I quit.

Okay, so I said it a lot nicer than that, and I gave plenty of notice so as not to burn my bridges and all that kind of thing, but while my presentation lacked the cathartic release I’d long hoped for, the fact remains: I’m leaving the safety and security of the day job to claw out a career as a full-time freelance writer. On Thursday.

Hot damn!

(Oh, shit.)

While I’m enthusiastic as all hell, I’m also slightly terrified of ruin and starvation, which means I’ve been enjoying my share of celebratory good drinks, but ones that don’t break the bank. This, of course, means rum.

I tend to go through drink-related phases, related not only to the seasons and particular moods, but also to the different projects I happen to be working on at the time. Last fall, I had a thing for sherry and, as we edged toward winter, absinthe. More recently, while working on a rum story, I’ve been all about premium rum, and rare has been the cocktail hour in the past few months that hasn’t seen me reaching for some fruit of the cane.

You’d think it’d be a lot easier, though. With rum cocktails, it readily becomes apparent that there are very few that really let the spirit shake it all in front of you. Not that I’m complaining — I have a biding love for tiki and exotics, and daiquiris and El Presidentes will always be on my list of favorites. But when you consider the other spirits, there’s always at least a few drinks that basically serve up the best the spirit has to offer, with just a few touches of other ingredients that serve more as garland than as modifier. Sure, you can substitute rum for gin or whiskey in a variation on Martinis and Manhattans, and if you use something decent, you’ll have a nice drink, but it’s not quite the same — that’s rum in a walk-on role; for really nice rums, they need the opportunity to shine.

And that’s where I kept coming up short. Fortunately, I wasn’t alone, and Murray has been willing to help me through the process. First there was the unnamed drink that Keith featured not long ago, with Mount Gay Extra Old touched with Grand Marnier and Cointreau (or, if you’ve got it, Creole Shrubb does a nice two-in-one job), and a few dashes of Bittermen’s Xocolatl Mole bitters. This has morphed into other, simply prepared but absolutely wonderful drinks: the MGEO or Pampero Aniversario with a little Giffard Ginger of the Indies Liqueur and some Bitter Truth Jerry Thomas Decanter Bitters and a lime twist has been a recent favorite. And, to get a little more complex, there’s the Coin Toss, from Phil Ward at Death & Co: Scarlet Ibis (or something Venezuelan, if you haven’t got it) with Chartreuse and Benedictine, with a good dose of Carpano Antica and some Peychaud’s to hold the center.

Ah, but I’m rambling, and drooling as I do so. I’ve freely stolen from all of these ideas, and compounded something of my own: the Short Timer.

Short Timer

• 2 ounces Barbancourt 8-year-old rum
• 3/4 ounce Carpano Antica Formula vermouth
• 1/4 ounce Giffard Ginger of the Indies (substitute Domaine de Canton)
  
• 1/4 ounce Rhum Clement Creole Shrubb
• 2 good dashes Bitter Truth Jerry Thomas Decanter Bitters

Stir well with ice and strain into chilled cocktail glass.

I initially made this without the vermouth, and considered sinking the drink; then, remembering the Coin Toss, I added the vermouth in 1/4 oz increments, enjoying the weird alchemy it sometimes plays with other ingredients. The finished result is mildly sweet, with an almost cola-like aspect to it from the interplay. I used the Barbancourt, thinking that its dry, floral aspect would be good here, but the next time I take a crack at this, I may use something richer, like the Pampero Aniversario. If I had more than about a 1/4 ounce of Scarlet Ibis in the house, I’d trot that out, but whaddaya gonna do.

(And super-premium thanks to my Savoy-stompin’ friend Erik for sending the bitters my way.)

Anyway, the Short Timer works — which is something you won’t be able to say about me for much longer.

This Mixology Monday is hosted by Blair over at Trader Tiki; head on over and look for his roundup.

Tags: Drinks, Mixology Monday, Rum by Paul
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“A Time-Tested Favorite from Venezuela”

So wrote Charles H. Baker, traveler, raconteur, and possibly the ultimate fan of exotic tippling.

