Drunk Man's Blog

Friday 5 o'Clock Cocktail - Pina Colada

2008-07-18T09:36:00.000-07:00

Who doesn’t enjoy a nice cold Pina Colada on a hot day? The drink was developed in Puerto Rico in the 1950's and became popular in the States during the '70s.

Today it has a bit of a "Retro" flavor – or maybe that's just the Rum I taste.

Traditionally the drink is shaken, not blended. And while I usually try and do things the "traditional" way – I gotta say that when it comes to Pina Coladas, mine are blended.

Pina Coladas are also easy to make, since they only require 3 ingredients plus ice.

Ingredients

1 1/2 oz light rum
2 oz of Coconut Cream Liqueur (Coco Lopez is the traditional brand, but use what you have)
2 - 6 oz Pineapple Juice
1 cup of ice

Directions

Put everything in a blender and blend till smooth. Serve in an old-fashioned glass, rocks glass, or collins glass.

Friday 5 o’Clock Cocktail - Mai Tai

2008-07-12T07:46:00.000-07:00

One day, when I get around to finishing my book, “1001 Reasons to Drink Rum” you’ll see that Reason #48 is the Mai Tai.

I mean, perhaps I’ll even move it up a bit in the ranking because this drink is really, really good.

The legend of this drink is that its inventor (Victor J. Bergeron, of Trader Vics fame) mixed this drink up as a special for a visitor from Tahiti back in 1944. When his Tahitian friend tasted it, he said “Maita’i roa!” - which means “Out of this World!”

Thus was born the Mai Tai.

Hey, I don’t know if that’s true or not, but the drink really is Out of this World. And that qualifies it to be todays Friday 5 o’Clock Cocktail.

Here’s how to make a Mai Tai:

1 1/2 oz dark rum (I use Myer’s)
1 oz of aged rum (typically Anejo rum, but any “gold” or “aged” rum will do fine)
1/2 oz Orange Curacao
1/2 oz Orgeat
1 oz lime juice
1/2 oz orange juice
1/4 oz simple syrup

Directions
Just take everything, put it in your cocktail shaker with ice and shake thoroughly. Serve it on the rocks in some kind of glass that’s big enough to hold it all.

Now, according to tradition, you are supposed to garnish this drink with an orange blossom and some orange peel spiral.

But we’re drunks, and we don’t have any fuckin’ orange blossoms, and we certainly don’t have the dexterity to peal up orange spirals!

So, just garnish it with a slice of orange and don’t worry about it.

Friday 5 o’Clock Cocktail – Gimlet

2008-06-27T10:37:00.000-07:00

A Gimlet is one of those drinks where its beauty is in its simplicity. And since it has some historical significance, I thought I’d share it with you.

Sir Thomas Gimlette – a British surgeon, who was looking for a way to prevent scurvy in British sailors, invented the drink in the late 19th century. The lime juice in the drink contains a large concentration of Vitamin C, and so by combining it with the sailors’ daily ration of Gin, he was able to ensure they would stay healthy on their long voyages. Interestingly enough, this is why British sailors are referred to as “limeys”.

Gimlets are supposed to be made using Gin. However, just like with the Martini, there are people who think they don’t like Gin so they make the drink with vodka instead. If you do that, then you aren’t making a Gimlet – you’re just kidding yourself.

Just as with Martinis and the fight over how much vermouth to add, with Gimlets, everyone has a preference about the ratio of Gin to lime juice.

The traditional version of the drink uses a 50/50 ratio of Gin to Rose’s Lime Juice.
Most people find that this is too much lime juice, and I would have to agree. My preference is the following:

1 ½ oz Gin
1 oz Rose’s Lime Juice

That’s it. Put those two ingredients into a glass with ice, stir it and either drink it on the rocks, or strain it into a cocktail glass.

I know, I know. That isn’t good enough. Some of you out there want to turn it into a “signature drink” and start adding other shit to it.

Ok, if you want to do that, following are the top 5 ways to junk up a Gimlet:

Substitute Vodka for the Gin
Add other liquors to the glass like Rum or Tequila
Add cherries or cherry liqueur
Add soda or tonic water
Put lemon juice in it

I’m not saying that these ingredients will make the drink taste bad. But please just don’t call it a Gimlet. Call it a Gimlet’s Cousin, or Sir Thomas’ Hot Sister. Something like that.

Have a great weekend!

