10/31/19–Tinctures are easy to make, have a long shelf life and are a great way to spice up cocktails. In wanting to really capture the flavor of the season, we made a clove tincture which mixed beautifully with the fall citrus, blood orange. Demerara has a richness to it that regular simple syrup doesn’t, and combined with the Madagascar vanilla, it compliments the almost desert-like flavors of this drink.
8/5/19–The ultimate summer- time cocktail, this spritz is a fresh, bubbly combo of spirit and sparkling. Our riff combines Revel Avila Blanco with notes of ginger and citrus. The Crème de Gingembre has these exotic, spicy, almost candied ginger notes and while people generally think of ginger as winter flavor found in teas and pies, the freshness of this liqueur combined with a high quality ginger beer is undeniably summer.
7/4/19–We love a seasonal cocktail here at Revel Spirits and it doesn’t get more summer than this 4th of July-themed Mojito/Rickey mashup. This drink was such a hit at our tasting booth during this year’s LA Food Fest, that we thought we would feature the recipe here so you can spice up your 4th of July party! It looks great, is super easy to make and is so, so refreshing. The strawberry mint syrup is highly diverse too – it can be mixed with a number of different drinks and will last in the fridge for over a month.
Have a great Independence Day! Mas Espirítu!
6/25/19– This riff on a classic G+T packs a beautiful variety of vegetal notes thanks to the Seedlip Garden 108 “non-alcoholic spirit”, a complex blend of peas, homegrown hay and traditional English herbs. Balanced with the dry vermouth and lemongrass bitters to bring out the existing lemongrass notes in the Revel Blanco, this drink is botanically complex but simple to make. Delicious and refreshing for a lazy summer afternoon.
5/5/19 – We wanted to think a little outside the box this Cinco De Mayo, so rather than just come up with a riff on a standard margarita, we decided to play around with some spring-time flavors here. We whipped up some homemade pistachio orgeat and got a hold of this beautiful apricot liqueur by Orchard… it’s not overly sweet and really packs the full aromatic of the fruit. We also had some Woodford Reserve cherry bitters at the Revel office which added a touch of dryness, balancing the sweet of the syrup and the tart of the lemon. A fun, easy-drinking cocktail for a beautiful Spring day! Happy Cinco!
3/14/19 – Revel Spirit’s Wrennie West created this gorgeous riff on the classic Ramos Gin Fizz. Yes, any Ramos Fizz variation is a labor-intensive cocktail to make, but it’s a bartender favorite and looks and tastes great. Trust us, it’s worth your time. The raspberry and rum combo give this drink a unique tiki twist too, not to mention a beautiful pink color. It literally tastes like a raspberry milkshake.
2/22/19 – We know, everyone knows how to make a classic margarita. BUT… it’s National Margarita Day, so we thought, why not impart a few golden rules on how to make the most delicious marg possible?
Firstly – always, always use fresh lime juice. No, not even the bottles that declare they are “100% fresh lime juice” will do. Grab a cheap kitchen lime press and get to work! (fun fact – one lime usually yields about 1oz of lime juice).
Triple Sec is fine as long as it is a quality brand. (We recommend a dryer orange liqueur like Ferrand’s Orange Curacao). If you do go down the liqueur route, we suggest toning down the agave to a half ounce as to not over sweeten the drink. Personally, we like to substitute any orange liquor for a few drops of orange bitters.
And lastly (and perhaps most obviously), always use a quality 100% agave spirit.
Ok, rant over. Click on for our recipe and Happy National Margarita Day!
“After much deliberation and debate, we whittled our shortlist down to celebrate 10 spirits that we believe to be the most experimental, creative and downright interesting of 2018.
A number of brands stole the spotlight with interesting production methods, unusual ingredients and stand-out packaging designs, while many entered new categories with boundary-breaking expressions.”