Mixology Monday is back and this time it’s hosted by Sonja at Thinking of Drinking, who chooses absinthe as our theme:
The topic for February is Absinthe. That much maligned, misunderstood, mistreated spirit, suddenly plentiful again in the US and other parts of the world. Absinthe played a role, whether large or small, in a variety of great cocktails from the 1800’s and early 1900’s - the Sazerac, Absinthe Suissesse, Corpse Reviver No. 2… I’m getting thirsty.
So let’s celebrate absinthe’s history, and it’s future, with all manner of cocktails using absinthe.
I tend to drink absinthe most often as an accent in cocktails rather than on its own and even then I don’t turn to it very often. So lacking inspiration this month I turned to Difford’s Guide #7, a massive book that includes recipes and photos for more than 2,250 cocktails conveniently indexed by ingredient. The drinks are of decidedly mixed quality but there are some gems in there, including the Atty cocktail:
2.25 oz Plymouth gin
.75 oz dry vermouth
.25 oz absinthe
.25 oz creme de violette
Stir (not shake!) over ice and optionally garnish with a lemon zest, though the aromatics of the absinthe and violette are strong enough that it’s not strictly necessary. The recipe is adapted from the Savoy Cocktail Book, which to my shame I don’t have in my library yet. Erik Ellestad posts the original recipe here.
The interplay of the absinthe and floral flavors is really nice here. It’s similar to the absinthe and lavender combination in Neil Kopplin’s Envy cocktail, though much more restrained. I like this drink a lot, and the color is fantastic (as you could see if I was a better photographer). Definitely recommended.
Incidentally, Difford’s Guide is available online as well, but the physical book is great to have on hand to browse through for ideas. The new edition #8 is available now.
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By request, here’s the one recipe that was missing from my closing cocktail menu at Carlyle. (Yes, someone actually wrote in to request the recipe. I was surprised too!)
I came up with this drink for a tequila dinner hosted by Herradura a few weeks ago. They enjoyed a seven course tasting menu from our chef and along with it they requested cocktails made with each of the tequilas in their primary line: blanco, reposado, and anejo. A shot of each was paired with the cocktails, so as you can imagine it was a fun time for all. This was the reposado drink for the evening:
1.75 oz Herradura reposado tequila
.5 oz Cointreau
.5 oz lime juice
.5 oz lapsang souchong syrup
Shake over ice and serve on the rocks in a salt-rimmed glass.
Lapsang souchong is a delicious Chinese black tea dried over burning pine wood. This distinctive process gives it a strong smoky aroma that lends itself well to use in cocktails. To make the syrup, simply brew hot lapsang souchong and mix with an equal volume of sugar. This is the same syrup I use to make extra smoky Swedish punsch; here it stands by itself to lend an extra flavor element to the traditional Margarita.
In the few days this has been on our menu it’s been competing with our token vodka drink to be our best-seller, a useful reminder that simple twists on popular cocktails can be a great way to generate interest in a bar program.
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I may have to make some changes as we run low on ingredients, but here’s the intended cocktail menu for our final two weeks, including three new additions. This will go into effect tomorrow:
Aquavit Hot Toddy – Krogstad aquavit, Swedish punsch, lemon, star anise $8
Antigua Old-Fashioned – English Harbour rum, coffee-orange bitters, sugar $8
Smoky Margarita – Herradura reposado tequila, Cointreau, lime, lapsang souchong syrup $8
Portland Stinger – Branca Menta, bourbon, brandy, lemon, grenadine $9
Thyme in a Bottle — Bombay Sapphire, Farigoule thyme liqueur, lemon, maraschino $9
Erica’s Impulse –Brandy, allspice liqueur, lemon, simple syrup, orange bitters $8
H’ronmeer’s Flame – Rye whiskey, sweet vermouth, Ramazzotti, flamed orange zest $9
Witty Flip – Brandy, J. Witty chamomile liqueur, lemon, orange bitters, egg, nutmeg $10
Horatio – Krogstad aquavit, Cointreau, Fernet-Branca, orange bitters $9
Curse of Scotland — Ardbeg 10 year single malt Scotch, Drambuie, maraschino, lemon $10
Queen Bee – Vodka, St. Germain elderflower liqueur, lemon, honey syrup, sparkling wine. $9
On a Whim – Trust your bartender to make you something good
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Thursday night’s Iron Bartender competition was a great success and a ton of fun. I’m not sure how many people came out, but it was well over 200 and possibly closer to 300. The support for the Children’s Relief Nursery was phenomenal. And the fact that everyone got to contribute so much while drinking delicious cocktails made it even better; big thanks to House Spirits for making that possible.
Since this was all for charity, it doesn’t really matter who won. The important thing is that we all had fun and came together as a team… OK, OK, it was Evan Zimmerman. He kicked all our asses once again. The guy’s unstoppable. He’s one of the best bartenders in town and if you haven’t been to see him at Laurelhurst Market you’ve been missing out.
