-
Bootleg Cocktail
This is a delicious lemon-lime and fresh mint summer cocktail that can be modified to your taste. You can use vodka or gin and you can make your bootleg concentrate as sweet or sour as you like.
Club Soda, The Botanist Gin and Bootleg Concentrate Bootleg Concentrate
1 can frozen limeade or frozen lemonade
1/2 cup fresh lime juice
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1 cup fresh mint leaves, washed
Add all ingredients to a blender (I love my Vitamix Explorian) and blend until the mint is well incorporated. I like my cocktails a little tart, but if you prefer a sweeter cocktail you can either add some simple syrup (heat 1 part sugar to 1 part water until dissolved, chill and store in the fridge for up to 1 month) to the blender or skip the fresh juice and use a can of frozen lemonade concentrate with the limeade and mint. The mint will separate when the concentrate sits, so just give it a stir each time you make a new cocktail. This concentrate will last in your fridge about 3 days before the mint starts to lose its bright green color.
Bootleg Cocktail Bootleg Cocktail
2 oz Botanist gin or Grey Goose vodka
2 oz Bootleg Concentrate
Add to cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake well.
Pour mixture into a glass filled with ice.
Top with 6 oz Q club soda, more or less to taste.
Garnish with a lime wheel or fresh mint.
For a non-alcoholic version just combine the Bootleg concentrate with club soda and / or lemonade.
Cheers!
Click on the three lines to the left of the word “lifestyle” at the top of this page and enter your email address to receive notifications by email when I post something new on this blog. Also, follow me on Instagram at cocktailsandgratitude for photos of cocktails, flowers, my pets and, someday soon, more travel.
-
Sara’s Purple Passion
A good friend asked me to help create a cocktail for her son and daughter-in-law’s wedding celebration. The groom enjoys whiskey so they served a whiskey ginger ale cocktail which was called “Whiskey Chaser.” Not to be left out, their dog Sarge had a cocktail called “Sarge’s Swamp Water” which was a Bootleg. The bride likes tequila and the color purple so I tried a few different ideas and this is the final recipe I created, which is essentially a bright purple margarita.
If you like the fun purple color, you need to order Butterfly Pea Flower Powder. I ordered mine from Amazon. Mix 1 teaspoon of powder into 4 ounces of blanco tequila. Mix well and then pour through a fine mesh strainer to remove any little pieces of powder that didn’t dissolve. The tequila will be blue, but it will turn purple when you mix it with citrus.
In a glass with ice, combine:
2 parts Sweet & Sour (I don’t typically use a pre-made mix, but asking a venue to make a scratch cocktail in large quantities isn’t practical. You can also use my scratch margarita recipe and by adding the butterfly pea flower powder you will achieve the same bright purple margarita.)
1 part Cointreau or Triple Sec
1 part fresh lime juice
Mix to combine.
Pour 1.5 parts of the butterfly pea flower tequila into the glass and watch the blue tequila turn the drink purple. (If you don’t care about the “show” of watching the drink turn purple you can just add the butterfly pea flower powder to a cocktail shaker with all of the margarita ingredients and ice, then shake well until the powder is dissolved.)
Stir and enjoy.
Cheers to Chase & Sara!
As an Amazon Associate, I earn money from qualifying purchases.
-
Summer Slush
Did everyone try to sneak some of their Mom’s vodka slush from the ice cream bucket in the freezer while they were growing up? This is another oldy, but a goody.
Let’s be honest, you could essentially make any cocktail in large quantities and freeze it, so just let this inspire you to create your own summer slush cocktail.
Original Recipe:
9 cups water
2 cups sugar
Boil until the sugar is completely dissolved and let cool.
Add 2 cans of frozen juice concentrate and mix until incorporated. This is where the fun comes in. The traditional flavor my Mom used to make was lemonade and orange juice. I like to branch out and mix up the flavors each time.
2 cups of alcohol – The alcohol is typically vodka or gin, but I’ve used limoncello before. Consider using a flavored vodka that compliments your juice choices.
Freeze. Allow about 24 hours to freeze before serving.
Slush and outdoor movie night on July 4th Flavor ideas:
Margarita: 1 limeade, 1 lemonade with tequila and a splash of Cointreau or orange juice
Mojito: 2 limeade, a large bunch of mint leaves, add the frozen juice, mint and a couple ladles of your sugar water to a blender and blend until the mint is pureed – pour back into your container of sugar water, add rum (or for a Bootlegger use 1 limeade, 1 lemonade, mint and vodka)
Cosmopolitan: 1 cranberry, 1 limeade with citron vodka and a splash of cointreau
Berry Lemonade: 1 berry blend, 1 lemonade, citron vodka or limoncello, fresh raspberries
Gin Blend: Increase your water to 12 cups, 1 limeade, 1 lemonade, 1 orange juice, 3 cups of gin
To Serve:
Scoop the slush into a glass and top with a little soda. We usually keep the soda a mild flavor like: Sprite, 7 Up, Fresca or Squirt. A flavored bubbly water works well, too.
Tips:
I don’t use 2 cups of sugar… there is already a lot of sugar in the frozen concentrate and I find it gets too sweet. Try using 1 cup of sugar or even a sugar substitute.
This will attract bees. If you’re drinking outside, consider a cup with a lid or use Ball mason jars with lids and reusable straws like I did.
photo credits to Kaitlyn Ewine I like to make my slush early in the morning so I can mix it during the day while it’s freezing. This will keep it from turning into a solid chunk that you have to scrape every time you want a drink.
If it’s been several hours and your slush isn’t starting to freeze around the edges, your ratio of alcohol to water is too high. Try adding a little juice or a can of soda to the mix.
When we used to rent a lake cabin for a week every August, making a bucket of slush was the first thing I did after we unloaded the car.
I like to throw in a handful of fresh berries. Raspberries are really good because they break up when you mix the slush.
The last time I made this slush, I was short on time so instead of making the sugar water I used a 2 liter bottle of 7 Up. It worked really well.
Cheers! Stay cool.
What juice flavor combinations would you try?
Click on the three lines to the left of the word “lifestyle” at the top of this page and enter your email address to receive notifications by email when I post something new on this blog. Also, follow me on Instagram at cocktailsandgratitude for photos of cocktails, flowers, my pets and, eventually, more travel.