Like many of you, I’ve been glued to the (sometimes crappy) coverage of the Summer Olympic Games in London. I really enjoy the Games and have to say I get an up-swell in national pride watching the United States compete against the other nations of the world. Last night we had some friends over to hang out, have some grub, watch the Olympics and, of course, have a few drinks.

For the first drink, I found a tasty punch in the Cocktails+ iPhone app. I changed the recipe a bit so I’ll give you the original first and then my tweaked version. Unfortunately, in all the fervor of the games, I forgot to take a photo of the punch.

Roman Punch
1/4 oz sugar
1/2 oz raspberry syrup
2 dashes lemon or lime juice
1/4 oz curacao
2 oz brandy
1/2 oz Jamaican rum

Build over ice; garnish with various fruits in season and serve with a straw.

(Adapted from Harry Johnson, New & Improved Illustrated Bartender’s Manual. [Author, 1888] p. 166.)

And here’s the version I made. As you’ll see, I multiplied the ingredients by 4 in order to help take this from a single serve cocktail to a group beverage.

Roman Punch No. 2
1 oz simple syrup
2 oz raspberry syrup
Juice of half a lemon
1 oz Mandarin Napoleon
6 oz brandy
2 oz Applejack
2 oz Scarlet Ibis rum
16 oz sparkling water

Stir everything with a few ice cubes to well chill. Serve in small glasses over fresh ice and garnish with mint.

My version of the Roman Punch, although even with the addition of sparkling water, is a boozy punch. You can definitely taste the brandies and rum. Surprisingly the curacao comes through pretty strongly as well. All-in-all a tasty punch for a night of the Games.

The second drink I made is an original creation. I wanted something boozy and stirred with an international feel. You would think with the Olympics being held in London I would grab some gin. And oddly, once the drink was tasted, two out of the three tasters thought the base spirit was, in fact, gin. However, I actually grabbed mezcal. To be specific, I grabbed my bottle of Fidencio Sin Humo. The Fidencio mezcal is an unaged spirit and for a mezcal is very light on the smokiness that is a hallmark of mezcals in general. Upon reflection, an aged mezcal would provide a more golden color, but I would be afraid of too much smoke throwing off the balance. Of course, this is just fodder for more experimentation!

After grabbing the first ingredient from Mexico, I went across the Atlantic ocean to France and grabbed my bottle of Yellow Chartreuse. Ohhh, golden and delicious! Finally, I wanted to give a little bit more sweetness and a rounder flavor so I hopped over to Italy for my bottle of Maraschino. Mexico, France, Italy. Mezcal, Yellow Chartreuse, Maraschino. International ingredients for an international cocktail to enjoy during the 2012 London Olympic Games.

Gold Medal
1.5 oz Fidencio Mezcal
.5 oz Yellow Chartreuse
.25 oz Maraschino
2 dashes grapefruit bitters

Stir with ice and serve up. Squeeze lemon peel over top of drink and garnish with peel.

With a slightly golden hue and an herbal-berry roundness to the flavor, this drink soars like the gold medal athletes it celebrates.

Regardless who you are rooting for during the Olympics, give this drink a try and let me know what you think in the comments.

Cheers!

This Independence Day, at least here in the Washington, DC area, has been marked with a record setting heat wave and levels of humidity that almost necessitate a scuba tank. It’s seriously hot around here!

So while lounging around the Den yesterday watching Jaws & Independence Day, I, of course, whipped up a few refreshing beverages that really beat the heat. The names are less than desirable, but my brain was like fudge.

One thing about drinking when it is this hot out, I want ice & lots of it. So I tend to drink tiki drinks and long drinks in chimney glasses that will keep the heat at bay for a little while. These drinks definitely fit that mold.

For the first drink I wanted to utilize some of the great looking peaches I got at the market. And when I think about peaches and summer drinks my mind instinctively goes to whiskey. So this is what I came up with.

Peach-Whiskey Cooler
Muddle 1/4 of a fresh peach with .75oz simple syrup.
Add:
1oz fresh lemon juice
1oz Bonded Applejack
1.5oz Rye whiskey
1 dash Angostura Bitters
1 dash Fee Brother’s Peach Bitters

Shake and double strain into an ice filled chimney glass. Add soda water to fill and gently stir. Garnish with mint, a slice of peach and/or some lemon peel.

