I haven't been able to believe in love ever since I heard Seal and Heidi Klum were breaking up, but I can't resist a themed cocktail for Valentine's Day. They're pretty, they often taste like dessert, and they make it easy to fool your date into thinking you've gone out of your way to do something special when in reality you're going to steal his wallet when he falls asleep.
Anyway, here are a bunch I think you'll like. There's even one that calls for chocolate ice cream (below and left). You're welcome.
Love Potion No. 9
3 parts Sauza Silver Tequila
1 part DeKuyper Razzmatazz Schnapps Liqueur
4 parts chocolate ice cream
Raspberries for garnish
Directions: In a blender, combine tequila, raspberry liqueur, and chocolate ice cream. Pour into glasses and garnish with raspberries.
Rosé Kiss
Muddled pineapple and mint
2 parts Courvoisier Rosé
½ part French dry vermouth
½ part fresh lime juice
¼ part simple syrup
3 splashes of Peychaud bitters
Directions: Start by muddling pineapple and mint in a cocktail shaker. Add the remaining ingredients, shake well, and pour into a rocks glass. Garnish with a fresh pineapple chunk.
Nice & Sloe (Oh yeeeeah. Get it, girl.)
1 part Plymouth Sloe Gin
3 parts champagne
3 blueberries of your preference (garnish)
Directions: Pour in the Sloe Gin, Top with Champagne and garnish with blueberries at the bottom of the glass
Love Daisy
2 parts Beefeater Gin
½ part Cointreau
1 part lemon juice
½ part simple syrup
4 raspberries
Directions: Shake all ingredients vigorously with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with raspberries.
Sangria Roja
1 1/2 oz Camarena Silver Tequila
1 1/2 oz pinot noir
1/2 lime juice
1/2 oz agave nectar
2 oz grapefruit soda
Directions: In a stemless wine glass or lowball glass, mix all ingredients, except the grapefruit soda. Add ice and top off with grapefruit soda and stir. Garnish with lime wedge.
Diana Vilibert wants to be your Valentine.
Image courtesy Sauza
Tequila milkshake TEQUILA MILKSHAKE.
@The Everpresent Wordsnatcher Yes please!! I am teetotal except for cocktails that taste like dessert.
No Valentine's Qream? Not even ice qream?
@AniaGosia Qream is nothing if not a romantic drink! Let's make up our own.
@The Everpresent Wordsnatcher I feel like a strawberry Qream Milqshaqe would be just the thing for valentine's day. Maybe with some added pink food coloring for that special/festive twist.
@Ophelia Don't forget the sprinqles, and maybe a swirl of choqlate syrup.
@The Everpresent Wordsnatcher Oooh, yes. And it must be served in a roqoqo goblet.
@The Everpresent Wordsnatcher Yes! Strawberry qream milqshaqes, all around! I'd like mine with a raspberry on top, served in a champagne glass please.
@Ophelia Roqoqo goblet ftw though
@AniaGosia A Qream Cocktail: pour 1/2 cup edible pink glitter into a glass. Add Qream. Garnish with more glitter. Serve.
@Saaoirse AAAAAAHHHHHHHH. (Oh god, my innards. My sparkly, tortured innards.)
@AniaGosia There is regular Cream which is also alcoholic: http://givemecream.com/whipped/ How is Qream a liquid but Cream semi-solid? What will Kream be? How can we double-C/Qream this VDay?
I will put out for anyone who makes me a Love Daisy. That shit sounds fantastic. If my boyfriend has a problem with that I will tell him too bad, there is no love on this earth like the love between me and gin.
@The Lady of Shalott I made my date and myself about 5 gin drinks each last night. (Gin, a little campari, a few shakes of bitters, lemon & lime squeezed, soda water top-off.) Needless to say, we did it.
@whizz_dumb Based on the similarity of color schemes in our profile photos and our love of the exact same cocktail, I am starting to think we're the same person.
@LornaLoo wait, were you two on a date last night?
@LornaLoo *calll meeeeee
sooo i just turned 21, have no money, and therefore have like no cocktail experience. is the idea that you don't taste the alcohol? or does alcohol mixed with other stuff taste...good? i've had a lot of jungle juice in my time, and that shit is definitely more of a mask for $15 vodka than anything else. I JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND BEING AN ADULT
@tvc015 Truth! And how about for those of us who don't have the budget for some of the liquors? Suggestions for substitutions?
