Bacardi Cocktail

It’s 1937, a mere four years since the end of prohibition, and the New York Supreme Court is holding a hearing on the legality of using any type of rum other than Bacardi to make the famous Bacardi cocktail. After hearing from a number of local NYC bartenders, some of which blasphemously claimed that they use the cheapest or handiest rums available to make a Bacardi cocktail, Justice John L. Walsh declared that “Beyond a reasonable doubt subterfuge and a fraud is subjected on the purchaser when Bacardi rum is left out of a drink listed as a Bacardi cocktail.”

The Bacardi cocktail is both vibrantly hued and flavored.

Bacardi cocktail
Ingredients:
2 parts Bacardi white rum
Juice of a whole lime
1/2 part grenadine
Shake over ice and serve in a cocktail glass. Garnish with a slice of lime.

Homemade Infusions Parts 1 and 2

I’ve been tossing around the idea of infusing my own spirits for quite a while now, but it wasn’t until a couple of weeks ago that I really put forth the effort to create a flavored spirit by aging spices/herbs with a liquor of choice. If I had known how easy and effortless it really was to create a flavorful and colorful spirit of my own, I would have done it much sooner.

I think all of this started because of my love for the wonderful, fragrant leaves of the herb known as cilantro. I had previously created a cocktail known as the cilantro margarita, which was a traditional margarita with fresh cilantro added to the mix which was then filtered out (the best I could with a shaker) before serving. The cocktail was not for the timid; the cilantro flavor was so powerful that it took complete control of the mixture. Still, my obsession with cilantro forced me to continue to go back to this Frankenstein concoction. When I finally decided to infuse my very first spirit the choice of what I would infuse seemed obvious. No longer would I have to try and filter out cilantro with my plastic cocktail shaker if I created a cilantro tequila. Thus my homemade infusion adventures began.

Negroni

The short, refreshing, elegant Negroni has become one of my go to cocktails recently (despite the fact that my favorite local bar does not have a bartender one who can make it without my help). It’s a drink that combines two of my favorite flavors in the world, the fragrantly wonderful spirit known as gin and the bitterly beautiful concoction known as Campari. Most classy bars and restaurants will know how to throw together a Negroni for you. If you happen to come across a bar that doesn’t, read on so that you can teach your local server a thing or two.

The alluring red dice color of the Negroni.

Negroni
Ingredients:
1 part gin
1 part Negroni
1 part sweet vermouth
Shake and serve over ice in a rocks glass. Garnish with an orange peel.

The New Cocktail Corner

The venerable Brady Tavern, serving up craft cocktails since 2011.

Well the time has come. It only took me a few months before I realized that my original plan of creating a blog that detailed every small bit of information that I found interesting was too broad of a scope to be good. It’s hard to build a steady readership, or even really be interested in writing for the blog when my topics were so spastic. I’ve also decided that all my music writing needs to stay at JustPressPlay, the website that has given my writing a home for half a decade. So from now on, What Tyler Ticks is going to be just Cocktail Corner. Since I found that my research for the series of articles I was originally calling Cocktail Corner was so damn interesting, I’ve decided to use this blog to exclusively cater to the histories and recipes of cocktails.

Nelson’s Blood

On Valentine’s Day earlier this month, I picked up a bottle of rather cheap champagne to serve before, during and after dinner. Seeing as how my fascination with mixing drinks is still in its fever pitch stages, I took this opportunity to try out a few cocktails that I’ve never had the chance to taste before. While scouring the internet for interesting recipes, I came across something that was, if anything, interestingly named. The recipe for Nelson’s Blood was simple, champagne topped off with tawny port, but the taste was better than I would have ever expected. Luckily, I just so happened to have a bottle of Christian Brothers Port on hand. The initial opening of that bottle of port was the first time I’ve ever actually tasted this particular type of fortified wine. I’m not sure this goes for all brands, but the port I had on hand was a bit too sweet to drink by itself. Adding some brandy to the port, per suggestions from a number of sources, tempered the sweetness a bit; but it was adding it to a glass of sparkling wine that became by favorite port cocktail of all.

Two wines, a flute and a lot of bubbles.

Nelson’s Blood
Ingredients:
4 parts champagne or sparkling wine
1 part tawny port
Pour champagne into a champagne flute, top off with port.

From Blackwater to Los Angeles

There are a lot of video games that I don’t like. Many games now days seem to either treat you like you’re a sex deprived geek or an overly testosterone-filled idiot. When I play a video game, just like when enjoying any other type of media, I want something with depth. Something that is going to evoke emotion out of me. No video game developer does this better than the folks over at Rock Star Games. Two of the games that Rockstar has created over the past couple of years are games that everyone should take the the time to play. Both LA Noire and Red Dead Redemption are masterfully crafted period pieces that give gamers the opportunity to vicariously relive a specific period in time. Today I’m going to take the time to explain to you just why you need to play both of these games.

The Grand Return of the Scarlet Spider

I’ll be honest with you. I didn’t read “Spider Island,” Spider-Man’s latest mind boggling story arc. I actually haven’t purchased a new Spider-Man comic in probably 5+ years. It’s been even longer since I laid down the money for a copy of Spidey’s flagship Amazing title. Even when I get on a comic book kick, and dig up my old Spider-Man back issues, I still can’t bring myself to even attempt to get into modern Spidey comics. I can blame this reluctant behavior on one defining moment in Spider-Man history; the horrific 2007 plot development known as One More Day. A story arc so frustratingly bad that I’ll save everybody a rant and not elaborate on my distaste for it today.

Recently I found myself in the midst of another Spider-Man binge (probably prompted by the upcoming Spider-Man movie reboot). While attempting to fill in ’80s era Spider-Man back issues to my collection, I came across something interesting. I found that there was a new Marvel book titled the Scarlet Spider, though the costumed character on the cover was not wearing a blue cut-off hoodie like I remembered from my childhood. My subsequent research taught me that the man behind the mask was not Spider-clone Ben Reilly (the original Scarlet Spider), but rather Spider-clone Kaine. With this, my interest was piqued.