Tag: Cocktails

Enjoy a Lakeside Chat with the Grandson of Ernest Hemingway–Author John Patrick Hemingway

 

Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winning author (and Walloon Lake’s most noted summer resident) Ernest Hemingway came from a family of creative types and has since left a legacy of writing that extends for generations. Among those is his grandson, John Patrick Hemingway, author of Strange Tribe (The Lyons Press, 2007) – a memoir that details the turbulent, love/hate relationship between his father, Dr. Gregory Hemingway, and his grandfather, the Nobel Laureate Ernest Hemingway.

As part of a weekend-long Walloon Lake Writer’s Retreat Weekend at Hotel Walloon, the public is invited to a FREE event – A Lakeside Chat with Author John Patrick Hemingway – on Friday, April 14 at the Talcott Event Venue in downtown Walloon Lake. Doors will open at 7pm with a cash bar featuring a Pilar’s Rum Hemingway Daiquiri (see recipe below), along with select wine and beer; the discussion will begin at 7:30pm and a book signing will follow.

Throughout the weekend, the Canadian/American writer and journalist will lead writers in a series of workshops, readings and other creative exercises meant to inspire personal storytelling. Last year’s inaugural Writer’s Retreat was led by Ernest’s great granddaughter (and John’s niece), Cristen Hemingway Jaynes, author of Ernest’s Way.

In addition to his memoir, John Hemingway has published a number of short stories in magazines and literary reviews such at The Saturday Evening Post and Provincetown Arts and has also written for many fishing and hunting magazines such as Showboats International and Ducks Unlimited. His first novel, Bacchanalia: A Pamplona Story (2019), takes place in Spain during the Fiesta de San Fermín, a nine-day event that was made famous in the1920s by the publication of his grandfather’s work The Sun Also Rises.

Ernest Hemingway was just three months old when he made his first trip from his hometown of Oak Park, IL to Walloon Lake where his parents – Clarence and Grace (Hall) – had purchased property along the North Shore. Ernest spent time every summer until 1921 at the family’s beloved Windemere cottage there, the simple cottage still owned by descendants today. The woods and waters in and around Walloon Lake shaped Hemingway’s life in many ways and it was a place he always held dear to his heart. It was here that his 1972 posthumously published book, The Nick Adams Stories, is primarily set.

To inquire about availability for the “Walloon Lake Writer’s Retreat ” please contact Hotel Walloon at 231-535-5000.

HEMINGWAY DAIQUIRI

INGREDIENTS

  • 1.75 oz Papa’s Pilar® Blonde Rum
  • 0.75 oz fresh Lime juice
  • 0.5 oz Ruby Grapefruit juice
  • 1 tsp Maraschino liqueur
  • 1 tsp Sugar (Papa went without)
  • 1 peel of Grapefruit (as little white pith as possible)

Shake all ingredients and pour into a Coupe glass.
Garnish with a dehydrated Grapefruit slice.

*If you want to make it how Papa drank it, double the rum and make it a Papa Doble!

Recipe and photo courtesy of Papa’s Pilar

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Sammy Hagar Cocktail Hits: 85 Personal Favorites from the Red Rocker

Making your holiday gift list or just plain thirsty? Consider this.

Rock & Roll Hall of Famer and #1 New York Times bestselling author Sammy Hagar recently released his first cocktail book – and it’s everything needed for a home bar. Sammy knows that some of life’s greatest memories are made over cocktails, and “Sammy Hagar’s Cocktail Hits: 85 Personal Favorites from the Red Rocker” chronicles Sammy’s storied life with drinks inspired by that journey – from the laidback beaches of Cabo and Hawaii to the dazzle of Hollywood and Las Vegas. Priced at $29.99 for hardcover and $19.99 on Kindle, this book covers everything from tools of the trade and glassware to bases and purees. And it has a forward written by Guy Fieri. For recipes from the book, see below.

