Hello, folks! I’m back from the short summer break, and I thought it would be nice to warm up with a couple of cocktails themed around female X-men (hmm, sounds weird).

 

MAGIK

1 part mezcal

2 parts sloe gin

Shake with ice and strain into an old fashioned glass with lots of ice in it.

It’s a simple drink, but it works. Illyana Rasputina has many super powers and I could have started to create a very complex cocktail… but she’s a sister of Piotr and his drink was brutally simple, so I decided to go along the same guidelines.

Mezcal and blackthorn create an interesting mix… but the mixture is pretty brutal, I give you that (just make sure you use enough ice). Stubbornly I cling onto my design, but for those who find Magik’s powers too much to enjoy I give another drink…

 

PIXIE

10 parts (extra) dry cider

2 parts red wine

1 (or more) parts peach liqueur

Stir with ice and strain into a suitable glass with lots of ice in it.

Compared to Magik The Cocktail, this is gentle… but it still has some “jolt/twist/sting” to keep it interesting (and keep you satisfied in summer terrace).  As with Magik: Pixie has all sorts of powers, practically challenging me to design something complex and megalomaniac… but this time I decided to keep it simple.

Teasing, delightful, jolly… maybe not the words to describe Pixie The X-Man, but the characteristics associated with the word “pixie”. So I kinda “sold out” – sorry for that, Pixie fans.

Both Magik’s and Pixie’s powers revolve around teleportation – I must confess these two drinks do not especially take that into account (unless you drink 17 of them)…  but I was in a mood for creating something easy and quick to prepare; you know – summer drinks.

Something more complex next time, I promise 🙂

 

Hello, folks. Just a quick post, couple of characters who have seen their fair share of the war…

 

NICK FURY

4 parts sweet red vermouth

4 parts bourbon/whisky

1 part Malibu/De Kyuper Blueberry

dash of sarsaparilla syrup

Shake with ice and strain into an old fashioned glass with lots of ice in it. Enjoy with big fat cigar.

Nowadays he is known for being a director of S.H.I.E.L.D., but he had his war-torn past. I’ve always figured Fury to be a whisky/bourbon guy, so the “base booze” was there; red vermouth always goes well with both of them, but I needed something to represent those grim war memories… Malibu or De Kyuper both “quarrel” with both of them just right, creating an interesting conflict. Sarsaparilla is there for the final nuance.

 

SGT. ROCK

3 parts vodka

2 parts creme de cassis

2 parts tomato juice

dash of lemon juice

few dashes of sarsaparilla syrup

Shake with ice and strain into a suitable glass with lots of ice in it.

Sgt. Rock has waded through gore and blood in every theatre of war in WW2, so I figured his drink should have the appearance of blood… I remembered Blade The Cocktail and decided to go with creme de cassis; when mixed with tomato juice the result is pretty grim, but needs something a bit more – lemon juice refreshens it, and as with Nick Fury, sarsaparilla syrup both sweetens and adds gloomy atmosphere. Well, now the taste is pretty good, I have to forget about my plans for using whisky for this too: only option for the actual main booze is (basically tasteless) vodka.

 

Couple of veterans with their grim drinks, I hope you like them. See you in July 🙂

 

Last time we checked out bubbly versions for Poison Ivy and Wonder Woman, let’s continue on our chosen path…

(Thanks again for Test Subject S. for posing with the drinks)

 

POISON IVY (BARBARA)

10 parts dry prosecco

2 parts De Kyuper Blueberry

1 part sarsaparilla syrup

(black food colour)

Build into a champagne coupe or flute, add some ice.

Simple to make and surprisingly delightful! This is what it feels like to kick some criminal butt in the Gotham 😀 The colour of the drink is dark brown: if you can’t live with that, add some black food colouring.

I dare to say… this is one of my best sparkling wine cocktails. Don’t forget to check out my first Batgirl recipe.

 

HARLEY QUINN (PUDDIN’)

10 parts sparkling wine (of your choice)

2 parts reposado tequila

2 parts sala syrup

1 part Fernet Branca OR 1 1/2-ish parts Gammel Dansk

(1 to 2 parts simple syrup, see below)

Build into a champagne coupe or flute, add some ice.

