I’ve seen a few recipes online, so I made a short list of some things to buy and hit up the spice shop.  It’s great having one close by, though unfortunately they did not have any gentian root, so I had to make do without.  I pretty much winged it from there, so I don’t exactly have a recipe to share, but here’s a list of some of what I used: celery (obviously), celery seed, white peppercorns, black cardamom pods, juniper berries, coriander seeds, salt, sugar, and a piece of green rock candy.  I used a mix of JWray and Nephew overproof rum, gin (Fleischmann’s since I had some left) and water for the liquid.  I’ve got my fingers crossed, so hopefully it will turn out good.  I’ll keep you all posted!

I realize I’ve been lacking on writing posts recently.  I will partially blame this on having uninspiring photos of the awesome stuff I’m mixing up…the drinks are great but the pictures suck!  I have to get a digital camera some day soon because this phone camera really isn’t cutting it.

But excuses aside, I just mixed up something so simple and yet so surprisingly familiar in taste that I had to share it.  A simple “highball” style combination of liquor and soda – in this case London Dry Gin (Bombay in my case) and an amazing grapefruit soda called Ting.  When mixed together, this happy accident both smells and tastes just like one of my favorite childhood breakfast cereals: Fruity Pebbles!

At any rate here’s a picture and recipe – seriously, you have to try this combo if you’ve ever had Fruity Pebbles.  It’s uncanny!

Fish stirrer not required, but definitely a plus.

-  1 oz London Dry Gin (I used Bombay)

-  Ting grapefruit soda

Build in a collins / highball glass over ice.  Stir.  Marvel at the familiarity.

Fee Brothers Old-Fashioned Aromatic Bitters are on sale! At Wegman’s!  Alright, maybe this excites me more than most (I do love bitters in general), but it’s especially exciting for a couple of reasons.

1. Wegman’s is indeed great. So great that I would miss it terribly if I ever moved somewhere I was not within at least 20 miles of one. It has a wonderful selection, great prices and customer service, and even a respectable beer selection. However, it’s not exactly a haven for the cocktail fanatic. Sure, they’ve got some Fever Tree sodas and a few jars of maraschino cherries. They normally carry Angostura as their only bitters, and I’ve bought a couple of bottles from them. But now it seems they’ve switched to Fee Brothers, which I’ve never even seen at the gourmet foods store, which carries far more in the line of cocktail-friendly ingredients (including Peychaud’s bitters, Torani and Monin syrups, and gourmet tonic waters and bitter lemon sodas).
2. Fee Brothers is a company from Rochester, New York. My hometown. It fills me with a rather immense amount of pride that one of only a scant half-dozen to a dozen bitters companies in the world is right there where I grew up (and still am less than 100 miles away from)!

So while I do love Angostura bitters and they are indeed irreplaceable, I’m glad to know that my hometown company stands to gain some ground during this shortage, because they are indeed wonderful. I highly recommend their lemon bitters, cherry bitters and grapefruit bitters, but my favorite is by far the peach bitters.

Don’t Squeeze Use Fee’s!

Punch is one of my favorite tipples. I love the big punch bowls, the cups, the mixing of all the various ingredients, the simplicity of it all, the history behind it…it’s all quite awesome. I haven’t made too many bowls of punch to date, and recipes for single-cup versions don’t necessarily abound.  As such I challenged myself for this month’s MxMo event to make something that had all the ingredients a punch should have (sour, sweet, strong, weak, spice) while still being a single serving.

One thing I wanted to make sure of was that I used tea in the recipe: tea is a traditional liquid to use in punches as the weak part (while providing some of the spice as well). And besides, I rather enjoy tea. So here is what I came up with!

The Uppercut

The Uppercut

• 1 oz Pimm’s No. 1 liqueur
• 1 oz dry vermouth (used Noilly Prat)
• ½ oz dry gin (used Bombay)
• 1 oz unsweetened pineapple juice
• 2 oz highly sweetened black tea
• several dashes Angostura bitters
• club soda

Brew the tea strong and add enough sugar to make it sweet to taste (sweeter is better but go with your palate). Add it and the other ingredients to a cocktail shaker. Add ice and shake well, then strain into a glass. Top with some club soda and grate some fresh nutmeg over the top.

