New Creations From The Mixing Lab

So it's midsummer now, and there's nothing nicer than barbeque, veggies, salad, and a few friends to enjoy it with. Thankfully we had just such an opportunity after the unbelievable drama of the men's singles final at Wimbledon. Rest assured, I made my feelings about this epic known in the post preceding this one. Anyway, time to get focused on post-sports-history-making refreshment. The Jess cranked out the marinade for the chicken and took care of the veg, I manned the grill and got behind the bar.
Warm days and great fruit call for cold, crisp drinks with bold flavors. We had some brilliant limes from the farmers market and a new bottle of Leblon cachaca, thus...caiprinhias! This Brazilian refresher is fashioned from sugar (I like brown sugar cubes, most recipes call for fine white sugar), ice, limes, and cachaca.
The ice must be crushed, so you get just a bit of melting during the shaking process. I'm having tons of fun mixing drinks with fresh crushed ice generated by my first class hand cranked ice crusher (take one guess who bought it for me). The lime is quartered with the pith cut away, but leave the peel on. There's a certain romance that comes from this process; each drink really feels like it has been assembled out of very disparate components.
Anyway, here's the recipe:
The Tipsy Caiprinhia
2 oz cachaca
3 brown sugar cubes
one lime
freshly crushed ice
soda

Quarter the lime and add to lowball glass with sugar cubes. Muddle vigorously until sugar fully broken up and dissolving. Add 1.5 oz of cachaca, then ice to fill glass. Transfer mix into shaker. Use 1/2 oz cachaca to rinse bottom of lowball and add to shaker. Shake vigorously until metal is cold. Pour back into lowball. Rinse out shaker with splash of soda (some of the sugar likes to stay behind, you gotta go get it!) and pour into glass.

As the premeal festivities wore on, other drinks were needed, and I was called upon to make an old staple; the amaretto sour. I had forgotten how satisfying this one can be. Dry and tart, sweet at the end. Really a perfect aperitif and easy as sneezing with your eyes closed.
Amaretto Sour
3 oz sweet and sour
1.5 oz amaretto

add amaretto and s/s to lowball glass. Add ice cubes. Stir. Drink. Order another one because it's so good!

Though we were still thirsty, we were running short on ice, so we had to adapt. Only items cold from the fridge would suffice. Thus was born a new concoction from The Mixing Lab, dubbed The Markalicious by Mr. Triathlon.
The Markalicious
1.5 oz vodka
1 oz sweet and sour
1.5 oz Odwalla Pomegrand juice
lime
soda

add vodka, s/s, juice to highball glass. Add ice cubes, splash of soda. Squeeze generous lime wedge and toss into glass. Stir gently (the juice is quite dense and will settle if not mixed a bit before drinking)
I promise, dear reader, that I will try to remember to take pics of my concoctions from The Mixing Lab before they're consumed, because they look as brilliant as they taste.