MIDWEEK HAPPY HOUR: The Cocktail Hour Top Ten

On most Sundays we have a feature called The Cocktail Hour where we present videos, pictures, tastings, and recipes of different drinks to coincide with the Day of Rest.  If you've missed any or haven't visited on Sundays, here are the top ten Cocktail Hour posts as calculated by the number of visitors.  Click on the names to see that particular post.

10. Latin Passion.  Similar to a tequila sunrise but more sour.  Very popular on the Sunday patio.

9. Skid Row Wine Bowl - Merlot. Once in awhile, we put up California's most popular wine, the budget priced Charles Shaw (Two-Buck Chuck) up against some similar priced contenders.  Here is the episode putting the most popular variety, merlot, up against another similarly priced brand.

8. Daquiri.  Hemingway's favorite drink.  We make it with the original way with limes, sugar and rum.

7. Amaretto Sour.  A tasty drink with a lower alcohol content than most cocktails.  For our friends who don't want too much firepower in their drinks.

6. Classic Margarita.  Our very first Cocktail Hour video!  One of the tastiest margaritas you'll have, served on the rocks, of course.

5. Cosmopolitan.  The pink martini-like drink favored by fans of Sex in the City.

4. Tequila Tasting with the Tios.  Come along on a road trip as we buy hundreds of dollars worth of premium tequila and have a tasting party with two honest-to-goodness Mexican connoisseurs of the Blue Agave in Yuma, Arizona.  This one was a lot of fun to make.

3. The Belgian Beer Festival.  Another on location trip to Lucky Baldwin's Pub in Sierra Madre, California for their annual Belgian Beer Festival.

2. Hurricane.  The French Quarter's favorite drink, made right here on the patio.

1. Tequila Sunrise.  And, the most popular drink on the site is our version of this Mexican beach classic with just a little personal touch to make it stand out.

There you have it, our ten most popular Cocktail Hour posts.  Each one also features an accompanying video, so please take a look and come on along for this little mid-week happy hour.  Don't forget, there are many more Cocktail Hours that didn't make the list.  Visit those too and maybe you'll see some of them show up the next time we calculate the top ten.

Cheers!

-Darryl
Copyright 2010 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

BLOG STATUS REPORT: Where's The Cocktail Hour?

You might have noticed that The Cocktail Hour has been on a bit of a hiatus.  This is because of two reasons:  a) Letty and I have been trying to get into better shape this summer and get our weight back where it belongs, especially me, so we've been cutting back on cocktails and drinking mostly wine instead - which doesn't make for  good Cocktail Hour recipe videos -  and b) I've been trying to get as many stadiums posted as possible for The Fields of Dreams series while it is still baseball season.


Don't worry, though.  We'll be making more Cocktail Hour videos (which usually are posted on Sundays, the day of rest) and you can click on the link in the first paragraph to see the reports we've already done - you can bet you haven't seen them all.  Next weekend we'll be having a special Labor Day themed Cocktail Hour.  We've also been experimenting with new cocktails with lower calorie counts and will be sharing those recipes with you in the future.


Thanks for your support and we hope you continue to visit our little corner of the web.


-Darryl

2013 Year in Review

Seemed like a slow travel year for us but we still managed to get in quite a few trips and even stepped out of the country a tiny bit. We've now hit 40 (43 for me) out of the 50 states and made it back to the Caribbean, too, without stepping out of the country. Look below to see our activity for the year and click on the links to visit our reports for each item...

We started with a trip south of the border into Ensenada, Mexico, which has been the recipient of a lot of bad press and cruise cancellations lately due to drug cartel activity, to see if it was really that bad or dangerous. Conclusion?  Not even remotely...can't wait to go back.

Cocktail Hour suggestion: Margarita Madness.

Barely averting a traveler's nightmare...getting the wrong date down in your hotel booking...we managed to squeak out a parent's getaway to the Danish-themed town of Solvang, California where we spent a few days with hundreds of greyhounds.

Cocktail Hour suggestion: Chilled Chardonnay.

Unfortunately, this year we didn't get to add any new stadiums to our list of accessible ballparks in our Fields of Dreams reports.

We found a new contender for our best hotel chain of the year, Hyatt, with great hotels, easy accessible reservations, and an awesome loyalty program. Then, Marriott, not wanting to give up the title so easy stepped up with the best rooms we had in Tennessee and a really outstanding suite in Arizona..although they did dilute their loyalty program last year.  We'll just say that both chains top our list at the end of 2013.

