Build a Better Bevie!

All Natural Cocktail Recipes

Do you need to find some real foodie approved, all natural mixed drink recipes for your Christmas and New Years Eve parties this year, or for anytime?  Mixers without dyes, fake colors or flavors, or high fructose corn syrup?

A few years ago I got sick of trying to find restaurants that served cocktails without all the junky syrups and never could figure out good recipes for here at home, so I switched over and began drinking wine as my bevie of choice.

But thanks to Kendahl's new book, now I can have a mixed drink again now and then!

Natural Cocktails, Classic and Contemporary Mixed Drinks for the Real Foodie has over 160 drink recipes inside and you'll learn how to make your own bitters, liqueurs, grenadine, and other cocktail components from scratch, too!

You'll find recipes for whiskey sour, lacto-fermented Root Beer, Crème de Menthe, Ginger Beer, Hot Buttered Rum, Bloody Mary, Cosmopolitan, Sangria, all kinds of Martinis and Daiquiris, and pretty much any other drink you could think of.

Also, some doozies I've never heard of like a Liver Shooter and an Oyster Shooter!

I'm especially excited to try the Mojito recipe next summer – I used to love those!  Do you know how long I've been trying to find a good recipe?  And we've got mint growing right in our backyard thanks to our friend, Jeanne, who shared that and her lemon balm plant with us a few years ago.  That one will have to wait, though, since our plants are covered with snow right now.

So today I'll show you one of the bevie recipes that can be enjoyed this time of year when it's chilly outside, and it's a combination using my two favorite beverages:  cream and coffee.  Perhaps you'll want to try it without the whiskey for your morning coffee?  Or not.  Ha!

Irish Coffee

Ingredients and Instructions:

• 4 ounces brewed coffee
• 1 ounce Irish whiskey
• 1 ounce Dark Simple Syrup (page 27)
• hand-whipped Irish-Coffee Cream (below)

In an Irish coffee glass, combine the coffee, whiskey, and syrup. Ladle about an inch of cream over the top and serve.

Irish Coffee Cream

• 1 pint heavy cream
• whole cane sugar OR raw honey to taste
• vanilla extract to taste, optional

1. In a medium glass mixing bowl, pour the heavy cream into the bottom and whisk until air bubbles form and the cream is thickened.
2. Add the sugar and vanilla. Continue whisking until the cream still pours slowly, but the air bubbles are gone.
3. When you pour the cream on top of the Irish Coffee, there should be a clear delineation between the black coffee and
the cream floating on top.

Kendahl’s Irish Coffee

• 1 cup brewed decaffeinated, triple certified coffee
• 2 heaping tablespoons whole cane sugar
• ¼ cup cream
• dash of vanilla extract
• 1 ounce good Irish whiskey

Brew coffee and pour into a coffee mug or Irish coffee glass. Stir in whole cane sugar until dissolved. Stir in cream and vanilla extract. Let cool for 10 minutes. Add the whiskey and stir gently.

GET THE BOOK HERE:  Natural Cocktails, Classic and Contemporary Mixed Drinks for the Real Foodie

• So what's your favorite bevie of choice??!!
• Also, check out my post from a while back with a non-alcoholic eggnog – we all love this!