Month: February 2020

Sidecar | A Classic Cocktail
brandy

Sidecar | A 3-Ingredient Classic Cocktail

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The Sidecar is a classic prohibition-era cocktail made with only 3 simple ingredients: brandy, orange liqueur, and lemon juice.

The Sidecar is another classic cocktail with only 3 ingredients. As many classic drinks do, it’s got itself a muddled history. Some claim it was invented in Paris during World War I, while others say it was first created in London. No matter who created it or where, it’s arguably the most well-known and well-loved brandy cocktail.

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. If you buy a product via my affiliate link, I will receive a commission. This is at no additional cost to you. I only recommend products I actually like! 

It was originally served with a sugared rim but is rarely served that way today. So, if you like your drinks a little more sweet, consider tracing the rim of your coupe glass and dipping it into some sugar before making your drink. Personally, I skip the sugar as the Sidecar is my go-to drink when I’m looking for something tart.

The Sidecar is a classic prohibition-era cocktail made with only 3 simple ingredients: brandy, orange liqueur, and lemon juice.

The first time I ever had a Sidecar was at my friends’ house. They consider themselves cocktail aficionados and they introduced me to this classic when I first started delving into cocktails (as in, I had ordered maybe 2 cocktails prior to this point). I was instantly hooked on the tartness.

My friend told me I could easily make them at home and for a fraction of the cost that a bar would charge. He then proved this by pulling up an Excel spreadsheet that had all the information you could ever think of having. It was honestly impressive. He had created formulas to determine the cost per drink of several, several cocktails. Anytime he bought a new bottle of liquor, he would insert the cost & volume of the bottle so that all the numbers stayed accurate. I mean. Impressive. I guess that’s what happens when you combine an engineer and a cocktail enthusiast.

The Sidecar is a classic prohibition-era cocktail made with only 3 simple ingredients: brandy, orange liqueur, and lemon juice.

Truthfully, those friends and that spreadsheet were the catalysts for my drink-making journey. I might not have realized how cost-effective it is to invest in a home bar if it weren’t for them. So cheers to you, Brian & Catherine. Thanks for the Sidecar all those years ago.

The Sidecar is a classic prohibition-era cocktail made with only 3 simple ingredients: brandy, orange liqueur, and lemon juice.

The Ingredients

*These ratios are also disputed, but here is how I make one*

  • 1 1/2 oz brandy**
  • 3/4 oz orange liqueur
  • 3/4 oz lemon juice (freshly-squeezed, mind you! when you only have 3 ingredients in a cocktail, skimping on the fresh lemon juice will cost you)

The How-To

Fill your cocktail shaker with ice and add all ingredients. Shake shake shake. Pour into a coupe glass. Garnish with a large swath of lemon peel. (Twisting or squeezing the peel over your drink will release some delicious oils and take everything up a notch.)

**A quick note about brandy and cognac: Cognac is brandy, but not all brandy is cognac. Brandy can only be called Cognac if it comes from the Cognac region in France. So, Cognac : brandy :: Champagne : sparkling wine. (anyone else a fan of analogies?)

The Sidecar is a classic prohibition-era cocktail made with only 3 simple ingredients: brandy, orange liqueur, and lemon juice.

Looking for other 3-ingredient cocktails? Check out the Daiquiri, the Moscow Mule, and the Dark & Stormy.

Diamond
The Authentic Daiquiri
rum

The Authentic Daiquiri | A Classic Cocktail with 3 Ingredients

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The authentic Daiquiri is a classic, 3-ingredient cocktail made with rum, lime juice, and simple syrup.

The daiquiri is a classic cocktail. As classic as it gets. And yet somehow, I know I have to pause and clarify just what kind of daiquiri I’m talking about here. I’m talking about a REAL, authentic daiquiri of yesteryear. Not the bright red frozen insult spilling out the top of a much-too-tall stadium cup. Those things make my stomach churn just looking at them. Why we would do such a thing to a time-honored classic is beyond me.

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. If you buy a product via my affiliate link, I will receive a commission. This is at no additional cost to you. I only recommend products I actually like! 

The Daiquiri is a classic, 3-ingredient cocktail made with rum, lime juice, and simple syrup.

The Daiquiri has a long history, dating back to the early 1900s. Although technically, an old British Navy admiral named Edward “Old Grog” Vernon, could be first credited for the combination of rum, citrus, and sugar in an attempt to sober-up his crew. Anyhow, the Daiquiri lived in relative obscurity until the 1930s until Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald brought attention to it.

