The winner will receive a trip for two to the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen in June 2012, plus $2,000 and the opportunity for their recipe to be presented in front of thousands of attendees at the Grand Tasting Tent. The winning recipe will also be featured on PAMA’s website.

The contest asks interested parties to submit a recipe and photo of their original drink, which will be judged on the following criteria:

- Originality/creativity
- Unique use of PAMA
- Ingredient combination
- Appropriateness of the cocktail name

The top 25 entries, as determined by the PAMA judging panel, will be posted to PAMA’s website and Facebook page for visitors to vote on their favorites. The 10 entries receiving the most votes will then be judged by a panel of cocktail professionals, including Kate Krader (Food & Wine), Darryl Robinson (The Cooking Channel’s “Drink Up!”) and Eben Freeman (master mixologist and PAMA spokesperson).

If you haven’t tasted PAMA, it’s a low proof (17% ABV) pomegranate liqueur that’s made from pomegranate juice, vodka and a touch of tequila. It’s both sweet and tart and blends easily with white spirits and sparkling wine. PAMA is a less natural fit with darker spirits, but it’s still a pretty friendly mixer.

For more info, check out www.PAMALiqueur.com/HomeBarStar.

Hoping to change that, two companies will begin giving consumers more choices in their Fernet consumption. Camper’s San Francisco Chronicle article reports that drinkers can expect to find Angelico Fernet early next year and Fernet Leopold, from Leopold Bros. of Denver, as early as this week. The latter uses bitter aloe as its main bittering agent, adding to the mix ginger, sarsaparilla, saffron, cardamom and spearmint.

Read the full article, here.

And while you do, try mixing up the Hanky Panky cocktail, straight out of the Savoy Cocktail Book.

Hanky Panky

1.5 oz Tanqueray Gin
1.5 oz Italian Vermouth
2 dashes Fernet

Stir all ingredients with ice, then strain into a cocktail glass. Squeeze orange peel on top, and drop it in.

Or The Revenge, a Fernet-forward cocktail served at The Chesterfield in Dallas, TX.

The Revenge

1 oz Fernet
1 oz Campari
1 oz Italian Vermouth
Mint

Stir all ingredients, including mint sprig, with ice. Strain into an old fashioned glass over one large ice cube, and garnish with a sprig of mint.

For starters, we drank it neat. On the nose, Kahlúa Cinnamon Spice is rich and sweet, with aromas of coffee and cinnamon. Take a sip and it’s more of the same, with lots of sugary sweet coffee notes, plus some cinnamon, molasses and nuts. It tastes pretty good, but is too sweet for drinking straight. Adding a couple ice cubes tones it down a bit, and drinking it cold was more enjoyable than the alternative.

Cocktail wise, we started by adding it to a cup of freshly brewed coffee. This is where Kahlúa Cinnamon Spice really has some value. It turns an ordinary cup of coffee into a hot cup of holiday cheer. It’s not an everyday drink, but we’ll likely employ this simple combo on Christmas morning and the occasional boozy weekend.

From there, Kahlúa recommends the following drink, which we sampled.

Hot Mexican Cider

1.5 oz Kahlúa Cinnamon Spice
3 oz Hot Apple Cider
.25 oz of fresh lemon juice

Shake all ingredients and serve in a glass mug. Garnish with a dash of nutmeg or cinnamon.

Not bad, but with apple cider and lemon juice we prefer a nice dark rum, which adds more depth of flavor without all the sugar.

Montanya Mermalada (Created by Lynnette Marrerro)

1 oz Kahlúa Cinnamon Spice
1 oz Avión Tequila Blanco
1 oz lemon juice
6-8 concord grapes

Muddle Grapes. Add rest of the ingredients. Shake and strain over fresh ice in a rocks glass.

The tequila added a boozy kick, which tempered the Kahlúa, and the acidic lemon juice kept everything in check.

From there, we decided to craft our own cocktail – a reimagined Rum Old Fashioned – that for now remains nameless.

2 oz dark rum (we used Flor de Cana 7-Year)
2 barspoons Kahlúa Cinnamon Spice
2 dashes orange bitters

Add orange bitters, Kahlúa Cinnamon Spice and a dash of soda. Add rum and stir. Add ice and stir again until cold. Garnish with an orange peel

Not bad. It won’t make it into the nightly rotation, but using Kahlúa as a modifier worked nicely, and its sugar cane backbone seemed a natural fit with the rum.

Overall, Kahlúa Cinnamon Spice has its utility, and we’ll happily use it to spruce up our coffee. But beyond that, we’re not sure its sweet flavor profile aligns well with our boozy sensibilities. Of course, ours are boozier than most, so if your tastes skew toward the sweet, give it a whirl.

