Author: Monkeybrad (Page 45 of 57)

Midori Sour

June 24, 2020 / Monkeybrad / 1 Comment

One of my favorite quotes comes from Oscar Wilde who said “The secret to life is to appreciate the pleasure of being terribly, terribly deceived.” I love that sentiment. The way it looks for the silver lining in a bad situation. It has also made me laugh during some tough times in life. When everything is falling down around you, to remember Oscar Wilde can be a good thing. He was just overflowing with pithy wisdom, I respect and envy that. I like the way it hinges on the word “appreciate”, not “enjoy”, not “love”, but “appreciate”. I try to approach life with an attitude of openness. I have found that most of the more interesting experiences I have had revolved around me saying yes, especially when I say it with some hesitation. So, when I watched a bartender I normally trust and respect extol the virtues of this oft-maligned drink, I said yes. Luckily, I was able to appreciate the pleasure of the experience. So, join me now as we stand and make, the Midori Sour.

Cobra’s Fang

June 23, 2020 / Monkeybrad / 0 Comments

This drink is a result of a few things coming together at the right time. We are on a tiki kick, because that is fun. We had fassionola, since Laura had made it for The Curse of Jean Lafitte the other day and I had this sweet rattlesnake mug that I have wanted to make a drink in. Since the stars aligned to make this drink possible, well mostly aligned anyway, join me as we stand and make the tiki classic, Cobra’s Fang.

Earl Grey, Not

June 21, 2020 / Monkeybrad / 2 Comments

I told y’all that teacup cocktails were going to be thing and here we are again. My mom is into fine china and crystal and dainty things that are easily crushed by huge monkey hands, so I am lucky enough to have access to the spoils of a lifetime of collecting and estate sales. One of the things I have always admired about mom’s approach to life is that things are meant to be used, not just looked at and dusted. Even with her encouragement, I am often more than a little nervous when using a bone china teacup I can nearly see through or, in this case, one encrusted in 24K gold. Still, I have wanted to make a drink in one of these cups for quite a while, and when I watched the folks from Dux Gins & Cocktails Borne make this one, I knew the time had come. So join me as we stand and make, the Earl Grey, Not.

Bahama Mama

June 21, 2020 / Monkeybrad / 0 Comments

Hard to believe we are way over into June and still making cocktails from quarantine. Worse than that there are more people that I know personally who are suffering from the virus at this moment than at any time since this started. There are lots of things to be depressed about, but I don’t have the energy for it. It’s Father’s Day and I got to spend it with the family and I got some sweet new tiki glasses so let’s make a drink. Since it is Father’s Day let’s make the Bahama Mama.

The Curse of Jean Lafitte

June 20, 2020 / Monkeybrad / 1 Comment

Needless to say, I’m a big fan of pirates. All my life, they’ve been there on some level and piracy in its various forms has had a larger influence on who I am than anything else I can think of. I am also a big film buff and these two worlds collide hard in the amount of my life spent with Yul Brynner, Charlotte Heston and many more in 1958’s The Buccaneer. This semi-accurate classic tells of the Battle of New Orleans and how my favorite pirate, Jean Lafitte, helped to save the fledgling United States. So it’s with a steady eye toward unhealthy anti-hero worship that I ask ask you to join me as we stand and make, The Curse of Jean Lafitte.

Grasshopper

June 19, 2020 / Monkeybrad / 9 Comments

There are all kinds of things in life we judge without thinking about it. It sucks, but we have certain prejudices. It’s not necessarily our fault, we are hard-wired to take shortcuts when it comes to some things. Our brains use a sort of shorthand that almost forces us to extrapolate opinions from past experiences and impress those feelings onto things we haven’t actually experienced or gotten to know. Some times, this is really good. Once you have had an experience with spoiled or rotten food, the mere scent of it tells you to run away. You don’t have to suffer it a second time. Other times it really sucks, when it makes us lazy. When we let our preconceptions or societal norms drive us to make snap judgements, without really considering the individual merits of the case. We do this a lot, making the easy, “I don’t want to think about it calls” about things or way worse, about people. We are born with some of this, we learn most of it, but the important thing is we have to recognize it, and that is hard to do. I ran into this today when I was making a drink and I guess we ought to talk about it. So, join me as we stand and make, The Grasshopper.

The Expedition

June 18, 2020 / Monkeybrad / 0 Comments

What a long strange trip it has been. There’s a lot going on in the world today, to put it mildly, and it’s got me to thinking, about a lot of things, but mostly about the journey we are all on. So join me, brothers and sisters, as we stand and make, The Expedition.

Her Majesty’s Royal Marine

June 17, 2020 / Monkeybrad / 1 Comment

A couple of weeks ago, I shared a drink called the Army & Navy, that I shamelessly stole from my buddy @bitterbotwin on instagram. It is a super lovely drink and I encourage you all to make it. It reminded me of a wonderfully refreshing coconut lemonade with a kick, and I like that. The more I thought about it and the more of them I enjoyed, the more I wanted to experiment with this drink. Laura was super supportive, because she loved the original and every time I made a variation, she got to enjoy a “control” drink. I kept playing around with different ideas and this time it paid off. So join me as we stand and make this cheekily named tribute combining land and sea forces, Her Majesty’s Royal Marine.

Sidecar

June 16, 2020 / Monkeybrad / 5 Comments

Today we have a throwback to one of the earliest cocktails, sort of. Lots of books talk about the brandy cocktail as a forerunner of modern cocktails and it certainly checks the boxes, a spirit, an acid and a sweetener. If you look at most cocktails these are the basics, they may use multiple versions of each element but for it to be a cocktail it needs the big three. So, we are gonna make a prohibition version of the original brandy cocktail. Won’t you join me as we stand and make, the Sidecar.

Jungle Bird

June 15, 2020 / Monkeybrad / 1 Comment

Pa told me that about 90% of what you accomplish in life comes down to choosing the right partner. Speaking of that, when I got home this afternoon Laura stopped mowing the yard long enough to let me know that she’d hollowed out a pineapple for me, that it was inside on the counter and that a tiki drink would be lovely. I ran through my mental catalog and selected a classic. So, join me as we stand and make, the Jungle Bird.