An online speakeasy of potent potables and other pabulam.

First note: don’t forget to vote for me in the Mixoloseum blog entry for last week’s TDN!  I’m tied for first!  My drink is “The Derek” if you remember it from last week.

Before I left town on Saturday I’d tried to come up with a drink for the esteemed Mr. Camper English of Alcademics.  I despaired of this task on Friday night as I had to deal with maintenance men cutting holes in my drywall and just a general inability to get the drink where I wanted it.  I went to the other dream which Marshall so generously published for me yesterday and decided to leave it for after the Pink Ribbon Polo match down at King Family on Saturday and hanging out with my parents.

After a long drive home Sunday from Amelia – there was an accident on I-95, it seems, so we got to route over to 301 – I got home and went into a serious vegetative state, getting nothing done at all, for a while.  I eventually went out and got some food – and there’s a chance I did that with my fly down, which means now I get to shoot myself – and definitely stuck one of my fingers deep into a surprisingly decayed citrus fruit of some now untellable type.  Ewwww.

My initial thought  had been to work on a ginger-based drink for tomorrow’s Mixology Monday but I was too distracted.  However, I’d had a mini-epiphany about the drink I wanted to make for Camper, which I knew had to a) include tequila and b) be pink.  This was after watching dad make mom a Cosmo on Saturday night.

I grabbed a non-decayed lemon and my housemade (cold method) grenadine.  Soon I had a drink that was better than I could’ve expected and the only regret I had was not having the perfect garnish for it!  I’ll describe what I wanted to garnish it with and we’ll see.

The garnish would've been PERFECT.

The Camper
2 ounces blanco tequila (Tequila Ocho)
1 ounce lemon juice
1/2 ounce grenadine
1-2 dashes Peychaud’s bitters
pink Ting
Shake the first four ingredients together in a cocktail shaker with ice.  Strain into a chilled cocktail glass and top with pink Ting.  Garnish with a piece of pink grapefruit on a skewer.  Your choice the shape it is in; I would’ve done a heart, myself.

I’m really happy with how this drink came out.  If you can’t find pink Ting, you can try regular, or another grapefruit soda.

[Seventh 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.]

This month Mixology Monday is hosted by Matt over at Rumdood and his chosen theme is ginger.  Big thanks for Matt for hosting this month!

Ginger is one of my favorite spices.  For me, ginger is one of those flavors that is just as tasty in the summer as it is in the dead of winter.  During the cooler part of the year, ginger provides a bright, warming flavor to your cocktails.  During the warmer months, ginger tends to cool you down and provides a certain zing that is down right refreshing.

There are multiple ways you can incorporate ginger into your cocktails.  For the freshest flavor and more of that ginger bite, you can muddle several pieces before shaking or stirring up your libation.  You could also make a ginger syrup.  This route will provide a lot of sweetness along with that fresh ginger flavor.

Additionally, you could go the liqueur route.  Currently, one of the hottest new liqueurs on the market is Domaine de Canton.  Domaine de Canton is a mix of baby ginger and French cognac into a wonderful liqueur.  It is fairly sweet and has a nice fresh ginger bite.  Canton is a high quality product and quite delicious.

One of the most surprising drinks I’ve ever had contained Domaine de Canton.  At PS7 in DC, Gina Chersevani has a drink on the menu titled “The Cure.”  Actually, the full name is the “Recession Blues Cure.”  Priced at $5, it is certainly a cheap drink.  So what’s in it?  Miller Lite and Domaine de Canton.  That’s it.  Sounds horrible doesn’t it?  Well, it is fantastic!

The Cure
2 oz Domaine de Canton
4-5 oz Miller Lite
-Build over ice in a chimney glass.  Garnish with julienned ginger.

Now this may not be the same proportions at PS7, but for me, it is the perfect mix.  The sweetness and bite of the Domaine de Canton really highlight what little flavor is in Miller Lite.  A surprising drink indeed!

Once summer starts hitting full force, my drinking habits turn to long drinks, drinks with plenty of ice, tiki and the like.  There is nothing more satisfying on a hot muggy DC summer day than a tall glass of deliciousness with plenty of ice.

