The Belmont Jewel Cocktail

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The Belmont Stakes is will be held on Saturday, June 8, 2019 at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York and horse racing fans will need a signature drink to sip during the big festivities.

The Belmont Jewel is the official drink of the final leg of the Triple Crown, combining bourbon, lemonade, pomegranate juice and orange zest.

in 2017, the Belmont Stakes had over 100,000 spectators in attendance and encountered every racing track’s worst nightmare: they ran out of alcohol. The track limited ticket sales to 90,000 this year and added additional drink stations to make sure the Jewels keep flowing.

The drink is relatively new to the Belmont Stakes. The Belmont Breeze was the race’s signature drink for years until the Jewel became the official beverage in 2011. The Breeze’s recipe also included bourbon but was a bit lighter with orange and cranberry juices and a splash of sherry.

The Belmont Jewel has a stronger bit of whisky to the taste, and with that being said,  here’s how to make the Belmont Jewel……..

Makes 1 Drink

Ingredients:
1.5 ounces of bourbon
2 ounces of lemonade
1 ounce of pomegranate juice

Directions:
Pour all the ingredients into a cocktail shaker and add ice. Shake and pour into a rocks glass and garnish with a cherry or lemon.

 


Pomegranate and Blood Orange Margarita

Today is National Margarita Day 2019 and it could not fall on a better day, being that it is Friday!

 

National Margarita Day is a day celebrated on February 22nd every year and is a day used to honor the cocktail that is usually made of a combination of tequila, triple sec and various fruit juices (such as lemon or lime). While the drink – and to a lesser extent the holiday dedicated to it – is widely known not only in the United States but around the world, no one really knows the origins of either one.

The fact of the matter is that no one really knows when the margarita was invented – or National Margarita Day for that matter, but the drink is believed to have been invented sometime around World War II. One of the most common origin stories associated with this drink is that it was invented by Rancho La Gloria restaurant owner Carlos Herrera in 1938.

However, a recipe for a tequila-based cocktail first appeared in the 1930 book My New Cocktail Book by G.F. Steele.

Hotel-Garci-Crespo-Mexico-en-Fotos-copy-511x300And then there’s Bartender Danny Negrete, who legend has it, created a signature wedding cocktail  in 1934 at the Garci Crespo Hotel in Puebla which was one of the most luxurious hotels at that time, and christened it “Margarita” in honor of his future sister-in-law. Or maybe Negrete was really inspired by a stunning young dancer named Margaret Cansino who performed at the glamorous Agua Caliente Racetrack in Tijuana where he also worked. That 16-year-old beauty later  became the legendary Rita Hayworth.

                       Rita Hayworth at 16 (left) and at the height of her career in the 1940s.

 

Without noting a specific recipe or inventor, a drink called the Tequila Daisy was mentioned in the Syracuse Herald as early as 1936. Margarita is Spanish for Daisy, which is a nickname for Margaret.

According to cocktail historian David Wondrich, the popular Mexican drink was remade with tequila instead of brandy, which became a sensation during Prohibition as people drifted over the border for alcohol. There is an account from 1936 of Iowa newspaper editor James Graham finding such a cocktail in Tijuana, years before any of the other margarita “creation myths”.

 

 

MEXICO-EN-FOTOS-RANCHO-LA-GLORIA-RESTAURANT-AND-BAR-458x300The 1937 Cafe RoyalMargarita 4 Danny Herrera Cocktail Book contains a recipe for a Picador using the same concentrations of tequila, triple sec and lime juice as a margarita. One of the earliest stories is of the margarita being invented in 1938 by Carlos “Danny” Herrera at his restaurant Rancho La gloria, halfway between Tijuana and Rosarito, Baja California, created for customer and former Ziegfeld dancer Marjorie King, who was allergic to many spirits, but not to tequila. This story was related by Herrera and also by bartender Albert Hernandez, acknowledged for popularizing a margarita in San Diego after 1947, at the La Plaza restaurant in La Jolla. By then it was known as the ‘Margarita.’ San Diego newspaper editor Neil Morgan was a friend and made sure Hernandez’ story appeared locally.

Danny Herrera

 

 

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Albert and Helen Hernandez at La Plaza in 1947. Chef Washington at left.

