Ginger Jolt

 

I thought that a drink with "Jolt" in the name would involve cola or coffee--something with caffeine. Well this easy sipper has soda, and as such is good any time of the year. It is light in body and sweetness, but there's a rich ginger and vanilla flavor that you can't beat on a gloomy winter's day. 

It seems like you can get ginger wine now, at specialty stores like Total Wine, but I can't think it is readily available. The other option is to make it yourself, a sort of brewed sugar beverage flavored with ginger. I still don't trust myself, and as with my recipe for the Gingersnap, I decided to use my homemade ginger brandy instead. This brandy is so heavily spiced and sweetened, it is almost as if it is a proofed up, flat  ginger beer. The result is more than acceptable, and if you purchase Domaine de Canton, you can do this as easily as I have.

• 1 1/2 oz. blended whiskey (bourbon used)
• 3/4 oz. ginger wine (homemade ginger brandy used)
• slice of ginger root
• club soda

Build cocktail in a Collins glass with spirits and cracked ice. Top with club soda and stir. Garnish with the ginger root. 

Ginger Snap

 

Not to be confused with the vodka drink of the same name, (but written as one word) the Ginger Snap is a Whiskey and Cola variation. The major difference is the use of ginger flavored brandy (not ginger wine, as in the Gingersnap.)

Right now the most common brand of ginger flavored brandy is Domain de Canton. I have a passable substitute made from candied ginger infused Korbel brandy. By sweetening up the infused liquor to a cordial level, I've got a spicy spirit to slip in any drink to lift it above the basic spirit and mixer.

Speaking of not being basic, I thought I'd give Fentiman's Curiosity Cola a try and I was not sorry. Again, it is a matter of craft ingredients when they make up the majority of the drink. I can't say that I always do this, especially when social drinking, but right now, little things like craft cola go a long way to improving my drinking experience.

The recipe calls for blended whiskey, and you can feel free to use Canadian whiskey or Seagram's 7 Crown if you are a stickler. I had straight bourbon, but I felt that was acceptable, as is Tennessee whiskey. But I would draw the line at blended scotch and you might not want an Irish whiskey either. Cola, and this rich one in particular, wants to paired with vanilla notes from American oak, so an American style is preferable. 

• 1 oz. blended whiskey (bourbon used, American recommended)
• 1 oz. ginger flavored brandy (homemade used or Domain de Canton)
• 6 oz. cola (Fentiman's used)
• several dashes lemon juice
• (optional cherry garnish pictured)

Build drink with liquors in a Collins Glass. Add ice and cola and stir gently. Add a squeeze of lemon juice and garnish if desired.

Junior League

It's less important which whiskey you choose when you use a large portion of anisette in a cocktail. Blended whiskey (often understood as Irish whiskey) is as good an option as any. The point is that it gets out of the way and allows you to inexpensively up the volume and alcohol content of a drink with a distinctive flavor. 

Anisette, as I understand it, is a sweetened anise liqueur. It comes in strong or sugary varieties: the strong anisettes are absinthe substitutes that get cloudy when they touch water while the sugary ones are more like cordials, less bitter and more like anise candy than licorice. Both are sweet, but the sweeter Aguardiente from Columbia is a lower proof and very sweet sugar-based liqueur. It is a good choice for a cocktail in which you don't want to overwhelm with anise. 

This recipe is designed for new drinkers. It shouldn't offend with herbal bitterness or alcoholic burn, and it doesn't. I like how I could taste the sherry barreling of the Slane Irish whiskey under the prickle of Aguardiente. The drink was slightly sweet with a cinnamon-like burn. I feel that this cocktail is a classy antidote to Fireball.      

• 1 1/2 oz. blended whiskey (Slane Irish whiskey used)
• 1 oz. anisette (Aguardiente used)
• maraschino cherry garnish

Combine liquors in a mixing glass with ice. Stir and strain into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with the cherry. 

 

Seven Veils

Outside of the Playing Cards series of cocktails, there are only a few other whiskey recipes that specify Segram's Seven Crown. This cocktail is very tropical with pineapple juice, creme de cacao and grenadine. It is also the kind of cocktail that you could pull together at just about any dive bar, which I have to admit that I like: unpretentious in a coup glass.

• 1 1/2 oz. Segram's Seven Crown whiskey
• 3/4 oz. creme de cacao 
• 1 oz. pineapple juice
• 1 oz. lemon juice
• 1 tsp. grenadine

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

(Heritage) Whiskey Sour

The New York Bartender's guide circa 1997 has many sour recipes, some with egg white and some without. The Whiskey Sour in this edition is without, but at least it is served in a sour glass. I've decided to update the recipe. This time doing it in a sour glass and with egg white using a great local whiskey. MurLarkey Distillery's Heritage old country whiskey is young and rapidly aged and finished in French wine casks. This is a dry and very strong whiskey that really does well when mixed with egg whites.

