Lime, Cinnamon, Cranberry Simple Syrup

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, if you are still looking for something unique and fun to add to the celebration, my Cinnamon, Cranberry Simple Syrup is just what you are looking for.  This 15 minute preparation is a fun and easy recipe that is sure to add a little Thanksgiving flavor to all of your favorite cocktails. 

Lime, Cinnamon, Cranberry Simple Syrup
Time to Prepare: 15 min
Time to Cool: 30 min

Ingredients:
1 c. water
1 c. white sugar
2 c. washed cranberries
2 sticks cinnamon
zest of one lime (try to minimize the white pith just under the outer peel as this part of the peel can impart overwhelming bitterness)

Stir all ingredients together over medium heat and simmer for 11 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand to cool. When cool, strain out solids and store syrup in refrigerator for up to one month. 

(The remaining sweetened cranberries should not be discarded as they can be used to garnish a delicious cocktail recipe or be a good addition to the Thanksgiving dinner table as a sweet cranberry relish. Remove the cinnamon sticks and lime zest before serving.)

Cranberry Spice Margarita

•  2 oz favorite Tequila blanca
•  juice of 1 juicy lime
•  (splash) 1/2 oz Limeade or Margarita Mix (splash)
•  (splash)1/2 oz OJ
•  3/4-1 oz cranberry cinnamon syrup

Garnish is a mixture equal parts coarse salt, white sugar and cinnamon to rim the serving glass.
Build over ice, shake, rim glass with garnish. Pour shaken Cranberry Spice Margarita into glass rimmed with white sugar, ground cinnamon, and coarse salt, garnish with a lime wedge and serve.

Cranberry Spice Cosmo

•  3 oz Absolute citcron vodka
•  (splash) 1/4oz lime juice
•  3/4 oz Cranberry Spice Simple Syrup

Glass garnish is a mixture equal parts white sugar and cinnamon to rim the serving glass.
Build in a shaker, serve in chilled martini glass garnished with sugar and cinnamon and a lime wedge.

Cinacran and Bourbon

•  2 oz Favorite Bourbon
•  3/4 oz Cranberry Spice Simple Syrup

Build over ice, shake, serve in a bucket glass.
Garnish with lime.

Here are a few more ways that this cranberry cinnamon syrup can be used.
Mocktails/Non-Alcoholic Drinks

•  CinaCran Lime/Lemonade
•  CinaCran and 7
•  CinaCran and Soda

Cocktails

•  Spiced Cranberry Lemon Drop
•  Spiced Cranberry Hot Whiskey
•  Absolute Citron, soda - spiced CinaCran Syrup
•  CinaCran Bay Breeze/Sea Breeze

Beer tasting week 3 - 52 beers 52 weeks

Week: 3
Category:  Black Beer
Beer: Shiner Bohemian Black Lager
Brewer: Spoetzl Brewing Company
Style: Schwarzbier

Appearance: Dark with a thin tan head that quickly vanished leaving a slight lacing.
Smell: Roasted malts, carmel and hints of coffee.
Taste: Initial notes of malts, bitter dark chocolate and carmel, yet remarkably crisp
Mouthfeel: Noticeably light and dry, yet carbonation keeps things lively.
Drinkability: Seriously a session beer if you enjoy the dark varieties.
Rating: Smooth drinkable and relatively inexpensive and available. This beer is not loaded with complexities, yet there is still enough going on here to enjoy a few of these brews with some friends. This beer won't make my favorite list, yet I will return to this black lager.

Welcome to week three of my beer examination, I hope that you take the opportunity to try this beer and share your opinions here. If you are new here, please see what 52/52 is all about. Click on the links throughout the article for an opportunity to learn more about beer and beer tasting. Cheers!

Beer tasting week 2 - 52 beers 52 weeks

Una birra, per favore!

Week: 2
Category:  Birra from Italy
Beer:  Peroni Nastro Azzurro
Brewer:  Birra Peroni Industriale
Style:  European Pale Lager

Getting down to business...

