Cocktail Recipes, Alcoholic Drinks, Drink Recipes | Saveur

Autumn Bellini

SAVEUR Editors — Mon, 18 Mar 2019 22:46:37 +0000

Photo: Murray Hall • Food Styling: Jessie YuChen. Photo: Murray Hall • Food Styling: Jessie YuChen

Prosecco marries with richly spiced mulled cider and a splash of vodka in this seasonal take on the classic Bellini served at the now-closed Caffè Storico in New York City. While the original recipe called for a fig-flavored vodka such as Figenza, regular vodka works just as well in this fall cocktail.

Yield: 2 cocktails

Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients

For the mulled cider syrup:

1 cup apple cider
½ tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
4 whole cloves
2 green cardamom pods
2 cinnamon sticks
2 whole star anise

For the Bellini

1 oz. vodka
12 oz. chilled prosecco

Instructions

Make the mulled cider syrup: In a small pot, bring the cider to a boil over medium-high heat. Turn the heat to medium and cook, stirring occasionally, until the cider is reduced by half, about 2 minutes. Add the nutmeg, cloves, cardamom, cinnamon, and star anise, then remove from the heat and set aside to cool. Strain the syrup into an airtight container and refrigerate. (You should have about ½ cup of syrup.)
Make the cocktail: To a cocktail shaker filled halfway with ice, add the vodka and 2½ ounces of the mulled cider syrup. Shake until chilled, then strain into two champagne glasses, top each with prosecco, and serve.

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Pineapple Moonshine Punch

Charlotte and Kesha Jenkins — Mon, 09 Sep 2024 19:31:57 +0000

Photo: Murray Hall • Food Styling: Jessie YuChen. Photo: Murray Hall • Food Styling: Jessie YuChen

Gullah Geechee chef Charlotte Jenkins served this fruity, potent punch at her niece’s wedding, along with shrimp and grits, fried green tomatoes, roast beef, string beans, Gullah rice, and buttermilk biscuits. In her cookbook, Gullah Cuisine, Jenkins credits the recipe to her daughter Kesha, who dubbed it “sweetgrass wedding punch” because the color of the finished drink reminded her of the reddish stems of fresh sweetgrass.

Featured in “Chef Charlotte Jenkins Is Spreading the Gospel of Gullah Cuisine” by Amethyst Ganaway.

Yield: 2½ gallons

2 cups sugar
6 cups pineapple juice
⅓ cup fresh lemon juice (from 3 lemons)
2 cups moonshine or corn liquor
½ canister Kool-Aid (9.5 oz.), any flavor
Pineapple slices, for garnish (optional)

Instructions

To a large pot, add the sugar and 8 cups of water. Bring to a simmer over medium heat and cook until the sugar dissolves, about 3 minutes. Remove from the heat, add the pineapple and lemon juices, moonshine, and Kool-Aid, and mix well. Refrigerate until chilled.
Serve in glasses over ice, garnished with pineapple slices if desired.

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Persian Cantaloupe Drink

Farideh Sadeghin — Mon, 18 Mar 2019 22:43:36 +0000

Photo: Heami Lee • Food Styling: Jessie YuChen. Photo: Heami Lee • Food Styling: Jessie YuChen

SAVEUR contributing editor Farideh Sadeghin got the recipe for this refreshing melon drink from her Iranian-born father, who makes it by grating fresh cantaloupe and combining it with water, sugar, and mint. You can also add a little gin for a cooling summer cocktail.

Featured in “Chasing the Perfect Persian Rice.”

Yield: 6 cups

Time: 5 minutes

1 cantaloupe (about 3 lb.)
¼ cup sugar, plus more to taste
Fresh mint sprigs, for garnish

Instructions

Peel the cantaloupe, then halve it and scoop out and discard the seeds. Cut each cantaloupe half into two pieces and coarsely grate them into a large bowl. Stir in the sugar and 3½ cups of water, then taste and add more sugar if necessary. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least 45 minutes.
Serve in cups over ice, garnished with mint.

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Tinto de Verano

SAVEUR Editors — Mon, 18 Mar 2019 22:45:54 +0000

Photo: Murray Hall • Food Styling: Jessie YuChen. Photo: Murray Hall • Food Styling: Jessie YuChen

Tinto de verano, which translates to “red wine of summer,” is a surprising combination of red wine and lemon-lime soda. This cooling spritzer is a perfect refreshment for hot summer days. If a lightly sweetened lemon-lime soda like lemon Fanta or Spain’s La Casera (known locally as “gaseosa” or soda) can’t be found, you can substitute Squirt or 7Up cut with a splash of plain seltzer.

