Of course, we all know now that absinthe doesn’t cause blindness or madness or any of the other evils ascribed to this high-proof spirit back during the run up to Prohibition. But outside of cocktail geeks and urban bars with pretensions of authenticity, I don’t see this spirit becoming the next. big. thing.
A couple years ago on a visit to the Absinthe Museum of America in New Orleans which is excerpted in the slide show at the bottom of this post, a fellow visitor succinctly summed up the real problem with the Green Fairy. ” I love buying different bottles of absinthe, I just don’t like drinking it.” I have to admit I feel the same way. After I got over my fascination with Good & Plenty, licorice is something I like in small doses.
It was different back around the turn of the century in Europe where it became the drink of choice for creative types ranging from Oscar Wilde to Toulouse Lautrec, according to The Absinthe Buyer’s Guide. Anise flavored spirits are still popular and plentiful in Europe, the list at Licorice.org includes Pernod, pastis, ouzo, Sambucca, anisette and Pacharan I tasted in Spain’s Basque region.
It may have been in this licorice-loving context that Ernest Hemingway created his potent absinthe and champagne cocktail called Death in the Afternoon. His book Death in the Afternoon is considered one of the best books ever written about the deeper meaning behind bull-fighting in Spain. Hemingway borrowed the book name and contributed the drink made of a jigger of absinthe poured into a glass of champagne to a humorous collection of cocktail recipes by writers that was published in 1935, according to Absinthe Online.
I love the evocative name Death in the Afternoon; but since I think a little absinthe goes a long way, I fashioned Killing Me Softly, which I included in my book The Bubbly Bar. Besides being a tribute to the fantastic Roberta Flack song, it’s a delicate cocktail that leaves just a hint of licorice flavor lingering on the palate.
Place the sugar cube in the bottom of a martini glass. Swirl the absinthe and elderflower liqueur in a cocktail shaker with ice to chill quickly and strain over the sugar cube. Top with the brut champagne. Lightly squeeze the lemon over the top of the drink and float on top.
Besides being sticky and sweet, honey is endowed with vitamins and minerals that help humans produce sex hormones. (Courtesy Photo)
It’s so easy to take honey for granted: sweet, cloying and sticky stuff without much personality. But it’s always been one of those foods, along with strawberries and whipped cream that shall we say has plenty of sex appeal.
The term honeymoon comes from the Viking tradition of leaving newlyweds alone for a month to get to know each other. They were encouraged to drink lots of mead – wine made from fermented honey – as it was considered an aphrodisiac. Even today, Indian bridegrooms are given honey on their wedding night to increase their stamina.
It turns out honey contains boron, a trace mineral that’s important for a number of different body functions including hormone production. Boron helps increase estrogen levels in women as well as testosterone levels in men and women, which is important for libido. Honey also contains B vitamins which play a role in estrogen production and another natural substance called chrysin that helps keep testosterone levels constant. For more details, read up on boron at Organic Facts.net and Gynecomastia.org
But enough of all that. Now that you know what’s in it, here’s a charming little cocktail I created that makes good use of honey and damiana extract, another natural aphrodisiac found in the supplement aisle at Whole Foods.
The Bee Charmer tempts with honey, lemon, lavender and a bit of bubbly.
The Bee Charmer
small section of honeycomb
1-1/2 ounces Barenjager Honey Liqueur
1/2 ounce bourbon whiskey
1/2 ounce fresh lemon juice
1/2 ounce egg white – the real thing, not pasteurized
pinch dried lavender (optional)
2 drops damiana
2-3 ounces brut sparkling wine or champagne
Put the honeycomb in the bottom of a champagne coupe or small cocktail glass. Add the honey liqueur, bourbon, lemon juice, egg white an lavender if using and damiana to a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake hard until will chilled and frothy. Add the bubbly to the coupe, then strain the contents of the shaker into the glass. Garnish with a couple lavender blossoms.
Watermelon has scientifically proven effects on libido, making it a great Valentine cocktail ingredient.
Every year when Valentine’s Day rolls around, lots of foods start getting mentioned with the label “aphrodisiac” attached to them. Shopping for foods that have been thought to have an effect on passion would take one to every aisle of the supermarket: strawberries, steak, avocados, potatoes and oysters have all had their day in the sun.
This year, I decided to research food that have a scientifically documented effect on libido or blood flow, which is generally what an aphrodisiac is all about. Over the next few posts, I’ll be sharing recipes for drinks made with foods that can help put you in the mood.
