Sure, I ignored posting much of a self-congratulatory note on May 16th, the fourth anniversary of starting this blog — but if you’d just written 30 blog posts about 30 drinks in 30 days, wouldn’t you? But now that I can stand to see the inside of WordPress again, and before it completely fades from my memory, I should note that as of May 16 I’ve been running this little contraption for four circuits around the sun, thanks in small part to my stubborn nature but in much, much larger part to the kindness and patience of all the people who’ve stopped by to read, subscribe, comment or poke fun at me over those four years. A sincere thanks to you all, and I hope to meet many more of you in person in the year to come.

Now that that’s out of the way, here’s the real business — Thursday morning (that’s tomorrow), at 10am, I’ll be a guest on Weekday, broadcast by Seattle’s NPR affiliate KUOW, where I’ll be joining host Steve Scher to talk about the humanitarian crisis in the Swat Valley, what Sonia Sotomayor could bring to the bench as a Supreme Court justice, and about North Korea’s nuclear test.

Wait, sorry — I read the e-mail wrong; I’m actually there to talk about booze.

What kind of booze? Local booze, summer booze, fun with booze — you know, the usual. If you’re in the Seattle area, please tune in to KUOW 94.9FM at 10am; if you’re not local, or if you’re tethered to your computer and are radio-free, head over to the main Weekday page where you’ll be able to hear the broadcast live or download it to listen to at your leisure (note: that link is only valid for the day of broadcast, as you may have figured out if you visit it today and see a photo of Gary Snyder — I’m not quite that old or grizzled, yet; I’ll post a link afterwards for the show archives).

And even better, you can join in: call-in numbers are 206-543-KUOW, or 800-289-KUOW.

If you have no idea what I’m talking about, here’s a link to the show I did with Steve in January — it’ll sound something like that, except summery.

So listen in, and please give a call if you have something interesting to say–

Tags: General by Paul
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Chuck Taggart is a mighty bitter man. Oh, sure, he’s nice enough on the outside, and chatty and friendly and all that, but when it comes right down to it, “bitter” pretty much describes his state of mind.

Today, anyway — because once again it’s Mixology Monday (chapter 39, for those keeping score), and Mr. Taggart is our host this month. Chuck has somewhat predictably chosen as the topic for this month Amaro — and I say “predictably” for the following reason:

A couple of years ago, when I first met Chuck in person, we were in New Orleans for Tales of the Cocktail. One night, while Chuck, Wes and I were chatting with a group of folks that included Rick and Darcy, Eric Seed approached with his bag of tricks and asked us if we’d like to try a few of his items. We settled into one of the empty conference rooms, and tried out various spirits — a prototype of the St. Elizabeth Allspice Dram, along with some eaux de vie, and a taste of an Eastern European digestif flavored with, most notably, wormwood, that was so potently bitter that I recall the sensation of my eyeballs withdrawing into their sockets as the dry, lingering bitterness coated my tongue and throat. At the time I swore I’d still taste that bitter finish the next morning, and I gazed around the table to see Rick and Darcy holding tight, their faces drawn against the intense bitterness. But not Chuck, however. Chuck, y’see, was smiling.

Anyway, I knew Chuck would reach deep into his bag of bitter tricks for this round of Mixology Monday, but I’ll wave the white flag of surrender before digging into the Malort or the Unicum. Instead of burrowing into the bitter intensity that such spirits provide, I’m going with something lighter, more approachable to the novice, and that’s downright goddamn delicious when mixed with different spirits.

While it had its moment in the mixological sun starting a couple of years ago, Aperol has a sunny crispness and bitter-orange vivaciousness that appeal to the palates of amaro novices and experienced enthusiasts alike. True, craft bartenders have mixed the hell out of this since it made a big push starting around ’06 or ’07, but Aperol does wonderful things: it’s an agreeable bitter liqueur for those just starting to explore the category, and its bitter-orange brightness lends spark to cocktails in a way that I can only compare to Amer Picon (though with a lighter biting crispness as compared to Picon’s robust depths of flavor). While not as exotic or rare as many other bitter liqueurs, Aperol is, in my opinion, a vital part of any adventurous liquor cabinet.

As I’ve demonstrated in drinks such as the Camerone and the Theobroma (Picon version), I’m a total sucker for the combination of bitter orange and chocolate. In both of those drinks, I completed the flavor triangle with reposado tequila, which just, oh my god, YES with these flavors, but recently I started thinking about varying from that theme, and taking the orange-chocolate combo in a different direction. Here’s my latest shot at it: a drink I’m calling the Two Birds, as it’s not only my Mixology Monday contribution, but my entry into the Hotel Monteleone Cocktail Contest.

