One aspect of this season in particular is that a lot of people ask for cocktail ideas or the contribution of a beverage or two for their party.? Of course I’m not one to turn down either and I’m more than happy to contribute to the quality quaffing of the season.

Obviously there are several usual suspects when it comes to Holiday drinks – Hot Buttered Rum, Mulled Wine, Spiced Apple Cider, & Egg Nogg just to name a few.? And while all of these are great options I wanted to add something else to the list.

This past Saturday Sylvie and I went to a Soup & Cookie holiday party at our friend Josh’s house co-hosted by his lovely gal Jenny.? I was tasked with bringing Egg Nogg to the party and I was happy to oblige.? My go-to Nog is the easy-as-pie recipe from Jeffrey Morganthaler. But being a Scofflaw, I couldn’t just leave it at one drink.? I wanted to come up with an original cocktail that was boozy, non-too-sweet, and really made me think of Christmas.? Even further, I wanted a cocktail that brought the flavors of what I feel are Victorian-esque Christmas desert flavors.? So what could that be?? Plums!? Fruit Cake!? Spices!? Brandy!? Oh for the love of Santa Claus, FIGGY PUDDING!!!

Now just to turn these ideas into a cocktail.? Here’s what I came up with:

Christmas Pudding
1.5 oz Brandy
1 oz White Port
.50 oz Bonal quinquina
.25 oz Cointreau
.25 oz Allspice Dram
.25 oz Trader Tiki’s Cinnamon Syrup
3 d Fee’s Plum Bitters

Stir with ice, strain into a chilled cocktail glass, and garnish with an orange peel and maraschino cherry.

Before you say anything, yes that’s lemon peel as a garnish in the picture.? I didn’t have any fresh oranges on hand so I used what I had.? Sue me.?? To me, the flavors that combine in this drink really hit all the high notes of what I was looking for.? It’s boozy, that’s for sure.? But you also have the spices, citrus, and a bit of a dried fruit character from the white port and the Bonal.? The Plum Bitters adds another layer of fruit and helps to marry the sweetness and spiciness from all the ingredients.?? I definitely want to give this recipe a try with a tawny port in place of the white port.? I think that will heighten the dried fruit flavors even more.? If you try it, let me know the outcome.

So tell us what your favorite Christmas cocktails are!? Do you have a unique recipe or an old standby?? Leave us a comment and share.

Cheers!

Annnnnnndddddddd . . . we have a winner!? The rules were pretty simple.? Tell me how you started down the cocktail path, the catalyst if you will, and tell me your favorite cocktail.

And the winner is Helena Tiare Olson from Stockholm, Sweden.? Tiare is also the writer of A Mountain of Crushed Ice.? And without further ado, here it Tiare’s story:

For me it started with a tiny mini bottle of El Dorado 15 year old demerara rum.

It’s a bit odd, I know but that?s what happened. I got that bottle from God knows where and drank a little bit of the rum and discovered that liked it, no – I mean really liked it. Its not the first alcoholic thing I had of course but it was the first alcoholic beverage that really opened my eyes and led me to discover the world of cocktails and this evolved to be where I am today.

This happened a couple of years ago.

So I tasted some of that rum neat and then I took the rest and mixed a ?tropical drink? having not much clue how to mix a proper cocktail – even though I had some vague idea still after my years in the restaurant business. But I threw together some fresh fruit juices, a little simple syrup and the rum with plenty of crushed ice and made some kind of elaborate fruit garnish. All happily served in a hurricane glass!

After that I got myself a big bottle of El Dorado and now I started to experiment more seriously.

I searched the net which eventually led me to tiki drinks,The Ministry of Rum and some of the cocktail blogs where I was a lurker for quite a while, without commenting – I didn?t dare to…but reading and absorbing everything I came over that interested me. I kept experimenting at home with cocktail mixing and ingredient making and garnishing. Eventually the whole thing grew to a lifestyle and I became a cocktail geek.

Then one day (a year ago) I started to write my blog, and the rest is as we say ? history.

Today I’m much more into learning the classics, so i have started in a bit of an odd way, otherwise i believe tiki drinks is maybe not usually the first type of drinks you start with.

