Cocktail Of The Week: The Letter "J"

I met a new bartender tonight: Mr. Personality Plus, and isn't it a relief to find someone working in a people service industry with people skills?  We swapped names, shook hands, and I asked him what was popular to drink right now.  He rattled off the usual things you would think of to swill (and I was surprised Appletini's are still on the list), and he said "Yanno.  Bartenders have their own favorites, and it's never compares to what the people who are coming into bars are drinking."  He said he had been in Chicago for a while, and there it was chilled Sambuca, but here, with the bartending crowd, it was a shot of Grand Marnier followed by a beer.  I looked behind the bar and noted that the Grand Marnier bottle was just about polished off.

My new "J" cocktails for this week are:  Japanese Slick Sex, and Jamaican Bug a la Bill (the bartender..this is his variation on the drink).

Japanese Slick Sex

1 oz Malibu® coconut rum
1 oz Midori® melon liqueur
2 oz orange juice
2 oz pineapple juice

Pour the Malibu rum and Midori melon liqueur into a highball glass filled with ice cubes. Top with equal parts of orange and pineapple juice, and serve.  Serve in a highball glass.

  Jamaican Bug a la Bill  

1/2 ounce light rum

 1/2 ounce dark rum

 1/2 ounce apricot schnapps

 1/2 ounce mango liqueur

 1/2 ounce peach schnapps

 orange juice

 pineapple juice

Grenadine to float  

 Mixed in a chilled cocktail shaker and serve in a collins glass.  

   

                     Japanese Slick Sex 

                      

                                  Jamaican Bug a la Bill  

Bartender Bill had me try something new:  a Key Lime Martini (Stoli vanilla, lime juice, with a splash of pineapple juice.  The glass is rimmed with graham cracker crumbs).  An amazing summer drink.  Not to talk out of school, but he told me his female cousin comes to the bar and knocks them back all night.