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Warren Bobrow, ‘The Cocktail Whisperer,’ Shares A Mexican Canna-Punch Recipe For Your Month Of May

Warren Bobrow, 'The Cocktail Whisperer,' Shares A Mexican Canna-Punch Recipe For Your Month Of May

By The Fresh Toast‘s Warren Bobrow, provided exclusively to Benzinga Cannabis.

Because the flavor of this craft cocktail has everything to do with the buzz, I want to make sure that the person who enjoys this drink is filled with reverence for the holiday that they call Cinco de Mayo.

I think the holiday of Cinco de Mayo is more of a good excuse to get happy than the actual meaning of the day — as far as I know it’s the Mexican Independence Day — but for all intents and purposes, its Tequila & Weed Day for me.

And the way that I think involves infusions — not tinctures or oils, or dare I say those things they are putting in cocktails called CBD drops. Hemp is what that is. Not at all what I work with, so please don’t expect it.

It’s so important to draw attention to the decarb step when making infused spirits with cannabis. The decarb step is heating the cannabis in an oven or, in my case, I use the Ardent decarb machine. Never have I burned a batch! It’s foolproof, unlike my toaster-oven that fluctuates 20-30 degrees according to my commercial grade oven thermometer.

Please read more here!

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Articles

7 Easy Ways To Make Any Cocktail You Make Taste Better Well, almost.

I’m a firm proponent of craft cocktails. But with that said, not just any cocktail is worthy of the label, “craft.” Just like not every spirit is really craft when it says so on the label. For all intents and purposes this should be your rule of thumb. According to the American Distilling Institute, which is the go/to for all thing that are craft in the United States, a spirit may qualify as a craft spirit if and only if they produce fewer than 52,000 cases of that spirit per year in their own distillery. So not to confuse you, this means 52,000 cases of a spirit distilled under their own roof qualifies.

READ MORE HERE AT THE FRESH TOAST

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Recipes

Here’s The Perfect Cocktail To Bid Adieu To Summer

Perfect Cocktail

The FreshToast, Julien Perry

For many, Labor Day weekend signals the last hurrah. The end of summer. The beginning of fall. The start of a new school year. For the rest of us, it signals another reason to drink.

 Thankfully, author and cocktail maestro Warren Bobrow, a good friend of The Fresh Toast, has created a cocktail that will give summer a proper sendoff, along with your sobriety.
 The cocktail, which Bobrow calls “Syncopation,” is anything but sweet. If you didn’t get the memo, we are done with sweet summer drinks. “Our palates call out for depth, balance and flavor,” says Bobrow. “With a little help, it will be fall in the glass.”
Syncopation
  • 2 oz Mezan XO Jamaican rum
  • 4 oz coconut water
  • 2-3 dashes Peychaud bitters – bright red in color
  • Splash seltzer
  • Fresh mint
  • Coconut water ice (frozen coconut water)
DIRECTIONS
  • Add coconut water ice to a tall glass
  • Add coconut water
  • Pour Mezan over the top
  • Add Peychaud’s
  • Slap mint (to release the fragrant oils) and garnish
  • Serve

If you drink a few too many of these, Bobrow has just the cure — New Orleans style. It’s a milk punch that could not be quicker to pull together. Here’s what you do: mix together equal parts brandy, simple syrup, vanilla, heavy cream, milk, ice, and nutmeg. Shake. Serve. And then remember that your hangover is proof that you lived up the last days of summer like someone who was  never going to see the sun again.

PLEASE READ MORE @ https://thefreshtoast.com/drink/heres-perfect-cocktail-bid-adieu-summer/amp

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Recipes

Millennial Pink Gin

The Newest Craze That’s Not New At All! The current obsession was invented in the 1800’s.

Pink Gin
Photo by Flickr user Stuart Webster
Invented by millennials? Yes and no. The original incarnation of the Pink Gin was developed in the mid-1800’s in England and in the Colonies (Princeton University comes to mind) by collegians (millennials) dissatisfied by the flavor of their home-made ‘distilled’ gin. The classic preparation for a pink gin would have involved a heavier variety of gin. In this case it would have been the higher proof (sometimes called Navy strength, which is usually made to be bottled a bit north of 50% abv., or 100 Proof.) Plymouth Gin was a style made popular in Plymouth, England. The very name, Plymouth- is a protected name by provenance alone. No one else can make Plymouth Gin.
Angostura Bitters- the pink component date back to the 1800’s so it’s completely plausible that these healing bitters were added to the high proof (i.e. Navy Strength) gin was originally used to kill an acute belly-ache or lessen the ravages of seasickness while battling the oceans of the earth. This higher proof gin, also known as a Plymouth Gin or a Tom Cat style (like the brilliantly made Barr Hill from Vermont), would have been aged for a period of time in a barrel that may have held some kind of whiskey. This flavor of the strong grain based spirit would have deeply colored the inside of the cask and added deep sweetness from other ingredients like molasses in certain historic versions to the modern day, potent Navy-style gin.

