Red, White & Blue Cocktails

The 4th July will be upon us in no time so it's time to start thinking of what cocktails we want to be serving up - how about a collection of red, white and blue cocktails?

There are a number of different red cocktails from the super easy Bloody Mary to a Campari Cocktail and more.   I've actually compiled a collection of red cocktails for Valentines day on another page, but you could give them more of a patriotic name and use any of them at your 4th July celebrations - Red Cocktails.

Bloody Mary


1 part of vodka
tomato juice
celery salt
Worcestershire sauce
Tabasco sauce

Pour 1 part of vodka into a highball glass that has ice in it, top up with the tomato juice.    Add a dash of celery salt, Tabasco sauce and a couple of dashes of Worcestershire sauce, give it a stir and it's done.

Campari Cocktail


2 parts Campari
1 part vodka
1 dash Angostura Bitters

Pop all of the ingredients into a cocktail shaker with ice and shake well.   Strain into a cocktail glass to serve.

Now let's move onto white cocktails and personally I think the best white cocktail is the White Russian and as the saying goes 'forget the rest and have the best,' but I'm thinking you probably want a selection of drinks so here are a few more ideas.    Hair of the Dog and Brandy Alexander are two other white cocktails that you can choose from.

Hair of the Dog


1 part Scotch whisky
1 1/2 parts single cream
1/2 part honey

Gently mix all of the ingredients together and pour into a shot glass over ice to serve.

White Russian


2 parts vodka
1 part kahlua
1 1/2 parts cream

This is served in an old fashioned glass over ice and there are a number of different variations on the mixing of it - although it can be nice to float the cream on top in this case I think you should make it the way I do so that you have a 'white cocktail.'    Pour all of the ingredients into a cocktail shaker with ice and shake well before straining into an old fashioned glass over ice.

Now let's talk about blue cocktails.   One of my favorite ways of creating a blue cocktail is by using Blue Curacao and when it comes to summer cocktails you don't get many that are as refreshing as the Blue Lagoon.   Other blue cocktails include the Sapphire Martini and the Blue Carnation.

Sapphire Martini

2 parts gin (frozen)
2 dashes dry vermouth
2 dashes blue curacao

Take a chilled cocktail glass and add your dry vermouth and blue curacao - swirl around the glass to add a coating before pouring in the gin.   It's very important that the gin has been kept in the freezer over night as this martini is best served extremely cold.   Be aware that this is a very strong cocktail that would do the likes of Winston Churchill or Ernest Hemmingway proud.

Blue Carnation

1/2 part white cream de cacao
1/2 part blue curacao
2 parts cream

Now this is a delicious, creamy cocktail which is always a plus in my books and it's also incredibly easy to make as you simply pop all of the ingredients into a cocktail shaker with ice and 'shake, baby, shake,' next strain into a cocktail glass to serve.

So there you have it some red, white and blue cocktails for your 4th July celebrations - have fun and be safe. Remember to make sure you have some designated drivers and have drinks available for them, a really easy way of creating red, white and blue drinks for drivers is by using lemonade and food coloring.   For more great ideas check out my Mocktails page.

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Blue Lagoon Cocktail

One of the great summer cocktails just has to be the Blue Lagoon, it's definitely one of my favorite (non chocolate and non creamy that is) cocktails.   Blue Lagoon is an ideal cocktail for summer afternoons as it's a long cocktail as opposed to some of the stronger 'knock you off your feet' cocktails that you get served over summer like frozen margaritas and daiquiris (but we'll still talk about them on other posts!)

The Blue Lagoon cocktail is really easy to make and I usually just serve mine in a highball glass like this one - 

The same glasses that I'll also serve iced tea in in fact, and now for the recipe -

Blue Lagoon

2 parts vodka

1 part Blue Curacao

lemonade

Basically you pop ice in your highball glass and then pour in the ingredients as listed, stir with a straw (you could use a spoon, but as I serve it with a straw I give it a stir with the straw it's being served with) and voila - one blue lagoon cocktail.

There are lots of other great cocktails that begin with B and you can find the recipes for them (along with this Blue Lagoon recipe) at ABC of Cocktails.   These recipes include Bellinis, Black Ice Martinis and Black Velvets among others.

