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.

This one comes to us from the The Great Tiki Drink Book.

This is a gorgeous lime green drink which is both amazingly refreshing and wonderfully fruity without being too sweet. Peach, Pineapple and Midori… what more do you want?

The Tropical Moment

1 1/2 ounces of WHITE RUM
1/2 ounce of PEACH SCHNAPPS
1 ounce of MIDORI
1 ounce of PINEAPPLE JUICE
1 ounce of SOUR MIX*
1/4 of lime (for garnish)

Combine all the ingredients (except for the lime wedge, silly; that goes on the glass when we’re done) in your handy-dandy cocktail shaker along with a bunch of ice.

Shake, shake, shake;

Drain the delicious looking mixture into a highball glass which is loaded with fresh ice. NOW you can add that yummy lime to the rim of the glass, toss in a straw, kick back, and relax.

*OH! Hey, this recipe calls for Sour Mix. Most decent booze supply stores or grocery stores will have it in the “mixes” section, but it’s also not terribly hard to make at home using frozen concentrate. Take 1 part frozen lemonade concentrate, 2 parts frozen limeade concentrate, and mix with half the amount of water that they tell you to use on the cans (that’s what they suggest in the Great Tiki Drink book above).

ALTERNATELY, you can make your own sour mix like this: mix one part sugar syrup (which is 3 parts sugar, 2 parts water – boil it for a couple of minutes, then let it cool) with one part lemon juice. So, for the above: you’d use 1/2 oz of lemon juice, and 1/2 oz of sugar syrup.

Enjoy!