Saturday, June 10th at 2:30 PM at Dino’s Grotto I’ll be doing a class with Andrew Shapiro and Dean Gold there. We’ll talk about the cocktail itself plus the ingredients that go into it. You’ll get a chance to try a few different variations of the Negroni and even come up with your own version if you’d like! There will also be snacks.

This week is Negroni Week, and Dino’s Grotto is doing seven different variations of the Negroni, with proceeds going to Miriam’s Kitchen.

The class is $30 and you can get tickets here. Hope to see you there!

Negroni Week at Dino’s Grotto!

Hey guys guess what? It’s International Negroni Week! YAY FOR NEGRONIS THEY ARE DELICIOUS.

A negroni is a classic aperitif cocktail – equal parts gin, sweet vermouth, and Campari.

33 different restaurants in the DC area are participating this year, which means they’re doing negroni specials and donating money to charity.

mmm, negronis

At Dino’s Grotto, we’re doing seven different negronis (or negroni variations, like the negroni-meets-Manhattan “Ric Flair”) for $7 each. $1 from each one ordered goes to Miriam’s Kitchen, who helps the homeless here in DC.

So swing by this week and grab a negroni or seven! I’ll be there tonight as the week kicks off, and back on Wednesday and the final day of Sunday. Otherwise, Ric will be here, which means no matter what day you come by, you’ll be amazed by the sexiness. Also, the drinks. And the food. I can’t stop eating the food.

Come by and say hi!

This week, we started getting back to “normal.” Morning & night temps in the 50s/60s and no humidity. Ahhhhh! Now if we can get a few degrees colder I’ll be in heaven.

But with these weird temps and weather patterns the question arises of what to drink. It’s October so it feels like a brown, bitter & stirred drink seems appropriate. However, the temperature can make it feel like the only thing you should be drinking is something with rum in a tiki mug. So what to do?

In these situations I’ve found the perfect bridge beverage. Granted, this is completely and highly subjective but I wanted to share anyway. Here you go:

The Boulevardier
1.5oz bourbon
1oz Campari
1oz sweet vermouth

-Stir with ice and garnish with lemon peel.

If the recipe looks familiar it should as this is essentially a bourbon-based negroni. It has the same cool-down properties a well made negroni has yet has that depth of flavor and warmth that only an aged spirit can bring to the party.

Give the Boulevardier a try and let us what you think.

Cheers!

All of this got me to thinking – dangerous I know – about how tough it really is to still get a decent drink. Now don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of bartenders who aren’t into the booze-nerdyism. A shot and a beer and the occasional gin and tonic or something-and-soda is just fine thank you very much. And I have no problem with that whatsoever.

In my opinion, what it comes down to is this: as the drinker, what are you looking for and can you adapt? Bottom line is that you shouldn’t force the bar to conform to your expectations, especially if those expectations are contrary to the type of bar you’re currently sitting in.

For example, if I’m out at a speakeasy-style craft cocktail bar and order a Southside, I have a level of expectation on how that drink will be made and the quality of the final product. If I’m at Chili’s, I’m not going to expect the bartender to know what a Southside is, much less how to make it. And if they do make me something called a “Southside” that is not at all what I was expecting, then that is my fault.

Once I was sitting at a well known craft cocktail bar here in DC and listened to two baseball-cap wearing, fraternity row gadabouts bitch and complain about the menu being too wordy, the drinks taking too long to make, and the lack of drunk sorority chicks dancing on the tables. (And yes, this was the exact topics of their discussion.) They finished their first round of drinks, threw some wadded up bills on the bar and walked out. I don’t think they ever got their bill and I’m sure they left a paltry tip, if any at all.

Since their expectations were out of sync with the bar, they had a bad time and took it out on the establishment. The bar did nothing but operate along it’s normal course.

So, what to do at the airport or hotel bar? Adapt.