Friday 5 o’Clock Cocktail – Sex On The Beach

2008-06-20T13:45:00.000-07:00

Today is the first day of summer here in the United States. If you happen to be in Europe, then you’ll have to wait until tomorrow for summer to start.

I don’t know why that is. Maybe some of you can clue me in.

At any rate, to celebrate the fact that the sun is hot, today’s cocktail is the famous “Sex on the Beach”.

I remember the first time I actually drank in a bar. I was with a friend of mine, we were about sixteen years old at the time. But we were tipping well, and that’s all the waitress seemed to care about.

I remember that day because we were doing shots of Sex on the Beach, and we were too young to know that the bartender was making them weak since he knew damn well we weren’t old enough to drink.

But they were good anyway, and these days I prefer to drink my Sexes as cocktails rather than shots.

Now, Sex on the Beach’es can be made in a number of ways. Generally, however, it’s Vodka, Peach Schnapps, and some mixture of fruit juices. The ratio of juices to alcohol is usually about 1:1, but you can change that to taste.

If you want to create higher alcohol versions of a Sex on the Beach, then what you would do is substitute different fruit Schnapps for the juices. So, for example, if you wanted a Pineapple tasting Sex, then you would substitute Pineapple Schnapps for Pineapple Juice. Usually you do this if you are making shooters.

So, that being said, here’s how I make them:

1 ½ oz Vodka
1 ½ oz Peach Schnapps (Or Southern Comfort)
1 ½ oz Cranberry Juice
1 ½ oz Orange Juice

Southern Comfort is a Peach Liqueur, so if you don’t have the Schnapps, then SoCo would be a reasonable substitute. Also, as I indicated above, you can change out the juices all day long depending on what you have in the fridge. Usually you try to mix a sweet juice with a tangy juice.

So, some good combos would be: Pineapple Juice and Grapefruit Juice; or Apple Juice and Cranberry Juice. Some people also put a teaspoon or so of Grenadine in – it has that sweet/tangy thing built in. You get the idea.

Anyway, Sexes are served in just about every kind of glass: shot glass, highball glass, rocks glass, or (my favorite) the cocktail glass.

If you’re serving in a shot glass, then you’ll be making a stronger drink that uses the schnapps in place of the juices.

Regardless, I hope you have a great first day of summer.

Cheers!

There are Thousands of Cocktail Recipes at the Drunk Man's Guide!

Key Lime Margarita

2008-06-13T10:04:00.000-07:00

Thinking of having a margarita? Thinking of using one of those jugs of margarita mix? Wait, there is a better way...

Fact is, it's so easy to make a real margarita that you might as well not use the pre-mixed stuff – especially when you can make a margarita as good as the Key Lime Margarita!

Here are the ingredients:

1 ½ oz Tequila
1 oz Key Lime Juice (Use the bottled stuff – see below)
1 oz Cointreau (or substitute Triple Sec – again, see below)
1 key lime (quartered)

Now, key limes are tiny, so juicing up an ounce of their juice is a fool’s chore us Drunks don’t need to bother with - especially since there’s a work-around.

The Work-Around

You can buy key lime juice in a bottle for about six bucks at the grocery store. No, it isn’t quite as good as fresh squeezed, but it’s close.

Close enough that if you quarter a key lime and squeeze the juice into your cup before you pour in your ingredients, the fresh juice from the lime combined with the oils from the peel of the lime will give it that fresh-squeezed lime taste – at a fraction of the work.

So, add the lime juice, tequila, and Cointreau to a shaker with ice. Shake vigorously, then strain into your salted margarita glass with ice. Now, the trick is to maintain the presence of mind to salt the rim of your glass BEFORE you put the ice in the glass. That’s the ideal anyway.

If you are female or gay, then you can make a frozen margarita by putting your ingredients in the blender with ice. Pulse it a bit until the big chunks of ice get broken up, then increase the speed to produce a slushy consistency. If you’re a man, and you’re straight, then you’ll take yours “on the rocks”.

Note: If you don’t have Cointreau, then you can substitute Triple Sec or Grand Marnier. All are orange liqueurs. The difference between them is that the Triple Sec is sweeter, and more sugary. Whereas the Cointreau and Grand Marnier are higher quality, drier, more balanced liqueurs. Cointreau and Grand Marnier also cost about three times as much as your regular run-of-the-mill Triple Sec – so if it comes down to budget, choose Triple Sec. The lime taste of a margarita is so strong that you probably won’t notice the difference unless you taste the two side-by-side.

