In our youth, we used to have an annual “Tropical Winter” party on Valentine’s Day. It was for everyone who had nothing else to do, those who disliked Valentine’s Day and anyone who simply liked a good Piña Colada.

Piña Coladas were the drink of the evening. The fare was tropical-inspired, from fruit skewers and chicken skewers to rumaki*, a broiled, bacon-wrapped chicken liver and water chestnut hors d’oeuvre that was all the rage at the time.

Coconut water was years from appearing in American markets. If only Tropical Winter had lasted until it arrived, we’d have offered a Piña Colada Lite, substituting very-low-calorie coconut water (6 calories/ounce, or 12 calories per drink) for very-high-calorie Coco López (130 calories/ounce, or 260 calories per drink; plain coconut milk is 65 calories/ounce).

Go light with coconut water instead of Coco López. Photo courtesy TasteNirvana.com.

Piña Coladas are delicious, but they sure pack in the sugar and saturated fat. Here’s a “drink this, not that” tip from coconut water brand Taste Nirvana, on how to lower your Piña Colada calories while still enjoying a taste of the tropics and natural coconut flavor.

CLASSIC PINA COLADA RECIPE

Ingredients Per Drink

 
Preparation

1. MIX ingredients in blender until smooth. Pour into a tall glass.

2. GARNISH and serve.

WHAT’S COCO LÓPEZ?

Coco López is a brand of cream of coconut, invented in 1954by Ramón López Irizarry, a professor of agriculture at the University of Puerto Rico. The ingredients on the can include coconut milk, sugar, water, emulsifiers, stabilizers and thickeners (guar gum, locust bean gum, mono- and diglycerides, polysorb 60, sorbitan monostearate, Propylene glycol alginate) and preservative (citric acid).

The creamy heart of the coconut had long been used in Caribbean desserts. But separating it from from the coconut pulp was an arduous process.

With funds from the government, Irizarry worked on a solution. He ulimately left teaching to produce and sell his product, which was adopted not just by cooks but by bartenders.

According to the book “La Gran Cocina Del Caribe” by José L. Díaz de Villega, the Piña Colada made its debut on August 16, 1954 at the Caribe Hilton’s Beachcomber Bar in San Juan, Puerto Rico, a watering hole for a star-studded clientele. The hotel management had requested that bartender Ramón “Monchito” Marrero create a new signature cocktail. Marrero worked for three months on the recipe.

Piña is Spanish for pineapple, and colada means strained; the drink is usually served blended with ice. The Piña Colada has been the official beverage of Puerto Rico since 1978.

 
*Rumaki is a mock-Polynesian hors d’oeuvre, believed to be invented by Victor Bergeron, founder of Trader Vic’s.

A Valentine cocktail with passion. Photo
courtesy DUO Restaurant & Lounge | New
York City.

We must admit: We didn’t even know there was a tequila liqueur.

But now that we do, what a great Valentine’s Day gift for your favorite tequila lover.

Agavero Tequila Liqueur, by the makers of Jose Cuervo, is a blend of 100% agave reposado and añejo tequilas. There’s also a touch of the damiana flower, an herb native to Mexico with a verbena-like aroma that is to have aphrodisiac properties (and if you want to believe in aphrodisiacs, that’s fine with us).

The liqueur fell out of fashion and wasn’t imported for years. Now it’s back in the U.S., and you should be able to find a bottle in the $15.00-$30.00 range (here’s a store locator). There’s also an orange-flavored version.

Agavero has the burnished copper color of an añejo tequila, with medium-full body of a liqueur. You’d think from the nose that you were about to drink añejo tequila: The liqueur has similar flavors, but with the light sweetness and silky texture of a liqueur.

It is delicious to sip, to add to coffee or to incorporate into cocktails. In a Margarita, use half tequila, half Agavero.

Here’s a cocktail perfect for Valentine’s Day, called Besame (Kiss Me). It was created by Sabina and Lorraine Belkin of DUO Restaurant & Lounge in New York City.

This cocktail combines sweet and tangy fruit flavors with a tequila bite and a Valentine-red hue. So get out the glasses and the cocktail shaker, and toast your Valentine with something special.

BESAME VALENTINE COCKTAIL

Ingredients Per Cocktail

 
Preparation

1. MUDDLE limes and raspberries in a highball glass.

2. ADD Agavero; top off with passion fruit juice. Add a splash of Chambord.

Put down the flipper and tongs and Let them cook! Cookware from SurLaTable.com.

