Grandfather Cocktails

I somehow managed to delete this post!  I'll reconstruct it as best I can...

I recently re-read Jason Wilson's Boozehound - a very entertaining exploration of unusual booze categories.  One of my favorite chapters goes into detail about amaros, the Italian bitter liqueurs best exemplified in this country by Campari.  I've included Cynar (wonderful, bizarre, artichoke-y goodness) in a few recipes, but haven't explored many other amaros on my own before.  A few weeks ago, I decided to splurge and try a couple that I'd never worked with before.

I wound up with bottles of Averna and Zucca.  These share a dark, intense, herbal quality but have very different takes.  Averna is appropriately Sicilian, full of black liquorice, orange peel, and a hint of walnut.  Zucca focuses on jammy red fruit, dark spices, and an interesting astringency (possibly from the inclusion of rhubarb).

Both of these are quite pleasant on their own over ice with a liberal splash of soda water; this makes for a simple, bittersweet apertif.  I've also seen them used in recipes like the Black Manhattan, but thought they might really shine as supplements in a classic old-fashioned.

#1 (Papa Averna)

2 oz aged rum (Plantation 20th Anniversary, because that's how I roll)
1/2 oz Averna
1/4 oz orgeat (homemade)
2 dashes orange bitters (Regan's No. 6)

Stir over ice in a cocktail glass.  Garnish with orange peel, if you want.

#2 (Papa Zucca)

2 oz bourbon (delicious Willett Pot Still Reserve)
1/2 oz Zucca
1/4 oz orgeat (I had a bunch left over from some as-yet-unposted Easter cocktails)
2 dashes aromatic bitters (Angostura)

Stir over ice in a cocktail glass.  Garnish with a cocktail cherry, if you're feeling fancy.

These are both old-fashioned and bitter - hence the term "grandfather cocktails".  Get it?!?  (Sorry, I occasionally fall victim to compulsive punning.)

Improbable Tonic

One of the things about making your own tonic syrup is that you really don't use much for each drink, and the potential uses are admittedly more limited than a straightforward flavored syrup.  So what do you do with a whole ton of tonic syrup, with nary a drop of gin, aquavit, etc. in sight?  You do insane things, that's what.

Before you go judging this recipe on the merits of its appearance, try one.  This is bizarre, unexpected synergy in a glass.

2 oz medium-dry sherry (rainwater madiera might work too)
1 oz white rum (Plantation 3 Star; I wouldn't use anything too dry, i.e. Bacardi)
1/3 oz spiced tonic syrup (up to 1/2 oz depending on your batch)

Combine over ice and stir, then top with 1-2 oz soda water to taste.

I know, I know - that looks like a fucking train wreck.  It was only through the miracle of multiple previous drinks that this combination even occurred to me, and then just as a sort of befuddled curiosity.  I've never been more pleased to be proven wrong.

Spiced Tonic Syrup

Once even the first inkling of warm weather starts cropping up after such a long and vicious winter, my thoughts immediately turn to tonic.  There are some bottled versions that I like (though nothing that comes in plastic will do) but assuming you possess a soda siphon, the real way to roll is making your own.  This also allows for creative license to help deal with things like snow while you're trying to make tonic, by upping the warm, wintery spice profile.

The basic recipe here comes courtesy of Maggie Savarino's Seasonal Cocktail Companion, which is a great source for creative homemade booze-projects.

4 cups water
2 1/2 cups sugar
3 tablespoons cinchona bark
3 tablespoons citric acid
3 tablespoons dried citrus peel (homemade is easy; mine was an equal mix of lemon and orange)
1 tablespoon coriander
1 teaspoon juniper berries
1 teaspoon cracked grains of paradise (use 1/2 teaspoon of white pepper if you can't find these)
1 teaspoon crushed cinnamon

Bring the water to a boil, add the sugar, stir until dissolved, then reduce the heat to low.  Add the remaining ingredients and simmer for 30 minutes.  Let cool, double-strain, and keep refrigerated in an airtight container.

Applications are obvious - gin and vodka would be the most straightforward, but I encourage you to explore others.  Pisco and aquavit are among my favorites.  For any of the above, use about 1/2 oz of tonic syrup to 2 oz spirit, topped off with 3-4 oz of soda water to taste.

Cool Cucumber

Here's a random, tasty, and simple highball.  You're welcome.

