Tag: genever

Day 72: Improved Gin Cocktail

  • 4 oz genever
  • 1 tsp simple syrup
  • 2 tsp maraschino liqueur
  • 4 dashes Angostura
  • lemon peel for garnish

I was toying with the idea of adding another feature around here, and while I couldn’t come up with an alliterative title we’ve now got Classic Fridays. This gives me a chance to focus on revivals of classic and prohibition era cocktails.

Tonight I really wanted to make a Gimlet, but found I have no lime cordial in the house. That’s not particularly surprising, since I’ve almost completely moved to fresh juices when possible. Problem is that a gimlet requires cordial. So, instead I found this recipe. The name for this (like the Old Fashioned) strikes me as extremely funny. “Improved” from what? Just gin in a glass?

I was surprised that I liked this. Genever is kind of a strange gin to me, very malty and woody, but the maraschino brightened it up significantly.

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 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.