Pillow Talk (Deat & Co. Recipe)

 

I knew I'd find a use for Wine Cube sparkling rose when I bought it! Sparkling cocktails are tricky. You have to invest in them because opening a bottle of bubbles is a commitment and not something you typically do on a whim. 

But this is a very whimsical cocktail. Bloom gin and sloe gin just scream Bloomsbury movement (both very relaxed and, at the same time, very English.) I didn't have Creme Yvette (a nut and berry liqueur similar to cassis with a lovely pink color) but I did have a lot of Mazzenez cassis, which is also enjoyed more readily by English folk more readily than it is across the pond--so I'm often looking for a reason to use it. 

I'm sure a better quality sloe gin would have been an improvement. For decades, Mr. Boston was they only brand making sloe gin, and it is still hard to find the new Plymouth in most stores. There just isn't a big market for sloe gin, and I have no idea how to make it. 

The final product was rich and fruity. Bloom is already a floral and fruity gin, but grapefruit juice and all the berry flavors from the liqueurs punched that up a notch. The rose was really there for texture and bubbles, because the drink was going to be bright pink anyways. I'd try this with dry champagne in a heartbeat. Ok. Well, maybe not a full bottle of the Dom, though.

• 1 1/2 oz. Bloom gin
• 1/4 oz. sloe gin (Mr. Boston used)
• 1/4 oz. Creme Yvette (Mazzenez creme de cassis used)
• 3/4 oz. grapefruit juice
• 1/2 oz. vanilla syrup
• sparkling rose

 Shake all ingredients except the sparkling wine with ice. Strain into a flute and top with sparkling rose.

Port Authority (Death & Co. Recipe)

 

This cocktail needed to be made. The name, the ingredients, even the look all should have happened a hundred years ago. Luckily Death & Co. made this amazingly rich blackberry and port cocktail come true. I love it. I love the chocolatey port accentuated by chocolate bitters. I love how creme de cassis reinforces blackberry and cognac with a Dijon black currant spirit. And of course the fresh ingredients--these are all hallmarks of cocktail revival that Death & Co. ushered in.

Presentation is everything, and the beautiful chocolate grape color and blackberry garnish only add to the experience. Not one ingredient distracts from this purpose. I have to say that even though this is still essentially a Sour or Daisy variation, you wouldn't know it because you can't remove any ingredient and have it be as good. 

• 4 blackberries
• 2 oz. cognac (Martell single distillery used)
• 3/4 oz. tawny port (Porto Morgado ruby used)
• 1/2 creme de cassis (G.E. Massenez used)
• 1/2 oz. lemon bitters
• 2 dashes Aztec chocolate bitters
• 1 blackberry garnish

Muddle blackberries in a shaker. Add the rest of the ingredients and shake with ice. Double strain into a chilled coupe glass and garnish with the remaining blackberry. 

Windward Passage

On first look, this cocktail seems a little like a variation on the Tradewinds that includes Slivovitz. It really is its own thing, however; especially when you consider it being served up with pineapple juice, kirsch, and creme de cassis.  The Windward Passage, nevertheless, is a well balanced tropical drink that deserves more attention.

First, it's balance: there's not a lot of sugar here, and grapefruit juice takes it in a tart direction. Yet you can count on the small proportion of creme de cassis and the outsized gob of pineapple juice to soften the acidity and alcohol presence. That again is helped by the kirsch, which really makes it easier to taste the alcohol through the large juice components.

Then, there's the look--foamy pink without using an egg white or grenadine. You can get away with using that pale canned grapefruit juice here if you like and it will still look nice. (I almost always use fresh squeezed so I can garnish with a slice of grapefruit.)

• 1 1/2 oz. light rum (Vitae platinum used)
• 2 oz. grapefruit juice
• 3 oz. pineapple juice
• 1 tsp. kirsch (Kammer Kirsch used)
• 1 tsp. creme de cassis (G.E, Massenez used)

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

Grapefruit Cooler

As far as Coolers go, this one is pretty accurate to the flavor of the drink. Again, I'm showing off the versitility of MurLarkey's flavored whiskies with juice drinks. I feel that it is out of character to use two ounces of a richly oaked whiskey in such a tropical cocktail. If vanilla flavor was the intention, there are liqueurs that can do that instead.

MurLarkey orange whiskey is aged in oak with orange zest. There's no juice or added sugar and the whiskey comes across as dry with hints of vanilla and orange spice, but it's not overwhelming.