This post wouldn’t be complete without a cocktail recipe. It would be even better with two. The first is the one I served in the initial stage of the event, during which we all made drinks with Krogstad aquavit. The second is one I’d hoped to serve but couldn’t make work in this context.
First, the Scandinavian Sour:
2 oz Krogstad aquavit
.75 oz Swedish punsch*
.5 oz Zirbenz pine liqueur
.5 oz lemon
.25 oz Zwack
Technically Zirbenz and Zwack aren’t Scandinavian, but they’re from European and sometimes cold countries so I think that’s close enough! Shake all of the above over ice and strain into a cocktail glass for a complex, refreshing drink.
The next drink is an aquavit hot toddy. It’s a rather nice cocktail, but with no hot water at our venue it would have been very difficult to serve. It will find it’s way onto the Carlyle menu in a few days:
1.5 oz Krogstad aquavit
.75 oz Swedish punsch*
.5 oz lemon
3-4 oz hot water
Pour all ingredients into a preheated snifter and garnish with a star anise. Guaranteed to warm you up after a long day of going Viking.
*Click for my Swedish punsch recipe, made extra smoky by the addition of lapsang souchong tea.
[Photo by Nicole Ishida courtesy of Children's Relief Nursery. From l to r: Elizabeth Markham, Evan Zimmerman, myself, Neil Kopplin.]
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My friend David’s method for creating a new cocktail:
1. Come into Carlyle and pick a drink on the menu that includes lemon juice.
2. Order that drink without lemon juice.
3. If the drink is served up, order it on the rocks.
4. Name the new drink after a Blazer.
5. Enjoy.
This method isn’t foolproof. Sometimes the results are, as one fellow drinker put it, “horribly unbalanced.” But sometimes it works. And one of those times is perfect for this week’s Mixology Monday, which is all about tea and hosted by Cocktail Slut:
Tea has played a historical role in cocktails for centuries. Perhaps the best documented early example was its inclusion in punches as part of the spice role to round out the spirit, sugar, water, and citrus line up. Later, teas appear in many recipes such as Boston Grog, English Cobbler, and a variety of Hot Toddies. And present day mixologists are utilizing tea flavors with great success including Audrey Saunder’s Earl Grey MarTEAni and LUPEC Boston’s Flapper Jane. Now it’s our turn to honor this glorious cocktail ingredient!
For a while our menu at Carlyle included an updated version of one of the first cocktails I came up with, a Pegu Club variation made with Earl Grey tea-infused gin. Putting this through David’s drink algorithm produces the Patty Mills:
2 oz Earl Grey-infused Bombay gin
.75 oz Cointreau
1 dash Regan’s orange bitters
Serve on the rocks with an orange zest. It’s a secret off-the-menu drink at Carlyle. But would Patty Mills himself approve? Only time will tell.
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Gore Vidal once said that he never passes up a chance to have sex or appear on television. Precisely one of these things I’m willing to do with my friend Neil Kopplin and we’re going to be doing it — appearing on TV, that is! — on KOIN’s “Keep it Local” show later today. We’ll be promoting tonight’s Iron Bartender competition at the Jupiter Hotel and having an Old School Carlyle vs New School Carlyle cocktail throwdown. The show airs between 4-5 on Channel 6 and will hopefully be online soon after. (The last time I was on local television the mysterious “David Grier,” who looks suspiciously just like me, got all the credit. This time I’m determined to keep him off the set!)
Also in local press, today’s Portland Mercury is all about my favorite spirit, whiskey. Included in their whiskey feature is a round-up of local whiskey cocktails, including this blog’s Curse of Scotland and drinks from some of the best bartenders in town. Check it out here.
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With my dual interests in cocktails and coffee it was only a matter of time before the two collided in the same glass. Most recently I’ve been experimenting with coffee bitters. Many roots and barks can be used as bittering agents, so why not the pleasant bitterness of coffee beans? My friend Lance Mayhew and I have tried out several recipes for coffee bitters and with batch #5 we’ve hit on a combination that I find very satisfying. We use Lemonhart 151-proof rum as a base and add in a few complementary flavors like orange peel and star anise. The final product has a distinct coffee aroma and taste without overpowering the other ingredients; it might be more accurate to call these coffee-orange bitters given the strong orange note they produce. (Coffee geeks will be interested to know that the beans are Stumptown’s Costa Rica Herbazu; how much of a difference origin makes in these bitters is yet to be determined.)
My favorite use for the bitters so far is in a rum Old-Fashioned. I’ve tried this with a number of rums, searching for a spirit to give the drink the right amount sweetness without tipping too far in the direction of strong caramel flavor. My favorite so far is English Harbour, an Antiguan rum with just enough time in barrel to give it depth. It’s well-suited for a classic Old-Fashioned preparation:
2 oz English Harbour rum
.5 tsp superfine sugar
2 dashes coffee bitters
Stir all ingredients to dissolve the sugar, add ice, and stir again. Finish with a strip of orange peel.
