Alright, it’s Tuesday, so sue me. ?We had some site issues that kept me from posting this yesterday and hey, look, content!!!

I was sitting at work the other when my phone beeps alerting me that someone on Twitter mentioned me. ?I check the tweeters and it was my buddy Chris?informing some of us old fogies that this MxMo would be the last. ?He sent along Fred’s announcement on Cocktail Virgin Slut?that after almost 11 years, MxMo would be ending. ?I tested Sean and we decided that the occasion called for an old-school Scofflaw cocktail makin’ hootnany. ?Scofflaw’s Den has posted 52 articles for MxMo over the years and we’re happy (and a bit sad) to participate in the final one.

The theme is “Irish Wake” and as you can read from Fred’s post, the goal is to uncover or create a new recipe using Irish whiskey or tell a story where Irish whiskey played a role. ?If you know Sean or I, or have read this site before, you know we like our whiskey and Irish whiskey is no exception. ? Sean brought over a bottle of Powers and a bottle of Writer’s Tears. ?I contributed a bottle of Redbreast 12 Year Old and Slieve Foy.

Sean brought over a bottle of BG Reynold’s Orgeat?which we simply had to use. ? Considering a theme of an Irish Wake, it only seemed appropriate to use an amaro as well. ?Something dark and bitter just seemed appropriate. ?We started with Nardini Bassano Amaro. ?The roasted and coffee notes seemed perfect for a sad theme. ?So after several drams of Irishwhiskey, we started mixin.

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The Nardini Amaro was determined to be too complex for the drink. ?We needed something just as dark and bitter with just a little less going on. ?Sean and I looked at each other and both said “Averna!” ?After a couple of attempts we had a cocktail that we both really enjoyed. ?I give you . . .

The Irish Goodbye
2 oz Irish Whiskey
.75 oz ?Averna
.5 oz ?fresh lemon juice
.5 oz orgeat

Mix all ingredients in an ice filled shaker and shake it like you’re hoping a potato will pop out. ?Strain over ice and garnish with a maraschino cheery.

Now, of course, we can’t leave well enough alone. ?When we go out there is a phenomenon we call the Irish Goodbye where a person simply disappears. ?One second they are talking with you at the bar and then next, POOF, they are no where to be found. ?The thing about the Irish Goodbye though is that you’ve still had quite an enjoyable night and you know that you will see your compatriot soon and bend elbows again. ?With this in mind, I wanted to make the Irish Goodbye something eye catching for the final MxMo.

My freezer contained several hollow ice spheres I made for a party. ?Using my smoke gun, I filled the ice sphere with apple wood smoke and plugged the hole with a maraschino cherry. ?I then poured the cocktail over the ice sphere in a double old fashioned glass. ?After the drink is served, using an ice pick you crack the ice sphere and POOF a puff of smoke rises from the cocktail and disappears into the ether. ?A true Irish Goodbye.

Pictures!

Pouring the drink

Tapping the first ice ball

Tapping the second ice ball

Smoke on the cocktail

Check out this beauty! B&Cs are UVA traditions.

The other night I was taking an UberX home from Marshall’s house after watching football, clutching my new bottle of Bulleit Bourbon in a 1.75 L container that his wife had very considerately picked up for me at Costco (with reimbursement, of course). I had a super awesome driver named Diana (or Diane, I apologize if she’s reading this and I get it wrong) who was jealous of it. Our conversation also made me realize I needed to update the blog.

(And also hope that she emails me at seanmike – at – scofflawsden.com sometime!)

The biggest thing I thought I’d post about was the punch I helped make for Marshall’s birthday. Just a note: it was partially inspired by a gift from Torani of some of their new “Sweet Heat Syrup”, made with ghost peppers.

Ya see, Marshall’s birthday was a big cookout, and his wife asked me to make punch. “Sure,” I thought, “that’ll be easy.” Then she said the numbers of people: 30-40.

Oof!

