Whenever someone has offered to send a sample of their product to us – or anyone else in the CSOWG, for that matter – I always say two things.  1, “Thank you very much!”  2, “Please send us a fifth (750 ml).”

Why a fifth?

Well, you see, let me give an example.  One thing you have to remember is that we’re COCKTAIL bloggers, for the most part, mixologists by hobby or trade, and we like to play with the spirit to see what we can do with it.  But even without that, the example might illuminate.

Recently we were sent a mini of Firefly Sweet Tea Bourbon.  I’m not going to deny how much I liked the vodka version and I’ve bought a good bit of it.

Unfortunately for me, the night that I tried the mini they sent me I also got some kind of stomach bug.  I won’t give you the details of what happened a few minutes after drinking it but – uhhhh – yeah.

And that’s it.  I’m out of Firefly Sweet Tea Bourbon.  Unless I pay for my own – and really, I have LITERS of the vodka version at home, so why should I? – that’s my chance to try it.

Now Firefly lucked out.  I found some samples at $1 a bottle, and I tried it.  Now I know how I feel about it (which is generally “meh”, right now, because I only bought a little).  If I had more, I could experiment with some drink making, but to be honest, I can’t be bothered to do so.  I have so many other things I need to work on…

Let’s use another example.  The other day I was out with my brother and a friend, and we ran into another friend at a local bar (Harry’s Tap Room).  He was there with his boss who insisted on buying us shots of Cuervo Reserve de la Familia.  These shots were $25 a PIECE.  No way we’d buy them on our own!

And they tasted like ass.

If I could find a nicer way to phrase it I would, but that’s what happened.  He asked the waiter for them chilled, so maybe it was the ice, but that was some of the worst tequila I’ve ever had – and for $25 a shot, I’m not going to risk it by ordering it again somewhere else.

One chance, one try, one fail.

Finally, sort of the opposite.

I love the Del Maguey Crema de Mezcal.  Ever since I first had it – having made fun of Marshall for buying it – it’s been a staple in my bar, especially post-cigar.  Then, the other night, I left the bottle out on the porch after my cigar.

Oops.

We’ve had a lot of really hot days out.  And it’s 80 proof – but 10% agave.  Would it be okay?

Let me put it this way – if it’s been a mini, it’d have been thrown out.

Knowing it’s something I like, I paid the $40+ for another bottle just so I could compare them.  I do sacrifices like this for you, our dear readers, because I love you so much.

And yeah, it’s okay.

So there’s a lesson here.  When we ask you for a full fifth of a drink, we’re not being greedy or drunk.  We just need room to experiment.  Booze gets drank in a number of different ways, sometimes spilled, sometimes straight, sometimes mixed.  We appreciate and thank everyone who gives us stuff to help us help YOU find what’s good out there – but honestly, give us some room to work!

Sorry.  Got a little excited with the caps lock key there.  Don’t think that it wasn’t anything like that you dirty dirty person you.

Anyways, this time it’s hosted by Frederic and company over at Cocktail Virginia Slut.  (What?!  They’re blog isn’t named after our precious commonwealth but is actually “virgin“?  Well, fine.)  (Actually I knew that, but typo-ed, and thought it was funnier that way.)

So today’s is tea.  And also today is Robert Burns Day, which means you should be drinking Scotch and eating haggis.  Not that I’ve done either one (…yet) but it seems like despite my initial choice to find that mini of chai cream liqueur and dump it into some tea (which was also negated by it being gone, probably for almost six months now, oops) and avoiding using delicious, delicious Castries because TDN this week is “Nuts” (hee hee hee!) I figured I should do a tea/Scotch drink of some sort.

When I was a kid, my mom taught me how to make iced tea.  She’s a Southerner, so it was sweet tea (and not that damned bastardization of “oh, we’ve got unsweetened iced tea and sweet & low NO THAT IS NOT HOW SWEET TEA WORKS) and my tea was what a friend of mine called “tea-flavored sugar sludge”.  If I didn’t drink it quickly enough – and to be honest, I usually drank it at room temperature – it’d mold up something fierce.