First, look at a menu. What is the most prominent spirit used? Do the cocktails look somewhat tasty on the menu? Second, look behind the bar? Are there 30 flavors of vodka, 1 bottle of Beefeater, a few random whiskeys, and a bottle of sweet vermouth with half an inch of dust on it’s shoulders? Or do they have bitters prominently displayed, multiple kinds of gin, whiskey, and liqueurs, and gleaming barware ready to be used? Finally, see what others are drinking and, just as important, how the bartender is interacting with the customers. This will tell you if he or she cares what the customers are drinking or whether he or she couldn’t care less.

What to drink? Depends on what you find. If it’s a vodka heavy hotel/airport bar and I’m going with hard alcohol, I’ll order a two ingredient drink: bourbon and ginger, gin and tonic, rum and coke, etc. Or I’ll stick with beer if they have something interesting. Since I’m not a big beer drinker, it would have to be something that catches my eye and outside the Sam Adams, Corona, Bud Light rubric.

If the bar looks like it could crank out a proper cocktail, talk to the bartender. Does he or she know how to make a negroni? Will they ask you if you want fruit salad in your Old Fashioned? Do they have bitter and if so, do they actually use them? You’ll learn a lot just by talking to the bartender and then you’ll be directed on which libation road to travel.

If you get really lucky and the bar has a bottle of Campari and a reasonably fresh bottle of sweet vermouth, you may be able to ask for a negroni.

Negroni
1 oz each Gin, Campari & Sweet Vermouth
-Stir over ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
-Alternatively just build it an ice filled rocks glass and you’re set. None of that thar fancy stirrin’ stuff.

I’m not going back that far.

When I think of punch, I think of a big vat of alcoholic drink – so yes, that’s pretty close to it – that is also pretty light, where you drink large cups of it.? The punches I’ve had at local watering holes, such as the nightly bowl at PS7 or at the late Punch Club, have been delicious but often come in small cups.? I’m not about to go to the college route, dumping a bunch of juice and two liters of soda into a tub with a few handles of vodka and rum, but I’d like something a bit bigger, a bit sparklier.

Yeah, that’s a word, WHAT OF IT.

At least I think it is.

Ahem.

Before I get into my post, I thought I’d cover another one – though I’m not making it.? Why not?? Well, it’s a matter of proportions – I’ve always wanted to make Gary Regan’s recipe for Artillery Punch, but look at how big it is:

Artillery Punch
1 bottle (750 mL) rye
1 bottle (750 mL) red wine
25 ounces chilled strong tea
12 ounces dark rum
6 ounces gin
6 ounces brandy
1 ounce Benedictine
12 ounces fresh orange juice
6 ounces fresh lemon juice
6 ounces simple syrup
1 large block of ice
lemon wheels, for garnish
Pour all of the liquid ingredients into a large nonreactive pan or bowl.? Stir well, cover, and refrigerate for four hours or longer.? Place the block of ice in the center of a large punch bowl, then add the punch and the garnish. – The Joy of Mixology, page 208

That is a lot of stuff to put in there!? I wanted something I could make by the individual drink, as I’m usually not in the mood for 24 six ounce servings (unless it’s a day that ends in “y”).

Thinking about it, I ended up with this drink – and I’ve got to say, I like it.

Celebration Punch
2 ounces Square One Botanical
1/2 ounce triple sec (Combier)
1/2 ounce orange juice
1/2 ounce lemon juice
1/2 ounce lime juice
1/2 ounce Trader Tiki’s Don’s Mix
1/2 ounce Campari
1 dash Angostura
Pour all ingredients into a shaking tin.? Add ice and shake.? Strain into a collins glass, top with club soda, ice, and a sprig of mint.

This is a fun drink!? It’s all bubbly and fruity and it makes me think of fun days of punch in the past.

The cool thing is you don’t have to use club soda.? Do you want to top it with more spice?? Try ginger beer!? Want to go different route?? Use 7-Up, Ting, or champagne.? I think it’ll hold up well to most forms of bubbly you might want to add – I almost did bitter lemon myself – but I’m really happy with how my punch came out.

