izzy's playlists!
JBB: An Artblog!
Not today Justin
titsay
occasionally subtle
TVSTRANGERTHINGS
🪼
Alisa U Zemlji Chuda
i don't do bad sauce passes
blake kathryn
d e v o n
Three Goblin Art
No title available
DEAR READER
Andulka
Stranger Things
we're not kids anymore.
if i look back, i am lost
tumblr dot com
KIROKAZE
seen from Mexico
seen from Brazil
seen from Austria
seen from United States
seen from South Korea
seen from United States
seen from Japan
seen from Guatemala
seen from Türkiye
seen from South Korea
seen from France
seen from United States
seen from Colombia
seen from Austria
seen from United Kingdom
seen from United Kingdom
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Germany
seen from United States
@muddleandstrain
2 SPARROWS IN A HURRICANE
VALENTINES DAY COCKTAIL SERIES (3/3)
FEATURING: fuji and green apple infused Stoli Vanilla vodka. Cinnamon, candied ginger, blueberry syrup. Bitterman’s tiki bitters. fresh squeezed lemon. Hurricane Glass.
COCKTAIL PAIRING // MOUNTAINSIDE MOCKIGBIRDS (2/3)
Blast from the past. In the best way. In the drippiest, most deeply emotional way. His voice is like the smoothest satin, enveloping you like a Gucci robe while you sip on that absinthe sour. yes. all the yes.
MOUNTAINSIDE MOCKIGBIRDS
VALENTINES COCKTAIL SERIES 2/3
...A VERY INTENSE BUT BALANCED GRAPE ABSINTHE SOUR.
FEATURING: Copper&Kings Absinthe, muddled green grapes, fresh lime juice, Regan’s Orange Bitters, Egg White, Fresh Basil, Double Simple Syrup. Collins Glass. Over ice. Basil & Grape Garnish.
SONG PAIRING // - CHRIS ISAAKS - WICKED GAMES
above this jump^^^
COCKTAIL PAIRING // JAILHOUSE LOVEBIRDS (1/3)
CHILLIN TO THE MAX, ACTING ALL COOL, SHOOTING SOME B-BALL, OUTSIDE OF THE SCHOOL. While jammin this track. and Sippin on this fruity cocktail from the tiki gates of hell. Encore, please.
After the jump, below.
JAILHOUSE LOVEBIRDS
1/3 VALENTINE’S DAY COCKTAIL SERIES @CORNERBAR, ALOFT HOTEL LOUISVILLE.
FEATURING: Old Overholt Rye, Hibiscus petals, lemongrass, candied papaya, green tea leaves, cinnamon passionfruit syrup, fresh squeezed lemon, St. Germaine (bartender’s ketchup), Angostura bitters. Classy, tiki-inspired, and bold. Ice sphere. Coupe Glass.
SONG PAIRING // 6 GOD - TELL YOUR FRIENDS FREESTYLE
above this jump^^^
COCKTAIL PAIRING // GAL FROM IPANEMA
In the dead of winter, all we have are libations to warm our throats. Let Mezcal be the fire that ignites in your throat this season. Fuego. Like this jam. Thank you, music gods. Stwo, you’re it.
GAL FROM IPANEMA
A MEZCAL & BOURBON MINT JULEP RIFF,
featuring:
Fidencio Estate Grown 100% Organic Mezcal, Four Roses Yellow Label, California White Grapefruit, Green Chartreuse, Demerara Syrup, BitterTruth Creole Bitters, Cinnamon Dust, Freshly spanked mint, hand crushed ice. Julep tin, all day long.
SONG PAIRING // ^^^ STWO - DRIVE SLOW, above this jump
COCKTAIL PAIRING // ROOH AFZA MY AFZA
SONG // HIGH DEMAND - Sinden & Jesse Boykins III
A bubbly, high energy, wake-up-in-the-sun track after your long summer night hanging out in the coolest of sunsets, while you drank your ICEE with your homies in the drop top scrape through the city, hollerin at half naked chicas and thinking about hibiscus flowers and crop tops and watermelons and dranks. ALL THAAA DRAAAAAAAAAAANKS. & swimming pools.
