Last time I promised more recipes using sparkling wine, so here we go. I don’t know why, but I feel that dry bubbly is perfect substance for representing sound: it has certain “clear, limpid and vigorous” attributes. Good Prosecco has many nuances; as do human’s voice… and some voices encompass more authority and more power than others.

 

BLACK CANARY

Once again it’s time to use that good ol’ licorice vodka, it’s been a while. Instructions for manufacturing it can be found in my second post, Harley Quinn, Solomon Grundy, Bizarro. (wow, I just realized this is my 37th post!). It’s easy to prepare, and it blends well with Prosecco.

-3 parts licorice vodka

-2 (or more) parts simple syrup

-around 15 parts sweetened sparkling wine (check out how it’s done)

Pour chilled ingredients into champagne glass or coupe, stir gently.

In comic books Black Canary and Green Arrow are lovers, try alternating their cocktails… they’re different, but work well together.

 

SONGBIRD

(Credits for this recipe go to S. and her lapsus linguae)

Songbird is my favourite Thunderbolts member, she deserves her own cocktail. Her “solid sound”-superpower manifests in pink, so there’s the colour for the cocktail… but this recipe came into being through a slip of the tongue and instant association.

Me and my most famous Cocktail Test Subject S. were discussing about classic Champagne Cocktail and she was speculating replacing cognac with brandy… but insted of brandy she slipped “bourbon” and instantly I realized it’s a great combo, why didn’t I figure it out before?!?

Dry Prosecco and bourbon needed some “binding element”, and strawberry juice turned out to fit the part perfectly. Since the idea of this cocktail struck me as sudden lightning from bright sky it’s just fitting it’s named after Thunderbolts member… and as I said: bubbly is excellent for representing sound: Thunderbolts, sound… Songbird cocktail was born.

-2 parts bourbon (Jim Beam recommended)

-4 parts strawberry juice

-around 15 parts sweetened sparkling wine (check out how it’s done)

Pour chilled ingredients into champagne glass or coupe, stir gently.

As always… for strawberry juice use concentrate diluted with water 1:1 instead of recommended 1:3 or 1:4 or whatever.

EDIT: I’VE DONE SOME TUNING FOR THIS RECIPE, CHECK OUT THE NEW VERSION HERE.

That’s all, folks. Halloween is coming up, so I guess it’s time to introduce something sinister and scary. Until next time…

 

This time we’re discovering unknown territories… I’m not just referring figuratively to the deepest depths of the ocean; I’ve never designed a cocktail based on sparkling wine before!

I got a bit excited (and bloated 😐 ) while designing new bubbly recipes; next post will contain bubbly cocktails also. So maybe you’ll want to abstain yourself of testing “Aquaman” this time, save opening the bottle for next week… on the other hand, in Bumblebee and Wasp I promised to tell you other uses for Lillet Blanc; “Namor” is one example (and more will follow in the future).

 

AQUAMAN

Friend of mine worked as first mate for many years in freighter, he told me that there is a lot of difference between North Sea and Northern Atlantic. In principle they’re both situated in north, but North Sea is always (I quote) “grey and ruthless”. That got me thinking… I’ll design two different versions of Aquaman, according to the whims of the sea.

Gentle Seas Version:

-1 to 2 parts part Luxardo Maraschino

-1 part Blue Curacao

-around 17 parts sweetened sparkling wine (check out how it’s done)

Pour chilled ingredients into champagne glass or coupe, give it a gentle stir.

Ruthless Northern Seas Version: substitute Luxardo Maraschino to Kirschwasser. Be warned, this is H-A-R-S-H! You know those drinks… the instant you taste them you know that one glass okay; more of them will give you terrible hangover. Well, this is one of them. Lord of the Sea is relentless.

 

NAMOR

With Namor I decided to go for the southern seas. I know… no sea in the the whole wide world is as green as this drink, but the Caribbean Sea is pretty close. This picture is from the island of Tobago (Pigeon Point jetty in April 2016, to be exact) and it’s not photoshopped one bit! Compare the colour of the sea to the colour of the sky…

 

…okay, the sea more “turquoise” than “green”… but Namor’s Speedos are green! So, the recipe; using Lillet Blanc as promised, with it’s wicked quinine aroma to reflect the Caribbean Sea’s ability to turn from the gentle sea to hurricane in one instant…

-2 parts Pisang Ambon

-3 parts Lillet Blanc

(add Blue Curacao if you want to adjust the colour more turquoise/blue)

Shake with ice and strain into old fashioned glass, add lots of ice.

