It’s Friday! Mas Tequila Por Favor!

It’s Friday! Mas Tequila Por Favor!

It’s Friday and the weekend is upon us once again! Again, I want to apologize about last week. I just could not get Tumblr to post my longer blogs for the life of me. Not sure what it was. But I’m trying a different route this week. I’m doing them way ahead of time and using a word processor program. I think this would also help me format things a bit better as well. I know I’ll get nifty headings and what not. So here we go.

I had a great response 2 weeks ago with the Theme Team idea. So I’m going to go ahead and do it again this week. Furthermore, everyone seemed to prefer the tequila recipes, so I’m giving you another set. So the first blog this week “es mas tequila!” So here are some other spiffy tequila recipes.

Bloody Maria

·         1 1/2 oz. Tequila

·         1 dash Lemon Juice

·         2 oz. Ice Cold Tomato Juice

·         1 dash Tabasco Sauce

·         1 dash Celery Salt

·         1 Slice of Lemon

Pour tequila, tomato juice, lemon juice, Tabasco, and celery salt into pre-chilled old fashioned glass. Add ice to fill glass. Stir very well. Add lemon slice to garnish.

Now this is a variation of the famous, Bloody Mary. The only real difference is the substitution of Tequila for Vodka and the removal of the Worcesterhire Sauce.

It’s a good drink to help those morning hangovers (or as we say in Spanish “para quitar el crudo”). If you love Mexican food, have this with your menudo on Sunday morning after a hard night on Saturday. “Es Con Ganas”

Chihuahua

·         1 ½ oz. Tequila

·         3 oz. Grapefruit Juice

Pour tequila over ice into cocktail glass. Top off with grapefruit juice.

If anyone is familiar with a Greyhound, this one has a quite a bit more bite to it. Here you sub out the gin for the tequila and lighten up on the grapefruit juice. Again, it’s a very good drink to help with those morning hangovers.

For this next drink… Well… Let’s go to Jersey… But not this fist pumping, Snooki worshipping, fake tanning Jersey of now… Let’s go back a few years… Okay, maybe like 20+ years… Let’s go back to the days of Amy Fisher and Joey…

Buttafuoco

·         2 oz. Tequila

·         ½ oz. Galliano

·         ½ oz. Cherry Liqueur

·         ½ oz. Lemon Juice

·         Club Soda

Shake tequila, Galliano, cherry liqueur, and lemon juice well with cracked ice. Strain into 8 oz. highball glass over ice. Top off with club soda. Stir. Garnish with a cherry and FUHGEDDABOUTIT!

The Buttafuoco was a drink I first tried after I got my Playboy’s Guide to Bartending book. It’s really not all that bad. I don’t regularly keep Galliano in stock though. The drink isn’t bad at all. For those of you who don’t know what Galliano is; it is a sweet herbal liqueur that was developed in Italy. It in is: Vanilla, star anise, Mediterranean anise, ginger and citrus.

Yellow Rose of Texas

·         2 oz. of Blanco (white/silver) Tequila

·         ¾ oz. Lemon Juice

·         ½ oz. Simple Syrup

·         ¼ oz. Yellow Chartreuse

Shake with ice and strain into chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with 3 drops of rose water.

I think this one is the fancy smancy drink of the post. I haven’t tried it mainly due to the fact that I don’t keep any Chartreuse handy. Secondly, I don’t know where to get rose water either. Haha. But if you can find all this stuff, hats off to you and try it. I’m sure you’ll be delighted.

I do like Chartreuse. It (like Galliano) is an herbal liqueur. However, this one is made by French monks. It is comprised of distilled alcohol aged with 130 herbal extracts. It has a brother though, Green Chartreuse. Besides coloring, Green Chartreuse is 55% alcohol (compared to Yellow’s 40%). Yellow also has a milder, sweeter flavor.