Remember there are thousands of Cocktail Recipes at the Drunk Man's Guide!

Friday 5 o'Clock Cocktail - Barbados Punch

2008-06-05T21:11:00.000-07:00

Captain Morgan, Lime, Triple Sec and Pineapple Juice. I'm not sure what could possibly go wrong with that combination of ingredients. Even if you messed up the proportions; most likely it would still taste great.

Right now, pineapples are a buck each at my grocery store, and I almost never need a reason to buy a bottle of rum. So, it just seemed natural to make this drink today. Then make another one. And then a third for desert.

The Barbados Punch is tangy-sweet, and refreshing with the ice slushy effect. A great way to plus this drink up is to substitute some chunks of pineapple for the pineapple juice. It creates this frothy sweet, lime citrus drink. Oh man, it's good.

I find when I make these blended drinks that it helps to prep the ice before I put the rest of the ingredients in. So I put the ice in the blender first and whack it around on low speed for a bit - pulsing on and off. Otherwise you end up with big chuncks of ice and the rest pulverized into liquid.

Of course, I'm just a Drunk and I don't have a fancy blender. Probably if you have one of those great bar blenders you don't have to worry about it.

Anyway, here's what you need:

1 oz Spiced Rum (That's Captain Morgan for most of us)
1/4 oz Triple Sec
2 oz Pineapple Juice (or better yet, throw some chunks of pineapple in the blender instead of the juice)
1 oz Lime Juice (fresh squeezed is always best, but use what you have)

Instructions: Put a cup of ice in the blender and crack it up a bit. Then add all the other ingredients and blend it up well. Pour into a highball glass, and garnish with a slice of your pineapple and a lime slice. Drink it responsibly (whatever that means).

Remember there are thousands of Cocktail Recipes on the Drunk Man's Guide!

Friday 5 o'Clock Cocktail - A Better Rum Runner

2008-05-30T11:03:00.000-07:00

Normally I don’t like to make drinks that require a lot of ingredients. Why? The answer is the potential for multiple points of failure.

Besides the complexity of putting lots of ingredients into one glass without spilling, if the drink requires lots of ingredients then it is more likely that you’re going to be out of something, and then that’s going to screw up your plans.

But sometimes a drink is just so good; you have to make it – even if it has a lot of ingredients. And besides, when it comes to the ingredients in a Rum Runner, any self-respecting Drunk should have all this stuff stocked anyway.

Now, this is a drink that requires a short history lesson. The Rum Runners were the guys who smuggled rum from the Caribbean, Europe, and Canada to the United States during Prohibition. At first they used small, fast boats and carried small amounts of cargo. But by then end of Prohibition, their operations were much more sophisticated.

I’ve spoken before about the most successful and notorious Rum Runner. His name was Bill McCoy, and he hauled mostly Canadian and Irish whiskies to the Northeast Coast. His product was so well regarded that today we still refer to products of quality as “the real McCoy.”

Fortunately, you don’t have to brave machine gun fire from Coast Guard cutters just to have a sip of Rum. Getting the ingredients to make a Rum Runner requires only a quick trip to the store.

A couple months ago I presented a different version of the Rum Runner. Since then I’ve been hard at work researching a better recipe; and Holy Crap is this good!

Here’s how to make a BETTER Rum Runner:

1 oz Light Rum
1 oz Dark Rum
2 oz Pineapple Juice
½ oz Brandy
½ oz Banana Liqueur
1 oz Orange Juice
¼ oz Simple Syrup
Juice of ½ lime
Dash of Bitters

Instructions:Combine all ingredients in a shaker about half filled with ice. Shake well, then strain into a highball glass with ice. Garnish with a maraschino cherry and a slice of lime. Gulp.

Remember there are thousands of Cocktail Recipes on Drunk Man's Guide!

Friday 5 o'Clock Cocktail - The Hurricane

2008-05-23T08:31:00.000-07:00

If you've ever been to New Orleans then you can probably appreciate the benefits of a strong Hurricane. And no, I'm not talking about Katrina or Andrew. I'm talking about the kind of Hurricane every drunk should know how to make.

Now, there are some fancy pants bartenders who aren't from the Big Easy who get stingy with the booze. I've seen recipes for Hurricanes that only include one ounce of liquor in a big glass of juice. Sorry, that's not how you make 'em.

