Second off – Phil Greene alerted us to this post covering the cocktails from the DC bracket of the Domaine de Canton competition.  I know I’ve tried a couple of those – the Domainatrix by Rachel Sergi, now over at Againn, and the Thai’s the Limit by Gina Chersevani of PS7 (which also features your Scofflaws in the Washington Post video about it).  I want to say I’ve tried the Owen Thomson (of Bourbon) Jack O’ Ginger but I might just be confusing it with another drink.

So – now to drinking and reading.

When I moved into my current apartment my parents commented on how it seemed like all the boxes I brought in had one of two things in them – either books or liquor.  Well, duh, I thought – what are my hobbies?  Cocktails and reading!

Them's a lot of words!

As I settled down recently to reread a ten part alternative history by Harry Turtledove (the Timeline-191 series, if you must know, where the South won the War Between the States thanks to not losing Lee’s Special Order 191 to McClellan), I did it my usual way – most of the time outside, on my balcony, drinking a beer and smoking a cigar.

mmmm, beer and a cigar

As I read through the first book How Few Remain that was mostly fine, but then I got into the Great War series with American Front.  That series introduces what has to be my favorite character in the entire series, Quebecois farmer Lucien Galtier.  Unlike most of the characters in the book (slight spoilers here, I’m afraid) his life doesn’t entirely suck.  In fact, his often humorous sections really help out through the grimmer parts of the series.

It was also his sections quite a while ago that got me introduced to Calvados.  Calvados is an apple brandy produced in France, and while the character drank basically a moonshine variation of it – after all, he’s a farmer in Quebec, not in the Calvados region of France, and it’s so often wartime with occupation forces etc yadda yadda yadda – that I had finally managed to get a bottle a few years ago.

I still remember the first time I actually tried Calvados.  It was on a date at a place called Sonoma here in DC and I was so excited to see it on the menu that I spilled red wine on my shirt.  (Hey, that was like over 2 years ago!  I had no idea what I was getting myself into.)  I didn’t care for it much straight, and the bottle I had tended to only be used in cocktails for a number of years (that number being two).

As I started rereading the series, I thought, hey, I should drink appropriately for the books.  Cigars are fine, a lot of the characters smoke them though the US characters will remind you repeatedly that their cigars are bad compared to Confederate ones (the Confederacy, in these books, own Cuba as well as the prime tobacco growing parts of North America).

At first this started with sipping on Calvados while reading them, which helped with the Galtier parts to feel more “into it”.  Depending on night of the week and compunction, I started adding in other things.  Whiskey, for instance, is an easy choice for a lot of the characters, as well as beer – which I had before, naturally – and occasionally for the characters from Sonora and Chihuahua some mezcal, specifically, Del Maguey crema de mezcal.

Of course, you can’t keep up with the characters in the book, but on the other hand, keeping it close to what you’re reading helps a lot.  I feel an urge to read The Great Gatsby again, since I think it’d fun to drink appropriate cocktails to that – though it is kind of funny to try to figure out what to drink while reading my Warhammer 40K novels.

Right now?  Well, I’m reading The Space Wolves Omnibus and therefore drinking ale.  In fact, I started tonight with a Sam Smith Yorkshire Stingo.  Sure, I probably should drink something more viking, but they drink ale in the books, and I don’t have any Skullsplitter.  A lot of the characters drink amasec in 40K, and the description of that seems to be “brandy” as it’s distilled wine.  Hey, I’ve got plenty of brandy in my house…

What do you drink while reading?

This month Mixology Monday is hosted by Matt over at Rumdood and his chosen theme is ginger.  Big thanks for Matt for hosting this month!

Ginger is one of my favorite spices.  For me, ginger is one of those flavors that is just as tasty in the summer as it is in the dead of winter.  During the cooler part of the year, ginger provides a bright, warming flavor to your cocktails.  During the warmer months, ginger tends to cool you down and provides a certain zing that is down right refreshing.

There are multiple ways you can incorporate ginger into your cocktails.  For the freshest flavor and more of that ginger bite, you can muddle several pieces before shaking or stirring up your libation.  You could also make a ginger syrup.  This route will provide a lot of sweetness along with that fresh ginger flavor.

