I thought I would share my current setup. I'm still waiting for my new microphone, pop filter and cables to arrive. I should have those tomorrow. If you're interested, I'll post another picture with the new equipment when it arrives.

Cheers!

Episode Seven - Tequila

Ola amigo! This week's show is about tequila. I go through the history of tequila and mezcal and also the truth about the worm. Now please forgive me if I'm off on the pronunciation with the spanish words. Hey, I tried. (I was also drinking.)

Here are the recipes given on this show:

Margarita Jelly Shot
1 oz lime juice
1 1/2 oz simple syrup
1 1/4 oz unflavored gelatin package
Mix into a measuring cup or bowl and let sit for one minute then microwave on high for 30 seconds. Stir until the gelatin is disolved. Now add the following ingredients:
3 oz Tequila
2 oz Cointreau
drops of yellow food coloring (optional for presentation)
Stir the mixture thoroughly and then pour into an ice tray and regrigerate for at least 1 hour. (Overnight would be best.) This should make 8 1 ounce servings.

Tequila Sunrise
In a highballh glass filled with ice, pour in 1 1/2 oz white tequila then fill with orange juice (about 4 ounces). Float grenadine on top.

Margarita (served up)
1 1/2 oz Tequila
1 oz Cointreau
3/4 oz fresh lime juice
Shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass that has been rimmed with salt.

French Margarita
1 1/4 oz Tequila
1/4 oz Cointreau
1/4 oz Grand Marnier
Juice of half a lime
1/2 oz Sweet & Sour
Shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Salted rim is optional. I like this one without salt.

Frozen Margarita
2 oz Tequila
1 oz Cointreau
1 oz fresh lime juice
2 oz simple syrup
Pour all ingredients into a blender with 3/4 cup cracked ice and blend. Pour into a margarita glass rimmed with coarse salt. Garnish with a lime wedge.

Don't forget to put in your favorite fruits to make a Fruity Frozen Margarita and garnish with a piece of the fruit instead of the lime.

Brave Bull
Pour over ice, one part Tequila and one part Kahlua.

Tequila Mockingbird
1 1/2 oz Tequila
3/4 oz green Crème de Menthe
Juice of one lime
Pour all ingredients into a shaker filled with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

Long Island Iced Tea
1/2 oz Vodka
1/2 oz Gin
1/2 oz Light Rum
1/2 oz Tequila
1/2 oz Triple Sec
1 oz Sweet & Sour
Splash Coca-Cola
Pour each ingredient into a tall glass filled 3/4 with ice and finish with the splash of Coca-Cola. Give it a stir and garnish with a lemon wedge or a twist.

Sound quality

Okay, I just had to post something about the sound quality of my show. I have no idea why I'm having so many problems. The rum episode had a horrible hiss in the background and now that I've just recorded my tequila episode last night, it has an even worse hiss. There' s not much I can do about it now so my apologies in advance.

If you promise to keep listening and focus on the content of the show, I'll promise to keep working on the sound.

This whole podcasting thing and audio stuff is completely new to me. I just placed an order for a high quality condenser microphone, pop filter and better wiring for the sound board output to the computer.

PHEW! I think I need a drink now.

Episode Six - Rum

The sixth episode is all about rum and Cachaça. We go through the history and how it is made. I also give a shout out to Kevin in Australia who has a very intertaining podcast called SOUSED Weekly at http://soused.thepodcastnetwork.com/. Please be sure to check out his show. Also be sure to email him and let him know Mr. Martini sent you.

This first recipe mentioned during "Listener Feedback" is in response to the whiskey episode:

Southern Mint Julep
In a mint julep cup or large tumbler, muddle lightly 3 mint leaves and 1 oz simple syrup. Now fill with crushed ice and pour in 4 oz bourbon. Give it a nice long stir until ice forms on the outside of the glass. Garnish with a mint sprig.

Next we go into RUM. Here are the recipes from the show:

Cuba Libre
In a tumbler filled with ice, pour in 1 oz rum and fill with Coca-Cola. Garnish with a lime wedge.

Mai Tai (original recipe from Trader Vic's)
2 oz Aged Jamaican Rum
1/2 oz Orgeat
1/2 oz Orange Curacao
1/4 oz Rock Candy Syrup
1 oz Lime Juice

Pour in all ingredients into a shaker filled with 3/4 ice. Squeeze all the lime wedges and toss the shells in as well. Shake and strain the whole thing (ice and lime shells included) into a tumbler and garnish with a sprig of fresh mint.

Mai Tai (version I received from a friend's 'bartending school' manual)
In a tall glass filled with crushed ice, pour in 1 oz light rum, 1/2 oz dark rum, 1/2 oz malibu rum and fill with orange juice, cranberry juice and pineapple juice. Garnish with a cherry.

