Fulfilling the request for “Reader D.” gave me an impetus to publish these: last time the requested Iron Patriot and War Machine, today drinks that have been on the wait list for too long…

 

BLACK LIGHTNING

2 parts extra dry vermouth

1 part Blue Curacao

1 part absinth

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

Originally I was going to publish this accompanied with Electro, titled “High Voltage” or something… but creating “the taste of electricity” proved out to be a difficult task. Black Lightning The Cocktail has certain “electricity-ish” feel to it… not the best of my creations, I admit, but it’s okay for slow sipping.

The very day I come up with a good “electricity recipe” I’ll publish Electro and probably another take on Black Lightning, that’s a promise.

The blue colour of the drink is for Jefferson Pierce’s tights and for “the colour of electricity”… If you want to emphasize Black Lightning simply add black food colouring.

And talking about black colouring…

 

Black Panther stalking in the shadows of the jungle…

BLACK PANTHER revisited

In the original recipe I didn’t put much emphasis on the colour, I was more focused in creating “The Taste of The Jungle”… but as “Reader D.” pointed out, using black colouring agent really turns it into a Black Panther The Cocktail… I guess many people have done it already; I admit, I’m always more interested in creating the taste, the looks come a distant second… to the point where I ignore it almost completely 😦

To enhance the cocktail to even more blackpanterish… Rim the cocktail glass with suitable purple sugar etc., to give it the purple halo of T’Challa in black costume. I tried it, looks fine, but the photos were so awful I didn’t dare to publish them.

Thanks for “Reader D.” for Purple Halo idea 😀

 

LUKE CAGE

3 parts Advocaat egg liqueur

2 parts Luxardo Maraschino

1 part orange juice

(gin, if you feel like it)

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

This drink’s colour has nothing to do with Power Man’s colour theme… and since it’s so delicious I won’t make any effort 😀 Please feel free to experiment with artificial colours if you want to, I think the cocktail looks fine just as it is… except, now when I think of it… orange wedge would look nice in the picture above…

So, how is this Luke Cage? I was inspired by the classic cocktail Harlem, here’s one version of it…

HARLEM

4 parts gin

3 parts pineapple juice

dash of Maraschino Luxardo

some crushed pineapple

Shake with ice and strain (or don’t strain) into an old fashioned glass. I personally don’t strain it, I enjoy pieces of pineapple in this drink.

So, I enjoyed this drink so much I decided to use it as a basis for Luke Cage… to give it more “substance”, more “power”… as in, well, Power Man.

The final version is pretty far from the original Harlem Cocktail (as Talia al Ghul strayed away from original inspiration)… but it’s cool and “slick”, yet there’s strenght… I’m pretty content with this one, I hope you enjoy it.

 

I’m working on Falcon The Cocktail at the moment. I have a basic idea about it, but it also needs “a side dish”… Redwing.

But you’ll have to wait for those for a moment… next time we’ll start our countdown for Halloween, and it will culminate in 200th Superhero Cocktail Recipe 😀

 

Hello, folks! Originally I was going to publish couple of electricity-themed drinks today, Black Lightning and Electro… but describing “electricity as a taste” proved out to be very hard task indeed.

I once got electrocuted at work, because of my own stupidity and carelessness; I still remember “the taste of iron” in my mouth… I have vivid recollections how my joints and root of my teeth ached for couple of days, weird pain I’ve never experienced before or since the accident…

…I’ve no intention of giving my readers such a pain, but creating “iron-tasting, dust dry aroma that still is remotely enjoyable as a cocktail”… that’s a challenge! I’m working on it, not going to be published today, sometimes later…

Instead of electric drinks, request from a reader “D”. He politely asked if I could create cocktails for Iron Patriot and/or War Machine… I expected the task to take some time, but after swiping electric drinks aside (“removing a writer’s… erm, “cocktailer’s” block for now”) proved out to be right choice; those requested drinks practically designed themselves surprisingly quickly!

Okay, enough talk. Get ready for launch!

IRON PATRIOT

Blue (bottom) layer:

1 part Blue Curacao

1 part kirschwasser

1 part mezcal

2 parts simple syrup

Red (middle) layer

3 parts mezcal

2 parts De Kyuper Sour Rhubarb

1 part Amaretto di Saronno

1 part Red grenadine

White/colourless (top) layer

1 part mezcal

1 part vodka

Shake layers with ice separately. Add ice to the old fashioned glass and layer the colours into the glass, from bottom to top. The amount of ice is something to test out yourself: there should be something left when you gulp down the last of the blue layer… if the ice melts before finishing the drink and it gets “warmer” (less cold) the intense sweetness might turn out to be intolerable to enjoy.

