Tag Archives: lemon cocktails

Chanh muoi Lemon Salt Soda

Posted on by December 11, 2014

Well, it is my birthday, and I do love a good funky cocktail, so here it is, the Chanh muối Lemon Salt Soda. The Chanh muoi Lemon Salt Soda is a traditional Vietnamese drink that I somehow didn’t know about until fairly recently. Like any good menu reader who prides themself on ordering all the dishes and drinks they’ve never heard of, I was surprised that I’d never come across the Chanh muoi Lemon Salt Soda. It turns out the Chanh muoi Lemon Salt Soda is a common menu item, which I discovered this fall at a local Philly pho taste off. Of course, I had to immediately compensate for the years with no Chan muoi in my life and all kinds of kitchen experimentation began. Thank goodness I’m constantly deciding that I need to do things like preserve lemons, because I had them on hand. While it started with making traditional Chanh muoi Lemon Salt Soda, it became aparent to me that the drink was an obvious candidate for conversion to cocktail. Sure enough it was wonderful with bourbon. Cheers! And happy funky cocktail day to all of us. And may you ever associate both me and my birthday … Continue reading →

Lemon Verbena Smash

Posted on by November 3, 2014

Believe it or not, at least for the Dirty Laundry Kitchen, it’s time to thinking about the 4th of July, and what’s a better place to start than with this Lemon Verbena Smash cocktail. This past weekend, I was forced to spend my time picnicking and drinking Lemon Verbena Smash cocktails at the dog park so that the menu would be ready for you. It was torture I tell you. First up, the questions. Where did this Lemon Verbena Smash cocktail come from? What is lemon verbena? And what do I do if I can’t find any? Good questions. I love the flavor of the herb lemon verbena. It’s perfect for Summer drinks and desserts. It’s a little hard to find at regular grocery stores (my dad has to grow it for me). But it’s amazing, and you can often find the plants even at places like home depot. When I can’t get my hands on it, I substitute a combination of basil and mint leaves. They get the job done in creating a similar flavor that make the Lemon Verbena Smash so distinctly delicious and refreshing. I love to make Lemon Verbena Smash in a giant mason jar and bring … Continue reading →

Aviation Cocktail

Posted on by November 19, 2014

I love this gin-based Aviation Cocktail for all it’s refined floral and citrus notes, but picking the right gin is important because of the more subtle ingredients in the cocktail (i.e. the maraschino liquer and the creme de violette). One of the properties that makes gin-based cocktails interesting to me is that gins taste quite differently from brand to brand. Some are more neutral, some are very herbaceous, some are traditional in their juniper notes and some stray very far from that classic taste. They all have their place, but some drinks I’ve very specific about: I really like Hendricks with herbs and a gin and tonic requires Tanqueray to make me really happy. I’m a little more flexible when I make Marc’s favorite drink, the Aviation cocktail. I tend to use Sapphire, but I have liked Beefeater and Plymouth as well. The milky blue color that’s so unique to the Aviation is caused when the crème de violette and the citrus interact. I don’t really know why, but it’s really cool and creates a very unique blueish purple hue. A drink this good requires a really good maraschino cherry as well, so this is another great drink to showcase … Continue reading →