Dusky Maiden

 

This is another recipe using Forbidden Fruit, something I found on the Lee Spirits website. Though I didn't buy Forbidden Fruit, I made it, they have been helpful with recipes to use in this newly revived liqueur. 

The Dusky Maiden is one of those thick and spirituous egg white cocktails that have no acidity except what comes with the liqueur. That means that the grapefruit and bitterness, as well as the sweetness needed to provide egg white foam that lasts, all comes from the liqueurs. The only other element is whiskey. For that I chose Ancient Age, mostly because I had a lot of it. The recipe called for Canadian Club, and that means smoothness. A blend of any kind would do the trick, but experiment with the types of whiskey you use. I think the point of calling for a Canadian blended whiskey is that you are not supposed to notice it as much as, say, a rye.

Overall, this is a winner. I've seen similar cocktails done with berry liqueurs and cognac, and I feel this was very similar. I'm not sure what that has to do with maidens and dusk, but the name is nice as well.

• 1 1/2 oz. Canadian Club (Ancient Age blended bourbon used)
• 3/4 oz. Forbidden Fruit (homemade used)
• several dashes Angostura bitters
• 1/2 tsp. egg white

Combine all ingredients in a shaker and shake hard to generate foam. Add ice and shake again to chill. Remove ice while retaining the cocktail and shake a final time. This is an important step that adds beautiful froth. Pour into a chilled cocktail glass.

Canadian Pineapple

This is a strangely Christmas-like tropical drink. I guess it has to do with the whiskey being the spirit of America's cold north country, Canada.

Pineapple, like most tropical things, is also associated with the holiday celebrations that are marked by their excess--both in drinking and in consumption of distant and exotic things like fruits and spices. Do this any time of the year, but a smooth whiskey and pineapple drink seem especially decadent for a pool cocktail.

• 2 oz. Canadian whiskey (Black Velvet Special Reserve used)
• 1 tbsp. pineapple juice
• 2 tsp. maraschino liqueur
• 2 tsp. lemon juice
• pineapple spear

Combine all ingredients except pineapple spear in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with the pineapple spear. 

Canadian Old Fashioned

The Canadian Old Fashioned is not really an Old Fashioned in the bitters, sugar cube and stirring the cocktail in the glass sense. Canadian's, it seems don't have time for stirring, muddling sugar, and fussing over a drink. This is as much a virtue as a detractor, because I've enjoyed this little cocktail and made many similar lately for people I serve at my bar. It's cold, it's smooth and it goes down easy.

There's no maple syrup in the Canadian Old Fashioned, despite the trend of putting syrup in all Canadian themed drinks. No raspberries either. But orange and lemon twists are called for. I used Hella Aromatic Bitters but Angostura are just as good.

• 2 oz. Canadian whisky
• 1 tsp. triple sec
• dash lemon juice
• dash Angostura bitters
• orange twist
• lemon twist

Combine liquid ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into an Old Fashioned glass and garnish with twists.

Klondike Cooler

So the Yukon region of Canada has to have a drink featuring Canadian whisky. The higher quality, the better in my opinion. Some may scoff at my Black Velvet 8-year-old reserve, but it is quite tame and plenty smooth for a ginger ale drink.

As the name suggests, it is a cooler for hotter days--something handed down from the great white North. The preparation of this drink is a little counter-intuitive. There's no shaker needed.

• 2 oz. Canadian whisky
• 2 oz. club soda
• ginger ale
• 1/2 tsp. sugar
• long lemon peel

Combine ginger ale (about 1 ounce) and sugar in a highball glass and stir gently until sugar is dissolved. Add whiskey and ice and stir until chilled. Add more ice and top with soda. Garnish with long lemon peel.

Canadian Daisy

The Daisy is a pretty standard whiskey, lemon, soda highball. I'm not sure why the Canadian Daisy is the only one that get's raspberries and raspberry syrup, but I'll take it. I guess Canadians, as much as anyone, love their raspberries. In this way it differs from the other Daisy variations: the Star Daisy, the Vodka Daisy, the Bourbon Daisy, and the Whiskey Daisy. The difference is that where all the other drinks used grenadine, the Canadian uses raspberry syrup for color and sweetener.

• 2 oz. Canadian whiskey
• 1 tsp. brandy
• 1/2 oz. lemon juice
• 1 tsp. raspberry syrup
• sparkling water
• fresh raspberries

Combine whiskey, lemon juice and raspberry syrup in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled highball glass filled with fresh ice. Top with sparkling water and float brandy on top. Garnish with raspberries.

Whiskey Sour

• 1 1/2 oz. whiskey (blended Canadian)
• 1 oz. lemon juice
• 1/2 oz. simple syrup

Mix all ingredients in a highball glass full of ice and stir. Garnish with a lemon wedge.