So, what’s the design philosophy behind Iron Patriot?

(American) Patriot: This drink had to be Red, White and Blue, of course… but I just didn’t want to leave that concept there. In my first ever post I designed The Man of Steel pretty sweet… since Superman stands for “Truth, Justice and The American Way”, and stereotypically everything American is Really Sweet (no offense, US readers, just jesting around here)… among that same guideline Iron Patriot has sweet layers (two out of three, at least).

Iron: Mechanical aspect of the character is represented in the taste. I know the exoskeleton is ultra high-tech, but mezcal’s smokiness adds “steampunkish” feel… and it balances out the sweetness nicely.

Mezcal is a repeating element in every single layer, and that proved out to be good idea (in my humble opinion)… white layer: “Oh Jeez, this is a lethal drink!” (well, these exoskeletons are nothing to be fooled around with)…

Red layer… “oh, that’s a nice relief after that sharp white taste”… but somewhere there, even if this layer is sweet, there is something “mechanical and synthetic” in there… yes, good ol’ Amaretto I used in Iron Man to create that same sensation.

Moving from white to red… transition has certain smoothness, because of that mezcal in both layers.

Blue… still, there is certain seamless transition here, mezcal continuing to “giving out its smoky exhaust fumes”, but “mechanical” takes another form… “okay, of course this layer is the most sweet because of the layering density mechanics, mezcal aroma still there… but also other kind of “technical aroma” clanging to the teeth…”

Kirschwasser, same I used in Metallo for similar purposes. Bottom layer is very sweet indeed, but kirschwasser’s strong taste pushes through.

San Cosme is basically the only mezcal I use in my cocktails these days, save the occasional Oaxaca Sunrise (cheapo Lajita’s raw taste works out fine in that drink).

I’ve praised De Kyuper’s Sour Rhubarb quite enough now, it found its way into Iron Patriot The Cocktail also. I must try not to overuse it, drown every single cocktail with it.

Summa summarum… Iron Patriot: American patriotism in colour and sweet taste, exoskeleton’s mech ‘n’ tech in taste. I hope you enjoy it, althought it’s a bit laborous… next one is much more simple to make…

Yeah, I know… these hi-tech exoskeletons certainly don’t spew out spend  .357 Magnum casings, but there’s something in the name “War Machine” that compelled me use them 😀

WAR MACHINE

5 parts Coca-Cola Energy Drink (see below)

1 to 2 parts bourbon (I’d go for Jim Beam, see below)

dash of Gammel Dansk or Cynar

Build into a highball glass with some ice in it.

Jack Daniels and Coke is old news… but Coca-Cola Energy Drink adds a whole new dimension to that classic.

[EDIT: new version of War Machine available here. ]

I was hesitating… is it such a good idea to use this beverage as a basis for the cocktail? I don’t have a clue how widely it’s available in different countries: in Finland I had to order it from webstore (verkkokauppa.com, for Finnish readers interested in checking it out), imported from UK. And sorry for a horrible pic.

There’s no taurine in this energy drink, so the usual “sting” is missing… but there’s different kind of “pleasantly grim/desolate” aroma (can’t describe it in English, sorry)…

I wouldn’t use traditional JD in this one: its taste is so sharp it kinda cuts down the energy drinks peculiar aroma too much… I would go with Jim Beam, with its smoother taste.

Amount of Gammel Dansk/Cynar/bitter of your choice is very delicate, completely subjective: add right amount, and you’ll instantly get the idea why I crammed that element into this drink… use too much, and it “snuffs out” the overall taste.

So what this drink has to do with War Machine? Same logic as in Cyborg: machines, whatever their type, need a power source… in Cyborg I rubbed it in reader’s faces with Battery energy drink, but in this case we’ll settle for another kind of energizer.

I’m striving for “mechanical” taste with this drink also… Adding bitter not only makes the drink more interesting, it also transforms the drink more like “battery acid”… in a good way, of course 😀

I was not really pondering about the colour when designing this, but now when I think of it… War Machine is dull greyish-brownish metallic colour… Coca-Cola Energy Drink is a bit more transparent than regular Coke, kinda unpleasant actually… well, colour is close enough, lucky coincidence; not my primary concern with this cocktail.

