An online speakeasy of potent potables and other pabulam.

I know that The Den has been a little quiet as of late.? Things have been hectic for the last couple of weeks, however life seems to have slowed back to a normal pace and I’m confident you’ll be seeing much more activity from your two Scofflaw’s.

With that said, Mixology Monday is again upon us and the lovely ladies of LUPEC Boston are hosting. ? The chosen theme this month is “First Time.”? The theme is inspired by a past experience Ms. Pink Lady had with a cocktail newbie.? She states,

“What drink do you suggest for the delicate palate of the cocktail neophyte? Something boozy and balanced, sure – but one wrong suggestion could relegate the newbie to a beer-drinker?s life. To which go-to cocktails do you turn to when faced with the challenge?”

It is a very interesting conundrum.? I have a few friends who definitely fall into the “cocktail neophyte” category.? Either they “don’t like gin” or are strictly beer or wine drinkers, and one, amazingly, “can’t drink brown spirits.”? To be honest, it is very difficult to make drinks for these folks.? It seems they have preconcieved biases towards certain spirits that is seemingly all mental.? The trick for me is making cocktails that are flavorful, complex, balanced and uses the ingredient they supposedly don’t like.? I’m completely up front with what I’m serving them, and in most instances they have enjoyed the drinks.

One of my favorite cocktails, which is also one I like to give people new to gin or new to cocktails is the Shanghai Gin.

Shanghai Gin
Gin
Yellow Chartreuse
Benedictine
Lemon Juice

Shake equal measures of the four ingredients until ice cold.? Strain into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with a lemon twist.? For a small extra kick, flame the peel.

The Shanghai Gin combines a sweet, savory, tart profile all in one little gin cocktail.?? Everyone I’ve made the cocktail for has enjoyed it.

On the other hand, in order to introduce a neophyte to the wonderful world of cocktails, I think a well made highball can be just what the scofflaw ordered.? A gin and tonic, rum and coke, ginger beer and anything, all are good examples as long they are well made and balanced.? In each highball you can vary the type of spirit (london dry v. old tom; silver rum v. gold v. demerarra v. crap-there-are-a-lot-of-rum-types; etc.) or add modifiers such as a splash of lime, a flavored syrup or a muddle of herbs.? Many different variations can teach the new imbiber the importance of balance, creativity and variety.? Just the tools someone needs when walking down the path of potent potables.

Thanks again to Pink Lady and the women of LUPEC – Boston for hosting this installment of MxMo.

Cheers!

Hee hee, he said hard.

Ahem.

Sorry about that.? Had to get that out of the system.

This month’s Mixology Monday is hosted by Matthew Rowley over at Rowley’s Whiskey Forge.? I, unfortunately, procastinated and now have the fun of trying to squeeze mine in while wishing I was in bed after a long holiday of meetings and more work in the morning.? Ahhh, I love my job.

Which makes the theme of “hard drinks for hard times” a bit harder for me.? I’m lucky enough to have a great job with a company that I really enjoy working for, and so, I usually don’t pay close attention to how much I spend on booze (too much).? Should I do cheap wine?

Oh lad-dee-dah!? WINE?!? I’m supposed to be giving ideas of how to drink cheaply and I’m sipping on a bottle of Sangiovese I got from Wegman’s?? Oh, sure, it wasn’t THAT expensive, but for some reason I think if you’re going to drink WINE in hard times it needs to be something that barely fits the moniker of wine.? Something you’d drink in college, like Mad Dog or Boone’s Farm.

I ain’t touching those things again.? I might spend my money on stupid things (Ice Pirates on DVD?? YES PLEASE) but I like to enjoy my drinks, such as they are.

Some of you might take offense or something from that when knowing how much cheap beer I drink.? That’s more of a lifestyle choice, I’d argue; both that cheap beer, in my humble opinion, is much more palatable than a lot of cheap wines (sometimes – Two Buck Chuck or whatever it’s priced at now helps disprove that, admittedly) and and also that I’m the type of person who always needs a drink in hand, and I drink a lot of liquids.? Not just booze – sodas, milk, juice, water, I just like to have a drink at hand.? I get made fun of it.

But that really doesn’t work for MxMo. And honestly, the price of a keg is better than a lot of the prices on even cheap beers.

In the keg right now we have Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA.? It ended up being right around $150 or so for the keg.? Never minding the capital costs of a kegerator – the kegerator itself, for instance, the irregular refills of CO2, to name but a couple – the average price for a 12 ounce beer if you get the full 15.5 gallons out of it is about $.91.? They charge you about $5 or so for a pint of it at most restaurants.

Back at Christmastime my parents got me a SodaStream machine.? Now, you’re probably trying to get one ahead of me and say “Oh, HA!? You got Morgenthaler‘s tonic recipe, and ordered cheap quinine from online, and…”

No.? Shut up.? I didn’t.? I drove down to Boater’s World in Springfield and bought at $5 bottle of diet tonic syrup.

