This is pitiful. A thousand people freezing their butts off waiting to worship a rat. What a hype. Groundhog Day used to mean something in this town. They used to pull the hog out, and they used to eat it.
I imagine Bill Murray may have his own drink… somewhere, but now he has it here. It’s Groundhog Day, afterall, and I figure that there is a tribute to be paid for the fact that they, of all holidays, made a movie based around Groundhog Day. Furthermore, they managed to make it good. Not just good, Bill Murray good, which is most people’s great.
I wasn’t going to post until Monday, but I decided, “What the hell! I missed Hanukkah Christmas, New Years and MLK Day, so I might as well do right by Groundhog Day.”
I had a good supply of glögg around still and have been working with it rather liberally. The thought of using glögg as a cocktail ingredient first dawned on me when Ali and I spent an evening at Hollywood’s Wood & Vine, where the Vixen there featured it alongside some vanilla-chai spice bourbon. Well, I didn’t have any vanilla-chai spice bourbon around, but I did have some cranberry-infused bourbon and so Bill Murray was born.
Come on! All the long distance lines are down? What about the satellite, is it snowing in space?
The Bill Murray Cocktail (they’ll never believe you)
- 1.5 oz. cranberry-infused bourbon
- .75 oz. glögg
- .50 oz. Cointreau
- .50 oz. fresh blood orange juice
- 1 dash each of Angostura and Xocolatl bitters
Build all ingredients in a shaker without ice and dry shake. Add ice and shake. Double strain. Garnish with sugar-coated, bourbon-spiked cranberries. Drink. Repeat (it is Groundhog Day!).
This ended up as a very good cocktail. Not just good, Bill Murray good. A little sweet, a little spicy, deep and tart in the beginning, citrusy and bright in the middle, and spicy chocolate on the finish. A complex and remarkable cocktail. A cocktail worthy of being called Bill Murray.
“Don’t drive angry.”
Related articles
- Glögg! The Worldwide Winter Warmer (theliquidcultureproject.com)
- Groundhog Day (1993) (13movies.wordpress.com)
- Marmot researchers raise a toast for Groundhog Day (latimes.com)
- Weekly Cocktail #42: The Kentucky Royale (putneyfarm.com)
Any drink named after Bill Murray belongs in my gullet. Great job with the garnish and recycling the glogg.
Blood orange juice is among my favorite seasonal ingredients, looks great.
Thanks! I had never had a blood orange before this season and now its seasonality is a sad realization. What a gem!
Lovely photos!
Thanks! The camera deserves a lot of the credit though!