This drink fit the bill perfectly. You may think that the whiskey & applejack make this a heavier drink but in reality it is very light. The peach, lemon & soda mixture make this incredibly refreshing and the rye and applejack give just enough body to let you know you’re enjoying a potant potable.

The next drink I came up because I wanted to have a little English gin during my Independence Day celebration. I had a pink grapefruit hanging around and knew that some of the fresh rosemary we have growing on the balcony would be a great tasting mix.

Grapefruit-Rosemary Cooler
Muddle a 4 inch strip of grapefruit peel, a 2 inch stalk of rosemary and 1 oz simple syrup.

Add to that:
1.25 oz fresh grapefruit juice
2 oz gin (I used Beefeater 24)
2 dashes Bittermen’s Burlesque Bitters

Shake & double strain into an ice filled chimney glass. Top with soda water to fill and gently stir to combine. Garnish with some grapefruit peel & rosemary.

This was great! Light and citrusy without being cloyingly sweet. I could drink these all day during this heat wave.

So what kind of drinks do you make to beat the heat? Leave us your suggestions in the comments.

Cheers!

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

You see, one of our neighbors had a Christmas party on Saturday night.? When we were talking about he expressed interest in having eggnog.? None of us had really had eggnog before and his plan to buy some from the store and spike it.

Whoa whoa whoa, I said.? Give me a chance first.

I’d seen Jeffrey Morgenthaler’s recipe for eggnog and decided to give it a shot.? I went out to the store and bought all the stuff I didn’t have so that I could make up a batch: mostly, I needed whole milk, heavy cream, and fresh nutmeg.? Spice connection is a GO!? (Huzzah.? Nutmeg.)

I grabbed the sugar, Foursquare spiced rum – which I’d never opened, and some Chalfonte cognac.? I don’t have a traditional blender but I did have a stick blender.

Now I’m going to tell you something – this recipe is a pain in the butt to make by yourself with a stick blender!? I was smart enough to grate the nutmeg ahead of time, as well as to portion out all of the other ingredients involved.

When I was done blending everything I was tempted to try it right away.? Two reasons came up that kept me from drinking it: a) I wanted to let it cool first and b) I fell asleep.

For whatever reason I was busy the next night.? So it was yet another night before I could take a taste.

The eggnog kept torturing me and I finally got to take a taste.? I shook up the concoction, poured it into a glass, and topped it with a bit of fresh grated nutmeg.

Sip.

Wow.

I mean – great googly moogly!? This was some awesome stuff.? It reminded me in a lot of ways of a vanilla milkshake, though without an obvious vanilla taste (I did, however, strongly consider adding vanilla extract to the recipe).? At the same time, it wasn’t heavy while being as amazingly rich as it was.? Telling my friends who were dietitians what was in it was quite amusing – and one of them still slugged back a full cup of it!

It ends up for the party I stocked up to make a bunch of it.? My friend suggested how much we should make – I ended up buying two fifths of Sailor Jerry’s and two of St. Remy XO brandy, a gallon of whole milk, six pints of heavy cream, and four dozen eggs.

Uh…yeah.? We didn’t make that much.? We went through a dozen eggs, so we made six “batches”.

Still, everyone who tried it – from seasoned drinkers to lightweights – loved it.

This is the Scofflaw’s Den, though, and to make up for lack of a drink recipe from Marshall I figure I should post another one.

At the same neighbor’s house a couple of weeks before my brother and I had visited to watch the Redskins play – uh – somebody.? (Hey, I’m a Steelers fan.)? The neighbor asked that I bring a “tasty beverage”.

Initially I hadn’t really planned on anything but while I was at the store I had an idea.? I picked up some fresh apple cider and went home.?? While I was at home I grabbed a bottle of Laird’s Applejack (the non-bonded kind), some St. Elizabeth Allspice Dram, and a bottle of Fee’s Aromatic bitters.

See the spice connection?? If you can’t consider allspice dram under the “spice” category I don’t know what counts!

I experimented a bit while I was over there but the general recipe ended up being as follows.? Our neighbor gave the drink its name:

Apple Cider Heaven
4 oz. fresh apple cider
2 oz. Laird’s applejack
1 oz. Jameson’s Irish whiskey
1/2 oz. St. Elizabeth’s Allspice dram
1-2 dashes bitter
Shake all together and strain into a double old fashioned glass.? If you’d like to garnish it, I suggest an apple slice with a light dusting of nutmeg.

