Elsewhere…

I recently became a contributor for Bourbon & Banter thanks to this recipe. So if I’m writing about bourbon it’ll be over there. You can find an archive of my articles here and a feed in the sidebar of this blog. Cheers!

Take It Easy

Lower proof cocktails are increasing in popularity; enough so to be one of the important “cocktail trends of 2013.” Since you’re reading a cocktail blog, I assume you like drinking. Lower alcohol cocktails allow you to have an extra one or two. I like these after dinner.

Don’t Be Sorry
2 oz sweet vermouth (Martini & Rossi)
½ oz allspice dram (St. Elizabeth)
4 oz club soda
Build over large cubes or ice spears in a tall glass. Garnish with a twist of lemon or orange peel, if desired.

This one clocks in around 6.5% alcohol by volume*, which is similar to an IPA. (For comparison, a Manhattan is around 36% abv.)

Enjoy a couple.

*roughly estimated using this.

Do the Bunny Hug (or maybe don’t)

It is not unusual to see The Savoy Cocktail Book on a shelf behind the bar in a craft cocktail establishment. Many of these cocktails aren’t made in bars anymore (and one wonders how often they were made at the Savoy.) Some of them, like Bunny Hug Cocktail, have humorous notes following them:

The exact same recipe is listed later in the book with a different name and note:

How could I resist?

Right away I could tell this wouldn’t be well balanced. The combination of gin and whiskey in a cocktail raises an eyebrow and absinthe is as dominant an ingredient as Fernet Branca.  But still, I had to try it.

Bunny Hug (or Earthquake) Cocktail
3/4 oz gin (Beefeater)
3/4 oz whiskey (Evan Williams Single Barrel)
3/4 oz absinthe (Kübler)
Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

It’s not terrible, though it is very dry.

The gin and whiskey pretty much disappear in the absinthe. I figured the whiskey would get lost at a mere 86.6-proof to the absinthe’s 106-proof. If I was to make this again, I’d use a cask strength whiskey.  I might also try it with Scotch since the Savoy is in England and the recipe doesn’t specify.

As for the gin, I would try something either Navy strength or perhaps an Old Tom to counter the dryness of the absinthe. Or maybe try genever, though probably not with Scotch.

While I probably won’t try it again, it was an interesting experiment. For science!

A softer drink.

Sometimes people can’t drink alcohol. For example, maybe a lady is pregnant. Maybe she’s your wife. That’s cool. That doesn’t mean she should have boring beverages.

The most difficult thing with non-alcoholic cocktails is balance. It’s all too easy to go sweet with juices and syrups. I find that spice is a good counter to sweetness. Bitters are too.

I’m also trying to launch a career as a hand model.

Autumn’s Reward
2 oz apple cider
½ oz orgeat (B.G. Reynolds’)
2 dashes aromatic bitters
3 oz ginger beer (Reed’s Extra Ginger)
nutmeg
Shake cider, orgeat and bitters with ice and strain over fresh ice in a double old-fashioned glass. Top with ginger beer and two twists of lemon. Grate fresh nutmeg over the top.

Note: Many bitters contain alcohol. If this is a concern, consult your doctor or your sponsor or consider non-alcoholic bitters such as Fee Brothers.

I wrote a cocktail menu and it turned out pretty well.

In December 2011, I was asked by my brother-in-law and his fiancée to write a cocktail menu for their wedding. Their wedding was this past weekend and I’m pleased to say it turned out pretty well.

The lovely couple wanted classic cocktails that were whiskey or vodka based. The idea was that not everyone wanted whiskey and many people enjoy vodka. I convinced them to add gin as there aren’t so many classic vodka cocktails and if someone wanted a vodka “martini,” the ingredients would be there for that. Further discussion led to the inclusion of sparkling drinks as well.

The drinks also had to be easy to make as the catering staff wouldn’t be craft bartenders. An informal survey of friends found that people generally don’t trust wedding bartenders to make a good cocktail. Guests tend drink straight spirits, highballs (gin and tonics, whiskey and ginger ale, etc.) or opt for beer or wine. One friend’s response was, “Never a Manhattan, as it will not be good enough.” Feel free to leave a comment of what you drink at weddings or in other open bar situations.

I set out to curate of a list of simple (or at least hard to screw up) whiskey, gin or sparkling wine based cocktails with no more than three or four ingredients. After scouring a dozen cocktail books and at least as many websites and extensive recipe testing, I narrowed it down to a dozen or so drinks of which the bride and groom selected eight. My final list:

The French 75 was requested by the bride. The Maple Leaf was also a request by the bride and groom as it was the drink they had enjoyed throughout the previous year. The Bridal was a late addition found in Robert Hess’ The Essential Bartender’s Guide, which I had received for my birthday a few weeks before the wedding. The Collins and Gimlet were the ways to get vodka into the menu. (The Moscow Mule was not chosen as I was trying to limit the number of juices needed.)

Of course you can’t just write a menu, you have to write out instructions for the caterers. This is easier said than done. Do you have any idea how many recipes exist for the French 75? I found that no two were the same. Ultimately, I modified the best one I found from Jim Meehan’s wonderful The PDT Cocktail Book: The Complete Bartender’s Guide from the Celebrated Speakeasy. (While that recipe is my favorite, I thought it might look a bit small in a Champagne flute so I added another ounce of bubbly which still tasted decent.) Also, not knowing exactly which brands of spirits or mixers would be on hand, I couldn’t tailor the recipes to particular flavor profiles.

If you’re interested, here are the drink recipes as a pdf.

Once I had sent the menu and recipes to my brother-in-law, it was out of my hands.
Here’s what went wrong:

• The bartenders did not measure. Everything was eyeballed.
• Shaking and stirring appeared to be pretty much the same thing to the bartenders: gently swirling the drink in a shaker with ice.
• None of the drinks were served on the rocks.
• The Maraschino liqueur was for a time misplaced, which led the bartenders to use the red goo from the jar of Maraschino cherries, WHICH IS NOT THE SAME. After hearing a couple people (including my wife) note that the Bridal was too sweet and tasted a little funny, I sought out the bottle and remedied this.

While this may sound like a list of crimes, everything turned out fine and I was probably the only one to notice. I heard the next day that a few people attempted to try them all, which is sweet, but ill-advised. Everyone was happy with their drinks, particularly the bride and groom. And that’s the point.