I will never abandon my first love ? the Mai Tai, it will always be my favorite cocktail, but only if its made the way it should be and with good rum. The recipe I use is Trader Vic`s and I use either Appleton Extra, Havana Club 7, St James Hors d?age, Clem?nt VSOP and various demerara rums.

Why do I love cocktails? Oh – its the craft, the art, the culinary and experimental aspect, and of course the aroma and taste ? and then, they do look so beautiful! And a well crafted cocktail really is something very special.

When I think back I`m quite amazed myself how it all started with a tiny mini-bottle of El Dorado.

Mai Tai
1 oz dark Jamaican rum
1 oz Martinique rum
1 oz fresh lime juice (one lime)
0.5 oz orange curacao (or Cointreau)
0.25 oz each of orgeat and simple syrup

Mix all ingredients and shake with ice.Strain into a double old fashioned glass over crushed ice.Garnish with lime shell and a sprig of mint.Serve with 2 short straws placed near the mint.

Great story Tiare.? Congrats on your win and I hope you enjoy the 2009 Tales of the Cocktail Recipe Book!

Cheers!

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!

Anyway, while there, I was talking with Joe and he mentioned having a mezcal margarita made with the Del Maguey Chichicapa.? Although he couldn’t remember the exact proportions, I think a basic 3-2-1 ratio would be a great place to start.? If you aren’t familiar with the Del Maguey brand of mezcals you really are missing out on a fantastic spirit!

Del Maguey (pronounced: ma-gay) imports their mezcals from single villages produced by individual family producers.? They truely are small batch local products.? Del Maguey has several bottlings including the Chichicapa that graces my bar.? The mezcal has a strong smokey flavor and nose, not unlike a smokey scotch, with a deep agave flavor.? If you’re not expecting the smokiness, it certainly can catch you off guard.

For the Chichicapa Margarita, you get the sweet tart flavor of a traditional margarita combined with a hint of orange (Cointreau) and the smoke of the mezcal.? For someone who doesn’t like a big hit of smoke or thinks the mezcal is a little too strong, you can always vary the amount of mezcal by adding regular tequila.? Start with a 3:1 ration of tequila and mezcal and alter from there until you get the amount of smoke you like.? However, the as-is recipe is a combination that is perfect for an overcast, cold March day when you’re really looking forward to Spring.

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.

Cheers!

I could write about brands of spirits and liqueurs which offer the best quality and variety of purpose for your dollar.? Or, I could write about what I drink when the financial belt tightens.? Or I could just make something up as I go along.? Yeah, I’m pretty much doing that last one if you haven’t guessed.

Now don’t get me wrong.? Articles about the best bang for your buck on the spirit shelf are great and generally contain lots of useful information.? I just feel I’ve read this same story a hundred times since the word “recession” became ensconced in everyday vernacular.? With that said, I can certainly see me writing the same kind of story for Scofflaw’s Den because I feel like it.? Oh well . . .?? As far as what I drink when the financial belt tightens, well that’s easy.? I drink the same things I do when I’m not concerned so much about my finances.? Rather, I cut back on purchasing booze and limit my trips to bars/cocktail joints.? I love buying random ingredients and spending an hour or two bellied up at one of my favorite bars having great conversations with the bartenders and friends, new and old alike.? But both of these activities tends to eat into my bank account and by curtailing both, I feel much on much more stable financial footing.

So for this Mixology Monday, I decided to page through some cocktail books and give you two drinks on different ends of the “hard times” continum.? First, we have a cocktail that would perfect for those times when you’re very concerned about your next paycheck.? When your job may fall victim to a lay-off or go to the ATM to check your accounts and the machine laughs at you, I give you;

Gloom Chaser Cocktail
1/4 lemon Juice (.5 oz)
1/4 grenadine (.5 oz homemade grenadine)
1/4 Grand Marnier (.5 oz homemade tangerine ratafia)
1/4 Curacao (.5 oz Cointreau)

-Shake everything until well chilled and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
(The Savoy Cocktail Book, p. 76)

The Gloom Chaser is one sweet cocktail.? Literally.? I was a little surprised at how sweet this came out considering it only has half an ounce of grenadine.? The Cointreau also adds some sweetness but I’ve never considered Cointreau to be a “sweet” liqueur.? The homemade tangerine ratafia is brandy based, like the called for Grand Marnier.? I’ve found the ratafia works admirably well as a replacement liqueur. ? Regardless, the drink isn’t bad, just a little sweet.? Then again, I think that is precisely the point for a cocktail called the Gloom Chaser.? The orange reminds you of brighter sunnier days and the sweetness is like a reminder of childhood sweets.? Certainly a drink that would provide an uplifting step during a hard time.

