It isn’t a secret that autumn is my favorite season. I love the cold air and early evenings. There is nothing better than curling up on the couch under a warm blanket on a cold day watching hockey, football, or hell, even reading a cocktail tome.

But another reason I love the fall is that it is my favorite cocktail season. Tiki drinks and refreshing gin cocktails are replaced with whisk(e)ies and bitter amaros. Pineapple and coconut are replaced with apple and cherry. Limes are supplanted by lemons as the citrus of majority in my fridge.

I mention apples and cherries in particular because I love playing with those flavors this time of year. I love mixing with calvados, Applejack, or maybe some Leopold Brothers apple whiskey or apple liqueur. Bringing some cherry to the party may come from Cherry Herring, maraschino, kirschwasser, or my latest toy, Maurin Quina.

Another thing I love to mix with is apple cider. We had an apple press growing up and every fall made our own fresh-pressed apple cider. It was fantastic! Unfortunately you can only find pasteurized cider for sale nowadays. But if you own a juicer, you can make your own! Lately I’ve been boiling apple cider down into a thick concentrated syrup. Amazingly, along with the concentrated appleness, it develops an amazing tartness. This really comes in handy it you don’t want to add lemon, but need that acidity to balance out your cocktail. To make it, simply boil down apple cider until it has reduced by 75%.

I decided I wanted to play with the cider syrup and thought it would play very nicely with scotch. So I pulled out my new bottle of Great King Street blended scotch from Compass Box and set to work. This is what I came up with:

Orchard Bonfire
1.5 oz blended Scotch
.5 oz cider syrup
.25 oz honey syrup (2 parts honey & 1 part water)
1 barspoon pimento dram
1 dash Whiskey Barrel Bitters

Shake & double strain into a cocktail glass rinsed with a smokey scotch. (I used Peat Monster.) Garnish with a maraschino cherry.

What do you like to drink when fall arrives? Leave a comment and let us know!

Cheers!

PS. Scofflaw’s Den celebrated it’s fourth birthday earlier this month. We thank all of our readers for sticking with us and we plan on providing a lot more content and recipes for you to enjoy for at least another four years. -Marshall

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!

Why, Trader Tiki, that’s why.

I asked a couple of people what makes a drink tiki and no one really had a good answer.? If you have one, leave it in the comments.? But what I think of is rum and fruit juices, really.

However, there’s something else with tiki – I think of the British.? That might sound weird, but I think about the British influence especially on the high seas.? I really wonder if we’d truly have “tiki” these days without the influence of the British.

Not to mention the East Indian Trading Company even – and we’re talking about someone named TRADER TIKI.

So I did some thinking, some experimenting, and here’s what I ended up with.

The Trader Tiki
1 ounce Lemon Hart 151
1 ounce Plymouth Gin
1 1/2 ounces pineapple juice
1 1/2 ounces passionfruit juice
1 ounce tamarind juice
1/2 ounce allspice dram
2 dashes Trader Tiki’s Aged Falernum Bitters
1/4 (or so) ounces grenadine
club soda
Pour the first eight ingredients over ice into a mixing tin.? Shake, and pour – unstrained – into a tiki mug.? Top with club soda.? Garnish with a long swizzle with a piece of pineapple, a lime wedge, and a mint leaf on it.

No, I don’t have a picture for it tonight.? Sorry guys.? But I’m sipping on one and it’s actually pretty tasty – kind of smokey, but Blair’s a bartender so I’m going to assume he’s usually pretty smokey, too.

And with that unfortunate verbiage behind me, I’m going to go back to watching TV.? Until tomorrow night, suckas!

[Second 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.]

As I’ve mentioned before – you’ve got to give The Gibson a shot if you haven’t yet.

We tried to go to Bar Pilar afterwards but it was just packed; we got to speak with Adam briefly but then hailed a cab and headed back to Virginia for pizza and relaxation.

One of my favorite moments of the weekend came Friday night, however.? Owen was showing off some really cool liquors and cocktails all night, but at one point Chris (and I’ll explain about this in about a week or so) had Marshall and I buy a drink.? He got his favorite, the cocktail a la louisiane, and I got a Sazerac.? Chris had never had a Sazerac so he tried one and absolutely loved it.? It’s always great to see someone try a new drink and see their eyes light up like that!

2.? Repeal Day is up to $90 for a ticket and coming up soon – December 5th.? Hope to see y’all there, I’m really excited about it.