Now I had my doubts about the next drink until I tried it. I’m the kind of guy that does enjoy of glass of wine from time to time.  Seldom do I use wine in my personal mixer drinks either. So when I first saw about combining Tequila and Red Wine, I was like, “what?! No!” But then I tried…

Cactus Berry

·         1 ¼ oz. Tequila

·         1 ¼ oz. Red Wine

·         1 oz. Triple Sec

·         3 ¼ Superfine Sugar or Simple Syrup

·         3 ¼ oz. Lemon Juice

·         1 splash of Lemon-Lime Soda (I prefer 7-Up in my mixer instead of Sprite)

·         1 dash Lime Juice

Shake with ice and pour into large, chilled, salt rimmed cocktail or margarita glass.

Like I said, until I tried it, I didn’t think it would taste so great. I had this one in a bar in San Antonio, Texas. It was great! It was well combined, the flavors mixed well. I was very delighted and I would so totally recommend this drink to anyone who likes red wine and red wine mixers. Heck, I’d recommend this one to anyone.

Gringo

·         1 ½ oz. Tequila

·         4 oz. Clamato Juice

·         1 tsp. Ketchup

·         1 tsp. Lemon Juice

·         ½ tsp. horseradish

·         Tabasco Sauce

·         Worcestershire Sauce

·         Freshly Ground Black Pepper

Pour tequila, Clamato, ketchup, lemon juice, and horseradish into cocktail shaker. Add a dash or two of Tabasco and Worcestershire. Shake very well with ice. Strain into old fashioned glass. Sprinkle with ground black pepper.

Now this seems like a variation of a Bloody Mary as well. It sort of is. The flavors are similar, but different enough to where you can appreciate them.

Lastly, I leave you tequila lovers with this one.

Wild Thing

·         1 ½ oz. Tequila

·         1 oz. Cranberry Juice

·         ½ oz. Lime Juice

·         1 oz. Club Soda (or to fill)

·         1 slice Lime

Pour over ice into old-fashioned glass. Garnish with lime slice. This is a great drink. Personally, I’ll sub the club soda for some flavored sparkling water. Sometimes, I’ll have cherry, raspberry or lime.

Well, I hope you liked this week’s first installment. Here’s another salute to Theme Teams.

Thanks guys. Remember, when you’re out there to drive safe, use a designated driver, and tip your bartenders, waiters and waitresses.

Agree with me? Don’t? Well let me know. Drop a line in the submissions or reply or photo reply.

Want me to check out a beer? Again, drop me a note in the submissions section. I’m always on the look out for something new. If I can find it, I’ll try it and give my opinion on it.

Got a question on how to make a drink or where to find something or anything really? Just ask away. I’ll try to answer everything in a timely manner.

Thanks everyone.

Beer Review: Newcastle Brown Ale

Now, I gotta admit, I’m quite taken with Newcastle Brown Ale. It’s a fantastic beer. When I first reviewed this beer I gave it very high marks. Again for this review, I’ll be using Beer Universe’s scoring system: Aroma, Appearance, Flavor, Palate on a 5 star rating score in 1/2 star increments.

Now I’ll be one of the first to admit that I’m still leagues behind others when it comes to professional beer tasting, but I think I may have gotten the basic for this. LoL.

Here’s a little background on the beer. It is an English brown ale. The beer has been brewed for over 80 years now. It has a light aroma (which I’ll talk about in just a bit). It’s best served very cool to very cold.

Newcastle freshly pouredAroma 4.5 Now it does have a light aroma. I picked up a smell of malts and bread. The bread smell can be probably attritubed to the amount of yeast used. Also you might be able to pick up a slight nutty smell. Mind you, I’m recovering from a cold and my sniffer might not be back to 100%.

Appearance 5 Now I love dark beers and ales, so seeing this beauty poured out into a tumbler is fantastic. It has that fabulous brown color too it. It also has a great creamy brown head that doesn’t stick around too long. A picture of that head to the left.

Taste 5 I admit I love the taste of this beer. It’s clean, distinct, bitter, yet slightly sweet undertones.