The flavor of this punch is quite nice.  All the spice from the tea and bitters give it

wonderful complexity, and the pineapple juice adds tartness/sourness but its taste doesn’t really come through, which is fine with me (I would have used lemons if I had any of them but being short on fresh citrus and cash I used what I had).  The bit of dry vermouth and Pimm’s also offer nice flavor and notes to it.  The club soda considerably dilutes it, so I might recommend doing without or possibly using a sparkling wine instead. The gin could also be played around with here (though it probably works better with the Pimm’s than other spirits), possibly using rye or bourbon, even brandy.  One thing is for sure, I will be making this again!

Assembling the ingredients for the punch

Cheers!

Update: The round-up for all posts from this month’s MxMo has been posted by Mike over at Hobson’s Choice: check it out here! Check it out, there’s a lot of great punches to be seen and tried!

Brewing the tea

Beer for the Irish traditionally means stouts.  Stouts are typically dark in color, and use roasted malt. They can be strong (upwards of 7% and closer to 9-11% for imperial stouts) but often times are found (surprisingly by those new to stouts) to be lighter: 4-5%, which is not uncommon of a lager or other light beer.  The flavors present in stouts can vary quite a bit and often include things like coffee, chocolate, cherries, dried fruits, brown sugar, and of course a lot of roasty malt flavor.

I really like stouts, I might even consider them in my top 3 of beer styles overall (otherwise I’m quite partial to barleywines and IPAs).  As such I was quite pleased to be able to attend this year’s annual St. Patty’s Day Feast and Stout Tasting up the street at Mister Goodbar.  There 11 stouts to be had in all, and by the end of the night I was practically ready to sing a drunken Irish fighting song myself, but it was an actual tasting and I therefore have some (rather haphazard and scrawlish) notes to share on each one.

All the beers were served out of bottles into a half-pint glass I have for tasting except the Murphy’s, which was on tap and the Ten FIDY, which was poured from a can.

Murphy’s Irish Stout (Caldicot, Gwent, Wales) 4.3% ABV
Bouquet/Aroma: The aroma was quite malty, and a little fruity.  I detected some yeast in there too, as well as some faint coffee and chocolate notes.
Appearance: Black, with deep ruby/brown hues poking through.
Flavor: Really light flavor with lots of roastiness, but some playful sweetness in there too.  It’s quite nice, very drinkable.
Body: Very light bodied, really easy-drinking.
Overall Rating: 3.75 out of 5

Lost Coast 8 Ball Stout (Eureka, California) 5.9% ABV
Bouquet/Aroma: Some cherries in there, more of a roasty aroma than the Murphy’s.  A little more caramel sweetness, and less coffee/chocolate in the aroma than the first one as well.
Appearance: Black (all of these are really some variation of black!) with some deep dark brown hues in there.
Flavor: Tangier than the Murphy’s. More to it than just the roasted malt character, definitely some bitterness present from the addition of some hops. A different-tasting stout overall, and quite good!
Body: Medium-bodied.
Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Rogue Shakespeare Stout (Newport, Oregon) 6% ABV
Bouquet/Aroma: There’s some roasted malt-ness in there, but definitely not as much as the previous two. Other than that, not too much going on that I can detect.
Appearance: Black again (surprise!), a creamy head with some dark brown hues.
Flavor: First thing I get is a hoppy flavor (definitely the Cascade variety unless I’m mistaken), and then it blends with a nice roasted malt flavor.  It’s very bitter, but in a pleasant way.  Nicely creamy and delicious!
Body: Light to medium.
Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Goose Island Oatmeal Stout (Chicago, Illinois) 5% ABV
Bouquet/Aroma: Lots of coffee flavor, definitely some sweet notes.
Appearance: Black with some deep ruby and amber hues.
Flavor: Creamy, kind of sweet without being too sweet.  On the finish there’s sort of a candy-like sweetness.  This beer takes us a bit out of the “dry stout” category and into more of the “sweet stouts”.
Body: Medium body.
Overall Rating: 3.25 out of 5

Fort Collins Chocolate Stout (Fort Collins, Colorado) 5.3% ABV
Bouquet/Aroma: Some sweetness in there along with coffee (similar to the Goose Island)
Appearance: Super dark!  Barely anything poking through the inky blackness.
Flavor: Very flavorful.  Tangy with a big roasted malt flavor up front.  I definitely get a taste of dark chocolate in there too.  Overall it’s very bitter (in a pleasant way), starting with the roasted malts and up to the dry finish.
Body: Fairly light-bodied.
Overall: 3.5 out of 5