• 2 oz. whiskey (MurLarkey orange whiskey used)
• 4 oz. grapefruit juice
• 1/2 oz. red currant syrup (creme de cassis used)
• 1/4 oz. lemon juice
• 1/2 lemon and orange slices

Combine liquid ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and pour into a chilled Collins glass. Garnish with the citrus slices.

Istrian Smiling

I have always thought that this cocktail had a lovely name: a quixotic mashup of an active verb signaling pleasure and a peninsula to the west of Venice. (It's not a typo: "I Strain Smiling.")

One of the difficulties I've had in Virginia is acquiring less common spirits, especially unusual European liqueurs. I've had to fall back on making them myself. Sometimes I have the help of an on-line recipe for things like Amer Picon and Swedish Punsh. Other times, I've had to take a chance that my hunch of how the liquor tastes based on its description and hope that I can approximate it with ingredients I have at home. That is the case with Mandarine Napoleon; I was really shooting in the dark. But tips describing it's spicy citrus brightness (clove, coriander and mandarin zest) and its relatively low sweetness (caramel and vanilla) helped me zero in on a recipe that is close to the citrus and cognac liqueur.

Once I've confirmed that my recipe I'll include it with this post. As it stands now, this is the recipe for this very satisfying and not too sweet cocktail.

• 1 1/2 oz. gin (Bulldog London Dry used)
• 1 oz. creme de cassis (G. E. Messenez used)
• 1/2 oz. Mandarine Napoleon (DIY Mandarine used)
• tonic water (Fever Tree used)

Combine all ingredients except tonic water in a shaker with ice. Shake and pour into a chilled Collins glass. Top with chilled tonic water and stir. 

7 of Diamonds

This is the only one of the playing card series of Seagram's Seven cocktails that is served up. I half wonder if it was created by mistake: shouldn't it be made with orange juice and some kind of red liqueur like Campari?

Like as not, this was the most popular of the many different attempts to come up with two distinct tasting whiskey cocktails with a red color. Given that the agreed-upon recipe probably came about during the "dark ages" of cocktails, the 1970s-1990s, I can understand why the only other ingredient available on most bars that will suffice was creme de cassis.

Too bad that creme de cassis is made with black current--or at least it is colored and flavored like black current--and it isn't very red. The color is a little deep, like a cloudy ruby, and the flavor is unbalanced and too sweet, like the rest of the playing cards series. But you can respect that given that they are all long drinks. This cocktail is neither promoting casual cocktail mixing nor is it classy enough to warrant a cocktail glass. But you  can't police taste, and the fact that this drink is still with us means that enough of them were consumed once upon a time to make their mark on history.

• 1 1/2 oz. Seagram's Seven Crown whiskey
• 1 oz. creme de cassis
• dash of lemon juice (make it a heavy half ounce)

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

Imperial Kir

Now that I'm on the subject of Kirs, let me introduce you to this baddie! It is a Kir on steroids (or Kirsh, actually) and it combines two fruit spirits with bubbles and a lot of crushed ice. The Kirshwasser--not a small portion, here--is probably what promotes the Kir Royale to an emperor. If not that, though, it must be the massive size of this drink. It's like it is designed to wipe out any drinker in one cocktail.

Kirschwasser--the traditional stuff from Germany, like this Kammer Kirsch--is very high proof. It tastes like dry fruit brandy, and I love how that dryness and fruit comes through what is normally a sweet black current pie of a cocktail. Crushed ice makes the whole think unbelievably cold compared to the often improperly-served warm Kir (when you don't chill the cassis and just put it in the warm glass and top with champagne and hope for the best.) It turns out that the Imperial Kir is a drink that is enjoyable when you take your time with it and let it dilute a little. At this strength and size, you almost have to!

• 2 oz. creme de cassis (G. E Massenez used)
• 1 oz. kirschwasser (Kammer Kirsch used)
• champagne or sparkling wine

Combine creme de cassis ingredients with crushed ice in a shaker or blender. Shake or blend briefly to combine evenly and pour into a large wine goblet. Top with champagne or sparkling wine and stir gently.

Ostend Fizz

Ostend is a Belgian coastal city where you might find some of these liquors, though I doubt they even know about this drink. It is too much an American thing to mix like this. That is because the French like their creme de cassis in wine or even beer. And the Germans like to take shots of kirschwasser after dinner. Just because Belgium is between the two countries, doesn't mean they would mix their spirits like this.

