Tall and Cool

I'm back!  Yes, friends - it's the first cocktail I've felt worth recording in the last couple weeks.  It's a pretty dang good one, though.

2 oz white rhum agricole (J.M.)
2 1/2 oz watermelon juice
1/2 oz watermelon-strawberry syrup
1 oz lime juice
3 dashes Peychaud's bitters

Shake and strain over large cubes in a Collins glass.  Top with ~2 oz soda water and stir.

One of my favorite things about this drink is how well the anisette component of the bitters mixes with the freshness of the watermelon and the funk of the rhum.  It's a damn fine highball, I must say.

Baby Blue Punch

One last stop before we break the non-alcoholic streak, I promise.  This is a recipe that I've been meaning to record for some time; it was the first large-scale non-alcoholic punch that I produced and presented in my beloved self-mix format.  Seemed appropriate since it was being served at a baby shower (also hence the name).  Alternative name: Caias' Punch, after the baby in question.

For once, a picture!  I can't take credit for the punch bowl, unfortunately, but I can claim the garnish.

I'm recreating this as best I can - I didn't write down the recipe at the time, which I regret, but I did a lot of adjusting on the go anyway.  Consider this a consolidated, streamlined version.  This also makes a lot of punch - about 9 liters in total - and I'm not going to scale it down here, but it's pretty easy to cut in half.

8 cups water
4 lbs sugar (a standard bag of the regular white stuff)
2 lbs frozen blueberries
2 vanilla beans, split
2 tbsp black peppercorns
Rind from 4 medium lemons
16 oz lemon juice
12 mint sprigs

Place the lemon rinds in a non-reactive bowl and pour a couple ounces of sugar over them.  Muddle the peels until the sugar begins absorbing the oil and set aside.  Combine the water, sugar, vanilla, and peppercorns in a large stock pot over medium heat and bring to a simmer for about 10 minutes.  Add the blueberries and lemon peels, including the oil-soaked sugar, and bring back up to a simmer.  Turn off the heat, add the mint sprigs, and let stand and cool for 2-4 hours.

Add the lemon juice and adjust to taste; you can easily add a bit more lemon juice, sweetener (honey would be nice here) or vanilla extract if desired.  Carefully strain the whole concoction into the storage vessels of your choice - I love my reserved pair of 1.75L Tanqueray bottles, featuring convenient transport handles!

To serve, pour your storage vessel into a large punch bowl over ice, and add an equal volume of cold water.  Top off with soda water to taste; a full liter was just about right for 1.75 liters of syrup plus 1.75 liters of water.  Yep, that's 4.5 total liters, and that's why you want a large punch bowl.  Keep refreshed with plentiful ice and serve next to some chilled white wine for spritzers, a bottle of gin for highballs, a couple of jiggers for measuring, and brief instructions.  My personal favorite combination wound up being about 1 oz gin, 3 oz wine, and 5 oz punch.

Optionally, garnish with lemon wheels, speared with mint sprigs for a nice flowery look.  I took some pictures of this one which I'll add here later.

Mocktail Week Afterthought: In-Law Cooler

This is getting a bit freaky - this is about the 8th post in a row dealing exclusively with non-alcoholic beverages.  WTF?  I'll have to get back on track soon.

A request from my sister-in-law prompted this one.  I wasn't aiming for anything too fancy but it turned out interesting enough to merit recording...

1 1/2 oz lime juice
2 oz strawberry-watermelon syrup (turned out relatively dilute thanks to the water content of the melon)
2 oz iced white tea
2-3 dashes rhubarb bitters (homemade)

Shake and strain over fresh ice, then top with about 2 oz chilled cucumber water.  Garnish with whatever's handy - watermelon would be particularly appropriate.

Independent Island Punch

Why hello!  I hope you didn't think I poisoned myself upon returning to booze post-Mocktail Week.  Nothing so unfortunate, I assure you - just didn't have much in the way of free time between painting half the house and preparing a massive spread for the 4th of July last week.

