Slushie cocktails are the Rodney Dangerfield of the cocktail world: endlessly amusing but they get no respect.
While they may not get the attention of many craft bartenders or cocktail snobs they can be undeniably satisfying to drink on a miserably hot and humid day. (Under those circumstances I’d rather be sipping a frosty and fruity concoction with an umbrella than some frou-frou drink that calls for four kinds of bitters and an absinthe rinse. Just saying.)
In the UK, witness the ascendancy of the frosé, a slushie with rosé as its base. London’s Evening Standard noted that the concoction had “emerged as the latest drink of choice for sun worshipping Instagrammers, with wine-lovers taking to their apps to show their appreciation for a bottle of frozen blush.”
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Of course, in many parts of the US July 4th kicks off the hottest part of the summer and is the perfect excuse to pull out the blender or ice crusher.
You can pick up some mixological credit by using a traditional mallet and canvas Lewis bag to crush your ice. Warning: You may break a sweat employing these old-timey methods. But they come in handy if you’re at a place, say a remote beach or a lake in the middle of the woods, without reliable power to run a blender.
If you’re looking for something truly special, something that you won’t find at every Independence Day barbecue try SushiSamba’s Avocado Batida. It calls for, you guessed it, avocado puree as well as cachaça and a chocolate spirit.
It was dreamed up by the restaurant chain’s inventive lead bartender Richard Woods, who took top honors in Bombay Sapphire’s World’s Most Imaginative Bartender Competition in the UK and Ireland. No, it doesn’t taste like guacamole. The avocado gives it a rich and creamy texture like an adult soft serve ice cream. Your guests will have a hard time identifying what’s in it but will certainly be asking for seconds.
Avocado Batida
Created by Richard Woods
Ingredients:
1.5 oz Cachaça1.5oz Avocado puree.75 oz Monin orgeat syrup2 tsp Mozart Dry Chocolate Spirit
Garnish:Handful of maize cancha or corn nuts
Glass:Collins glass
Directions:
Peel and blend 8 avocados with 250 ml of water to make the puree, which lasts one day. Add all the ingredients to a Collins glass, fill with crush ice and swizzle (or stir vigorously). Garnish with a handful of maize cancha or corn nuts.
Like an Independence Day fireworks show the classic Three Dots and A Dash, is a no-fail crowd pleaser. Our recipe comes from all-star San Francisco bartender Martin Cate’s new book Smuggler’s Cove, which is also the name of his excellent tiki bar.
The drink, which will probably necessitate a liquor store run to find some of the ingredients, is definitely worth the extra work. It’s a refreshing mix that calls for citrus juice, rum, rhum agricole from Martinique and a few other flavorful spirits.
The drink was invented by one of the fathers of tiki Donn Beach and, according to Cate is Morse code for “victory.”
Three Dots and A Dash
Contributed by Martin Cate
Ingredients:
.5 oz Fresh lime juice.5 oz Fresh orange juice.5 oz SC Honey Syrup*.25 oz John D. Taylor’s Velvet Falernum.25 oz St. Elizabeth Allspice Dram1.5 oz Rhum agricole vieux (Duquesne Élevé Sous Bois or J.M Gold).5 oz Blended aged rum (Appleton Estate Reserve or Real McCoy 5 Year)1 dash Angostura bitters
Glass:Pilsner
Garnish:Three maraschino cherries and a pineapple chunk speared on a cocktail pick, or three maraschino cherries on a cocktail pick plus a pineapple frond.
Directions:
Add all the ingredients to a blender. Fill with 12 ounces of crushed ice, flash blend, and pour contents into a pilsner glass. Garnish with three maraschino cherries and a pineapple chunk speared on a cocktail pick, or three maraschino cherries on a cocktail pick plus a pineapple frond.
SC Honey Syrup*
Ingredients:
1.5 cups Honey1.5 cups Water
Directions:
Heat the honey in a saucepan over medium heat until runny and not viscous—nearly to a boil but not quite. Add the water to the hot honey and whisk together. Immediately remove from the heat. Let cool. Store in a lidded bottle or other sealable container in the refrigerator. The syrup will keep, refrigerated, for several weeks.
One icy drink that you can order even in the most serious of mixology bars is the traditional Cobbler. It’s a simple formula that basically works with any spirit or wine. Our recipe comes from Frank Caiafa’s The Waldorf Astoria Bar Book and is so easy and delicious you should commit it to memory. And it’s perfect if you have to make a last-minute drink for your July 4th guests.
Cobbler
Contributed by Frank Caiafa
Ingredients:
2.5 oz Any spirit4 oz Wine or sherry of choice.5 oz Simple syrup (one part sugar, one part water)2 Orange and lemon wheels
Glass:Goblet
Garnish: Citrus wheel and seasonal berries and fruit
Directions:
Add all the ingredients to a shaker and fill with ice. Shake and strain into a goblet filled with crushed ice. Garnish with a citrus wheel and seasonal berries and fruit.
