Bloody Mary, Dripping Springs Vodka, Red Eye

I thought at first when I saw Dripping Springs Vodka (web site here) in my local Twin Liquors that perhaps my alma mater's high school students had branched out in their student activities and had a class making booze! The vodka maker is not actually affiliated with the high school, though. I think it's funny that the picture on their web site has a photo taken at Enchanted Rock, probably 60+ miles away from Dripping Springs.

I'm not really a vodka connoisseur. All good-quality brands seem to taste good to me, especially in cocktails. Although I can tell that Austin based Tito's vodka (which is also quite good) has a bit of corn / whisky taste since it's based on corn instead of potato, wheat, or other grains like other vodkas.

I've started making Bloody Mary's at home lately, and it took me a while to find a recipe I liked. I really like the Red Eye Habanero mix, link here to web site. I've settled on the one below after some experimentation. Note you can also use Citadelle Gin (or other gin of your preference like Bombay Sapphire or Tanqueray) instead of vodka for a change of pace -- that's really good, too.

20th Hole Bloody Mary
-- 4-6 oz Red Eye Habanero bloody mary mix
-- 2-3 oz Dripping Springs Vodka, Tito's Vodka, or Citadelle Gin
-- juice of half a lemon, freshly squeezed
-- few dashes worchestershire sauce
-- few dashes of Tabasco sauce

Mix all above in ingredients in tall glass, stir, add ice. Can also garnish with celery stalk, jalapeno-stuffed olives, or banana peppers as desired (I usually skip those formalities, especially if I'm making this on a weekday evening). BTW, I made these last night and didn't have any lemons so I used lime instead -- my wife commented that it didn't taste as good.

French gin? Gin and tonic, martini recipes

French gin? Oui! Several years ago, my friend Steve made my wife and I a drink with gin in it (I don't recall exactly what it was or what brand of gin it was). I had not really tried gin before, and I didn't care for it too much at the time. My wife's feelings were a little stronger -- I seem to recall her thinking it tasted like hairspray.

Several years passed before I gave gin a try again (in a gin and tonic, see below), and now I really like it. I don't know if it was a different brand of gin that I'd tried before, or just that maybe my tastes have changed as I've gotten older and now I like the taste of hairspray!

While in our local Kyle Twin Liquors, Michael recommended I try a French gin called Citadelle. It has an even stronger flavor of the botanicals and spices that make gin what it is than Bombay Sapphire. I used to think that gin was exclusively an English drink, but the French have done something magnifique with this gin. I tend to make either gin and tonics or classic martinis. The recipes I have been enjoying lately are as follows:

Gin and tonic
These are really refreshing in hot weather, which we occasionally get in Austin. The first time I had one of these was when my wife's uncle Si made some for us on a vacation in upstate NY in 2005, where we stayed in a lodge without A/C. An unexpected heat wave hit and it was 90+F all week, rather than the mid 70s more typical of that area. This drink came in handy (Si used Bombay Sapphire). Be careful, though ... it's very easy to down 3 of these drinks before you know it!

2-3 (depending on how rough your day was) ounces of Citadelle or Bombay Sapphire gin
tumbler / highball glass full of ice
Juice of 1/2 fresh lime
Tonic water/soda

Squeeze lime over ice, add gin, top off with tonic water, give a little stir

Martini
I don't tend to prefer the super-dry martinis which have almost no vermouth ... I tend to like a ratio of about 5-7 parts gin to 1 part vermouth. I also like it a little bit dirty (with a touch of the olive juice) -- you can leave this out if you want.
Shaker with plenty of ice
2-3 oz Bombay Sapphire or Citadelle gin
1/4-1/2 oz dry vermouth
little bit of juice (maybe 1/2 tsp) from a jar of olives
2-3 olives from same jar
chilled martini glass

Add gin, vermouth, and olive juice (may leave this out if desired) to shaker. Add 2-3 olives to a chilled martini glass. Stir or shake (that's a whole other debate), pouring over the olives.

For martini snobs that insist a super-dry martini is the only way it should be made, it's interesting to note that the original martini, The Martinez, which appeared in the 1860s-1870s, was mostly sweet vermouth and sweet gin. The current martini evolved over time (source, The Idiots Guide to Mixing Drinks).