The Fuzzy Navel is basically a screwdriver with peach schnapps instead of vodka. It’s an extremely simple cocktail to mix, a little on the sweet and fruity side. There are variations that add rum into the mix, with all the ingredients being one part each. ... READ MORE]]> The Fuzzy Navel is basically a screwdriver with peach schnapps instead of vodka. It’s an extremely simple cocktail to mix, a little on the sweet and fruity side. There are variations that add rum into the mix, with all the ingredients being one part each. But the most common recipe is simple peach schnapps and orange juice.

If you’ve ever wondered where in the world a drinkable cocktail got a name like that, “fuzzy” refers to the peach flavor from the schnapps and “navel” refers to the orange.

Fuzzy Navel

• 2 ounces peach schnapps
• 4 ounces orange juice

Shake them with ice and pour everything into a highball glass. Or you can just pour it into a highball glass with the ice and stir everything very thoroughly.

The Harrovian probably traces its roots to the term used to describe boys who are attending or who graduated from Harrow School, a very traditional boarding prep school for boys. It should come as no surprise that the Harrovian cocktail takes some getting used to. ... READ MORE]]> The Harrovian probably traces its roots to the term used to describe boys who are attending or who graduated from Harrow School, a very traditional boarding prep school for boys. It should come as no surprise that the Harrovian cocktail takes some getting used to. Like many fascinating old school cocktails, this one isn’t meant to be appreciated by novice drinkers or those who can’t comprehend why anyone likes gin. It’s meant to be favored by an exclusive set, and so it’s fallen out of popularity over the years.

If you enjoy a drink that’s a bit of a challenge, but that really does taste good once you get used to it, try the Harrovian.

Harrovian Cocktail

• 2 ounces gin
• 1/4 ounce orange juice
• 1 dash lemon juice
• 1 dash angostura bitters

Shake with ice and strain into a martini glass.

The Harrovian is basically a very dry martini with hints of orange and bitters. If you already like dry martinis, you might warm to this one rather quickly.

Like the martini, the Harrovian goes well with most foods – steak and potatoes, a vegetarian lunch, virtually anything. Nuts and cheeses are great for snacking. A chicken and provolone panini makes a particularly great pairing for a meal.

The Tequila Sunrise is another orange juice based cocktail, like the Screwdriver,  the Orange Blossom and the Harvey Wallbanger. The long-standing appeal of these drinks is actually the orange juice – it hydrates your body and provides Vitamin C to prevent or reduce hangover effects, ... READ MORE]]> The Tequila Sunrise is another orange juice based cocktail, like the Screwdriver,  the Orange Blossom and the Harvey Wallbanger. The long-standing appeal of these drinks is actually the orange juice – it hydrates your body and provides Vitamin C to prevent or reduce hangover effects, but you still get your alcohol kick, too. They’re a great choice to serve guests who are just social drinkers, but they’re equally popular with more dedicated drinkers.

The Tequila Sunrise gets its name from the visual effect of the grenadine dropping to the bottom, then slowly rising.

Tequila Sunrise

• 4 ounces orange juice (fresh squeezed is preferred)
• 2 ounces white tequila
• 1/2 ounce grenadine

Put ice cubes into a highball glass. Pour in the tequila followed by the orange juice. Now slowly pour the grenadine in so it sinks to the bottom. Optionally garnish with a citrus wedge or sliver of orange peel. If you find it difficult to pour slowly, here are some suggestions:

• Use a pour spout over the bottle.
• Pour as thin a stream as you can get out of the bottle over the back of a spoon, a technique we covered here with video, photos and instructions.
• Pour your grenadine into a paper cup, crease the brim of the cup, and pour slowly at the crease.

Fruit

The Tequila Sunrise is perfect for sipping along with a fruit plate, especially with mango, cantaloupe or honeydew. Another alternative is a salad featuring fruit, like the Cranberry Feta Roasted Walnut salad.

The Orange Blossom is a classic Prohibition-era cocktail. It’s one of those cocktails with the power to make you feel like it’s a sunny day on the beach, wherever you are and whatever the weather’s like. The flavor is orange juice with just a hint ... READ MORE]]> The Orange Blossom is a classic Prohibition-era cocktail. It’s one of those cocktails with the power to make you feel like it’s a sunny day on the beach, wherever you are and whatever the weather’s like. The flavor is orange juice with just a hint of gin. Most recipes call for gomme syrup as the sweetener, but using grenadine instead adds some pomegranate flavor.