That’s me lately, in a nutshell. Happy summer, kiddos.
ENJOY AFTER THE JUMP>>>
ROOH AFZA MY AFZA
Hey lovelies! So very sorry for the delay in beautiful cocktails, but I’ve been doing all kinds of crazy shit in the Louisville mixology world, like competing in the Bombay Sapphire Contest (future post), helping my real-girl job at Against the Grain release an all new and innovative craft cocktail menu (finally! yay!!)...and between all of that, there’s been a million new pop-up bars, and summer cocktails to drink on patios and long nights catching up with people and things...so I’ve been a busy girl. BUT all work and no play, makes Ashley a dull girl :( I’ve been severely neglecting my M&S world here, so I’m promising you all a blast of incoming post as soon as Forecastle Festival is over and this new menu launches at work. Busy, busy. However, to hold you over, I recently went to an Indian food market and picked up some really interesting ingredients for some cocktail venturing, so here we go!
ROOH AFZA is a non-alcoholic concentrated squash made with fruits, herbs and vegetable extracts. It was formulated by Hakeem Hafiz Abdul Majeed, in 1906 in Ghaziabad, India. Basically, this versatile syrup-like substance encompasses everything you love about spices and summer and flowers and fruits. Its build can include any of or all of the following:
Herbs: purslane ("Khurfa seeds", Portulaca oleracea), Chicory, wine-grape raisins (Vitis vinifera), European white lily (Nymphaea alba), blue star water lily (Nymphaea nouchali), lotus (Nelumbo), Borage and Coriander
Fruits: orange, citron, pineapple, apple, berries, strawberry, raspberry, loganberry, blackberry, cherry, concord grapes, blackcurrant and watermelon
Vegetables: spinach, carrot, mint and mướp hương (Luffa aegyptiaca)
Flowers: rose, kewra (Pandanus fascicularis), lemon and orange
Roots: vetiver (Chrysopogon zizanioides)
SO of course, I bought a million bottles of this and made some concoctions with it. Here, I’ve made a hibiscus forward berry slinger soda, complete with tiki-like flower and layers of flavor. Enjoy this recipe, it has been my favorite in home Southern Sipper with Eastern World flair!
ELEMENTS
1 1/2 ounces Bombay Sapphire
1/2 ounce Hibiscus Syrup
1/2 ounce ROOH AFZA syrup
3/4 ounce fresh squeezed lemon
3 blackberries for muddling
Small batch Elderflower soda, to top (mine is from World Market)
Fee Brothers Rhubarb bitters (2 dashes)
METHOD
Take a skinny profile tall glass, chill it, and when you are about to make the drink, muddle three blackberries and rhubarb bitters together into the bottom of the glass only. In shaker tin, combine the rest of the ingredients WITHOUT Elderflower soda, and shake with ice until well chilled. Pour this mixture into glass, over the blackberries, fill with big chunky ice cubes, and top the rest of the glass with Elderflower soda, to taste. Top with 1 dash Peychauds Bitters, let this seep into the drink.
GARNISH
Hibiscus petal and stem, and Cinnamon Thai Basil Leaves for aromatics
Thanks for reading! This one is a beautifully fruity soda cocktail and starts off dainty and light, and ends saturated with bitters and tart, dark fruits. You know I love drinks that change as you drink them. CHEERS!
SONG PAIRING // SINDEN - HIGH DEMAND ^^^
COCKTAIL // AGUACATE
SONG PAIRING // A NIGHT IN JAPAN - BUTTER & SALMON
Listen to that juice. Like squeezing fresh pineapples into your ears then jumping into an island waterfall oasis and high-fiving yourself for making this drankkkkkk. Enjoy that shit, recipe below. Happy summer.
