Mr. Kappes (Difford's Guide Reciep)

 

This rich and boozy cocktail is all about sherry and kirschwasser. It strikes me as very much a style of central Europe, with fruit brandy and fortified wine enjoyed from southern Spain to northern Denmark. There is a hint of citrus from the twist and Lillet Blanc, but hardly enough to lift it from the depths of funk that comes from 90-proof kirschwasser, which has a distinctive flavor like pisco or grappa and the rich age of PX (or solera) sherry. 

It is a big drink that I knew wouldn't fit in a coup, so here it is in a Martini glass. I can't say I love this cocktail, but like anyone who likes all of the ingredients separately, I had to try them together. 

• 2 oz. kirschwasser (Kammer Kirsch used)
• 1 oz. Pedro Ximenez sherry (Lustau East India solera used)
• 1 oz. Lillet blanc
• lemon twist

Combine all ingredients except lemon twist in a mixing glass with ice. Stir and strain into a chilled Martini glass. Twist the lemon zest over the glass and drop it in. 

Great Northern (Death & Co.)

 

No surprises here. Akvavit, honey and bitter orange flavors are amazing together. The Death & Co. cocktail book says that akvavit is often overlooked because it doesn't appear in any classic cocktails and that the four drinks they offer are an attempt to remedy that. 

I've been singing the praises ever since someone gave me a taste of homemade akvavit. Now I make it myself with vodka and MurLarkey justice white whiskey. A combination of both gives the cocktail an herbal spiciness that is quite unlike any other spirit. It can go savory or sweet or, in this case, a little of both.

A note on acacia honey: this is an unusual honey made from the narrow-leafed tree. It is usually raw and has bits of the comb in it, so you can make the syrup, but you should strain it through mesh, or double strain the cocktail. I got mine as a travel gift from some western state, and I was glad I discovered it for this drink.

• 2 oz. akvavit (homemade used)
• 3/4 oz lillet blanc
• 1/2 oz. lemon juice
• 1/2 oz. acacia honey syrup
• 2 orange crescents as garnishes

 Shake (short shake) all ingredients except garnishes with 3 ice cubes and strain them into a rocks glass filled with crushed ice. Garnish with the orange slices.

Great Northern (Difford's Guide)

This is another amazing akvavit cocktail on the Difford's Guide website. Once again akvavit is paired with orange flavors, which works surprisingly well. In this cocktail, though, it is bitter oranges in Lillet Blanc and the sweet and bitter orange notes of triple sec that provide the orange boost, and a fresh orange slice makes for a juicy treat.

Besides the aperitif wine and triple sec, this cocktail differintiates itself from an Akvavit Sour by using honey to provide sweetness. Honey syrup (2:1 ratio honey to hot water) feels more festive than white sugar and gives a drink like this a more natural and rustic style. Underneath all that sweetness is the bold and bracing akvavit with its earthy notes of caraway, anise seed and fennel, which only makes sure that there is plenty of depth in what could have been a bright and sweet orange cocktail.

• 2 oz. akvavit (homemade used)
• 3/4 oz Lillet Blanc
• 1/2 oz. triple sec
  
• 1/2 oz. honey syrup
• 3/4 oz. lemon juice
• orange slice garnish

Combine all ingredients except orange slice with cracked ice in a shaker. Shake and strain into a chilled Old Fashioned glass full of fresh ice. Garnish with the orange slice.

 

Odd McIntyre

 

This classy French-style cocktail is light, well-rounded and easily crushable for a cognac drink. It gets its name from O. O. McIntyre, a journalist for a New York newspaper in the 20s and 30s. That makes it a journalist cocktail like the Gazette and Journalist. 

You really notice the French-style lables of these bottles (Leroux is French American from Kentuckey, but they emulate the look.) This cocktail is bursting with sweet and bitter orange flavors, something that French spirits makers are known for. Lillet Blanc of 007 fame adds fortified wine notes and bitter green orange peels from north Africa. It makes this cognac cocktail very approachable for someone new to cocktails and cognac in general.

• 1 oz. brandy (Martel single distillery cognac used)
• 1 oz. Cointreau (triple sec used)
• 1 oz. Lillet Blanc
• 1/2 oz. lemon juice

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

Bateaux Mouche

The Bateaux Mouche are those long sight-seeing boats on the Seine river in Paris. The ingredients in this cocktail are appropriately French. Silky cognac and Lillet blanc blend well together. Curacao and lemon juice lighten and add fresh citrus juice and scent to round everything out. It is like French cuisine, well-honed and time-honored--a little predictable in a good way--with elegance and charm.