Now, you can go the fancy David Wondrich method and make oleosacchrum (I am sure I misspelled that) and what-have-you, but this was a mid-August out in the sun party for lots of folks, most of whom aren’t cocktail geeks. So I ended up with two inspirations: a bit of heat and mango.

I don’t own a juicer or even a big blender so I had to be careful about what I wanted to do. I then thought watermelon juice would also work. Since no one makes (that I could find) pre-juiced watermelon, I ended up taking a plastic container of cubed watermelon, smashing it repeatedly with a wooden spoon, then double straining it through mesh strainers to make a liter of watermelon juice. It took…a lot of work.

And mango juice on its own wasn’t so great. I ended up using “Simply Lemonade” but the version with mango in it.

Finally, I had originally planned on using gin in it, but a friend suggested the smokiness of mezcal would work better. I had some Sombra mezcal at home, but I needed more. Joe at Ace Beverage suggested the?Mezcales de Leyenda “El Peloton de La Muerte”, which at $30 a liter, wasn’t just a great deal but really damn good as well. I also discovered there that buying the 16 ounce bottle of Angostura, at about twice the cost and four times the size of the “normal” bottle of Angostura, is so much better of a deal.

At the party, we tweaked the recipe a bit, but it came out darn good (thanks to James Lindahl for the Meyer lemon juice suggestion).

Marshall’s Birthday Punch from SeanMike
Mix to taste:
Around 2 parts Simply Lemonade with Mango
Around 1 part watermelon juice
Around 1/2 part mezcal
Around 1/4 part Meyer lemon juice
Around 1/8 part each Torani Sweet Heat Syrup and Angostura bitters.
Depending on volume, stir or shake, serve over ice with a mint garnish.

UNRELATED CIGAR NOTE!

The next weekend I was at the GWAR-B-Q in Richmond, VA, for an amazing show. While there I picked up some of the Tatajue “CiGWARs” – a three pack for around $30 (IIRC, that was a long day of sunshine and beer). They’re not bad cigars at all, milder than I expected. I’d definitely pick some up if you see them (especially if you’re a GWAR fan).

FINALLY!

If you’ve heard me talk about depression in the past, here’s more of it, in case you care.

Anyways, now I need a cigar and something other than red wine. CHEERS!

– ?SeanMike

D.C. Craft Bartenders Guild President, Owen Thomson, holds up to the crowd a rectangular can the size of a deck of cards. A grin spills across his face. Thomson is about to reveal the next ingredient for the contest.

?Smoked sardines,? he says. The crowd collectively cringes.

That’s the kind of curveballs participants faced at last Sunday afternoon?s Negroni Throwdown at The Gibson. The winner, Chris Martino of Barrel, faced strong competition. In the end, he emerged the champion winning a bartending spot at this year?s Repeal Day Ball and all the shit-talking privileges thereto appertaining.

E.J. Apaga of Pearl Dive, Dave Lanzalone of Iron Gate and Julien Bourgon of TNT each fell to Martino despite the various obstacles thrown his way. Apaga certainly gave the crowd their ?money?s worth? (the event was free) in the Ramos Gin Fizz round when he opened a fully charged soda syphon sending streams of cream, egg whites and gin into the air.

Jack Rose bartender and Tiki Throwdown winner, Justin Hampton, judged the final products. The barman sampled each cocktail, looking pleased with some and wincing a little from others. Guild members Jamie McBain and Jo-Jo Valenzuela hosted the show. Valenzuela pulled the event together with sponsorship from Plymouth and Beefeater.

Each contestant went through a vigorous competition structured similarly to Cutthroat Kitchen. The Throwdown?s contestants used poker chips to bid on various sabotages against one another. One participant was handicapped by having no ice for his cocktail while another was denied use of his arm and a leg.

The back patio of the RAMMY nominated bar served as a serene setting for the raucous competition. Audience members filled up on bar-b-que ribs, sliders and mushroom fritters while sloshing around frozen ?Negronis and Cream? cocktails spun by Gibson general manager, Frank Jones.

