An online speakeasy of potent potables and other pabulam.

IF YOUR NAME IS DAN OZDOWSKI DO NOT READ THIS UNTIL 5/11 OR LATER!

Just kidding.  I’d be shocked – shocked, I tell you, shocked! – if you actually had the opportunity to read this before you show up tonight.

They say a good salesman can see a sucker coming a mile off, and in my case, that is perhaps not inaccurate.  (I definitely don’t not love me some double negatives, too.)  Or maybe it’s just that I’m special but not the kind of special that necessarily requires a helmet.

I had a very specific goal in going down to visit Ace Beverage again today.  One of my best friends, the quiet-as-of-late

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, is in town and will be coming by my place later tonight.  His birthday was the other week so I needed to procure him a present.

I wanted to get him something that he couldn’t get down in smelly ole North Carostinkylina.  Given the fact that he’s a huge rum nut (rummy?  Rumsfeld?  rumoholic?) I thought that a good gift would be a bottle of the Scarlet Ibis rum.

Having that in mind, I also decided that I would like to get myself a bottle of the La Favorite Rhum Agricole Vieux.  That’s the whisky and bourbon barrel aged rum that I tasted at Bourbon a few weeks ago.  Given that I got a couple of the rum barrel aged cigars this week I really wanted to make a ti’ punch with it.

This is what I ended up with when I got home today:

We have, from top to bottom: a fifth of Maker’s Mark and a bottle of Drambuie (both bought at VA ABC), a bottle of Petite Canne Traditional Martinique Sugar Cane Syrup, the Scarlet Ibis, Bloodys by Buz Full Flavor Original Bloody Mary mix, Green Chartreuse, Damrak gin, the La Favorite Rhum Agricole Vieux, and a bottle of Black Bottle five year old blended Scotch (that Master Shake is attempting to taste).

Let’s go over each.

Maker’s Mark – my standard mixing bourbon, especially for the always popular bourbon and cokes and for mint juleps.  My brother Matt wiped out my bottle recently so it was time to replace it.  I thought about going for the liter bottle but the price point per liter in Virginia is almost the same between the fifth and the liter.

Drambuie – I thought that it was the same price in Virginia as it was at Ace.  Unfortunately, it was $5 more.  I was already stuck though with either getting it in Virginia or going back out, and I didn’t feel like doing the latter, so here we are.  I first tasted Drambuie a few weeks ago after kickball one night and I quite enjoyed it.  Given the Scotch, I wanted to try a Rusty Nail at some point as well.  In general, I feel like you can’t have too many liqueurs of this sort because they’re really quite very tasty especially after dinner while smoking a cigar.

Petite Canne Traditional Martinique Sugar Cane Syrup – whew!  When I mentioned to Joe that I was going to make a ti’ punch with the rum, he asked me if I was going to use sugar cane syrup.  Slightly befuddled, I responded that I usually use rich simple syrup.  He poured me a taste of this stuff, adding that it made him think of pancakes, and it was “BIFF BAM BOOM!” right to my head.  Damn good stuff.  It’s simple syrup on crack.  (Actually, I think Joe said “simple syrup on steroids” but that makes me think of Jose Canseco making simple syrup and my brain cries a little bit.)

The Scarlet Ibis – this is the rum formulated specifically for Death & Company in NYC.  I haven’t opened my bottle yet but everyone seems to rave about how good it is and thus I figure Dan will get a big kick out of it.

Bloodys by Buz Full Flavor Original Bloody Mary Mix - According to my mom, I make really good bloody marys.  My granddad agreed.  However, mom always insists on using Clamato, and seriously, clam juice and tomato juice is just not a combination that makes me a happy camper.  I thought about buying a bottle of clam juice so she could just bring regular tomato juice, or maybe juicing my own clams (JUST KIDDING) but both thoughts made me unhappy.  Joe had highly recommended this mix, and, well, you know what, I just looked at it and saw that it had clam juice in it, so maybe it’ll make mom happy.

And maybe I should be careful about adding horseradish infused vodka to it.  Ingredient List: Tomato Puree, Water, Horseradish, Clam Juice, Sugar-based non caloric Sweetner, White Distilled Vinegar, Mustard Seed, Anchovies, Tamarind Extract, Buz’s Full Flavor Original Spice Mix, Sodium Benzonate, Potassium Sorbate added for freshness.  I bet it’s the Sodium Benzonate that really makes it sing!

