Using Up Random Nips

While I was cleaning out my infamously disorganized spice basket, I found the last of the batch of nips that a great friend gave me for my birthday two (three? five?) years ago. I don’t remember how many there were originally, but the lone survivors were a Malibu Coconut Rum, a Godiva White Chocolate Liqueur, and a Godiva Chocolate Liqueur. For a brief moment, I considered using them in my morning coffee – and having a really good week! Then I realized that with 50ml of each and my newly inventoried liquor cabinet, I had some neat possibilities for mixed drinks.

The Research

Being the chocolate freak that I am, my first stop was naturally the Godiva website. When I limited the recipes to just the milk chocolate recipes, my eye was instantly draw to the Spicy Mistletoe Martini because that seemed to be festively Christmas in a feisty way. The ingredients were Godiva Milk Chocolate Liqueur, Don Julio Tequila, and honey syrup. While I did finish off a bottle of tequila recipe testing the sours, I still had an unopened bottle of blanco tequila. It wasn’t Don Julio, but for a single drink, it would do. I also still had some hot honey syrup leftover in my refrigerator from my recipe testing with that ingredient, so I figured I could use that to add a little extra spice to the drink if I wanted. The Wild Honey Martini also captured my attention; that contained Godiva Milk Chocolate Liqueur, Captain Morgan White Rum, honey syrup, and cream. I had almost a full bottle of Don Q white rum, and the hot honey syrup, so this drink was also a possibility if I acquired some cream. When I limited the recipes to just the white chocolate recipes, I was, of course, immediately attracted to the Café con Chocolate Martini because it had coffee and vodka in it. I also checked out the Chocolate Covered Raspberry Martini recipe because I had found a bottle of Italian raspberry liqueur while cleaning out my liquor cabinet. Alas, the recipe was composed of three parts Godiva White Chocolate Liqueur and two parts Smirnoff Raspberry. I don’t think the substitution of raspberry liqueur would work in that recipe. However, the Truffletini, which was equal parts Godiva Milk Chocolate Liqueur, Godiva White Chocolate Liqueur, and vodka, could work.

Next stop was my favorite drinks site, which had 31 recipes listed under Godiva Chocolate Liqueur and 5 recipes listed under Godiva White Chocolate Liqueur. Of the recipes using the Godiva Chocolate Liqueur, the Chocolate Kiss Martini looked to be the most interesting. It was predominantly vodka, with equal parts of Pallini Raspicello (for which I would substitute my Italian raspberry liqueur) and Godiva Chocolate Liqueur. Otherwise, the majority of the other recipes seemed to contain ingredients that I didn’t have readily available in my already bursting liquor cabinet. Surprisingly, there were a lot of recipes that combined Godiva Chocolate Liqueur with Bailey’s Irish Cream and/or Stolichnaya Vanilla Vodka. Of the five recipes using the Godiva White Chocolate Liqueur, the Truffletini seemed to be the only interesting recipe. It had the same ingredients as the recipe on the Godiva website, but in different proportions. The other recipes were either unappetizing or required ingredients that I did not have on hand.

In summary, the possibilities for the Godiva Chocolate Liqueur were the Spicy Mistletoe Martini, the Wild Honey Martini, and the Chocolate Kiss Martini. The Spicy Mistletoe Martini would use up all the Godiva Chocolate Liqueur, while the Wild Honey Martini and the Chocolate Kiss Martini both would leave some of the liqueur leftover for other experiments. I was very curious about the flavor combination of the hot honey syrup and the Godiva Chocolate Liqueur, so the choice between the two honey drinks boiled down to (a) did I want tequila or rum? and (b) did I want to buy cream to make the drink? I absolutely did not want to buy cream to make a drink, so I chose to make the Spicy Mistletoe Martini.

The possibilities for the Godiva White Chocolate Liqueur were the Café con Chocolate Martini and two versions of the Truffletini, which also required some of the chocolate liqueur. Since I would be using up all the Godiva Chocolate Liqueur in the Spicy Mistletoe Martini, the Café con Chocolate Martini was the only available choice.

With that plan in place, I moved on to figuring out what to do with my wee bit of Malibu rum. Obviously, I started with the recipes on the Malibu Rum website, and sorted those down to just the recipes using Malibu Original. The Malibu Bellini looked interesting, especially since I still had another bottle of cava to work with, so I clicked on that image. It was a very basic recipe which involved shaking Malibu with fresh raspberries and ice, straining into a champagne glass, and then topping with sparkling wine. Seemed easy enough, if I could find fresh raspberries in the middle of winter. The Malibu Island Cosmo also intrigued me, but it required citron vodka, which I do not have. I could probably substitute regular vodka, if I really wanted to. The pretty pink Malibu Paradise also seemed like something I would enjoy. It was Malibu Rum, vodka, cranberry juice and pineapple juice shaken with ice. Again, easy enough for me to do. As I continued to scroll through the gorgeous color photos, I found what I wanted to do with my Malibu Rum: the Hot Apple Strudel. It was one part Malibu Rum, two parts warm apple juice, and one cinnamon stick. I didn’t have apple juice, but I did have apple cider from the local orchard.

Before totally committing to my choice of the Hot Apple Strudel, I made a stop at my favorite drinks website. It had a jaw dropping 431 alphabetically organized recipes for Malibu Coconut Rum; I made it about as far as the Alien Urine Sample before I gave up on scrolling through the recipes. The Hot Apple Strudel was my drink of choice.