That’s it, I hope you’ll enjoy these 😀

Today I’m going to be short and blunt, straight to the point: bit busy with other things… but that doesn’t mean I won’t be able to deliver couple of nice cocktails for you to enjoy.

 

LADY SHIVA

5 parts Lillet

1,5 parts Strega (see below)

1 part Aperol

Stir with ice and strain into a highball glass with some crushed ice in it. Looks suitably menaging with a black straw.

This is A Highball That Kicks Ass. If you enjoy the taste but don’t like the idea of consuming it as a highball, by all means use smaller glass… in that case please consider this: use 2 parts Strega instead of 1,5. That version is even more “violent”, I give you that, but somehow I enjoy even more kick when enjoying the smaller glass.

Okay, Lady Shiva is lethal assassin, an her namesake drink is also pretty fatal… next drink/character is also not to be trifled with, but she’s more subtle…

 

SILVER SABLE

3 parts Advocaat

2 parts cognac

1 part Cointeau or Grand Marnier

vanilla extract, for taste

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Grate some chocolate on top.

I decided to forget about “silver” from the colour theme, the drink would have just ended to be either white or colourless…but I wanted to keep the colour “smooth and classy”; Advocaat seemed to be a right choice.

And it works tastewise also; spiced up with cognac and suitable liqueur (Triple Sec is way too sharp for this one, I think) it creates a pretty satisfactory combination. Round it up with some vanilla, and you have a cocktail of many nuances… as Silver Sablinova is a woman of many aspects.

And chocolate on top is… well, “cherry on top”.

 

Okay, that’s it for today. Until next time! 😀

 

Late summer going on, so let’s make a best of it: couple of refreshing highballs coming up!

Today’s theme is Suicide Squad, and I’ve put up a compilation, please check out Recipes and downloads. I should point out that I did not include every single S-Squad member in the compilation… checking out my published cocktails so far, you’ll notice that there are many, many cocktail namesake characters who have been in the Squad for a while.

Cramming all of them into one single PDF would’ve made it too long and depressing to wade through (and there would’ve been too much repetition from “Batman: friends & foes”-compilation). Instead I selected about ten characters, whose drinks vary from dry to sweet, from sour to bitter… a compact take on Suicide Squad.

And now, without further delay…

 

CAPTAIN BOOMERANG

3 parts Foster’s (or some other Aussie beer 🙂 )

1 part sala syrup

1 part gold tequila

Build into a suitable glass. Adding ice recommended.

In Plastic Man I used sala syrup because its taste “streches”. Well, balanced with the sourness of cheap n’ nasty gold tequila the overall taste “goes there, far away”… and then it comes back! ;P

The combination itself is too tense, but adding a lots of beer evens it out nicely… and I can’t stress enough: it’s “absolutely essential” that you use lager from Down Under 😀

Colour has nothing to do with good ol’ Captain, it’s all about the “boomerangish” taste… the next drink leans more heavily on the colour theme of the villain. And I botched the photo, even after multiple takes 😦

 

MIRROR MASTER

(Dedicated to Test Subject K., a long time Mirror Master fan… and calm down K-Man, I’ll design that Pied Piper Cocktail someday. I made TMNT pretty quickly when you insisted 🙂 )

You’ll have to prepare coloured ice beforehand. Water with added booze, to the point where cubes barely freeze.

Orange: Water, Strega and Campari. You’re looking for the “red end” of the orange spectrum, otherwise they will look bland next to striking green ice… this happened in the picture above. Believe it or not, there are same amount of both colours of ice in the glass, but it all looks green.

If you loathe the strong anise kick of the Strega you might want to use eg. Galliano instead of it… but there is actually a good reason for Strega, I’ll come back to it later.

Green: This is simple, water and Midori.

And then the actual drink…

3 parts gin

1 part Triple Sec

1 part lemon juice

1 part simple syrup

4 parts mineral water

Build into a highball glass, leaving quite a lot of room for the ice. Add coloured ice quickly, straight out from the freezer and serve immediately; ice cubes mixed with sugary alcohol are very “soggy” and melt quickly if left lying on the kitchen table.