The cocktails are made with Sammy’s award-winning spirits, Santo Tequila Reposado, Santo Tequila Blanco, Santo Mezquila and Beach Bar Rum, which are available for purchase on each website or at local retailers – you can check each site for more info about where to buy each spirit.

Sammy’s Beach Bar Cocktail Co.

Hagar, who is not only a legendary rocker but also a spirits entrepreneur also has introduced Sammy’s Beach Bar Cocktail Co. with a line of ready-to-drink (RTD) top-shelf sparkling rum cocktails in a can. 

Hagar’s award-winning Puerto Rico-made Beach Bar Rum steeps island flavor into the cocktails, which come in four playful twists on classic flavors: Tangerine Dream, Pineapple Splash, Island Pop and Cherry Kola Chill. Made with all-natural ingredients and sweetened with agave, each flavor is under 130 calories and five grams of sugar per can. 

The four flavor profiles with Sammy’s descriptions are:

  • Tangerine Dream – A refreshing blend of tangerine and vanilla cream; the classic Creamsicle.
    • “There’s nothing better than a Creamsicle.” 
  • Pineapple Splash – The slight sweetness of pineapple, followed by the kick of jalapeño.
    • “I like it sweet, with some Jalapeño heat!” 
  • Island Pop – The fruity flavors of cherry, pineapple, and citrus, pack a Hawaiian punch.
    • “That classic Hawaiian style punch!”
  • Cherry Kola Chill – That classic soda fountain flavor of cherry cola with a hint of spice.
    • “My take on that classic Cherry Cola vibe.” 

A celebration of beach life, Sammy’s Beach Bar Cocktail Co. supports charities behind beach and ocean clean-up initiatives.

Sammy Hagar LIVE:  Check Sammy’s tour dates here – if your dad’s a mega fan you can give him tickets to any one of shows, all held in outdoor amphitheaters through the end of summer, and you can even ship him a four-pack of top-shelf sparking rum cocktails to take with him in a cooler. 

Buy online at http://sbbcco.com/ and at major retailers, grocers, big box stores, restaurants and bars in California, Nevada and Texas now; Florida in June; and additional states coming soon.  

Recipes

Santo Sunrise (featuring Santo Mezquila)

  • 1½ ounces Santo Mezquila
  • 4 ounces fresh orange juice
  • Splash of grenadine
  • Splash of Blue Curacao
  • Garnish: Half wheel orange slice

In a tall glass filled with ice, add the mezquila, orange juice, grenadine, and Blue Curaçao. Stir well and garnish with a fresh halved orange wheel.

Guava Martini (featuring Santo Blanco Tequila)

  • 1½ ounces Santo Blanco Tequila
  • 1 ounce fresh pineapple juice
  • 1 ounce guava juice
  • Garnish: Fresh lime wheel, dusted in Tajín

In a cocktail shaker, fill with ice and add the tequila, pineapple juice, and guava juice. Shake well and strain into a chilled martini or coupe glass. Garnish with a fresh lime wheel dusted in Tajín.

Kir Royale (featuring Sammy’s Red Head Rum)

  • 1 ounce Sammy’s Red Head Rum, divided
  • 4 ounces chilled champagne
  • Garnish: Fresh lemon twist

Add half the rum to a chilled champagne flute. Slowly add the chilled champagne until ½-inch from the top. Top with the remaining rum. Garnish with a fresh lemon twist.

Da Kari (featuring Sammy’s Beach Bar Platinum Rum)

  • 1 large piece fresh pineapple, rind removed
  • 2 ounces Sammy’s Beach Bar Platinum Rum
  • ½ fresh lime, squeezed
  • 1 ounce Simple Syrup
  • Rim: Lime and cane sugar
  • Garnish: Fresh lime wedge

Run a fresh lime wedge around the rim of a chilled martini glass. Then roll the moistened rim in cane sugar and set the glass aside. In a cocktail shaker, add the pineapple. Using a muddler, gently (yet firmly) muddle the pineapple. Then add the rum, lime juice, and simple syrup. Fill the shaker with ice and shake well. Strain into the prepared martini glass. Garnish with a fresh lime wedge.

