rumchata | Shake Bake and Party

I know St. Patrick’s Day is still a little over a week away but I had to share this with you now so you have time to go out and buy the ingredients to make this yourself. You will thank me.

Every now and then I have a flash of semi-brilliance. Why this occurs when I am staring at my collection of liquor bottles and not when I am facing down a Statistics exam, I will never know. (Seriously, what crackhead made up statistics?)

Anyway, as I was waiting for the timer to go off on the cookies I am baking for Operation Cookie Takeover (more on that later) I stood staring at my booze shelf (okay, shelves) and thinking about how I wanted to make an Irish Potato cocktail. All of the recipes I had found contained Baileys Irish Cream, coconut rum or vodka, and cinnamon schanpps or Goldschlager. Meatloaf says two out of three ain’t bad, but my lack of the cinnamon booze was not going to make me an Irish Potato cocktail.

Then I saw my bottle of Rumchata. I thought to myself, Not only does it have a lovely cinnamon flavor – it has the PERFECT cinnamon flavor! Synapses firing, I got to work at mixing up this Irish beauty…

The Drunken Irish Potato

2 oz Rumchata
1 oz Parrot Bay Coconut Rum
2 oz Baileys Irish Cream
ice

Combine ingredients in a cocktail shaker, shake, drink, make another!

If you are having a St. Patrick’s Day party you should definitely serve this, and if you are hitting the bars – tell the bartender how to make this (and feel free to direct them to my blog for more fabulous ideas!). If you are going to drink nothing but beer, I don’t understand you, but have fun anyway. All of you, take a cab home.

If you read my last post you would know how excited I am about Pinnacle Vodka‘s newest flavor – Pumpkin Pie. While everyone else was anxiously awaiting the iPhone 5, me and my old LG Optimus were waiting to wander into a liquor store and find that blue bottle with a slice of pumpkin pie floating enticingly on the label.

Find it I did, and it is soooooooooo good. I’ve been ready for fall since the beginning of June, and now that it is finally near there is no better way to usher in the season than with my Caramel Pumpkin Pietini. Not only is this one fabulous drink, it is also a tribute to these pumpkin cupcakes topped with caramel butter cream which I just learned today that I will NEVER be able to buy again because the bakery that makes them is closing. Please pause for a moment of silence while you drool over the deliciousness…

Oh, Pumpkin Cupcakes. How I will miss you…

Sniffle, sniffle.

What better way to drown one’s sorrows than with a nice drink?

Like Mary Poppins, I pulled numerous goodies from my bag of tricks to make this martini. Aside from the obvious Pinnacle Pumpkin Pie, I knew I was going to use RumChata in this recipe – it’s a rum cream with a nice cinnamon flavor (you have to have cinnamon in your pumpkin pie!). Since I wanted to add some caramel flavor to the drink I had to look no further than my dwindling bottle of Baileys Caramel. Lastly, I don’t know about you but I can’t have pumpkin pie without whipped cream on top, so added a splash of Pinnacle Whipped to the mix. A little half & half to up the creaminess factor, a crushed graham pie crust rim and a sprinkle of pumpkin pie spice were the finishing touches.

Caramel Pumpkin Pietini

2 parts Pinnacle Pumpkin Pie
1 1/2 parts Baileys Caramel
1 part RumChata
1 part half & half
splash of Pinnacle Whipped
ice
crushed graham crackers/graham pie crust and pumpkin pie spice for garnish

Combine all the liquids and ice in a cocktail shaker and shaky shaky shaky! Crush graham crackers/graham pie crust and rim glass. Pour drink into glass and sprinkle with pumpkin pie spice. End up with this…

Just in case you are wondering, I used these little mini graham pie crusts from Keebler. I like the taste better than a dry old graham cracker, and the size is perfect. You get enough crumbs to rim a few glasses without having a ton left over.

We’ve got months of pumpkin weather ahead and I’ve got a pretty full bottle of Pinnacle Pumpkin Pie vodka. Anyone have any suggestions for other things to mix it with? I’d love to hear your ideas!!