Most variations on this recipe call for different amounts of the same ingredients, but others use Cointreau instead of gomme syrup or grenadine. Because this one’s been around so many years, there are quite a few variations – and of course, you should always feel free to make up your own.

The Orange Blossom

• 4 ounces orange juice (fresh squeezed is best)
• 2 ounces gin
• 1/4 ounce gomme syrup or grenadine

You can build the ingredients in a highball or martini glass, or shake the ingredients with ice and strain into a glass. You can also serve it on the rocks (just pour the ice and everything else into the glass from the shaker).

Honey-Orange Marinade

This cocktail calls out to be paired with hearty flavors. One of my favorite suggestions would be beef tips in a honey-orange marinade. Or this slightly more Asian inspired honey-orange salmon.

You could think of the Painkiller as a more grown-up version of the Piña Colada. This cocktail recipe uses dark rum instead of light, and adds orange juice and nutmeg in place of the cream, making it a little more tart and sophisticated. But the ... READ MORE]]> You could think of the Painkiller as a more grown-up version of the Piña Colada. This cocktail recipe uses dark rum instead of light, and adds orange juice and nutmeg in place of the cream, making it a little more tart and sophisticated. But the easy-going tropical pineapple and coconut flavors still dominate.

The original recipe was developed by Daphne Henderson, who ran a bar called The Soggy Dollar in the British Virgin Islands. It’s still a secret, but the Pusser Rum company came up with this version, which apparently tastes much like the original.

The Painkiller

• 2 ounces of Pussers Navy (Dark) Rum
• 1 ounce Cream of Coconut
• 1 ounce of orange juice
• 3 ounces of pineapple juice
• Sprinkle of nutmeg

Shake everything but the nutmeg, then strain into a glass filled with ice. Garnish with a sprinkle of nutmeg on top. You can tweak the ingredient ratios to your taste.

Go complex

This cocktail goes great with complex flavors. This chicken terriyaki recipe is a bit less sweet than some others, and with the addition of sesame seeds and red pepper flakes, you get a taste that’s delicious but hard to pin down, and a perfect complement to The Painkiller. Another delicious option is Smoked Salmon with 5 Peppercorn Crust. For a snack of finger food to go with your Painkillers, you can’t beat Thai Basil Rolls with Hoisin Peanut Sauce.

Please, no puns on the name of this drink. Whatever you think of – it’s been done. However clever you think it is – it’s not. Even if your friends giggle and snort, that’s just because they’re a bunch of doofuses. And so are you.

But ... READ MORE]]> Please, no puns on the name of this drink. Whatever you think of – it’s been done. However clever you think it is – it’s not. Even if your friends giggle and snort, that’s just because they’re a bunch of doofuses. And so are you.

But what the hell? That’s what kind of a drink Sex on the Beach is – fun, silly, light-hearted, easy-going fruity cocktail. It’s a stealth drink, meaning it tastes weaker than it is. In fact, the alcohol flavor is mild enough for most new or occasional drinkers, but the potency is actually a little higher than most cocktails.

Sex on the Beach

• 2 ounces of vodka
• 1 ounce of peach schnapps
• 2 ounces of orange or grapefruit juice
• 2 ounces of cranberry juice

Feel free to tweak the ingredient amounts to your taste. Throw everything in a highball glass with ice. Stir. Garnish with an orange round and some cherries. Drink up!

In Season

This fruity drink is great with seasoned and spicy foods. Try:

• Rachel Ray’s Fried Chicken Salad – fried chicken on a Ranch salad
• Shrimp Fra Diavolo – spicy Italian shrimp dish
• Spicy Baked Salmon – just what it sounds like

When you soak gummi bears in vodka, they absorb the alcohol and turn into a yummy fruity treat with a kick. The how-to part of this is pretty simple, so I decided to make things a little more interesting. In addition to regular vodka gummi ... READ MORE]]> When you soak gummi bears in vodka, they absorb the alcohol and turn into a yummy fruity treat with a kick. The how-to part of this is pretty simple, so I decided to make things a little more interesting. In addition to regular vodka gummi bears, I made vodka sugar-free gummi bears, vodka gummi worms (purely to see if they turned out any cooler looking than the bears) and vodka Red Fish (these were disgusting, but in the interest of science I will share my mistakes as well as my triumphs).

For those of you who like really detailed instructions, first up is a tutorial. Those of you who already know how to do it, skip ahead to the “Results” heading.

