It’s been close to seven years since the launch of Genpink! In those years, I’ve had the opportunity to learn about all sorts of brands, products and companies. One of things I love most about working with brands is the opportunity to get to know their “story” in a different light. Recently, I met some folks at Patrón. I’m sure you know about their staple product, Patrón Silver. But did you know they also have a line that’s Coffee and Dark Chocolate flavored? Patrón XO Cafe “is an extraordinary blend of ultra-premium Patrón Silver tequila and the pure, natural essence of fine coffee. The taste is dry, not sweet as with most low-proof coffee liqueurs with notes of chocolate and vanilla.”

Last weekend my husband and I decided to buy a bottle Patrón XO Cafe Dark Cocoa and experiment with a few different cocktails just in time for Valentine’s Day! I knew I wanted to try four different mixes to get an idea of how it blended with other ingredients. So, I started my planning with the Drink Mixer on Patrón’s website. I picked out 3 of my favorites and then decided for my 4th I’d go with an inspiration from something that I’d tried at a bar.

When we got home from the Liquor store I decided to lay out of all of the mixes, along with some fun add-ons to serve them with. Disclaimer: we had all of the other liquor already so the only thing we purchased with the Patrón XO Cafe Dark Cocoa was cookies. Priorities, right?! I discovered it was nearly impossible to get a good picture of everything a once (see Exhibit A below).

As a wedding gift my grandmother gave us her crystal bar set. So, these fun glasses you’ll see are all vintage. And so, here are the recipes!

Cocktail: Minty Cocoa

This recipe was adapted from patrontequila.com. It’s fairly easy, you just measure out all of the ingredients into a shaker. Shake with ice and then strain into a glass over ice.

We decided in addition to garnishing it with fresh mint that we’d add Keebler® Grasshopper Cookies. This one was my favorite, but my husband wasn’t a fan of the green color. The recipe calls for White Creme de Menthe, but we only had green on hand. It reminded me of mint chocolate chip ice cream! I think it’d be fun to serve for St. Patrick’s Day as well.

Cocktail: Amaretto Nespressotini

This recipe was also adapted from patrontequila.com. With this one you just shake all the ingredients with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

We weren’t quite sure how much espresso our Nespresso machine would yield so we ended up doubling the recipe. We also decided to garnish this one with food, because why not? On the glass we have Caramel we received from Dallas Caramel Co. It added a nice flavor to complement the richness of the coffee-flavored cocktail. I enjoyed the flavor of this one, but I’d certainly opt for this one earlier in the day. I’m not one for having espresso late at night or I’ll never sleep!

 XO Jam Cocktail

I’ve tried a few different jam cocktails at various bars so I decided to experiment with one at home. The jam we had that I thought would mix the best with the Cocoa flavor of Patrón XO Cafe was Strawberry and Blackcurrant. My assumption was correct – this one turned out quite tasty! If you are not familiar with jam cocktails, you mix all of your liquid ingredients with ice and then you add a spoonful (your call on size) of jam straight to the drink. The flavors meld pretty quickly. If you want your drink sweeter you can add more jam and vice versa.

The XO Jam Cocktail was a close second as my favorite for the evening. The strawberry and cocoa flavors were excellent together. And it certainly reminds me of Valentine’s Day. We served this one with Brookside’s Dark Chocolate-covered Goji Berries. I am addicted to those things. If you haven’t tried them, you must! Details here.

Cocktail: Cherries Jubilee

This recipe was my husband’s idea. One weekend when I was out of town he bought a book dedicated to cocktails you can light on fire. So, naturally any time there’s a drink that he can modify to light on fire he’s game. The original recipe for the drink is called Dark Cherry. We added Bacardi 151 to it so it was flammable. We also have Cherry Grey Goose on hand so this was extra fancy!

In case you were wondering it’s a bit difficult to get a perfect photo of a drink on fire. I kept feeling like I was going to light my eyebrows on fire when I got close enough to snap the perfect photo.

We even ended up taking a video of it! (probably have to click through if you are reading via email or RSS.

So, what are your Valentine’s Day plans? How about a night in with some fun drinks! 

(This is not a sponsored post. This was an experiment just for fun)