Additionally, you could go the liqueur route.  Currently, one of the hottest new liqueurs on the market is Domaine de Canton.  Domaine de Canton is a mix of baby ginger and French cognac into a wonderful liqueur.  It is fairly sweet and has a nice fresh ginger bite.  Canton is a high quality product and quite delicious.

One of the most surprising drinks I’ve ever had contained Domaine de Canton.  At PS7 in DC, Gina Chersevani has a drink on the menu titled “The Cure.”  Actually, the full name is the “Recession Blues Cure.”  Priced at $5, it is certainly a cheap drink.  So what’s in it?  Miller Lite and Domaine de Canton.  That’s it.  Sounds horrible doesn’t it?  Well, it is fantastic!

The Cure
2 oz Domaine de Canton
4-5 oz Miller Lite
-Build over ice in a chimney glass.  Garnish with julienned ginger.

Now this may not be the same proportions at PS7, but for me, it is the perfect mix.  The sweetness and bite of the Domaine de Canton really highlight what little flavor is in Miller Lite.  A surprising drink indeed!

Once summer starts hitting full force, my drinking habits turn to long drinks, drinks with plenty of ice, tiki and the like.  There is nothing more satisfying on a hot muggy DC summer day than a tall glass of deliciousness with plenty of ice.

Which brings me to my second drink for MxMo.  I wanted to come up with a tall drink that was refreshing, gingery and easily quaffable.  I started thinking of what flavors went with ginger and I remembered this compote I made last summer.  It was a fantastic rhubarb and ginger compote.  Alright, ginger and rhubarb.  Luckily, I have some freshly made rhubarb syrup!  Thinking about the flavors of ginger and rhubarb my mind immediately went to tequila.  The sweet vegetal flavors of the tequila married with the bite of ginger and the tart/sweet rhubarb had my mouth watering.  Now I just needed something to tie it all together into a tall tasty beverage.  Ting!

(In full disclosure, this was the first time I’ve mixed with Ting and I’m very happy with the results.)

Ginger-Rhubarb Fizz
1.5 oz blanco tequila (I used Inocente)
.75 oz Massenez Creme de Gingembre*
.50 oz Rhubarb syrup**
1 bottle Pink Ting
-Build over ice in a tall chimney glass.  Give a quick stir to combine.  Drink and enjoy!

*A note on the ginger liqueur:  For this drink, I used the Massenez Creme de Gingembre.  I’ve had the bottle for a while and think it is a good product.  It isn’t nearly as sweet as the Domaine de Canton which makes it good to use when you want to watch the sweetness of the drink.  However, the ginger “bite” is a little less pronounced as compared to the Canton.  I think the Canton would be just as delicious in this drink, but with the rhubarb syrup, the sweetness will be proportionally greater.

**For the rhubarb syrup, I combined one large rhubarb stalk, cut into one-inch pieces, with one cup sugar and 3/4 cup water.  Bring to a simmer and cook for 20-30 minutes.  Strain through a fine mesh sieve, pressing on the solids to get all of the liquid out.

Thanks again for Rumdood for hosting this month’s MxMo.

Cheers!

It was one of those random Saturdays – I had absolutely nothing planned to do.  It was kind of weird, in fact.  I mentioned such a fact on Facebook and heard from Jake.  After a while we decided to head down to The Gibson, but since it didn’t open until 6 PM we swung by Cork to visit Tom Brown.  I’d only been there once, but Tom had left early that time.

Jake had him make me his variation of an Aviation that he’s calling a “Piper Cub”.  Instead of gin, the Piper Cub uses Manzanilla sherry.  It’s an interesting idea – not one that I would’ve thought of, but then again, I don’t know a lot about sherry.  Tom and Jake tried to help me a bit with that, too, giving me a bit of a taste of the Manzanilla and some Amontillado.  (And I’m guessing I might be misspelling that last one, but I need more energy to figure that out…)

I also got a chance to try some of the orange bitters that Tom has cooked up.  Tasty stuff.  It reminded me that I always want to make bitters but I’m a lazy, lazy man…

Around 6 PM we headed up the street to The Gibson.  If you didn’t know where it was you’d probably never know, and even if you do know where it is you might not know where it is.  That makes no sense, but trust me on that one.