When you order your Hurricane from one of the open, walk-up bars on Bourbon street , the drink is strong. Like "knock-you-on-your-a$$-strong". I mean, it's called a Hurricane, not a "drizzle". Hurricanes destroy things, so it follows that if you drink one, you should be likewise destroyed, right?

But you don't have to go to Louisiana to get a good Hurricane because you're a Drunk and you can make your own. Here's how to do it:

1 oz Vodka
1 oz Amaretto
1 oz Gin
1 oz Light Rum
1 oz Triple Sec
1/2 oz 151 Rum
1/4 oz Grenadine Syrup
Pineapple Juice
Grapefruit Juice

Directions: Pour the liquors into a Hurricane glass (or pint glass, or collins glass, or whatever big glass you have) 3/4 filled with ice and stir. Fill the rest of the way with equal parts of the juices. Enjoy.

Remember there are Thousands of Cocktail Recipes at the Drunk Man's Guide!

Friday 5 o'Clock Cocktail - Loco Lemonade

2008-05-16T08:11:00.000-07:00

Layered drinks always make things fun. They add visual interest, and they give an extra dimension to your drinks. Ideally, as you drink them, the drink should change from one extreme to another; tangy to sweet, or spicy to mild. That kind of thing.

The Loco Lemonade is an easy and fun drink you can make that gives the extra visual and taste appeal of a layered drink. Just as with a Tequila sunrise, the drink starts off tart, and gets sweeter toward the end. Because it is made with lemonade, however, it is much more tart than a Tequila Sunrise. But it is still great on a hot sunny day!

For this drink I used pink lemonade, but you can use whatever you have laying around. The pink lemonade, in combination with the Grenadine made the drink a little more red.

Here's what you need:

1 1/2 oz Tequila
4 oz Lemonade
1/2 oz Fresh Lemon Juice
1 oz Grenadine Syrup

Instructions:

Pour the ingredients into your glass (2/3 filled with ice) in this order: Tequila, grenadine, lemonade, lemon juice. If you do it carefully, the layers will make a cloudy, swirling effect.
Remember there are more cocktail recipes at http://www.drunkmansguide.com/

Friday 5 o’Clock Coctail – The Mojito

2008-05-09T08:58:00.000-07:00

Last week we did the Mint Julep in honor of the big horse race in Kentucky. This weekend we’re doing it Cuban style with the Mojito!

Hopefully you still have some Mint left over from last week, because the Mojito is very similar to the Mint Julep. Here’s what you will need:

Ingredients:

1 ½ oz Light Rum
6 Mint Leaves
1 Lime
1 tbsp Sugar
4 oz Club Soda

Cut the lime into quarters and sqeeze the juice from each into a tall glass. Mix the sugar and lime juice then toss in the mint leaves.

GENTLY muddle the mint leaves against the side of the glass with a spoon. Don’t damage them too much. You don’t want small bits of mint leaf floating in your drink; you want to keep them whole.

Next, fill the glass almost to the top with ice; add the rum and Club Soda and stir. Garnish with a lime slice and sprig of mint. Delicious!

Remember, there are thousands of Cocktail Recipes on DrunkMansGuide.com!

Friday 5 o’Clock Coctail – The Mint Julep

2008-05-02T11:55:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is the Kentucky Derby, and you know what that means! That’s right - big hats and Mint Juleps.

The Mint Julep is a real blast from the past. It was developed in the Southeastern United States in the late 18th century, and has been the subject of songs, and featured in artwork, stories, poems and literature for over 200 years. It is truly an historic drink.

Here’s how to make a Mint Julep:

4 oz of Good quality Bourbon
½ oz of simple syrup (equal parts sugar and water)
6-10 Mint Leaves (the small leaves are the sweetest for flavoring, but the big ones are great for garnishes)
Glass full of crushed ice

Directions: This drink really is supposed to be made with crushed ice. You can crush your ice in a blender, or use a mallet and a clean towel. Or, perhaps you are lucky enough to have a refrigerator that can make crushed ice for you.

Put a small amount of the ice in your glass and add the mint leaves. You will muddle the mint leaves with the ice – but don’t KILL it! Just mash it around a few times with the back of a spoon. If you muddle the mint too much it will get bitter.

Next, fill the glass the rest of the way up with ice so that the ice is actually mounded on top of the glass. Next, pour the Bourbon over the ice and let it settle to the bottom. As it does this it will cause the ice to melt somewhat. Then add the syrup, on top. There is no need to actually mix this up.