I dare to say I’m pretty satisfied with this drink, and here’s why…

Colour theme: Repeating myself, but I say it again… I think the taste is most important thing in superhero/villain cocktails: it should represent the character, not just the colour of the drink. I’m willing to give up colour in favour of the taste if I have to choose, but in Mirror Master The Cocktail they actually support each other without any forced compromises.

Drink itself is basically colourless… it represents A Mirror Dimension, its infinite reflections. Green and Orange depict, of course, the colour of M-Master’s thights… but also the fact that he can travel through Dimension safely, from mirror to another, while he has the power to send people to wander around the endless void of that particular Dimension.

Let’s put it this way… Mirror Master is at home in Mirror Dimension, as green and orange ice look nice in otherwise colourless drink.

And this is represented in the taste also, please read on…

The taste: Observant readers noticed that the drink is basic Tom Collins with a Triple Sec twist… but whatta twist it is! The aroma is mean (if it’s too mean, use more mineral water) but it’s supposed to be: he is a bad guy!

And then to the ice… melting process is allegory for unfortunate people who are lost in the Dimension. The changing colour of the drink is not the point, it’s the taste… the crisp sourness of Midori, violent anise of Strega, strong bitterness of Campari… when these are released to the drink, more and more as the ice melt, the aroma changes… it represents your growing despair when you realize that you’ll never get out from the mirror maze.

Don’t get me wrong, the drink will not turn into a unpalatable sludge towards the end: even though you use as much as alcohol in the ice as possible, the sour/anise/bitter are still nuances… but they are very enjoyable nuances, both in taste and for thematical purposes.

And this is why you shouldn’t use Galliano instead of Strega; its vanilla taste is totally out of place in this mean Tom Collins variant.

I enjoyed this cocktail very much, I hope you feel the same. It’s a bit laborous, coloured ice and all, but definitely worth a try.

 

Okay, people… It’s been too long since the last “Girl Power”-post. So, next time… Girl Power, Part 8 😀

 

I’ve been treating these characters unfairly… their cocktails have been ready for quite a long time now, but somehow I was always compelled to publish something else first: “okay, I’ll cut the line with these two drinks, and Zoddy and Venom get published next time… oh, wait…” and so on.

No more delays, here they are!

 

GENERAL ZOD

“Kneel before Zod!”

2 parts reposado/gold tequila

2 parts De Kyuper Sour Rhubarb

1 part orange juice

Shake with ice and strain to a cocktail glass.

First, about the colour… as I’ve mentioned before, this blog’s cocktail are based on characters in comic books, not the ones in movies. So the colour is not the dull metallic grey Zod sports in “Man of Steel” 2013 or the black Terence Stamp wears in his legendary role in Superman II 1980.

General Zod wears black in comics, I give you that… but sometimes he is wearing red armour. I decided not to care about the colour at all (as I’ve ranted before) and decided to focus on the taste: taste so empowering, you can see your subjects kneeling before you… well, maybe after drinking another one… ;P

Couple of months ago I praised De Kyuper’s Sour Rhubarb, wrote how I will be using it with so many cocktails to come,,, well, this drink was originally created back then (delayed for too long, yup). No, I don’t publish my cocktails in the same order as I design them.

Anyway… Sweet ‘n sour of De Kyuper’s Rhubarb collides nicely with reposado, or even with cheapo gold tequila (don’t use tequila blanco for this drink, “too raw” for the purpose). Orange juice is there to tie things together, cut down the alcohol content a little and to create different kind of sourness, in addition to rhubarb. You might be tempted to add some lemon: go ahead, and you’ll see why it is not included in the recipe.

 

VENOM

6 parts full-bodied sweet red wine (see below)

2 to 3 parts Cynar

1 to 2 parts tequila (see below)

1 part honey

dash of black food colouring (see below)

Stir with ice and strain into a suitable glass. Shake with ice if you want to emphasize a muddy appearance (otherwise stir). “Why I would want that?” Please read on…

Red wine: Even if you’re not a friend of sweet red wines, please use it for this one; yes, even when we are adding quite a lot of honey in the drink. I personally prefer glass of red wine on the drier end of the spectrum when reading comic books on cold winter nights… but in this cocktail the aroma is “too thin” with my regular dry wines.

The colour of the cocktail is deep, deep red (but see “black colouring”, below): it’s not black, very close to it… but it can be thought to represent the blood and gore rampaging Venom leaves behind.