Now you have some Blue Curacao, however, what else can it make?   This delicious liqueur is also a striking color which leads to some pretty cool looking (and tasting) cocktails so it pays to have a couple of Blue Curacao cocktail recipes up your sleeve to impress people with.   There are lots of great cocktail recipes like the Blue Lagoon that you can make with this liqueur and you can check some of them out at the Top Blue Curacao Cocktails  - I'll give you a little peek at some of the names of the cocktails in that top ten - Blue Hawaiian, Envy, Electric Blue Margarita and Blue Monday - don't they sound delicious?

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Cocktails Beginning with A

There are so many delicious cocktails that begin with A is hard to know where to start, I've even devoted a webpage to cocktails beginning with a, b and c which you're welcome to check out - ABC of Cocktails.

I think one of the most popular cocktail that starts with A is the Appletini or Apple Martini, the basic recipe calls for -

3 parts vodka

1 part apple schnapps

1 part cointreau

Shake the ingredients together in a cocktail shaker with ice and strain to serve in a cocktail glass like this one - this is a fun way to drink appletinis in a glass made specially for them!

Of course there are several other versions of the appletini available and you can find recipes for the sour apple martini and extreme apple martini amongst others at Drink Recipes: Appletini or Apple Martini.

Of course there are far more cocktails that begin with the letter a than just appletinis as you will know if you've already clicked on the first link.   One which I think is a great cocktail that most people won't have tried before is the Asian Pear Martini, this is a very modern cocktail and is sure to be a hit when you serve it.

Asian Pear Martini

2 shots sake

1 shot pear liqueur

1 1/2 shots fresh pear juice

1/4 shot fresh lime juice

Pop all of the ingredients into a cocktail shaker with ice and shake well before straining into a cocktail glass to serve.

Asian style cocktails are very in vogue at the moment and you can get a range of different types from the Asian Pear Martini here to some very exotic Vietnamese and Indian cocktails.   For more information on Asian Inspired Cocktails I do have a resource for you to check out that is aptly called Asian Inspired Cocktails!

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Royal Wedding Cocktails

With the Royal Wedding between William and Kate taking place today it seems only appropriate to have a selection of Royal Wedding Cocktails.

Now of course any wedding should include champers so and Champagne Cocktails would be fantastic to kick off the Royal Wedding especially the following one which contains William in the ingredients........okay it's not Prince William, but the pear liqueur - Poire William.

Royal Silver

1/2 shot Poire William

1/2 shot Cointreau

1 1/2 shots pink grapefruit juice

Champagne

This cocktail is served not in a Champagne flute as you'd imagine, but in a wine goblet, a jewel encrusted goblet would definitely add to the occasion, but Kate and William may prefer a touch of fun with these wine glasses -

Now to how to mix this right royal cocktail.

Add the Poire William, Cointreau and grapefruit juice into a cocktail shaker with ice and shake well.

Pour into the wine goblet and top up with Champagne - delicious!

I always think of strawberries as being a romantic fruit so it seems appropriate to also offer a strawberry mocktail for guests who can't or don't want to drink, after all the Queen will be there so we don't want too many drunken antics do we?

Strawberry Kiss

12 strawberries
1 1/2 shots lemon juice
1/2 shots double cream
1/2 tsp caster sugar

Pop all of the ingredients, along with a handful of ice, into a blender and blend well.   Serve in a wine goblet with a strawberry garnish - this looks and tastes so good you won't even miss the alcohol.

Will Kate wear white?   If she does then a White Lady seems appropriate.   It's a gin cocktail and gin always seems like a very British drink doesn't it?

White Lady

1 shot gin
1 shot cointreau
1 shot lemon juice

Shake all of the ingredients together with ice and strain into a cocktail glass to serve.   Some people will say you should add egg white, but the original recipe didn't call for it and the Palace really doesn't want to wake up the next day with Salmonella Poisoning hits Wedding Guests plastered all over the world's press does it?

So there we go some delicious cocktails for the Royal Wedding..........even if you're only watching on television!

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Randy Little Kiwi Cocktail

Well I haven't long got back from a trip to New Zealand and so when I was sorting through some old files in the office and came across a recipe for a cocktail called Randy Little Kiwi I just had to post it.

I'm not really sure where I found this cocktail, but it sounds divine (I'm certain I haven't actually tried it yet, but I'm planning on a little cocktail evening soon so....)

