Skating

Greetings, folks. It’s the time of year when you might see a bowl of prefab eggnog at a party and know you shouldn’t go there, but you just can’t help but ruin your life, can you? Do you try to avoid it, or just give in right away and despise yourself for the rest of the weekend? You know it’s wrong, even as you kid yourself that the bottle of add-your-own next to it makes it all right—even legal—somehow. Like it’ll all balance out in the end. Sure, pal.

But wait—don’t touch that crap. How about a nice coconut drink instead?



Skating

• 2 1/2 oz gold Jamaica rum
• 1/4 oz Pernod
• 1/4 oz Galliano
• 1 tsp coffee brandy (Firelit Coffee Liqueur)
• 2 oz coconut milk
• 1/4 oz vanilla syrup (B.G. Reynolds’)
• 1/2 oz lemon juice

Shake hard with ice cubes and strain into a 14-ounce glass filled with crushed ice. Cherry, straw.
SOURCE: ROWEN, FOGGED IN LOUNGE

Coffee, anise and vanilla glide over a coconut-frosted rum pond. It’s wholesome—vegan, even. God Jul, Joyous Kwanzaa, grab your Gin-and-Tonic-ah, drink up.

World on a String

OK—trying to work up some holiday cheer here at the Fogged In Lounge. The housemate’s busy doing the place up. The shops look like Christmas threw up all over them. The music’s everywhere like some mad scene in a noir film. Might as well work myself into the mood since there’s no beating it.

I made this Campari-absinthe thing last night that I liked a lot. Anise, citrus, tequila, it’s red—I feel festive already. Now where’s that drink?



World on a String

• 2 oz reposado tequila
• 1 oz Campari
• 1/2 oz lemon juice
• 1 tsp absinthe
• 1 scant tsp agave syrup

Shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
SOURCE: ROWEN, FOGGED IN LOUNGE

Williams’ Orchard

I be free to go abroad,
Or take again my homeward road
To where, for me, the apple tree
Do lean down low in Linden Lea.

—William Barnes, My Orcha’d in Linden Lea (Common English version)

Today is the anniversary of the repeal of Prohibition. My celebratory offering is one I’ve been enjoying for a few days, an apple-pear brandy combo with a little ginger to brighten the winter evenings. The Poire Williams dominates, as the name suggests. For the apple brandy, I had some applejack, which worked fine, though I’d like to try it with Laird’s Bonded—my preference in such things.



Williams’ Orchard

• 2 oz apple brandy
• 3/4 oz Velvet Falernum
• 1/2 oz lime juice
• 1/4 oz Poire Williams

Shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
SOURCE: ROWEN, FOGGED IN LOUNGE