The Ostend Fizz is a light and refreshing drink for all the flavor of the main ingredients. That is because lemon and sparkling water and the nature of a fizz means good warm spring day drinking.

• 2 oz. kirschwasser (Kammer Kirsch used)
• 1 oz. creme de cassis 
• 1 oz. lemon juice
• sparkling water
• lemon slice

Combine all ingredients except sparkling water and lemon slice in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a Collins glass full of fresh ice. Top with sparkling water and stir. Garnish with the lemon slice. 

Parisian

This drink could be all kinds of bad if you use poor quality ingredients. But that option is becoming less likely as bars up their selections of gin, vermouth and liqueurs. G.E. Massenez creme de cassis is the real deal. French cremes, while sweet, are leaps and bounds better than the junk peddled in the U.S.

Dolin dry vermouth is also an amazing dry vermouth (some of the best that France has to offer.) In fact, the French are so known for their production of dry vermouth that old recipes specifically called for French vermouth when they wanted to indicate dry vermouth.

When mixed with Hendrick's gin, you have a top shelf cocktail that will win over the staunchest Martini drinkers. And it is this kind of quality that exemplifies a cocktail bearing the name Parisian, with two French spirits boosting a quality gin.

• 2 oz. gin (Hendrick's used)
• 1 oz. dry vermouth (Dolin) used. 
• 1/2 oz. creme de cassis (G. E. Massenez used)

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

Gin Cassis

A sweet but solid drink suited to after dinner or cafe drinking, perhaps with a coffee, the Gin Cassis really takes a French twist on a gin cocktail. Like the Vermouth Cassis and Byrrh Cassis, G. E Messenez creme de cassis adds sweetness of black currants to the base liquor. Its really quite nice.

• 2 oz. gin
• 1/2 oz. lemon juice
• 1/2 oz. creme de cassis (G. E. Massenez used)

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

Vermouth Cassis

A fizzy dessert drink with the flavor of black currant and European herbs, I'm still trying to wrap my head around why people like creme de cassis in just about everything. The likely truth has to do with how Europeans tend to drink. Euro cocktails are rarely stronger than a glass of wine. The love vermouth because it is stronger than wine, but they tend to have to water it down with soda. Creme de cassis just makes everything gooey like blueberry pie. So drinking a pie flavored soda that you can sip on all day makes sense, as long as you realize that drinking in Europe is a marathon not a sprint.

• 2 oz. dry vermouth (Mancino used)
• 1 oz. creme de cassis (G. E. Massenez used)
• sparkling water

 Pour all ingredients in a highball glass full of ice and stir. 

Brandy Cassis

This is a sweet brandy cocktail that finds an interesting use for creme de cassis, that black currant liqueur. A good creme de cassis is key to making this taste at all elegant. Otherwise it will be syrupy and sort of cheap tasting.

When it comes to choice of brandy, use cognac please. You need a dry but also somewhat complex brandy to stand up to the sweetness of the cassis.

For glassware, the recommendation is a cocktail glass, but I don't find the proportions sufficient to warrant such a big glass. A sour glass will do well, and is much closer to the glass recommendation of the Kir and Byrrh Cassis cocktails, which are the major creme de cassis drinks.

• 2 oz. brandy (Courvoisier VS used)
• 1/2 oz. lemon juice
• 1/2 oz. creme de cassis (G. E. Massenez used)
• lemon twist

Combine all ingredients except lemon twist in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass (sour glass pictured) and garnish with twist.

Ostend Fizz

I liked the Ostend Fizz as a fresh lemon and black currant cocktail with fizz. I also liked that it never reverted to blackberry pie flavors. There was a constant shift between berry flavors and dry kirsh cherry brandy whiffs. It wasn't a one note cocktail, and for that, I think it belongs in the cocktail lexicon, and maybe needs to be on next summer's hottest cold drinks list. Here's how to make it.

• 2 oz. kirschwasser 
• 1 oz. lemon juice
• 1 oz. creme de cassis
• sparkling water
• lemon slice

Combine kirsch, lemon juice and creme de cassis in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a highball glass full of fresh ice. Top with sparkling water and garnish with a lemon slice.

The Purple Heather

The lyrics of Rod Stewart's Scottish Pride song go, "Well the summer time has gone/ and the leaves are swiftly turning/ and the wild mountain thyme grows along the purple heather/ will you go?"

