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!

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!

Second off – Phil Greene alerted us to this post covering the cocktails from the DC bracket of the Domaine de Canton competition.? I know I’ve tried a couple of those – the Domainatrix by Rachel Sergi, now over at Againn, and the Thai’s the Limit by Gina Chersevani of PS7 (which also features your Scofflaws in the Washington Post video about it).? I want to say I’ve tried the Owen Thomson (of Bourbon) Jack O’ Ginger but I might just be confusing it with another drink.

So – now to drinking and reading.

When I moved into my current apartment my parents commented on how it seemed like all the boxes I brought in had one of two things in them – either books or liquor.? Well, duh, I thought – what are my hobbies?? Cocktails and reading!

Them's a lot of words!

As I settled down recently to reread a ten part alternative history by Harry Turtledove (the Timeline-191 series, if you must know, where the South won the War Between the States thanks to not losing Lee’s Special Order 191 to McClellan), I did it my usual way – most of the time outside, on my balcony, drinking a beer and smoking a cigar.

mmmm, beer and a cigar

As I read through the first book How Few Remain that was mostly fine, but then I got into the Great War series with American Front.? That series introduces what has to be my favorite character in the entire series, Quebecois farmer Lucien Galtier.? Unlike most of the characters in the book (slight spoilers here, I’m afraid) his life doesn’t entirely suck.? In fact, his often humorous sections really help out through the grimmer parts of the series.

It was also his sections quite a while ago that got me introduced to Calvados.? Calvados is an apple brandy produced in France, and while the character drank basically a moonshine variation of it – after all, he’s a farmer in Quebec, not in the Calvados region of France, and it’s so often wartime with occupation forces etc yadda yadda yadda – that I had finally managed to get a bottle a few years ago.

I still remember the first time I actually tried Calvados.? It was on a date at a place called Sonoma here in DC and I was so excited to see it on the menu that I spilled red wine on my shirt.? (Hey, that was like over 2 years ago!? I had no idea what I was getting myself into.)? I didn’t care for it much straight, and the bottle I had tended to only be used in cocktails for a number of years (that number being two).

As I started rereading the series, I thought, hey, I should drink appropriately for the books.? Cigars are fine, a lot of the characters smoke them though the US characters will remind you repeatedly that their cigars are bad compared to Confederate ones (the Confederacy, in these books, own Cuba as well as the prime tobacco growing parts of North America).

At first this started with sipping on Calvados while reading them, which helped with the Galtier parts to feel more “into it”.? Depending on night of the week and compunction, I started adding in other things.? Whiskey, for instance, is an easy choice for a lot of the characters, as well as beer – which I had before, naturally – and occasionally for the characters from Sonora and Chihuahua some mezcal, specifically, Del Maguey crema de mezcal.

Of course, you can’t keep up with the characters in the book, but on the other hand, keeping it close to what you’re reading helps a lot.? I feel an urge to read The Great Gatsby again, since I think it’d fun to drink appropriate cocktails to that – though it is kind of funny to try to figure out what to drink while reading my Warhammer 40K novels.

Right now?? Well, I’m reading The Space Wolves Omnibus and therefore drinking ale.? In fact, I started tonight with a Sam Smith Yorkshire Stingo.? Sure, I probably should drink something more viking, but they drink ale in the books, and I don’t have any Skullsplitter.? A lot of the characters drink amasec in 40K, and the description of that seems to be “brandy” as it’s distilled wine.? Hey, I’ve got plenty of brandy in my house…

What do you drink while reading?

I was unable to do August’s MxMo, thanks to my trip to South Korea.? Thanks to Tales, we didn’t have one in July.? So the theme for this week, thanks to our hosts at eGullet, is “Dizzy Dairy”.? This means anything dairy, or it seems, egg whites.

I’ve had a lot of debates over what to make for this one.? I also did a lot of searching for heavy cream in case I wanted to do that.? I had bad luck in that regard – I first went to Harris Teeter near me and they were out.? So I got home from work and went to the mini-mart in my building, but they did have Guinness (which I may be using).? Nothing.? Walked up to Courthouse Plaza and tried the convenience store there – didn’t see any, but they had that Bud Light Golden Wheat which I had wanted to try.? From there I went to CVS, but they had none of those things, so I went back to the convenience store, actually found a carton of cream I’d missed (whew!), bought the Bud Light, then went back to my mini-mart for a four pack of Guinness pub cans.

Now let’s see if I use ‘em – because as of the time I’m writing this, I still haven’t made a drink!

Let’s look at some ingredients first.

My first instinct had been to use Castries, a rum-based peanut cream liqueur.? I love this stuff.? LOVE IT IN THE FACE.? It is delicious.? Actually, I typically drink it straight.? Hmmmm.

