Onyx Moonshine Cocktails
File this page under “I have no idea what I ever decided to document something so inane.” So here you are: I make all the suggested Onyx cocktails; just trying to get my wife drunk. (Note: this is like a year’s worth of cocktails in my house and maybe two small bottles of Onyx.)
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Authentic Prohibition Era Cocktails
Bees Knees
1 oz Onyx
¼ oz Lemon Juice
¼ oz Orange Juice
1 teaspoon Honey
- shake well with ice, strain into chilled glass
- Note: Honey forms into a ball, pour into glass
I tend to think “Prohibition Era” in this case means “what old coots gave sick grandchildren to soothe their cough and stop their ‘infernal carryin’-on’.” I also tend to think that the bathtub moonshine wasn’t as “clean” as Onyx is. No way.
But man, when I read the literature of the 1920’s, it sure does seem those folks liked to drink.
However, I doubt they drank too many Bees Knees’s. It’s just a bit of a pain to make and messy to boot. I love honey, but “in a ball,” in my drink? Not so much. The drink tasted fine, but really, it just seems a bit of a mess to bother with.
Then again, I guess that’s why we tip bartenders so well, eh?
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Modern Moonshine Cocktails
Cranberry Moon
1 oz Onyx
2 oz Cranberry Juice
Fresh lime garnish
On the rocks
A simple Cape Codder, but with moonshine rather than vodka, obviously. When I was a terrible bartender, I loved making Cape Cods. Mostly because it was the only mixed drink I knew how to make.
Anyway, this classic drink tastes exactly as you think it would. Like cranberry juice with some alcohol in it.
Although, like everything with Onyx in it, you can’t really taste the hooch. Which means that if you mix our significant other more than two of these bad boys, you may get to witness him or her displaying a “cranberry moon” for you while he or she thinks he or she is being cute.
Let’s hope your significant other is, for you sake.
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Shinin’ Tea
2 oz Onyx
4 oz iced tea
Fresh squeezed lemon
On the rocks
Nah. Don’t do this one. I love iced tea – in fact, it may be my favorite thing in the world to drink when all is said and done. But boozed up iced tea, at least in this perhaps-too-simple way, just isn’t very good.
Come to think of it, I’ve never had a good boozy tea. From tea-infused beer (it exists, at least at Plainville’s Relic Brewing) to chai-infused booze, it just doesn’t work for me. It may be simply because I love iced tea. And not that freaking sweet tea garbage either. Just pure, bitter tea.
(Hot tea, though, deserves some honey in it. )
With so many other options out there, moonshine tea is as stupid as it sounds.
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Sophisticated
Sunshine Martini
2 oz Onyx
3 oz Pineapple Juice
Heavy Splash Chambord
Shaken Martini
This drink rules. Rules hard. First of all, since the moonshine has zero flavor, what you’re drinking here is basically pineapple juice with raspberry from the Chambord. And that’s just delicious.
But with 2 oz of 80 proof moonshine (plus however heavy your splash of Chambord is) per drink I make for my wife, these things are great on a weekend night.
They are also quite dangerous, as you can just down the Sunshine Martini like breakfast juice.
(You can tell we are getting old, as the word “dangerous” would never have entered my mind 10 or 20 years ago. Rather, I’d have used “awesome.” Sigh.)
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The Coddington
1 oz Onyx
1 oz Triple Sec
1 oz Ginger Ale
1 oz Peach Nectar
Chilled or rocks
We did not enjoy this one at all. The sweet citrus, ginger and peach just didn’t work together at all. I notice it’s not even listed on their website on their list of cocktails.
What’s weird is that this cocktail is not listed on the Onyx website (there are many, many others) and I can’t find an existing drink this is based upon. Like, there’s no such drink as The Coddington.
I mean, there might be, but I can’t find it. And I don’t really care to, because Hoang and I didn’t like this one at all.
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Onyx Cosmo
2 oz Onyx
½ oz Triple Sec
½ oz Lime Juice
1 oz Cranberry Juice
Chilled in martini glass
Yeah, so Cosmos were all the rage in the 90’s and 00’s for whatever cultural reason. Most attribute it to “Sex and the City” I guess, and that is as good of a reason as any.
Another reason is that Cosmos are the quintessential girlie drink. Sweet with a little tartness, wel-masked alcohol – a martini with no burn. There’s really just noting wrong with a classic Cosmo.
(Other than the fact that back in my club days, gaggles of girls holding drinks in martini glasses meant lots of spilled drinks. Martinis are meant to sit on table/bar tops, not held in hands while the bass drops.
Anyway, the Onyx Cosmo is better than a vodka one because you can’t taste vodka. I’m sure even Carrie would approve. (No, I’ve never watched a minute of “Sex and the City.”)
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