Now today in DC might have been weirdly temperate, but I also wasn’t feeling great most of the day.  (To continue over-using parenthesis, it was one of those “24 hour stomach blech” kind of days.)  Thus, I figured something with hot tea.  And sweet.  Admittedly, it took until – oh, what time is it now – about 10 PM at night to be working on it, which means caffeine late, but fortunately for me a) I’m mostly able to ignore caffeine these days and b) I’ve got some stuff that will take care of that problem.  So off I went.

I usually use Black Bottle blended Scotch for my drinks using that spirit but this time decided to use something with a bit more character to it and thus chose the Highland Park 12 year old.  I’d bought a bottle of the 15 year old for my grandfather, who is also a Scottish Rite Mason – I’m not Scottish Rite yet but as a Mason I’d planned on joining once I remember to, you know, go to meetings and stuff – so I thought it’d be good.

As for tea, I had a variety pack from Twinnings.  Earl Grey, Lady Grey, and English Breakfast Tea seemed too – well, English for a drink with Scotch, so I grabbed Irish Breakfast instead, bolstered by the fact that it’s the strongest tea in the pack.  No, that doesn’t necessarily make sense (other than the “strongest tea” bit) but shut up.

Boiling water, five minutes steeping, let’s pour that into a bigger mug, and we need some liquors and sweetener.  Hey, a friendly PR company sent me Barenjager!  Now I’ve got some ideas…

Now that’s a “get you up and get you going” drink!

Ad Hoc Burns Night Tea Drink #1
1 1/2 ounces Scotch (Highland Park 12)
1 ounce Barenjager
2-3 dashes lemon bitters
Irish Breakfast tea
Brew a mug of black tea like your mom – strong and hot.  In another mug, pour in the other ingredients.  After the tea finishes steeping, pour it over the other ingredients and stir until blended.  Drink, but not at 10 PM at night unless you have a desire to avoid sleep like the plague.

I don’t normally put lemon in my tea but I had the thought it might help, so I used some Urban Moonshine lemon bitters that they sent me (there you go FTC, yuk it up why don’t you).  They also sent me maple bitters and I’m kind of wishing I’d used those instead – yeah, sure, I could make another drink, but I really don’t need one, especially as I have another idea I want to play with first.  I might also have considered using the Fee’s Rhubarb Bitters (which I paid for thank you very much) or even regular aromatic bitters.  THE POWER IS YOURS TO CHOOSE.

Let’s get back to delicious sweet tea.  That’s all about the summer time to me so it’s time to get rid of the Scotch.  Sorry, Scotch, you’ll have to wait until my next cigar, or next time I hang out with my grandpa.  (And then I can finally share that mini of Highland Park 18 with him too, yummy.)

I thought about making something using Castries, that delicious, delicious Castries, and maybe some of the Chairman’s Reserve Rum (the former I’ve bought a number of times but got a single free bottle of and the latter I’ve already given away bottles of because it’s well priced and delicious and I’m in no way shape or form trying to influence Clyde into hosting a TDN) (maybe), but this week’s TDN is nuts, as I said before, and I’m basically repeating myself.

But sweet tea…

Last year it seemed like sweet tea vodkas were a huge thing, perhaps because, uh, they were.  Maybe not as much in the “cocktail” world, because we can be some snooty bastiges when it comes to stuff like that, but I remember having bartenders telling me how quickly they were selling out of it.  I did a taste test of the Firefly (regular) sweet tea vodka versus Sweet Carolina and the Firefly won by a huge margin.  Let’s put it this way: Firefly is made in South Carolina near a tea plantation.  Sweet Carolina is made from Maine.  One of those tastes like chemicals, and to give a hint, it’s not the one called Firefly.  I haven’t tried the flavored sweet tea vodkas but I can’t be bothered to pay my money for more variations of the same thing, and I haven’t tried Jeremiah Weed for the same reason, but I will admit I do like the Firefly.

And it might not be summer but it hit at least 61 degrees today (seriously, y’all in SoCal, just don’t even say it) so I want a sweet tea drink and I don’t feel like making my own sweet tea because I am very, very lazy.

For a summer type drink, though, I think I need citrus with my tea.  Thus, we have my:

The Citrus-tea
1 1/2 ounces Firefly Sweet Tea Vodka
3/4 ounce lemon juice
1/2 ounce triple sec (Combier – also, again, a freebie)
2-3 dashes Bittermen Bitter Truth Grapefruit Bitters
Shake and double strain into a chilled cocktail glass.  Garnish with a twist of orange peel.