3. POUR into a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake well and strain back into the highball glass.

4. GARNISH as desired.

MORE VALENTINE COCKTAILS

Check out our Valentine cocktail recipes.

Bailey’s Irish Cream has been a favorite since it was first introduced in the U.S., way back in 1974. The Irish whiskey and cream based liqueur is 17% alcohol by volume: delicious for sipping, for mixing into cocktails or as an ingredient in desserts.

The first Irish cream liqueur on the market, Baileys was created by Gilbeys of Ireland, a division of International Distillers & Vintners. No one named Bailey was involved: The name was inspired by Bailey’s Hotel in London, an elegant Victorian townhouse in South Kensington that is now owned by Millennium Hotels.

Over the years, the Original Baileys flavor had been joined by Caramel, Coffee and Mint variations. The most recent is Bailey’s Hazelnut.

Any of the flavors would make a delicious Valentine gift, or a recipe ingredient in a cold or hot drink and/or dessert. You can even add it to your chocolate truffles recipe (or use one of Baileys’ recipes).

Baileys Hazelnut Cream. Photo courtesy Gilbeys.

Grab the Johnny Walker and perk up your
marmalade. Photo by Elvira Kalviste | THE
NIBBLE.

RECIPES WITH BAILEYS IRISH CREAM

While you can sip away on the rocks or in a hot drink, we love Baileys on ice cream: cookies or biscotti

Check out all of the Baileys Irish Cream recipes.

FIND MORE OF OUR FAVORITE LIQUEURS, SPIRITS & COCKTAIL RECIPES IN OUR COCKTAILS SECTION.

Hot apple toddy. Photo and recipe courtesy
U.S. Apple Association.

January 11th is National Hot Toddy Day; January 17th is National Hot Buttered Rum Day.

The two drinks are pretty much the same thing. A toddy can be made with any spirit (brandy, rum, whiskey) while hot buttered rum is specifically a rum toddy (and these days, no butter is included).

While this toddy recipe from the U.S. Apple Association does not use rum, it’s a truly delicious—and related—way to celebrate the day. The Association calls it “apple pie in a glass.”

Ideally you should serve it in glass mugs or Irish coffee glasses, but any mug will do.

APPLE TODDY RECIPE

Ingredients For 2 Servings

Preparation

1. COMBINE cider, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and brown sugar in a small saucepan over high heat. Bring to a simmer, then reduce heat to low and cook for 5 minutes.

2. REMOVE from heat and divide between two Irish coffee glasses or mugs. Transfer a cinnamon stick to each.

3. TOP each glass with half the sherry and brandy. Serve hot.

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*Calvados is apple brandy made specifically in the apple-growing Calvados region of lower Normandy, France. It is distilled from cider made from specially grown and selected apples. According to Wikipedia, “It is not uncommon for a Calvados producer to use over 100 specific varieties of apples, which are either sweet (such as the Rouge Duret variety), tart (such as the Rambault variety), or bitter (such as the Mettais, Saint Martin, Frequin, and Binet Rouge varieties), the latter being inedible.

For your imbibing pleasure, we present the final two cocktails of the year. Both are made with your choice of sparkling wine: Cava, Champagne or Prosecco. Cava and Prosecco are less expensive and work just as well in mixed drinks.

First, the Ginger Sparkler, created by New York City caterer Canard, Inc. It combines vodka and ginger beer (a more intense predecessor of ginger ale) with Prosecco, and can be served year-round without the sparkling wine topper.

Keep the ingredients well chilled.

GINGER SPARKLER COCKTAIL RECIPE

Ingredients For One Drink

Top off a ginger cocktail with Prosecco or other sparkler. Photo courtesy Canard, Inc. | New York City.

Preparation

1. GLASS. Combine the ingredients in a tall glass over ice.

2. FLUTE. Alternatively, you can serve the cocktail in a Champagne flute; be sure to chill the vodka, lime juice and ginger beer in advance.

Our favorite Champagne cocktail is easy to make. Photo courtesy St. Germain.

ST. GERMAN CHAMPAGNE COCKTAIL

This photo doesn’t begin to capture the glamour of a St. Germain Champagne Cocktail—our favorite Champagne cocktail. St. Germain elderflower liqueur is one of the great food/beverage imports of the last 10 years.

A liqueur made from Alpine elderflowers may sound strange, but it has the exquisite flavor of lychee—in fact, much more so than any lychee liqueur we’ve tried.

Using one ounce rather than a half ounce of St. Germain elderflower liqueur makes the cocktail slightly sweeter.

