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!!

The final Thursday Drink Night of 2008 brought us Sandeman Port as a theme and, I must say, I was surprised at both the volume of turn-out and the general quality of the drinks offered up throughout the evening.

Port can have a tough time in cocktails and Sandeman’s 10-year Tawny and Founder’s Reserve (a ruby-styled port) both earned my respect as ingredients that bring a unique character to cocktails and, generally, can stand up to the bolder flavors and profiles of juices, spirits, and liqueurs with which they’re mixed, a problem I’ve often had when trying to work port into a drink. Hell, we even had a submission using a healthy dose of flaming absinthe that the port stood up to, so that’s saying something. All that being said, I’ve only found a couple of port recipes that I’ve put in standard rotation but another I’ll add to the list is Logan’s Harbor, submitted that night by JenTiki.

Logan’s Harbor

• 2oz Sandeman Founders Reserve
• 1 1/2oz Domaine de Canton
• 1/2oz lemon Juice
• club soda, to top
• lemon peel, for garnish

Shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Top with club soda and garnish with a lemon twist.

Originally called “The Prestige” (apparently there was already a drink named this, but not as a nod to Hugh Jackman…unless Hugh Jackman is 80+ years old, which, after seeing “The Fountain”, I suppose is possible), this drink has a very nice effect of adding a layer of bright spiciness on top of the ruby port’s inherent sweet character and the citrus adds just enough tart to keep the liqueur and port from running away over the hills towards candyland. In fact, as the drinks warms the ginger bite of the Domain de Canton comes forward and the port takes more of a back seat. This led me to work the drink with the 10-year-old Tawny port and while it added a more dry character it also lended an additional spicy edge that compounded the separating of flavors. So, grab the Sandeman ruby port for this one.

I also like this drink because I’m a sucker for all things fizzy and effervescent, except bubble baths…they’re creepy . There’s a nice feel to the Logan’s Harbor but it’s important to strike the right balance. Too much and you, obviously, dilute the drink (though the flavors tend to separate less) and too little and it lacks the feel that suits the drink best and the flavors separate more quickly. This means you should probably chill your club soda for this one too.

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Logan’s Harbor Rating:

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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I started out this project with watermelon in mind . See, watermelon is Oklahoma’s state vegetable and grows exceptionally well in our long growing season. The thing is, I hate watermelon. The texture, mealy; the flavor, insipid; and the messiness, a problem, it’s never been among my top five favorite forms of torture. But, try to use it as a cocktail ingredient, I did, and came up short. Rather than muddling it as at least one TotC tasting room did, with somewhat not unpleasant results, I created “watermelon water” by dicing half a watermelon and letting gravity strain it through cheesecloth. The result has a beautiful color without much else to recommend it. Try to make a watermelon-based cousin to the margarita and you get a fairly good use of tequila in a non-offensive way, but nothing that features watermelon as a flavor or makes one take notice. Try using it with citrus vodka instead and you get a watered-down effect that makes one neither fond of watermelon, or vodka . So, screw it, I’m moving on to peaches and raspberries, dammit. Watermelons, and the state legislature, can go to hell.
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I have a problem with Imbibe! and, in a larger sense, fussy-buns cocktails that require a body to prepare anywhere from 2 days to 4 weeks in advance to make a drink. You see, I’m not a planner. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love the publication and think it’s gorgeous, brilliantly designed and edited, and I find you can rarely go wrong mixing up one of its drinks. But, therein lies the problem; I often can’t. This, from a guy with over 200 bottles of spirits and 30+ mixing supplements (bitters, syrups, infusions, etc.) at his disposal. I can’t imagine what a traditional reader faces what with the calls for tamarind syrup, algarrobina syrup, pinot grigio syrup, Ceylon black-tea infused silver tequila, pomegranate balsamic drizzle…I could go on and on, but I won’t. Suffice it to say that another blogger at TotC said it best when he said, “If I’m not able to reach for the bottles and mix it up, it gets a bit tiresome and fussy.” In other words, I’m in this to make drinks, people. And, I have a feeling this is why I go in for the classic and vintage cocktails so heartily; they simply require, for the most part, you have a well-stocked bar, some juices, and the gumption.

In going through my Tales of the Cocktail recipe cards I find so many obscure liquors and spirits I can’t come near to acquiring here (Rain Organics Honey Mango Melon Vodka? I mean, C’MON!) or esoteric and arcane ingredients such as Bauman’s unsweetened Spice and Sassafras Apple Butter that I just begin to throw my hands up at the byzantine morass I see ahead of me that would make drinking a slog and turn to a nice classic Attention or Jack Rose cocktail and call it a night. Maybe I can be accused of not being serious or devoted enough, I don’t know.

