Harvest Rye

When the year end holidays roll around, I start to look forward to the Harvest Rye cocktail:

• 2 ounces High West Double Rye
• 1 ounce Sour Mix
• 1 ounce Apple Shrub
• Cider Foam
• Fresh nutmeg

Shake the first three ingredients in an iced shaker and pour into a cocktail glass. Top with cider foam and fresh nutmeg.

My first trip to the bluezoo restaurant at Walt Disney World in Orlando was formative in my desire to make cocktails. Not only do they revive vintage cocktails, they make a number of delicious new ones. When I first had this one, it was so new it didn’t even have a name. Chad Lobner, the General Manager, was kind enough to share some of their recipes with me. He works hard at trying to preserve the spirit behind the classics but adding new twists such as as the use of infusions, gels and foams.

Lucien Gaudin Cocktail

I had just come back from a trip to Germany, and even though my body was supposed to be at four in the morning, I found myself a little too wired to sleep. I figured a nice cocktail would be just the thing, but since I’d been gone for a week I had no fresh fruit in the refrigerator. Going through all of the recipes in the book I kept getting stymied due to a lack of lime, lemon, orange or even grapefruit juice.

Life is Beautiful

It may seem funny that my second cocktail post doesn’t come from the book that inspired the website, but my love of cocktails was inspired by a number of people as well, including my friends Demetri and Cat in Chicago.

Whenever I would visit we would end up at the bar at the Florentine, which is located in the JW Marriott hotel. On one visit I was introduced to “Life is Beautiful” and not only is it my go-to cocktail when I’m there, it is my go-to at home as well.

The Corpse Reviver #2

I knew that there was something to my desire to do this site when I was trying to decide on the first cocktail to feature. I didn’t want to do them alphabetically, so I just opened a page at random. The first recipe I saw was for “The Corpse Reviver #2”. It just so happens that this was the first cocktail the author tried.

It just so happens I had all the ingredients.