An online speakeasy of potent potables and other pabulam.

Day three of the series leads me to do two things – come up with a drink with none other than our own iStevi, hostess of “Two at the Most”, a fellow LiveJournal refugee who found her way out onto a hosted site, but also to write up my article that I promised to the Mixoloseum on cognac.

Cognac, I feel, is often a misunderstood liquor.  People have an impression of it that it’s only for the rich, while that’s not true; on the other hand, when introducing people to the subtypes of brandy that are available, or even for other drinks, cognac is often easily used as an example because people are familiar with it.  All cognacs are brandy; not all brandies are cognac, it depends on where they come from.  (There are other requirements, too, but that’s the big one, at least, in my humble opinion.)

And where cognacs come from is the French area known as, well – Cognac.

I won’t get into Wikipedia-esque detail on VS versus VSOP versus XO, or the other different types.  The important thing to remember when using cognac in drinks, in my opinion, is to remember that while cognacs vary, you can use a cognac to replace a brandy but not vice versa.  Cognacs, in my experience, tend to be richer, and often sweeter – in my opinion – than other brandies from similar areas.  Armagnacs might be able to replace a cognac, but really, if a drink is so specific to request a cognac you should use it.

Not that many do.  You might see a “special” version of a drink using cognac that has it instead of brandy, but only a rare few use cognac as an ingredient, and there’s one in particular that I know catches more than a few eyes.

I know this because on the last, admittedly hazily remembered, night at Hummingbird to Mars I was offered one – and the bartender (I want to say it was Owen) I seem to remember was surprised that I knew what it was (and drank it anyways).   If you’ve got the Regan’s The Joy of Mixology you might already know where I’m going…

Tremblement De Terre (Earthquake)
2 1/2 ounces cognac
1/4 ounce absinthe
1 lemon twist, garnish
Stir and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.  Add the garnish.

Now, I’ve had that drink, and it’s a killer.  Not bad whatsoever, in my opinion, but oof!

My favorite cognac right now is Chalfonte VSOP.  I just got word that it’s back at my favorite liquor store, Ace in DC, and that makes me very happy.  It’s not expensive but it’s quote luscious in its taste.  My goal is to make sure I have a bottle of two to enjoy in the snow, around a big bonfire, with family and friends next winter.  It was that goal last winter but never happened.

Still, I need a drink for a blogger or mixologist for tonight, and I thought of that drink and Stevi’s blog name.  Hmmm.  It seems to insinuate that you can only have two of her drinks in a night, and what’s a good drink to base that off of, in addition to her love of Peruvian horses, I thought – oh.  I know.

Two At The Most
1 1/2 ounces cognac (Chalfonte VSOP)
1 ounce pisco brandy (Macchu Pisco)
1/4 ounce + 1 dash absinthe (Kubler)
1/4 ounce simple syrup
1-2 dashes Peruvian bitters
Stir and strain into a cocktail glass.  Garnish with a brandy soaked cherry, which sinks to the bottom, and a lemon twist.

Yummy!  But that’s quite a bit of booze there, so be warned – you won’t want to have more than two at the most!

[Third 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.]

If you look back to last week, you’ll see where we talked about TDN video with Mata Hari absinthe.  We got a few comments on there when I noticed a disturbing trend – they appeared to be from the same IPs, had the same style, and were promoting a rival – La Tourment Vert.

Over in the Mixoloseum, some of us were talking about this and realized that we were all being hit on posts mentioning Mata Hari absinthe.

I wasn’t the hugest fan of Mata Hari but it wasn’t bad – and “bad” is all I’ve heard about La Tourment Vert (“Grain Neutral spirits + Scope Wintergreen = La Tourment Vert” was one comment on it in the chat room, as well as descriptions of how their spam is better than their product and how urinating in a jar and letting it sit was better than drinking it) and with the amount of good absinthe I have, well, I have no desire to BUY any.  Besides, over at The Wormwood Society they don’t even seem to consider it absinthe!

Seriously.  Who would do such a thing?  All I knew – from tracerouting the IPs – was that they were in LA.  Then one of our fellow bloggers pointed out the PR contact he had:

Kayla Isenberg
Interactive Media Manager, CASHMERE AGENCY
1110 North La Brea Avenue | Inglewood, CA 90302 Email: kayla@cashmereagency.com | www.cashmereagency.com EMBRACE THE RENAISSANCE

Does “EMBRACE THE RENAISSANCE” mean “spam the hell outta bloggers”?

Seriously, folks.  If you want good absinthe there are lots of better choices out there.  Mata Hari was very nice in providing us the resources to do the live TDN and it’s a different change of pace from many absinthes.  Kubler is one of the better deals in absinthe I’ve found.  I’ve heard good things about St. George.

Just don’t buy La Tourment Vert.

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!

Now that the election is over and things have quieted down a little, I wanted to take a moment to share the cocktail menu from my Halloween party.  I had lucky thirteen of my close friends over for drinks, conversation and Halloween merriment.  The party was a great success.  At least that’s what people told me.  And I guess since no one passed out or fell off the 12th story balcony, I can chalk it up as a win.  I also have to thank Sean for helping me make the drinks.  People got served much faster with booze slinging skills helping me out behind the stick (metaphorically.)

For this year’s party, I decided to print up a cocktail menu.  The reasons were simple.  First, I didn’t want to end up making forty-five different drinks or deal with the inevitable “Make me something fruity.”  Number B, I didn’t want drunk people rummaging around my hooch.  (Wow, that sounds kind of scandalous and dirty.)  Finally, I wanted to have a little something for everyone in addition to wine, beer and non-alcoholic drinks.