How to make Vodka Gummi Bears

You’ll need:

• Vodka
• Gummi bears or worms, sugar-free or regular
• A glass container (a glass with plastic wrap over it will do – rumor has it plastic does bad things to vodka, so be sure there’s no plastic actually touching the vodka). I used some Anchor Hocking glass storage containers I use for leftovers.

I put the bears/worms/fish into the glass dishes. Then I poured in vodka until it reached the top of the candy. Using that much vodka makes the candy swell and take on a noticeable but not unpleasant “burning” alcohol sensation. If you don’t want the alcohol that strong, use less vodka. (The amount of time you let the bears soak has no impact on how alcoholic they are. They will suck up nearly every drop of vodka you put in, so the trick is to use the right amount for your taste. You can always add more  if you taste them after a day or so and think they’re not alcoholic enough.)

Then I put the dishes in the fridge. (The purple stuff is plastic wrap I tucked under the glass lids as extra insurance against the fruity smell leaking out into the whole fridge, but I’m not sure it was necessary.) I left the bears soaking for a total of five days, but after three they had absorbed about all the vodka they could. Give yourself time to leave them in at least a couple of days, if possible. This picture was taken about twelve hours after they started soaking – you can see they’ve absorbed some of the vodka because the level of liquid is lower relative to the bears:

I was told gummi treats would swell up “huge.” The bears did get noticeably bigger, but what really got big was the worms. Here’s a before and after picture (the red bear is sugar free, the green one is regular):

You’ll also find some liquid at the bottom of the dish. This is fruity vodka. It doesn’t look gorgeous or anything (kind of cloudy, may contain a gooey lump or two), so you may not want to serve it at a party, but it’s perfectly drinkable for you.

The Results

The regular gummi bears turned out very yummy, but surprisingly, I liked the sugar free gummi bears better. They had a more refreshing taste than the ones with sugar, stayed a little firmer, and the alcohol kick was a bit stronger. If you’re watching your carbs, this is a really fun way to feel like you’re not.

The gummi worms also came out a little more exciting than the regular bears, in my opinion, but they were messier. I liked these because they got very big and… well, that was it, really. Big huge vodka worms. But they were a little more slippery to grasp than the bears, hence a little messier. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing – depends what kind of party you’re having!

The Red Fish were these gummi-ish, waxy-ish things I found in the candy aisle and thought, why not see if other candies will soak up vodka nicely? The answer, in hindsight: because it’s a waste of vodka. The vodka softened about a 16th of an inch of the outside of the candy into goo, left the interior part hard, and didn’t really penetrate the candy at all. There was still a lot of vodka floating around in that dish. Also, the candies themselves aren’t very tasty. So you really need truly gummi stuff for this. But I have to admit, the candy-flavored vodka in the dish was pretty tasty.

The alcohol content in each vodka gummi isn’t very high, but if you eat many of them, you’ll feel the effects. Be forewarned and plan accordingly.

If you grew up in the ’70s/’80s, the first you heard of a Harvey Wallbanger may have been as a pun on a sitcom. This cocktail was in vogue for a while in the ’70s, but it faded into obscurity after that. It’s basically a ... READ MORE]]> If you grew up in the ’70s/’80s, the first you heard of a Harvey Wallbanger may have been as a pun on a sitcom. This cocktail was in vogue for a while in the ’70s, but it faded into obscurity after that. It’s basically a screwdriver with Galliano, a liqueur which tastes mainly like vanilla with anise, but also has citrus and other herbal notes – a very complicated flavor. It’s definitely something you have to try before you’ll know if you like it, so if you’ve never had Galliano, you may want to order a Harvey Wallbanger at a bar before buying the Galliano to make it at home.

Legend has it this drink was named for a Manhattan Beach surfer named Harvey who loved it to much, he got drunk on it all the time and ran into walls.

The Harvey Wallbanger

• 1 ounce vodka
• 1/2 ounce Galliano
• 4 ounces Orange Juice

Fill a frosty highball glass with ice, then pour the vodka and orange juice over it, then float the Galliano on top.

Light and mild for contrast

The dominant flavor in a Harvey Wallbanger is the orange juice, so you want to pair it with snacks and meals that are compliemented by orange and aren’t too acidic (for example, this drink plus tomato-based pasta sauce = a major heartburn event just waiting to happen). Oddly enough, what goes well with white wine is also what goes well with a Harvey Wallbanger. Try some of the following.