If you want to try the Mai Tai, please make sure you try the original recipe. This drink is being made all kinds of ways nowadays.

Daiquiri (add blended up fruit to make a fruit daiquiri)
2 oz Gold Rum
1 oz Fresh Lime Juice
1/2 oz Simple Syrup
Shake and strain into a frozen cocktail glass.

Bacardi Cocktail
2 oz Bacardi Light Rum
Dash of grenadine
Juice of one lime
Dash of Simple Syrup
Shake and strain into a frozen cocktail glass.

Piña Colada
2 oz Gold Rum
1 oz Coconut Cream
1/2 oz Cream
1/2 oz Fresh Pineapple Juice
Pour all ingredients into a blender and add a scoop of crushed ice. Blend and pour into a sour glass garnished with a slice of pineapple.

Mojito
In a tall glass, put in a few mint leaves, 3 tbsp fresh lime juice and 2 tsp simple syrup. Muddle to bruise the mint leaves. Top off with ice and give it a stir. Pour in 2 oz Light Rum and stir again. Top off with club soda and give it one last stir. Garnish with a sprig of mint.

Next is Cachaça recipes:

Caipirinha
Cut a lime into eight pieces. Place lime wedges into your shaker and add 2 tsp of brown sugar. Muddle. Pour in 2 oz Cachaça. Fill the shaker 3/4 with cracked ice and shake well. Pour entire contents into glass garnished with a fresh lime wedge on the rim.

(Next two recipes came from Água Luca Cachaça.)

Bahia Dragon™ (Created by Alex Ott, Gattaca Design, NYC)
2 oz. Água Luca™ Cachaça
1 tsp fresh diced ginger
1 tsp sugar
1 oz. mango juice
½ oz. fresh lime/lemon juice mix
Combine diced ginger with sugar. Muddle until ginger flavor is fully exposed. Add mango juice, fresh lime/lemon juice mix, and the ÁGUA LUCA™. Shake and strain on ice, but leave space to fill up with tonic water and a splash of grenadine. Garnish with a ginger slice.

Água Luca™ Brazilian Love Potion™ (Created by Robert "Bobby G." Gleason, Rio Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas)
2.0 oz. Água Luca™ Cachaça
2 whole strawberries
3 wedges of pineapple
3/4 oz. Rock Candy Syrup (Trader Vic’s is a good brand)
1.0 oz. Fresh Lime juice
Remove stem from strawberries and slice, cut up pineapple wedges ensuring no rind or core is in the chunks. place all fruit into a mixing glass. Muddle fruit until well pulverized, add all remaining ingredients. Shake vigorously with ice until well chilled. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass, garnish with a strawberry on the rim.

Episode Five - Whiskey Part Two

Here's Whiskey - Part Two! This time it is all about Irish and Scottish whisk(e)y.

For those of you who like to come find the recipes I mention on the show... here they are:

First is a recipe given to me by Darryl from Argentina:

Citrus Key Lime Gimlet
3 oz Citrus Vodka
3/4 oz Key Lime Juice
3/4 oz Simple Syrup
Shake and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a lime wheel


SCOTCH DRINKS:

Rob Roy
2 oz Blended Scotch
1 oz Sweet Vermouth
Dash Angostura Bitters (recommend orange bitters but this can be hard to find.)
Shake and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a cherry.

Godfather
1 1/2 oz Blended Scotch
3/4 oz Amaretto
Pour over ice in an old fashioned glass and stir.

Rusty Nail
1 1/2 oz Blended Scotch
1/2 oz Drambuie
Stir well over ice in an old fashioned glass.

Scotch Rickey
1 1/2 oz Blended Scotch
Juice of one lime
Pour in a tumbler or highball filled with crushed ice. Top with club soda and stir lightly. Garnish with a lime wedge.

Joe Collins
1 1/2 oz Blended Scotch
3/4 oz Fresh Lemon Juice
1 oz simple syrup
Shake and strain into a highball glass filled with ice. Top with club soda. Garnish with an orange slice and a cherry.


IRISH WHISKEY DRINKS:

Irish Car Bomb
Fill shot glass
half with Irish Whiskey
half with Bailey's Irish Cream
Fill a beer mug
3/4 with Guinness
Once the beer settles, drop the shot glass in the beer and chug!

Irish Coffee
1 1/2 oz Irish Whiskey
Fill Coffee
Brown sugar to taste
Put sugar into a coffee mug. Preferably an irish coffee glass. Add whiskey and then fill with coffee. Stir. Top off with whipped cream.