Green Chartreuse – Chartreuse is one of those expensive liqueurs that’s needed in so many drinks.  Ace had a good price on it so I went ahead and pulled the trigger on some.  They only had green, however, so I’ll still need to find yellow somewhere.

Damrak Gin -

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was over last night and between beers, an unexpectedly shaken Sazerac that I made (oops), and the very very good Padron Anniversary Edition cigar I smoked (did I mention very good?), I found that I couldn’t stop thinking about his bottle of Damrak Gin.  Seriously.  I’m a little disturbed by how fixated I was on it.  I didn’t mention it to him because, I don’t know, it might seem creepy or something, but there it is.  And now here it is.

In honor of last night, here’s a recipe Marshall pulled out of the air:
Marshall’s Randomass Tiki Drink
2 oz. pineapple juice
1 1/2 oz. gold rum
1/4 oz. brandy (he used the E&J brandy I had that is slightly infused with apricot)
1/4 oz. maraschino liqueur
5 solid dashes Regan’s Orange Bitters
1 dash Angostura
1 big dash rich simple syrup (my bottle, she is very big, and pours quickly)

(Master) Shake with ice.

Strain and drink and pontificate.

La Favorite Rhum Agricole Vieux – Obviously, I’ve talked a good bit about this one already.  Is it time for me to go outside and drink it?  Maybe if I can just shut up on here!

Black Bottle Five Year Old Blended Scotch – Just as I was about to leave I asked Joe about a good mixing Scotch.  I’d tried Pinch before and it had seemed to work but I trust other people’s impressions.  The thing is that you can always mix with single malts, but, I’ve found, they’re so different in tastes between bottles that it can take a lot of guess work in how something will work with one versus another.  This was a good deal so I had no problems giving it a shot.  It appears to be the same company that also makes/distributes Deanston, Bunnahabhain, Ledaig, and Tobermory Scotch.

So that was my unexpectedly expensive liquor run for today.  If you’ll excuse me, I’m finding that sobriety is become more and more of a chore on this lazy Saturday afternoon, so in the words of a wise man: “Screw you guys, I’m going home.”

Well last night I ended up looking through some tomes and decided on making a Star Cocktail.  Since this is also the drink I’m going to wax poetic about during the upcoming MxMo, I’ll save the description and pictures for that post.

But needless to say, a Star Cocktail seemed very appropriate to toast a man that was a shining star for his country and a beacon for the world during World War II. 

For my cigar, I fired up a La Aurora Cien Anos robusto.  A great smoke, dark, rich with some great toffee and dark chocolate notes.  Ummm . . .

I did get my present from Sean, and will be posting those pictures soon.  Needless to say they are AWESOME and you will be seeing them quite a lot on these pages.

Finally, to end the celebration of Winston Churchill I offer these words of advice from the man himself,

“All I can say is that I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me.”

Cheers!
-M

I swung by

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‘s place for a cigar and drink tonight to celebrate Winston Churchill’s birthday.

Also because I had a present for him – I’ll wait for him to post the pictures of them.

But, to me, in terms of Churchill, I figured it called for gin.  We already had the plans for cigars…

I went with the classic martini.

Now, I know that Churchill was all about having so little vermouth that you just look at France when making it (thus making his martini a very, very dry martin – i.e. cold gin) but I’m not that way.  So, while over at el casa de

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I went for the 3 oz. of Plymouth gin and 1 oz. of Martini & Rossi dry vermouth – and a dash of olive brine from a bottle of Haddon House pitted Spanish olives.  I do like ‘em dirty.

For a cigar, I grabbed a La Gloria Cubana Serie R #5 – it’s close to Churchill in size, and I haven’t had a La Gloria Cubana Serie R in a while (mostly just having the regular La Glorias).

Wow.  I’d forgotten how much I like ‘em – that’s the reason why La Gloria Serie R cigars were always my “go to” cigar.

I burned mine down to my fingers.  Damn nice.

Got home and switched martinis – Bombay gin and Noilly Prat dry vermouth, a bit of brine from a bottle of Santa Barbara Olive Co. pimento stuffed olives.  Mmmmm.

Obviously by this point (6 oz. of gin, 2 oz. of vermouth) I’m feeling awesome.  But yeah – good night.

I can’t wait still for our trip to PX!