The Antichrist & Snooter Rooter: Two Ways to Celebrate National Vodka Day

Happy Vodka Day! It is time to toast our Russian comrades for discovering a way to turn potatoes into booze. To celebrate this delightfully drunken occasion, here are two of our favorite recipes from Duane Swierczynski’s The Perfect Drink for Every Occasion.

And since this is October, I thought it appropriate that we pay a little homage to the dead. The Antichrist is a drink that will damn your soul, liver and memory.

The Antichrist:

½ oz. Everclear
½ oz. Bacardi Rum (light or gold)
½ oz. Absolute Peppar
3 dashes Tabasco sauce

Mix all liquors in a shot glass, then add the Tabasco on top.

It is the fall and the seasons are changing. If you are one of 40 million Americans with seasonal allergies, you dread the onslaught of ragweed and pollen. Fear not, for we have the perfect Vodka Day drink recipe to cure all of your ills and take a roto-rooter to your sinuses. Called the Snooter Rooter, this spicy cocktail makes use of Tabasco and horseradish to get you breathing once again.

Snooter Rooter:

1 oz. vodka
5 oz. tomato juice
1 tsp. lemon juice
10 drops Tabasco sauce
2 dashes Worcestershire sauce
5 shakes black pepper
1 ½ tsp. horseradish
Lime slice

Shake everything but horseradish and lime with ice, then strain over ice in a highball glass. Garnish with horseradish and lime.

Enjoy Vodka Day 2011, but remember the wise words of Garrison Keillor, “Vodka is tasteless going down, but it is memorable coming up.” Indulge responsibly.