Lumber Jill

A recent Thursday Drink Night theme was TDN: Bubbles – Champagne, ginger beer, soda, tonic, cola, or anything else fizzy.  

I felt this an appropriate occasion to revisit a theme I fell in love with when I discovered the Lumber Jacques, figuring I could use bubbly ginger beer instead of fresh ginger.  I think the richness of the maple goes really well with the spice of the ginger and rye and the herbal notes from the Chartreuse, balanced byt he two citrus juices.  Thinking of ginger beer reminded me of one of my wife's favorite drinks, the Jamaican Firefly, which she always orders whenever we hit Pegu Club (often directly before dinner at Lupa), so I decided to switch things up more and sub Rum for the Rye.  Which gave me a good excuse to bust out my newly acquired Smith&Cross Traditional Jamaican Rum, a very funky and strong rum.  I had heard good things, (check out this post at Oh Gosh! for a good review and description of this spirit) and turns out the things I heard were well founded.

Lumber Jill

• 1½ oz Smith&Cross Traditional Jamaican Rum
• ¾ oz Green Chartreuse
• ¼ oz Grade B maple syrup
• ¾ oz fresh lemon juice
• ½ oz fresh orange juice
• 2 dashes angostura
• touch salt
• ~3 oz ginger beer to top (Reed's Extra Ginger Brew)

shake and strain over fresh ice, top with ginger beer

The name is an obvious derivation of Lumber Jacques, but figured it was a bit less burly both with rum instead of rye and the fizzy ginger beer lightening it up a bit.  Not that a man should be ashamed to drink it, the drink proved reasonably popular at TDN and I very much enjoy and am proud to drink it.

One comment from TDN was the lack of garnish, someone suggested something green like perhaps a sprig of some food safe pine, and someone else countered with a sprig of rosemary shot through an orange wedge, which I think is a fine idea.  I might even toy with a sprig of cilantro.  But I've yet to experiment with such accouterments, so play around.

Oh, and I didn't take a pic and am too lazy to rectify that oversight, certainly in part because I never settled on a proper garnish.

Big Apple Cocktail

Last week's TDN theme was Fruit Brandy where it was suggested: "Break out your kirsch, apricot eau de vie, applejack, poire william, or whatever other fruit-based spirit you can conjure up."  I took up the gauntlet and used both Kirsch and Apple Brandy in my entry:

Big Apple

• 1½ oz Laird's BiB Straight Apple Brandy
• ½ oz Strega
• ½ oz Kirschwasser
• ½ oz Amaro Averna
• 2 dashes Boker's bitters
• 1 dash Regan's Orange bitters

stir and let cook on the ice for a few minutes, there's a lot of high proof stuff in there and a little dilution is ok, stir again and strain

After I tried this it seemed to me reminiscent of a Manhattan, or one of the many Manhattan or Brooklyn variations named after New York neighborhoods.  Here's a nice roundup of them [alt link].  In this vein, and due to the apple flavor from the brandy, I ran with this theme and named the drink Big Apple, a nickname of the city we all know and love.

Dundee to Islay

This week's TDN theme was Scotch, which while an ingredient dear to my heart, at first left me a bit disconcerted because I had used Scotch in several of my recent TDN drinks for other themes.  I persevered however, and this is what I came up with:

Dundee to Islay

• 1 oz Laphroaig 10
• 1 oz mezcal (Chichicapa Tobala, or sub more Islay)
• ½ oz Domaine de Canton
• ½ oz lime
• ¼ oz honey syrup
• 2 tsp Bonne Maman Orange Marmalade
• 1 dash Peychaud's
• pinch salt

stir or muddle everything without ice to dissolve marmalade, then shake&strain and garnish with flamed orange twist

A big component of this drink is obviously smoke, but there's other stuff going on to keep it from dominating too much, although it srely pushes to the forefront of the flavor profile.  You probably won't be able to pick out the Canton, but you'd miss it if it wasn't there (I did before I added it to the mix, anyway) but it adds a subtle spice and richness and bumps the sugar content a tad to balance the acid from the lime, as well as the marmalade which is more tart than sweet.  The salt makes the whole drink more round in flavor, and the Peychaud's not only gives a touch more bitterness and complexity, but brighten's the color of the drink as well.

Frère Johnnie

Here is my second drink from this week's "Monks!" themed TDN, as in:

Anything created or originally developed by monks is fair game: Benedictine, Champagne, Chartruese, Trappist Ales, or any other odds and ends your research turns up.

