My birthday was last weekend, and after dropping hints on a daily basis for the past few months, my wife eventually picked up on the idea that an ice crusher would make a good gift. Now, with my spiffy new Metrokane on the counter, I can tackle a whole series of drinks in Grog Log and Intoxica! that I’d mostly had to avoid up to now.

Sure, you can make the drinks with ice cubes–but it’s just not the same, temperature-, flavor- or presentation-wise. And since I have small children — meaning cocktail time is typically an after-bedtime sort of event — the noisy smashing up of ice cubes with a rolling pin or blasting them in the Cuisinart is usually a no-go; plus, neither of those methods really give you a good, consistent result. But it’s summer, the time when mint juleps, mojitos and Prince Parker Swizzles are in order, so an ice crusher came to seem like an indispensable addition to my home bar (as did a couple of bottles of French absinthe, which were my present to myself and were delivered by the flying monkeys from Liqueurs de France too late to enjoy on my birthday, but should be a lot of fun to play around with in the coming months).

My first go round was with a Noa Noa, which Rick recently wrote about and graced with such a beautiful photo that I’m afraid to even venture down that path. Though, it really is a fantastic drink.

The Navy Grog wasn’t far behind — I’d tried this drink using cubes, and had excellent results, but I really wanted to try it the way Don the Beachcomber intended, in a glass filled with crushed ice. I did, however, take the license of slightly altering the recipe (based on the recommendation of Ted Haigh), adding just a dab of pimento dram to the mix.

Now this is what a tiki drink is about — mixtures of juices, sweeteners and different rums that create an entirely new balance of flavors. The crushed ice does its job here, cooling the mix more effectively than cubes or even cracked ice, while stretching out the drink so you don’t wind up tossing it back too quickly — a necessary feature, given the three ounces of rum in the glass.

At some point, of course, I’ll have to go all out and prepare a Navy Grog Ice Cone, per Jeff Berry’s suggestion, though that would require a set of Pilsener glasses … time to start dropping hints for next year.

Navy Grog (from Beachbum Berry’s Grog Log)

• 3/4 ounce lime juice
• 3/4 ounce grapefruit juice
• 3/4 ounce honey
• 1 ounce light Puerto Rican rum (I used Cruzan white rum)
• 1 ounce dark Jamaican rum (I used Appleton VX)
• 1 ounce Demerara rum (Lemon Hart)
• 1 ounce chilled club soda
• 1/4 ounce pimento dram (optional)

Heat honey until liquid, then mix with juices. Stir in rums and soda. Pour into double old-fashioned glass filled with crushed ice, or sip drink through ice cone.

Navy Grog Ice Cone: pack ten ounce Pilsener glass with finely shaved ice. Run a hole through center with a chopstick to make a passage for straw. Gently remove cone from glass and freeze overnight.

And, for the record, here’s a Noa Noa:

• 1 ounce fresh lime juice
• Tablespoon brown sugar
• dash angostura bitters
• 4 to 6 mint leaves
• 3 ounces Demerara rum

Dissolve sugar in lime juice, then swizzle everything in double old-fashioned glass partially filled with crushed ice. Add more crushed ice to fill. Swizzle again until glass frosts. Garnish with mint sprig and lime shell.

Tags: Drinks, Pimento Dram, Rum, Tiki by Paul
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Almost every day for the past 20 years, coffee has been a part of my daily ritual — and by “part of my daily ritual,” I mean the part that keeps me from being a sluggish, surly, cursing-at-passersby subhuman monstrosity. For the past three years or so, cocktails have also played a regular and significant role in that same routine. Yet, I’ve never had much desire to combine the two interests.

When it comes to coffee and spirits, the usual offerings are, I find, depressingly uniform. Most drinks are either of the “fill a mug with coffee, add SPIRIT X and sugar (or, optionally, LIQUEUR Y) and whipped cream” variety, or involve combinations of chilled coffee or coffee liqueur, brandy, creme de cacao and possibly another liqueur or two. Not surprising, given coffee’s post-prandial popularity, but hardly the thing to send your tastebuds a-twitter.

