We know
vodka + orange juice = screwdriver
vodka + cranberry juice = cape cod
vodka + grapefruit juice = greyhound
vodka + tomato juice = bloody mary

But what is
vodka + tamarind juice ??

Made a cocktail of Spicy Tamarind Vodka (by Smirnoff) and Tamarind juice (by Iberia).

Came out very nice. Next time, I will put some Tajin salt on the rim. I think the salt will go well with the slight tartiness.

This is one more drink from the book of cocktails and trivia that Natasha gifted me. This is Tequila, mango juice, Agave nectar and lime. The original recipe called for pineapple juice but I am not a big fan of pineapple juice. Somehow, that particular acid does not sit very well in my mouth.

The trivia mentioned for this drink is interesting.

“In 1669, The German Alchemist Hennig Brand, after noting that gold and urine were similar in color, developed the belief that he could distill the precious metal from it. So, he started collecting urine, mostly from his wife and her friends.

After boiling over 1,500 gallons of it, he found no gold. Instead, he discovered phosphorous!”

Made this from a cocktail book that Natasha had given me as a Christmas present. This is a fairly old gin cocktail. And I replaced orange juice with mango juice to make it a little sweeter.

One of the interesting things about the book is that it gives some trivia with every drink recipe. For this it had – “Did you know that a cat’s whiskers go out for the same length as the width of the cat’s body? This allows them to judge if they can fit in thru a hole!”

Back to the drink – this is gin, dry vermouth, sweet vermouth, orange juice and orange bitters.

Ever since I finished the “Great Gin Experiment” (some 42 gins from 15 different countries), I have mostly been staying out of the gin scene. Recently Matt Tebbe – my friend of 12 years or so – brought me a gin bottle from Tasmania. I opened it this evening.

Simply great gin!

The lavender notes are very soothing to the nose and the juniper leaves a fairly good effect on the palate. I used Fever Tree tonic water and used more ice than normal.

I could not find too much literature on this gin. In fact, I could not even locate the distillery’s website thru multiple Google searches. The only thing the bottle mentions is it uses copper stills for distilling. (which is fairly standard).

Thank you Matt! This was a great throwback to the years when I was experimenting with gin a lot!

Spiced rum, gin, lime juice and grenadine.

Vikram Das, do you detect the continuation of a theme here? 🙂

The halo effect of rum is continuing even after leaving the Caribbean. Made this rum drink today – Spiced Rum with Triple Sec and lime juice.

This is Rye Whiskey, Sweet Vermouth, orange bitters and Angostura bitters.

This is raw mango juice with a lot of Indian spices in it, vodka and some lime juice. Since I find the aftertaste of raw mango to be a little bitter, I added a tea spoonful of Triple Sec to cut the bitterness.

In anticipation of the Brooklyn girl coming home, made a Brooklyn for the evening. Rye Whiskey, dry Vermouth, sweet Vermouth, orange liqueur and maraschino liqueur.

Took Mike Sweigart and Hunt Jackson’s advice and did a half and half Old Fashioned today. (Half Rye Whiskey and half Bourbon). Have to say, I liked this more than the straight up Bourbon variety. Lot more complexity on the nose.