When the jigger was eliminated from Bourgon?s use, he could be seen swiftly dumping spoonfuls of spirit into his mixing glass as time ticked away. Lanzalone made use of a reusable, refrigerated ice pack to chill down his drink since he was handicapped with no ice. No one was safe from the crippling obstacles thrown at them at the event.

Apaga dove right into the smoked sardines. He muddled a poor little fish into the concoction and scooped fingerfuls of oily red sauce out of the can and into his shaker. When asked what his bloody mary-like, sardine cocktail was called, Apaga smiled.

?Fish 75.?

Anthony Rivera stands guard behind the bar at Beuchert’s Saloon. Photo courtesy of Tony Richards.

Behind the Stick is a series highlighting perspectives and experiences of Scofflaws Den?s veteran barman.

I?m dying for a drink. My eyes watch warming brown whiskies, sudsy beers, bubbly sparkling wines and more pouring all around me. A picture in my head shows me leaping across the bar, knocking over glassware and garnishes, to catch a stream of booze into my mouth. And it has only been three days into my month without alcohol.

It may seem a little strange to write about sobriety on a site dedicated to good hooch in its various forms. Yet, here I am, writing about just that.

Why not one drop of alcohol and why now?

First, February is the shortest month of the year with the second fewest intoxicant-related events behind January. Second, the bar/restaurant industry demands a life so drowned in the hard stuff I feel every so often one needs a real, meaningful break – a challenge.

I have done this exercise several times before of course. The only amendment I am making this year is starting before the Superbowl. I suppose I wanted to up the ante a little. As one of my favorite journalists, Christopher Hitchens, often said, the drink is a wonderful slave but a terrible master. Life, in many ways, can be about mastering one?s weaknesses.

The tricky part for a craft bartender is performing my job as flawlessly as possible. Guests often ask me to experiment when making their next cocktail. This proposition forces me to perform with one hand tied behind my back. After all, good chefs obsessively sample their food as they go along, tasting for too much salt, too little, proper seasoning and so on.

How do I get around this predicament as a mixologist?

Luckily, I have cultivated a skill set for building drinks without absolutely having to taste them. The classics: the Old Fashioned, Sazerac, Manhattan, Martini. I have mixed so many of these drinks I could serve them in my sleep (sometimes, in fact, I have lucidly dreamt of making them).

I also rely heavily on only the most trusted co-workers? palates. You see, ultimately I am never really certain of my own taste buds to determine if an original tipple is enjoyable. Brutal honesty can actually be scarce from folks expecting a high level of craftsmanship. In the end, the true test comes when a guest has swiftly gulped down one of my concoctions.

Lastly, I often prepare a guest for an eventual flop. Food and drink is so subjective even the best bartenders fail to meet expectations. Much of the service industry is designed to provide its customers with a high quality product. If that product does not meet a guest’s expectations, most of those establishments are happy to try with another attempt free of charge (this is often called a ?spill? or a ?comp?). I am upfront about that obligation and, particularly during this challenging month, make clear one does not have to commit to the beverage before them.

As I like to remind guests cheekily, ?besides, it?s not my booze.?

A couple of years ago, I made bathtub gin (basically) for Marshall for a present. Now, thanks to the Washington Post’s Carrie Allan (who is awesome) and Fiola’s Jeff Faile (who is also awesome), we have a recipe for homemade amaro.

I’d say: give us your recipes in the comments, but they ain’t working. Instead, tweet them to Scofflaws Den’s Twitter account. If I give anybody presents this Christmas (sigh, I will, I GUESS), it might be homemade amaro. I just need to get off my ass.

And I’d love to see what you like in yours. Maybe you’ll get a bottle of mine…

Later this week, I’ll post some drink ideas that don’t involve simple syrup (diabeetus, after all) and are based off my favorite video game. Until then, just keep thinking about me while you sleep.

Cheers!

- SeanMike

On Sunday, I helped Beuchert?s Saloon with an afternoon media event at their East Oaks farm located in Poolesville, Maryland. Two punches supplied the cocktail element for guests at the farm. One in particular (which we will simply call the ?St. Lucian Brunch Punch? for now) utilized an ingredient I?d never heard of before: fish pepper.

