Posts from Cocktails

I’m a whiskey guy. And the Manhattan is a classic whiskey cocktail. A simple recipe of whiskey, vermouth, and bitters. And maybe a cherry. But within these boundaries of simplicity there is A LOT of room to get creative.

There are a couple of small challenges of creating a new Manhattan recipe. First, you need some basic barware including a good cocktail shaker with a strainer, a double jigger, and a cocktail spoon. Optionally, have a silicon ice cube tray for making large ice cubes or (even more awesome) molds for making sphere ice cubes. None of this stuff is particularly expensive, and you get kitted up with all of this bar gear for about $25 of online shopping. (Repeated disclaimer: I’m not selling anything or making any money with this website. I write here cuz I like to. Any products I mention or recommend are because I’ve used them and like them, and I receive no consideration – financial or otherwise – for mentioning them. And that’s why you’re not seeing any links to barware right now. I’m happy to make barware recommendations for any budget, just ask.) read more

I wrote recently about how I arrived at the Blueberry-Fennel Frond Margarita recipe this summer. Thought I would share another cocktail creation I landed on recently: the Strawberry-Thai Basil Margarita.

My amazing wife, Mrs. Piehole, was at the garden nursery earlier this spring (ostensibly to buy tomato plants), and one of the things she came home with was this “combo pot” of four different basil plants. Four varieties of basil in a single pot. Before these plants got overly root bound with each other in their shared pot we split them up into their own separate containers out on the patio, where they each grew into big bushy plants that we’ve been clipping off of all summer. What we had were: sweet basil, lettuce leaf basil, purple basil, and Thai basil. read more

Margaritas have been the cocktail of choice this summer at the Piehole Estates. I have a love for mezcal that I acquired on a trip down to Oaxaca in southern Mexico many years ago, so margaritas on the patio seemed like the thing to do this summer. If you’re not familiar with mezcal think of it as tequila’s smoky cousin. And Mrs. Piehole and I have a nice urban herb garden going in the backyard this year that provides a lot of inspiration. Plenty of time and ingredients to experiment with this season. read more