Drink 178: Marmalade? Dead! Niedermeyer? Dead!

Today we have the Marmalade, a drink made from Curaçao and tonic water.  We didn’t use our blue Curaçao because Mrs. Bottle didn’t want to use it.  I’m not quite sure why she didn’t want to use Curaçao in a drink that called for Curaçao but sometimes it is better to just let these things go. Trust me on this.

Does not look like marmalade

We’ve discussed a bit in the past that Curaçao tastes like oranges even though genuine Curaçao is made with larahas instead of oranges. The only reason I bring this up now is because I am trying to set the world record for the most mentions of Curaçao in one blog post. Curaçao. Since we didn’t have any non-blue Curaçao we had to decide what to use as a substitute. Our choices were triple sec, Cointreau, and Grand Marnier.  I wanted to go with Cointreau since its pronunciation is an inscrutable as Curaçao’s (here’s how not to say it) but Mrs. Bottle insisted we research to find the best option.  It was at this point when I really wanted to suggest we just use our actual bottle of Curaçao but thought better of it.  The only reason I feel safe even writing that is because Mrs. Bottle is in a different state right now.

According to Wikipedia, the original name for Cointreau was "Curaçao Blanco Triple Sec" so it was looking promising as a substitute.  Then I found this guy who says “Cointreau is probably the most recognized brand of orange liqueur in the triple sec style, and Grand Marnier, despite being French, is more in line with the Dutch curacao style”.  As you probably know, a random web site carries almost as much weight as a Wikipedia article so I was now confused about the viability of Cointreau as compared to Grand Marnier as a Curaçao substitute.  Mrs. Bottle then consulted our Ultimate Encyclopedia of Wine, Beer, Spirits, and Liqueurs which said that Grand Marnier was the closest to a genuine Curaçao but that it was a “finer” product.  We immediately ruled out the Grand Marnier.  Not because it is too fine, but because that stuff is spendy.

Does look like marmalade
Clearly did not use blue Curaçao either
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At this point we just threw up our hands and decided to go with our el-cheapo triple sec.  I’m pretty sure there isn’t a whole lot of difference in any of these liqueurs other than marketing anyway.  Maybe we need to do an orange liqueur taste-test.  Regardless, the drink was decent but nothing special.  Mrs. Bottle kept saying she only tasted the tonic water, but I thought it tasted like an orange soda that was way past its expiration date.  I think it may have tasted better if it has been blue.

Overall Rating for the Marmalade

Taste: 3

Presentation: 4

Ease of Preparation: 4 – Had to slice an orange

Drinks Until Blackout: 12 – 6.5% Alcohol

Ingredients

1.5 oz Curaçao

4 oz Tonic Water

* Please no e-mails, we know it is Marmalard in Animal House

Drink 125: A Tale of Two Kitties

Clear, cold, and delicious

Mrs. Bottle is back for my weekly piece and to report on the merits of today’s drink, the ever classic Gin and Tonic. This might be a surprise, but the drink consists of gin and tonic water and was actually pretty good. No garnish though, which I thought was odd since it’s always served with a lime (or sometimes lemon) in restaurants. This is actually Mr. Bottle’s drink of choice so I thought it would be hilarious to write about since I prefer the Vodka Tonic (or Vodka and Tonic as Mr. Boston calls it). Isn’t that funny? And ironic? Truth be told, we had the Gin and Tonic because I didn’t have the energy to make the frozen complicated drink I was supposed to. Why? See below for the details.

Mr. Bottle came to me not that long ago and told me he felt we needed babies in our life. I thought to myself, he can’t possibly mean human babies because I wouldn’t be able to drink these drinks I’d be preparing and how would that be fair? So I decided that he meant cat babies and off I went to the shelter to adopt two kittens. You might have anticipated Mr. Bottle’s surprise when I introduced him to our new two month old kitten babies but I didn’t. Since he wasn’t as delighted about this as I thought he’d be, I let him name them: Sam Adams and Stella Artois (real identities protected since they’re minors).

That leads us to yesterday when we realized that Sam Adams was going to give us both heart attacks at an early age. What we needed to do was to rig up a way to keep him from falling to his death from TBIAW estate’s second story open hallway onto the foyer below. This was no easy task, but after spending serious time noodling the problem and then shopping for items, we came up with a plan. It took a couple hours to complete but by the time we finished, we had a hideous, but kitten-saving poster board concoction which we are now considering marketing to the masses. Just need to work on that hideous part. And also the part where it is going to be just a tad challenging to get to the room at the end of that hallway. Minor details. Anyway, that brought us to late o’clock and I was pooped so I asked Mr. Bottle if I could just make a Gin and Tonic as our drink of the day because it was easy. And he agreed because he knew there was only one answer.

This is a slightly less impressive than
TBIAW's Great Wall of Poster Board
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The final lesson learned is that if you decide to adopt two kittens and continue to write a daily drinking blog, stick with the classics. Too bad we already did the Cosmopolitan. But the Vodka and Tonic is still available…

Overall Rating for the Gin and Tonic

Taste: 5
Presentation: 3 – Where’s the garnish?
Ease of Preparation: 5
Drinks Until Blackout: 7 – 16% Alcohol

Ingredients

2 oz Gin
Tonic Water

Day 3: Tequonic

It’s Tequila Tuesday!  We decided to try a drink called a Tequonic.  This isn’t to be confused with the Teutonic people of ancient Germany or plate tectonics.

Teutons. I think they are warring over tequila.

After the teutonic, tectonic, tequonic confusion cleared, we clarified that it is a combination of tequila, fruit juice, and tonic.  You just pour the ingredients over ice in an old fashioned glass.  The ingredients are somewhat like my favorite drink of a gin and tonic and Mrs. Bottle’s favorite drink of a vodka tonic so we both had high hopes. On the other hand, the fruit juice is lemon or lime so we were a little concerned over a kamikaze sour-fest repeat.  We decided to go with lemon juice, but we still used the juice in the little plastic bottle instead of fresh squeezed. Someday we will squeeze a lemon.

T is for Tequonic

In order to give the drink the greatest chance of success, we used our favorite tequila, Don Julio Blanco.  It is super smooth and a pleasure to drink.  We first tried it on a trip to Mexico last year.  Of the many tequilas we sampled, this was the best.  We usually just have it straight but decided to mix it in the name of science.

This drink was a little tart but pretty tasty. It reminded me of a traditional margarita more than anything else. Mrs. Bottle made a sour face when she tasted it but then declared “I could drink that!” I could definitely drink that, too, and I did.   I planned to drink that a second time with lime juice for a comparison but after I had the first one I could definitely feel it. I decided to stop at one so I could actually write this entry.  Maybe next time.

Ratings on a 10-point scale:

Taste: 6.5 (Mrs. Bottle gave it a 5, but I gave it an 8)

Ease of preparation: 8

Presentation: 5

Drinks until blackout: 5 This comes in at 16% alcohol but is a decent size.  I could feel it after one so a few of these could get ugly.