A Perfectly Scary Cocktail

Since its Halloween I decided to share with all of you one of my favorite "spooky" cocktails.. I don't  celebrate the holiday but if I had to pick out one drink to enjoy today it would be the Corpse Reviver 2.

Great Classic cocktail that was originally meant to be a hangover cure( along with its predecessor the Corpse Reviver, which is a Cognac based cocktail.) in a sense to "Revive the body" after a long night of drinking. Its a very delicate blend of a Botanical spirit, Fortified wine, citrus, Orange and Absinthe liqueurs. So imagine how this drink will attack every part of your palette. This is one of my favorite cocktails and is considered a "Classic Cocktail" So without any further adieu, I give you my version of the  Corpse Reviver 2.

Corpse Reviver 2

1oz Few Spirits Gin
1oz Lillet Blanc
1oz Cointreau
1oz Fresh lemon Juice
Absinthe Wash
Cherry Garnish

Combine all ingredients in a shaker glass. Shake hard for 15-20 seconds.  Wash your glass with 2 or 3 drops of absinthe( St. George Spirits Brand preferred). Swirl it around, then strain your cocktail into the glass. And Garnish with a cocktail cherry.



So while most tonight will be enjoying candy and scary movies, Ill be in my kitchen making a few of these and enjoying a quiet evening at home. This honestly to me is one of the perfect cocktails to be used as an aperitif, or a before dinner drink. It really is smooth, elegant, and wakes up your palette.  You should make yourself one and tweet of Instagram your cocktail with the hash tag #DrinkOneTeachOne to @MrMixologist and let me know how it turns out..

Until Next time
Mr.Mixologist

Top 10 moments of Portland Cocktail Week

Portland Cocktail Week.... 1 word. WOW!!! I spent some of last week in the state of Oregon with about 200 other bartenders from all over the country. This was a great event to learn, associate, drink( we are bartenders) and generally remember why we chose this profession. This was my second time at PDXCW and this event has really set the bar for events in the future. So instead of just giving you a long recap of the entire week, I want to share with all of you my personal Top 10 moments from the week. Some will have visuals included.. Well the visuals that i can share.. lol

So here we go....

10. Winning 2nd Place in the Templeton Rye Shoes and Cue Horseshoe tournament.
Never played Horseshoes before, but drank plenty of Templeton and myself and my teammate Toki made it to the finals.

9. Swig and Swine 2013
The Bon Vivants did it again!! Always a great party, always for a good cause. Trashcan punch and plenty of Pig. AND all proceeds go to charity. I think Im going to gather all my Pig and Punch and Swig an swine t-shirts and have them framed.

8. Hale Pele
No other words be spoken.. Great Tiki Bar in Portland run by my main man Jesse Card.


7. Education
2 days, 8 classes. lots and lots of information. My course was "Beyond the Bar" TOok classes on sponsorship, Brand Ambassadorship, Dealing with the Press, Making cocktials on Camera, just to name a few.

6. Hennessy Dinner
The Uptown Billards Club was turned into the Hennessy House for the evening, where my Bar Major group enjoyed a 4 course meal paired with 4 cocktails made with the different expressions of Hennessy Cognac.

5. Rum Club shenanigans
Hanging with my "Superfriends" group of bartenders. the 6 of us shut down this great Portland cocktail bar 2 nights in a row. Thank you rto Adam and the rest of the team there for the cocktails.

4. Bar Mashup
1 night, 4 bars. We traveled by limo and Party bus between 4 bars in one night. Oven & Shaker, InterUrban, Hale Pele, and St. George Mobile Libation laboratory. Not to mention we shut down Rum Club after... EPIC night!!

3. Man I love them Strippers
 Im sure we paid a few ladies college tution over the past week, lol and I wont name names but we sure enjoyed our after school wind down time at Union Jacks, Sassy's and Mary's to name a few....


2. Field Trip Day
On the 3rd day we all had field trips to choose from. Mine was sponsored by Talisker and I had the opportunity to learn how to navigate and sail a sailboat. A once in a lifetime opportunity and I truly enjoyed being out on the water for 3 hours watching fighter jets fly above, and sailed right into Mount Hood. A religious experience

AND THE NUMBER 1 MOMENT OF THE WEEK WAS..............................

1. Murray Stenson
We had a service class and Mr. Murray Stenson was once of the speakers. If you don't know who he is, google him. He is a very instrumental person in the service industry and he got a standing ovation upon walking up to the podium. I even got the opportunity to chop it up with him for a moment and felt like I knew him forever. Great, GREAT person.


So that didn't even begin to touch how great of a week I had, or even all the things we did., This was just a few of the highlights for myself that stood out. I cant wait until next year to go back again.. Cheers to everyone I met last week and to my old friends who reconnected with me. I cant wait to see you all again!


Until Next Time
Mr.Mixologist

Cocktail Thought of the Day- National Vodka Day

Welp, its here. October 4th is National Vodka Day. So to all you Vodka lovers out there I raise my glass to all of you. Let's celebrate early, and celebrate often today. For some of my readers that are just discovering Vodka, I'll share with you a few tidbits and Vodka facts that you might not have known. I know  you probably thinking Vodka is easy, Vodka is a spirit that isn't that complex, but its the opposite. Vodka is labeled as a neutral grain spirit because the process of making it is fermenting and distilling grain which could be a myriad of things including Potato, Rye,  and Wheat. One of the most popular Vodka's today, Ciroc, is distilled from Grapes which makes its taste very distinct. Vodka is usually distilled a minimum of 3 times, and in some cases I've seen Vodka's distilled 10 times and more. Now once its distilled, the filtration process begins, most of the time thru Charcoal. Now Vodka requires no aging process and is ready to drink, BUT you still have to add water to bring it down to a bottling  proof. Most vodkas are bottled at 80 proof, which translates to 40% ABV, or Alcohol by Volume.


Now the fun thing about Vodka is, while it really doesn't have a certain taste( I tend to joke with my clients that  Vodka is the cocktail world's whore, it just goes with everything.. hahaha... but I digress) but each brand of Vodka has some little nuisances and subtleties about them. Here are some of the tastes I got from some of the most popular vodkas on the market today, and while I'm not a big Vodka guy I own all of these in my home bar/lab....Needless to say its been a great day in the lab tasting spirits. I must say this, when you taste you might get some different flavors. I learned from the great Steve Olsen, that when you are tasting spirits, there really isn't a wrong answer. Everyone's palate is different, some mature, some not, and everyone will pull something different out of what we are tasting.

• Belvedere- Citrus, a little Vanilla, Melon, Cherry
• Hangar One- I get all citrus.. Orange, Lime, Lemon. But a smooth clean taste
• Absolut- Dried fruit, and very Floral. 
• Square One- 1 word.. Delicious. Made from organic Rye so very rich and full, spicy,dried fruit, and earthy
• Ciroc- Smooth clean taste,  and grape

Vodka is still the worlds most popular spirit, with over 200 different brands and more and more popping up everyday. And we haven't even touched on the countless flavored vodkas that are on the market. But for today we are just going to celebrate the essence of pure Vodka. So go out today and get yourself a Martini, Moscow Mule, or a Vodka/Tonic and enjoy what truly is a great spirit...

Cheers,

Until Next Time

Mr.Mixologist