Hemingway actually loved the drink so much that he concocted his own variation of the drink, The Hemingway Daiquiri. The attention from renowned authors, coupled with the diminishing supply of whiskey (thanks to Prohibition and WWII), Americans were now more willing to turn to the rum which was previously frowned upon for being the drink of sailors and vagrants.

Brian Petro’s article about the history of the Daiquiri goes into interesting detail and even explains how this cocktail became the swirling, sugary mixture you see in dispensers at sporting events. It’s quite an informative read if you can spare a few extra minutes.

The Daiquiri is a classic, 3-ingredient cocktail made with rum, lime juice, and simple syrup. Garnish it with a slice of lime using a miniature clothespin for a fun detail.

So, let’s reclaim the Daiquiri name for what it is- a sophisticated yet uncomplicated cocktail. (Also, can we talk about that adorable mini-clothespin? I could just squeal. You can find your own at Dollar Tree.)

The Daiquiri is a classic, 3-ingredient cocktail made with rum, lime juice, and simple syrup.

The 3 Ingredients for an Authentic Daiquiri

  • 1 1/2 – 2 oz rum
  • 1 oz simple syrup
  • 3/4 oz lime juice (about 1 lime)

How to Make an Authentic Daiquiri

Juice your lime into a cocktail shaker. My lime had already been chillin’ in the fridge for a while so it wasn’t the freshest. But I’m sure the sailors aboard Old Grogg’s ship managed with worse. Add a generous amount of ice, the rum, & the simple syrup.

Shake all 3 ingredients vigorously for 30 seconds. Push through the burning in your arm muscle and the chill in your hand. Unless you can shake a cocktail shaker vigorously for 30 seconds without your arm getting tired. In that case… kudos to you and you might as well keep on shaking until it does to get a little workout in. Pour into a coupe glass and put your nose in the air while you drink it because you, my friend, now know how to make an authentic daiquiri.

Don’t have a cocktail shaker? Check out this one:

It’s gorgeous, affordable, and comes with a bar spoon AND a jigger. This is one small investment you need to make if you’re interested in creating cocktails at home!

Interested in other 3 ingredient cocktails? Check out these easy cocktails:

Rose Darling cocktail
gin

Rose Darling

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The Rose Darling is a perfect cocktail for Valentine's Day. Vodka, orange liqueur, rose simple syrup, apricot preserves, and cranberry juice come together to create a refreshingly floral sip.

If the Rose Darling caught your eye, you’re either a Steely Dan fan or a floral fan. I’ve been trying to veer away from typical Valentines-y cocktails in my V-Day drink series, but I can’t end it without utilizing such an iconic symbol of love. The Rose Darling is definitely floral and is definitely on the sweeter side. I’m not usually one for sweet drinks but certain occasions open me up to the idea.

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. If you buy a product via my affiliate link, I will receive a commission. This is at no additional cost to you. I only recommend products I actually like! 

To garnish the glass, trace a line with rose simple syrup & sprinkle rose petals over it.

If you’re not a fan of florals, don’t shy away from the Rose Darling just yet. There’s a way to modify this rose cocktail by making a lightly-flavored rose simple syrup. Check out the recipe to see how you can tone it down. In that blog post, I also come clean about an infamous rose-scented candle, a burden that weighed on my family’s conscience for years. Okay, that might be a bit dramatic. But it is something that my mom and I have talked about several times since my childhood and felt an ounce or two of remorse over.

Rose petal ice cubes

Although they aren’t necessary to the drink, the rose ice cubes do up the fancy factor. They require next to no effort, so why not? Especially if you are already going to be making your own rose simple syrup. I found the rose-shaped ice cube tray at Dollar Tree for a whole dollar, but I also put some petals in my large ice cube mold. I will note that since these rose-shaped ice cubes are quite small, I accounted for them melting quickly when creating the drink recipe. If you are going to use bigger ice cubes (or skip them altogether & pour the drink into a coupe glass), consider doing less vodka or a little more cran juice.

If you’re looking for a simple & delicious meal to go along with any of my Valentine’s Day cocktails, check out Cuisine & Cocktail’s DIY Bagel Bites. My husband and I have a yearly Valentine’s day tradition of making our own pizzas. We avoid the crowds & spend time together cooking (not common around our house!) food we know we are going to love. This year, however, Valentine’s weekend is packed for us and we won’t have time to celebrate until Sunday. We’ll be using Cuisine & Cocktail’s recipe (gluten-free English Muffins for me) to save us some time.