Fish peppers have an interesting history. According to owner Brendan McMahon, these peppers were particularly popular among African-American farmers in the nineteenth century. They were used predominantly in seafood houses along the mid-atlantic coast. The flavor of the pepper lends itself nicely to fish and shellfish.

The ingredient is said to have lost its popularity. Lately, according McMahon, it has been making a comeback.

The McMahon family, which owns the farm, planted the peppers this past season. The crop grew enough for harvest just recently. Some peppers were planted from seed while others were transplants that were grown in another location and transferred to the farm. The transplants, it seems, have been growing with considerable success.

The look of the plant in the field, McMahon says, reminds him of Christmas trees due in part to the distinct white, green and reddish coloration in the leaves and peppers themselves.

The punch itself involved a balanced mixture of Chairman?s Reserve St. Lucian Rum, fish pepper syrup,?fresh lime juice, Angostura bitters, and sprigs of fresh mint. The syrup is simply a one-to-one blending of sugar and water which was then infused with the peppers. Many of the participants at East Oaks said the flavors were rounded and refreshing. Some even said they found hints of spices they would expect to find in Bloody Marys which seemed fitting for the restaurant’s off-site afternoon event.

What makes my job fun at Beuchert?s Saloon is the involvement of East Oaks farm in not only the food but also the cocktails. The numbers vary but generally sixty-to-seventy percent of the produce used in the saloon?s food comes from East Oaks. That means day-to-day availability and variation of ingredients can be head-spinning. Yet, the end result is particularly rewarding when all of these elements come together to produce a drink the guest truly enjoys.

Pippali Pineapple

A few weeks ago, folks started sending me this link via Twitter regarding? a cocktail and mocktail competition hosted by the folks at Marx Foods. The rules were pretty simple. Once you sign up, they send you a sample of some of their spices. Using at least one of the samples per drink,you had to come up with an original cocktail and an original mocktail. It sounded like an interesting exercise, so I thought, what they hey, let’s enter this thing.

About two weeks after emailing my interest, I received a package containing my samples. It included dried pineapple, juniper berries, saffron, (Indian) long pepper, fennel pollen and dill pollen. I was super excited about the long pepper because I’ve always wanted to experiment with it in cocktails.

Long pepper is a little hotter than regular black pepper but has this beguiling aroma that is hard to explain. It’s almost sensual and velvety. And it just screamed TEQUILA! But I didn’t want to infuse tequila with the long pepper because I wanted to be able to control the overall long pepper use. Instead, I created a long pepper syrup.

Long Pepper Syrup
Take 8 long peppers and crush them in a mortal & pestle, a meat mallet or some other heavy object.
Add 1.5 cups of sugar, 1 cup of water and the crushed pepper to a sauce pan.
Bring everything to a boil, turn down the heat and simmer for 5 minutes.
Allow to cool to room temperature.
Using a fine mesh strainer and some cheese clothe, strain out the solids.*
Add half an ounce of vodka to the syrup for preservative purposes.
Bottle. It will keep in the refrigerator for about 2 weeks.
*If after using the fine mesh strainer and cheese clothe there are still particles floating in your syrup, bottle the syrup and allow to settle for a few hours. Then carefully transfer the syrup into a new bottle keeping the sediment in the first bottle.

So now I had some damn tasty long pepper syrup. What else did I want to do? For the heck of it, I diced the dried pineapple and added it to 2 cups of tequila. A let it set for two days, shaking the jar twice a day, then strained out the solids. The drink I then came up with is:

Pippali Pineapple
1.5 ounces Pineapple-infused tequila
.5 ounce fresh lime juice
.5 ounce long pepper syrup
.25 ounce fresh pineapple juice

-Combine all ingredients into an iced filled shaker. Shake vigorously for a slow 10 count and double strain (using a Hawthorne and fine mesh strainer) into a chilled couple glass. Pour one drop of Peychaud’s bitters on the foam and run a pick through it for a quick design. See the photo above.