In addition to the food, I figured I couldn't just get away with a cooler full of beer.  Got a reputation to uphold and all!  So I decided on what's rapidly becoming my favorite party trick: a non-alcoholic punch base, served along with a basic white wine for spritzers and a variety of spirits for sundry highballs.  Ingredients wound up being dead simple, too; this is probably the easiest punch that I've assembled to date.

The listing below just about fills up a 1-liter bottle of punch base, which makes 2 liters total once combined.  I went through about 2 1/2 of these for a mixed group of 14 people, which included some non-drinkers and those who stuck only with the aforementioned cooler of beer.  Call it a 1-liter bottle for every 6 people in your party.

8 oz lime juice (you could use fresh, but I used a bottled not-from-concentrate version from the co-op)
8 oz pineapple juice (ditto)
4 oz mint syrup (homemade)
4 oz pineapple-lime syrup (ditto)
8 oz ginger beer (back to my usual Reed's here)

Combine in a 1-liter bottle (or 1-quart mason jar), stuff in a large mint sprig, and fill up the balance with soda water.  When ready to serve, pour over ice (straining out the old mint) and top with 1 liter of soda water.  Stir to combine, garnish with some fresh mint sprigs, and park next to a couple bottles of chilled white wine, plus whatever spirits you have at hand (gin, white rum, and bourbon in my case).  A couple of signs with instructions and some jiggers or shot glasses are helpful too - these will encourage your guests to measure, rather than free-pouring.

Happy belated Independence Day to my fellow 'Mericans!

Mocktail Week #6: Magic Mix

Here's something of a bonus - a bit shy of an actual drink, but a sufficiently impressive discovery to merit posting.  Think of it as a sort of super-mixer; drink straight if you like, or just add booze for an awesome highball.

Another advantage is that this is completely scalable - make as much or as little as you like.

4 parts carbonated cucumber water
4 parts Q Tonic water
4 parts passionfruit juice
1 part lime juice

Combine and serve immediately, or bottle in a sealed container and store in the fridge.

Mocktail Week #5: Raised Bed

Today was another hit-or-miss one - I'm starting to feel like I'm treading over the same ground here.  Fortunately I found at least one good combination tonight!

1 1/2 oz lemon juice
1 1/4 oz strawberry-saffron syrup
8-10 mint leaves

Muddle the mint leaves in the syrup; add the lemon juice, shake, and strain over large ice cubes in a tumbler.  Top with about 3 oz tonic water to taste (Q Tonic) and stir.  Garnish with a mint sprig if you must.

Frankly, I'm glad that this week is just about done.  It was a welcome break, but I'm starting to really want a drink, you know?

Mocktail Week #4: Sam's Bitter

This one wound up being something like a take on Sanbitter (which is something like a non-alcoholic Campari & soda) with some intriguing added flavor notes.  It was a nice variation from other more citric mocktails so far, veering instead into highly bitter territory but with enough sweetness to balance.

1 1/2 oz mixed berry syrup (leftover from Kader Punch - no shame in recycling)
1 1/2 oz chilled black tea (a fairly mild Darjeeling here)
1/2 oz red grapefruit juice

Stir over ice and top with about 1 1/2 oz each ginger beer (Regatta again) and soda water.  Stir again, garnish with a grapefruit twist if you must.

It's too bad that I ended on this one, because it'd be a fantastic apertif.  Might have to revisit this one tomorrow.

Mocktail Week #3: Pineapple Fauxito

After my early break yesterday, I figured I'd probably be able to turn out another success, but nothing much stood above the rest.  Today was a much luckier day!  I didn't do much experimentation at all, really (for one thing, I'm running out of citrus) but I did manage to turn out multiple winners.  All of which is to say: you get two today.

Full disclosure, this one is fairly similar to a non-alcoholic beverage that was featured for years on my old restaurant's menu - similar mix of flavors, distinctly different construction.

1 1/2 oz pineapple-lime syrup
1/2 oz lime juice
8-10 mint leaves
3-4 dashes Bitter Truth celery bitters

Muddle the mint in the syrup, add the juice and bitters, then shake and strain over large ice cubes in a large tumbler.  Top with about 1 oz ginger beer (deviating from my usual Reed's here - I found instead a much spicier version called Regatta) and about 3 oz carbonated cucumber water, then stir gently to combine and top with a sprig of mint or a lime wheel.