I don’t know what I think of this drink yet – it’s fun, but I think it needs some work, and I think it needs to be in warmer weather.  If it’s warmer for you, give it a shot!

Thanks again to Frederic and Cocktail Virgin Slut for hosting, and as always, Paul Clarke for doing MxMo.  Cheers y’all!

It’s been a while.  We hit Tales of the Cocktail back in July – and not long after I got back from that I found out that my job was sending me out of the country.  It was the first time for me doing so, which also meant I got to do the fun of trying to get a passport in less than two weeks (surprisingly easy in the DC area once you get past the misinformation and apathy), get my stuff together, and head out to South Korea.

Which, really, at least the parts I was in, seemed to have no cocktail culture.  I didn’t even see a bottle of Campari the entire time I was there which meant that first Negroni back was magical – not to mention how I almost came to tears tasting hops in my Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA the first day back.  I did have my soju, and lots and lots of Cass and Hite, but that’s neither here nor there for this post.

Before I left I had a chance to meet up with Erich and Lindsay from Leopold Brothers over at The Gibson.  They took me on a tour of fourteen of their products, from vodka and gin to flavored whiskey to liqueurs, and I was honestly surprised at a lot of them.  When I got back I was lucky enough to find my favorite liquor shop was carrying some of them.  One thing you might not be able to see from the picture is that each bottle is hand numbered.

Keep away, this bottle is mine

We first started off with the vodka.  It uses multiple bases for it and instead of filtering distills it more.  I was really expected to say “meh, vodka” but liked the complexity I tasted in it when warm.  I haven’t bought a bottle yet but I’d have to say it’s more likely to be the kind of vodka I’ll buy for drinking straight – yes, I do that, shut up vodka haters – than for mixing.  Use the cheaper, more one dimensional stuff for mixing where you ain’t gonna taste it.  This is the kind I’ll knock back and chase with caviar and sour cream on homemade potato chips at New Year’s Eve.

Next up was the gin, which has a number of botanicals that are all distilled separately before being added together.  I picked out cardamom and coriander, I’m going to guess by accident, though I was surprised to see how floral it was and that there wasn’t much of a pine hit to it.  This is the gin I used to make my first Negroni after coming back to the States and while it was fine in that, it really shone in gin and tonic, especially with the Fentiman’s tonic.  I’ll be making more of those now that I managed to steal my bottle back.

After the gin we hit the rum.  It reminded me quite a bit of a rhum agricole – not something I’d necessarily drink straight but an interesting flavor.

The next three drinks we had were their flavored whiskeys.  They’re working on a plain whiskey but I didn’t get a chance to try that.

First up was the apple whiskey.  This was, as I said then and will still say now until I’ve drank too much of it, “slap yo’ momma” good.  (Note: now my momma will probably slap me, but what will be will be.  It’s worth it.)  They use real apples and smash the fruit in house.  I was reminded me of a story my grandfather told me about drinking hard cider made in bourbon barrels that had bourbon left in the bottom.  I seriously need to get at least a bottle or two of this, especially as fall approaches.  In fact, I have plans for me, a bottle, and NOBODY ELSE BOTHERING ME WHILE I WATCH FOOTBALL.  I don’t wanna share.

The blackberry whiskey was much more aggressive in the taste profile.  I almost felt like it was more like a blackberry wine in taste.  It didn’t bowl me over, but I could see how someone who really likes blackberries would love it (coughcoughMarshall) and it could be good in some things.  It was my first hint at what was my problem – there are too many good things in the line-up, I can’t afford them all!  (Not to mention store them, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.  If Leopold Brothers (coughing again, man, what is in the air tonight?!) gave me a bottle of each, I’d damn well find somewhere to store ‘em…and not just in my belly.)

The peach whiskey was something I didn’t expect at all.  The proof on this one dropped from 80 to 60, but while I typically am not a huge fan of peaches I liked this.  I immediately started thinking of a lot of drinks that I’ve seen that incorporate peach  brandy or the such and was wondering how this would work (such as the Georgia Mint Julep from the first edition of Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails – it might be in the second, but sigh I haven’t gotten that yet).

From there we went to the liqueurs.