Now that we have the cocktail, time to turn our attention to the mocktail. There could be any number of reasons people don’t want to have an alcoholic beverage including religious, medical or moral. I’m sure some of these folks still want to head out to a bar with their friends or experience the scene at the hot new cocktail bar in town. Regardless, they shouldn’t be subjected to soda and a squeeze of lemon or soft drinks or fruit juice and soda water. They should still be able to enjoy all the complexity and balance that a proper cocktail provides. The mocktail should also be visually appealing, not just fruit juice and soda water.? So the first think I did was decide how to make it visually impressive without relying solely on run-of-the-mill fruit juices. After some thought, I went with beet juice. The bright red-purple juice is both earthy and sweet. Not as sweet as fruit juice, but I know it would provide a great flavor and a great color. In to the juicer four beets went.

So how do you get this complexity in a beverage without all the things the spirits bring to the table? I’ve found that if not using spirits to add the complexity, you have to turn to more labor intensive culinary tricks.? One of my favorite spirits, and one of the most complex, is gin. With it’s various botanicals and styles, gin adds so much to a cocktail other than alcohol. I knew I wanted to replicate the complexity of gin in my mocktail.

Here is where you need some special tools for this mocktail. First, think about botanicals that are commonly found in gin. Juniper berries (hey! I got some of these in my samples!), lemon, orange and coriander are common gin botanicals. Then you need a cream whipper. This iSi Whip Plus is the one I used, but whatever the brand you want to make sure it is charged using N2O gas.

Non-Alcoholic Gin
.75 ounces, by weight, juniper berries
.5 teaspoon dried lemon peel
.5 teaspoon dried orange peel
8 cardamom seeds
2 allspice berries
25 coriander seeds
3 black peppercorns
25 fennel seeds
8 saffron fronds (also included in sample box)

Take all of these botanicals and crush them in a mortal & pestle or with some other heavy tool. Add the crushed botanicals to the whip cream canister. Add three cups of filtered water. Apply the lid and charge using a N2O. Gently swirl the canister for 30 seconds and then allow to set for 30 seconds. After that, quickly release the gas from the canister.? For a more detailed set of instructions and explanation of the science, check out this article. Once you’ve vented the gas, strain out the solids. What you’re left with is water flavored with traditional gin botanicals, or, non-alcoholic gin!

Beet Me to It
1.5 ounces non-alcoholic gin
.5 ounce fresh lemon juice
.5 ounce simple syrup
.25 ounce fresh beet juice
soda water

-Combine 1 tablespoon granulated sugar with 1 teaspoon fennel pollen.
-Prepare rocks glass by rubbing one-half of the outside rim glass with a slice of lemon. Using a spoon, dust this part of the glass with the sugar-fennel pollen mixture. Fill the glass with ice and place? in the freezer while preparing the rest of the drink.
-In an ice filled shaker, combine the non-alcoholic gin, lemon juice, simple syrup and beet juice. Shake vigorously for a slow ten count.
-Strain into your prepared rocks glass and fill the rest of the way with soda water. Gently stir.
-Garnish with a fresh mint sprig.

There you have it. A beverage containing the complexity of gin, the flavor and visual appeal of a great cocktail without the alcohol!

Thanks to Marx Foods for letting me compete in this contest. If you try either of these drinks, please let me know in the comments what you think.

Cheers!

On our menus section, the PS7 menu has been updated!

In case you haven’t heard, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Brewer’s Ball is March 12th, 2011. I’ll be there, and if you buy tickets through the site – which I highly recommend you do because it’s an awesome event – use my name as your referral. Lots of great beer, food, auctions, and just fun.

Now it’s time for some infusions and drink experimenting. I’ve been sticking with beer or straight booze lately for the most part – I’ve just been so busy! But we’re going to see what we can do. And, hey, it’s a three day weekend. Might have to throw a cigar or two in there as well.

Happy President’s Day weekend, y’all!

