Hemingway Variations

I make no secret of my love for the Hemingway Daquiri, a variation on a classic that has become a well-known recipe all its own. Though everybody agrees that the drink was named after Ernest Hemingway, and that it was born at the El Floridita bar in Havana, Cuba, the history is otherwise a bit muddled. What seems clear is that Hemingway's original drink was made with double the alcohol and far less sugar than a typical Daquiri, nowhere close to the version with grapefruit and maraschino that we've got today. I prefer using the name Papa Doble for the original drink, which was also typically blended or served over shaved ice, where today you often see Hemingway Daquiris served up in a cocktail glass. Where all those differences emerged is a real mystery, but I'm pretty happy with the end result.

After doing some research I was also surprised that my personal version seems to feature a lot more sugar than most published recipes, many of which feature at most 1/2 oz of maraschino for sweetness. Fortunately, when I cracked open Speakeasy, the proportions were a lot closer to those I provide here. Personally, I like nodding to Hemingway with a strong cocktail, but prefer a somewhat sweeter drink.

The other fun thing you can easily do with this recipe is swap out simple syrup (which actually doesn't appear in many recipes) for a flavored syrup. While dicking around a couple weeks ago, I also tried swapping out the normal white rum for other spirits, resulting in the concoctions below.

#1
2 oz aged rum (Scarlet Ibis for me; you want something moderately aged and funky)
1/2 oz maraschino liqueur (Luxardo)
1/2 oz spiced syrup
1/2 oz grapefruit juice
3/4 oz lime juice

#2
2 oz blanco tequila (El Mayor)
1/2 oz maraschino liqueur (Luxardo, obviously)
1/2 oz grenadine
1/2 oz grapefruit juice
3/4 oz lime juice

#3
2 oz pisco (Macchu)
1/2 oz maraschino liqueur (I said Luxardo)
1/2 oz thyme syrup
1/2 oz grapefruit juice
3/4 oz lime juice

For all of the above, shake vigorously and strain into a chilled cocktail glass; garnish if you wish, or do what I did (a move pilfered from the excellent Marvel Bar) and lower in a single cube from the shaker with a barspoon, to keep the drink cool without diluting it much further.

Plaza Nueva

So you've got all this god-damned weird booze hanging around and you're wondering what to do with it. The answer, of course, is to make several of these. Okay, it's a partial answer, but it'll take care of half the bottles.

Regular readers (all 3 of them) may recognize this name as a throwback to one of my earlier personal recipes, one of the few that's ever actually made it onto a menu. Plaza Vieja, meet Plaza Nueva. I think I would tout this one as both a more faithful and much tastier take on the original Vieux Carre, but my past self might accuse me of bias.

Also, linking back to those older takes makes me realize that I've been keeping this little blog for over three years. God damn.

1 oz Fidelitas Obstler
1 oz Espolon Anejo
1 oz sweet vermouth (Carpano Antica)
1 dash green Chartreuse
2 dashes Regan's No. 6 Orange Bitters
2 dashes Bitter Truth Xocolatl Bitters
2 drops salt solution (or a couple grains of sea salt sprinkled into the mixing glass)

Rinse a cocktail glass or small snifter with mezcal (which I keep in an atomizer, same as the absinthe, for just this sort of application) and place in the freezer. Stir the remaining ingredients and strain into this glass, then garnish with a lemon peel expressed over the top and discarded (so that it doesn't get in the way, you see).

Spirits: Bizarre Booze Roundup

Woohoo! Having finally escaped the clutches of Mocktail Month, we can get back to serious drinking! Sipping. Sampling. Analysis. Whatever.

It was a good month, and certainly a helpful way to recalibrate, but now it's been a while since we did some spirits review. Heck, it's been a while since I went out and bought a bunch of booze based on whatever caught my eye - but that was exactly what happened the other evening.  It started as an innocent stop (honestly) with the notion of grabbing a bottle of wine, and ended with whatever you'd call this motley collection. God-damned strange is what I'd call them. Some very appealingly, others... less so, but still interesting. Let's have a taste, shall we?

St. George California Agricole Rum

About: The wizards of St. George Spirits feature prominently in one of my favorite recent non-fiction books, Adam Rogers' Proof. They make one of my absolute favorite gins, plus a California single malt, plus a great domestic absinthe, so I tend to trust their judgement. This is, according to the bottle, their rendition of an agricole-style rum (and, to be fair, if I'm going to blatantly ignore the whiskey/whisky debate, it seems pedantic of me to point out that it should be spelled "rhum" here) and is pot-distilled from fresh sugarcane. The label also includes the word "audacious", which... yes. That is a positive term for it.