Appearance:  Pale golden in color, short white head
Smell:  Light lemon and skunked hops
Taste:  light, smooth, a little skunky with residual sweetness ( from corn)
Mouthfeel:  Crisp and carbonated, medium lager-style body
Drinkability:  Highly drinkable

Rating:  First words, drinkable, yet boring.  I give this beer a middle of the road review and leave you with these words.  If this is what you have or what is on sale, serve it cold and enjoy what it offers, otherwise go with another selection.
Welcome to week two of my beer examination, I hope that you take the opportunity to try this beer and share your opinions here. If you are new here, please see what 52/52 is all about. Click on the links throughout the article for an opportunity to learn more about beer and beer tasting. Salute!

GIN DROP

Curious to try something new when you go out or looking to impress your friends when you stay in? Unsure where to start? Don't want to go over the top, but you do want something unique, try out this earthy and refreshing cocktail. It marries the traditional pairing of fresh lime and a delicious Gin, with a hint of some sweetness.  You can ask your bartender to make this if he has time, but he surely won't have heard of it yet. 

Gin Drop

Build in a shaker full of Ice

• 3oz Gin ( Tanquery, Hendrick's,  Bombay Saphire)
• Juice of half of a juicy lime
• 1/2 oz of watermelon pucker ( more if you like)
• Shake and serve as one martini or as two to three shots.

For Home Bartenders, this is an awesome recipe to add to your bag of tricks because most good home bars will already have everything for this recipe except the Watermelon Pucker, which is both cheap and readily available in most liquor stores in full bottles or in tiny airplane bottles for the non-comital type. It is nice NOT to have to buy a bunch of new ingredients just to try a new drink, and it also nice to acquire a new cocktail for your bar at home for less than the cost of one at the pub.

Beer Examination 52 Beers 52 Weeks

I love beer and have tried hundreds of beer over the years, but never in a massive, well orchestrated approach. I am starting a beer tasting project that will be incredibly fun as well as an interesting learning experience. It will also be a great opportunity to try some beers that I have never tried but wanted to, discover some new beers and brewers and revisit some old favorites and some questionably popular selections as well.

I encourage you to join me on my journey, 52 beers in 52 weeks. I will photograph, review and enjoy one beer a week for an entire year, post my photos and reviews on my blogs and encourage you to try the beers with me and share your opinions about my selections and reviews.


Here are my thoughts on how it could break down, but there are no rules to this tasting, so I will provide lots of information in a well organized fashion but I can not promise any predictable structure to my tasting selections.

I will examine:
1. Domestics/American Pilsners
2. Mexican Beers
3. Brown Beers
4. American Micro Brews
5. Classic Cans
6. Beers from my travels
7. Colorado Beers
8. Beers with Cool Labels
9. Red Beers
10. German Beers

You can likely expect to see roughly 4 beers in each category and possibly a couple of additional categories that are more obscure.

I hope that you join me in my tasting and the discussion about beer and that you find this project both fun and informative.

Beer tasting week 1 - 52 beers 52 weeks

Week 1 of 52

Category: Colorado Beer

Beer: 1554 Enlightened Black Ale

Brewer: New Belgium Brewing Company

Style: Belgian Dark Ale

Tasting Beer can be a bit like tasting wine in that there are different ways to experience and describe beer, but it does not need to be complex, too serious or intimidating.  Here is one idea of how to approach a beer tasting and reviewing

• Appearance: Deep dark brown
• Smell: Coffee, cocoa, malt,
• Taste: Roasted coffee, carmel and malt, finishes with dark chocolate
• Mouthfeel: moderate body and mouthfeel, rather light for such a dark beer
• Drinkability: Great fall and winter beer. I could enjoy a few of these, but more than that would prove to be too much for me.

Rating: I enjoyed New Belgium 1554 Enlightened Black Ale.  Not too heavy, though full flavored and complex in taste and smell.  I can recommend this beer and say that it is one of the better Black Ales on the market.

*Welcome to week one of my beer examination, I hope that you take the opportunity to try this delicious beer and share your opinions here.  If you are new here, please see what 52/52 is all about. Click on the links throughout the article for an opportunity to learn more about beer and beer tasting.  CHEERS!