Specifications:

  • Sold in four-packs
  • 12 oz/355 ml
  • 5.5% ABV
  • A QR code on every can reveals a special video message from Hagar, himself. 

Straight Bourbon: Distilling the Industry’s Heritage by Carol Peachee

“Bourbon is a legacy of blue grass, water and Kentucky limestone,” Carol Peachee tells me when I ask what makes Kentucky bourbon so prized.

Limestone? Water? Bluegrass? What’s that have to do with fine bourbon?

Turns out it’s quite simple. According to Peachee, the limestone filters the iron out of the water as it flows through the rock, producing a sweet-tasting mineral water perfect for making the greatest tasting liquor. Limestone, with its heavy calcium deposits, also is credited with the lush blue grass the state’s prize-winning horses gaze upon — making their bones strong.

It’s been a long time since I took geology in college, but I do like the taste of good bourbon and the sight of stately horses grazing in beautiful pastures and the more I can learn about it all, the better. Which is why I love Peachee’s entrancing photographs.

Carol Peachee

I first met Peachee, an award-winning professional photographer, when she was autographing copies of her latest book, Straight Bourbon: Distilling the Industry’s Heritage (Indiana University Press 2017; $28). Creating beauty as well as a sense of yearning, her books, including The Birth of Bourbon: A Photographic Tour of Early Distilleries, take us on a wanderlust journey of lost distilleries and those now re-emerging from the wreckage of Prohibition. At one time, Kentucky had over two hundred commercial distilleries, but only sixty-one reopened after the repeal of Prohibition in 1933. Now, as Kentucky bourbon becomes a driving force throughout the world, once barely remembered and long closed distilleries are being restored and revamped and are opening again for business.

Using a photographic technique known as high-dynamic-range imaging ― a process that produces rich saturation, intensely clarified details, and a full spectrum of light ― Peachee hauntingly showcases the vibrancy still lingering in artifacts such as antique tools, worn cypress fermenting tubs, ornate copper stills some turning slightly green with oxidation and age, gears and levers —things we would never typically think of as lovely and compelling.

Traveling with the Book

Keeping copies of her books in my car when I travel to Kentucky, I love visiting some of the places and sites she’s photographed.

Her passion for bourbon may also have come about, in part, because she lives in Lexington, Kentucky which is rich in the history of bourbon making (and, we should say, sipping).

To get a taste of how bourbon connects to the land, when in Lexington, Peachee suggests a stop at the Barrel House Distilling Co. including the Elkhorn Tavern located in the old James B. Pepper barrel plant. It’s part of Lexington’s happening Distillery District. But fine bourbon doesn’t just stop in Lexington.

“There are so many bourbon distilleries now,” she says, noting that the heritage of good bourbon making is more than the equipment and the water.

“The cultural heritage of distilling also lays in the human culture,” she writes in the Acknowledgements section of her latest book, “the people who learned the crafts of milling, copper welding and design, barrel making and warehouse construction and then passed them on through the generations down to today’s workers and owners.”

And now Peachee has passed them down to us so we can fully appreciate the art of distilling

Town Branch Bourbon Bramble

  • 2oz Bourbon
  • 3/4oz Fresh squeeze lemons
  • 3/4oz Simple syrup
  • 5 Fresh blackberries muddled

Shake with ice, strain and pour over fresh ice in rock glass with blackberry garnish.

Town Branch Bourbon Mint Julep

  • 2 oz Bourbon
  • 8 mint leaves
  • 1/4oz simple syrup
  • Dash of bitters

Muddle ingredients.

Add crushed ice with mint garnish and straw.

The above recipes are courtesy of the Lexington Brewing & Distilling Company.

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