2 oz pisco (Capel)
2 oz cryo-cucumber juice
1/2 oz cilontrastic syrup (yum)
1/2 oz lime juice (fresh, duh)

Shake with plentiful ice, then pour unstrained into a pint glass.  Top with 3-4 oz soda water to taste.  Top with a dash of your favorite bitters (I used a homemade spiced-apple bitters).

I love spring!

Tasting #2

In the wake of my first, wildly successful cocktail tasting, I was incredibly pleased to have the chance at another.  This wound up being a much rowdier time, with a surprising amount of yelling and karaoke.  It was also a shitload of fun!  A big thanks to Chris and Bridget for inviting me and hosting.

DRINK #1: AVIATION
2 oz gin
½ oz maraschino liqueur
¾ oz lemon juice
To build: Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a cherry.
Other notes: The original recipe adds a dash of violet liqueur (crème de violette) for a pale, light blue color, hence the name. But this simpler version is just as tasty.

DRINK #2: SPRING MARTINEZ
2 oz gin
½ oz Dolin blanc vermouth
¼ oz maraschino liqueur
2 dashes Regan's No. 6 orange bitters
2 dashes Bitter Truth celery bitters
To build: Rinse a cocktail glass with absinthe and place in the freezer. Stir with ice and strain into the prepared cocktail glass. Garnish with a strip of lemon peel.
Other notes: The Martinez is an early version of the Martini. This version uses an unusual style of sweetened white vermouth; regular red vermouth works too.

DRINK #3: PISCOJITO
2 oz pisco
½ oz pineapple syrup
¾ oz lime juice
2 large sprigs mint
To build: Strip the mint leaves except for the top of one stalk.  Press the leaves in the bottom of a glass with the syrup; add the pisco, lime juice and ice.  Shake, strain over fresh ice, top with soda water, and insert the mint sprig as garnish.
Other notes: This Cuban classic would normally use white rum, but pisco makes an interesting substitution. If you get lazy and drink this out of the glass you mixed it in, nobody would blame you.

DRINK #4: PERFECT PISCO PUNCH
2 oz pisco
1 oz pineapple syrup
½ oz lemon juice
½ oz lime juice
½ egg white
2 dashes Bitter Truth celery bitters
3-4 pineapple cubes
To build: Muddle the pineapple in the pisco and syrup; add the remaining ingredients, shake very well and strain over fresh ice.
Other notes: Nobody quite knows the original recipe for this renowned San Francisco specialty; this is my own tricked-out version.  It’s hard to separate an egg into equal halves, so you’ll just have to make two!

Holy crap did that last one ever take off.  I wound up making at least a couple for everyone present, in addition to the tasting portions and a whole slew of off-the-cuff requests.  Like I said: rowdy.  In the words of one attendee: "You bring such joy to people with kids."  I'll take the compliment, but by the time I left they were doing just fine on their own.

My only problem is that now, I've got a whole bunch of research to do into the legal side of making this a real, grown-up business.  People seem to dig the concept, especially as I focus on the fact that it's really not that difficult, and that anybody can make a good cocktail.  This seems to be not only a viable niche, but something that I really enjoy; there are such incredibly fun moments of engagement and learning that I can't help but look forward to the next event.  But if I want to get paid for this, all the sudden I need to start thinking about contracts and liability and scheduling.  So maybe I'll pull up the reigns for now, do some serious investigation, and keep hosting preview parties at home in preparation.  Someday we'll get there.

Two Dutch Sours

I'll state right away for the record that neither of these are exactly originals (and in fact, they're pretty much the exact same drink) but I don't think that should stop you from trying them.  Both are being included here precisely because they turned out very nicely.

The basic question of the hour: what happens if you use genever in drinks which typically call for dry gin?

The Flying Dutchman
1 1/2 oz genever (Bols Barrel Aged, my hands-down favorite)
1/2 oz Luxardo maraschino
1/2 oz lemon juice

The Dutch Lady
1 1/2 oz genever (same as above)
1/2 oz triple sec (another Luxardo product)
1/2 oz lemon juice

For both, shake and strain into a coupe; garnish with a strip of lemon peel.

It's pretty impressive how well these work despite the Bols being a completely different spirit than a London Dry gin.  I should admit that "Flying Dutchman" isn't even my name for the first of these; there's a local bar that serves the same beverage, done up with creme de violette for color in classic Aviation style.  Frankly, I see very little need to keep such a specialized liqueur in my home bar, and make my Aviations without.

