Christmas Morning Coffee

 

I've been doing a lot of coffee and hot cocktails since making my own liqueurs this fall season. The Christmas morning idea came to me when I considered all the things that you find in holiday spiced coffee blends: cinnamon, ginger, orange peel, and chocolate. These ingredients spice up your coffee and make for a holiday treat, but the real rewards come from treating yourself.

I used two spirits to flavor the coffee and add alcoholic punch. The first is MurLarkey's cinnamon whiskey, which is unsweetened cinnamon-infused white whiskey. The cinnamon flavor is natural and very intense. For sweetness and natural ginger rounded out in American brandy, I used my homemade ginger syrup with Korbel brandy. Together, these spirits make up the base of this coffee drink.

Next, grating chocolate and orange zest on top of whipped cream transforms this ordinary cup of coffee into the scents and flavors you find in stocking-stuffer delicacies. It's all part of the holiday experience and a great way to greet the morning on a day of celebration.

• hot black coffee
• 1 oz. ginger brandy (homemade used)
• 1/2 oz. MurLarkey cinnamon whiskey
• grated dark chocolate
• grated orange zest
• whipped cream

Add spirits to a cup of black coffee. Top with whipped cream and sprinkle chocolate and orange zest on top. 

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.

 

Apple & Custard

 

This is a simple idea that really hits the spot on winter nights. It stands to reason that apple flavors go great with custard in this dessert drink stand-in for the typical eggnog. 

Advocaat is a Dutch traditional egg and vanilla spirit that is sweet and creamy, even though there is no dairy added. The richness comes from egg yolks which are cooked with sugar and brandy into a stable liqueur. This recipe pairs that with distilled apple cider in the form of calvados, apple brandy or applejack. Most apple brandies, like Calvados, lose a lot of the apple flavor in distilling and aging and leave you with something that tastes like expensive brandy. Laird's Applejack 86 has enough real apple flavor to not require any apple schnapps (which taste like fresh apples, not baked apples). I avoid American schnapps because of the fake flavoring that always tastes like candy and not even close to real fruit. I've found that with Applejack 86, you don't need to add schnapps.

My homemade advocaat also has a ton of vanilla in it, so I omitted vanilla syrup from the recipe and just used a splash of simple. You can easily add vanilla extract to any simple syrup and get similar results.

• 2 oz. advocaat (homemade used)
• 1 1/2 oz. Calvados (Laird's Applejack 86 used)
• 1/2 oz. apple schnapps (omitted above)
• 1/4 oz. vanilla syrup (simple syrup used)

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

Clockwork Orange #2 (Difford's Guide)

I'm on the lookout for more innovative akvavit recipes lately, and I've turned to Difford's Guide for help finding them. This coffee and orange rocks drink is strong on spirits and bitterness. It is the kind of thing that is really "in" right now, but you usually find bourbon in the bitter cocktails, not akvavit.

And that is where this cocktail jumps off from the traditional thinking. Akvavit is usually consumed chilled and chased with pilsner-style beer. There are few bartenders who know enough about akvavit to mix with it; Difford's guide with its thousands of recipes only displays seven akvavit cocktails. That is why this one is so special. 

I've made a few alterations, using local spirits and omitting chilled coffee to replace it with a shot of MurLarkey coffee whiskey. This whiskey has all the kick of cold brew coffee without the grounds, and without watering down your drink. The akvavit I'm using is my own infusion with MurLarkey Justice white whiskey and vodka. And I like the idea of subbing in a local aperitivo like Don Ciccio & Figili's Ambrosia for the better known Aperol.

I do not have chocolate bitters, and I can see what the chocolate would lend. Often chocolate bitters also contain cinnamon, the point being that your taste buds register the chocolate flavor as chocolate chip cookies or sweet baked goods. So my closest substitute is Hella orange bitters, which is less orange and more of a baking spice bitters anyway.

This stiff cocktail was worth the effort and deserves a quiet half-hour to sip and enjoy uninterrupted.

• 1 oz. akvavit (homemade used)
• 1 oz. Aperol or Italian aperitivo (Don Cicco & Figili Ambrosia used)
• 1 oz. chilled French Pressed coffee (1 oz. MurLarkey coffee whiskey used)
• 1/4 oz. sugar syrup
• dash chocolate bitters (Hella orange bitters used)
• orange zest (flamed)
  

Combine liquid ingredients in a mixing glass with ice. Stir and strain into a chilled Old Fashioned glass with fresh ice cubes (large format preferable). Flame the orange zest by squeezing it into a flame held over the glass and drop it in. 

Grand Autumn

 

This cocktail is from the St. Germain website, and I've done it before when I had my first bottle of St. Germain many years ago. It was a hit, but I didn't make it to my satisfaction, so now I am attempting it again with the bitters and proper Fever Tree ginger beer. 

This cocktail is such a crowd-pleaser--almost tiki, like the Suffering Bastard. The ginger beer is paired wonderfully with rye and lime juice. (You get the sense that drinkers prefer a richer rye and ginger beer cocktail to a Moscow Mule with boring vodka.) All of this would tend to make an acidic drink that hides the North Fork rye's best qualities, that round oak note and American whiskey flavor. But St. Germain comes to the rescue, adding sweetness to tame the acidity and a floral note that ties everything together.

The Grand Autumn is a cocktail that looks great, smells good and tastes even better. I'm glad I gave it another chance.

• 2 oz. rye (Glacier Distilling Co. North Fork rye used)
• 1 oz. St. Germain or elderflower liqueur
• 1/4 oz. lime juice
• ginger beer (Fever Tree used)
• several dashes Angostura Bitters

Combine rye, St. Germain and lime juice in a shaker with cracked ice. Shake and strain into a chilled Collins glass. Top with ginger beer and float dashes of Angostura on top. 

Margaret Duffy

As best as I can guess, this is a cocktail made by or for its namesake, a contemporary author of a series of mystery novels. If that is the case, I bet there's a Nathan Wilkinson cocktail out there somewhere (there isn't) if I google myself. 

But I like the style of this cocktail, which resembles a Vieux Carre. The main ingredient is Swedish punsch, which is spiced with clove and cardamon. My homemade punsch is made with a spirit blend of half dark rum and one quarter each of MurLarkey distillery lemon and three tea whiskies. That means that there's citrus, earthy and floral tea notes, and dark sugar and oaked rum spirits. It's a cocktail in itself, but it is smothed out with a little cognac and helped along with more spice from Angostura bitters.

• 2 oz. Swedish punsch (homemade used)
• 1 oz. cognac (Martel single distillery used)
• 2 dashes Angostura bitters
• lemon zest twist

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

 

Greta Garbo (Difford's Guide Recipe)

There's a few cocktails out there dedicated to actress Greta Garbo. This one is the first I've seen that doesn't use Swedish punsch. It is based on the Daiquiri, with hints of almond and anise, so it has a very classical profile. The lack of Swedish punsch makes me think that this Greta Garbo is something the actress might have enjoyed, rather than just being a gimic to sell Swedish punsch.

Difford's Guide does not supply any origin story or apocryphal anecdote about the creation of this cocktail other than to link it with Garbo and mention that it is one of many. 

I like what anise and the suggestive anise star garnish does to a classic Daiquiri's flavor. There is something Parisian or continental about this cocktail that has the feel of 1920s films. The presentation is beautiful and the flavors perfectly balanced. You will want to have more than one of these.

• 1 1/2 oz. light rum (Mt. Defiance used)
• 1/4 oz. maraschino liqueur
• 1/2 oz. sugar syrup
• 1 oz. lime juice
• 1/6 oz. Pernod (Ricard used)
• anise star garnish

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