In Search Of Spice...

Recently I came across, in my social media aggregate, the notion that tiki drinks aren't so much about tropicality or a delivery method for syrup but rather a way to put spice (and kitchen flavours) into a glass! So with that in mind let's leave aside debates about what is or is not tiki and set sail for spice!

It's A Fucking Saxophone, Max

A post shared by Dagr Ebbe (@dagreb) on Sep 17, 2017 at 1:31pm PDT

It's A Fucking Saxophone, Max 
1 oz rhum agricole vieux
1 oz unaged cachaca
0.75 oz lime juice
0.5 oz oloroso sherry
0.25 oz allspice liqueur

Shake with crushed ice. Donate to an onversized snifter. Garnish with nutmeg and parasols.
Adapted from Jim Meehan's Girl From Jerez

This past weekend on twitter i came across this tweet:

petition for "it's a fucking saxophone, Max" to become the new "they're good dogs brent" https://t.co/oDJjLA3yxD

— Lindsay S. Pumpkins (@thelindsayellis) September 15, 2017

Please follow the quote tweet rabbit hole. You'll be glad you did!

Naturally I thought this would be an excellent name for a drink.  I searched CVS and came up with only one result for saxophone: Girl From Jerez. I swapped the Sherry, upped the pimento dram and made it a crushed ice drink and voila!

Cachaca and oloroso are a lovely pair and I may explore their delicious duets more in the future. Over all the drink was dry and tart and not overly much for spice. Firmly in the Fog Cutter vein of tiki. Perhaps a drink to make when a fog cutter would be too strong?

Until next time...

Still Searching.

A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To Amaro Week

So there I was contented with the drinks I'd used to christen* my new large-ish brandy snifters and about to settle in to Amaro Week when what should I spy but a snifter full of crushed ice! It was the Nine-O-Six made by Jordan of High Proof Preacher. Amaro? Tiki? It's tuesday?! I'm in!

The drink as made called for Mount Gay (for Eclipse pun reasons) and also Kashmiri Amaro. The rum I was confident I could sub** (pun be damned) but the amaro? Hmm...

Cardamom, eh? My most recent batch of Falernum is cardamom forward...

Well, anyway, here's my take in it:

Nine O'Six
1 oz black blended rum
0.5 oz blended aged rum
0.75 oz Averna
0.75 oz lemon juice
0.5 oz falernum
0.5 oz mauby concentrate
3 dashes aromatic bitters

Shake with ice and strain into a brandy snifter filled with crushed ice. Garnish in a mountainous fashion. 

*Stay tuned for next week's Tiki Tuesday!
**I used Cockspur

The Twang's The Thang

Not much to report. Just and MP3 of some of my music from... a while ago. Enjoy!

Mixology Monday CXVI: Irish Wake

It's that time, for the last time.

Our fearless leader has decided that Mixology Monday has run it's course. You can read the announcement here: http://cocktailvirgin.blogspot.ca/2017/02/mixology-monday-announcement.html

"So it is time for the final theme, the Irish wake. The Irish wake is a funeral tradition that is a send-off that begins at the time of death until the body is handed over to the church. It is viewed as a crucial part of the grieving process. My first Irish wake was a little over a year ago when Boston barman Ryan McGrale met his untimely demise. While the wake part with the family was sober, the mourning process with the Boston bartenders and the New York City ones who traveled up was most certainly not. Irish whiskey flowed. I remember getting home and wondering why my key would not work and I considered sleeping in the garage. Turns out, it was the wrong key on my key ring and it took awhile to figure that out. So what better way to celebrate the life and times of Mixology Monday and its 11 year run as the premiere "monthly online cocktail party" than with Irish whiskey."

The illustrious Doug has some thoughts on what blogging meant and what it means now. I however will tell a little story, as is my wont. I tried a good many drinks for this theme. I tried more than I usually do. Irish whiskey is not often in my cupboard so a-searching I went for recipes. There are some in my library which are nearly all to be found at Savoy Stomp. Notably I made myself an Irish Cocktail and Cameron's Kick. I even made a Good Things Come with floral bitters!.  By and large my experience was in line with the experiences of Messrs. Ellestad and Yarm so I didn't feel a need to retread those drinks. So what to make then? My thoughts went to the drink that in March 2014 made my bottle of Jameson disappear. This drink also had been blogged before so I think I'll tell you about my technique, eventually. First the recipe:

Irish Derby

1.5 oz Jameson

0.5 oz Byrrh*

0.5 Cointreau

0.5 oz lime juice

2 dashes Angostura bitters

1 long lime zest

Second the instructions (and meandering): I shall point out that Elena instructs to first cut the lime with a channel knife. I do not do this first. First I make an ad hoc mise en place of my supplies and tools. Often I have not chilled the glass I intend to use. My preferred method is to fill the glass with ice (preferably cracked ice) and then add water. Like so:

While the glass is chilling we get to the rest of the process. Separate your Boston shaker. Measure you ingredients and pour them into the metal tin. Once all is poured in fill the glass (the glass of the shaker set!) with ice. Join the tin and the glass firmly and shake. Shake shake shake! Separate the glass from the tin. Set the glass in your sink and rinse now or later. Double strain from the tin into your coupe. Once the cocktail glass is full zest the lime. Zest the lime above the drink so as to add citrus oils to the drink. Drop the peel in. Take a photo. Write a blog post. Enjoy your cocktail:

There you have it. That's how I make a (shaken) drink, mostly. I think I covered all the steps. If you have questions please comment on this blog or @ me on twitter or Instagram. If you need advice on how to easily separate your Boston shaker once shaking has created a vacuum I suggest reading The Bar Book.

Cheers!

Thank you one and all!

Be well.

*I made a substitution. 

A Tale Of Two Schumanns

When you hear "Schumann" what comes to mind?

PLL*?

American Bar?

Both!?

If you said both then perhaps you've come to the right blog. Stay tuned.


*phase-locked loop

MxMo: See Ecks Vee

It's that time again! Mixology Monday time! Our host this month is Katie at Garnish. (Here's the roundup post!)The them is chocolate. While I have been known to make boozy hot chocolate this time I'll go with white creme de cacao.

In my younger days I often shook up (in a cobbler!) a Grasshopper as after dinner tipple and this was my primary conveyance of creme de cacao into my belly. Eventually I made a substitution for the cacao and that became my house Grasshopper recipe, if you will. Perhaps I'll revisit it again but that's a story (and an ingredient) for another day.

On occasion creme de cacao appears in small doses in Tiki compliant recipes but more often I encounter it in classic styled drinks served up. While delicious there's, perhaps, an austerity to drinks such as Maxim, Twentieth Century, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern and the like. For me and for my money there's really only one reason to stock a bottle of creme de cacao. The Alexander!

Alexander No. 1
1.5 oz cream
1 oz gin
0.75 oz creme de cacao (white)

Shake. Strain. Coupe. Nutmeg.
adapted from Schumann's American Bar

There you have it! Classic delicious after dinner appropriate tipple.

Cheers!

Mixology Monday CXII: Mashup

Ahoy!

Its been a while. Some other time we'll get into the whys and the wherefores. It's Mixology Monday time. The theme (picked by our illustrious leader Fred Yarm) is mashups. I presetn to you this mashup of the Japanese Ccocktail and the Bluegrass Mai Tai. Yeah, that's the ticket...

Simple Headphone Mind
1 oz Armagnac
1 oz Cognac
1 oz lemon juice
0.5 oz orgeat
0.5 oz Grand Marnier
3 dashes Boker's Bitters

Shake with ice and strain into a DOF filled with crushed ice. Garnish with mint.

Cheers! Be well.

That's Not A Good Drink, Bront!

Don't make this drink. Just don't do it. In the grand booze-blog tradition of "I drank it so you don't have to" I (reluctantly) present to you:

The Hacha Cocktail
"Rub the inside of the glass with a small section of fresh garlic. Equal parts Gin and Rye Whiskey, a dash of Peychaud's bitters. Grenadine until blush pink. Shale well and let stand 2 minutes before serving"

Uh, right. Let's try this:

1 clove garlic
1 oz gin
1 oz rye
0.25 oz grenadine
1 dash Peychaud's bitters

Cut garlic in half and rub inside of cocktail glass with it. Assemble wet ingredients in a shaker. Shake strain. Set timer for two minutes. 

As you can see I didn't bother double straining this one. I really wanted this to be drinkable at least. It isn't. Not even by me!

Garlic and gin works well in the Vampire. Rye and Peychaud's is a classic. But both at the same time? No, it's no good. Just as David Wondrich suspected.

Cheers!
Be well