AGUACATE
I’m gettin hippy trippy over here with this one. Did you know that Mezcal is not only the shit, but it’s an aphrodisiac as well? Did you know avocados were too? Did you also know that having a really nice blender enables you to not only make your versace python work-out smoothies, but some bodacious cocktails too? Yas. All the yasssss. I haven’t really found a unique combination to pair with Mezcal that I haven’t already seen before (like a Mezcal old fashioned, Mezcal manhattan, Mezcal margarita, etc., etc., blah, blah, right?), until now. I’ve been cooking a lot at home and this flavor profile just hit me - the smokey pungent taste of Scorpion Silver Mezcal - paired with the dainty sweetness of bananas, avocados, agave nectar and honey...and tied all together by the herbal but earthy Cocoa Leaf Liqueur by AGWA, smoothness of Cointreau, and tangy sourness of some fresh fresh fresh squeezed lime. What a combo right?
Mezcal is a distilled alcoholic beverage made from the maguey plant (a form of agave, Agave americana) native to Mexico. The word mezcal comes from Nahuatl mexcalli /meʃˈkalːi/ metl /met͡ɬ/ and ixcalli /iʃˈkalːi/ which means "oven-cooked agave".
The maguey grows in many parts of Mexico, though most mezcal is made in Oaxaca. There is a saying attributed to Oaxaca regarding the drink: "Para todo mal, Mezcal, y para todo bien, también" ("For every ill, Mezcal, and for every good as well.").
It is unclear whether distilled drinks were produced in Mexico before the Spanish Conquest. The Spaniards were introduced to native fermented drinks such as pulque, also made from the maguey plant. Soon the conquistadors began experimenting with the maguey plant to find a way to make a distillable fermented mash. The result was mezcal.
Today, mezcal is still made from the heart of the maguey plant, called the "piña", much the same way it was 200 years ago, in most places.In Mexico, mezcal is generally consumed straight and has a strong smoky flavor. Though mezcal is not as popular as tequila (a mezcal made specifically from the blue agave in select regions of the country), Mexico does export the product, mostly to Japan and the United States, and exports are growing in popularity, especially this year! I see it more and more every time I go to the bars. I love it. I don’t like it straight, I’d rather drink it sweetened up or in a big balanced cocktail, but I can appreciate it, nonetheless.
So here is the crazy recipe for this one, ya’ll:
ELEMENTS //
1 oz Scorpion Silver Mezcal
1 tbsp local honey
1/4 avocado, no skin
1 oz Agave Nectar
3/4 oz AGWA Cocoa Leaf Liqueur
1/2 oz Cointreau
1 1/2 oz fresh squeezed lime juice
1 cup ice
BUILD //
Combine ALL ingredients above in a blender, puree until this drink looks like a smoothy. Drink to taste, if too smokey, add more citrus or honey to your liking.
GARNISH: In my photos, I used a thin slice of fresh banana covered in Angostura Bitters, and a light dusting of nutmeg and coffee dust; 3 fresh blueberries of the season, and a sprig of Cinnamon Basil from my urban garden. (yay! fresh herbs are the best)
ENJOY!
CHEERS,
Little Southern Bartender.
SONG PAIRING // A NIGHT IN JAPAN - BUTTER & SALMON
COCKTAIL // SANDIA ROJA
SONG PAIRING // RIGHT DOWN THE LINE - GERRY RAFFERTY
A classic summer-esque 70s beat for the season. This one will have you groovin’ while you drink pink thangs in your pink bikini in your pink SOLO cup in your pink Cadillac supreme. If that was a thing. Or is it already? Enjoy...after the jump below....
SANDIA ROJA
Ah......It’s summer time again. Finally. This means a number of things to me: different big, bodacious juicy fruits to puree, cook, squeeze, and drink...long nights on my porch sippin’ on that something sweet, reveling in the Kentucky sunset...and long days trying to do the raddest shit, and somehow fitting work into the mix too. It’s crazy! But I have finally found some time here, so I bring you my latest pink, perfect concoction.
IF you don’t like watermelon, then quit reading right about now, because it is literally one of my favorite red things in the whole wide fucking world to shove into my face all season long. Nothing beats it, and pureeing it into the bottom of a glass to compliment a sweet cocktail was the best idea I’ve had in a while.
I paired this succulent fruit with some fresh picked mint from my urban garden and some fresh squeezed lemon to give it a bit of that tangggggg. I crafted a blackberry banana syrup a week ago for another project, but I paired it here with the watermelon and Cruzan’s Pineapple White Rum, and it was like a super fruit pina colada & a bodacious mojito had a beautiful pink baby. Try this one at home, and you’ll be more addicted to this one than Kanye West is into frowning in public. Yas.
