An online speakeasy of potent potables and other pabulam.

Two weeks ago, Sean and I attended Tales of the Cocktail 2012 and had a great time. I hope to get a post up about Tales and some of my thoughts on what I saw, debates I heard and drinks I drank in the next couple of days. But first, I wanted to touch on the 2012 Olympic Games.

Like many of you, I’ve been glued to the (sometimes crappy) coverage of the Summer Olympic Games in London. I really enjoy the Games and have to say I get an up-swell in national pride watching the United States compete against the other nations of the world. Last night we had some friends over to hang out, have some grub, watch the Olympics and, of course, have a few drinks.

For the first drink, I found a tasty punch in the Cocktails+ iPhone app. I changed the recipe a bit so I’ll give you the original first and then my tweaked version. Unfortunately, in all the fervor of the games, I forgot to take a photo of the punch.

Roman Punch
1/4 oz sugar
1/2 oz raspberry syrup
2 dashes lemon or lime juice
1/4 oz curacao
2 oz brandy
1/2 oz Jamaican rum

Build over ice; garnish with various fruits in season and serve with a straw.

(Adapted from Harry Johnson, New & Improved Illustrated Bartender’s Manual. [Author, 1888] p. 166.)

And here’s the version I made. As you’ll see, I multiplied the ingredients by 4 in order to help take this from a single serve cocktail to a group beverage.

Roman Punch No. 2
1 oz simple syrup
2 oz raspberry syrup
Juice of half a lemon
1 oz Mandarin Napoleon
6 oz brandy
2 oz Applejack
2 oz Scarlet Ibis rum
16 oz sparkling water

Stir everything with a few ice cubes to well chill. Serve in small glasses over fresh ice and garnish with mint.

My version of the Roman Punch, although even with the addition of sparkling water, is a boozy punch. You can definitely taste the brandies and rum. Surprisingly the curacao comes through pretty strongly as well. All-in-all a tasty punch for a night of the Games.

The second drink I made is an original creation. I wanted something boozy and stirred with an international feel. You would think with the Olympics being held in London I would grab some gin. And oddly, once the drink was tasted, two out of the three tasters thought the base spirit was, in fact, gin. However, I actually grabbed mezcal. To be specific, I grabbed my bottle of Fidencio Sin Humo. The Fidencio mezcal is an unaged spirit and for a mezcal is very light on the smokiness that is a hallmark of mezcals in general. Upon reflection, an aged mezcal would provide a more golden color, but I would be afraid of too much smoke throwing off the balance. Of course, this is just fodder for more experimentation!

After grabbing the first ingredient from Mexico, I went across the Atlantic ocean to France and grabbed my bottle of Yellow Chartreuse. Ohhh, golden and delicious! Finally, I wanted to give a little bit more sweetness and a rounder flavor so I hopped over to Italy for my bottle of Maraschino. Mexico, France, Italy. Mezcal, Yellow Chartreuse, Maraschino. International ingredients for an international cocktail to enjoy during the 2012 London Olympic Games.

Gold Medal
1.5 oz Fidencio Mezcal
.5 oz Yellow Chartreuse
.25 oz Maraschino
2 dashes grapefruit bitters

Stir with ice and serve up. Squeeze lemon peel over top of drink and garnish with peel.

With a slightly golden hue and an herbal-berry roundness to the flavor, this drink soars like the gold medal athletes it celebrates.

Regardless who you are rooting for during the Olympics, give this drink a try and let me know what you think in the comments.

Cheers!

This past Friday I happened to be in DC and I decided to drive up to this little store on 14th St., NW that I had heard about over the Tweeters called Smucker Farms. The store sells products from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and many of the producers are Amish and Mennonite families. Although not very big, the store contains mainly food products from Lancaster County. Now to be honest, one of the main reasons I went to Smucker Farms was in the hope I would find a Shoo Fly Pie.

Unfortunately, I didn’t find any Shoo Fly pie but I did find a few interesting things that will lend themselves to cocktail making very well. First was the jams and jellies. Tons of flavors and all looked delicious. Jams and jellies are a great way to add flavor, sweetness and texture to cocktails. The best thing I found though were shrubs!

A shrub is usually the juice of a fruit mixed with an acid and sugar. Most of the time the acid is vinegar. The Tait Farms Cherry Shrub I bought is made with cherry vinegar, lemon juice and cane syrup. On the first sip, you get a burst of fresh cherries. Then, on the back end, your lips start to pucker and your tongue will tingle from the acidity.

For a great article on shrubs and how to make them, check out the Serious Eats article.

I picked the Cherry Shrub because right now, DC is in the middle of the famed Cherry Blossom season. As a result, I’m constantly thinking of a way to create fantastic cherry cocktails. This shrub definitely made a great addition to the following cocktail. It’s sweet, tart, refreshing and has a pleasant cherry flavor.

District Cherry Blossom
1.5 oz London dry gin
1 oz Cherry Shrub
.5 oz simple syrup
.25 oz maraschino liqueur
.25 oz lemon juice
2 dashes Bittermens Burlesque Bitters

Shake all ingredients with plenty of ice. Strain over fresh ice in a chimney glass and add seltzer water. Stir briefly to combine and garnish with mint.

