Because of all the hot and spicy liquor I taste here at the Burn! Blog, I often keep a mental note of cocktail recipes I can try in the future with these flavors. Other times, a liquor arrives at my home bar and I know exactly what do mix it with.
This month, I have one of each, combined with a traditional holiday drink, though at odds with each other in their flavors. I’m calling them Fire and Ice, based on my wife’s description of these cocoas flavors.
Last month, I introduced you to a warm drink for fall, and this month, we’re almost in to winter full swing, so it’s time for a very traditional winter punch: Mulled Wine. You’ll find Mulled Wine to be another fun stove-top drink, and guests at your holiday parties can serve themselves easily.
A reader reached out to me and let me know that only a few miles up the road from me (130 miles actually), some New Mexico natives are making their own brand of Bloody Mary mix, and I got a bottle – a jar actually – to try out.
If you’re looking for a fun twist on the hot toddy to counter karmic vengeance, try my version with CaJohn’s Frostbite.
I recently went to the annual Cider Festival here in Albuquerque and I bought a delicious bag of local apples to munch on. This got me thinking that this is also a time of year that you start seeing a lot of apple-based cocktails.
Guarding the northeast post at Distillery Row is New Deal Distillery, home to 4 vodkas, 2 gins, and 2 liqueurs. One vodka is a perfect fit for us here at the Burn! Blog, and you’ll know right away by its name: Hot Monkey Vodka, the star of New Deal’s line because it won a Gold Medal for flavored vodkas at the 2008 San Francisco World Spirits Competition, the Olympics of distilled spirits.
This “martini” is a refreshing and spicy blend of shrimp, avocado, tomatoes, cilantro and lime… gazpacho with shrimp!
