Friday, March 31, 2017

Florida

I can think of a dozen combinations to represent the sunshine state, but all of them include orange juice. Kirschwasser is a little bit of a outlier, but a good idea for making a drink taste more tropical. If you have an orange for the garnish, juice the rest for the drink. Trust me.

So this is nearly a variation on a Screwdriver--just with gin and kirsch and a bit of other flavors. In that sense, it is a much better drink. Maybe it's not one you will make yourself at home on a bender weekend as you stumble your way around the crap in your horder home (Yes, I'm judging people who only drink screwdrivers incessantly). But I can see this drink as one that a bar might put out there as a refreshing spring drink.
  • 2 oz. gin (Bombay Sapphire used)
  • 1/2 oz. kirschwasser
  • 1/2 oz. Cointreau
  • 1 tbsp. lemon juice
  • orange juice 
  • orange slice (optional)
Combine all ingredients except orange juice and slice in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a Collins glass full of fresh ice. Top with orange juice and garnish with orange slice.

Flamingo

More the pink bird than the Spanish dance form, the Flamingo is very dry, spicy and classic (I mean gin and brandy) in its flavor. The pink color is no indication of sweetness, just a near perfect match to that lanky bird. I can think of no better shade for a drink at cocktail hour.

Bombay Sapphire in this drink keeps the dryness firm against sweet apricot brandy. The botanicals are so lightly infused that they don't bowl you over like some of the local gins I'm drinking right now. The British really have a way with dry gin, which in the classic cocktail sense is the base of almost all cocktails before vodka became more prevalent.
  • 2 oz. dry gin (Bombay Sapphire used)
  • 1/2 oz. apricot brandy
  • 1/2 oz. lime juice
  • 1 tsp. grenadine
Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. 

Volga Boatman

This drink is named after a traditional Russian song that's become more of an anthem. Vodka (Russian or at least formerly Russian, i.e. Smirnoff) should be used if only to fit the theme. And kirschwasser is not unfitting because fun fruit brandies are all a part of Eastern European hard drinking culture. The nice thing about this drink is that it is juicy and strong. Lots of cherry flavors make the orange juice taste like candy, and the cherry garnish is more than just suggestive.

I used fresh squeezed orange juice for this cocktail, which means it was more clear but with a lot of juicy pulp. I find store bought O.J. tastes leveled-down where you don't get sharp shifts between sweetness and tartness from beginning to the end of the sip. So it's just less interesting all around, which isn't cool.
  • 2 oz. vodka
  • 1 oz. kirschwasser
  • 2 oz. fresh squeezed orange juice
  • maraschino cherry
Combine all liquid ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with maraschino cherry.

Fjord

Slartibartfast, that god-like character in Douglas Adam's 's increasingly inaccurately named Hitchhiker Guide To The Galaxy trilogy, says he likes designing continents like Sweden and Norway with fjord because they have a pleasingly "baroque feel." This drink has that feel with Österlenkryddors akvavit or aquavit. 

The home kit is complete and giving drinks a fun herbal kick that's beyond the realm of juniper botanicals found in gins. Cumin, coriander, and fennel are savory flavors that actually pair well with the sweetness of juice drinks and brandy. 
  • 2 oz. brandy
  • 1 oz. aquavit (Österlenkryddors used)
  • 2 oz. orange juice
  • 1 oz. lime juice
  • 2 tsp. grenadine
 Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. 

Thursday, March 23, 2017

Merry Widow

Oh, how cute! This drink is pink--with bitters. Such a dry and herbal bitter cocktail deserves to be named after a widow. Vigilant gin is an intense botanical lift to any cocktail. I also used the last of my Mancino vermouth with its 22 botanicals, so there's plenty of herbs and spice here. Then add Pernod for its anise and herbal flavor and Peychaud's bitters--three to five dashes means all five for me--and you get a pink color and citrus and absinthe herbal bitter notes. The effect is a drink that looks sweet but knocks you out with the first sip.
  • 2 oz. gin (Vigilant used)
  • 1 oz. dry vermouth (Mancino used)
  • 1/2 oz. Pernod
  • 3-5 dashes Peychaud's bitters
  • lemon twist
Combine all ingredients except lemon twist in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with lemon twist. 