 

More bubbly cocktails next time!

 

Last time we got acquainted with Bumblebee and Wasp, today we’ll meet more very, very small superheroes. Let’s start with Wasp’s husband.

 

ANT-MAN (GIANT-MAN)

Philosophy behind this drink… it’s big and tall (like Giant-Man), but it teaches us a lesson: even a small amount of certain ingredient can change the whole drink, same way as tiny Ant-Man can do incredible things.

That “certain ingredient” is Campari. I love it, maybe that’s why I got feedback from Test Subjects: “Campari is okay, but don’t overdo it every time.” (we were drinking Chemos ) So, this time there’s Campari just enough to turn this highball interesting.

-1 part Campari

-2 parts Triple Sec OR whisky

-6 strawberry juice

-2 parts pineapple juice

Shake with ice and strain into highball glass, add ice. Using Triple Sec results in “kind of a brisk” drink, whisky gives you “more full-bodied” version. I couldn’t decide which one is better, so I’ll publish both.

Anyway, for strawberry juice I used extract diluted 1:1 with water instead of recommended 1:4, just like I used eg. Spider-Man.

Ant-Man/Giant-Man is pretty mild highball… next one will be total opposite.

 

THE ATOM

This is anything you would expect: small, with incredible punch. But to make it little more intresting… first this drink will hit you pretty strong; but since Atom is so small, the effect passes quickly… until he punches you again (when you swig the next one).

The Atom trifles with your taste ,along the same guidelines as the “final punchline” of Joker. Blue part kicks your tastebuds, “Oh Jeez, what did I just gulped!?!”… and suddenly it’s gone, replaced by red part’s soothing sweetness. That’s the way it goes: our taste of sense is so quick to grapple to sweet sensation, it pushes blue part’s violent aromas aside just like that.

-around 2 parts red grenadine from freezer

-1 part vodka

-1 part silver tequila (chep, non-100&% puro de agave s**t will do)

-1 part Blue Curacao

Place grenadine in the freezer couple of hours beforehand. It’s supposed to be “thick” when you pour it into shot glass. Shake the remaining ingredients with ice and gently strain into shot glass, on top of the grenadine: cold grenadine contains so much sugar that you should succeed in layering automatically.

If you’re into serious drinking, combine The Atom with my other shot recipes, (Deadshot, Flame on! and Black Widow) if you want to end your evening quickly ;P

Next time we’ll venture into unknown depths of the ocean…

 

Today we”ll check out cocktails with “cool sting” or “breezy bite”… and they’ll also have a hint of honey-ish aroma. I don’t know about you, but I feel that if I mix Lillet Blanc with anything else except very dry elements the result will have some sort of honeyish savor. “Honey, you say? So… here comes Bumblebee and Wasp!”

Also… opened Lillet bottle will retain it’s aroma for about two weeks in the fridge. You’ll have to drink lot of French Interventions and James-Bond-famous Vespers to finish the bottle… these two recipes help you in your task of emptying the bottle before the aroma begins to foul.

I’ll return to Lillet Blanc later in the fall/winter, but now it’s time to check out today’s recipes.

 

BUMBLEBEE

If you want to rim the glass with honey, be my guest… but try it first without one to discover faint “floral honey aroma” the drink has.

-3 parts Lillet Blanc

-2 parts pineapple juice

-1 to 2 parts Triple Sec

Shake with ice and strain into small chilled cocktail glass.

 

WASP

Again, honey rim is optional. Personally I prefer Wasp as pre-dinner apertif without additional sweetener.

-2 parts Lillet Blanc

-2 parts extra dry vermouth

-1 part gin

Shake with ice and strain into small chilled cocktail glass.

 

“Okay, Wasp was nice… so where’s Ant-Man/Giant-Man?” In the next post… along with another small fellow, The Atom 😀

 

Now it’s time for the character we’ve been waiting for too long… I got entangled in Batman villain recipes for so long time I forgot about Spider-Man (entangled, got it? Hee, hee).