But, this is why I get so delighted when I see a drink such as the Elan Vital, by Daniel Shoemaker, featured towards the back of the magazine’s July/August 2008 issue. “Alas,” I say, “a drink I can make this very instant, and it looks divine.” 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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10:34 – the room is alive, with the sound of cocktailians and the panel is finally getting settled in (Blair, Craig, and Rick are assisting with bartending, he looks ready and on high-alert

Jeff blows the conch shell, and it’s all eyes up-front

10:40- Jeff asks for his “laser pointer” to point to his presentation, turns out it’s a harpoon. Good quick overview of where tiki cocktails were made and migrated through the “New Riviera” to Hawaii in the 60’s.

10:41 – Punch and Pirates

Meeting House Punch

• 75 oz Cruzan Estate Light Rum
• 112 1/2 oz Rhum Clement VSOP
• 400 oz Red Stripe beer
• 25 oz Fresh lemon juice
• 25 oz Muscovado Syrup

Mix in a large punch bowl fill with ice and lemon wedges

Beer really comes through in this, but it is refreshing in its citrusy and bright character.

10:45 – Jeff relates the story of ‘Sucking the Monkey’, don’t ask…

10:48 – Prohibition drove everyone to Cuba and Tiki drink culture thrived…and to drove them to drink at Sloppy Joe’s bar-then immediately fly back to the States. See the movie Our Man in Havana for shots from the original Havana bar-amazing stuff.

10:53 – But don’t drink in Sloppy Joe’s in Key West. But do have:

La Florida Cocktail

• 1 oz Rhum Clement VSOP
• 1/8 oz Rhum Clemente Creole Shrubb
• 1/2 oz Martini & Rossi Rosso Vermouth
• 1/4 oz BOLS White Creme de Cacao
• 1/8 oz grenadine
• 1 oz Fresh lime juice

Shake with ice, strain and drop in orange peel.

Very tart, the volume lime juice really push this high on the tartness scale .

10:58 – History of the expansion of tiki drinks in the US when Conrad Hilton retooled many of the Hilton bars to serve tropical drinks in Hilton bars.

11:02 – Two prizes given out, and a Big Lebowski reference…nice.

11:05 – Wayne Curtis talks about the mob (Bugsy Siegel and Meyer Lansky (sp?)) and how it influenced the design of tiki bars, shows the Havana Hilton’s Trader Vic’s interior-very ornate, dense, and looks like a good time. Until Castro came in and used it as his headquarters for the Revolution. Bad investment for Conrad Hilton…

11:08 – LEGO version of Fidel Castro on the slide, they left out the falling off stages and dying parts in the LEGO recreation. Wayne ordered a Mai Tai in the current bar there, and was served a neon-red cheap punch-looking thing and said, “…this is not a good argument for Socialism.” Too true.

11:11 – Rum Pot (adapted) is served and Jeff Berry walks through the original Rum Pot and the taste differences

Rum Pot (adapted)

• 1 1/2 oz El Dorado 12-year Demarara Rum
• 1/4 oz French Vanilla Syrup (Fee Brothers)
• 1/2 oz passion fruit puree
• 3/4 oz orange juice
• 3/4 oz fresh lemon juice

Shake well with ice and pour unstrained into glass.

This is really interesting, the vanilla and passion fruit work together really well without creating too heavy a body.

11:17 – Martin Cate takes over and discusses how the modifiers available in the Caribbean influenced Don the Beachcomber’s approach and recipes. Soil and moisture in the West Indes creates a high amount of oil, and thus intensity, in the native spices. neat!

11:18 – A “hardwood” tree in Grenada helps men with impotency…Martin manages to shame a couple of men in the audience by offering them several pieces of bark…then we all get a sample a bit -it tastes like, ummmmmm, wood.

11:22 – Jasper’s Jamaican Cocktail is handed out, and get to see fresh pimento berries…negates the effect of the bark..

Jasper’s Jamaican Cocktail

• 1 1/4 oz Cruzan Estate Dark Rum
• 1/2 oz St. Elizabeth allspice dram
• 1/2 oz fresh lime juice
• 1/2 teaspoon rock candy syrup

Shake well with ice and strain. Dust with nutmeg

loody hell, this is good-like a falernumy/pimento syrup mixed with rum, just delicious with a great balance of spiciness and sweet. And, the Dark Rum works very well, I wouldn’t replace it with gold per the original recipe.

11:23 – best set of slides thus far in any presentation I’ve seen, Martin does an extremely funny take on the preparation a pimento cocktail that’s buried for 6-8 weeks…really good stuff.

