Happy New Year Cocktail Catch-Up

Happy New Year to all!

I had been posting a monthly cocktail recipe at Slow Tuesday Night for a few months when I…stopped. No good excuse; I just lost the writing bug. I didn’t lose the concocting bug, though, so I have several original recipes to share, as I promised a couple of weeks ago in a comment on Blinded Trials. So here they are; may they brighten your 2013. Henceforth, I will be posting whatever new cocktails I might devise at Mindless Diversions (Thanks JB!), in addition to whatever I eventually manage to write about over there.

August – Magic Maple Fizz

• 1/4-1/3 oz fenugreek-infused vodka
• 1/4-1/3 oz vanilla vodka
• 1 oz bourbon
• Soda

Mix ingredients and add ice and soda to taste. The sotolon from the fenugreek is part of natural maple syrup and is a frequently used substitute maple flavor. (Sotolon is also in molasses, so dark rum may replace the fenugreek vodka, though I didn’t get it to work as well.) When combined with vanilla flavor (also naturally occurring in maple syrup) and the woodiness of the bourbon, you get a really nicely maple-flavored drink that you can make as strong or as weak as you like. If you do infuse vodka with fenugreek, don’t let it steep too terribly long (2 hours or so should be good), because the flavor comes out fairly quickly.

September – Autumn Leaves

• Splash of brandy
• Splash of Maraschino liqueur
• Gin

Shake or stir the ingredients with ice just like a classic martini. The slightly burnished color combined with the bitter flavor suggests autumn to me.

October – Bourbonic Plague

• 1 part Midori
• 3 parts bourbon

This Halloween-y drink is really tasty and may be served any of a number of ways. Shake with ice and pour into a martini glass to see the zombie-like color clearly. Mix with soda to have a less intoxicating blend. Add dry ice for ultimate spookiness–this is my fave so far. We’re mixing this up today to take to a New Years/End-of-the-World party, too.

November – Stealth Chocolate Milk

• Cold milk
• 1/2 oz white creme de cacao

Mix the ingredients and serve to an unsuspecting roommate. Well, this is nearly what Jason did to our roommate twelve years ago. Mr. P had been my first undergrad roommate, and when Jason and I decided to move in together in grad school, Mr. P happened to be attending the same school and looking for roommates. The three of us moved in together with a fourth person, and we got along mostly splendidly. We even got along well enough that Mr. P expressed some interest in trying some alcohol, which he had never been able to enjoy. Jason actually concocted the cocktail detailed above, and Mr. P loved it. The drink looked exactly like plain whole milk, tasted exactly like chocolate milk, and contained enough alcohol to get a mild buzz. Especially after the second glass. This seemed like a good drink to associate with Thanksgiving and the coming Christmas season.

December – Cocktail Lyonnais

• 2 parts white creme de cacao
• 1 part green Chartreuse
• 1 part amaretto
• vodka and/or soda to taste

I spent most of the 1994-95 school year studying in Lyon, France, and the December 8 citywide Festival of Lights was one of the greatest experiences of my life. This cocktail is my attempt to emulate the flavor of the French confection called a coussin de Lyon. It’s described as a green-striped, curacao-flavored marzipan wrapped around a chocolate ganache, but I believe there were other flavors mixed in. In any case, the Chartreuse at least gets the color in the right direction while allowing a pretty close recreation of the combined flavor. Now, if only I could figure out how to make this as a layered drink…

So, that wraps up my year. I hope everyone has enjoyed 2012, and that you and your families all find themselves safely back at home soon after the New Year.