Flor De Jerez (Death & Co. Recipe)

aa

I love apricot liqueur. I used to make the stuff when apricots were plentiful in early summer. I'd soak the fruits in brandy and cook a sugar and apricot juice. When you cant find Rothman and Winter at your liquor store or you just don't have time to do all that with the apricots, you can use jelly. It comes together easily in the shaker tin when you stir a bar spoon of jam into citrus juices. 

 

In this case, I built the entire drink in the shaker before adding the apricot jam. (And I used a little less sugar syrup than I would have if I had liqueur because jams are sweet.) And, yes, I stirred in my shaker tin, but the result is pretty exceptional and I recommend the jam trick to any home bartender. Your refrigerator is loaded with good ingredients, so you don't need to go hunting around for liqueurs that are expensive and hard to find.

And Death & Co. knows this. How many of their drinks have marmalade or apple butter or some such ingredient or infusion. Be creative with your cooking staples, that's how cocktails were invented in the first place.

 

• 1/2 oz. Jamaican rum (George Bowman used)
• 1 1/2oz. Lustau Amontillado (Alexandro Amontillado used)
• 1/4 oz. Rothman and Winter apricot liqueur (apricot jam used)
• 3/4 oz. lemon juice
• 1/2 oz. sugar syrup (1/4 oz. when using apricot jam)
• 1 dash Angostura bitters 

Combine all ingredients in a shaker. If using apricot jam, make sure to stir before adding ice to dissolve the solids into the liquid ingredients. Add ice and shake, then double strain into a coupe glass. 

The Gift Shop (Death & Co. Recipe)

 

Cucumber seems to be a common ingredient in summer drinks at Death & Co. And that makes a lot of sense. Cucumber has a way of brightening and lending body to juicy drinks that may otherwise require more sweetener and fall flat or heavy on the palate. 

What surprises me is cucumber used in a Cardamaro and Tiki-style cocktail with Angostura bitters and light rum. Needless to say that all of this is possible due to the exacting proportions of the recipe. Death & Co.'s recommendation with all muddling is also helpful. Never overmuddle; you can easily bruise the ingredients and cause them to go bitter or jammy in the mouth. I've learned so much from their cocktail book--I bet I've covered half of the cocktails in the book at this point. 

• 3 cucumber wheels
• 2 oz. white rum (Mt. Defiance used)
• 1/2 oz. Cardamaro
• 3/4 oz. lime juice
• 3/4 oz. simple syrup
• 1 dash Angostura bitters
• 3 cucumber wheels garnish

Muddle 3 cucumber wheels in the shaker tin before adding the remaining ingredients and ice. Shake and double strain into an Old Fashioned glass with a large-format ice cube. Fan the cucumber slices as garnishes.

Maggie Smith (Death & Co. Recipe)

This cocktail is named after the famed British actor, though I wonder how much Maggie Smith enjoyed pisco or even Daiquiris for that matter. It does seem a bit like a custom classic cocktail that a Dame might appreciate, though I've not heard any apocryphal story about a bartender coming up with the recipe for her like there is with Greta Garbo. 

Anyway, this is my first time trying Capel pisco from Chile. The thing about Chilean pisco is that every label tastes different and the flavor swings from fruit brandy to whisky to vodka. Capel is very close to vodka, which is fine, but it doesn't do much for changing the flavor of this drink. 

I've got a few of my own ingredients here as well. I have homemade Mandarine Napoleon and orgeat, though they are in bottles that appear to have the proper brands on them. 

Finally, I want to mention Mt. Defiance rum as an exceptional Virginia rum that makes a damn good Daiquiri. It's pretty amazing just how light yet complex their white rum's flavor actually is. 

• 1 oz. pisco (Capel used)
• 1 oz. white rum (Mt. Defiance used)
• 1/2 oz. orange liqueur (homemade Mandarine Napoleon used)
• 3/4 oz. lime juice
• 1/4 oz. orgeat (homemade used)
• 1 tsp honey syrup
• lime wheel garnish

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

Cafe Sandinista (Death & Co. Recipe)

 

This cocktail is by far the lightest on alcohol of all the fortified wine drinks in the Death & Co. book. That doesn't mean it is light on flavor. There's only a quarter ounce of chile and coffee-infused Campari, but that's enough for it to take over the entire drink. The East India Solera sherry and orange juice really add body to the drink and spread it out across the crushed ice. 

