Blood Orange Julio

1.5 oz Rum
   1 oz Licor 43
  .5 oz Orange Liquor
   2 oz Orange Juice
   1 oz Soymilk

Shake with ice and strain into a large martini glass.  Garnish with an orange wedge.

This is a take on the Orange Julio drink that I found in Food & Wine's Cocktails 2006.  After making the original a few times I made the following modifications to see how it'd work w/ what I have at my bar.  The changes I made were that instead of using 2 oz of orange rum, I used 1.5 oz of rum and .5 oz of orange liquor.  I also subbed out .5 oz of cream with 1 oz of soymilk.

The smell on this drink is cream with slight hints of orange with a lot of rummy notes in the inhale.  Taste starts off with cream and switches to a bitter pith before settling in orange and vanilla.  Rum hits on the aftertaste.  Blood oranges leave a long lingering bitter orange note on the tongue.

The modified drink is a lot lighter and more citrus driven than the original.  Swapping the cream for soymilk turned this drink from a dessert cocktail (the segment I got it from) to more of a beach / pool drink.  The heavily orange taste allow it to hold its own next to fruit drinks like the strawberry daiquiri or pina colada and the soymilk instead of cream keeps you from feeling bloated after having one or two.

The Tween Barber

Whiskey Version:
1.5 oz Single Malt Scotch (Dalmore Cigar Malt)
.75 oz Red Wine
  .5 oz Licor 43
.25 oz Lemon Juice
.25 oz Simple Syrup
  dash Orange Bitters

Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.  Garnish with a lemon peel

Wine Version:
   2 oz Red Wine
.75 oz Single Malt Scotch (Dalmore Cigar Malt)
  .5 oz Licor 43
.25 oz Lemon Juice
.25 oz Simple Syrup
  dash Orange Bitters

Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into a wine glass.  Garnish with a lemon peel

In preparation for a trip to New Orleans I have been checking out the list at my favorite bar down there Cure.  They have a lot of interesting things on their menu.  One that that caught my eye was the Twee Barber with the use of wine, scotch and Licor 43.  For this reason I decided to try to recreate it at home.

Since I've never had the original and only had the ingredients list to go by I made two versions.  The first is more whiskey driven and uses the wine as a flavor element.  The second version is more of a sangria.  Both versions turned out good, so I still don't know which direction is better.

 

Whiskey Version:
In the whiskey version the drink starts with a lemon and slight whiskey aroma.  The taste starts with the scotch and a hint of smoke and changes to sugar, citrus and a purple almost creme de cassis fruit note.  It reminded me of cool flavored whiskey sour or similar whiskey driven drink.

Wine Version:
The wine version starts with lemon oil.  The taste is incredible smooth with the wine notes as the primary taste with the sugar and lemon juice coming in after the wine notes.  The whiskey is almost invisible in the drink, it provides some body and depth but doesn't stand out on its own.

As I said both drinks were good.  I'd probably make the whiskey version if I was having a cocktail or 2 with friends, but on a summer night sitting outside, the second more wine driven version would be more my go to.