Cobblers

So many cobblers!  It's a wonderful summer drink FO SHO.  Drawing from Mr. Jerry Thomas I have worked out my basic cobbler recipe, which can be applied to ANY SPIRIT YOU'D LIKE!  √ it dawgs....

2 ounces Spirit (rum, tequila, whiskey, gin, vodka, brandy, eau de vies, etc...)
1 tsp sugar (or 1/4 ounce 1:1 simple syrup) (any flavor of your choosing!  Have some fun with this)
A couple slices of orange (this is a to taste sort of thing.  I usually take two fairly thin wheels)
1/8 tsp of Maraschino Liqueur

Now take all of this, and shake real good with ice.  You can muddle the orange first, but I feel the hard shake with ice does this just fine.  As we will be garnishing with A TON of fruit and berries in season, it IS optional to also shake with these fruits first if you want a more berriful flavor!

Now some people will tell you to not strain and just pour straight into your glass, ice, fruit and all.  I find this a bit ugly for my taste, especially if you're shaking with your berries.  I double strain into a glass with ice.  However you like it, usually a small punch glass, or brandy snifter, or wine glass or something of that nature.  Even a double old-fashioned will do.  You can do crushed ice, or one big cube, or whatever you like.  Then it's time to garnish with seriously, all of the fruit and fresh berries you can find.  Get good in-season stuff from your local farmers market.  Tuck in an orange wheel on the side.  Cover with strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, everything!  Maybe you'll make a fall cobbler with cranberry and apples!  YUM!  Rum or brandy as your spirit, 1/4 ounce cinnamon syrup.  Maybe swap out the maraschino for a good apricot brandy (liqueur not the eau-de-vie).

Your options with the cobbler are really limitless, which is why this recipe really should be a general outline, not the gospel.  Now go on, and preach the word!

Crustas

Since we're on the subject of crustas...  A wonderful and simple drink.  Make it with any spirit.  Brandy crustas and Rum crustas are my other goto's.  I prefer Jamaican rum the best when making the latter.  Like appleton 12 year.  Always make sure to use a high quality spirit, whatever you choose, as this is a drink where your spirit is playing the feature role.

2 ounces Any Spirit (Gin, Rum, Whiskey, Mezcal, Tequila, Eau-De-Vie, etc)
1 tsp simple syrup
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp orange curaçao (lately I like pierre ferrand dry curaçao, though there are lots of good orange liqueurs on the market that could sub)
2 dashes bitters (I like to play around with this, but angostura is always a good bet)

shake and strain into a sugar rimmed wine glass.  Take the peel of the entire circumference of a lemon for garnish.   Cheers!

This is a great one btw for experimentation and improvisation.  As you see below, It's easy to take many cocktails and render them in a crusta format!  Let's take the last word.  Equal parts gin, lime juice, maraschino liqueur, green chartreuse.  Watch this...

2 ounces Gin
1 tsp green chartreuse
1 tsp lime juice
1 tsp maraschino liqueur
2 dashes bitters

Blammo, done!  A good way to think about the Crusta is that it's an evolution of an Old-Fashioned.  Instead of just bitters and a sweetener, we're augmenting that with also a bit of liqueur, and just a bit of citrus.  Not enough to make it a sour, just enough to brighten the drink up.  If you're an Old-Fashioned fan, then I suggest you try a Crusta, stat!  Though watch out for those bars that pour in the maraschino, make sure they're making it correctly first!