Howling

I feel a disclaimer is necessary in case someone reading this suddenly leaps from his chair, points at his monitor and screams, “I’ve had that drink before, and that’s not what it’s called!  This Wagner guy stole that drink!”

First of all, to such maniacs, mix the drink on your screen, drink it, sit down, take a deep breath and relax.  Alcoholic drinks cannot be copyrighted.  Furthermore, there are only so many ingredients and mixers available.  Surely, either all of my “original” drinks have been done before at some time or they are variations of someone else’s recipes, as are virtually all drinks created in the past couple decades.  I didn’t intentionally steal any recipes, but thousands of drink recipes are floating out there around the world, and I only learned a few hundred of them in bartending school—and my original drinks are nothing like the ones I learned, so get a grip already.

With that said, here’s a drink I came up with one night when the wife and I were in the mood for a hokey parody on old werewolf movies.  After a couple of these apiece, the movie was funnier than ever.  This is a somewhat sweet, slightly sour and nutty drink that tastes of the tropics, so I hate to blow the illusion by telling you it was invented in Los Angeles, but feel that I must because there’s nothing worse that people deluding themselves.  Go ahead and pretend you’re in Mexico while drinking this.  It’s a rather refreshing drink for warm summer nights.

Here’s what you do:

• Fill a mixing Collins glass with ice.
• Add 1 oz. of light rum.
• Add ½ oz. crème de almond.
• Add ½ oz. triple sec.
• Add 1 oz. sour mix.
• Garnish with a slice of lemon skewered to a maraschino cherry.