• 2 oz. blended whiskey (MurLarkey Heritage used)
• 1 oz. lemon juice
• 1 tsp. sugar syrup
• 1 egg white (optional but recommended)
• orange slice
• maraschino cherry

Combine whiskey, lemon juice, sugar and egg white in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain out the ice. Shake the liquid ingredients to increase the foam and pour into a chilled sour glass. Garnish with the orange slice and cherry.

(Blended) Whiskey Cocktail

This cocktail recipe specifically calls for blended whiskey. Unlike the Rye Whiskey Cocktail and the Bourbon Whiskey Cocktail of the same proportion and ingredients, a blended whiskey makes this drink a little smoother and more reliant on other ingredients to keep it interesting. I used a demerara sugar syrup which really added a sweet richness that blended whiskey often lacks. Angostura bitters, even a single dash, were totally appreciated here.

• 3 oz. blended whiskey (Black Velvet Special Reserve used)
• 1 tsp. sugar syrup (demerara used)
• 1 dash Angostura bitters

Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass with ice. Stir and strain in to a chilled cocktail glass. 

Whiskey Sling

The Whiskey Sling is a blended whiskey drink, but all I had was bourbon, Cleveland Bourbon, that is. A sling, it seems, is a "helpmate" cocktail. These drinks, like Fixes and Fizzes, are designed to help soften a spirit and get it down your gullet in a hurry, hence the "sling" terminology.

One thing I found fascinating about the Whiskey Sling--and it's the reason it differs from a Whiskey Sour--is it's preparation precludes chilling. I'm not sure why, but the idea is to have a rocks drink that is still pretty warm when served, which melts the ice cubes just as if it was all room temperature hard liquor. But it isn't; it's juice and sugar and a little water, which is easy to drink.

A word about Cleveland Bourbon. It's isn't really bourbon, but it is probably a straight whiskey. The Sling calls for a blend for the obvious mixability of blends. But Cleveland Bourbon is a "black label" of the brand, distilled in Indiana and rapidly aged in Cleveland. It can't be bourbon because of its origins and rapid aging process, but it is very much in the style of bourbon, perhaps more than most American whiskies like Jack Daniels.

• 2 oz. blended whiskey (Cleveland Bourbon used)
• 1 oz. lemon juice
• 1 tsp. fine sugar
• 1 tsp. water 
• orange twist

Combine water and sugar in a mixing glass and stir until sugar is dissolved. Add whiskey and lemon juice and stir. Pour over ice in an Old Fashioned glass. Garnish with the orange twist and give one more gentle stir. 

Imperial Fizz

One is tempted to try to make a connection between the spirits used in the Imperial Fizz and the scope of 19th century empires. You can say that rum and whiskey were the spirits that colonized America, for instance. On the other hand, the word Imperial denotes a drink that is stronger than others, like Imperial IPA. It is a highly fortified drink and probably more suited to Biggie Size drinkers or, in the past, royalty.

• 2 oz. blended whiskey
• 1 oz. light rum
• 1 oz. lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp. sugar
• sparkling water

Combine all ingredients except sparkling water in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a highball glass full of ice. Top with sparkling water. (Lemon twist recommended).

Whiskey Rickey

This is an all-American favorite for summer sipping. The original Rickey called for bourbon whiskey, but for ages, the most common whiskey in America was blended. Seagrams 7 Crown is a rich oaky blend at a good price--very hipster! Making the drink without sugar means that it is tart and very cooling on a hot day.

• 2 oz. blended whiskey
• 1 oz. lime juice
• club soda
• lime slice

Combine juice and whiskey in a shaker full of ice. Shake and pour into a highball glass and add ice to fill. Top with soda and stir. Garnish with lime slice.

Japanese Fizz

I think this drink dates back to the early 20th century. Apparently there is a story about it if you ask David Wondrich, which I didn't know to do when I met him. Anyway, a very tropical whiskey drink that you can do with any whiskey except maybe bourbon. Otherwise it would be too much vanilla flavor. There's no pineapple juice in it, so the spear in the glass is really there for aroma, which works well too.

• 2 oz blended whiskey
• 1 tbsp. port
• 1 oz. lemon juice
• 1 tsp simple syrup
• 1 egg white
• sparkling water
• pineapple spear

Combine all ingredients except soda and pineapple in a shaker without ice. Shake vigorously until foamy. Add ice and shake to cool. Pour into a highball glass and garnish with a pineapple spear.