 

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However, there are many people who claim that it was invented by Don Carlos Orozco in October of 1941. As the story goes, Mr. Orozco was working as a bartender at Hussong’s Cantina – a restaurant in Mexico – when the daughter of the German ambassador named Margarita Henkel walked into the restaurant and asked for a special drink. He then whipped her a drink that was equal parts tequila, an orange liqueur and lime. This concoction was then placed in a salt rimmed glass and served to her. Since this lady’s name was Margarita, that is the name that he decided to give the drink.

 

There are also claims that the margarita was first mixed in Juárez, Chihuahua at Tommy’s Place Bar on July 4, 1942 by Francisco “Pancho” Morales. Morales later left bartending in Mexico to become a US citizen, where he worked as a milkman for 25 years. Mexico’s official news agency Notimex and many experts have said Morales has the strongest claim to having invented the margarita.

 

Others say the inventor was Dallas socialite Margarita Sames, when she concocted theMargarita2.jpg drink for her guests at her Acapulco, Guerrero vacation home in 1948. Tommy Hilton reportedly attended, bringing the drink back to the Hilton chain of hotels. However, Jose Cuervo was already running ad campaigns for the margarita three years earlier, in 1945, with the slogan, “Margarita: It’s more than a girl’s name.” According to Jose Cuervo, the cocktail was invented in 1938 by a bartender in honor of Mexican showgirl Rita de la Rosa.

 

Jose Cuervo Tequila bottle (1930s)

 

Another common origin tale begins the cocktail’s history at the legendary Balinese Room in Galveston, Texas where, in 1948, head bartender Santos Cruz created the margarita for singer Peggy (Margaret) Lee. He supposedly named it after the Spanish version of her name, Margarita.

While all of these origin stories may or may not account for when this drink was created, it is known that the first published recipe of this drink occurred in the December 1953 issue of Esquire. This recipe called for an ounce of tequila with dashes of triple sec and the juice of half a lime or lemon.

 

Margarita6 Trader VicThe person credited for really popularizing the Margarita was Victor “Trader Vic” Bergeron, who owned California’s Señor Pico chain of restaurants. In the 1960s he went to Mexico to do research on a cocktail containing tequila, but discovered that Mexicans drink tequila straight. So he collected recipes for tequila cocktails from other restaurants around the States, and settled on the Margarita. By 1973 his restaurants sold more tequila than any other restaurant in the world.

Victor Bergeron

 

 

 

 

frozenAlthough many consider the  frozen Margarita an abomination,  it should be mentioned that the world’s first frozen margarita machine was invented on May 11, 1971 by a Dallas restaurateur named Mariano Martinez. He modified a soft-serve ice cream machine into the first frozen margarita machine to create a consistent, mass produced beverage. He got his inspiration from a frozen slushee machine he saw at a convenience store. Frozen Margaritas and Piña Coladas were all the rage back then, but they had to be made in a blender, which was time consuming, loud, and didn’t make for a very consistent product. His invention popularized the bar and the frozen Margarita at his Dallas TexMex restaurant, El Charro, and the category of frozen drink machines has gotten ever more popular through the years. His original machine now resides in the Smithsonian Institute.

 

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At this point in time, the margarita began to spread across North America, but it wouldn’t really gain mass popularity until  a musician named Jimmy Buffett released a song called Margaritaville on February 14, 1977, from the album Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes. This song was written about a drink Buffett discovered at Lung’s Cocina del Sur restaurant on Anderson Lane in Austin, Texas, and the first huge surge of tourists who descended on Key West, Florida around that time. He wrote most of the song that night at a friend’s house in Austin, and finished it while spending time in Key West. In the United States “Margaritaville” reached number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and went to number one on the Easy Listening chart, also peaking at #13 on the Hot Country Songs chart. Billboard ranked it number 14 on its 1977 Pop Singles year-end chart. It remains Buffett’s highest charting solo single.

Named for the cocktail margarita, with lyrics reflecting a laid-back lifestyle in a tropical climate, “Margaritaville” has come to define Buffett’s music and career. The relative importance of the song to Buffett’s career is referred to obliquely in a parenthetical plural in the title of a Buffett greatest hits compilation album, Songs You Know By Heart: Jimmy Buffett’s Greatest Hit(s). The name has been used in the title of other Buffett compilation albums such as Meet Me In Margaritaville: The Ultimate Collection and is also the name of several commercial products licensed by Buffett. The song also lent its name to the 2017  Broadway musical Escape to Margaritaville, in which it is featured alongside other Buffett songs. Continued popular culture references to and covers of it throughout the years attest to the song’s continuing popularity. The song was mentioned in Blake Shelton’s 2004 single “Some Beach”.