Palate 5 If you “look” at the flavor, you might pick up some sweet flavor and all the bite from it as well. Personally, I picked up a bit of nuttiness to it as well. The sweet I picked up was kinda similiar to the same sweetness as a salted caramel. Not overpoweringly sweet, but subtle. By no means am I saying this beer is sweet, but it doesn’t have a completely bitter bite. So no worry on getting one of those bitter beer faces.

If you average out those scores, you’ll get about a 4.9. It’s well deserved for this beer. I don’t think anyone would really be disappointed with this one if they are a fan of brown ales. It’s a good beer that has been around for quite a long while.

Bottle, Can, or Glass? I have yet to see it in a can (if anyone has, please let me know). So between bottle or glass? Well… You honestly, can’t really go wrong either way. Personally, I tend to drink it out of bottles. That’s mainly due to the fact that I’ll drink it at home or at a friend’s house and I’ll pick it up at the supermarket. Now if you get the chance to try this on tap: Oh Lord! You’ll love it! Honestly, if I find this beer on draft, I’ll drink that the whole night unless I’m in a more Bock mood.

One thing I will say about Newcastle is: It’s the only beer you can drink that night. I’ve found that when mixing beers, Newcastle will seem the odd man out especially if you’re mixing it with domestic lagers. But enjoy the beer all you can. It’s a great beer and I’m HIGHLY recommending it.

Agree with me? Don’t? Well let me know. Drop a line in the submissions or reply or photo reply.

Want me to check out a beer? Again, drop me a note in the submissions section. I’m always on the look out for something new. If I can find it, I’ll try it and give my opinion on it.

Got a question on how to make a drink or where to find something or anything really? Just ask away. I’ll try to answer everything in a timely manner.

Thanks everyone.

Beer Review: Tecate

Sorry for being MIA for about a week. Been trying to find a decent server to get a podcast going. Still up in the air about it, but hopefully we’ll get that up soon. It’s been a busy week in JaLowe Manor as well. However, I’m going to try to make that up to you all today be doing a few beer reviews and hopefully a couple of drink recipe posts.

The first review I’m gonna do today is one of my favorite Mexican beers: Tecate.

TecateI wrote a review for this beer last year on Beer Universe. I went back to it today so I can remember the numbers that I gave it. Haha. I was glad to see that someone listed my review as helpful. But let me break down Tecate for you guys.

It’s a lager beer with a malty aroma that is light. Yes, it should be as cold as you can get it. In my experience, when this beer gets hot, it loses a lot of its taste. Well maybe not so much loses its taste, but you just don’t really like it very much anymore.

Now on Beer Universe, the average rating for this beer is a 3.4 out of 5. In my review, it got a rating of 3.5. Here is how I broke that one down.

(Now mind you, Beer Universe uses a 5 start system in increments of .5)

A Six of TecateOn the aroma, I gave it a 3.5. You get a light malty aroma from it, but nothing that screams out anything really special.

It gets a 3.5 on appearance. It’s always got a clean look too it. You never find impurities. You do get a great foamy white head, that’s appealing to the eye. Honestly, now, I’d probably have to reward that higher, I’m giving it a 4 now.

I gave it a 3.5 on the palate. The flavor is there. You get the taste of the hops, but nothing with a signature. The best highlight of Tecate is the fact that it isn’t Corona. Ha! Sorry Corona drinkers.

Twang Lemon Lime Beer SaltNow when I add salt and lime the flavor is great. But that is usually true of any Mexican beer. I usually a particular brand of beer salt called Twang. It comes in a little beer bottle shaped container and already has a lemon and lime flavor. It’s even pretty groovy with chips and salsa. It’s made about 150 miles north of here in good ol’ San Antonio, TX. It’s really not too expensive. I usually just pick these up at gas stations or grocery stores. Not only does it go well with Mexican beers, but it works really well with Bud Light. Basically, the only way I’ll drink Bud Light. Not that I’m a beer snob, but Lagers have just never really been for me. (It’ll be explained when I finally review a Bock beer.)