 

SPIDER-MAN

Peter Parker is a teenager, barely legal drinking age, stuck in his teenager problems (stuck, got it?)… I don’t think he would drink anything too complicated. Not wanting to get lost in the web (hee, hee) of endless cocktail options, he’d go straight for the easy solution: strawberry.

-1 to 2 parts sloe gin

-1 to 2 parts Grand Marnier

-4 parts strawberry juice.

Stir with ice and strain into highball glass, LOTS of ice.

I repeat myself once again… for strawberry juice I use concetrate diluted with water 1:1 ratio instead of recommended 1:4. The same thing I do with cherry or raspberry juice, in every recipe.

So, we have a nice highball; not necessarily “summery” drink. Strawberry has simple flavour, actually too simple for my taste… but adding sloe gin and Grand Marnier gives the juice “more posture”, yet it retains its “teenager” character. Start with 1 part sloe gin and G. Marnier, move up to 1,5 or even 2 parts if you feel like it.

[EDIT: check out my second version of Spider-Man here]

 

DOCTOR OCTOPUS

Spider-Man has been waiting his own drink for too long, and it sure was too long when we made frappés… last spring, actually; Riddler and Kal-El.

As I mentioned in that last frappé-post: I personally prefer a bit larger glasses for frappés instead of usual shot glass, “official” tequila glass made out of thick glass is my favourite (it retains its cold temperature longer when taken out of freezer). Also, I think traditional shaven ice melts too quickly. It’s better to use crushed ice, created with hand-cranked crusher instead of blender.

-2 parts absinth

-1 part Midori

-2 parts Rose’s Lime Cordial

-few drops of Blue Curacao (to adjust colour).

Take the frozen glass out of the freezer, fill it with crushed/shaven ice, add straw. Shake ingredients with ice until glacially cold. Strain into glass. I guess you’ll have to drink eight of these ;P

 

So… easy and mild highball, and easy and strong frappé. I guess I’ll have to offer something more intrigue, more challenging next time. Take care!

 

This time we’ll take a look at two characters in the different ends of Superhero Power Scale.

 

GALACTUS

Galactus is powerful; so is the aroma of his drink. His armour is coloured blue and magenta-ish; the colour of the drink is trying so simulate that magenta/red.

-2 parts Triple Sec

-1 part absinth

-2 parts lime juice

-2 parts raspberry juice.

Shake with ice and strain into chilled old fashioned glass filled with ice.

Once again… as in Rogue or Cheetah: for raspberry juice I used concentrate diluted with water 1:1 ratio instead of recommended 1:4.

 

GREEN ARROW

Yes, I know: in Clayface/Rogue post I told I’m not gonna use my Hawaii shirts as background anymore… but this highball screams “SUMMER!”, I couldn’t help myself… even though summer is pretty much gone 😦 Well, I guess you can drink this while waiting for the next.

The drink itself… Green Arrow is kinda comical character (a bow makes a superhero?!?), and I thought his drink should be comical/entertaining/funny: something that will bring smile to drinker’s lips, starting from the first sip.

 

-2 parts Triple Sec

-1 part Creme de Menthe

-2 parts simple syrup

-2 parts cream

-8 parts Fanta

Stir ingredients with ice and strain into highball glass with lots of ice in it. Add a straw (to avoid milk whiskers) and lime wedge (the scent of lime works well with this one). Tropical paraphernalia is optional… maybe Oliver Queen uses that parrot for target practice? ;P

 

Cosmic entity and a bow-wielding dude; strong short drink and mild highball; serious destroyer and bantering jester… and speaking about jesters… next time: Spider-Man!

 

I’m pretty pleased with my discovery: soaking Skittles in gold/reposado tequila produces savory element for cocktails. I think Clayface is yummy, and today I’m introducing couple more recipes using Skittles-tequila… and one using jelly bean-tequila. Then it’s time to put those candy-infused boozes aside for a moment, don’t you think? Clayface, revisited Wonder Woman in the last post, and now three more recipes… Skittles, jelly beans, salmiac… they’re okay, but next few posts will NOT contain anything relating to candy.

MANUFACTURING SKITTLES-TEQUILA

We talked about this in Clayface-post, but let’s take another look on the subject. So, simply: pour Skittles into jar and cover them with gold or reposado tequila. Use ordinary fruit Skittles, not those “Crazy Sours”. Stir the contents with a spoon now and then, after couple of hours “The Elixir” will be ready.