Seriously – uh – it’s not that bad.? It’s better than any other diet tonic water I’ve definitely had and I can make a bunch of liters of it for about the same price as a four pack of Fever Tree.? Just gotta carbonate that water…

I really had figured that a gin and tonic is a great “cheap” drink.? Maybe it was the night I ended up drinking 16 ounces of gin in my gin and tonics.? Maybe it’s the reputation that gin has as the beleaguered poor Englishman’s drink of choice (Jay?) (not to imply you are poor or beleaguered).? Maybe it’s…I don’t know.? But what I did know was that I needed a proper cheap gin to drink with it.

A while ago, one of our Thursday Drink Nights over at the Mixoloseum involved stuff that you’d never bought before.? I used a bottle of Beefeater gin but while I was out there I figured, you know, what the hell, and I bought a bottle of Jacquin’s Orange Flavored Gin.

The thing was, it ended up, that it really wasn’t that bad.? Oh, I know, you’re all JUDGING ME and stuff, I can tell it, because I like to drink 3-4 Miller Lites in between cocktails and I willingly listen to Katy Perry.? SCREW YOU.? It’s orange-y, it’s about 66 proof, and you know what, it was like $3 for a pint of it.

So there we go.? I ended up pouring in three ounces of the “makes a great orange collins” stuff and topped it off with diet tonic and a few ice cubes.? Keeping with the orange theme – which always rocks with my UVA glass – I used the orange drink stick.

Now, admittedly, I did drink that whole bottle of Sangiovese before even starting in on this experiment.? And the first taste was kind of rough.? But after that, as I started to drink it, I started to kind of dig it, and think, hey, maybe all it needs is a brown paper bag, and maybe all you critics of what I like to drink need to just shut the hell up, and oh, maybe there’s some kernel of truth to the whole thing about “gin makes a man mean” but you know what I’LL TAKE YOU ALL ON I WILL YOU JUST SEE!!!!

KITTEN THERAPY TIME

Okay, sorry about that.

Anyways, it’s not really a bad drink, and I guess it’s basically a gin and tonic but I’ll think of something cheap and easy to call it…

Orangin and Tonic
3 ounces Jacquin’s Orange Flavored Gin
Dash of Orange Bitters (orange angostura)
Build in a double old fashioned glass over ice.? Stir, garnish with a small piece of orange.

Is that good enough for you buggers?? HUH?? I didn’t need to drink one so FANCY SCHMANCY so you bloody fools can…

DOGGY THERAPY TIME

Okay, okay, I’m all right now.? I gotta get to sleep anyways.

Big thanks as always to Paul for setting up MxMo and to Matt Rowley for hosting this month.? Also props to The RZA and Master Shake, our two cats in the first picture, and Cosmo, my parents’ dog in the latter, for helping me resist the urges of demon gin.

Maybe just one more drink…

This month’s Mixology Monday with brought to us by Matthew Rowley of Rowley’s Whiskey Forge.? Matt’s topic seems very a propos with the current state of the United State’s economy, massive bail-outs every where you look and all around belt tightening when it comes to finances.? For this topic I really had to sit down and decide what to write about.

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!

The theme for this month’s Mixology Monday was “Broaden Your Horizons”.? The first one for 2009, it’s being hosted by The Scribe over at A Mixed Dram.? So, before I forget – thanks “The Scribe” for hosting this month!

It was kind of a tough topic.? Basically, The Scribe wanted us to think of an ingredient or technique we hadn’t used before and explore it.? I don’t want to act all jaded and like “oh, you know, I’ve been there and done that, har!”? But I was also like “uhh…what to do?”

That’s ’cause I’m typically the type of guy that if there’s something I want to try I just go ahead and try it.? I do the same thing with buying stuff, so it makes me hard to buy presents for, I’ve been told.

There’s one recipe however that I found in Harry Johnson’s classic bar guide that I’ve been wanting to try mostly for one big reason: it uses an egg yolk.? Not the white…just the yolk.

He has pictures in his book of various drinks and there’s one picture of a layered drink with an egg yolk in it so I knew exactly how I wanted it to look.? I had the liquor ingredients – green Chartreuse, maraschino, and Benedictine – so I went to the store, bought a fresh batch of eggs, and got ready to make the drink!

The recipe:

Widow’s Kiss
(Use a medium size wine glass)

1 yolk of a fresh egg;
1/3 glass of maraschino;
1/3 glass of green chartreuse;
1/3 glass of benedictine, and serve.

(Courtesy of Harry Johnson’s New and Improved (Illustrated) Bartender’s Manual and a Guide for Hotels and Restaurants, copyrighted 1900, reprinted 2008 by Mud Puddle Books.)

