Month: January 2015

Day 21: The Mistake

  • 2 oz rye
  • 1 oz Averna
  • 1/2 oz Kina Lillet
  • 1 dash 1/2 oz orange bitters
  • 1 barspoon sugar

Oh, god. I had cocktails at Peche tonight to celebrate a friend’s new job, and they had a special called The Uptight. I can’t quite remember exactly what was in it, and I think I may be combining two different drinks in my head, but I’m pretty sure I was close. (Rye and Amaro Montenegro for sure, though I only had Averna to use.) I was mixing at William’s tonight, so he always has Lillet that he’s added quinine to for some old-fashioned Kina Lillet. I was almost done when I accidentally unscrewed what is actually a flip top lid on the orange bitters and dumped a huge amount into the drink. I figured I’d try it anyway.

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Boy, that was a mistake. They can’t all be winners, I suppose. I’m going to see if I can get the actual recipe and redo this sometime soon. Always check your lids, folks.

 

Day 20: Teardrop Lock & Load

  • 2 oz genever
  • 1 oz pineapple juice
  • 1 oz Bénédictine
  • juice of one lime
  • 2 dashes Angostura

Teardrop is a beautiful bar in Portland, a short walk from my Air BnB when I was visiting for a work conference last year. I watched a bunch of business people order Piña Coladas, which was somehow very satisfying to me.

This is the first time I’ve made this one. The description in the menu is “earthy & cooling, with a tropical bounce”. Mine was off the mark but I could see where it was going. Their recipe uses pineapple gomme and I don’t have any gum arabic just lying around the house, so I just used some pineapple juice instead. To make up for the missing sweetness I upped the amount of Bénédictine I would normally use. Looking at it now I might have been better off adding some extra simple instead. This turned out a bit too earthy. I’d like to try making my own gomme syrups at home, and use less genever next time.

Day 19: Daiquiri

  • 2 oz rum
  • juice of one lime
  • 1/4 oz simple syrup

I’m back home after the burn and I’m exhausted, a little sick, and sunburnt, so the last thing I wanted to do was make a complicated cocktail. I have about a dozen limes at the house so I immediately thought of a daiquiri. The white rum I used is kind of astringent. I might try a nice dark rum next time for a bit of a sweeter finish.

Day 18: Midnight Cowboy Winter’s Wolves

  • 2 oz Becherovka
  • 3/4 oz Cynar
  • 3/4 oz sweet vermouth
  • 1/2 oz dutch genever

When you read this I’ll be watching the effigy burn at Freezerburn, so I figured I’d do something in honor of the event. This is the first time I’ve made this drink at home, and the only substitution I had to do was Punt e Mes instead of Antica. Just reading the ingredients you know it’s going to be a bitter, bracing drink. It could work pretty well as an after dinner digestif.

I think that the proportions were off. Next time I may try equal parts of everything and see what I think.

Day 17: Garage Voce Sabe?

  • 2 oz Cachaça
  • 3/4 oz lime
  • 1/2 oz grapefruit
  • 1/2 oz Becherovka

I have had this bottle of Cachaça for several years. I had a Caipirinha in Key West and wanted to replicate it. I have not thus far successfully made a Caipirinha at home that I’ve liked, and I don’t know if the problem is this brand of Cachaça or what. It’s a strange liquor, very grassy and also kind of cloying, but it worked pretty well in this. The actual recipe calls for a barrel-aged Cachaça, which might cut the fresh notes down a lot. I guess this is almost a Daiquiri variant.

I got a new channel knife as you might be able to tell by my ridiculous garnish. It works VERY WELL. I’m glad to know that I wasn’t just incompetent at making twists and that I am able to do so with a good tool.

Day 16: Midnight Cowboy Total Eclipse of the Lemonhart

  • 2 oz Dolin dry
  • 3/4 oz lemon juice
  • 3/4 oz vanilla brown sugar syrup
  • 1/2 oz 151 rum
  • generous dropper of tiki bitters

Since it’s the middle of winter, let’s have a tiki drink to remind us of the summer! This is one of my all-time favorites from Midnight Cowboy. I believe it was on one of their first menus. I’ve been working to replicate it properly for a while now, and I’m almost there. I think I added just a leeeeetle too much lemon this time. I had two lemons that were getting a bit old so I decided to use up both, and probably could have done with just one.

My mint plant is a little cold right now but still gave up a few tiny sprigs for the garnish here. The glass came from Texas Tiki Week this past year. (I’ve also got a pair from 2013, and will likely continue to grow the collection.) The vanilla brown sugar syrup is pretty fun to make: I cut open a vanilla bean and let it boil with the sugar and water. Mmm, vanilla.

