Category Archives: Cocktails

Pumpkin Shrub & Punchkin Spice Harvest Punch

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At the old job, it was hardly a secret was quite known for enjoyment of mixology, and I never really minded sharing. Having a lot of people to “keep watered” as the kids used to say, could provide a logistical challenge depending on demand, at least if you wanted to hand craft cocktails for an army of folks.

As a natural result of that, I’ve found my way into experimenting quite a bit with champagne punches, particularly after trying the fabulous Rosemary, Baby! punch from Serious Eats. (It is an excellent intro to champagne punches for anyone by the way.)

Using that rough ratio, I’ve enjoyed great success in producing mass quantities of libations that required little in the way of personal supervision or hands on delivery.

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One of my more famed recipes came due to a request from the front desk asking for some assistance during Halloween. It being a season for pumpkins, the first though that came to mind was somehow incorporating a pumpkin shrub into the punch, and cinnamon for that autumnal feeling. I did think about adding more of the spices associated with pumpkin pie but…. I had a schedule to keep! To skip to the recipe click here. Continue reading →

A Cocktail for Fall – The Kentucky Moose

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A classic drink with a maple twist

As Autumn has comfortably settled in for those of us in the Northern hemisphere, I think it’s the proper time to share a recipe that I devised at work, because of one of the more unique ingredients I’ve used personally, maple syrup. Long story short, at Prosperworks we name releases after foods, and when possible, we make cocktails to celebrate them.

This was my contribution, the Kentucky Moose. So named for its roots in the Kentucky Mule, and well, I know there are a lot of moose in Canada.

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Sidenote: I feel the need to say that while maple syrup can be appreciated year round, there’s something about cooling weather (or at least the idea of cooling weather here in California) that makes reaching for that opaque plastic jug of maple syrup that much more appealing.

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Cocktail Hour: Steve Beets Adversity – Making the Most of Malört

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A Cook and a Geek’s Custom Cocktail, featuring Malört

Steve Beets Adversity

Consider this post a sign of good faith that I’m doing my best to not let this blog lay fallow too long!

Since the posting of my second custom cocktail which was inspired by a Facebook Post of my friend Meagan, the Bacon Van Schmidt, a certain mutual friend of ours has been perhaps a tiny bit jealous and definitely nudging me to make a cocktail after him.

That friend, is Steve.

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Given that Steve is from Chicago and gave me my first taste of Malört (a distilled beverage I believe to be associated with hazing new people in Chicago), I decided the right thing to do was make a cocktail involving that rather challenging liquor. While plying his fiancée for ideas, she suggested that I make the use of beets, since even though she thought beets were icky, Steve might like them. With that, I resolved to make a cocktail involving Malört and make my own beet shrub, and hope for the best.

And I resolved to make it a triumph of beet over evil Malört, so that I could call the cocktail the Steve Beets Adversity. Steve, because Steve. Beets, because beet shrub. And adversity? It’s pretty clear what the adversity was here.

Also because puns.

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Cocktail Time: The Bacon Van Schmidt

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A margarita with a couple twists

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One night, I was browsing Facebook and noticed my friend Meagan Van Schmidt was celebrating the extremely adult decision to have margaritas and eat bacon for her dinner that evening. Inspiration struck almost immediately to develop a new cocktail, with a standard cocktail to base it on, a novel ingredient, and a name that rhymed with that ingredient.

I know that cocktails with bacon is not an entirely original thing, but still, the idea grasped me so firmly that I had to make it a reality. That and I’m not one to crush a friend’s dreams once I’ve uttered it aloud.

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