3.? Phil Greene asked us to post an announcement about the Holiday Cocktails seminar at Bourbon on December 9th.? It is presented by the Museum of the American Cocktail and will feature the dynamic trio of Derek Brown (The Gibson), Justin Guthrie (Central Michel Richard), and Owen Thompson (Bourbon) as well as Phil Greene.? $35 in advance, $40 at the door, and that includes light appetizers and sample sizes of the cocktails.? I know Marshall will be there!

You can register here.

4.? TDN – sponsored by Leblon Cachaca – was a heck of a time!? There were a lot of good drinks made and while we wait for the recap (AHEM) I thought I’d share one of the drinks I came up with that people seemed to like.

The Braziliagroni
1 ounce Leblon cachaca
1 ounce Carpano Antica
1 ounce Aperol
2 dashes Fee’s Rhubarb Bitters
Shake over ice, strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

I have to admit that I wasn’t a big cachaca fan before Thursday night but I’ve definitely learned to enjoy some of the complexities of the spirit.? Check out the TDN round up when it’s posted and look also for my Brazilian Frog – it’s an orange flavored drink that needs a bit of tweaking but I think turned out pretty well also.

5.? A friend invited my brother and I over to watch football yesterday and asked that I bring some “tasty drinks”.? I pieced something together and made it which ended up being a big hit.? It was fairly improvised, but the basic recipe is here and we’ll be making both cold and hot versions of this for our Christmas party (we only made cold ones yesterday).

Apple Cider Heaven
2 ounces applejack
1 ounce Jameson’s
1/2 ounce St. Elizabeth’s Allspice Dram
2 dashes Fee’s aromatic bitters
4 ounces apple cider
Shake and strain into a cocktail glass.? Alternatively, build over ice in a collins or pint glass using 50% more of each ingredient and stir, then serve.

That’s about enough for now, I think.? This week is Thanksgiving so everybody think of what you want to give thanks for and have a good time with your friends and family!? Remember: don’t drink and drive.? Which means – don’t drive.

But what to take?? Taking various bottles of spirits, mixers, mixing tins, strainers, jiggers, etc. would be a hassle and too labor intensive.? So I decided to make a bottled cocktail.? For those of you looking for more information on bottling cocktails, I highly recommend reading this post.? But what cocktail to bottle?? I wanted something that said “HEY IT’s FALL AND KIND OF CHILLY.? DRINK ME BECAUSE I’M LIKE FALL.”? Okay, so maybe not so much with the yelling, but you get my gist.

I searched through my cocktail books and even tried out the Virginia Autumn that I made last year but nothing was really tickling my fancy.? I then came across Paul Clarke’s site and more specifically, this post on the Northern Spy.? Now this little number had promise.? So I whipped one up to give a try before committing to an entire bottles’ worth.? It was good.? But still wasn’t exactly what I wanted.? I was afraid that the dryness of the cocktail, and the inherent boozyness, would be off-putting to some people.? I wanted something that was a little sweeter, mainly because I wasn’t sure of my audience.? Usually, sweeter things are more appealing to the masses and I certainly wanted my drink to be a hit.

Paul mentions that the Orchard Apricot can be replaced with ginger liqueur, pimento dram or another flavor enhancer.? Well, I don’t have Orchard Apricot.? I know, I know!? I should have some, but every now and again, something slips through the cracks when I go booze shopping.? (Shhhhh . . . don’t tell Joe at Ace Beverage.? He’ll have me buying some within 15 minutes of reading this!)? Anyway, I do have the Orchard Pear, so I figure that’s a good place to start.? I also wanted to get some extra fall flavors into the drink, so I thought about a few dashes of Fee’s Whiskey Barrel Bitters.? But then again, Paul unknowingly guided my hand with his suggestion of using pimento dram.

So after a few tasty trials and errors, here is the recipe for my finished cocktail.? Which I have called,

Fort Hunt Fall
2oz Applejack
1oz Apple Cider*
.5oz lemon juice
.5oz Pear Brandy (I used Rothman & Winter Orchard Pear)
.5oz Pimento Dram
.5oz Apple Cider Syrup**

-Shake everything with ice and strain into an ice filled rocks glass.

*For those of you not in the US, by “apple cider,” I’m referring to fresh pressed apple juice.? Not the hard stuff.

**To make apple cider syrup:? Take one cup of apple cider and reduce by half on the stove.? Stir in a quarter cup of sugar.? Let cool and bottle.? You can play around with the sugar you add to get a sweetness you like.? The cider will have a lot of residual sugar already so you may not need too much.? This is a great syrup to add an intense apple flavor wherever you like.

