Just a quick note.
I’ve finally got around to uploading my photos from Tales of the Cocktail 2009 into my SmugMug account.? As of now, I don’t have descriptions for everything, but should soon.
Anyway, here is the link to the gallery.? Hope you enjoy.
Cheers!
A few months ago, we got an email from the lovely Samantha Harrigan sending a missive to the motley crew of cocktail bloggers to ask if we would be interested in participating in a little contest.? Oval Vodka wanted new and interesting infusions.
The rules were pretty simple.? We had to create an infusion using Oval and come up with a unique cocktail using at least 1.5 oz of the infusion.? The infusions were to be judged during Tales of the Cocktail by Rick Stutz, Gabriel Szaszko and Chantal Tseng.? The judging criteria was based on infusion aroma, infusion taste, infusion creativity, cocktail taste, cocktail balance and cocktail creativity.? The winner of the contest would have two nights of their stay paid for by Oval.
It sounded like a lot of fun and I jumped at the opportunity.? But then came the “what-the-hell-do-I-make” panic.? I ended up with two infusions.? The first was a clementine infusion using fresh clementines.? The aroma and color was redolent of fresh clementine.? But, a basic orange infusion wouldn’t win on creativity and seemed to run of the mill.? I had been playing with coconut water lately as a cocktail ingredient and decided I wanted to use it as a mixer.
When I think of coconut, I think of tiki drinks, frozen slushy drinks, islands, the sea and Thai food.? Ohhhh . . . thai food.? That would certainly be original!? Next was to think of the flavors associated with thai food and island/Polynesian-type drinks.? Lime?? Ginger?? Spices?? Check, check, check.? But I wanted something a little more obscure.? Lemongrass!
So here is my infusion:
Thai-Spiced Oval Vodka
16 oz Oval Vodka
1 9-inch stalk of lemongrass, cut into small rounds
2 quarter-sized rounds of fresh ginger
peel of 2 limes
1 2-inch piece of cinnamon*
4 cloves
-Place everything in a container and infuse for one week shaking once a day. After a week strain all the solids and re-bottle.
*After the contest, I was speaking with Chantal looking for critiques and her main thought on my infusion was that the cinnamon was too strong.? I tend to agree with that assessment.? In the future, and if you’re making this yourself, I would remove the cinnamon and cloves after three days.
For the cocktail, I came up with:
Andaman Sun
1.5 oz Thai-spiced Oval Vodka
1.5 oz coconut water
1 oz Piloncillo** syrup (1.5:1 strength)
.5 oz fresh lime juice
.25 oz coconut cream
-Shake everything with ice and strain into a chilled glass.? Garnish with a lime wheel.
**Piloncillo is South American unrefined brown sugar.? You can find it in ethnic markets.? If you can’t find it, you can substitute simple syrup made from dark brown sugar (1.5:1 strength) or you can substitute .75 oz simple and .25 oz molasses.? It won’t be exactly the same with the substitutions but you’ll still have a tasty drink.
The contest judging occurred at the Mixoloseum house in New Orleans.? Each of the entries were made by Chris Stanley, a very talented mixologist at the Clover Club in New York City.? Chris worked behind the bar at the Mixo house several nights during Tales.? His drinks were some of the best I had during the entire week.
And the results of the contest?? I WON!!!!
Woot!? Thanks go out to Sam, Chantal, Gabe, and Rick!? And thanks to Oval Vodka for the opportunity! And a special thanks to Steve Raye who offered to pay for the entire cost of two nights at the condo, rather than just my half of two nights.? You can read Sam’s write-up of the contest here.
What a great event and a great surprise during Tales!? Cheers!
Starting this evening with the celebration of my esteemed co-writers birth, Scofflaw’s Den will be embarking on a journey that is exciting and bit terrifying.?? The next ten days are going to be awesome.? Let me tell you why.
Tonight, July 2nd, you will find us celebrating Sean’s birthday with some good friends, great drinks and tasty food at The Gibson.? There’s going to be a roast pig and tasty beverages.? Enough said.