You could make the drink a number of different ways.? For instance, it could be made hot (in which case I’d shake just the liquor ingredients, then pour it in a glass and add hot apple cider).? We made them in pint glasses, more like shooters, and free-poured most of them.

For the party I made more of them but I made one rookie mistake – we were short on space in the kitchen, so I went outside.? Yeah, you know, when it’s less than 32 degrees outside it’s going to lower the amount of water you get into a shaken drink, and thus, it’ll taste stronger.

Still, people loved them!? The combination of apple cider and allspice dram, in my opinion, is KILLER.? From there you can work on all kinds of combinations!

Anyways, thus goes Mixology Monday: Spice.? I’d like to thank Craig at Tiki Drinks & Indigo Firmaments for hosting it, Paul as usual for setting up Mixology Monday, and Jeffrey Morgenthaler for that killer eggnog recipe.? After making all that nog, and eating deviled eggs with it, I will be avoiding eggs for a while.? Probably until Saturday.

I was born and raised on sweet tea.? While sweet tea isn’t necessarily a northern WV thing, it is a southwestern VA thing, and my mom was from south WV, so she taught me the “proper” way to make sweet tea.? It usually ended up as what was described by one friend of mine in high school as “tea flavored sugar sludge”.

When I first got the Firefly sweet tea vodka I’d been really surprised – to me, it tasted like sweet tea and it tasted good. Scarily good, in fact, even at “only” 70 proof.

Joe over at Ace hadn’t tried the Sweet Carolina yet but he pointed out that it was a good bit cheaper than the Firefly.? I figured what the heck, and despite the fact that I had two full fifths of Firely, bought a bottle of it.? It was less than $20 and more than $15 (and I can’t remember the exact price) if I remember correctly.

I thought the bottle had a better presentation to it but when I looked at the label I had a worry.? It’s labeled as being bottled and produced in Maine – not a state known for its sweet tea.

I cracked open the Sweet Carolina and took a whiff of it.? It wasn’t bad, not great, but not bad.? I switched over to the Firefly and wow, that had a much stronger nose and one that smelled much more of sweet tea.? I went back to the Sweet Carolina and couldn’t really get any nose from it anymore.

Uh oh.

It was time to pour some vodka.

I got out two shot glasses and poured them.? I sniffed both of them carefully – same reaction – and then started my taste testing.

As you can see, I had the two shot glasses of sweet tea vodka, a note pad – for notes, natch – a spit cup and a big glass of water.? I wanted to try to do it correctly.

At first I just took a small taste, rolled it around in my mouth, then spit it out.? I’d rinse my mouth with water thoroughly between tastes.? I started with the Sweet Carolina as I was already familiar with the Firefly.

The Sweet Carolina was acrid and had a very artificial taste after spitting it out.? When I swallowed it this was followed up with a pronounced alcohol burn.? Not good in any way, shape, or form.

With the Firefly, tasting it and spitting it out let me taste the tea and sweetness along with the burn even upon spitting.? When drinking it straight it tasted a lot like sweet tea, with some clear tea complexities to it, but none of the acrid or artificial tastes that the Sweet Carolina had despite the alcohol burn.

I watered both down (about half and half with tap water) and the the acrid, artificial taste – I feel like I’m flogging a theme here but it’s true – on the Sweet Carolina still stuck around.? I imagine that thoroughly mixing it with, say, lemonade might cover it up but at that point I’d have to ask “why?”

The Firefly, on the other hand, got even more delicious with watering down, getting rid of the burn while still maintaining the sweet tea taste and developing what I might have been imagining but I regularly taste as a slight lemon edge.

Even with the price differential I can not in any way, shape, or form recommend the Sweet Carolina.? I’m debating right now just dumping it out.

I had been assured by a reliable party that the two bottles of apple goodness you see to the left – Laird’s Applejack and Captain Apple Jack – are, in fact, the same thing, both 100 proof bottled in bond applejack from Laird’s, just one relabeled for the Virginia and North Carolina markets.

I went through my last bottle of the Laird’s Applejack last weekend when making my Apple Cider Heavens, so while I was at Ace today I picked up a bottle of Laird’s bottled in bond.? Joe assured me that it was different and that I’d like it a whole lot more.? Indeed, the bottle was different.

