last week i had the honor of creating two cocktails for a friend’s wedding. one representing the bride, and one the groom. alas, vodka was a requirement for one of the cocktails so i had to make do with that, but ALL of them were consumed so i am content to believe they were both hits.
ok, here they are; the sea cucumber and smokey & the bandit:
The Sea Cucumber (based on the blockbuster song & video by the bride, ariela morgenstern and animated by the ridiculously talented groom, marc wilson):
- 1½ oz vodka (as vodka goes, karlsson’s gold is pretty nice and actually has some sort of flavor)
- 1 oz dry vermouth
- ½ oz grenadine (i prefer to use the real stuff, so i chose small hand foods)
- ¼ oz orgeat (i also used small hand brand)
- ¼ oz lemon juice, fresh squeezed
- muddled cucumber
- fee’s rhubarb bitters
thoroughly muddle several thick slices of cucumber in the vodka. strain into your shaker with a fine wire mesh. add the rest of the ingredients, shake over ice, strain into a chilled cocktail glass, and garnish with a ¼ cuke slice.
for best results, watch the video below whilst enjoying your sea cucumber.
Smokey & the Bandit (turns out the groom has some deeply bromantic feelings for burt reynolds. who can blame him?):
- 1½ oz bourbon (i used old forester)
- ½ oz mezcal (i like embajador blanco, but vida or sombra will do just fine)
- ½ oz real maple syrup
- ¼ oz lemon juice, fresh squeezed
- fee’s black walnut bitters
- peaty single malt rinse
- candied ginger chunk garnish
rinse the inside of a chilled cocktail glass with a peaty single malt whisky like ardbeg, laphroaig, smokehead, or bowmore. shake ingredients over ice, strain into the peat-rinsed glass, and plop a chunk of candied ginger in there.
oh… and here’s your soundtrack.