Which brings me to my second drink for MxMo.  I wanted to come up with a tall drink that was refreshing, gingery and easily quaffable.  I started thinking of what flavors went with ginger and I remembered this compote I made last summer.  It was a fantastic rhubarb and ginger compote.  Alright, ginger and rhubarb.  Luckily, I have some freshly made rhubarb syrup!  Thinking about the flavors of ginger and rhubarb my mind immediately went to tequila.  The sweet vegetal flavors of the tequila married with the bite of ginger and the tart/sweet rhubarb had my mouth watering.  Now I just needed something to tie it all together into a tall tasty beverage.  Ting!

(In full disclosure, this was the first time I’ve mixed with Ting and I’m very happy with the results.)

Ginger-Rhubarb Fizz
1.5 oz blanco tequila (I used Inocente)
.75 oz Massenez Creme de Gingembre*
.50 oz Rhubarb syrup**
1 bottle Pink Ting
-Build over ice in a tall chimney glass.  Give a quick stir to combine.  Drink and enjoy!

*A note on the ginger liqueur:  For this drink, I used the Massenez Creme de Gingembre.  I’ve had the bottle for a while and think it is a good product.  It isn’t nearly as sweet as the Domaine de Canton which makes it good to use when you want to watch the sweetness of the drink.  However, the ginger “bite” is a little less pronounced as compared to the Canton.  I think the Canton would be just as delicious in this drink, but with the rhubarb syrup, the sweetness will be proportionally greater.

**For the rhubarb syrup, I combined one large rhubarb stalk, cut into one-inch pieces, with one cup sugar and 3/4 cup water.  Bring to a simmer and cook for 20-30 minutes.  Strain through a fine mesh sieve, pressing on the solids to get all of the liquid out.

Thanks again for Rumdood for hosting this month’s MxMo.

Cheers!

I’ve been lucky enough to get samples of a few different tequilas recently and I decided it was time to do something about it.

No, not drink them! Wait…yes, drink them, taste them, mix with them, see what happens with them.

One thing is not like the other…

…yes, one of these is a mini. Partida only sent a mini of their tequila, while the other three (inocente, Jose Cuervo Silver, and Tequila Ocho) sent fifths. Unfortunately, that meant I couldn’t experiment as much as I’d like with Partida, but you take what you can. (And keep that in mind – if you want cocktail bloggers to actually make COCKTAILS with your liquor, you need to provide enough for us to work with, and odds are, you won’t send enough in minis.)

I went with my usual way of experimenting with new liquors – smell, straight without ice, straight with ice, and in a mixed drink. Obviously, given Tiare’s post, the liquor, and the fact that tomorrow is Cinco de Mayo, I had to go with the margarita as my drink!

Ahhh, my UVA glasses…wahoowah.

I’d tried the Tequila Ocho once or twice in the past, and Gina down at PS7 had hooked me up with tastes of the inocente. The Cuervo had yet to be cracked, though I like their Tradicional (but note this was the only one that wasn’t advertised as 100% blue agave), and I couldn’t recall having tried the Partida before. So it was time to sniff.

First off, look at the colors, if you can see them there. The Partida is by far the most yellow, the color of straw, and the inocent had a slight hint of yellow as well. The others were blanco – white.

Sniffing them, the Partida seemed very smooth. The Ocho I wanted to say was more floral, definitely more complex, but a bit more of an alcohol smell on it. The Jose Cuervo Silver – uh, do not smell this one at length. The inocente is complex, not as floral as the Ocho but a bit more earthy maybe.

Then to taste. I used to always shoot tequila but I had a girlfriend for a while that was from Texas and she managed to switch me to enjoying it on its own. I looked forward to this part most of all.

Partida is smooth, very smooth, just a slight burn on it. I’d have no problem recommending it.

The Ocho had no real burn at all, slightly floral taste. It was also quite good and I’d recommend trying it this way.

The Cuervo – no. In fact, to quote my notes: “no no no no no no”.

The inocente was more complex than even the Ocho, with a hint of floral and an earthy taste. To be honest, for me, leaving out the Cuervo, it was a toss-up between which is the best. Like most straight liquors, it depends on what you like.

Next I added a single ice cube to each of them. I let it sit for a minute – often times the water/ice combination changes the flavor of the liquor.

