It’s still Monday here on the West Coast, which means I’m still on time for this month’s Mixology Monday. Hosted by Chris Amirault and the gang over at eGullet, the theme for this month is “Dizzy Dairy”, which means whatever else you do to your drink, you’d better mix something in it that originated in the vicinity of a farmyard animal’s ass. Wow, soy milk is sounding much more appealing right now.

Anyway, there are considerably few milky-type drinks that I’m fond of, and as luck would have it I’ve blogged about most all of them over the years (how’s it goin’, Ramos Fizz? Hey, Tom & Jerry, see you at Christmas). Open the category to eggs, and okay, now you’re talking, but to keep my MxMo drink in the full spirit of the event, I thought it best to avoid drinks that merely used egg whites, and instead go the full dairy case experience and plop the whole glob of goo in the glass.

Here are a couple of things I tried:

1) Ferneggnog — After a pleasant experience with the Fernet Flip, I thought, “How can you NOT want an eggnog made with Fernet Branca?”

Sadly, though, no. I mixed one this weekend, following the basic eggnog formula passed down over the years: base spirit; sugar; whole egg; and rich milk or cream, all shaken well with ice and garnished with a sprinkle of nutmeg. But while the egg in the Fernet Flip served to lengthen the flavors out, letting the bitter flavor of Fernet recline on the egg’s silky chaise longue of texture, the addition of milk & cream seemed to actually dull the Fernet’s flavor, and the Ferneggnog was — dare I say it, especially for a drink based on Fernet Branca — boring.

Perhaps there’s redemption to be found, but after a few sips I dumped this project down the sink.

Ferneggnog – a sadly failed project

• 2 ounces Fernet Branca
• 1/4 ounce simple syrup
• 1 whole egg
• 1 ounce whole milk
• nutmeg, for garnish

Combine ingredients in shaker and first shake without ice, then fill with ice and shake until frothy. Strain into a goblet and sprinkle with nutmeg.

2) Grown-up Grasshopper: Yes, it’s an em-effin’ Grasshopper — you want to make something of it?

David Wondrich’s contribution to the “Things That Actually Feel Good” piece in the October issue of Esquire contains the Tujaque’s recipe for this venerable piece of green fluff, and that got me thinking: while the cognac-bearing Tujaque’s recipe looks better than most of the other all-liqueur versions I’ve seen (and don’t even remind me of those boxes of Holland House Grasshopper mix that my parents used to break out every time they had a party in the ’70s), it still uses creme de menthe and creme de cacao — two liqueurs that are typically of execrable quality (though there are notable, and usually hard-to-find exceptions). Is it possible to make a decent grown-up (read: less frilly and sugary) version of this drink, using good ingredients?

Let’s try. Starting with the Tujaques recipe, I’m keeping the dose of cognac — hell, I’ll raise the stakes by making it 106-proof cognac, to help keep everyone else in line. In lieu of the standard green creme de menthe, I’ll use the Giffard Menthe Pastille that I picked up in Canada (this liqueur is pretty cool; lighter in texture and much less sugary than other mint liqueurs, it has a clean, crisp, elegant flavor that is close to that of fresh mint — try finding that in a bottle of DeKuyper). And instead of creme de cacao, I’ll use a little cacao-nib tincture, the recipe for which was kindly provided to me by Scott Baird at 15 Romolo in San Francisco for an article I wrote about respectable uses of chocolate in cocktails that ran in yesterday’s San Francisco Chronicle. Toss in your milk (lacking whole milk in the house, I used a mix of low-fat milk and heavy cream), and a drop or two of green food coloring (which is optional, of course, but c’mon — do you really want a brown Grasshopper?), and, well –

Y’know what? This is pretty damn good. I had to tinker with the first attempt, adding a bit more cacao-nib tincture because I’d low-balled it at first, and then a dollop of rich demerara syrup because, ironically, my grown-up Grasshopper was too dry and needed a touch of sugar to help pull everything together.

Will this become a regular? No — but this is a vast improvement on the standard all-liqueur version of the drink, and is much lighter and crisper, with a more resonant and natural mint and chocolate finish, than one made the standard creme de menthes and cacaos that are available. The flavor is lean, clean and crisp, the cognac keeps it joyously boozy, and I don’t feel like I need to brush my teeth after a sip. (To be honest, you could probably make the drink without the dairy component and it might even be better, but that’s for another time.) Damn, there’s some kick in the old Grasshopper yet.

