Posts from — January 2010

I delete a lot of emails.  Mail touting something irrelevant to this blog’s focus, like a book about the evils of drinking, goes straight into the trash.  Pitches about obnoxious new products, like yet another flavored vodka (“now infused with unicorn tears!”), gets a glance before being buried.  But a pitch titled “The world’s first beer, bourbon and BBQ cocktail” gets my rapt attention.  It’s not too often that three tenants of my diet are mixed into one drink.

Tom Fischer of BourbonBlog.com, along with Louisville mixologist Stephen Dennison, created the cocktail, which will be premiered at this weekend’s Beer, Bourbon and BBQ Festival in New York.

The cocktail blends a smoky barbeque water with Maker’s Mark and Evan Williams Honey Reserve, and is then topped off with some Hefeweizen foam.  I can’t vouch for the drink, having never tried it, but it’s certainly interesting.  Those attending this weekend’s festival in Manhattan can sample the cocktail at la.venue, where Tom will be playing bartender from 3:30 to 4:15 on Saturday, January 30.  Otherwise, just check out the recipe and video below.

Beer, Bourbon & BBQ Cocktail

1 1/4 ounces Maker’s Mark Bourbon
1 ounce Evan Williams Honey Reserve
1 ounce BBQ water
Hefeweizen beer
1 Orange

To make BBQ water, combine a 19 ounce bottle of Jack Daniel’s Honey Smokehouse Barbecue Sauce with an equal portion of hot water in a mixing bowl. Whisk until incorporated, and let cool. Shake Maker’s Mark, Evan Williams Honey Reserve, BBQ water and a squeeze from a quarter of an orange with ice. Strain into a cocktail glass. Dry shake 1/4 bottle of Hefeweizen beer, and garnish top of cocktail with beer foam.

Once per month cocktail aficionados band together to create a booze-soaked collection of drink recipes for Mixology Monday.  This month’s host is Frederic of Cocktail Virgin Slut, who chose tea as the theme.  From Frederic –

Tea has played a historical role in cocktails for centuries. Perhaps the best documented early example was its inclusion in punches as part of the spice role to round out the spirit, sugar, water, and citrus line up…Find or concoct a drink recipe that uses tea or tisane (an herbal “tea” which lacks tea leaves) as an ingredient. This can be hot tea, cold tea, tea syrups, or infusions, and use it in a cocktail, punch, or other drink type.

After first attempting to pair a smoky añejo tequila with allspice-infused black tea, some bitters and an orange garnish, I moved onto green tea, and went the route of tea syrup.  To make my green tea simple syrup, I used a 1:1 ratio of Chinese green tea to sugar, boiling and stirring my way to a syrupy mixture that, quite honestly, tasted pretty decent on its own.  I then set about to pair my new green tea simple syrup with some booze.

I first associated green tea with lemon, which made me think of a whiskey sour, which in turn brought me to a Maple Leaf, a drink composed of bourbon, lemon juice and maple syrup.  Of late, I’ve been enjoying Urban Moonshine’s maple bitters in my Old Fashioneds and Manhattans, so I thought I’d give it a try in the whiskey cocktail laying itself out before me.

I wound up with the following drink, which I dubbed the Bourbon Tease.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 ounces bourbon (I used Wild Turkey 101)
1/2 ounce fresh lemon juice
2 dashes maple bitters
1 bar spoon green tea syrup

Shake all ingredients with ice, and strain into an ice-filled rocks glass.

The inclusion of maple bitters added a depth of flavor to this whiskey sour variant, and the sweet, herbal quality of the green tea syrup kept the tart lemon juice in check.  All in all, it made for a pretty tasty cocktail.

While doing a bit of light reading on the Aviation cocktail, I came across a drink created by Gary Regan that he dubbed the Moonlight Cocktail. 

According to Gary, “I merely took the Aviation formula and tweaked it a little. I used Cointreau instead of maraschino, and lime instead of lemon juice. Why lime? I had no lemons.”  Finding his reasoning sound, I went about crafting myself a cocktail.

I started with Plymouth Gin, which is my go-to gin when making a new drink, and Rothman and Winter’s Creme de Violette, a violet flower liqueur that became available to the U.S. market in 2007.  The end result was a pretty tasty cocktail, with the vibrant orange flavor of Cointreau and the soft, violet flavor of Creme de Violette complementing each other well.  Both were kept in check by the half ounce of lime juice, which tempered the drink’s sweetness to a very manageable, pleasant level.  Gary may be onto something here.

The Moonlight Cocktail

1 1/2 ounces gin
1/2 ounce Cointreau
1/2 ounce Creme de Violette
1/2 ounce fresh lime juice

Shake with ice, and strain into a chilled Champagne flute.

Last night I wandered into one of my favorite local cocktail spots and ordered an Aviation, that tasty, well-balanced drink with gin, maraschino and fresh lemon juice.  A few minutes later, when a nearly purple cocktail was placed in front of me, I assumed there had been some mistake.  But when your bartender quotes Gary Regan as to the authenticity of your purple Aviation, it’s hard to argue.

It seems the original Aviation included the little used and hard to find liqueur, Creme de Violette.  Gary Regan notes that a 1916 recipe called for two parts gin, one part lemon juice and a couple dashes each of maraschino and Creme de Violette, which “makes for a very sour drink indeed.”  Instead, Regan proposes using three parts gin and one part each of the liqueurs and the lemon juice.