Be warned: the liquid will look disgusting!!! It’s important to filter the foam (that brown abomination you see in the picture), it’s kinda “semi-solid” and make no mistake: if it’s not filtered it will emerge to the surface of the cocktail, despite of all the shaking.

All that will be left of Skittles is a pile of “beans”… which actually taste okay (well, they’re Skittles) if you’re desperate enough to eat them 😀

And now it’s time for our Skittles-recipes… and they’re NOT gonna be simple and plain sweet drinks: our topic is sorcery, so the cocktails will be mysterious blend of sweet and bitter and spicy and whatnot.

DR. FATE

I decided NOT to strive for yellow-and-blue colour scheme: I think the aroma itself should tell the story about Doctor’s mysterious powers.

-2 parts Skittles-tequila

-1 part Campari

Shake ingredients with ice and strain into chilled old fashioned glass, add some ice.

DR. STRANGE

Lot if doctors around here today… btw, “the spellbook” in the picture is Tristan Stephenson’s “The Curious Bartender”, definitely worth reading.

-3 parts Skittles-tequila

-2 parts Dr.Pepper (ordinary, vanilla or cherry; your choice)

-1 part Kahlúa

Stir ingredients with ice, shaking lemonade will have disastrous consequences… lengthy stirring will turn Dr.Pepper flat, but that’s okay. Strain into small chilled cocktail glass.

EDIT: please check out another version of Dr. Strange here.

ZATANNA ZATARA

Here the pictured “alchemist’s handbook” is Amy Stewart’s “The Drunken Botanist”: everything you need to know about The Great Alliance of Alcohol and Plants. In addition to interesting information and amusing stories it also contains some great cocktail recipes, eg. French Intervention.

For this delightful cocktail you’ll need jelly bean-tequila, same we used in Deadshot. The method is same as in Skittles-tequila: pour the candy into jar, drown them in gold/reposado tequila and filter after two hours. The difference is that jelly bean broth will not look as disgusting.

-2 parts extra dry vermouth

-1 part jelly bean-tequila

Shake ingredients with ice and strain into cocktail glass.

Three drinks worth of Sorcery and Magic, that should keep you satisfied for a week. No candies anymore, as I promised… but maybe I’ll use lemonade again. Not Dr.Pepper, I’m thinking Fanta… in non-conventional way…

I’ve learned one thing: when using your friends as Test Subjects while testing new recipes, it’s best to put your trust in women. You get more constructive feedback and a lot of ideas.

With male Test Subjects… well… “I don’t like this. I don’t know why, I just don’t” or “This is okay! I can’t say why, but it’s nice.” Please, my fellow men, how I’m supposed to evolve as amateur bartender with that kind of feedback?

Women make much better Cocktail Lab Rats. “I think this has too much anise, maybe you should cut it down a little… sour is okay, but maybe lime juice is too much in this one: how about orange juice, would it change things too much?… etc.etc.

…or maybe it’s just Finnish Thing? Women do the talking, men stay silent… uncomfortably quiet, if you ask the foreigners ;P Well, today’s second recipe sure contains something Genuinely Nordic, but the first recipe is more easy to approach…

 

Yes, I know the background is ocelot, not cheetah…

CHEETAH

-4 parts reposado tequila

-2 parts D.O.M. Benedictine

-1 part lime juice

-1 part pineapple juice

-4 parts raspberry juice

Shake ingredients with ice and strain into margarita glass. Garnish with lime wedge and raspberries or suitable raspberry candy.

For raspberry juice I used, as always, concetrate diluted with water 1:1 ratio instead of recommended 1:4… as I did in last post’s Rogue.

“Cheetah” tastes like “Dark Raspberry” (“elegant, yet sinister” was my guideline) and none of the Lab Rats, male or female, realized it contained tequila: there sure is something Dark lurking in that fancy looking glass but they couldn’t point it out…

Okay, now we’ve seen the villain, it’s time for today’s Heroine…

 

WONDER WOMAN (NORDIC AND NON-NORDIC VERSION)

Credits go to my Friend S., Famous Female Lab Rat! She pointed out that I’ve soaked licorice, jelly beans and Skittles in various boozes to produce surprising cocktails… “why not salmiakki? Everyone loves it!”

