Muddled cucumber with gin and Aperol

Lime juice, Soho Lychee liqueur, Tito’s vodka and lychee juice from the Indian store.

This is riff off the Pineapple Upside Down Cake cocktail. Instead of pineapple juice, I used mango juice. The curious among you might be wondering why. The truth is I did not have pineapple juice but I did have mango juice. And I thought vanilla vodka, a tropical fruit and some grenadine is exactly what the doctor had prescribed for this sultry Atlanta afternoon.

Overproof rum, green chartreuse, falernum liqueur and lime juice.
After going thru half the serving, you will have a renewed appreciation for that “mutually assured destruction” bit!

Went with a Limoncello based drink for a rather warm evening. Limoncello, ginger liquor, vodka and bitters.

All my mixology friends (I have tagged some of you on this post), I got a challenge from my friend Steve on how to make a cocktail using garlic.

That is a difficult one. A garlic is too strong on the nose. I do not believe I have ever come across a cocktail using garlic. Have you? How would you go around making one if you had to come up with one?

Asked the chef at home – Sharmila. And she assured me that you cannot beat the garlic at its game on the nose. The only other thought then is to overwhelm the nose with the palate. Building on Sharmila’s suggestion, one idea could be something like a Bloody Mary with the tomato juice (or something like carrot juice) giving a lot of thick texture to the tongue and mix salt with something to veer towards either spicy or umami taste (jalapeno or horseradish for example).

What other ideas might you have? I am going to try your ideas this weekend.

Anand, Ashleah, Tathagata, Akshay, Alexa, Alexis, Bensan, Hope, Joel, Joy, Kaitlyn, Katie, Kree, Leigha, Mathew, Ranjan, Rosalind, Sarah, Satyabrata, Whitney, Subhash

This drink is mostly Lillet Blanc with a mix of Gin and a few dashes of Cointreau and Angostura Bitters. Strong on the nose and the palate.

Whiskey, Strawberry liquor and dry vermouth.

Fairly stiff for a warm Atlanta evening.

First summer drink this year. Mango juice, Mango Vodka, Cointreau and lime juice.