Beeramos: Lord of the Creamsicle
John Berens John Berens

Beeramos: Lord of the Creamsicle

This is a riff on a Ramos gin fizz for my submission to the @homebarawards challenge this month. My mind quickly went to alternatives to soda for the bubbles as a starting point. I love beer in cocktails, and it led me to the awesome word combo of Beer + Ramos = Beeramos. This name evoked regal, epic, almost mythical-like qualities to me, thus the ridiculous(ly awesome) full title.

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Old Thyme-y
John Berens John Berens

Old Thyme-y

Some ingredients are just too hard not to pun. Pear is a great example, followed closely by thyme. So I was basically obligated to include a time/thyme pun in the title, especially for this delicious old fashioned riff. #notsorry about it though.

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Prolific
John Berens John Berens

Prolific

This drink is dedicated to my lemon balm plant, which is currently growing like crazy. I don’t know what to do with it. It smells kind of like fruit loops in the best possible way and I’m sure I will come up with something (ideas below please!)… In the meantime, here’s a really delicious drink using it as a garnish.

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From The Ground Up
John Berens John Berens

From The Ground Up

Happy Earth Day everyone! To celebrate, I am continuing this week’s trend of Making Things Complicated with more layers, a homemade tincture (using otherwise discarded fennel fronds), and citrus peels that were going bad (garnish). The drink is shot in my garden and if you have the space, I highly encourage you to plant something if you don’t already.

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Blue & Brewed
John Berens John Berens

Blue & Brewed

If you’ve never had blueberry-flavored coffee, let me tell you, you’re missing out. I realize it sounds like an unusual flavor pairing but it works out beautifully. As with any good flavor combo, why not make it into a cocktail??

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Clean & Bright
John Berens John Berens

Clean & Bright

As I’ve pointed out before, I don’t have too many vodka-forward cocktails on my page, but they can be really nice when some warmer weather rolls around. I really like the crisp, refreshing, crushable feel of a citrus-forward, fruity vodka sour. Here’s one that I definitely recommend, even if you don’t take the completely-unnecessary-but-awesome step of layering.

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Jaisalmer Gin Tasting
John Berens John Berens

Jaisalmer Gin Tasting

As some of you may have seen in my stories last week, I will be a Brand Advocate for @jaisalmergin over the next few months! I am really excited, not only because it’s a great gin, but because tasting gins from around the world brings me great joy. A gin like Jaisalmer brings botanicals local to its origin (seven, in fact, from India along with four from outside the country) and gives a glimpse into the culinary soul of the area. Given my love of cooking, this connection is partly why I find it so fun. I’ll be bringing some awesome recipes and recurring features starting soon! But first, let’s start with some tasting notes.

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Smile & Blush
John Berens John Berens

Smile & Blush

Some of you may have seen Green With Envy, a sad-faced drink I posted on Valentine’s Day. It seemed only right to balance the Mood of my page with a happier face. While this face isn’t an accurate depiction of mine (I go much lighter on the makeup😉), this drink was delicious and definitely made me smile.

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Plant Lovin’
John Berens John Berens

Plant Lovin’

We are in Full Spring Mode here in Texas, so this is a drink to celebrate. Or commiserate, if you are one of the many unfortunate souls whose nasal passages can’t tolerate the insane amount of neon yellow/green pollen that is being constantly dispersed into the air. This drink is an ode (?dirge) to the life cycle of the plants responsible for our collective sneezing.

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Vespermania
John Berens John Berens

Vespermania

This sounds a bit like a bunch of cocktail nerds got out of hand and held a WWF-style brawl. Don't lie, you would totally watch that, wouldn't you? What I actually have for you today, as with many of my drinks, is something born out of curiousity and availability. What was available: a LOT of barrel-aged (pink) vesper (check out my post from 1/5/22 for details). It turns out that when you barrel-age a cocktail, you get... (checks notes) a barrel FULL of cocktail. As someone who infrequently makes the same drink more than a couple times, that is a *lot* of vesper.

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