Spring found us back on the beach in the Caribbean, this time on the lovely U.S. territory of St. Croix in the Virgin Islands at one of the world's great independent hotels, the Buccaneer.

Cocktail Hour suggestion: A St. Croix Drinking Tour.

Just like John Fogerty, we really did get a little stuck in Lodi, California, which instead turned into a nice trip to Sacramento, the Gold Country, and great wine tasting in the Sierra foothills.

Cocktail Hour suggestion: Sierra Foothills Wine Taste Off.

A lot of my travel friends say American Airlines is no fun anymore, and they have dropped quite a bit in their service, we still had good flights for St. Croix on them but we still have to say Southwest is the best as they flew us with great spirits and comfort to Nashville, Tennessee.  Still our favorite airline as we enter the New Year.

Summer found us in a dispute with a festival operator in Monrovia, California, which turned into an opportunity to document the steps to take in an ADA dispute. Complaint resolved, we still visit the festival regularly.

We added some new video to a couple of old trips, a night time helicopter flight over Las Vegas and some newly found footage of our time in Puerto Vallarta back in the 90's.

On a more somber note, Tim and I took a trip to Palm Springs to say goodbye to my aunt, who had her funeral there in the fall.

While we started working on a new foodie video this year, we have yet to finish it (gives you something to look forward to this year) but we did start a new mid-week series when we figured out our home of the San Gabriel Valley has around 40 different types of ethnic foods being served here. We're still going strong with our series, The Ethnic Foods of the San Gabriel Valley, but will be wrapping that up soon.

Finally, this fall had us checking off items on our bucket list as we headed out on the grand Tennessee Tour and the Elvis Trail.

Cocktail Hour suggestion: Beale Street Pub Crawl.

Thanks for making us your stop for accessible travel in 2013, I hope you'll stick around to see what's in store for 2014.

Darryl
Copyright 2014 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

The Cocktail Hour Compendium

For you fans of The Cocktail Hour, our weekly Sunday Happy Hour here on The World on Wheels, here is a link to our YouTube channel for The Cocktail Hour that has all the videos on one page:

The Cocktail Hour YouTube Channel

-Darryl

THE COCKTAIL HOUR TOP TEN

Ready for the Top Five?  Last week's first installment of the Top Ten are below these five.  Now, on to the Top Five most popular Cocktail Hour videos, as voted by you, our visitors...


5. Tequila Tasting with the Tios - A cross-border tequila run, followed by a tasting session at a Yuma hotel with two of our Mexican uncles and our aunt.  These guys know their tequila and it was a lot of fun filming this with them.

Tequila Tasting with the Tios

4. Amaretto Sour - This lower alcohol cocktail proved mighty popular with our visitors.  Note that although it is lighter in alcohol, it still packs plenty of calories.  Still, a tasty drink.

Amaretto Sour

3. Belgian Beer Festival - An annual festival at Lucky Baldwin's pubs in Pasadena and Sierra Madre, California.  This video comes from the Sierra Madre location.

Belgian Beer Festival

2. Hurricane - Our top two videos are drink recipe videos.  At number two is New Orleans favorite drink.

Hurricane

1. Tequila Sunrise - At number one is this classic Mexican cocktail, popular all along that country's coastline.

Tequila Sunrise

Picture courtesy of Wikimedia

Lynt under CC-BY-SA license

Here is the rest of the Top Ten Cocktail Hour Videos...


10.  White Sangria - This wine based drink has lower alcohol content than most of our recipes.  Since it's mostly wine and juice, it's not bad in the calorie count either.

White Wine Sangria

9. Tequila Party at Rudy's - Each year, Rudy's Mexican Restaurant in Monrovia, California has a tequila tasting night with free-flowing agave spirits poured by reps from different distilleries.  Rudy also puts out a great buffet to keep those stomachs full. 

Tequila Party at Rudy's

8. Daiquiri - Hemmingway's favorite drink.  This recipe is from the original...no mixes or substitutes.  The result is delicious.

Daiquiri

7. Classic Margarita - My best margarita recipe...on the rocks.  This is also the first Cocktail Hour video we ever produced.