The rum Old-Fashioned with coffee bitters has been a popular off the menu item at Carlyle for a couple months now and will be making the jump to prime time later this week.
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My love for Fernet-Branca is no secret to readers of this blog, but in cold winter months like this I often find myself turning to its lesser known minty cousin, Branca Menta. The bitter mint liqueur is a great cocktail ingredient for this time of year. Today’s Oregonian features some holiday cocktail recipes from around town and writer Grant Butler kindly included the Portland Stinger at Carlyle:
1 oz Branca Menta
.75 oz lemon
.5 oz bourbon
.5 oz brandy
.25 oz grenadine
Shake over ice, strain into a chilled cocktail glass, and serve with a brandied cherry.
The recipe is slightly changed from the one Neil Kopplin and I came up with a few months ago and that I offered at Carlyle’s Fernet night. It’s served up instead of on the rocks and places a little more emphasis on the bitter notes in the drink.
For one more Branca Menta drink, see the Menta e Cioccolato. I plan to have that on the menu as soon as I can source the right chocolate.
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After a one-month hiatus, Mixology Monday returns with the theme of “Money Drinks.” As our host Beers in the Shower explains, this theme is open to multiple interpretations. One of the ones he offers is this:
I feel a “Money” drink is something you can put in front of anyone, regardless of tastes or distastes about the spirits involved. Come up with a drink or a list based on spirits about drinks that would appeal to anyone. example: turning someone onto a Corpse Reviver #2 when they like lemon drops.
The drink I’m posting today meets that definition. It also brings in the money, thanks to the strategic use of pyrotechnics. Here’s the H’ronmeer’s Flame,* one of the newest additions to Carlyle’s cocktail menu:
2 oz rye whiskey
.75 oz Ramazzotti
.75 oz Carpano Antica sweet vermouth
Stir all of the above, strain into a chilled cocktail glass, and flame an orange zest over the surface of the drink. (To flame an orange zest: Take a large swath of zest, toast with a lit match, and squeeze the oils through the flame.)
Creatively speaking, this is not the most inventive cocktail in the world. Call it a variation on a Manhattan or Boulevardier. But the cinnamon notes of Ramazzotti make it a perfect amaro for winter cocktails and the ignited oils from the orange zest give the drink appealing aromatics. Almost as importantly, the light show that results from spraying citrus oils through a flame is a great conversation starter that inspires other customers to order the drink. When you want to bring in the money, fire is your friend.
*Yes, I sneaked a Martian Manhunter reference onto my cocktail menu. And yes, this makes me happier than it rightfully should.
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Tomorrow at Carlyle we’re hosting our next spirits-in-focus event featuring J. Witty chamomile liqueur. This organic liqueur is made right here in Portland and just came out a few months ago; it has winter spice notes that make it a really nice ingredient in cocktails this time of year, as in the flip pictured above:
1.5 oz grape brandy
.75 oz J. Witty chamomile liqueur
.5 oz lemon
2 dashes Regan’s orange bitters
1 egg
nutmeg
Shake all but the nutmeg hard over ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass; grate fresh nutmeg on top.
We’ll be offering this and other winter cocktails made with the liqueur tomorrow from 5-7. Founder Jill Witty will be there too to talk about the product, so come on by to warm up with some good drinks (yes, there’ll be a hot toddy on the menu too).
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A few days ago Boston bartenders held an event that I’d have loved to be present at: A celebration of Fernet-Branca cocktails. They served some delicious-sounding recipes, including the Work in Progress from Tom Schlesinger-Guidelli at Craigie on Main:
3/4 oz Fernet Branca
1 oz Bols Genever
1 oz St. Germain
3 dashes orange bitters
Stir over ice, serve down, flamed orange peel.
Ron brought the recipe in to Carlyle last night, where he had one for himself and I hooked another customer on two more. It’s a curious combination of flavors, reminiscent of the Cooper’s Cocktail at Vessel. The rest sound intriguing too and I’ll be sampling them soon.
Previously: Carlyle held its own Fernet night, complete with Fernet sorbet and ice cream.
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Last weekend’s beer event at Cassidy’s was another successful night for the Oregon Bartenders Guild and Schoolhouse Supplies, with the latter receiving a little over $700 from the proceeds. If there’s a more fun way of raising money for kids than by drinking beer cocktails, I’m not aware of it. I’d like to thank all the brewers who contributed beer to the event, and especially thank McClaskey’s Spirits for providing some excellent products for us to mix with.
