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.

Skulduggery

Last Thursday's TDN was sponsored by Crystal Head Vodka, a new offering from none other than the esteemed Dan Aykroyd.  In addition to having a really awesome bottle, it's quite a fine vodka.  I served up the first drink of the night, here it is:

Skulduggery

• ¾ oz Crystal Head Vodka
  
• ½ oz Pineau des Charentes
• ½ oz Grand Marnier
• ½ oz lemon
• 1/3 oz black pepper simple syrup (1:1)
• a couple extra grinds fresh pepper

shake, strain, garnish with head on a
pike (grape impaled on a Sword Martini Pick)

If you don't have black pepper syrup, just use more fresh pepper, it works nearly as well.  I like using both because I find the freshly ground stuff has an extra zing as opposed to the more mellowed flavor in the syrup.  Besides, they recently figured out that a chemical in black pepper helps the absorption of nutrients, so pour it on.
I think it's a pretty light drink with some florals and spice from the Pineau and pepper, with all the flavors tied nicely together by the Crystal Head.   Perhaps something to start with before a meal without worrying about bold flavors messing with your palate before you dine.
Dan Aykroyd himself actually joined us in the chatroom for a while to answer questions and observe some of the group's handiwork.  Of course, despite all the Ghostbusters references, I didn't put him together with his alias until I asked a stupid question, but in my defense, I did preface it with "Stupid question, but..."  By the way, he said they were writing Ghostbusters 3 now, awesome.

Odinsblood

This is the second libation I came up with for last Week's Thursday Drink Night with the theme: "Not Absinthe: Aquavit, Arak, Anisette, Becherovka, Pernod, Ricard, Sambuca - any anise spirit that isn't absinthe!"

Odinsblood

• 1¾ oz aged Aquavit (OP Anderson)
• 1 oz Cherry Heering
• ¾ oz Campari
• 1 dash Xocolatl Mole Bitters

stir, strain, serve up

I started as a base idea with the familiar Negroni, which is equal parts Gin, Sweet Vermouth, and Campari.  I thought swapping the gin for the Aquavit was natural enough, approximately like swapping caraway for juniper flavor.  The cherry heering has I think a similar richness and sweetness to the vermouth, so I thought it might be a nice thing to mix it up as well.  Using equal parts wasn't quite right. so I had to play with the ratios for balance.  The bitters were needed because the heering lacks the herbal complexity of the vermouth.  I first tried orange bitters, but they were not quite right; the mole however did the trick, and completes what I think is an interesting drink.

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

Another month, another Mixology Monday. This MxMo's theme is still Vermouth, hosted by Vidiot at Cocktalians. This is my second drink for this month's MxMo, using Italian vermouth this time as opposed to my first, the Green Lantern, which used Dolin Blanc. Both of these are doing double duty in another way, since I mixed them up for recent TDNs.

I came up with the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen for the rather wide open category of Thursday Drink Night: Clear Spirits several weeks ago. I was lucky to have procrastinated posting it, because now I get to use it for MxMo as well.

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

• 1 oz gin (Bulldog London Dry Gin)
• 1 oz mezcal (Del Maguey Chichicapa)
• 1/3 oz Velvet Falernum
• 1/3 oz Fernet Branca
• 1/3 oz Carpano Antica Formula vermouth
• 2 dashes Xocolatl Mole bitters

Stir and and strain into cocktail glass.

When I initially presented this drink it was met with much skepticism due to the admittedly scary looking combination of several very boldly flavored ingredients, which do not at all obviously look like they would go well together. Thus the name. But once a couple guys got over their apprehension and tried it most quite enjoyed it, even extolling others to try it because despite its daunting recipe it is "actually good - honest. You should try it. Really." Although it did make one guy sneeze. Never found out if that was bad or a positive endorsement. Anyway, I enjoy it, and I liken it to a smoky manhattan.

Anyway, on to the discussion of the vermouth. Carpano Antica is still a sweet, or Italian vermouth, but it's made from a base of red wine as opposed to the more typical white. In addition, it is spicier and more robustly flavored than your typical Italian vermouth. And just plain better, it's great stuff. I mentioned at the most recent TDN that it was my default and the response was that it should be everyone's. I think the Carpano is key to making this drink work as the dude who ties all the other guy's big flavors together and keeps them all in line.

Another note about vermouth in general: unlike liquors, it goes bad, so take steps to preserve it. At the very least, reseal it and keep it in the fridge, but I go one step further and use Private Preserve to replace the oxygen laden air in the bottle with inert gasses, to great success. Highly recommended, and for leftover wine as well. (Also at amazon.)