Notes: The instant I opened this it smelled familiar, but impossible to place. I had to enlist my wife's help (she has a much better sense of smell than I) and she nailed it immediately. Olives: this stuff absolutely reeks of olives, specifically buttery little castelvetranos for some reason. The nose is so one-note and intense that it's really offputting; it's overwhelming even from a few inches above the glass. After a few minutes to sit it starts releasing some rhum-y notes of rubber and gunpowder, which is good because damned if I want to drink it before then. On the palate, those olive notes mercifully take a backseat; it's a more traditional rhum character, with fresh grassy sugarcane, intense vegetal notes, more petroleum (sounds like a bad thing, but it's very central to the style) and a little bit of melon. Then, god-dammit, the olives take over the finish with their vague brininess, backed up with modest congener funk that lingers for a while. A little lump of ice actually brings out the brine much more than I would have thought. I'm going to have to reserve this one for cocktails, where the saline character might bring some intriguing depth; I fucking love olives, but apparently not in my rum. Gotta say, I'm pretty disappointed in St. George right now. Either I got a poor batch of this, or they're being very "audacious" indeed.

Fidelitas Obstler

About: The name, and the origin, is extremely German. It looks to be an unaged brandy, and the label tells me it's a blend of 20% pear and 80% apple brandy, though it doesn't say whether they're combined before or after distillation. This delightfully translated page tells me that the distiller makes a number of other products, some of which I think I've tried, notably a raspberry brandy. However, my favorite part is this:

Especially the pear brandy is popular and well known among friends of the fruit moth. He is sorted fired from the Williams Christian pear, which has a particularly strong flavor.

Indeed. I have no idea who these "friends of the fruit moth" might be.

Notes: Very ripe and delicate compared to a lot of unaged brandies I've had; the nose smells like nothing so much as smelling the outside of a ripe, sweet Bartlett pear. Interesting, given that it's only about 20% pear brandy. Creamy pear predominates on the palate too, though there are some sweet apple notes present, with boatloads of vanilla and a little amaretto-ish sweet almond flavor for backing. Really dig the sweet, smooth body of this one. The finish is quite gentle too relative to similar spirits, just a little tickle of white pepper and a touch of lingering heat. This would be a really nice dessert sipper, but I'm looking forward to a trial run in some cocktails too.

Espolòn Añejo Tequila

About: This one may not look like an oddity at first, but it definitely is for two reasons. First, it's a relatively cheap yet high-quality añejo tequila! That's neat, but not a big shock given how much I enjoy Espolòn's reposado product. After spending about a year aging in classic white oak, this older edition is also finished in ex-bourbon barrels, ones from the Wild Turkey distillery, no less (yum). This has a subtle but definite effect on the final flavor, adding a bit of charred bourbon character to an already complex spirit. Here is a decent interview with a more detailed description of the process and product. I am totally on board, especially given that I found it for less than $30, at which price I really should have grabbed another half-dozen bottles before they realized their terrible mistake.

Notes: All classic, aged tequila on the nose. Rich, vegetal, full of ripe pineapple and oxidized notes reminiscent of a medium sherry. That's a pretty apt description of the palate, too. There's definitely a lot of rich caramel, pineapple, and guava. Some grassy and red-pepper notes provide a bit of backup, but the interesting part is a very dry-sherry-like saline character, with even a little bit of the iodine notes that Islay scotch is famous for. The bourbon finish takes hold in an oaky flush towards the end, with some dark spicy notes and more of that oxidized sherry flavor. Tequila that reminds me of scotch? Yeah, actually, and it's awesome!

Koval Millet Whiskey

About: Remember when we talked about Koval's oat whiskey and I off-handedly joked that they had a millet variety too? Well, I fucking found it! Right next to the oat product, and a "four grains" variety; not too surprising, I wouldn't have known where to shelve this either. Looking at this induces a kind of vertigo for me, as my most personal experience with millet is when I fed it to my childhood pet parakeets as a treat. Since it's gluten-free, and has a protein content very similar to wheat, it does appear to have had a slight resurgence in health-food circles as an alternative grain, but I don't know if I'll ever see it as anything other than birdseed. And here's some whiskey made from the stuff. God damn, don't we live in strange and exciting times?