My first HQ recipe has been such a hit for years… I admit I felt some pressure when I started to design this drink…

I thought HQ’s bubbly drink should contain tequila, that sounds like her “weapon of choice”. You can try this with cheapo blanco tequila, then you’ll understand why I decided to go with reposado (not just with cheap gold tequila): “The Sting” is there, but it blends in – co-operates, so to speak – with the rest of the drink better than cheap sludge. It would’ve been more thematic choice, I give you that, but it just “kicked” the wrong way.

Sala syrup gives a delightful and “airy” element (as in Plastic Man, Deadpool or Falcon for example). Fernet Branca or Gammel Dansk (or bitter of your choice) creates a balancing element for the sweetness… and also reminds us of the lurking danger: Harleen Quinzel is insane, let’s not forget that, she’s ready to slash your throat at any second.

Simple syrup… you’ll probably have to add some, the exact amount depends on what kind of bubbly you’re using. You’ll just have to test.

 

…and that was my superhero 250th cocktail recipe! 😀 I’ll be back at the end of the month or during the first days of the July at the latest. I’m not giving up, I still have many more supercocktail ideas!

That’s it for now.

HAPPY MIDSUMMER’S EVE! HYVÄÄ JUHANNUSTA!

 

Okay. In this blog we’ve seen quite a many cocktail versions of Pamela Isley: Poison Ivy and Pamela and Poison Ivy: The Green – in that same post was a third version of Wonder Woman, “Diana”: the earlier versions of WW were “Golden Lasso” and, well, “Wonder Woman”.

Of course there are mocktail versions of both Poison Ivy and Wonder Woman.

I guess that would be enough to cover those characters.

 

…but Test Subject S. just kept bugging me, and finally I gave up. Actually she had a point: there are no sparkling wine versions of either character.

So here they are, presented by the Test Subject S. herself 🙂

 

POISON IVY (CHLOROPHYLL)

6 parts sparkling wine

1 part Creme de Menthe

1 part Fernet Branca

Build into a champagne flute or coupe.

This actually has truly “poisonous yet alluring” taste, I’m pretty content with this drink. It works well with dry and a bit more sweeter bubbly.

 

WONDER WOMAN (THE AMAZON OF THEMYSCIRA)

2 parts sweetened sparkling wine

1 part cherry jelly bean tequila

(a dash of lemon juice)

Build into a champagne flute or coupe.

Well, this is a killer… but so it should be: Diana is a formidable opponent, not to be taken lightly. The clash of sweet cherry and tequila sting, accompanied with a lightness of bubbly… you’ll feel like Amazon, ready for battle, after a couple of these 🙂

 

Okay, I think we’ve seen enough drinks for these two characters… but these sparkling wine versions inspired me further… next time: bubbly versions for Batgirl and HQ 😀

 

Since publishing my second version of Spider-Man I’ve been compelled to design Spidey-Villain drinks. Sinister Six is slowly taking form… but before that we’ll take a look at couple of dudes who suffocate their victims, one way or another…

 

HYDRO-MAN

1 part prosecco

1 part extra dry vermouth

(Blue Curacao, for colour)

Build into a highball glass, add some ice.

If you skip the Blue Curacao, the drink will look like water with an yellow-ish tint – just like NYC tap water? 😀

Okay, jokes aside. This simple mix creates a feel of “getting drowned”: the taste is kinda “easy to get bored with”, yet it’s not. Argh, surprisingly difficult to explain! It’s a refreshing beverage (like water to the thirsty) but it contains “a desperate” element… when you realize it’s not just water coming down from your shower, it’s Morris Bench attacking you… suffocating, drowning…

 

SANDMAN

1 egg white

6 cl (2 oz) whisky

2 cl (3/4 oz) DOM Benedictine

2 cl apricot brandy

2 cl red grenadine

Shake vigorously with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

William Baker is a living sand dune, capable of burying you to face horrible death. That death is pretty “dry”, wouldn’t you say? So Sandman’s cocktail should be dry, right? Well, how can you get drier than the driest Martini?