Grown-up Grasshopper

• 1 ounce cognac
• 1/2 ounce Giffard Menthe Pastille liqueur*
• 1/4 ounce cacao-nib tincture**
• 1 dash rich demerara syrup
• 1 ounce whole milk or half-and-half
• 1 drop green food coloring (optional, but c’mon — lighten up)

Combine ingredients in a shaker, fill with ice, give a good hard shake and strain into a chilled glass.

* Good luck finding this — as far as I know, the only place in North America you can purchase Giffard liqueurs is in British Columbia, and the one store I found in Vancouver that carried this had four bottles with a heavy coating of dust on each.

** To make: pour four ounces of roasted cacao nibs (I picked up a bag at Theo here in Seattle) in a jar and cover with six ounces of Rittenhouse 100-proof rye whiskey. Let soak for two weeks, shaking the jar every day. Strain and bottle for use.

So that’s it for September’s round of Mixology Monday — head over to eGullet to see what everybody else got up to this month.

Tags: Brandy, Drinks, Mixology Monday by Paul
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As I mentioned last month, the good folks at Oregon Bounty organized a creatively titled Cuisinternship Contest that would pair selected winners (who entered by submitting a short video and even shorter Twitter-length essay) with some of the state’s culinary luminaries for a one-week, all-expenses-paid internship. The deadline has now passed — too bad, procrastinators — and the entries are in (here’s a link to see all of the entries).

Also as I mentioned, one of these internships is with Bend Distillery, where the winner will spend a week making gin and vodka and doing — well, I don’t know what exactly, but it’ll be whatever distiller Jim Bendis is doing at the time, so it’s probably going to be really cool. Anyway, there were eight entries for the distillery internship; I kinda expected more, but it looks like the idea of making beer or chocolate & cheese was just too appealing for many people, because those categories had entries out the wazoo.

I’m one of the judges for the distillery category, and the way it works is this: the contest organizers reviewed all entries and sent me their top five picks, and then I scored each of those entries across several categories and sent my top three picks on to the distillery, which will choose the winner, to be announced next week. I’m not going to reveal any of the semifinalists or finalists — I wasn’t selected for Skull & Bones and I passed on a career with the CIA, so I’ve gotta take my secretive cloak & dagger opportunities as they come — but I wanted to give each participant the opportunity to have their entries seen by you, the booze-loving blog-readers of the world.

Here are all of the eight distillery entries, in no particular order. I’ve already completed and sent in my scores for the finalists, so any comments or e-mails won’t affect the outcome of the contest, but I’m curious to hear who you think would be a good pick for the distillery internship. Let me know in the comments (but please, be nice — while you can salt the comments section at YouTube with any disapproving notes you like, I’d rather not have any participants insulted in the comments section of my blog — after all, this ain’t Congress).

And with that, here they are: the entries for the Oregon Bounty Cuisinternship Contest, distillery category.

Tags: Events by Paul
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That crack in my last post about mixing up a batch of Fernet Eggnog — or “Ferneggnog”, as Foliosus put it in the comments section — got me thinking. A surprisingly good drink I tried recently was a Cynar Flip, suggested to me by Jeff Morgenthaler from a recipe by Kirk Estopinal from The Violet Hour in Chicago, and after yesterday’s post I started considering ways to mix something interesting with Fernet Branca.

I’m not alone, of course. The good folks over at Cocktail Virgin Slut posted about a Fernet Flip making its way around Boston way back in the summer of ought-eight; more recently, the Fernet thread over at eGullet featured a recipe for a Fernet Flip served to a patron at The Violet Hour; and last month here in blog-land, Rick at Kaiser Penguin suggested a recipe while inviting everyone to play “whose is bigger?” with their bitters collections.

Thing is, these are all markedly different recipes. The Boston version was simple and straightforward, as befits a flip: two shots o’ Fernet, a shot o’ simple syrup, dash in some Fee’s Whiskey Barrel Bitters, thrown in an egg and shake the holy hell out of it.

