Beginning of the End (Difford's Guide)

 

This wonderfully balanced cocktail combines some of my favorite things: aged rum, sherry, sweet vermouth and Amer Picon. The rum might not be spiced, but the cocktail is with vermouth, amaro, and flamed orange peel--it makes for the perfect winter sipper.

One of the new ingredients on my bar is George Bowamn dark Caribbean rum from the Bowman Distillery in Fredricksburg, Virginia. This rum has a great small batch, island produced flavor that really works well with American colonial-style cocktails. Rum, sherry, a quinine spirit to ward off malaria--these ingredients, taken from all over the world, came together in America through colonial trade and make up the flavor profile of our nation's cocktail history.

This is a Difford's Guide recipe that plays on the Fin de Siecle, or "End of The World," a classic cocktail with similar proportions of ingredients but uses gin instead of aged rum. 

• 1 1/2 oz. aged dark rum (George Bowman used)
• 1/2 oz. Antica formula vermouth (Cocchi di Torino used)  
• 1/3 oz. Amer Picon (homemade used)
• 1/3 oz. Oloroso sherry
• flamed orange peel garnish

Combine liquid ingredients in a mixing glass with ice. Stir and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. To flame the orange peel, cut a piece of orange zest. While holding a flame over the drink, squeeze the zest to release oils onto the flame to produce a flash and burnt orange oil fregrance. 

 

Bonaparte's Manhattan (Difford's Guide)

 

I figure the best way to follow Napoleon's Sidecar is with his Manhattan. Difford's guide says that it is Italian amaro that provides the bitterness, not dashes of bitters. I, however, feel that this drink is better served with a French bitter spirit, Amer Picon. Had Napoleon himself lived to meet G. Picon, a French army officer who used his spirit of north African oranges and quinine to cure his malaria, he would have found a fast friend. That is how I feel about my homemade Amer Picon and rye whiskey.

The key ingredient, though, is Mandarine Napoleon (also my homemade recipe) which brings sweet and citrus-forward notes of mandarin oranges and cognac. For a Manhattan, which this drink fully resembles, there are a lot of very French things happening: it's the perfect pairing with a Balzac novella. 

• 1 1/2 oz. rye (Rittenhouse used)
• 1/2 oz. sweet vermouth
• 1/3 oz. Mandarine Napoleon (homemade used)
• 1/6 oz. Italian Amaro (1/4 oz. homemade Amer Picon used)
• maraschino cherry garnish

Combine all liquid ingredients in a mixing glass with ice. Stir and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Drop the cherry in as garnish. 

Marie Galante

 

Marie Galante is not a person, its a place. A small Island in the French Caribbean that cultivates sugar and is famous for a chateau and windmills that used to operate on the estate. 

While this is a rum and grapefruit cocktail, it is  La Grande Passion that sets it apart from other drinks of similar design. It is at once exotic and very French. I like how elegant this cocktail is; it has a way of being unexpectedly bright and otherworldly in its look and flavor, as quality French spirits have a tendency to be. 

• 1 1/2 oz. light rum (Plantation 3-Stars used)
• 1/2 oz. triple sec
• 1 oz. grapefruit juice
• 1/2 oz. La Grande Passion
• 1/8 grapefruit slice optional

Combine liquid ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with grapefruit slice if using fresh grapefruit.

Cannes-Cannes

This cocktail has a fun name, a pun on Cannes, France and the famous bawdy cabaret dance of Paris. I liked that it was a balanced and strong cocktail (the two seldom go hand in hand) with a double punch of rum and gin. Because the recipe specified light rum, meaning that there should be little barrel taste in the drink, I opted for Plantation's 3-Stars blend, though that is a pretty flavorful light rum. Then I was struggling with which gin to use for the second measure.

Old Tom sounded appropriate, but it would have been lost in all that grapefruit. So would a simple London dry style gin (although this is perfectly acceptable if that is what you have on hand.) Doing the smell test on several bottles, I arrived at my homemade dry gin. This steeped gin had the right piney and tannin notes to stand out past all of that juice. The combination was lovely and made this the best cocktail I had that day.