I’m happy to report that this drink was very well received.? In fact, the bottle was empty when I went to gather my belongings.? Some even topped it off with champagne; which was very delicious as well.? I saw a few people (cough, cough Heather) go back for seconds.? I was just happy that those who tried it, seemed to enjoy it and that their introduction to my cocktails was a pleasant one.

Of course, in true Scofflaw fashion, I couldn’t just show up with one drink.? I also brought along a small bottle of Trader Tiki’s Primitiva which I had just bottled a couple of weeks prior.? If you want to make a tasty liqueur, this stuff is money!? The Trader knows his spirits and is second to none in concoctioneering.? Seriously.? Make this stuff.? It’s fantastic.? Anyway, back to the picnic.? I brought a small bottle of primitiva and was pouring about an ounce in a small, ice-filled plastic cup and topping it with champagne.? Fantastic!? Mixed together with a Fort Hunt Fall – fantastic.? Swigging straight from the bottle maniacally laughing at the poor poor people who couldn’t fathom the tasty treat they were missing out on – fantastic.? You catch my drift.

As we’ve already written about here and here the picnic was awesome.

Next up on my calender is the second cocktail class by Gina Chersevani at EatBar.? This is the Halloween themed class and I’m really excited about it.? Friday night, I have my Halloween party and am in the process of creating the cocktail menu for it.? I need two more cocktails for the menu and I’m hoping Gina gives me some good ideas.? I won’t give anything away until after the party, but expect to see plenty of pictures and the recipes for all the drinks from the menu later that weekend.

Hope everyone has a frightful (and safe) Halloween!? Cheers!

Tonight is Thursday Drink Night (TDN) starting at 7 PM EDT over at the Mixoloseum.? Tonight people will be trying out drinks made with honey syrup, so I’ve got to remember to make some!? Which means I’ve got to remember to buy some honey…the syrup is 1:1 honey and water.? The best drink of the night will get a bottle of St. Elizabeth’s Allspice Dram thanks to Kaiser Penguin.

Tomorrow night is our night out to celebrate an entire year – and a long year at that, the whole 366 days – of Scofflaw’s Den, from our humble origins on LiveJournal (which we imported here, but I implore you not to look at my first post, I’m embarrassed by it) to having our own domain and everything else that’s happened.

Right now, it looks like our plan is to be out at Bourbon in Adams Morgan around 5:30 – 6:00 time frame for a couple of drinks and maybe a bite or two.? From there, we’ll head over to Central Michel Richard to harass say hi to Justin and maybe have more food…

From there we don’t have any plans, but depending on who is around and what time it is we’ll be looking to see what is up.? Urbana, Tabard Inn, Bar Pilar, Cork, there are so many choices.

If you’re around and want to join us, just show up!? If you need to get ahold, feel free to e-mail us – I, for instance, will be checking my e-mail on a regular basis while we’re out.? And if you contact us ahead of time, I’ll be hooking people up with a phone number or two.

And just when you turn around, it’s another Mixology Monday.  This time around our host is Anna over at Morsels & Musings.  Thanks Anna!

For this months MxMo, Anna has selected “Fruit Liqueurs” which is kind of funny since Sean and I just finished an orange liqueur tasting not long ago and so I had to think of something different flavor-wise to use.  Unfortunately my homemade tangerine ratafia is still aging and it won’t be ready until June 1st.  But it is spring and the weather is beginning to turn sunny and warm again (at least here in Northern Virginia) that a fruit liqueur theme should not be to difficult.

Well, those are famous last words.  I began by looking through the bar at what I had – various orange liqueurs already mentioned, creme de mure (blackberry), limoncello, creme de casis, frambois, creme de peche, cherry heering, calvados, applejack, maraschino and apricot eau-de-vie all begging to be used.  But thoughts turned to one of my favorite fruits – the humble delicious peach.  My first thought was to work on a riff of peach tea.  I have some newly made swedish punsch with it’s lemony, rum and black tea flavors that would play very well with the creme de peche.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t quite come up with a drink that made me completely satisfied.  I’m sure there is a drink in there somewhere, and I aim to find it, but that shall be a project for another day.

The next day, I was pouring over some books, trying to find some recipes that I can tinker with when I decided that I needed something nice to sip on.  It was this past Friday night and it was a very warm day but around 10pm a quick and strong thunderstorm came through.  At that point I decided a Dark & Stormy would be the perfect fit for the evening.  The sweet dark Goslings and the biting fizzy ginger beer certainly hit the spot.  Then a light went off in my head.  I was holding the basis for my MxMo drink at that very moment.

