Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Tiki Days of Summer in Oakland and NEW BLOG!!

Greetings! Please note that this blog is being moved to http://mixanthrope.com/blog/. Check out the new site with lots more recipes, stunning photos, and general booze fueled shenanigans! Mahalo!

Let me offer an invitation to join me for midsummer tropical cocktails this THURSDAY, JULY 5, 2012, from 4pm til 1am at THE NEW EASY, (3255 Lakeshore Avenue Oakland, CA 94610) to celebrate the launch of new site and enjoy midsummer tiki madness! I'll be there with brand new original tropical cocktails and great tiki tunes, shaking em up behind the stick.

Before I can share with you the details of Thursday's new offerings, I had to make myself a drink (self-preservation, you know). So, while roasting up apricots for a homemade shrubb and chopping ghost peppers and strawberries for infusions, I'm keeping cool in Oakland with this collins. I've shared with you the Cape Verde Collins, inspired by the sounds and tastes of the Cape Verde Islands, but here is a new collins using spirits from Cape Verde itself. While I was in Boston on my way to Ohana, Luau at the Lake, I took a side trip to a shop in Boston that has a fantastic selection of Cape Verdian Grogues (a sugar cane rum spirit, similar to an agricole) and Ponches (liqueurs made from the grogues). As many of you know, I'm a big fan of agricole style rums and sugar cane based spirits, and these spirits from Cape Verde are amongst my favorites. Rich, vegetal, with lots of funk and presense, these are just so unique and wonderful. This collins makes use of a grogue and a ponche, and definitely does not apologize for itself.



Tropicana Grogue Collins

1.5 oz Tropicana Grogue (branco)

1 oz Fresh Lemon Juice

1 oz Merlet Creme de Peche

1 oz Vale de Paul Ponche for float

top with Bouvet sparkling brut



Shake grogue with lemon and creme de peche. Pour into collins. Top with Vale de Paul Ponche (it will sink). Garnish with fresh mint and lemon half wheels.

For Thursday, be sure to join me for a new menu of these delectable desireables:

Fire and Ice: Smoky mezcal and ginger join my homemade triple pepper strawberry shrubb ( jolokia, jalapeno and fresno chilies with fresh strawberry) in a tall spicy and refreshing drink created for Tim Mayer and his killer recording of the namesake tune on his new album Resilience;

Lisbon Grogue: a spicy, grog style cocktail built around my newest falernum, with Delto Oro coffee from Portugal, pineapple, lime, almond and rich spices, and the unintimidatable Angostura 7 rum;

Falcon of France: my twist on Master Mixologist Randy Wong's twist on the aviation - this cocktail features a housemade roasted apricot-meyer lemon shrubb, gin, fresh lemon, maraschino liqueur and a pinch of Portuguese coffee.

Have a great 4th, and I'll see YOU, THURSDAY nite, at the New Easy!

-- Suzanne