Happy Hour | Game winning cocktails

What better way to compliment your big game buffet than with a mix of classic and contemporary cocktails! For those who want more than just a brew, cheer your team on with one of these Happy Hour selections.

The Blitz

• 1 1/2 oz. Patrón Añejo tequila
• 1 oz. sweet vermouth
• 1 oz. orange curacao liqueur
• Splash of orange bitters

Add all ingredients in an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Shake until well blended. Strain over ice into a high ball glass.

Touchdown Punch

• 1 liter Hawaiian Punch, undiluted
• 1 12 oz. frozen pink lemonade, undiluted
• 1 liter ginger ale
• 1 to 2 bottles Riesling or other sweet white wine
• 1 gal. orange sherbet
• 1 fresh strawberries, de-stemmed and halved
• 3 oranges, sliced into circles

Combine half of the punch, pink lemonade and strawberries together.

Freeze in small round containers or a container with a design.

Store the other half of the punch and pink lemonade in a container in the refrigerator.

When you are ready to serve the punch, soften the sherbet and put half the sherbet, the rest of the strawberries, orange slices, part of the unfrozen Hawaiian Punch and lemonade mix and one bottle of wine into the punch bowl.

Pour in the ginger ale immediately before serving, and then add your frozen punch to float on top of the bowl.

Serve in punch cups.

The Classic Hurricane

Read more about this historic New Orleans cocktail here.

• 2 oz. light rum
• 2 oz. dark rum
• 1 oz. grenadine, or passion fruit syrup
• 1 oz. fresh orange juice
• 1 oz. sour mix, or fresh lime juice
• 1 tsp. powdered sugar
• Orange wedges, for garnish

Mix all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker, and shake to dissolve the sugar.

Add ice cubes to come halfway up the sides of two hurricane glasses or two tall glasses of your choice.

Divide the drink between the glasses and garnish with an orange wedge.

Serve with a long straw.

 

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Twinkle VanWinkle was born in a small town in Mississippi. A life-long lover of music, media and food, she grew up following those three things along her path. She has almost 20 years of professional cooking under her apron strings, feeding thousands of friends, family and other folks while working in restaurants and bakeries in Oxford, Miss. She baked apple pies for the “Oprah Winfrey Show” and appeared on Food Network's “The Best Of...” in the same year. Along with producing dynamic lifestyle content for LIN Media, she is a mother, musician and social media fanatic.

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