Today we have two completely different characters; hence, their cocktails are nothing like each other.

MAXIMUS THE MAD

2 parts creme de cassis

1 part Kahlúa

1 to 2 parts vodka

4 parts tequila blanco (definitely 100% puro de agave)

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

Maximus has completely lost it… so, his namesake drink could be a insane jumble of different tastes – if it tastes horrible, it’s okay since he’s a horrible guy, right?

Wrong. Lazy solution. I want to challenge myself.

Bitterness might be a right choice for representing insanity, right?

Wrong… kinda. I’m overusing bitter taste, I should find another ways to depict madness tastewise. If you’re looking for a bitter taste combined with cassis and coffee please check out Zsasz.

Okay – no bitter, no jumble. What then?

Something with The Substance – Maximus is so Out There, far away… his mind is filled with darkness, overwhelming darkness… so his drink must feel “heavy”; landing of drinker’s tongue like a suffocating blanket.

Also… even though I’m not looking for A Goofy Jumble, weird aroma combo is very welcome… so I came up with Kahlúa and cassis. Tequila is there to create counterbalance for that oversweet combo and believe it or not, vodka is kinda necessary to lighten up the overall taste.

So, we have a very dark cocktail – now something totally different…

TRITON

2 parts coconut milk

1 part condensed milk

2 parts Midori

2 parts sour apple liqueur

dry white wine, to taste

Shake vigorously with ice and strain into a highball glass with plenty of ice in it. Serve with a straw.

I can’t offer a proper explanation… I just wanted to design Triton’s namesake drink as a delicious highball. Maybe there could’ve been other approaches, but I chose this one. Dry white wine is a nice kick among the sweet elements, you won’t need much.

By the way… maybe I should design another version of Namor? I’m not thinking the guy is a joke, but maybe my cocktail makes him look like that… 😐

Next time? There are many more Inhumans to be “cocktailized”, but maybe something else for a change?

I ended up creating two versions of Blackagar Boltagon, representing the character in just one drink was a task I couldn’t manage. So here they are…

BLACK BOLT

4 parts licorice vodka

4 parts vodka

3 parts Licor 43

(dash of cognac and/or Grand Marnier, but please try it first without it)

black food colouring

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass, add one ice cube.

This drink tastes like black! If too much so, then try “cheering it up” with a tiny taste of cognac or G-Marnier.

Also, I tried to create a sombre and solemn cocktail; something to sip slowly while silently pondering the way the world goes, definitely not feeling the urge to blabber… something B-Bolt does a lot 🙂

I’ve kinda avoided Licor 43, because of the ridicilous sweetness and sort of “industrial/synthetic/cheap” taste… but used with caution and combined with proper elements it has its uses – in this case licorice vodka, which I haven’t utilized for a long time. We’ll see more uses for Licor 43 in the near future.

So, if this cocktail depicts the way B-Bolt feels day after another, the next one gives us a feel what happens when he cracks his pursed lips…

BLACK BOLT (WHISPER)

Highball glass:

half sweet/sweet white wine and Sprite, half and half

black food colouring

Build into a highball glass, add some crushed ice (shot glass doesn’t have room to sink if you’re using cubes)

Shot glass:

1 part De Kyuper Blueberry

2 parts whisky (see below)

black food colouring

Shake with ice and strain into a shot glass.

Okay, maybe I’m repeating myself – it’s been only a while since I introduced some drinks with bomb shot/ depth charge idea – but the idea of otherwise mute Black Bolt just barely whispering one single word… what other way to represent that earthshattering experience than bombing a shot in mellow drink?

You can drink them separately, of course. Highball is basically a bland base for bowl punch, designed to taste like that; shot stands on its own feet more, pretty enjoyable as its own…but of course the idea is spend some time with calm and serene B-Bolt for a while… until there’s some room in the highball for dropping the bomb/whispering a word.

Instead of whisky you can try dark rum, or better yet, overproof dark rum in the shot glass. Tequila would seem to be the first choice for this kind of job, but I personally found it unsuitable: creates “volume” for the whisper, sure, but it’s “high-pitched” compared to whisky’s “low bass”. Try it out and you see what I’m trying to say with my limited English.

Next time… more Inhumans 🙂

I’ve publishing a lot of highballs lately… no wonder, considering the heat. Anyway, this time I’ll give you everything but the highballs, for a change.