And note, I am well aware that the movie is pretty bad but I quite enjoyed watching it, it's in my wheelhouse, like almost all vampire stories, except of course Twilight which I have not seen but I'm quite sure is utter garbage.

Speedy Gonzales Trap

For TDN a few weeks ago, the theme was tequila, here's my first one:

Speedy Gonzales Trap

• 1 oz blanco tequila
• ½ oz mezcal (Del Maguey Chichicapa)
• ½ oz Solerno blood orange liquor
• ½ oz Aperol
• ¾ oz lime juice
• 1 tsp luxardo maraschino
• 1 tsp pomegranate molasses
• 2 dashes grapefruit bitters

Shake and strain, garnish with lime wheel and a few pomegranate seeds. I thought the seeds would float, but they didn't, but it was kinda fun to crunch them at the end. Substitute cointreau for solerno if necessary, not sure how widely available it is currently.

Punto Rojo

Here's something I whipped up for the Beat the Heat Thursday Drink Night. Getting inspiration from the Cuzco, which I recently tried and enjoyed, I came up with the Punto Rojo. The floater I added in honor of my friend Joel.

Punto Rojo

• 2 oz Pisco
• ½ oz Cherry Heering
  
• ½ oz Green Chartreuse
  
• ½ oz fresh OJ
  
• ½ oz fresh lemon
• ¼ oz simple syrup
  
• Strega rinse
• float Blackstrap rum

Shake all but last two, rinse chilled rocks glass with strega, add fresh ice, strain, garnish with lemon spiral, float blackstrap

The name has a couple meanings; it translates to red point, but it is also an alternate name of Peruvian native fish the bleeding-heart tetra. I was reminded of blood in the water, and Pisco is from Peru, so there you go. Also Punto Rojo is apparently slang for a joint, referring to the cherry on the red tip, so that can tie to the Cherry Heering as well.

Mixology Monday: Ginger

Ok, I started this whole blog because I wanted to throw my hat into the ring for this month's Mixology Monday. Don't know what that is?

Check here: Mixology Monday.


Hosted this month by RumDood.

I actually have two submissions, just because my two recent concoctions both fit the bill nicely. They are both instances of having the name first and coming up with a cocktail to match. In this case both recipes were inspired by some descriptive terms we have for a couple of our friends.

First:

Ginger Balls

• ¾ oz ginger infused vodka*
• ¾ oz Domaine de Canton Ginger Liquer
• ½ oz Cherry Heering
• ¾ oz fresh lemon juice
• 2 marasca cherries and one slice candied ginger for garnish

Shake and strain into chilled cocktail glass.

A bit sweet, a bit tart, a bit spicy from the ginger, I thought it was nicely balanced and it seemed popular at the party, so I hope you like it.

* for ginger infused vodka, wrap a 2 inch chunk of fresh ginger in foil and bake at 300 degrees for 40 minutes, then peel and slice into match sticks, then slip those into a 750 of vodka. It will be good after a few days, but I literally had one hiding in the back of my freezer for 5 years, and it was still great, and only recently met its fate after I came up with this drink and offered it at a cocktail party.

As far as I'm concerned, vodka is vodka, so use whatever you like, but you can see in the above pic I used Crystal Head vodka because I thought the bottle was cool and it was on sale when I got it, even though I'm sure I still overpaid for the neat vessel.

And my second submission:

The Chinesey

• 1 ¾ oz Bulldog Gin**
• ½ oz Domaine de Canton Ginger Liquer
• ½ oz sake
• 3 dashes Fee Brother's Cherry Bitters
• 1 dash Orange Flower Water
• 1 Star Anise pod

Stir all ingredients with cold ice, fish out star anise and drop in chilled nick&nora glass, strain drink over star anise pod.

This is entirely another beast, but I thought balanced as well. A riff on a martini with the sake standing in for the vermouth to round out the edges of the gin, but with some sugar and spice from the Canton and a hint of fruit from the bitters to add some additional depth and complexity, along with the slightest whiff of anise from the garnish. And I think much more approachable than a martini for those not so fond of gin.

In our group, we (ok, just I) sometimes refer to one or a group of our Asian friends as "Chinesey", thus the combo of sake and other vaguely Asian flavors in this drink. Hey, I warned in my first post that stuff like this was liable to pop up, remember the part about "jovial drunkard characterized by rough, extravagant humor"?

**Bulldog is only yet available in the NY tri-state area, maybe a few other places, and some European cities, so if you don't have it use some other London Dry Gin with not too assertive juniper, but I think Bulldog works especially well in this one because it is flavored with poppy and dragon eye so fits with the Asian theme. I also played with 1.5-2.0 oz of gin and they all worked, depending on your fondness for gin, so there's some leeway there.