Rick’s was somewhat similar, shaving the simple syrup back to a 1/2 once, substituting the Bittermens Xocolatl Mole bitters for the Fee’s, and using only the egg white — sounds tasty, but if I’m to do my duty as a cocktail nag (c’mon, it’s been a while) then I should point out that for a flip, you better toss the whole egg in the mixing glass.

The Violet Hour recipe was the one that intrigued me: equal parts Fernet & Carpano Antica Formula vermouth, a dash of simple (they call for demerara, but hey, use what you got) and a dash of bitters, plus the obligatory egg.

Now if you’ve sampled the Appetizer a l’Italienne, you’ll know that nothing pairs with Fernet Branca like Carpano Antica (fitting, as I believe they’re made in the same facility), so right there the Violet Hour recipe had my attention. Plus, there’s the sweetness factor — Fernet Branca is bitter, but it’s also carrying its own load of sugar; add a good dose of simple syrup and the drink can quickly become cloying. However, if you instead used a full dose of Carpano Antica (which is also sweet, but not over the top), and shave back the simple syrup to the barest touch, then you might have something that works. I also took a note from Rick’s drink and subbed the Bittermens for the Fee’s, because something about chocolate & Fernet seemed appealing; here’s what I mixed up:

Fernet Flip

• 1 1/2 ounces Fernet Branca
• 1 1/2 ounces Carpano Antica Formula vermouth
• 1 dash simple syrup
• 2 dashes Bittermens Xocolatl Mole bitters (see note below)
• 1 egg

Combine ingredients in a cocktail shaker; give a good dry shake (without ice) to mix the ingredients, then fill with ice and shake like hell to get it good and foamy. Strain into a chilled wine goblet. Twist a piece of orange peel over the drink and use as garnish.

Chalk this up as another holy union between Fernet & Carpano — the flavor of the amaro is tamed, but not subdued, and the egg gives the drink a weight and texture that makes the Fernet seem like a big, furry puppy dog (just don’t look too closely at its teeth). The drink is plenty sweet, and in my opinion could even do without the dash of simple, though you may wish to keep it in for body (and for Fernet beginners). Not sure how the bitters weighed in — this may indeed be a job where something with a deeper flavor like the Fee’s Whiskey Barrel may work better.

Anyway, here’s a way to drink your Fernet and get a little protein in you at the same time. A keeper.

Tags: Drinks, Vermouth by Paul
7 Comments »

Bet you thought I’d forgotten about it, huh?

No, just running behind on getting the details together — but never fear, there is a September Mixology Monday coming along soon — September 28, to be precise. The hosts for this round of MxMo are the good folks over at eGullet (led by group manager Chris Amirault), and the topic Chris has chosen is Dizzy Dairy. In his words:

Any drink using a dairy product is fair game: milk, cream, eggs, butter, cheese, yogurt, curds, you name it. Given the importance of dairy products in drinks dating back centuries, there are lots of opportunities for digging through vintage receipts for a taste of the past, and as always innovation is highly encouraged.

We hope that you’ll measure out your portions as best you’re able: better to indicate a tablespoon or ounce of egg white, for example, than to say “egg white.” In addition, be sure to share any tips and techniques that benefit your booze — “dry” shaking without ice for a good meringue, say, or stealing Society member Dale DeGroff’s whipped cream trick for Irish Coffee. Disasters as well as successes are heartily encouraged. Finally, prepare to respond to the anti-dairy lobby by giving us reasons why your libation is just this side of mother’s milk.

To participate, have your entry posted on your blog (or, appropriately enough for those non-bloggers among us, on the eGullet thread for this MxMo) by midnight on Monday, September 28. Notify Chris by posting a link to your entry in the eGullet MxMo thread, and photos are strongly encouraged.

What’s that? You’re not a member of eGullet? No problem — you can join up right here. Or, if you’re really not a joiner but want to play along with MxMo anyway, you can simply e-mail your info and a link to your post to Chris at camirault [at] egstaff [dot] org.

I’m kinda curious to see if anyone attempts a quark cocktail or a drink made with a rich Stilton (as for my drink, I think “Fernet Eggnog” has a ring to it). Even if those don’t come to pass, be sure to raid the dairy section at your local grocery store (vegans: if you’ve got a compelling drink with rice milk or the like, then go for it), and have your drink ready by September 28.

Tags: General by Paul
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