Using locally sourced ingredients or spirits, consider these cocktails next time you’re entertaining
These days, a classic gin and tonic or bourbon and Coke isn’t going to cut it at a dinner or cocktail party. We asked some local professionals who dabble in the tipple for some cocktail recipes that are as interesting as they are intoxicating.
barrelhouse
Jeff Wiseman at Barrel House Distilling Co.
The Winchester
• 1.5 oz. of Pure Blue Vodka
• 3 oz. Ale8One soda
• Splash of orange juice
• Ice
• Orange slice
A creation by Jeff Wiseman’s business partner and fellow Barrel House owner Pete Wright, The Winchester combines Pure Blue Vodka –– Lexington’s first vodka and Barrel House’s inaugural distilled spirit –– with a ubiquitous Kentucky soda.
Combine the Pure Blue Vodka with Ale8One, orange juice and ice. Stir, pour and garnish with an orange slice. Wise-man said The Winchester is a great “anytime drink” and said substituting the store-bought orange juice for fresh squeezed oranges will enhance the flavor.
“It’s a nice refreshing summertime drink, and it’s easy to make,” he said. “There are not a lot of crazy ingredients.”
Oak Rum Old Fashioned
• 2 oz. Oak Rum
• 1 sugar cube
• 1 maraschino or fresh cherry
• Slice of orange
• 2-3 dashes of bitters
Muddle the orange, cherry and sugar cube in the glass until the sugar cube is completely crushed. Add ice, then pour the remaining ingredients over the mixture and stir.
Wiseman joked that the strong, easy-to-make Oak Rum Old Fashioned is another “anytime drink.” While bourbon is the typical spirit associated with an Old Fashioned, the dark, 105-proof rum, which has been aged in bourbon barrels, adds a hint of bourbon and charred oak flavor. The just-released Oak Rum recently won first place by the American Distillers Institute for the amber rum category.
Barrel House has more recipes available online at www.barrelhousedistillery.com. The products are available at many independent retailers as well as Liquor Barn.
Trish Tungate at The Dish
proudmary
Proud Mary
• 2 oz. of infused vodka (see below for infusing suggestions and directions)
• 1 oz. of tomato juice (or Bloody Mary mix)
• Ice
• Salt
• Garnish
At The Dish, Trish Tungate’s Proud Mary drink tastes like a garden. Utilizing about 12 ingredients (including ingredients for the vodka infusion), this fresh take on a Bloody Mary is a big seller at the Chevy Chase restaurant –– and Tungate grows most of the vegetables herself at the restaurant. The drink’s clean flavor is “ultra refreshing,” Tungate said.
“I grow sweet banana peppers, jalapeños, cayennes, onions, and then I usually will just buy the celery,” she said. “But I try to buy the other stuff at the famers market when I can.”
The Proud Mary’s vodka soaks for two days in a three-and-a-half liter jar at The Dish, and includes sweet banana peppers, cayenne peppers, jalapeños, red and yellow bell peppers, onions, garlic, pickles, peppercorns, celery, and lemons and limes.
“Basically we just pour that off with a little tiny bit of the tomato juice or bloody mary mix with a salted rim, and we call them Proud Marys,” she explained. “We don’t use a lot of tomato juice since we have so much flavor from the infused vodka ... I always say I probably sell more Bloody Marys post-5:00 than anyone in town, because they are so different.”
To try a simpler version at home, Tungate recommends using onion, garlic, celery, cucumbers, banana peppers, jalapeños and one other green or yellow pepper, as well as lemon or lime.
Always leave the peppers whole, just poke holes in them. Scrape the cucumber skins to release the flavor and then take them out of the mix after a day. Add a splash of your favorite Bloody Mary mix, garnish, salt and serve over ice.
teasquared
Tea Squared
• 1 orange slice
• 2 oz. Jim Beam Red Stag Honey Tea
• 2 oz. pomegranate hibiscus tea from MonTea
• Fresh mint sprigs
For another refreshing summer drink, Tea Squared is a simple, easy-to-make cocktail that Tungate has concocted.
Using mint grown at the restaurant, Tungate muddles the orange slice with mint, then adds two ounces of Jim Beam Red Stag Honey Tea and two ounces of pomegranate hibiscus green tea from MonTea (which you can find just around the corner on Euclid Avenue). To finish, she shakes it up and then garnishes it with more mint.
The end product is a combination of sweet and tart with an added complexity from the tea and citrus, and the mint provides a refreshing finish.
“It has all of these interesting layers and it goes down pretty fast,” Tungate said.
Growing fresh mint for the drink and herbs for other food and drink recipes is one of the highlights for Tungate.
“Once I started creating different cocktails I thought I might as well grow my own stuff,” she said. “We cook with so many fresh herbs, I figured we could grow them ourselves and subsidize some of the costs. People love it when you’re making them a mojito and you say, ‘Hang on, let me go clip your mint.’”