Stats:
- 20% Alcohol by Volume
- $20

Like that? Drink this:
- Christmas Cocktails
- Three Olives Triple Shot Espresso Vodka
- Morning Drinks

Bitter Truth Apricot Liqueur

This liqueur combines the juice of sun-ripened apricots with an apricot eau de vie distilled from the same fruit. As expected, it smells convincingly of apricots, but there’s also a pleasant note of almonds in the background. It’s sweet, fruity and very drinkable, and while it can be consumed neat or over ice, it will probably find its mark in cocktails. Add a barspoon to your Mint Julep for good effect, or try the Pendennis Club cocktail, below.

Pendennis Club

1 1/2 oz gin
1/2 oz apricot liqueur
1/2 oz fresh lime juice
2-3 dashes creole bitters

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

Bitter Truth Violet Liqueur

The violet liqueur is deep violet in color and very fragrant. It’s floral with perfume-like top notes and tastes sweet and delicate. This one is definitely a cocktail companion to be used sparingly, and can be used in drinks like the Aviation.

Aviation

1 1/2 oz gin
1/2 oz maraschino liqueur
1/2 oz fresh lemon juice
1/4 oz violet liqueur

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

Rothman and Winter already makes a good apricot liqueur and violet liqueur called Creme de Violette that are available stateside. But The Bitter Truth has won over hordes of bartenders and cocktail fanatics with their excellent bitters, liqueurs and SloeBerry Blue Gin, and the company’s fruit liqueurs seem to be on the same path.

Each clocks in at 44 proof (22% alcohol by volume) and is available in 750ml, 500ml and 50ml bottles.

This is achieved by the careful selection of old Speyside malts with soft, complex fragrance and flavors to complement the aromas of the secret Drambuie recipe. The resulting drink is designed to appeal to malt whisky drinkers and is perfect for sipping and savoring either neat or over ice.

“To reach the high standards required for Drambuie 15, each individual cask is sampled and evaluated, with only the very best casks imparting the Speyside Malt characteristics being selected for use in the product,” said Derek McInally, whiskey stocks manager for Drambuie.

Drambuie 15 is bottled at 86 proof (43% ABV) and will be available nationwide at a suggested retail price of $56 for a one liter bottle.

Like that? Drink this:
- Drambuie Cocktails
- The Rusty Nail Cocktail
- Drambuie: Revisited, Revived and Remixed

Drinking Whiskey with Jeff Norman

As Jack Daniel’s Master Taster (which is perhaps the world’s greatest job title) Jeff Norman is responsible for quality control. He ensures that each Jack Daniel’s expression is bottled at peak maturity. There are no age statements on Jack Daniel’s whiskeys, so each enters the bottle when Norman deems it ready.

Tennessee Honey is a 70 proof liqueur. It’s a blend of Jack Daniel’s Old No. 7 and a proprietary honey liqueur. Norman mentioned that honey was a natural fit to pair with Old No. 7, as it marries well with the whiskey’s caramel and vanilla notes imparted by Jack’s toasted oak barrels.

Tennessee Honey Cocktail Competition

14 Vegas bartenders, whittled down from an original 48 entrants, competed at Tabu Lounge inside MGM, stirring and shaking their way to some creative cocktails. Some worked nicely while others missed the mark. The winning drink made by Eddie Perales, pictured above, was an ingredient-heavy punch that featured – among other things — watermelon, cantaloupe, citrus, orange marmalade and edible flowers, plus an elaborate presentation. Tasty, sure, but it masked the Tennessee Honey more than enhanced it.

Tennessee Honey Cocktails

Besides the competing drinks, we were plied with Tennessee Honey cocktails for two days. Popular mixers included ginger ale, citrus and tea. One favorite was the Honey Smash, detailed below.

Tennessee Honey Smash

1 1/2 ounces Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Honey
1 ounce honey
8 mint leaves
1 lemon, diced

Muddle lemon and mint leaves, then add remaining ingredients. Shake with ice, then strain over fresh ice into a rocks glass. Garnish with a lemon wheel.

Like that? Drink this:
- Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel Whiskey Review
- Drinking Whiskey with Jeff Arnett, Master Distiller of Jack Daniel’s
- Jack Daniel’s to Release Tennessee Honey

Averna belongs to the category of amaros—herbal Italian liqueurs—that more people are starting to drink neat, rather than just mixing into cocktails. Bartenders have been knocking back amaros like Averna and Fernet for years, but as the drinking public becomes more accustomed to complex flavor profiles and bitter liqueurs, they too are joining in.

While the Averna bottle sports a mildly new look, the centuries old recipe remains a closely guarded secret and has not been changed in more than 140 years.

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

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