This Italian restaurant cocktail is crafted with Ketel One Citron Vodka, Lemon Juice, Campari, and Cointreau. It tasted like lemonade but has more complexity. The Campari adds a grapefruit note, even though there is no grapefruit in Campari that I know of. This “lemonade” was sweet but not too sweet. It's refreshing, and it has made my list of noteworthy cocktails.
Location: Mimmo's, 73540 Highway 111, Palm Desert, California. Date: December 24, 2022.
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This is a small local distillery with three distilled products, and I want to mention all three as they are all noteworthy. Black Hole Vodka won a gold medal, Lost Horse Whiskey won a silver, but my favorite is Giant Rock Gin, named after the largest rock on the planet which is located in Landers, California, about an hour away from the distillery. The vodka is very smooth, and the gin is not juniper berry forward; in fact, to me it tastes like pine needles even though there are no pine needles in it, just a bunch of other flavorful botanicals. The whiskey is sourced from high quality American casks, and it's blended and aged in wood barrels at the distillery. To me it tastes much more like Scotch than Bourbon, and the owner's sister, who waited on my friend and me and gave us a tour, said that she gets that comment a lot. You can have a tasting here of all three liquors, and they also create cocktails using their own homemade mixers. I love little places like this!
Location: 58945 Business Center Drive, Suite G, Yucca Valley, California. Date: November 19, 2022. This is a cocktail recommended by an experienced bartender who knows my taste. It's fresh lemon juice, a little sweetener, Aperol bitters, Amaro bitters, an ounce of bourbon, and a lemon twist for garnish. It's shaken and strained, has nice foam and color, and it's nicely balanced between sweet, sour, and bitter. I could get used to these!
Location: Smokin Burgers, 1775 E Palm Canyon Drive Ste 220, Palm Springs, California. Date: September 20, 2022. This really was an accidental date because my favorite Italian restaurant was closed for the summer, and Little Bar was next door. This cocktail is composed of Bulleit rye whiskey, Amaro vermouth, local medjool date syrup, Grand Marnier, and orange bitters. It's garnished with a dry lemon wheel sprinkled with sea salt, and it also comes with a real Italian maraschino cherry. The cocktail was less sweet than it sounds as the ingredients, except for the rye, were used judiciously. The whiskey was the main flavor note, but the cocktail was also a little sweet, bitter, citrusy, and salty. I could taste the date, but only because I knew it was in there. For me, the star of the cocktail was the dry lemon wheel with sea salt and, of course, the real maraschino cherry that is both sweet and sour and packs a punch of flavor.
Location: Little Bar, 73560 Highway 111, B, Palm Desert, California. Date: August 20, 2022. I was getting fed up with cheap well drinks, so I asked Earl, the mixologist at Smoke Tree BBQ, to make me an inexpensive drink that tasted good. He came up with a shaken and strained cocktail that consisted of honey, well vodka, lemon juice, and a dash of Campari. The incredibly cold and delicious drink was sour and refreshing, just a touch bitter, and not at all too sweet even though the honey flavor comes through nicely. The cocktail tasted like grapefruit juice even though there's no grapefruit in it at all. After shaking, there's some nice foam on top, but when Earl uses egg white, the foam is spectacular. This drink had no name for weeks, but when I came up with Coachella Sunset, it proved acceptable to all involved.
Location: Smoke Tree BBQ, 1775 E Palm Canyon Drive #405, Palm Springs, California. Date: July 1, 2022. I went to my favorite cafe (also bar and restaurant) in Tucson's old town, and I asked if they had Irish or Mexican Coffee; while they probably could have made either one, they recommended the Southern Arbuckle. It was made with house caramel, two ounces of Old Forester bourbon, locally roasted Arbuckle brand coffee, and it was topped with whipped cream and a drizzle of the homemade caramel. I thought it might be too sweet, but because of the generous bourbon pour, it wasn't; in fact, it was one of the best coffee cocktails I've had.
Location: Cafe a la Cart, 150 North Main Avenue, Tucson, Arizona. Date: January 12, 2022. This was a seasonal drink special that I came across in Arizona, and I decided that I'd better try it because I figured that I probably wouldn't ever come across this again. It was a blackberry forward drink at first, but the tea flavor built as I drank. What was less obvious was the actual gin and tonic, though the cocktail had a pleasant bitterness that may have come from the tonic or, perhaps, the tea, or probably both. This was a unique and refreshing version of the classic. It was sweet but not too sweet. I would love to have more of these.
Location: Prison Hill Brewing Company, 278 S Main Street, Yuma, Arizona. Date: November 4, 2021. My name's Roland, and my nickname is Roly, so I had to order Roly's Friend. This cocktail was constructed with Aviation Gin, Cherry Brandy, Benedictine, Cointreau, OJ and Lime Juice, and topped with soda. I thought it might be a bit sweet for me so I ordered it with less OJ and more lime juice. It wasn't too sweet at all, just a touch bitter, like bitter citrus. It tasted like it had two of my cocktail friends in it, namely grapefruit juice and Campari, but it didn't contain either. It grew on me as I drank, and I'd get together with this friend again.
Location: 1501 Uptown Gastropub, 1501 N Palm Canyon, Palm Springs, California. Date: September 9, 2021. This cocktail is Tito's vodka, prickly pear syrup, a jalapeño slice, and ginger beer. It's sweet but balanced with spice: I could taste both the jalapeño and the ginger in the ginger beer. According to the bartender, they used to muddle the jalapeño slice, but the drink got too spicy so now they shake the pepper slice with the other ingredients and then strain it out; even so, the heat lingered in my mouth after the cocktail was gone. I found this cocktail refreshing, and it had the pretty color of purple prickly pear fruit. It turns out that this is the most popular cocktail at this bar (it's not a train station), and I just happened to pick it from the menu.
Location: Tucson Station, 500 N 4th Street, Tucson, Arizona. Date: August 25, 2021. The Chingarita is a flavored margarita with a bottle of beer stuck into it! Mine was prickly pear, but it comes in other flavors too: mango, watermelon, and cucumber. My margarita was made with prickly pear syrup, white tequila, triple sec, and margarita mix. It's a bit sweet but as the beer gets released into it, it gets better and better. The beers are cute 7oz bottles. You can choose between Corona and Modelo; personally, I prefer Modelo. The bartender gave my glass a blue rim and garnished with three cherries and a lime slice, but its the beer that really makes this cocktail exciting, both visually and in flavor.
Location: La Chingada, 31 N Scott Avenue, Tucson, Arizona. Date: August 23, 2021. |
AuthorChef Roland has been a legal resident of seven countries and has travelled in over thirty, documenting food along the way. He currently resides in the desert in Southern California. Categories
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