Overall a very tropical feel - somewhere between a Mojito and a Mai Tai with none of the booze.  I'd go so far as to say that this exceeds the original (though to be fair, it could use a better name).

Mocktail Week #2: Wondermelon

This is only my first attempt for the evening, but I tried it and went full stop - this is fantastic, it's getting posted.  It's a little more complicated than some of my attempts from last night, but it works marvelously together - a little sweet, a little sour, a bit bitter, expressive of watermelon and summer, and very refreshing.

1 1/2 oz cryo-watermelon juice (a great way to use up all your leftover watermelon)
1 oz strawberry-saffron syrup (the saffron adds a certain deep, herbal quality that is entirely worth the expense, believe me)
1/2 oz lime juice
3 dashes rhubarb bitters

Shake well and strain over large cubes in a Collins-style glass.  Top with about 2 oz each tonic (Q Tonic for me) and carbonated cucumber water (don't use regular soda, the cucumber really brings out the watermelon flavor).

I'm gonna go have another.

Mocktail Week #1: Clover Field

As it turns out, I can't drink old-fashioned cocktails forever - or, indeed, cocktails forever.  I think yesterday's Briny Deep put me over the edge.  My poor, overloaded liver needs a (brief) break, and so this week I'm beefing up my repertoire of non-alcoholic beverages and sharing the best of the evening here.

Even though in terms of ingredients this one doesn't share much with the Clover Club, but its pretty color and foamy cap reminded me so much of one that I wanted to capture that in the name.  Oddly enough, it achieves this without any egg white at all; it turns out that cryo-cucumber juice retains an exceptional foaming power.

2 oz cryo-cucumber juice
1 oz rhubarb syrup (accented with lemon peel and peppercorn; raspberry syrup would work too)
3/4 oz fresh lemon juice
5 dashes celery bitters (Bitter Truth's version is the best I've found)
4-5 drops white balsamic vinegar

Shake and strain over large cubes in a Collins-style glass; top with 4-5 oz soda water, stir gently, and garnish with a small bunch of mint, slapped between your palms to express the oil.

That's a damn good way to start this mini-series!

Briny Deep

Okay, fine, I admit it - I wanted a Pitch Black, I was out of vermouth, and I subbed in another amaro instead.  So what?  It's tasty enough to merit its own name anyway.

1 1/4 oz Cutty Sark Prohibition Edition
1 oz Averna
1 oz Cynar
1/4 oz overproof dark rum (did you know that Gosling's makes a 151-proof version?)

Stir over a large ice cube in an old-fashioned glass; garnish with a small pinch of salt on top of the cube.

This makes for an impressively dark and sultry drink.  Worth hunting down the amaros for, if you ask me.

Harder Than It Looks

My mixological rut continues unabated.  Most of my experimentation recently has been more culinary in nature, but I've been re-reading Craft Cocktails at Home and picking up some ideas.  I'll likely have a bit of general experimentation to post about soon.

In the meantime, there's been one spot of mixological success that deserves mention here.  I've talked about the cryo-juicing method here before, and I recently applied it to a bag of leftover watermelon slices.  The result is absolutely beautiful - slightly sweet, very subtle, and extremely refreshing even in small doses.  It just so happened to find its way into a Negroni remix and it couldn't have been more welcome.  The navy-strength gin here made up for the extra volume and retained the incisive flavor of the juniper.

1 oz navy-strength gin (Hayman's Royal Dock)
1 oz Aperol (Campari or Capelletti would work too)
1 oz Cocchi Americano
1 oz cryo-watermelon juice

Stir with a single large ice cube in an old-fashioned glass; garnish with a strip of grapefruit peel.

I named this after its very pretty pink color, combined with the fact that it retained a pretty fair punch from the gin.  Handle with care.

