Holiday Cocktail Recipes

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Hot Tully
1 part Tullamore D.E.W.
½ part simple syrup
½ part lemon juice
3 parts hot water
 
Directions:
First warm a mug with hot water, then discard and combine ingredients above. Stir before serving.
Options ~ Add some fresh ginger for a bit of a bite. Or infuse the simple syrup with some fun flavors like cinnamon and orange, or apple and ginger.
 
 
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The Ruby Bean
2 parts Glenfiddich 12 Year Old
2 parts Lillet Rouge
1 part Licor 43 
2 parts orange juice
 
Combine ingredients and shake well. Strain over fresh ice in an Old fashioned glass. Garnish with a blood orange half moon and rose bud.
 

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Hellfire
1 ½ oz Sailor Jerry
3 dashes of Tabasco sauce
¼ oz ginger syrup
¼ oz lime juice
 
In equal proportions fill glass with Regatta Ginger Beer and Fire Island Sea Salt Ale, Garnish with Lime wedge & straw. Warm up those chilly nights with the spice of Sailor Jerry Hellfire.

Ole Smoky MoonMosa
Mix equal parts Ole Smoky Blackberry Moonshine and the champagne of your choice.  Serve chilled.

 

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Orange Colored Sky
1 ½ oz Reyka
½ oz Passion Fruit Syrup
½ oz Campari
For Syrup: Mix equal parts Perfect Puree of Napa Valley Passion Fruit Puree with superfine sugar.  Shake into solution.  Bottle and refrigerate.
Dry shake and dump into rocks glass.  Fill with crushed ice.  Garnish with an orange wedge.
 

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Monkey Jam Sour

1 part Monkey Shoulder
½ oz fresh lemon juice
1 tsbp of Jam
1 dash of sugar
2 dashes Orange bitters
 
Add all ingredients to shaker. Shake well with ice. Strain into a glass, garnish with an orange twist, and stay cheeky.
 

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Derecho
If you wish to enjoy Montelobos Mezcal according to Oaxaca tradition, drink it neat – long and slow in a votive glass. Accompany with an orange wedge sprinkled with chili pepper. Let the smoky complexity of Montelobos heat up a cold fall evening. This year, you’ll be roasting pinas instead of chestnuts over the open fire.

The Naughty List (courtesy of Battuto Italian Kitchen)

2oz Fireball
1oz Godiva Chocolate Liqueur
1oz White creme de menthe

Combine all of the ingredients into a shaker with ice and shake vigorously.  Strain into a cinnamon-and-sugar lined martini glass.  Garnish with a cinnamon stick.

Peppermint Chocolate Martini (courtesy of Battuto Italian Kitchen)

3/4oz spiced rum
3/4oz White creme de cocao
3/4oz green creme de menthe
3/4oz whipping cream

Combine all ingredients into an ice filled shaker and shake vigorously. Strain into a chilled martini glass rimmed with chocolate shavings and garnish with a sprig of fresh mint.

Gift Guide 2013

Gift Guide 2013

Welp, it’s that time of year again.  Time to deck the halls and get drunk with your awkward Aunt Milly at Christmas Eve dinner.  If you’re stressing about gifts for the special wino in your life, I’ve got JUST the gift guide for you!  Behold, some of my favorite things—and this year I watched the price tags!

1. Pittsburgh, PA artist, Kirsten Lowe-Rebel has started a line of boozy prints, KloRebel.  Handrawn with a look that will match a good bottle of hand-crafted whiskey, this art is framable and wearable!  Available in ornaments, money clips, bracelets, prints, and more.

Purchase at her Etsy Shop | Items start at $10

2. Who doesn’t love Uber?  With as little as a few taps on your smartphone, you’ve got a safe ride home after one three too many cocktails.  Give the gift of a DD that is always on call with an Uber gift card.  Easily sent immediately via their website, it’s a good last-minute option (not that you’d forget a gift or anything).