Golden Dragon

I've been waiting to make this drink a long time. This is mostly due to my need of yellow Chartreuse. Yellow Chartreuse is still the herbaceous and fruity alpine liqueur from Carthusian monks in France. It is less potent and is sweetened with honey, so it is sweeter and lighter than the green variety.

The Golden Dragon is the companion of the Rocky Green Dragon, not the Green Dragon, which is a Chinese-themed cocktail with green creme de menthe. This cocktail can be classified by its makeup of cognac and Chartreuse. So the Golden Dragon and Rocky Green Dragon belong to their own family of French cocktails (although it is a very small family of only two drinks.)

Both of these dragon drinks with their medieval-era liqueurs and lush cognac really play up the sense of high fantasy. It is easy to imagine while drinking this potion that characters in The Lord Of The Rings might enjoy something with these magical flavors. D'usse cognac has a fantasy-like bottle that goes well with this theme--a hammered and etched metal cross label on the front of a blown glass beaker. Even the lemon twist has a scaly, golden look to it.
  • 2 oz. brandy (D'usse used)
  • 2 oz. yellow Chartreuse
  • lemon twist
Combine Chartreuse and cognac in a mixing glass with ice. Stir and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon twist. 

Blackjack

This coffee drink uses real coffee rather than a coffee liqueur. The coffee presence is strong and even the caffeine effect is noticeable. American brandy (or non-cognac brandy) and kirschwasser give it alcoholic oomph. The lemon twist is a nice touch, like the twist with espresso coffee. It brightens the scent of what tastes like a roasted bean bitterness and cherry sweetness.

Califia Cold Brew coffee is a great addition to this drink. Cold brew coffee is brewed longer with cold water. The process extracts a lot more flavor, so the coffee notes are intense when used in a drink. There's less of a sense that coffee dilutes the cocktail when cold brew is used.
  • 2 oz. brandy (Christian Brothers VSOP used)
  • 1/2 oz. kirschwasser (Kammer Kirsch used)
  • 1 1/2 oz. black coffee (Califia Cold Brew used)
  • lemon twist
Combine liquid ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and pour into a chilled Old Fashioned glass. Garnish with the twist. 

Golden Rooster

This is a great, potent gin cocktail with lots of character. The name just suggests a farm, though apricot brandy and dry vermouth still seem a little too sophisticated for a farm. That's why I chose Sunset Hills Farm gin from Fredricksburg, VA. This is a citrus and floral gin that is similar to a London dry gin, except that there is a strong lime zest presence.

Strangely I keep thinking that orange juice or something else would help balance this drink and give it more color, but as it stands, there's a lot of herbal and spring flavors to keep you interested.
  • 2 oz. gin (Sunset Hills used)
  • 1/2 oz. dry vermouth
  • 1/2 oz. Cointreau
  • 1/2 oz. apricot brandy
  • maraschino cherry
Shake all ingredients except cherry with ice in a cocktail shaker. Pour into an Old Fashioned glass. Garnish with cherry.

Monday, March 20, 2017

Post-Modern Lemonade

This "lemonade" drink (I use quotes because it is pretty much like calling a Long Island Iced Tea a "tea" drink) is the cocktail equivalent to Picasso's Guernica. Its a modern masterpiece with so much texture, a collage of flavors from different countries. It is called Post-Modern because, like the literature and art categorized in this period, it represents a blend of nationalities and a multiplicity of points of view. Were Picasso to paint this drink, you would see it repeated in various perspectives and colors.

Sloe gin, a British country spirit, adds sweetness, while slivovitz is a plum brandy from the Czech Republic. Aquavit (or akvavit) is a gin-like spirit made from cumin, coriander and fennel. This is the akvavit kit from Osterlenkryddors that I made a few weeks ago. It stands out under all the liqueurs and brandies, not to mention lemonade, in this cocktail. Then there's dry sherry, the fruity fortified wine of Spain that goes well with citrus juice. All of these come together in a sparkling lemonade, the fizz lifting some flavors to the forefront while you sip. It took a while to acquire all these ingredients, but this drink was well worth the effort.
  • 2 oz. sloe gin
  • 2 oz. dry sherry 
  • 1 tbsp. slivovitz 
  • 1 oz. aquavit
  • 3 oz. lemon juice
  • 1 oz. simple syrup
  • sparkling water
  • lemon twist
Combine all ingredients except sparkling water and lemon twist in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a Collins glass full of fresh ice. Top with sparkling water and garnish with the twist. 