So, after Darcy’s decision to have Mixology Monday II focus on coffee (in all its various manifestations), I had to scratch my head and then go scurrying through the books in search of something interesting.

When “something interesting” is the operative search term in a cocktail quest, I’ve found that one of the best sources is Charles H. Baker, Jr. Traveler, writer and bon vivant, Baker was a magazine journalist for much of the first half of the 20th century, and he also authored two intriguing two-volume sets of food-and-drink recipes, stories and commentary: The Gentleman’s Companion, published in 1939, and The South American Gentleman’s Companion, in 1951.

For coffee, I turned to Baker’s South American drinks volume, and quickly came across this concoction (rendered, as closely as possible, in the 19th-century style use of small caps and extended titles that Baker used in his books) :

Ski Club Andino Boliviano’s HOT COFFEE-GROG, from the Club Chalet at foot of the SKI-TOW, some 18,000 feet above the Sea on Gigantic Mt. Chacaltaya, 40 miles or so outside La Paz, Bolivia.

In a big tall Zombie glass put:

• 2 oz 151-proof Demerara Rum [Ed. note -- JESUS!]
• 1/4 tsp powdered clove
• 1/2 cup strong hot coffee
• 1/2 pony [1/2 oz.] good Jamaica rum
• 1/4 tsp ground allspice
• 1/4 cup hot water, not boiling
• 1 big long stick cinnamon bark
• 2 tsp strained honey or brown sugar

Put silver spoon in glass to prevent its cracking, pour in liquids, spice and sweetening. Stir with the cinnamon stick till sweet’s dissolved. [...] A spiral of orange peel is sometimes added. We like that touch.

How is this different from the coffee-spirit-sugar-etc. drinks I maligned above? Well, not a whole lot — except, the addition of spices ramp up the flavor quite a bit without contributing added sweetness, and even the 2 teaspoons of honey or brown sugar is fairly restrained, in terms of the dominant norm for coffee-based drinks.

Baker credits expatriate Brits in Bolivia of coming up with this drink. Why they chose to use 2 oz. of the knee-buckling 151-proof Demerara in this is beyond me (unless, of course, the primary purpose of this drink is to buckle the drinker’s knees in as short a time as possible). Prudently, Baker follows this recipe with a warning:

Naturally ordinary 86-proof rums rate small-beer beside the mule-kick hidden in a pot of 151-proof Demerara, so be careful as you pour or you’ll be shouting “Tim-BERRRRR!” as your guests topple and hit the tiles.

For my take at this grog, I heed Baker’s warning and instead use 1 1/2 oz of the 80-proof Demerara, with 1/2 oz of the full-throttle variety to keep the flavor somewhat true to the original. I also replace the allspice and 1/2 tsp of the brown sugar with 1 tsp of Pimento Dram, as it’s pretty much the same thing — allspice & brown sugar in a Demerara rum base — that’s been allowed to mellow and marry for several months.

But while Baker’s grog is a good fortifying drink to keep in mind the next time it turns frosty, another, somewhat-related beverage suggests a more exotic take on the coffee grog. In search of further coffee-drink-based excitement, I turned to the other name that pops into my head when thinking of interesting drinks: Jeff “Beachbum” Berry. In his Grog Log, Berry gives a recipe (without a source, unfortunately, beyond “circa 1950s”) for a Polynesian relative of Baker’s Coffee Grog.

Flaming Coffee Grog

• 3 teaspoons Lopez coconut cream
• 1/4 oz. Grand Marnier
• Hot black coffee
• Twist of orange peel
• Twist of lemon peel
• 2 whole cloves
• Eight-inch cinnamon stick
• 3/4 oz 151 Demerara rum

Heat and then ignite cloves, peels, Grand Marnier and rum in Pyrex saucepan or blazer pan of chafing dish. Fill skull mug 3/4 full of hot coffee, then stir in coconut cream. Spoon flaming mixture on top. Use cinnamon stick as stirrer.

