Category — Bitters

While yesterday was a rye day, today was most definitely a gin day.  With an assortment of gins at hand (Plymouth, Tanqueray Ten, Sapphire, Aviation and Martin Miller’s) I wanted to drink either something new, or something I hadn’t had in awhile.  Enter Esquire Drinks.

I perused several gin-based cocktail recipes before landing on the Hearst, a fine cocktail that I haven’t had the pleasure of knowing for at least a few years.  Comprised of gin, sweet vermouth—rather than the classic dry vermouth and gin pairing—orange bitters and aromatic bitters, it’s a well-balanced cocktail that packs a boozy wallop.

The gin and sweet vermouth work together to create a gorgeous aroma and clean, crisp flavor.  I tried it with a few different gins, but settled on Plymouth, my go-to source for sustenance, inspiration and general happiness.

Hearst Cocktail Recipe:

2oz gin
1oz sweet vermouth
1 dash orange bitters
1 dash Angostura bitters

Stir with cracked 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.

While there’s always a place for intricate cocktails boasting fun ingredients like Benedictine, Orgeat or Maraschino liqueur, sometimes you just want to simplify your life and your drinks.

Comprised of five simple ingredients found in any reasonably stocked home bar, the Bronx Cocktail is basically a perfect martini with orange juice added.  It’s a classic, pre-prohibition cocktail that’s a bit fruity—but not overly sweet—and its base spirit, gin, is a good carrier for both the sweet and dry vermouth.

This innocuous looking cocktail packs quite a punch, and the addition of OJ makes it a healthy alternative to not drinking cocktails.

Ingredients:

2 ounces gin
1/4 oz sweet vermouth
1/4 oz dry vermouth
1 ounce orange juice
1 dash orange bitters

Shake all ingredients with ice, and strain into a cocktail glass.

For a visual on how to craft the Bronx Cocktail, here’s a quick instructional video from Dave Harrison of Lush Life Productions – The Bronx Cocktail in 12 Seconds.

The Singapore Sling was invented around 1910 by bartender Ngiam Tong Boon at the Raffles Hotel’s Long Bar in Singapore.  And like many classic drinks, the recipe was lost decades ago, resulting in bartenders scrambling to make an interpretation of the original ever since.

Because this recipe is often misrepresented by bars and in recipe books, most drinkers have never had the original Singapore Sling, regardless of what they ordered.  So to continue that trend, below is the cocktail currently served at the Raffles, per a recipe card published by Drinkboy. Based on memories of former bartenders and scattered notes thought to be left behind by Ngiam Tong Boon, here’s hoping this is a close approximation to the original.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 ounce gin
1/2 ounce Cherry Herring
1/4 ounce Cointreau
1/4 ounce Benedictine
4 ounces pineapple juice
1/2 ounce lime juice
1/3 ounce grenadine
1 dash Angostura Bitters

Shake all ingredients with ice, and strain into an ice-filled Collins glass. Garnish with a cherry and slice of pineapple.

Many cocktails have predecessors, but perhaps none was quite as important as the under appreciated Martinez, a gin and sweet vermouth concoction that helped pave the way for the ubiquitous martini.

As with many cocktails, origins of the Martinez are a hazy mess of conflicting stories.  Some say it was created by a gent named Martinez, while others claim it was crafted by famed bartender Jerry Thomas for a fellow traveling to Martinez, California.  Both sound reasonable enough to me, but whatever its origins, it’s another good excuse to combine gin and maraschino liqueur, which work well in drinks like the Aviation and Last Word.

Proportions for the Martinez vary greatly, with some calling for a 2:1 ratio of gin to vermouth, and others calling for the opposite.  I tried a few different variations before settling on the one below, which offers plenty of sweetness but enough gin to maintain its integrity.  Orange bitters worked pretty well in place of Angostura, but I preferred the latter.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 ounces gin
1 ounce sweet vermouth
1/4 ounce maraschino liqueur
1 dash Angostura bitters

Stir all ingredients with ice in a mixing glass, and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon twist.

The Manhattan, a classic cocktail and a favorite among serious drinkers, is a great way to pass the time.  Traditionally composed of rye whiskey, sweet vermouth and Angostura bitters, the Manhattan is a perfect drink to enjoy on a cool fall day.  Or any day.

But with the onset of fall, one might elect to change up the tried-and-true Manhattan to create a drink even more indicative of the season.  By using tawny port in place of sweet vermouth, the traditional Manhattan becomes a bit more complex and warms the soul as it soothes the thirsty drinker.  Subbing orange bitters for Angostura bitters adds a zesty citrus note to the drink, which balances nicely with the buttery, oaky flavors imparted by the port.

Ingredients:

2 ounces rye whiskey
1 ounce port
2 dashes orange bitters

Directions:

Stir all ingredients with cracked ice until cold.  Strain into a cocktail glass, and garnish with an orange twist.

The Rob Roy is basically a Manhattan that uses scotch instead of rye.  It was named after Robert Roy MacGregor, the Scottish Robin Hood of the 18th century.

Ingredients:

2 1/2 ounces scotch
1 ounce sweet vermouth
2 dashes Angostura bitters

Directions:

Stir with ice in a mixing glass.  Strain into a cocktail glass, and garnish with a cherry.

The Negroni is similar to an Americano but adds gin.  This cocktail uses Campari, which is a type of bitters and an aperitif, or a drink meant to stimulate the appetite before a meal.

Ingredients:

1 ounce gin
1 ounce sweet vermouth
1 ounce Campari

Directions:

Stir with ice in a mixing glass.  Strain into a cocktail glass, and garnish with an orange slice.

In the 1920s, the Pegu Club was a bar in Rangoon, Burma (at the time a British colony) that served a drink of the same name.  And while this drink was popular through the ‘30s, it largely died out after World War II.

Thankfully, the cocktail revival of the past few years has brought this classic drink back into the light.  And furthering its new notoriety, there’s a Pegu Club bar in New York City that pays homage to the Burma original and makes some tasty cocktails.

Ingredients:

2 ounces gin
3/4 ounces orange curaçao
1/2 ounce lime juice
1 dash Angostura bitters
1 dash orange bitters

Directions:

Shake with ice, and strain into a cocktail glass.

The martini is one of the world’s best known and most popular cocktails, having been immortalized by such drinking greats as Winston Churchill, James Bond and Frank Sinatra.  However, nowadays, half the martinis made in a bar use vodka instead of gin, totally exclude vermouth, are shaken like hell rather than stirred and owe most of their flavor to olive juice.  A tragedy indeed.

As vodka is a flavorless spirit, and olive juice tastes like, well, olive juice, this poor beverage has become a bastardized victim, a shell of its former self unable to live up to its potential.

If you want to taste what a martini is supposed to taste like, use a good gin (Plymouth always treats me right) and a solid vermouth like Noilly Prat.  Since the vermouth balances out the gin and is very important to the flavor profile of the drink, I like to use three parts gin to one part vermouth.

A lesser known but classic addition to the martini is orange bitters.  Add two dashes of Regan’s #6, Angostura Orange or Fee Brothers for a nice touch of orange that blends perfectly with the other ingredients.

Ingredients:

3 parts gin
1 part dry vermouth
2 dashes orange bitters

Directions:

Stir (seriously, don’t shake it. Cocktails made with all spirits are meant to be stirred) all ingredients with ice until cold.  Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Skip the olives and twist a strip of lemon over the top to release its oils.  Drop it in, if you’d like, and enjoy.