Of course, the old saying goes “it’s always darkest before the dawn.”? Or “every dark cloud has a silver lining.”? The point is even though many of us are weathering this troubling financial storm, eventually things will look up.? When they do, our worry and dread will seem like a distant memory.? Who knows, maybe it will lead you to greener pastures and brighter skies.? Maybe, you’ll even find yourself as . . .

The CEO Cocktail
2oz Brandy
.5oz Chambord or creme de cassis (.5oz Massenez Creme de Cassis)
1oz Lillet Blanc
2 dashes orange bitters (Angostura Orange)
a lemon twist for garnish

-Shake (stir please) with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass
The Joy of Mixology, p. 237

A nice brandy cocktail that isn’t too sweet.? The cassis adds just a touch of sweetness and really mellows out the brandy.? I was afraid the brandy and cassis would fight in the glass but the Lillet plays mediator really brings the two together.? I wonder how Chambord would change the outcome of the drink.? Seeing as I don’t have chambord, nor am I inclined to go buy a bottle, I’ll just have to wait until these economic waters even out a bit.

Thanks again for Matthew Rowley for hosting MxMo this month.

Cheers!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The next cocktail I tried was the Chaplin Cocktail.

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

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

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

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

Cheers!

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

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.

Then I realized that MxMo in September would be on the 15th. If all is as it should be, I’ll be on my way back from NYC that day, and so on a very rainy day I decided that I would make some drinks and see what we can do.

I started thumbing through Ted Haigh’s _Vintage Spirits & Forgotten Cocktails_ and found something that I thought looked really interesting.

The recipe was a bit more complicated than I expected.

Fred Collins Fiz
2 ounces bourbon or rye whiskey (I used Bulleit)
1/2 ounce simple syrup
Juice of 1 fresh lemon
1/2 glass of finely shaved (or crushed) ice
1 teaspoon orange Curacao (Cointreau for me)
6 ounces lemonade (Simply Lemonade)
Mix everything but the lemonade and the Curacao in an iced cocktail shaker. Strain into a bar glass. Add the Curacao to the bar glass. Pour the lemonade into a collins glass, then add the contents of the bar glass to the collins glass.

Cathy might be sleeping so I didn’t want to be too noisy, and after all, my ice situation is usually fairly poor. So I skipped the shaved ice and made up the drink – though at one point I poured the Curacao too early into a teaspoon, so I just drank it straight and re-poured it when I needed it.

The drink reminded me a lot of a Lynchburg Lemonade, something that Dr. Cocktail notes in his description of it as well. I’d picked out the Bulleit because it said bourbon or rye and the Bulleit has a lot of rye notes to it. I’m debating if maybe I should’ve used Creole Shrubb rather than the Cointreau; I wouldn’t mind a stronger hint of orange to it. Maybe a bit of orange bitters…

But, after all, it’s fall. Bourbon is the traditional UVA drink during the fall, at least in my group of friends, and the three ways we often drank it was mixed with Coke, made into a bourbon sour, or made as a Lynchburg Lemonade by adding it straight to lemonade.

This drink is nice. I’m wondering how much the preparation matters (other than the lemonade) and if you could add some club soda or even lemon-lime soda to make it a bit bubblier. But it’s going right on down and definitely making me feel better!

The next drink I wanted to try is a Widow’s Kiss. I’ve seen the recipe a number of times but never made it, but moreso, it calls for green Chartreuse.

I have a bottle of green, and all I’ve used it for is shots. When Marshall and I were out at a rather cool bar the Sunday night before Labor Day I was talking to the bartenders and pointed out that I’d never made a drink with Chartreuse in it. I just hadn’t gotten around to it.