It turns out that watermelon is good for more than cooling off in the summertime; this juicy fruit is also being called “nature’s Viagra.” A study at Texas A & M University’s Fruit and Vegetable Improvement Center found that watermelon contains a substance called citrulline that helps blood vessels relax, just like Viagra. For more details, check out this post at Science Blog.com.
Watermelon is delicious mixed with all kinds of spirits; I created this cocktail called Watermelon Kiss using NUVO sparkling vodka and brut rosé sparkling wine. It just may do the trick this Feb. 14.
The Watermelon Kiss cocktail is sweet and juicy, just like a kiss.
Watermelon Kiss
1 tsp pink peppercorns, crushed
1/2 tsp. pink decorating sugar
1-1/2 ounces watermelon juice
1 ounce NUVO sparkling vodka
3 ounces brut rose sparkling wine
dash orange bitters
On a small flat dish, combine the crushed pink peppercorns and the pink decorating sugar. Moisten the rim of a champagne flute with a wedge of lemon. Press the glass in the pink peppercorn/sugar mixture to coat it. Pour the watermelon juice and NUVO into a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake until well chilled then carefully pour into the prepared glass. Top with sparkling wine. Finish with a dash of bitters.
Now make another one for someone special.
I get lots of questions about sparkling wine and champagne at my web site The Bubbly Girl. Some times they’re asking my opinion of a certain wine, or whether it’s alright to drink an old bottle of champagne they’ve been saving – I always say yes to that one; you’ll probably be pleasantly surprised. Other times they want me to help divine the name of a wine they liked from a few flavor clues.
I got one of those questions the other day from a woman who had been served champagne at wedding that tasted just like apple cider. Since champagne is made from grapes and many people are trying to save money at a wedding, it’s very likely what was served as “champagne” at this nuptial was closer to a sparkling cider like Martinelli’s than Moët.
But the question got me thinking about the delicious bright and sweet taste of fresh apple cider made from fall apples. If you have a juicer, try making your own apple juice sometime – it’s nothing like the flat and sugary golden liquid that comes in glass jugs and juice boxes. The closest thing to making your own is getting fresh apple cider in a soft plastic jug.
The season and the cider inspired this cocktail I call Spicy Sparkling Cider, which is a mixture of fresh cider and sparkling wine. I used the Domaine Ste. Michelle Brut, though an extra dry style of bubbly would work if you like a sweeter drink. It’s spiked with Navan, a natural vanilla cognac by Grand Marnier and warm spices like cinnamon, star anise and ginger. Spicy Sparkling Cider is a fun individual drink – we had it before Christmas Eve dinner- but would make a delicious punch as well garnished with whole crab apples bobbing on the surface.
Spicy Sparkling Cider
2 ounces fresh apple cider (don’t use anything from a glass jug)
1.5 ounces Navan Vanilla Cognac
1 sliver cinnamon stick
1 sliver candied ginger
1 star anise (optional)
3 to 4 ounces brut or extra dry sparkling wine, chilled
slice crab apple, cut crosswise to show the star
Add the cold apple cider and Navan to a rocks glass or small stemless wine glass. Add the cinnamon stick, ginger and star anise, if you’re using it to the cider-cognac mixture. Let the spices rest in the cider-cognac mixture for a 5 to 10 minutes to give them time to release their flavor. Top with the sparkling wine, garnish with the apple sliced and serve right away.
By Maria Hunt, author of The Bubbly Bar: Champagne & Sparkling Wine Cocktails for Every Occasion (Clarkson Potter, $16.99)
I discovered the Shandy cocktail in Chicago, a tangy blend of lemonade and a local brew. I did think it odd that the bar – which shall remain nameless – was serving such a summery drink in October. A Shandy struck me as a perfectly refreshing summer cocktail
According to my historic cocktail books, Shandy is short for Shandygaff, which was a mix of beer and lemonade, according to Tom Bullock in his 1917 cocktail book Ideal Bartender. Sometimes it was done as a blend of beer and gingerbeer too,
I decided to create a version of this refreshing drink perfect for those sunny days in autumn and winter. Since the season means apples and citrus, I decided to use hard cider as a base for my cocktail since I’d been sampling Crispin’s Natural Hard Apple Cider which has a taste of a crisp apple soda finished with just a touch of natural honey. Crispin’s hard cider comes in a variety of styles from a cloudy old fashioned hard cider in a brown bottle to a clear and crisp brut style to a light hard cider for people who might be watching their weight. The lighter ones are designed to be served over ice, kind of like a soft drink.