Kader Punch

Well, I'm into another mixological rut, hence the lack of new posts.  Early last week I checked my fridge and found that four different syrups had collected in their squeeze bottles, tucked away on a shelf in the door.  Waste is despicable, especially after putting such hard work into each of them (okay, not really hard work) and so it became old-fashioned time, all the time.  Not that I object; the old-fashioned is one of the easiest cocktails, and I find almost any variety to be a paragon of virtuous simplicity.  But they don't make for interesting blogging.  So, instead, today I bring you a rare adventure into non-alcoholic beverages.

One of my favorite things to assemble for a party is punch.  Like old-fashioned cocktails, punch is amenable to endless variation, and has a huge advantage in that it can be prepared in advance and without alcohol.  Once you arrive, it's just a matter of assembly and ladling, and guests can keep themselves happy the whole night through, including by spiking their cups (or not!) as they prefer.  I've retained a couple of large Tanqueray 1.75L bottles with handles, which makes the whole shebang exceptionally portable.

My latest version wasn't assembled especially far in advance, but that's okay too.  Some good friends of ours were having a party; I'd offered to bring a specialty beverage, but they forgot to confirm with me until about 6 hours prior to the event.  What to do?  Rummage around for some frozen berries and tea leaves, and tell them to grab whatever at the liquor store?  Yep.

This is a little more involved than some of my other recipes, and it requires larger equipment, mainly a big pot with a lid.  But it produces enough for a party: about 4.5 liters once assembled, which has proven to be just about right for a mixed group of 15-20.  Bring along a couple 5-pound bags of ice to keep it cold, too.

2 pounds white sugar (the unbleached kind or a light raw sugar like Turbinado would be okay too, but will produce a muddier appearance)
1 pound frozen mixed berries (mine came from a couple half-used bags, and included a mix of strawberry, raspberry, blueberry, blackberry, and cranberry)
48 oz water (or 3 pints, for those inclined)
1/4 cup loose black tea leaves (I used a fairly mild, floral Darjeeling)
1/4 cup unpeeled, chopped ginger
Peel of 2 large or 3 medium lemons
8 oz lemon juice
1 oz honey
1 12-oz bottle ginger beer (I like Reed's)
1 1-L bottle soda water (or use your siphon)

In a non-reactive bowl, pour about 1/4 cup of the sugar (precision is unnecessary) over the lemon peels.  Lightly muddle them until the sugar adheres to the peels and set aside.  This is a trick gleaned from David Wondrich's Punch, known as "preparing the oleo-saccharum".

Bring 1 pint of the water to a simmer, then remove from the heat and add the tea leaves.  Stir a few times and let steep for 6-7 minutes.  Don't let this go too long or it will become bitter.  Filter into the storage vessel of your choice (a clean 1.75L bottle is very convenient!) and set aside.  Discard the used tea leaves.

Bring the remaining 2 pints of water to a simmer and add the sugar; stir until this dissolves.  Add the mixed berries and ginger, and bring just back up to a simmer.  While this heats, add about 2 oz of the lemon juice to the oleo-saccharum and stir to dissolve the sugar.  Add the remaining lemon juice to the storage vessel.  When the syrup returns to a simmer, kill the heat, add the lemon mixture, stir, and cover.  Let this stand and infuse for anywhere from 2-4 hours as time permits.

Filter the syrup through a couple layers of cheesecloth or a fairly coarse strainer into the final storage vessel.  If you wind up with extra syrup, keep it in a separate, airtight container to bring along for the ride.  You can use this later like any other flavored syrup.

When ready to serve, break out your finest punch bowl (or relatively clean bucket; I won't judge) and pour in the contents of your transport vessel.  Re-fill the vessel with cold water, and pour that into the bowl/bucket as well.  Add ice, soda water, and about half the ginger beer.  Stir to combine, taste, and adjust with the remaining syrup and ginger beer as desired.  Remember that the flavor will become gradually diluted, so you want it on the strong side to begin with.

Serve with white wine on the side (something relatively subtle, like a vinho verde) for the assembly of spritzers (1 part wine, 1 part punch) and with whatever liquors are handy.  Provide a shot glass for measurement, so that your guests don't accidentally overpour.  This particular punch goes especially well with a mild gin or with brandy.  Top off periodically with ice as needed.