Right now The Gibson is taking reservations for half of their capacity and the other half is first come, first served.  They can take up to 6 people in one reservation and they even have a flaming table in the back.  There’s no food yet, but they’re hoping to have a patio (with heaters, natch) up by this weekend, and maybe food down the road.  The decor was very cool…but we weren’t here for that, we were here for the drinks.

A note on the place though: to me, it had a much different feel than its spiritual predecessors here in the DC area.  To me, it felt much more relaxed and able to handle a larger crowd than PX – for instance, there’s no jacket requirement for men, and there were more bartenders than the standard one at PX.  And unlike Hummingbird to Mars, The Gibson isn’t trying to be secret – it’s just not marked.

It was pretty quiet when we showed up which was cool, it gave me time to meet our kick ass bartender, Tiff, as well as some of the other people there such as Chris, and also for us to be able to sit back and hang out with Tiff and Derek.

I’d read the Going Out Gurus blog last week and Fritz had mentioned The Gibson along with a couple of its drinks, notably (to me) the Salad Days Sour.  I grabbed that while Jake grabbed the other drink mentioned by Fritz – the London Special Variation.

The Salad Days Sour ($12) is, according to the menu, celery-infused Macchu Pisco, Lemon, The Bitter Truth Celery Bitters, and Burnt Cinnamon.  The burnt cinnamon is put in a line across the frothy top (I didn’t see exactly but with how frothy it is, I’m guessing there might be egg white in it) along with a “bow tie” made of carrot.  This drink was awesome and it was all I could do to avoid a) chugging it, b) just ordering it over and over again, and c) immediately proposing to Tiff after trying it.

The London Special Variation ($12) is a mixture of Beefeater dry gin, Ramos Pinto white port, a champagne float, and Bergamot syrup.  I’m still not completely certain what bergamot is, but the combination of flavors in the drink were very smooth and very tasty.

Over the course of the night I tried several other drinks and when my friend Roy came he tried a few more.  Another advantage that The Gibson has over PX is a larger bar; you’re not restricted to the menu (which Derek says may climb to six pages), but can order other things, too.  I would not recommend asking for a rum and coke, but Jake asked for (and got) a very tasty absinthe frappe.

One of the big surprise drinks for me was the Whiskey Skin ($8), a hot drink that Derek insisted I try.  It’s made with Famous Grouse Blended Scotch, lemon peel, demerara sugar, and hot water.  I was completely surprised by how good it was and now I can’t wait to try making it at home, though I’ll be using a different blended Scotch (Jake did, however, think it’d work well with it too).

Another drink that seemed almost simple in idea but gave a big “Wow!” to my taste buds was the Brunswick Sour ($10).  Basically, this is a dacquiri made with Appleton Estate white rum, but it has a cab-merlot wine float on top of it.  It’s a small addition but it brought up a whole new level of flavor in the drink.

There were other drinks tried while we were there.  Roy started off with the basic Sazerac ($8) made with Old Overholt, Peychaud bitters, and Kubler absinthe.  We both had the Jackelope ($10) which used Weller Antique 107 proof bourbon, American oak-infused maple syrup, lemon and orange.  I tried my first Japanese Cocktail ($8), which I basically got because I know Drinkboy is a big fan of them, made with St. Remy VSOP brandy, Fee’s orgeat syrup, and Angostura bitters.  It was good, but Derek thinks it will be much better when they start making their own orgeat, and Jake thought it’d be better with a better brandy.

The last drink I had there was the Tequila Orchard ($12), a mix of Partida Reposado tequila, Domaine de Canton ginger liqueur, organic apple juice, lime, and The Bitter Truth aromatic bitters.  It was a rich, complex drink and by that point in the night perhaps a bit past me, but I still enjoyed it.

