Early Autumn Cocktail Recipes: Your Weekend Tiki Bar Drink

While the rest of the country is getting that September chill, it’s 90° here in sunny south Florida!

Since it’s Early Autumn, I thought it would be kool to kick out the

Early Autumn Cocktail Recipe.

Early Autumn is also a very keen jazz standard, immortalized by the swinging saxes of Woody Herman’s Heard (see the video below). This is a great song to play while you mix this interesting cocktail:

Recipe for 8 servings

•    1 1/2 cups vodka
•    1 cup fresh lemon juice (from about 5-6 lemons)
•    1/2 cup Galliano
•    1/4 cup honey liqueur (such as Barenjager)
•    flowering fresh thyme sprig, for garnish.

Combine in a large shaker or pitcher with ice, shake or stir briskly. Pour over the rocks into small tumblers, pony glasses or cordial glasses and garnish with a sprig of thyme.

For a more involved, even more Autumny concoction, try this modern mixology take on the Early Autumn Cocktail (recipe from About.com):

•    1.5 oz. Bombay Sapphire infused with dried pear and apples (click for recipe)
•    1/2 oz. Lucid absinthe
•    1 oz. local apple cider
•    1/2 oz. pear brandy (Adam recommends: Massenez Williams Poire Brandy)
•    1/2 oz. fresh lemon juice
•    2 dashes Fee Brothers Aztec Chocolate bitters
•    Ginger beer
•    cinnamon stick for garnish
•    lemon peel for garnish

Pour the ingredients into a cocktail shaker with ice cubes and shake it up. Strain into a highball glass filled with ice and garnish with a lemon peel and cinnamon stick. Wow, huh?

Here’s the song, Woody Herman featuring Stan Getz on sax.