And want to do it bigger?? Just remember your rules of batching cocktails!? Try using one fifth (750 mL) of Square One Botanical, and half a pint (or 375, really) of each of the other ingredients, plus make it around a dozen dashes of Angostura.? Mix up into a punch bowl, chill, then put a big ole ice block in it!

Hmmmm – I might just have to do that for my next party…

Anyways, once again, thanks to Mike at Hobson’s Choice for hosting this month, and thanks to Paul Clarke (as usual) for doing this whole shindig type thingamabob.? Cheers y’all!

She names it after Dante Argento’s 1977 horror film.? Don’t ask me why.

oooOOOOOooooOOO

The Suspiria
2 ounces grain alcohol
.5 ounces Campari
.5 ounces Fernet Branca
.5 ounces Ramazzoti amaro
Shake over ice, strain into a cocktail glass with a long lemon twist

It might be scary sometimes but it drinks smart!? Yummy.

[Twenty-fifth 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.]

Mixology Monday is back and this month we’re hosted by Tristan Stephenson over at the Wild Drink Blog.? Tristan’s edict was to take a classic cocktail and put a twist on it that makes the new version superior to the old.? He also requested for us to tell our favorite song to do the twist to – ACDC’s Back in Black.

The first thing that popped in my head when thinking about twists was my Chichicapa Margarita.? It is simply a margarita with either the addition of a smoky mezcal or a complete replacement of tequila with the mezcal.? But to be honest, I love the addition of the smokiness and don’t know if I’ll make a regular margartia for myself again.

Chichicapa Margarita
2oz Del Maguey Chichicapa mezcal
1oz fresh lime juice
.5oz Contreau
1 Tbls agave syrup

Shake everything with ice and strain into a chilled glass.? Or if you want, strain over fresh ice in a rocks glass.

The second twist a little more obscure.? One evening while sitting at The Gibson, one of their wonderful bartenders, Tiffany Short, whipped up a drink for me when I wasn’t sure what I wanted.? That drink was an Old Pal.

Old Pal
1oz Rye Whiskey
.75oz Campari
.75oz Sweet Vermouth

-Stir with ice and strain into chilled cocktail glass.

For my twist, I decided to take the spicey, bitter, deep flavor of the Old Pal and make it lighter yet still packed with flavors.? I simply twisted the original ingredients by replacing them with lighter versions of themselves.

New Acquaintance
1oz Bourbon [I used Bernheim - a Wheat Whiskey instead of bourbon, Maker's Mark would be a fantastic choice!]
.75oz Aperol
.75oz Dolin Blanc Vermouth

-Stir with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

The nose is reminisant of mellon and citris.? You taste the bourbon which is rounded out by a bitter citrus and a roundness from the Bolin.? It is light sweet and flavorful.? Certainly a new twist on a classic cocktail.

Thanks again to Tristan for hosting this month!? I can’t see what the other folks out there come up with!

Don’t forget to check out my Templeton Rye give-away!!!? There’s still another week to enter!

I really probably wouldn’t have thought of this as a big gin week except for two major things – one related to a certain gin cocktail, the other a gin itself.

First off, I was at Marshall’s and decided to have a negroni.? Now, ever since I did my miracle fruit tasting of Campari I’ve been in love with it.? A Hendricks negroni in NYC was quite wonderful, but we went more traditional at Marshall’s – just Plymouth, I believe.? The trick was the additional ingredient.

You see, Marshall had gotten himself a bottle of the new Fee’s Rhubarb Bitters and added that to the negroni.? WOWZERS.? That added a whole new dimension to it which I loved.? I’d planned on getting some from Kegworks but our friendly local liquor store said that he’d be getting some in soon so I decided to wait.? He’ll also be getting in some of their new cherry bitters.