Yield: 1 cocktail

Time: 5 minutes

¾ cup red wine, preferably Spanish, such as rioja
¾ cup lightly sweetened lemon-lime soda
1 lemon or orange wedge, for garnish
Seltzer (optional)

Instructions

To a glass filled halfway with ice, add the red wine and soda. Garnish with a lemon wedge. If the drink is too sweet, add a splash of seltzer.

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Frozen Limeade Margarita

SAVEUR Editors — Mon, 18 Mar 2019 22:30:52 +0000

Photo: Murray Hall • Food Styling: Tyna Hoang. Photo: Murray Hall • Food Styling: Tyna Hoang

Canned frozen limeade intensifies the citrus flavor of this slushy libation, an easy drink for summer cocktail parties and cookouts. Pair it with any spicy dish—a frozen margarita is just the thing for taming the heat.

Yield: 4–6

Time: 5 minutes

1 cup silver tequila
¼ cup triple sec
1 Tbsp. agave nectar or simple syrup
½ tsp. kosher salt
One 12-oz. can frozen limeade
Lime wheels or wedges, for garnish

Instructions

To a blender, add the tequila, triple sec, agave nectar, salt, limeade, and 6 cups of crushed ice and pulse until smooth. Pour into a pitcher and serve in chilled glasses garnished with lime wheels.

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Soju Sour

Su Scott — Thu, 22 Aug 2024 21:24:15 +0000

Photo: Toby Scott • Food Styling: Tamara Vos • Prop Styling: Rachel Vere (Courtesy Hardie Grant). Photo: Toby Scott • Food Styling: Tamara Vos • Prop Styling: Rachel Vere (Courtesy Hardie Grant)

This recipe is brought to you by the SAVEUR Cookbook Club, our passionate community of food-loving readers from around the globe, celebrating our favorite authors and recipes. Join us as we cook through a new book every month, and share your food pics and vids on social media with the hashtags #SAVEURCookbookClub and #EatTheWorld.

The rice-based liquor known as soju is an essential element of the pojangmacha, or “covered stall,” street food scene across Seoul. In her new cookbook, Pocha: Simple Korean Food from the Streets of Seoul, author Su Scott offers a handful of fresh cocktail recipes to put the iconic liquor to work, including this twist on the classic sour. Though you can easily enjoy soju by itself, this zingy drink brightened with lemon juice, maple syrup, and maraschino cherry syrup is well worth a try.

Adapted with permission from Pocha: Simple Korean Food from the Streets of Seoul by Su Scott, published by ‎Hardie Grant Publishing, June 2024.

Featured in “Pocha Takes You on a Street Food Crawl Through Seoul” by Jessica Carbone.

Yield: 1 cocktail

Time: 5 minutes

1½ oz. soju
1 oz. fresh lemon juice
¼ oz. maple syrup, plus more to taste
1 tsp. maraschino cherry syrup
1 maraschino cherry, for garnish
Lemon slice, for garnish

Instructions

To a cocktail shaker filled halfway with ice, add the soju, lemon juice, and maple syrup. Shake until chilled, then strain into an ice-filled highball glass. Taste and adjust sweetness with more maple syrup if necessary. Drizzle in the maraschino cherry syrup and garnish with the cherry and lemon slice.

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Cucumber Gin Cooler

SAVEUR Editors — Mon, 18 Mar 2019 22:20:39 +0000

Photo: Murray Hall • Food Styling: Tyna Hoang. Photo: Murray Hall • Food Styling: Tyna Hoang

This refreshing update on the classic gin and tonic is an easy sipper, thanks to summery cucumber slices and plenty of lime juice. You can use any gin you have on hand, but we’re partial to Hendrick’s, which has a slight cucumber flavor, for this cooler. A note on the cucumber slices: it may be tempting to nibble them out of your drink right away, but try to resist the urge. After several minutes’ contact with the lime juice, gin, and tonic water (about as long as it takes to finish the cocktail), they pickle ever so slightly, taking on a lovely crisp flavor.

Yield: Makes 4 cocktails

Time: 5 minutes

8 oz. gin
8 Tbsp. fresh lime juice (from about 4 limes)
½ cup thinly sliced Persian or Kirby cucumber, scrubbed but not peeled
Tonic water
Lime wedges, for garnish

Instructions

To a cocktail shaker filled halfway with ice, add the gin, lime juice, and cucumber slices. Shake vigorously for 1–2 minutes, then strain into four ice-filled glasses, making sure the cucumber slices are evenly distributed. Top each glass with tonic water and garnish with a lime wedge.

