Well praise the lord, the mouse in my apartment is DEAD! He could not resist the lure of a peanut butter laden trap and when I came home today, lo and behold, his little head was crushed flat.

Time to celebrate!

I had this cocktail about a month ago from a new lounge here in town called “Chill Winston”. It caught my eye because it’s almost entirely made of booze – the only juice comes from four lime slices. After my third I was away to the races and well on track to a fantastic evening. I’m a sucker for cocktails that can use Soho PROPERLY; it’s an amazingly powerful spirit that can easily de-rail a cocktail if you’re not careful. The Spooning Jesus dials in the Soho wonderfully.

I actually met the creator of the cocktail at a poker game a couple weeks ago – much to my surprise, the “Spooning Jesus” is being taken off the menu soon because it’s “too powerful” and people complained it was “all booze”. What is this world coming to when bar patrons reject a cocktail that’s based on BOOZE? God save us. Or rather, Jesus spoon us.

I’m going to immortalize this cocktail here – it’s too good to let die.

The Spooning Jesus

1 1/2 ounces of amber rum
1/4 ounce of Soho
1/2 ounce of Cointreau
4 lime wedges, juiced into shaker

Shake all ingredients over ice, pour into rocks glass loaded with fresh ice, snap on a lime slice for garnish.

Heavenly.

Heya! We’re starting to move the archives over from Tiki Bar TV’s main site to here – so TikiJohnny will be serving as the main archive for all the cocktails featured on our episodes. Search by cocktail, ingredient, what have you.

Starting from the first episode, I’m going to quickly play catchup. So here we go!

We opened our Tiki series with a tequila based cocktail. ‘Cause we’re crazy like that. Yeah, thanks for all the “friendly fan mail”, Tiki afficinados. Please take a moment to notice the many Rum based cocktails that soon followed!

To be honest, the classic Marg is still one of my all-time favorite cocktails. It’s refreshing, energizing, and gets you good and loopy. Jimmy’s recipe is still my all time favorite – god’s honest truth, it’s taped to the inside of my kitchen cabinet on an index card, a subtile reminder that while I may have opened the door for a coffee mug, it’s never too early to mix me up a marg.

Oh, and if you haven’t watched episode one yet? Please don’t. Even now, when I watch that one, it’s like the podcasting equivalent of looking at my 8th grade yearbook photo.

Jimmy Buffett’s Classic Margarita

Fill shaker with Ice
Squeeze the juice of two fresh lime wedges into the shaker.
2 oz gold Tequila
1/2 oz white Tequila
1 1/4 oz lime cordial
1/2 oz Triple Sec
a splash of Cointreau

Shake, rim the outside of your glass with a lime peel, salt; squeeze in the juice of one final lime wedge, pour yourself some magic.

So two good ideas in the past couple of days; Midori and Ben Reed. Ben’s got another book, one that favors Tequila, called Margaritas and other Tequila Cocktails. Like the title says, there’s more than just Margarita recipes in the book… For instance, you’ll find this little gem, which is easy to make, and really delicious. I’m a huge fan of Tequila, and think it’s one of the most under used ingredients – push aside the shot glass, leave the salt at home and mix it up for a change!

The Green Iguana

A curious combination of Melon and Tequila. Ben says he favors Midori over fresh melon juice, as it’s a little sweeter, which is needed to balance the drink. Fix one for yourself and tell me you don’t agree with him!

1 1/4 oz Tequila
1 oz Midori
1 oz of fresh lime juice (never from a can…)
1 oz of Cointreau
Lime wedge for garnish.

Add all the goodies to your shaker, beat it with some ice a bit, and decant into a rocks glass which has some fresh cubes in it. Go on, give it a whirl and find out why Absolut Vodka declared Ben as the “Cocktail Bartenter of the Year” a few years back.

Enjoy!

Cheers,

JJ.