Yesterday I posted the details from an e-mail exchange I recently had with New York bartender and writer St. John Frizell over at Blogging Tales of the Cocktail. That exchange came at a time when I’ve been in a bit of a lull between drink explorations. These periods are always kind of troubling for me: nothing sounds all that exciting, and even the old palate refreshers seem to have lost their allure.

As I’ve mentioned before, though, when these periods of libational ennui set in, one of the best cures I’ve found is a little time with the books of Mr. Baker. His drinks can be interesting variations on tried-and-trues, and sometimes they can be just plain odd, but on occasion you come across a recipe that has to be tried to be believed. I’ve had disappointments before, but with this most recent expedition in which I turned up the “Maracaibo Kay Francis Cocktail,” I was fortunate to come across something pretty pleasant.

Baker credits Señor F. Garcia Bode, “Master- of-Mahogany-&-Mix at Cafe Plaza, at West Boliver 13,” with creation of this drink. It is, at first glance, an odd one: Spanish brandy and Spanish anisette in equal parts, with another part of strong black tea. But, it’s one of those odd combinations that may just work, the tannins in the tea taking the sweet edge off the anisette, and the sharp anise note breathing some life into the brandy. I tried this with cognac in place of Fundador, based on the contents of my liquor cabinet, but I’m fortunate to have a bottle of Anis del Mono on hand; it has a bright crispness that I like in an anisette, plus it’s relatively cheap, so if you come across a bottle I recommend you lay in a supply. For tea, I just used a bag of PG Tips — I’m more of a coffee guy, and it was the only black tea I could find in the kitchen cabinet — and while it certainly did the trick, I may swing by the tea shop later to pick up something a little more adventurous.

Anyway, this is a rut-buster for sure. As Baker wrote, “Try this one when some well-traveled soul drops-in, to vary the old usual Cocktail routine.” Sound advice indeed.

Kay Francis Cocktail

• 1 oz Fundador brandy [or cognac]
  
• 1 oz Anis del Mono [or other decent anisette]
  
• 1 oz strong black tea

Shake with ice and strain into chilled cocktail glass. Twist lemon or orange peel on top, then discard peel.

Tags: Brandy, Drinks by Paul
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Two years.

I hadn’t pointed it out earlier — thanks to all the other things I’ve been wrangling with lately, I kind of forgot — but this month marks the second anniversary of the launch of Mixology Monday (this month hosted by the wonderful Anna at Morsels & Musings). I’ll save the misty sentimentality for another post, but for now, let’s just mark the occasion by noting that bloggers keep coming to these things — more than ever, at last glance — and we’ve somehow managed to keep this little drink-blogging celebration in the air for two years without it plummeting to the ground.

If only the same could have been said for the de Havilland Comet.

With a rush of hoopla and hubris that, in hindsight, harks back to that surrounding the Titanic, the Comet — the world’s first commercial passenger jetliner — entered service in 1952, making its maiden BOAC commercial flight from London to Johannesburg in May of that year. It sharply cut flight times, was a model of passenger comfort that can only be dreamed of in today’s era of nonexistent legroom and cattle-car conditions, and was so popular that the Queen Mother was an early passenger, becoming the first member of the British royal family to fly in a jet aircraft.

Celebrating this launch — according to David Wondrich’s Killer Cocktails — was this sidecar relation, put together by Eddie “King Cocktail” Clarke at the Albany Club in London, and featuring the South African tangerine-and-herb liqueur, Van der Hum. Tart and fruity, these Comets go down fast.

Just like the winged ones did. Less than a year after commencing service, Comets started dropping out of the sky — metal fatigue, it turned out, a problem remedied in later models (and avoided by competing aircraft manufacturers), but by then the damage was done: the Comet’s reputation had taken a hit, and sales never completely recovered.

Fortunately, this Comet is still around:

Comet (adapted from Killer Cocktails, by David Wondrich)

• 2 ounces cognac
• 1 ounce yellow grapefruit juice (good luck finding yellow — I had to settle for pink)
• 1/2 ounce Van der Hum
• 1 dash Angostura bitters

Shake well with ice and strain into chilled cocktail glass.

Thanks for two years of Mixology Mondays, everyone; now head on over to Anna’s place to see what everyone else has been up to.