The other big thing that happened this weekend was a new kind of gin.? One I should’ve been expecting but had forgotten about it.? Something that made me very, very excited.

See how excited I was?? Hayman’s Old Tom Gin!? HUZZAH!

The first thing I made with it was what Jay Hepburn over at Oh Gosh! recommended, which was Jamie Boudreau’s recipe for a Martinez.? That is:

Martinez
1 1/2 ounces Hayman’s Old Tom Gin
1 1/2 ounces Carpano Antica
2 bar spoons Luxardo maraschino liqueur
2 dashes Fee’s West Orange bitters
Stir with ice, strain into a chilled cocktail glass.? Garnish with a twist of orange, if you have it, I didn’t, so whatever.

Wow.? What a great drink.? I made the second one with the Bitter Truth orange bitters and honestly, I think it made it better – I bet the orange Angostura bitters would work also.

The second drink I made with it was a Ramos Gin Fizz.? I used the recipe out of Gary Regan’s _The Joy of Mixology_.

Ramos Gin Fizz
2 ounces Hayman’s Old Tom Gin
1 ounce heavy creme
1 raw egg white
1/2 ounce simple syrup
1/2 ounce fresh lime juice
1/2 ounce fresh lemon juice
1/4 ounce orange flower water
club soda
2 half wheels of orange, for garnish
Combine everything but the club soda and garnish into a shaker with ice.? Shake for a long time.? Until your hands hurt and arms get tired.? Keep shaking.? Don’t be a wimp.? When you finally do wimp out, and you better have gone for at MINIMUM 60-90 seconds HARD, strain into two champagne glasses if you’re the kind of person who does that kind of thing, or just strain it into one white wine glass if you’re me.? Top with club soda (I used Stirrings) and garnish (I did not).

Wow.? That drink hit the SPOT on a Sunday afternoon!? It was fan-freakin’-tastic.? I can’t get over that, even if I did have to walk outside to shake it so I wouldn’t wake up the future sister-in-law from her nap.? One recommendation I’d make: maybe go a bit less than 1/4 ounce of the orange flower water.? That’s very potent stuff.? You might also want to measure out the creme last; it can coat the measuring cup and make it hard to see for other ingredients until you thoroughly wash it.

The final gin drink was actually a bit later.? I was walking over to a friend’s house to watch the ‘Skins-Cowboys game and wanted a drink for the walk.? I made a double (almost) Negroni, using Zuidam genever gin, added in a couple dashes of orange Angostura, and topped it with the club soda I had leftover from the Ramos Gin Fizz.? Ahhhh – a tasty travel drink that set up as a nice apertif for the dinner later.

If you have the chance, I highly, strongly, almost blasphemously recommend that you go find yourself some Old Tom Gin.? The Hayman’s that I have is fantastic, and now I want to get more kinds and try them out, too.

Anyhoo, as I mentioned in my last post, I wanted to make some new syrups.  I love syrups for two reasons.  One, they add sweetness to a drink.  And B, you can pretty much flavor them any way you want.  You can be aggressive with the flavoring or you can be light and just impart a slight essence of flavor.  The downside to syrup making is that if you screw up, you’re stuck with what you made and although sugar and water are pretty cheap, your flavorings can get expensive.  I don’t know about you, but I really don’t want to waste an ingredient if I happen to screw up.

All that to say that I have made two new syrups to help with my concoctioneering.  (To give credit where credit is due, concoctioneering is a term I absconded from Blair Reynolds over at Trader Tiki’s Booze Blog.  I love that term!!!!)  It also goes with my “Intoxicologist” shaker . . . 

Anyway, I’ve got a bit of a photo show that goes with my creations, so here you go.  I’ve also followed it up with an original cocktail using one of the syrups.

Here are my tools; Cardamom, crystallized ginger, fresh oranges, vanilla beans, and sugar.  You can also see two containers for the finished syrups, a measuring cup and a kitchen scale.  I didn’t use the kitchen scale, it was a christmas gift, but it was lonely and wanted to be in the picture . . . 

