When you read one of Charles Baker’s Gentlemen’s Companions you’re in for a delightful romp through his travels, misfortunes, egotism, and name-dropping. They’re lively and fun reads. When you try to parse a recipe from one of Charles Baker’s Gentlemen’s Companions you’re in for a headache. By way of example, here’s the text from Baker’s description of the Pendennis Club cocktail:

“THE PENDENNIS CLUB’S FAMOUS SPECIAL
To 1 jigger of dry gin add 1/2 jigger of the best dry apricot brandy procurable. Squeeze in the juice of 1 lime or 1/2 a small lemon, strained of course, and trim with 2 dashes of Peychaud’s bitters which has been made for generations in New orleans…Split a ripe kumquat, now available during the winter in most big grocery or fruit stores; take out the seeds and put the two halves in a Manhattan glass. Stir the drink like a Martini with lots of cracked ice and strain onto the golden fruit. This is a sweeter Grande Bretagne, see Page 47.”

I’ll hand this to the man, by the time you’re breathlessly done reading his recipe entries, you’re certainly ready for a drink. Fortunately, thanks to the efforts of Martin Doudoroff (one of the fine people behind cocktaildb.com) and St. John Frizell there is a “Charles H. Baker, Jr. Companion” that assembles the recipes into a more readable and usable format. You know, a Companion to the Companions, so to speak. Many of Baker’s recipes are suspect at best and absymal at their worst, and the Bumblebee is a nice gem found in the pages of Baker’s South American Gentlemen’s Companion. It is a deceptive drink in that it looks simple enough but reveals a lot about the quality of your rum and the fastidiousness of your preparation when it’s served. Here’s the recipe excerpted from the book:

The BUMBLE-BEE COCKTAIIL–May God Forgive the British-Inspired Pun-Title–a Nice Rum-Honey Thought from Georgetown, British Guiana.

That same old world-wandering friend J.K.L. Ponsonby-Foulcques, the “Jekyll” of Bin-’n'-Gitters fame, Page 24 gave us this unusual, simple yet satisfying drink, also. Mix in shaker:

• 2 oz best medium dark rum
• 1 1/2 to 2 tsp strained honey
• 2 tsp or so, lime Juice
• 2 tsp fresh egg white
• Curl Orange Peel
• Drops Angostura

Shake hard with big ice and strain into pre-chilled stemmed cocktail glass. Dot with 3 or 4 drops Angostura Bitters, and twist curl of orange peel over finished drink for fragrant scent.

I was introduced to the Bumblebee by the fine work they do at Heaven’s Dog in San Francisco and love this drink when the seasons change between summer and fall. Using an aged rum with no small amount of “oomph” is paramount in this drink. Something along the lines of Angostura 1919, Appleton V/X, or Clement VSOP will bring their character through the egg white and honey without overpowering the drink. Too dark or light a rum, however, and the Bumblebee loses its charm.

The proportions of lime juice and honey can be toyed with and doing so is a good exercise in discovering how a rum’s character is affected and brought out by the changes. As for the egg white, measuring out 2tsp can be troublesome so I highly suggest placing an egg white or three in one of those condiment squeeze bottles you see at picnics and cook-outs and dispensing a carefully-measured amount of egg white. Using too much or too little egg will surely kill the drink (thanks to Rumdood for the dispensing tip). It’s a temperamental drink, I’ll admit.

Give this drink a try and practice your dry shaking to get a good froth on top of the drink as it’s key to getting the drops of Angostura to sit properly and keep them from dissolving the foam and sinking down into the drink before their time. My thanks to Erik Ellestad for the full excerpt from the South American Gentlemen’s Companion. On Baker’s writing, I’ll quote my good friend Doug who said, “He’d have been the greatest cocktail blogger of all time.” Likely true, likely true…the bastard.

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The Bumblebee:Rating:

At the violet hour, the hour when eyes and back and hand
Turn upward from the desk, the human engine waits–
Like a taxi throbbing waiting at a stand–
To spring to pleasure through the horn or ivory gates.

The Violet Hour is a drink that was submitted and featured at Tales of the Cocktail…2008. Yes, sometimes it takes me that long to trudge through a deck of 300 recipes to find ones that show some promise and don’t require my traveling to the plateau of upper Tibet in search of Witches Bane root to be steeped in Unicorn saliva for 20 years under the shade of a Wispwillow tree. I am remiss in taking so long to get to it, as it’s quite dandy.