LOCKJAW

2 parts bourbon

2 parts sweet red vermouth

0,5 to 1,5 parts Cynar (see below)

Stir with ice and strain into an old fashioned glass. Add some ice.

Lockjaw, that cute little puppy… it has lots of different powers, how to represent them in one single cocktail? Well, kind of a long shot, but I was thinking “something that captivates you”, as in if Lockjaw is hanging onto bad guy’s arm or something like that.

One of The Classic Cocktails which demands some time to consume is The Good Ol’ Manhattan – so, I started to work on Manhattan variant…

…and variant it is, indeed: strayed far away from the original. Vermouth and whisky (bourbon, in this case) are still there, but Angostura Bitters is replaced with Cynar… and the amount of Cynar is completely up to you. Some enjoy just a dash, barely 0,5 part – others prefer more. You decide.

MEDUSA

6 parts dry white wine

2 parts Kirshwasser

1 part Campari

1 part sala syrup

Stir with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Maybe one small ice cube.

Well, this is a “storm of aromas”… as it should be, considering Medusa’s entangling hair 🙂

Hmm… both of these drinks have some sort of bitter in them – maybe I’m feeling surly at the moment and don’t even realize it myself?

Next time… 1. No bitter of any kind in any drink. 2. Black Bolt. Of course, when thinking about Inhumans BB is #1 but I didn’t publish his drink among the first… I want to spend some time with that draft, to make sure that character gets a namesake cocktail it really deserves.

See you in August!

This heat wave will be the end of us all. And I know that eg. Western USA and Canada are infernally hot compared to Finland at the moment… but even so, it’s overwhelming for me at the moment. I live in the Northern edge of the Europe, I’m not used to this!

So, time for coolers. As last time: something that’s easy to make and cools down effectively… and since I already mentioned “infernal”…

DEMON ETRIGAN (JASON BLOOD)

2 parts red wine

5 parts pineapple juice

Triple Sec, to taste

(dash of Campari, see below)

Build into a highball glass, add ice.

Tired of Sangria? Try this 🙂 Looks little bit like blood, hence “Jason Blood“… although this drink’s “feel” has very little to do with Rhyming Demon from the depths of Hell. If you’d like to relive some of the feelings and aromas of the first version, please add some Campari… but that’s not essential – some amount of Triple Sec is.

Okay, one more simple-to-make highball; last time I published two of those… let’s hang on to keyword “simple” but try something different…

RAGMAN

6 parts vodka

2 parts Midori

2 parts lemon juice

1 part Cynar

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

It’s surprising how long I’ve wrestled with this recipe, it sure looks so simple it could’ve been improvised at the spot.

Anyway… I started designing Ragman The Cocktail couple of months ago: “for this character some sourness and a tiny bit of bitterness – but not too much, I’ll usually overdo bitter and people complain… but for such a mysterious character combining these two tastes looks like a good idea…”

I tested and tested, and finally was pretty content with the taste and the colour… but something bothered me: “there’s something very familiar here, what is it…?”

Then it hit me. “Dammit! All this testing and all I came up with is Crocodile with altered ingredient ratios and Triple Sec swapped to Cynar!”

Despite of that I’ll publish Ragman The Cocktail now. It’s simple to make; definitely not an all-day highball- rather something to enjoy when scorching sun has finally gone down.

There’s nothing actually wrong with the drink… I just think it’s kinda unimaginative – although the colour is dead on. I’ll probably try to design another version in the future.

Next time… Inhumans 🙂

Oh my, it’s HOT! So it’s refreshing highballs, not too difficult to make since nobody can concentrate on a weather like this.

I also realized that my quest for quick-to-make swelter drinks gave me an excellent idea to correct, or at least to reshape, some of my earlier designs…

• 

ANIMAL MAN (BUDDY BAKER)

3 parts pineapple juice

3 parts dry white wine

1 part Aperol

dash or two of Triple Sec

Build into a highball glass, add ice.

My first version of Animal Man… what was I thinking? I remember thinking that “well, it’s weird but kinda tasty, anyway”… well, it’s not!

This is for all you Animal Man fans out there, and I hope that this second take makes it easier to accept my humble apologies. And the colour will be orange, for some reason the camera didn’t catch the nice hue.

Please, take a sip before adding any Triple Sec… and another after adding it – it’s weird how much it can change the drink? The same goes with the next one also…

• 

WAR MACHINE (JAMES RHODES)

3 parts Coca-Cola

3 parts dry white wine

1 part reposado tequila (might work with cheapo gold tequila…)

dash or two of Triple-Sec

Build into a highball glass, add ice.