Black food colouring: “Of course Venom The Cocktail should be black. Let’s just add some E153…” Surprise, surprise! Black colouring turns everything, well, black… except red wine?!? First, it’s black… and after a few minutes you’ll notice the colour is very, very dark brown, and matte. Yes, it looks like water in the dirt pool on the side of the road.

So, you might want to skip this… unless you want to emphasize how revolting Symbiote is 😀

Anyway, as usual: shaking something with red wine gives “muddy look” for the cocktail (until microscopic air bubbles dissipate), stirring results in more decent look. In either case: black colouring with red wine gives you something abhorrent from outer sace.

Tequila: This cocktail works well enough with reposado tequila, but it’s way more better with Skittles tequila.

Cynar: There’s no way around this, you’ll need Cynar… Jägermeister doesn’t function as satisfying substitute. Remember to check out Black Mamba when you open the Cynar bottle.

So what’s the cocktail like? It’s very “bull-bodied”. I tried to simulate the sensation when you’re overcome by Symbiote: you’ll try to fight it any way you can, but still it suffocates you… combination of sweet, bitter and sour (tequila sour, sharp citrus sour kinda “breaks the spell” on this one)… At first I wasn’t satistied with the colour, “the alchemy” of red wine and black colouring surprised me… but with time I’ve grown content with the “alchemical anomaly”: the colour is close enough to black, it’s up to you if you want to emphasize all the gory glory of Venom or the loathing of Symbiote.

 

Here we are, two cocktails that finally got published. So what’s next? It’s August, so I guess it has to be something to cool down with in late summer afternoons…

 

 

 

Few weeks back I got a request for Gambit The Cocktail. Actually I’ve been ruminating about this character for quite a long time now, but nothing satisfactory never seemed to come out. When I received the request e-mail I decided it’s finally time to act, not just to ponder endlessly.

My guidelines for Gambit The Cocktail…

1. Remy Etienne LeBeau is from New Orleans, so I should introduce some “French Quarter Feel” to the drink.

2. How to represent his kinetic powers? Maybe the best way is to use alcohols that “move things around”… you know, the ones that creates a warm and “moving” sensation in your chest. Well, cognac is best candidate for the job, and it also matches “French Quarter Feel”.

3. Gambit’s hypnotic suggestion power has gotten much less attention among the readers (everyone is always talking about card-throwing), but I wanted to include that aspect to the cocktail as well.

4. How about the bo staff? Getting whacked with metal staff (or thrown card loaded with kinetic energy) is best represented with quick flash of strong alcohol…

…but cramming all this into one enjoyable cocktail seemed impossible, that’s the reason why this project has been delayed…

…and so I decided to design two drinks for Gambit. I hope you enjoy them.

 

Yes, they’re DC cards… I’ve been ranting how much I hate “Marvel vs. DC”-bickering. They’re all superheroes; read the comic books, that’s what it’s all about, don’t waste your time with arguing about publishers. We’re all nerds, and proud of it! 😀

GAMBIT

Top layer, brown:

2 parts extra dry vermouth

1 part cognac

1 part Cointreau or Grand Marnier (or even Orange Curacao, for sweeter version)

Bottom layer, purple (couldn’t catch it in the pic, but it’s there and it’s beautiful IRL):

1 part Parfait Amour

1 part peach liqueur

(red grenadine, see below)

Shake bottom layer with ice and pour it into a cocktail glass. Stir brown layer with ice and layer on top of the purple layer (you can shake the brown layer, too, but it’ll look muddy for a while, until all the bubbles have dissipated). Add one small ice cube (I forgot that from the picture, sorry about that).

So… extra dry vermouth is, well, dry… and spicy. Combining it with cognac creates “a kinetic feel” in your mouth and chest, but a way too “raw”. Rounding it up with citrus liqueur creates a elegant cocktail (this is the man Rogue fell in love with)…

…but once you’ll work your way through the drink you’ll probably start to dislike the taste a bit… enter “hypnotic suggestion”. Peach liquer’s taste practically drowns the faint rose aroma of Parfait Amour, but the flower scent and vanilla taste still remain… truly a hypnotic experience…

…and since it “washes away” the accumulated dry spicyness from your taste buds, it works: “well, the end surprise was nice, I could have another one of these”. Talking about hypnotic suggestion! 😀

About purple colour… No, I couldn’t capture the purple colour in the picture, once again… but about the colour choice itself… you’re asking: “Gambit’s armour is more like magenta or pink-ish, what’s with the purple colour?”