The first syrup I decided to make, after a consultation with

runoknows

, was an orange-cardamom.  If you aren’t familiar with cardamom, check here.  It is a spice that is generally associated with middle eastern and african cuisine.  It is kind of spicy, like ginger, but has a very potent and distinct taste.  It plays very well with citrus.

Using the good ole mortar and pestle, I roughly ground up my cardamom seeds.  I then zested one orange.

I used a ratio or 2 to 1 sugar and water.  Bring the sugar and water to a simmer and cook until it becomes clear.  As soon as it clears up, turn off the heat (or better yet move the pan to another spot on the stove.)  Then add in the orange zest and cardamom.  Let this mixture sit for at least twenty minutes and up to an hour, stirring occasionally.  When the mixture was almost a room temp, I added one ounce of 100 proof vodka.  This will make the syrup shelf stable allowing me to keep it in the fridge for a good long time.  Next, you want to get a fine strainer and strain all the seeds and zest out of the syrup.  Once it is free of all the goog, you can bottle it.

Here you can see what it looks like in the bottle.  However, the lighting is off and the syrup looks much darker than it really is.  See the next picture for a better representation of the actual color or the syrup.

You can see that it’s a nice gold hue.  The flavor turned out to be like a sweet, spicy (think ginger) burnt orange.  There is a certain . . . caramelized flavor that I’m certain came from the cardamom.  Especially since you aren’t cooking the sugar enough to change it’s flavor (at least by this amount.)  The syrup is certainly more orange flavored than cardamom, but the cardamom puts a certain something that will make people wonder what that *extra* flavor is.  

The next syrup I made was a vanilla-ginger syrup.  

Here is chopped crystallized ginger and 2/3 of a vanilla bean.  Why not a full vanilla bean you ask?  Well, I knew I wasn’t making a lot of syrup so I didn’t want to use a whole one, plus I wanted the other third to sit nice and pretty in a container of sugar to impart a subtle vanilla to the sugar.  Yes, a by-product of my concoctioneering was vanilla sugar.  <insert evil laugh here>  Plus, have you ever dealt with vanilla beans???  They are wonderfully fragrant and very very tasty.  But those !@@@#$%^#@#%@#$@!$% little beans get to be a pain.  You’ll see what I mean later . . . 

Here is the pan with the ginger and vanilla.  I used the same 2:1 ration of sugar and water, chopped the crystallized ginger into tiny pieces and cut the vanilla bean in half length-wise.  Why did I do that?  Because the vanilla flavor is in the seeds hiding inside the bean.  You cut the bean length-wise and introduce those beautiful little seeds into the syrup.  If you look closely at the picture (click on it for a larger one) you can see the seeds floating around.

This brings me to my little rant about vanilla beans.  Those !@#Q#$!@#$ seeds!!!!  I don’t know about you, but when I’m making a syrup, especially one that is going to be used in a cocktail, I don’t want little things floating in it.  Do you know how hard it is to strain vanilla seeds?  Huh?  DO YA?  Well let me tell you that YOU CAN’T!!!  I used a fine mesh strainer to get the ginger out.  Then I used some cheese cloth and ran the syrup through that.  It got out about 4 seeds.  So I tried a coffee filter.  That would have worked beautifully if I wasn’t an impatient SOB, and had about 24 hours to let it filter.  So I went back to the cheese cloth.  After adding a few more layers, I had a filtering system that was doing the trick.  Next time, vanilla extract may be the way to go. 

Anyway, be sure to add the vodka after the syrup cools for the same reason mentioned above.

Here’s the final product.  It is a very pale color.  The vanilla is the prominent flavor with a spicy background.  I think for the next round of this syrup, I’ll use fresh ginger instead of crystallized.   That will up the ginger quotient.  

Well, time for a drink!!!  Here is another original that I’m playing with.