Cilontrastic Syrup

I don't normally post recipes without booze in them, but here's a rare and deserved specimen.  Friends, I present to you: tequila's best friend ever.

8 oz agave nectar
4 oz water
1 teaspoon whole coriander seeds
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
Zest of 2 limes

Heat the agave, water, and coriander in a small saucepan over low heat until the syrup comes to a gentle simmer.  Add the cilantro and lime zest, remove from heat, cover, and let sit on the stove to infuse for an hour.  Pour through a fine sieve and keep refrigerated in a sealed container.  Optionally, add 1/2 oz of 100-proof (or higher) vodka for longer storage - though note that this technically makes it non-alcoholic.

My favorite usage thus far:

2 oz blanco tequila
1/2 oz Cilontrastic Syrup
1/2 oz lime juice

Shake and strain into an old-fashioned glass over crushed ice.

This works equally well with other robust white spirits, like white rum or pisco.

Cedared Martinez

It's time once again for the Weird Gin Cocktail Hour!  Seems like there's not a month where I find some new, unusual gin that just begs to be taken home.  This time, it's Vikre Distillery's Boreal Cedar Gin, which I almost feel bad for mentioning; it's brand-new, hyper-local, and near as I can tell not yet distributed outside my home state.  It's an interesting spirit, very subtly colored and flavored with cedar wood, which is probably a first. The cedar is most definitely prominent, sharing space with some classic botanicals as a somewhat piney presence before ballooning out into campfire smoke with a mild forest-berry backdrop.  It's a little bit hot at the end (campfire in more ways than one) but despite all that cedar manages to be more restrained than other evergreen-infused gins like St. George Terrior or Rogue Spruce Gin.

That unique smoky presence makes this a dead-on match for Cynar.  After some experimentation, here's a Martinez rendition designed to make use of this potent combination.

2 oz Boreal Cedar Gin
1/4 oz Licor 43
1/4 oz Cynar
1/4 oz red vermouth (plain old Martini & Rossi, this time)
1 dash Regan's No. 6 Orange Bitters

Stir and strain into a cocktail glass.  Garnish with a thin strip of orange peel, or nothing at all.

If you're adventurous, you can swap out some or all of the red vermouth for additional Cynar (in which case you might want to drop the bitters) but I like this more balanced approach.  From experience I can also tell you that Luxardo, Benedictine, and even Rothman & Winter's Apricot liqueur all make interesting substitutions for the Licor 43.

Hemingway's Lady

This recipe is a bit of a cheap slam-dunk, but what else should I have done with an abundance of Luxardo and grapefruit juice?  I'll plead for an exception based on the name, which perfectly captures this hybrid of a Hemingway Daquiri and a White Lady.

2 oz gin (Old Tom was a nice choice for this one)
1/2 oz Luxardo maraschino
3/4 oz red grapefruit juice
1/2 oz lemon juice

Shake and strain into an old-fashioned glass filled with crushed ice.  Garnish with a cherry if you feel fancy.

In the end, this is a lot more like an Aviation than either of the parent drinks.  It's a bit too obvious a combo, really; there's got to be another name for this, but I like mine.

The Real McCoy

After suggesting a scotch-based Boulevardier/Negroni variation in my last blended scotch review, I just had to try one.  It took a couple tries, but this turned out very nicely.

1 1/2 oz Cutty Sark Prohibition Edition
1 oz Campari
1 oz sweet vermouth (Martini & Rossi)
1 dash orange curacao (Pierre Ferrand, always)

Stir and strain over a large ice cube; garnish with a wide swath of orange peel and top with a scant pinch of salt on top of the cube.

I'm departing with myself in requiring a garnish on this one, but you really must try it with the salt.  I dunno what it is, exactly - the salt reinforces the slightly briny, peaty character of the scotch and keeps the dash of liqueur from making the drink too sweet.  I may try a careful use of salt in other cocktails as well...

Spirits: Worthy Blends to Try

I enjoyed my previous experimental gin review so much that I just had to try another.  We'll keep to categories that I think are somewhat neglected by mixologists, this time blended scotch whiskey.