Great Dane

This is a cherry bomb of a cocktail. I haven't made it for a long time because I was waiting until I got some Heering cherry brandy. This liqueur is really not quite a brandy, but it is exactly what is called for in this Danish-themed drink. I also used Common Wealth Gin, which has a very American character and less of a juniper presence so that it wouldn't get in the way of the cherry flavors. kirschwasser, even so small a proportion, really changes the mouthfeel to something stronger and thicker than a gin and liqueur drink.
  • 2 oz. gin (Common Wealth used)
  • 1 oz. Cherry Heering
  • 1/2 oz. dry vermouth
  • 1 tsp. kirschwasser (Kammer Kirsch used)
  • lemon twist
Combine liquid ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with the lemon twist.

East India

A spicy and tropical brandy cocktail, the East India seems to hint at colonial drinks of the broader British Empire. Really, though, I think that it is a pre-tiki cocktail because of its use of triple sec, pineapple juice and Angostura bitters. This combination is really different and strikes the drinker as exotic, not at all colonial American. But of course, all of these ingredients would have been available in the Caribbean, though not so much in East India.
  • 2 oz. brandy
  • 3/4 oz. triple sec (Luxardo Triplum)
  • 3/4 oz. pineapple juice
  • 2 dashes Angostura bitters
 Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. 

Cuban Cocktail

This is oddly a brandy cocktail that uses a tsp. of rum very sparingly. I was not sure why so small an amount of rum was used, but that was before I tried Buzzard Point--a rum you want to use sparingly.

Buzzard Point is a local D.C. distilled rum made from panela sugar. It is really funky, for lack of a better word. Just noticeable underneath many ounces of flavor-dampening brandies and lime juice. It is amazingly rich and strong and makes this cocktail a boozy tropical blast.
  • 2 oz. brandy
  • 1 oz. apricot brandy
  • 1 tsp. light rum (Buzzard Point used)
  • 1 oz. lime juice
Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. 

(Barrelhound) Kona Cooler

This cocktail is one of my go-to drinks at parties where people are asking for a tropical drink with whiskey. It is fun to watch their faces when I tell them there's scotch in the drink while they sip it for the first time. It's overwhelmingly exotic and not at all stuffy like a single malt drink. Barrelhound really does appeal to non-whiskey drinkers, especially when used in this way.
  • 1 1/2 oz. Barrelhound whiskey
  • 1 oz. creme de cacao
  • 6 oz. lime juice
  • maraschino cherry
Shake all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Strain into a Collins glass full of fresh ice. Garnish with the cherry.

Hop Toad

The Hop Toad is a fun rum cocktail with apricot brandy and lime juice. It's pretty tropical and improved with an interesting rum like Plantation 3 Stars. A little too citric, but worth the experience. This toad is sneaky and makes you dizzy if you take it down too quickly.
  • 2 oz. light rum
  • 1 1/2 oz. apricot brandy
  • 1/2 oz. lime juice
Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. 

John Collins

John Collins is the whiskey brother to Tom Collins. I realize there is also a Whiskey Collins, but the Collins is such an Irish-American cocktail that it needs doing with a real Irish whiskey.

I'm hot and cold on my feelings about Donegal Estates whiskey. It is dry and almost flavorless except for a bit of grain on the center of the tongue. This makes it excellent as a cocktail whiskey with light and refreshing drinks like the Collins. It is uninteresting when taken neat, except that occasionally it pairs well with shortbread or as a topper to fizzy drinks. For me, it wasn't worth the price, in the 30 dollar range, but that's the thing about Irish whiskey imports. You pay a premium regardless of quality.
  • 2 oz. Irish whiskey (Donegal Estates used)
  • 1 oz. lemon juice 
  • 1 tsp. sugar
  • soda
  • lemon slice
  • orange slice
  • maraschino cherry (green used)
Combine whiskey, juice and sugar in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a highball glass (Guinness glass used) and top with soda. Garnish with fruit.

Serpent's Tooth

At the heart of this wily cocktail is Irish whiskey, placing this drink among the rank of the Tipperary and Everybody's Irish which use green Chartreuse and lots of flavorful spirits. As written, the recipe calls for 1 1/2 oz. of lemon juice, making it extremely acidic and difficult to drink. With a half ounce of simple syrup added, it becomes extremely amenable and boozy. You notice sweet vermouth, Angostura bitters and Jagermeister. I'll include the sugar in the recipe so that no one feels the bite of the Serpent.
  • 2 oz. Irish whiskey
  • 1 oz. sweet vermouth
  • 1/2 oz. Jagermeister
  • 1 1/2 oz. lemon juice
  • 1/2 oz. simple syrup
  • 3-5 dashes Angostura bitters
  • lemon twist
Combine liquid ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into an Old Fashioned glass full of fresh ice. Garnish with twist. 