Bittermom (Okay, the name needs some work, but I was thinking bitter and cardamom . . . any suggestions, leave in the comments)
2 oz grapefruit juice
1.5 oz gin (I used Plymouth)
1 tsp Cointreau
1/4 tsp Campari
.5 oz orange-cardamom syrup
.25 oz raspberry syrup
2 dashes orange bitters
Orange flower water

Shake everything except the orange flower water with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.  Put two drops of orange flower water on the head of the drink (do not mix in, this is for aromatics.)  If you don’t have orange flower water, this would be the perfect time to use a flaming orange peel garnish . . . damn, now I wish I had thought of that earlier . . .  

One of the things I like about this drink is that is it adjustable.  If it isn’t bitter enough, add more Campari.  If it’s too sweet, you can lessen the cointreau or orange-cardamom syrup . . . or add more Campari.  HA!  Feel free to play with the ratios . . . and that goes for any and all drinks.  Find something you like.  Cocktail making, like cooking, is about finding what you like in a cocktail.  Use a particular recipe and if you don’t like it, tweak it until you have something you like.  

Above all else, try new things and enjoy the ride.

Cheers!

But I was back on the feet.  It wasn’t the greatest day in the world, especially since someone messed with my Harley.  I added an extra fork lock to the bike, hit the gym, promised Barbara dinner soon in exchange for begging off from tonight’s dinner, and headed up to the grocery store to buy cat food.

Of course, right next to the grocery store is the ABC store.  I’m all a-quiver in anticipation for Rustico and PX Saturday night, so I walked in there first.

I spent a good bit of time looking around.  I almost bought some pisco, but they only had one brand, and I wanted to check the reviews on it first.  I know the store near my office has more brands.

Eventually I succumbed and bought a bottle of 10 year old Macallen (i.e. the cheaper stuff – I was debating between that and Glenfiddich Solera Reserve, and I may still go back and get that), a mini of Hennessey (I wanted to try it), and a bottle of Campari.

I’m not a huge Campari fan but I felt it was time to add it to my bar to help with some drinks.  I also felt that if I drank more of it, I might come to like it more.  I sent an IM over to

tmfiii

that I picked it up.

“nice” he responded “negronis for everyone”

I didn’t know what I’d thought of making first but, hey, a negroni sounds like a logical starting point.

I’d had a couple of drinks already tonight.  My brother, Cathy, and I finally drank the bottle of Pian dell’Orino Brunello di Montalcino 2000 which was even better than I’d remembered – it was the last vestige of the “Katie” stuff, in a sort of way, and I’d been wanting to enjoy it.  (I’d also bought a bottle of Horton Cabernet Franc for the very nice young woman who lives in our old condo and forwards on the mis-directed packages we get, oh, constantly.)  After that, I had a small – about 1 ounce, maybe 1.5 – taste of the Jefferson bourbon I’d bought (mmmm, good) and a larger taste of the Macallen (bit of a let down after the bourbon).

With Matt and Cathy off to bed I decided for a Negroni for the road.

Negroni
1 ounce gin
1 ounce sweet vermouth
1 ounce Campari
stir with ice, strain, garnish with an orange wheel

(Recipe from Drinkboy)

Hey, I’m getting light on the sweet vermouth.  Gotta restock before mom shows up next week!

But it’s a fairly easy drink to make.

I used two ounces of each.

And here’s what I taste…

CAMPARI

or maybe it’s…

CAMPARI

or even…

CAMPARI

Yeah.

I’m still not a huge Campari fan, so i dropped that orange wheel into the drink and that helped some.  But it’s completely wiped out the gin flavor, at least.  Good thing I didn’t use the Sapphire.  Maybe Plymouth instead?

Hendricks?

I’m like Campari a bit more now, which might sound weird, but hey, that’s how it works.  Just don’t expect me to be knocking it back like

sylvene

or anything like that anytime soon…