The Spicy Mistletoe Martini

It is a good thing that I read the recipe before I started executing it because, according to the recipe, the drink was poured into a chilled martini glass and then the glass was rimmed with sugar and cayenne pepper. I don’t know of any way to rim a martini glass that doesn’t at least involve partially inverting it – and thereby spilling its contents! Anyhow, I’m a complete novice at rimming glasses so I debated for a moment the wisdom of using lemon juice versus using simple syrup to adhere the dust mixture to the rim of the glass. I decided that since the dust for this drink is a combination of sugar and cayenne pepper, it would be best to use something sweet like simple syrup. The next quandary was the proportion of cayenne pepper to sugar in the dust mixture, as that wasn’t specified in the recipe. I decided to start with one teaspoon of cayenne to two tablespoons of white sugar (1:6 ratio). Although that was a lot of dust, it definitely had a spicy kick to it. Next, I pulled my bottle of simple syrup from the fridge, opened it, capped it with my thumb, and tipped it over to wet my thumb. Then I traced my wet thumb once around the top edge of the rim of the martini glass. I did that twice more just to ensure that the entire rim was wet. I mounded the dust in the center of the plate and twirled the edge of the martini glass through it two or three times until I was certain that all the wet spots were covered. Ta dah! Without completely knowing what I was doing, I ended up with a perfectly rimmed martini glass.

The drink itself was very easy to mix: three parts Godiva Chocolate Liqueur, two parts Don Julio tequila, and one part honey syrup shaken with ice and strained into the prepared martini glass. The recipe was measured in ounces, so it called for a little less than the full nip of Godiva Chocolate Liqueur. Which was fine, since that meant that I still had a little for evening coffee later this week. I didn’t have Don Julio tequila, but I had a very nice blanco tequila that one of my dinner party guests gave me. So I used that. And of course, the whole reason for picking this drink was to see how my existing hot honey syrup complemented the Godiva Chocolate Liqueur, so I definitely used that instead of making a new batch of plain honey syrup.

After I took my first sip of the Spicy Mistletoe Martini, I thought to myself “This is really good.” The initial taste was of chocolate, but there was still that subtle after effect of heat from the hot honey and the dust on the rim. The tequila was imperceptible, which is good because I am not a real fan of tequila. This was definitely a drink that I would make again – in exactly the same way that I made it this time.

The Café con Chocolate Martini

Because the Café con Chocolate Martini was an equal parts cocktail of Godiva White Chocolate Liqueur, cold brew coffee, and Ciroc vodka, I was able to adapt it from one ounce per ingredient to 50ml per ingredient and use up the nip of Godiva White Chocolate Liqueur without having to worry about throwing the martini out of balance. I definitely had cold coffee in the house; it was left over from 5:30 in the morning. And, given that it was the holidays, there was a 50/50 chance that it was Starbucks Peppermint Mocha rather than Eight O’Clock Original. I also definitely had vodka in the liquor cabinet; it was the last centimeter of a giant 1.75 liter plastic bottle of 360 Vodka that I had been using to make liqueurs over the summer. Finishing the bottle of vodka measured slightly more than 50ml, but I went ahead with it and did not adjust the other ingredients accordingly. I followed the instructions in the Godiva recipe and shook the ingredients with ice, but strained it into an unchilled martini glass because I feared for the fate of my martini glass should it enter my freezer. And I most definitely exercised restraint in NOT garnishing the drink with a Godiva truffle, although I did have them in the house.

My first impression of the Café con Chocolate Martini was, “Wow! This is good!” I couldn’t tell that the vodka was out of balance or that the coffee might be peppermint. The overwhelming taste was that of the Godiva White Chocolate Liqueur, which was so delicious, that I probably could have shook that with ice and drank it straight. The one thing I do wish I had done to improve the drink was follow the Serving Tips on the page, which recommended dipping the rim of the martini glass in simple syrup and then dredging it in cocoa powder. That hit of dark chocolate with the sip of intense white chocolate liqueur would have been phenomenal. I now know better for next time!

The Hot Apple Strudel

Using up the nip of Malibu Rum was much more straightforward than using up the nips of Godiva liqueurs. The recipe for the Hot Apple Strudel required the full 50ml of Malibu Rum; however, I suppose if I really wanted to, I could have halved the recipe and used the remaining 25ml for a Malibu Bellini. But I wasn’t feeling that ambitious. So, using the fabulous beakers that someone gave me for my birthday, I measured 100ml of cider into a small saucepan, added one cinnamon stick, and brought it to a simmer. The recipe directed to use the cinnamon stick merely as a garnish, but I wanted the extra flavor of simmering the apple cider with it. Besides, I was surprised by how little fluid 100ml actually is. By the time I found the container of cinnamon sticks and washed my rocks glass, the apple cider was at a full boil. As directed in the recipe, I added the Malibu to the glass first and then poured in the warm apple cider with the cinnamon stick. Of course, the total of 150ml was just enough to half fill a rocks glass, so I felt vindicated in my decision not to use the highball glass recommended in the recipe.

The Hot Apple Strudel was delicious. I could see making a crockpot of this as a warm punch for a fall get together. I would have never have thought of combining the tropical flavor of coconut rum with the fall flavors of warm apple cider and cinnamon. But it really worked nicely. The coconut complemented the apple cider and cinnamon, where white rum would have been invisible and spiced rum would have overpowering.

The Verdict

Thanks to some thorough research and pre-planning, all three nips were successfully used in very satisfying cocktails. I would happily repeat all three cocktails again, with the minor alteration of adding a dark cocoa rim to the Café con Chocolate cocktail. However, my research and experiments were not necessarily enough to convince me that I needed to invest in an entire bottle of any of these liquors to complete my cabinet. A nip now and again will be just enough to keep life interesting.

As with all my alcohol posts, these experiments were responsibly paced. I did not complete them all in one night, nor did I complete them in consecutive nights. I can only imagine the hangover that would have resulted from combining tequila, vodka, and rum with all that sweetness on top of it!