Then it occurred to me (thanks to a fortuitously timed e-mail) that I also had a bottle of the limited edition Kahlua coffee cream liqueur in my fridge.? As you know, a White Russian is equal parts Kahlua, vodka, and cream, so the easy (and perhaps lazy) thing to do would be a version of that – say, adding vanilla vodka to a measure of Kahlua coffee cream liqueur – but I wanted to do something different.

Thus the Guinness.

Depending on who I end up going out drinking with there’s a good chance I end up with a car bomb at some point – usually made where we go with Bailey’s and Irish whiskey.? That gave me an idea, though using the Kahlua coffee cream meant I should use something like a Spanish brandy, I thought.? Alas, I didn’t have any, so I went with some Armagnac XO.

I'm glad someone reminded me that I had this!

I fiddled around a bit and came up with a drink that’s delicious whether or not you use the beer.? I thought about naming it something related to the car bomb but thought some people might not appreciate it so much – whatever, I know, but hey, let’s think up a different name.

Uhhhh…I hate thinking up drink names!

Anyways, here it is:

The Cross Hemispheres
1 1/2 ounces armagnac (XO if you have it – I used Castarede)
1 ounce Kahlua coffee cream
1-2 dashes Fee’s Aztec chocolate bitters
Add ingredients to a mixing tin with ice and shake.? Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.? Alternatively, strain into a chilled pint glass and top with Guinness.? Let the Guinness settle, give a light stir, and drink.? If you add the beer, call it a Cross Hemisphere Fizz.

nom nom nom

But you know what the problem is – here at the Den, we like to give you two drinks for your Mixology Monday fun!? I’ve come up with a brand new drink (I think) so this time I thought I’d take a look through my copy of The Joy of Mixology (as much because it happens to be sitting right next to me) to see if there’s a drink I’d like to make in there involving dairy.

Unfortunately, I failed to be inspired.

Then I remembered that I’d come up with some drinks for the Thursday Drink Night we did with Kahlua coffee cream.? It was during the Steelers-Titans football game and, unfortunately, the last game that the Steelers won, so my two drinks named after various Steelers players I decided to skip – especially as my last drink is a bit fuzzy in my memory.

But the first one had some potential, so it was time to tweak, rename, and try it again.? Originally it actually used two cream liqueurs – Castries and Kahlua.? I kept that, but tweaked the proportions on those and the bourbon, added a garnish, and renamed it.

Tastes great and wakes you up! Oops…

That TDN was really the first one I’d done since – well, longer than I could remember, thanks to Tales and Korea.? My first drink, therefore, was called “I’M BACK” and, well, I don’t think that is such a great name.? Therefore we have a new name for it along with the before-mentioned tweaks.

The Bloodhound
1 1/2 ounces bourbon (Willett Pot Still)
1 1/2 ounce Kahlua coffee cream liqueur
1/2 ounce Castries
2 dashes Fee’s Aztec chocolate bitters
Shake with ice, double strain into a chilled cocktail glass half-rimmed with ground espresso.? If desired, sprinkle some additional ground espresso on top.

Man, this drink came out good!? It’s waking me up a bit, not necessarily a good thing right now, but it’s darn delicious.

If you notice, I had the same bitters in both.? There’s two reasons for that.? One, I haven’t got the Bittermens mole bitters yet, so I can’t compare and contrast.? More importantly, however, is that the combination of flavors I feel like works really well with the Kahlua coffee cream liqueur.

I think that’s about all for tonight.? I want to thank the eGullet folks for hosting, and I should also thank Kahlua for providing me with the sample bottle of Kahlua cream liqueur.? (I should note, too, that this bottle of Castries was also a sample, but lord knows I’ve bought enough bottles of it already…)

Cognac, I feel, is often a misunderstood liquor.? People have an impression of it that it’s only for the rich, while that’s not true; on the other hand, when introducing people to the subtypes of brandy that are available, or even for other drinks, cognac is often easily used as an example because people are familiar with it.? All cognacs are brandy; not all brandies are cognac, it depends on where they come from.? (There are other requirements, too, but that’s the big one, at least, in my humble opinion.)

And where cognacs come from is the French area known as, well – Cognac.

I won’t get into Wikipedia-esque detail on VS versus VSOP versus XO, or the other different types.? The important thing to remember when using cognac in drinks, in my opinion, is to remember that while cognacs vary, you can use a cognac to replace a brandy but not vice versa.? Cognacs, in my experience, tend to be richer, and often sweeter – in my opinion – than other brandies from similar areas.? Armagnacs might be able to replace a cognac, but really, if a drink is so specific to request a cognac you should use it.

