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Paula's Texas Orange and
Paula's Texas Lemon,
premium liqueurs handmade
in Austin, Texas.
Both products are available in
fine liquor stores and
discriminating drinking
establishments throughout Texas.
Spring is here!

Drink of the Month

Spring Fling

This is an easy one to make up and serve before Easter lunch. I made a single drink in a mini-processor, but you can make a batch in the blender. For each drink, mix:
  • 1 ½ oz. Treaty Oak Rum
  • 1 oz. Paula's Texas Lemon
  • 3 good-sized fresh strawberries
  • 3 big mint leaves
  • full half-cup of ice
Place ingredients in a blender and process until smooth. Garnish with mint sprig.


From Dale Degroff's The Essential Cocktail

Stork Club Cocktail

Dale dug up the recipe for the signature drink from the Stork Club, perhaps the grandest of the '50s New York supper clubs. Its sophistication will want to make you dress up even at home and put Old Blue Eyes on the turntable.

Dale warns not to substitute the Cointreau with anything inferior (triple sec) or brandified (Grand Marnier), so of course we had to make it with PTO. It's delightful.
  • 1½ oz. gin
  • ¾ oz. PTO (substituted for Cointreau)
  • 1 oz. fresh-squeezed orange juice (just buy a fresh orange)
  • ½ oz. fresh-squeezed lime juice
  • Dash of Angostura bitters (or orange bitters if you have it)
  • Flamed orange peel for garnish
In a mixing glass, combine the gin, PTO, orange juice, lime juice, and bitters with ice and shake well. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with the orange peel.

Spring Fling

Spring Fling
 
Cocktail professionals

The term "mixologist" is bandied about quite a lot these days to distinguish one who diligently crafts cocktails from someone employed to slosh together drinks for mass consumption. However, the term "bartender", or as I prefer "barkeep", has soothing connotations of someone whose job is not only to provide an excellent drink, but to attend to your needs for conversation and psychoanalysis as well. Like any profession, there are rare individuals who can fulfill both roles, and it's these folks who keep me coming back to an establishment. Cheers to you!

Cocktail culture nomenclature

So we have our mixologists who invent and craft cocktails. We have the rest of us who mightily enjoy the results. What do we call the entire community? "Drinkies" just doesn't have the ring of "foodies". And I'd say the "slow drink movement" doesn't accurately describe it. Plays on the word "cocktail" become vulgar. Does anyone out there have the perfect term? Send me your ideas, and I'll publish them in a future newsletter.

Cocktail equipment

Making up the Stork Club Cocktail made me appreciate the spare collection of cocktail-making equipment I have. I made full use of the two jiggers I have; one has ½ and ¾ ounce sides while the other has 1 and 1½ ounce sides. A shaker is required--the best has one glass and one metal tin with a strainer. You'll see bartenders shake up a drink with one hand overhead. They can do that because the two containers form a vacuum during shaking. This can also create a bit of a problem in separating the two, so always remember to attach them at a slight angle to allow for release.
 





Join us at

Hill Country Wine and Food Festival Sunday Fair, Sunday, April 19, noon-5 p.m., Vineyards at the Salt Lick, Driftwood

Dallas Wine and Food Festival Texas Salute!, Friday, April 24, 6-8 p.m., Eddie Deen's Ranch, 944 S. Lamar, Dallas

CharityBash, Thursday, April 30, 7-10 p.m., Lanai, 422 Congress., Austin

Art Car Parade VIPit Party, Saturday, May 9, 11 a.m-3 p.m., 1100 Bagby, Houston
Paula's Texas Orange 40% alc. by volume. Paula's Texas Lemon 30% alc. by volume.
Bottled by Texacello LLC, Austin, TX.

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