The peach liqueur, like most of them if I remember correctly, uses three pounds of peaches per 750 milliliter bottle.  It was very concentrated, almost to a syrup.  It seemed much more of a one-trick pony to me and not something I’d buy unless I had something specific to use for it.

The tart cherry, though, made me thinking “maraschino liqueur that actually tastes like cherry”.  I’m tempted to pick one up – the difference between it, maraschino liqueur, and cherry Heering is a fascinating idea to me and something I’d like to experiment with.

yes it's dark, what, The Gibson is a dark bar

Next up was the blackberry.  If I thought the blackberry whiskey was like wine this was REALLY like wine, made with four pounds of blackberries per 750.  I liked it a lot – however, I saw myself drinking it more on its own as a dessert (or like I’ve done (ahem) to Horton blackberry wines in the past, chilled and straight from the bottle while at a horse race).

Cranberry was described as “great for your mom” and I was wondering if my mom was getting hit on in absentia.  I wasn’t a huge fan of it, but it did make me think of Thanksgiving, maybe kind of Christmas, so I might try to revisit it as those holidays approach.  (What?!  It’s September?  Feh, I guess I better get on that!)

The sour apple liqueur was like apple juice to me and I mean that in the nicest possible way.  Maybe I need an Apfelkorn versus sour apple liqueur battle in my future.  They’re not the same but they are both very delicious.

The French Press coffee liqueur was something I did not expect at all.  The use the same press to make coffee with the liqueur as they do the fruit, with one added exception – they actually add sugar to the coffee liqueur.  My goodness.  You can taste the quality in this one.  If you like coffee liqueurs either be prepared to give all your money to Leopold Brothers or don’t bother trying it.

Overly bright, overly tasty

Then we hit the herbal side.

They had a digestif called 3 Pins.  Very herbal, but sweet, I would definitely enter it in a battle royale with some of my favorite European digestifs.  It honestly probably reminds me of Hog Master more than a lot of them, since it’s so sweet, but I’d love to break it out for my friends who also like 999, the new Zwack, and Jagermeister.  If I was going to make an old fashioned with it like one might do with Fernet it would need a solid hit of bitters but maybe nothing else.

But the absinthe.

A quick note on me and absinthe: I like absinthe okay but I’d never really seen the holy grail of absinthes.  At Tales, over at the Mixo house, I was introduced to an Obsello reserve absinthe that had aged in barrels.  It wow-ed me.  I loved it.  I was like “OH THIS IS WHAT YOU LOVE”.

The Leopold absinthe uses 15 herbs for flavoring, is aged for three months, and uses 15 herbs for coloring.  It has a HUGE oil meniscus when it louches, and was amazingly smooth when I tried it.  At $71.99 at Ace, I was sorely tempted to buy some, the first time I’d really considered spending that much on an absinthe.  I may still do so, once I take care of a few other things, because it’s damn delicious.

If you haven’t tried these yet you really need to do so.  Ace carries a few of them; Best Cellars in Dupont Circle, from what I hear, carry more.  I’ll be heading out there soon to buy apple whiskey, believe you me.

And great to see y’all again!

The rules were pretty simple.  We had to create an infusion using Oval and come up with a unique cocktail using at least 1.5 oz of the infusion.  The infusions were to be judged during Tales of the Cocktail by Rick Stutz, Gabriel Szaszko and Chantal Tseng.  The judging criteria was based on infusion aroma, infusion taste, infusion creativity, cocktail taste, cocktail balance and cocktail creativity.  The winner of the contest would have two nights of their stay paid for by Oval.

It sounded like a lot of fun and I jumped at the opportunity.  But then came the “what-the-hell-do-I-make” panic.  I ended up with two infusions.  The first was a clementine infusion using fresh clementines.  The aroma and color was redolent of fresh clementine.  But, a basic orange infusion wouldn’t win on creativity and seemed to run of the mill.  I had been playing with coconut water lately as a cocktail ingredient and decided I wanted to use it as a mixer.

When I think of coconut, I think of tiki drinks, frozen slushy drinks, islands, the sea and Thai food.  Ohhhh . . . thai food.  That would certainly be original!  Next was to think of the flavors associated with thai food and island/Polynesian-type drinks.  Lime?  Ginger?  Spices?  Check, check, check.  But I wanted something a little more obscure.  Lemongrass!

