Spring is around the corner, better keep this bramble recipe in your back pocket just in case 🤌🏾

When you’re hosting and you want to serve something that actually matters, you make a decision: play bartender all night, or make one bottle and serve something uncompromising.

Inspired my friend Evie, this one combines Ciroc Vodka, dry vermouth, tomato water, champagne vinegar, and olive brine. It’s umami-forward, briny, and completely uncompromising. I added just a slight kiss of MSG to highlight the natural MSG already present in tomatoes, and it transformed the drink from savory into something people actually want to drink.

Here’s the hosting move: scale it up to a 1L bottle. Make it once, freeze it overnight, and you’ve got unlimited cocktails ready to pour. No measuring mid-party. No forgetting proportions. No apologizing because someone’s drink tastes different from the last one. Everyone gets the same thing. Everyone gets something that tastes intentional.

Garnish with black pepper, olive oil, a cherry tomato, and fresh basil. Pour into a coupe glass and suddenly you’re not just serving a drink, you’re hosting properly. Your guests will ask for the recipe. You’ll tell them to comment for it.

This is what happens when a bartender scales up something that matters and decides to invite people over.

Cheers, y’all!

I've created a seasonal cocktail that pairs perfectly with Añejo tequila. This recipe takes a traditional margarita and infuses it with the flavors of fall and winter — crisp apple, rich maple, and tart cranberry — for a drink that feels both festive and refreshing Cheers, y'all!

I’m your huckleberry 🤠

I just got back from Montana with my friends at @traegergrills. It was strictly a grilling event but given what I do, of course I had to get behind the bar. I knew I wanted to incorporate local Montana ingredients like huckleberry, juniper (grown on site) and honey but also wanted to incorporate smoke from the grill. So I had the idea to make a bramble type cocktail.

For the smokey element, I smoked some local raw honey along with some juniper berries on the Traeger to just get a kiss of smoke. I then constructed the cocktail originally using gin like a traditional bramble, but the juniper botanicals overpowered the recipe so I switched to a reposado tequila and knew it was the perfect fit. They also had some locally made huckleberry liqueur which was the perfect last ingredient to top the cocktail and bring that sweet/sour/fruity element to the cocktail. Finally topped it with that smoked juniper berry branch to give it that botanical pop and tricking your brain into thinking you’re drinking a bramble when you’re actually drinking something closer to a margarita.

Given the ingredients and location, it was just fitting to call this the ‘Big Sky Bramble.’ Cheers y’all.

Big thanks to @i_drewcifer for the R&D help!
🎥: @tobojosh / @grillvaultbbq

6 cocktail recipes to kick off pumpkin spice szn

5-frozen-cocktails-you-need-to-make-this-summer

Not all great bourbon comes from Kentucky, and this Old Fashioned proves it. I reach for an Old Fashioned whenever I want to know what a whiskey is really made of. Three ingredients, nothing to hide behind, so whatever is in the bottle comes through clean. First up is TINCUP 10 Year, made in Colorado on Rocky Mountain water. What sets it apart is the blend. There is Stranahan's single malt whiskey in there alongside the bourbon, so it drinks grain-forward and light at 84 proof, with cherry, pastry dough, and sweet fruit syrup carrying right through the sugar and bitters. Want a higher proof pour? Reach for Pendleton 1910 out of Hood River, Oregon at 90 proof. It brings more maple, clove, rye, and warm baking spice, with a longer oak finish on the back end. Same recipe, two very different drinks, and not a Kentucky zip code between them.

Hot honey and peaches are a match made in heaven 🍑🍯

Today with my friends at @MijentaTequila, we're making a maybe the ultimate end-of-summer drink. Peaches are at their peak here in SC and today we're going to make good use out of them using hot-honey to make a frozen peach margarita with hot honey and sea salt. If that doesn't sound good to you then I don't know what does. Fun fact: Did you know South Carolina produces more peaches than Georgia? #themoreyouknow 🌈🌟

The Puttanesca happened on a whim one night with no measurements, no plan, and definitely no name. I knew it was good, so I R&D'd it into something repeatable. The recipe reads like if the bartender was Italian but also just happened to be your Nonna. Tomato vermouth and anchovy vermouth (via Veso) form the base. Oloroso sherry adds depth and nuttiness. Dry gin brings structure. Queen olives and an orange slice finish it. When I asked for name suggestions, the internet delivered instantly. Puttanesca was the winner because it's exactly what this drink is: a savory, briny, umami-forward cocktail that tastes like someone's grandmother figured out how to pour Italian flavors into a glass.

Cheers, y'all!

WEEKLY COCKTAIL ROUNDUP: RUM Cocktail Recipes! 🥃

It’s Memorial Day Weekend and rum is on the menu.

What do you want to see on the next roundup of recipes? 😬 just drop a suggestion below and I’ll make it happen.

