Cocktail No 63 - Blue Lady

Highly recommended to try.

Icy Chilled, the first impression is of a sherbet dipper, if you remember those from your childhood. The tart lemon juice gives the "fizz"and the Blue Curacao the sweetness. The citrus in the gin complements the bitter orange in the curacao and the colour - just look at the wonderful shade of turquoise blue.

Sweet & sour play against each other, with orange the dominant flavour. It is also very refreshing - shame the day has clouded over after brilliant sunshine all day. A perfect sundowner for a hot & humid evening, with the delicious reward of the maraschino cherry at the end.

Recipe

2 measures Birkdale Gin
1 measure Blue Curacao
1 measure lemon juice

Add Birkdale Gin, Curacao and lemon juice to shaker with ice. Shake well until very chilled and strain into cocktail glass. Decorate with Maraschino cherry, impaled on a cocktail stick.

Cocktail No 19 Blue Monday Nightcap

This is for those who love orange and bitter-sweetness. The base of the drink is Vodka to give a clean and neutral alcoholic strength to the drink.

Cointreau or Triple Sec gives a sweet orange taste and viscosity. This is complimented by Blue Curacao, that strange blue bottle that is in many cocktail cabinets yet rarely used. It is actually a very bitter orange liquor evolved from the Valencia orange that the Spanish transplanted to the East Indies. The plant could not thrive in the nutrient poor soil and arid climate of the island Curacau and instead produced shriveled bitter inedible fruits. The skins though still contain the orange essential oils which can be extracted and distilled into the spirit, which is then coloured with blue dye.

So you have an intense blue drink, which has no odor. Upon sipping the first sensation is that it is immediately cold on the tongue. No obvious flavour to start with but a syrup like texture in the mouth, which rapidly thins out as you swallow. As the tongue clears a rich bitter sweet orange taste develops over a few seconds accompanied by a mild burn at the back of the throat - not severe and very pleasant in fact.

A really interesting drink that works on multiple senses - visual, cold, viscous, thin, citrus, then lingering heat. I am not sure why it has taken me so many years to try this one. Very, very pleasing.

Recipe

Add 1 measure of Vodka to as shaker with 1/2 measure of Cointreau (or Triple Sec) and 1/2 measure of Blue Curacao. Shake on ice and strain into a tall glass.

Enjoy.