Send immediately from uber.com | Available in any denomination

3. This is the sexiest jigger you’ll ever see (I think??).  This Japanese-style jigger from Cocktail Kingdom measures 1/2oz and 3/4oz shots, and it’s gold.  Need I say more?

CocktailKingdom.com | $15.95 each

4. W(h)et their whiskers (and whistles) with TX Whiskey!  One of my absolute favorite liquors, this Fort Worth-made intoxicant has a vanilla finish and is so smooth that it’d be a sin to drink it any way but neat (I suppose that “on the rocks” is OK, too.)

The bottle looks great on your bar, and each cork is different as they are made from recycled cowboy boots … and it comes with this teeny tiny Santa hat.

Purchase TX Whiskey at most liquor stores in North Texas and other TX-branded items at frdistilling.com | $35 for the 750ml

5. Moscow Mules are still a thing (for me at least).  Drink them in style with these copper mugs, because a Moscow Mule in any other cup is just ginger beer and vodka.

Sur La Table or SurLaTable.com | $19.95 each

6. Did you know that some famous vineyards limit their output to make the bottles they sell more valuable, and sell excess to other labels?  Enter: 90+ Cellars.  Not only an incredible line of wines, but their options are very reasonable price-wise.

90+ now offers the option to send quarterly shipments of seasonal red, white, or mixed boxes of 90+ wines to your favorite someone.  (Just make sure you’re invited to uncork them!)

store.ninetypluscellars.com | 6- or 12-bottle shipments, shipping included, $90/170

7. When the weather turns cold and your lips get chapped (the worst), don’t reach for the way-too-sweet or medicinal-tasting lip balms … Atlantic Farms’ Double IPA Lip Balm is where it’s at!

atlantic-farms.com | $6.50 per tube

8. These shot glasses “grr” in tiger (or something like that).  Bring out your wild side with these Animal Shot Glasses.  They’re black, so they look awesome on your bar … and they’re shot glasses, so there’s that, too.  Available in elephant, reindeer (pictured), horse, lion, and eagle.

libastyle.com | $30 per shot glass

9. This tres chic brass Threshold Bar Cart gives your cocktail hour a “Mad Men” effect (busty secretaries not included).  And there’s just something so awesome knowing that your bar can be rolled anywhere …

Buy in stores or target.com | $129.99

10. You bring a bottle of wine as a hostess gift: you’re a gracious guest.  You bring a bottle of wine as a hostess gift with one of these badass gift tags on it: you’re a gracious guest … who is also f$@king awesome .  Local paper goddess, Chelsea Cox Carpenter of Southern Fried Paper, sells these preciously-vulgar wine tags from her Design District studio (along with a lot of other fantastic paper goods).

Order from her Etsy Shop or stop by her studio | $9.50 for a pack of six

Top Golf in The Colony Sunk This One (In a Good Way)

We’ve all been part of the group outing where quality drinks and food are thrown to the wayside in exchange for the convenience of buckets of domestic beer and reheated frozen chicken tenders. Bowling, movie/food combos and miniature golf generally end with food regret, a half-drunk pitcher of Miller Lite approaching room temperature and a bill that does not come close to matching my level of enjoyment. With this bias admittedly in mind, I recently had the opportunity to check out the newest TopGolf location in The Colony and sample what was the beginning of an ever-changing, chef-inspired food and beverage menu.

When I arrived, I was greeted by Corporate Executive, Chef Seve Delgado, who had saved us a seat at the bar to sample their specialty cocktail menu and were later joined by Director of Food and Beverage, Mark Boyton, who was kind enough to join us straight from a flight home from a corporate F&B shoot earlier the same day. Their drink menu features craft cocktails, a house-made Sangria, a bloody mary bar and local beers specific to each location (for example, The Colony had Franconia on tap while the Dallas location features Four Corners Brewery.) They also allow bartenders throughout the company to bring new ideas based on current drink trends, which meant our first round featured Dark ‘n Stormy and a Texas Mule (because odds are even your college-aged little brother now has a copper mug and a four-pack of Fever Tree—which we’re completely cool with).