Notes: Another very unusual nose for the category, this one like nothing so much as bubble gum. There's some woody scent behind that, and a sort of amaretto character, thankfully; this isn't a repeat of where we started. It's just a very odd scent to encounter floating atop what appears to be a fairly standard American whiskey. Unsurprisingly, that floral sweetness carries over into the palate, which is mostly inoffensive; very perfume-y, to be sure, but with a bit of rye-like bite and a good caramel presence that keeps things from being one-note. I'd describe the spice as being heavy on nutmeg and clove; maybe a bit like apple pie, complete with the apple. The finish delivers much the same but ends on that very floral character, kind of like rose water. Not sure I like this one as much as the Oat Whiskey, but it's still fascinating in its own way, and the flowery notes might make a good match for summer.


Those, my friends, are some strange spirits. I'm still figuring out what to do with them (aside from the tequila; it's Cinco de Mayo tomorrow, after all) but I will gladly report my findings.

Desert Gourd

This one just kind of emerged out of an extra egg white, extra tequila (the best kind), and a random syrup hanging about in the fridge. Turned out pretty dang well.

2 oz reposado tequila

3/4 oz brown sugar-butternut squash syrup

1/4 oz orange curacao

1 oz lime juice

1/2 egg white (good luck dividing that; you'll just have to make two)

Combine and shake without ice, then add ice and shake again. Strain into a rocks glass over a couple of extra cubes. Do not even consider garnishing, unless it's with a little bit of grated nutmeg and lime peel. Which it should be.

Frankly, I would have loved to try this with mezcal and a couple dashes of chocolate bitters... but you do what you can with what you have.

Negroni Bastardo

A nice, easy take on a Negroni Sbagliato, one of my favorite little-known low-proof wonders. A great patio drink, or a tasty way to avoid getting too drunk - your choice.

3/4 oz sweet vermouth
3/4 oz Casoni 1814 (or comparable; Aperol would actually be best)
3/4 oz reposado tequila (Espolon)
3 oz sparkling wine (a lovely gifted blanc de blanc this time; normally I'd be using cava)
3 dashes Bitter Truth Xocolatl Bitters

Build over copious ice in a tall-ish glass; doesn't really matter what kind as long as it will hold your beverage. Garnish with a grapefruit peel (that's lemon in the picture, because I didn't have any grapefruit around, but I'm expressing a preference for once).

I'm making this as a pitcher-sized cocktail for the first warm day when we have people over - just you watch. Nice easy proportions make this easy to scale up or down.

Last Rays

This is the drink that started our evening.  Yes, it's another riff on the Last Word, but I don't care. I was very pleased with how this turned out.

1 oz reposado tequila (Espolon, as seen)
3/4 oz Casoni 1814 (Aperol would do too)
1/2 oz Licor 43
3/4 oz lime juice

Shake and strain into a coupe. Garnish with a thin lime wheel if you must.

The name emerged from the colors of a sunset, because look how pretty. Pictures, man.

Another Word

The parade of remixes continues with a take on the Last Word, one of my favorite advanced sours. Thanks to... Detroit, I guess?

Quite honestly I didn't think this one would work out as well as it did. The wife has been observing an odd cocktail genius that comes over me after I've had a couple. Unfortunately for that same reason, I didn't take a picture, which is a shame because it was quite pretty too.

3/4 to 1 oz reposado tequila
3/4 oz green Chartreuse (yum)
3/4 oz Rothman & Winter Orchard Apricot (also yum)
3/4 oz lime juice

Shake and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a thin lime wheel, though it's perfectly fine without.

Update 1/27/15: I knew I'd assembled this drink before... exactly why I keep a log! Still no picture (went down too quickly) but I did make one minor tweak to amp up the tequila presence this time around. A full ounce worked better with the smooth and excellent Espolon Reposado. If you want to use a blanco instead, or a reposado with a bit less age on it, 3/4 oz would be better to keep those grassy notes in balance.

Interrobang

Holy crap kids, I've got multiple cocktails to share with you tonight. This on a night with minimal mixing, mostly football and beer; go figure. You could say I'm clearing out my backlog from the weekend.

First up, even though it's the most recent, is again simply a riff on a classic. I'm telling you, it's all about the remix.  This comes first because it reminds me of our most recent cocktail, but where that was a Negroni variant, this one is based on a less-common classic known as the Ampersand. I made this because I didn't have cognac, which made me sad. I'll need to grab a bottle soon - I've had a hankering for a good Stinger lately too.