Tuesday, March 14, 2017

Saketini

Sake is called a rice wine, but it is actually brewed like beer. Cleaned rice is warmed in water to break down the starches into sugar. It is often filtered and diluted so that it is clear and about 15 percent alcohol content. So it is as strong as wine, at least.

Sake has a lot of umami flavor, a savory taste like that found in tomatoes, that makes it especially useful for mixing. You don't need olives in a Saketini, for instance. That brine taste you love will be in there.
  • 3 oz. gin
  • 1/2 oz. sake
  • lemon twist
Combine all liquid ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with twist. 

Osaka Dry

Osaka is Japan's third largest city behind Tokyo and Yokohama. This sake and vodka cocktail requires a very Japanese ingredient: Japanese pickled plums.

Now I was tempted, after shopping around at several stores, to just give in and buy pickled plums from Amazon. Japanese pickled plums are a type of apricot that is sour. They are steeped in their own vinegar and spices and have a very distinctive taste.

I gave up on finding authentic Japanese plums and bought a few pitted and wilted French plums. I soaked them in vodka and apple vinegar spiced with cloves, anise and coriander for 3 days. They turned out very fragrant, sour and spicy with a sweeter center. I'm guessing they are not quite right, but that's a little beside the point. The drink they made looks and tastes great.
  • 3 oz. vodka (Aylesbury Duck used)
  • 1 oz. sake
  • pickled plum
Combine vodka and sake in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with pickled plum.

Sunday, March 12, 2017

Vodka Gimlet

Sometimes this sort of thing just happens at work. Someone actually knows what a gimlet is and asks for it, not only by name but also requests that I not use Rose's lime cordial.

Of course all the original recipes of gimlets call for a lime cordial for simplicity. No need to add sugar or squeeze anything. This was the DIY cocktail of DIY cocktails. Even the basest home bartender could swing it.

Now, though, we have an aversion to corn syrup and fake stuff. The only corn in this drink is the Tito's.
  • 3 oz. vodka
  • 1 oz. lime juice
  • 1/2 oz. simple syrup
 Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

Black Velvet

A typical Black Velvet should be a half pint of stout and a half pint of champagne in a pint glass. That's it. Edie Burns of Bar Dupont says that this drink is a favorite of British in Ireland because it gets you drunk quicker than Guinness alone.

Bar Dupont has turned out this special cocktail for St. Patrick's Day, a fluted version with Sibona Camomilla, chamomile liqueur. I'm guessing it is 3/4 oz. of the liqueur and equal parts Guinness and prosecco. The liqueur smooths things over and ups the alcohol content. Velvet is an apt name here, because the fizzy bubbles feel lush and the chocolate and herbal flavors, as well as grape from the prosecco, offer little resistance.

Original recipe for Black Velvet:
  • 6 oz. champagne or sparkling wine
  • 6 oz. stout or black porter
Pour into a pint glass.

Ginza Mary

Ginza is a nightlife area in Tokyo. That's all I know about it. I doubt that this Bloody Mary makes an appearance there. The simple presentation of this cocktail is very Japanese, though.

I'm not sure that sake really makes this drink any different than other Bloody Mary variations, however I noticed that without horseradish, the flavors were much restrained. I also declined to use Tabasco, because I felt it would taste too South West. I grabbed another chili sauce without as much vinegar--I recommend using Sriracha or something Asian--for a better effect.
  • 2 oz. vodka
  • 1 1/2 oz. sake
  • 2 oz. tomato juice
  • 1/2 oz. lemon juice
  • 3-5 dashes Tabasco sauce (or something else)
  • 2 dashes (or more) soy sauce
  • ground pepper to taste
Combine all ingredients except pepper in a shaker with ice. Shake and pour into an Old Fashioned glass. Grind fresh pepper on top. 

Saigo Collins

You may have heard of the Irish revolutionary, Michael Collins, who shares the last name of of the famous John and Tom Collins cocktails. Saigo Takamori is a Japanese revolutionary figure honored in this mashup of drink styles, the Saigo Collins.

