Electric Jam

1.25 oz vodka
.5 oz blue curaçao
2 oz sour mix
Lemon lime soda

Pour first three ingredients over ice and top off with soda. Stir.

Crooney declares this really tasty. I could not agree more. Having just left my remedial grad school class, I could drink ten of these.

Bolshoi Punch

1 oz. vodka
.25 oz. rum
.25 oz. creme de cassis
2.5 oz. lemon juice
1 t powdered sugar

Shake and pour over ice in old fashioned glass.

We have a special guest with us tonight! Kim took the first sip. She said it tastes like the bottom of an Erin Express drink where nothing but lemon is left and she can no longer taste vodka. "It's not a bad drink. It just takes like lemon," she said.

Crooney took a sip and said it was not as bad as he thought it was going to be. His take: it tastes like pink lemonade. He said it also looks like pink lemonade, which is clearly untrue. Unless pink lemonade is brown. I concur with Kim in her opinion that this drink tastes like a lemon that might accidentally get you drunk. Too much lemon.

Black Russian

1.5 oz. vodka
.75 oz. coffee liqueur

Pour over ice in an old fashioned glass and stir.

Crooney prefers the Black Russian to the Black Magic. He realized the lemon juice cut the coffee liquer a bit too much for his taste. I'm also here to say the aftertaste was more lemon than vodka. Black Russian > Black Magic.

That old black magic

No, really. That's what this drink is called. Black Magic.

1.5 oz. vodka
.75 oz. coffee liqueur
dash of lemon juice

Pour over ice into an old fashioned glass and stir.

Proving that I will drink coffee with anything in it, I love this drink. We're trying to figure out whether that's a vodka aftertaste or a lemon juice one. Either way, I can live with it. Crooney says "not bad."

Watch this space.

Vodka cometh.

Godmother

1.5 oz vodka
.75 oz amaretto

Pour over ice into an old fashioned glass.

I like this drink more than I was expecting. Amaretto has always been too sweet and syrupy for me. By cutting it with a double-dose of vodka the sweetness and syrupyness mellow out and the natural nutty flavor comes through. Pretty good. Shannon says it tastes like cough syrup, but she could sip it more or less happily.

Handball Cooler

1.5 oz. Vodka
Club Soda
Orange Juice

Pour the vodka over ice into a highball glass. Fill almost to the top with club soda. Top with orange juice. Shannon really likes this drink. She pronounced it chuggable, in a good way. I thought it was ok. It tastes a little like orangina.