Left Hand Milk Stout (Longmont, Colorado) 5.3% ABV
Bouquet/Aroma: Toastyness and sweetness with plenty of roasted malt in there.  Really nice aroma.
Appearance: Black with deep amber hues, not as dark as most of the others.
Flavor: Very sweet up front, but well-balanced overall with some bitterness as well.  It’s quite pleasing!  There’s a little ethanol in the finish that I felt in my throat, which I found a little weird considering it is so light in ABV (I typically don’t get any ethanol in beers less than 10% or so).
Body: Medium.
Overall Rating: 3.75 out of 5

Coopers Best Extra Stout (Regency Park, South Australia) 6.3% ABV
Bouquet/Aroma: There’s an interesting fruity aroma here, with some berries and maybe cherries?  Of course the same roastyness as before is there too.
Appearance: Black with dark brown hues (sigh).
Flavor: Very tangy bitterness here, a little fruitiness.  There’s a roasty flavor in the backbone, along with some hops, and a dry finish.  Quite nice overall!
Body: Medium.
Overall Rating: 3.75 out of 5

Lagunitas Cappuccino Stout (Petaluma, California) 9.2% ABV
Bouquet/Aroma: Coffee aroma, some sweetness to it along with a little bitterness (Is that possible?  Can people smell bitterness?).
Appearance: Black with deep amber hues.
Flavor: OK, I have to admit something on this one. I occasionally smell and/or taste some pretty weird stuff in beers. When I first had Wolaver’s Alta Gracia Coffee Porter, I tasted goulash. Now, I might think I have some crazy taste buds or something but others with me usually confirm my weird tastes in some manner or another (a friend with me that night thought the same beer reminded her of stuffed peppers). So onto the flavor for the Cappuccino Stout: overall I thought it was really different. It had a sweetness to it, but definitely had a nice balance. The coffee flavor was less like brewed coffee and more like raw coffee beans. And — here’s the kicker — the flavor reminds me of stove-top macaroni and cheese mixed with Frank’s Red Hot sauce.  Weird, right? My friend and fellow beer aficionado Eric did agree with me along with some others at the table, so I know I’m not too crazy.
Body: Medium to heavy.
Overall Rating: 4 out of 5

Arcadia Imperial Stout (Battle Creek, Michigan) 8.4% ABV
Bouquet/Aroma: Fruity, and a nice malty aroma.  Not nearly as roasty as some of the others (definitely something I’ve noticed in many imperial stouts (of which this was the night’s first).
Appearance: Blackest of them all so far!  Really dark.
Flavor: Very sweet, quite big and thick.  Very malty, with dried fruit flavor. There’s ethanol in there for sure, and it’s a bit more acidic because of that, but overall very well-balanced and tasty!
Body: Medium to heavy.
Overall Rating: 4 out of 5

Oscar Blues Ten FIDY (Lyons, Colorado) 9.4% ABV
Bouquet/Aroma: Smells a bit metallic (it is from the can). There’s a strong malt aroma with some sweetness in there.
Appearance: Super-black, like motor oil!  Really viscous, this one is the darkest one of them all.
Flavor: Sweet and bitter, quite balanced.  There’s LOTS of ethanol behind this one, you get it right away and throughout.  Overall though it is very smooth and creamy.
Body: Medium to heavy (heaviest).
Overall Rating: 4.25 out of 5

Great Divide Oak Aged Yeti Imperial Stout (Denver, Colorado) 9.5% ABV
Bouquet/Aroma: On this one I definitely get a hop aroma.  Cascade/Amarillo, somewhere around there is what my nostrils detect, but don’t hold them to that!  Of course a large malt aroma too.
Appearance: Heady, black with deep brown hues.
Flavor: Really nice!  This is definitely my favorite of the night. There is an oaky, vanilla roastyness. The flavor is super big, and there is not as much alcohol vapor as in any of the other beers. I do love oak-aged beers in general!
Body: Medium (not nearly as viscous as the Ten FIDY.
Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5

This event overall was super fun! The beers definitely were arranged well; aside from the Murphy’s at first (perhaps I just like beer on tap better), the beers for me went almost in order of least favorite to most. I can’t wait until the tasting next month!  Until then, cheers and happy St. Patty’s day!