Toby Maloney opened the Violet Hour in 2007 and it has received accolades as one of the best bars in America. And, certainly, when one visits Chicago, it has become a must-visit attraction for cocktailians. And while I’ve not seen the Violet Hour cocktail on their current menu, Toby apparently featured it at last year’s Tales of the Cocktail as a means of honoring his bar and honor it he has.

The Violet Hour

• 2oz Bourbon (used Bulleit)
• 3/4oz Sweet Vermouth (used Carpano)
• 1/4oz Dry Vermouth (used Cinzano)
• 1/10oz Cruzan Blackstrap
• 3 dashes Fee’s Old Fashioned Bitters

While very much like a Brooklyn that’s been inverted and is using Blackstrap instead of maraschino as a sweetener, the Blackstrap and heavy dose of bitters makes different enough to warrant its own place in a cocktail rotation. The Violet Hour starts with a very Manhattan-esque flavor and then a caramel back with just enough cassia and cardamom from the bitters holds sway to give you something else to think about and consider. Using Fee Old Fashioned is critical in this one. Having tried several others, the rest not quite giving the baking spice zing of Fee’s and allowing the drink to fall off, Fee’s is the order of the day.

The other note I have on this drink is the Blackstrap. 1/10oz is around 1/2 teaspoon and I believe it could use a touch more. And by “touch” I mean about twice as much. The caramel character blending with the spice of the bourbon and the bitters at the back-end of this drink is, to me, what makes it special. Even if you up it to 1/8oz (3/4t) you’ll have an improved drink. So, my recommendation is to use 3/4t or 1t Blackstrap in the drink and move back from there if you find it overly tacky or aggressive.

Otherwise, sit back and enjoy the violet hour, which usually falls around 8:00pm this time of year. A perfect time for a drink, don’t you think?

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The Violet Hour Rating:

One of my regrets, and I have many, is not writing Ted Haigh ahead of this post. You see, he’s done so many great things; helping Fee Brothers craft their falernum, solving the riddle of the origins of the Singapore Sling, and, of course, playing the role of “Bartender” in “Superbad,” and having his insight into the origin story of this drink would be enlightening. In the Whoa, Nellie! you have a set of strange bedfellows, glancing nervously at one another and wondering how they arrived in the same drink, much less the same city. And it’s worth talking about the city in which this drink resides.

The Whoa, Nellie! calls the Cafe Adelaide and Swizzle Stick Bar in New Orleans its home. It was contributed to the Swizzle Stick’s menu as a tribute to the first Mardi Gras after Hurricane Katrina and in a stupefied fit of unfit drunkenness I ordered it and it broke through my haze of disorientation and inebriation and brought the guiding light of clarity and “Damn, this is GOOD,” to my soul and I scratched out the recipe from the poor bartender’s lips as I slurred my way through understanding.

Whoa, Nellie!

• 1.25oz Rye Whiskey (Sazerac or the like)
• .75oz Dark Rum (Coruba or Myer’s)
• .75oz Cointreau
• .5oz Grapefruit juice
• .5oz Lemon juice
• .5oz Simple syrup

Shake all ingredients and double-strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Think recuperative thoughts.

As my friend Rick said upon first tasting this drink, “The first sip reminded me of the Alamagoozlum in its strangeness. The melange of ingredients produces a symphony where no one instrument is heard, yet a chorus of sound echoes in your ears.” Yes, something like that.

The Whoa, Nellie! brings the unusual pairing of Rye and Dark Rum together in a way that allows this to be more than a sour but, even with the grapefruit, less than tiki. It’s one of my favorite types of drinks, built on simple and easy-to-find ingredients but bringing with it enough complexity to be wildly interesting without being fussy and demanding voodoo-like ritualistic principles of process or construction to achieve its goals. In short, it’s divine and yet accessible. It also goes great with hearty summer dishes such as grilled sausages, grilled flat-iron steak, or barbeque. This is a drink that cries out to be put into rotation as the mercury threatens to burst out of the thermometer out your window and poison the Hydrangeas you’ve nurtured so well.

Also, if you’ll allow me, back to Ted Haigh and New Orleans. Tales of the Cocktail is next week and, with it, a gaggle of cocktailians, bartenders, and other enthusiasts descend upon the Big Easy and raid bars like the Swizzle Stick and make them their own. One of the things I look forward to most at Tales this year is the release of a new version of “Vintage Spirits & Forgotten Cocktails,” by Ted Haigh . The first edition was the second serious cocktail book I purchased, right behind “The Joy of Mixology.” Ted opened my eyes to such wonderful drinks as the Blue Moon, the Alamagoozlum, Picon Punch, the Income Tax Cocktail, the Pendennis, and many others. He also did it with a degree of grace, detail, and intrigue that made it great fun to read.

