I figured – given the events of tonight – it was time to make some drinks and you know what, let’s try out the apricot-flavored brandy.  I’d tossed out the Jacquin’s crap, but I still had the Dekuyper.

I went through a couple of my books, did some research online, and just looked around.  You have to remember the rules: it has to have the apricot brandy, it has to be fairly simple, and it has to be published somewhere (no originals).

So what happened?

I had planned on waiting until tomorrow and getting my co-conspirator at the Den to help me, but then I figured, what the heck, I think I know what I want to do.

I don’t have a lot of the really old cocktail books, but I saw four recipes in Ted Haigh’s _Vintage Spirits & Forgotten Cocktails_ and a number of recipes in Gary Regan’s _The Joy of Mixology_.

I skipped a number of them that had stuff like rum in them since I didn’t feel like dealing with rum this week.  I went through the rest and got rid of ones I felt were derivative of each other, or at least rather similar.

Finally I had one recipe and it was time to give it a shot – I wouldn’t make y’all drink something that I wouldn’t drink myself!  So I made one, and hey – not bad.  Then I realized it had Calvados in it, and that’s not exactly the most common ingredient in the world – I still get overly excited when I see a bar with it.

Thus I had to go with a different one.  It’s from the same book, but had what I liked – a nice clean taste, simple construction (no ambiguities), and best of all, I didn’t have to try to make a lemon twist or something (which I’m not very good at).

It had a nice tart taste to it – I’ll be making it again when we get up to Kentucky Derby time, since it’s named for a private club in Louisville.  I got it from page 102 of Haigh’s _Vintage Spirits & Forgotten Cocktails_.

Pendennis Cocktail
2 ounces gin
1 ounce apricot brandy
2 or 3 dashes Peychaud bitters
3/4 ounce lime juice

Shake in an iced shaker and strain into a cocktail glass.

My second place cocktail, with that whole Calvados problem, was this one from pages 38-39 of the same book:
The Golden Dawn
3/4 oz Calvados
3/4 oz dry gin
3/4 oz Cointreau
3/4 oz apricot-flavored brandy
3/4 oz orange juice
Shake and strain.  Drop a stemless cherry into it as a garnish.  Dribble some real grenadine into it (but don’t stir!).  (I can’t wait to try this one with applejack, but I see that even less in bars around the DC area than Calvados.)

Anyways, hope y’all enjoy.

 - SeanMike in the Scofflaw’s Den (East Falls Church outpost)

I was just excited to be in a contest with as esteemed people as this one.  But hey – maybe people will like my suggestions.

The “simple” part of the instructions gets harder and harder as your bar gets better and better, I think – heck, now that I can go to so many bars and say “eh, I’ve got better at home” I keep forgetting things like “oh, most bars don’t have Calvados”.

Anyways – I still have plenty of things I want to make for experimentation purposes – and to post on here!

Given that I fell on ice tonight and broke my laptop, and that it was a hellacious ride home – I had a nice sip of some Glenfiddich 15 year old.

What would you have drank?