Instead of trying to create dry, DRY Vodka Martini that would wipe out grin even from 007’s face, I decided to explore the same approach as in Anaconda: the sweetness, build with so many levels and nuances it simply suffocates your senses.

Anaconda The Cocktail starts with alluring sweetness, luring you closer…then the whole “weight” of the drink starts to feel. Well, Sandman is a honest drink: it announces its willingness crush you right from the first sip 🙂

Looks like the summer has finally arrived, at least it looks like it at the moment…. let’s not jinx it, you can expect pretty much anything from Finland’s summer… but while waiting for the freezing sleet storm I’ll celebrate the sunshine with some bubbly drinks! See you next week!

 

Sorry folks, it’s a bit too long from my last post. But without further delay, let’s get onto today’s drinks…

 

BRAINIAC

6 cl (2 oz) cognac (Camus VS highly recommended)

4 cl (1 1/2 oz) Pisang Ambon

1 egg white

Shake vigorously with ice and strain into a cocktail glass with some ice in it.

Tip: if you or your cocktail party guests (aka. drinking buddies) have a tendency to suck their drinks down to the last drop, it’s a good idea to add some simple syrup to the bottom of the glass before adding ice and straining the drink. I think Brainiac The Cocktail is decent, but gulping it down to the one final drop leaves kind of unpleasant aftertaste – this can be remedied with a drop of sugar.

[sigh] Brainiac has been rewritten so many times (same problem I had when designing Captain Marvel)… which version should I use as a basis for the drink: android (something like in Red Tornado and Vision), alien, robotic incarnation…? I considered a “miniaturized drink” for a while (as in Kandor The Shrunken City) but I decided not to try anything too fancy.

Brainiac… let’s go with “the intelligent feel”. I remembered my old creation Dr. Doom: it’s basically vodka martini with Pisang Ambon… cool, analytical, calculating – something that the bad guy would sip when he considers his options for conquering the world and/or smashing the good guys.

Camus VS has just the right kind of aroma to collaborate with Pisang Ambon; the result would be “raw” without the binding element of egg white. It’s not the most complex recipe I’ve created, but there are enough different levels to justify it as “an analytical cocktail” – suitable for Brainiac.

I might return to Brainiac later, I’ve not abandoned that Kandor idea completely. An hey, there’s still Brainiac 5; a good guy version – that sounds sort of a challenge for your humble superhero cocktail designer geek.

I’m not making any promises, we’ll see. And now onto our second cocktail of the day…

 

DESPERO

1 part bourbon

2 parts cranberry juice

1 part tomato juice

splash or two lemon juice

splash or two sarsaparilla syrup

Shake with ice and strain into a highball glass with some ice in it.

And as always, a reminder about cranberry juice… please do not use premixed juice drinks, but high quality concentrate diluted with water 1:1 ration instead of recommendation (usually 1:3 or 1:4).

Somehow this drink kinda designed itself; the first version was right on spot, further attempts only made it worse or at least “not-so-good” (e.g. swap bourbon for vodka if you like). Controlling the mount of lemon juice and sarsaparilla are essential in this drink, as you will see if you conduct experiments.

The drink has certain “ruthlessness” in it – suitable for a tyrant, yet it’s enjoyable summer refreshment… well, that’s not suitable for “tyranny feel”, I give you that, but once in a while bad guys need their “easygoing” drinks 🙂

 

DESPERO (mocktail version)

Simple skip the bourbon, it’s still delicious and has that “Supreme Tyrant of Kalanor”-feel.

 

Next time… Spider Man Baddies!

 

More mutants coming up, in a form of a double act: the other one The Mightiest of Them All… and the other one is, ehm… is not.

 

MAGNETO (MAX EISENHARDT)

3 parts bourbon

1/2 part De Kyuper Sour Rhubarb

1 part Aperol

1 part simple syrup

1 part dry or extra dry vermouth

(1/2 part Parfait Amour, see below)

dash of Angostura orange bitters

Stir with ice and strain into a cocktail glass, add an ice cube.