• 1 1/2 oz. light rum (Plantation 3-Star used)
  1 1'/2 oz. dry gin (homemade bathtub gin used)
• 3 oz. grapefruit juice
• 1/2 oz. Cointreau (triple sec used)
• orange slice

Combine all ingredients except orange slice in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a double Old Fashioned glass full of fresh ice and garnish with orange slice. 

Pere Bise

In French, this cocktail is called "Father Kiss." I'm hoping it is a chaste kiss, which is why I am showing off my Sacre Coeur Basilica coaster. I got it from the gift shop there years ago.

This is another one of those cases where blended whiskey is the recommended base spirit, but feel free to take it in any direction you want with the exception, maybe, of blended scotch. Blended whiskey is usually very malleable in terms of a spirit category. So I usually opt for flavors that compliment the rest of the ingredients. You could use Bourbon and send it sweeter, and a scotch would add sweetness and smoke. But this is already an herbaceous and citrusy drink. With an egg white in it, I wouldn't want to risk going too rich. That's why I've got the lemon whiskey out for it.

Overall, this is a very classy Egg Sour kind of cocktail with the pastis there just to suggest French herbs de Marseilles. It is interesting that in this instance the recipe calls for keeping the ice, which I think tames the foam. Next time I'd like to see what would happen if I really got a foamy top on this glass. Without ice, I'd have the room to do that.

• 1 1/2 oz. blended whiskey (MurLarkey lemon whiskey used)
• 1/2 oz. Cherry Herring
  
• 1/4 oz. lemon juice
• 1/2 egg white (or double the recipe and make two so you can drink them both)
  
• several dashes Pernod (Ricard used)

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with crushed ice. Shake vigorously and pour into a Sour glass

French Twist

Bourbon, named after the French royal family at the time of it's creation, is the most French whiskey made in America. Cognac is quintessentially French as well. All this cocktail needs is a liqueur to sweeten it--why not something bearing a royal name as well?

Royal Combier is the coup de grace (in place of Grand Marnier listed in the original recipe) because of its regal combination of cognac, oranges and spices. The only thing left according to the name is the twist (not listed in the original recipe.) I think I really improved this cocktail. The only thing I wouldn't change is the portion size--its kingly.

• 1 1/2 oz. bourbon
• 1 1/2 oz. cognac
• 1/2 oz. Grand Marnier (Royal Combier used)
• lemon twist

Combine all ingredients except lemon peel. Stir and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Twist the lemon peel over the glass and drop it in. 

Michael's Passion

I want this to be a Saint cocktail. In my view, not enough saints have a cocktail named after them. Putting the name Michael and the word passion together just suggests a holy experience for the drinker, ala Bach's St. Michael's Passion. Instead, the cocktail is most likely named after some guy in a bar somewhere, as they usually are. The drink itself doesn't disappoint, however.

The spiciness of dry vermouth and gin in such high proportion really tamps down La Grande Passion's passion fruit bitter tang. That is alright, when the liqueur adds a balanced, sweet richness. The color, as you can see, is amazing, as well.

La Grande Passion is a French spirit that is no longer on the market. I made my own knockoff with real passion fruit, armagnac, sugar and chocolate.

• 2 oz. gin (MurLarkey ImaGination gin used)
• 1 oz. La Grande Passion 
• 1 oz. dry vermouth
• orange twist

Combine all ingredients except orange peel in a mixing glass with ice.  Stir and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Twist the orange peel over the drink and drop it in.

Ricard Satin

I really enjoyed this cocktail for it's relative dryness and silky texture due to egg white and a splash of cream. Despite those heavy ingredients, it wasn't exactly a dessert drink. You could easily start your evening with it; I imagine the setting: a cafe table along the Seine. This drink is so traditional cafe drinking, you'll think you are in Paris.

Ricard has some sugar in it to help create the egg white foam, but you'll need to add a little more. Ricard is pretty dry for all that flavor, so it helps to add a bit. I recommend a teaspoon of simple syrup.