Garnish with a sprig of mint.

The Mint Julep is intended to be sipped from a silver or stainless steel cup on a hot day. As you drink the ice melts and the flavors of the mint and syrup blend with the whiskey in a delicious way. These days, most people serve them in glass Collins glasses – simply because that’s what we all have. Either is ok, but the metal cups get a nice frost on them from the condensation that is really cool.

How to Make Grenadine

2008-04-29T07:32:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago we did a feature on the Tequila Sunrise. That was a fun article because the drink has these three great layers. The drink starts off sour with the lemon juice on top, then it becomes tangy with the orange juice, and then sweet and fruity with the Grenadine. Yum!

But there is one great way to improve the Tequila Sunrise; in fact, this can improve many of your mixed drinks. You can make your own Grenadine.

Real Grenadine is made from Pomegranates, but the stuff you buy in a bottle at the liquor store doesn’t have any pomegranate juice in it – which is why it isn’t nearly as good as homemade.

Also, as with everything else, when you make your own, you can control the flavor. And in the case of making Grenadine, that means really pumping up the pomegranate flavor.

Here’s how to make it:

4 cups of Pomegranate Juice (you can find it on the juice aisle at your grocery store)½ cup of

Sugar2 tbsp Lemon Juice

Stir all the ingredients together in a saucepan and bring to a boil for about 45 - 55 minutes.

You’ll want to test the consistency to make sure it doesn’t get too thick. Here’s how:
As you approach 45 minutes, use a spoon to get a little bit of the grenadine out. You only need a couple teaspoons to do the test. Put it on a plate and let it cool for a minute or so.

Once it is cool to room temperature, tip the plate and watch what it does. It should leave a nice coat of syrup as it easily slides down the plate. If it just sits there in a pile of purple goo, then it is way too thick. If it runs like water, then it’s still too thin.

A great comparison is to just use a little bit of the bottled Grenadine to see how the correct consistency looks. Although the bottled stuff doesn’t taste so great, it is the correct consistency.

The reason you need to get the consistency correct is that if the syrup is too thick then it will just pool at the bottom of all your drinks. Instead you want it to float on the bottom like a cloud.
You will notice that homemade grenadine is dark purple in color. It isn’t red like the junk in the bottle. It also tastes amazing!

Oh, and the other great way to improve your Tequila Sunrise is to squeeze your own orange and lemon juices. Simply outstanding.

There are over 9,000 Mixed Drinks and Cocktail Recipes at the Drunk Man's Guide

Friday 5 o'Clock Cocktail - Miami Cocktail

2008-04-25T10:12:00.000-07:00

You're going to need a bottle of Light Rum, a small pile of lemons and some Creme de Menthe. That's because this week's Friday 5 o'Clock Cocktail is the Miami Cocktail. A delicious drink that goes well with Spring.

Here's how to make a Miami Cocktail:

1 1/2 oz Light Rum
1/2 oz Creme de Menthe
1 dash Lemon Juice

Directions: Making this drink is easy. Just put all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake it, strain it, and serve it in a cocktail glass. Fresh Lemon Juice is always best, but we're drunks so we use whatever we have available.

More Drink Recipes available at the Drunk Man's Guide.

Canned Beer Vs. Bottled Beer – Is there a difference?

2008-04-22T12:39:00.000-07:00

There has been a lot of debate on the beer boards about whether beer is negatively affected if it is packaged in a can. The truth is, despite what some know-it-alls say, once you pour it into a glass you can’t tell the difference.

In fact, if anything cans are better than bottles for three reasons. First, cans are less prone to breakage. Secondly, they are lighter – so it costs less to move them around. Thirdly, cans protect beer from harmful UV rays better than glass. And fourthly … well, cans are just better ok?!

Ok, ok, so in the name of science I got a six-pack of bottled Pilsner Urquell and a four-pack of canned Pilsner Urquell. I poured them into glasses and tasted them both.
The result? They taste the same. I drank one, then the other. Then I tried it again. And again. And then one more time, just to be really sure.

My wife was walking by while I was doing this, and asked me what on Earth I was doing. I explained it to her, and she graciously volunteered to help taste. She drank my beer until it was gone and confidently announced there was no difference.

A part of me suspects she was just thirsty and wasn’t really all that interested in my little experiment. Sometimes she doesn’t share my zeal for this stuff.