Unlike Animal Man 1.0 above, the first version of War Machine is still OK… but I’m thinking how long Coca-Cola Energy Drink will be available? As a matter of fact, is it available anymore ?

Haven’t seen it around lately in the stores… Instead of desperate googling and ordering from the other side of the world I made a mental note some time ago, “design War Machine 2.0”.

So, here it is. Same kind of “feel” as in the first one, but the bitterness in the drink is from tequila, not from Gammel Dansk or Cynar… I’ve received some feedback about cramming too much bitter here and there: guilty as charged, sometimes I forget that majority of humankind doesn’t like bitters as much as I do.

Anyway, I hope this satisfies you War Machine fans out there, in sweltering heat.

Next time? Looks like that “scorchio” is here to stay for a while, so more cool refreshments 🙂

Today is Midsummer’s Eve… and it has been hot for many, many days; at least here in Southern Finland.

So, there are both cultural and physical reasons for refreshing coolers in this post. Doctors warn that energy drinks are not the best way to hydrate in a hot summer day, it even might be dangerous to drink them as main liquid… so we add some alcohol ;P

Okay, seriously… remember to drink water once in a while when it’s hot. But still… I’ll introduce couple of energy drink highballs featuring bomb shot technique.

I’ve done it before, with Jean Grey… but now, onto today’s drinks!

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CANNONBALL

Large glass:

1 part Monster energy drink (or some other substitute)

1 part extra dry vermouth

Shot glass:

1 part Campari

1 part vodka

some sarsaparilla syrup

Pour energy drink and vermouth into a larger glass, do not fill it up. Add some ice, preferably crushed (the “bomb” will sink better).

Bomb shot ingredients: shake with ice and strain into a shot glass.

So, here we are… we have two glasses. Take a sip from both of them: shot glass contents taste pretty rough, and larger glass’ kinda weird/bland. It’s time to blast off!

• 

So this is what it’ll look like… you can serve the drink with a stirrer if you like, but I think the elements will blend together quite fine without any extra help… and it’s kinda fun to watch two colours slowly fusion together.

Cannonball, Samuel Guthrie…I’ve been pondering how to represent the character, and I decided this bomb shot template is the right approach: it’s kinda violent, and the best thematic way of depicting “The Blast Off” without actually throwing glasses into the walls 🙂

• 

HULK (BRUCE BANNER)

Large glass:

Monster energy drink with crushed ice (and no other energy drink will do 🙂 )

Shot glass:

Overproof rum (brown/golden colour)

some kirschwasser

Blue Curacao, for adjusting colour (to turn it green)

Shot glass: shake ingedients with ice.

So, let’s pretend you’re Bruce Banner, a scientist: you’ll probably work all night long, the answer for the latest physical dilemma is just there, behind the corner…you’re so tired, you’ll grab the can of energy drink…

Unlike in Cannonball The Cocktail, you can fill the large glass with Monster all the way: drink it until there’s room for The Bomb…

• 

My first version of The Incredible Hulk was a sort of a drinking game, The Green Giant getting angrier and angrier… The second one was kinda accident, still can’t decide if it’s Mysterio 2.0 or Hulk 2.0: anyway, it depicts the Hulk at the peak of his anger… and there’s even a mocktail…

…but there’s no decent depiction of the moment when Banner turns into Hulk: I realized this when thinking which characters would be good candidates for bomb shot template… and that’s how I ended up using especially Monster energy drink 🙂

So much for thematics, how about the taste? The base is non-alcohol, so overproof rum is obvious choice for creating “A Spike”; kirschwasser, with its stingy taste, “enhances” Monster just the right way. SImple and effective, I dare to say.

Next time: more summer drinks, without Monster.

HAVE A NICE MID-SUMMER’S EVE! HYVÄÄ JUHANNUSTA!

Now and then I’ve thinking about this… drinks not just about the characters, but the groups they work in, or against?

Designing these was kinda fun… and evil societies are more interesting than the good ones – maybe I’ll do more organization cocktails in the future 🙂

THE COURT OF OWLS

2 parts gin

1 part vanilla-flavoured vodka

1 part Strega

1,5 parts Luxardo Maraschino

0,5 parts creme de cassis

2 parts lemon juice

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

Whoa, this is a handful; all sorts of aromas zooming around in your mouth… well, nothing less could be expected from secret society that manages to keep Batman stumbling in the dark; there’s gotta be kwazillion backup plans and all sorts of weird stuff the keep him off your trail.