Here is what the menu looked like:

Once opened, guests were treated to six possible drinks, the non-alcoholic options mentioned above and, for the brave, a traditional absinthe drip.  (Or as traditional as I can get without having the huge water faucet drippy thing.)  Below are the drinks, their descriptions as printed on the menu, and the recipe.

Devil’s Daughter
Sugar and spice and everything nice with a heart as black as the night.
Vodka, Lemon, Lime, Egg White

This cocktail is actually a riff on Eben Freeman’s Bazooka Bubblegum Cocktail served at Tailor.  You can find the original recipe here. I followed Eben’s recipe to the letter, except I replaced the regular vodka with Blavod.  The resulting cocktail was dark violet in color but tasted just like bubblegum.  It was a hit with everyone who tried it.

Corpse Reviver #2
The dead will rise over this little refresher.
Gin, Cointreau, Lillet, Lemon, Absinthe

This was the basic Corpse Reviver #2 recipe.
Corpse Reviver #2
1oz Gin
1oz Cointreau
1oz Lillet Blanc
1oz fresh lemon juice
2-3 drops of absinthe

Shake everything with ice and strain into chilled cocktail glass.  Garnish with a maraschino cherry.

Murderous Manhattan
Reportedly the very recipe drunk by David Berkowitz after each kill.
Bourbon or Rye, Vermouth, Maraschino, Bitters

The twist on this Manhattan was that I used Bianco vermouth and added a barspoon of maraschino to the mix.  I also used some cherry bitters and aromatic bitters.  Here’s the recipe:

2oz Bourbon or Rye
1oz Bianco Vermouth
1 barspoon maraschino liqueur
dash of cherry bitters and aromatic bitters

Stir over ice, strain and garnish with a maraschino cherry.

Ignis Fatuus
The hellish flames found in the dark deadly swamps.
Chardonnay, Cognac, Pumpkin, Cider

This is another borrowed recipe.  This time from that crazy Canadian media hound Jamie Boudreau.  His original recipe is here.  This is another cocktail that went over really well.  A few months ago, our friend Roy tasked me with finding a cocktail using pumpkin.  His wife Danielle loves pumpkin and he wanted something that he could make for her.  At the time, he wanted me to use this “Pumpkin Spice Liqueur” that will remain nameless.  But you know what I’m talking about.  Yes, you do.  Well, I toyed around with playing with an actual pumpkin and doing an infusion of some sort, but then Jamie came along with this little number.  I’m still planning on doing a pumpkin infusion this fall/winter (keep your eyes peeled!) but Jamie’s creation was spot on.  Great drink.  Go to his site and see how it’s done.  You won’t be sorry.

Charon’s Dingy
Only the most damned have to cross the River Styx in this leaky vessel.
Brandy, Amaro, Lemon, Cinnamon, Honey, Bitters

This was actually a renaming of a drink I created during Thursday Drink Night at the Mixoloseum.  I based the drink off a standard Sidecar recipe – with a few tweaks of course.  First, I substituted the Cointreau with Ramazzotti Amaro.  Then, to compensate for the lack of sweetness, I added cinnamon and honey syrups.  I also guilded the lilly with whiskey barrel bitters and a flamed lemon peel.  I called the drink “A Sidecar to Milan” to highlight the origin of the Ramazzotti.  For the Halloween party, I simply renamed the drink.  Charon ferried the dead across the river Styx and I thought what would the the sidecar equivalent to a ferry?  A dingy!  So you’ve got Charon’s Dingy.  Here is the recipe (and the original name):

Sidecar to Milan
1.5oz Brandy
1oz Ramazzotti Amaro
.75oz fresh lemon juice
.50oz cinnamon syrup
.50oz honey syrup (or can substitute rich simple syrup, but may need to adjust proportions)
2 dashes whiskey barrel bitters

Shake everything with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.  Garnish with a flamed lemon peel.  After flamed, rub peel around edge of glass and drop in.

Luckily, one of my guests, Victor, brought along his video recorder and through the magic of the interwebs you can see the flamed lemon peel.  And before any of you say it, I was using plastic cups for the cocktails.  I don’t have enough nice glassware for everybody and plastic is a lot easier to get rid of.

Halloween 2008 from Marshall on Vimeo.

Kill-Devil Punch
A misnomer: The Devil will kill YOU over this punch.
Rum, LIme, Pineapple, Bubbly

I found this recipe at Epicurious and it turns out to have been supplied by Phil Ward of Death & Co.  Everyone seemed to really like this punch and by the end of the night I had gone through an entire bottle of prosecco.  The recipe makes enough for six drinks.

Kill-Devil Punch
9oz Rum
6oz Pineapple Juice
5oz Simple Syrup
4oz Fresh Lime Juice
5oz Champagne/Cava/Prosecco

Combine everything except the bubbly in a container and chill in the fridge for a few hours.  Pour over ice and top with the champagne/cava/prosecco.  Garnish with lime wheels, frozen raspberries, blackberries or other fruit.  Or garnish as I did, with a stick of sugar cane.  One note regarding the recipe, depending on how sweet/dry your bubbly is, you will probably want to adjust the amount of simple syrup.  For a dry champagne, leave at 5oz.  If using a sweeter sparkling wine, you may want to use less.

There you have it.  My Halloween 2008 cocktail menu.  Give these drinks a try and feel free to leave a comment and let us know what you think.