Of course, there is another side to this. Glass is more enjoyable to drink out of than metal. Since many people drink out of whatever the beer is packaged in, this might also explain why many beer snobs prefer bottles to cans.

Not us. We’re civilized Drunks, so we pour our beer into a glass the way we’re supposed to.

Friday 5 o'Clock Cocktail - Mint Daiquiri

2008-04-18T09:31:00.000-07:00

Minty and sweet - that’s what we’re looking forward to this evening. The perfect drink to sip as you gaze out at your yard and think about all that mowing you are going to be doing tomorrow morning. Yeah, it’s spring alright. The yard work, the pollen, the Rum drinks!

Here’s how to make a Mint Daiquiri:

2 oz of Light Rum
1/4 oz of Triple Sec (or another kind of Orange Liquour)
4 Mint Leaves
1/2 oz Lime Juice
1 tsp Powdered Sugar
1 cup of ice

Add all ingredients into a blender and blend it until it’s smooth. Keep in mind a couple of tips:

Try and get as much of the stems off the mint leaves as possible. They can make the drink a little bitter. It doesn’t hurt to use a knife to cut the spines out of the leaves.
Make sure you blend it enough to really pulverize those mint leaves down so that they are just specks of green in the drink. If you don’t blend them enough they will get little green flakes caught in your teeth, and that isn’t cute.

More Mixed Drinks and Cocktail Recipes at the Drunk Man's Guide

Canadian Club Review

2008-04-14T08:27:00.000-07:00

So far, all of our reviews have been about beers. Now we’re going to start mixing it up a bit with liquor. This week we reviewed Canadian Club. A great value for the quality you’ll get.

Now, if you’ve tried the single malt whiskies and scotches then you know how wide the range of taste can be for whiskey (or, in this case whisky). The Canadians are smooth and drinkable, and for our money much better for mixing cocktails than most other types of whiskey.

Read our review of Canadian Club Whisky.

Friday 5 o’clock Cocktail – The Tequini

2008-04-11T12:27:00.000-07:00

Our friend the Cigar Smoking Man suggested a drink this week that deserves a Friday in the spotlight: The Tequini.

As the name suggests, this is a Martini that is made with Tequila. With Martinis, the supporting ingredients are there to bring out the taste of the primary liquor more than they are to make an impression of themselves.

The Cigar Smoking Man points out on his blog the importance of using bitters (sparingly) in this drink. He also makes a good point about bitters – that bitters are to cocktails as salt is to food.

True enough. Bitters do bring out an extra element in many drinks. Like salt, a little goes a long way. If you’ve put enough in your drink to be able to taste it, then you’ve probably used too much.

Here’s how to make a Tequini:

1 ½ oz of Tequila
½ oz of Dry Vermouth
1 Dash of Bitters (I used Angostura)

Directions: As with all martinis, the method of mixing is to STIR the ingredients gently with ice so you don’t bruise the liquor. Then strain the clear drink into a cocktail glass and garnish with lemon peel.

Also, when you get a chance, you should visit the Cigar Smoking Man’s blog. It’s a great read, even for non-smokers like me.

Do You Know What Causes Drunkenness?

2008-04-03T11:13:00.000-07:00

It turns out that this question has interested scientists and philosophers for thousands of years.
For most of human history, people thought that “spirits” inhabited the wine or beer. This is why we call alcoholic drinks “spirits” today.

However Louis Pasteur discovered yeast around the mid 1800’s, and that’s how we learned that actually it was the by-product of yeast cells that put the “spirit” (ethanol) into the drink.

Even so, it wasn’t until relatively recently that scientists learned how ethanol actually causes drunkenness. By understanding this, we have a better idea of how alcohol affects our health and steps we can take to enjoy alcohol with minimal risk.

If you consume alcohol regularly, then it is probably a good idea for you to learn a little bit about how it affects your body. Our article “What Causes Drunkenness” will give you a brief overview.

Friday 5 o’clock Cocktail – Tequila Sunrise

2008-03-28T14:14:00.000-07:00

Maybe it's because Spring is in the air. Maybe I'm just low on Vitamin C, but I have to admit I've been drinking these all week.

The Orange Juice and Pommegranet flavor in the Grenadine goes well with the silky smoothness of the Tequila. A little squirt of lime juice really finishes the drink off nicely.