The rules were pretty simple.? We had to create an infusion using Oval and come up with a unique cocktail using at least 1.5 oz of the infusion.? The infusions were to be judged during Tales of the Cocktail by Rick Stutz, Gabriel Szaszko and Chantal Tseng.? The judging criteria was based on infusion aroma, infusion taste, infusion creativity, cocktail taste, cocktail balance and cocktail creativity.? The winner of the contest would have two nights of their stay paid for by Oval.

It sounded like a lot of fun and I jumped at the opportunity.? But then came the “what-the-hell-do-I-make” panic.? I ended up with two infusions.? The first was a clementine infusion using fresh clementines.? The aroma and color was redolent of fresh clementine.? But, a basic orange infusion wouldn’t win on creativity and seemed to run of the mill.? I had been playing with coconut water lately as a cocktail ingredient and decided I wanted to use it as a mixer.

When I think of coconut, I think of tiki drinks, frozen slushy drinks, islands, the sea and Thai food.? Ohhhh . . . thai food.? That would certainly be original!? Next was to think of the flavors associated with thai food and island/Polynesian-type drinks.? Lime?? Ginger?? Spices?? Check, check, check.? But I wanted something a little more obscure.? Lemongrass!

So here is my infusion:

Thai-Spiced Oval Vodka
16 oz Oval Vodka
1 9-inch stalk of lemongrass, cut into small rounds
2 quarter-sized rounds of fresh ginger
peel of 2 limes
1 2-inch piece of cinnamon*
4 cloves

-Place everything in a container and infuse for one week shaking once a day. After a week strain all the solids and re-bottle.

*After the contest, I was speaking with Chantal looking for critiques and her main thought on my infusion was that the cinnamon was too strong.? I tend to agree with that assessment.? In the future, and if you’re making this yourself, I would remove the cinnamon and cloves after three days.

For the cocktail, I came up with:

Andaman Sun
1.5 oz Thai-spiced Oval Vodka
1.5 oz coconut water
1 oz Piloncillo** syrup (1.5:1 strength)
.5 oz fresh lime juice
.25 oz coconut cream

-Shake everything with ice and strain into a chilled glass.? Garnish with a lime wheel.
**Piloncillo is South American unrefined brown sugar.? You can find it in ethnic markets.? If you can’t find it, you can substitute simple syrup made from dark brown sugar (1.5:1 strength) or you can substitute .75 oz simple and .25 oz molasses.? It won’t be exactly the same with the substitutions but you’ll still have a tasty drink.

The contest judging occurred at the Mixoloseum house in New Orleans.? Each of the entries were made by Chris Stanley, a very talented mixologist at the Clover Club in New York City.? Chris worked behind the bar at the Mixo house several nights during Tales.? His drinks were some of the best I had during the entire week.

And the results of the contest?? I WON!!!!

Woot!? Thanks go out to Sam, Chantal, Gabe, and Rick!? And thanks to Oval Vodka for the opportunity! And a special thanks to Steve Raye who offered to pay for the entire cost of two nights at the condo, rather than just my half of two nights.? You can read Sam’s write-up of the contest here.

What a great event and a great surprise during Tales!? Cheers!

Yes, I came up with a drink that when I made it tonight I thought “this had none of the original ingredients I thought to associate with Marshall but I think it works!”? Helped by the lovely and talented Ms. Sergi, we even came up with how to vary it up a bit.

So enough jibba jabba, let’s see the drink.

Another fuzzy pic, another lazy photographer moment

The TMF-aye-aye-aye
1 1/2 ounce cognac (Chalfonte VSOP)
1 1/2 ounce amer picon (Boudreau recipe, made by me)
2 dashes Marshall’s Moonshine Bitters
San Pellegrino Aranciata
Stir the first three ingredients over ice.? Strain into a double old fashioned glass and top with the Aranciata.

The amount of aranciata will determine the drink.? If you use the whole 6.75 bottle you get a nice, light drink, great for hot summer nights.? Use less – like half the bottle, for instance, and you get a stronger drink, with a stronger bitter component and something more of a sipper.

[Fifteenth in a series of drinks named after bloggers, mixologists, and random others who'll hopefully be at Tales.? The first post in the series is here.]