• 1 1/2 oz. Ricard
• 1 oz. gin (MurLarkey used)
• 1/2 egg white or thereabouts
• 1/2 oz. cream
• sugar syrup to taste (1 tsp. recommended) 

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain to remove ice. Dry shake without ice to add foam and pour into a chilled cocktail glass. 

The Mystery Cocktail

I want to call this drink La Mysterie just to make it more French. It uses two lesser known French liqueurs in such a unique way. It is both metropolitan Paris and representative of the far-flung colonial reaches of Asia and the pacific with rich passion fruit flavors.

Though La Grande Passion is extinct, it can still be reproduced. And even though pastis like Ricard are so herbaceous and dry, you can still taste the passion fruit sweetness coming back in this cocktail's extremely long finish.

• 1 oz. Ricard
• 1 1/2 oz. La Grande Passion (homemade liqueur)
• lemon twist

Combine liquid ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake to create cloudiness and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Twist lemon zest over the drink and drop it in. 

La Condamine

This cocktail is trying very hard to be French. It might be named after the French explorer Charles Marie de la Condamine, or any number of towns and districts bearing his name across the globe. But the flavor of the drink screams French cafe style.

Pernod is a popular absinthe substitute with lots of sugar. Why the recipe calls for a touch of aguardiente, another sweet anise spirit, is beyond me. Perhaps it is because of the theme of the drink as being worldly, as the explorer himself, and sampling spirits around the world. Perhaps because aguardiente has a dry anise seed flavor that is more like candy than absinthe. Anyway, this is a great way to enjoy a foamy long drink with fizz and get your French kicks on at the same time.

• 2 oz. Pernod
• 1 oz. gin (MurLarkey ImaGination used)
• 1 tsp. Aguardiente 
• 1 egg white
• club soda

Combine all ingredients except soda in a shaker with ice. Shake to chill and remove ice by straining. Shake again to add foam and pour into a highball glass full of fresh ice. Top with soda, allowing room for the egg white foam to rise just above the rim of the glass.

Napoleon (DIY Amer Picon Recipe)

Lots of cocktails purport to be quintessentially French, which is to say they belong to a French tradition of drinking or use a selection of French-made ingredients. The Napoleon goes so far as to claim France's most notorious Emperor.

But setting all that bluster aside, Napoleon's namesake cocktail is an excellent mix of France's hard-to-find bitter aperitif wines. Amer Picon--so rare in its pre-prohibition form outside of Paris that we have to resort to making it ourselves--adds an orange bitterness to this classic gin drink. Dubonnet Rouge and curacao lend color and orange sweetness.

I could have picked a French vodka and used Cointreau if I wanted to go the full French, but I decided that a rum based orange liqueur like Vitae would work better as a substitute for curacao. Copper Fox Vir Gin is also a nice treat, it's star anise botanical gives it an absinthe-like flavor fit for cafe sipping. I'm glad I came back to this recipe to try it with these ingredients. Take a look at my attempt at this cocktail in 2015. It wasn't bad back then, but this is a surefire improvement on the concept.

• 2 oz. gin (Copper Fox Vir Gin used)
• 1/2 oz white curacao (Vitae orange liqueur used)
• 1 tsp. Dubonnet Rouge
• 1 tsp. Amer Picon (Homemade recipe used)

Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass full of ice. Stir and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. 

Sanctuary (Revisit WIth Homemade Amer Picon)

The Sanctuary is one of the first cocktails I made for this blog when I thought I had a suitable substitute for Amer Picon--a very difficult to find French Amaro that bartenders now have to recreate in order to get the strength of flavor of the original recipe. All this fuss over the Amer Picon, one tends to overlook the Dubonnet Rouge, another seldom seen classic cocktail ingredient. In fact, at two ounces, the Sanctuary is really a Dubonnet Rouge cocktail more than an Amer Picon cocktail.