The Partida, in fact, seemed to me to show even more complexity with a bit of water in it. I also noticed a bit more burn on the first taste of it, but not on the second, so that might’ve been just a bit of a fluke. It’s a throw up which I’d prefer.

The Ocho was lighter than it had been before but still good – you could taste the floral in it but it wasn’t overwhelming. I’d prefer it without the ice, myself.

Then we were onto the Cuervo again.

[21:10] SeanMike: oh dear god now it’s time for the jose cuervo again
[21:10] my friend: hahaha

Yes, I was a bit biased going into it but let me quote my notes again:

* Jose Cuervo Silver – no – gasoline – yuck

It was advertised a shooting tequila and – yeah. Don’t linger on this one.

The inocente, with the ice, seemed to retain its complexity with the ice and did have a bit more burn. Like the Ocho, I’d go without the ice, myself.

Finally, it was time for margaritas. Unfortunately for the Partida, which I’d be interersted to see how it tastes, I was out of it – so it was just the other three. I used the recipe from Gary Regan’s The Joy of Mixology.

Margarita
1 1/2 ounces white tequila
1 ounce triple sec
1/2 ounce lime juice

I used Cointreau for the triple sec and squeezed fresh limes.

Made with the Ocho, it made for a good, if not anything inspiring. It was good, but nothing I’d jump up and down about it. I dunno. Maybe I was spoiled by the mezcal margaritas from Marshall‘s recipe on Friday night…

The Cuervo – I initially wanted not to like it. But the more I tried it, the more I’d say “it’s not bad” – it had more personality, perhaps, than the Ocho, but it also had more of a “off” taste to me in addition. So – yeah – 50-50 – more taste, but also more bad taste to it. Not bad, but not great. I’m betting if you added something more to it – maybe some orange bitters, for instance – it wouldn’t be half-bad. (And if you’re one of those heathens using the HFCS-infused neon-green mixtures, well, it won’t matter so much.)

The inocente won out overall. It has a bit of complexity that sticks out through the lime juice and Cointreau, while not overwhelmed by the problems of the Cuervo.

Overall results: The Cuervo was advertised a shooter tequila and was the only one not made from 100% blue agave (according to the bottles). It, perhaps predictably, also fared the worst in taste, and really didn’t have much to recommend it. If I can find something to make with it, I’ll suggest it, but it might be something more complex than a margarita.

The Partida wasn’t bad, especially over ice. For a sipping tequila, I’d recommend it if you wanted it over ice, but I’m still interested how it’d do in a margarita.

Between the Ocho and the inocente, it depends on what you prefer, personally, but I think overall I have to go with the inocente if you wanted to also make margaritas with it.

After several errands this morning, I came home and decided to whip up a tasty beverage.  I’m taking today off, and a great day it is!  Sunny, warm, an all around great day.

Anyway, I wanted to use my spiced lemonade as a mixer and remembered that I haven’t shared the recipe yet.

Spiced Minted Lemonade
3/4 cup demerrara sugar
2oz cane syrup
peel of one lemon
peel of one lime
2 cinnamon sticks
6 whole cloves
1/4 tsp cardamom seeds
6 sprigs of mint
1cup lemon/lime juice
6 cups water

1.  In a sauce pan, combine the sugar, syrup, lemon & lime peel, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom and 2 cups of water.
2.  Stir over medium heat and bring to a simmer.  Simmer for 10 minutes.
3.  After the simmer, strain this mixture into a bowl and discard the solids.
4.  Put the mint sprigs in the hot syrup and infuse for about 5-6 minutes.
5.  Discard the wilted mint and allow the syrup to cool to room temp.
6.  Combine the juice from the lime you peeled with fresh lemon juice until you have a cup of juice.
7.  Combine your juice, syrup and remaining four cups of water.
8.  Refrigerate and enjoy!

The lemonade isn’t a bright yellow like one would expect lemonade to be.  It’s color comes from the demerrara sugar and the trade-off for the depth of flavor the sugar adds is fantastic.

As well as straight, I’ve been enjoying in the following libation.

Mexican Sun
2oz reposado tequila
.75oz orgeat
2 dashes peach bitters
spiced minted lemonade

-Shake the tequila, orgeat and bitters with ice.  Strain into an ice filled chimney glass and top with the lemonade.

Cheers!