While this drink predates the song, it is an appropriate homage to the flower that gives scotch it's floral bouquet. I could go on about how rainwater flows over the mountainsides covered with the dense ground plant, or how streams along peat bogs pick up herbal scents, but that's not what this drink is really about. It is about the color purple.

Creme de cassis, a good one, make for a delightful berry scotch cooler for the end of summer. It's neither too rich nor too strong, and though Johnny Walker Red is known for it's bite, it was really subdued in this drink. That means if you want to use a single malt (and I suggest a Speyside or north Highland malt like Dalmore or Glenmorangie) then go for it. It will only improve the cocktail.

• 1 1/2 oz. scotch
• 1/2 oz. creme de cassis
• club soda

Combine scotch and creme de cassis in a highball glass with ice. Add soda and stir gently.

Kir

I've always thought that the Kir was a bad idea looking for good wine to ruin. Adding sugary sweetness to a white wine could only result in a warm, overly sweet fiasco. But with G. E Massenez creme de cassis, you can transform a soft white wine into a dessert drink that's palatable like a ruby port with lots of real black currant flavor. I think I liked it more than the Kir Royale.

I still think its a good idea to reduce the amount of creme de cassis a little and use plenty of white wine. This will keep the drink from warming up too quickly. Even better, you might want to chill the creme de cassis, especially if you want to use the full portion of creme de cassis in the recipe.

For this one I used a nice sauvignon blanc that was a little sweet to begin with. I squeezed the twist over the wine, which imparted a really pleasant lemon oil that lasted through the entire drink.

• 2 oz. creme de cassis
• white wine
• lemon twist

Combine creme de cassis and wine in a chilled wine glass. Twist lemon peel into drink and drop in.

Kempinsky Fizz

There was something appealing to this recipe that made me excited to buy a whole case of lemon soda. I think it was the specification of "bitter lemon soda" that did it. This was something a little old world and very much a cafe style drink, not a speakeasy slammer.

Again, a good creme de cassis makes a huge difference, making this soda drink taste like a fizzy fresh fruit pie. Vodka is as good as any spirit to strengthen the bite of the Kempinsky Fizz, but someone tell me who this Kempinsky is. The luxury hotels in Europe are spelled with an 'i', so that can't be it.

But wherever the name comes from, this is a refreshing drink for warm days on the patio.

• 2 oz. vodka
• 1 oz. creme de cassis
• 2 tsp. lemon juice
• bitter lemon soda

Pour all ingredients in a chilled highball glass full of ice. Fill with soda. Lemon twist garnish is optional.

Kir Royale

So I'm seeing this drink's popularity on the rise again lately. The unfortunate thing is that it isn't because people are discovering quality creme de cassis. I think it has to do with douchy guys doing douchy things with their champagne. I'm sorry, if you make a Kir Royale with Chambord, it's not a Kir Royale. (I've wasted half a bottle of champagne and very good French creme de cassis on a table of guys who were disgusted with the flavor and kept asking me to re-make the drink, only to find out that they wanted Chambord!)

Good creme de cassis like this G. E. Massenez from Dijon are made from real black currants and have a thick creamy texture. In large portions, it gives a drink the flavor of blueberry pie, with is really great if you want a sweet drink. That's what the Kir Royal is. A pie flavored fizzy drink that is great for dessert but very high in sugar content. Champagne or sparkling wine distinguishes the Royal from the ordinary Kir made with wine.

• 2 oz. Creme de Cassis
• Champagne. 

Build drink in a champagne flute. Top with chilled champagne. 

Philly Flyer

This is the Philadelphia version of the Aviation. It's supposed to be made with Bluecoat gin to make it Pennsylvanian. I didn't have any of that, but any dry gin will do. It has a cool opacity in the glass due to the creme de cassis, which makes it more pink than the aviation, but the flavor is basically the same.

• 2 oz. gin
• 1/3 oz. Luxardo
• 1/4 oz. creme de cassis
• 1/2 lemon juice

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

Cherry Cobbler

I've been meaning to make this drink when I got some creme de cassis. The Cherry Cobbler is not as sweet as it sounds. It is obviously a throwback drink to when gin was in everything. A great drink in itself, and rich when you use Cherry Heering.

• 2 oz. gin
• 1/2 oz. Cherry Heering
• 1/2 oz. creme de cassis
• 1/2 oz. lemon juice
• 1 tsp. sugar syrup
• maraschino cherry

Combine all ingredients except cherry in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled highball glass with fresh ice. Garnish with a cherry.