Spiced Pear Mule

What are you doing for Christmas? We usually go home to Louisiana for the holidays, but this year we're going a bit farther - to New Zealand! My brother moved to Auckland a couple of years ago and we're finally going to visit. My first summertime Christmas! I'm so excited. Except for the part where we have to take a 15-hour flight with a 15-month-old. I don't think that part is going to be fun. Air New Zealand serves alcohol, right?

I've got one more holiday cocktail for you before I sign off for Christmas, and it's a really wonderful one: a Spiced Pear Mule made with Barritt's Ginger Beer. Barritt's is a brand from Bermuda that has been around since 1874! It's a super tasty ginger beer that is perfect for mules. I'm sure you're familiar with the Moscow Mule, but did you know that the mule is a whole category of drinks? A mule, also called a buck, is made of liquor, citrus juice, and ginger beer. There's no need to stick to vodka. It's delicious with bourbon, gin, or - possibly my new personal favorite - Cognac.

Cognac (or brandy) pairs really well with ginger so it's a natural choice with ginger beer. It also goes wonderfully with pear. So I couldn't help but reach again for St. George Spiced Pear Liqueur to make this delicious mule more festive. If you don't have a bottle of the liqueur, you can still make this cocktail with 1 ounce of pear juice or pear brandy. Try making or buying some spiced Demerara syrup and you won't be missing out at all!

Spiced Pear Mule

1 1/2 oz. Cognac or brandy
1 oz. St. George Spiced Pear Liqueur
3/4 oz. lime juice
1/2 oz. Demerara simple syrup
Barritt's Ginger Beer, to top

Combine Cognac, pear liqueur, lime juice, and syrup in a shaker with ice and shake until chilled. Strain into a copper mug filled with ice. Top with ginger beer. Garnish with pear slices and a cinnamon stick and enjoy!

This post was sponsored by Barritt's Ginger Beer. All opinions are my own.

Hot Buttered Rum

I am definitely in the Christmas spirit now! I've got stockings hung, presents wrapped, and tickets booked for our holiday travel. The one thing we don't have is a tree. All year I said we'd have to get one because it's Luke's first "real" Christmas (he was two months old last year) only to realize as December approached that a 14-month-old and a Christmas tree would not mix. Luke's favorite pastimes include pulling all the books off our shelves, removing all our leftover dishes from the kitchen cabinet, and unrolling the toilet paper in the bathroom. I can only imagine what he'd do to a tree covered in ornaments. Maybe next year?

I've got another festive drink for you today, and this one is a classic: Hot Buttered Rum. For some reason I always assumed I wouldn't like Hot Buttered Rum. I didn't really understand the concept of adding a large pat of butter to your drink. But it turns out that in cocktails, as in cooking and just about everything else, butter only makes things better. Hot Buttered Rum is an amazing, warming, delicious treat that is not to be missed.

Hot Buttered Rum isn't made by just tossing some butter into a glass. Usually, you make a "batter" to start - a mixture of butter, sugar, and spices that forms the base for the drink. Some recipes also include vanilla ice cream for a creamier product. Since this cocktail is a holiday party favorite, this makes it easy to create large batches but prepare each individual drink fresh. A dollop of batter is added to the bottom of your mug, topped with some aged rum (I like Appleton Estate Signature Blend), and finished with hot water. Stir well and you have the best steaming mug of holiday cheer imaginable. I promise.

History: I was writing up this post this morning and realized that Hot Buttered Rum probably has a long, storied history that would take time to properly research. But as far as I can tell, it goes back so far that to properly trace its origin may be impossible. Most sources agree that it was popular in Colonial America and may have originated there. Rum was the spirit of choice thanks to sugar and molasses from the Caribbean, and the cold New England winters made warm cocktails a no-brainer. The part I'm most curious about is the butter, which doesn't appear in any other cocktails that I can think of. Clarified milk punch was popular at the time, but butter? The only explanation I can find is the one proposed by Charles Browne in his 1939 Gun Club Drink Book, which is that the butter is included to lubricate one's mustache. I assume he meant this in jest.

Hot Buttered Rum

Batter
1 tbsp. butter, softened
1 tbsp. brown sugar
1/2 tbsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 dash nutmeg
1 dash cloves
1/4 tsp. vanilla

Cocktail
All of batter (about 1.5 tbsp if you're doing multiple cocktails)
2 oz. aged rum
4 oz. hot water

In a bowl, combine all batter ingredients and muddle or mash with the back of a spoon until it's combined into a uniform paste. Scrape into the bottom of a mug or glass. Add rum and top with hot water. Stir well to mix in the batter. A layer of sediment will form on the top as the drink settles, but this is to be expected - sip right through it or give it an occasional stir.

Bottle Swap: St. George Spiced Pear Liqueur

It's high time that Mr. Muddle and I did another bottle swap! This is when we each buy a bottle of something new for our bars and trade half. If you've got friends who like making cocktails at home, this is a great way to try twice as many new ingredients! In the past we've swapped Ancho Reyes, The King's Ginger, Suze, and Giffard Banane du Bresil. Today's bottle is the perfect holiday liqueur, St. George Spiced Pear.

