Today, for this week’s Drink of the Week, I thought to do something a little different.
Below is a YouTube video featuring a drink that, although not in the present offering of Sips with Susan, could certainly find its way into a future volume.
Makes two libations, one to share and one for you.
ENJOY! 😉 Drink your “Sips” responsibly! 😂
From Sips with Susan — A Gathering Place Companion 🍸
Each week, we’ll share one recipe from Sips with Susan — A Gathering Place Companion. Some will be simple, some a little more involved, but all are meant to be shared — one to enjoy and one to pass along to a friend.
We begin where many of the drinks begin — with Ginger Jazz. Drinks in Sips with Susan feature ginger liqueur — often shown using a familiar commercial bottle. Ginger Jazz is our homemade version, crafted right here at The Gathering Place.
Ginger Jazz is a bright, spicy house liqueur that brings warmth and character to your cocktails. Once made, it quickly becomes a favorite to keep on hand.
Ingredients
2–3 oz fresh ginger root (2 oz = milder | 3 oz = hotter)
1 whole vanilla bean
1 cup orange blossom honey
1 tsp cinnamon (ground)
1 tsp cardamom (ground)
Zest from ½ orange
1⅜ cups water
1⅜ cups V.S.O.P. brandy
¼ cup neutral spirit (190 proof grain alcohol = 95% alcohol) (see note below for substitute)
Directions
Peel ginger and slice thin.
Slice vanilla bean lengthwise.
Add ginger, vanilla bean, water, and honey to a pan and simmer about 20 minutes.
Strain through fine mesh lined with a coffee filter into a bottle.
Allow to mellow 24 hours before use.
Makes approximately 2½ cups of Ginger Jazz.
⚠️ Note on Neutral Spirits
Grain alcohol (190 proof = 95% alcohol) is extremely strong and should never be consumed straight. It is used in small amounts to help extract flavors during infusion.
If neutral spirits are unavailable or not preferred, substitute:
¼ cup mixture made from:
⅛ cup water
⅛ cup brandy
Finished Ginger Jazz averages about 56 proof(28% alcohol) once diluted.
ENJOY! 😉 Use your Ginger Jazz responsibly! 🍸 From Sips with Susan — A Gathering Place Companion
Sips with Susan — Volume 1 A Gathering Place Companion
Some books begin with an outline.
Sips with Susan began with a habit.
Not a business plan. Not a publishing goal.
Just an evening… a glass… and a willingness to try something a little different.
At The Gathering Place, drinks were never just drinks. They were conversation starters. Excuses to sit longer. Reasons to laugh one more time before calling it a night.
It started with a Moscow Mule — changed just enough to make it ours.
Then another variation.
Then another.
Before long, we were doing what creative people often do without realizing it — we were keeping track.
Not because we planned a book… but because we didn’t want to forget.
Names were given. Tweaks were made. Favorites were repeated.
And somewhere along the way, the number quietly reached one hundred.
That’s when the idea finally spoke clearly:
Maybe this isn’t just a collection of drinks. Maybe it’s a collection of moments worth saving.
That thought became Sips with Susan — Volume 1.
Not as a commercial product first — but as a memory preserved.
Today, the book exists. But more importantly, the gathering continues.
If you’d like to explore the finished collection, you can find it through I-Imagine Press, where it is available in both free and paid editions.
And if you’d like to see where the drinks truly live — where new ones are still being created — visit The Gathering Place, where the stories behind the glass are still unfolding.
Because in the end, this was never just about cocktails.
It was about connection.
And connection, like a good drink, is best when shared.
Once upon time and only once a year Mysterious; quite strange, it will appear Buildings and skyscrapers will move and give space As if by magic, but to most, an invisible place But some unseen force, draws them and they come and came And an old gaslight lantern, illuminates the name
‘Old Fezziwig’s Christmas Spirits & Cheer’ Festive to the restless, in the dark and the drear
Old Fezziwig’s
No ghosts of future, present or past to one’s birth Just The Wise Guy that serves the mirth Lively libations and custom made cheer For what ails yah’ and what casts out every fear
And they came and come, the lost and alone in profusion The tossed whose drinks were sore woes and confusion Some, with shorts too tight that pinches The grumpys’ the scrooges and grinches
Music and dancing Clinking and prancing Observations And conversations Libations and custom-made cheer And all are welcome here
Up to the bar they sit sat and wait and waited With dim slims of hope, to be sated
Old Fezziwig
No demands or judgement, just a voice Just the asking each, to make a choice Frozen hearts like glaciers and icebergs calve “How may I serve you, what will you have?”
And often the reply is just a request, “My dear sir, what would you suggest?” “What would you recommend, most affective?” And he said, “That all depends on your perspective!”
“I could fill your glass half empty or I could fill it half full Only you can decide, the push or the pull I can pour all that glows and glitters I just don’t and won’t pour the bitters
I can fizzle and I can dazzle I can drizzle, but never frazzle No down memory lane or ‘Auld Lang Syne’ Just spirits and drinks of cheer and life’s “fruit of the vine”
“I can pour you something that would make you want to be warm and in the pink I can make your want to smile, but I just can’t make you think”
“But to tell you the truth, all these suggestions are, to try and get you to think Because I only, only, just make one, special drink”
“It’s ‘The Golden Heart’, neither solid nor broken
‘Gold Heart’
Just edges, no center and just a token You decide and with one swig or swallow Your heart will be open or it will be hollow”
And drink they all up and down the hatch And in an instant, like striking a match The scene is quickly gone to—disappear And all to wonder, were they really here?
This was no dream, but a lesson of life An open heart is fraught, full and rife A solid heart can be dented, damaged, frozen and broken apart But flowing out and flowing in that’s…
…an open heart
Note: “Old Fezziwig” was a fictional character ‘in ‘A Christmas Carol’, by Charles Dickens
From the collection: The Uncollected Collection’ by the same author
Old Fezziwig’s Gold Heart
Fezz
(‘Old Fezziwig’s Gold heart’)
Note: four letter name change (Fezz), suggested by sister Carol Lee
Libatious’ #130
bonus drinks beyond 100
By Dahnini or Dahnitini Spirits Alchemist Bon Devant
Rim martini glasses 🍸🍸 with lemon 🍋 and use a paint brush and brush on a little little edible gold dust
4 jiggers vodka 2 jiggers of orange liqueur 🍊 juice of 1 fresh lemon 🍋 ½ jigger of honey 🍯 and finely chopped crystallized ginger pieces 2 egg whites
Combine all the ingredients into a cocktail shaker and dry-shake (no ice). Add ice 🧊 and shake again in Hand Shaker until well chilled
“Shaken not stirred!” -007, Bond, James Bond- 😀
Strain into chilled martini 🍸 🍸 glasses Shake edible gold dust into the center of your ‘Fez’
Makes two lovely libations. One to share and one for you. 😀
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