Tags: Brandy, Drinks, Mixology Monday by Paul
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Tonight’s drink comes with a tip of the hat to Rick at Kaiser Penguin, who is hosting this month’s Mixology Monday with the theme, Limit: One. Thanks to this theme, Rick has created an event that is guaranteed to be followed by “Hangover Tuesday.”

When in the need of a cocktail that comes in heavy, you have two options that are pretty safe, if such a word can be used in this situation: go with the rum-soaked goodness of tiki; or, reach for the green stuff*. Me, I’m fond of both, but considering our host and the eager participation of Blair and Craig, I was sure tiki would be well represented for this round. Just to be a contrarian, I’m reaching for the absinthe tonight.

Before you take a glimpse at the recipe and gag in disbelief, hear me out: this drink actually kind of works. Sweet? Oh, yeah — part of the reason you’d only want one — but the redeeming factors in the Weeper’s Joy far outweigh, in my mind, this detraction.

Consider this: between the absinthe, the vermouth and the kummel, you’ve got, what, a few dozen botanicals in the drink. So is it really that different from something like a Widow’s Kiss (which it resembles somewhat in terms of flavor intensity and its presentation of the taste of antiquity) or — okay, I’ll write the name one more time — the Flower Power Martini? And as for the horsepower: I’m not doing the math to see if this fits under the “3 oz. of 80-proof or higher booze” requirement Rick laid out, but anything with an ounce of absinthe in it comes on like a bucket full of knuckles.

This drink — originated by “The Only William” Schmidt and recently dusted off in IMBIBE! — is yet one more reason why David Wondrich is expected to take the top prize at the upcoming National Soused Book Award. Okay, I just made that up, but wouldn’t it be great if there was such a thing?

Weeper’s Joy, using Wondrich’s updated measurements from IMBIBE!

• 1 ounce absinthe
• 1 ounce vino vermouth [I used Carpano Antica, to toss a little extra bitterness in the mix]
• 1 ounce Kummel
• 1/2 teaspoon simple syrup
• 2 dashes curacao

Stir well with lots of ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

As Wondrich notes, you can leave out the simple syrup to cut back on the sweetness, but it does bring a fuller mouthfeel to the drink.

This Mixology Monday is brought to you by Gilka Kummel, the official spirit of Kaiser Penguin. Be sure to head over to Rick’s place to see how everyone else weighed in this round.

* OK, so I used a blanche absinthe instead of a verte. Poetic license and all; deal with it.

Tags: Absinthe, Drinks, Mixology Monday, Vermouth by Paul
1 Comment »

I really try to ignore St. Patrick’s Day. It’s a time when the fair-weather drinkers like to lay into the stuff, making bars about the last place I want to be. And as someone who’s let this particular interest slip among colleagues and casual acquaintances, it’s the time of year when I invariably get asked how to make an Irish car bomb, or what’s my favorite green drink. It’s almost enough to make you go on the wagon (fortunately, there’s Rick’s booze-whopper “Limit: One” Mixology Monday coming up, so I’ll be spared that particular inconvenience).

But hey, here it comes, and while preparing for my Serious Eats post earlier this evening I was digging through books looking for the earliest recipe for the Emerald I could find — this version, that is, not one of the handful of other drinks that have gone under that name — when I came across one such Emerald variation in Trader Vic’s Bartender’s Guide that seemed worth a shot.

And no wonder — after a closer look at the recipe, I had one of those “hey, wait a minute–” moments, and realized this is simply a Bijou wearing a different hat. (And I know this very same drink pops up again with a different name somewhere — no, I’m not thinking of the Tailspin, that’s got a dash of Campari in place of the orange bitters — so if anybody has better recall than I do, please chime in with a comment.)

But what the hell — Emerald, Bijou, whatever, it’s a nice drink. If you need something that sounds kind of Irish on the big day, but want to avoid the typical crap, keep the Emerald name on the drink and go for it.

Emerald / Bijou / ????

• 1 ounce gin
• 1 ounce sweet vermouth
• 1 ounce green Chartreuse
• 2 dashes orange bitters

Stir well with ice; strain into chilled cocktail glass.

Tags: Drinks, Gin by Paul
11 Comments »