Winter improvisation

The first day of winter, so I decided to pass up the vodka in deference to the warmer liquors at my disposal. In this case, I broke out the wicker clad bottle of cachaca, which I've never tried in a drink other than a caipirinha. Being light on mixers, I settled on the usual complement of lemon:

The Cachaca Sour

2 oz. Cachaca
.5 oz. Cointreau
1 oz. lemonade concentrate
1.5 oz. cold water.

Shaken vigorously over plenty of ice and served up.

Delicious. I think there's room for experimentation regarding the Cointreau component.

Sherry's "usual" is a cape cod. For variety's sake, I encouraged her to select by scent one of the fruit-infused Hangar One vodkas. She picked the Mandarin Blossom. It worked, but only sort of. Mental note: Mandarin Blossom and cranberry juice are questionable together. We'll try one of the other flavors next time.

No, "Sherry" is not a pseudonym.

An amaretto sidecar?

It's been a cold day in Rockridge, so I expected to mix myself a sidecar, perhaps with cognac instead of brandy, to warm my nose. But when I reached for the Cointreau, my eyes fell on my lonely bottle of amaretto. Cognac and amaretto? That's a no-brainer! So I mixed myself a sidecar, substituing the amaretto for the orange liquor. The result is sweeter than my usual sidecar, and a bit more syrupy, but delicious.

1 oz frozen lemonade concentrate
1.5 oz water
2 oz congnac
.5 oz amaretto

Shaken hard over plenty of ice and served up with a marachino cherry.

Maybe using brandy intead of cognac would combat some of the additional sweetness introduced by the amaretto.

I can't be the first one to have tried this. Until someone tells me otherwise, I'm calling this an amaretto sidecar.