After leaving there, Roy and I headed over to CommonWealth, as he hadn’t been there before.  We had a good time hanging out at the bar and I even got a chance to try Singleton Scotch, the Scotch I’d bought for a coworker of mine, and oh wow, was it a good Scotch!  I’m going to have to buy some for myself.  Mostly, though, we drank beer, talked to the people around us, and ate some stupendously good (and probably stupendously bad for us) food such as Scotch eggs, fish and chips, and a Butcher’s Plate dinner.  I also got a chance to say hi to Antonio who I hadn’t seen since a recent DR.com picnic.

Basically, to sum up:

• Go to Cork.  Say hi to Tom.  Ask to try one of his Aviation variations, especially the Piper Cub.
• Go to The Gibson.  Go go go.  Enjoy.  Try everything.  Say hi to Tiff and Derek.
• Go to CommonWealth.  Eat Scotch eggs.  Say hi to Antonio.
• Don’t forget Repeal Day is coming up!

Now back to strategerizing when I’ll be going back to The Gibson…

With the help of my neighbor Conroy we’ll be trying out the drinks and the best one of the evening will win a great prize!  You’ll get your choice of:  Gary Regan’s The Joy of Mixology, a book that I believe any true cocktail fan must own, A.J. Rathbun’s Good Spirits, which I got as a birthday present and enjoyed a good bit, or, since tomorrow is Halloween, I’m friends with the owners, and they’re making a video game of it, a copy of Twilight Creations’ ZOMBIES!!! board game.

Last night was our “Halloween” – actually more like “Molecular Mixology” – cocktail class at EatBar under the direction of the irascible Gina Chersevani.  Like the first class, I had a great time, and this time I didn’t fall and bust myself up afterwards.  It was also great meeting Kristen (again), along with Lisa, Will, Stephanie, Jamie, and others whose names I’m either not remembering or misremembering in all odds.

Speaking of that class and Irish whiskey tonight, Will gave me a drink that he makes with it:

Irish Ambien
1 oz. Irish whiskey
1 oz. vanilla vodka
1 oz. Bailey’s Irish Creme
Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.  If you wanted to experiment with a dash of maybe mint bitters or something like that, who am I to tell you not to do so?  Heck, if you had some chocolate bitters, or wanted to grate some chocolate or nutmeg or cinnamon on top, I’d bet that’d be money.

As for recovery period…

I’ve been extremely brain dead recently thanks to the events of last weekend – I, in my role of official brother and best man to my roommate and (uh) brother Matt – had to plan the Bachelor’s Party.  We went to Morgantown, WV, on Friday to visit our cousins and granddad, then up to Pittsburgh, PA, on Saturday to meet up with the rest of the group (eight of us, total) to hit the town and the Giants-Steelers game on Sunday.

Perhaps unfortunately, we watched a YouTube video about “My New Haircut” (caution: NSFW, language) before going out.  Which meant more than a few Jager bombs.

Saturday we killed a bottle of JD, there were multiple Bloody Marys made (from a mix, I didn’t want to bring the material prep), and no matter what anyone says, the combination of vodka, cranberry juice cocktail, and Red Bull is not a good idea.

I did have one good cocktail while in Pittsburgh, not counting the Shirley Temple I was sent during a froo-froo shot war (don’t ask, we sent back white wine spritzers).  At the bar in the Omni William Penn I had a martini, specifying the gin (Plymouth), heavy on dry vermouth, slightly dirty.

Perfectly made.  And it cost – after tip – around eight times as much as the beers we’d been drinking at the first bar of the night (and I’m not counting the $.26 ones we also had) and over twice as much as the huge IC Lights, Rolling Rocks, and Miller Lites they had at Heinz Field.

Also, I had rum out of a plastic “pocket“.  More on those later.  Maybe.

Also, Jim Beam shots after the game.  Not a good idea, either.

Anyways, I’m going to cut this off.  Hope to see y’all tonight at TDN!

One of the funny things about looking over the past year is not just the stupid things I’ve said and then keep telling people “Hey, look at this dumb thing I said over a year ago!”  Instead, it’s how much things have changed for us since then and how much more involved in the cocktail community we’ve become.