The Ingredients for a Rose Darling

  • 1 1/2 oz vodka (Tito’s has always been my go-to)
  • 1/2 oz orange liqueur
  • 1/2 oz cranberry juice
  • 1/4 oz or a couple squeezes of lemon juice
  • 1/4 oz rose simple syrup
  • Spoonful of apricot preserves

How to Make a Rose Darling

Add the vodka, orange liqueur, juices, rose simple syrup, and apricot preserves to a shaker filled with ice. [The more ice you add when shaking, the less it will dilute when shaking, which means the less your drink will be diluted when you pour it over the ice in your glass.] Shake & pour into a lowball glass filled with ice or into a coupe glass without ice.

The Rose Darling is a perfect cocktail for Valentine's Day. Vodka, orange liqueur, rose simple syrup, apricot preserves, and cranberry juice come together to create a refreshingly floral sip.
simple syrup

Rose Simple Syrup

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If you don’t enjoy the smell of roses, don’t count out this rose simple syrup just yet. I myself used to hate all things rose. My distrust of rose fragrance runs far back to my elementary days. All the way back to my 3rd-grade year, to be exact. My family, seeking to support another friend by way of a school fundraiser, bought a rose-scented pillar candle. And when I say scented I mean SCENTED. That thing was FRAGRANT, unnaturally so. None of us could stand the smell, so my mom came up with a brilliant, selfless idea: we can give the candle to my teacher.

Add a floral layer of sophistication to your cocktails with this rose simple syrup.

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. If you buy a product via my affiliate link, I will receive a commission. This is at no additional cost to you. I only recommend products I actually like! 

I’ll never forget giving it to her. I could practically SEE the pink fumes spiraling up out of the tissue paper. As any teacher would, she thanked me profusely and plastered a smile on her face while she put the candle on display on top of her filing cabinet. Moments later, Michael J. came in the room and– between gags and coughs– he was able to squeeze out the words “Mrs. Lawrence, what is that SMELL?” I couldn’t help but laugh then and I still laugh thinking about it to this day.

Fear not, this rose simple syrup won’t emit any fumes or knock out anyone who wanders into the kitchen when you’re making it. If you’re a little afraid of a heavy rose flavor, skip the rosewater and use only the rose petals. It’ll be delicate, adding only a hint of floral essence in your cocktail.

If you want more of a pink hue to your syrup, consider adding a pinch of beet powder. (You might have some on hand if you’ve made my beet simple syrup). Without the beet powder, the syrup will have a slight purple-gray tint to it, which is totally fine. I just wanted it to look a little more pink so it would add some color to my Rose Darling. You can see the difference in color in the two photos below.

As I have mentioned in my other simple syrup posts, I prefer to make small batches when crafting flavored simple syrups. I typically don’t use a lot and don’t want to waste any before I’m able to use it up.

The Ingredients for Rose Simple Syrup

  • 2 Tablespoons dried rose petals (pleeease make sure you are using food grade petals)
  • 1/4 cup + 1 Tablespoon water
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoon rosewater

How to Make Rose Simple Syrup

Boil the rose petals in the water on the stove for 1-2 minutes. You’re essentially making rose tea. There won’t be much water in the pot so be careful to make sure the petals don’t scorch. Strain the liquid and discard the petals. Pour the rose tea back into your saucepan and add the extra tablespoon of water. Add the sugar and stir to dissolve. Remove from heat and add the rosewater & stir again. Allow it to cool completely before storing it in the fridge. It should keep for a month.

Add a floral layer of sophistication to your cocktails with this rose simple syrup.
I originally wanted to keep the petals in the syrup… but quickly realized the petals look pretty unappetizing once all the color has been boiled out of them.
Rose simple syrup adds a floral element to cocktails, tea, and even lattes.

Interesting in making other simple syrups? Check out these recipes:

Royal Rose - Organic Simple Syrup
vodka

Orange Cassidy | A Freshly-Squeezed Take on a Moscow Mule

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I have quite the schpeel to go with this Moscow mule modification. There’s a slim chance you know the name Orange Cassidy already. If you do, I love you for it. If not, well…. hopefully you’ll still love me after this is all over with.

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. If you buy a product via my affiliate link, I will receive a commission. This is at no additional cost to you. I only recommend products I actually like! 