And naturally links to Bat-cocktails… My first take on Batman, actually the second drink from first ever blog post ever – luckily I’ve evolved as cocktail designer 😐

The second try is much better but if you hate bitter cocktails, please check out my third version. And there’s even the mocktail version!

HYDRA

4 parts Strega

4 parts tequila reposado

2 parts vodka (regular works, but please try with vanilla)

6 to 8 parts brown energy drink

Blue Curacao, for adjusting colour to green

Stir with ice and strain into a cocktail glass, add couple of ice cubes.

Okay, this is a weird one… with all that energy drink you might think that this would go to highball category, but make no mistake: this is too strong for that.

Same basic idea as with Court above: all sorts of aromas twirling around, like the tentacles of the octopus… I wanted to make slightly milder cocktail than Court (alcohol-wise, that is) and I thought the bitter taste of energy drink would fill the “one more strong taste”-niche.

Relevant cocktails? Red Skull, naturally. My first version of The Cap… and three more, all in the same post!

Well, I hope you like these. Next time we’re closing Midsummer’s Eve, so it’s going to be summer time party drinks! See you in a week or so 🙂

It’s time to wrap up JSA with three more cocktails. All the J-Society drinks, along with a couple of dedicated adversaries, are available in handy compilation in recipes and downloads.

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MR. MIRACLE

Add some Blue Curacao to Galliano to turn it nice green and maybe add few drops of Peychaud’s bitters. Shake with ice and strain into a champagne flute or other suitable glass. Add crushed ice.

Layer dry sparkling wine on top of the green part, finally gently pour some Aperol on top.

“Escape artist, makes Houdini look like a fool” – that’s the first thing that comes in my mind when thinking about Scott Free… how to depict that in cocktail?

Well, I couldn’t find any decent way to do that, so instead I decided to design nice and uplifting drink: something festive but not too solemn… something that Free would toast with after escaping some hideous deathtrap contraption once again.

So, I created sort of “fusion” of good ol’ Champagne Cocktail and Spritz Veneziano (better known as “Aperol Spritz”). Maybe it’s a bit of jumble, Galliano might be a wrong choice… but I think its sweet vanilla is nice surprise after Aperol.

• 

MR. TERRIFIC

2 parts Triple Sec

1 part lemon juice

3 part simple syrup

4 (or more) parts very strong coffee (cold)

15 parts dry apple cider

Build into a highball glass, add plenty of ice.

Naturally “Fair Play” was my guideline with this drink – something positive, refreshing… Michael Holt is a very bright man (to say the least), so I thought there should be some “sharp and/or intelligent” element in the drink.

Well, coffee wakes you up and kinda boosts your wits (at least I feel kinda dense in the morning before a mug of coffee) so I made some experiments with it.

I came up with this highball. Four parts espresso: you quite can’t find the coffee aroma in there with four parts – if you want it to stand out, by all means use more coffee.

• 

DR. FATE (HECTOR HALL)

Top layer, blue:

1 part vodka

1 part tequila blanco

1 part gin

1 part Blue Curacao

Bottom layer, yellow:

Galliano

Dash of Strega (up 1/4 of Galliano)

Shake layers separately with ice and layer into a shot glass.

I think there’s nothing wrong with my first version of Dr. Fate… except maybe for the colour. So, as a bonus, I decided to create “colour correct” version of that character… still retaining “The Strong Winds of Magic”-attitude. Actually Hector Hall The Shot loans its idea from The Atom: first there’s a barrage of raw alcohol, soothed by sweeter aromas… in this drink The Barrage is even more violent, thanks to gin, and the soothing part has more mystery in it because of the Strega.

So, those were last of my JSA cocktails for now. These three were inspired by warm and sunny weather… I’m thinking: more summer time refreshments, or something totally opposite – something grim and dark… what will it be?

We’ll find out next time ;P

I was enjoying Tom Collins the other day and started to wonder what would it taste lake if tampered with orgeat syrup…? Quite nice; actually I ended up with refreshing mocktail recipes also 🙂

ULTRAMAN

5 parts sparkling water

1 part lemon juice

1 part orgeat syrup

(gin, to taste)

Blue Curacao (or syrup), for colour

Build into a highball glass, add ice: I personally prefer adding Blue Curacao syrup last – I sinks down to the bottom, creating a cool effect. Stirrer for those who want to twirl it uniform blue.

