Episode 39 - Good Morning! Cocktails to Start Your Day!

This is the best episode we've ever done.  We talk about Winston Churchill.  We do impressions.  We light things on fire.  We talk about Jimmy Hendrix.  We incorrectly say that Gus Grissom is still alive. We talk about Palm Springs.  We even talk about the "Snow White Orgy"!  It's the best.  The drinks are good too.  The theme is BREAKFAST.  These are breakfast cocktails. Set your alarm and get up a little earlier than average and try one of these out.

First up is the Breakfast Cocktail.  It's got marmalade in it.  Do not be afraid.  This is a drink by Salvatore Calabrese who created it at the Library Bar in the Lanesbourough Hotel in London in 1997.

Breakfast Martini
-Salvatore Calabrese, Library Bar, Lanesbourough Hotel, London 1997.

1 spoonful of English Orange Marmalade
1/2 ounce fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 ounces gin
1/2 ounce curacao
Orange Peel for garnish

Stir the marmalade with the lemon juice until it dissolves.  Add the gin and curacao and shake with ice.  Fine strain into a chilled cocktail glass.  Shred orange peel on top of the drink as a garnish.

This is such a perfectly balanced drink.  This should be served at brunch instead of Mimosas.  That's how good this drink is.  The drink is sweet and orangey at first, then it settles down and there is a nice orange marmalade semi sweetness that finishes it off.  So good.

Have you ever wondered what Winston Churchill would drink for breakfast.  Probably gin, right?  Right.  But, there is a chance that he would also have one of these.  The Gentlemen of Elegant Leisure present to you, Churchill's Breakfast Cocktail.  We found it at Chefsteps.com .  You can see it here.

Churchill's Breakfast  (** NOTE** This version makes 2 drinks)
-Chefsteps.com

3 ounces rye
1 ounce cold pressed coffee
3/4 ounce maple syrup
2 dashes Angosturra Bitters
2 cinnamon sticks

Char the end of a cinnamon stick with a lighter then invert a cocktail glass over the cinnamon stick to coat the interior of the glass with it's smoke.  Reserve the cinnamon stick

Grate some of the cinnamon stick into the glass.

Shake ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice, then strain into the smoked cocktail glass.  Garnish with the cinnamon stick.


This is like something you've never seen or tasted before.  There's that coffee (so you know it's the morning).  The maple syrup gives you a little sweetness and cuts the possible harshness of the rye.  Best of all, there's a cinnamon stick with a burnt end in your drink.  It looks like Winston Chuchill put a stogie out in your drink!  Try it!

We promise you, this is our BEST episode.  Please listen to it and leave whatever comments you would like.

Also find this book.   If you're a cocktail fan, this is information that you need to know.