A RAINBOW OF COCKTAILS

Hosting a themed party and you want a drink to match? Maybe you are having a Blue Moon retro party with 50’s rock and roll and would like a blue drink to match; just look hard enough and you will find the drink to match your theme of choice.  There are cocktails for every color of the rainbow and even a few like the Pousse Café that look like rainbows:

 

POUSSE CAFÉ

In Jerry Thomas’s 1862 edition of How to Mix Drinks, the “Fancy Drinks” section includes three Pousse Café recipes—the ultimate fancy drinks. A properly made Pousse Café is a visual masterpiece. Although it may not be the best-tasting cocktail you’ve ever tried, it will certainly be the most beautiful, but you have to do it right: you need a steady hand, a bar spoon, and a Pousse Café glass. You either have a steady hand or you don’t, and if you don’t, making Pousse Cafés and performing cardiac bypasses are probably not great ideas. The bar spoon is pretty easy to secure. Unfortunately, the perfect Pousse Café glass is now hard to find, since the drink has been out of fashion for some time: it should look somewhat like an oversized pony glass, except the top flares out.

Once you have your steady hand, bar spoon, and an acceptable 2-to-3-ounce Pousse Café glass:

·         Pour about 1/4 inch of the first ingredient into the glass

·         Insert the bowl of the spoon into the glass as far as it will go with the concave part of the bowl facing up.

·         Adjust the tip of the spoon’s bowl so it is very near or touching the side of the glass

·         Pour each subsequent layer—again, 1/4 inch’s worth—slowly and carefully over the bowl of the spoon, so each liquid flows down the side of the glass and gently floats on top of the previous layer; you need to pour in a steady but very slow stream to avoid agitating the previous layer. (By the way: the function of the glass’s shape is that it allows you to insert the spoon, upside down, and hence to pour over the concave side the spoon's bowl—you need the flair at the top of the glass to admit the spoon)

·         The number of ingredients is actually somewhat irrelevant, but they should all be in identical quantities, and those with the most sugar (that is, the heaviest ones) need to be poured first, into the bottom

·         When you’re finally done with this careful operation, be sure to instruct your guest to drink the Pousse Café layer by layer, or risk breaking the bartender’s heart by stirring

.25 ounce grenadine

.25 ounce dark Cacao

.25 ounce maraschino liqueur

.25 ounce green crème de menthe

.25 ounce blue Curaçao

.25 ounce triple sec

.25 ounce Hennessy VS Cognac

Into a cordial glass, slowly and carefully pour each ingredient, in the order listed, over the back of a spoon, layering one on top of the other. (See above for more detailed advice.) Serve with no garnish.

 

BLUE MOON*

Ingredients

1 ounce Ciroc Vodka

.5 ounce blue curacao

4 ounces unsweetened Pineapple Juice

.5 ounce Coco Lopez

Preparation

Shake all ingredients well with ice and strain into a chilled martini glass. Garnish with a slice of fresh pineapple.

* My original cocktail

See you next week …enjoy your drinks responsibly and don’t forget to turn the lights out when you leave.

Dale aka kingcocktail