Not that many do.? You might see a “special” version of a drink using cognac that has it instead of brandy, but only a rare few use cognac as an ingredient, and there’s one in particular that I know catches more than a few eyes.

I know this because on the last, admittedly hazily remembered, night at Hummingbird to Mars I was offered one – and the bartender (I want to say it was Owen) I seem to remember was surprised that I knew what it was (and drank it anyways). ? If you’ve got the Regan’s The Joy of Mixology you might already know where I’m going…

Tremblement De Terre (Earthquake)
2 1/2 ounces cognac
1/4 ounce absinthe
1 lemon twist, garnish
Stir and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.? Add the garnish.

Now, I’ve had that drink, and it’s a killer.? Not bad whatsoever, in my opinion, but oof!

My favorite cognac right now is Chalfonte VSOP.? I just got word that it’s back at my favorite liquor store, Ace in DC, and that makes me very happy.? It’s not expensive but it’s quote luscious in its taste.? My goal is to make sure I have a bottle of two to enjoy in the snow, around a big bonfire, with family and friends next winter.? It was that goal last winter but never happened.

Still, I need a drink for a blogger or mixologist for tonight, and I thought of that drink and Stevi’s blog name.? Hmmm.? It seems to insinuate that you can only have two of her drinks in a night, and what’s a good drink to base that off of, in addition to her love of Peruvian horses, I thought – oh.? I know.

Two At The Most
1 1/2 ounces cognac (Chalfonte VSOP)
1 ounce pisco brandy (Macchu Pisco)
1/4 ounce + 1 dash absinthe (Kubler)
1/4 ounce simple syrup
1-2 dashes Peruvian bitters
Stir and strain into a cocktail glass.? Garnish with a brandy soaked cherry, which sinks to the bottom, and a lemon twist.

Yummy!? But that’s quite a bit of booze there, so be warned – you won’t want to have more than two at the most!

[Third 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.]

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!

Every Thursday night (officially) beginning at 7pm EST, cocktail enthusiasts, bloggers, writers, bartenders and other sundry forms of riff-raff gather at the online Mixoloseum Bar.? We usually have a particular theme and everyone throws out recipes utilizing that particular themed ingredient.? Some drinks work, others get tossed down the sink never to be thought of again.? The fun is trying new things and occasionally hitting upon an undiscovered gem.

I’ve been lucky to co-create two drinks that have turned out to be favorites.? The first was way back in December when Rick of Kaiser Penguin and I collaborated and came up with the . . .

Cilician Voyage
1oz Citadelle Reserve Gin
1oz Strega
1oz Lime Juice
.50oz Grapefruit Juice
.50oz Cinnamon Syrup
1 dash Fee’s Whiskey Barrel-Aged Bitters
1 dash Fee’s Grapefruit Bitters
Ginger Beer to top

Build everything except ginger beer in a rocks glass filled with crushed ice.? Give it a good stir and top with ginger beer.? Garnish with a cinnamon stick and a lime twist.? Rick likes to throw a few strands of saffron on the top to gild the lilly.

Thanks to Rick contacting the good folks at Citadelle Gin, they tried it and loved it.? In fact, they liked it enough to send Rick and I a bottle of Citadelle Reserve for our efforts.? Keep your eye on the Den for a write-up on Citadelle Reserve.? It is a fantastic gin!

This past Thursday, TDN was sponsored by Mata Hari Absinthe and we were lucky enough to have a live outpost at the Tabard Inn here in DC.? Gathered at the Tabard’s bar were Sean and I, Rick of Kaiser Penguin, Nathan, a cocktail enthusiast from Pittsburgh, PA, Sam of Brand Action Team and Owen our videographer for the evening.? You can find Sam’s post on TDN here.? Chantal Tseng, head bartender at Tabard Inn was graciously making our drinks as we wrote down the recipes that came across the computer screen.

For my drink, I gave Chantal a list of five specific ingredients and asked her to find a good ratio.? The ingredient list consisted of brandy, amaro nonino, Mata Hari Absinthe, sherry and bitters.? The drink that was invented was . . .

The Bitter Industry
1.5oz Brandy
.50oz Amaro Nonino
.50oz Amontillado Sherry
1 dash Mata Hari Absinthe
2 dashes orange bitters

Stir in a quadrangular motion with cracked ice and strain with the flick of the wrist into a chilled cocktail glass.

And what do you know, The Bitter Industry won for best cocktail of the night!? A platitude I am more than honored to share with Chantal.? If you are interested in reading the full write up of this past TDN, you can find it here on the Mixoloseum blog.? For the brave of heart, there is also a link to the full transcript of the nights festivities at the end of the write up.