Ingredients Per Cocktail

Preparation

1. POUR ingredients into a chilled fluted glass and stir lightly (you don’t want to burst the bubbles).

2. FLOAT half a strawberry or a whole raspberry as a garnish.

3. VARIATION: Experiment with other garnishes. A lemon or orange twist, a slice of fresh ginger, a blackberry or gooseberry.
 
Browse through our cocktail recipes in our Cocktails & Spirits Section.

Turn your Martini into a Candy Cane Martini. Photo courtesy Bagatelle Restaurant | NYC.

You can turn any Martini into a Candy Cane Martini by adding a half ounce peppermint schnaps (or more to taste).

At Bagatelle, a bistro with locations in Los Angeles and New York, they’ve turned the concept into what they call the Père Noël (Father Christmas):

CANDY CANE MARTINI RECIPE

Ingredients Per Drink

Preparation

1. RIM glass with crushed candy canes.

2. LAYER puree/grenadine on the bottom of a Martini glass.

3. COMBINE, shake and layer the vodka, peppermint schnapps and crème de cacao.

4. COMBINE, shake and layer the cream and sugar.

5. TOP with candy cane crumbles and garnish with a candy cane.

VANILLA SUGAR RECIPE

Ingredients

You can buy vanilla sugar or make it by placing a vanilla bean in an airtight container of sugar. It’s a great way to use a vanilla bean that’s already been scraped for a prior recipe. Use vanilla sugar anywhere you’d use plain table sugar, for some added flavor. You can also make it for gifting.

 
Preparation

1. PLACE sugar into an airtight container.

2. SLICE a whole bean down the side with the back of a knife and scrape the seeds into the container.

3. SUBMERGE the bean itself in the middle of the sugar.

You can buy vanilla sugar if you don’t have time to make it. Photo courtesy Bakto Flavors.

4. SEAL tightly with lid and let the flavors infuse for 1-2 weeks.
 
Cheers!

A limited-edition treat: grab a bottle or two.
Photo courtesy Grand Marnier.

Grab a bottle of the limited release Grand Marnier Cherry, the new, elegant, complex expression from Grand Marnier.

In fact, grab several: one for yourself and others for gifts.

Grand Marnier’s famous flavor of wild tropical oranges and fine Cognac is enhanced with European griotte cherries. The result is a treat that stirs up the holiday spirit.

Grand Marnier Cherry is available in limited quantities, a USA release only…and a guaranteed treat for anyone who enjoys fine spirit.

Enjoy it neat, over ice, with club soda or in a signature cocktail (there are recipes on the Grand Marnier website).

We loved it poured over sorbet (cherry, lemon, mango, peach) and drizzled over pudding, pound cake or angel food cake.
 
Find more of our favorite spirits in our Cocktails & Spirits section.

Guests can have their favorite alcohol mixed
into this holiday cocktail. Photo courtesy Toy
Restaurant | NYC.

A number of people we know like to have a signature cocktail at their parties. But what if your guest doesn’t want tequila, vodka or whatever you’ve chosen as the base?

Here’s a way to have a holiday cocktail, while letting guests choose their spirit. It can also be used to make a mocktail for those who don’t want alcohol.

You can make a batch with your spirit of choice and pour from a pitcher. Or, you can premix the juices only, and offer guests their choice of spirit: saké, tequila, vodka or white wine.

The original recipe comes from Toy Restaurant in the Gansevoort Hotel in New York City’s Meatpacking District. There, citrus liqueur is the spirit of choice, for a more lemony cocktail.

HOLIDAY COCKTAIL RECIPE

Ingredients Per Drink

 
Preparation

1. COMBINE juices only; chill in a pitcher (multiply the recipe to accommodate the pitcher you’ll be using).

2. ADD 2 ounces of spirit, or 4 ounces of wine or saké, to a class.

3. MIX in juice blend; stir. Garnish and serve

MOCKTAIL VARIATION

For a mocktail use lemon or lemon/lime soda (Fresca, 7-Up) instead of the alcohol.
 
Find more of our favorite cocktail recipes.

Green cardamom. Photo courtesy Suvir
Saran | Indian Home Cooking.

Cardamom, a member of the ginger family (Zingiberaceae), is a highly aromatic and flavorful spice from from a plant native to India and its northern neighbors, Bhutan and Nepal. The name derives from the Latin cardamomum and the Greek kardamon, which referred to a particular Indian spice plant.

