Midnight Mass (Death & Co. Recipe)

I love the imagery that this name evokes. Benedictine and Cardamaro give this Latin Mass of a drink a whiff of  incense. It's herbs, after all. And a stirred rum cocktail can take on the airs of holy water in bottles found in a monastery's reliquary. Most of that is all marketing, however. But so is the magic behind bartending. There are no saints in this industry, and magical elixirs are all basically the same alcohol molecule. 

There is something to be said about proportions and preparation in bartending that makes it somehow more sanctified when done well. Benedictine, while not made by monks, has the ability to transport drinkers to a simpler time when real art was behind every recipe that came from French liqueur distillers. 

And amari are the same way. Cardamaro may taste like spiced boiled sweets, but it is actually a wine infusion with gentian and cardamom, not something that I'd feel comfortable making myself. I'll leave it to the experts and pretend that they have a special relationship with God.

• 2 oz. Scarlet Ibis rum (Rhum Barbancourt used)
• 3/4 oz. Cardamaro
• 1/4 oz. Benedictine
• 1 dash Jerry Thomas bitters (Hella aromatic used)
• 1 orange twist as garnish

Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass with ice and stir. Strain into a chilled coupe glass and garnish with the orange twist.

 

Caribbean Shrub (Death & Co. Recipe)

I've drank shrub cocktails before. I rather like them. This is the first I've made from scratch. A shrub is a mixture of vinegar, fruit and sugar. Some barenders keep living shrubs in jars, feeding them with leftover wine. This shrub is a balsamic gastrique, which is more like a dark, tangy sauce drizzled on cooked meats or vegetables as an accent flavor. 

The reception of this cocktail was tremendous. Sweet cocktails need balance with acid, and this acid (the strawberry balsamic gastrique) had barrel aged balsamic vinegar and strawberries cooked into it. The chemical formula of vinegar is different from citric acid, your typical lemon juice acid, and we take notice with our senses. But the drink works. It transports you to a colonial time when shrubs were used to preserve fruits and add acid to cocktails that haven't been in fashion for 200 years.

To make the strawberry-balsamic gastrique combine 1 1/2 cups of sugar and 1 1/2 cups of water. Cook over low heat stirring constantly the sugar is dissolved. Add 2 cups of cut strawberries and simmer for 30 minutes while stirring occasionally. Stir in 1 cup of balsamic vinegar and raise heat to a boil while stiring contiuously. Lower the temperatore and allow to thicken for 30 minutes, still stirring. Allow to cool and strain through a cheesecloth. This gastrique will keep if refrigerated for up to three weeks.

For the Caribbean Shrub recipe:

• 1 oz. Appleton Estate rum (George Bowman used)
• 1 oz. Rhum Agricole blanc (Barbancourt 4-year-old used)
• 3/4 oz. strawberry-balsamic gastrique
• 3/4 oz. cane sugar syrup
• 1/2 strawberry garnish

Shake all liquid ingredients with three ice cubes in a shaker to chill. Strain into a highball glass filled with crushed ice. Garnish with the half strawberry.

 

Black Magic (Death & Co. Recipe)

 

A Stinger is a beautiful thing. Usually served on ice and a simple pairing of cognac and creme de menthe, Stingers are surprisingly satisfying and balanced. This cocktail is Death & Co.'s attempt to add depth and quality to what often is thought of as a low-brow cocktail or a waste of good cognac. 

Quality comes from from Marie Brizard white creme de cacaco (which I've never tried, but I'm sure my mass-produced creme de menthe doesn't match up. Depth comes from the Fernet-Branca, which is earthy and mentholated. In small proportions, Fernet adds a dark chocolate note rather than overwhelming the drinker with bitterness. An absinthe rinse often is lost in a coupe glass, but this recipe is necessarily short so that the sides remain coated. Absinthe in this situation complements the cognac and gives an herbal high note to counter Fernet's bitter low notes.

That is the philosophy of this drink. You will find that Stinger fans will love it, and Fernet drinkers will enjoy it before asking for a Fernet-Branca chaser. 

• Vieux Pontarlier Absinthe (Ricard used)
• 1 oz. cognac (Martell single distillery used)
• 1 oz. Angostura 5-year rum (Rhum Barbancourt 5-year rum used)
• 1/2 oz. white creme de cacao 
• 1 tsp. Fernet-Branca
• 1 tsp. simple syrup

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

Messianic Cocktail (Difford's Guide Recipe)

 

The name of this cocktail is quizzical: how is a cocktail related to followers of a messiah? Maybe it has to do with the spices and fruits that were often used in the Holy Land two thousand years ago. Cloves and ginger might have scented oils for anointment. In cocktail form, this blessing attains these flavors by infused spirits as well as a little muddling of the clove directly into the mixture. 