Well, salmiakki… “salty licorice”, salmiac, sal ammoniac; whatever you wanna call it, it’s ammonium chloride… everyone in Nordic countries knows it produces the best candies in the world, period… but non-Nordic people just tell me they’ve heard stories about it, never tasted it. (“It’s like licorice, with salt?” – “Hmm, nope. Ammonium gives the candy STRONG sting, it kinda burns; it has very little to do with “salty” – “Ammonium? But that’s like…poison?” – “Not in small amounts.”) 😀

So, what’s the point of designing a recipe only Nordic people could enjoy? Okay, I understand salmiac is available in Netherlands and Northern Germany also, but anyway the audience is pretty limited. S. insisted, and I started to think about it, got curious… so I gave it a try. All you non-Nordic Wonder Woman fans out there: don’t worry, I’m going to design one without salmiac… meanwhile you can enjoy Golden Lasso; or non-Nordic version of Wonder Woman, below.

 

WW: NORDIC VERSION

First, buy the salmiac. Sure, you can get yourself classic Turkish Pepper, but since The Primus Motor behind this cocktail, S., insisted that I’ll use her favourite candy, Dracula Salmiac, that’ll be The One and Only Choice.

 

They’re hard, so you have to suck them for a long time… suck, like Dracula. Got it?

Smash the candies in mortar or, more easily, put them in the bag and place them between hammer and suitable “anvil” few times. No need to grind them to dust, just turn them to “gravel”. Drop 3-4 candies worth of gravel to 1dl (3 1/2oz) of Jim Beam bourbon and let it soak: give it a stir once in a while, candies should have disappeared in 30-45 mins. If you don’t mind waiting longer, skip the candysmashing.

-4 parts Salmiac-Jim Beam

-1 part apple juice

-1 part orange juice

-dash of red grenadine

Shake with ice and strain into cocktail glass. Add one small ice cube. Garnish with orange wedge and cherry.

The drink sure looks pretty (as WW), some might look down on it… “fancy girly stuff”… but it packs a punch (as WW)! I don’t mean unnecessary high alcohol content or pointless smothering in chili etc… I mean good old-fashioned Ammonium Chloride Kick in the Teeth! 😀

I never thought salmiac and Jim Beam would blend so nicely. Salmiakkikossu is old news, try this one instead! And now for the unfortunate non-salmiac version…

 

WW: NON-NORDIC VERSION

As above, but prepare Jim Beam as you would prepare vodka in Harley Quinn: bag of licorice into jar, drown them in Jim Beam. After four hours strain, you have spiced-up bourbon (salmiac will dissolve, licorice won’t).

Don’t get me wrong: this version is okay, totally palatable… but pretty sorry presentation compared to salmiac version.

 

So that’s it for today. Until next week, Nordics and non-Nordics alike… I’m not making any promises, but I’m thinking… Magic.

 

Today is the last time I’m gonna use my beloved Hawaii shirts as a background: not that I don’t like them, but that joke is getting pretty old.

On the other hand… this is the first time I’m publishing cocktails inspired by DC and Marvel characters in the same post. As I said earlier, I think “DC vs. Marvel”-fight is boring and pointless: mixing two publisher’s heroes’ drinks under the same heading is my way of building bridge between two “camps”. Let’s just enjoy the comics, huh?

So, it’s time for today’s recipes! Yes, it’s still warm, it’s still summer, there’s still room for one highball and one short glass.

 

ROGUE

Okay, what about Rogue? I guess her drink should include surprise element… “whose powers did she absorb this time?”  So I figured the recipe itself should be pretty simple, people should be able to vary the taste easily.

Rogue uses either cherry, raspberry or strawberry juice. I did testing with the same old formula: using high-quality organic concetrate, diluting with water 1:1 ratio insted of recommended 1:3 or 1:4. This is same method I use with every concetrate juice in my cocktails, hoping that readers around the world would be able to reproduce it.

Yes… “readers around the world“. I’m surprised and happy to get views all over the globe, thank you. I hope you don’t just read the recipes, try them; let’s get hammered, superhero style 😀

Hmm, so, we were preparing a drink…

 

Pour 1 part cherry, raspberry or strawberry juice and 2 parts extra dry vermouth into highball glass. Stir, add lots of ice.