“Margaritaville” has been inducted into the 2016 Grammy Hall of Fame for its cultural and historic significance.

With all that being said, it’s still not clear when National Margarita Day was invented. Like the drink it is named after, it’s origins have been buried in history. Whichever story is true, one thing is certain…Americans have an ongoing love affair with the margarita. According to a 2016 biannual survey of cocktail consumers conducted by Nielsen CGA, tequila was everyone’s go-to base spirit, and the margarita was their favorite cocktail.

The best way to celebrate National Margarita Day is by choosing your favorite recipe and whipping one up, or by going to your favorite bar and ordering one of these icy cold concoctions. See our recipe for a version of this famous cocktail, given that blood oranges are in season.

This is not your ordinary margarita. Combine fresh pomegranate and blood orange juice to create this unique concoction that’s as tasty as it is beautiful — perfect for “wowing” guests at your next party or get-together!

 

Makes Two 12 oz drinks

Ingredients:

8 oz Fresh Pomegranate juice
4 oz Fresh Blood Orange juice
8 oz Tequila of your choice
2 oz Cointreau
1 oz Key Lime juice
1 oz Simple syrup

Directions:
Combine ingredients in shaker and shake well. Serve over ice in salt rimmed glasses and with a twist of orange.

 


Belmont Stakes Cocktails

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Horse racing and whiskey cocktails go hand-in-hand and every race has their own official cocktail.

For all of you horse racing fans looking for a great drink, these drinks are worthy of the5552327_orig.jpg status associated with the Belmont Stakes, the  last leg of horse racing’s Triple Crown.These cocktails are top shelf classics along with the Mint Julep and the Black-Eyed Susan. Among the three horse races, the Kentucky Derby is the only race that has stuck with a single drink over the years and though the bourbon of choice has changed based on sponsorship, the Mint Julep has remained the drink to have while watching the Derby.

This is not the case for the other two races. The ‘official’ cocktails change regularly and, oddly enough, they often keep the same name. We have seen it with the Black-Eyed Susan and the Preakness Stakes and the same can be said of the Belmont.

The Belmont Stakes has had a number of ‘official’ drinks.

It all began with a little-known cocktail called the “Belmont Park” (Bacardi rum, port, one egg and a teaspoonful of powdered sugar) apparently existed in the 1920s and might have been the first cocktail of the Belmont racetrack.The Belmont Park was followed by  a  drink called “Big Apple”, which briefly preceded “White Carnation” as the official drink in 1976. “The Belmont Breeze” , the White Carnation’s successor in 1997,  was replaced as the official drink in 2011 by the “Woodford Reserve Belmont Jewel”.

The Belmont Park Cocktail may have appeared  in various  social  circles of the upper class  as early as 1890. And then  there is “Belmont Cocktail” with gin, raspberry syrup and cream from 1916. However, the Belmont Park Cocktail was first published 1925 in a book entitled  – Americana: Eight Cocktail Napkins, Hand Blocked, with Recipes and the Histories of Eight Famous Drinks ,whose publishers found a way around the Volstead Act of 1920. They added a shot of humor to the drink recipes. And what can be found in prohibition era book is  that  the authors poked fun at the Eighteenth Amendment. Non-alcoholic liquors and ‘flavorings’ were used as ingredients in the eight cocktails which included the Alabama, Barbary Coast, Belmont Park, Blue Blazer, Deadwood Dick, Manhattan, New Orleans Drip and the Rip Van Winkle Sleeper.

Frank Tynan, general manager of Belmont Park concessions for the Harry M. Stevens Company, told the New York (NY) Times June 8, 1975 Edition that the Belmont was working on an official drink to be called the “Big Apple.” And in 2015 Tynan told Newsday, that, “fruit juice, an apple liqueur and rum, I think,” may have been the ingredients found in the original “Big Apple” cocktail.

There is an interesting side note about The White Carnation, once a rather popular mixed drink, simple and tasty  the cocktail has the flavor of an orange cream soda. The ingredients are all pretty standard in the average bar.  It was the official drink of the Belmont Stakes from the 1970s until it was replaced in 1997 by Dale DeGroff’s variation of it, The Belmont Breeze. Although the White Carnation has lost some of its notoriety in recent years, it  still remains a fun drink to revisit.