Hold the howls of outraged derision while I reiterate that I don't fuck around with this "whiskey" vs. "whisky" nonsense.  According to David Wondrich, who I consider a sage and reliable source on all historically spiritous matters, this is a purely modern convention, and to me it doesn't have any logical basis either.  Therefore I choose to consider it along the same lines as the minor spelling differences you find between standard UK and US English, and go with my personal preference.  I won't dispute your right to spell the word however you damn well please, but I insist on the same basic courtesy.  So, yeah: I'm reviewing blended scotch whiskeys here, deal with it.

Ahem.  Let's review some other terminology.  For those not in the know, scotch whiskey comes in a couple of different tiers, labelled by regulated terms (the same way that terms like "bourbon" or "Champagne" are subject to specific standards).  Single malt can only be bottled from a single distillery and is generally considered higher quality, while blended scotch can be mixed from multiple distillers and can contain some proportion of grain spirit.  There's also the somewhat controversial "blended malt", which indicates a blend of single malts without any grain spirit.  The products I'm drawing from here all come from the latter two categories.  Why bother when single malt is generally considered best?  Well, here are three good reasons:

1. I'm primarily focused on cocktails here, and it makes little sense to use a top-quality spirit known for its nuanced flavor in a mixed drink.  If you insist on single malt, you're probably going to drink it straight anyway, and I complement you on a fine choice.
2. Blends are typically less expensive than single malts.  Most of the products covered here cost about $30 at retail, and it's tough to find a decent single malt at that price, let alone a really good one.  Like cognac and other popular spirits, premium quality costs a lot with scotch.  I like using top quality when I can, but I don't have an unlimited budget and I doubt you do either.
3. The challenge of finding a diamond in the rough!  I consider this one reason enough.  Scotch is a pretty wide category, and there are plenty of poor selections out there.  However, the popularity of single malt and its escalating price point means there's healthy interest in affordable alternatives, and much better stuff hitting the market than in years past.  I for one am happy to give the various offerings a try and share my experience with you here.

So, without further ado, let's review.

#1: Pig's Nose

Pig's Nose is not an especially complex whiskey, but it's certainly a well-balanced and effective one.  Part of that comes from its mixed heritage, which cross-breeds Speyside, Islay, and Lowlands malts to great effect.  On the palate it's got a bit of soft grain, some floral character akin to chamomile, that classic scotch peatiness, and a hint of black tea bitterness.  All of that is carried by a moderately rich, smooth body, much more so than with bigger-name blends (hence the tagline "smooth as a pig's nose").  One of the main reasons I like this is that the body stands up to mixing the same way that a decent bourbon or brandy would.  This makes for some interesting substitutions; a Scotch Sour is certainly fun to try, especially if you go all-out with a Penicillin Cocktail.  Or keep things simple with a scotch & soda or Mamie Taylor (perhaps my favorite highball, and Pig's Nose does it right).

#2: Great King St. Artist's Blend

If Pig's Nose lies at one end of the blend spectrum, Artist's Blend lies at the other; it's still smooth, don't worry, but far more subtle.  It's primarily composed of very soft Lowlands whiskies; the very pale, slightly greenish color is a dead giveaway.  The palate starts off slowly, and gradually escalates into a complex wave of green apple, pear, almond, and dried herbs with a bready feel.  The finish winds up being modestly grainy with a bit of smoke thrown in, and a little more subtle herb character (bay leaf, maybe?).  Subtlety makes this probably my favorite of these blends; when I drink this, it's usually neat.  However, it also makes for one of my all-time personal favorite creations, the Golden Carriage.  Looking back at that recipe, I'm really surprised that I didn't write it for this specific brand, as I did with this one; should probably go back and fix that.  

#3: Cutty Sark Prohibition Edition

This is an interesting blend, one that I probably wouldn't have tried were it not for a rather positive review.  Supposedly commemorating a famous rum-runner, this is bottled at a nice punchy 100 proof, probably for the sake of novelty.  Same goes for the pitch-black bottle.  Despite this, it's got an interesting profile, with intense sweet toffee flavors, hazelnut, and orange peel, capped off by a hint of coffee bitterness and a classic, tarry finish.  All of that puts me a bit in mind of bourbon, suggesting substitutions like a scotch-based Boulevardier.  If you'd rather simplify, strip out the Campari for a straightforward Rob Roy, or dial back to an Improved Cocktail in the spirit of Imbibe!; this blend gets along really well with orange curacao.