Bottle, Can, or Glass? This one I gotta say can. If you have a favorite koozie, bust it out. I’ve had it from a bottle and from a glass, but it’s not quite the same as a can.

I’ve had this beer both in the States and in Mexico. It’s a good beer. It’s great when you’re having a carne asada (a cookout). I enjoy it with sirloin, fajita, and trompo tacos. There was this restaurant here in Laredo that made these tacos with trompo, onions, pineapple, and cilantro. Great when combined with this beer. Sadly, that place has closed. In 2006, the taco itself made it to The 63 Greatest Tacos in Texas according to Texas Monthly.

I would recommend this beer to anyone who is looking to try something from South of the Border. I actually drank this beer this past tuesday. I was working with a great crew on a podcast for a local shop, Legacy Comics. It was an after hours event and we decided to bring in pizza and beer. Rick brought in some Lay’s Limon Potato Chips and lordy, I put away the Twang for one beer while eating those. Haha. But give this beer a try and you most likely will not be let down.

Agree with me? Don’t? Well let me know. Drop a line in the submissions or reply or photo reply.

Want me to check out a beer? Again, drop me a note in the submissions section. I’m always on the look out for something new. If I can find it, I’ll try it and give my opinion on it.

Got a question on how to make a drink or where to find something or anything really? Just ask away. I’ll try to answer everything in a timely manner.

Thanks everyone.

We make sexy time, yes?

I’ve had the urge to blog out some more since yesterday. So I’m doing it again today. Oh and I did look into podcasting. I might make this a reality, but it might not happen until next month as I’m debating which service to use, Podbean or Libsyn. Right now I’m leaning towards, podbean. I’m thinking of making a longer format weekly podcast, say around 10-20 mins. Opinions? Suggestions? Anyway… I digress…

I’ve titled today’s blog, Sexy Time for a reason. I’m going to be Too Sexyfocusing on a few drinks with “Sex” in their names. The classic Sex On The Beach in several variations, Sex In The Desert, Sex with an Alligator, Sex on the Brain, and maybe a few others if my fingers can type it all.

I’m going to go ahead and start off with the classic Sex on the Beach. It’s a really simple recipe. Depending on how strong you make it and how you want to present it, you can put it in a highball glass or a hurricane glass. I prefer the hurricane glass because it gives it that extra bit of presentation. Heck if you want to you can even put it in a coconut cup. So here’s how you make itSex On The Beach

  • 1 1/2 oz of vodka
  • 1/2 oz of peach schnapps
  • orange juice
  • cranberry juice
  • pineapple juice (optional)

Combine the alcohol in your glass (highball or hurricane) over ice. Add your juices (hehe, sounds dirty). Then stir and serve. You can put a fancy smancy umbrelle with a wedge of pineapple or orange slice. Now I personally like adding orange juice to the mix. In reality, most recipes just call for orange juice, but that makes me think of it more as a fuzzy navel. You can add some grenadine syrup to it as well. You can float the syrup or try to get it to sink to the bottom before adding the alcohol or just add it and stir into the drink.

I found several variations to the drink as well. Here’s a few:

Greek Sex on the Beach

  • 2 parts vodka
  • 1 1/2 parts Lime flavored rum (Barcardi Limon is good)
  • 2 parts grenadine syrup
  • 2 1/2 parts orange juice
  • 1 part gold tequila
  • 1 part peach liqueur

Here you simply shake all the ingredients together and serve in a glass with ice. Then… OOOOOMPA! I used the parts option on this recipe because I’m seeing a way to make it into a smaller portions to fill smaller glassware. For the most part you can just say ounces. I would add a picture, but searching on google images is providing me a butt load of porn. Geez. Ha!