I plucked a couple Meyer lemons off the tree, made up some lemonade and created this drink.
The Winter Shandy
2 to 3 ounces chilled Crispin’s Natural Hard Apple Cider
2 to 3 ounces fresh Meyer lemonade
1/2 ounce Domaine de Canton Ginger Liqueur
small piece candied gingerroot
lemon zest, for garnish
Add the chilled cider and Meyer lemonade to a pilsner style flute or rocks glass. Add the ginger liqueur and stir to combine everything. Drop the candied gingerroot into the glass. Garnish with the lemon zest.
You could drink wine with your turkey… or maybe an artisanal beer. But wouldn’t a cocktail be more fun? Well, I’ve selected 3 great seasonal cocktails from The Bubbly Bar with refreshing, tangy and spicy flavors to perfectly complement your turkey dinner: The Ginger Snap, the pomegranate Lava Lamp and The Stiletto which offers subtle orange and cognac flavors.
The Ginger Snap and the Stiletto recipes are just for subscribers to my Bubbly Girl Chronicles newsletter. If you want to taste them, go to my web site and sign up for the newsletter to get the password to access these recipes. It’s totally free and fun!
In the spirit of giving, here’s the recipe for the super-popular Lava Lamp.
The Lava Lamp, a tangy blend of Pama pomegranate liqueur and brut sparkling wine does a great stand-in for cranberry sauce. The tart-sweet pomegranate will cut through the rich flavors in gravy, stuffing and turkey. It would also be tasty with a juicy slice prime rib. The bubbles in the sparkling wine make the pomegranate seeds rise and fall in the glass, giving this drink the appearance of a retro lava lamp. A flute with a long hollow stem shows off this effect best.
1 ounce Pama pomegranate liqueur or 3 tablespoons pomegranate juice
5 ounces brut sparkling wine
3 pomegranate seeds
Add pomegranate liqueur or pomegranate juice to a champagne flute. Fill glass with sparkling wine. Drop in the pomegranate seeds.
From: The Bubbly Bar: Champagne & Sparkling Wine Cocktails for Every Occasion by Maria C. Hunt (Clarkson Potter, $16.99)
I just did a fun Saturday morning radio interview with Mario Martnoli and Amy Strong of the “Food & Dining” show on KLAA AM 830 and are they ever Italo-philes! We talked about buying hand-blown champagne flutes in Venice, sipping cocktails made with Aperol and the Lemon Ice, a delicious digestif cocktail from The Bubbly Bar made with prosecco, vodka, lemon sorbet and fresh mint.
Our conversation got me thinking about all the lovely sparkling wines and liqueurs that come from Italy. When I’m mixing a cocktail, probably the first wine I think of is prosecco, the sparkling wine from the Veneto. Wines made from the prosecco grape have such a delicate quality with soft bubbles and hints of green apple, minerals and white flowers.
I recently received a sample of a new one called Passionne di Fiore.It’s a likable little wine, with lots of fresh green apple and hints of underripe peaches in its aroma. It’s a spumante style of prosecco, meaning it has about 4.5 to 5 atmospheres of pressure in the wine; a frizzante style of prosecco is softly sparkling and has just 2.2 to 2.5 atm of pressure. I also liked that it’s available in the 375 ml size which is perfect for making a couple cocktails for brunch.
The same company that makes Passionne di Fiore prosecco also makes a unique liqueur called Fragoli. It’s a wild strawberry liqueur that I wrote about here a few months ago after I discovered it at the W San Diego. Fragoli actually contains the little Italian wild strawberries called fragolini di bosco.
Since Mario, Amy and I were talking about good cocktails to serve to guests, I decided to create a brunch cocktail called La Mattina Appassionata (Passionate Morning in English) that mixes some of the flavors I love from Italy.
La Mattina Appassionata
1 ounce Fragoli
splash Aperol
juice of 1/2 tangerine
4 ounces prosecco
Add the Fragoli, Aperol and tangerine juice to a flute, straining out any seeds. Top with the chilled prosecco and serve immediately. Cin cin!
For the past few weeks I’ve been running around the country doing Bubbly Bar book parties and boy are my legs tired (ba-dump.) Actually, toting suitcases around and being squooshed into less than capacious airplane seats has taken its toll. The Bubbly Girl could use some pampering.
