Drinks - quick and easy recipes - page 12

CHOW.com asked chefs from a handful of our favorite restaurants to create better versions of seasonal lattes, with quality ingredients. Here’s former Absinthe pastry chef Luis Villavelazquez’s interpretation. This version of what is usually a nasty spice bomb calls for real pumpkin purée and subtle Indian seasonings. The base can easily be made ahead.

This drink comes to us courtesy of Martin Cate, owner of Smuggler’s Cove in San Francisco. The aged rum, molasses, and allspice liqueur lend nice complexity to the cocktail. What to buy: Allspice liqueur (a.k.a. Pimento or Allspice Dram) is available at specialty liquor stores. We like the St. Elizabeth brand distributed by Haus Alpenz.

Jeff “Beachbum” Berry has spent years uncovering the recipes for original tiki drinks from the ‘30s and ’40s. The Nui Nui—featured in Berry’s book Beachbum Berry’s Sippin’ Safari—was originally made by Don the Beachcomber, circa 1937. Even though it’s blended, this is no cheesy boat drink—it has complex flavors of cinnamon, allspice, and vanilla mixed with rum and fresh juices. W

Jeff “Beachbum” Berry has spent years uncovering the recipes for original tiki drinks from the ‘30s and ’40s. The Zombie—featured in Berry’s book Beachbum Berry’s Sippin’ Safari—is a Don the Beachcomber signature cocktail that has been poorly reinterpreted over the years, most often as a bad drink resembling a tropical Long Island iced tea. This recipe dates to about 1934. Berry found it in the 1937 notebook of Beachcomber waiter Dick Santiago, who had marked the recipe “old.”

The blue-curaçao hue of the Na’vi people in the 2010 Oscar-nominated film Avatar may look a little frightening, as does this cocktail at first glance. But a few sips and the spiced Velvet Falernum will give you enough courage to travel by dragon. What to buy: If you can’t find Velvet Falernum, a clove- and lime-infused liqueur, try making your own. We think this recipe is a great stand-in. This Flying Blue Dragon recipe was featured as part of our Best Picture Cocktails story.

This is Richard Boccato and Giuseppe Gonzalez’s take on a classic tiki cocktail, and is the namesake for their neo-tiki bar Painkiller in New York City.

The 2010 Oscar-winning film The Hurt Locker, about an Army bomb squad unit in Iraq, calls for a drink that sparks the palate and detonates the senses. We present … the Exploding Sidecar.

Dale DeGroff taught us this simple syrup technique, which skips the typical heating and cooling process. Next up: Learn how to make cold-brew coffee with Chowhound’s easy recipe. Game plan: For Demerara simple syrup, just substitute Demerara sugar for white.

I first tried a version of this cocktail at Audrey Saunders’s Pegu Club in Manhattan. A sip later, I was hooked. If you are a Manhattan Cocktail drinker and want to change things up a bit, try this recipe. Angostura, traditionally used in a Manhattan, is replaced with cynar. What to buy: Cynar is an Italian bitter apéritif made from about 13 herbs and plants, the most predominant of which is artichoke. It can be purchased at most liquor stores or online.

This recipe is the real deal, tracing back to Victor “Trader Vic” Bergeron Jr. in the 1930s. It comes to us via Martin Cate, owner of Smuggler’s Cove in San Francisco. (Who based it on the recipe found in Jeff Berry’s book Beachbum Berry’s Sippin’ Safari.) What to buy: Orgeat is an almond-sugar syrup traditionally made from whole blanched almonds.

Although the combinations of spices and herbs used in aquavit are endless, some of the most recognized flavors include caraway, anise, fennel, and cardamom. This infused spirit from Scandinavia is best enjoyed straight from the freezer as a shot—accompanied by a toast.

Authentic grenadine syrup is made from pomegranate juice sweetened with sugar and flavored with a few drops of lemon juice and orange-flower water (as opposed to corn syrup and red dye). Once you taste the real deal in, say, a Mary Pickford, you’ll never go back to the Shirley Temple cocktail mixer of your youth.

A classic summer cooler, a lime rickey can be mixed up with gin or bourbon or, for a virgin rickey (like this one), with fruit syrup. Either rendition is equally bubbly, limey, and thirst-quenching.

The Adonis is a simple, low-alcohol, sherry-based cocktail. In its original form, the Adonis is a wine cocktail that dates back to the late 1800s. The name is derived from an 1884 play about a gorgeous male statue that comes to life and finds human ways so unpleasant that he willingly turns back into stone. Adonis was the first Broadway play to run for more than 500 performances, but despite its lineage, the Adonis cocktail is rarely seen anymore and has entered the endangered species list.

Infusing lots of mint and freshly grated ginger into a simple syrup takes the muddling out of these Mojitos. Since the base of the cocktail is made in advance, all you have to do is add ice and club soda—perfect for parties or your next tailgate. T