This past fall, I was able to visit my friend Jeff in Chicago for a weekend. On Friday night, we made our way to a speakeasy-style bar called The Violet Hour.  He had been before with some friends and had only good things to say about it, and I had been reading about it online for a while, so I was quite “chuffed” (as Jeff would say) to check it out.

The bar only allows people in if they have room for them to sit; i.e., no standing around, no elbowing your way to the bar for a drink.  It makes for a very nice atmosphere in my opinion.  Very sophisticated, classy, enjoyable.  To some it can seem a bit stuffy if not downright snobby, but I guess it depends on where you’re coming from!

The downside to this is that the wait to get in usually takes a while.  So we put in out name at the door (we had a party of 6 in total) and headed across the street to an Italian bistro for a few drinks and appetizers.  I had a drink there called a “bicicletta” that was quite good, a refreshing aperitif-based fizz.

After about an hour and a half of waiting, we headed back to The Violet Hour, and got in after about 10 more minutes of waiting. The inside of the bar was quite well presented, with very high ceilings and large velvet curtains between the rooms.  There were a few chambers containing tables, booths and sitting stools (more like ottomans really), but it wasn’t a very open place: almost more of a maze.  As we passed the bar on the way to be sat down I tried to catch a glimpse of the bartenders and bottles/ingredients they were working with.  Next time I go I’d like to sit at the bar and watch the drinks being made.  Where we sat was nice though, a high-backed booth and several ottoman-stools, which is what I sat on.

The waitress brought us each a menu, very large and contained within a 2″ 3-ring binder, and a carafe with some water.  We each ordered a drink.  I decided to start with an Improved Holland Cocktail: Genevieve, Luxardo Maraschino, and Angostura bitters.  It came in an old fashioned glass with a large orb of ice, which was the first ice sphere I had ever seen, and was quite good.  Everyone else, for their first drink, chose the Juliet & Romeo, billed as “Beefeater, Mint, Cucumber, Rose Water”.  It sounded good to me too, and Jeff and his girlfriend Nancy had had it before and raved about it.  But when the cocktail waitress brought us our drinks and I sampled some of theirs, I knew instantly why they liked it so much.  It was wonderfully refreshing!  The combination of flavors worked so amazingly well together to produce a lovely drink.  It was served in a coupe glass with a carafe on the side (the recipe makes more than can fit in a small coupe glass).

Months later, I recently tried to recreate this cocktail a few times.  Not remembering the ingredients listed exactly, I tried with St. Germaine (elderflower liqueur) and mint bitters…but to no avail.  Finally I looked online and found that a few people had listed a replication of the cocktail, complete with a recipe and instructions!  I abandoned my attempts to find out how to make the drink myself in my excitement and followed the recipe, with exceptional results! Here it is for you to try at home, but don’t neglect its creators!  If you find yourself in Chicago, visit The Violet Hour for a truly excellent cocktail experience; these guys really know their stuff.

Juliet & Romeo, at The Violet Hour

Juliet & Romeo (recipe found via LiquorSnob)

• 2 oz gin (Beefeater or Hendricks would be best here, but I say use what you’ve got.  Play with different gins and experiment!)
• ¾ oz fresh-squeezed lime juice
• ¾ oz simple syrup
• 3 drops rose water
• 3 drops Angostura bitters
• 3 slices peeled cucumber
• 6 sprigs mintMuddle the cucumber with a tiny pinch of salt.  Slap the mint (clap it together between your hands to release the oils just a bit — don’t make this cocktail too bitter by muddling the mint into oblivion!).  Add the rest of the ingredients and let everything sit for a bit (30 seconds is recommended).  Shake with ice, then strain (I double-strained) into a chilled coupe glass (use a cocktail glass if you haven’t any coupes…if you’re looking for some, check your local thrift stores).  To garnish, float a mint leaf with 1 drop of rose water atop it, and add several more drops of Angostura bitters on the surface of the drink for color and aroma.

OK, so it’s a bit involved to create.  But the ingredients are fairly simple, not a lot of crazy different liqueurs, spirits or aromatized wines to need to have on hand.  The rose water is probably the strangest ingredient on the list, but I find it at my local Wegman’s and I’ve heard it can be found at ethnic food shops, particularly Indian ones. I think it’s worth the effort though, and definitely one of the tastier libations I’ve made of late.

