I did not sleep well last night. It happens some times. Last night I was worrying about some stuff I have no control over and probably shouldn’t let bother me anyway. The point is, I could not get to sleep. I tossed and turned. I read. I drank warm milk. Around 2 AM, I finally decided to watch tv for a while and since he was on my mind, I watched my grandpa’s late night favorite, Gunsmoke. So that makes tonight’s choice an easy one. Won’t you join me now as we stand and make the Recoil.
I had to buy it, how could I not? I had never even heard of Deadhead Rum, but it wasn’t terribly expensive and it came in a shrunken monkey head. It turned out to be decent stuff, not that I have used it much. I poured a bunch for folks a couple of years ago at Bash, but then the bottle came home to gather dust. A couple of weeks ago I ran across a recipe that called for it, so here we are. Won’t you join me now, as we stand and make the Sun-Kissed Simian.
Last week Laura infused some amazing Banana Liqueur. I even made a label for her fancy bottle and everything, so it made perfect sense to make a banana based drink today. That was the plan. That’s not quite what happened and honestly, I only have myself to blame, but we will get into that after the jump. If you would please join me now as we stand and make the Banana Farmer.
I had today all planned out. I had bananas I need to use, a hankering for something chilled, some new rum I wanted to try, an impassioned rant about the present state of local school systems and what you are not hearing about on the news, but then I had to throw it all out. Why? Well, it is all Alicia’s fault. She decided she had to be born today, well today, some indeterminate number of years ago, probably in Texas. I am not even sure how long ago she arrived on the scene. I mean it is easy to love her as a friend and supremely decent human, but do I have to respect her as an elder? Chalk up her excesses to youthful exuberance? I do not even know. It is all very confusing for me and, par for the course, now that she’s involved in the day things are getting complicated, but infinitely more interesting. So, let’s make a drink for her, something I can reasonably justify as being chosen especially for her on her special day, as one does. Won’t you join me now as we stand and make, the Tia Mia.
There are safe places. Little corners of solitude, under the radar spots where you can slip away from the world outside for a few moments. We need those. Sometimes these spots are found in nature, an overlook that takes hours to hike to. Sometimes they are much closer, a quiet corner of your backyard, your hammock. While it is often a feeling associated with a place, a lot of times, these places exist only in memory. Laying in the floor on one of those rope rugs, listening to your grandpa tell stories, having coffee with an old friend gone too soon, standing in the spotlight while people applaud. I have found that the reason a place feels safe has a lot more to do with the people than the place. Which brings us to tonight’s drink, so join me now as we stand and make, the Bastion Overproof Daiquiri.
Summer hasn’t given up yet, but you can feel things beginning to change. A little crispness to the air at sunrise. A few leaves drying out and floating on the breeze as another summer storm blows in. I’m trying to make sure I don’t miss things this year. You’ll see what I mean if you will join me as we stand and make the Gin Basil Smash.
Starting is the hard part. That goes for most anything. Overcoming inertia. Once you get started things just roll right along, for the most part. Then it is sometimes hard to stop. Inertia gets you coming and going, that’s life. That’s what all the people say, anyway. That’s also why we are having this drink. Won’t you please join me now as we stand and make, the Piña Verde.
I am from Nashville, but have bounced around all over and spent many of my formative years in Florida. There will always be a bit of that boy in me. Wandering through palmetto forests, paddling and slogging through the swamps, skipping class to go to the beach. I lived in the middle of the state for a while and loved it there, but I kind of came of age in South Florida. So when I saw this drink the other night, I knew I had to try it. Join me now, as we stand, don our sunglasses, neon t-shirts and linen jackets to make the Miami Vice.
It is another bartenders handshake. So if you haven’t embraced the bitter, this one is not for you. Hell, it has got Campari, so it may not be for me, but that is not going to stop us from making it. I’ll probably ramble on a bit about having to take the bitter with the sweet, maybe compare some films, who knows? I certainly don’t. Doesn’t really matter though, this is the drink we are making, these are the words I am writing and while I hope that you enjoy both, it is really out of my hands at this point. So won’t you join me now as we stand and make The Last Man Standing.
You know how things are fun, how you look forward to them, but one day those same things just become daunting and you dread having to actually do them? No? Huh? Just me, then. Ok. Well, I am glad you aren’t afflicted with this crippling fear, but I hope you can expand your imagination enough to relate. You ever have one of those days where you start a conversation, you can’t even finish it? I mean, you’re talking a lot, but you’re not even saying anything. This is one of those days for me. I am tense and nervous and I can’t relax because it is my buddy Jenn’s birthday. That means I need to find a drink that encapsulates what she means to me and then write nice-ish things about her. I have done it for other folks, and it feels like a thing I do now. It just sort of happened organically the first couple times, but now that it is a thing, I get worried about it. Weird, huh? So, it is only natural, that I should extend this courtesy to Jenn, it is the polite thing to do and I hate people when they are not polite. So join me now, as we stand and make a drink that just screams Jenn, the Psycho Killer.
