An online speakeasy of potent potables and other pabulam.

Yep, it’s that time of year where our weekends (and the occasional weeknight) are filled with Holiday parties and merriment.  The Christmas Spirit has hit me pretty hard this year.  I’ve been watching Christmas movies and singing carols.  I have my first live tree whose named Elmer.  Now all I need is some snow and I’m going to be as happy as an Elf on the North Pole.

One aspect of this season in particular is that a lot of people ask for cocktail ideas or the contribution of a beverage or two for their party.  Of course I’m not one to turn down either and I’m more than happy to contribute to the quality quaffing of the season.

Obviously there are several usual suspects when it comes to Holiday drinks – Hot Buttered Rum, Mulled Wine, Spiced Apple Cider, & Egg Nogg just to name a few.  And while all of these are great options I wanted to add something else to the list.

This past Saturday Sylvie and I went to a Soup & Cookie holiday party at our friend Josh’s house co-hosted by his lovely gal Jenny.  I was tasked with bringing Egg Nogg to the party and I was happy to oblige.  My go-to Nog is the easy-as-pie recipe from Jeffrey Morganthaler. But being a Scofflaw, I couldn’t just leave it at one drink.  I wanted to come up with an original cocktail that was boozy, non-too-sweet, and really made me think of Christmas.  Even further, I wanted a cocktail that brought the flavors of what I feel are Victorian-esque Christmas desert flavors.  So what could that be?  Plums!  Fruit Cake!  Spices!  Brandy!  Oh for the love of Santa Claus, FIGGY PUDDING!!!

Now just to turn these ideas into a cocktail.  Here’s what I came up with:

Christmas Pudding
1.5 oz Brandy
1 oz White Port
.50 oz Bonal quinquina
.25 oz Cointreau
.25 oz Allspice Dram
.25 oz Trader Tiki’s Cinnamon Syrup
3 d Fee’s Plum Bitters

Stir with ice, strain into a chilled cocktail glass, and garnish with an orange peel and maraschino cherry.

Before you say anything, yes that’s lemon peel as a garnish in the picture.  I didn’t have any fresh oranges on hand so I used what I had.  Sue me.   To me, the flavors that combine in this drink really hit all the high notes of what I was looking for.  It’s boozy, that’s for sure.  But you also have the spices, citrus, and a bit of a dried fruit character from the white port and the Bonal.  The Plum Bitters adds another layer of fruit and helps to marry the sweetness and spiciness from all the ingredients.   I definitely want to give this recipe a try with a tawny port in place of the white port.  I think that will heighten the dried fruit flavors even more.  If you try it, let me know the outcome.

So tell us what your favorite Christmas cocktails are!  Do you have a unique recipe or an old standby?  Leave us a comment and share.

Cheers!

Annnnnnndddddddd . . . we have a winner!  The rules were pretty simple.  Tell me how you started down the cocktail path, the catalyst if you will, and tell me your favorite cocktail.

And the winner is Helena Tiare Olson from Stockholm, Sweden.  Tiare is also the writer of A Mountain of Crushed Ice.  And without further ado, here it Tiare’s story:

For me it started with a tiny mini bottle of El Dorado 15 year old demerara rum.

It’s a bit odd, I know but that´s what happened. I got that bottle from God knows where and drank a little bit of the rum and discovered that liked it, no – I mean really liked it. Its not the first alcoholic thing I had of course but it was the first alcoholic beverage that really opened my eyes and led me to discover the world of cocktails and this evolved to be where I am today.

This happened a couple of years ago.

So I tasted some of that rum neat and then I took the rest and mixed a ”tropical drink” having not much clue how to mix a proper cocktail – even though I had some vague idea still after my years in the restaurant business. But I threw together some fresh fruit juices, a little simple syrup and the rum with plenty of crushed ice and made some kind of elaborate fruit garnish. All happily served in a hurricane glass!

After that I got myself a big bottle of El Dorado and now I started to experiment more seriously.

I searched the net which eventually led me to tiki drinks,The Ministry of Rum and some of the cocktail blogs where I was a lurker for quite a while, without commenting – I didn´t dare to…but reading and absorbing everything I came over that interested me. I kept experimenting at home with cocktail mixing and ingredient making and garnishing. Eventually the whole thing grew to a lifestyle and I became a cocktail geek.

Then one day (a year ago) I started to write my blog, and the rest is as we say – history.

Today I’m much more into learning the classics, so i have started in a bit of an odd way, otherwise i believe tiki drinks is maybe not usually the first type of drinks you start with.

I will never abandon my first love – the Mai Tai, it will always be my favorite cocktail, but only if its made the way it should be and with good rum. The recipe I use is Trader Vic`s and I use either Appleton Extra, Havana Club 7, St James Hors d´age, Clemènt VSOP and various demerara rums.