The shell of the pod has very little flavor. The small seeds inside are intense in both aroma and taste. You can buy cardamom whole (pods), shelled or ground, in black, green and white varieties.

If a recipe simply calls for “cardamom,” use the green variety, which has exotic floral notes. Black cardamom (actually brown in color) is stronger, smokey and resinous. White cardamom, preferred in Scandinavia, is green cardamom that has been sun-bleached for aesthetics; there is no difference in flavor.

Cardamom, often seen as an exotic spice in the U.S., is popular in numerous cuisines worldwide.

 
HOW TO STORE CARDAMOM

Store cardamom pods in a tightly sealed glass jar, away from heat and light. They can keep indefinitely.

WAYS TO USE CARDAMOM

If you have cardamom sitting in the cupboard, it’s time to break it out. The spice fits into any recipe that calls for allspice, cinnamon, cumin, ginger, mace, nutmeg, preserved lemon or rose. Start by adding a pinch, then more to suit your taste. Beyond curries and other international dishes, use cardamom in:

 
FOOD TRIVIA

Cardamom is the world’s third most expensive spice by weight, following saffron and vanilla. But in most cases, just a pinch is needed.

As with many spices, cardamom also has health benefits, which range from improving digestion to increasing one’s metabolism.

FEEL LIKE BAKING?

Make this cardamom cookie recipe from Martha Stewart.
 
Find more of our favorite spices in our Salts & Spices Section.

The mistletoe plant has ovoid green leaves with small white berries. Why is it associated with Christmas? Here’s one explanation:

The Druids of Britain (think Stonehenge), circa 100 C.E., thought that mistletoe had magic properties: a cure for disease, a fertility aid, protection from witches and so forth. In a special ceremony held in late December or early January, priests would cut pieces of mistletoe from oak trees* and people would hang them in their homes.

Over the centuries, the custom of hanging mistletoe at home endured, and around 800 C.E. it may have become joined with a Viking legend.

In that legend, the god Balder is killed with a poison made from mistletoe (mistletoe is, in fact, poisonous). He is brought back to life by his mother, the goddess Frigga, who is able to reverse the effects of the poison.

Overjoyed, Frigga then kisses everyone who walks under the hanging mistletoe. Fast forward another 13 centuries: We’re still kissing people under the mistletoe.

Enjoy a Mistletoe Margarita—just don’t use real mistletoe! Photo courtesy Hornitos Tequila.

You can simulate mistletoe in a cocktail with a few mint leaves; but never let real mistletoe anywhere near edibles if you want to avoid acute gastrointestinal problems.

*Mistletoe is a parasitic plant. It grows attached to the branches of a tree or shrub, from which it absorbs nutrients.

RECIPE: CHRISTMAS MARGARITA/MISTLETOE MARGARITA

Ingredients Per Drink

Why buy artificially colored, artificially
flavored, HFCS- and preservative-laden sour
mix, when you can make your own from
simple, honest ingredients?†

Preparation

1. COMBINE all ingredients except garnishes and sugar in a pitcher. Chill.

2. RIM the glass with sugar before pouring in the cocktail: Simply run a lime wedge around the edge of the glass and then dip the rim of the glass in a plate of sugar.

2. POUR and garnish each glass with 2 mint leaves and/or other garnishes. Serve on the rocks or straight up.
 
Find more of our favorite Christmas cocktails.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT SOUR MIX

That specialty product called sour mix—also called Margarita mix, sweet-and-sour mix and whiskey sour mix—is simply a lemon/lime flavored simple syrup (also called cane sugar syrup), a sweetener that dissolves easily in cold beverages.

Simple syrup can be flavored. When it is citrus flavored, it is called sour mix or sweet and sour mix—sweet from the sugar, sour from the citrus.

Commercial products abound; but as with many prepared foods, you can make a better, less expensive version by just using sugar, water and citrus juice.

In fact, if you mix up your fair share of cocktails, you should always have some simple syrup at the ready. When you need sour mix, just stir in the citrus juice.

HOW TO MAKE SIMPLE SYRUP & SOUR MIX

†You’ve seen the three ingredients of natural sour mix in the recipe above. Here’s what’s in a commercial brand like Mrs. T’s: water, high fructose corn syrup, citric acid, sodium citrate, sodium hexametaphosphate, gum acacia, potassium sorbate (preservative), polysorbate 60, natural flavor, ester gum, sodium metabisulfite (preservative), calcium disodium EDTA (preservative), calcium lactate, calcium gluconate, yellow color 5, yellow color 6.