Mardi Mardi We Like to Party – Mardi Gras Cocktails

Mardi Gras is all about overindulgence, in fact, the name itself is French for Fat Tuesday. It takes place the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday and is a celebration of all the rich food and drinking excessiveness before the leaner days of Lent begin. The most famous Mardi Gras celebration in America takes place in New Orleans, home to some of the richest food and abundance of alcohol in the U.S.

While not everyone has access to the plethora of bars found in New Orleans, you can still have a collection of Mardi Gras themed cocktails at your party! Check out our list of our favorite Fat Tuesday tipples to put the party in your mardi and laissez les bon temps rouler! (Let the good times roll!)

Vieux Carre

(Named after the historic French Quarter in New Orleans)

Ingredients

• 1½ oz. cognac
• ½ oz. rye whiskey
• ⅛ oz. Benedictine liqueur
• ½ oz. sweet vermouth
• 1 dash Peychaud bitters
• 1 dash Angostura bitters
• 1½ cups ice
• Lemon peel for garnish

Directions

1. Fill a short cocktail glass with ice. Pour in cognac, whiskey, Benedictine, and sweet vermouth. Add Peychaud and Angostura bitters.
2. Twist a lemon peel over the drink and drop it in.

Throwback Sazerac

Ingredients

• ¼ oz. Absinthe
• 2 oz. Cognac
• ¼ oz. simple syrup
• 3 Dashes Fee Brothers Old-fashioned aromatic bitters
• Lemon twist, for garnish

Directions

1. Place the absinthe in a small rocks glass over ice and set aside.
2. In a mixing glass place the cognac, simple syrup and bitters along with ice and stir for 40 rotations.
3. Swirl the absinthe and ice in the glass and discard.
4. Strain the rest of the ingredients into the chilled rocks glass and garnish with the lemon twist.

Berry Bacchus

Ingredients

• 1½ oz. vodka
• ¾ oz. Chambord
• ¾ oz. Ginger-Mint Syrup (combine half ginger syrup with half mint syrup)
• ¾ oz. freshly squeezed lemon juice
• ¾ oz. freshly squeezed lime juice

Directions

1. Fill a cocktail shaker with ice and then add the vodka, Chambord, Ginger-Mint Syrup, and lemon and lime juice and shake until cold.
2. Strain over fresh ice and garnish with a lime twist.

King Cake Coquito

Ingredients

• 16 oz. white rum
• 14 oz. coconut milk
• 12 oz. evaporated milk
• 2¼ cups water
• 2⅓ cups sugar
• ¼ cups vanilla extract
• 2 limes zested
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 3 egg yolks

Directions

1. In a medium size saucepan, bring water, sugar, lime zest, and cinnamon sticks to a brisk simmer over medium heat and let bubble for 15 minutes. Cool the syrup but do not strain.
2. In a large bowl, combine the sugar syrup, rum, coconut milk, evaporated milk, vanilla and egg yolks and mix well. Strain the mixture into glasses filled with ice.

Mardi Totem Pole

Ingredients

• 1½ oz. Absolut Mandarin
• 1½ oz. kiwi puree
• ¼ oz. lime juice
• ½ oz. simple syrup
• 1 oz. Passion fruit puree
• Peychaud bitters

Directions

1. Combine the kiwi puree, lime juice, and simple syrup in one shaker tin, and the Absolut Mandarin and Passion fruit puree in another.
2. Shake each group with an ice cube. In a tall, clear glass pour the kiwi puree mixture, add ice, and then pour the contents of the other shaker. Top with peychaud bitters and more crushed ice.
3. Garnish with a sugar cane, kiwi slice, and umbrella.

Sour Krewe

Ingredients

• 1½ oz. Reposado Tequila
• ¾ oz. lemon juice
• 1 oz. Simple syrup
• 4-6 Dashes Angostura bitters

Directions

1. Combine all but bitters in rocks glass and stir.
2. Add bitters, ice, and serve.