Classic Margarita

6. Cosmopolitan - The pink drink favored by the women on Sex in the City.  Here's how to make one of your very own.

Cosmopolitan

-Darryl

Copyright 2011 - Darryl Musick

All Rights Reserved

THE COCKTAIL HOUR: Southern California's Best Margaritas and Margarita Madness!

Go to this link, Golden State Eating: Nine Tales of California Food Destinations,  to get your copy of our e-book. It follows us along as we go from Los Angeles to Napa Valley and back again, highlighting nine great food trips to take in this state.

To celebrate, here's our Margarita Madness Cocktail Hour which features the video that's embedded in Chapter 1 of our book. Enjoy...

The first chapter is our new Southern California's Top Three Margaritas and features this video that we've spent the last 6 months working on and putting together so we could launch it with our book.

Watch the Video!

Southern California's Top Three Margaritas

Check out the video and for the complete story...along with eight more delicious chapters and well over an hour of video...go over to Amazon and download the book. You'll have your own personal GPS to delicious eating up and down this Golden State.

Below, check out our Margarita Madness video where we try to determine our own personal favorite margarita recipe.

Thanks for you support - Darryl

We've been challenged, folks.

The first Cocktail Hour we ever did was my version of a margarita. A bartender in Baja California said it wasn't a margarita...to be authentic, a margarita had to consist of only tequila, Cointreau (or Grand Marnier or triple sec), and lime juice.

Watch the Video!

Now I've had a margarita at the bar legend says invented this drink and had it that way. It's OK, but not as tasty as I can make it.

But the gauntlet has been thrown and we must answer.

Tim joins me as we make a completely authentic margarita and we give it a taste. Then, we make one with my recipe and see which one tastes better.  Who will win? Watch the video embedded in this report to find out!


Classic Margarita
1.5 oz. tequila
1 oz. Cointreau (or triple sec)
juice of one lime


Salt the rim of a martini glass using the rind of the lime. Mix ingredients in a cocktail shaker half filled with ice and shake. Strain over the rocks in the martini glass.


Darryl's Margarita
1.5 oz. tequila
1 oz. Cointreau (or triple sec)
.5 oz. brandy
juice of one lime
1 oz. Sweet and Sour mix.


Salt the rim of a margarita glass using the rind of the lime. Mix ingredients in a cocktail shaker half filled with ice and shake. Strain over the rocks in the margarita glass.


Which do you prefer?


Cheers!
-Darryl

THE COCKTAIL HOUR: Dominican Resort Drink Tour

(Please read our Covid 19 Statement first - Ed)  Quandary - you have an unlimited bar tab at a tropical resort. How to you make the most of it?

Watch the Video!

Coming to you from Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, this week's Cocktail Hour tries to make a dent in it. Watch as we go from lobby bar to plaza bar and swim up bar to sample the bartenders talents.

Trying to not get too lit up (yeah, right) while keeping the sunburn to a minimum, it's all rum, tequila, and vodka by by the pool in this week's on-location Cocktail Hour video. Enjoy!


Cheers,


-Darryl

THE COCKTAIL HOUR: Chilled Chardonnay

With temperatures in the 90s this week, something cool and nice would be more appropriate for today’s Cocktail Hour.  This morning, I put this bottle of Story Chardonnay on ice so it would be really cold this afternoon.

This particular chardonnay is not really a Story wine.  It is actually made by Weibel Vineyards in Lodi, California.  The reason this is done is because of where Story is located and the habits of wine drinkers.

Story is located in Plymouth, California in Amador County.  This is Gold Country and the Sierra Nevada foothills.  It is very hot and dry here in the summer.  Perfect for growing big, bold, red grapes like zinfandel, barbera, and sangiovese.  Not so great for more delicate white grapes like chardonnay.

Wine drinkers tend to want white wines too, to go along with the reds they taste so wineries in this area need to have some available.  It’s just common sense and supply and demand.  If you customers want to buy white wine, have some available.

In this area, the wineries have two options.  Buy the grapes from other areas…like Lodi or the Central Coast…have them shipped up and make them into wine, or have another winery make it and slap your label on it.  The second option is the one Story takes.  They, and several other wineries in the state, also do this with Weibel’s excellent almond champagne.

I don’t have any problem with them doing this as long as they are up front about it, and Story is.  The label on the back of the bottle explicitly says it’s a Weibel product and the prices are the same with either label.

