Brooklyn's on Boulder releases summer menu

The team at Brooklyn's on Boulder recently invited us to preview their summer menu, now available. New developments: they're now offering gin and tonic flights so customers can sample their signature compositions, as well as barrel-aged cocktails. They've also launched distribution in Texas.

Tasting room manager Carlos Garcia has prepared a take on one of his favorite cocktails, the Top Collins, called a Tom Sawyer. It uses Americana-brand huckleberry soda, creme de violette, dry gin, lemon and a cherry. The citrus and gin balance a lot of sugar between the soda and the liqueur, so it's intense, but well-balanced, a little fruity and floral.

Bartender Philip Taylor has prepared a take on a piña colada called the Toño Bicicleta, named for Puerto Rican folklore hero Francisco Antonio García López, known for his daring prison escapes. The drink starts with a pineapple cordial made from as much of the pineapple as Taylor could use, including boiled skins and puréed rind. It's more earthy and less sweet than pineapple juice, and in the Toño Bicicleta's mix of coconut-macadamia-infused gin and coconut milk, it's a perfect summer slammer. It goes down easy, but there's a lingering bitter juiciness on the finish, and it's not oversweet.

Head bartender Stephen Winchell put together a drink called the Silk Road, fusing Middle Eastern flavors into what Winchell says is essentially a tiki drink. It starts with macadamia rose orgeat, an almond-based syrup, which gets mixed with green cardamom, dry gin, creme de rose and lime. It's garnished with orange blossom water, rose petals and a cardamom pod. Vanilla and nut fat balance out an acidic core, though the nose is all botanicals. It's a complex drink, but by no means unfriendly.

The team's also taking some of their cocktails in a different direction, pushing less for complex preparation and more for unique flavor profiles to wow. On a recent trip to New York City, the team was wowed at Milk Bar. Winchell drew particular inspiration from the bakery's cereal milk, a product made to resemble the taste of milk at the bottom of a bowl of corn flakes. His cereal milk Ramos is a play on the pillow-light Ramos gin fizz. It starts with frosted cornflakes muddled with cream and a pinch of salt, which is then filtered. That's mixed with typical Ramos fizz ingredients: sugar, egg whites, dry gin, lemon and lime. Garnished with a piece of breakfast cereal, the drink fulfills the promise in the name — it's like they've turned breakfast cereal into a cloud that also gets you drunk.