An online speakeasy of potent potables and other pabulam.

If you are a regular reader of the Scofflaw’s Den, you probably already are familiar with Thursday Drink Night (TDN.)  For those who aren’t, here is a little primer.

Every Thursday night (officially) beginning at 7pm EST, cocktail enthusiasts, bloggers, writers, bartenders and other sundry forms of riff-raff gather at the online Mixoloseum Bar.  We usually have a particular theme and everyone throws out recipes utilizing that particular themed ingredient.  Some drinks work, others get tossed down the sink never to be thought of again.  The fun is trying new things and occasionally hitting upon an undiscovered gem.

I’ve been lucky to co-create two drinks that have turned out to be favorites.  The first was way back in December when Rick of Kaiser Penguin and I collaborated and came up with the . . .

Cilician Voyage
1oz Citadelle Reserve Gin
1oz Strega
1oz Lime Juice
.50oz Grapefruit Juice
.50oz Cinnamon Syrup
1 dash Fee’s Whiskey Barrel-Aged Bitters
1 dash Fee’s Grapefruit Bitters
Ginger Beer to top

Build everything except ginger beer in a rocks glass filled with crushed ice.  Give it a good stir and top with ginger beer.  Garnish with a cinnamon stick and a lime twist.  Rick likes to throw a few strands of saffron on the top to gild the lilly.

Thanks to Rick contacting the good folks at Citadelle Gin, they tried it and loved it.  In fact, they liked it enough to send Rick and I a bottle of Citadelle Reserve for our efforts.  Keep your eye on the Den for a write-up on Citadelle Reserve.  It is a fantastic gin!

This past Thursday, TDN was sponsored by Mata Hari Absinthe and we were lucky enough to have a live outpost at the Tabard Inn here in DC.  Gathered at the Tabard’s bar were Sean and I, Rick of Kaiser Penguin, Nathan, a cocktail enthusiast from Pittsburgh, PA, Sam of Brand Action Team and Owen our videographer for the evening.  You can find Sam’s post on TDN here.  Chantal Tseng, head bartender at Tabard Inn was graciously making our drinks as we wrote down the recipes that came across the computer screen.

For my drink, I gave Chantal a list of five specific ingredients and asked her to find a good ratio.  The ingredient list consisted of brandy, amaro nonino, Mata Hari Absinthe, sherry and bitters.  The drink that was invented was . . .

The Bitter Industry
1.5oz Brandy
.50oz Amaro Nonino
.50oz Amontillado Sherry
1 dash Mata Hari Absinthe
2 dashes orange bitters

Stir in a quadrangular motion with cracked ice and strain with the flick of the wrist into a chilled cocktail glass.

And what do you know, The Bitter Industry won for best cocktail of the night!  A platitude I am more than honored to share with Chantal.  If you are interested in reading the full write up of this past TDN, you can find it here on the Mixoloseum blog.  For the brave of heart, there is also a link to the full transcript of the nights festivities at the end of the write up.

Give both of these drinks a try and let me know what you think!  While you’re at it, stop by the Mixoloseum Bar and chat for a while.  And please join us Thursday nights for a great night of recipe collaboration.

Cheers!

Welcome to the first Mixology Monday of 2009!  This MxMo is quite interesting. As I sit here in front of my computer to write this post, the theme of this MxMo causes a good deal of retrospective thought and contemplation of the year to come.  The theme for this MxMo is “New Horizons” and is hosted by The Scribe over at A Mixed Dram.  Our instructions were to use something new in our cocktailian pursuits; a new ingredient, a new technique, anything as long as it broadens our horizons.  So how does this theme cause me to get a little philosophical?