Personally I think this colour is close enough, and it looks better with the brown top layer. If you really want more magenta-ish colour, add some red grenadine… and then you see that the contrast with the brown is too small, you’ll understand my decision to stick with the pure purple in Gambits I shake for myself and my Test Subjects.

Okay, guidelines one to three are there… how about number four, getting whacked with metal staff of thrown card? Please read on…

 

YES! Finally I managed to capture the purple colour with my camera! 😀

GAMBIT (CARD TRICK)

Top layer, brown:

1 part cognac

1 part absinthe

dash of Peychaud’s bitters

Bottom layer, purple:

1 part Parfait Amour

1 part peach liqueur

Shake layers separately with ice and layer them into a shot glass, brown on top of the purple. Down with one shot, no sipping.

Sazerac is New Orleans’ Official Cocktail, so using it as a basis for Gambit Cocktail #2 seemed mandatory… since we’re looking for “whacked in the head”-sensation, I decided to combine Sazerac with Earthquake.

Earthquake, Tremblement de Terre, is attributed to Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, The Legendary Decadent French Artist. One part cognac, one part absinthe… in a wine goblet! Yup, he died because of his hopeless alcoholism (and because of syfilis, too)… but Earthquake has “whacking aspect” I’m looking for.

What you’ll feel when gulping this down… it punches you, it sure does. Cognac “kinetically moves” and warms your chest, while the anise of absinthe stirs every cell in your mouth… then there’s a little relief in the form of peach aroma… but it vanishes really quickly, leaving only the the aftertaste of strong alcohol and avalanche of anise in your mouth (and wormwood and other spices, depending on what kind of absinthe you’re using).

As you see, the purple bottom layer is exactly the same as in the first Gambit Cocktail… but in this case it doesn’t really serve “the hypnotic suggestion” purpose. The taste of peach offers some aid for your tortured taste buds, but the faint aroma of Parfait Amour is completely lost here; it only serves the thematic colour purpose.

So this is how it feels to be clubbed with Gambit’s metal bo staff or to be a target of his thrown cards. And now we’ll move onto the second X-Man…

 

ICEMAN

4 parts alcohol with strong anise taste (see below)

1 to 2 parts Blue Curacao

4 parts lime juice

6 parts simple syrup

8 parts cream

Shake vigorously with ice and strain into a suitable glass filled with crushed ice. Add some kind of a stirrer.

So, one more version of Mr. Freeze (Killer Frost and Asp being variations of it)… but Mr. Freeze is so endlessly popular among my Test Subjects, I seems OK to introduce variations of the theme. Summertime is still here, it’s hot, so we’ll need some cold drinks to cool us down.

I wanted Iceman to be even more cold than Mr. Freeze… fresh and “throat-clearing” anise is the answer. This drink works with eg. Pernod, but I personally prefer absinthe high with anise flavour, low in wormwood and other spices; those kind of absinthes tend to be more neutral in colour, so they don’t screw “the glacial look” of the drink.

Downside is that strong alcohol tends to curdle the cream if you enjoy your drink slowly; hence the stirrer. Also… Mr. Freeze and its variants are all highballs, but somehow I enjoy Iceman from a smaller glass: anise delivers a glacial feeling, but if the glass is too big the refreshing sensation turns into something not-so-enjoyable towards the end. And if the glass is smaller, it is digested more quickly; the cream doesn’t have a time to curdle.

 

So, those were today’s cocktails. I hope you’ll enjoy them 😀

 

Some superheroes are dead serious, to the point where writers feel forced insert little jokes about their dark and grim worldview in the stories… for example Batman and The Punisher.

Some characters, however, are downright ridicilous, from the moment they are sketched on the paper for the very first time. Today we’ll concentrate on them.

 

BOUNCING BOY

Blue part, top:

White rum

Blue Curacao, for colour

Black part, bottom:

1 part De Kyuper Blueberry

1 part Bols Cocoa White (or similar liqueur)

1 part tequila blanco

(1 part simple syrup, if you feel like it)

black food colouring

Add some ice to an old fashioned glass (somehow I feel essential that single big ice ball is used). Shake parts separately with ice and layer into the glass: black bottom, blue top. You can serve it with a straw or without one, see below.