If you're not familiar with St. George Spirits, they're a California-based distillery that produces some incredible stuff. They're probably best known for their gins, but you may have seen their Bruto Americano, Absinthe, or Green Chile Vodka on the liquor store shelf as well. Their Spiced Pear Liqueur is another winner. To make it, they start with their Pear Brandy and add additional fruit juice and spices. It's positively bursting with fresh pear, cinnamon, and cloves, and has just the right amount of sweetness to be sipped on its own or mixed into a cocktail.

St. George Spiced Pear Liqueur

Alcohol content: 20%
Price: $40
Popular cocktails: Check out St. George's suggestions here

My cocktail with this liqueur is a little riff on the classic Philadelphia Fish House Punch. This is a drink with a long history, going back to the early 1700's. It's traditionally made with aged rum, Cognac, peach brandy, lemon, and sugar, and served in a large format from a punch bowl. For my Spiced Pear Punch, I replaced the peach brandy with the Spiced Pear Liqueur, used maple syrup as the sweetener, and added a dash of vanilla. Since it was just me drinking this one, I stuck to a single serve, but this would be a great big-batch cocktail for your next holiday party!

Spiced Pear Punch

1 oz. aged rum (Jamaican recommended - I used Appleton Estate Signature Blend)
1/2 oz. Cognac (Pierre Ferrand 1840)
1/2 oz. St. George Spiced Pear Liqueur
1 oz. lemon juice
3/4 oz. maple syrup
1 dash vanilla extract

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice and shake until chilled. Strain into a punch glass or rocks glass over ice. Garnish with a pear fan.

Check out Mr. Muddle's cocktail, the Decoder Ring!

Holiday Gift Guide 2018

The holidays are officially in full swing! I still have a ton of shopping to do before Christmas. If you're in the same boat, here are some of my favorite gifts for cocktail lovers this year! I always have a fun time putting this list together. Some of these are things I have and love, and others are things I'd really love to have. A note I feel I should include since I have done a lot of sponsored work with brands recently: I am not being paid or compensated to promote any of these products. Some (numbers 1, 3, 7, and 11) are from brands that I have worked with, but they are only being included here because I really really liked them.

1. The Elan Collective Rocks Glasses. I'm pretty obsessed with glassware and these rocks glasses from The Elan Collective are truly unique. $35 for two glasses or $55 for one of each of their four styles. Each glass comes with an ice sphere mold.

2. Love & Victory Whiskey Cufflinks. Why wear your heart on your sleeve when you can wear a glass of whiskey instead? If you're more of a gin drinker, they make Negroni cufflinks as well. $28.

3. Bouvery Chocolate Vodka. I don't think I've ever finished a bottle of anything as quickly as I went through my Bouvery. It's like drinking melted dark chocolate. $30 for a 375 ml bottle (you'll wish it was twice as big).

4. Jackson Cannon Bar Knife by R. Murphy Knives. I received this as a gift from my in-laws last year and I'm obsessed with it. It's perfect for cutting garnishes. The square tip allows you to do some really detailed work if you want to. $79.

5. The Bitter Truth Bogart's Bitters. Bogart's Bitters are the first bitters ever mentioned in a cocktail book, Jerry Thomas' Bartender's Guide. This reformulation is sold in a gorgeous, vintage-style bottle that is just begging to be gifted to your favorite bitters lover. $36 for a 350 ml bottle.

6. Cocktail Codex: Fundamentals, Formulas, Evolutions. Since Death & Co: Modern Classic Cockails is basically my cocktail bible, I'm confidently recommending their second book after having only flipped through it briefly. It has a different structure from the first, breaking down cocktails into six major templates. A great gift for both experienced and beginner home bartenders. $32.

7. Empress 1908 Indigo Gin. Why gift a typical bottle of gin when you can gift purple, color-changing gin? This gin tastes as beautiful as it looks and makes a striking gift. Just add tonic or citrus to see it turn pink, or make yourself a martini the color of amethyst. $35.

8. Stephen Kenn Travel Cocktail Kit. I've been wanting one of these ever since I saw it on the Instagram feeds of @apartment_bartender and @highproofpreacher. I've tried to find a better or cheaper one and failed utterly - this is the perfect travel kit for cocktails on the go. $295

9. Cocktails + Chickens Pillow. Speaking of Instagrammers I love, @drinkingwithchickens has all-new merchandise for the cocktail and/or poultry lover in your life. I seriously want a couple of these pillows - also available in pink! $30.

10. Homestia Flamingo Martini Picks. I stumbled across these on Amazon and fell in love. Perfect stocking stuffer! $11.

11. Bittercube Bitters Variety Pack. Variety packs of bitters make perfect gifts. This one has a nice selection of unique flavors that go especially well in Old Fashioneds and other whiskey cocktails. $54.

Past holiday gift guides: 2017, 2016, and 2015.