I recently had the honor of warming a bar stool opposite the great mixologist Lu Brow, corporate bar chef at Commander's Palace Restaurant in New Orleans. As the temperature in the French Quarter hit 93 degrees, the topic inevitably turned to summer libations. Lu offered these helpful hot weather drinking tips.
1. Keep it light. "A drink should be something in the summer to stimulate your appetite and doesn't need to be anything really heavy."
2. Remember the mixer. "You can drink bourbon in the summer, you can drink scotch in the summer, you just to remember to have some kind of mixer in it, another component."
3. Keep it simple. "I see a lot of resistance to cocktails that are 15 ingredients. I think you see cocktails that are created just to show off that I can put something weird in, and put a weird name on it. When you start thinking about some of the best cocktails ever, that's not what you're getting. A margarita is three ingredients. A sidecar is three ingredients."
4. Avoid shots. "Avoid shots."
As an adventurous alternative to the tired Appletinis and Cosmos of the cocktail world, Lu proposes the Ponchatoula Punch (shown above), which, I am pleased to report, is a glassful of refreshing summer awesome. Cheers!
The recipe is after the jump.
Ponchatoula Punch
1 1/5 ounces Hendrick's gin
½ ounce crème de cacao
½ ounce Solerno blood orange liqueur
2 ounces sliced strawberries
¾ ounce simple syrup
¾ ounce fresh lemon
2 drops Fees rhubarb bitters
1 2inch sprig of thyme
In a mixing glass muddle fresh thyme and strawberries. Add all liquid ingredients and shake well. Double strain into a cocktail coupe. Garnish with a slice of strawberry threaded with thyme as the stem.
Leave a Comment:
You need to have Jeffery Morgenthaler on some time. Here is his blog http://www.jeffreymorgenthaler.com/
My summertime whiskey mixer is ice.
(But still a fun interview - thanks, Kent!)
Nice try but you don't fool me! She was just trying to match her nail color.
Nail polish? I thought perhaps her hair. That's a hard color to recreate.
Louisiana State Drink http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sazerac (Cajun Blood!)
Actually, there is no Louisiana state cocktail. (At least not yet!) State Representative Eddie Murray (D-New Orleans) was successful in getting the State Legislature to agree to name the Sazerac as the official cocktail of New Orleans in 2008. Although other cities have followed suit, New Orleans was the very first city in the nation to have that honor. http://tinyurl.com/chmz9ma
In March 2008, Louisiana state senator Edwin R. Murray (D-New Orleans) filed Senate Bill 6 designating the Sazerac as Louisiana's official state cocktail. The bill was defeated on April 8, 2008. The state Senate then approved a revised bill designating it as the official cocktail for New Orleans only,[13] rather than the entire state, but the state House then reverted the bill back to its original form. The Senate then rejected the bill again, sending it to conference committee. The committee said it should be the official New Orleans cocktail and the Senate agreed. However, the House then failed to concur. Finally, on June 23, 2008 the House agreed to proclaim the Sazerac as New Orleans' official cocktail (So yes it's not technically the drink.. but closest any drinks made it :-p)
Definitely pick a simple drink. 8 ingredients. Super simple.
evansorem -
You beat me to it! It sounds tasty, all right, but does seem to come close to violating her own "rule #3". I guess rules are made to be broken... and cocktails are made to be drunk. Or to get one drunk. Something.
- Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Blech. Cannot abide gin. Tastes like Chirstmas trees. Then again, whoever created this drink seems to also not like the taste of gin, given all the other flavors involved.
Even possum tastes good if you use the right sauce. Never tried gin that I know of but I am a Beefeater? Slap me I made a baaad pun.
I'll drink to do that! (not really)
I think it would be better with rum or vodka. I never drink gin. Otherwise it sounds delish.
Your geekiest SF, CA fans are sitting her with The Frisco in hand... and no TRMS. Irony everywhere.
Have a great weekend everyone!
Damn, I forgot to pick up some Solerno blood orange liqueur and fresh thyme. Do you suppose Kaluha and dried oregano will work?
Why, I believe you have stumbled across something here, Yes, the State drink of Hawaii, they call it Kalugano. I think Arizonas' drink is the wild turkey. We got a bunch of them running wild around here in these parts.
I enjoy Rachael's segments on mixed drinks but here in the D.C. area I have struggled to get a gin and tonic mixed correctly. I'm not kidding.
Have you tried pursuing other avenues perhaps cooking.
The movie Prometheus just for men, that is hardly true. Sci Fi is cool for anyone.
Um, Senor Jones, I didn't see any Ponchatoula Punch on the Commander's Palace menu when I was there a week before you. Special treatment for the TRMS representative??? ;-) (I had the Neutral Ground ... and it was *fantastic.*)
off to the liquor store to get ingredients....
hey rachel, how bout mixing up some blue marilyns on the cocktail moment; you know the drink with the secret ingredient. just google blue marilyn will and grace. here is another idea...use agave nectar as a simple syrup for red, brown and yellow drinks... but NOT for the blue marilyn; it muddies the electric, neon blue of the drink, which is half its charm. the secret ingredient is hard to find, unless you watch to the whole '7' episode...here is the part of the scrip dealing with it...''
MARILYN: Karen. Try my famous holiday cocktail, the Blue Marilyn. I started drinking them to prevent thoughts of suicide. But now, they're just fun.
[KAREN TAKES A SIP OF THE DRINK.]
KAREN: Oh. Delicious! What's in it?
MARILYN: [CHUCKLES] Uh-uh-uh, family secret. I can't tell you.
KAREN: I bet I can guess. Blue Curacao, vodka, a splash of Peach Schnapps, some bitters, and a pinch of something powdered... [DISAPPOINTED] Oh... sugar.
MARILYN: Oh, perfect! You guessed them all.
KAREN: Ah-ha! I knew it!
MARILYN: Except one.''
anyway the secret ingredient, deeper in the script, is cherry sucretes. mixing this drink will give you a chance to put on some very funny lines from will and grace.
even though some rogue recipe'sfor this drink call for simple syrup rather than the crushed sucrets, i think because they do not know the secret ingredient buried deep in the script, it does not work as well. keep up the good work rachel, i love you for all the good you are doing for the world.
ps, a moment of geek, as you may have noticed, my shift cap does not work at the moment.
Summer drinks: I had an interesting one last night at an Asian restaurant that I thought fits that bill pretty good. It's a variation on a Mai Tai, with some mint and a twist of lime added to it. I was skeptical, but it was very refreshing!
Try it first at a bar before investing in the speciality ingredients that might never be used again... and then turn into nasty science experiments in the back of the bar!
Love Hendricks gin! On a side note, though, Commander's Palace is in the Garden District of New Orleans, not the French Quarter.