Keeping Currant (Original Recipe)

This cocktail makes use of the red currant syrup I made this summer and MurLarkey orange whiskey for a sweet and juicy tasting drink. Of course you can use any whiskey or swap out the main spirit for gin, but you miss out on the orange zest and vanilla that goes so well with ginger beer.

The fun thing about this cocktail is that it is low in acidity. That means it tastes sweet and strong, with a fizzy tingle of ginger beer. The effect is like having an alcoholic flavored soda with orange, berry and ginger notes and just a whiff of citrus.

• 2 oz. whiskey (MurLarkey orange whiskey used)
• 1/2 oz. red currant syrup
• ginger beer
• lime twist

Build drink with currant syrup and whiskey in a chilled Old Fashioned glass. Fill with ice and top with ginger beer. Stir and twist lime zest over the glass and drop it in.

Homemade Bathtub Gin

It's counter intuitive that a well-stocked spice cabinet can ensure that you have a well-stocked bar. Usually if the two stashes are related, they deplete each other in equal measure, but when it comes to spice and herbal infusions, you can sometimes expand your liquor selection by sacrificing a handful of items that are commonly found in the kitchen.

Bathtub gin or steeped gin is one of the most basic methods of flavoring spirits by infusing herbs and spices in neutral grain spirits like vodka. It is brownish in color and strong on flavor in was that mass-marketed gin is not. Today's gin, which is predominantly flavored with juniper berries, is a clear spirit with a clean dry taste. Modern distillation practices remove solids and impurities of the botanicals added to the mash or percolated in an infusion basket. This process takes a lot of precise equipment that is out of the range of most hobbyist bootleggers.

But a steeped gin, while it takes the color of the botanicals, is an easy, low-tech way to get a refreshing spirit. It's also a fun craft to experiment with and perfect. Outside of juniper berries, you are free to dabble with whatever flavors you want in your gin. Here are a few categories items to consider when making your own gin recipe.

Citrus: Lemons, limes, oranges and grapefruit are common gin flavors. For the most part you are going to use the peels of these fruits, not the juice, but adding slices of fresh fruit is a surefire way to punch up the acidity and citrus scent of your gin. Feel free to use as much as two to three fruits worth of citrus peels or zests.

Spice: A small but outsize component of gin comes from spices. Just a pinch of these dried flavors go a long way, so use them sparingly. Common gin ingredients include nutmeg, black pepper, allspice, clove, cardamon, cinnamon, ginger, and anise seeds or pods. For your first batch, start small. One peppercorn in a whole bottle can have a noticeable presence. A whole stick of cinnamon will blow out your recipe; you won't taste anything else but cinnamon.

Herbs: Fresh and dried herbs add complexity of flavor and even alter the texture of the spirit. You can use more fresh ingredients than spices as they tend to be more forgiving in infusions. Depending on what herbs you use you can make your gin more floral or more savory. Obviously use edible flowers like roses, orchids or lavender if you want floral flavor. Cooking herbs like thyme, parsley, sage, rosemary, dill, and basil are a wonderful choices and you can use a lot of them without harming the recipe. Seeds add flavor and texture. I like angelica for body. Angelica is a great unifier: It has a way of tying desperate flavors together. Corriander, fennel, cumin, and carraway, if used in moderation, can keep your homemade gin dry-tasting.

You can make any combination of these flavors and more to make your gin. The sky is the limit! Think outside the box: try a pinch of salt, an unusual spice like masthia or sumac, and play around with unusual berries and barks. Cubeb berries and birch bark, twigs and leaves are often found together in schnapps recipes. They will make your gin earthy.

Proportions: All these flavors above and more are easy to find and great for making gin, but don't go completely wild with your first batch. Overdoing it will only give you a bottle of undrinkable spirits. Start small: try four botanicals and keep your proportions small. Be patient and allow the flavors to infuse over time rather than overcompensating with too much of any ingredient. The recommended proportions below should keep your gin balanced.

• 1 750-ml bottle of 100-proof vodka
• 1/4 cup juniper berries (required)
• any combination of botanicals including up to 1/4 cup of citrus peels or fruit, 1 tsp. total of all spices keeping in mind that anise and cinnamon are strong and should not be a majority of the spice category, 1-2 tbsp. herbs.

DIY Allspice Dram

I've got lots of time on my hands and a stockpile of basic liquors from which I can produce a variety of specialty items. This summer, I decided it would be nice to have allspice dram for tiki cocktails. Allspice Dram has  tropical spice profile similar to Angostura Bitters, but it is less bitter and more forgiving if you overpour. In fact it is delicious by itself, and some drinks can be done with allspice dram as the principal spirit.

Making allspice dram requires more patience than many other liqueurs, especially those made of fresh ingredients. The allspice flavor comes from infusing dried allspice berries, and that takes time. The spirit has to be rum, but preferably a 100-proof rum with a little character, so something slightly aged. Demerara rum is probably the best option, but if you only have white rum, a higher proof means a better infusion and a higher proof for your liqueur.

• 1/4 cup allspice berries
• 3/4 cup light brown sugar 
• 2 cups 100-proof rum

This simple infusion starts with toasting 1/4 cup allspice berries in a saucepan (medium-high heat) for about five minutes. This releases a lot of the flavor and it will make your kitchen smell amazing. Allow the berries to cool before crushing them with a mortar and pestle or by using a rolling pin on a cutting board. I've had some success with a large wooden spoon.

