An online speakeasy of potent potables and other pabulam.

First off, before I forget: I’m hosting Thursday Drink Night tonight.? We’re starting at 7 PM EDT and the theme is “Irish Whiskey”.? Get out that Jameson’s, the Bushmill’s, Powers, Tullamore Dew, and come up with a drink – preferably with as little fruit juice as possible – for us to try out.

With the help of my neighbor Conroy we’ll be trying out the drinks and the best one of the evening will win a great prize!? You’ll get your choice of:? Gary Regan’s The Joy of Mixology, a book that I believe any true cocktail fan must own, A.J. Rathbun’s Good Spirits, which I got as a birthday present and enjoyed a good bit, or, since tomorrow is Halloween, I’m friends with the owners, and they’re making a video game of it, a copy of Twilight Creations’ ZOMBIES!!! board game.

Last night was our “Halloween” – actually more like “Molecular Mixology” – cocktail class at EatBar under the direction of the irascible Gina Chersevani.? Like the first class, I had a great time, and this time I didn’t fall and bust myself up afterwards.? It was also great meeting Kristen (again), along with Lisa, Will, Stephanie, Jamie, and others whose names I’m either not remembering or misremembering in all odds.

Speaking of that class and Irish whiskey tonight, Will gave me a drink that he makes with it:

Irish Ambien
1 oz. Irish whiskey
1 oz. vanilla vodka
1 oz. Bailey’s Irish Creme
Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.? If you wanted to experiment with a dash of maybe mint bitters or something like that, who am I to tell you not to do so?? Heck, if you had some chocolate bitters, or wanted to grate some chocolate or nutmeg or cinnamon on top, I’d bet that’d be money.

As for recovery period…

I’ve been extremely brain dead recently thanks to the events of last weekend – I, in my role of official brother and best man to my roommate and (uh) brother Matt – had to plan the Bachelor’s Party.? We went to Morgantown, WV, on Friday to visit our cousins and granddad, then up to Pittsburgh, PA, on Saturday to meet up with the rest of the group (eight of us, total) to hit the town and the Giants-Steelers game on Sunday.

Perhaps unfortunately, we watched a YouTube video about “My New Haircut” (caution: NSFW, language) before going out.? Which meant more than a few Jager bombs.

Saturday we killed a bottle of JD, there were multiple Bloody Marys made (from a mix, I didn’t want to bring the material prep), and no matter what anyone says, the combination of vodka, cranberry juice cocktail, and Red Bull is not a good idea.

I did have one good cocktail while in Pittsburgh, not counting the Shirley Temple I was sent during a froo-froo shot war (don’t ask, we sent back white wine spritzers).? At the bar in the Omni William Penn I had a martini, specifying the gin (Plymouth), heavy on dry vermouth, slightly dirty.

Perfectly made.? And it cost – after tip – around eight times as much as the beers we’d been drinking at the first bar of the night (and I’m not counting the $.26 ones we also had) and over twice as much as the huge IC Lights, Rolling Rocks, and Miller Lites they had at Heinz Field.

Also, I had rum out of a plastic “pocket“.? More on those later.? Maybe.

Also, Jim Beam shots after the game.? Not a good idea, either.

Anyways, I’m going to cut this off.? Hope to see y’all tonight at TDN!

Phil Greene of the Museum of the American Cocktail sent around these recipes a bit ago and I made sure it was okay with him to post them.? They’re the recipes of the drinks we tried last Tuesday night at the Tabard Inn and the Great Drinks from Great Hotel Bars seminar.? We had all of them except the Bloody Mary.

I’m going to give some notes on the recipes as I post them.

The Rob Roy Cocktail
2 1/2 ounces blended Scotch whiskey
3/4 ounce Italian (sweet) vermouth
1-2 dashes Regan’s orange bitters
Build in a mixing glass with ice, stir, strain into a cocktail glass.

This is a drink that I’ve made a few times.? I’d suggest playing with the ratios depending on the Scotch and the vermouth; it’s VERY easy for the Scotch to overpower the vermouth.? I believed they used Famous Grouse Scotch at the Tabard Inn and Noilly Prat sweet vermouth; I would’ve used more vermouth, personally.

The Tabard Cocktail (by Chantal Tseng)
1 1/2 oz. Milagro Reposado tequila
1/2 oz. Lustau Amontillado Sherry
1/2 oz. Drambuie
Dash of orange bitters
Stir, garnish with orange twist and a sprig of fresh thyme.

This was an absolutely delicious drink.? I’d suggest trying one at the Tabard Inn or making one yourself before really experimenting with it.? The Milagro Reposado tequila is one that I should buy for myself now, and I’ve been still meaning to get some sherry.? The Drambuie – well, that might be a topic for a post all on its own.

The Bloody Mary
2 oz vodka
4 oz tomato juice
2 dashes Worcestershire sauce
4 dashes Tabasco sauce
Pinch of salt and pepper
1/4 oz of lemon juice
Combine all ingredients in mixing glass and roll back and forth to mix. Strain into an iced goblet. Garnish with wedge of lemon and lime on a side plate.