In this deluxe edition Ted brings us back to those drinks but with new insights, new sources, and with a look at how the Internet has affected and supported the burgeoning cocktail culture. If you are thinking of dipping your toe into cocktailian waters and are at a loss for a place to start, you can’t do much better than this guide. If you are a seasoned mixologist or aficionado of quality drinks and don’t yet have this on your shelf, your library is incomplete. Buy it at Tales and get it signed by Ted himself or order it on Amazon, it’s one of the good ones.

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Whoa, Nellie! Rating:

I’m late for Mixology Monday, it’s true. Though rather than blame it on a dog eating my homework or, rather, drinking it, allow me to blame it on a certain dog in San Francisco who inspired me to chase its tail in the recreation of this drink. This is a tale of a weary traveler, who after long nights in bars, long days in distilleries, and sampling many fine brandies and Eau de Vies, was left in Oakland and drifted back to the other side of the Bay one Sunday afternoon looking for respite. Walking aimlessly around Union Square, drifting by noted liquor stores and finding them cruelly closed and, parched and listless, glancing at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and grimacing at the slice of life observed at 6th and Mission, I found my oasis, Heaven’s Dog. And, just as it opened.

Heaven’s Dog’s bar is constructed from a single cut of wood from a white cedar tree and the blend of contemporary and natural elements strikes you as you sit and face a long string of delights, spaced evenly and uncluttered behind the bartender, and contemplate what joys may come. Erik, it so happens, was part of the Feng shui on this visit. Heaven’s Dog features a “Freedom from Choice” on its menu and, in my deprived state, I was in need of such freedom. I glared at the bottles along the wall and, seeing Amaro Nonino, told Erik, “Something using Amaro Nonino, but dry, crisp, and refreshing.” Erik passed me my glass of water and, my trust and palate in his hands, went to work. This, as best as I can work out , is what I was served:

Upward Dog

• 2oz Rye whiskey
• .75oz Dry vermouth
• .75oz Amaro Nonino (used Amaro Meletti at home in the recreation of it)
• 2 barspoons Maraschino liqueur

Stir and strain. Serve with a lemon twist.

This is a delightful drink. I always develop crushes on simple and classically-styled cocktails that come across well-constructed and deliver complex and pleasing results. The balance of amaro against the rye and dry vermouth avoids the overly earthy or perfumey quality many amaro-heavy drinks acquire and the maraschino liqueur adds a sweet nutty touch without creating too much body. I highly recommend this and, if you can’t get Amaro Nonino, use a brighter and spicier amaro in your arsenal as a sub. Amaro Meletti is very light-bodied and brings a brightness to this that is most enjoyable. I also recommend using a drier rye than Old Overholt or Russell’s Reserve. Something on the order of Rittenhouse Bonded or Sazerac 6-year is called for here.

Heaven’s Dog assembles an incredible array of talent behind its bar. Erik Adkins, Thad Vogler, Erik Ellestad, and the other notable bartenders behind the stick represent a repository of cocktail knowledge and sound mixological principles that should be recognized and appreciated by the cocktailians of San Francisco. While Heaven’s Dog’s cocktail menu is squarely centered on vintage cocktails with a focus on local and natural ingredients, any bar where a patron can ask for a “Freedom from Choice” and have J. Wray Nephew Overproof rum as the called spirit and have delivered such a delightful cocktail as Thad managed, on the fly, to create deserves not only our respect but a bit of our awe as well.

I highly recommend the Bumblebee and Pisco Apricot Tropical. Or, if Ellestad is behind the stick, the Upward Dog.

Upward Dog Rating:

I’m in the same camp as Jay , except for the occasional excursion into Thursday Drink Night with an experiment of a drink among friends, I tend to leave the development of original drinks to the experts. Or, at least those in Playboy’s Top 10. That is until there is an interesting Rye or set of bitters at stake, which is exactly where I found myself this weekend with the allure and deadline of Marshall’s contest looming large in my mind. I also had bergamot-tarragon syrup to experiment with. As for why I had that particular syrup hanging around, that’s a tale for another day. With “Spring” and rye as the guiding stars per the contest rules, I set my boat a sail. I landed on the friendly and warm shores of The Revivalist, my attempt to acquire bitters and Templeton Rye in my favorite way, at Marshall’s expense.

The Revivalist

• 2oz Rye whiskey
• 1/2oz Amer Picon
• 1/2oz Bergamot-Tarragon syrup*
• 1/4oz Maraschino liqueur
• 1/4oz Lemon juice

Shake all ingredients with ice and double-strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Twist lemon peel over the drink and garnish with a lemon twist.