#4: Monkey Shoulder

Monkey Shoulder is one of those controversial "blended malts", being a mix of three individual malts that includes some well-known names (Balvenie and Glenfiddich).  All of its constituents come from Speyside, so you could consider this a sort of regional blend if you like.  The name sounds cute, but it actually comes from a sort of repetitive stress injury (think tennis elbow) that sometimes happened to the guy with the important job of stirring the protean whiskey with a big wooden paddle.  It's got a very nice, classic grainy character throughout, spiked with a little bit of orange, mango, and... yep, banana on the palate.  The finish is spicy with a hint of raisin and smoke behind it, but very classic Speyside.  This is really the closest you can get to single-malt quality out of a blend, and it's hard to argue with the price point.  For that reason I use it in spirit-focused scotch cocktails like the Rob Roy, Remember the Maine, or Affinity Cocktail.

Well, I was hoping for a total of 5 again, but unfortunately I've exhausted my knowledge of actual quality blends.  I'm sure there are plenty more out there.  Scotch is a growing category in the spirits world, and with prices rising for top-quality single malts, more blends are rising up to fill the middle shelves.  Compass Box (the company behind the Artist's Blend) makes quite a few that I would love to try and which I'm sure would qualify for recommendation here.  Maybe I'll get back to expanding this list in future.  For now, enjoy.

22nd Century

The 20th Century cocktail is one of my personal favorites (I included it on my first drink menu) and I also quite appreciate PDT's riff, the 21st Century. I thought I was making one but mis-remembered the recipe and wound up with this.

1 1/2 oz reposado tequila

1/2 oz Cocchi Americano

1/2 oz creme de cacao

1/2 oz lime juice

Shake and strain over a large ice cube. Garnish with a lime wheel, I guess?

This is actually more faithful to the original recipe, I think. The 21st Century is fun, but I dig this version quite a bit.

Housecat

I have to admit that this is not strictly an original creation.  A recipe for the Horsecar popped up in one of my feeds, and I misread the name, but liked the new one so much that it needed a cocktail to suit.  The original is a tasty sort of inverse-proportions Perfect Manhattan, but I thought the new name deserved something plusher.  This being a very old-school drink, I figured on an old-school treatment of swapping the core spirit, and the result turned out well indeed after a couple additional tweaks.

1 oz brandy (Cognac would be a fine choice, but Armagnac a better one; don't skimp on quality here)
1 oz dry vermouth (Dolin for me)
1 oz sweet vermouth (Carpano Antica; again, not the place to go cheap)
1 dash Cherry Heering
3 dashes aromatic bitters (Angostura)

Stir and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.  Garnish with a cherry or orange peel (or both) but only if you're not feeling lazy.

House of Gin Old-Fashioned (#2)

My recent foray into reviewing weird gins made me realize that I had (gasp!) only one partially-emptied bottle of Tanqueray Malacca.  I quickly remedied the situation, which also gave me an excuse to splash that open bottle around.  One astonishingly simple combination caught my notice - I'm amazed that I didn't stumble upon it already.  Yet it's so damned tasty that I feel it's earned a spot as my second House Old-Fashioned.

2 oz Tanqueray Malacca
1/4 oz thyme syrup
4 dashes Angostura bitters (try other aromatic bitters at your discretion)

Build in an old-fashioned glass over a large ice cube.  Garnish?!?  Hah!  Try a lemon peel if you must.

Thyme syrup, man.  I think we have a trend here.  I might try this with a bit of dry vermouth once the weather warms.

The Remedy

Keeping with the trend of slightly-fancified classics, here's a twist on the Negroni.  I named it after the hue, which looks to me precisely like that of cherry-flavored cough syrup (tastes better though, I promise, and it'll still make you feel better).

1 1/2 oz London Dry (Beefeater 24 this time, because it was on sale)
1/2 oz orange curacao (Pierre Ferrand Dry Curacao is my new hands-down favorite)
1/2 oz Campari
1/2 oz Cocchi Americano
2 dashes orange bitters (Regan's No. 6 recommended)
2 dashes The Bitter Truth Celery Bitters (another hands-down favorite brand)

Stir and strain into a cocktail glass.  Garnish with a lemon twist.