The Widow’s Kiss is noted to originally have called for green but yellow mellows it down. Screw yellow. I’m going green. If it worked in the first publication in 1895 it will work now.

The Widow’s Kiss
1 1/2 ounces Calvados
3/4 ounce Chartreuse
3/4 ounce Benedictine
2 dashes Angostura bitters
Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a cherry.

Dr. Cocktail is very adamant that you can NOT replace the Calvados with applejack. What I started wondering was whether or not you could replace it with the Laird’s 7 1/2 year old Apple Brandy or Clear Creek apple brandy.

Well, if I said I didn’t have any Clear Creek around I’d be lying – more truthfully, I couldn’t be bothered to find it. So, in the spirit of experimentation, I didn’t use applejack – but I did use the Laird’s Old Apple Brandy.

I made them both at the same time. I don’t have a bright red maraschino cherry like Dr. Cocktail uses in his picture, nor did I use yellow Chartreuse – so mine was darker and I just had a maraschino soaked sweet cherry above it.

He was right.

The Chartreuse was very evident in both of them, but the one with the Calvados was more balanced. With the Laird’s, the brandy floated into the background and just left green Chartreuse moderated only by a bit of Benedictine.

Of the two drinks, the Fred Collins Fiz is definitely one I wouldn’t making on a regular basis and perhaps experimenting with more.? This weekend, at the San Gerrano Feast in NYC, I had San Pelligrino Limonata and that might make for an interesting change to the drink.

The Widow’s Kiss was good, but to me, it almost seemed more like a shooter of some sort.? I’ll also have to try it with Yellow Chartreuse, either while visiting Marshall or after buying my own bottle finally.? Harry Johnson, in the last recipe page of his bartender’s guide, has a similar recipe that’s 1/3rd each ingredient (using green Chartreuse) and the yolk of an egg, and I’m definitely going to make that sometime soon – I, of course, will let y’all know how that goes, especially as it seems like a layered drink.

Until then – happy MxMo!

This month our Mixology Monday is being hosted by Paul Clarke over at The Cocktail Chronicles. Paul decided that the theme would be New Orleans. Since most cocktail nerds attended Tales of The Cocktail 2008 (held in the Crescent City) many posts will contain delicious drinks from one of the wonderful sessions, some hilarious stories about drunken tom-foolery and possibly pictures of Jeff Morgenthaler camped out by the pool. (Seriously, did Morgenthaler really spend *that* much time by the pool?!?!?!?) Anyway, for those of us that weren’t lucky enough to attend this year, our instructions were to write about cocktails that originated in New Orleans or that are inspired by New Orleans.

The first drink I really wanted to make was a Brandy Crusta. A straightforward cocktail of brandy, curacao, lemon juice and bitters, the defining aspect of the Brandy Crusta was the garnish. We learn from Ted Haigh’s “Vintage Spririts & Forgotten Cocktails” that Joe Santini, a barman in New Orleans, invented the crusta style of cocktail. Taking a long strip of citrus peel and crusting the edge of the glass with sugar, a basic cocktail (spirits, water and bitters) was now something with a bit of flair and pizazz.

Brandy Crusta
2 oz cognac
1 tsp curacao
.5 tsp lemon juice
1 dash Angostura Bitters

Use a peeler and get a long strip of lemon peel. Moisten the rim of your glass with lemon juice and dip in sugar. Then roll the peel so it fits into the mouth of your glass. Shake all of the cocktail ingredients and strain into your prepped glass. Add one small lump of ice.

Again, this is a very simple cocktail with the garnishing really being with show-stopper. As for taste, it’s a bit like a Sidecar, although less sweet and with less citrus swinging about. This would be a great small cocktail to serve to someone who likes pretty looking things. But honestly, a bit too labor intensive to make a bunch. Just make a garage full of sidecars. An interesting note, both the Brandy Crusta and the Sidecar are within the family of cocktails named New Orleans Sours. Ha! Another New Orleans reference!!! This family includes margaritas, corpse revivers and cosmopolitans.

In keeping with tradition here at The Den, I wanted to leave you with another cocktail. If you have been following our exploits around here you know how much I love the Sazerac and how all seems right with the world when I’m drinking a De La Louisiane cocktail. But for this outing, I decided on another thoroughly New Orleans cocktail – Ramos Gin Fizz.