*Bergamot-Tarragon syrup: Bring simple syrup (1:1.5) just to boil and remove from heat, add tarragon and bergamot leaves and leave to sit and cool with syrup for at least one hour. Strain all into sterilized container.

This took several tries to get right. Originally I had the lemon juice and Amer Picon inverted and the tartness of the lemon juice along with the herbaceousness of the syrup led it into highly unfortunate bile territory. There was a good start there but it needed to feature the freshness of the syrup, the heartiness of the rye – and I do recommend a hearty rye in this, a nuttier and milder rye like Old Overholt will play dead in this – and the dancing combination of rye and Amer Picon more clearly. After several adjustments and misses I arrived at the recipe above.

I was worried that the volume of syrup would overly thicken the drink and make it tacky but the Amer Picon tamps that down and counters well enough to allow enough of the syrup to be present to bring the cucumber notes of bergamot and the fresh tarragon through. Also, using a strong rye alongside the maraschino allows the rich cherry must and nut character of the maraschino to express itself without overtaking the drink, which maraschino can quickly do. This iteration presents a well-structured drink that settles through several nuances on the palate and yet finishes cleanly. I was surprised at how much of the syrup could be present without dropping it off a cliff of candyland yick but, again, the drink strikes a nice even chord. Hopefully I’ll get to try it with Templeton in short order. Thanks for the opportunity fellas, it was fun.

To enter the contest yourself or to keep up with the submissions and results, visit the contest submission rules.

Upcoming TDN: DOM – B&B and Benedictine

B&B and Benedictine are classic and elegant ingredients used in a host of cocktails from the Singapore Sling (ok, *some* versions) to the Widow’s Kiss to whatever you decide to make at this Thursday’s TDN. THIS week’s special feature will be a LIVE! broadcast of the goings-on at the Monkey Hut where Craig, Blair, Rick, and special guest star Jeffrey Morgenthaler will be mixing and waxing poetic the whole evening. As always, festivities begin at 7pm EST in the Mixoloseum Bar.

TDN Vermouth Wrap-up

It was going to be tough to follow TDN: Mata Hari what with its awesome live action at the Tabard Inn and mocking of Oklahoma and sinking of such glorious failures of drinks as the Cannibal Curse (1.5oz Batavia Arrack, I rest my case) but TDN Vermouth came close. Vermouth, in many ways, gave birth to the modern cocktail and opened up endless possibilities beyond the simple “spirit, sugar, bitters, and water” make-up of the earliest cocktail form. The Manhattan, Martinez, and, in turn, the Martini, of course, being the primary examples of the explosion that happened after vermouth was introduced and popularized in the U.S. Whether our contributions will reach that same level of global appreciation and ubiquity remains to be seen, but at least it wasn’t for lack of trying:

Winning Drink

If I had no shame I would award it to my own drink, The Right Stuff, because the use of Pisco and how it came together was really sexy. However, the Financial District was a widely-tried and very well-regarded drink submitted by drink-well of LA who needs to get ahold of me to pass along his information to get his prize to him. Congrats, sir .

Financial District

• 1.75oz Bourbon
• .75oz dry vermouth
• .25oz coffee liqueur
• dash orange bitters
• dash peychaud

Stir, strain, and garnish with a lemon twist

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Other drinks you should try:

By beautiful wonderful, me.

The Right Stuff

• 2oz pisco
• 1oz bianco
• .5oz grapefruit juice
• .25 simple
• .25 curacao (used Grand Marnier)
• 2dash old fashioned bitters

Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

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Submitted by Paul who warns, sharply, do NOT use McClelland’s Islay single malt for this drink, gabe.

Ex

• 1.5 oz sweet vermouth
• .5 oz cask-strength rye
• .5 oz Campari

Stir & strain in glass rinsed with Islay single malt

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Offered up by Rick who will claim it’s the greatest drink ever made, and is dead wrong. But it is awfully damned good.

Jaynestown

• 2oz Firefly sweet tea vodka
• 1oz Dolin blanc
• 2 dashes lemon bitters

Stir and strain over ice

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One of my favorites of the night, and a very classically-styled drink submitted by Jake Parrott.

R.W. APPLE’S ORCHARD

• 1.5 oz apple brandy
• 1.5 oz Dolin blanc
• dash peach bitters
• dash Decanter bitters

Stir/strain and garnish with a lemon twist

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Offered, presumably with affection, by Rick and Craig.