You’ll notice that this drink isn’t as spicy as many you see nowadays.? That’s not necessarily a bad thing.? Then again, I’m a big fan of hot sauce and horseradish in mine – even if the original was even weaker (spice-wise) than this!? (And even worse if you believe one claim that the original was half vodka, half tomato juice.? Ick.)

The Vieux Carre Cocktail
3/4 oz rye whiskey
3/4 oz Italian (sweet) vermouth
3/4 oz Cognac
1/8 oz Benedictine
2 dashes Angostura bitters
2 dashes Peychaud’s bitters
Build drink in rocks glass with ice, garnish with lemon peel.

They don’t say it here, and maybe it’s going against the drink, but I’d stir it, personally.? If you take out the Cognac, up the Benedictine, and add a bit of absinthe this becomes a Cocktail a la Louisiane (about) – I wonder if there’s any history between them.

Speaking of history in between drinks, we were given minis of Domaine de Canton and asked to add a splash of it to our Vieux Carre cocktails.? I had drank too much of mine already (you should tell us AHEAD of time that we’re going to do something like that) so it was overly ginger, but here’s the recipe for what they’re calling the Nouveau Carre Cocktail, thanks to Walter Bergeron, Derek Brown, and Phil Greene…

Oh.? It’s the same thing but with 3/4 of an ounce of Domaine de Canton ginger liqueur added.? Okay.

(Mental note to keep bugging Derek about samples of Domaine de Canton!)

Singapore Sling (original version, per Ted ?Dr. Cocktail? Haigh)
2 dashes of Orange Bitters
2 dashes of Angostura Bitters
The juice of half a lemon (1/2 oz)
One-eighth gill of Benedictine (1/2 oz)
One-eighth gill of Dry Cherry Brandy (1/2 oz, Cherry Heering)
One-half gill of Gin (2 oz)
Pour into a tumbler and fill up with cold soda water.

I’d suggest at least stirring, if not going ahead and shaking.? Come on, it’s Dr. Cocktail, shake that bad boy up!

A number of people drank theirs before the carbonated water was added to theirs.? They seemed to like ‘em that way fair enough.

The Side Car
1 1/2 oz Cognac
1 oz Cointreau
3/4 oz fresh lemon juice
Shake well with ice, strain into chilled cocktail glass, optional garnish of sugar crusted rim

Come on, sugar coat that rim!? It’s good!

Anyways, if you didn’t come to the seminar, you missed a good time.? Keep your eyes open for the next one!

Actually, it’s really NOT a hard knock life, but sometimes it seems like it.

One of the funny things about looking over the past year is not just the stupid things I’ve said and then keep telling people “Hey, look at this dumb thing I said over a year ago!”? Instead, it’s how much things have changed for us since then and how much more involved in the cocktail community we’ve become.

Not that it’s hard to do.? The cocktail community – not just in DC, but also online and in other cities – is incredibly friendly and inclusive.? There’s a sense of shared joy and camaraderie, where you’re treated as you treat others.? Treat your fellow mixologists, bloggers, and general cocktailians with civility, candor, wit, and intelligence and you’ll be rewarded more than you can imagine.?? Take advantage of their trust or generosity and – well, you don’t want to know.

But sometimes you hit a stretch of time when blogging can feel like a job.? That’s not necessarily a bad thing.? If I could make this my job, making as much as I do now in my “real job”, I’d do it an a heartbeat.? Alas, at least right now, it is not to be, but one can always hope.? In the meantime, those of us here in the Den have been keeping mighty busy!

This is a lot of stuff, so we’ll put in a cut…

It’s that time again – the time when Mixology Monday raises its head and we have to say “What’s up for this month?”

Well, Stevi Deter over at Two At The Most picked this month’s topic and it’s “Guilty Pleasures”.

What’s a guilty pleasure?? Well, according to Stevi, it’s basically the cocktail equivalent of comfort food.? What do you end up with when you’re not drinking a “good drink”?

Good question, Stevi, and it’s one I’ve been wrestling with for a while.? It’s a hard decision to make.? I mean, seriously?

I answered my own question yesterday with my latest purchase.

On the right, you see my usual guilty pleasure.? As of today, our kegerator has a keg of Dogfish Head’s 60 Minute IPA.? When I’m feeling lazy, or just wanting to relax, I’m a big fan of beer.? After all, it’s tasty and it’s good.

On the left, however…

I’d just heard of this stuff this week.? It’s called Firefly Sweet Tea Vodka and it comes from South Carolina.? It’s vodka infused with what they say is the only tea grown in the United States, grown less than five miles from the distllery (I’m reading from the back of the bottle).

It’s 70 proof, but really, it tastes exactly like sweet tea except that it has a bit of an alcohol burn on the end of it.? I can drink it just straight, though they suggest on the bottle that you drink it cut with water.

A local restaurant called BreadSoda had an idea for a “hard Arnold Palmer” type drink – basically half Firefly and half lemonade.? That mix kicks butt, and I also tried mixing it with ginger beer and found that worked very well, too.

Another concoction I’m thinking of trying with it, and please keep in mind that this is only in theory so far, is…

…ahhh, you know what?? I’m not going to tell you.?? Not yet.? Come by Thursday Drink Night, maybe I’ll have it ready by then, if I’ve survived the perils of this upcoming week by then.