Parsley Cooler

The end of our garden is here. Over Thanksgiving weekend, we saw our temperatures dip below freezing and our wind chills push us to near zero. That forced us to pick or cover the hardiest of our plants. One of those plants that was still going strong was our parsley. So, if you have something extra lying around the house, do what we do in the Firewater Lounge, drink it!

Since we've been tooling around the U.S. in our Around America series a bunch, and since there's no parsley in any of our most recent trips, we decided to give you a parsley Holly's Original cocktail for what's left of your Thanksgiving. It does have green chartreuse in it, which is increasingly hard to find and expensive, but, given the amount of Millennials and younger not drinking, I suspect the prices will come down in the future. If you have the chartreuse and the parsley, go for it!

Parsley Cooler
Holly's Original

2 1/4 ounces gin (we used Death's Door)
1/2 ounce green chartreuse
1 dash of Hella citrus bitters (you can sub a celery, orange, or lemon bitters)
splash of cold 7up
parsley

Place 10-15 parsley leaves in a double old fashioned glass or similar sized rocks glass. Splash them with a bit of gin (about 1/4 ounce). Muddle gently. Add ice. Add remaining gin, chartreuse, and bitters. Stir gently to combine. Top with 7up, stir with one or two revolutions, careful to keep the effervescence. Garnish with parsley if you like.

Bloody Skeleton

Our next feature drink contains a gin that most Americans have never experienced, genever gin. The version of genever we are using is Bols which is now on the U.S. market. Made from a distillation of 60% malt wine with herbs such as anise, angelica, and coriander, Bols genever is malty with a hint of pear and other fruits not unlike Irish poteen (Irish potato moonshine). Using a secret recipe from 1820, Bols genever is only made in the Netherlands and its secret distillate ingredient is fiercely hush-hush.

Rubicon

Next up is one of my favorite pours and a really nice, but expensive, cocktail. It's called a Rubicon with bitters. We decided to shoot the process of making this so that you can impress your friends with your extremely classy bartending technique, your daredevil fire skills, and your big ol' fat wallet (allegedly). Of course you could make this without bitters (pictured left), but then you wouldn't be able to use your our homemade blow torch, which we know you are dying to try. So without further ado, the Rubicon...

Classic Pours: Songbird

The Tantris Sidecar reminded me that I haven't poured one of the classics in a while; the tested and true standbys of our grandfathers' days. It would be remiss of me, though, to go without acknowledging some of the classic pours already at the Lounge, so that you can have a head start in enjoying some of these favorites right away as we add more - they include the Aviation, the Filmograph, the Grasshopper, the Honeymoon, the Imperial Fizz, the Monkey Gland, and the Curled Satan's Whiskers.

Around America Series

Drink: Tantris Sidecar
Establishment: Pegu Club
Location: New York, New York
First Connoisseur: Holly (someday)

1 1/4 ounces Courvoisier VS Cognac
1/2 ounce calvados
1/2 ounce Cointreau
1/2 ounce lemon juice
1/2 ounce simple syrup
1/4 ounce pineapple juice
1/2 ounce Green Chartreuse

Half rim a cocktail glass with sugar. Combine all ingredients and shake. Carefully pour and enjoy this expensive version of a classic.