

5 from 1 vote

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Homemade Sour Mix

Cook Time

15 mins

Total Time

15 mins

 

Course: Beverage, Drinks

Cuisine: American

Servings: 3 cups

Author: Lauren Pacek

Ingredients

• 1 cup water
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup lemon juice, freshly squeezed
• 3/4 cups lime juice, freshly squeezed

Instructions

1. The first thing you're going to do is make a simple syrup. In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the sugar and water.  Stirring occasionally, heat the mixture until the sugar is completely dissolved.  

2. Remove from the heat and allow it to cool completely. Once cooled, pour the simple syrup into the container in which you'll be storing the sour mix.

3. Add the lemon and lime juices to the simple syrup. Give everything a shake until well combined. Seal the container and store the sour mix in the fridge.

Stay tuned, because I’ll be sharing a cocktail next week that uses this sour mix AND the Rosemary Infused Vodka that I shared recently.

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This Rosemary Infused Vodka is full of herbaceous flavor, embarrassingly easy to make, and makes the perfect addition to (summery) cocktails.

Before (above) and after (below).

This infused vodka is so easy to make. It only requires a little forethought and patience (~5 days). It’s really fragrant and flavorful, and makes a great addition to cocktails.

You can remove the rosemary from the container, or not. The flavor will continue to intensify the longer it’s left in the vodka. You can store the vodka right in the container in which it was infused and stash it wherever you keep your booze. I keep mine in our pantry.

Stay tuned for a recipe for Homemade Sour Mix + a cocktail to make using it AND this vodka!

These Orange Creamsicle Crush cocktails are super refreshing and taste just like… get this… a creamsicle!

The weather is warming up again, and that invariably puts me in the mood for a Crush. They’re refreshing, lightly sweet, and can be made in a variety of flavors. For example, I’ve shared Grapefruit Crushes with you before.

Thanks to the combination of fresh orange juice, triple sec, and whipped cream vodka, these Crushes taste just like an orange creamsicle.

Looking for more warm weather cocktails? Check these out, too:

• Lemongrass and Thai Basil Mojitos
• Coconut Mojitos
• Blackberry Lime Vodka Fizz
• Grapefruit Crush