So, how is the wine?  Very good.  Nice, smooth and a slight buttery flavor.  Just a hint of fresh fruit flavors such as watermelon and kiwi.  A lot of chardonnays are described as clean and fruity when they just taste tart, and maybe a little soury.  Not this one.  Fresh fruit flavor, smoothed with a slight buttery finish.

Delicious on a hot patio day like today.

So how does it do on our new healthy themed Cocktail Hour season?  It depends on where you check, but the average number of calories is 500 per bottle.  We share between two people and get 6 glasses total for 250 calories per person (1/2 bottle) or around 84 calories per glass.  You will also consume around 8 grams of carbohydrates but no fat and no protein.

It’s a good chardonnay, probably around the 2^nd or 3^rd best we’ve had in the last year (Santa Alicia from Chile is the best we’ve had recently).  If you can’t find Story at your local wine shop, look for Weibel.  If you can’t find either, you can order online at Story (www.zin.com) or at Weibel (www.weibel.com).

Cheers!

-Darryl

THE COCKTAIL HOUR: Tequila Tasting with the Tios

Rudy, one of the bartenders in our "Southern California's Top Three Margaritas" video, told me this is his favorite Cocktail Hour video. For Rudy - Ed

In Memoriam - Heliodoro Melgarejo

1943 - 2021

Welcome to a very special Cocktail Hour here on The World on Wheels. We’re on the road for today’s episode, crossing the border into Mexico and bringing some premium tequilas back for our own little tasting party. As you may know from previous cocktail hours, I’m a big fan of the blue agave spirits.

With us today is Heliodoro, Hector, and Lupe…our aunt and uncles from my wife’s side of the family. The two uncles are pretty serious tequila connoisseurs, and I take their opinions and recommendations seriously when I’m looking for good tequila.

With that, it’s on to the tasting which you can watch in the video above. In the morning, we crossed over into Mexico at Los Algodones, which is about 7 miles west of Yuma, Arizona. We acquired around $300 worth of tequila, all but one of which I would consider premium or ultra-premium. Each person is allowed to bring back 1 liter, so the little bottles you see in the video were taken to add to our 750ml bottles to get as close to the limit as possible.

Back across the border, we had our tasting session at our hotel, the La Fuente Inn and Suites in Yuma. Here are our opinions on each of the tequilas…

Corralejo Reposado – This is made in Guanajato by Hacienda Corralejo. You usually see this in oversize blue bottles at your local liquor store. It’s not bad, definitely better that Cuervo Gold or the supermarket generics, and has a pretty good agave flavor. There is a tinge of harshness to the taste that keeps it from being a truly premium spirit. It’s along the lines of Cazadores…a good, solid tequila that is a superb mixer and a decent shot maker if you cut the taste with lime and salt. That right there is my line in the sand between a really good tequila and a superb tequila…premium tequilas need no help from limes, salt, etc. to be enjoyed. They taste too good by themselves to be adulterated by other ingredients.

1921 – Next is a trinity from 1921, another distiller from Guanajato. First is the plata, or silver, tequila. Plata is not aged. Just distilled and bottled. Right off the bat we can tell there is a big jump in quality from the Corallejo. Smooth. Great agave flavor. No harshness at all. An excellent, premium silver.

The 1921 Reposado – reposado is Spanish for rested. A reposado usually means that the tequila has been aged in wooden barrels for at least 6 months. 1921’s version is another smooth entry but the wooden aging overtakes the agave flavor a bit. It’s really good but not quite as good as the silver.

1921’s Añejo – aged at least a year – picks up where the reposado left off. Many añejos are aged in old whiskey barrels and the result is an overtone of whiskey flavor along with the agave. Some distillers are masters at this blending of flavors, others not so much. 1921 is a master at this. It’s one of the best añejos out there. This morning when we were tasting samples, we had a taste of Hacienda de la Plata añejo. It wasn’t bad. Then we had a taste of Hacienda de la Plata ultra añejo, which is aged for several years instead of one. It was very delicious and $56 a bottle. The 1921 añejo has an almost identical taste to the ultra añejo but is $30 less per bottle (note, these are Mexican prices – they are much higher in the States). This is where the difference in experience comes in. Nice, deep agave flavor with just a hint of whiskey hovering around your palate.

