The Bon Vivant’s Companion

Looking for a cocktail to serve at your Inauguration party next week?  Try an Obamartini or Biden Beer Bomb. I created these cocktails during the presidential debate season last fall, and they were two of my most popular posts for ’08.  Interest in them seems to be spiking again, so I thought I’d present them together.  Besides having catchy names (if I do say so myself) these cocktails are easy, festive, and in the case of the Obamatini, downright patriotic.

Throw your own Inaugural Ball next Tuesday. Invite friends and family over, huddle around the big screen (while our fellow citizens freeze in DC), and raise a very full glass to the peaceful transfer of power, a new era, and a whole lot of hope.

Fun Party tips:

-Buy a life sized Obama cutout at a party supply store for photo ops.
-Burn a copy of the Inaugural address and loop it all night long.
-Treat your guests to a West Wing Marathon.  Even on mute this series (democratic porn, really) will raise hopes and elevate spirits.

The Obamartini

2 oz original Grey Goose Vodka
1 oz fresh pressed blueberry juice
½ oz simple syrup
¼ oz Chambord
¼ oz fresh squeezed lemon juice
Pour all ingredients over ice into a Boston Shaker
Shake until cold and strain into a martini glass
Skewer blueberry, marshmallow, and piece of strawberry (in that order) onto an olive pick and garnish away.

The Biden Beer Bomb

½ bottle of Sam Adams Cherry Wheat Beer (or beer of your choice.  Wheat beer or hefeweizen works best)
1½ oz Woodford Reserve Bourbon
½ oz Cherry Brandy
¼  oz simple syrup

Run water over beer mug and put in freezer while preparing cocktail.

Place bourbon, cherry brandy, and simple syrup in a Boston shaker with ice.  Shake until cold.
Pour mixture into the bottom of an ice-cold mug.  Add beer to taste.

There is something iconic and beautiful about a single shot of Whiskey.  It’s the drink of choice for cinematic tough guys who sidle up to bars and drink from dirty glasses before demanding the bottle.  The drink of writer’s and poets on their road to self-destruction, and of Chris, my best friend from college, who slugged whiskey from the bottle (and then chased it with Coke from a Big Gulp).  Personally, the Big Gulp ruined the aesthetics for me, so when we drank together, I’d belt my whiskey unflinchingly straight, no chaser.  Grrrrr.  When you’re really badass, no mixers or glassware required.

Years have passed, Chris has turned to German beer, and I’ve learned to use a rocks glass (and when really being fancy, rocks).  Whiskey is still my drink of choice, and occasionally, when the situation calls for it, I embrace the simplicity of the single shot.

Like when I couldn’t move, a shot of bourbon got me into the car for my grandfather’s funeral.  After a harrowing week on the road, it helped me celebrate my move across the country, and when my college diploma arrived in the mail, after a decade of being held hostage, Jack Daniels and I met it at the door.

This year, while visiting family for Christmas, a single shot of whiskey eased me into my holiday.  For some reason, it was a long road back to Chicago, and it’s negative five-degree weather.  I was alone, didn’t want to be, and while the evening before had been perfect, everything went wrong the day of my flight.  I’d broken the mirror off of my car while parking, forgotten my winter gloves, smashed my cell phone’s headset, and when I checked into the newly built hotel, depressingly located in a suburban shopping mall, record snow was falling.  I watched it come down as I tracked my lost luggage on a website that barely worked.

Starving, and too late for room service, I raided the mini fridge looking for jellybeans.  That’s where I found him.  Jack, wearing a teeny, tiny airport bottle.  After some quick hellos, I powered down my computer, took a long, warm shower, and from the comfort of my “heavenly bed”, sipped a pure shot of whiskey.  I sipped it slowly, and unflinchingly, from the bottle.  No glassware required.

For the rest of the week I enjoyed juices, punches, and the odd Christmas margarita, but that single shot had set the tone.  No matter how cold, or far away from home, I was a badass, and was going to be fine.