ELEMENTS
1/4 cup pureed watermelon pulp
4 mint leaves
1 oz La Criox Raspberry Cranberry sparkling water
1/2 oz fresh squeezed lemon
3/4 oz Blackberry Banana Syrup
2 oz Cruzan Pineapple White Rum
BUILD
Take the smashed watermelon and put it into your glass prior to making your cocktail. combine all ingredients in shaker, shake with ice, and single strain into watermelon glass. Add big ice cubes, garnish with a big mint sprig for aromatics, and you’re in business, baby. Now go tan and stare into the sun while you get drunk on fruit!
CHEERS,
Little Southern Bartender
SONG PAIRING // GERRY RAFFERTY - RIGHT DOWN THE LINE
(above^)
COCKTAIL PAIRING // OLD ROSEBUD RISING
SONG PAIRING // SOLANGE - LOSING YOU
This is a happy, beat filled song with a melody that will be stuck in your head for the whole summer. I actually was listening to this when coming up with the idea for my cocktail entry for the Basil Hayden contest. Perfect for the bright pink vibe of this concoction, and the fresh fruity taste. Enjoy!
OLD ROSEBUD RISING
Living in the good ol’ state of Kentucky and being so close to bourbon county has given me opportunity after opportunity to take a beautifully crafted spirit, made and perfected by many a craftsman, and complement it even more by showcasing it as the star in many of my craft concoctions, with joy and true American spirit. I was recently entered in a local contest here in Louisville to represent Against the Grain for Basil Hayden Bourbon’s best bourbon cocktail 2015. I gave it my best shot, and ended up winning people’s choice, 2nd place in the whole contest out of 17 bartenders in the city, $565 for having the biggest squad of supporters (thanks again homies!), and a Jim Beam Distillery tour for my staff at ATG! I tried to craft something that was unique, Derby themed, and inclusive of elements that couldn’t be duplicated too easily.
Basil Hayden is a lower proof bourbon that has high notes of honey and peppery spice, but subtle. I wanted to pull those sweeter notes out by pairing it with fruit flavors, earthy spices, and bright and tangy acidics. For the visuals of the drink, I used some beautiful German crystal that I found at a local Antique store, big fresh sprigs of mint, lemon peels that were soaked in HUM hibiscus liqueur for aromatics, Kilimanjaro spices dusted on top pf a completely clear ice sphere encasing kaffir lime leaves and actual lavender Derby rosebuds before blooming.
For the body of this bad boy, I wanted the pink color to be popping and bright, so my random ingredient was pickled beet lemon juice! At ATG, we have an array of house made pickled vegetables that pair with the big meats and barbecue heavy Southern style menu we offer. We pickle some fresh beets with apple cider vinegar, so I took some of that bright pink juice that looked like Alien blood, cut it with some fresh lemons, and paired it with the layered spicy TIKI bitters from Bitterman’s (one of my all time favorite companies). To tie all this together, I added St. Germaine Elderflower liqueur and hibiscus grenadine for subtle sweetness.
So without further ado, here’s what I came up with ya’ll:
ELEMENTS //
OLD ROSEBUD RISING
1 ½ ounces BASIL HAYDEN
¾ ounces St. Germaine
¾ ounces pickled beet lemon juice
¾ ounces B. G. Reynolds hibiscus grenadine
3 dashes Bitterman’s TIKI Bitters
Garnish:
Triple distilled ice sphere encasing lavender rosebuds & kaffir lime leaves, a light dusting of Kilimanjaro spices (ginger, cloves, cinnamon, etc.), lemon spirals soaked in HUM liqueur for 2 days, and fresh mint sprigs.
METHOD //
Combine all in shaker, shake with ice. Single strain over ice ball into glass, add all garnishes listed above.
CHEERS!
Again, thanks for all the support and positive vibes from everyone, even support that is as small as following and reading this blog. I couldn’t have as much inspiration without people surrounding me with kind words and motivating me to want to learn more and more every day to perfect my craft.