My schpeel starts with a confession and ends with exciting news. Okay. Are you ready? I… am a huge wrestling fan. But it hasn’t always been this way, or at least not for a while. I grew up begging my parents to let me watch WWF and WCW with my brother, probably like most kids in the 90s. I loved me some DDP and Sting. And then I remember learning that it was “fake” and feeling crushed. Deceived. Betrayed. How could this be true????

Orange Cassidy, a cocktail inspired by AEW's too-cool-to-care Orange Cassidy

My husband was a fan, too, and he even had his own persona in his neighborhood wrestling league as a kid. When he told me that a new wrestling league, All Elite Wrestling, was premiering several months ago, I didn’t really care. The night it premiered, he was hooping and hollering from the other room and truthfully I gave him a hard time about it. This is fake, you know, I told him, how are you into this again? Well, joke’s on me because the next week I was watching with him and couldn’t get enough. I have a confession, I muttered the next morning, I can’t stop thinking about AEW.

Now here we are, 5 months later, heading to our first-ever live wrestling event. (I’ll keep the price of the tickets to myself to hold on to what remaining pride I have left.) To say I’m stoked would an understatement. I’M FLIPPING OUT. Make fun of me all you want, but the skill that these people have is insane. The extra drama just makes it even more entertaining. Is it cheesy? Oh totally. But I am HERE FOR IT. Every Wednesday (and Tuesday). It’s a thrilling blend of pure athleticism and theatre. Pure entertainment, I tell ya.

Confession: dropped. News: shared. Now I can tell you about the drink. Orange Cassidy is the name of one of these wrestlers. His shtick is that he’s too cool to take himself seriously. Check out the vid to get an understanding of this joker:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lGdYtaclkk

I wanted to think of a drink that embodied his “can’t be bothered to care” attitude. It’s simple, down-to-earth, and has a slight zing to it. Just like Orange Cassidy.

Orange Cassidy | All Elite Wrestling Cocktail Series A Moscow mule variation that captures Orange Cassidy's "can't be bothered to care" attitude. It's simple, down-to-earth, and has a zing to it. Just like Orange Cassidy.

The Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 oz vodka
  • 1/2 oz orange liqueur
  • 1/2 oz freshly-squeezed orange juice
  • 1/2 oz freshly-squeezed lemon juice
  • 1/2 oz freshly-squeezed lime juice
  • zest from orange & lemon
  • 1 fresh sage leaf
  • dash of bitters (optional)
  • ginger beer

The How-To

Pour the vodka into a cocktail shaker. Muddle the sage in the shaker with a muddler or the back of a spoon to release that earthy goodness. Add ice some ice and zest the orange and lemon into the shaker. Add the freshly-squeezed Orange Cassidy orange juice, lemon juice, and lime juice. Dash that bitters. Shake. Pour into a copper mug or lowball glass filled with ice. Top off with your ginger beer. Garnish with an orange slice and Orange Cassidy’s signature aviators.

**This cocktail will be the first of many in my AEW cocktail series. Brace yourself. I’ve got a notepad filled with inspiration.**

Wedding Gifts Copper Mugs Moscow Mules
Orange Cassidy, a Moscow mule cocktail inspired by AEW's too-cool-to-care Orange Cassidy

Intrigued by AEW? Check it out on Wednesday 7pm CST on TNT and on Tuesdays 6pm CST on YouTube. If you have Hulu, you can get yourself caught up on all the previous eps. Just in time for the upcoming pay-per-view on February 29th. (Do I sound like a paid representative yet? …One can wish.)

Orange Cassidy

A freshly-squeezed take on a Moscow Mule.
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 3 mins
Course Drinks
Servings 1

Ingredients
  

  • 1½ oz vodka
  • ½ oz orange liqueur
  • ½ oz freshly-squeezed orange juice
  • ½ oz freshly-squeezed lemon juice
  • ½ oz freshly-squeezed lime juice
  • zest from orange or lemon
  • 1 sage leaf
  • 2+ oz ginger beer

Instructions
 

  • Add the vodka & sage leaf into a cocktail shaker.
  • Muddle the sage with a muddler or the back of a spoon to release that earthy goodness.
  • Add ice some ice, the juices, and zest the orange and/or lemon into the shaker.
  • Shake well.
  • Pour into a copper mug or lowball glass filled with ice.
  • Top off with your ginger beer.
  • Garnish with an orange slice and drink while wearing Orange Cassidy's signature aviators.
Keyword ginger beer, lemon, lime, orange blossom water, orange liqueur, sage, vodka
Copper Mugs Moscow Mules