Frère Johnnie

• 1 oz Johnnie Walker Black
• 1 oz Bénédictine
• ½ oz Fernet Branca
• 1oz oj
• ~3 oz tonic

shake all but tonic and strain over fresh rocks and top with tonic, garnish with orange twist

I liked the way the Scotch works with Bénédictine in a Bobby Burns, and with OJ in a Blood and Sand, and I went from there.  I started out without the Fernet, but decided it needed something extra, and remembering a drink I recently had off of the very original cocktail list at Casa Cruz down in Buenos Aires over the holidays, I reached for the trusty elixir to add that special something, and I think it worked.

For reference, here is the drink from Casa Cruz:

Nacho

• Fernet Branca
• jugo de naranja (orange juice, or muddled orange slices)
  
• tónica (tonic water)
  

I didn't get the proportions, but I think you can be quite flexible with the components based on how sweet vs strong you like it or are otherwise in the mood for.

This was a deceptively simple and tasty drink. The whole cocktail list here was quite inventive, or at least it seemed to be to me from the pieces of Spanish I could decipher.  I decided to go with this drink because they love their Fernet down in Argentina, and when in Rome...
In fact, cocktails, while becoming more common, are still not commonplace in  the country.  I believe the most common one consumed there is the Fernet and Coke, believe it or not.  I've never tried it, but the Nacho was quite good so maybe I should give it a try.  Here's how much they love Fernet, the biggest bottle I've ever seen, it's like a Jeroboam or something:

Monky Gland

No, that's not a typo in the title, I do mean Monky Gland, not Monkey Gland, although the similarity is quite deliberate, as my Monky Gland creation is based on the old classic.  You see, this week's theme for TDN was "Monks!," as in:

Anything created or originally developed by monks is fair game: Benedictine, Champagne, Chartruese, Trappist Ales, or any other odds and ends your research turns up.

Now I've riffed off the Monkey Gland previously when I concocted the Surrender Monkey a while back for a MxMo,but that was more of a lark to amuse myself and the drink was only ok.  The Monky Gland, however, I really really like, here it is:

Monky Gland

• 1½ oz Bulldog London Dry Gin 
• ½ oz Green Chartreuse
• 1 oz Orange Juice
• tsp grenadine

Shake and strain into cocktail glass; squeeze orange twist spraying oils over surface of drink, garnish with orange spiral.

For reference, here's the classic recipe:

Monkey Gland

• 1½ oz Gin
• 1 oz Orange Juice
• splash absinthe
• ¼ oz grenadine

Splash absinthe into coupe glass, shake and strain rest into glass; garnish with orange spiral.

Dale DeGroff notes in his book The Essential Cocktail that there is an alternative Americanized version that subs Bénédictine for the Absinthe, so there's actually another tidbit that makes one version of the Monkey Gland a little monky itself.

Montgomery Burns

This was my other drink for the Allspice Dram TDN last week.  Obviously based on the classic Bobby Burns cocktail, here I cut back on the vermouth and benedictine a bit to make room for the Dram.  I mixed this up completely on a whim, and was VERY pleased with the results.  It was surprising how well the spice played with the smoke from the scotch and the herbal flavors from the vermouth and benedictine, and the other ingredients had plenty of heft to not be dominated by a full half ounce of the St. Elizabeth's, which is more strongly flavored than most homemade Drams (I'm told).  This might even be an actual improvement on the classic it was based on.  The name derives from the name of the base recipe and the well known character from The Simpsons, Mr. Burns would be old enough the be Bobby's brother, or maybe even father, right?

Montgomery Burns

• 2 oz blended scotch (Johnnie Black)
• ½ oz St. Elizabeth's allspice dram
• ½ oz carpano antica formula vermouth
• ¼ oz benedictine

stir and strain; garnish with shortbread or butter cookie

Southern Belle

Last week's TDN theme was Allspice Dram.  Allspice Dram, or Pimento Dram, is a Jamaican rum based liquor flavored with, you guessed it, allspice.  (Pimento is what the Caribbean islanders called the allspice berry until English explorers gave it the name we now use.)  St. Elizabeth's brand was the first to be imported into the US after a long absence, and is the easiest to find, if not still the only one available.  It can be a handful as it is quite flavorful stuff, but if poured with a gentle hand or matched with suitable ingredients it can add a nice spicy complexity to a cocktail.  This was one I came up with Thursday:

Southern Belle

• 2 oz bourbon
• ½ oz St. Elizabeth's allspice dram
• ¾ oz lemon
• ½ oz honey syrup
• 2 dashes grapefruit bitters
• tiny pinch salt

shake and strain

Bourbon is from the South, girls are sugar and spice and everything nice, ergo Southern Belle.  I didn't gussy it up and take a proper picture, as with no fancy garnish there was not much to see, but here's a shot of a partially finished one that Pleepleus got his hands on:

He enjoyed it.