Belmont Stakes

I can't explain how long I've been preparing to make this cocktail and thinking about it: how to display it, how to acquire the spirits, which spirits to use... It's been about a month of ruminating; meanwhile the Preakness and Kentucky Derby have already been held. I am excited that the Belmont Stakes (the drink) is a rum cocktail, so it has little to do with southern whiskey.

The Belmont Stakes (the race) is held outside New York at the Belmont racetrack for almost a century. The cocktail that has its namesake is like most other New York cocktails in that it is pink or red. (See Cosmopolitan, Manhattan, New York Sour, New York Cocktail or, The New Yorker) The pink color comes from strawberry syrup and grenadine. For this cocktail I chose to make my own strawberry liqueur: the recipe follows below.

Boil 8-10 large cored and sliced strawberries in a cup of water until the berries are soft and the water has cooked down (about 5 minutes.) Cut heat and add 1/2 cup of fine white sugar and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Using a potato ricer, mash the strawberries until they are pulverized and their juice is extracted. Allow the mixture to cool. Add 1 cup of 100-proof vodka or light rum and stir until evenly combined. Using a fine strainer, remove the strawberry pulp and preserve the liquor and sugar mixture in a clean saleable bottle.

Now the recipe for the cocktail:

• 2 oz. vodka 
• 1 oz. gold rum (Lyon Bijou Batch used)
• 1/2 oz. strawberry liqueur (homemade liqueur used)
• 1/2 oz. lime juice
• 1/2 tsp. grenadine 
• orange slice
• lime wedge
• strawberry

Combine liquid ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with fruit.

Bolero

Bolero is a kind of slower, rhythmic Latin dance music. This cocktail with the same name is a slow sipper. I was surprised how much Laird's Apple Brandy stands out as the dominant flavor. And it really did taste like apples and sweet vermouth. This drink was spicy, boozy and light.

• 2 oz. light rum
• 1/2 oz. sweet vermouth (Lacuesta special edition used)
• 1/2 oz. apple brandy or applejack (Laird's Apple Brandy used)
• dash Angostura bitters

 Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass with ice. Stir until chilled and strain over fresh ice in an Old Fashioned glass.

Beachcomber's Gold

I'm not sure how a "perfect" rum Martini rates as a beach drink. The rum, however, makes it a more likely candidate for grass hut bar drinking. I really enjoyed this drink for its smoothness and round flavor. It really struck me as a wine cocktail despite the rum base. This, I think, is because of the softer notes of Lacuesta vermouths.

• 2 oz. light rum
• 1/2 oz. dry vermouth
• 1/2 oz. sweet sweet vermouth

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

Habitant Cocktail

I've been wanting to try this drink ever since I got a bottle of Knob Creek smoked maple bourbon. Products like this didn't exist when the drink was invented, so maple syrup as a sweetener distinguished this one from a Whiskey Sour made with sugar. I thought that the intense smoky maple of Knob Creek would help it along, though.

I was right. An extra ounce of bourbon also helps the balance between the ounce of lemon juice and just two ounces of whiskey. Two to one proportions of whiskey seemed too small to keep the drink from tasting tart. So of you want to try the original recipe just use the two ounces of whiskey and keep everything else the same, including garnishes.

Canadian whiskey is required, though; as this is a Canadian cocktail. For some reason the maple syrup and whiskey are supposed to represent being a inhabitant of Canada.

• 2 oz. Canadian whiskey
• 1 oz. Knob Creek smoked maple bourbon (recommended)
• 1 oz. lemon juice
• 1 tsp. maple syrup
• cherry
• orange slice

Combine whiskey, maple syrup and lemon juice in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with cherry and orange slice.

Black Dog

It's that lovable character from Stevenson's Treasure Island; it's that rocking song by Led Zeppelin; it's also a drink. The Black Dog is a blackberry brandy cocktail with a base of bourbon. You could just buy blackberry brandy, but where I live you can only get cheap sugar syrup liqueur. I wanted real blackberry flavor in brandy.

I started with blackberry infused E & J brandy that I made months ago. It is dry and tart, so I wanted to add more natural berry flavor. I recalled a story I did on jelly used in cocktails and picked up a jar of seedless blackberry preserves. You can try it my way or follow the recipe at the bottom.

• 3 oz. bourbon
• 1 oz. dry vermouth
• 1/2 oz. blackberry brandy

Build cocktail in a mixing glass. Add brandy and dry vermouth and muddle 1 tsp. seedless blackberry preserves until it dissolves. Add bourbon and ice and stir until chilled. Strain into an Old Fashioned glass with fresh ice.

Ardmore Cocktail

Ardmore is a village in the whisky producing area of the Scottish highlands. This drink is a variation of a Blood and Sand. I have made the aforementioned Blood and Sand with Cherry Heering, then again with single malt and Luxardo maraschino liqueur and I found I liked the dryness of the second attempt. I used Luxardo as the inspiration to create another ingredient that is hard to source, Cherry Marnier. Now this is no longer in production, but I'm guessing it is a cherry flavor of Grand Marnier. I tried to replicate it with equal parts kirschwasser and cognac with just a dash of Luxardo. Another equally good substitute (perhaps better) is Cherry Heering, but I ran out and I have a bottle of kirschwasser sitting around waiting for just this sort of thing.

• 1 oz. scotch 
• 1/2 oz. sweet vermouth 
• 1/2 oz. Cherry Marnier (substitute cognac and kirschwasser, or Cherry Heering)
• 2 oz. orange juice

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

Colloden Cheer

This drink commemorates a famous battle in Scotland's history. It is a fairly tropical drink with sherry notes. It calls for a hard-to-find ingredient, La Grande Passion, which is no longer produced. I assume it is a cognac flavored with passion fruit. I tried to replicate La Grande Passion with passion fruit rum for the passion fruit flavor, mixed equal parts with cognac. I don't know how the original drink tasted, but this was a good move. I chose Cutty Sark Prohibition Edition for its caramel notes and how well it plays with rum and sherry.

• 1 oz. scotch
• 1/2 oz. La Grande Passion
• 1 oz. dry sherry
• 1/2 oz. lemon juice

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