BONUS DRINK THAT I MISSED LAST WEEK:

Lynchburg Lemonade
1 oz Jack Daniels
1/2 oz Triple Sec
1 oz Sweet & Sour
Shake and strain into a highball or tall glass full of crushed ice. Top with Sprite or 7-up. Garnish with a lemon twist.

Instead of using the pre-mix sweet & sour, try making your own with lemon juice and simple syrup. I'll be giving my own Sweet & Sour recipe in a later show.

CHEERS!

Feed changes

Hello all. Hopefully this doesn't cause any problems but I had to stop using this Blog as being the feed for feedburner. It is feedburner that strips this blog down and sends the audio files to iTunes.

The problem is that as the posts are archived and removed from the front page, they also disappear from the feed, thus those episodes stop showing up in iTunes.

Thanks to the assistance from Brian at The Frank Truth, I was able to create a new RSS feed separately from this blog to feed the shows into Feedburner.

You should not have to resubscribe to Behind The Bar Show, but my first test after changing the RSS feed caused multiple show entries to pop up into my iTunes. In case you see this, this is why. If you'd like to clear that up, just unsubscribe and resubscribe to the show.

This also doesn't mean I'm going to stop using this blog. I'll continue to post the shows here as well and the recipes mentioned.

The RSS feed changes are just to ensure that all of the episodes stay listed on iTunes no matter what happens with this Blog.

Thanks to all for hanging in there during these growing pains.

New Listener Map

I just created a Frappr map for Behind The Bar Show. I would love to see where all my listeners are from. Please check out the map and add yourself to it.

If you haven't heard of a Frappr Map, it is basically a google map that lets you put a pin into the map in the area that you live. That way we can see what cities, countries, etc. all the listeners are from.

I also have a forum set up for everyone to share drink recipes as well as their thoughts, praises or rants about specific types or brands of alcohol.

Check it out! CLICK HERE

Episode Four - Whiskey Part One

This week is about Canadian Whisky and American Whiskey. We go through the history and differences. There are quite a bit of sub-categories under American Whiskey and we go through all that as well.

Recipes mentioned on the show:

Crown Royal Special Reserve Martini
1 oz Crown Royal Special Reserve
1/2 oz Grand Marnier
Shake and strain into a cocktail glass.

Washington Apple
1 part Canadian Whisky
1 part Cranberry
Shake and strain into a shot glass. Float Apple Pucker

Whisk(e)y Sour
2 oz Whisk(e)y
3/4 oz Lemon Juice
1 oz Simple Syrup
Shake and strain into a chilled sour glass. Garnish with a orange wheel and a cherry.

Presbyterian (Press)
1 1/2 oz Whiskey
Fill Ginger Ale and Club Soda
Pour into a glass filled with ice and garnish with a lemon twist. It's important to twist the lemon over the drink and then rub the outer peel on the rim of the glass.

Manhattan
2 oz Whiskey (Bourbon preferred)
1 oz Sweet Vermouth
Dash of Angostura Bitters
Shake and strain into a cocktail glass and garnish with a cherry.

Perfect Manhattan
2 oz Whiskey (Bourbon preferred)
1/2 oz Sweet Vermouth
1/2 oz Dry Vermouth
Shake and strain into a cocktail glass and garnish with a lemon twist.

Southern Comfort Manhattan
2 oz Southern Comfort
1/2 oz Dry Vermouth
Shake and strain into a cocktail glass and garnish with a lemon twist.

John Collins
1 1/2 oz Whiskey
3/4 oz lemon juice
1 oz Simple Syrup
Club Soda

Add whiskey, lemon juice and simple syrup into a shaker filled with 3/4 ice. Shake and strain into a tall or highball glass filled with ice. (Always use fresh ice. Not the ice you used in your shaker.) Top off with Club Soda. Garnish with an orange slice and cherry.

Old Fashioned (My preferred way)
2 oz whiskey
1 tsp sugar (or simple sugar)
2 dashes angostura bitters
orange wedge
cherry
splash of club soda

In an old fashioned glass, muddle sugar, angostura bitters, orange wedge, cherry and splash of club soda. (If you are using simple sugar then you don't need the splash of club soda.) Add whiskey and then fill with ice. Stir to melt the ice a bit. If it is still too strong you can add some more club soda but just not too much. It will quickly kill the flavors in this drink.

CORRECTIONS planned on next episode

Here's just a quick update on my vodka episode. Man, did I do a horrible job pronouncing "water of life" in Russian. I pronounced water like "voda" when it should be more like "vada" with emphasis on the "da."

I just wanted to post something quickly before I get flooded with voice letters correcting the way I pronounced it.

Thank you to my WONDERFUL Real Estate Agent, Tanya, for teaching me the right way to say it. I'll be sure to correct myself on next week's show.

Cheers!
Mr. Martini