I cannot for the life of me find a bottle of Lemonhart 151 in Texas. One time last year while visiting Atlanta I saw a bottle, covered in dust and on the back of a shelf, and I almost bought it to take home. Dane said it’d be too much hassle so I left it there and now I regret it. My understanding is that it’s a much smoother liquor than your typical 151 rum. One day I will find a bottle.

 

 

Day 15: Death & Co The Gift Shop

  • 2 oz white rum
  • 3/4 oz lime juice
  • 3/4 oz simple
  • 1/2 oz Cynar
  • 1 dash Angostura
  • cucumber slices

Muddle cucumber slices, then shake over ice with all ingredients. Strain into a rocks glass and garnish with another cucumber slice.

Wait. Have I somehow made it a full two weeks without a rum drink? Tonight we fix that. Here’s another from the Death & Co book, and yet another reason for me to practice my shaking. (I am extra terrible at shaking drinks.) The recipe calls for Cardamaro, which of course I didn’t have. I was reading up on it and as soon as I saw “artichoke” I thought: CYNAR! LET’S DO THIS.

This reminds me a lot of a Pimm’s Cup. I’m also starting to get over my fear of heavy-handed simple syrup use after these last two drinks. Generally I only use one or two barspoons of syrup because I don’t want my sweet tooth to oversweeten drinks for other people, but both of these drinks were well-balanced. I will definitely start playing with more syrups in addition to the heavily-boozy cocktails I often make.

Day 14: Death & Co The Risk Pool

  • 2 oz gin
  • 3/4 oz lime juice
  • 3/4 oz simple syrup
  • 1/2 oz grapefruit juice
  • 1/4 oz Creme de Violette

William and I were running some errands to pick up supplies for Freezerburn this evening when I realized that I hadn’t done my drink for the day yet. Since he’s being a good sport and helping me out I wanted to make him something. He asked for a gin drink, so I flipped through the Death & Co book (yeah, you’ll be seeing a lot of recipes from there for a while) and found one where I had all the ingredients.

Their recipe calls for Old Tom gin, which I didn’t have, so I substituted Citadel. Presumably that makes for a bit of a drier drink than specified. I also initially balked at the amount of simple used here, but after trying it I am sold. This was so good I almost stole it from William! I love Aviations but haven’t had many lately, and this was a damn good variation on that theme. I really think the large amount of simple toned down the bitter/tart of the grapefruit, and the lime calms the floral of the Violette. I can see this becoming a standby for me.

Day 13: Rusty Nail

  • 2 oz scotch
  • 3/4 oz Drambuie
  • 1 dash Angostura
  • lemon twist for garnish

Yesterday I went to the Death & Co book release tour at Half Step. Death & Co is a well-known bar in NYC that was featured in the documentary Hey Bartender, and I have also never been there. I had a couple of pretty damn good and interesting cocktails that I’ll have to try making later, and the book is beautiful. I thumbed through it this evening looking for a recipe and was unsurprised to find that I was missing at least one ingredient for most of the drinks I wanted to make. I did eventually find the Rusty Nail, which is a fairly well known cocktail that uses Drambuie. I originally bought a bottle of Drambuie for some other recipe and never could remember which one it was, so it’s been sitting unopened on the counter for several months now. I finally got to use it tonight!

The Death & Co recipe uses Springbank scotch and Bitter Truth aromatic bitters. The info I found online about Springbank oddly didn’t specify a region/style, so I had trouble determining what kind of substitute to make. I eventually settled on the Balcones Single Malt. Balcones has been my holy grail for a little while now and I somehow lucked into TWO bottles of it just this weekend, and flush with this bounty I felt I could spare a little for a cocktail. It’s a little peaty but with not as much iodine as an Islay, so I thought it would be a nice compliment to the Drambuie. As far as bitters go, I am finding more and more that I probably need another bottle of aromatics. Angostura is nice but it’s always obvious when you use it. The Nail could have used a more subtle touch, I think.

I’ve also noticed that my highball and rocks glasses all have a fair amount of calcium etching that becomes SUPER OBVIOUS when you take pictures using a nice camera. Anyone know of a way to resurface glasses to clear them back up?

Day 12: Byrrh Cocktail

Here’s another from Midnight Cowboy. I’m not entirely sure I’ve gotten the proportions right, but I think I’m getting close. The Byrrh gives this a medicinal bitterness that Dane absolutely loves.

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I had some difficulty this time with the flamed orange. I think my orange was getting a little dried out. I did still manage a very small flame at least.