History tells use that the Ramos Gin Fizz was invented around the late 1880s by a New Orleans barkeep by the name of Henry Ramos. In The Joy of Mixology, Gary Regan tells us of how Mr. Ramos would hire multiple bar-backs to shake a single fizz, even to the point where it is reported that some customers would wait up to an hour to receive their drink! Well, I won’t make you wait an hour for the recipe, so here you go.

Ramos Gin Fizz
1.5 oz Gin (I used Plymouth)
0.5 oz Lemon Juice
0.5 oz Lime Juice
2 Tbls Cream
1 Egg White
0.25 oz Seltzer Water (to be honest, I didn’t measure this, just using a short burst from the iSi)
1 Tbls Powdered Sugar
4 dashes Orange Flower Water

Combine everything except the seltzer water into a mixing glass. Top with the mixing tin and shake, without ice until your arms hurt (or for as long as you can stand.) Then fill the mixing tin with ice and shake until the drink is properly chilled. Strain into a chilled coupe or wine glass and top with the seltzer.

The reason you do the first shake sans ice (also called a dry shake) is to emulsify the egg and achieve a nice thick foamy meringue that will eventually float on top of the drink. Speaking of the foamy meringue, once you strain about 3/4 of the drink into the glass, swirl the remaining inside the mixing time before straining it into the glass. This allows the remaining liquid to pick up the foamy meringue that has been sticking to the ice cubes inside the tin and will give you a better head on the drink.

Even though I wasn’t able to attend Tales this year, I’ve been reading everyone’s accounts and living vicariously. One of the sessions I know I would have loved was the one on garnishes. I like to think I garnish my drinks appropriately and with something my guests find interesting, edible or both. For this MxMo I wanted to do a little something special garnish on my Ramos Gin Fizz. Keep in mind that it is my first attempt and hopefully something that as I practice, I will improve. With that, I give you the MxMo Ramos Gin Fizz.

That’s it from this Scofflaw. Hope everyone enjoyed this MxMo. Thanks again to Mr. Mixology Monday himself, Paul Clarke.

Cheers!

tmfiii

found one, somewhere, but I’ll be darned if I can find one, and I refuse to use his because it smells funny, kind of like North Carolina.  I’ve been wondering about where the mysterious icons show up from anyways, given that I’m going to need one for June’s bourbon MxMo.  But, in a way, I digress.

It’s funny, to me, when a Mixology Monday sneaks up on you like this one seemed to do.  It’s doubly funny when I’m stuck as flat-footed as I was in terms of “what to make.”  And I wasn’t certain what to make.  Anna, host of it this month from Morsels & Musings, defined it as:

Definition of fruit liqueurs?
Well this is what I’m going for: a sweet alcoholic beverage infused with fruits or fruit flavours.

The only drinks I won’t accept are ones made with fruit only, rather than using a fruity alcohol of some kind.

Need inspiration? How about . . . .
Apple Schnapps
Apricot Brandy
Bauchant
Calvados
Crème de Cassis
Curaçao
Kirsch
La Grande Passion
Limoncello
Mandarine Napoléon
Midori
Tuaca

Well – heck.  Calvados ain’t sweet, but it is made from fruit – would black cherry Smirnoff count?  I don’t know, so I won’t do the cherry lime rickey thingamabob I’ve worked on, though I had been thinking of putting in Cherry Heering into it, so that definitely would’ve counted.  And Cointreau is curacao, so that helps…

But screw it.  Marshall might be Mr. “I’m going to invent new drinks”, but I had some ideas for the same contest he’s entering, and I’ve got this too.

I came up with one idea.  I tried it out, liked it – even Cathy liked it, and she’s notorious for what she doesn’t like in drinks more than anything else – but I couldn’t get excited about it.  Given, as Marshall said, this is the Scofflaw’s Den, I’ll throw in the recipe at the end.  But I wanted something that said “FRUIT” and also kind of said “spring or summer”.

(A random aside: I’m having to write this whole thing in a constant battle against my cat The RZA, the little gray one in my icon picture.  She wants me to go to bed.  Bed!  Me!  Now!  It’s too early, I’ve had two cigars tonight, it ain’t happening until I finish my post.  But she keeps trying to take the battle to my nice glass of Dogfish Head Shelter Pale Ale and that just ain’t cool.)