The guys will take a little break from tasting here so the women can try a tast of 1921’s delicious tequila crème. Think Bailey’s Irish Crème and you get an idea of what this tastes like. Letty and Lupe both like it and it tastes just like Bailey’s with just a hint of agave overtones. I’ve had this before, and if you’re in the mood for a sweet, chocolaty, coffee tasting drink, this is very good. Would make an excellent Irish coffee.

The guys will now taste another ultra-premium añejo by Degollado. Made in the town of the same name, south of Guadalajara in Jalisco, this is really rare in the States. An online search showed only one ABC store in North Carolina that sometimes stocks this. Bottles on EBay go for north of $150. In Mexico, I grabbed a bottle for $26. This is another ultra-smooth añejo with a bit of stronger whiskey influence than the 1921. I like it, as do the other guys.

We’ve got one more to taste tonight. As the sky darkens, I bring out one more bottle. This time, it’s the white and blue porcelain bottle of Clase Azul Reposado. Made in the highlands, north of Guadalajara, this is truly a special tequila. Smooth, deep agave taste, a slight hint of syrup. As incredible as the taste of this tequila is, the aftertaste lingers with a sweet, almost amaretto, taste on your lips and tongue. What a truly fantastic tequila.

We saved the very best for the last of a stellar lineup of tequilas. What about the calories, you may be asking (since we’re focusing on healthier, lower calorie drinks this year)? Each shot of tequila (1 ounce) has 69 calories. Since these tequilas are made for savoring, you can have three shots over an evening, slowly enjoying the warmth and taste, for only 207 calories.
 

Cheers!

Darryl
Copyright 2010 – Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

THE COCKTAIL HOUR: Bahama Mama

This is a drink screaming for a little paper umbrella in it.  Not for us today however.  It's the tail end of a heat wave with temps of over 100 degrees.  A couple of days ago, we hit a blistering 110 degrees on our Cocktail Hour patio...in the shade!  So, what to do on a hot day like this?  

A cool cocktail, of course!

Watch the Video!

And here it is, keeping with our new theme of low calorie, full flavored and full strength drinks, we present this amazing 130 calorie Bahama Mama.  Believe me, this will hit the spot when the thermometer rises.

Here's the recipe:
INGREDIENTS (two drinks):
3 oz. coconut flavored rum (Malibu or similar)
2 oz. cranberry cocktail
2 oz. diet orange soda
1 1/4 oz. pineapple juice
juice of 2 limes, fresh squeezed is best (not lemons)
splash of grenadine

Take all ingredients except for orange soda and grenadine and shake over ice in a cocktail shaker.  Pour 1 oz of orange soda into two highball glasses filled with ice.  Pour contents of cocktail shaker over that.  Splash the top of each drink with grenadine.  Let it settle without stirring.

Cheers!

-Darryl

THE COCKTAIL HOUR: Carson Valley, Nevada, Pub Crawl

On the block of our hotel in Gardnerville, Nevada...just a few miles south of Carson City on highway 395...were six bars. Tim noted that celestial alignment and suggested we do a pub crawl for the Cocktail Hour here at The World on Wheels.

Watch the Video!

Duly noted, we struck out to see what we could find. Alas, our livers were only up for three pubs while we were there, here they are...

We started at the last minute of happy hour, 6:59pm, at the Silver Dollar Bar in Sharkey's Casino, so called because of the hundreds of silver dollars embedded into the bar. It's two bucks for the house wine or a glass of Hamm's beer. Letty has the wine, I have the beer.

I'm glad I only paid a couple of bucks for it.

Next, it's up the street to JT Basque bar and restaurant. At this sheepherder's bar, it's picon punch all around. A very good version of it, too. 

I win five bucks on the bar's slot machine and then we make our way out to the last destination.

The French Bar, across the street, has been pouring drinks for the thirsty shepherds for 80 years. There used to be a hotel upstairs, too, but it is mostly apartments and offices now.

I have a whiskey sour and Tim has an 805 ale. Now and again, the barflies chat a bit with us as we wait for Letty to catch up with a glass of the house red wine.

We'd planned on going to at least two more, but that's about all we have room for on this trip. Maybe next time we can try the Overland...built in a former fire station...or the craft bar up the street where you can work on crafts while you drink your drafts.

Cheers!