@the zazu Minibottles to see if you like it, before buying a whole fifth of it. Minibottles: not just for pinatas anymore!
@the zazu NOTHING BUT QREAM
@the zazu I don't have much of a liquor budget, so I buy some tasty gin (I like Bombay)(For my birthday, so I can make spending the money somehow acceptable) and...that's it (liquor-wise. I also buy tonic & limes). Boring, but delicious.
@tvc015 Some cocktails mask the taste of the alcohol, some enhance it. And yes, some ingredients are expensive, so maybe try ordering a fancy cocktail when you're at a nice bar to find out if you like it, then it would be worth it to buy the ingredients.
@tvc015 Weeeelll, here's the deal. When you use the good (read: expensive) liquors, mixing them together means they taste good either on their own, or with only a little bit of mixer in there. If you want/need to use the cheap stuff, then you're going to want to hide the taste, rather than play up the mix of flavors. So, if you're making something like the Nice & Sloe, you definitely want good gin. If you're making something like the sangria, it probably matters less.
But in any event, here are my suggestions for cheapening up these recipes:
- Wherever it says "champagne" use prosecco
- Wherever it specifies a top-shelf brand, you can sub in a cheaper one, BUT:
- For drinks that have citrus in them, increase the lemon/lime juice slightly to hide the taste of the lower-quality liquor
- For drinks that have chocolate in them, probably don't worry, and just go with the ice cream thing
- For any drinks that use some sort of schnapps, don't worry about the brand, because I don't think anyone can tell the difference between one schnapps and another when its in a mixed drink (am I wrong about this one? I can't tell the difference, anyway.)
Disclaimer - I am not a bartender or anything, I just like drinking.
@remargaret Minibottles! They are so cute, I want to buy all of them every time I got to the liquor store.
@tvc015 And Serious Eats has a series of "bottom shelf" liquor reviews that might be helpful in selecting cheaper brands.
@tvc015 Wait, $15 vodka? Where the hell are you from that your jungle juice is made with something that costs more than $10 for a handle? Personally, I like my cocktails to taste like booze- tasty booze. I will also take a black russian over anything else (unless a good beer is also a choice) and for that reason, I miss out on a lot of cocktails- they get expensive and I don't drink a lot so having one drink that's always delicious is a good plan. I suggest you milk the fact that you just turned 21- bring it up when you're out as much as possible and people will want to buy you drinks and pretend they are booze experts (but don't let people buy you a zillion drinks and get you smashed) and voila, cocktails for your learning experience.
@remargaret Is it a Boston thing that we call them nips? You know, like "just a nip."
@Lily Rowan Intriguing! I must investigate.
@tvc015 If you're drinking cheap vodka, then all you're tasting is the alcohol, as in the chemical. But liquors/drinks/whatevers like gin, qream, better vodkas, wine, etc have their own taste that isn't just "flavour of alcohol". That's what you drink them for (the buzz is secondary, usually).
There are some drinks that don’t even taste like they contain alcohol, and they are often tasty (and not all of them are exclusively for baby drinkers, though some of them are *coughcough*fruit coolers*cough*). But in something like a Tom Collins, where you can taste that it has alcohol in it, the point is really to taste the gin , just complemented by other flavours.
@remargaret Great idea! Thanks for the suggestion.
@gobblegirl Commenting waaay late on this and no one will ever see it, but mmmmm, Tom Collins. I am such a fan!
I feel bereft there isn't some ridiculous Godiva white and milk chocolate liqueur swirled something something with strawberries that you know you can only get at The Melting Pot.
My Valentine Cocktails Must Be The Cheesiest of All Time.
(Tequila Milkshake is faaaaaar too classy. Obviously.)
I like any drink named after an Usher song.
Hahaha, tequila and chocolate ice cream? This cocktail knows me so well. This cocktail can take advantage of me if it wants, I don't mind.
I'm not purchasing a product called Razzmatazz, because I don't want to reward bad behavior. I will substitute Chambord or actually I will probably substitute Not Doing Anything.
@HillsideHoyden And in this you are quite correct.
In addition to felony-level spelling, it also suffers from having the consistency AND color of cough syrup. Though not the off-putting cherry taste, it's true.
@Party Falcon In general I think one of the perks of adulthood is no longer patronizing the DeKuyper brand of flavored liqueurs with twee names (I'm looking at you, Buttershots).