30 ml Absolut Citron

30 ml Midori

1 Kiwifruit

1/2 tsp sugar

Peel and quarter the kiwifruit.

Muddle kiwifruit and sugar in the bottom of your shaker.   

Add the Abolut Citron, Midori and ice.

Shake well, strain and serve in a martini glass.

Let me know what you think of the recipe.

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The History of The Cocktail

Cocktails have been around for hundreds of years and yet the origin of the word is very murky with numerous urban legends on exactly where it came from.

One of the interesting stories I've heard is that it comes from a drink - Cock's Ale - that was served at cock fights.   Sounds plausible I thought to myself, so I looked at what Cock's Ale was and I'm afraid I lost my appetite for cocktails!

Cocks Ale

Ale
Chickens
Raisins
Brown Sugar

Ferment all of these ingredients together for 9-12 days.

All I can think of is food poisoning when I read that!

Let's move right along to another legend on the origin of the word cocktail.    Some say it's a mispronunciation of the French word Coquetier.   Now those of you who speak French are probably scratching your head right now thinking 'but coquetier means egg cup - what does that have to do with cocktails.'   Yes it does mean egg cup and the connection with cocktails comes from Antoine Peychaud.

Antoine Peychaud is famous in mixology history as being the creator of the Sazerac cocktail and when he opened his store in New Orleans he served this drink in egg cups.

Sazerac Cocktail

1/2 tsp absinthe
1 tsp simple syrup
4 dashes of bitters (Peychaud Bitters for an authentic flavor)
2 oz rye whiskey
strip of lemon peel

Place the absinthe into an old fashioned glass and swirl around so that the sides are coated and discard excess.   Next add the simple syrup, bitters and whiskey to a mixing glass with ice and stir gently until the drink is chilled.   Now strain the liquid into your old fashioned glass and twist the lemon peel over the glass to release some lemon oil, wipe the peel around the lip of the glass and then drop it into your drink - voila one Sazerac Cocktail ready to drink!

There are several more legends on where the word cocktail originated from, but I doubt we'll ever really know which version is really correct so we might as well just continue to enjoy a cocktail or two without worrying about their history!!

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Valentine's Day Cocktails

Cocktails are such a special drink that it makes sense to drink them on special occasions such as Valentine's Day.   Valentine's Day cocktails can be fun and flirty, rich and sensuous or just plain delicious!   I personally think that cocktails for two make great Valentine's Day cocktails, here's one I prepared earlier!

White Chocolate Martini For Two

2 oz Amarula
2 oz Godiva White Chocolate
1/2 oz White Creme de Cacao
1/2 oz Chambord
2 oz cream

Shake all of the ingredients together with ice in a shaker and then strain into two chilled martini glasses, serve with a couple of strawberries on the side.   For an extra special touch dip the strawberries in white chocolate ahead of time - the little touches are always appreciated.

Now obviously I know a lot of Valentine's Day Cocktails and they are all listed on my site - Valentines Day Cocktails, but you don't have to stick to these recipes.   If you're daring enough you can try your hand at mixing your very own cocktail and naming it for your own Valentine.

The trick to making your own cocktail is like cooking - think of the flavors!   I always suggest that you keep things simple for example if you know that your partner likes Baileys with milk as a drink then use that as a base and add another flavor that they enjoy such as chocolate - creme de cacao or berries - Chambord.

I love chocolate flavored cocktails and you can check out some of the recipes at Chocolate Cocktails.   I know my chocolate really well so I know what flavors compliment it.   I started off by using creme de cacao and Baileys (they compliment each other really well) as a base and came up with lots of different combinations such as adding Frangelico for a nutty flavor, Kahlua to intensify the chocolate flavor, Chambord for a berry flavor - you get the idea.

Another idea for Valentine's Day Cocktails is to simply re-name a cocktail.   Serve it up in one of these fun Valentine's Day martini glass and there you have it!  


I can't actually take credit for this idea............we went to a place on Australia's Gold Coast called Draculas where we watched a show and ate dinner.   Before the show we went into the bar area and they had a number of cocktails with names that were very 'Halloween inspired', upon closer inspection I realized that I knew the recipes - management had simply changed the name!

This is a great idea if you already know a couple of cocktails that your partner enjoys, you can come up with your own name such as Romance's Chocolate Kiss or Everlasting Lovetini.


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