The benefits of Berry’s coffee grog, as I see it, break down into three points:

• it’s mildly sweet, but not over the top — a big plus for coffee drinks
• the coconut cream takes the flavor in an unexpected, and not unpleasant, direction
• FIRE! Even better, FIRE IN A SKULL MUG! Talk about primal…. [Though, if you're looking for blue flames in the photo, you'll be disappointed -- the rum flared up in the pan and kinda spooked me as I was preparing to ladle it into the mug, so I had to snuff it. Still tasted good, though.]

I found the coffee works well in this tiki environment, and the resulting drink is a far cry from the dull, dessert-tasting coffee cocktails you typically come across.

Thanks to Darcy for coming up with the theme, and for hosting this edition of Mixology Monday. I look forward to reading the wrap-up in the next day or so.

UPCOMING: Mixology Monday III will be upon us in June. The host for this edition will be Rick at Kaiser Penguin, and Rick has chosen mint as his theme for the month.

SAVE THE DATE – Monday, June 5, Mixology Monday III: Mint, hosted at www.kaiserpenguin.com

(And FYI, I’ve been updating the original Mixology Monday post to keep track of past, current & upcoming events, along with the original suggested guidelines, so the permalink should serve as a good reference for new participants.)

Tags: Drinks, Mixology Monday, Pimento Dram, Rum, Tiki by Paul
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Not quite Antigua, but for late March in Seattle, it could have been much worse.

On days like these–when I can leave the Gore-Tex at home and stroll down the street in a short-sleeve shirt, looking out at the torn-paper edge of the snowcapped Olympic Range beneath a cloudless sky–summer feels so close that I’m almost ready to dig the grill out of storage.

Of course, it’s not to be–it never is. Eight years in the Pacific Northwest has taught me that beautiful springtime days are merely cruel hoaxes on the sun-starved inhabitants, destined to be followed by an unbroken stretch of clouds and drizzle that won’t relent until Fourth of July weekend. Still, we can pretend it’s almost summer, just for one night.

One of the pleasures of owning Jeff “Beachbum” Berry’s Grog Log and Intoxica! is that they have so many recipes that answer the question, “What the hell am I going to do with all that homemade pimento dram I have in the cupboard?” On a faux-summer day, a rum drink like Jasper’s Jamaican–which Berry credits to Jasper LeFranc of the Bay Roc Hotel in Montego Bay, from the 1970s–can make the warm season seem that much closer.

Jasper’s Jamaican

• 1 1/2 ounces gold Jamaican rum (I used Appleton V/X)
• 1/2 ounce fresh lime juice
• 1/2 ounce pimento dram

Shake well with ice, and strain into cocktail glass.

I’ve taken a couple of liberties with Berry’s recipe. First, his version calls for 1 1/4 ounces rum, which really puts the rum’s flavor at a disadvantage; I’ve upped it another 1/4 ounce, which straightens the drink’s backbone a little. And, Berry’s recipe calls for 1/4 teaspoon sugar, which–with the allspice liqueur in there and everything–strikes me as a bit of overkill. Try it, and if you want it sweeter, give it a dash or two of simple syrup.

Tags: Drinks, Pimento Dram, Rum, Tiki by Paul
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Just when I was wondering what kind of new, unheard-of concoction to mix up for guests on Christmas, Chuck Taggart posts a recipe for this intriguing new cocktail over at the Gumbo Pages.

Réveillon Cocktail

• 2 ounces Laird’s Straight Apple Brandy (substitute Laird’s Applejack or your favorite Calvados).
• 1/2 ounce pear brandy (make sure it’s a clear eau-de-vie, not a liqueur).
• 1/2 ounce pimento dram.
• 1/4 ounce top-shelf sweet vermouth (Carpano Antica Formula or Punt-E-Mes).
• 1 dash aromatic cocktail bitters (Angostura is good, Fee Brothers’ Old Fashion Bitters are better, Abbott’s Bitters — if you can get any — are spectacular).

Combine ingredients with cracked ice in a cocktail shaker. Stir like hell for no less than 30 seconds, and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a cinnamon stick.