Tiki Antica

• 1.5oz Carpano Antica
• 1oz Appleton Extra
• .5oz dark Jamaican rum (used Coruba)
• 1oz Licor 43
• .5oz lime
• .25oz falernum
• float 1oz ginger beer and .5oz Blackstrap Rum

Kick Rick and Craig’s collective asses with a swizzle stick for throwing in the kitchen sink where it’s not likely needed, and then make think and probably enjoy it.

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Submitted by John, a surprisingly good drink that I would cut back on the orgeat with if made again.

Well Stocked Bar

• 2oz gin
• 1oz lillet
• .5oz cynar
• .5oz dry vermouth
• .75oz orgeat
• 1oz lime
• 1 egg white
• 2 oz soda

Shake, strain, top w/ soda

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As always, the whole shameful debacle can be perused, mocked, and set aflame at your leisure.

NOTE: In the future, TDN judging will be handled in a new and exciting way. YOU can be part of selecting the winning cocktail each week. The host(s) will select a group of 4-5 cocktails they feel are worthy of consideration and post them on Friday in a poll on the Mixoloseum blog. Then, over the next few days, try the drinks and vote on your favorite and it will be declared in Tuesday’s wrap-up. Viva la Democracy!!

I’ve been around the block, well, not a lot, but enough times that it’s rare I now find a drink that takes me completely by surprise. I’m seasoned enough now that, for most the most part, I can eyeball the ingredients and get a general feel for what the outcome will be. “Oh, that’s a twist-up on the Monkey Gland, I get it.” Or, “I believe the Sleeping Giant was quite a bit like that, hmmmmm, I’ll check it out.” Now, maybe it’s my increasingly apparent lack of interest or lack of desire to deeply explore tiki drinks (I leave that to better folks than I) but the 2070 Swizzle, which Paul Clarke featured in the Sept/Oct issue of Imbibe, caught me completely off-guard. To the point where, sitting on the couch after mixing my first, I took a sip and Joana, watching my expression, said, “You just fell in love a little bit, didn’t you?” Yes, Martin Cate, I want to have your babies .
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This particular Mixology Monday is hosted by Dinah at bibulo.us with the theme “19th Century Cocktails” and, I’ll admit, it was a bit of a daunting task trying to find something that was both eligible AND looked tasty. I tend not to go in for trying 20 things in the interest of curiosity. I’d rather find five cocktails that look divine and four end up earning time in the pantheon of cocktailnerd’s regular rotation than go through 20 as an academic exercise and come out wishing I’d just gone ahead and made another Dead Reckoning instead of feeling like I need to brush my teeth long and vigorously…like 20 times in a row. That being said, after a disastrous Morning Glory Fizz (from Harry Johnson’s Bartender’s Manual), with which I was sorely disappointed and will try again, Joana stumbled upon the Hendrick Cocktail and it hit exactly the right notes emphasizing how bitters, a slight touch of sweet, and slight touches of absinthe and citrus can be used to create a simple drink that invokes the style and tastes of the era. The Hendrick Cocktail also provides me a specious excuse to run through my new bourbons for comparison. Read More »

First, a confession…I have no idea if that’s the actual Singapore Sling they served during the Juniperlooza session at Tales of the Cocktail, but I’ll be damned if I care because:

1. I remember it being tasty and have notes to that effect…
2. While not the absolute hands-down best drink I had at TotC or during my time in New Orleans, that is the most awesome piece of ice I’ve seen in a a while. It’s like ice porn.

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For my MxMo XIX theme in September of last year I chose ‘Fizz’ generally because I thought it’d be fun and narrowly because I have trouble denying myself any reason to have a drink topped with sparkling wine, champagne, tonic water or club soda. Or hell, any with champagne as a base for that matter. So recently when my glorious wife shoved a stack of papers in my face with a great number of drinks she felt I needed to make for her to try post-haste I had no trouble taking that honey-do on when I saw how many involved the bubbly.

Among the many she found were the winners of last year’s Tales of the Cocktails competition; the Crescent City Blossom, the Starfish Cooler, and the Sparkling Sakepom as well as several from the Food Network and Martha Stewart websites including the Laughter in the Rain , the Killer Mango Champagne Cocktail, the Grand Champagne Cocktail, and the Frizzante Mojito. Now, many of these require more work than I’m immediately willing to put in sight unseen but several of these I could try with little pre-work and had the right ingredients ready, and willing, to go. We tried the Starfish Cooler, the Crescent City Blossom, and the Frizzante Mojito. Each had their considerable charms, and none fell flat or disappointed. Read More »