Good thing next week is Hawt on Yelp Spa Week! From Nov. 2-8, Yelp members get 50% off on services at selected spas around Los Angeles. At Mani-Kir Royale (love it) in North Hollywood you always get a glass of bubbly along with a gorgeous set of nails. They also use lots of fun products that have cocktail themes. The Bellini foot treatment include a bubbly foot soak, a peach nectar scrub and a champagne oil massage; the Sangria Massage is done with tropical fruit oils while the Champagne Facial uses actual champagne grape seed extract to leave the skin wonderfully moisturized.
Another highlight is Voda Spa, a chic day lounge in West Hollywood that features a Russian banyas, a private spa room for group events. Signature treatments include the Clear as Water Facial (voda means water in Russian) that uses a unique combination of enzymes, sulfur and probiotics to erase the conditions that cause acne and the Caviar Wrap that uses caviar extracts to exfoliate, nourish and tone the skin all over your body.
Then when you’re firm and and pretty, head down to the Voda Lounge lounge that serves drinks that highlight the health benefits of champagne and vodka. For Hawt on Yelp week, they’re serving a $7 Detox Martini that includes organic Ocean Vodka and a splash of electrolyte blend. To that, I say Na zdrowie!
Download the entire Hawt on Yelp a list of spas here.
Rosewater - available at any Middle Eastern market - adds an exotic note to the Moonwalk cocktail which also stars Grand Marnier, champagne and grapefruit juice. The drink was created in 1969. (Photo by Maria C. Hunt)
Man first walked on the moon on July 21, 1969, but did you know there was a champagne cocktail created 40 years ago to commemorate the event? Me either – and I captured so many delicious classic champagne cocktails in my new book The Bubbly Bar: Champagne & Sparkling Wine Cocktails for Every Occasion.
I heard about the Moonwalk cocktail this week when Grand Marnier came to The Hard Rock Hotel San Diego for a cocktail class and tasting led by Steve Olson of The BAR. We tasted the Grand Marnier 100 and 150 and talked about making the ideal margarita with “Grandma,” tequila, lime and agave nectar. I also learned that the cognac-based spirit created in 1880 was originally called Curacao Marnier, after the oranges used to make it. But hotelier César Ritz thought that the name Grand Marnier sounded more, well, grand, and it stuck.
The bar was decorated with dramatic bursts of red Gerbera daisies which matched the labels of the Grand Marnier, a liqueur that blends cognac and bitter orange. (Photo by Maria Hunt)
Bartender Joe Gilmore at the Savoy Hotel in London crafted the original Moonwalk from Grand Marnier, graperuit juice, Moet & Chandon Brut champagne and a touch of rosewater. It’s currently on the menu at the trendy speak-easy style bar on Long Island called Dutch Kills. I think you’ll agree the Moonwalk has a very refined taste, but the rosewater adds a subtle exotic note, just the kind of thing one might want as they were flying to the moon.
The Moonwalk
Makes 1 cocktail
1 ounce Grand Marnier
1 ounce grapefruit juice
3 drops rose water
2 ounces brut champagne
Add the Grand Marnier, grapefruit juice and rosewater to a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake until well chilled, then strain into an old-fashioned coupe style champagne glass or small martini glass. Top with champagne.
The Apollo mission where men first walked on the moon lasted from July 16 to July 24, 1969. (Courtesy photo)
The Bastille is a famous monument to freedom in Paris with the golden Spirit of Liberty statue perched atop an inscribed column. (Photo by Maria C. Hunt)
Quel horreur! Francophile that I am, the Bubbly Girl has been so busy today that she nearly forgot the significance of July 14. I might have forgotton completely if not for this timely wine lifestyle missive called The Daily Sip from Bottlenotes. Today is Bastille Day, the day when French people celebrate independence. I was just in France in May for a champagne story in Champagne and stayed near the Bastille.
Of course, I also made sure to have a Kir Royale, a blend of the black currant liqueur creme de cassis and champagne, which is one of my favorite classic champagne cocktails. The drink has story behind it too; as I detail in The Bubbly Bar, my champagne and sparkling wine cocktail book that’s being released on Aug. 25. It was named after Felix Kir, the mayor of Dijon, France who played an important role in the French Resistance. To make your own Kir Royale, add a tablespoon of creme de cassis to a glass of cold brut champagne or sparkling wine. Twist a strip of lemon peel over the glass – this is important! – and drop it in.
Santé!
I cannot believe I paid 12 euro for this teensy tiny Kir Royale at a cafe near the Louvre Museum. I savored every drop. (Photo by Maria C. Hunt)
