Friday Feature Cocktail: Summers with Mama

Today marks the official first day of summer! I love everything about summer, the warm sun, the long days, my birthday (but not the thunderstorms) and cannot wait for beach weather and BBQ season to be in full swing! In honor of the official start of summer, today’s feature cocktail is a Summers with Mama!

Summers with Mama:

• 1.5 parts Mama Walker Blueberry Pancakes
• .75 part Absolut Citron
• 3 parts cranberry juice
• Splash of club soda

Shake and strain into highball glass with ice and top with club soda

Enjoy and happy summer!

-KJ

Labor Day Weekend: 5 Best Drinks for a BBQ!

Since Labor Day is this weekend, and like it’s good friend Memorial Day it is known for BBQ’s, I thought it would be helpful to go through the recipes on Cocktail Culture from this summer and gather up a list of what I think are the 5 best drinks recipes for a summer BBQ. With everything you need to get ready for a party, searching for a drink recipe does not have to be one of them!

#1: Bahama Mama- Because we all have those friends that get cranky when it’s too hot…this frozen tropical treat will keep your guests cool and carefree!

• 3/4 parts Malibu Coconut Rum
• 3/4 parts Hiram Walker Crème de Banana
• 1 part Spiced Rum (Malibu Black could be a great addition here, if you have it)
• 1 1/2 parts Orange Juice
• 2 1/2 parts Pineapple Juice
• 1 tablespoon Grenadine
• Crushed Ice

Combine all ingredients with ice and mix them in a cocktail shaker. Serve over crushed ice. Garnish with Orange/Pineapple wedge. Makes enough for two cocktails.

#2: Fresh Watermelon Daiquiri- Because nothing says “summer” like fresh watermelon!

• 1 part Light Rum
• 1 part Hiram Walker® Watermelon Schnapps
• 1 part Fresh Lime Juice
• 3/4 part Simple Syrup

Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into cocktail glass.

#3) Mini Margaritas- Same great taste, but much cuter than the classic!

• 1 part Malibu Red
• ½ Part Hiram Walker Triple Sec
• ½ Part Fresh Lime

Shake and strain into a shot glass

#4) White Peach Punch- Any boozy punch with Rainbow Sherbet automatically makes the list.

• 2 cups ABSOLUT Citron® Vodka
• 2 cups Hiram Walker® White Peach Schnapps
• 1¼ cups Cranberry Juice
• 1¼ cups Pineapple Juice
• 2½ cups Fresh Sour Mix
• 2½ cups Lemon-Lime Soda
• 1 Scoop Rainbow Sherbet

Combine ingredients in Punch Bowl ¾ full of ice. Scoop sherbet into balls and float on top or float entire quart of sherbet. Multiple servings.

#5) The Orange Crush- Refer back to drink number 1, you really don’t want cranky friends ruining your BBQ.

• 1 part Absolut Mandarin
• 1 part Hiram Walker Triple Sec
• 1 part Fresh squeezed Orange Juice
• Splash of Lemon-Lime Soda
• Orange slice garnish

Mix all ingredients, except for lemon-lime soda, in a shaker with ice. Strain the beverage over crushed ice and top with soda. Garnish with an orange slice.

Enjoy your cocktails and I hope you all have a fabulous Labor Day Weekend 🙂

-KJ

Friday’s Feature Punch: White Peach Punch

Welcome back to another Friday! Tomorrow I will be making my first beach trip of the season (very long overdue) and I couldn’t be more excited for some relaxation in the sun and sand! When my friends and I prepare for a trip to the beach we always pack a cooler of the essentials: water, sandwiches, snacks, and of course, some sort of boozy concoction.

We played around with various recipes in the past, but struggled to find the perfect punch to accompany our beautiful beach days. Luckily, all of those difficulties disappeared when we tried out this week’s Friday Feature Cocktail Punch: White Peach Punch. It provides the ideal blend of flavor and refreshment, and who doesn’t want a scoop of sherbet on a hot sunny day? With summer kicking into full swing here is a recipe that all of you need to try!

White Peach Punch

• 2 cups ABSOLUT Citron® Vodka
• 2 cups Hiram Walker® White Peach Schnapps
• 1¼ cups Cranberry Juice
• 1¼ cups Pineapple Juice
• 2½ cups Fresh Sour Mix
• 2½ cups Lemon-Lime Soda
• 1 Scoop Rainbow Sherbet

Combine ingredients in Punch Bowl ¾ full of ice. Scoop sherbet into balls and float on top or float entire quart of sherbet. Multiple servings.