Put the berries and rum in a sealable jar and store it in a dark place for 15 days or longer. Give the jar a shake every few days to stir things up.

After the infusion is complete, strain out the solids and pour the infusion into a sauce pan. Heat on medium (higher heat evaporates too much of the alcohol) and add the brown sugar. Stir slowly for fifteen minutes until the sugar is completely dissolved. After the liqueur is cool you can store it in a bottle for six months. Flavor appreciably dissipates after this time.

Homemade Red Currant Syrup / Liquor

 

Sometimes I come across recipes involving red currant syrup or a sweet liqueur made from red currants. You won't find these on the market. There just isn't enough interest in producing such a niche item. With so many drink recipes calling for creme de cassis, which is made with black currants, there's no room for this brighter tasting berry.

The good news is that the berries themselves are not such an unusual summer crop, and they are in season this summer. This recipe does not make a lot of syrup or liqueur--it takes a lot of these little berries to make much of anything. But if you happen on a bumper crop of red currants, feel free to scale up the recipe. 

• 1/2 pint red currants
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 cup 100-proof vodka (for liqueur)

Clean and remove the stems from the berries and put them in a saucepan with water. Heat on medium-high until boiling, then reduce heat to simmer. Add sugar and stir until the sugar is dissolved and the berries break up and release their juices. Strain the mixture with fine mesh and allow it to cool.

At this point you can seal it in a container and use this syrup as a sweetener. But you can add a cup of vodka and bottle it as an alcoholic creme de cassis rouge.

(DIY) Amer Picon

I've done it! Finally, I have my own Amer Picon knock off. I got the recipe from PUNCH, which was easy except that finding Combier is pretty difficult depending on where you live. But that is all easier to get than Amer Picon--a bitter orange liqueur that hasn't been available in the U.S. for decades. Even the varieties available in France are no longer the same bitter boozy product that Amer Picon once was.

It all started with picking up a bottle of Ramzzotti amaro. I'd seen Combier on bar shelves in the past and figured that the other ingredient wouldn't be too hard to find. As it turns out, Elixir Combier (which may or may not be the ingredient listed in the PUNCH recipe) is not available in the Washingtion, Virginia, Maryland region. Elixir Combier is a biter French orange liqueur with spices from the Mediterranean like myrrh. It turns out that I could find Royal Combier, the same liqueur with cognac added so that it is a competitor to Grand Marnier. This, I assumed, would be a suitable substitute.

The small jar on the right of the photo is orange bitters. I made these using MurLarkey Justice White Whiskey--a version that is 110-proof so that it makes infusions better.



I takes 2 cups of Ramazzotti and one cup each of Combier and orange bitters. Add 1/4 cup of orange peels (I used bitter cara cara orange peels) and let the mixture steep for a week in the refrigerator. For my bottle, I used an old scotch bottle and printed one of the many images of this long-lost spirit

Norwegian Paralysis (Smuggler's Cove)

This is such a fun use of aquavit, the savory herb-infused spirit of the Scandinavian countries. The bottle pictured is Swedish Osterlenkryddors akvavit herb kit, but I refilled it with my own aquavit recipe. The rest is remarkably simple--you make a fruit punch. Aquavit is savory, with coriander, caraway seeds, fennel seeds and other herbs. (I added birch and angelica seeds in mine.) It goes great with citrus and pineapple.

• 1 1/2 oz. pineapple juice
• 1 12 oz. orange juice
• 1/2 oz. lime juice
• 1/4 demerara syrup
• 1/2 oz. orgeat
• 1 1/2 oz. aquavit (D.I.Y. used)
• lemon wedge and umbrella garnish

Combine all ingredients except garnishes in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled highball glass full of fresh ice. Garnish with a tiny umbrella stuck into lemon wedge.

DIY Aquavit/ Akvavit With MurLarkey Spirits

Aquavit or Akvavit is a Scandanavian spirit that's enjoyed during the winter holidays. It is easy to make, and inexpensive. All you need is vodka and a few herbs and spices.

The primary flavor in Aquavit is caraway seed, but cumin, coriander, fennel and dill are common ingredients. The best thing about making your own Aquavit is the fun of experimenting with your botanical blend and ageing times.

I usually use about three tablespoons of caraway, cumin, coriander and fennel in a bottle of vodka like Smirnoff 57, which is 100-proof and can really absorb flavors quickly. Store this in a sealed container in a cool dark place. I remove the solids after about two days to a week.

This is my third batch of Aquavit and I'm doing things differently. First I wanted to get away from an entirely neutral grain base. MurLarkey Divine Clarity vodka is pretty tasteless, but it is made from potato. I used two cups of this vodka. (Note: any clear distilled spirit can be used to make Aquavit as long as it is not already flavored.) Then I used a cup of MurLarkey Justice white whiskey. It has a grassy taste of a young whiskey that I think will compliment my botanicals.

Speaking of...in addition to the usual caraway, cumin, coriander and fennel, I added Icelandic birch leaves for dry earthiness and angelica seeds for floral spice. This should be an amazing batch this winter and I am excited to see how it turns out!