Now here’s a good shooter version of Sex on the Beach:

  • 1/2 oz black raspberry liqueur
  • 1/2 oz melon liqueur (Midori works great)
  • 1/2 oz vodka
  • 1 oz pineapple juice
  • cranberry juice

All ya gotta do is stir the first 4 ingredients with ice. Then you can drop the mix into a chilled cordial or shot glass. Then you top with cranberry juice. Next you slam it down, enjoy, repeat. If you’re going to be making a lot of them, just multiply the recipe.

Now here is one of my favorite sweet tequila drinks: Sex in the Desert. When I was studying to become a bartender (many moons ago) I received the Playboy’s Bartender’s Guide. In it, I found this recipe. I tried it a few times and have always enjoyed it. So here we go:

  • 1 oz tequila
  • 1 oz triple sec
  • 1 oz grenadine
  • 1/2 oz Rose’s lime juice (I stick with Rose’s because sometimes you just need that lil’ extra sweetness)
  • 1/z oz cranberry juice (or even a cranberry/lime cocktail works here)

Shake all the ingredients with ice and then strain into a prechilled cocktail glass. You could leave the ice in, but really where are you gonna find ice in a desert? Ha. Again, images on google are mostly pornographic in nature, go figure. Whenever the word “sex” gets typed in more than 69% will be porn. Ha!

Since we’ve just done Sex in the Desert when not go with Sex on an Arizona Beach. :) Practically the same thing, oui? Now the recipe:

  • 2 shots of vodka (Absolut will work just perfectly here)
  • 2 shots peach schnapps
  • grapefruit juice
  • lime or lime juice
  • grenadine syrup

Add the shots into a shaker. Dash in your preferred amount of grapefruit juice and lime juice. Add a healthy splash of grenadine. Mix and add to a hurricane glass and fill with ice. Earlier I said lime for this reason: You can use bottled lime juice, here I won’t recommend Rose’s because this drink is already sweet. You can squeeze out the juice from half a regular lime or maybe a keylime or two. Just watch out for seeds. I haven’t tried this drink personally, but a friend recommended it a few times. If anyone tries it, please send me a note on how you liked it.

Okay, I just noticed I had like 6 more Sexy Drinks, but I’m cutting that in half. Haha. Sorry, maybe I’ll post them another day. So next on the list we have an interestingly named one: Sex on my Face. (insert smirk or laugh here). This one is a simple procedure. Combine and serve. We’ll be using:

  • 1/2 oz of Canadian Whisky (if you think all Whisky is the same, you’re mistaken. I’ll do a post about that soon.)
  • 1/2 oz coconut rum (Malibu is some of the best in the coconut flavored department)
  • 1/2 oz peach liqueur (here I’ll recommend Southern Comfort’s)
  • 1/2 oz banana liqueur (I haven’t really found one that stands apart from the others just yet)
  • splash of cranberry juice
  • splash of pineapple juice
  • splash of orange juice

All you gotta do is get a tall glass with ice and mix everything today. Just simply stir to mix it and you’ll have a pretty good drink. Surprisingly, this drink doesn’t pack the same punch (abv) as the Sex on an Arizona Desert.

This next one I did find a picture of! Whew! Finally! This was a favorite of one of my friends. This next drink is a good one. I’ve even had it a few times. It’s called Sex With An Alligator. You can drink this one in shot form as well. Now I saved this one and the next drink last because these are floaters/layers. So if you’re not used to it, relax and just try again and again and again and again and when you wake up tomorrow evening try again. Here ya go:Sex with an Alligator

  • sweet and sour mix
  • Midori melon liqueur (yep, I’m calling it, Midori, don’t sub here, trust me.)
  • 1/2 oz of raspberry liqueur
  • 1/2 oz of Jagermeister (oh yeah, Jager is fun)

Now you’ll take both the sweet and sour and Midori and shake well with ice and you’ll strain it out. Now here comes the layers. Use a chilled martini glass. You’ll have the raspberry liqueur on the bottom, the Midori/Sweet&Sour in the middle and float the Jager on top. You can also make this into a shot as well. Basically the same process. Considering the average shot glass is about 1.5-2 oz use about 1/2 oz sweet & sour and 1/2 oz of Midori. Or you can mix a larger batch of the Midori mix and make multiple shots. You should enjoy this one.