This is a great summer punch for an outdoor barbeque or poolside party. If you’re like me and plan to make this for a trip to the beach, I recommend buying a Styrofoam cooler and mixing the punch right inside, but here are some tips if you choose this route:

• Hold the the Styrofoam cooler by the base, the little handle is not always reliable and cleaning up the spill is NOT fun. (It’s also very sad… all that punch gone to waste)
• Bring extra ice!! (and waters, no one wants to dehydrate!)
• Wear sunscreen 🙂

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend

Enjoy

-KJ

Friday’s Feature Cocktail: Peach Tea

refreshing Peach Tea- perfect for tailgating or summer picnics

Welcome to another edition of Friday’s Feature Cocktail! Congratulations on making it through another week! I am especially excited for this Friday because after work I will be heading to a concert, which is one of my favorite things to do in the summer. It’s hard to beat great, live music on a warm summer night, with good friends around enjoying it with you.

Since I will be seeing some southern bands tonight (I love me some Country!) I thought it would be appropriate to make some Peach Tea cocktails to sip on before the show! The peach flavor and lemon juice provide the perfect amount of sweetness, and the quick and easy recipe makes it a great tailgating alternative to beer:

Peach Tea

• 2 parts Hiram Walker® Peach Schnapps
• 1 part Fresh Lemon Juice
• 4 parts brewed Iced Tea

Add all ingredients to a Collins glass over ice. Garnish with a lemon wedge.

Since it is also Father’s Day Weekend, I’m sure a number of you will be out golfing, fishing, or hanging with your dads grilling or watching sports (did I cover all the clichés?) and this Peach Tea would be a great addition to any of those plans!

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend, and Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there 🙂

-KJ

Friday’s Feature Cocktail – Peach Cran Cosmo

A round of Peach Cran Cosmos, featuring a collection of ABSOLUT and Hiram Walker products.

Happy Friday and Happy June, Cocktail Culture readers! Even having been a shortened week, I’m still itching for the weekend and the chance to mix up my next cocktail. Here’s what’s on the drink menu: Happy Hour and cocktail inspiration struck yesterday afternoon and I developed this Peach Cran Cosmopolitan that I’m anxious to share with you.

Peach Cran Cosmo: Created by Stephanie Jerzy

• 1 part ABSOLUT Vodka
• 3/4 part Hiram Walker Peach Schnapps
• 1/2 part Hiram Walker Triple Sec
• 1/4 part fresh lime juice
• 1 part cranberry juice

Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

It’s a very simple twist on the traditional Cosmopolitan recipe (1.5 parts Citrus Vodka, 3/4 part Triple Sec, 1/4 part lime, 1 part cranberry) and I think I could perhaps even modify this recipe to make it a bit simpler. I’d be open to trying this without the Triple Sec and adding in an extra 1/4 or 1/2 part of vodka to give the drink a little more zing. However, my coworkers and I did enjoy the balance of sweet and tart that this ratio offered.

What are you itching to sip on this weekend? As always, I’d love to hear your feedback in the comments below.

Cheers to a great weekend!
SJ

How To Celebrate National Rum Day

My Summer State of Mind perfectly mixed all in one glass!

Without much explanation needed, here is my pick to best celebrate National Rum Day today, August 16.

It’s pretty simple, really: grab some of your favorite white rum, Hiram Walker’s Raspberry Schnapps, and a little lemon-lime fizz – you’re all set for a day of playing hooky and celebrating on the warm, sunlit beach!

Too idealistic? Perhaps an evening with one of these bad boys on the patio deck with the grill going in the backdrop is way to best enjoy this perfect summer cocktail. Here’s your recipe for the perfect Summer State of Mind:

Summer State of Mind:

• 2 parts Malibu® Coconut Rum
• 1 part Hiram Walker® Raspberry Schnapps
• Juice of one Lime
• Top with Lemon-lime Soda

Build first three ingredients over ice in a Collins glass and top with lemon-lime soda. Optional garnish with a lime peel.

Cheers!
SJ

Savoring Summer

Sorry for sounding like a broken record, but I’m scared to think about the fact that summer may soon be over as it is undoubtedly my favorite time of the year. As such, it seems now is the time to soak up the last bit of sun that peaks its way through the mid-afternoon clouds and light showers that this summer has brought in New England.

