An online speakeasy of potent potables and other pabulam.

Saturday night I made a couple of St. Germain 75s.  That’s:

2 ounces Hendricks Gin
2 ounces St. Germain
1/2 ounce simple syrup
1/2 ounce lemon juice
2 ounces sparkling wine (I stole some of Cathy’s Korbel)

Mmmmm.

For a good bit of the day I’d been drinking Sam Adams Winter Lager so the drink made a great departure from that.  I passed mine around the room and everyone seemed to enjoy it, too.  The first was a bit too sweet, so I upped the sparkling wine in the second (I was using the Demerara simple syrup which might’ve caused that).

I need to buy some of my own sparkling wine so I can make this more.

Welcome to my first ever Mixology Monday!  This is pretty exciting for Sean and I here at The Scofflaw’s Den. If you haven’t been by to visit us yet, I hope you enjoy reading about our mixology adventures.  Hopefully, you’ll have a good visit and we’ll be able to add a little something to the resurgence of classic cocktails, have some good times and make a few friends along the way.

First and foremost, I want to thank Jay Hepburn over at Oh Gosh! for hosting this month’s Mixology Monday.  Jay’s blog was one of the first that I found on the interweb and have been a devoted reader ever since.  Thanks again Jay!

Now on to business.  I’ll tell you, I had a difficult time coming up with something to post.  I love gin and a great many of the cocktails I’ve used it in.  But, one thing that I like to do is experiment.  So I decided to get in the kitchen and try to come up with a drink that would be tasty and appealing to cocktailians and weekend mixers across the board . . . and yes, even those odd folks who say they don’t like gin.

I started by doing some research in the blogosphere, the interwebs and a few books.  I found a lot of great ideas and cocktails, one being the Pink Lady.  The Pink Lady uses two of my favorite ingredients, apple jack/calvados and grenadine.  But I also wanted to use one of my favorite new ingredients, St. Germain.  Hmmm . . . gin and St. Germain.  Well, after my research, I decided that my cocktail for the masses would be something light and fragrant with a nice sweetness.  Well, something with gin, grenadine and St. Germain would certainly be delicious in theory . . .

First, lets start with the gin.

What could be in this nice little package???  Let’s open her up!

Ohhhhh . . . what’s that inside?  Looks like the neck of a very familiar bottle . . . (okay, I know you can read the writing on the case, but hell, I’m just having fun here.)

Ahhh, Hendrick’s.  One of the best gins I know.  Hendrick’s has a light rose petal and cucumber aromatic that is (at least to me) refreshing and quite good.  I felt this is the perfect gin for me to experiment my MxMo cocktail.

One thing that I was a bit worried about was having a drink that was too sweet.  I tend to have a serious sweet tooth, so I wanted something that would help tame the St. Germain and the grenadine (homemade of course.)  I decided on using some maraschino liqueur.  I hoped that the slightly musky cherry flavor and aroma of the maraschino would tone down the sweetness and add a nice background flavor to the cocktail.  Something people wouldn’t quite know what it was when they drank it, but without it, the cocktail just wouldn’t be the same.

(Not the best maraschino out there, but the best I can find in VA and DC . . . but I think I know where a bottle of Luxardo is hidden . . . )

And now dear readers, a quick confession.  I have never had a cocktail containing egg white.  No flips for me.  It has always been a mental block of mine, one that I knew I had to overcome.  One thing I learned in my research was that egg white, when added to a cocktail, can transform it seemingly like magic.  It can tame the harsh edges of a rough spirit.  It creates a silky smooth texture.  It can turn something good into something great.  In short, I knew that I had to break this block and make my MxMo cocktail a flip!!!

Well, the aromatics of the Hendrick’s, St. Germain and maraschino for some reason got me thinking of orange.  Another aromatic that if used correctly would be just barely there, a gentle touch of orange.  But what did I have sitting around my liquor cabinet?  Oh yes, some Fee Brother’s West Indian Orange Bitters and Orange Flower Water.  Now I was ready to create!

After a little trial and error, I hit upon this concoction that blew my socks off.