Dubonnet Rouge (Love the new label!) is an aperitif wine spirit that is fortified and flavored with a secret blend of herbs and spices. Unlike Lillet, it is not purely an orange flavored wine, though there is some citrus in Dubonnet Rouge. There are chocolate and roasted cabbage notes in the aperitif as well. So with that depth, this wine cocktail gets punched up with Cointreau, a 40-proof triple sec made with bitter and sweet oranges, and Amer Picon, a bitter orange liqueur. The result is a complex cocktail that keeps changing as you drink it. As it warms it takes on a chocolate orange character and continues to be extremely rich, despite having a lower ABV than most cocktails.

• 2 oz. Dubonnet Rouge
• 1 oz. Amer Picon (DIY Amer Picon used)
• 1 oz. triple sec (Cointreau used)
• lemon twist

Combine all ingredients except lemon twist in a mixing glass (The NY Bartender's guide says to shake, but I really think that makes the Dubonnet Rouge cloudy and it's unnecessary so I stirred) with ice. Stir and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with the lemon twist. 

Brittany (Revisit With Homemade Amer Picon)

Brittany is the northwest region of France, known for it's rocky coastline and resorts that dot the English channel. It seems appropriate that an especially fruity cocktail using gin and a French Amaro would bring together the best of English and French qualities in a single drink.

I did not use an English gin for this second run of this cocktail on my site. I thought that the German Monkey 47, with it's dryness and super botanical blend would work well with the bitter Amer Picon and tart juices. It keeps the drink interesting when orange and lemon juices tend to flatten out the flavors of gin.

The other interesting aspect of this cocktail is the use of my DIY Amer Picon. This is made with MurLarkey white whiskey infused with cara cara orange peels, Ramazzotti amaro, and Royal Combier--which is a kind of cognac and orange liqueur with Mediterranean spices. The Amer Picon really adds a deep bitter orange floor to what would ordinarily be a tart and floral cocktail.

• 2 oz. gin (Monkey 47 used)
• 1/2 oz. Amer Picon (DIY used)
• 1/2 oz. lemon juice
• 1/2 oz. orange juice
• 1/2 tsp. sugar
• orange twist

Combine all ingredients except orange twist in a shaker with ice. Shake vigorously to chill and dissolve sugar. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with an orange twist. 

Ulanda Cocktail

The idea behind the Ulanda Cocktail is a spirit-forward herbal cocktail with bitter spice and orange flavors. It was very well balanced and easy to drink, though having no fruit juice means it packs a punch and requires a good bit of slow sipping to get through it.

MurLarkey ImaGination gin gave the Ulanda a classic gin cocktail taste--very American, with rich botanicals to balance the richness of the splash of Pernod's anise. The recipe calls for triple sec, and I can see using a sweet one like Leroux, but Cointreau is cleaner tasting. I have even drier triple sec than Cointreau, and I am certain that it wouldn't be sweet enough to carry the drink off.

• 2 oz. gin (MurLarkey ImaGination used)
• 1 oz. triple sec (Cointreau used)
• 1 tsp. Pernod

 Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. 

Suissesse Cocktail

This cocktail is a nod to Switzerland's love and history of making absinthe. It also uses the French spelling of Switzerland or Swiss to honor Pernod's contribution to dessert absinthe drinks. After drinking Pernod or absinthe by itself, this drink seems very light and spaced out, much more approachable for the after dinner drinker. This is the first egg white cocktail that I've done with Pernod, thought the Pernod Flip is a good example of something even heavier with its whole egg, if you want to move in that direction.

• 2 oz. Pernod
• 1/2 oz. half-and-half
• egg white

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. 

Soul Kiss

I know I've done this drink before. It's a great one, the cocktail that I bought my first bottle of Dubonnet Rouge just to do. I remember being excited to try it. But now when I search for it on my website, it is not there. All the other Dubonnet drinks I've done are there, but not this one. I guess I'll just have to have it again. Sigh!

