THE COCKTAIL HOUR: Red Solo Cup

Finally...a drink for the rest of us.

Watch the Video!

In honor of Toby Keith and his song, here's a concoction guaranteed to impress, easy and cheap to make...the Red Solo Cup!  Here's the recipe, don't go overboard on high quality ingredients...the supermarket generic stuff will do:


INGREDIENTS


3 oz. white rum
1 oz. amaretto
3-4 oz. cranberry cocktail
Juice of 1 lime
splash of grenadine


Take rum, amaretto, lime juice, and cranberry cocktail and put in a shaker half full of ice. Shake well, pour into two red solo cups...not blue, not yellow...filled with ice. Float the grenadine on top.


Cheers!

Darryl

THE COCKTAIL HOUR: Hot Pink Lemonade

Just a quick note, some of our Cocktail Hour fans have asked about the shaker we use. It's a glass shaker, with steel cap, and a silicone gasket that keeps the lid from getting stuck.

Now, back to this week's drink...

Here's another drink I came up with while playing with the chemistry set known as my bar...

Watch the Video!

Cranberry and lime are two of the most versatile mixers you can have in your bar.  Just a bit below lime, I'd throw in lemon.  This week's cocktail goes with the lemon to provide a delicious, refreshing, powerful, low calorie drink.  Our Hot Pink Lemonade tastes like a hard lemonade...harder than Mike's...and only packs around 130 calories.

INGREDIENTS
1 oz. - tequila
1/2 oz. - amaretto
3 oz. - cranberry cocktail
3 oz. - diet sparkling lemonade

Fill a highball or pint glass half full of ice.  Pour in all ingredients and stir.

Cheers!

Darryl

THE COCKTAIL HOUR: My Golden Valentine

St. Valentine's Day is coming soon. We don't do much about it here at the Musick compound because 6 days later is our day for love, our wedding anniversary.  I do like romance but like to celebrate it every day, not just occasionally.

Watch the Video!

Still, that gives me some inspiration for a new cocktail.  I call it My Golden Valentine because of the dark rum and amaretto that gives it a golden hue before shaking.

Here's the recipe:

INGREDIENTS (two drinks):
2 oz. dark rum
1 oz. amaretto
1/2 oz. lime juice
splash of bitters
splash of grenadine
3 oz. cranberry cocktail

Put all ingredients into a shaker 1/3 full of ice, shake and strain over ice into highball or pint glasses.

Cheers!

Darryl

The Cocktail Hour - Latin Passion

Watch the Video!

This week on the patio, we're enjoying some Latin Passion!  Stop it...it's just the name of the drink.  This is kind of like a more sour version of a tequila sunrise.  It is very good and pretty too.

Here's the recipe.

INGREDIENTS - Two Drinks

2 oz Tequila

2 oz Brandy

1/2 oz Amaretto

splash of passionfruit syrup

2-3 oz. sweet and sour

spash of grenadine

1/2 lime

Squeeze lime into cocktail shaker that is 1/3 full of ice.  Put in just the smallest dash of passionfruit syrup, too much will make your drink too sweet. Pour in tequila, brandy, amaretto, and fill to top with sweet and sour.  Shake and strain into two old fashioned glasses about 2/3 full of ice.  Splash a little grenadine over the top and let it sink naturally...don't mix any more.

This is a pretty potent cocktail, so enjoy in moderation.  

Cheers!

-Darryl

THE COCKTAIL HOUR: Cafe de Playa

It's Blooper Reel week here on The Cocktail Hour!  Not really, but you will see a major prop malfunction in the video below (what happens when whipped cream isn't whipped?  Find out below).

It's getting colder now and we're going to go with a hot drink.  Cold means 58 degrees mid-afternoon here in Southern California, but it's also very windy today and we need something hot if we're going to sit out on the patio.

Watch the Video!

Today, it's the Cafe de Playa, which means beach coffee in Spanish.  If you're on a cold beach this winter (which can be very fun...if you have a nice fire to sit by), this is what you need to take the chill off.  I modified this recipe from the Cafe Platino recipe on the Jose Cuervo site, and mashed it up with Giada de Laurentis' spice coffee recipe.


It came out good.  Letty liked it a little better when she added half a shot of amaretto to it which also adds 42 calories to the total.  Here's the recipe...as is it's 120 calories.  Add 42 more if you use the amaretto:


INGREDIENTS
1.5 oz. - - tequila
1/2 oz. - simple syrup (can substitute sweetener to eliminate more calories)
1 cup - coffee
reddi whip or whipped cream (1 tbls)
dash of ginger
dash of nutmeg
dash of cinnamon powder


Put ginger and nutmeg in coffee cup.  Add tequila and simple syrup.  Pour in coffee and stir. Put whipped cream on top.  Sprinkle with cinnamon.

Enjoy!


-Darryl

The Cocktail Hour - Amarita

This is a drink of my own invention.  Sometimes, I just like to play around with what's in by bar and see what comes out.  Sort of like a Dr. Frankenstein of alcohol.  Here's one that came out good.  The others?  Just don't look in the dungeon.

Watch the Video!

Amarita Recipe (two drinks)

3 oz - tequila

2 oz - amaretto

1/2 oz - triple sec

1/2 oz - lime juice

Before mixing, put two cocktail (martini) glasses in the freezer.  Put all ingredients into a cocktail shaker half full of ice and shake.  Remove the glasses from the freezer, they should frost up immediately.  Strain into the glasses.

Beware...this is a strong drink!

Darryl

THE COCKTAIL HOUR: The Rubio

Ah, the ever popular Rubio. What? You've never heard of it?

Don't feel bad...I just made it up. Actually, Tim and I made it up, as you can see in this week's Cocktail Hour video.

Watch the Video!

The history is we made some wine from the juice of our grape vine in the backyard. Not a great wine, in fact just barely drinkable. What to do?


At my wife's suggestion, we poured a healthy slug of amaretto into it and...voila...something much better emerged.


If you don't have your own barely drinkable, homemade wine, don't sweat it. Just get a really cheap bottle of rose, put a shot and a half of amaretto in it and you can have your own Rubio.


Where'd the name come from? Well, watch the video (it's short, only 4 minutes) for the answer...


Cheers!


-Darryl