I like the addition of Lillet Blanc in what would otherwise be a standard Sidecar. Parisians take Lillet chilled the the afternoons. It's not especially strong and only a little bit bitter. But it is much better in a cocktails where its sweetness adds balance.

• 1 1/2oz. cognac (Courvoissier VS used)
• 1/2 oz. Lillet blanc
• 1/2 oz. lemon juice
• 1 tsp. sugar syrup
• 1/2 oz. curacao

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

George V Cocktail

A kingly cocktail requires royal ingredients--I mean Lillet and Royal Combier. This cocktail fits well within the classic French gin cocktails using wine and cognac-based spirits. Orange and spice rule here. Lillet blanc is an orange bitter and fortified wine. Royal Combier has north African spices and oranges in its cognac and eau de vie blend. Finally, orange bitters punch up the baking spices like clove and allspice and bring the orange flavor to the front.

• 1 1/2 oz. gin (MurLarkey ImaGination used)
• 1 tsp. oz. Cointreau (Royal Combier used and recommended)
• 1 oz. Lillet Blanc
• several dashes orange bitters (Hella used)

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

Lillet Noyaux

Sounding so French, this cocktail is really just the names of two ingredients. Lillet Blanc is an aromatized and fortified wine from the Bordeaux region. Creme de Noyaux is a nutty, pink liqueur made with peach pits and almonds. Together, this drink tastes very French with just a hint of gin to cut the sweetness.

Remember this cocktail for one of those low ABV drinks. The main ingredient, Lillet, is not as strong as a 80-proof gin. And the gin is a small component of the overall drink.

•  1 /12 oz. Lillet Blanc
• 1/2 oz. gin (Vitae Old Tom used)
• 1 tsp. creme de Noyaux (Tempus Fugeit used)
• orange twist

Combine liquid ingredients 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. 

St George Spritz (Original Recipe)

There's so much orange flavor with MurLarkey Orange Whiskey and Lillet Blanc, not to mention the many citrus peels found in Don Ciccio and Figili's Ambrosia, that this light and boozy cocktail needs the name of a powerful historical figure.

St. George is the patron saint of England, which is not so important as the fact that one of his symbols is the orange tree. Legend tells of how after George's battle with the dragon, he was healed by oranges. Other stories tell that the tree shielded him from the dragon's flames.

What it all comes down to is a spritz that uses soda to fizz up flat ingredients; no sparkling wine required!

• 1 oz. MurLarkey orange whiskey
• 1 oz. Lillet Blanc
• 1 oz. Don Ciccio and Figili Ambrosia
• club soda or sparkling water
• orange slice and mint for garnish

Combine alcoholic ingredients in a chilled highball glass full of ice and stir to combine. Top with soda water and stir gently. Garnish with orange slice and mint.

Abbey (with Battle Standard Barrel Finished Gin)

The Abbey is a pleasing drink with lots of bitter and sweet orange flavors. I love how balanced that it is, and Lillet Blanc and gin are just classic pairings that will please most cocktail drinkers.

For this cocktail, I chose K.O. Distillery's Barrel Finished gin. It has round citrus notes and an almost tea-like flavor. All of this perfectly complemented this Golden Age of Cocktails special, which I enjoyed at Vermilion restaurant in Old Town Alexandria.

• 1 1/2 oz. gin (Battle Standard Barrel Finished gin used)
• 1 1/2 oz. Lillet Blanc
• 1 oz. orange juice
• 3-5 dashes orange bitters (Regan's used)
• orange twist (optional)

Combine all liquid ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Twist orange zest over the glass and drop it in. 

Prince Street Cocktail (Original Recipe)

Old Town Alexandria needs its own cocktail associated with its colonial history, something classic and regal to contrast it from New York's Manhattan and Chicago's Southside. I give you the Prince Street Cocktail, named after one of Old Town's more pristine cobblestone streets.

This cocktail is based on the Bonnie Prince, a gin, Lillet Blanc and Drambuie cocktail of similar proportions. For this cocktail, I really upped the amount of Drambuie to add richness--look at that honey color! The flavor then becomes one of spiced wine, heather and old whisky. For the gin, I chose northern Virginia's ImaGination gin from MurLarkey Distillery. There's so much spice (Drambuie and ImaGination) and orange flavor(from Lillet and the twist), that Prince Street tastes as decadent as the Royal name it carries. 