 

Well, if this character isn’t a Comic Relief, I don’t know what is… The namesake cocktail is not just alcohols with right colour, layered on top of another, with an ice ball underlining the shape of the character…

Blue top layer is dry and pretty harsh; well, it’s basically just rum. The black bottom layer, however, is nothing but… the blend of cocoa and blueberry, spiked with tequila, creates a taste that “bounces” in the mouth 😀

Personally I prefer going through the blue part first (experiencing the high peak of bouncing trajectory) and then diving into the bottom of the bounce, where The Boy squashes like a superball, ready to launch himself up into the sky again… but if you want to experience multiple bounces during this drink, enjoy it with the straw and alternate between the layers.

You might hate this character (many people do), but please give the cocktail a try: it’s deee-licious 😀

 

PLASTIC MAN

3 parts Campari

2 parts vodka

2 parts sala syrup

8 parts apple juice

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

 

Marvel has Mr. Fantastic, DC has Elongated Man (sorry, no cocktail yet, I’ve been thinking about it since I last time read The Identity Crisis once again)… and then there’s Plastic Man.

The comical aspects of a stretching superhero are so obvious, this character had to be created by someone in the business. The principle of the cocktail is simple… the taste streches, like a rubber band. And the taste is “hilarious”, sala syrup does that, that’s why I used it in Deadpool.

 

Couple of silly (but tasty) summer drinks… so what’s next? I was planning to publish something under the title “These two have been delayed for too long”… but I guess they have to be delayed little more…

I got a cocktail request for Gambit. I’ve been working on that character for some time now, but I just can’t get “The Feel” right… I have my notes for different approaches, I guess I have to explore them again… and then there is also another X-Man to be published with him.

I’ll see you in a week or two. Enjoy your cocktails! 😀

 

I’ve been working on mocktails lately, and I decided to publish all of them in the same post. No cocktails today, but don’t worry: we’ll get back to those next time.

Mocktail compilation is updated, you can find it and other downloads in Recipes and downloads.

 

HUMAN TORCH

4 parts carrot juice

4 parts apple juice

1 part red grenadine

dash of vanilla extract

couple dashes of Tabasco sauce

Shake with ice and strain into a suitable glass, add some ice.

Two cocktail versions of Human Torch are both fiery in their own way. In this mocktail version I decided to balance Tabasco with vanilla (vanilla goes surprisingly well with carrot), otherwise the result would have been too straightforward, actually a bit dull… I hope you like it.

 

IRON MAN

1 part tomato juice

1 part energy drink (of your choice)

(dash of Tabasco sauce)

Build into a highball glass, add some ice.

Iron Man The Cocktail is build around two principles: “mechanical” taste (since his powers derive from “machine” source) and tomato juice… Tony Stark is an alcoholic, I’m sure he has enjoyed quite a many Bloody Marys for hangover during the years; let’s include the main ingredient of that drink for the namesake cocktail also. And it suits the colour theme, too.

Same guidelines for mocktail. Energy drink, with its stingy taste, works fine for non-alcoholic Iron Man representation. By the way, if you didn’t know… that stingy taste is derived from taurine, which is manufactured out of bile. yes, bile from gallbladder. Taurine doesn’t make you active or something, but the defiency of it can make you feel tired; that’s why it’s added to energy drinks.

Anyway, that stingy taste is great non-alcoholic alternative for creating “cold and mechanical” feel for a drink. Mixed with tomato juice… I think it’s a decent mixture. Tabasco sauce is not essential, feel free to add it for extra kick.

I’m working on a second version of Iron Man The Cocktail… nothing wrong with first version, but I feel that Tony Stark deserves another cocktail bearing his name. It’s going to be published next winter, stay tuned.

 

SINESTRO

3 parts Mountain Dew

1/2 to 1 part orange juice

dash of vanilla extract

(small dash of lime juice, if any)

Build into a suitable glass, add crushed ice.

Long time since I’ve been reading Green Lantern… I picked up Sinestro War albums and crammed them ravenously. Cocktail versions of Parallax and Kilowog coming up next winter, maybe some other Green/Yellow Lantern Corps Characters…

…but I decided to start with a mocktail version of Sinestro. Since the proper mixture of lager, Galliano and lime juice somehow create a taste of Mountain Dew, I simple decided to use it as a basis for non-alcoholic drink. Very refreshing summer drink, I hope you like it.

