Begun in November 2011, this project is an attempt to devise at least one seasonally-themed cocktail each month. Some are more common sense or predictable than others, but for experimentalism's sake nothing is based directly on a pre-existing recipe.
[Nov|Dec|Jan|Feb|Mar|Apr|May|Jun|Jul|Aug|Sep|Oct]
Mix the ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice and strain into a martini glass. Verdict: Good. A tasty drink, but the honey flavor can be overpowering if you use too heavy a hand with the Barenjager. Omit the muddled pears and just use pear juice for a less textured drink.
Chocolate Candy Cane
Mix the alcohol ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice and strain into a martini glass rimmed with chocolate sauce and crushed peppermint candy. Verdict: Good. The drink was very nice, but the garnish was a little too runny/messy using chocolate syrup (festive as it was).
Gingerbread Fizz
* 750ml unflavored vodka was infused with 3 cinnamon sticks, approximately a tablespoon of cloves (though this was probably too much), and 2-3 tablespoons of chopped ginger for about a week and then strained. Serve over ice with a splash of ginger ale or cider to taste in an old-fashioned glass. Garnish the rim with spice drops. Verdict: So-so. It was a decent spiced vodka but wasn't terribly reminiscent of gingerbread. Attempts to incorporate molasses as a flavor failed.
Black and Bloody New Year
Mix the juice, puree, orange liqueur, and bitters and pour into a champagne flute. Top with the sparkling wine. Verdict: Good. Tasty, sweet, decadent, but doesn't pack a lot of punch alcohol content-wise.
My Poison Valentine
Mix the alcohol and juices with ice and strain into a martini glass. Top with a splash of soda water. Verdict: Meh. Kinda tasted like Good 'N Plenty, but I think there's something a little off-putting about raw cherry juice after all.
Peanut Butter Cup Martini
* Peanut cream liqueur can purchased but may be hard to find. I infused a bottle of Cruzan rum cream with a cup of chopped roasted peanuts for a week and it turned out perfect. Combine the ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice and strain into a martini glass that's been lined with a swirl of chocolate syrup inside. Verdict: Excellent. It's rich and easy to drink, but still has a fairly aggressive alcohol content.
Gone Green
Muddle the mint and lime juice in an old-fashioned glass. Add the vodka, liqueur, and ice. Stir and top with lemon-lime soda to taste. Garnish with a cucumber slice. Verdict: Not bad. It has nice, bright flavors but it may be a little grassy/unusual.
Tricky Tangerine Gimlet
Mix the liquid ingredients and serve over ice. Drink under the effects of the miracle fruit to shift the flavor profile. Verdict: Pretty good. It's definitely super-sweet after the miracle fruit; it would probably better without, but that's the gimmick!
Fire Flower
Pour a small layer of grenadine into an old-fashioned glass and top with ice. Mix the vodka, liqueur, and pineapple juice in a cocktail shaker with ice and slowly pour over the ice in the glass to get the fiery gradation. Verdict: Tasty. Between the jalapeño vodka and elderflower/grenadine there's a lot of leeway to adjust the balance of spicy and sweet to personal preference.
Watermelon Mojito
Muddle the lime, mint, and rum in a cocktail glass. Add ice and the simple syrup, then fill the remainder of the glass with watermelon juice and club soda (about a 1:2 ratio, to taste). Garnish with a watermelon cube. Verdict: Not bad. I tried garnishing with a rum-infused watermelon cube but it didn't taste good at all; don't bother.
Strawberry Shortcake Martini
In a cocktail shaker, muddle a fresh strawberry with the alcohols. Add the cream and shake with ice. Strain into a cocktail glass with ice, and garnish with the other strawberry. Verdict: Good. Sweet and creamy, very drinkable.
Wildberry Lemonade
Puree and strain the berries. Mix the lemonade, vodka, and berry puree in a large pitcher and, optionally, garnish with floating lemon wheels and blueberries. Verdict: Meh. All the effort to use fresh ingredients was wasted by using raspberry vodka, which resulted in feedback that the lemonade tasted artificial. I guess the lesson is to stick to unflavored or lemon vodkas in this situation.
Peanut Butter and Jelly Martini
Verdict: Failure. I know there are similar recipes and even commercially available PB&J flavored vodka, but I wanted to try my own hand at the flavor combo. After the third recipe variation curdled though, I gave up on this one...
Caramel Appletini
Shake the vodkas with ice and strain into a martini glass. Add a squeeze of lemon. Garnish with an apple slice and a caramel candy. Verdict: Meh. With these particular vodkas, the mild flavors don't rise above the alcoholic bite, and even after a few variations no particular ratio of ingredients stood out. To make up for an undrinkable caramel-drizzled concoction of butterscotch schnapps and green apple pucker from a few Halloweens back, I wanted something simple, straightforward, and not too sweet, but apple cider probably would've been more successful than the apple vodka this time.