While I still love the Aviation sans Violette, or with a more moderate proportion of the liqueur, this new-to-me concoction is quite good.  Plus, it gives the drink a more intense purplish hue.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 ounces gin
1/2 ounce maraschino liqueur
1/2 ounce Creme de Violette
1/2 ounce fresh lemon juice

Shake with ice, and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

I really can’t get enough of bitters, from tried and true stalwarts like Angostura, Peychaud’s and Regan’s Orange to newish offerings from The Bitter Truth.  Aside from using bitters to enhance my cocktails, I even consume bitters with a bit of club soda before or after meals to aid digestion.  So I was pretty excited when a package arrived from Urban Moonshine, a company in Burlington, Vermont whose mission is to “rekindle the relationship between herbal medicine and the modern world” by producing handcrafted, organic bitters and tonics.

Urban Moonshine offers three bitters—Original, Citrus and Maple—which I sampled, as well as three tonics—Immunity, Longevity and Chocolate Love—which I didn’t.  Each variety of bitters is available in a 10ml spray bottle, a 20z bottle with pipette and 8.4oz bottle.

I sampled each bitters first in a glass of water and then in a cocktail.  In water, the Original tasted similar to an aromatic bitters with complex, earthy, herby flavors, while the citrus was more… bitter than I expected, but still pleasant, with flavors or orange and maybe even some lime.  The Maple was sweet and decidedly maple-tasting, as the name suggests.

For cocktails, I used the Citrus bitters in a martini, and used both the Original and Maple bitters in a manhattan and old fashioned.  In the martini, the Citrus bitters worked quite well, adding a deep orangey note to the cocktail.  In both the manhattan and old fashioned, each constructed with rye whiskey, the Original bitters worked nicely.  But it was the Maple that really shined, adding a sweet and balanced note to the spiciness of the rye.

Another cocktail I tried came straight from Urban Moonshine, and was concocted by John Gertsen of Boston’s Drink, one of my favorite cocktail bars.  And though I can’t think of many reasons to mix orange juice and maple syrup, it too did not disappoint.

Old Vermont Cocktail Recipe

1 3/4 ounces London dry gin
1/2 ounce maple syrup
1/2 ounce fresh lemon juice
1/4 ounce fresh orange juice
2 dashes Urban Moonshine Maple Bitters

Shake all ingredients with ice, and strain into a cocktail glass. Top with two dashes of Maple Bitters.

Whether their products are used as a digestive aid or to enhance a cocktail, the fine folks at Urban Moonshine are on to something.  The availability is still somewhat limited, so if you can’t find Urban Moonshine’s bitters in your area, you can buy online.

I recently had the opportunity to try the new single malt offering from The Balvenie, one of Scotland’s famed Speyside distilleries.  The limited edition 17-year-old Balvenie Madeira Cask was aged in traditional American oak whiskey casks before being transferred to barrels that previously held fortified Madeira wine.

This isn’t the first Balvenie expression that matures in fortified wine barrels.  The 12-Year DoubleWood matures in sherry casks, while the 21-Year PortWood finishes, as the name implies, in port casks.  Being a fan of the latter, and anticipating a tasty harmony of fruit and spice, I was eager to try The Balvenie Madeira Cask.

Nose
Rich, deep and complex. Warm spice, including cinnamon and nutmeg, with hints of vanilla and soft dried fruit.

Taste
The first sip is oaky, sweet vanilla that gives way to deep spices and raisin, along with more dried fruit flavors.

Finish
Very long, somewhat soft finish that continues the pleasantly balanced trend of fruit and spice with a bit of sweetness.

All in all, The Balvenie 17-Year Madeira Cask is an exceptionally balanced expression rich in spice and dried fruit, with subtle notes of sweet, honeyed vanilla.  You can taste it’s maturation process, moving from American oak (sweet vanilla) to Madeira casks (spice, dried fruit), and neither overpowers the other.  At $120 a bottle, it’s not an everyday whiskey, but you could sure drink it like one.

Stats:
- 43% Alcohol by Volume
- $120

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Composed of cachaça, limes and sugar, the Caipirinha (pronounced kie-purr-REEN-yah) is Brazil’s national cocktail.  Cachaça is the most commonly distilled alcohol in Brazil, and is often referred to as “Brazilian rum.”  But unlike rum, which is distilled from the sugar byproduct, molasses, cachaça is distilled from fermented sugar cane juice.

Not too long ago, the Caipirinha was a drink only enjoyed in Brazil, in large part because cachaça, especially good cachaça, wasn’t readily available outside of Brazil.  But in recent years the drink has begun to experience a revival and is popping up on cocktail menus across the world.  Hell, even TGI Friday’s offers a version of the Caipirinha, though it’s usually flavored and overly sweet.

Ingredients:

2 ounces cachaça
1 medium lime, cut into wedges
2 teaspoons fine sugar

Add lime and sugar to an old fashioned glass and muddle.  Add crushed ice, then cachaça, and stir.

Cachaça isn’t always easy to find, but many liquor stores will carry at least one brand.  Some available cachaças include Cabana, Leblon and Heaven Hill’s Agua Luca.