Canadian whisky

...now browsing by category

 

Liquid Xanax

Thursday, March 4th, 2010

Liquid Xanax

1/2 oz.       Jagermeister herbal liqueur
1/2 oz.       Goldschlager cinnamon schnapps
1/2 oz.       Crown Royal Canadian whisky
1/2 oz.       Bacardi 151 rum 

Mix all of the ingredients together in a double shot glass. Serve. Enjoy !

Once I reached the age of 30 or so, I abandoned taking all pills. I’m hardpressed to even take a Tylenol now when I have a headache. This is because up to the age of 30, I was a little bit like Elvis Presley. And I don’t just mean fat. There was that…..and then there was the pills. If you had one and said that it made you feel good, I was swallowing it. Not a very healthy way to live….as Elvis demonstrated.

But I gave that sort of lifestyle up. Now I’m just a “shot man” . And today’s shot is called Liquid Xanax. Now I’ve never taken a dose of Xanax in my life; at least to my knowledge. But if it is a pill that has only hit the market in the last 8-10 years, then I can safely say that I have never taken one.

Xanax is a trade-name for a short-acting drug that is primarily used to treat moderate to severe anxiety disorders and panic attacks. It is used as an adjunctive treatment for anxiety associated with moderate depression. I didn’t know this information from the top of my head….it comes courtesy of our research and development department.

So today we are sharing the recipe for Liquid Xanax. It’s probably healthier for a person that the damn pill. Let’s see….

The shooter Liquid Xanax is a combination of four pretty heavy hitters in the liquor department. We have the powerhouse Bacardi 151 rum, and we have Crown Royal Canadian whisky which has a habit of really creeping up on unsuspecting people.Toss in a couple of deceivingly powerful libations such as Jagermeister and Goldschlager and you have a real knockout punch. This concoction would cause most people to fall into a more sedate disposition. Unless they are a rowdy, mean dinker. But for most people, I think it would help to subdue any manic feelings they are having.

The true question is how this quadruple bad boy tastes.

The answer to that question was debated pretty well by the taste team panel. Nobody thought it was one of the best shots they have tasted in a while. About half of the panel thought it tasted anywhere from satisfactory to savory. The other half of the panel didn’t really like the taste much at all. The Goldschlager was the only ingredient that clawed its way past the others and was still pretty discernible. The other ingredients seemed to be blotted out by their compadres.

ShareMyShot gives this calming influence of a shot a 3 on a scale of 5. It packs a good whallop. Like we said, unless you are a mean drinker who gets riled up when buzzed, this Liquid Xanax definately settles a man down. But the taste was a little suspect. So overall, it earned a middle-of-the-road ranking.

We still recommend you do the shot rather pop the pills. After all, this is ShareMyShot.

Cheers !!

Posted in 3 Star Shots, Aftershock cinnamon schnapps, Bacardi 151, Canadian whisky, Chartreuse herbal liqueur, Crown Royal, DeKuyper cinnamon schnapps, DeKuyper Hot Damn cinnamon schnapps, Firewater cinnamon schnapps, flavored liqueurs, Goldschlager, herbal liqueurs, Hiram Walker cinnamon schnapps, Hiram Walker schnapps, Jagermeister, liqueurs, schnapps, whiskey | No Responses »

Damned If You Do

Monday, March 1st, 2010

Damned If You Do

1 oz.           Black Velvet Canadian whisky
1/2 oz.        DeKuyper Hot Damn cinnamon schnapps 

Pour into shot glass. Enjoy !

Today we have a somewhat basic shot, although it does call for a brand of Canadian whisky that we have not yet tried in any recipe.

Black Velvet whisky is a Canadian brand owned by the Diageo people (who are linked to the Guiness label) up there. It is a “whisky mix” meaning that it is a blend of various whiskies and is known for having a pretty strong taste. It’s been on the market for about 60-65 years now and you may have to look around a little bit to score a bottle. One of the unique things about Black Velvet whisky is that they employ a Black Velvet Girl in their marketing and advertising. Former Black Velvet Girls include Christie Brinkley, Cheryl Tiegs, Kim Alexis, and Cybill Shepherd.