1 oz reposado tequila
1 oz Tanqueray Malacca (Old Tom would be a reasonable approximation)
1 oz Bonal Gentiane Quina (I'm using its full name from now on; that's a great set of words)
1 dash rhubarb bitters (yes, homemade, and add an extra dash if using Old Tom gin)

Stir and strain into a cocktail glass over a large ice cube. Garnish with an orange twist, maybe, if you feel like it.

The name is of course a reference to my favorite bizarro punctuation symbol that hardly anyone knows about.  Who cares?  It's got a great name!

El Puerto

This started out as some idle fucking around with a bottle of white port (which I'd tried, but hadn't stumbled across in a wine shop; props to Solo Vino) and it rapidly transmuted into a Negroni riff - you know, the kind that doesn't have a single ingredient in common with its inspiration. The whole thing really came together with a touch of apricot eau-de-vie. That's the bottle I used in the background there (I know, pictures, right?) but it's tough enough to come by that you don't need to be brand-specific.

1 oz reposado tequila

1/4 oz apricot eau-de-vie
3/4 oz Cocchi Americano
3/4 oz white port (again, not brand-specific, but nothing too dry)
2 dashes Regan's No. 6 Orange Bitters
2 dashes rhubarb bitters (homemade, Fee's is too sweet for this application)

Stir and strain into a chilled cocktail glass; garnish with a lime peel coin, expressed gently over the top. Pretty proud of this one, and look how pretty! Pictures, man.  I'm not sure why I never post these as my phone is littered with them anyway.

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.

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.

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.

Rosa Dama

Here's a random happy accident.

1 oz resposado tequila
1 oz dry vermouth
1 oz pomegranate juice (I use POM)
1 oz soda water
2 dashes Bittercube Bolivar bitters
2 dashes ras el hanout bitters

Combine in a double old fashioned glass over rocks and stir.

Grownup Grapefruit Soda

This was just an attempt to take something more exciting to a bottle of wine to a gathering, and it wound up being a hit.  This is another soda siphon cocktail that can be pre-mixed and pre-carbonated, although I have included single-serving amounts as well in italics.

100 ml (1 oz) white tequila
100 ml (1 oz) lavender-infused vodka
100 ml (1 oz) apricot-mint syrup
50 ml (1/2 oz) Cointreau
50 ml (1/2 oz) Aperol
50 ml (1/2 oz) lime juice
500 ml (5 oz) water/soda water


Pour into a soda siphon (if using), carbonate and let refrigerate for at least 4 hours.  To serve, pour over ice in a tall wine glass.  Garnish with whatever citrus or berries are at hand.

The name of this one came to me as a description of its final taste, though I then had to explain that there wasn't really any grapefruit in it.  If bringing this to a party, I recommend dispensing it slowly into a clean 1-liter bottle (preferably with a stopper-top) which makes transportation easier and preempts the foam you get when serving directly from the siphon.

If you're in a pinch, you could substitute St. Germain for the lavender vodka and an apricot liqueur (Rothman & Winter the best choice) for the syrup, although you will have a slightly stronger final product.

Luchador

More playing around with mezcal.

3/4 oz Sombra mezcal
1 1/4 oz pineapple-tequila-sage liqueur (you'll have to make this one yourself, although I may very well provide a recipe soon)
1/2 oz Cocchi Americano

Stir well over ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.  Garnish with a lime coin squeezed on both sides to express the oil and juice and drop in.

This one was experimental but worked out very nicely indeed.

Silversmith

I was absolutely delighted to receive an order of exotic spirits this week, which had been hunted down specifically because I'd never seen their ilk in any of my local liquor stores.  Among them was a bottle of Sombra mezcal, a spirit I'd been itching to experiment with.  I popped it open almost immediately.  "Whoa!" I called to my wife, "this smells like somebody chucked a pineapple into a campfire."  To which she wrinkled her nose and agreed.

Turns out, I wasn't far off.  The process of making mezcal, a cousin of tequila, consists of digging a large pit, filling it with hot rocks, then tossing in a bunch of agave piña (also the Spanish for "pineapple", which it closely resembles).  After roasting for days, these are mashed and left to ferment, finally resulting in a powerful spirit that tastes something like tequila infused with cigar smoke.  The silver Sombra mezcal that I received is particularly intense, and it took some taming.  Still, it holds its flavor very well in cocktails, and lends a resounding smoky flavor.

This particular drink was just me playing around, and is named after the place where Sombra is made: Oaxaca, Mexico.  Silver jewelry shops are a major component of the tourist trade there.