11:27 – Stephen Remsberg walks through Jasper’s Jamaican mix and is very charming in talking through the effects of rum on the cocktails such as the overproof Jamaican rum against many of the regular-proofed and lighter rums served to the tourists.

11:33 – Stephen’s final thought- “Pay attention to the rum, and take note of what difference they make in your drinks.”

11:35 – Jeff Berry walks through several caribbean bars and then has a very funny take, since there are no damned tiki bars in New Orleans, on having a wonderful Daiquiri at one of the slushy stands here .

Q/A: Berry’s “favorite” rum is Cruzan Estates for mixing and Demrara as a style and sipping rum.

(Will add photos later-cheers!)

Way out west there was this fella, and his drink, I wanna tell ya about. Goes by the name of Keith Waldbauer. His drink goes by the name, “Union“. At least that was the handle its loving creator gave it. Now, “Union” – there’s a name no man would seek out to associate himself with in the South where I come from. But then there was a lot about Keith that don’t make a whole lot of sense. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that’s why I found the drink so darned interestin’. See, they call his bar “Union” too; but I can’t say I’ve come here to talk about that, exactly. But I’ll allow it as there are some nice folks there, in Seattle. ‘Course I ain’t never been to London, and I ain’t never seen France. And I ain’t never seen no queen in her damned undies, so the feller says. But I’ll tell you what – after drinking the “Union”, and this here story I’m about to unfold, well, I guess I seen somethin’ every bit as stupefyin’ as you’d seen in any of them other places. And in English, too. So I can die with a smile on my face, without feelin’ like the good Lord gypped me.

Now this here drink I’m about to tell you about came about in the early twenty aughts – just about the time of our conflict with Sad’m and the I-raqis. I only mention it because sometimes there’s a drink… I won’t say a classic, ’cause, what’s a classic? Sometimes, there’s a drink. And I’m talkin’ about the Union here – the Union from Seattle. Sometimes, there’s a drink, well, it’s the drink for its time and place. It fits right in there. And that’s the Union. The Union, from Seattle. And even if it’s a fine drink – and the Union is most certainly that. Quite possibly one of the more finest in all of King County, which would place him high in the runnin’ for worldwide. Sometimes there’s a drink, sometimes, there’s a drink. Well, I lost my train of thought here. But… aw, hell. I’ve done introduced it enough. Read More »

It goes like this; first, Simple Syrup…easy, and quick, and tasty. And then, trying something a little more challenging and varied, you make grenadine…still easy, and tastier, and superior. Great! Then you decide to get all esoteric and historic and brave. A few skinned knuckles and ruined cheese cloths later you have Falernum (this despite the fact it’s not often used outside tiki drinks, but the Corn and Oil is a MIGHTY nice parting gift)…a little more difficult and cumbersome, but unique and rewarding and a great way to dazzle friends. Then, you go mildly insane, much like our mariner friend here…

I made my first batch of Pimento Dram (Allspice Liqueur) last Fall and, given that it takes a month-and-a-half to make it properly, set it on the shelf, tried the occasional tiki drink that called for it, added it to a batch of Egg Nog or two (delicious), but otherwise found it a fantastic ingredient for which I had yet to find a natural, recurring, and fitting home for. Until, that is, I came upon the Ancient Mariner in Jeff Berry’s Grog Log. This is the rare life-changing drink. My secret shame is that it’s taken me this long to write about it and Pimento Dram . Let’s look at the secret weapon of the drink, the Pimento Dram, first. Read More »

I tend to not think much about limoncello. Too sweet for me to sip on its own as an after-dinner quaff and too much a cordial to be much used in cocktails, I just find myself glancing at it from time-to-time and thinking, *hmrph*. Until I found myself with four bottles of it, that is. How this came to be I’m not entirely sure but I blame my wife and Danny DeVito primarily, though not in conjunction.

My wife became interested in limoncello after seeing it featured on one of Giada’s shows on Food Network and decided to whip up a batch…boom, 1.5L of limoncello hanging around the house. Then, to compare the homemade to a manufactured brand we purchased another bottle and taste-tested them for comparison. And purchased one once again, after Danny DeVito’s infamous appearance on The View where he was fairly visibly intoxicated after a night out with George Clooney due to his, “…last seven limoncellos…” I found it amusing and then some months later unexpectedly running into a bottle at a liquor store here in Tulsa went ahead and picked it up. Why not, right? (Let’s just hope Avril Lavigne doesn’t take it on herself to develop her own line of limoncello as well). So, wham, I then have approximately 3L of limoncello cluttering my bar. Urg. And finally, a marketing firm saw fit to send a bottle of limoncello to me without warning and, great gobs of goosefat! , I have nearly 4L of the stuff sitting around the house. What to do? Oh, yeah, write a damned post, that’s what. Read More »