As you can see on the far right in the picture, it’s definitely a different looking bottle.? On the far left is a bottle of the Laird’s 7 1/2 year old apple brandy, and the middle is the standard Captain Apple Jack, listed as bottled by the Virginia Fruit Brandy Distilling Corporation that also had an address in New Jersey (Laird’s is based out of New Jersey and North Garden, Virginia, just outside Charlottesville).

I cracked and sniffed and couldn’t tell anything.

So it was time to pour.

Even with a flash and a close up it was hard to tell any significant difference in color.? The 7.5 year old had the most difference in any category, but that’s also perhaps because it’s only 80 proof and the other two were both 100 proof.? (One note: the shot glass with the 7.5 year old brandy, on the left, is a bit blue-ish, while the other two are clear.)

I tasted and sniffed the Captain Apple Jack and the Laird’s Bottled in Bond and I just have to say: I couldn’t tell a difference in any way.

So, what was my conclusion?? Laird’s Applejack, Captain Apple Jack, and the Laird’s Bottled in Bond 100 proof apple brandy all appear to me – with the caveat that I’d tasted those sweet tea vodkas earlier – to be nearly if not exactly the same product.

If anyone out there has any proof to that, or proof against it, I’d love to hear about it.

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!

Over the past year, we have seen this sight grow and, hopefully, we have grown as writers, as reporters and as a resource to those wishing to drink better in DC and everywhere else.? As SeanMike stated, the best part of this whole trip has been meeting and befriending tons of people, both professionals and amateurs, and the genuine camaraderie among everyone involved with cocktails.? It truly is a blessing to be a part of this thing we do.

More musings from me after the break . . .

Our whirlwind started on October 10th, the one year birthday of The Scofflaw’s Den.? We started the night at Bourbon where we enjoyed a few beers and I had a great bacon cheeseburger.? I had been craving a burger all day and this certainly hit the spot.? Then, we headed to Central to meet up with Justin.? SeanMike has covered most of this night admirably, but here are a few points from my perspective.

First, Justin made a Green Apple Martini.? Yes, a Green Apple Martini.? But, thankfully, he eschewed the use of Green Apple Pucker for a much more natural and culinary based method of using green apples.? Originally, he tried infusing green apple with gin.? Apparently after a week, he still didn’t get the flavor for which he was looking.? He then decided to sous-vide the green apples with Bombay Sapphire gin.? Within 20 minutes of the warm bath, he had a flavorful gin infusion that contained all the deliciousness of the apples.? For the Green Apple Martini, he simply stirred two ounces of the infused gin with a dash or two of orange bitters, strained into a chilled cocktail glass.? That’s it.? Simple.? And hands down the best chilled glass of gin I have ever had.? I gave our friend Danielle a sip and she really enjoyed it as well.

Other drinks that I had at Central were just as wonderful.? A highball of applejack, Benedictine and San Pellegrino Chinotto was rich and light at the same time.? A great early fall sipper.? Nikki, our bartender after Justin had to make his farewells, then mixed me up a proper Aviation, replete with Creme de Violette, which was fantastic.? The night ended with me ordering a French 75 to celebrate with a little bubbly.? Justin also arranged for a desert tray to be sent out.? As SeanMike has already said, it as fan-fugu-tastic!

Saturday was a trip to Ace and meeting a reader, Steve – which was really cool.? Just a reminder for those of you how have not met us yet, I’m in picture to the left (shaved head and goatee) and SeanMike is on the right.? A trip to Ace is always a fun way to kill an hour or two chatting with Joe and other customers.

I wrote about Hummingbird to Mars and it’s eventual closing.? On Friday, while at Central, Justin invited us to come by the following Monday (Oct. 13) for their final night of service.? Now how could we refuse an invitation such as this?!?!?!? So on Monday night, after staying in the office until 8:15pm, I headed to meet SeanMike and cab up to Hummingbird.? Luckily, there were two seats at the bar waiting for us when we got there.? As usual, Justin, Derek and Own did a wonderful job on the cocktails.? There were a few friends of ours from DonRockwell.com, including Bill Thomas (Bourbon’s owner), Adam Burnbach (Bar Pilar) and Joe Riley (Ace Beverage), having drinks and whooping it up at Bourbon.? We got to spend some time with everyone and really enjoy the last night of Hummingbird with great people.? Hummingbird will sorely be missed.

