Absolut Citron and Contreau

This is a refreshing drink for summer. Absolut Citron and Contreau with a grape and a slice of orange to keep it cool. It also includes Sprite.

Whispers of Summer Cocktail

Our latest drink mix is going by the name of Whispers of Summer Cocktail.  Named after the juice that we used in the drink.  Whispers of summer is a Ceres cocktail and includes

• 1/2 cup of whispers of summer juice
• Slice of lime squeezed
• Slice of lemon squeezed
• Wedge of orange squeezed
• 1 passion fruit
• 2 pieces of mint
• 1/2 shot of Contrue
• 1 shot of white rum
• 1/2 shot of flavored rum ( we did key lime in one drink and pineapple in another)

Sorrel Rider

We are calling this the Sorrel Rider.  There are a few bourbon drinks out there using the name red rider. That's what I wanted.

This drink is a variant on the classic Jamaican Christmas drink.  You can find the original recipe at Epicurious.

What got this drink started was our visit to Agrifest on the West End of St Thomas.  A few of the vendors were selling whole sorrel flowers.  I also make plenty of sun tea with sorrel tea packets.  Finding the whole flowers was really fun.

The recipe in the link I provided is basically what we did.  We threw in 2 liters of water, part of a ginger root and a whole pound of sorrel.  I brought it all to a boil and then let simmer for 30 minutes. From there it went into the fridge to cool.  24 hours later I out it all through a strainer leaving just the sorrel tea.

Now that one has the tea one can do a few things with it.  Add a cinnamon stick, add a whole bunch of sugar or simple syrup or just drink it as is.  We left it sit till the weekend and then proceeded to make a refreshing drink out of it.

Our ingredients to put with the brewed tea:

• Lemon
• Lime
• Orange
• White rum
• Flavored rum (we used black cherry in one drink and mango in another)
• Sugar

Now you can use raw sugar, white sugar or even simple syrup.  It all depends on how sweet you want it.  Your simple syrup will be the sweetest while the raw sugar will be the least as it doesn't dissolve quickly.

As far as measurements are concerned it was a slice of each fruit, 1 shot of white rum and 1 shot of flavored rum for each glass.  We made it with two teaspoons of raw sugar in each glass.  Add some ice and you are set!

I would also like to mention that you don't have to use fresh sorrel flowers.  That could be hard to come by outside your sub tropical or tropical areas.  Brewing some tea and letting it cool will work as well.  I use a Carlo Rossi 1.5 liter jar, 2 packets of sorrel tea and a slice of orange.  I just leave it sit outside for a few hours and then refrigerate it when I'm done.

I hope others find this as refreshing as we do.

Low Calorie Mix Drinks

Low Calorie Mix Drinks..I keep hearing about these and now I am finally going to try and make these.

Recently, my beer intake began to spike in relation to my usual alcohol intake.  This isn't a good thing when you consider how many calories one has with 1 beer.  Normally I mix in a few cocktails and a few fine rums on the rocks.

My wife wanted us to cut down on soda and me beer and soda.  She doesn't drink beer.  I'm still scratching my head on the soda part as we've allowed soda to expire before just because we barely drink it.  She went to the nutrients and she suggested to use more sparking water.  This was actually fine with me because I like sparkling water and I don't even need flavoring for it.

At the grocery store we bought some pomegranate and some black cherry seltzer water.  I started with the pomegranate first.  With some help of google I wanted to see what most people mixed with pompegranate juice.  I didn't actually look for seltzer but figured it would be close enough.  I saw some similar patterns with most drinks having some type of orange..usually an orange peal, some simple syrup and a few even had rum. Mixing rum is good.  I love rum.

With these suggestions in mind I have come up with a few drink ideas that are very low in calories, taste good and can be sweet or unsweetened depending on your tastebuds.

First, white rum.  We use Cruzan because Cruzan is made on St Croix and we live on the US Virgin Islands.  To put another way, we have a very high quality white rum for a very cheap price.  Second, I was looking for something that wasn't too sweet.  This first attempt hit the spot right away and my wife loved it (with half the rum I used in my drink).

Like I mentioned earlier one can use a variety of different mixtures.  Here is the one the wife liked:

• 1 shot of rum
• 1/3 shot of Triple Sec
• spoonful of grenadine
• 1 large ice cube in a high ball glass
• squeeze some lime juice in it
• just a touch of guava Rum
• fill to the top with pomegranate seltzer water

The guava rum sweetens the drink up just enough where a person doesn't have to add sugar.

I really wanted to try some different variations especially one that wasn't as sweet. This is what I tried the next night:

• 1 shot of white rum
• 1/3 shot of Grand Marnier
• spoonful of grenadine
• 1 large ice cube in a high ball glass
• little bit of raw sugar but simple syrup would work just the same.
• squeeze some lime juice in it.
• fill to the top with pomegranate seltzer water

I wanted to do this without the grenadine but I needed the grenadine to cut the strength of the Grand Marnier.

I made another one after this with Cointreau instead and you really can tell the difference between cheap triple sec and Cointreau.  Again, there appears to be many ways to go about making this depending on how sweet you want it to be and how many calories you want to max out at.  I purchased a black cherry seltzer and some lime seltzer water to play with next.  Obviously gin and tonic variations are similar in nature.

Fluffy Cafe

Fluffy Cafe

Using an 8 oz coffee cup that is tear-dropped in shape you are going to have a nice wake-up drink.


There are a few different ways to make this drink. You can use Orchata or Baileys Irish Cream.  you can also mix in a little milk or go with all Orchata or all Baileys.  Lastly, you can put some vanilla syrup or vanilla rum in it to give it an unique taste.

Start with 5 oz of orchata and a shot of milk. Put it in a microwave container. specifically one that can be used for airiating the mixture.   I pour the mixture in the cup first to make sure i have right amounts.  You will be adding an espresso shot and will also need room for the foam.

Microwave the drink for 60 seconds or just before it starts to boil.  Remove the mixture and then using an aerolatte start adding the air to the mixture to get it ehipped up. i dont do a lot of foam so be sure to keep the end of the aerolatte below the surface of the mixture.

pour the mixture into your glass but hold back the foam.  next you add a shot of espresso and then top it off with the foam you were holding back.

Strawberry Amoeba

Ingredients

6 passion fruits
2 shots of strawberry Cruzan rum
1 shot of White Cruzan Rum
2 shots of fruit punch
2 ice cubes
Freshly squeezed lime

Put all of these ingredients (squeeze the passion fruit into the blender) and then blend. I would recommend putting the lime directly into the serving glass. Put cinnamon sugar mixture on the lid but wet the lid with lime juice.

Makes two servings.

Mojito with simple syrup instead of just sugar

Mojito made with simple syrup instead of just sugar

We had some Mint Juleps the other day and needed to make some simple syrup for them.  We only use natural sugar as the stuff is cheaper than white granulated sugar. The side effect of this is the sugar seems stronger.  Same goes for simple syrup.  Now, the syrup will come out a very dark brown but don't let that brown color fool you.  It tastes better to.

I decided to make Mojitos instead of Mint Juleps today to use up the simple syrup and we have tons of mint growing in the garden.  It might have been one of the best mojitos I've ever made.

It was just your normal Mojito recipe except I swapped out the sugar for a shot of simple syrup.  I muddled the lime, mint, rum and simple syrup before I added the sprite.

We use green colored goblet cups so it's not like you can see the color of the drink.