I've infused cloves, cooked them into teas and syrups, and used them as garnishes. This is the first cocktail I've made that involves muddling cloves. More on that later. The rest of the ingredients, ginger liqueur and Grand Marnier (or in this case Royal Combier) are spiced to make them more exotic. But we have grown accustomed to these ingredients in our cocktails. Clove really sent this drink's profile in a new, richer direction. 

You get clove on the nose and rich baking spices on the sip. This is followed up by oaky rum notes and finishes dry with cloves and orange. I'll be doing this trick again soon.

• 1 dried clove
• 2 oz. Haitian rum (Barbancourt 5-years used)
• 1/4 oz. ginger liqueur (homemade ginger brandy used)
  
• 3/4 oz. Grand Marnier (Royal Combier used)
• orange zest twist. 

Add clove and all liquid ingredients to a mixing glass and muddle to break up the clove. Add ice and stir to chill before fine straining into a chilled cocktail glass. Twist the orange zest over the glass and drop it in. 

Swizzles (Jumbly Jolt/ Skye Swizzel)

I've seen this recipe before. A combination of rum, scotch and gin as a swizzle with lime juice? That's a Skye Swizzle. The proportions are a little different, and not to this example's betterment. I ended up with a little too much ice and not enough liquid to spread around. That is perfectly fine, but I'd like the recipe to reflect that an indicate an Old Fashioned glass as the proper container. 

Like all swizzles, you need plenty of crushed ice on hand before you start mixing. I found that freezing the glass first and choosing a glass with thin walls to be very helpful. I tied on the napkin wrap (like my chicken?) first before freezing the glass so that I could take the glass out and start building the cocktail in it. Otherwise, it might be smart to chill the liquids in a shaker. But either way, put the wrap on before you start building the drink.

One final note: I chose my Dutch courage gin for the gin in this cocktail and greatly improved it over past examples that used dry gins. Look for an Old Tom style or Dutch genever like Bols to get the desired effect. My hope was that if all the spirits shared a barreling process, the flavors would come together better. I wasn't wrong!

• 1/2 oz. scotch (Teacher's used)
• 1/2 oz. Jamaican rum (Barbancourt Haitian used)
• 1/2 oz. gin (homemade Dutch courage gin used)
• 1/2 oz. lime juice
• 1 tsp. sweet vermouth
• 1 tsp. cherry brandy (Cherry Herring used)
• maraschino cherry garnish

Build the drink in a frozen Collins glass (Old Fashioned with thin walls is preferable if you have one). Add all ingredients except for the cherry garnish and top with crushed ice. Using a swizzle stick, stir to chill the ingredients while melting the ice. As the liquor dilutes and the liquid level rises, add more ice and continue stirring until the glass is frosty and the cocktail is cooled. Add a straw and garnish with a cherry. 

J.P.'s Punch

 

J.P. must have been a bartender who worked at a beach bar. Anyway, he was good with a blender. I can imagine bar guests watching him slice a banana and tossing the pieces into the pitcher with all the spirits and juices that he hardly takes time to measure before blending up several of these cocktails at once. 

This might actually be my first single serving blended punch featured on this blog. I'm not a huge fan of beach hut cocktails and blenders in general. They water down the flavor and make a lot of the measurements of liquor imprecise as you struggle to fit all of the drink into a single glass. But for a punch, this isn't bad. Double or triple the recipe for friends and you'll be a hit just like J.P.

• 1 oz. light rum (Rhum Barbancourt used)
• 1 oz. dark rum (Pusser's navy rum used)
• 2 oz. orange juice
• 1 oz. pineapple juice
• 1/2 oz. lime juice
• 1/2 sliced banana
• maraschino cherry garnish
  

Combine all liquid ingredients in a blender with ice. Blend until smooth and pour into a chilled double Old Fashioned glass. Garnish with the cherry.

Ju-Ju

 

Just a little bit of magic and a banana--not harmful magic, no not Hoodoo, and just a normal banana--and you have this bewitching frozen cocktail from Haiti. All the flavors blend nicely, giving off an overall tropical bouquet. Southern Comfort (replaced here with Bird Dog peach whiskey) is peach liqueur (not a whiskey). Here it reads as sweetness and something from the subtropic world. Just as Southern Comfort provides escapism in America's northern climes, so it lends exoticism to a tiki cocktail.