(And no, we didn’t know she was a girl cat when we named her that.  Her brother is Master Shake, given that he was declared by the vet yesterday to be “neurotic” it’s even more appropriate.)

There are two books that I think any aspiring mixologist must have.  The first is Gary Regan’s The Joy of Mixology, for reasons I’ve detailed before, but in short: it’s the darn most useful book that any mixologist can ever own.  The second is David Wondrich’s Imbibe!, which is more historical than necessarily day-to-day like JoM, but has some interesting and delicious recipes in the back of it.

One of the recipes is for what’s called a Cherry Smash.  I’ve made more than a couple of them, but never for me – to be honest, I’ve never made one for myself.  I don’t even think I’ve sipped one!  But the people I’ve made them for have thoroughly enjoyed them, and hey, that’s the sign of a great drink.

I was going to use that as my MxMo drink, but you know what – I don’t think I have any brandied cherries!  Maybe some of my dried tart cherries were, that’s what I’d used before, but I’m fairly certain I’d dumped those.  Oops.

I’ve had, as of recently, a refreshing interest in blackberries again.  Horton Vineyards, probably my favorite Virginia winery, has a blackberry wine I love, and I found fresh blackberries at my local Harris Teeter and bought some.  While at Ace Beverage recently, I also picked up a bottle of a blackberry liqueur that is exquisite called G.E. Massenez Creme de Mure.

Taking the recipe for the Cherry Smash as an inspiration, I reworked it to do two things: one, kill that stupid 375 mL bottle of Cointreau that had been weeble-wobbling through my bar’s life, continually refilled by minis (yes, I’m stupid, and only today replaced it with a might 1 L bottle of Cointreau), and two, work with blackberries instead of cherries.

I didn’t want to call it just a “Blackberry Smash”, however.  Given the sometimes Beaker-esque plot twists my mind can go through occasionally (a reference that only a few of you out there will get, and honestly, sure, whatever, I don’t care), I went through some variants and ended up with what I’m calling a “Summer Crash”.

Note: I suck at naming things.  I consider that my biggest failing as a writer, also because I’m incredibly egotistical about my writing.

Summer Crash
1 1/2 ounces apple brandy
3/4 ounce Cointreau
3/4 ounce G.E. Massenez Creme de Mure
1/2 ounce lemon juice

Lightly muddle a handful of blackberries in the bottom of a bar glass.  Add the ingredients on top.  Top with ice and shake like crazy.  When it’s so cold that your hands ache and the blackberries have been pulverized, strain into a chilled cocktail glass.  Drop in a blackberry or two – they’ll sink – and put a large sprig of mint to float on top.

Now, you’re going to think: won’t that be gritty with bits of blackberry in it?  Well, there are bits – but it’s not gritty.  At least, not as far as I found.  I found it delicious, with the mint providing a nice balance to the taste.  If you’re familiar with the original recipe, you’ll note that I replaced the cognac with apple brandy – you could use Calvados, I would assume, but I wanted something more USofA – and the lemon juice was reduced while the fruit liqueur was increased (to balance flavors more).

Honestly, I’m really quite very happy with how this drink came out.

My other drink (and, again, like Marshall, I have no pictures of this one) was good, I was just less enthused about.

The Today Stuff (what did I tell you about me naming things?!)
1 1/2 ounces Hendricks gin
1 ounce G.E. Massenez creme de mure
1/2 ounce lemon juice

Shake over ice, strain into a low ball or chimney glass, top with Fever Tree ginger ale or a mild ginger beer.  Give a light stir – garnish with what you feel is appropriate (I’d suggest blackberries and mint, but as you might be able to tell, I kind of like those things).

Anyways, I hope you enjoy.  If you make these, let me know, and tell me what you think.  I’m always excited about how my creations do “in the real world”, as it were.  And if you’re looking for the G.E. Massenez creme de mure in the DC area, I’d suggest Ace Beverage in NW DC.  That’s where I got mine.

(And if you know who does the MxMo icons, let me know as well so I can prepare for June!)