Category — Liqueur

To prep for Wednesday’s start to Tales of the Cocktail, some people rest their livers, while others expedite their demise with some Rusty Nails.  I chose the latter.

The Drambuie: Revisited, Revived & Remixed event at the  Roosevelt Hotel featured the classic Rusty Nail cocktail, plus four modern variations, live jazz and glitzy cocktail servers with big feather hats.  The four Rusty Nail cocktails were created by bartenders from Portland to Milwaukee to New York City, and each took the Rusty Nail base (Scotch and Drambuie) and added ingredients and flavors to form innovative variations, detailed below:

Encrusted Nail – Chad Doll, Milwaukee

Drambuie
Dewar’s Scotch
Fresh lemon juice
Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur
Peychaud’s bitters

Rusty Compass – Meaghan Dorman, NYC

Drambuie
Compass Box Peat Monster Scotch
Heering Cherry Liqueur
Orange twist

Southern Nail – Lance Mayhew, Portland

Drambuie
Dewar’s Scotch
Fresh-brewed iced tea
Fresh-squeezed lemon

New York Nail – Duane Fernandez, NYC

Drambuie
Dewar’s Scotch
Fresh-squeezed lemon
Ginger syrup
Fresh basil

Recently 30 booze experts tasted 1,024 premium spirits for the San Francisco World Spirits Competition.  Entries represented 58 countries and six continents.  Some winners are noted below.

Premium Awards

Distillery of the Year – Glenmorangie Distillery
Importer of the Year – Moët Hennessy USA
Best in Show, White – Trago Silver Tequila ($40)
Best in Show, Whisky – Isle of Jura Prophecy ($70)
Best in Show, Brandy – Père Magloire 20 Year Old Calvados ($100)
Best in Show, Liqueur – Grand Marnier 100th Anniversary ($135)

“Best of” Awards

Vodka – Chase ($40)
Flavored Vodka – Rain Organics Cucumber Lime ($21)
Gin – Beefeater 24 ($30)
Rum – Vizcaya VXOP Solera  ($38)
Extra-Aged Rum – Pusser’s 15 Year Old ($55)
Cachaça – Leblon ($30)
Reposado Tequila – Trago Reposado ($45)
Añejo Tequila – El Jimador Añejo ($30) and Mujer Bonita Añejo ($25) – TIE
Mescal – El Zacatecano Añejo Mescal ($42)
Bourbon – Elijah Craig Single Barrel ($40)
Canadian Whiskey – Seagrams VO ($23)
Irish Whiskey – Bushmills 1608 ($100)
Blended Scotch – The Grand Bark Equinoxe ($55)
Single Malt Scotch – Ardbed Single Malt ($85)
Armagnac – Comte de Lauvia 21 Year Old ($35)
Pisco – Pisco O Torontel ($35)
Cream Liqueur – Godiva White Chocolate ($30)

More info here – www.sfspiritscomp.com

Classic cocktails continue to resurface in speakeasy-style cocktail bars in select cities across the country. One such drink is the tequila cocktail, El Diablo, which appeared in Trader Vic’s Book of Food and Drink as early as 1946.

The cocktail combines the classic pairing of tequila and lime with Creme de Cassis—a sweet blackcurrant liqueur—and ginger ale, which back in the 1940s tasted more like the spicy ginger beer of today.

Here’s a recipe for the Diablo cocktail, as provided by Maestro DOBEL tequila:

El Diablo

1 ½ oz tequila
½ oz Creme de Cassis
1 lime wedge
Ginger beer

Combine tequila and crème de cassis with ice; shake and strain into a chilled rocks glass. Top with ginger beer, squeeze the lime wedge and garnish.

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.

The coca leaf has a long and storied history dating back thousands of years. From its use by Bolivian farmers for its energy giving properties to its use in the production of cocaine, the coca leaf is surrounded in a mysticism of attention and controversy.  And adding to the fun, it’s also distilled for consumption as Agwa de Bolivia Coca Leaf Liqueur by Amsterdam’s BABCO Europe Ltd. From the company –

To make the spirit, wild Bolivian coca leaves are hand-picked at 2,000 meters in the Andes and shipped under armed guard in 2,000 kilo bales to Amsterdam to be macerated and de-cocainized. The potent high strength flavor formula is reduced to 60 proof, bottled and then shipped around the world in a more conventional format.

Leave it to Amsterdam to undertake something so painstakingly cool.  Aside from Bolivian coca leaves, Agwa contains many other natural herbs and botanicals including green tea, ginseng, and guarana.  The coca leaf has its cocaine alkaloids removed during production, so the liqueur does not contain any traces of the drug.

Following are a couple cocktail recipes from Agwa de Bolivia, to be mixed up during the holidays, while alone on the couch, or wherever you find yourself wanting a drink –

Bolivian Mojito

1.5 ounces AGWA de Bolivia Coca Leaf Liqueur
12 spearmint leaves
1/2 lime
7 ounces club soda
2 teaspoons sugar

In a large glass, gently crush mint leaves.  Squeeze lime juice over crushed leaves, then add sugar and ice. Next, add Agwa and club soda, and stir. Garnish with a lime wedge and tiny pieces of mint leaves.

Amsterdam Martini

2.5 ounces AGWA de Bolivia Coca Leaf Liquor
2 ounces Citron Vodka
Squeeze of Lime Juice 

Shake all ingredients with ice, and strain into a martini glass. Garnish with olives.

Click to check out more Agwa cocktails.

Agwa can be purchased online and shipped anywhere in the U.S. via www.shoppersvineyard.com.

With Thanksgiving nearly upon us and a slew of other holidays on the horizon, it’s time to pull out cocktails that you don’t make any other time of the year.  Drinks with ingredients like pumpkin puree and vanilla liqueur are acceptable and downright tasty during the judgment-free holidays, when festiveness trumps sensibility.

The below cocktail recipes utilize some seasonal flavors as families everywhere gear up for the holidays with a drink in hand.

Pumpkin Egg Nog

Ingredients:

1 1/2 ounces Appleton Estate Reserve Rum
1/2 ounce Navan vanilla liqueur
1 ounce egg nog
1 ounce pumpkin purée
4 dashes Angostura bitters
1 bar spoon real maple syrup

Shake all ingredients with ice, and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.  Optionally, add a topper of whipped cream.

Apple Pie Cocktail

Ingredients:

1 ounce white rum
1/2 ounce sweet vermouth
1 teaspoon Applejack brandy
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon grenadine

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

Maple Leaf

Ingredients:

1 1/2 ounces bourbon
1/2 ounce real maple syrup
1/2 ounce fresh lemon juice

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

Apple Pie Martini

Ingredients:

2 ounces apple cider
1.5 ounces Navan vanilla liqueur
1 ounce vodka
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1 pinch cinnamon

Shake all ingredients with ice, and strain into a cocktail glass. Sprinkle cinnamon on top.