Dog Sled

Ok. If you like something fruity to enjoy at the beach, and you like the way whiskey blends with juices, I have the cocktail for you.

• 2 oz. Canadian whiskey

• 2 oz. orange juice

• 1 tsp. lemon juice

• 1 tsp. grenadine

Pour all ingredients in a highball glass with ice and stir.
Hey, I am not kidding when I say this is a real drink. I didn’t invent it, though the name seems incongruous with the tropical nature of the drink. Whiskey, especially Canadian whiskey can lend a spicy zip to tropical drinks. Don’t rule it out when you are running low on rum.

Kona Cooler

• 1 part (1 oz.) blended or Canadian whiskey
• 1 part (1 oz.) creme de cacao
• 2 parts (2 oz.) pineapple juice

Pour all ingredients with ice into a Collins glass and stir. Garnish with fruit (i.e. cherry and orange or pineapple slices).

Cablegram

The infamous Cablegram

• 2 oz. blended (Canadian) whiskey
• 1/2 oz. lemon juice
• 1tsp. Sugar
• Ginger ale

Muddle sugar in lemon juice and add ice and whiskey. Stir and top off with ginger ale. Garnish with a lemon wheel.

This drink has a reputation as a dangerous mind eraser. At each party where it was consumed (among other things) the drinker reported a loss of memory. This is accomplished with a good helping of Black Velvet Canadian whiskey, which is the active ingredient in all the mind erasing examples I’ve served. Enjoy, but remember to leave yourself post-it notes for tomorrow.

Canadian Whiskey

Last week I had a guest at the bar who wanted help narrowing down his whiskey preferences. He knew he liked whiskey and that it was good in mixed drinks, but he wasn’t sure which kind of whiskey he liked most. I made a variety of drinks for him, mostly very tropical and sweet to fit his palate, and discovered exactly what he thought. He liked Canadian whiskey.

Canadian whiskey is probably the easiest whiskey to mix with because it is always blended and very smooth. There’s no malting or smoking and the multiple distillations and aging in new oak pretty much mean that the only thing you taste is the alcohol and the barrel. In this way, Canadian whiskey is like the vodka of whiskeys.

That’s not to say that Canadian whiskey is inferior to scotch or bourbon, Irish or Japanese, it is just different. There are some outstanding blends like the one above that stand out very well on their own. They have their own distinctive flavor, more spicy than bourbon, milder than a rye, drier than most scotches—Canadian whiskey tends to have a strong alcohol burn with a light palate and soft oak notes. Some of the better blends like Crown Royal Reserve have milk chocolate flavors and a long-lasting finish.

Other Canadian whiskeys are the perfect price for experimenting by mixing with maple syrup in a Manhattan or a Canadian Dog Sled cocktail. The Blinker I made yesterday is made with Black Velvet, a 3 year old whiskey, that allowed the grapefruit flavors of the drink to stand in the forefront while keeping oak in reserve. Try mixing Canadian whiskey with pineapple juice and creme de cacao for a Kona Cooler or with light rum in a Lord Rodney. You’d be surprised how close to the tropics Canada can get with its whiskey.

Old Fashioned

• 4 parts blended whiskey, bourbon, rye, Canadian whiskey (2 oz.)
• simple syrup
• dash of bitters
• 1-2 orange wheels and maraschino cherry.

Muddle orange wheels and one or two cherries with a tsp. of simple syrup. Add a dash of bitters to the mixture and pour whiskey on top. Add ice and stir.

This is a classic cocktail with many variations, as you can see from how non-specific whiskey ingredients. Some recipes call for a sugar cube muddled in water and bitters; some say to add a lemon twist with no mention of orange or cherry. So it is really a cocktail for which the recipe comes down to personal preference. On my bar I keep 4 categories of whisky/ whiskey—scotch, Irish whiskey, Canadian whiskey, and straight bourbon whiskey. Occasionally I will have a blended American whiskey, rye,  Tennessee whiskey, or single malt American whiskey. Any of these would be acceptable for making an Old Fashioned.

Canadian whiskey is a good compromise in this drink. It has the dryness of rye without the heavier oak and vanilla flavors of bourbon. It is also less spicy compared to a rye because all Canadian whiskey (which contains a percentage of rye) is blended for smoothness. Experiment with your favorite whiskey when you make an Old Fashioned, but also—and here’s a tip—try making the drink with whiskey you don’t enjoy as much by itself. If someone gives you a bottle of rye or blended whiskey that you aren’t a fan of, chances are that it will improve in your esteem when you mix with it. Sometimes it is the unusual and often off-putting flavors of a liquor that a mixed drink can balance and showcase.