Not that it’s hard to do.  The cocktail community – not just in DC, but also online and in other cities – is incredibly friendly and inclusive.  There’s a sense of shared joy and camaraderie, where you’re treated as you treat others.  Treat your fellow mixologists, bloggers, and general cocktailians with civility, candor, wit, and intelligence and you’ll be rewarded more than you can imagine.   Take advantage of their trust or generosity and – well, you don’t want to know.

But sometimes you hit a stretch of time when blogging can feel like a job.  That’s not necessarily a bad thing.  If I could make this my job, making as much as I do now in my “real job”, I’d do it an a heartbeat.  Alas, at least right now, it is not to be, but one can always hope.  In the meantime, those of us here in the Den have been keeping mighty busy!

This is a lot of stuff, so we’ll put in a cut…

Let’s go back a week or so.  Let’s say…Thursday Drink Night!  That’s always a night of fun and last week was no exception.  I’m proud of the drink that I made up last week and would be interested to see what people thnk of it if they try it.  I’d highly recommend clicking on the link but in case you’re busy or whatever, here’s the recipe (thanks to Kaiser Penguin for saving it):

Kentucky Spiced Sour
2 ounces bourbon
1 ounce honey syrup (1:1 honey and water, heat until dissolved, let cool)
1 ounce lemon juice
1/2 ounce pimento dram
2 dashes cherry bitters
Shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass

If you go to the link, too, you’ll see an exciting announcement for tomorrow’s TDN and a recipe for the winner from last week, Stevi’s Campari Dolce.

Friday was our official one year anniversary.  To celebrate we went out to a couple of places starting at Bourbon in Adams Morgan.  You can’t beat the whiskey selection at Bourbon and their bartenders are fantastic.

I was lucky enough to get there early and ran into Owen Thompson.  He hooked me up with a taste of two of their new bourbons, 12 year old and 16 year old Willett.  Delicious.  The twelve year old was surprising subtle given its proof and the 16 year old had a spicy sweet complexity that I loved.  We hung out there for a while, had some food, and then went down to Central Michel Richard to meet our friends Roy and Danielle as well as the extremely talented bar manager Justin Guthrie.

I didn’t keep track of all the cocktails – I’ll have to ask Marshall to follow-up for some, especially probably the green apple Bombay Sapphire cocktail that was truly phenomenal.  Justin described to me the process later of how they do it, but to be honest, I’m still a bit fuzzy on it.

The first drink up was a grape caipirinha.  It’s grape because the Leblon he uses has been infused with Concord grapes.  Other than that, it’s made as a traditional caipirinha.

Next up was a ginger dacquiri.  This one was made with Neisson Rhum Agricole, creme de gingembre (what, Derek couldn’t convince him to use Domaine de Canton?, he asks jokingly – I just quoted the ingredients off the menu, it might’ve used it), ginger syrup, and lime juice.  Again, another tasty beverage.

Justin had to leave but put us in the hands of the lovely and talented Nikki.  She made a mai tai, using extra orgeat in the mix, which I thought was very good (and made me want to experiment a bit more with tiki stuff in that way – sshhh, don’t tell Trader Tiki!).

For dinner I’d gotten the braised beef cheeks and just – wow.  I mean…great googly moogly, that was good.

The last mixed drink I had for the night was a ginger Manhattan which was using, if I remember correctly using the previously mentioned Domaine de Canton.  Justin had also surprised us (in abstensia) with trays of desserts.  A banana split (sans ice cream), with caramel on one side and chocolate syrup on the other, plus a variation of neopolitan ice cream with a strawberry ice cream that had Marshall weak-kneed and a vanilla that blew me away, along with an incredible fudge ice cream.

I finished off the night with a bit of Four Roses bourbon, neat, but after all that we were done.

Saturday we headed out to our favorite liquor store, Ace Beverage in NW DC.  I had things to pick up for other people – such as rhubarb and cherry bitters and creme de mure – as well as for myself, such as Ri 1 whiskey from Jim Beam, a bottle of Apfel Korn apple schnapps, and a backup bottle of Scarlet Ibis.  Now that Ace is carrying it, I had to get some Underberg as well.  I love that stuff!

