Is it my destiny...

to be the King of Snake?? OK, it's The King of Pain, but the King of Snake can put a bite on you, if you're not careful. This post will help you to make a wonderful summer cocktail that is well-balanced and powerful without being too boozy.

Here's the Epicurious recipe, but we've modded it a bit and taste tested. When we found the recipe, we had everything except the pepper vodka so we chucked some black peppercorns and red pepper flakes into a 375 ml wine flask full of vodka, shook it up and let it steep for an hour. How could we wait that long for a cocktail. Well, we're not gonna lie and say that we didn't have a pre-cocktail cocktail. Sort of like a "shower beer" back in college?

The results as listed were good, but because we like it spicy, we flipped the ratio of the pepper vodka and the regular vodka. We use Smirnoff vodka; it's cheap and consistently wins or places high in the New York Times taste test. The vodka now has been steeping for days since our dinner party where we featured it as a signature cocktail along with Sidecars (2 part brandy or Cognac, 1 parts Triple Sec of Cointreau, 1 part lemon juice, served "up on the stem" with a sugared rim) and Manhattans (2 parts bourbon, 1 part sweet vermouth, 3 shakes Angostura bitters stirred 30 secs in ice and served up on the stem with a cherry) and the vodka has taken on a reddish-brown hue.

Now, the taste test with Peta's friend Charlotte was not totally fair because it pitted Absolut Peppar and Smirnoff's against home-made Smirnoff's pepper and regular Smirnoff's. Charlotte could tell the difference immediately because of the ginger bite and heat. This drink is clearly NOT mass-produced to appeal to the average boozer. Jim's father's friend Warren use to refer to Scotch as "an acquired taste" which always sound like so much malarkey. Now, we kind of get it.

Peta thought that the store bought had a menthol like finish, which was not unpleasant, merely unanticipated and unnecessary. The home-made version version won out because each of us enjoyed the spice without it being too "clean". We kept a full glass away from Charlotte so that she could make it home. Three of these is a lot.

Cheers,
Jim and Peta

PS: Peta got Jim Luxardo candied cherries for his Manhattans for his b-day and life got a bit sweeter.