Drunk Monkeys - Episode 19 - Zen Green Tea Liqueur.

Thanks to our friend Steven for supplying Jen and Erica with Zen Green Tea Liqueur so they can drink it and tell you all about it.

Drunk Monkeys - Episode 17 - Girl.

It's the third season of Drunk Monkeys and Jen and Erica are diving right in and drinking Girl liqueur, a lychee and raspberry flavored mix of Cognac and vodka in a pink sparkly bottle.

Drunk Monkeys - Episode 14 - Schönauer Apfel.

Jen and Erica are drinking Schönauer Apfel, a German apple schnapps or "Apfelkorn Liqueur". Please don't give this drink to your children. Erica was kidding. Mostly. But don't.

Drunk Monkeys - Episode 11 - Bärenjäger.

Jen brought the German honey liqueur Bärenjäger ("bear hunter") to share with Erica for this episode of Drunk Monkeys. Here's a close-up of that label with the crafty hunter about to trap the leg of the bear who is going for the tasty honey.

Drunk Monkeys - Episode 8 - Disaronno

Sorry that we're a day late posting this episode, but as you'll be able to tell, production values have gone way up. It's the first episode of our second 'season', and Jen and Erica are drinking the drink that started the whole Drunk Monkeys idea: the Italian amaretto liqueur Disaronno. If you'd like to see the mentioned Disaronno spin, and people who are probably aliens, here's an example.

Drunk Monkeys - Episode 6 - Herbsaint.

This episode, Jen and Erica are drinking the New Orleans anise liqueur Herbsaint. They mention an egg recall—do not panic! This episode was filled a while ago and there's no current egg recall that we know of. Also mentioned is the wonderful cocktail, the Sazerac. Our history with that drink and a recipe is here.

Drunk Monkeys - Episode 3 - Chambord

In this episode, Jen and Erica are drinking the classic black raspberry liqueur Chambord. The Champagne and Chambord cocktail that Erica mentions is called a Kir Imperial, but Chamord is not normally used in a Cosmo. And if, like me, you need to look-up the Infant of Prague, then I have just done so for you.

It's finally here, our very first episode of Drunk Monkeys. So, first off, the name. You might notice that in the video Erica and Jen refer to Drunk Monkey, in the singular. It's been a leetle while since we filmed this first batch of shows. Somewhere in there, most crucially when I was asking Steven Lyons to draw a logo for the show, I pluralized it. And as the guy doing the typing, what I say goes, see? So the show is Drunk Monkeys and when we record the next batch of shows I'll get Jen and Erica to say it that way if I have to threaten them with Malört to make it stick.

In this first episode, Jen and Erica are drinking Root, from Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. And already we're perhaps straying a bit from our stated goal. The idea was to drink things that you would normally drink in mixed drinks or cocktails, but to drink them straight. And Root is a liqueur that you can just sip on it's own. But the ladies had a big night of drinking weird stuff ahead of them and wanted to start out with something nice. Enough of me typing, here's what you really came to see...

Drunk Monkeys - Episode 1 - Root.

See you next Friday for more drinky fun!

In October of 2008, my friend Jen and I tried drinking Disaronno on the rocks.
It started a large string of us drinking weird liquors and mixers in their purest forms.
More on that later, but here is Jen's original post that started it all....

Sadly, when people think of New Orleans and drinking these days the first image that pops into their mind is probably drunken frat guys at Mardi Gras. Which is true. But New Orleans has more than just drinking volume, it's got drinking history. I mean, this is the city where the modern cocktail was invented.

And the first cocktail that was invented was (arguably) the Sazerac. I was turned onto the Sazerac by a link from Making Light and started making them back in 2005. A Sazerac isn't too complicated to make, but it does involve three ingredients that you probably don't have in your standard home bar -- rye whiskey, Herbsaint liqueur, and Peychaud's bitters. If you've seen my home bar, you know that obscure liquors are my stock-in-trade, so finding all those pieces was no problem. And we've enjoyed the Sazeracs I've made, but never having had one that anyone else had made, there's always a lingering question of whether I'm doing it "right". So on a December 2006 trip to New Orleans, Erica and I decided to check in with some experts.

The place to get a Sazerac would be the Sazerac Bar at the then Fairmont, but the Fairmont was still closed from Katrina damage. (The hotel reopened in 2009 as the Roosevelt and the bar is open as well.) So we went to the Rib Room at the Omni Royal Orleans for Sazeracs and dessert.

So, yes, I was making them fine (the Rib Room uses Angostura bitters in addition to the Peychaud's bitters, but we'll let that slide).

Here's the recipe:
1/2 teaspoon Herbsaint (you could also use absinthe now that's it legal again in the US)
1 teaspoon of simple syrup
4 dashes Peychaud's bitters
You could use a tiny, tiny drop of Angostura bitters, but I think that's wrong
2 ounces rye whiskey (you'd think "Sazerac Rye" would be the best choice, but I prefer Old Overholt)
Strip of lemon peel

Chill a rocks glass. In another glass or Boston shaker combine ice, simple syrup, bitters, and rye. Stir gently to chill. Pour the Herbsaint into the chilled rocks glass and coat the inside of glass, pouring out the excess. Strain whiskey mixture into the rocks glass. Twist lemon peel over mixture to release lemon oil and then rub peel over the rim of the glass. Drink.

I got my recipe from Chuck Taggart's Gumbo Pages and he's got lots of more explicit directions and variations.

(Originally posted on FuzzyCo, December 8, 2006: Drinking our way across the South - the Sazerac)