 

Simple as that. I think raspberry works best with this one, and I’m gonna introduce you more raspberry and strawberry cocktails in next few posts. As delicious as cherry juice is, I think we’ve seen it enough for now… last time Magneto, Storm and Scarlet Witch in the post before that.

Next one will take little more effort to produce…

 

CLAYFACE

Remember how we soaked jelly beans in tequila to make Deadshot? This time we’ll use different candy…

Pour Skittles into glass jar and drown them in gold or reposado tequila. Cheap gold tequila will do, but it’s better to use reposado: I used Sauza Hornitos Reposado. Let the candy soak two hours, give the jar little shake now and then… and PLEASE HAVE FAITH IN ME: this will turn out delicious even if the contens of the jar will look DISGUSTING beyond belief!

Strain the muck. Tea strainer is okay, you do not need to frustrate yourself with filtering paper: it will get clogged anyway, and tea strained will filter the liquid sufficiently.

 

-6 cl (2 oz) Skittles-tequila

-6 cl orange juice

-1 egg white

Shake with ice and strain into suitable glass, add some ice. Deeee-licious!!!

EDIT: I’VE REVISED THIS RECIPE! CHECK OUT THE NEW VERSION HERE.

Hey, all you people who loathe the idea of egg white in their drink… You can do this drink without egg, then it’s just equal parts skittles-tequila and orange juice. It will not taste as good but it’s still tasty, and it looks like this…

 

 

Skittles-tequila sure is yummy: maybe not when taken straight up, but as part of cocktail… I’ll make some experiments and bring you the results.

Take care, and don’t forget to enjoy the last of summer! 😀

 

I can’t believe it’s my 50th cocktail creation! I wonder if I ever make it to one hundred…

I guess it’s time to make some sort of PDF-compilation again, but it will have to wait to next post, or something. Now I’m too eager to present my “masculine drink with cherry”-idea, and of course that 50th recipe. This was supposed to be some sort of fancy “celebration post”, but unfortunately I had serious problems photographing today’s first drink… bear with me, at least the drink itself is really good!

MAGNETO

SORRY FOR THE CRA**Y PICS! In real life the colour is pretty cool, sort of “cold purple”, but I just couldn’t photograph it right: it always turns out to look like dull gray-ish!

Pretty desperate measures trying to represent the colour as it is… I could have just photoshopped the colour, but that’s kinda cheating…

Okay, enough whining. I couldn’t produce decent picture, but I’m capable of giving you very good cocktail recipe! Magneto is STRONG character, so his drink is not for the faint of heart… but still, it is delicious. For the cherry juice I used concentrate diluted 1:1 with water instead of recommended 1:4, as I did in the last post.

-4 parts blanco tequila (preferably 100% puro de agave)

-1 part Green Chartreuse

-2 parts cherry juice

-red grenadine and Blue Curacao

Pour tequila, Chartreuse and cherry juice into transparent mixing jar. Add teaspoon of red grenadine, stir, and start adding Blue Curacao few drops at the time; stir and check out the result. If the liquid turns to brownish colour, add some grenadine and start adding Curacao again.

When you’re content with the colour (well, I can’t produce photo showing the desired result) pour the whole shebang into shaker: shake with plenty of ice and strain into chilled old fashioned glass with some ice in it.

If you’re getting tired of trying to get the colour right (it takes some practice to nail it), quit torturing yourself and shake it anyway… or if you’re okay with Magneto’s drink NOT being purple just ignore grenadine and Curacao, it will look like this…

I will not repeat myself by apologizing… this picture was taken hastily after previous photo-fiasco, I was angry… I didn’t set up no background, no special lightning… but that’s what Magneto looks like without any colour adjustment. You may want to add a dash of grenadine anyway, the drink needs little bit of sweetness to be just right.

 

And now it’s time for the 50th… he’s not DC nor Marvel character… he’s not even a superhero… actually he hunts them.

MARSHAL LAW

“I’m a hero hunter. I hunt heroes. Haven’t found any yet.”

After a hard day’s work San Futuro Police Department’s Special Operative drinks a glass of “milk”.

-2 parts of blanco tequila (you can survive without 100% puro de agave)

-2 parts Amaretto di Saronno

-2-3 parts coconut milk

-1-2 parts simple syrup

Shake with ice and strain into highball glass, add some ice. Weep for Lynn’s death.

Until next time! …gotta learn to take photos…