Unfortunately he was out of the Firefly Sweet Tea Vodka.  I hit VA ABC up at the Lee-Harrelson Plaza but they didn’t have it.  The guy in line in front of me was looking for it, too, and had he shut up for just a minute I would’ve told him his best bet was to go up Lee Highway a bit more to the ABC just past Glebe Road.  I went there, they had it, I bought it, and I tell you what – it is damn yummy stuff.

(Mental note: I’m going to stock up on it soon, like, probably tomorrow, because after talking to Bill and Joe about it, I’m wondering how long before they simply run out.)

One other cool thing about Saturday: we ran into a reader!  While at Ace, we were talking to Joe, and for the first of two times this week, thought Marshall was me.  (Dear readers: Marshall is the one on the left of the header, bald with a goatee.  I am on the right, clean-shaven with short brown hair.)  It’s always great to read someone who reads the blog and isn’t just guilted into us pleading “come on, man, just one more hit…”

(Mental note: do not equate web hits with drug hits again.)

Sunday would’ve been quiet, but we got a new keg of Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA in the kegerator.  Oops.

Back to work on Monday, and my plans for a long day to make up some hours got truncated when summoned to Bailey’s to watch the Sox play with my neighbors.  A liter of Paulener Oktoberfest and a few other beers later, it was on the Metro down to the final hoorah for Hummingbird to Mars.

Marshall had mentioned before that they were closing but while we were at Central Friday night Justin made sure to invite us.  We got there sometime after 8 PM and there were two seats left at the bar for us where Justin was manning the shaker.

We were started off with an Archbishop’s Punch and from there worked our way through the menu.  Owen was manning one station and Derek was working the tables.  As the night went on a number of people from DonRockwell.com showed up, Marshall had to go home (good call there), the party became more like a party, and finally, after a vicious Stinger (which was delicious) from Justin I had to go home.

Which was just in time, given how rough Tuesday was in general.

After work on Tuesday it was the Great Hotel Bars, part 1 seminar at the Tabard Inn.  For those of you not familiar with the Tabard Inn, it’s a cozy little hotel with a restaurant and bar that are doing some really cool things.  Derek Brown and Phil Greene of the Museum of the American Cocktail hosted it, with special help from Chantal Tseng, head bartender at the Tabard Inn and (first I’d heard) Derek’s new fiancee’.

We also met a second reader there, Matt Browner Hamlin, who sat with Marshall, Bill of Bourbon and BreadSoda fame, and myself, and also thought Marshall was me.  Marshall should be so honored!  I saw that Ms. Shoes & Cocktails had signed up but she (wisely?) kept her anonymity going.

The event was very interesting.  Phil gave us some background on the Museum and then went over three famous hotel bars.  As he spoke, Derek, Chantal, and Megan would prepare up samples of the drinks.  We hit the Singapore Sling (Raffles Hotel), Vieux Carre (Hotel Monteleone), Rob Roy (Waldorf-Astoria), the Sidecar (The Ritz), and Chantal finished us off with a Tabard cocktail made with tequila, sherry, and Drambuie.  The Vieux Carre we experimented with adding in some Domaine de Canton, which we received in small sample bottles.  That, of course, makes me ask: Hey, Derek, when are we getting BIG sample bottles? (grins)

Fortunately for me, each drink was quite small, so I went home, had three or four glasses of water, and went to bed.

Tonight is our first class in the EatBar Cocktail Class schedule, entitled “Stocking the Home Bar – The Showdown: Vodka vs. Gin”.  Those of you who haven’t had a chance to meet Gina Chersevani or try her killer drinks are missing out!

What a week, eh?  It’s not over…it’s a special early edition of TDN tomorrow, starting at 6 PM EDT in the Mixoloseum, with Jeff Berry arriving to talk about garnishes.  Friday night I’ve got reservations with some friends for PX, Saturday my parents come to visit, Sunday is the DR.com picnic and later that night a UVA alumni event at the Front Page in Ballston, and next week I’ll be leaving at the end of the week to go to Pittsburgh for my brother’s bachelor party, hitting the Giants-Steelers game.

Wow.

It never ends!

But it’s all fun.  Just gotta remember to keep drinking water!