Here's how I make mine:
1 1/2 oz Tequila
3 oz Orange Juice
Splash of Grenadine
1 slice of lime

Directions: Combine first three ingredients in a rocks or highball glass with ice. Squeeze the lime slice over the drink and then drop it in. Stir gently. Enjoy.

More Mixed Drink Recipes

All-grain Brewing - The Mash

2008-03-26T12:49:00.000-07:00

All-Grain brewing simply means brewing beer straight from grain instead of using pre-made barley extracts. It is considered to be an advanced form of beer brewing that most brewers don’t attempt until they have made several successful batches using extracts.

If you are considering making the jump to All-Grain Brewing, then this week we are going to get into the concept of the "Mash".

Mashing is the process of extracting simple sugars from barley. This is the first step in the process of brewing your own beer directly from grain, and most brewers consider it the most important.

Want to know more? Read our article: All-Grain Homebrewing Instructions: The Mash

How to Make a Highball Drink

2008-03-24T14:39:00.000-07:00

You probably order highball drinks all the time without realizing it. In fact, although most people don’t think much about it, a great percentage of bar drinks fall into the category of "Highball". Which is not only a description of the drink itself, but also the glass it is typically served in.

A highball is generally defined as a shot of a single type of liquor added to a larger portion of non-alcoholic mixer with ice. The drink is served in a "Highball" glass. Which is a straight-sided glass that holds about 10 – 12 oz.

Highball drinks, like Lowball drinks, are designed to be made quickly. Their popularity at bars is as much a result of bartenders needing to make the best use of their time as it is of consumer demand.

For many of us, the beauty of highballs is their simplicity.

To give you a quick overview of Highball drinks, we created our Highball Cocktail page. Check it out: www.drunkmansguide.com/articles/highball.php

Some noteworthy highballs:

More Mixed Drink Recipes

Friday 5 o’clock Cocktail – Apple Martini

2008-03-21T13:30:00.000-07:00

There are about a ton of ways to make an Apple Martini. The method below works well for me, although sometimes I just leave out the Vodka and double-up on the Gin.

This is a very strong drink, so don’t even consider operating heavy machinery like a car or a speedboat, or a catapult after you’ve had one of these.

You'll also have to have a large martini glass. This thing ain't suitable for the little dainty kind. You need one of those super-sized martini glasses!

Ingredients:
2 Ounces Good Quality Gin
2 Ounces Vodka
2 Ounces Apple Pucker
1 Ounce Triple Sec
1 Splash of Sweet 'n Sour Mix
Garnish with Apple Slice (optional)

Directions: Combine ingredients into a shaker and shake. Serve in a BIG Martini Glass.

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Beginners Guide to All-Grain Equipment

2008-03-20T14:39:00.000-07:00

If you have been homebrewing for a while and you are using extracts, then you are probably a little curious about all-grain brewing. What is necessary to make the leap? Is it really as difficult as it seems?

As usual, the process of brewing your own beer from grain is much less complicated than many brewers would have you believe. But it does require some specialized equipment, and that’s what our first all-grain article is about.

Read our article on All Grain Equipment for Beginners.

Beer Review – Samuel Smith Winter Welcome Ale

2008-03-19T11:04:00.000-07:00

Uh oh… Samuel Smith disappoints! As much as it pains me to say it, I just cannot recommend this beer. It isn’t that it’s BAD. It’s just that… Well, read our Review of Samuel Smith Winter Welcome Ale

Friday 5 o'Clock Cocktail - Tom Collins

2008-03-14T10:18:00.000-07:00

Want a refreshing drink you can make with stuff you probably already have in the kitchen? Try a Tom Collins. The drink is sweet and tart from the sugar and lemon juice. It's best to use fresh lemons to make this drink. But if all you have is bottled lemon juice, then that works too.

This recipe calls for simple syrup, which is easy enough to make. Just combine two parts sugar to one part water. It helps to heat the water up to dissolve the sugar, but you can make up a cup or two of this and keep it in the fridge. It is used in a lot of different recipes, so it's a good idea to keep some on hand.

How to make a Tom Collins
2 oz Gin
1 oz Fresh Lemon Juice
1/2 oz Simple Syrup
3 oz chilled Club Soda
Lemon Slice
Maraschino Cherry

Directions: Add the first three ingredients to a mixing glass and stir with ice. Strain into a rocks glass, add the soda and garnish with the lemon slice and the cherry.
More Mixed Drink Recipes >