Friday and Saturday, we’ll be hanging out around DC with Rick and Jay.? Both these fine gentlemen will be in town leading up to the week of Tales.
Which brings me to next week.? Sunday, July 5th, we fly down to New Orleans, Louisiana to attend the most spirited event of the year, Tales of the Cocktail.?? As a prelude to Tales, for the first time ever, the Cocktail & Spirits Online Writers Group, of which we are both proud members, is hosting a writers conference.? The conference, Drink.Write 2009, will bring the best bloggers and online cocktail writers in the world under one roof for two days of seminars and hazing meeting new people.
If you’ve noticed the banner to the left there, you know Sean and I were asked to contribute to the official Tales of the Cocktail Blog.? Check there for updates on what’s going on during Tales.?? The Tales Blog is a collaborative effort with many of the same writers who make up CSOWG.? That is your one-stop-shop for the best writing and news related to Tales 2009.
So for the next week or so, The Den will be a little quiet while we focus our energy on the Tales Blog.? If you want to keep track of what’s going on in real time, get over there to that Twitter thing and follow us.
Follow Sean here.
Follow Marshall here.
If you’re out in DC the next few days, find us and say hello!? If you’re in NoLA for Tales, find us and say hello.
Cheers!
Way back in April I announced a little contest here at Scofflaw’s Den.?? The contest was to celebrate Templeton Rye and share some of their lovely whiskey.? The rules were fairly simple; the main rule was entries had to be a spring-inspired cocktail with rye whiskey as the base spirit.? Now I fully admit that using rye as a base in a spring cocktail poses certain, shall we say, problems.? But that was part of the fun!
And yes, I realize that it is now June and spring and sprung and we are on the verge of summer.? Well, sue me.? But the good news is we now have the winners!!!
Before announcing the winning cocktails, a note about the grading process.? Each submission was graded on a ten point scale for the following categories:
-Does the cocktail have a spring theme?
-Is it a rye whiskey base?
-Taste
-Color/Presentation
-Uniqueness
Sean and I both tasted and judged the cocktails on the aforementioned scale.? This meant each cocktail could score a maximum of 100 points total.? When Sean judged the cocktails the only info he was given was the name of the cocktail and the recipe, he didn’t know who submitted what drink.? The combined scores determined the winners.
And now without further ado:
Third Place 
Prize – Recipe and photo featured here.
The Revivalist by Gabe Szaszko
2 oz Rye
.5 oz Tarragon-Bergamot Syrup*
.5 oz Amer Picon
.25 oz lemon juice
.25 oz Maraschino liqueur
Shake all and double strain into a chilled cocktail glass.? Twist lemon peel over drink and garnish with a lemon peel
*Bring simple syrup (1:1) just to boil and remove from heat.? Add tarragon and bergamot leaves and leave to sit and cool in syrup for at least one hour.? Strain all into a sterilized container.
The Revivalist
Second Place Prize -? Same as third place and a 50ml bottle of ?Marshall?s Mountain Moonshine Bitters.?
The Capone Sour by Jeff Fulcher
1.5 oz Rye
1 oz grapefruit juice
1 oz brown sugar syrup
1 bar spoon orgeat
1 dash Angostura bitters
2 dashes orange bitters (I used Angostura Orange)
Shake all with ice, strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
The Capone Sour
First Place Prize – Same as third place and a 100ml bottle of ?Marshall?s Mountain Moonshine Bitters? and a bottle of Templeton Rye.
Jetpack by Craig “Dr. Bamboo” Mrusek
1 oz Rye
1 oz Zubrowka Bison Grass vodka
.5 oz Schladerer Kirschwasser (I used Clear Creek)
.5 oz simple syrup
.5 oz lime juice
1 dash Fee’s Mint Bitters
Shake all with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
The Jetpack
Congratulations to Craig, Jeff, and Gabe!!!
There you have it.? Mix up one or all of these drinks and let us know what you think in the comments.
Cheers!