Hemingway Daiquiri

Ok, so the Hemingway Daiquiri really is way out of order on the list of 100. This should have been a review for a Brandy Alexander - but right now the weather in DC is sunny, upper 70's, and gorgeous. Not weather you would associate with a drink heavy on the cream and nutmeg. So, at my wife's request, I inserted the Hemingway Daiquiri into the order. Citrusy, refreshing, not really sweet at all, it fit the weather and the Friday afternoon, pre-Labor Day weekend mood much better.

I won't go too much into the history on this - Hemingway is obviously Ernest Hemingway, famous novelist, reporter, traveler, and booze hound. Tales of his drinking are legendary. And the fact that our wedding reception was held on the grounds of his house in Key West means the man holds a special place in my heart (and liver). I am sure he would view this 100 cocktail endeavor as a noble undertaking - kind of like an old man trying to catch a big fish in a little boat or some crap like that.

Hemingway Daiquiri

1 1/2 oz light rum
1/4 oz maraschino liqueur
3/4 oz lime juice
1/4 oz grapefruit juice

Shake all ingredients vigorously in a cocktail shaker and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

The Esquivel

The concept of "lounge culture" has always amused me - I find it funny how much effort, money and stress goes into looking like you're cool, relaxed, and sophisticated. Although I really enjoy the music associated with lounge style (shout out to DC-based Thievery Corporation), it was pretty clear I was never going to be able to afford having a wardrobe which would even qualify me to get in the door at any establishment that strived to call themselves exclusive. Also, given the fact that I was not of European / Latin American / Middle Eastern descent, I was starting off with two huge strikes against me right there.

The very few times I have been in a lounge-type setting, I felt really, really out of place. On my first outing to the 18th Street Lounge in DC about 12 years ago, I was amazed that they let me in - I had heard it was extremely exclusive, and if you were a solo guy (or worse, a group of guys), you were not getting past the doorman. When they let me in, I felt all good about myself - figured I had on nice enough clothes and looked good enough to qualify as "one of the elite." It wasn't until a couple of years later that a friend, who WAS cool and good looking enough to be one of the elite, told me they let me in almost certainly because I got there early, and figured I would leave before it got really crowded and the "real good looking people" showed up.

I wasn't too crushed by this - at the time, paying $8 bucks for a skunked Heineken bottle wasn't my idea of a good time anyway (not that it is now - $3 tops). And you wonder just how much money people have when they can go to a "lounge," rent an exclusive table in a velvet rope secured area for $1500, and that doesn't even get you any drinks. That's another $300 per bottle for "bottle service" - which just means you can pour your own drinks. From a bottle. Just like you do at home. Hell, I can grab a bottle of Thunderbird, lock myself in my bathroom, and crank up some Eddie Money - THAT'S exclusive, my friends.

The whole point of this is that this cocktail, the Esquivel, is named after what many consider to be the founder of lounge music, and thus lounge culture - Juan Garcia Esquivel. A prolific musician from the late 1950's through the late 1960's, a compilation of his music came out in 1994 on a CD entitled "Space Age Bachelor Pad Music." Whether this kicked off the lounge music resurgence, or whether this came out as a result of young hipsters suddenly drinking martinis, smoking Cohiba's, and longing for the good old days of three martini lunches and bomb shelters, I don't know. But this cocktail is perfectly named - it is at once familiar, exotic, modern, retro, International, but yet also very American. That it's delicious is just a bonus - far more importantly, you LOOK good drinking it. And isn't that the whole point?

The Esquivel

2 oz light rum
1/2 oz Kahlua
1 oz pineapple juice
2 dashes Angostura bitters
2 dashes orange bitters
champagne
cinnamon and orange twist to garnish

Combine the rum, Kahlua, pineapple juice, and bitters in a cocktail shaker and shake for 20 seconds. Strain into a shilled cocktail glass. Top off with champagne, and sprinkle cinammon on top. Garnish with orange twist.