I quickly ran to the bar and begin playing.  The following drink was the results:

A Georgia Thunderstorm
2 oz Goslings Black Seal
1 oz Messenez Creme de Peche
.25 oz St. Elizabeth’s Allspice (Pimento) Dram
2 dashes Angostura bitters
4 oz Ginger Beer (I used Regatta and then Bundaberg – both with excellent results)

Build everything in a chimney glass filled with lots of ice.
Garnish with mint sprigs and a straw.
Sip slowly until the dark sky passes.

The drink is spicy, peachy and fairly sweet.  It may even be too sweet for some folks, but if you’ve ever had really good authentic southern sweet tea, you’ll get this drink.  It is meant to be sipped slowly letting the fragrance of the mint hit you before the ice cold liquid caresses your lips like the fuzz of a ripe peach.   On a hot summer evening when the clouds break and the rain showers everything around you, this will be a fantastic beverage.

Of course, this wouldn’t be the Scofflaw’s Den if I didn’t give you at least one more recipe.  The following recipe is an original creation that I submitted to a local cocktail competition.  I won’t know how I did until the end of the month, but I thought I would share it with y’all anyway.  I really enjoy this drink and certain ingredients are adaptable to whatever you may have in your home bar (or for a bar that may not have certain name brand spirits for that matter . . . it pays to know your audience I guess!)  And unfortunately there are no pictures of this drink.  When I created it, I wasn’t thinking of putting it in this post and when I did decide to do so, I didn’t have the main ingredient.  Oh Well.  Without further adeu . . .

De Lente Smash
4 medium ripe strawberries
5-6 medium basil leaves (or 3-4 very large leaves)
2 oz Genever style gin (Boomsma, Zuidam Holland or Damrak) OR 1.5 oz London Dry Gin (Plymouth)
.75 oz Rich Simple Syrup
2 dashes Peach Bitters

In a mixing glass, muddle the strawberries, basil leaves and simple syrup.
Add gin and bitters and pour all into an iced shaking tin.
Shake until the tin frosts.
Double strain into a chilled cocktail glass.  (I used the hawthorne strainer in the tin and a fine mesh strainer over the glass.)
Take one small basil leaf and smack it with your hand.  Float the bruised leaf on top of the drink and garnish with a sliced strawberry.

Well, there you go.  Thanks again to Anna and I hope everyone has a great MxMo. 

Cheers!

runoknows

 mentioned in his post about our trip to Ace Beverage.  One of the first things I noticed when we walked in is the room.  There was plenty of space to walk around and you could see just about everything.  The spirits generally comprised the perimeter of the store with the middle devoted to Ace’s substantial wine holdings.  (As a complete aside, before going to Ace Bev, I had hoped that this place would be a great store.  You see, while I was a member of the Award-Winning Virginia Fighting Cavalier Indoor/Outdoor Precision (?) Marching Pep Band and Chowder Society Revue, Unlimited! my nickname was Ace.  Hence, a desire for greatness in all things named Ace . . . but I digress.)  A lot of the spirits are located behind counters, save a gorgeous wall of bourbon and whisky (insert drool here.)  Joe Riley, Ace’s Wine guru and resident spirit man extraodinary, was our contact and I have to say he was a pleasure to talk to.  He was more than willing to show us all the new goodies he had and talk to us about spirits, distilling, local bartenders and restaurants and cocktails.  

The biggest thing that struck me in our conversation with Joe, which lasted about two hours, was his honesty and willingness to help.  I’ve been to a lot of liquor stores in DC and VA and I can tell you from experience that Joe was the best person to deal with bar none.  For example, I asked him about the Laird’s Bottle-in-Bond Applejack that doesn’t seem to be sold in the DC area.  His first reaction was to call his Laird’s supplier and leave a message asking for the info.  Now I ask you, when was the last time you got that level of service?  When talking about a classic-style cocktail, part of the fun is the history and remembering a different time and place in our society.  Joe embodies this classic style of shop keeping – friendly, helpful and personal.  Personally, these are the types of attributes I look for in just about any place I’m spending my hard-earned money.  Joe and Ace Beverage are the epitome of this.  That’s all I’ve got to say about that.

Now at this point you may be yelling into your computer, “BUT WHAT THE HELL DID YOU BUY???”  Well, first I would say you may want to quite yelling at your computer, it makes you look crazy.  Second, it needs to be noted that when I went on this trip to Ace I went specifically to buy items that Eric Sneed of Haus Alpenz has recently brought to the US market.  These items are pretty rare and a cocktail geeks’ wet dream.  Wow, I probably shared a little too much there, huh . . . anyway, the items from Haus Alpenz will have a “Haus” before the description.

