Serves 10 to 14
Serves 1
The classic Bloody Mary is the ultimate hangover cure, but a tom yum Bloody Mary will bring your body and senses to full attention. Fiery, sour and spicy tom yum paste, which can be purchased from your local Asian supermarket or online, is a roasted blend of chiles, galangal, lemongrass and lime leaves that hails from Thailand. The distinctive and uncompromisingly sharp character of tom yum works beautifully in this version of the vodka- and tomato juice-based cocktail. It adds an alluring Thai fragrance with just the right amount of heat to warm the mouth instead of the traditional Worcestershire sauce and Tabasco.
There are endless varieties of store-bought tom yum pastes. Some are more citrusy, others spicier, others heavier on umami. If you’re vegan or vegetarian, check that it doesn’t contain dried shrimp. Use this recipe as a guide, but the final seasoning will come down to your preference and your brand of paste, so have a little taste as you mix it all together.
Try to avoid thick, black tamarind concentrates from India for this recipe, which will overpower the drink. Instead, look for the brown-colored tamarind pastes or concentrates from Thailand or Vietnam, which provide a more delicate sour balance. I prefer my Bloody Mary with a single shot of vodka, but you can increase this to your liking. If you’re looking to make yours a virgin, just omit the vodka altogether.
Mezcal is meant to bring joy and be used in times of celebration. Sip it, savor it, and kiss it, and make sure to take a moment to reflect on it, appreciate it, and understand it.
You can learn a lot about ice just by looking at it. A pristinely clear cube tells you it’s made from pure water in a perfect crystal lattice. Cloudy ice signals impurities, absorbed gases, and irregular crystals. Those impurities (such as chlorine or fluoride) impart unwanted flavors, while absorbed gases (like oxygen and nitrogen) and irregular crystals weaken cubes, making them more prone to shattering while shaking. This creates many unwanted ice shards that will overdilute your cocktail. Bartenders go to obsessive, time-consuming lengths to achieve perfectly clear ice for craft cocktails, but we just wanted an easy at-home technique to get us as close to clear as is practical.
A bootlegger’s reimagining of the swanky Sidecar, straight moonshine added to cointreau, lemon juice, and cognac will rev up your engines for chasing down a great time from one mountaintop to the next.
Struck with a little white lightning, this revamped Manhattan is high proof that moonshine—especially cherry-infused, including a hooch-soaked maraschino cherry—can even make perfection a little more perfect.
The classic, most beloved campfire treat of all time just got a moonshine makeover! Whether savored fireside or not, marshmallow-infused moonshine and chocolate liqueur prove that indulging your sweet tooth doesn’t get any better than this.
Sometimes a perfect pint can be made even better. Put the black and tan to shame.
Two simple ingredients make for a remarkable taste transformation.