Intrigued by the mix of flavors, I made one for myself tonight. Since I had no Laird’s bonded on hand, I used Chateau du Breuil Calvados, and mixed it with Clear Creek Distillery’s pear eau-de-vie, homemade pimento dram, Punt Y Mes and a dash of Fee’s Old-Fashioned Aromatic Bitters.

I was expecting a number of different flavors, all creating a layered profile, but with the first sip I was astounded at how well they all worked together. Each of the ingredients has a very assertive character, but in this combination, no one flavor dominates. The rich apple of the brandy and the ethereal presence of the pear eau-de-vie form a solid fruity presence in the glass, seasoned with allspice from the liqueur and the cinnamon from the Fee’s, with the Punt Y Mes undetectible, yet working behind the scenes, as it were, to temper the various flavors around it.

Apples, pears, allspice, cinnamon–the essence of the holiday in a cocktail glass. Chuck says he’s still tinkering with the cocktail, but from my brief encounter with it, I’d say no further work is needed. Maybe somewhere between the eggnog and the flaming Christmas punch (ever the traditionalist), I’ll pull this one out to liven up the afternoon.

* UPDATE: This drink was well-received by my guests on Christmas Day, and Chuck has not only decided to settle on this recipe, but Wes has come up with a fitting name: the Réveillon Cocktail, which, according to Chuck, “evokes Christmas, especially Christmas eve, but also the recent New Orleans spin on the old tradition that expands the feasting of la veille de Noël all season long …”

Well done–

Technorati tag: cocktails.

Tags: Calvados, Drinks, Eau de Vie, Pimento Dram by Paul
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As I’ve mentioned before, I’m not much of an innovator when it comes to creating cocktails. My collection of drink manuals is rapidly taking over my kitchen, and with these thousands of recipes to choose from, rarely do I venture into the unknown.

But sometimes, when I have a particular ingredient or a particular flavor in mind, there’s just nothing out there I can find. Usually, I think, somebody, somewhere has probably come up with the drink I’m searching for, but it’s not to be found in print (in my collection, anyway) or online. In these cases I’m left to fend for myself, just me and my mixing glass, along with the contents of my liquor cabinet and whatever imagination I can bring to bear to create a suitable drink.

This is one of those drinks.

Following on the experiments with pimento dram, the very first cocktail I made with the new stuff is one I had no reference base for. None of the many cocktail manuals I own have any drinks calling for allspice liqueur or pimento dram; only on CocktailDB have I found any satisfaction, and that only fleeting.

But this drink just seemed so obvious–a Jamaican liqueur, mixed with a nice aged Jamaican rum, with a little toss of bitters to bring out the cinnamon and spice. Elementary, eh? Yet totally missing from the mainstream literature.

Pity, that. I find this a truly enjoyable drink, the best base for enjoying pimento dram I’ve yet come across (and I apologize for tooting my own proverbial horn, here–but really, this is a damn fine drink, and it just seemed so obvious). Perhaps if this drink were to grace more published guides, demand for pimento dram would reach such a peak that the interested parties would see fit to make it widely available in this country. These are things I imagine while sipping this concoction–a spicy Jamaican liqueur, blossoming to such popularity that it pushes the Jagermeisters and Banana Schnapps of the world right off the liquor store shelves. A man’s gotta dream.

Oh, and the help wanted part? Along with my reluctance to create new drinks comes an absolute loathing of coming up with new names. I need help, people, and I need it from you. I’ll mull the idea over for a while, but should anyone come up with a good suggestion for a name for this drink (or know the actual name for an existing drink of this type), be sure to post it in the comments, or e-mail me so I can take it into consideration. But even if you’re as stumped as I am for a name, do try this drink, even if it means making your own pimento dram. It’s like a hammock in a glass.

[Your Name Here]

• 2 ounces aged Jamaican rum (Appleton V/X and Appleton Extra both work very well)
• 1/4 – 1/2 ounce pimento dram, to taste
• 1 dash Fee’s Old-Fashioned Aromatic Bitters

Stir with ice, strain into a chilled glass.

Technorati tag: cocktails, rum

Tags: Drinks, Pimento Dram, Rum by Paul
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