With that also comes the need to savor the last of the seasonal fruit and vegetable offerings – sweet summer corn, asparagus, avocado and melons, among others.

Peaches are also among these top summer hits and are a most useful ingredient in both food and cocktail recipes. As inspiration, I saw this “Perfect Peach” post by Kelly Carámbula on Serious Eats and then meandered to Kelly’s own site where I immediately fell in love with the ideas behind her Peach Slushes recipe.

So now I have a roundup of peach recipes to stir up both around the office and at home, but my next task is how best to incorporate the versatile and all-natural Hiram Walker Peach Schnapps I also have on hand- you know, to keep the drinks boozey and all…

On a hot summer day, it seems best to stick to a tired and true cocktail formula and stir up this recipe for a Fresh Peach Martini.

Fresh Peach Martini:

• 2 parts ABSOLUT Citron® Vodka
• ¾ part Hiram Walker® Peach Schnapps
• 1 part Fresh Sour Mix
• 1 part Cranberry Juice

Combine ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake vigorously and strain into a martini glass. Garnish with a fresh peach slice (frozen slice will work, too, if you don’t have any fresh handy) and serve.

Expect some follow up on the blog here as I work through these delightful peach recipes for the remainder of the summer. If you have other recipes to share that incorporate some of those great summer fruits and veggies I mentioned above (kudos to the one out there who has a recipe with corn as an ingredient hanging around!) I’d love to hear your ideas!

Cheers!
SJ

What’s Shaking?

Oh my, how times does fly…

Just because there’s been time away from the blog doesn’t mean we haven’t been keeping busy here at the office. Somehow we have found ourselves a week into August, a month that still finds myself shifting my sights on all things flavored peach to soak up these last weeks of summer.

So what’s shaking this afternoon? How about a Peach Lemon Drop shot from Hiram Walker? Yeah, I think that will do the trick just fine…

Peach Lemon Drop Shot:

• ½ part ABSOLUT^® Mandrin Vodka
• ½ part Hiram Walker^® Peach Schnapps
• 1 squeeze Fresh Lemon Juice

Combine ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake vigorously. Strain into a chilled shot glass.

Cheers!
SJ

Feeling Peachy Keen

Summertime and the livin’s easy. Especially when you’re presently in The Big Easy and at Tales of the Cocktail.

Tales has been a phenomenal showing again this year and I am so glad to be back and reconnecting with all the great people that make this industry so special and fun to be a part of. With that said, I think peachy keen is a nice summary of the weekend’s events.

Need a peach-inspired cocktail to go with all that mushy stuff I just wrote about? 😉

Here’s a nice cocktail recipe to put on your weekend picnic or barbeque menu, the Peach Paloma:

Peach Paloma

• 1 part Gold Tequila
• ¾ part Hiram Walker® Peach Schnapps
• 2½ parts Fresh Sour Mix
• 1 part Ruby Red Grapefruit Juice

Combine ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake vigorously. Strain into a salt-rimmed 14 part glass w/ ice. Garnish with a Lime Corkscrew and serve.

I’ll get around soon to posting some recaps from Tales of the Cocktail events this week, so check back again soon.

As always, cheers!
SJ

The End of My Youth As I Know It

Unless you’ve been living under a rock the past several months*, the second installment of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows starts showing to delighted HP fans everywhere at midnight tonight. This theatrical debut is a bittersweet occasion for me, ringing in what can officially be marked as the end of my youth.

I will surely once again be stirring up a cocktail to celebrate the final chapter in The Chosen One’s crusade to defeat the Dark Lord. But why try to reinvent the wheel? I enjoyed this magical (Snape’s) Cinn & Pom Tea I wrote about for Part I’s November opening, so why not serve it again? This time, since the weather is a bit warmer, I’ll perhaps serve this cocktail as an Iced Tea beverage instead. Here’s the recipe:

(Snape’s) Cinn & Pom Iced Tea

• 1 part Hiram Walker Original Cinn
• 1 part Pomegranate Juice
• 3 parts Brewed Tea

Brew tea as package indicates. Chill tea and then build in a Collins glass over ice.

Looking for a little variance? Grab yourself a chunk of dry ice and check out Pegu Doug’s offering of The You Know Who cocktail, too.

Enjoy the movie, theater-goers, and, as I said last time, “Cheers to more movie and cocktail magic!”

-SJ

*Not that there’s anything wrong with that…