AKA Cobbler (Death & Co. Recipe)

 

This is a beautiful cocktail, as Cobblers often are. Looking at the ingredients this is as much a sherry cobbler with a spicy tequila shot thrown in. It uses the juice and acidity of the strawberry to give the right balance to the other sweet and spicy ingredients. My limited success this time around (it was hard to appreciate) is probably due to the fact that strawberry season hasn't hit its stride yet. Riper berries will undoubtedly make for a better taste.

But a Cobbler is usually a winter cocktail, containing lots of ingredients designed to satisfy a sweet tooth and warm you up despite that it is served on ice. So we have Lustau East India Solera Sherry and maraschino liqueur giving liquored fruit notes, some muddled lemon twists for zestiness, and blanco tequila, a portion of which is infused with jalapeno heat. 

I'm still trying to place where this cocktail best fits in. Maybe at Death & Co. on a cold day. It's not poolside sipping or a beach drink, though. 

• 1 tsp simple syrup
• 1 tsp Luxardo maraschino liqueur
• 2 lemon twists
• 1 strawberry
• 1 white sugar cube
• 1 1/2 oz. blanco tequila (Sauza 100% blue agave used)
•  1/2 oz. jalapeno-infused blanco tequila (Sauza blanco infused with jalapenos used)
• 1/2 oz. Lustau East India Solera Sherry
• 1/2 strawberry garnish

Muddle the simple syrup, maraschino liqueur, lemon twists, strawberry and sugar cube in a shaker tin. Add tequilas and sherry and whip (shake with a few pieces of crushed ice, just until the ingredients are incorporated. Dump into a double rocks glass and top with crushed ice. Garnish with the half strawberry. 

East India Trading Co. (Death & Co. Reciep)

 

Death & Co., like any bar, has to limit its ingredients to a set of standards that can be re-assembled in different configurations. This one is more variations on a theme involving dark spirits in a coupe glass that taste of exotic rum, chocolate and cinnamon. Here, I put a few of my own liquors to use to pull off this cocktail.

My Amer Picon (hiding behind the Aztec Chocolate Bitters) is made with Ramazzotti, so I used it as an obvious substitute. George Bowman's rum tastes like Jamaican rum, and it is a blend that might include some from Jamaica. Finally, the chocolate bitters are intended to have the cinnamon notes of Mexican chocolate, so Fee Bros. Aztec chocolate works just as well as Death & Co.'s Bittermen's Xocolatl mole.

• 2 oz. Appleton Estate Reserve rum (George Bowman's used)
• 3/4 oz. Lustau East India Solera Sherry)
• 1/2 oz Ramazzotti (homemade Amer Picon with Ramazzotti used)
• 2 dashes Aztec chocolate bitters

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

Night Owl (Death & Co. Recipe)

 

More Death & Co. recipes involving sherry are coming your way. This one is actually pretty simple for the speakeasy bar's repertoire. Lustau East India solera sherry is probably the big star in this cocktail with its woody and raisin notes. The one funky ingredient is Batavia Arrack, which I used to have but stopped buying because MurLarkey Justice white whiskey is a fair substitute. I use it when making Arrack punsch and Swedish punsch, because it has a distilled corn taste similar to Arrack's distilled rice flavor. 

Anyway, the funk of sherry and Arrack (or Justice) negates the need for bitters in this cocktail. It is middling sweet, but cognac keeps it from being cloying. I'm glad I tried this before dinner, because there's no reason it has to be had late at night.

• 2 oz. cognac (Martell single distillery used)
• 1/2 oz. Punt E Mes (Cocchi di Torino used)
• 1/2 oz. Lustau East India Solera Sherry
• 1/4 oz. Van Oosten Batavia Arrack (MurLarkey Justice white whiskey used)

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

Castle of Cordoba (Death & Co. Recipe)

 

It is beautiful. It is fortified. It is very classic. This cocktail is very much like as Spanish castle. The ingredients aren't especially Spanish, but that hardly matters. There's sherry, a lot of it, and that is good enough.

A couple of things needed to happen for me to knock out this recipe. I have only solera reserve sherry, which was much too dark to used in place of pale cream sherry in such a high dose. I cut it down by half with Manzanilla fino sherry so that it took on a pale color and remained sweet but a little lighter and mustier. I felt it was a great compromise. 

The fortifying ingredient, calvados, was also substituted for by Laird's Applejack 86. I feel that the juiciness of Laird's isn't exactly the flavor of French apple brandy, but the addition of cognac per the recipe adjusts for that anyway. And Martell's single distillery is especially dry and wild tasting--lots of terroir in it like a grappa because it isn't blended with other distilleries like most cognacs. 

This cocktail is decidedly rich, with lots of sweetness from the sherry, but complex. Apples are more than hinted at, and even my modification of Manzanilla sherry did a lot to suggest sour apple notes. This was a winner of a dessert drink.

• 3/4 oz. calvados (Laird's Applejack 86)
• 1/2 oz. cognac (Martell single distillery used)
• 2 oz. pale cream sherry (1 oz. Orleans Manzinilla Fina and 1 oz. Lustau East India Solera Reserve used)
• 2 dashes Peychaud's bitters
• 1 apple slice garnish

Combine all liquid ingredients in a mixing glass with ice. Stir and strain into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with the apple slice. 

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. 

Bella Cohen (Death & Co. Recipe)

 

My hope that this New York bar named this drink based on the actress' actual preference. It is quite possible that she came to the bar herself, and this was named for her. And even if it isn't, it makes a great St. Patrick's Day cocktail. 

I'm gearing up for St. Patrick's Day with a few new whiskies and this East India solera sherry by Lustau. The recipe calls for pale cream sherry, but that is really a matter of color, not the sweetness of the flavor. This solera sherry is actually very rich, and it is part of the Death & Co. repertoire that gets used a lot, and so I anticipate using more of it as I make my way through their bar book. 

This cocktail is rich and a sweet with plenty of single malt nuttiness that the sherry accentuates. St. Germain is a small portion of the drink, but aids in adding texture to this all liquor drink. The lemon twist, if anything, adds the slightest acidity to cut the sweet and oak notes.  

• 1 1/2 oz. Knappogue Castle 12-year Irish whiskey
• 1 1/2 oz. Alvear Festival pale cream sherry (Lustau East India solera used)
• 1 tsp. St Germain
• 1 dash Peychaud's bitters
• lemon twist

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

Creamy Orange

Sherry from the source in Spain is always special. This drink is counter to the Creamsicle drink with orange juice and half-and-half and some vanilla liqueur. Instead there's a hint of brandy and one ounce of cream sherry, known for its high sugar and soft thick mouthfeel.

Creamy Orange makes for a good dessert drink, like a milk chocolate orange bar. There are hints of chocolate and the juice factor is actually low. It's also low in alcohol, so a nice light dessert indeed.

• 1 oz. cream sherry (Lustau East India Solera used)
• 1/2 oz. brandy (Hennessy used)
• 1 oz. orange juice
• 1/2 oz. half-and-half

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