Darryl Musick
Copyright 2019 - All Rights Reserved

THE COCKTAIL HOUR: German Beer Tasting at the Phoenix Club - Anaheim, California

It's a rainy day here in Southern California as we try to decide where to go for dinner. The main feature we're looking for today is where we can go without getting too wet. We settle on The Phoenix Club...a private German heritage club in Anaheim which has a restaurant and bar open to the public...because I can unload Tim and Letty under the door at the portico entrance to their ballroom before parking the van.

Tim and I decide it's the perfect place to also do a German beer tasting for our Cocktail Hour fans. 

Watch the Video!

Upon arrival, we see hordes of inebriated people streaming out of the club's large biergarten (behind the main club) and a small traffic jam of Uber and Lyft vehicles lining up to pick up their passengers. We'll find out in a few minutes that the party in the back is the Orange County Beer Festival and it just ended...at least the festival goers are being conscientious about drinking and driving.

Other than a few leftover people from the festival making things pretty festive in the Bierstube Pub, we have no issues getting in and grabbing a table so as we wait for our food to be cooked, we have a mini beer festival of our own tasting the following five German beers:

Spaten Lager - a very lightweight, refreshing lager from the large brewery in Munich.

Benediktiner Oktoberfest - smooth, slight syrupy marzen style beer.

Erdinger Dark - a deceptively smooth and tasty dark beer with no mustiness or heavy bitterness associated with a lot of dark beers.

Erdinger Hefeweizen - an extremely light and weak tasting hef beer.

Schofferhofer Grapefruit Hefeweizen - a very fruity and smooth hef, tastes like orange juice.

Tim is picking the dark as his favorite beer. Me too, to be truthful,but the Oktoberfest is just as good and it's on happy hour pricing while we're here so I'll go with that for my dinner pint.

It washes down this pork schnitzel Cordon Blue very nicely...

...or perhaps you'd enjoy the jagerschnitzel better?

Tim's just fine with his currywurst, though.

Cheers!

Stop by the Musick Channel Garage Sale to pick up some treasures from our stash of over thirty years of collecting, like these great Liberty Falls collectibles which would look great under your Christmas tree.

Darryl Musick
Copyright 2018
All Rights Reserved

The Cocktail Hour - Classic Margarita

Have a drink with us! (video)

After the week is over, the work week has finish, and the chores are done, we like to spend some time on Sunday afternoon to just relax with a drink on the patio while we watch for birds and wildlife in the hills behind our house...this is our "cocktail hour."

This will be a new feature on the blog, occasionally showing you what we're drinking this week and how to make it yourself.  We'll start off with one of the classics - the margarita.

There are a few stories of how the margarita was invented.  Myself, I like to think this is the true story...Rita Hayworth, who originally went by the name of Margarita Cansino, was drinking with friends down in Mexico at the Halfway House bar.  It is called the Halfway House because it is halfway between Tijuana and Ensenada.  She asked the bartender to make her something with tequila so she wouldn't have to put up with the harshness of the shot so he made up the drink with lime juice, triple sec, and tequila with salt on the rim of the glass and named the drink after her.  We used to have drinks at the Halfway House and hear the bartender tell us the story (another local invention is the Cesar Salad, created at the Hotel Cesar in Tijuana) but we haven't been there in over 25 years.  The restaurant dates back to the beginning of the 20th century and is still there, still serving margaritas and more.

Here is our version of this classic drink.  Note that we serve it on the rocks...as intended.   This is not the travesty that is a blended (or frozen) margarita.

CLASSIC MARGARITA RECIPE

Ingredients (for two drinks)

2 oz. Tequlia (get a good tequila that's labeled "100% puro de agave")

1 oz. Grand Marnier, Cointreau, or triple sec (the first two will have a very positive effect on the taste)

splash of brandy or cognac

1 lime

4-5 oz. sweet and sour mix (our two favorite brands are Tavern and Finest Call)

kosher salt.

Put salt in shallow bowl or spread out on plate.  Slice the lime into two halves.  Run the open lime around the rim of the glass so that there is a fine sheen of lime juice on it (use a margarita glass, a cocktail glass, or an old fashioned glass if you have nothing else).  Fill a cocktail shaker about 1/3 full with ice, crushed would be preferable.  We use half liter glass shaker.  Take one of the lime halves and squeeze the juice into the shaker.  Put in the rest of your liquid ingredients, putting in the sweet and sour last and filling to the top.  Put the lid on the shaker and shake.  Fill the glasses about 2/3 full with ice and strain the drink into them.

Cheers!

-Darryl