This is the perfect combo for a Cherry Blossom festival coinciding with St. Patrick's Day green drinks. 

It is an Irish whiskey John Collins with the addition of sake and matcha powder. The bitterness of matcha goes well with sweet Irish whiskey. This is a very green and earthy drink, which sake helps to usher along. And surprisingly it is very fizzy and refreshing. Check out the green maraschino cherry. It is there more for looks than flavor, but it tastes like bitter almond, so have at it if you like.
  • 2 oz. Irish whiskey
  • 1 oz. sake
  • 1 oz. lemon juice
  • 1/2 oz. simple syrup
  • 1/2 tsp. matcha powder
  • orange wedge
  • green maraschino cherry
Combine matcha and liquid ingredients in a shaker and shake to combine the matcha evenly. Add ice and shake to chill and pour into a Collins glass. Top with soda and stir. Garnish with cherry and orange.




Monday, March 6, 2017

New Yorker Cocktail

I've said before that New York themed drinks need to be pink. That's a Cosmo with cranberry juice, New York Sour with red wine, and then there's the New York and New Yorker with grenadine. I'm pretty certain that the New Yorker is the blended whiskey version of the rye New York Cocktail. Both are whiskey sour like drinks with grenadine for color and sweetener and a lemon twist, not a cherry.
  • 2 oz. blended whiskey (Black Velvet Special Reserve used)
  • 1 oz. lemon juice
  • 1/2 tsp. grenadine
  • 1 tsp. sugar syurp
  • lemon twist
Combine liquid ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a twist.

Bloody Maria

It goes without saying that a simple Bloody Mary recipe made with tequila is pretty damn good. This recipe only varies in one other way, the addition of cilantro. It's great and a little more exotic for this most complicated of all cocktails.
  • 2 oz. white tequila (Sauza Blanco used)
  • 4 oz. tomato juice
  • 1/2 oz. lime juice
  • 1 tsp. horseradish
  • Tabasco sauce to taste
  • 3-5 dashes Worcestershire sauce
  • ground pepper to taste
  • ground black pepper to taste
  • pinch of cilantro
  • lime wedge
Combine all ingredients except lime wedge in a shaker with ice. Shake pour into a highball glass. Garnish with lime slice. (Note: there's no celery or salt rim in the recipe but I include them because of preference. Celery is only a requirement of the Bloody Caesar, a Canadian Bloody Mary variation.)

Vodka Collins

There's so many Collins drinks out there, but this one seems as if it fits the the general rule. I'm increasingly finding that a Collins glass is not sufficient to hold a Collins drink. That's because a three ounce pour of vodka, plus sugar syrup and lemon, plus ice leaves little room for soda. I grabbed a beer pint instead, and that worked out pretty well.
  • 3 oz. vodka (Smirnoff 57 used)
  • 2 oz. lemon juice
  • 1/2 oz. sugar syrup
  • sparkling water
  • maraschino cherry
  • orange slice
Combine vodka, sugar syrup and lemon juice in a shaker with ice. Shake and pour into a chilled Collins glass (pint pictured). Top with sparkling water and garnish with fruit. 

Nineteen

There's evidence out there that this drink gets its name from either the average age of American soldiers in Vietnam or maybe it is simply a date: the 1900s, for example. After all, people's impression of cocktails as a modern concept really begins in the 20th century.

The ingredients of the original are listed below.
  • 3 oz. dry vermouth
  • 1/2 oz. kirschwasser
  • 1/2 oz. gin
  • 1/4 tsp. Pernod
  • 1/4 tsp. sugar syrup
This is a vermouth, gin and kirschwasser drink that has herbal absinthe-like flavor from liqueurs like Pernod. Dry vermouth is a huge component of the drink, and I wanted to use part of that portion by substituting a D.C. local fennel spirit, Don Ciccio & Figili Finocchietto. This adds sweetness that allows you to omit sugar syrup. It also has a softer fennel and dill flavor to round out the anise of Pernod.

