Happy Cinco de Mayo

Today is a glorious day. It's Cinco de Mayo. No, it is not actually Mexico's Independence Day, but rather, it commemorates the Mexican army's victory over the French at the Battle of Puebla in 1862.

As you can see, I spent much of last night with my dutiful hand juicer well, in hand. I've got a couple of Margarita recipes up my sleeve to entertain friends at our evening's fiesta at my home. Here's the Margarita menu:

Stephanie's Classic Triple Sec Margarita:

• 2 parts blanco or plata 100 % agave tequila

• 1 part Hiram Walker Triple Sec (my go-to Triple Sec over Cointreau, especially if I’m planning to make drinks for a large group like tonight)

• 3/4 part fresh lime juice

• 1/4 part (or two bar spoons) agave syrup (Optional, but in my mind, quite a delightful addition)

Incorporating a different taste from another of my favorite products from the broad "orange liqueur" category is the classic with quite the deeply rooted heritage

Imperial Daisy:

• 2 oz. Tequila Anejo
  
• 1 oz. Mandarine Napoléon
  
• 1 oz. Freshly squeezed lime juice
  

Both of these cocktails can be enjoyed by shaking well with ice and straining into a chilled cocktail glass with (my personal preference) a partially salted rim.

Enjoy your day's fiestas!
SJ

Wrapping Up Portland Cocktail Week

What a fantastic trip to Portland, Oregon for the first Portland Cocktail Week and Drink.Write 2010! I had such a wonderful time exploring the food and drink in this city and can't wait to come back for another visit. For those of you not following me along my trip through Twitter (you've unleashed the havoc of THE FAIL WHALE if you didn't...but seriously, hilarious Twitter video linked up here), let me fill you in a bit on some of my happenings on my west coast adventure.

Drink.Write was two days jam-packed of lectures on a variety of industry-relevant topics: blogging ethics, increasing your readership and engagement, making your own ingredients, and website design only reach the tip of the iceberg. But what drew me to Portland was the Welcome Reception the CSOWG hosted on Wednesday evening for its members (they were kind enough to include me as well!) to usher in the beginning of the conference. Mandarine Napoléon sponsored the welcome event at Portland's Bluehour restaurant, a fantastic restaurant and bar where they've got a knack for craft cocktails. If you have a chance to visit Portland this fall, their seasonal cocktail menu boasts a great recipe called the East India Sour that was deeee-lish (Maker's, lemon juice, and house-made cardamom spiced caramel syrup)!

Back on track...Alan Akwai of Bluehour served up four Mandarine Napoléon cocktails to the delight of the crowd, including the Mandarine Sour, whose praises I've sung (well, spoken, you don't actually want me singing...) plenty before. We also served the TDN-inspired Lillet Tomlin (picture on the left from the Mixoloseum Facebook Page), of which I rather unsuccessfully attempted to recreate previously on my own...gosh, I can't believe I'm actually linking to this again!

We also served two other drinks that came out of the TDN hosted in May, the Mandarine Happiness and Napoleon vs. Wellington:

Mandarine Happiness (picture on right from the Mixoloseum Facebook Page)

• 2 oz rye whiskey
• 1 oz Mandarine Napoléon
  
• 1/2 oz Domaine de Canton

Stirred with ice and served on the rocks with a splash of ginger beer.

Napoleon vs. Wellington

• 1 oz blended scotch
  
• 1 oz Mandarine Napoléon
• 1 oz dry vermouth
• 1/4 oz maraschino liqueur
• 2 dashes Peychaud's bitters
  

Stir and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

What a fun and unique way to kick off a weekend dedicated to craft spirits and original cocktail blogging! Thank you to CSOWG for including me in all the fun and thank you again to Bluehour for hosting our event in their beautiful private dining space.

Cheers!
SJ