Now that makes for a good time.  I've got a couple more of these that I've developed, and which I'll be happy to share in future posts.

Different Drum Drinks

A good friend brought over a bottle of Different Drum, which he'd somehow snapped up in a truly insane rush to order the first 1,500 bottles.  After a first tasting, he decided that he wanted to try it in a cocktail.  I was happy to oblige!

This is funky stuff - rich, smooth, slightly sweet, redolent of roasted coffee.  A lot like a quality coffee liqueur but without that cloying sugar component.  I dig it, although I think it really shines when paired with another base.  Like so:

Fine Grind:

1 1/4 oz Different Drum rum
1 oz armagnac brandy (I used Tariquet VS Bas-Armagnac; a mild bourbon would work too)
1/2 oz red vermouth (Primitivo Quiles again)
1/4 oz Licor 43 (you could scale this back or omit entirely depending on your taste)
1 dash Fee Brothers Black Walnut bitters
1 dash orange bitters (Regan's No. 6)

Stir and strain into a cocktail glass; garnish with a strip of orange peel.

This wound up being the winner in our small tasting group; it's a Manhattan-esque sipper (or more properly a Saratoga Cocktail) that highlights the flavor of the Drum without letting it dominate everything else.  But I also wanted to try something less spirit-forward, resulting in this take on a Dark & Stormy:

Drumming in the Dark:

2 oz Different Drum rum
1/2 oz Mathilde Poire liqueur
1/2 lime juice
2-3 oz ginger beer (Reed's Extra Ginger is my favorite)

Shake the first three ingredients and strain over fresh ice; top with the ginger beer, stir, and garnish with a lime wheel.

Overall, I'm sold.  Different Drum seems like a solid and interesting way to bring coffee flavor into cocktails without the added sweetness of coffee liqueurs.  I'm not sure about the tagline ("A rum for the bourbon drinker") as it seems more like a rum for the espresso aficionado, but I like both those things so it works out.

Be warned, this clearly isn't a simple substitution for other rums, whiskeys, or what-have-you.  This occupies a place in my mind next to quality spiced rums (Sailor Jerry's all the way) and overproof dark rums (like Lemon Hart 151): too potent to use as a base in a simple cocktail, but bringing very unique flavors for which it's tough to substitute.  Also, Different Drum only seems to be available direct from the La Colombe distillery, so don't go seeking it out at your local liquor store.

Death in the Alps

On my recent amaro adventure, I also grabbed a bottle of Genepy des Alpes liqueur, thinking it belonged in the category.  In my defense, I'd never tried it before, but it most certainly is not.  I believe I was thinking of Aveze, which I've tried only on one drunken evening at the lovely Pouring Ribbons and can't find locally.

It's not bad, mind you - kind of a milder cousin to my beloved Chartreuse, but its only advantage is price point.  Still, can't let it go to waste.  I thought its sweetness would align nicely with bubbly, and the use of wormwood reminds me of absinthe, so I plugged it into a Death in the Afternoon, a drink which I shudder to recall.  Let's just admit already that Hemingway was an excellent writer and superb drunkard, but a middling mixologist at best.

1 1/2 oz Dolin Genepy des Alpes
3 dashes Bitter Truth Celery Bitters
5 oz sparkling wine (Cava for me, which I always choose for mixing over champagne)

Pour the liqueur and bitters into a champagne flute and top with the bubbly.  Per the original directions: "drink three to five of these slowly".  Wake up the next morning with regrets.

Pitch Black

I've been keen to try other scotch-based renditions of the Negroni/Boulevardier since the wonderful success of the Real McCoy.  Since I had a newly-purchased bottle of Averna at hand, this seemed like a natural substitution for Campari.

1 1/2 oz Cutty Sark Prohibition Edition

1 oz Averna

1 oz sweet vermouth (Primitivo Quiles this time)

1 dash orange bitters (Regan's No. 6)

1 dash Bitter Truth Jerry Thomas' Own Decanter (from my rapidly-dwindling supply)

Stir and strain over a large cube into an old-fashioned glass; add a pinch of salt on top of the cube and gently stir again.

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!