Two Birds

• 2 ounces rye whiskey (preferably baby Sazerac)
• 3/4 ounce Aperol
• 1/2 ounce sweet vermouth
• 1/4 ounce creme de cacao
• 2 dashes Peychaud’s bitters

Stir well with ice and strain into chilled cocktail glass. Twist a piece of orange peel over the drink and use as garnish.

It’s potent, it’s rich, it’s orangey, it flirts in the direction of the Boulevardier, and you can just, maybe, barely pick up the taste of chocolate on the finish. If Bittermens Bitters were in distribution, I’d call for the mole bitters as an ingredient, but as it is, I thought it best to enter a drink with ingredients that were easily at hand.

Anyway, that’s what I got this round — head on over to Chuck’s place to see what other drinks have been mixed for this month’s Mixology Monday.

Tags: Drinks, Mixology Monday, Rye by Paul
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In Imbibe!, the drinks book that just keeps on giving more than a year and a half after the first reading, Dave Wondrich notes of the Prescription Julep, “It [...] happens to be the tastiest Mint Julep recipe I know.”

I’ve tested this theory before, found it sound and then moved on, but I’ve pulled out the recipe once again based on a comment Sam Kinsey made at eGullet a while back, regarding the preparation of a Prescription Julep using the Rittenhouse bonded (natch) plus the Louis Royer “Force 53″ VSOP cognac. This sparked something in the murk of my memory: I had read somewhere of such a cognac being released in the U.S., one that pfffted at the typical 80 proof weigh-in for cognacs and instead was bottled at a bulked-up 106 proof — a heavily muscled bodybuilder of a cognac, particularly attractive for use in drinks like this because (as most regular readers surely know, but for those who do not) not only does the alcohol level affect the potency of a spirit, but that higher proof carries a more powerful flavor. To say that I was intrigued my Sam’s comment isn’t even the half of it.

Higher proof whiskies, rums and gins are fairly easy to find nowadays, but a high-octane cognac really grabbed my attention. After ordering a bottle online — what, you think the Washington Liquor Control Board is gonna stock it? — I commenced to try out the Force 53 in a Saratoga and, on Erik Ellestad’s suggestion, a Morning Glory, and was almost in tears at the richness of flavor in this spirit.

Tonight, however, it’s the final shot of 30/30, and I wanted to go out with a drink that’s devastatingly good, so I turned back to the Prescription Julep. I followed Sam’s suggestion of combining the Rittenhouse with the Royer, and to underscore Wondrich’s notation in the recipe, “Cognac and rye whiskey are a marriage made in heaven, the cognac mellowing the rye and the rye adding spice to the cognac.” That pretty much does it right there. I did step off of Wondrich’s recipe at two points, kind of: instead of doing the sugar / water muddle, I used gomme syrup as I have a metric buttload of it and am coming close to pouring it on my pancakes just to free up some space; and I incorporated the flourish, that while not common is certainly kosher when it comes to juleps, of dashing some Jamaican rum atop the finished drink.

I’m rapidly finishing this drink as I type up the post; god, this is lovely. C’mon, play along:

Prescription Julep
adapted from Imbibe!, by David Wondrich

• 1 1/2 ounces strong cognac (don’t worry if you don’t have the Force 53; a decent VSOP will take you where you want to go)
• 1/2 ounce rye whiskey
• 2 tsp. sugar and 1/2 ounce water (or, a couple of teaspoons of simple or gomme, to taste)
• As much mint as you feel you need — 8-10 leaves do me fine

In a tall glass or julep cup, add your sugar & water and stir to mix (or add your syrup and proceed). Very gently press your mint leaves — for the love of all that is good, boozy and holy, do NOT grind them into a paste — and withdraw them if you like, or gently nestle them in the bottom of the glass. Add the cognac and whiskey, give a slight stir (again avoid that impulse to smash the shit out of the leaves — seriously, you’ll thank me for this), then pack the glass with fine-crushed ice. Give a few light stirs with a bar spoon to help raise the frost, add more ice, and festoon with a fresh mint sprig, for aromatics. If you’re feeling extra plush, dash a little Jamaican rum on top of the ice — Appleton Extra worked very nice for me. Straw, please.

I’d tag on some notation that I made it to the finale of the frequently fun but sometimes exasperating and stupid 30/30 project, but it’s a Saturday night, I’m enjoying the last of a fantastic drink and I’m kind of feeling like having some more, so I’ll hold on the ceremonies and folderol until tomorrow. Now, I’m in the mood for something else…..

This drink is part of 30/30, a series of 30 drinks in 30 days — or as much as I can keep up before collapsing in a weary, booze-addled heap.

Tags: Brandy, Drinks, Rye, Thirty in 30 by Paul
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Told you there’d be another Charles H. Baker drink before this whole 30/30 things was over….