Juliet & Romeo, made at home

Other drinks I had at the Violet Hour included a Blackberry Caipirissima (Flor de Cana 4 yr, Lime, Demerara Syrup, Blackberries), a St. Mark’s Reviver (Pisco Acholado, Lime, Egg White, Luxardo Maraschino, Cherry Bitters) and a very well-made Ramos Gin Fizz.

Cheers and enjoy!

Toronja Sour

My quest for a perfect grapefruit juice-based drink continues!  This time it is in the form of what I have dubbed the Toronja sour (toronja is Spanish for grapefruit).  This drink combines bourbon, white grapefruit juice, ginger syrup and some grapefruit bitters.

First, let’s talk about the ginger syrup.  Making your own homemade syrups for mixing drinks is an incredibly simple (and cheap!) way to introduce different flavors and sweeten your drinks more easily than trying to dissolve regular granulated sugar in cold liquid.

To make this syrup, start with equal parts sugar and water.  I made a 2 cup batch: 2 cups each of organic sugar and filtered water (the quality of your water is important here as is the quality of your sugar, but in a pinch just use what you’ve got — anything you make homemade will make your syrups infinitely better than using store-bought stuff most likely containing corn syrup).  Bring the sugar and water to a boil to dissolve everything, then add a couple large stalks of ginger, which you’ve peeled and sliced roughly.

Peeling the ginger

When you’ve added the ginger to the syrup, reduce the heat to let it simmer for a while.  I

All sliced up

let mine go probably for a good 20 minutes or so, tasting it along the way.  Once you taste it and the syrup has a nice level of ginger spiciness to it, take it off the heat.  You can either strain it into the bottle of your choice or opt to leave the ginger pieces in.  You may wish to add a bit of high-proof spirit as a preservative, depending on how long you plan on keeping it around.  Anywhere between 1 to 2 oz of vodka or white rum (J. Wray and Nephew Overproof rum is a great choice here) will do, and will extend the shelf life of your syrup.

This method for creating syrups can be extended to contain any other flavoring agents:

herbs, spices, fruit peel, vegetables, etc.  Try also experimenting with different kinds of sugar: demerara sugar, brown sugar, organic, muscovado…

So now that you have the syrup, here’s the recipe for the drink!

Toronja Sour

• 1½ oz bourbon (Evan Williams bourbon is an awesome value, and great for mixing or sipping straight)
• 1 oz fresh-squeezed white grapefruit juice
• ¾ oz ginger syrup
• 2 dashes Fee’s Grapefruit bitters
• Twist of grapefruitShake and strain the liquid ingredients into a chilled cocktail glass.  Garnish with the grapefruit twist.

I really think the bourbon and grapefruit make a good combination here.  The bitters go a long way as well to bring out the flavor of the juice, and add a wonderful overall complexity to the drink.  The ginger syrup here provides a good bit of sweet and spicy backbone, but the ginger flavor itself isn’t in the forefront.  Another option here might be a tangier syrup, like one made from cranberries or with some lemon peel.  A cinnamon syrup would even approach something like “Don’s mix”, but that would be a little out of place with the use of bourbon instead of rum.  Still, I’d be interested to try it!

Cheers and enjoy!

Cachaça grapefruit sour

• 2 oz cachaça (Fazenda Mãe de Ouro)
• 1 oz fresh squeezed white grapefruit juice
• ¼ oz fresh squeezed lime juice
• ½ oz superfine sugarShake all ingredients with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

As you can tell by the picture, I used a double old-fashioned glass here filled with ice cubes.  After doing that I would definitely say that it probably would fare better in a chilled cocktail glass.

As far as the flavor, it’s nicely balanced if a little lacking in the sour department.  I might have gone with ½ oz of lime juice instead of ¼ oz, but the lime I had cut was being stingy and I didn’t feel like using another one.  The sugar cane flavor of the cachaça mixes really well with the fresh juices, just as in a caipirinha.  I’m sure the superfine sugar could be replaced with simple syrup, or even granulated sugar that had been muddled with some of the juice and dissolved thoroughly, but I just got the superfine stuff and was excited to use it for the first time.  It dissolved completely, very cool!  I also think this drink may have benefited from some bitters, perhaps Fee Bros. Grapefruit Bitters?

Cheers!