Why do I love cocktails? Oh – its the craft, the art, the culinary and experimental aspect, and of course the aroma and taste – and then, they do look so beautiful! And a well crafted cocktail really is something very special.

When I think back I`m quite amazed myself how it all started with a tiny mini-bottle of El Dorado.

Mai Tai
1 oz dark Jamaican rum
1 oz Martinique rum
1 oz fresh lime juice (one lime)
0.5 oz orange curacao (or Cointreau)
0.25 oz each of orgeat and simple syrup

Mix all ingredients and shake with ice.Strain into a double old fashioned glass over crushed ice.Garnish with lime shell and a sprig of mint.Serve with 2 short straws placed near the mint.

Great story Tiare.  Congrats on your win and I hope you enjoy the 2009 Tales of the Cocktail Recipe Book!

Cheers!

Mixology Monday is back and this month we’re hosted by Tristan Stephenson over at the Wild Drink Blog.  Tristan’s edict was to take a classic cocktail and put a twist on it that makes the new version superior to the old.  He also requested for us to tell our favorite song to do the twist to – ACDC’s Back in Black.

The first thing that popped in my head when thinking about twists was my Chichicapa Margarita.  It is simply a margarita with either the addition of a smoky mezcal or a complete replacement of tequila with the mezcal.  But to be honest, I love the addition of the smokiness and don’t know if I’ll make a regular margartia for myself again.

Chichicapa Margarita
2oz Del Maguey Chichicapa mezcal
1oz fresh lime juice
.5oz Contreau
1 Tbls agave syrup

Shake everything with ice and strain into a chilled glass.  Or if you want, strain over fresh ice in a rocks glass.

The second twist a little more obscure.  One evening while sitting at The Gibson, one of their wonderful bartenders, Tiffany Short, whipped up a drink for me when I wasn’t sure what I wanted.  That drink was an Old Pal.

Old Pal
1oz Rye Whiskey
.75oz Campari
.75oz Sweet Vermouth

-Stir with ice and strain into chilled cocktail glass.

For my twist, I decided to take the spicey, bitter, deep flavor of the Old Pal and make it lighter yet still packed with flavors.  I simply twisted the original ingredients by replacing them with lighter versions of themselves.

New Acquaintance
1oz Bourbon [I used Bernheim - a Wheat Whiskey instead of bourbon, Maker's Mark would be a fantastic choice!]
.75oz Aperol
.75oz Dolin Blanc Vermouth

-Stir with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

The nose is reminisant of mellon and citris.  You taste the bourbon which is rounded out by a bitter citrus and a roundness from the Bolin.  It is light sweet and flavorful.  Certainly a new twist on a classic cocktail.

Thanks again to Tristan for hosting this month!  I can’t see what the other folks out there come up with!

Don’t forget to check out my Templeton Rye give-away!!!  There’s still another week to enter!

I went out to Ace Beverage today looking for some Centenario Rosangel.  I had a great conversation with Joe and found some other tasty things to pick up, namely the Tuthiilltown Spirits 4 Grain Whiskey and Manhattan Rye.  (Be on the lookout for reviews of each in the coming days!)  I also found the Rosangel and I’m excited to give that a try too.

Anyway, while there, I was talking with Joe and he mentioned having a mezcal margarita made with the Del Maguey Chichicapa.  Although he couldn’t remember the exact proportions, I think a basic 3-2-1 ratio would be a great place to start.  If you aren’t familiar with the Del Maguey brand of mezcals you really are missing out on a fantastic spirit!

Del Maguey (pronounced: ma-gay) imports their mezcals from single villages produced by individual family producers.  They truely are small batch local products.  Del Maguey has several bottlings including the Chichicapa that graces my bar.  The mezcal has a strong smokey flavor and nose, not unlike a smokey scotch, with a deep agave flavor.  If you’re not expecting the smokiness, it certainly can catch you off guard.

For the Chichicapa Margarita, you get the sweet tart flavor of a traditional margarita combined with a hint of orange (Cointreau) and the smoke of the mezcal.  For someone who doesn’t like a big hit of smoke or thinks the mezcal is a little too strong, you can always vary the amount of mezcal by adding regular tequila.  Start with a 3:1 ration of tequila and mezcal and alter from there until you get the amount of smoke you like.  However, the as-is recipe is a combination that is perfect for an overcast, cold March day when you’re really looking forward to Spring.

Chichicapa Margarita
2oz Del Maguey Chichicapa mezcal
1oz fresh lime juice
.5oz Contreau
1 Tbls agave syrup

Shake everything with ice and strain into a chilled glass.  Or if you want, strain over fresh ice in a rocks glass.

Cheers!