Seve told us they have to walk the line between making good drinks and being able to produce in volume, as their sales numbers are staggering*. The drinks themselves were fresh and the ingredients were strong (Tito’s vodka, Gosling’s rum, and quality ginger beer – not the mailed-in kind or coke/ginger ale sub that has ruined many a drink in other bars). Delgado told us that Top Golf’s goal is to make food and drinks as good as the game.  (Success.)

She also told me this menu was just the beginning (the location has been open less than two months), and we will soon see bourbon/whiskey (please hurry on this one), tequila and barrel-aged spirit-driven cocktails. They are working on other bar items such as house-made habanero syrup and other homespun ideas. The menu will rotate every six months and will be based on trend-watching more anything else. (We were told to expect more margaritas, more flavors of vodka and other options to arrive soon.) They are also in the process of building out a defined wine selection and have been focused on finding interesting options that pair well with their current food selections. A big bold cab may not be the best fit for trying to hit the ball cart when it cruises by (come on, admit you do it), but a focus on blends will give more options to find a good wine that matches both the person ordering it and the flavor profile of the dish.

We also tried a few of the sweeter drink offerings: the Orange Dream (a creamsicle-tasting drink that is their most popular specialty cocktail and comes in a 60oz souvenir golf bag fish bowl called the Rum-Runner Up). The sweet drinks are not my wheelhouse, but my drinking companion has experience bartending at a well-known chain restaurant and could vouch for them much better than I could. My take – they were good punch-type drinks, perfect for an outdoor setting, that don’t overwhelm with the sugar taste like so many similar options do.

In fact, despite the fact that we were only there to try the drinks, we heard about flavor profiles and the food so much, they told us they had just a few dishes we had to try – which turned into one heck of a feast. Delgado told us they “don’t want to be known for common food” and they take a similar approach to their menu as they do their specialty drinks. They allow chefs at each location to introduce concepts and ideas, and then identify the best of the best when the menu rotates March of each year. We tried the Jim Beam Devil’s Cut Brisket Chili, which was surprisingly good and admittedly way beyond what we expected. (That’ll teach us to judge a book by its cover.) We also enjoyed their take on a grilled cheese (remarkably rich and hearty with a nice tomato addition), a club sandwich that went beyond the usual chain restaurant feel and chicken and waffle sliders we learned should only be eaten with gravy added to the chicken and then syrup poured over the top. Delgado stressed they make the majority of the menu from scratch in-house and the difference showed.

 We spent the last part of the night talking and it was apparent that Delgado and Boyton are just getting started. Both have been with the company for about five years and were almost bashful about their impressive resumes. Both have catered for high end clients, with Boyton casually mentioning his experiences back home in the UK catering ho-hum events like the Beckham wedding as well as special events for Elton John and Andrew Lloyd Weber. They intend to keep building a chef-driven (I should have kept a counter on how often we used the term) powerhouse and The Colony location is off to a great start.

If you’re like me and have only been to the Dallas location, you need to head up north to see the three-story, wide-open building and course (which serves as the company’s new prototype). There is a large patio still under construction and we were told the existing locations will be remodeled in the coming months to match.

Drink strength: 3.2
Overall: 4.2

Written by Brian Bianco

Top Golf, The Colony
www.topgolf.com/thecolony
Twitter: @topgolfcolony | Facebook: /TopGolfTheColony
3760 Blair Oaks Dr, The Colony, TX 75056
(469) 213-5204

 *Last year in DFW alone, they outsold Cowboys Stadium. They are also the largest beer account in Collin County and have similar success in other locations (we were told the Houston location also outsold Reliant Stadium, although this doesn’t factor in what it must take to get through a Texans game this season.

GIVEAWAY: Blue Chair Rum

*Guys can totally win this bottle of rum, too.

It’s better to give than to receive, right?  NOT THIS TIME!  SDD is giving away a bottle of Kenney Chesney’s new rum, Blue Chair Bay Rum!  I was sent a bottle to try, which made this giveaway a real delight.  See a few of the recipes I came up with, and learn how to enter to win below.  Good luck!

