Consulting

In celebrating #NationalMargaritaDay on February 22^nd, I give you a fully loaded post filled with history, factoids, info, and recipes.

Raise Your Spirits is almost set to reveal their new spring/summer cocktail menu to the public. When you book with RYS, you have the opportunity to choose one, two, three, four, or five specialty hand-crafted cocktails exclusively through us. Many of these cocktails have stood the test of time and are proven libations. They have been used for our events as well as on seasonal cocktail menus for various bars in the area. Some are classics, twists on classics, and moderns. All recipes are RYS recipes. Proportions and ratios of ingredients are not listed due to copyright.

I meant to put this post together later in the week, but due to coordinating and doing three events this week, this V-day post comes early in the week. Giving you plenty of time to get the ingredients and perfect these cocktails before your date arrives.

Mardi Gras, like Christmas, is a whole season - not just one day.  That being said, Fat Tuesday is the biggest day of celebration, and the date it falls on moves around. You'll find that Fat Tuesday can be any Tuesday between Feb. 3 and March 9. Carnival celebration starts on Jan. 6, the Twelfth Night (feast of Epiphany), and picks up speed through midnight on Fat Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday.

For this post, you will find various offerings of the classic Sidecar for the "Cocktail of the Month" Program (COM). Choose from one of these versions of the Sidecar for the month of January.

Would you like the ingredients for one of these cocktails delivered to your doorstep? At this time, this program is only available to Central PA. Let Raise Your Spirits do the shopping, make recipe cards, and box up ingredients with step-by-step instructions or have them batch the cocktail and deliver MTO. Either way, you get to keep the products. 

Champagne is something you should consider sipping all year-round. But it’s especially appropriate this time of year, as everyone jolts from holiday party to holiday party. It’s time to get some expert advice on the sparkly stuff. A few myths debunked and some surprising tidbits from the correct glassware (hint - it’s not a flute) to why popping a cork should be graceful.

Spiced Pear

• 1 ½ oz Pear Vodka, such as Grey Goose La Poire or Absolut Pear
• ¾ oz Amaretto Liq
• ½ oz *Spiced simple syrup
• 1/4 oz Lemon juice
• Pear slice for garnish
• Glass – Cocktail

* Spiced Simple Syrup - combine some allspice, cloves, cinnamon stick, orange peel, 1 cup brown sugar in a medium saucepan with 1 cup of water. Boil, then simmer on low heat for about 15 minutes. Stir occasionally. Let cool, remove solids, bottle, and refrigerate.

Here are some seasonal Thanksgiving cocktails you can sip before, during, or after Thanksgiving dinner. You can even enjoy these elixirs on Black Friday or paired with that left-over turkey sandwich over the holiday weekend.

Forbidden Fruit

(Cover photo courtesy of Liquor.com)

An adult version of the 19^th century lemon drop candy, the Lemon Drop (Martini) consists of vodka, triple sec (orange liqueur), lemon juice, and simple syrup that is shaken and strained into a sugar-rimmed Martini/Cocktail glass and garnished with a lemon twist. In some circles, people have begun to mix it with Citrus Vodka, i.e. Absolut Citron, but the classic way is straight vodka.