Baker describes this daiquiri-with-benefits as “a Lovely Thing Introduced to Us through the Gracious Offices of the Late Facuno Bacardi, of Lamented Memory”, and says that “along with the immortal Daiquiri, this is the best Bacardi drink on record.”

That’s a tall claim, and one that might well stand up if Baker’s preparation instructions are slightly tinkered with. Baker says to serve the rum-lime-simple syrup combo over shaved ice in a large goblet, and then to float a half-jigger of yellow Chartreuse on top before adding a squirt of soda water, and garnishing with mint, fruit and whatnot.

I made a few adjustments to Baker’s recipe, and it could use one or two more; having almost always been disappointed by drinks constructed with shaved ice, I went the crushed route, in a double old-fashioned glass. And since the soda water would seem to disrupt the float, I added the bubbles first, and then attempted to float the Chartreuse, only to be reminded of how much heavier the liqueur was as compared to everything else in the drink as it quickly dribbled down through the ice and settled on the bottom of the glass in a hazy yellow cloud that was actually quite pretty, as you would be able to see if I’d bothered to photograph it.

Lacking specifics from Baker, I chose to go the white rum route with the Daisy de Santiago; next time, I’m going the aged route, and I imagine Bacardi 8 should serve quite nicely. I also skipped the garnish, which was foolish in a way, as the mint would have provided aromatics that this drink could certainly use.

The Daisy de Santiago has enough life in it to have earned a cocktail menu position at places including The Violet Hour in Chicago and Clover Club in Brooklyn; I’m curious to know how they make theirs, as it has the promise of being an absolutely lovely drink, but a little tweaking of the preparation is needed to really make it shine.

Here’s how I prepared it, with the suggested modifications I mentioned; let me know if you have details on how you or bartenders you’ve seen go about the same drink:

Daisy de Santiago

• 2 ounces rum (I used the white rum from Appleton; go aged next time)
• juice of 1 lime (about 1 ounce)
• dash simple syrup
• 3/4 ounce yellow Chartreuse

Shake the rum, lime and simple with ice and strain into double old-fashioned glass filled with crushed ice. Add about 1 ounce of soda water, and gently pour Chartreuse over top of drink. Garnish with a good sprig o’ mint — I’d say this is essential, for the aroma — and fresh fruit as desired.

This drink is part of 30/30, a series of 30 drinks in 30 days — or as much as I can keep up before collapsing in a weary, booze-addled heap.

Tags: Drinks, Rum, Thirty in 30 by Paul
3 Comments »

You can almost hear the collective eye-roll from San Francisco — the eyes that aren’t rolling back in their heads because of the excesses of Cocktail Week, that is — that I’m finally covering a drink that’s long been a part of the Bay Area craft-cocktail scene (and by “long”, I mean “since earlier this decade”). But cut me some slack — I’m up in Seattle, and if Marcovaldo Dionysos, the drink’s creator, can’t find it in his schedule to come up north every once in a while, then it’s either up to me to work my around to blogging about his drinks for my local readers — both of ‘em — or to Boudreau to rip ‘em off and stick them on his bar menu.*

Gary Regan wrote about this drink way back in 2003, but at the time I was just a fledgling booze geek and had no idea what Amaro Nonino was; hell, at that point I hadn’t even found orange bitters yet. Ah, youth, and how little of it I recall.

Anyway, details: made for a Maker’s Mark competition, amaro in place of vermouth, etc. Actually, why should I spend the time writing about this drink — here’s Marco on video, I’ll let him explain it:

Got it? In case you missed it, here’s the recipe:

Uptown Manhattan
by Marcovaldo Dionysos

• 2 ounces Maker’s Mark bourbon
• 3/4 ounce Amaro Nonino (the print recipe says 1/2, but Marco says 3/4 in the video, so…)
• 2 dashes orange bitters (Regan’s #6)
• 1 barspoon cherry brandy from brandied cherries [being brandied cherry-less, I subbed Cherry Heering]

Stir well with ice & strain into chilled cocktail glass. Cut a piece of orange peel about the size of a quarter; positioning the flame from a match in front of the peel, give a squeeze and spray the orange oil through the flame onto the surface of the drink (it’s easier than it sounds — watch the video to see what I mean). Garnish with a cherry.

* Okay, that was a gratuitous and totally unwarranted slam at Jamie, who does not steal Marco’s drinks and place them on his bar menus as his own — that was all a simple misunderstanding for which I take full responsibility and humbly apologize. Really, I did it — for the full story, go to Tini Bigs and ask Jamie to explain it himself, perhaps over a Ginger Rogers.

This drink is part of 30/30, a series of 30 drinks in 30 days — or as much as I can keep up before collapsing in a weary, booze-addled heap.

Tags: Bourbon, Drinks, Thirty in 30 by Paul
3 Comments »