 This trend of making pink gin cocktails died out for about a hundred years due to changing tastes. The Pink Gin cocktail magically reappeared during the Roaring Twenties. The period known as the Jazz Era was a high living time during Prohibition. The rage during the 1920’s and 1930’s, involved drinking large quantities of ‘bathtub’ or cheaply made gin mixed into fruity concoctions, created or recreated as it was, to kill the foul taste of the intoxicating liquids.
 READ MORE AT: 

https://thefreshtoast.com/culture/millennial-pink-gin-the-newest-craze-thats-not-new-at-all/

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Recipes

Three Planets Canna-Punch

Photo by Flickr user Dominic LockyerI’m a huge fan of gin. There are so many different styles. Take London Dry and imagine that bone dry whisper of juniper and a scraping of citrus oil, perhaps some tea leaf and some pine needles. There you have gin. Other varieties bend the realism of floral notes and some even combine the two with cucumbers and roses! I’m a fan of one that hails from Vermont made from raw honey and grain. It tastes just fine in a snifter or when treated to fresh lime juice and a touch of ice. It’s always up to the drinker how they want to enjoy their slurp.

Gin has had a tempestuous history. A thing of the underclass, a cheap drunk and sometimes even a curative. Every sailor knew that the gin he carried on the high seas was made to be enjoyed with a squeeze of lime- it probably wasn’t fresh lime like we have today, but that lime (hence the word limey’s) represented healing. And that healing is why we drink gin up to today.

Because gin represents more than just a mere foil for tonic water, it’s the stuff that keeps you from getting malaria when you’re in the rain forest. See that quinine water is the thing that you take when there are those pesky mosquitos around carrying malaria. And the gin? It keeps your mind numb to the fact that the mosquitos are looking to give you whatever they are carrying. And you don’t want that. Nope.

Gin is here for healing what ails ye. During the Middle Ages, it was said that gin was a powerful curative against the plague. I’d like to believe that gin was purified water with folk healing herbs added.

One very delicious way to enjoy gin is with citrus juices. But instead of just opening the refrigerator and taking out juices of an uncertain demeanor, why not raise the bar and use freshly squeezed juices that have been roasted prior? Roasted? What does that mean? Cooking the fruit juices in the oven with raw sugar or honey is one of life’s simple pleasures. Then as if by magic, the roasted juices are woven into punch with the above mentioned gin of your choosing. And since I’ve been charged with the responsibility for being slightly askew of the norm, I’m going to ask you to use a gin that has been infused with THC.

Since you’ve been following along, or not- let me explain. I wrote a little book, really the first one on the topic- named Cannabis Cocktails and this book teaches a different approach to the enjoyment of gin. Since I teach an alternative method to extracting THC and adding it to craft spirits, this new way is quite simple and therefore intriguing. I was given permission by the kind folks at the Magical Butter Machine company to use their namesake invention. This made my life extremely easy for the infusion part. The decarb part is cumbersome and stinky, but necessary to make your weed active. That means you feel the good stuff happen in your head and in your belly. A craft cocktail that has THC in it. Not CBD (well meaning) or hemp (a money grab), but the real thing. Yes Virginia, you get drunk and stoned and guess what? They are pretty tasty together!

Remember: please, never more than one drink per hour. They tend to cause negativity if you go over this little rule of thumb. If you take too much, suck a few lemons- that seems to work.

Three Planets Punch

Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees. Cut about four grapefruits in half, with four oranges and four limes, two lemons as well. Place on a non-stick baking sheet. Sprinkle with raw sugar and Angostura Biters. Roast for ½ hour to an hour. Let cool and then juice.

For two persons or more…

  • 8 oz. Botanical Gin infused with the strain of your choice
  • 4 oz. Dry Sherry
  • 4 oz. Roasted Grapefruit
  • 4 oz. Roasted Lime
  • 4 oz. Roasted Orange
  • 2 oz. Roasted Lemon juices
  • 1 bottle Sparkling wine
  • Angostura Bitters
  • Ice

Combine all the juices with the gin and about twenty shakes of Angostura Bitters, add the sherry and stir. Add the sparkling wine and stir again. Taste for bitterness. Adjust with Angostura and stir. Spoon into Victorian Tea Cups and serve.

http://thefreshtoast.com/cannabis/gin-juice-canna-punch/