MORE COOL SHIT TO COME! Stay tuned
SONG PAIRING // SOLANGE - LOSING YOU
COCKTAIL PAIRING // ONDULADO
SONG // MAJID JORDAN - A PLACE LIKE THIS
A drippy, sultry poolside song that will make you think about tender moments in your past, but make you happy at the same time because you’re in a better place…right? OR not. Maybe you’re still a sour, bitter asshole that just wants to drink under the sun until your skin turns to crispy bacon and watch the summer just slip by, once again. Whatever your agenda is, Rum will fix it. The swizzle city is calling you. Read my pairing with this song below>>>
CHEERS, young Southern Bartender.
ONDULADO
SWIZZLES. SWIZZLES. SWIZZLES. It’s summer time! Against the Grain has been on full force because this is our busy season, so I have been slacking on my home drink slingin’, cause I’m slingin’ them all day there. So I’m sorray! But my mind is always working, even on the clock, and I’ve got great things to come! (so bear with me loves.)
Let’s talk about this style of cocktail, the classic rum swizzle. Different bartenders have varying interpretations of this drink, but the older recipes were presented in the 1941 Old Mr. Boston De Luxe Official Bartender Guide. The origins of this drink are rumored to have been based in Bermuda, with it’s contents originally including Rum, fruit juice (often including lime, orange and pineapple juice), and flavored sweeteners such as falernum or grenadine are the most consistent ingredients.
What makes it a swizzle? See that little tool in the last picture? THAT, my friends is a swizzle stick. Say that one five times fast. Swizzle sticks originated in the West Indies, where everything, including hot chocolate, is swizzled. A swizzle stick is the branch of a tropical bush with three to five forked branches on the end. You insert this in the glass or pitcher and twirl the stem rapidly between the palms of your hands. By rapid swizzling with fine ice, you’ll get a good outside frost such as on a Julep. Of course you won’t get this frost if you haven’t used enough liquor; a generous amount of liquor is important…Most true Swizzles, because of their origin, call for rum; but nearly all spirits can be swizzled. Now, the “Bermuda swizzle stick” - with which this drink is traditionally stirred with - is a three-pronged stick often cut from an ALLSPICE bush & paired with rum heavy drinks only.
SO. For my tall, frosty baby up there, I paired homemade green tea infused white Cruzan Rum (one of my favorite light and sugary rums) with hibiscus grenadine, angostura bitters, muddled mint, a bit of soda water to open up the bitter element, and fresh squeezed lime juice. I vigorously swizzled the thing for about a minute to create a lovely, thin frost on the outside of my tallest, skinniest glass. The result was a delicious, fruity-tooty, but beautifully bitter lime-ade - a long-lost reminiscent taste of my childhood that I was very happy to bring back to life through this cocktail! You gotta try this one at home, it is very easy and exactly what you want to beat the heat. IF you love mojitos, you’ll love this.
ONDULADO
ELEMENTS //
1 ½ oz Green Tea Infused Cruzan White Rum
1 oz B.G. Reynolds Hibiscus Grenadine
¾ ounce fresh squeezed lime juice
4 fat dashes of Angostura Bitters
mint for muddling
topped with 1-1 ½ ounces soda water (depends on your preference)
METHOD //
First, take the actual glass you will be pouring the cocktail into, drop one huge mint sprig into the bottom, add the Rum only, and muddle these two together LIGHTLY. You don’t want the drink too bitter or too minty from crushing the leaves too hard.
Second, add finely crushed ice up to the brim of the glass, and add all other elements, including soda water (I only use about 1 ounce, because I don’t want to water down my drink, just pull out the bitters and lime more using this as a spacer to do so).
Third, stick your swizzler deep into the glass, even picking up the mint from the bottom, and swizzle that thing properly by using your whole hands around the top of this stick like you’re trying to start a fire or warm up your palms. Move the swizzler up and down, while rotating it in this motion, until you see the glass frost up and the elements blend. (About a minute or 2) Wa-LAH! Swizzle City.
CHEERS,
Have fun with that one.
SONG PAIRING // MAJID JORDAN - A PLACE LIKE THIS ^^^