You should be able to get a bottle of Black Velvet somewhere in the $14–17  range. And if you want to do a legitimate Damned If You Do shot, you have to use Black Velvet. As a shot with only two ingredients, they are both vital to the originality of the shooter. So you don’t really want to substitute for either the Canadian whisky or the Hot Damn cinnamon schnapps. If you do, the taste may still resemble a Damned If You Do, but really you’d be drinking something entirely different (that likely has a name all its own).

This shot wasn’t bad. We’ve tasted a number of whiskey/cinnamon schnapps combinations such as in the Kick Me in the Jimmy shot (Jack Daniels and Firewater among other ingredients) and the Cowboy Up shooter (Crown Royal and Firewater among other ingredients). So in order to really stand out for us, the whisky component has to play a big role.

The Black Velvet Canadian whisky really held its own here. It was allowed to stand out whereas in the other shots mentioned, they were part of a four or even five ingredient recipe. But with the Damned If You Do shot, it’s just the whisky and the schnapps. And they did work pretty well together. Both ingredients were at room temp and the shooter is a bit “hot” going down. The cinnamon flavor reared its head more in the aftertaste rather than immediately on the tongue/palate.

And after our third round, you could feel the punch that this shot can deliver. It’s the type of shot where the more you throw down, your forehead starts to warm up and your cheeks can get a tad flushed. Which is a good thing……not a bad thing….a good thing ! The type of shot that keeps one warm in the winter.

ShareMyShot.com gives the Damned If You Do a 3 on a scale of 5. It is a good tasting shooter. Then again, it only has two ingredients with those being a somewhat simple whisky/schnapps combo. So we had to deduct a point for limited creativity. All-in-all, a rock solid 3 on our scale.

You may be Damned If You Do, but we do recommend it. Cuz you’re really damned if you don’t.

Cheers !!

Posted in 3 Star Shots, Aftershock cinnamon schnapps, Black Velvet whisky, Canadian whisky, cinnamon schnapps, comfort shots, Crown Royal, DeKuyper cinnamon schnapps, DeKuyper Hot Damn cinnamon schnapps, Evan Williams whiskey, Firewater cinnamon schnapps, flavored schnapps, Goldschlager, Hiram Walker cinnamon schnapps, Hiram Walker schnapps, Jack Daniels, Jim Beam, Knob Creek, schnapps, whiskey | No Responses »

Jimmy Conway

Wednesday, February 17th, 2010

Jimmy Conway

1 oz.         Jim Beam bourbon whiskey
1 oz.         Seagram’s 7 whisky
1 oz.         Romana black sambuca 

Combine all ingredients together in a large shot glass. Stir and serve. Enjoy !

After one of the ladies on our panel brought in her Tarheel Shot recipe that was shared yesterday, one of the other guys on the team brought one in for today. It’s a trend we see often at ShareMyShot. When one person gets one of their contributions posted, then we have a string of suggestions from other people who don’t want to be left out. But that’s a good thing. Management doesn’t care where the recipes come from; we just want to share ideas with the rest of the shot drinking public.

So today Paul brought in a recipe called Jimmy Conway. 

This caught my attention right away just out of irony. While we were on the flight to New Orleans to enjoy the corporate trip to the Super Bowl, I read the Nicholas Pileggi book Wise Guy again. For those who don’t know, this is the book that spawned the movie Goodfellas with Ray Liotta as mobster-wannabe Henry Hill and Robert De Niro as hoodlum Jimmy Conway. 

I am a bit of a student on mob history and have read the book a few times and watched the movie four or five times. Jimmy Conway was actually known as Jimmy Burke to his associates. Although even he didn’t know many details of his birth and actual parents, he was born to a woman with the last name Conway. He bounced around from foster family to foster family (and prison at a pretty young age). By the time he was an adult in the Paul Vario crew, he was going by the moniker Jimmy Burke. But in the movie, they just went with Jimmy Conway.

