Blame Canada

Last night was blended whiskey night, so I used Canadian Club for 2 drinks from my cocktail a day calendar.

The first was a Whiskey Rickey. A lime rickey was one of Karen Walker's favorite drinks in Will and Grace (was there any distilled substance that wasn't one of her favorite drinks?). Basically a rickey is a base spirit, if not a blithe one, lime, and club soda. The rickey is an ancestor, or perhaps just a distant relative, of the mojito.

So anyway, history lesson over, mine was Canadian Club, lime (I used Rose's because I was too lazy to squeeze one), and club soda. I may have poured a bit much club soda; it tasted more like spiked soda water than watered down whiskey. Not bad though; I could taste the sweetness of the Rose's.

The second drink is what my calendar calls a John Collins: bourbon (or blended whiskey), lemon juice, simple syrup, and club soda. (And various fruit garnishes, which I always skip.) I didn't have such a heavy hand with the club soda on this one. Even better than the rickey. And easy to mix too. I bet a shot of Mandarin Napoleon would be good in this. Or maybe kirsch. I've discovered since buying the bottle of kirsch last weekend that there really is a world of difference between it and cheap cherry brandy as a mixer.

A bartending tip: I've found that the 6 packs of little bottles of club soda are a lot handier to use than the liter bottles. You can use as much as you need for a drink or two and not have the rest of the liter bottle sitting in the fridge losing its fizz for a month (well, I don't mix soda-based drinks too often). Although they don't have the number of ounces in each bottle on the side, which seems odd, unless I really am going blind from doing something too often as a kid.