• 2 oz. MurLarkey ImaGination Gin
• 1/2 oz. Lillet Blanc
• 1/2 oz. Drambuie
• orange twist

Combine all ingredients except for orange twist in a mixing glass with ice. Stir and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with orange twist.

Country Club Cooler

This is almost an aptly named cocktail in that it is something mildly alcoholic, a little glitzy and European, and perfect for early afternoon drinking in the summer. I'm not sure which country club this drink is associated with or why, but the reasons above are about as good as any.

First off, the alcoholic part of the drink is Lillet Blanc, which is a great Bordeaux spirit flavored with bitter oranges and sugar. It doesn't need grenadine for sweetness, but I like the color it gives. It is all packaged in this orange spritzer with a twist that make it rather tempting and more refreshing than potent.

• 4 oz. Lillet Blanc
• 1 tsp. grenadine
• sparkling water (Perrier used)
• orange twist

Build drink with chilled Lillet Blanc and grenadine in a Collins glass full of fresh ice. Top with sparkling water and stir gently. Twist orange peel over the glass and drop it in.

James Bond Martini (AKA Vesper, AKA 007 Martini)

In a way this is a repeat post. I've already posted the Vesper with gin, vodka and Lillet blanc. This is the same drink with Tanqueray 10 gin and Ketel One vodka. I had this drink at The Gin Joint in Woodley Park. It is the downstairs bar of the New Heights Restaurant, which is totally devoted to the wondrous variety of gin out there now. They have as many as 150 gins at one time, and the selection rotates, it seems. 

This Vesper was made by bartender Ravi Kukadi, who has a deep love of gin. He changed the recipe a little to include Cocci sweet vermouth. I appreciated the change-up.

Lillet blanc is a sweet Bordeaux wine that is flavored with bitter green oranges from North Africa. It plays well with dry gins like Tanqueray and keeps the drink looking clear. Drinkers nowadays want more richness and flavor, and a sweet vermouth does that in spades if it is Italian. 

• 2 oz. gin 
• 1 oz. vodka
• 1/2 oz. Lillet blanc
• lemon twist

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

Prince Edward

The Drambuie company says that their recipe comes from the family of Prince Edward, known as the Bonnie Prince. That is why his name shows up on so many Drambuie recipes. I think I like this one better than the Bonnie Prince (made with gin) because the flavor of orange and scotch are so much more consistent.

• 1 1/2 oz. scotch
• 1/2 oz. Lillet blanc (Dubonnet blanc used)
• 1/4 oz. Drambuie
• preserved orange slice (sugar coated slice used)

Mix all ingredients except orange slice in a mixing glass with ice. Stir and strain into a chilled Old Fashioned glass (single large cube used). Garnish with orange slice. 

Culross

Ok, so there's a village in Scotland with this drink's name and it's not a scotch drink. But more importantly there is an abbey in the village, so I'm thinking this one belongs to the "Monkish" category of Lillet and Dubonnet drinks along with the Abbey, Nightmare Abbey, Sanctuary, and Cloister (coming soon). Definitely do this one. A note on the garnish, I love how dried apricot tastes with apricot brandy cocktails, so if you have any Turkish apricots, garnish away.

• 2 oz. light rum
• 1/2 oz. apricot brandy
• 1/2 oz. Lillet blanc
• 1 tsp. lemon juice

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

Self-Starter

I chose this cocktail because it's combination of Pernod and Lillet blanc, which makes this very French. I recommend using less apricot brandy so that it doesn't cover the Pernod. Too much apricot makes the drink too sweet and a little insipid.

• 2 oz. gin
• 1 oz. Lillet blanc
• 1/2 oz. apricot brandy
• 1/4 tsp. Pernod

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

Balmoral Cocktail

I really liked this one, with it's full, rich wine flavors and scotch sweetness. Make it with Lillet Blanc and Dubonnet Rouge if you can't find Dubonnet Blanc.

• 2 oz. scotch
• 1/2 oz. Dubonnet Blanc
• 1/2 oz. Dubonnet Rouge
• 3 dashes bitters

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

Great Secret

This drink is self described in its name. Lillet Blanc and gin are great together. Sweet Lillet balances out dry gin and adds wine and orange flavors. Bitters, which add interest to any cocktail, top the whole thing off. It is a secret that anyone with a bottle of Lillet discovers sooner or later.

• 2 oz. gin
• 1 oz. Lillet Blanc
• 3-5 dashes of Angostura Bitters
• orange zest

Combine gin and Lillet in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Add bitters and orange zest.