Because the character was played by the world’s greatest actor in De Niro, the character was quite memorable and quirky. As was the real Jimmy Conway. He was a mean and dangerous SOB for sure. So it’s not out of the ordinary to hear that there is a shot named after him. I don’t know if this is what he drank in the film or not—-or how this concoction is directly attributed to him—–but I was curious to give it a try.

I drink a ton of Jim Beam as it is. So that component was not intimidating. The shot then calls for Seagrams 7 and Romana sambuca. This triple play seemed an interesting combination and the group dove right in. We also replaced the Jim Beam with Jack Daniels whiskey on the third round to see if it had a marked effect on the taste of the shot. We even used Jim Beam and Jack Daniels together in place of the Seagrams.

The reason we did this is because the shot didn’t go over very well with the taste panel. As I’ve stated before, I am not a huge fan of black licorice flavoring. But we couldn’t remove or replace the Romana black sambuca as it is a key ingredient in the recipe and not too flexible. So we thought we would try to switch out the whiskey element. Neither the Jim Beam nor the Jack Daniels was enough to snuff out the licorice flavor to the point of real enjoyment.

There was a suggestion to try a few other labels of whiskey to replace the Seagrams. But the consensus was that the sambuca would dominate the shot no matter what whiskey blend we tried. And there is a corporate policy that no taste session is to surpass five rounds. So we ran out of options in that regard too. The best we could give this shot was a 1 on a scale of 5. And that was only for the punch it delivered.

Like the real Jimmy (Burke) Conway, the shooter was just a little bit harsh. It was the type of shot that left a few of the panel members making a face after forcing it down. The aftertaste wasn’t that savory either.

While downing a shot of Jimmy Conway is definately better than getting on the wrong side of the gangster Jimmy Conway, personally I’d rather do neither. 

Your health will be worse for wear either way.

Cheers !!

Posted in 1 Star Shots, Black Sambuca, Canadian whisky, Evan Williams whiskey, Goodfellas, Irish whiskey, Jack Daniels, Jameson Irish whiskey, Jim Beam, Knob Creek, Romana Sambuca, Sambuca, Seagrams 7, whiskey | No Responses »

Cowboy Up

Monday, January 25th, 2010

Cowboy Up

1 oz.             Crown Royal Canadian whisky
1/2 oz.          Absolut Peppar vodka
3/4 oz.          Firewater cinnamon schnapps
3/4 oz.          DeKuyper vanilla schnapps
1 oz.             Hpnotiq liqueur 

Shake ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice. Strain into large shot glass. Enjoy !

I was turned on to this recipe by a friend of mine over the weekend. While not currently behind a bar, he has done some bartending in the past. But we were watching a stand-up routine by Arte Lange; the comedian who has been a regular on the Howard Stern radio show. He was doing a bit on the movie Brokeback Mountain about a couple of gay cowboys. And his punch line was that ” Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhal are NOT gay cowboys. “ 

” Tony Romo……now there’s a gay Cowboy ! ”

As avid football fans who hate the Dallas Cowboys, the joke drew a chuckle from me and my friend. And a few minutes later, he asked if I had ever tried the Cowboy Up shot ? I replied that I hadn’t, but was perfectly willing to try. Unfortunately, he didn’t have any Hpnotiq in his house. Nor Absolut Peppar. Nor DeKuyper vanilla schnapps.

Hey ! I said he was an avid football fan and an out-of-work bartender…….not a liqueur connoisseur ! He did have some Crown Royal on-hand, so we settled for a couple of those on the rocks.

But I brought the recipe into the office and the team was totally up for giving the recipe a sampling. We didn’t have any Hpnotiq on-hand either. It is a rather expensive liqueur. So we sent office lackey Keith down to the liquor store once again to procure a bottle of this fine libation.  Hpnotiq is a liqueur made from vodka, cognac, and tropical fruit juices. It has only been around for about 9 or 10 years. But it is a very fine tasting drink and quite popular on the club scene.