While at Hummingbird a neat little occurrence happened that I want to share.? First, I love a Cocktail a la Louisiane.? This is probably my favorite cocktail.? If I’m only allowed to drink one cocktail for the rest of my life, this would be it.? I also like to order it when I go places that have good cocktails.? SeanMike jokes that I should have the recipe printed on the back of my business cards.? That isn’t a half bad idea.? For those who don’t know:

Cocktail a la Louisiane
1 oz Rye
1 oz Benedictine
1 oz Sweet Vermouth
.25 oz Absinthe
3-4 dashes Peychaud’s Bitters
-Stir everything with ice for a slow 20 count.? Strain into a chilled glass and finish with a lemon twist.

This drink is everything a cocktail should be – sweet, spicy, complex and adult.? I love making this for people and having them enjoy it as much as I do.

Back to Hummingbird – So I order a Louisiane from Justin and he remembers that it is my favorite but can’t quite remember the full ingredient list.? I tell him the recipe and I get a sort of quizzical I’m-not-certain-that-is-going-to-taste-right kind of look.? But he continues on and makes the drink.? I watch as he slips the straw in to give a little taste to check for balance and then it happens.? His eyes light up, his jaw drops and he says “Wow!”? He then tells me that while he’s a big fan of the sour category of drinks, this just propelled into a favorite.? That is the power of the Louisiane!

After finishing my Louisiane, I head down to talk to our friends downstairs.? Upon returning to my bar stool, Adam Burnbach (Bar Pilar) is sitting at the bar with SeanMike and a few others.? SeanMike looks at me and asks me to guess what Adam is drinking.? I look at the cocktail and confidently say “A Louisiane!” to much cheering!? (Or at least there was cheering in my head!)? Adam then sips his drink and says that I have to send him the recipe so he can use it at Bar Pilar.? This whole exchange, my friends, made me honored and humbled to be the ambassador of such a great cocktail.

The following day, Tuesday Oct. 14th, was the Museum of the American Cocktail’s seminar on Great Hotel Bars, Part 1.? The session was presented by our friend Derek Brown and Phil Greene.? We learned about history and cocktails coming from Raffles (Singapore Sling), Waldorf=Astoria (Rob Roy), Hotel Monteleone (Vieux Carre) and the Ritz Paris (Sidecar).? Chantel Tsing also created a Tabard Cocktail for the night consisting of tequila, sherry and Drambuie.? Very tasty indeed.? At the seminar, we also met another reader, Matt Hamlin.? It really is cool to meet you folks!

Wednesday, Oct. 15, placed us in the hands of Gina Chersevani of EatBar.? Wednesday night was Gina’s first cocktail class titled “Stocking the Home Bar: Vodka v. Gin Showdown.”? It was a small class, only eight people signed up, but everyone was enthusiastic and asked tons of questions.? Gina served up some tasty cocktails including a Beet and Champagne cocktail, a berry-shrub, her chocolate and blue-cheese reduction cocktail and a few tastings of gin and vodka.? Chef Andrew Markert preparred courses that went along with each cocktail Gina made and even came out and explained them to us.? Each dish was fantastic!? Truth be told, with the cocktails and full dinner, the course more than paid for itself!

Gina did a great job teaching the class and said how happy we attended to keep her on track.? I don’t think we contributed much, except the occassional smart-ass remark and ingredient suggestion.? But we talked with the other students and it seemed that everyone had a great time.? After the glass, Gina, SeanMike and I, along with two of our classmates, went to Spider Kelly’s in Clarendon for more drinks and to try their pork chop.? The pork chop was delicious and after several irish whisky shots and a beer or two later, I stumbled home and crashed.? Except for the morning hangover, it was a great night.

After taking it easy Thursday through Saturday, Sunday brought along the DonRockwell.com Fall Picnic.? For the picnic, I decided to bring along a bottled cocktail.? I wanted to do something that screamed Fall.? I played around on the interwebs and looked in my various books and personal recipes and came across the “Northern Spy” created at Alembic in San Francisco.? The recipe looked like this:

Northern Spy
2oz Applejack
1oz apple cider
.5oz fresh lemon juice
.25-.50oz apricot brandy
-Shake, strain.