Catch you on next week’s cocktail round-up.

Cheers y’all.

WEEKLY COCKTAIL ROUNDUP: End of Summer Recipes

It ain’t over yet, keep sipping on those crushable, ice cold drinks to cool yourself off during this heat wave (especially here in Charleston). Here are 8 recipes to keep you cool until PSL season when the big hats, flannel and boots start making their appearance.

What do you want to see on the next roundup of recipes? 😬 just drop a suggestion below and I’ll make it happen.

Catch you on next week’s cocktail round-up.

Cheers y’all.

WEEKLY COCKTAIL ROUNDUP: CHARTREUSE Recipes!

The shortage is over, use that bottle! 💚

This collection includes the Cabana Swizzle, Chartreuse Daiquiri, Chartreuse Julep, Chartreuse Ti’ Punch, Piña Verde, and Tiki Old Fashioned Vol. 2. From bright tropical cocktails to bold spirit-forward classics, these recipes highlight the herbal complexity and versatility that make Chartreuse one of the most unique ingredients behind the bar.

Cheers, y’all!

For those of you that like your partners like you like your 🍸

This is a simple take on a filthy martini. Can’t go wrong with pepper brine in a martini but this olive infused spirit from @empiricalspirits is a game changer. It’s literally olives in liquid form and it’s best used as a split base with your favorite gin. Recipe below.

Cheers, y’all!

WEEKLY COCKTAIL ROUNDUP: BANANA Recipes! 🍌

That way you can save all 7 to your camera roll for future reference.

What do you want to see on the next roundup of recipes?? 😬 just drop a suggestion below and I’ll make it happen.

Cheers y’all! Catch you on next week’s round up.

WEEKLY COCKTAIL ROUND-UP | FILIPINO COCKTAILS! 🇵🇭

These are some of my favorite recipes that I’ve made over the last few years. I love them because they’re almost all mostly based on Filipino desserts that loved as a kid. Obviously there’s a lot of nostalgia in these recipes but also a lot of my Lola’s (grandmother) inspiration for the flavors going on here. I honestly can’t pick a favorite out of the bunch so y’all will just have to try them out for yourselves and let me know.

Drop a line below and tell me what you want to see in the next round up, cheers y’all.

Style is personal. So why should your cocktail try to copy somebody else’s?

I teamed up with my friends at Ralph Lauren Fragrances to build a cocktail around their Ralph’s Club New York Parfum, and the fragrance did most of the talking. Black currant, cognac, oud wood. That’s basically a drink order.

So we built a Manhattan style sipper with cognac as the base, swapped the sweet vermouth for creme de cassis and a touch of dry vermouth, added a barspoon of absinthe and a few dashes of bitters, then finished it with an expressed lemon twist for brightness. Given the NY roots on this bottle, I’m calling it The State of Mind.

Cheers, y’all!

The P*rnstar Martini is a modern classic—fruity, approachable, and built on a formula that works. But here’s the thing: formulas can be reworked if you respect what makes them work in the first place.

This Mexican version starts with Mijenta Reposado, which brings oak and vanilla complexity that rum or vodka can’t match. Passionfruit syrup keeps that fruity brightness the original is known for. But here’s where it gets interesting: Nixta. It’s a corn-forward Mexican spirit that adds something earthy and unexpected—it’s not trying to hide, it’s showing up as itself. Vanilla agave syrup bridges the gap between the tequila’s spice and the passionfruit’s sweetness. Fresh lime brings the tart snap.

The egg white is optional, but if you use it, shake hard for a silky texture that transforms the whole experience. The tepache sidecar is the final touch—it’s fermented, slightly funky, and it makes sense alongside this drink in a way champagne never could in a margarita moment.

This is a martini built on Mexican spirits that deserve more attention. Sophisticated, fruity, and genuinely different.

Cheers, y’all!

Why does bourbon get a reputation as a cold weather drink??

Together with my friends at @fourrosesbourbon,

we’re going to prove that theory wrong, and honestly, it wasn’t hard.

Four Roses Small Batch brings a soft, fruity character with layers of spice that hold up beautifully against tropical flavors, which makes it a surprisingly natural fit for a frozen drink. So instead of reaching for rum, I built this Pina Colada around bourbon instead. Coconut cream and pineapple juice bring that classic tiki sweetness, a splash of lime juice adds acidity to balance it out, and blending it all with ice gives you that thick, frosty texture that disappears fast on a hot day.

What’s your go to bourbon cocktail for summer? Drop it below, I might build it next.

Cheers, y’all!

National Tequila Day deserves a riff that actually hits.

Loca Loka Blanco brings clean, fruity Highland agave character to fresh watermelon, bright basil, and a salted rim. We're freezing it smooth with Aperol and agave syrup, then garnishing with a watermelon slice and basil leaf. This is the margarita your summer's been waiting for.

Cheers, y'all!