The rest of the ingredients were in the corporate liquor cabinet, so with the addition of the fresh bottle of Hpnotiq, we were ready to Cowboy Up. We had the part-time bartender that performs other duties here at ShareMyShot mix the shooters for us. The drink has a nice combination of fixings and we wanted to make sure it was prepared correctly. The shot sounded like it had a lot of potential.

The taste team’s opinions on the shot were rather divided. I thought it was pretty good overall, but I could definately see the point that others made that the shooter was just a bit too busy. It was hard to distinguish a number of the ingredients. The cinnamon schnapps was noticeable as was the Hpnotiq. But the vodka and even the Royal Crown elements were a bit muted. And there was the slightest suggestion of the vanilla schnapps, but it took two or three rounds to conclude we did indeed taste a trace of that component.

ShareMyShot gives this rootin’ tootin’ shooter a 3 on a scale of 5. It did pack a punch after we sampled four rounds. Any more and we would have reached a higher “buzz” plateau. And it is a creative and eclectic array of ingredients. But overall, it didn’t quite measure up to the more delicious and elite shots we have awarded higher grades to. As more than one team member said, ” It’s not bad at all. But it’s just too busy. I can’t really tell what part I like and what part I’m not even tasting. “

So if you have a bottle of Hpnotiq behind the bar, feel free to rustle up one of these shots. But if you don’t, just settle for a Crown Royal on the rocks.

Cheers !!

Posted in 3 Star Shots, Absolut, Absolut flavored vodkas, Absolut Peppar, Aftershock cinnamon schnapps, Canadian whisky, cinnamon schnapps, Crown Royal, DeKuyper vanilla schnapps, Firewater cinnamon schnapps, flavored liqueurs, flavored schnapps, Hpnotiq, liqueurs, schnapps, vanilla schnapps, vodka, whiskey | No Responses »

Bart Simpson

Monday, November 2nd, 2009

Bart Simpson
 
1/2 oz.       Crown Royal Canadian whiskey
1/2 oz.       Amaretto almond liqueur
1/2 oz.       peach schnapps
1 splash     cranberry juice 

Chill and serve in large shot glass.

We’re going with something a little different today. A bartender friend and big fan of ShareMyShot made me try this shot simply because she knows I’ve been a long-time fan of the Simpsons. Neither she nor I can make a connection between the shot or its ingredients and the name of it. But the bar was kind of empty on a chilly Sunday afternoon and after trying a couple of previously posted recipes together, she came up with this bright idea. Said she heard about it from another girl who works there, but hadn’t tried it yet.

And it just goes to show ya. We should have left well-enough alone. I had tossed back a couple of belts of Jack Daniels watching the Bears beat up on the Cleveland Browns. And I was happy. When she suggested the shot and said it had Crown Royal in it, I didn’t think that was such a huge leap and was agreeable. When she told me the rest of the ingredients, I knew my tastebuds and/or stomach might object after an afternoon of JD. But yet I pushed onward.

I’ve never been a big fan of libations such as Amaretto almond liqueur or even peach schnapps for that matter. I do like most flavored schnapps, but peach isn’t one of them. And the whole Amaretto thing is what I remember my dear mother used to go for on holidays. Me not so much. But with my friend’s encouragement and in the name of research for ShareMyShot.com we trudged further on.

I hated it. It sucked. Really blew. The Amaretto and the peach schnapps were still prominent in the flavor. The whiskey and the cranberry juice didn’t do enough to mask those two pungent tastes. But instead of two seperate flavors that I really don’t care for, it was one big splash of a single bad flavor. My bartender friend’s boyfriend was the only other one there and he refused to try one. Smart kid.