HOT BUTTERED RUM, serves 4
– 3/4 cup Blue Chair Bay white rum
– 3 Tbsp firmly packed brown sugar
– 1-1/2 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened
– 1/8 tsp grated nutmeg
– 1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
– 1/8 tsp ground cloves
– 2 cups boiling water

Stir brown sugar, butter, nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves together, then add rum.  Split between four mugs and too off with boiling water.  Stir well and garnish with a cinnamon stick.

 

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COOL WEATHER PUNCH, scalable recipe
This recipe is a longtime favorite of mine that I got from a friend.  This tasted great with the white rum, but would also taste good with the spiced coconut rum.

– 1 part Blue Chair Bay white rum
– 1 part ginger ale
– 1 part apple cider (non-alcoholic)
– a heavy of cinnamon

Mix all ingredients, stir, and serve over ice or warm in microwave.  Garnish with a thin slice of apple and cinnamon stick if desired.

 

PUERTO RICAN COQUITO, serves 4-5 (depending on how heavy-handed the pourer is)
– 1 cup Blue Chair Bay white rum
– 1 12oz can evaporated milk
– 1 14oz can condensed milk
– 1 15oz can coconut milk
– 2 egg yolks
– a TINY pinch of salt (be careful, I added just a little too much with a normal-sized “pinch”
– 1/4 tsp cinnamon
– Ground cinnamon

Blend all ingredients on high for 2-1/2 minutes, or until frothy.  Serve VERY cold, and garnished with cinnamon.



Enter to win a bottle of Blue Chair Bay Rum of your very own
by doing any (and all) of the following BEFORE NOON on 12/16.  One entry per platform will be accepted.

****THIS GIVEAWAY’S DEADLINE FOR ENTRY WAS EXTENDED AS I FORGOT TO PICK A WINNER BECAUSE I WAS BUSY GETTING READY FOR MY COMPANY’S BADASS CHRISTMAS PARTY!)

  • Comment on this post with a recipe you’d like to try using Blue Chair Bay Rum
  • Tweet me (@drinkdallas) using #BornontheBeach and tell me which recipe you’d like to try using Blue Chair Bay Rum
  • Write on my Facebook wall (Facebook.com/SusieDrinksDallas) and tell me which recipe you’d like to try using Blue Chair Bay Rum
  • Comment on my Instagram post (@susiedrinksdallas) and tell me which recipe you’d like to try using Blue Chair Bay Rum

Kenny Chesney’s new rum, Blue Chair Bay Rum, was launched earlier this year and comes in three varieties: White, Coconut, and Coconut Spiced.  HIs goal was to bottle the feeling of relaxation and ease he had while in the US Virgin Islands while watching a sunset.  Working with a Barbados distillery that has been making rum since 1983, the West Indies Rum Distillery, he came up with this mild, yet flavorful rum.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmJR7qLbBe0?rel=0]

I’d like to introduce my new “staff writer” (can I say that?), Brian Bianco.  Brian will be covering some events, places, and things up north (a.k.a. Oklahoma).  Here’s a little bit about the “new guy”:
Brian has lived in DFW the majority of his life and has been drinking his way through the metroplex for a good chunk of it. He recently relocated to the Great North (Plano) and is determined to find the best options for those who have embraced the suburbs without giving up the dream of finding cool paces to drink. He prefers whiskey, bourbon, and beer, but will randomly go Dr. John Doran on you when you least expect it.

Of Drinking and Conscientious Living: The Vegan Conundrum

For anybody who’s made the switch to living a vegan lifestyle, or for anybody who knows someone who’s done it, knows that it can be really hard trying to find the right balance between conscientious living and enjoying a good drink. It also definitely makes it a little more difficult trying to plan the perfect night out with friends if there’s an extra piece of gastronomic accounting that needs to be done.  (But good friends try their best to make everything fun for everyone there, right?)