That’s it for today. Next time, superhero drinks with alcohol 😀

 

 

In the first “It’s a kinda Magic”-post I introduced cocktails for Dr. Fate, Dr. Strange and Zatanna Zatara. Today we’ll check out couple more characters dabbling in magic, and since it’s warm and bright outside, the drink are going to be “summery”.

 

ENCHANTRESS

1 part ginger rum

2 parts sour apple liqueur

1 part apple juice

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. “Mystical/magical” garnish.

Delighful little drink with the fiery of ginger, accompanied with the sweet ‘n sour of apple liqueur; apple juice is there to cut down the sharp taste a little.

Decent representation of June Moore’s powers, I dare to say… but if you’re looking for a cool highball for those hot summer afternoons, you should turn your gaze to the Caribbean…

 

CALYPSO

4 parts whisky (or dark rum, see below)

4 parts Midori

1,5 parts Heering

1 part green Chartreuse

8 parts pineapple juice

4 parts orange juice

1,5 parts lemon juice

1 part red grenadine

Shake with ice and strain into a suitable highball glass with lots of ice in it. Weirdest voodoo garnish you can come up with.

Calypso, being a voodoo priestess from the Caribbean, demanded a “weird tropical highball” as her namesake cocktail. I started with a fusion of Singapore Sling and Planter’s Punch… And after that disappointment I started adding this and removing that… and after numerous days of trial and error I came up with this.

There’s not much of either the Sling or the Punch left, but instead we have a bizarre medley of aromas… if this isn’t “The Taste of Voodoo”, I don’t know what is!

“But there’s no rum in it?”, you say, “what kind of “Voodoo Drink” is that?” You’re right, no rum. You can substitute whisky for dark rum with a very strong flavour… but somehow I feel this works better with whisky.

That’s it for today. See you next time!

 

Hello! With today’s cocktails I hit 175 recipes, please check out the updated compilation in Recipes and downloads.

Midsummer’s Eve is upon us, I’m gonna take a little break from writing this blog… couple of weeks, I’ll be back in July.

But without further delay, today’s cocktails…

 

POISON IVY (THE GREEN)

2 parts gin

4 parts Lillet

1 to 2 parts Bols Pear (or similar pear liqueur)

cucumber

Pour gin into a cocktail shaker, add few cucumber wheels. Mash with suitable pestle until you have a green pulp.

Let it rest for a while, in the meantime garnish highball glass with cucumbers, add some ice.

Add Lillet, pear liqueur and some ice into the shaker. Shake and strain into the glass.

My first two Poison Ivy cocktails are very different from each other: Poison Ivy is… well “toxic”, when Poison Ivy (Pamela) is sweet and seducing. I designed the mocktail version based on (non-alcoholic) sparkling wine or pear lemonade… That gave me the idea, why not utilize pear for alcoholic version also?

Cucumber and gin give certain “sourness” to the drink, and Lillet also adds its own quinine aroma… balanced with sweet pear, now we have the drink that tries to depict The Green, the way Poison Ivy harnesses that power. I think it’s pretty decent highball, try it out if you want something “non-fruit juice sweet” as a refreshment in your summer holiday.

For another look on The Green, please check out Swamp Thing (The Green).

 

WONDER WOMAN (DIANA)

7 cl (2 2/3 oz) De Kyuper Sour Rhubarb

4 cl (1 1/2 oz) Jim Beam (or salmiac Jim Beam, see below)

vanilla extract, to taste

egg white (see below)

(dash of simple syrup, if needed)

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish appropriately (I got lazy when taking the pic).

My first Wonder Woman The Cocktail sports fiery ginger taste; suitable for a noble Amazon in the battlefield. The second version uses salmiac Jim Beam… I think it’s a great drink, but since salmiac is not widely available worldwide, I decided to design one more version of WW… sour and “crisp” sour rhubarb tells you this dame isn’t to be fooled around with; vanilla extract reminds that she has a gentle side, too; bourbon adds substance, salmiac version even more…

…and egg white ties it together to a very pleasant cocktail experience. And if you absolutely loathe egg white in your cocktail, this drink can be manufactured without it. It’s going to be very sweet, so please add some crushed ice to the glass, to keep it cool for a longer time (to cut down the sweet factor).

 

So there it is, third version of both Poison Ivy and Wonder Woman… I don’t think I’ll meddle on those two characters anymore… but there are still numerous superheroes and villains to be covered… ;P

HAPPY MIDSUMMER’S EVE! HYVÄÄ JUHANNUSTA!