@HillsideHoyden Buttershots?! D:
@miwome http://www.dekuyperusa.com/flavors/10
Does the significant other come included? Do I have to pick him up at the liquor store?
@klibberfish You should be able to get a good end-of-season deal on a Winter Boyfriend right now.
@The Everpresent Wordsnatcher I am so cheap this time of year. Like clearance rack bargain bin disheveled goods.
@whizz_dumb I also hear you come with a complimentary bottle of gin.
@Ophelia Now that the word is out, someone's gotta snatch me up. [It's just the TJ's $8 bottle. Don't tell.]
@whizz_dumb [with this crowd, that's probably a selling point. just sayin']
I'm so glad Drynuary is over! I'll take a Nice & Sloe for here and a sangria to go, pls.
Manhattans are romantic right? Especially really good ones?
@Onymous Much more romantic to me than this sort of thing. I am not a fan of sweet cocktails, in general, but a date who could make a killer Manhattan would get SIGNIFICANTLY closer to the end zone.
@Onymous Tell me your really good Manhattan secrets! I know our cheapest-rye-available-and-cherries-that-are-mostly-food-dye Manhattans are wrong, but I have no idea how to do it right.
@VolcanoMouse Well I freely admit when I make Manhattans for myself they are very much to my taste so be warned:
I make my Manhattans with bourbon: Buffalo Trace usually (Blantons if it's a major holiday and I've convinced some one to buy me some).
Keep the bourbon in a very cold fridge, not the freezer. Vermouth at room temperature.
3:1 bourbon:sweet vermouth
4-6 healthy dashes Angostura
3 maraschino cherries, dripping wet
Pour everything directly into an unchilled glass and give a couple seconds of stirring (I try to find a cherry still on the stem and just whisk it around the glass).
Things to note: I use WAY more Angostura than most people, my Manhattans are cold but not really cold and aren't watered down by ice; that's on purpose, I think you lose to much of the bourbon flavor with ice or freezers and I really like bourbon. I don't mix them very hard, that means a less consistent flavor but I prefer that, it changes a little each sip and keeps things interesting.
Generally I cut the bitters down to 2 dashes if I'm making them some one else.
@Onymous Ooh, thanks. Bourbon Manhattans sound a bit more accessible!
@Onymous I have Buffalo Trace on my shelf right now. Delicious.
@combledore Buffalo Trace is my favorite after Knob Creek. There is no wrong answer here.
What about blood orange whiskey sours? That's what I'm shaking up for my boyfriend. That and thawed Thanksgiving leftovers.
All of this after I beat him up with a pillow last night for not bringing up V-Day first.
@ginalouise Yes! Yes. It doesn't have to be sweet to be romantic/great! It has to be what you think your date/SO will looooove. (Gag, I sound like a terrible advice column but it's SO TRUE.)
@miwome I agree. I was only a little miffed because I wanted him to bring it up first, but other than that I'm happy staying in and getting schwasted.
@ginalouise Of course! I thought the pillow beating sounded fundearing.
I think we'll be having the rest of the (now very well) aged egg nog that I made for New Year's. I'll either get laid or food poisoned!
@Alixana Or both, depending on your timing.
@The Everpresent Wordsnatcher O_O Just the thought of that scenario made me a celibate teetotaler for the rest of my life. So basically I'm a Baptist again. Thanks. (OMG VOMIT & SEX WORST COMBO EVEEEER.)
Oh boy oh boy...sangria is the way to this lady's heart, and also to her underpants.
If you are in Pittsburgh, come drink sangria (or something else) with us as the Round Corner Cantina TONIGHT! 7pm! Pittsburgh Pin-up!
GUYS. I already talked about this on Tumblr and Facebook but I need to share it here because it's appropriate. This week I discovered Skinny Pina Coladas. 2 oz coconut rum (I used Bacardi Pirate Bay), 5 oz coconut water, 2 oz pineapple juice. Shake together, pour over ice. Still refreshing and tropical and boozy, but under 200 calories, no need to get out the blender, takes thirty seconds to put together.
I know I am lame, but just smelling tequila makes me want to horf. But the BF loves it. And. Ice cream. Also chocolate.
Does someone with more know-how think I could substitute a different type of liquor in that actual, serious love potion?
@breccia
Light rum?