• Anything vanilla picks up the flavor of vanilla in the Galliano and contrasts nicely with the orange juice (remember Dreamsicles?). Try vanilla ice cream, pudding or cake as dessert with an after-dinner drink, or as a snack.
• Mild chicken dishes – baked, broiled or grilled, without a lot of seasoning. Asparagus or creamed spinach make a nice side dish.
• Fruit salsa fish dishes – look for a fruit salsa recipe like this one, which uses mild fruits (mango, kiwi, peach, etc.) and no overpowering spices or seasonings (note: some people find mint overpowering: if you’re one of them, just leave it out). Avoid jalapenos in your recipe – jalapeno can do strange things with the anise from the Galliano. But you can take a recipe that uses jalapeno and just leave that ingredient out.

The Screwdriver, or Vodka and Orange, is one of the simplest cocktails you could possibly mix, which may be part of its enduring popularity. If you count the ice, it has three ingredients. This makes it a perfect pre-mixer for parties and a great quick ... READ MORE]]> The Screwdriver, or Vodka and Orange, is one of the simplest cocktails you could possibly mix, which may be part of its enduring popularity. If you count the ice, it has three ingredients. This makes it a perfect pre-mixer for parties and a great quick drink at home when you’re too tired for anything complicated. Also, it has vitamin C! How can you beat that?

Since the recipe is so darn simple and familiar, I’m going to cover some specifics on making the best screwdriver you can.

The Screwdriver

• 2 ounces vodka
• 5 ounces orange juice
• A pinch of salt

Most recipes online don’t call for the pinch of salt. But it smooths the rough edges of the orange juice’s acidity and the “burning” flavor of the vodka. Fill a glass (traditionally highball) with ice, pour in your ingredients, and stir. Garnish it with a slice of orange or a maraschino cherry, optionally. That’s it!

Tips for Making the Best Screwdriver

With a drink this simple, quality of ingredients is everything. There’s no magic shortcut. The smoother your vodka, the easier a Screwdriver will go down. Avoid pulpy orange juice, and go with either a premium brand of orange juice or fresh squeezed.

Breakfast for Dinner

A Screwdriver goes with any food orange juice goes with. The first meal that comes to mind is, of course, breakfast. But you don’t have to start drinking at 6 am to enjoy a screwdriver with breakfast: just have breakfast foods for dinner or lunch! Omelet, bacon, sauage, ham, pancakes, French toast – good, heavy, stick-to-your-ribs food.

Ever versatile Screwdrivers are also tasty with smoky foods, like a pulled pork sandwich or steaks from the smoker. Smoked almonds and cheeses make a nice munchie to snack along on with a screwdriver. Salty snacks work well, too, especially if they have a strong flavor. Try pretzels or flavorful crackers, or a bowl of Chex Party Mix (remember that stuff?).

There are a couple of variations on the Golden Dawn. It always involves orange juice and either peach or apricot brandy or liqueur with gin. Another recipe includes Calvados, a brandy made from apples. Whichever recipe you use, the Golden Dawn is a tart, fruity ... READ MORE]]> There are a couple of variations on the Golden Dawn. It always involves orange juice and either peach or apricot brandy or liqueur with gin. Another recipe includes Calvados, a brandy made from apples. Whichever recipe you use, the Golden Dawn is a tart, fruity martini.

The Traditional Golden Dawn

This  is a vintage recipe from the 1960s or ’70s. As you can see, it’s very simple: two parts pulp-free orange juice, two parts gin and one part apricot or peach liqueur, shaken with crushed ice and strained into a martini glass. This is a great recipe for parties, because it’s so easy to make a pitcher in advance.

The Calvados Variation

This is the one that adds an apple flavor:

• 3/4 ounce gin
• 3/4 ounce apricot brandy
• 3/4 ounce calvados
• 3/4 ounce orange juice

Shake well with ice cubes, strain into a chilled martini glass.

The New-Fangled Traditional Version

Today, most people use a brandy in place of the liqueurs recommended in the first recipe, so you get something like this:

• 1 teaspoons Apricot Brandy
• 1.5 ounces gin
• 1/2 ounce orange juice

Some recipes add a couple of drops of Angostura Bitters and a dash of Grenadine.

Dessert & Breakfast

Because this is a fairly tart, fruity drink, you can enjoy it alongside contrasting fruits like strawberries or any other kind of berries, cherries, grapes or even apples. It’s also delicious with ice cream. Basically, the drink will coordinate with anything orange juice will, even though the flavor is more complex than that. This is therefore a great drink for brunches or for breakfast foods served later in the day (breakfast for dinner, mmm!)