In 1997, according to DeGroff, he set out to invent a great whiskey punch and wanted a spirit that had significance to New Yorkers, so he chose rye whiskey, since New York has always been a big rye town. Rye was one of the first spirits to be distilled in quantity in America and by none other than George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. He also wanted a drink that would appeal to a wide audience, so he introduced the sherry to temper the Rye: he finished with a combo that forms the base of the most popular drinks in the last ten years, cranberry and citrus. He also chose seasonal strawberry and mint as garnish, with a squeeze of lemon to cut the sweet. The New York Racing Authority loved the idea of a special whiskey cocktail for the Belmont that would appeal to a wider and younger  audience. The Belmont Breeze was thus born, and has been ‘official’ drink at the Triple Crown Race every year since with great success!

The Belmont Breeze is very similar with the exception of the whiskey, sherry, and cranberry, which contribute a note of sophistication to this newer drink.

Recently, DeGroff updated the Belmont Breeze recipe and it is fantastic as well. The recipe is also tells given below.

Another ‘official’ drink served at the Belmont Stakes  is the Woodford Reserve Belmont Jewel that  was published in 2011. It  features the smooth flavor of Woodford Reserve. The drink is simple and delicious. It is a mix of bourbon whiskey with lemonade and pomegranate juice and it is perfect for any occasion with uses far beyond the June race. It is also an easy recipe to transform into a punch and serve by the pitcher-full to a thirsty crowd.

Original Belmont Park Cocktail (1925)

Makes 1 Drink
Ingredients:
½ Bacardi (non-alcoholic)
1 Egg
1 Teaspoonful Powdered Sugar
2/3 Port (non-alcoholic)

Directions:  Add ice, shake well and strain into cocktail glasses.

Big Apple Modern Cocktail 

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Makes 1 Drink
Ingredients:
1½ ounces Blade and Bow Bourbon
¾ ounce Berentzen Apple Liquor
pinch of ground cinnamon
sparkling or hard cider for topping
apples for garnish

Directions:  Slice the top third of an apple off and set aside for garnish.In a wide low-ball glass, add in the bourbon, apple liquor and cinnamon then stir.Top with sparkling cider and apple for garnish.

The White Carnation Cocktail (1976)

Refreshing and an creamy color to match the white carnations of the winner’s white carnation blanket.
Makes 1 Drink
Ingredients:

2 ounces Vodka
1/2 ounces Peach Schnapps
2 ounces Orange Juice
1/2 ounces Soda or Club Soda (more if you prefer)
Splash of Cream
Crushed ice

Directions:  Stir liquors, orange juice and soda together and pour over ice in a highball glass. Splash cream over top. Garnish with an orange slice.

The Original  Belmont Breeze (1997)

Recipe created by Dale DeGroff, head bartender at Manhattan’s Rainbow Room/Windows on the World

9783583_orig.jpgMakes 1 Drink
Ingredients:
1 1/2 ounces Seagram’s 7 whiskey
3/4 ounces Harveys Bristol Cream Sherry
1/2 ounces fresh lemon juice
1 ounce Simple Syrup*
1 1/2 ounces Fresh orange juice
1 1/2 ounces Cranberry juice
7-Up
Club Soda

Directions:

Shake first six ingredients with ice, then top with half 7-Up and half club soda. Garnish with fresh strawberry, a mint sprig and a lemon wedge.

*For the   Simple Syrup: Dissolve two cups sugar in one cup water, and boil. The longer water boils, the stronger the syrup.

The Belmont Breeze* #2

Here is Dale DeGroff’s 2013 update on the original he created in 1997.

Belmont-Breeze2-LR.jpgMakes 1 Drink
Ingredients:
1.5 ounces Rye Whiskey
0.5 ounces Pedro Ximenez Sherry
0.5 ounces Fresh lemon juice
1 ounce Fresh orange juice
1 dash Dale DeGroff’s Pimento Bitters (click here )
4 Mint leaves
1 Mint sprig
1 Orange slice

Directions: Assemble the first six ingredients in a goblet filled with ice.

Garnish with a mint sprig and an orange slice.
Optional: top with Soda and / or 7UP.

 

The Woodford Reserve Belmont Jewel (2011)

Makes 1 Drink
Ingredients:
1 1/2 ounces Woodford Reserve Bourbon Whiskey
2 ounces Lemonade
1 ounce Pomegranate juice
Lemon wedge or cherry for garnish

Directions:  Combine the ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice.Shake vigorously.Strain over ice into a double old-fashioned glass. Garnish with a lemon wedge or cherry.

TODAY.com Parenting Team FC Contributor

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