Banana adds richness here. You almost don't notice the flavor or the pulp of the fruit due to blending and the fact that there's no fat, as you have in smoothies with yogurt or cream. Instead, it too is an exotic texture and scent that augments the fresh pressed cane juice rum from Barbancourt. This spirit is golden in color and has a whiff of burnt molasses that finishes more like caramel.

• 1 oz. Haitian rum (Barbancourt 4-year blend used)
• 1 oz. Southern Comfort (Bird Dog peach whiskey used)
• 1 oz. orange juice
• 1/2 oz. lime juice
• 1 tsp. falernum or orgeat syrup (homemade falernum and a tsp. brown sugar syrup used)
• 1/2 ripe banana sliced

Combine all ingredients in a blender with plenty of ice. Blend until smooth and pour into a chilled Collins glass. Garnish at will with umbrella or swizzle stick.

Pirate's Julep

 

If you can make a Mint Julep using rum and Mandarine Napoleon, you should always do it. I understand that Bourbon has a special place in the cocktail world and that it's contribution to the Mint Julep is appreciable. That said, this version of the Julep ticks off two boxes that will make it a hit: it is a tropical tasting classic cocktail that looks and feels perfect when served correctly (i.e. it is a proper Julep), and it makes use of a French liqueur and all the exotic flavors and richness that comes with that.

In order to get this drink right, you have to master the former. Crushed ice and a Julep cup are necessary to complete the Julep experience. The crushed ice melts quickly and absorbs the warmth of the spirits and the metal cup. Condensation freezes on the sides of the cup and it will stick to your hands and the beverage napkin. It is an amazing chilling effect similar to the Swizzle. It is impressive to have a spirits-forward cocktail delivered in such an ice cold package that it is the cold, not the burn, that surprises you.

I crush ice wrapped in a napkin using a meat tenderizer or mallet. Be sure to have lots of ice on hand if you plan to make a few of these, because one tray of ice gets you about one drink.

• 6 mint leaves
• 1 tsp. orgeat or sugar syrup (brown sugar syrup used)
• 2-3 oz. gold rum (Rhum Barbancourt used)
• 1 tsp. Mandarine Napoleon (homemade version used)
• several dashes Peychaud's bitters
• mint sprig powdered sugar

Muddle syrup and mint leaves in the bottom of a metal Julep cup. Spirits and bitters and top with crushed ice. Stir to combine and chill and add ice as needed, continuing to stir until the Julep cup frosts on the outside. Wet the mint sprig in water and dip it into powdered sugar to use as a garnish. 

Blueberry Mojito (Original Recipe)

 

Again, it's not hard to make a simple modification to a classic cocktail and make it very impressive to your guests. Blueberry syrup gives a Mojito a kind of bramble quality with berry flavor and beautiful purple color. Otherwise this recipe remains true to the original with the exception of powdered sugar for the mint garnish. It's a New Orleans-style flourish that I do when I have the sugar handy.

• 2 oz. lightly aged rum (Rhum Barbancourt 4-year-old statemet used)
• 1 oz. lime juice
• 1 oz. blueberry syrup
• club soda
  
• 10 mint leaves
• mint sprig garnish 

In a shaker tin, muddle 10 mint leaves in blueberry syrup. Add lime juice, rum and ice and shake. Pour into a Collins glass full of fresh ice and top with soda, stirring gently. Garnish with the mint sprig.

Bombay Government Punch

 

This is a terrific punch for all seasons: tart and sweet, rummy and strong, and well spiced. It is more colonial than Tiki, as it's name suggests. According to Chowhound, this punch is one of the regulated punches of colonial Bombay's punch houses. 

It makes use of an unusual ingredient--Batavia Arrack. This is a forerunner to rum; a cane spirit that uses yeast from fermented rice in its mash. It tastes like a cross between rum and tequila with a funky rice note in the finish. My other choice for the rum is Rhum Barbancourt. I love this stuff. It is well aged but light because it is not a molasses rum. It has a fun, funky flavor of fresh pressed cane sugar from Hati. 

The other colonial addition to this punch is the turbinado sugar syrup. You can make this by boiling 2 cups of turbinado sugar, a rich unrefined sugar, in one cup of water and allowing it to cool.

 

• 2 cups Demerara or turbinado sugar (turbinado used)
• 7 cups water
• 12 limes
• 16 ounces Batavia arrack
• 1 quart dark, funky rum Rhun Barbancourt used)
• Grated nutmeg, for garnish

Make the sugar syrup and allow it to cool. Add the sugar, rums, lime juice and water to a large punch bowl and stir. Refrigerate for one hour before serving. Cut lime slices to float on top for garnishes and grate nutmeg over the bowl. Add large cakes of ice just before serving.