To make the Campari infusion, I simply too three ounces of Campari and crushed one guajillo chili and a teaspoon of ground coffee and infused it for twenty-four hours. Any more than that might be too much, really. Then I strained it out using a coffee filter because it catches all the coffee particles. 

The finishing touch on the drink is grating a fresh coffee bean on top of the crushed ice. It gives the cocktail a nice aroma and prepares you for the bitterness underneath. 

• 1 oz. Lustau East India Solera sherry
• 1/4 oz. chili and coffee infused Campari
• 1/2 oz. lime juice
• 1/2 oz. orange juice
• 1/2 oz. demerara syrup
• small pinch of kosher salt
• coffee bean garnish

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Short shake and strain into a rocks glass filled with crushed ice. Garnish with a few grates from a whole coffee bean. 

Stringer Bell (Death & Co. Recipe)

Anytime there is celery juice in a citrus cocktail, it is a little weird but almost always in a good way. This is the case with the Stringer Bell. There's rich Amontillado as the nutty base of this cocktail, but lime and spicy tequila provide acid and heat to cut through that. Celery juice is surprisingly bitter and that is helped along with Cynar--so now there's celery and artichoke in a sherry cocktail, right? It's almost too strange to believe. A generous helping of cane sugar and a pinch of kosher salt brings this cocktail back from the brink and helps you experience it as sort of a bitter and spicy Margarita (more Spanish than Mexican) and a lot of fun to serve people without telling them what's in it first. 

• 1 12 oz. Amontillado sherry (Alexandro used)
• 1/2 oz. jalapeno-infused tequila (Sauza used)
• 1/4 oz. Cynar (Cynar 70-proof used)
• 1/2 oz. celery juice
• 3/4 oz. lime juice
• 1/2 oz. cane sugar syrup
• pinch koshur salt
• celery stick garnish

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into an Old Fashioned glass with a large format ice cube. Garnish with the celery stick. 

 

Cynard de Bergerac (Death & Co. Recipe)

 

Bergerac is a French wine region known for its combination of Cabernet and Merlot grapes. This particular cocktail requires the mix of ingredients in its "Bergerac Mix" In the Death & Co. book, this works out as 6 parts blended red wine (Bergerac), 1.5 parts Cynar, 1.5 parts black strap rum (homemade used), and 1/2 part Demerara syrup. This stuff is bittersweet and savory, adding its own color and sweetness to any cocktail. 

The rest of the Cynard de Bergenac involves genever, old Tom gin, and Benedictine. It is further flavored with a dash of absinthe and Aztec chocolate bitters. The end result is a wine and gin cocktail that really comes across like a dark rum punch with lots of barrel-aged notes from the genever and an herbal lift from the absinthe. It is grounded, however by chocolate and orange in the finish. You almost can't taste the Benedictine, but it is in there adding sweetness and texture. All the way through, you get red wine tannin from Cabernet. It is pretty overwhelming and easily underestimated in such a cute little glass. 

• 1 1/2 oz. Bergerac mix
• 1 oz. Bols barrel-aged genever
• 1/2 oz. Vitae Old Tom gin
• 1/2 oz. Benedictine
• 1 dash absinthe vert
• 1 dash Aztec chocolate bitters (Fee Brothers used)
• orange twist garnish

Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass with ice. Stir and strain into a chilled Nick & Nora glass. Roll the orange twist tightly and skewer on a cocktail pick.

Shoots And Ladders (Death & Co. Recipe)

 

Death & Co. have a handful of fortified wine cocktails. Some of these, like Shoots and Ladders, are low ABV cocktails. They are bold on flavor, but with fortified wine as the main ingredient, they are light on alcohol and you can have several of them in one sitting with no problem. 

This cocktail is served neat like an Old Fashioned, but it is far more herbal and spicy. Lots of infusions in here: basil infused Dolin Blanc and jalapeno infused blanco tequila. I'm trying out a new ingredient as well, Alexandro Amontillado is comparable to Lustau's Amontillado in price and style. It is dry and nutty and full of oak flavor. It is one of the two main components of this rich cocktail.

• 1 1/2 oz. basil-infused Dolin blanc
• 1 1/2 oz. Amontillado (Alexandro used)
• 1/2 oz. jalapeno-infused blanco tequila (Sauza used)
• 1/2 tsp. cane sugar syrup

Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass with ice. Stir and strain into a rocks glass. (Optional smacked basil leaf garnish.)