January Closeouts

Here are the last of the after-the-holiday recipes — just in time to close out January. But these are a four of the most attractive and tasty cocktails I have sampled in a while. These festive concoctions are just the ticket to get in you in the holiday mood. –roz edward

Blood Orange Bourbon
Recipe: Ice cubes
3 tablespoons blood orange juice, strained
2 tablespoons bourbon
1 teaspoon powdered sugar
1 drop aromatic bitters
Blood orange slice

Fill a short glass with ice. Add blood orange juice, bourbon, sugar and bitters; stir vigorously. Bend orange slice in half, slide into glass. Serve immediately.

Chocolate Peppermint Cookie Cocktail
Recipe: 2 1/2 ounces Jose Cuervo Resposado Tequila
1 ounce peppermint schnapps    3/4 ounce Godiva liqueur
1 1/2 ounces cream
Chocolate syrup and candy canes for garnish

Rim martini glass with chocolate syrup and crushed candy canes. Shake ingredients in shaker with ice and strain into a martini glass.

 Sugar Cookie Cocktail
Recipe: 2 1/2 ounces Jose Cuervo Resposado Tequila
1 teaspoon brown sugar
Brown sugar for garnish

Rim a cordial glass with brown sugar. Add tequila and brown sugar into a shaker with ice and shake ingredients well. Strain into glass.

Dress up classic Spanish sangría with Spiced Simple Syrup and tart cranberries to create an ideal cocktail for a winter holiday celebration.

Spiced Cranberry Sangria
Recipe: The Fruit
2 cups fresh cranberries
2 Granny Smith apples, large dice
1 cup Spiced Simple Syrup
3/4 cup Cointreau
1/2 cup ruby port wine

Recipe: The sangría:
1 (750-milliliter) bottle Tempranillo rosé
1/2 cup ruby port wine
1/2 cup Cointreau
1/2 cup cranberry juice



For the fruit:
Combine all ingredients in a 3-quart container with a tight-fitting lid.
Cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours or preferably overnight.

For the sangría:
Add all ingredients to the fruit mixture and stir to combine.
Refrigerate until chilled; serve over ice.

More Of the Best Of

Last entry we examined — and tasted the best beers and wines of the 2011 variety. Now we'll move on to the hard stuff, the gins, rums, vodkas and whiskeys. Whether these are your favorites or not, they enjoyed immense popularity throughout the party season. The criteria for making it to my best of list is include taste, adaptability, availability and at what price point. Bottom line these are affordable and sitting on a shelf in shop — or as we say here in Atlanta — a package store near you.

 

Best Gin - Bombay Sapphire® Gin - The spirit is delicately infused in a Carterhead still with the aromatic flavours of 10 botanicals. It is an altogether great gin... complex, refreshing and well-balanced

Best Rum  - Bacardi  is the most popular rum sold within the United States.
 

Best Vodka - Cîroc Vodka releases the true flavors in every cocktail. The sweet complexity of the distilled grapes draw out and complement the flavors of whatever is mixed ...

Best Scotch - Glenrothes Select Reserve is a fine single malt scotch,  decently-balanced, full-flavored and easy-going enough for casual cocktailing, but with enough complexity to pair with a fine cigar.

Best Whiskey - Crown Royal Black is an extra bold whiskey matured to perfection in oak barrels. This deliciously black whiskey has a higher proof and more full bodied flavor.

Best Beers and Wines of 2011

It’s the start of the new year and time to recap the events and items that made a real impression on us in the world cocktails an libations. Here are my top choices for domestic brands. –roz edward

The pieste de resistance the best champagne of 2011 is still the reigning royalty of champagnes — Dom Pérignon.

A truly unique style heralding the creator of champagne, Dom Pérignon is named after the creator of champagne, a monk called Pierre Pérignon. And when it's stored and consumed properly it's like inhaling, the nectar is airy and nothing short of divine.


Best Beer: Guinness

The only global stout brand – the much adored Guinness, which recently celebrated the 250th anniversary of the signing of the lease on St James’s Gate Brewery, Dublin.

Red: Chateau Ste. Michelle Indian Wells Cabernet Sauvignon 2009

This lush wine reveals fruit-forward blackberry and cherry flavors and dark fruit aromas.






White: Concannon Conservancy Chardonnay 2009

A wonderfully expressive wine with ripe tree fruit flavors of peach, pear and guava show on the nose and palate. Hints of lemon, subtle herbs and brioche balance out the fruitiness of the finish. 

Moscato Sutter Home Winery Moscato

This wine is from United States, California region. Dessert Muscat Blanc A Petits Grain Wine.