So here is my infusion:

Thai-Spiced Oval Vodka
16 oz Oval Vodka
1 9-inch stalk of lemongrass, cut into small rounds
2 quarter-sized rounds of fresh ginger
peel of 2 limes
1 2-inch piece of cinnamon*
4 cloves

-Place everything in a container and infuse for one week shaking once a day. After a week strain all the solids and re-bottle.

*After the contest, I was speaking with Chantal looking for critiques and her main thought on my infusion was that the cinnamon was too strong.  I tend to agree with that assessment.  In the future, and if you’re making this yourself, I would remove the cinnamon and cloves after three days.

For the cocktail, I came up with:

Andaman Sun
1.5 oz Thai-spiced Oval Vodka
1.5 oz coconut water
1 oz Piloncillo** syrup (1.5:1 strength)
.5 oz fresh lime juice
.25 oz coconut cream

-Shake everything with ice and strain into a chilled glass.  Garnish with a lime wheel.
**Piloncillo is South American unrefined brown sugar.  You can find it in ethnic markets.  If you can’t find it, you can substitute simple syrup made from dark brown sugar (1.5:1 strength) or you can substitute .75 oz simple and .25 oz molasses.  It won’t be exactly the same with the substitutions but you’ll still have a tasty drink.

The contest judging occurred at the Mixoloseum house in New Orleans.  Each of the entries were made by Chris Stanley, a very talented mixologist at the Clover Club in New York City.  Chris worked behind the bar at the Mixo house several nights during Tales.  His drinks were some of the best I had during the entire week.

And the results of the contest?  I WON!!!!

Woot!  Thanks go out to Sam, Chantal, Gabe, and Rick!  And thanks to Oval Vodka for the opportunity! And a special thanks to Steve Raye who offered to pay for the entire cost of two nights at the condo, rather than just my half of two nights.  You can read Sam’s write-up of the contest here.

What a great event and a great surprise during Tales!  Cheers!

And yes, I realize that it is now June and spring and sprung and we are on the verge of summer.  Well, sue me.  But the good news is we now have the winners!!!

Before announcing the winning cocktails, a note about the grading process.  Each submission was graded on a ten point scale for the following categories:

-Does the cocktail have a spring theme?
-Is it a rye whiskey base?
-Taste
-Color/Presentation
-Uniqueness

Sean and I both tasted and judged the cocktails on the aforementioned scale.  This meant each cocktail could score a maximum of 100 points total.  When Sean judged the cocktails the only info he was given was the name of the cocktail and the recipe, he didn’t know who submitted what drink.  The combined scores determined the winners.

And now without further ado:

Third Place:  Prize – Recipe and photo featured here.

The Revivalist by Gabe Szaszko
2 oz Rye
.5 oz Tarragon-Bergamot Syrup*
.5 oz Amer Picon
.25 oz lemon juice
.25 oz Maraschino liqueur

Shake all and double strain into a chilled cocktail glass.  Twist lemon peel over drink and garnish with a lemon peel

*Bring simple syrup (1:1) just to boil and remove from heat.  Add tarragon and bergamot leaves and leave to sit and cool in syrup for at least one hour.  Strain all into a sterilized container.

The Revivalist

Second Place:  Prize -  Same as third place and a 50ml bottle of “Marshall’s Mountain Moonshine Bitters.”

The Capone Sour by Jeff Fulcher
1.5 oz Rye
1 oz grapefruit juice
1 oz brown sugar syrup
1 bar spoon orgeat
1 dash Angostura bitters
2 dashes orange bitters (I used Angostura Orange)

Shake all with ice, strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

The Capone Sour

First Place:  Prize – Same as third place and a 100ml bottle of “Marshall’s Mountain Moonshine Bitters” and a bottle of Templeton Rye.

Jetpack by Craig “Dr. Bamboo” Mrusek
1 oz Rye
1 oz Zubrowka Bison Grass vodka
.5 oz Schladerer Kirschwasser (I used Clear Creek)
.5 oz simple syrup
.5 oz lime juice
1 dash Fee’s Mint Bitters

Shake all with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

The Jetpack

Congratulations to Craig, Jeff, and Gabe!!!

There you have it.  Mix up one or all of these drinks and let us know what you think in the comments.

Cheers!