Wow.? Hit a few issues right away.? I didn’t have a great cordial glass for this (like the ones in Harry’s illustrations).? I wasn’t certain how much to use of each liquor and couldn’t be bothered to look that up in something like David Wondrich’s Imbibe!.? I also wasn’t certain which order to layer them in because Gary Regan’s The Joy of Mixology only had Benedictine listed of those three drinks.? His book did list ingredients in order to layer them in so I figured, hey, what the heck, I’ll try it that way.

But before I actually made the drink, I thought I’d get the yolk out first.? The first egg I managed to break the yolk of and so I didn’t want to use it.? The second egg I was much more careful with and the yolk was intact.

Then it was a glass.? I ended up grabbing a tasting glass from Horton vineyards; it was one of the smaller glasses I have and it seemed like it’d be a good shape and size for the drink.? It holds six ounces, so in a bout of not-thinking-things-through-completely (see below) I decided to use one ounce of each liquor.

Grabbing my bar spoon and measuring glass, I poured out the drink.? I put the maraschino in first, then the yolk – basing that off some random thing I’d read during the day – then the Chartreuse and last the Benedictine.? Looking at the picture, it might’ve been the wrong order to do them in.

But the drink looked neat!

As you might be able to tell, the chartreuse appeared to float up to the top right away.? The egg yolk didn’t stay perfectly in the middle – there might’ve been a bit of egg white left – but hey, I thought it looked kind of cool.

Then I realized something.

How in the name of Captain Tightpants was I supposed to drink this monstrosity?!

I took a sip off the top and really, that just gets you Chartreuse.? Not that I mind a nice dose of Chartreuse, but it wasn’t going to work (particularly when I’d get to the maraschino – ick!).

So I manned up, took a deep breath, and drank that #%()!-ing thing in one long pull.

THAT WAS THE WRONG THING TO DO AND DON’T DO THAT UNLESS YOU USE SMALLER PORTIONS.

Let me reiterate that:

DO NOT DO THAT.

My eyes watered.? My throat choked up.? I haven’t reacted that poorly to a shot in a long, long time.

I can’t even tell you what it tasted like – let’s just say, uh, wow, it was intense, and I would consider trying it again if I made it smaller.? (And if you want to make a “that’s what she said” joke, go for it, just … well, that’s the kind of thing that’d happen more likely maybe over in the Mixoloseum chat room, I’d bet.)

While I had gone through all that I’d made up a new batch of simple syrup.? This syrup I was going to modify a bit.

You see, I love vanilla.? I don’t know when that happened – I guess as I grew up, I discovered a big love for vanilla.? Kind of like when I realized that my favorite color was no longer black or blue (emo SeanMike for the win!) but red.? Weird.? And — I’ve never used vanilla simple syrup in a cocktail.

I tried my best to polish off my demerara sugar and let it cool off as a simple syrup then I added some Penzey’s double strength vanilla extract.

It cooled, I added an ounce or so of 100 proof vodka to help preserve it and add in about 1/4 of an ounce or so of the vanilla.? Tasting it straight, I thought it tasted pretty vanilla so I decided to try a drink with it.

In the middle of my debates inside the aforementioned chat room, wondering what to make with it (and getting very good suggestions from Stevi for dacquiris and French 75s) a horde of future in-laws showed up and I was forced to shut down my computer rapidly less they see some of the less-than-family friendly site titles in my Windows bar.? DARN YOU VISTA!

I thumbed my way through The Joy of Mixology and through Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails before suddenly thinking: HEY!? A Sazerac!

You know how I love a Sazerac.

I grabbed my Old Overholt, the Peychaud’s bitters, my little dripper bottle of absinthe, and a lemon.

If you know my favorite recipe for a Sazerac, you know how I made it.

Sazerac

3 ounces rye
3/4 ounce simple syrup
2 solid dashes Peychaud’s Bitters
Mix the rye, simple syrup, and Peychaud’s over ice.? Rinse out a chilled rocks glass with absinthe, dump out the absinthe, and strain the stirred mixture into the glass.? Squeeze a lemon peel over it and toss out the lemon peel.

(Recipe based off Gary Regan’s in The Joy of Mixology.)

The drink wasn’t bad – though the vanilla tones to it were really wiped out after the bitters and rye.? I might need to add more extract to the mixture.

But before I do that, I’ll probably have to go ahead and make a French 75.

I’m sure it’ll be delicious.

Anyways, thanks again to The Scribe over at A Mixed Dram for hosting this month.? Me, I’m going to walk back over to my precious, precious vanilla syrup.? What?? You want me to mix you up with an egg yolk in a some kind of layered drink that doesn’t have the same ingredients as before?? Hmmmm….