For starters, I have to look through my repertoire of drinks and find something that I haven’t used before.  As a consequence, I’ve looked upon this entire last year and the changes it has brought, especially in the cocktail scene of Washington, DC and the surrounding suburbs.  It has caused me to look at the Scofflaw’s Den and the growth that we’ve had here with the site in the fifteen short months Sean and I have been writing.  I’ve also been thinking about the year to come.  It is easy to get caught up in looking towards the future.  You see, as I write this from the Scofflaw’s Den outpost of the Ballston neighborhood of Arlington, VA, I am a stones throw from history.  I can’t help but think of the momentous events that will transpire in a little over 12 hours – when the 44th President of the United States will be sworn into office.  A new President whose call for change was heard around the world.  Being this close to history and having a topic for MxMo that fits perfectly . . . well, I can’t help but be a little excited.

On to the matter at hand . . . As I tried to think of how I wanted to expand my horizons, I only had to go so far as my liquor cabinets to find the answer.  There is one ingredient I have never used.  One ingredient that has overwhelmed me every time I thought of using it – sherry.

Many of the top bartenders in DC and around the world are using sherry in many fantastic drinks.  I’ve had quite a number of sherry cocktails and have enjoyed every single one of them.  But using it myself has been a little daunting.  For starters, there is like twelve different kinds of sherry.  See . . .

Okay, so there are six different styles, but that was still pretty daunting for me.  So I bought one bottle that I thought was in most of the cocktails I have tried.

I bought Osbourne Amontillado Sherry.  I know it probably isn’t the best, but it is what the grocery store had low those many months ago when I decided to buy it.  I know Ace Beverage has many different kinds of sherry and I’ll probably try another style next.  But anyway, on the the cocktails!

The first cocktail I made was named after what is considered the first Broadway musical, Adonis.  Adonis opened in 1884 and ran for over 600 performances.  The recipe is very similar to a martini, with sherry replacing the gin.

Adonis
2oz Sherry
1oz Sweet Vermouth (I used Vya)
2 dashes orange bitters (I used Angostura)

Stir everything with cracked ice and strain in a chilled cocktail glass.

This was simply a beautiful cocktail.  I was amazed at how the orange bitters shown through all the aromatics of both the sherry and the Vya sweet vermouth.  It was moderately sweet and herby with a very clean flavor and finish.  It was wonderful.

My next cocktail of the night, I gleaned from the eGullet Spirit and Cocktail forums.  One of the threads discusses port and sherry in cocktails and someone posts a recipe called the Dewey D from PDT in New York.

Dewey D (PDT, NYC)
2oz Rye
.75oz Sherry
.50oz Aperol
1 dash Angostura

Stir everything with cracked ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

This cocktail was a bit of disappointment.  First, to be completely upfront, I used Ri1 whiskey.  Maybe that wasn’t the best choice for rye that I could of used, however, looking at the relatively small amount of Aperol and sherry, I didn’t want something that was too powerful.  I’ll also say that maybe this particular drink needs a different style of sherry than the amontillado I used.  WIth those caveats, this drink basically tasted like watered down rye.  The sherry and Aperol were completely lost in the drink.  Unfortunate, but I still have hopes that with some adjusting on my end, this could really sing.

The next cocktail I tried was the Chaplin Cocktail.

Chaplin Cocktail
.75oz bourbon
.75oz sherry
.75oz Ramazzotti Amaro
.125oz Cointreau
2 dashes orange bitters

Stir everything with cracked ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

This was another cocktail that sang.  The Ramazzotti, Cointreau and orange bitters gave the bourbon and sherry a wonderful bitter orange note.  It was sweetened by the sherry and Cointreau just enough to tame the bitterness from the amaro.  And the caramel sweetness of the bourbon just threaded throughout the drink.  Very tasty indeed!

Well, there you have it.  My first foray into sherry as a cocktail ingredient – a change that is positive and hopefully.  Much like the history being played out before our very eyes in the days to come.  I can understand why sherry has been in the repertoire of many and I’m looking forward to trying different styles and finding the one that will work best for my palate and recipes.  Many thanks to The Scribe for hosting this MxMo – a fitting subject for a fitting time.

Cheers!

The gallery for all the photos for this MxMo can be found here.