An online speakeasy of potent potables and other pabulam.

Sad story #1: Last night was a Ron de Jeremy rum event with Ron Jeremy. I had it written down as tonight because I am dumb.

Sigh.

Sad story #2: Last year I was ambush marketed! No, really!

You see, I went to this tasting on “Irish whiskey”. It was supposed to cover the depth and breadth of Irish whiskeys.

And it did! If they were Pernod Ricard products. Bushmill’s, Connemara, John L. Sullivan, others – they didn’t exist.

Didn’t expect to get hit by marketing like that!

Of course, that was an OFFICIAL Tales event, so I guess it wasn’t ambush marketing. We were just the clay pigeons in a skeet shooting competition.

And it’s that time again – Mixology Monday! This time it’s hosted by Josh over at Cocktail Assembly and he chose the theme of “flips”. He said:

You see, I figure this would be a great time to strategically use all this combined creative and crafty brainpower to build up a list of recipes to keep me loaded up on flips the entire year.

So I did some poking around. Paul Clarke (he who done gone and created Mixology Monday, amongst other accolades and general Internet sexiness) wrote an article for Serious Eats about flips. In it, he mentions some other ones created (thus seeing my idea of a Fernet Branca flip is already done) but mentioned this about modern flips, something I took to heart:

Contemporary flips are relatively simple: a base of spirit (preferably dark & rich), a little syrup and/or liqueur, and a fresh egg, all shaken together and served with a little nutmeg grated on top.

Okay, enough of the blockquotes.

Here we go Steelers Here we go

I’m lucky enough that my favorite NFL team, the Steelers, is going to the AFC Championship next week. My idea initially was to use Fernet as the “black” in a Black & Gold Flip, but as I just mentioned, the Fernet Flip has been done. I thought about using Averna, in a bit of honor to Dr. Bamboo, but decided against it. Still: what would be an appropriate Pittsburgh area liquor?

Ahhh, screw it. Let’s Google “Pittsburgh Steelers liquor”, look at the first few liquor pictures that show up in the image search, and see if I’m inspired. A few clicks, avoiding stories about Santonio Holmes throwing liquor at someone, and there we go – Kraken black spiced rum and Strega.

Oh. I can work with that.

I love the idea of whole eggs in drinks anyways, so now it was just time to tweak proportions. I think what I came up with is pretty good, and a bit of a solid drink, if I do say so myself.

Black & Gold Flip

The Black & Gold Flip
2 ounces Kraken spiced rum
1 ounce Strega
1 whole egg
Put the ingredients in a glass with a bunch of ice. Shake for 60-90 seconds. Strain into a chilled glass, top with some fresh grated nutmeg.

Ahhh, delicious! If you’re feeling really ambitious, try topping it with some brown ale or a black stout and give it a quick stir. I haven’t tried it yet, though I was thinking of giving it a shot with some Guinness or Bell’s Hell Hath No Fury beer. But first, I’ll finish the one I have.

Cheers folks, and thanks again to Josh for hosting!

Lifestyle drinks of the coughing and congested

I’d had ideas for a variety of posts.

For instance, I got an iSi Gourmet Whip Pro for Christmas, and I’m very excited about doing tons of stuff with it!

But…holidays…and then, like everyone else in DC, I got sick.

Blech.

So while watching the end of the football games today I decided what I really needed was a hot toddy.  It’s kind of just something I threw together so what the heck.

Hot Toddy
One cup decaffeinated Earl Grey tea
Honey
Half a lemon, squeezed
2 ounces Chairman’s Reserve rum

Mix in a cup.

Well, heck, it’s making me feel better.  Might need some more.

Once I figure out my Tumblr issues, and feel a bit better, we’ll get ya some more substantive posting.  Promise!

13 days ago, I was frantically doing laundry and packing.  Suddenly I hit a point where all I could do was wait for an hour or so; I’d just gotten a five pack of bitters from Bitter End Bitters in Santa Fe, New Mexico, so I threw together a drink using a pineapple that I didn’t want to have to throw out before my trip.

So we’ll start with that:

The Express
2 oz Cruzan blackstrap
1/2 oz Flor de Caña 4 yr old
1/2 oz Wray & Nephew
3/4 oz orgeat
1/2 oz  lemon juice
1 oz lime juice
1 dash Bitter End Bitters Thai Bitters

Shake with ice, pour unstrained into a cored out pineapple.  Garnish with a bit of mint if you’d like.

From there it was time for my trip.  I was off to Portland, Oregon, for Drink.Write 2010, our CSOWG conference, coinciding with Portland Cocktail Week and the Great American Distillers Fest.  I’d never been to Portland before and I was very eager to experience it.

I’m going to put it in short: it was awesome.  Hanging out with Darcy O’Neil and Ryan Magarian at the Driftwood Lounge, which turned into a visit to the House Spirits distillery; seeing Jeffrey Morgenthaler in his native Clyde Common slinging drinks; hanging out with folks like John The Bastard, Stevi Deter, Rick Stutz, Matt Robold, and Gabriel Szaszko; meeting tons of new folks (too many people to list here), and in general, I had some of the best drinks, food, and fun I’ve had in a long, long time.

Who are those sexy people? HINT: ONE IS ME

(Picture stolen from the Mixoloseum Facebook page.)

All kinds of folks gave lectures – Erick Castro, the aforementioned Rumdood, Morgenthaler, Darcy, the ever-fabulous Camper English, Craig Hermann, and, of course, Blair “Trader Tiki” Reynolds.  I could go on and on and on about the in-jokes, the fun, how to make ingredients, but hey.  I did name one drink after Craig, and I have an idea for another one; once I dig them both up, I’ll post them on here.  Just to warn, the first one is named “The Grapefruit Fleshlight” (please don’t Google “fleshlight” from work) and the other one is similarly mature.

Unfortunately, I had to leave on Saturday to fly to Orlando, Florida, for work, where the best I can say (drinks wise) is that I explored almost the entire Scotch selection at the Doubletree Resort – though I did have dinner one night at a place called Hannibal’s, and the wine there was very tasty.  I was at the IACP show, then by Wednesday I could head back to my home just outside of Washington DC in Arlington, VA.

Saturday, of course, there was a ton of Halloween parties out and about.  I went to my co-blogger’s house and he had a a whole menu worked up with the Halloween theme.  Hopefully he’ll be posting those on here soon.  Sunday I spent a good bit of time wandering Clarendon with a friend before watching my beloved Steelers lose.

So now I’m back home, watching Monday Night Football.  I’ve got a brain full of ideas that I need to get articulated and out onto the blog.  Repeal Day is coming up on December 4th, and of course, your Scofflaws will be there along with an all-star cast such as Derek Brown, Gina Chersevani, Todd Thrasher, David Wondrich, Beachbum Berry, Jeffrey Morgenthaler (man, that guy gets around!), Dale DeGroff, and possibly, quite possibly, some other cocktail bloggers.

Maybe.

Me, right now, I’m finally feeling like I’m home for a while – and I’ve got entire WEEKS before I have to travel again.  I’m sipping a Tempranillo that I used to wash down my porterhouse and baked potato, thinking about having a cigar – I’m running low again finally, and realized I won’t be able to go to the Rocky Patel event tomorrow at Virginia Pipe & Tobacco in Seven Corners – and thinking about working with some of these new bitters to come up with some more drinks.

What have y’all been up to?  Have any good cocktails lately?