It’s a creative combination to whomever thought of it. And the name is intriguing just because I don’t know what the hell the connection is. But all-in-all, we have a weirdly named shot with half of it made from liqueurs that I don’t care for. And the taste reminded me of when dear old mom made eggplant for the first time and the family almost revolted. Or take a slug of milk from a carton that’s 8-9 days past the expiration date. There’s a taste that is just as enjoyable.

ShareMyShot gives this cartoonish concoction a zero on a scale of 5. As good ol’ Bart Simpson would say, “Aye caramba, man” !!!! This shot is not highly recommended. Or maybe Bart would say “Eat my shorts” because that’s what this shot almost tasted like.

Cheers !!

Posted in 0 Star Shots, Amaretto almond liqueur, Canadian whisky, cranberry juice, Crown Royal, DeKuyper peach schnapps, Hiram Walker peach schnapps, Hiram Walker schnapps, liqueurs, peach schnapps, schnapps, whiskey | No Responses »

Moose Fart

Tuesday, October 27th, 2009

Moose Fart

1 part   Absolut vodka
1 part   Crown Royal Canadian whiskey
1 part   Kahlua coffee liqueur
1 part   Bailey’s Irish cream

Add with ice in a blender, and blend to a semi-thick consistency.

This delicious little treat is definately what we would classify as a dessert shot. It’s not a really a Halloween-themed drink like many of our recent recipes. But we previously posted the recipe for Donkey Love Juice and thought we’d be remiss if we didn’t offer you a big ol’ Moose Fart as well. So take a big whiff and quaff down a few of these ‘pungent’ delights.

I believe this is probably the thickest shot we’ve suggested thus far. And I know it is the first one in which one of my favorite pieces of bar equipment gets used: the blender. I don’t use my blender very often in pursuit of shots or shooters. I love to make margueritas, alcoholic smoothies, pina coladas and drinks like that in my blender. But not too many shots.

This drink could be served as either a double shot, or as a full-fledged drink in a hi-ball glass. It’s up to you and how many you want to prepare at a time. When adding the ingredients into your blender, the order isn’t important (somewhat obviously) because it will all be condensed together. But at ShareMyShot.com, we usually add in a good 6-8 ounces of everything so that we get several servings for our efforts. We only drink them in over-sized shot glasses (not hi-ball glasses). As a result, we get a good 14-16 shots from one, single batch.

I prefer to drink this concoction as more of a quick shot because I find that it gets warmer and there’s a bit of seperation when you get down to the 3rd and 4th slugs out of a hi-ball glass. I find it more tasty, fresh, and enjoyable throwing them down one dose at a time. Because you are using ice when blending, the first servings are nice and chilled and those are the ones that really go down the best. After that, there is a depreciation factor at work.

The drink itself is flavorful. The Absolut is somewhat undetectable, but its role is to provide whatever “kick” the drink is designed to provide (along with the Crown Royal). It’s the Crown Royal, the Kahlua, and the Baileys that provide most of the flavor. And when served chilled, the players work together to make a slightly mocha-tasting, somewhat thin milkshake with a discernible bite from the Canadian whiskey. DO NOT blend this drink until it is as thick as a malt from the local diner !! The ice helps to keep this from happening when you blend. But just blend the mixture until there is a little froth on the top and it has the consistency of some decent chocolate milk…..like Oberweis.

We did want to offer up this recipe in time for Halloween parties this weekend because it is a party-friendly drink and women enjoy it too. The name is a conversation starter and the root for many jokes. And who doesn’t want to laugh when you’re drinking shots at a party?

ShareMyShot.com gives this sweet smelling bouquet of heavy hitters (the Absolut and the Crown Royal) combined with more subtle complements (the Kahlua and the Bailey’s) a 4 on a scale of 5. It’s a creative shot with some interesting ingredients that call for the use of a blender.

And perhaps best of all, unlike the name would suggest, it is pretty much odorless !

Cheers !!

Posted in 4 Star Shots, Absolut, Bailey's Irish Cream, Canadian whisky, Crown Royal, dessert shots, Kahlua coffee liqueur, vodka, whiskey | No Responses »