I have to admit, I thought this was a really clever idea until a finicky little voice reminded me that it's basically identical to the Lucien Gaudin Cocktail found in Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails.  Crud.  But I will still take credit for the minor differences.  To make the former, use triple sec in place of curacao, dry vermouth in place of Cocchi Americano, omit the bitters, and garnish with orange peel.  I like this better; it's got a nice bitter edge and isn't quite as sweet.  Sorry, Lucien.

Sidearm

Here's a very simple remix on the Sidecar that used up a lonely remaining Seville orange.  I kinda wish I'd been able to get this out earlier for Mixology Monday, since it seems to fit this month's criteria pretty well.  It's not particularly fancy, but it turned out well for all its simplicity.

2 oz cognac (grade not too critical here, but I used a cheap-ish VSOP)
1/2 oz Mathilde Poire
1/2 oz Seville orange juice
1 dash Angostura bitters

Shake and strain into a cocktail glass.  Garnish with a thin orange slice, if you have any left.

Spirits: Weird Gins to Try

I thought we'd try a little something different.  I'll admit that lately my mixing has tended toward the cheap and cheerful, relying on value brands and expedient highballs.  Simplicity has its virtues, but it can make for uninspired writing, especially on a cocktail blog.  Yeah, I've worked out my favorite brand of ginger beer (Reed's, by a mile) but I refuse to write the 10,000th post about the Moscow Mule.

Rather than being used in more creative pursuits, my collection of quality liquors has slowly gained a critical mass, where it suddenly feels almost sacrosanct to touch them.  But I will happily accept an excuse to dip in and turn my drive for simplicity into an advantage.  What's simpler than straight booze?

Now, okay, this is probably not all that simple.  These are not all easy brands to find (I know, having spent weeks hunting for some of them at my local shops, and stumbling quite accidentally across others only to see them vanish from the shelves) and none are your standard London Dry.  I enjoy them more for their character than for being a "perfect" gin and encourage you to seek them out, if only to broaden your concept of gin.  I've mentioned most of these before and where applicable will point out various of my previous recipes that utilize them.  It'll be fun, or at least a reasonable approximation.

So here we go, in no particular order:

#1: St. George Dry Rye
I've espoused this one several times before as a superbly unique creature, one that successfully finds its own niche between modern dry gins and the much older genever style.  Its style really hits a spot I didn't know I had, and earns the title of my absolute favorite domestic gin.  True to the name, the base spirit is copper pot-distilled 100% rye, which lends a spicy, malty flavor... like that of a good rye whiskey, unsurprisingly.  More interesting is the botanical mix, which leads off with an extra dose of juniper, plus black pepper and only four other ingredients (!) designed to emphasize that juniper essence.  All of this makes for a burly and assertive gin that maintains its distinct flavor in cocktails.  I particularly like this in an old-fashioned or Double-Dry Martinez, where the modifiers complement but can't possibly overwhelm that intense peppery character, but it can also stand tall in less spirit-forward drinks.  Raspberry syrup is an especially good choice to use in combination.  Or, dispense with the cocktail frippery entirely and pour a shot for use in a kopstootje (which I often do).

#2: Tanqueray Malacca
I remember first reading about Malacca in Ted Haigh's seminal Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails, in a passage mourning its loss and practically begging the company to bring it back.  Apparently they heard the same from others, because after a decade-long hiatus Tanqueray released a new limited run and bartenders everywhere rushed to grab a bottle.  I turned around and bought two more after sampling mine.  This is a surprisingly old style, apparently based on a recipe from around 1837, similar to an Old Tom gin in that it dials back the juniper compared to a traditional London Dry.  It's not quite as sweet as an Old Tom, though, and has a more complex botanical profile that leads off with citrus and a distinct cinnamon note.  For this reason and for its historical appeal, one of my favorite applications for Malacca is in a Winter Martinez (a standard version with the addition of cinnamon syrup) but it works in just about any pre-Prohibition recipe that calls for Old Tom.

#3: Few Standard Issue
I appreciate the intensity of navy-strength gins, and this one really takes it up a notch.  Few is known, at least to me, as putting out products with a distinct raw, unaged, grainy character which works well for some and less for others.  Here they put it to good use in a 114-proof gin which celebrates its funkiness.  There's an initial burst of citrus and juniper, followed quickly by an intense and complex wave of savory botanicals, almost like an aquavit, plus a marshmallow-cherry-grain character that immediately reminds me of maraschino liqueur.  It's unique and very bold, though a little rough for drinking straight.  The similarity to maraschino makes it great in an Aviation (a drink that I like to call the Harrier, after the iconic US Navy jet) but also a very fine gin & tonic, especially if you go the GMT route and add couple dashes of maraschino.  The main success that I've had in a more spirits-focused drink was in a reverse-proportions Vesper, with more vodka than gin, an idea that I picked up reading Speakeasy.  Pair this gin with Russian Standard, and I guess you'd have a Russian Navy Standard Issue?