Give both of these drinks a try and let me know what you think!? While you’re at it, stop by the Mixoloseum Bar and chat for a while.? And please join us Thursday nights for a great night of recipe collaboration.

Cheers!

I showed up to the TDN late having been out to dinner with some friends.? The action was already going strong when I opened up the Founder’s Reserve – not realizing that it’s one of those corks with a plastic cap on top.? Oops!

I didn’t want to open both up but at the time, I thought that both were tawny.? I was surprised but not displeased when I found my mistake.? I’m much more of a ruby port drinker than a tawny one.? I sipped a bit of it first to get some ideas because, well, I don’t think I’ve ever really mixed with port before.

My first instinct was something easy.? I said at one point in the night something to the effect of “Why not just make a ‘Portugese Manhattan’ by going two parts whiskey, one part ruby port?”

Which, evidently, had been somebody’s idea to post, and they just hadn’t gotten to it yet.? Oops again!

But I did come up with a few drinks over the course of the night.? To me, mixing with port seemed a bit like mixing with sweet vermouth, only without the vegetals/herbal notes that you get with vermouth.? It’s easy for the vermouth to get swallowed up by the ingredients so if I keep doing it, I’ll have to learn how to work with it.

For instance, my first drink I called “The Outstayed Welcome”.? I’d been stuck on the idea of mixing port (which is brandy added to wine) with brandy.? They’re also both traditionally after-dinner drinks which led to the name of the drink.

The Outstayed Welcome
2 oz. brandy (I used St. Remy XO)
1 oz. lemon juice (note: I might adjust this down to 3/4 of an ounce – I can’t remember if I did that or not)
1/2 oz. simple syrup
1/2 oz. ruby port (Sandeman’s Founder’s Reserve)
1 dash orange bitters (Regan’s #6)
Shake and strain.? Garnish with a flamed orange peel.

Basically, I made a brandy sour, and then added in the port to add some complexity to it.? It wasn’t bad for a first try and I’d like to play around with the proportions a bit.? The irony of taking brandy and port for an after-dinner drink, when both are typically drank at room temperature at least in those circumstances, and making it a chilled drink wasn’t lost on me, but I really don’t think – even if I added water to it – that you’d want to drink it warm.

The previously mentioned Portugese Manhattan was technically my second drink.? The variations of it call for a lot of discretion on the part of the person making it.? Does the drinker prefer a fruity or more herbal Manhattan?? What type of whiskey are you using – bourbon or rye – and how spicy is it?? A sweet light bourbon, like Maker’s Mark, mixed with port would demand different bitters and maybe a different proportion than, say, Old Overholt.

Portugese Manhattan
2 ounces bourbon or rye (Bulleit)
1 ounce ruby port (Sandeman’s Founder’s Reserve)
2 dashes bitters (I used cherry)
Stir and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.? Garnish appropriately for the bitters.

There’s a lot of leeway there in the bitters.? If I’d used Maker’s Mark, for instance, I might’ve gone with Angostura or Peychaud’s, or maybe even something a bit more random like rhubarb bitters.? With the Bulleit, a fairly spicy bourbon, I used cherry bitters, but I kind of wished I used maybe some cherry-vanilla bitters I have.? I might play with this drink more tonight.

For my last drink of the night I wanted to do something a little different than what other people were doing.? I’ve been experimenting at times with the combination of tequila and falernum.? I feel like it’s a good combination and from there it’s just a matter of what to add to it.? Given the sweetness of the port, I thought maybe a bit of an herbal taste and there’s only one place to go for that…

Okay, okay, there are multiple places, but I know what *I* wanted to use!

Cactus Needles
2 ounces tequila (I used Corazon blanco)
1 ounce ruby port (Sandeman’s Founder’s Reserve)
3/4 ounce falernum (Velvet Falernum)
1/4 ounce green Chartreuse
Shake and strain into a glass.? Garnish with a piece of cactus – yeah, right – or a twist of lime.

I think that this was a fun drink, if more of a summer drink.? I didn’t garnish it that night but I have a mental image of a hunk of cactus on a sweating double old fashioned glass with this.? I’m betting that lime will also work stylistically and perhaps also with the tastes.? After all, lime and tequila get along like gangbusters.

There were a ton of other drinks that came out that night and I still have a lot of ideas for things I can do with the ruby port – and I haven’t even opened up the tawny yet!? Keeping up with the “sweet vermouth” replacement, I could see doing a Negroni with gin, Aperol, and ruby port, for instance.

I guess this will have to do it until 2009 for TDN.? Hopefully soon we’ll see the recap of this TDN and see what other port drinks are coming up…and hey, playing with port will give me something to do through Christmas-time!

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.