Soul Kiss is another word for French kiss. It is the title of a lesser-known Olivia Newton John song, by the way, and I think of it as a French cocktail in the Kiss series with the French Kiss, another bourbon drink, and the Kiss Me Quick.

I've got better ingredients this time around. Fresh squeezed orange juice helps a lot. So does Filibuster dual cask bourbon aged in oak and French sauvignon blanc casks. Then the spicy notes of Rivata dry vermouth are really interesting. This drink is foremost a bourbon drink, but Dubonnet Rouge gives it this bright red color and an herbal and sweet flavor that is hard to miss.

• 2 oz. bourbon (Filibuster dual cask used)
• 1 oz. dry vermouth (Rivata used)
• 1/2 oz. orange juice
• 1/2 oz. Dubonnet Rouge

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. 

Peggy Cocktail

There's something Mad Men and French at the same time about the Peggy Cocktail. Might be the name, but the french part is clearly from all the quintessential French liqueurs present in this drink. I like that the dominant flavors are spicy gin and bitter wine flavors. There's not much Pernod present to tip the scales, so it is very balanced for some of the more squeamish drinkers, particularly those with an aversion to absinthe.

So there's Dubonnet Rouge as well as sweet vermouth. And I bucked the Italian trend for sweet vermouth and grabbed my Byrrh. This floral and not too bitter wine aperitif is so French that it takes most ordinary drinks to an unrecognizable exotic place.

• 2 oz. gin
• 1/2 oz. sweet vermouth (Byrrh recommended)
• 1/4 tsp. Dubonnet Rouge
• 1/4 tsp. Pernod

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

Pluggy's Favorite

Historically, the only Pluggy I know of was a Mohawk chieftain who allied with the British in the 1770's raiding settlements in the west from his base near present day Columbus, Ohio. While it wouldn't be out of the ordinary for a Mohawk to love absinthe in those days, I wonder if my conjecture about the origin of this drink are way off the mark.

More likely, Pluggy was a nickname for a guy who really liked his anise liqueur. The recipe I have calls for Pernod, which is all the sweetness this drink really needs. Then I chose MurLarkey distillery's ImaGination Gin for the other main spirit because it has a spicy coriander, cardamon, celery and szechuan peppercorns that add bitter spice to their botanical blend.

All that is left, and I have to think that this is intentional, is an equal measure of water to allow the botanicals to release from the liquor and create this milky color.

• 2 oz. Pernod
• 2 oz. gin (ImaGination used)
• 2 oz. water

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into an Old Fashioned glass full of fresh ice. 

Merry Widow Fizz

There's something very French and very cafe about the Merry Widow Fizz. It could be that it is a Dubonnet Rouge based cocktail, like a fizzy wine spritzer. But it could also be the low alcohol content and the way that such a fizzy drink can be enjoyed sitting outside on a boulevard cafe table in the afternoon. It is refreshing and rather satisfying and unlikely to make you feel tipsy. It is just so relaxing.

• 2 oz. Dubonnet Rouge
• 2 oz. orange juice
• 1 oz. lemon juice
• 1 egg white
• sparkling water (Perrier for Frenchness)

Combine all ingredients except sparkling water in a shaker with ice. Shake to chill and strain out the ice. Shake again to add fizz and pour into a Collins glass full of fresh ice. Top with sparkling water. 

Victory

As a Pernod drinker, I can't state how pleasant this "cooler" style cocktail is. There's something cooling about Pernod's sweet absinthe substitute flavor with soda and the Victory has it in spades. Grenadine adds a color change and a bit of fruit, and I opted for a cucumber garnish.

This last step really improved a drink that may have been all one note, or at least the many involved in Pernod. That fresh scent and watery taste of cucumber crunch went so well with the fizzy and licorice spice of the cocktail that I urge you to repeat it.

• 2 oz. Pernod
• 1 oz. grenadine
• sparkling water (Perrier used)
• cucumber slices (optional)

Combine Pernod and grenadine in a mixing glass with ice. Shake and strain into a highball glass full of fresh ice. Top with sparkling water and stir gently. Garnish with cucumber slices.