Blue Hawaiian

What I choose to drink is, for the most part, tied to my mood and my general surroundings. I am probably not going to ask for a hot toddy at the beach in July, nor am I going to ask for a frozen margarita on the ski slopes of Vail (and I am not going to ask for a Hot Buttered Nipple anywhere...EVER). But sometimes you just gotta throw yourself a curve ball, change it up a bit (although those are two different pitches - I've never been great with sports metaphors). The weather in DC this last week has sucked - rain, rain, more rain, and at the end of the week, a nice dose of chilly to top it all off. Makes you want to punch the weatherperson in the spleen (except for Sue Palka - you'll always be aces with me, babe.)

So instead of opting for some cream based winter warmer, I decided to whip up a frozen Blue Hawaiian. I have made these a few times before, and they always remind me of sunny days, frothy surf, and sand between my toes, so I figured the culmination of a busy week involving travel, long discussions about organizational consistency, and sprained spousal digits was as good a time as any to blend some up. The blue color is so great - I think people feel happier just watching someone drink one of these.

There are frozen and non-frozen versions of this drink, but I felt like putting the blender to good use. I cracked the ice using another one of my vintage bar machines - the Ice-O-Mat (anything that ends in "-O-Mat" is awesome in my book.) I have a black one and a yellow one, but the yellow one is older and makes for a better pic. I don't know if you necessarily NEED a big honking metal contraption to crack ice, but it's fun to use regardless.

Weather over the weekend is supposed to be warm and sunny, finally. But for cold rainy days, I think a Blue Hawaiian is just the ticket to focus your thoughts on something other than the weather - like whether punching someone in the spleen is really the proper way to vent frustration (maybe kidney is the better way to go....).

Blue Hawaiian

1 oz light rum
1 oz Blue Curacao
2 oz pineapple juice
1 Tbsp cream of coconut
slice of pineapple and cherry to garnish

Combine ingredient in a blender. Add a handful of cracked ice and blend for 20 seconds or until smooth (you don't have to crack the ice if you have a workhorse of a blender that can real grind ice). Pour into margarita glass and garnish with cherry and pineapple slice

Frozen Banana Daiquiri

Exotic, tropical drinks always seemed very intimidating to me (not to drink, of course - drinking them is painfully easy.) Between the combinations of fruit, fruit juices, somewhat exotic liquors, and having to know whether the garnish was an umbrella, a chunk of fruit, or a shrunken monkey head, it all seemed like just too much info to bother processing just to make a drink. Zombies, Stingers, Blue Hawaiians, Daiquiris - more than happy to drink them if someone else was making them (and REALLY more than happy if someone else was buying), but I wasn't going to fool around with all that fussy stuff.

A daiquiri is the OPPOSITE of fussy - in fact, it's so simple, the only really fussy thing about it is its name. Created in Cuba at the end of the 19th century, and made fashionable in the US during the 1940's when rum was much easier to come by than gin, vodka, or whiskey (because of open trade policies with Latin America), a daiquiri is white rum, lime juice, and sugar. Period. It really doesn't get to much simpler than that. For my version, I just happened to have two bananas that were about to go south, so I threw those in as well for some extra flair and made a frozen version. This is a super easy drink to make and, given its simplicity, a really easy drink recipe to remember (which is probably why it became so popular - most drunks can remember how to put three ingredients together in a glass regardless of how many drinks they've had prior.) The non-frozen, non-banana version is shaken with plenty of ice and strained into a cocktail flute - the frozen version is blended with plenty of ice and poured into a margarita glass.

Frozen Banana Daiquiri

2 oz white rum (I didn't have any, so I used Appleton Estate)
1 oz fresh lime juice
1/2 oz simple syrup
1 ripe banana

Put all ingredients in a blender. Add ice to blender (to half full for one drink.) Blend until smooth. Poor into a margarita glass and garnish with a lime slice.