1 oz Sombra mezcal
1 oz pineapple-infused tequila (I used resposado
1/2 oz Cynar
1/2 oz kumquat syrup
1 dash lime juice

Shake with plentiful ice and pour into an old-fashioned glass; garnish with a caramelized pineapple slice if you're feeling fancy, or nothing if you're feeling lazy.

Jimador's Fortune

My wife told me to use up a few things in the fridge, so I did - with very successful results.  The name is a mash-up of the Spanish term for those who harvest the blue agave that makes tequila and the genus of the kumquat family.  Turns out that the two play very nicely together.

2 oz resposado tequila
1/3 oz (2 barspoons) raw agave nectar
7 kumquats
2 fresh sage leaves
2 dashes aleppo chili tincture

Cut the kumquats in half, setting one half aside for garnish; muddle the others with the sage and tequila, then add the agave and aleppo tincture.  Shake well with ice and double-strain (through a fine filter) into a chilled double old-fashioned glass.  Top off with a squirt or two of soda water to taste and drop in the final kumquat half (or wrap it in a sage leaf on a pick) as garnish.

I for one love aleppo - the restaurant where I work uses it in a variety of spice blends.  It's a relatively mild and fruity chili that adapts very well to mixology.  I use this tincture all over the place to add a little heat and a nice sweet-smoky character.  It's very easy to make; all you need do is combine a heaping tablespoon of ground aleppo (pretty much the only way you'll find it) with a cup or so of high-proof vodka (Everclear, if you can find it, if not a 100-plus proof at least).  Let that sit for a week or so, shaking daily, and pour through a fine strainer.  I bottle the finished product in a dropper for precise application, or you can use a bitters-style cruet to add small dashes.

Two Easy Drinks

How sad - that's a little too long between posts.  I'll try and get back in the spirit of at least weekly updates.

Part of the reason for the hiatus is that I haven't been creating many original drinks lately.  Instead I've been going back to basics, mixing clean and simple classics.  But I guess there's nothing wrong with that - let's share some easy options.

I had a lime and a ton of pineapple syrup, so combining those made sense.  First came a slightly modified Ti-Punch:

• 2 oz VSOP rhum agricole
• 1/4 oz pineapple syrup
• 1 lime coin (sliced right off the side so it still holds some flesh)

Pour the rhum and syrup over finely cracked ice, then swizzle (that is, stir aggressively).  Squeeze the lime coin on both sides to catch the juice from the flesh, and the oil from the peel, then drop in.  Top with more ice to fill and stir again.

That is a very simple and effective drink - basically a Sling, one among the proto-Cocktails.  The only problem is its base spirit, which is both delicious and rare in my local liquor stores.  Notice that like a number of tropical drinks, this makes good use of citrus.  Another such drink is the Margarita, which makes use of tequila.  I made a modified attempt as such:

• 2 oz resposado tequila
• 1/2 oz pineapple syrup
• Juice of 1/2 lime (reserved from the previous drink, in this case)

Shake and strain over cracked ice; insert a thin lime wheel as garnish.  A salted rim is optional (though I might have to try a spiced rim of some kind).

This one is really just a tequila Sour, another proto-Cocktail, but it serves.  Tequila and pineapple work splendidly together - maybe I'll attempt a pineapple liqueur to get closer to a classic Margarita formula.

Melongrass Liqueur

A most successful experiment.

1 750-ml bottle resposado tequila
1 cup cantaloupe, chopped
4 oz amber agave nectar
6 fresh sage leaves, chopped

Combine in a large mason jar and macerate for 7-10 days to taste, agitating daily.  Strain through a fine sieve, bottle, and chill.

This is really wonderful stuff - gentle tropical fruit, intense herbal quality, nice light honey tones, yet still a little bit of bite.

La Plaza Vieja (redux)

I've done a version of this drink before, but this is a somewhat more subtle take.

1 oz aged rum (3 years old at least, preferably 5+)

1 oz aged tequila (either a resposado or a young-ish anejo seem to work)

1 oz sweet vermouth (preferably Italian)

2 dashes aromatic bitters (we'll be using a fantastic ras-el-hanout bitters at the restaurant)

2 dashes orange bitters

2 dashes celery bitters

2 drops liquid smoke (yes, drops)

Stir and strain into a cocktail glass.  Garnish with a lime wheel.

The recipe for this version is a little more complex, but if making a bunch of them you can premix the last five ingredients.  Better yet, use a good embittered vermouth like Carpano Antica or Cocchi Torino, adding only celery bitters and liquid smoke.