The Orchard Flip
2 oz. Hendrick’s Gin
.5 oz maraschino liqueur
.5 oz St. Germain
2 dashes Fee Brother’s West Indian Orange Bitters
3 dashes Fee Brother’s Orange Flower Water
1 Tsp Grenadine
One half an egg white*

Shake everything over ice until you feel your hands have frozen to the shaker.
Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
Twist orange rind over drink to shower the top and edge of the glass with orange oils.
Enjoy.
*After my initial trials, I only had half an egg white left, which is what was in the final drink.  A full egg white would lead to a much more velvety mouth feel, but honestly, I enjoyed the results from the half.

You can see from the picture that the cocktail just looks as smooth as silk.  It was sweet (not overly so) and was incredibly aromatic.  One thing I forgot to do when I took the photo was add the garnish.  Oh well . . .

The St. Germain and maraschino combined to a flavor that reminded me of cherry blossoms on the National Mall while being backed up by the sweet-tart grenadine and light orange aroma. The drink screamed spring time orchard blossoms.

While I did have reservations about making and drinking a light pink drink, my goal was to create something new that would appeal to a lot of people.  I really believe I accomplished this.  Please give it a go and leave a comment if you like. Personally, I would love to know what you think of the drink and the blog.  So feel free to leave us a note.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this MxMo entry and you enjoy The Scofflaw’s Den.  Sean will have a post as well and I’m sure you will enjoy it.

See you around the blogosphere, folks.

As Sean mentioned yesterday, I have been working on my first brand new cocktail.  I wanted to create something that reminded me of one of my favorite times of the year, autumn in Virginia.  So it kind of named itself the “Virginia Autumn.”  I checked a lot of cocktail databases, blogs, food websites and the Mixosphere and didn’t find any drinks that used the ingredients I had in mind.

I wanted to base the drink on apples.  Virginia has a lot of apples and growing up, we had a small apple orchard on our property that produced great apples, so apples it is.  For the main spirit, I decided to go with Laird’s Applejack because, well, it is an apple brandy and it is a true American spirit.  Check out the link to learn more.  I also have my new bottle of St. Germain elderflower liqueur that I really wanted to incorporate.  I also wanted to add a background flavor/essence that would remind me of apple pies, fall baking/cooking and those great smells of cinnamon, nutmeg, and a warm fire.  Luckily I had some Fee Brothers Whiskey Barrel-Aged Bitters that provide the perfect oaky-cinnamon-baking spice that I was looking for.

Finally, after several trials and errors, with consultation and advice from

runoknows

and a great mixologist and good all around guy Jamie Boudreau, here is the final recipe:
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Virginia Autumn

1.5 oz Laird’s Applejack
1.0 oz  Apple Cider
0.5 oz St. Germain
3/4 tsp Rich Simple Syrup*
1 dash of Fee Brothers’ Orange Bitters
3-4 dashes of Fee Brothers’  Whiskey Barrel-Aged Bitters

Shake well with cracked ice until your hands feel like they’ve been blasted by a cold November wind and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.  Garnish with a small apple slice on the rim of the glass or a paper thin round of apple floating on top.

*To make Rich Simple Syrup, heat equal parts of water and demerara sugar until dissolved.  Remove from heat and let cool.  Add about an ounce of high proof vodka for shelf-stability, bottle and keep in fridge.
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The glass is a cocktail glass from a set my father purchased after he graduated from the University of Virginia in 1965.  The rim and seal of The University are in gold leaf.  This seemed a very fitting glass to my first foray into classic cocktails.

On another note.  I GOT SOME NEW SUPPLIES LAST NIGHT!  YEEE-HAWWWW.

I got (from left to right) some tiki and palm tree cocktail stirrers, a bottle of Fee Brothers’ Orange Flower water, a bottle of Fee Brothers Orgeat syrup, a bottle of Fee Brothers West Indian Orange Bitters, a bottle of Fee Brothers Falernum (which I have been dying to get!) and a bottle of Fee Brothers Peach Bitters.  Let the mixing begin!

Finally, because I love this picture so much, here you go:

This is my bottle of Thomas H. Handy Sazerac Rye Whiskey, a part of the 2006 Buffalo Trace Antique Selection.  It is unfiltered and bottled at barrel strength.  If you look closely, you can see the handwritten proof on the label . . . yes it does say 132.7 proof.  Yes, Homer, it makes me happy too . . .