My adjusted D.C. local recipe is below.
  • 1 1/2 oz. dry vermouth
  • 1 1/2 oz. Don Ciccio & Figili Finocchietto
  • 1/2 oz. kirschwasser
  • 1/2 oz. gin
  • 1/4 tsp. Pernod
Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass with ice. Stir and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

Paradise Cocktail

This is one sweet drink! In a way, it does suggest a tropical Paradise, or maybe a blissful state of mind. It's not overly strong, though, with apricot brandy and a bit of gin as the only spirituous ingredient. Grenadine adds more sweetness and a pretty color. It's not, for everyone, but it will surely satisfy most of us.
  • 2 oz. apricot brandy
  • 1/2 oz. dry gin (Common Wealth used)
  • 1 1/2 oz. orange juice
  • 1/2 tsp. grenadine 
Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

Buddy's Bloody Mary

This is a quick and dirty Bloody Mary variation that features more vegetable flavors from V-8 juice. I've modified it further with a pickle, celery and olives. It doesn't really call for a garnish. The interesting instructions for the drink seem to focus on seasoning the ice cubes first before straining the drink into the glass.
  • 2 oz. vodka (Smirnoff 57 used)
  • 6 oz. V-8 juice
  • 1/2 oz. lime juice
  • celery salt to taste
  • black pepper to taste
  • 1 tsp. horseradish 
  • several dashes Worcestershire sauce
  • several dashes Tabasco sauce
  • lime wedge or assorted vegetable garnishes
Combine vodka, lime juice, V-8 juice, Tabasco, Worcestershire sauce and horseradish in a shaker with ice and shake. Fill a highball glass with ice and add celery salt and black pepper to create seasoned ice. Strain liquid mixture into the glass and garnish at will. 

Octopus Garden

What?

This is a thing?

*Still shaking head*

Yes. The Octopus Garden should just be called the Octopus Martini; that's all it is. And smoked baby octopus really adds a great scent as a garnish, so much so, I'd rather have it in vodka than bury it in a spicy gin. The recipe also calls for a black olive, which after the octopus seems unnecessary.
  • 3 oz. vodka or gin
  • 1/2 oz. dry vermouth
  • smoked baby octopus
  • black olive
Combine liquid ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with the octopus and olive. 

Moldau

Moldau is the longest river in the Czech republic. That's why this drink has slivovitz, the plum brandy spirit of Croatia (they call it Slivovica) and a favorite of Slavic people. This is a relatively dry cocktail with lemon and orange juice and gin, with the round mouthfeel of slivovitz to add sweetness, which it does in small measure.

It was tart when cold, but it got better as the drink warmed up. It became more exotic and fruity from the white plum spirit.
  • 2 oz. gin (Common Wealth gin used)
  • 1 oz. slivovitz (Maraska used)
  • 1/2 oz. lemon juice
  • 1/2 oz. orange juice
Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

New World

Something about American whiskey, pomegranate syrup and lime juice makes this drink about the American continents. It does look very modern, not a port cocktail or rum flip, but a lime sour with a ton of tartness and oak.
  • 3 oz. American whiskey (Jim Beam used)
  • 1 oz. lime juice
  • 2 tsp. grenadine
  • lime twist
Shake all liquid ingredients in a shaker with ice. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with twist. 

Rendez-Vous

Legend tells of a meeting of the Buddah, Lao Tso, and Confucius on a mountain path. This is the sublime Rendez-Vous of British gin, German kirschwasser and Italian Campari. It's is nearly perfect, certainly legendary, and full of interesting flavor. No sugar or juice means that Campari is unchecked and kirsh adds a thick texture that's hard to ignore. If I had to change anything, I'd use more Campari--just a bit.
  • 2 oz. gin
  • 1 oz. kirschwasser
  • 1/2 oz. Campari
  • lemon twist
Combine all ingredients except twist in a mixing glass with ice. Stir and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with the twist. 

Wednesday, March 1, 2017

Irish Cow

There's a time and place for drinks like this. That's not to say it's a bad drink, just not something you want on a hot day, right?

So this was surprisingly simple to make. Heating the mild and sugar in a saucepan on low, then dumping it in a mug with the whiskey. That may be well, because you will want this drink when you are having trouble sleeping. Warm milk is a great way to ease yourself back to bed on a sleepless night. The whiskey helps calm nerves as well. Throw in a few shortbread cookies and you have a nice midnight snack.
  • 2 oz. Irish whiskey (Donegal used)
  • 1 cup warm milk
  • 1 tsp. sugar
Warm milk and sugar in a saucepan on low heat, stirring to dissolve sugar. Build drink in a heat-resistant mug with whiskey first and topping with milk.