Nothing wrong with my first take on Magneto, I dare to say… expect that eternal struggle to catch purple colours with my camera ;P That aside, I think it’s a pretty decent cocktail… but there’s no harm done with another version of this legendary character.

No effort whatsoever to make the colour theme “right”, red and purple; it’s all in the taste. The guy can manipulate magnetism: the possibilities are endless! So I decided to create a drink that consists of many ingredients: take one off, and the whole suffers more than you can imagine.

Okay, I’m getting highly thematic with Magneto v.2… try enjoying this drink while skipping one of the ingredients, just choose one randomly; well, not bourbon – that’s obvious… you’ll see that the result changes surprisingly much: none of them is outright bad… but they’re not as good, not as… well, as complete as the , erm, complete cocktail.

So, more than “just a cocktail”, Magneto v.2 is a philosophical approach to the fine art of cocktail design… and a thought experiment on Max’s powers: “our world consists of zillions of elements; you manipulate one of them – or even remove it completely – the reality is changed. Not ruined, but changed. It makes you wonder what you could achieve if you possessed a power to manipulate reality as easily as it is to goof around with one cocktail? …maybe I’ve had one too many, do I make any sense?” 😀

By the way… I personally think that Parfait Amour is a bit too much here; it adds to the whole, but I think it’s kinda “cheap shot” – excessive element – in my attempt to (literally) construct “de-constructible” cocktail. I’m not saying it ruins the drink or anything… use it if you like; I prefer mine without it.

…but there certainly are uses for P-Amour, read on…

 

 

TOAD

10 parts dry cider

10 parts carrot juice

2 to 3 parts Parfait Amour

2 to 3 parts bourbon

2 to 3 parts cheap, stingy mezcal

some sala syrup, for adjusting colour

Stir with ice and strain into a highball glass with some ice in it. Purple and orange garnish.

Sometimes life imitates art. I started to experiment with orange top, purple bottom – layered highball – but the densities of the layers were too much alike, the whole shebang mixed together while layering… I sighed, put the mishap aside, tasted it later… and it was great!

It’s all here! Kinda sullen colour, still true to the colour theme of the character (maybe the garnish should look kinda second-rate?)… and the taste that is clearly miscalculated, but still enjoyable in its own peculiar way. And it’s created by accident, how fitting for the bad guy who always ends up with the short end of the stick!

Mortimer Toynbee sure is one sad creep, and so is his cocktail… but that doesn’t mean it has to taste bad ;P

If you enjoy celebrating miserable creeps who constantly get stomped in the pages of superhero comics, you should also check out Killer Moth. Somehow these pathetic losers find the willpower to carry on, and we salute them!

 

Today we take a look at two mutants, whose destinies were once twined together – literally.

KARMA

Vietnamese iced coffee (see below)

Green Chartreuse, to taste

Build into a suitable glass.

I absolutely fell in love with Vietnamese iced coffee the moment I tasted it the first time: strong Robusta flavour rounded with the smoothness of condensed milk, and enough caffeine to wake up the dead. It’s a shame it’s so hard to acquire here in Finland

Xi’an Coy Manh, Vietnamese-French mutant; I decided to approach the character thematically by combining something from both cultures… and Green Chartreuse is a natural choice, aromas blend together effortlessly.

This drink, of course, represents Karma when she is herself… not the grotesque and obese travesty when she was possessed by Shadow King.

I will not make Possessed Karma Cocktail, but I’ll give you the culprit…

 

SHADOW KING

4 parts extra dry cider

1 part mezcal

1 part Strega

Build into a innocent-looking glass, add some ice.

Amahl Farouk might appear as a harmless fat guy with fez and sunglasses… but he is evil, E_V_I_L... so his drink appears as harmless refreshment, suitable to be sipped in  gloomy bar, somewhere in the Moroccan back alleys… but the taste screams out the diabolical nature of the character.