There were some interesting cocktails made that night with one of the most unique being Chris Churilla’s crowd-favorite Second Deadly Sin made with Buck bourbon, Maraska maraschino liqueur, Oakshire espresso stout vermouth (pictured above), and Oakshire IPA orange bitters. I didn’t have a chance to taste the vermouth separately, but the cocktail was delicious and proved the versatility of beer as an ingredient.
With my own participation in the event decided so late in the game I didn’t have time to do anything quite so transformative with beer but I still managed to turn out a tasty cocktail. Alex Ganum from Upright Brewing came through big time offering his beer on short notice. On the day before the event I visited Upright for what was supposed to be a brief tasting; however a power outage put Alex’s work to a halt and we ended up spending two hours trying everything on tap and talking beer. It was one of the best, most informative beer tastings I’ve ever had. I left with a case of his Flora Rustica, an aromatic saison brewed with yarrow and calendula flowers. Absolutely delicious on its own, and also quite nice in this simple beer cocktail:
Farigoule rinse
.75 oz Bellringer gin
5-6 oz Flora Rustica
toasted thyme sprig for garnish
The Farigoule thyme liqueur complements the floral notes of the beer, as do the botanicals in the gin. Toasting a thyme sprig over a candle during the drink’s preparation adds even more aroma that drifts across the entire bar.
For more cocktails and photos from the event, go visit Ron’s coverage at PDXplate (the source of the photo above).
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Drambuie is one of those bottles of liquor that’s a staple in many bars, including my own, that most bartenders don’t know what to do with. Recently my friend Lance Mayhew has been promoting it around Portland by hosting Drambuie Dens, encouraging bartenders and patrons to experiment with the spirit. They’ve been a lot of fun and while hosting one at Carlyle I was able to try it out in a few new cocktails. One of these is now on my menu as The Curse of Scotland:
.75 oz Ardbeg 10 Scotch
.75 oz Drambuie
.75 oz maraschino liqueur
.75 oz lemon juice
Shake and strain over ice into a chilled Martini glass. Ardbeg is my preferred Scotch here, but feel free to substitute another smoky Islay.
Obviously this is just a Scotch version of a Last Word. It substitutes Scotch for gin, Drambuie (an herbal liqueur) for Chartreuse (another herbal liqueur), and lemon for lime. It all came together on the first try; I wish all cocktails were this easy to make.
I’ll be serving this cocktail tonight at the 2009 Drambuie Den Bartender Showcase in Portland. Get the details and RSVP here if you’d like to attend. There’s a prize for best cocktail, too. With my drink using all off-the-shelf ingredients and having no fancy garnish it will be tough to win, but it is damn delicious.
Playing card enthusiasts will recognize the Curse of Scotland as a reference to the Nine of Diamonds, a card that has unique importance to many magicians as well.
Previously:
A simple summer Scotch cocktail
Thyme in a Bottle
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It’s Mixology Monday! Er, Tuesday in my case. But it’s still Monday one time zone over, which is close enough for bartender time. Vidiot at Cocktailians hosts this month, choosing the theme of vermouth:
[...] if your sole experience is of vermouth from dusty, warm half-empty bottles that have moldered away on a back bar since the Carter Administration, you aren’t going to like vermouth very much. One can even buy ridiculous products to atomize it in your drink. But that’s not necessary, and if you go down that road, you’re missing out on a great ingredient. [...]
So: your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to present a delectable vermouth cocktail for us all to drool over. Sweet/Italian or dry/French vermouth are fair game of course, as are quinquina, aperitif wines like Pineau des Charentes, or for that matter any fortified, aromatized wine such as Lillet (red or white), or Dubonnet (ditto.) Have fun, and leave the link in the comments to this post by midnight PDT (no, not this PDT) (3am EDT) Tuesday, October 27th. In other words, you have a little over a week to get it done, and as long as you submit it sometime by Monday, you’ll get in under the wire. I look forward to the results!
My drink for this month is no great shakes for originality, but it’s a tasty little number adapted from the classic Boulevardier as described in Ted Haigh’s indispensable Vintage Cocktails and Forgotten Spirits:
1.5 oz rye
1 oz Campari
1 oz sweet vermouth, preferably Carpano Antica
Stir over ice and strain into a cocktail glass. The drink is traditionally made with bourbon. I prefer the added spiciness of rye in this drink, so that’s how we serve it at Carlyle. Here it’s garnished with a rye-soaked cherry, a jar of which I set aside while they were in season this summer.
One nice thing about this drink is that the ingredients are totally accessible. Not every bar will have them, and not every bar will be taking care of its vermouth, but in an above average place the bartender should be able to make a Boulevardier with no problem. If you like Negronis and like whiskey, I recommend giving this one a try.
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Jacob Grier is a freelance writer, barista, mixologist, and magician in Portland, OR. He writes, eats, and drinks a lot. His articles have appeared in The Washington Post, Reason Online, The Oregonian, and other publications.
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