Overcoming the First Hurdle
The biggest problem when it comes to making a drink for a vegan friend is that there’s no way you can fake it without facing some damage to your moral consciousness. So while it might be acceptable to switch out the Cointreau for a more affordable triple sec in a Cosmopolitan for those on a budget, randomly exchanging ingredients can be dangerous for a vegan drinker. 

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Becoming vegan isn’t just a state one declares. It means inspecting each and everything that goes into food and drink to make sure that no ingredients come from animals, and there’s no danger of cross contamination.

Generally, one of the smarter options is to go for German or Belgian beers because breweries are required by law to adhere to beer purity laws. When working with liquors, the folks over at Barnivore.com have put together a very well-researched list of what’s okay to serve and what isn’t. Luckily, since Tanqueray happens to be vegan-friendly, SDD’s Gin O’Clock recipes are all in the clear!

Wait, but Isn’t Wine Vegan?
The funny thing is, while wine is made from nothing but grapes, people would think that it would be, by default, vegan. But when wine isn’t served immediately after it’s pressed and this is where animal byproducts come into the equation. Many wineries will make use of finers that are meant to absorb the suspended solids present in the liquid. Some examples of finers include egg whites, gelatin, and isinglass—all of these being ingredients that vegans avoid. So what’s a good host to do?

You can work with a distributor that has options that are vegan friendly and removes the guesswork for the buyer. Dedicated vegan websites like Veggie Wines and Vegan Society list, Marks & Spencer as an option for their vegan-friendly wine selections.

Everyone deserves to have fun and being vegan doesn’t have to mean abandoning alcohol altogether. Cheers to that!

***This article was written by Katrina Wilsons.  (Susie doesn’t do enough research to write this thoroughly.)***

So I like Bloody Marys (thick ones that you have to chew on).  You know those nasty aerosol perfumes in the grocery store that say “If you like ____, you’ll love this?”  This takes that and blows it up x100.  If you LIKE Bloody Marys, then you’ll LOVE Anvil Pub with they’re hosting F**K BRUNCH, their answer to Dallas’ frou-frou brunch scene.

Anvil Pub in Deep Ellum is quite a bar (I don’t know if I’d dub it a true pub because they don’t serve real snakebites).  Bikes hanging from the ceiling, bartenders with five different colors of hair (that’s just one bartender), and a food menu vegans can even enjoy.  I’ll make the trek down to Deep Ellum with my boyfriend on Tuesdays for half price food, or with friends on a busy Friday for a late-night pizza*.  It’s good for all occasions (except brunch with the future in-laws).

Back to the food … it’s good—no, great—and it’s not typical greasy bar food.  You won’t want to die when you roll back to your car after an appetizer (get the triple dip) and an entree (get anything).  It’s a bit slow, so don’t get food if you’re in a hurry.  (I’m serious.  Good things come in time.)

OK … now … let’s talk about brunch, baby
Let’s talk about you and me
Let’s talk about all the good things
And the bad things that may be (at Anvil)
Let’s talk about brunch.

Anvil has one of the most unique brunch offerings in Dallas.  Just scroll up … that’s their brunch.  Order from their three-option menu (Bloody Mary, mimosa, or screwdriver), and you’ll be delivered (albeit after 20-30min) a GIANT** mason jar filled with delightful intoxicants with a skewer of delicious and unexpected things to soak it up for $20. Mimosas have actual cinnamon rolls on them, and Bloody Marys have sliders … among many other things.  Oh, did I mention that your brunch comes with a beer kicker?  Yeah … does.

Anyway, do this.  Don’t order too much food if you’re partaking in F**K BRUNCH, as you really don’t need much more.  (Oh Hey Dallas and I ordered a pizza and chicken fingers and hardly touched any of it.)

Enjoy … and say hi to the Holmans while you’re there … because they’re awesome.

ANVIL PUB
2638 Elm St, (Deep Ellum)
(214) 741-1271

*Try getting a Russian Roulette Bullet … one piece is sprinkled with pepper for $0.50.  What a deal? 
**Mustard bottle included in picture for comparison.