 

Next time… more mutants 🙂

 

Despite of coronavirus lockdown the spring is here: sun is shining, it’s getting warmer… let’s check out couple of suitable cocktails for this time of the year…

 

BATWOMAN

1 part rowanberry vodka

3 to 5 parts dry apple cider

Build into a suitable glass. Add ice, apple wedges and some rowanberries.

No, I didn’t forget about rowanberry vodka; still planning to use it in the future. But what does rowanberry sourness has to do with Batwoman?

Well, the hard choices she had to do, concerning her military career and sexuality; staying true to herself of just pretending… and that horrible moment when Kate realized who “Alice” really was.

Batwoman The Cocktail is simple to make yet it describes the character; not to mention it’s pretty refreshing 🙂

Some people might think that the looks have nothing to do with Batwoman, “too cheery for Gotham City”… and they’re right. If you would like to emphasize “The Darkness”, simply add black food colouring…

 

Skip the apple wedges, just place the rowanberries on top of the ice… just as the scarlet wig is in the top of Kate Kane’s head ;P

 

SPIDER-WOMAN

4 parts Malibu

1 part white rum

1 to 1,5 parts Strega

1 part red grenadine

Shake with ice and strain into an old fashioned glass with lots of ice in it.

First this might taste a little odd, “too violent”; Strega attacks your taste buds instantly. But after few sips you’ll get the philosophy of the drink: playful, jocular… but not to be taken lightly, Spider-Woman will definitely kick your a** if you should ridicule her (and that’s Strega).

 

Those were today’s cocktails, I’ll hope they’ll relief a tension during this virus lockdown 😀

 

I decided to introduce something uplifting; this coronavirus atmosphere, it reeks of fear and distrust… We need something else: something positive, despite of everything that’s going on.

I give you Cherry Jelly Bean Tequila 🙂

 

Few years back I introduced the idea of jelly bean tequila: pour the candy into the glass jar and cover them with gold tequila. Stir occasionally, and after a couple of hours jelly beans have diminished into small transparent pebbles. Filter, probably twice, and you’ll have delicious jelly bean tequila for your cocktails!

Same here, but instead of general variety of jelly beans use only the ones with cherry flavour.

 

The result is thick, syrup-like substance: intolerably sweet to be enjoyed as it is (although there’s still that familiar tequila sting there, balancing the taste)… we’ll use it in the role of “flavoured syrup and booze, combined”.

 

SPIDER-MAN (PETER PARKER)

1 part cherry tequila

3 parts dry cider OR 2 parts dry cider and 1 part lager

(dash of red grenadine, if you should adjust the colour)

Build into a highball glass, add ice.

My first take on Spidey was airy, jocular and pretty mild (since Peter is young, he would probably drink milder teenage cocktails)… This highball is “The Basic Cherry Tequila Drink”, the first thing that pops into your mind when you carefully taste plain cherry tequila: “hmm, let’s dilute the strong taste with something that acts as a counter-taste, something sour”.

This drink basically designed itself, and it’s my Spider-Man Cocktail #2 for three reasons… 1) The taste is still airy and playful, suitable for Spidey  2) I think there’s nothing wrong with the first Spider-Drink, but the character deserves another version  3) Peter Parker is, as established, a young dude: he doesn’t have no time nor patience for constructing complex cocktails 😀

 

DEATHSTROKE (SLADE WILSON)

3 parts cherry tequila

1 to 2 parts gin (see below)

2 parts extra dry vermouth

1 part orange juice

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with cherry in blue cocktail pick.

This is a bit more complex approach to Cherry Tequila… Orange juice cuts it down, vermouth adds some spiciness (not too much); the results is kinda mean drink, suitable for Slade Wilson, put I strongly recommend adding some gin to the mix. While Cherry Tequila contains the harsh taste of cheap tequila, I still prefer to kick it up a notch with gin; the actual amount is up to you.

My first Deathstroke Cocktail was sort of a mean summer highball; this is “a calm, calculating and deadly” cocktail… it’s specifially designed to honour Deathstroke, one of the coolest comic book killers ever. I hope you like it.

 

Next time… not men, but women 😀