On with the Haul:

This is the Kubler Absinthe.  This absinthe is classified as a ”white” absinthe because, unlike the “verte” or green absinthes, it has not been steeped in fresh botanicals a final time giving it a green hue.  It is as clear as gin.  As Sean mentioned, our friend Roy and I did an absinthe tasting, but seeing as that was last weekend, I can’t remember any detailed notes.  Hmmmm, sounds like a good idea for a post . . . 

(Haus)  This is the St. Elizabeth Allspice Dram.  It is also known to cocktail geeks, like yours truly, as ”pimento dram.”  The base of the liqueur is rum and if you’ve ever tasted allspice you have a general idea of the flavors here – clove, cinnamon, nutmeg and pepper.  It is used in punches, tiki drinks and many classic cocktails.  Keep watching this space for recipes and cocktails using this and all the other goodies Sean and I talk about . . . damn, this is a tough job!
 

(Haus) This is the Batavia-Arrack van Oosten.  My understanding is that “Batavia” is Dutch for Jakarta and “Arrack” is the general eastern term for spirit.  Eric at Haus Alpenz gives a more detailed description here.  Considering this is an ingredient from the 1600′s on, this is the epitome of classic!

(Haus) “The Scarlet Ibis” is a mixture of three rums from Trinidad.  This rum was commissioned by a modern-day speakeasy in the Big Apple by the name of Death & Co.  They wanted a more flavorful, higher proof rum for their cocktails and Haus Alpenz was happy enough to oblige.  There is only 29 cases of The Scarlet Ibis, I consider myself very lucky to have a bottle in my collection.

(Haus)  This is the main thing I wanted to get on our little shopping trip.  Creme de Violette.  An essential ingredient for an Aviation cocktail.  I have to take a minute to talk about the Aviation.  If you do an interweb search for the recipe of an Aviation, most recipes you find will contain gin, lemon juice and maraschino liqueur in various proportions.  No mention of Creme de Violette.  So how is this an essential ingredient in a cocktial that doesn’t seem to call for it.  There are several theories on why this is the case.  Here is the one I believe:  In one of the seminal classic cocktail books, “The Savoy Cocktail Book” written by Harry Craddock 1930, the Creme de Violette was left out of the recipe.  Subsequent authors and practicioners followed Mr. Craddock’s path and continued to leave out the violette.  However, as early as 1916 in Hugo Ensslin’s book “Recipes for Mixed Drinks” the violette is front and center in the cocktail.  If someone out there wants to espouse other theories on this, feel free to leave a comment!

I have tried various recipes for the Aviation and found that the best one is as written here by Erik Flannestad of the Underhill Lounge.  His recipe:

Aviation Cocktail
1.5 oz Gin (Plymouth)
0.75 oz Lemon Juice
1/2 tsp. Marachino Liqueur (Luxardo)
1/2 tsp. Creme de Violette
1/2 tsp. rich simple syrup

Shake well and strain into chilled cocktail glass.  Garnish with a cherry.

Well, now what else do I have for you?  I’ve been talking alot about my infusions and concoctioneering.  One of the things I really wanted to try (along with the bacon-infused bourbon) is a pecan infused rye whiskey!

First I wanted to toast the pecans.  Use a dry pan and put the nuts on low heat.  Stir them frequently until they become fragrant.  BE CAREFUL!  The nuts have lots of oils (insert inappropriate comment here) and will burn very quickly if you aren’t careful.

After toasting my nuts (heh) I let them steep in a litre of baby Sazerac for 72 hours.  After the steeping, strain out the nuts.  If you want to get all the little bits and pieces [Jeebus, how many jokes can I make about this!!!!] you can strain the liquid through cheese-cloth or a wet coffee filter.  Bottle and enjoy!

After making the pecan-rye I decided I wanted to try some form of pecan pie cocktail.  I had in my pantry some Lyle’s Golden Syrup (a british product) that is a lot like karo syrup but sweeter and seems to have a deeper flavor.  I took some Lyle’s and mixed it with some hot water (the stuff is thicker than molassass) in order to get it to a pourable state.  This stuff tastes just like the sweet goo inside a pecan pie!!!

A Scofflaw’s Pecan Pie
2 oz Pecan-Rye
.75 oz Lyle’s Golden Syrup Syrup
3-4 dashes Fee’s Whiskey Barrel-Aged Bitters

Stir everything with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.  Garnish with a whole pecan-half.

Alright folks, time for me to get some dinner.  Have a good night and I’ll see you at the bar!

Cheers!