Category Archives: Boozy Popsicles

Cocktails with Benefits

Everyone loves a good coffee table book, but how many of those books are actually useful? We found one that’ll look just as good displayed on your table as it is essential for your bar cart.

Cocktails with Benefits, 40 Naughty but Nourishing Drinks by Nicole Herft is cocktail recipe book with four main categories: Fruitylicious, Drink Your Greens, Totally Tropical, and Smokey, Spicy, Sour, Sexy.

Herft uses only natural ingredients in her recipes, giving you a healthier way to consume your “naughty” cocktails. She leaves out the refined sugar and makes use of natural sugars like fruits and vegetables. That said, the drinks lead to less hangovers thanks to the natural ingredients.

I went ahead and tested out a recipe from the Fruitylicious category, the Iced Mixed Berry Sangria.

Iced Mixed Berry Sangria
2 cups fresh mixed berries (1 cup extra for the pitcher)
3 tablespoons agave nectar
Ice cubes
1 (750ml) bottle Rosé Rioja
Equipment needed: Small saucepan, Sieve, Cocktail stirrer, Serving pitcher, and 4 glasses

Place the mixed berries, 3/4 cup water, and agave nectar into a small saucepan and bring to boil. Reduce the heat and allow to simmer for 10 to 15 minutes. Remove from the heat and pass the mixture through a sieve. Press the berries with the back of a spoon to make sure you get all their juices. Leave the mixture to cool.

Half-fill your pitcher with ice cubes. Slice the extra strawberries and halve the blackberries and add these, and the other mixed berries to the pitcher with the berry syrup and then the Rosé Rioja. Stir well and serve.

Cocktails with Benefit:, 40 Naughty but Nourishing Drinks
Author: Nicole Herft
Price: $14.95 online or in store

Celebrate World Cucumber Day with Hendrick’s Gin

World Cucumber Day is June 14! Of course, I’m going to celebrate by putting cucumber in something boozy. And, as of late, frozen. (Because, Texas.)

I chose to work with Hendrick’s Gin for these recipes because the spirit already has a delightful cucumber note. (After macerating and distilling most of the botanicals with the alcohol, rose and cucumber essences are added.) And they get a kick out of cucumbers. They even have a cucumber blimp.

I wanted to try something a little different to add a peppery note to a Cucumber Collins (which is delicious, but not complex enough), so I added a little watercress. Watercress is incredibly inexpensive and also makes for a fun garnish.

Cucumber Watercress Collins
2oz Hendrick’s Gin
1oz fresh lime juice
0.75oz simple syrup
5 cucumber slices
Watercress
Club soda

Muddle lime, syrup, cucumbers, and about 10 watercress leaves in a cocktail tin. Add the gin and ice, then shake until well chilled. Strain into a Collins glass over fresh ice, then top with club soda. Garnish with a small bunch of watercress leaves.

Special thanks to Feo Forte from Rapscallion for the help workshopping this cocktail!

As you may have noticed lately, I’ve been a little obsessed with alcoholic popsicles. I’ve gotten a little bit of a wild hair to add a kick to things that aren’t meant to be boozy. Go ahead … call me an anarchist.

Cucumber Gin & Tonic Popsicles
2oz Hendrick’s Gin
1oz fresh lime juice
2.5cups tonic
1 cucumber, sliced

Combine liquid ingredients and stir. Place a few slices of cucumber in each popsicle mold, then pour liquid over. Add sticks, then freeze overnight or for at least eight hours.

Not in the mood to make your own drinks? Stop into your favorite drinking establishment this evening and see if they’re offering a special cucumber drink to celebrate the day.

DALLASITES: There are quite a few local establishments that will be offering special Hendrick’s options to celebrate. Maybe I’ll see you there! (Visit District 30, Rapscallion, Dish, The Fairmount, Public School 214, The Standard Pour, Dragonfly at Hotel Zaza, Parliament, Bowen House, The Mitchell, Stock & Barrel, Boulevardier, and The Londoner locations in Colleyville and Addison for features and/or specials tonight!)

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Celebrating Negroni Week with Strawberry Negroni Popsicles

If you aren’t aware of Negroni Week, get on board. Every year at the beginning of June, Imbibe Magazine and Campari get together to raise money for worthy causes across the US, each bar choosing its own charity to which to donate. Check out their website to see which bars across the country are celebrating and giving back.

Now, a little on the Negroni: it’s a classic Italian cocktail that has been around since the early 1900s that is made with equal parts gin, Campari, and red vermouth with an orange peel garnish, served on the rocks. Campari is a bright red, bitter, Italian liqueur that gives this drink its unique flavor profile. The Negroni is considered an apéritif, which the Italians will sip before a meal to prepare their stomachs.

I know that we’ve all had a traditional Negroni or two this week, so to stir things up a little, I tried my hand at Strawberry Negroni Popsicles for a pool party yesterday! These pops are as easy to make as they could be and are a perfect way to cool down in this oppressive heat.