Now for the last one: Sex on the Brain. Again, this is a layered drink. I tried really hard to look for a picture of this one but couldn’t find one. Sorry. Surprisingly only 10% of photos shown were of sex. Haha. I was really hoping to show you a picture of this one, so everyone can see the finished product. Whenever the next time I make this, I’ll be sure to snap a picture of it. But here’s how you make one:

  • 1 oz of Arrow’s Peach Schnapps (you can use your favorite instead)
  • 1 oz of Absolut Vodka (again you can sub out)
  • 1 oz of Midori (I really like Midori, but I suppose you can sub here too)
  • pineapple juice
  • orange juice
  • 1 tablespoon of sloe gin

Grab yourself a hurricane glass, fill with ice and insert straw. Next you’ll want to add your alcohol ingredients. Now remember this is a layered drink, so you’ll be having yourself a nice bottom green layer. Next take your juices (teehee) and use a barspoon to help layer the juice. So now you should have a great second yellow layer. Next comes the Stop. Wait, you might ask right now. Look at the sloe gin. It’s red. You’re adding that as the top later. Congrats, you should have something that almost looks like a stop light. So there ya go: Sex on the Brain.

So there ya go: several sexy drinks. I hope you all enjoy these drinks. I’m going to continue to work on getting the podcast going, so check in. Be sure to follow this blog. I might only be posting every few days. If the podcast goes up, it’ll hopefully be a weekly show. Thanks for reading everyone. Have a great hump day.

  • This blog is intended for people of legal drinking age.
  • This blog does not condone consumption of alcohol by minors, dogs, cats, gerbils, goldfish, ferrets, assorted mammals, fowl, avians, reptiles, insects (except bees, you guys go nuts), fish, and a wide variety of plant life.
  • Remember to drink responsibly.
  • Use a designated driver (flier).

A Classic: The White Russian

The Dude

The White Russian is a variation of the Black Russian which first came out in the late 1940s. The White Russian is said to have come out in the 1960s. The key difference between the two drinks is the addition of cream, giving the White Russian it’s color and name. I think the drink’s popularity rose back up when the movie The Big Lebowski became the huge cultural phenom it is today. It is The Dude’s favorite beverage, man. So here’s the simple recipe to make your own at home.White Russian

  • 1 oz of coffee liqueur (Kahlua or Tia Maria’s)
  • 2 oz of vodka
  • Cream (you can use milk instead, but cream gives it a richer, fuller, sweeter taste)

Add the liquors into an old fashioned glass over ice and then fill with cream.

There’s really not much to it. It’s a simple drink that is very easy to make. But I’m not gonna leave you with just that. Try some variations of the White Russian.

  • There’s a White Canadian that is made with goat’s milk instead of cream. Not a big fan of that one.
  • A Blind Russian, which is made with Bailey’s Irish Cream. You call it blind because it uses nothing but alcohol.
  • A White Mexican that uses Horchata instead of cream. Horchata is a rice milk drink that’s popular in Mexico and border areas. My grandma loves it. Here’s a recipe for that.
  • An Anna Kournikova uses skim milk instead of cream.
  • A White Cuban. Substitute rum for the vodka.

I hope you enjoyed our first run on JaLowe’s Shots. Hope you have fun making this drink, well heck, more like drinking this drink. Haha. So enjoy yourselves responsibly.

  • This blog is intended for people of legal drinking age.
  • This blog does not condone consumption of alcohol by minors, dogs, cats, gerbils, goldfish, ferrets, assorted mammals, fowl, avians, reptiles, insects (except bees, you guys go nuts), fish, and a wide variety of plant life.
  • Remember to drink responsibly.
  • Use a designated driver (flier)

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