I’m curious, what are your favorite cherry flavored cocktails? Let me know in the comments!

Ahhhhh . . . There’s a nip in the air and the leaves are starting to change color and drop to the ground. The night descends earlier (or is it faster) and the grip of winter is just around the corner.

It isn’t a secret that autumn is my favorite season. I love the cold air and early evenings. There is nothing better than curling up on the couch under a warm blanket on a cold day watching hockey, football, or hell, even reading a cocktail tome.

But another reason I love the fall is that it is my favorite cocktail season. Tiki drinks and refreshing gin cocktails are replaced with whisk(e)ies and bitter amaros. Pineapple and coconut are replaced with apple and cherry. Limes are supplanted by lemons as the citrus of majority in my fridge.

I mention apples and cherries in particular because I love playing with those flavors this time of year. I love mixing with calvados, Applejack, or maybe some Leopold Brothers apple whiskey or apple liqueur. Bringing some cherry to the party may come from Cherry Herring, maraschino, kirschwasser, or my latest toy, Maurin Quina.

Another thing I love to mix with is apple cider. We had an apple press growing up and every fall made our own fresh-pressed apple cider. It was fantastic! Unfortunately you can only find pasteurized cider for sale nowadays. But if you own a juicer, you can make your own! Lately I’ve been boiling apple cider down into a thick concentrated syrup. Amazingly, along with the concentrated appleness, it develops an amazing tartness. This really comes in handy it you don’t want to add lemon, but need that acidity to balance out your cocktail. To make it, simply boil down apple cider until it has reduced by 75%.

I decided I wanted to play with the cider syrup and thought it would play very nicely with scotch. So I pulled out my new bottle of Great King Street blended scotch from Compass Box and set to work. This is what I came up with:

Orchard Bonfire
1.5 oz blended Scotch
.5 oz cider syrup
.25 oz honey syrup (2 parts honey & 1 part water)
1 barspoon pimento dram
1 dash Whiskey Barrel Bitters

Shake & double strain into a cocktail glass rinsed with a smokey scotch. (I used Peat Monster.) Garnish with a maraschino cherry.

What do you like to drink when fall arrives? Leave a comment and let us know!

Cheers!

PS. Scofflaw’s Den celebrated it’s fourth birthday earlier this month. We thank all of our readers for sticking with us and we plan on providing a lot more content and recipes for you to enjoy for at least another four years. -Marshall

This month Mixology Monday is being hosted by Vidiot over at Cocktailians and the chosen theme is vermouth.   Our instructions,

So: your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to present a delectable vermouth cocktail for us all to drool over. Sweet/Italian or dry/French vermouth are fair game of course, as are quinquina, aperitif wines like Pineau des Charentes, or for that matter any fortified, aromatized wine such as Lillet (red or white), or Dubonnet (ditto.)

I can’t necessarily promise a delectable cocktail, but I thought this would be a great opportunity to try something new.  Vermouth, as most folks will tell (and as I’m sure you’ll read in other MxMo posts) is an incredibly versatile ingredient.  Without getting into the nitty-gritty on the correct storage methods, the various types, or the various herbs and flavorings that go into vermouth, the most important thing to know that vermouth brings a lot of complementary flavors to a cocktail.

When I first started getting indoctrinated into the world of classic cocktails, I wasn’t a big fan of vermouth.  Maybe I had some not-so-fresh vermouth.  Maybe my palate wasn’t as refined as it is now.  Regardless, I’m now a vermouth convert.

In wanting to try new a new cocktail, I turned to our old friend the Savoy Cocktail Book.  This is a cocktail I’ve wanted to try for a while but for some reason never got around to it.

ATTY Cocktail (p. 25)
1/4 dry vermouth  (.50 oz dry vermouth)
1 bar spoon absinthe
3/4 London Dry Gin (1.50 oz London Dry Gin)
1 bar spoon creme de violette

Shake (really? please stir this drink!) with ice, strain into a cocktail glass.

Basically, the ATTY is a 3 to 1 dry martini with a little absinthe and a little creme de violette added to the mix.  It isn’t a bad cocktail, the aromatics and herbs of the dry vermouth really shine through.  The absinthe gives a slight anise note and the violette adds color.   You can see from the photo the light purple hue to the drink.  To be honest, the flavor of the violette melds into the herbs of the dry vermouth and gets sort of lost.  Definitely stir this drink really well to get it as cold as you can.

And, in Scofflaw’s Den tradition, I can’t just leave you with one drink for MxMo!  I decided to try another new cocktail and with Halloween around the corner the following number from Gary Regan’s The Joy of Mixology seemed quite appropriate.

Deadly Sin (p. 245)
2oz Bourbon
1/3oz sweet vermouth
1/4oz maraschino liqueur
1 dash orange bitters
orange twist for garnish

Stir with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

The Deadly Sin is definitely a bourbon lovers cocktail.  Unfortunately, I didn’t have any oranges in the house so I couldn’t use the peel for a garnish and I think that would really make the drink better.  As it was made you get a slight cherry note from the maraschino and the vermouth underscores the inherent sweetness of the bourbon.

And this brings another Mixology Monday to a close.  Thanks again to Vidiot for hosting this month!

Cheers!