Mocktail version, as you noticed, is simply made without gin.

Well, this is “Tom Collins for the greedy people”: orgeat syrup really nudges the good ol’ T.C. onto the second gear, makes you covet more, getting more and more drunk on your own power all too easily… what’s more suitable for representing Ultraman, the greedy version of Superman from The Other Side?

Okay, that was simple. Now a little more complicated, at the same time drifting away from the original T.C…

JOKER (THE MAN WHO LAUGHS)

5 parts sparkling water

1 part lemon juice

1 part orgeat syrup

(vodka and/or reposado tequila for taste)

Couple of dashes of Tabasco sauce

Sala syrup (see below)

(Blue Curacao syrup, for adjusting colour)

Build into a highball glass. Add sala syrup last: it all depends on the brand, but it seems that when the colour is right, the aroma is also dead on. You might want to add few drops of blue syrup to bend the hue to more purple (again, depends on the brand of the sala syrup).

Ridiculous garnish, of course – even more over the the top than in Deadpool.

Again, for mocktail simply skip the booze. Gin doesn’t work very well on this one: either vodka or reposado tequila – I personally use them both in The Man Who Laughs.

So, it has a crisp zest of citrus; chili surprise (as in my first Joker cocktail) and weird bubble gum nuance of sala – with the heavy and intoxicating sweetness of orgeat syrup. Decent mocktail for representing The Joker… and the acridity of tequila and the sting of vodka for those who prefer stronger version.

Both of these mocktails are updated in compilation, available with all the rest in recipes and downloads.

Jeez, I just realized… it’s over four years since I designed that first Joker cocktail… But now I’m in the Joker Mood: we have a Joker The Cocktail and Joker The Highball – there’s still room for Joker The Shot!

JOKER (THE KILLING JOKE)

Green part, top:

1 part Midori

2 parts mezcal

Purple part, bottom:

2 parts Parfait Amour

1 part De kyuper Blueberry

(Tabasco sauce)

Shake parts separately with ice and layer into the shot glass.

First: smoky and violent mezcal, somewhat soothened with Midori… then a weird “jumping” combo of Parfait and Blueberry – even more weird should you add some Tabasco but please don’t overdo it: this shot works pretty fine without Tabasco at all, “bombarding” the purple layer with it turns it into an unimaginable sludge.

So there it is. Next time: last of the JSA.

As I told you last time, I’m taking some time off from JSA… designing JSA cocktails, that is – reading JSA comics like a madman in hope for more inspiration 🙂

With Abby Arcane I introduced a new (well, new to me) booze: Bayou Pink. Today I’m gonna bring you couple of creations utilizing that pink liquid.

It’s not the easiest alcohol to work with. It’s completely fine on its own, just throw in some ice… but it tempts you to use it in cocktail: unfortunately the signature taste of Bayou Pink gets easily lost if you blend it too heavily with other substances.

So, taking it easy… Just B-Pink and some liqueur to support/fulfill the taste; don’t overdo it, just settle for less… sugarcane spirit and zesty mayhaw berry create kinda rough combo, softening it up a little with proper aromas might be a good way to depict characters who look harmless but pack a punch.

LOCKHEED

4 parts Bayou Pink

1 part Parfait Amour

Shake with ice and strain into a small cocktail glass. Add one ice cube.

Parfait Amour is one of those liqueurs that “support” B-Pink nicely, even though its strong vanilla easily suffocates mayhaw berry – you can even try five parts Pink and one Amour.

And as Lockheed packs a punch, so does Kitty Pryde.

MISS MARVEL

3 parts Bayou Pink

1 part Luxardo Maraschino

Shake with ice and strain into a small cocktail glass. Add one ice cube, maybe two.

Mayhaw berry and sour cherry of Marashino go perfectly together. This drink doesn’t depict streching limbs as well as eg. Plastic Man, actually it doesn’t do that at all… but I dare to say it hits the spot as “cute but feisty” superhero cocktail portrayal.

And if you’re looking for Carol Danvers, her namesake drink is here.

That’s it, folks; couple of cuddly yet intense cocktails.

Next time? Maybe back to JSA – maybe something else 🙂