I made one of these and while it was tasty it was still a little boozier than what I wanted.? So I decided to play around.? I’ll write about my tweaks in my next article, because frankly, this is getting long.?? Needless to say, that the two beverages I supplied were big hits and both bottles were finished off in fairly short order.

That brings me up-to-date with all the goings on.? If you have read this whole thing, you really do deserve a cookie.? Or a cocktail.? Leave a comment and maybe the next time I’m out, we can belly up to the bar.

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!)

No, waitaminute…nah, it’s true.  Seriously.  I’ve got about 3 hours left in my work day, and then it’s home – and I have tomorrow off for work for a trip up into the woods, wine tasting over the weekend, and then the Super Bowl.

On my trip to the woods I plan on taking my bottle of horseradish-infused vodka with me and offering to make bloody mary drinks.  Whether or not I take anything else I haven’t decided, but I probably will bring at least some whiskey or something.  A good, easy to make cocktail is key in times like this.  Heck, depending on packing constraints I could throw the bison grass vodka in there – we pick up some apple juice and the ladies (oh, who am I kidding?  David too.)  will be ready to go!

One day we’ll probably hit Rappahannock Cellars.  I’ve been to that winery once before but it should be a good time.  There’s a few other decent wineries in the area, too.

Super Bowl day is Sunday, and despite the myriad cocktail opportunities pointed out in Slashfood today, I’ll probably stick with beer.  But I did want to look at what they have.  And I have to bring something with me, and I’m thinking Muldoon’s whiskey-marinated chicken wings with barbecue sauce from the LA Times – I’ll talk about that recipe after the cocktails.

Slashfood’s link was actually over to Cocktail.com.  There they had a page about American football cocktails written back in 2004.  To be honest, most of these appear to be more shooters and less of the traditional cocktails that we here in the Scofflaw’s Den tend to prefer, but hey, whatever floats your boat.

The Blitz for instance is 1 ounce each of tequila, rum, gin, vodka, cranberry juice, and sours mix, shaken, poured into four shot glasses, topped with tonic, and then shot (done tequila style with a lick of sugar, shot, suck on a lime).  Almost like a variant of a long island iced tea made for shooting.  I’m not certain how this drink relates to football other than the name and perhaps the desire for some people to get tanked while watching/tailgating for football.

The False Start, surprisingly enough submitted by a Raiders fan, has four ounces of apple cider, two ounces of bourbon, and one ounce of apple brandy plus half a lemon, shaken, and makes two four ounce cocktails.  I could see myself trying this one, though I probably wouldn’t make two out of it.  The apple and the bourbon, to me, says FOOTBALL.  Apples are all about the fall.

In a kind of random drink in my opinion, the First and Ten has a ton of different juices and just a bit of gin, plus a float of dark rum.  You start with three ounces of gin, then add two ounces each of orange, pineapple, grapefruit, cranberry, lemon, and lime juices.  Yikes!  You shake it, strain it into two Collins glasses filled with ice, and top with a dash of grenadine, a splash of soda water or seltzer, and float some dark rum on top.  Again, I don’t see how this one gets it’s name or what it brings to football – maybe it looks kind of brownish by the end.

The Fumble is yet another gin drink.  Two ounces each of gin and vodka, plus two ounces each grapefruit and cranberry juices, shaken and strained into two rocks glasses packed with crushed ice, then topped with soda water or seltzer.  I’d prefer, personally, to go with all gin in something like this, and I kind of wonder what Fee’s Brothers’ Grapefruit bitters would do to the drink (either in conjunction or in replacement of the grapefruit juice).  Again, I’m not seeing the football connection.

Next we have the Time Out.  This is three ounces of Jaegermeister and one ounce of anisette, turned into – something.  The recipe says shake with cracked ice and strain into two sugar rimmed martini glasses.  I have no idea what this would turn out like, as I have a hard time imagining the taste of the anisette.  Maybe

tmfiii

can help me.  Though he’d probably tell me to use Pernod and laugh at me as I sputter while drinking it.  He’s a mean one.

They have any problem with it, you tell them to talk to ME, Marshall aka

tmfiii

, full contact information available upon request.

Whew.  This post went a lot longer than I expected – guess I gotta get to the wings in another post!