#4: The Botanist
This is probably the most classically styled of the gins described here, which is interesting because it comes from an Islay-based distillery primarily known for making scotch.  It starts off with classic gin ingredients and then adds a ridiculous 22 further locally harvested botanicals (also known as the "Chartreuse method", or picking every damn thing you can find to toss in the still).  The first standout notes include lemon peel, fennel, and thyme, but then transitions to a spicy wash of juniper, white pepper, clove, grapefruit, honey, and just a little lingering malt.  All of which is to say that it's as complex as the 30-plus ingredients would indicate, staying close to the traditional London Dry balance but with way more depth.  That makes it a standout choice for classics like a Dry Martini or Tuxedo (the gin-and-dry-sherry version described in Imbibe!) and anything else where gin plays a primary role.  A Negroni or a Pink Gin would be a little more offbeat but still excellent.

#5: Damrak
I include Damrak in this list not so much because it's a dazzling product, but because it's milder than a standard dry gin and very easy to mix with.  It's produced by the powerhouse Bols, importers of the absolute best genever that you can find locally, which surprised me until I remembered that Bols also makes a "yogurt liqueur", a combination of words that is both repellent and depressing.  Damrak is intended as a mid-to-entry level product, somewhere between a London Dry and a jonge genever, and it settles into that role nicely.  The juniper is restrained in favor of a good deal of citrus, a bit of rosemary/sage dark herb flavor, a nicely rounded mouthfeel, and not too much else to distract.  It's a good gin for people who think they don't like gin, especially at a price point that's midway between value and premium brands.  Now, you get what you pay for, and this isn't complex enough to be desirable in spirits-focused drinks, but it's very nice in gin-based sours like a White Lady or Corpse Reviver #2.  Makes for a damned fine Tom Collins on a hot day too, which tastes even better when you're not breaking the bank.

So there we have it, my very first spirits review.  I think that worked out pretty well.  Let's do this again sometime!  We'll continue to stay off the beaten track; I could see my way to doing a blended-scotch review or perhaps an unaged brandy tasting (covering pisco, kirschwasser, slilovitz, himbergeest... sounds like fun).  For now, back to our regular program: sporadic recipes punctuated by self-loathing apology!

ADDENDUM #1: More weird gins.

Stupor Ball

Here's a long drink for everyone else who's watching the Super Bowl without a team in the game.

2 oz bourbon (Cabin Still)
1/2 oz Campari
1/2 oz cranberry grenadine (regular grenadine would be okay too)
1/2 oz grapefruit juice
1/2 oz lemon juice

Shake and strain over ice in a tall glass and top with soda.

House of Gin Old-Fashioned (#1)

I don't know why I've never posted this before, because it may be one of my personal favorite creations.  Granted, it's a weird drink, intensely herbal and funky, but I make it every time I have its constituent ingredients on hand.  It doesn't hurt that I'm a Dry Rye evangelist.

2 1/2 oz St. George Dry Rye
1/4 oz thyme syrup
1 dash Luxardo maraschino liqueur
2 dashes Regan's No. 6 Orange bitters
2 dashes Peychaud's bitters
2 dashes Bitter Truth Jerry Thomas' Own Decanter bitters

Stir and strain over a fresh large cube in an old-fashioned glass.

Genever (especially the Bols aged variety) is a decent, though imperfect, substitute for the Dry Rye.  You might want to save some for a Dutch Quarter.

Jalisco Fashioned

Here's a random tequila-based old-fashioned cocktail, named after the origin of the spirit.

2 1/4 oz aged tequila (I used El Mayor Anejo; another anejo or even a good resposado would be nice too)
1/4 oz creme de cacao
1 dash Regan's #6 Orange Bitters
1 dash Bitter Truth Jerry Thomas' Own Decanter bitters (which I'm sadly having trouble finding now...)
1 dash apple bitters (homemade as previously covered)

Stir and strain over a large cube, blissfully ungarnished.