STRAWBERRY NEGRONI POPSICLES
1 1/2 lb strawberries, hulled
6 T turbinado sugar (Sugar in the Raw)
2.5 T Seersucker Gin
2.5 T Campari
2.5 T Sweet Vermouth
1 T Orange Flower Water

Combine hulled strawberries and sugar in a blender, let them sit for 10-20min, then blend until smooth. Add other ingredients and blend for another 20 seconds. Freeze in popsicle molds for at least 8 hours.

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French 75 Popsicles

I recently turned 30, and I wanted a little extra something to booze my guests up at the big celebration. My party was outside … in June … in Texas, so I thought that boozy popsicles would be ideal. And what better drink to freeze than a French 75.

Traditional French 75 cocktail was first documented in 1927, but an iteration of it was mentioned as early as 1867 (and by Charles Dickins!) and, once named, was named after a French field gun. The first recipes called for bubbly, sugar, citrus, and gin, but newer recipes have introduced cognac as an alternative.

I had to make sure the popsicles were easy to eat (since some of the guests would be wearing white), so I did a bit of research and found the perfect solution: Zipzicles! They’re the tubes you grew up with, but with a convenient zip closure … so no scissors are required and no melty stickiness on my guests’ hands.

The recipe was easy enough and filling the tubes only required a funnel. (And an extra set of hands made it MUCH easier.) It took about 12 hours for them so solidify completely, and since there was gin in them, it was a soft freeze.

FRENCH 75 POPSICLES
12oz sparkling wine (I used Mia Moscato)
4oz cognac or gin (I used Bulldog London Dry Gin)
4oz simple syrup (I used ginger simple syrup in half of them)
3oz fresh squeezed lemon juice

Makes about 12 popsicles

Needless to say, these were a hit! I ended up making about 65 of them, and the only trouble was keeping them cold. (My suggestion would be to use an ice bucket (or galvanized bucket) filled with a layer of dry ice (on the bottom) and top it with regular ice.)

If you need suggestions for more boozy popsicles, check out a popsicle cocktail recipe book that I reviewed a few years back, Poptails!

Header picture courtesy of Madison Mentesana.

Zipzicles, Bulldog Gin, and Mia Wines gifted these items gratis.

Quarter Bar Popsicles

106°. It was 106° in Dallas today. That’s f**king hot. Wanna know how to make it bearable (at least temporarily)? Quarter Bar’s frozen deliciousness. Frozen booze may not be the answer … but it’s a damn good guess.

Quarter’s master drinker, Seth, has created seven flavors of booze popsicles for just $6 a pop. (The pun had to be made.) Most booze-cicles have too strong a taste of alcohol, but these are perfect … a bit messy … but perfect. (Make sure you have plenty of napkins and don’t wear white jeans).

Booze pop flavors include:

Filthy Monkey (Chocolate Banana): 360 Double Chocolate Vodka, Malibu Banana Rum, and chocolate milk.
Pirate Booty (Root Beer Float): Kahlua Coffee Liquor, Bailey’s Irish Cream, and Abita Root Beer.
Berry Pucker (Strawberry Lemonade): Three Olives Berry Vodka, lemonade, and fresh strawberries.
Kokomo (Pineapple): Bacardi Pineapple infused Rum with pineapple juice and orange juice.
Laffy Taffy (Strawberry Banana): Three Olives Berry Vodka, Malibu Banana Rum, and pineapple juice.
The Dreamsicle (Think Orange Julius): Stoli Vanilla Vodka, Pinnacle Whipped Cream Vodka, and orange juice.
Blemonade (Blackberry Lemonade): Deep Eddy Vodka, lemonade, and fresh blackberries.

Booze pops aren’t the only new-ish thing hitting Dallas’s Big Easy-sque hangout. Other new offerings from The Quarter Bar include seven new French Quarter-inspired cocktails, including a traditional Hurricane. I enjoyed the French Quarter Float, and it’s quite sweet, but would be the perfect drink for the end of the night. I’d dying to try the SoCo Sazerac … anyone wanna treat me?

VooDoo Queen: Vodka, Blue Curacao, Razz Berry, & Sweet and Sour
French Quarter Float: Coffee Liquor, Irish Cream, & Root Beer
Blue Bayou: Captain Morgan, Blue Curacao, & Pineapple Juice
Quarter Curse: Southern Comfort, Razz Berry, & Pineapple Juice
Hurricane: Light Rum, Meyers Dark Rum, Malibu, Pineapple & Orange Juice, & Cherry
Hand Grenade: Light Rum, Melon Liquor, & Pineapple Juice
Soco Sazerac: Made with Southern Comfort, Lemon, Sugar, & Bitters

Quarter gets it (pricewise) and have priced everything* I’ve mentioned at $6 … and that’s not even during happy hour! Even better? They offer half price food night on Wednesdays until midnight. Make sure you try the wings and the bacon fries.

Stop in and sip on a Louisiana-style drink or lick on a booze pop, and let me know which was your favorite!

*the Hurricane is $8, all other cocktails and booze pops are $6