Banana Daiquiri... sort of.

Here's tonight drink.
Banana daiquiri. Well, my own personal take on it. Here's what I put in it.

• One banana
• 2 oz Banana rum
• 1 oz Lime juice
• A dash of cherry liqueur.
  
• Crushed ice

Put everything in the blender and voila!

It was not perfect. But it was pretty good. I was looking for a way to use the banana rum I made a while back. I think it needed something more. This recipe tasted like a smoothie. I tried adding Kahlua and it was better. I'll try it next time with Maraschino liqueur. (If I can find some.)

Yes, I know it's been a while. See I had lost my camera's charger and was totally unable to take pictures. And then my dog peed on my homework. I swear, it was freaky!

Friday night, Philippe and I tried some cocktail from "The Ultimate Bar Book". I quite like this book. It has TONS of recipies and order them by main ingredients. We felt like trying some of the rum section.

The first one we tried was "Bolero #2" which was horrible!!! We don't have a picture because we threw it down the drain too fast!

Here are a couple of cocktails that we actually liked.

First one : Bahama Mama. Here is the recipe.

• 1 oz Dark rum
• 1/2 oz Coconut rum
• 1/2 oz Coffee liqueur
• 4 oz Pineapple juice
• 1 1/2 oz fresh lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon 151-proof Rum

You should shake all ingredients but the 151-proof Rum in a shaker with ice. And then poor it into a chilled cocktail glass and float the 151 on top.

Frankly, we didn't follow this recipe completely. We skipped the 151-proof Rum. We also used white rum instead of dark since the last drops of our dark rum had just been thrown down the drain! But the drink was very nice and interesting. The coffee liqueur and the coconut gave it a rich nutty flavor. But the drink still was light and fruity because of the pineapple and lemon.

Second One : Sex on the beach #1.
Alright I admit to two things. First, no rum. Second, I had made that one before. But after the bolero fiasco, I decided to go for a sure bet.

• 1 oz Vodka
• 1 oz Peach Schnapps
• 3 oz Fresh grapefruit juice
  
• 3 oz Cranberry juice

I used "unfresh" grapefruit juice and pomegranate juice instead of cranberry. I'm a rebel.

That's all for our friday night. Well, we also watched "Why we fight". It was quite depressing. Need more drinks!

The banana rum frappe

I found this cocktail on p.121 of "raising the bar." It has two main ingredients pineapple juice and banana rum.

PROS : Tasty and pretty. Can't go wrong with pineapple, bananas and rum.
CONS : You have to put banana chips in the rum and let it soak 48 hours! Who's got the patience? (I took some of the rum out after four hours to make me a cocktail. My bad. I have to admit it was better after the full 48 hours of sitting.


RECIPE (15 drinks!!!)

Banana rum

• 12 dried banana slices
• 4 ounces boiling water
• 2 ounces unsulfured molasses
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 liter dark rum
• 1 large vanilla bean

Place the banana slices in a large recipient with a lid.
Add the water, the molasses and the brown sugar and stir.
Let sit for 2 minutes.
Stir in the rum and the vanilla seeds and bean.
Shake vigourously.
Let sit in the refrigerator for 48 hours shaking occasionally.

Banana Rum Frappe

• 4 tbsp sugar
• 4 tbsp shredded coconut, toasted
• 1 lemon or lime wedge
• 16 ounces pineapple juice
• Crushed ice for serving
• Dried pineapple slices or banana chips.

Fill a pitcher with ice.
Fill it with the pineapple juice and the banana rum.
Stir.
Rub the lemon/lime wedge on the outside of the glasses.
Pour the sugar and the coconut on a plate and roll the glasses in them.
Put crushed ice in the cups and pour the frappe over the ice.
Garnish with dried pineapple slices and coconut.

ENJOY!!

My first post EVER!!!

This all started when I was bored (always dangerous). I started looking at cocktail books on amazon. I ended up buying three of them. Since I've been using them regularly, I thought it may be nice to post the results somewhere... and this is it! The goal is to put the recipes we've tested, the pictures of the drinks and drinkers and a critique of the drinks... but no promises!

For the curious and the bored, here are the three books I ended up with. I'm including some of my preliminary critiques because otherwise the text would not be long enough for the images.

The first one is "The Craft of the Cocktail." It contains 500 recipes as well as a description of different types of tools/liquor/mixer. My main complaints so far is that the index SUCKS! You need to know the exact name of the cocktail to find it. It's quite frustrating. Most other books let you search by using the main alcohol. Some even let you choose by flavor or colors! Also this guy has an obsession for burning citrus peels on top of the cocktail. I'll have to try that sooner or later. Maybe he's on to something.

The second book is "Raising the bar : better drinking..." This one gives you extensive instructions on how to do everything : how to make grenadine syrup, maraschino cherries, banana rhum. So far I've enjoyed making their recipes and people have enjoyed tasting them. The only strange thing is that their portions change from one recipe to the next. Some of their recipes are for 3-4 drinks and some are for 15 drinks! I'm fine with divisions sober, but after a couple of drinks, I don't want to figure out what 3/8 of an once is!

The last book is "Cool cocktails." I'm not sure what I think of this one yet. I have not used it much. It contains fewer recipes and it somehow manages to have very similar recipes. It does have beautiful pictures though and that makes up for a lot... I'm running out of things to say and I have not reached the bottom of the last picture. Ah, well!