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Rossini

SAVEUR Editors — Mon, 18 Mar 2019 22:29:23 +0000

Photo: Murray Hall • Food Styling: Pearl Jones. Photo: Murray Hall • Food Styling: Pearl Jones

A luscious take on the bellini, the Rossini swaps in strawberries for the latter drink’s white peaches, and prosecco for champagne. Serve this versatile cocktail in place of mimosas at brunch, as an aperitif, or with dessert.

Featured in the October 2012 issue.

Yield: Makes 4–6 cocktails

Time: 10 minutes

½ lb. fresh strawberries
One 750-ml bottle prosecco, chilled

Instructions

Set aside a few strawberries for garnish, then hull the rest. Transfer the hulled strawberries to a blender and process until smooth. (You should have about 1 cup of purée.)
To serve, add 2 tablespoons of the strawberry purée to a chilled champagne or coupe class. Top with the prosecco, stir to combine if desired, and garnish with a reserved strawberry. Repeat with the remaining purée, prosecco, and strawberries.

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Mango Lassi

SAVEUR Editors — Mon, 18 Mar 2019 22:47:54 +0000

Photo: Heami Lee • Food Styling: Jessie YuChen. Photo: Heami Lee • Food Styling: Jessie YuChen

Use the ripest, sweetest, smoothest mangoes you can find, such as Champagne or Haitian varieties, to make this yogurt-enriched Indian fruit shake. Striking the perfect balance between sweet and tart, this mango lassi makes a fine breakfast smoothie, or cooling accompaniment to spicy meals.

Yield: Makes 4

Time: 1 hour 5 minutes

3 cups plain yogurt (not Greek-style)
¼ cup sugar
½ tsp. kosher salt
1 large ripe mango, peeled, pitted, and coarsely chopped
Coarsely chopped pistachios, for garnish (optional)

Instructions

To a blender, add the yogurt, sugar, salt, and mango, and pulse until smooth. Refrigerate until chilled, at least 1 hour. Pour into glasses, garnish with pistachios if desired, and serve.

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Painkiller Cocktail

SAVEUR Editors — Mon, 06 Apr 2020 19:54:13 +0000

Jenny Huang. Jenny Huang

Very boozy and very well-shaken, this British Virgin Island classic gets a creamy frothy head similar to a flip or fizz from the addition of cream of coconut. While Pusser’s Rum trademarked the name in the 1990s, it was the iconic Soggy Dollar bar on Jost Van Dyke that invented the Painkiller in 1970. Pusser’s rum is a non-negotiable in the drink today; for the best results, look for their “Gunpowder Proof” (black label) bottle.

Yield: Makes 1 cocktail

Time: 5 minutes

4 oz. fresh pineapple juice
3 oz. Pusser’s dark rum
1 oz. cream of coconut, such as Coco Lopez
1 oz. fresh orange juice
Lemon wedge
Lime wedge
Freshly grated nutmeg, for garnish

Instructions

To a cocktail shaker filled halfway with ice, add the pineapple juice, rum, cream of coconut, and orange juice. Squeeze the lemon and lime wedges into the shaker, then add them too. Shake until chilled and frothy, 20–30 seconds. Pour into a chilled collins or rocks glass, garnish with freshly grated nutmeg, and serve immediately.

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Punch Romaine

Kellie Evans — Mon, 18 Mar 2019 22:27:02 +0000

Photo: Matt Taylor-Gross • Food Styling: Jessie YuChen. Photo: Matt Taylor-Gross • Food Styling: Jessie YuChen

Punch Romaine, a rum-spiked shaved-ice palate cleanser served to first-class passengers during the fateful last dinner aboard the Titanic on April 14, 1912, was based on a recipe from famed French chef Georges Auguste Escoffier, who championed alcoholic shaved ices during the early 20th century. The original recipe, essentially a granita, is updated here as a drinkable, citrusy cocktail poured over an iceberg of crushed ice.

Follow our easy instructions to make your own simple syrup. Use a channel knife to create thin strips of orange peel for the garnish.

Yield: Makes 1 cocktail

Time: 5 minutes

1 egg white
1 oz. white rum
1 oz. white wine
1 oz. fresh orange juice
½ oz. fresh lemon juice
½ oz. simple syrup

2 oz. Champagne or sparkling wine

Orange zest, for garnish

Instructions

To a cocktail shaker filled halfway with ice, add the egg white, rum, wine, orange and lemon juices, and simple syrup. Shake until well mixed and frothy, then strain into a large coupe glass mounded with crushed ice, being careful to pour the drink around the ice. Top with Champagne and garnish with orange zest.

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