Spirited Cocktails

The folks over at LiquorSnob.com have a recipe for the very timely Swine Flu Cocktail. It has all the necessary ingredients:

• Absinthe (medicinal, of course)
• Tequila (from our friends in Mexico)
• Bacon-infused Bourbon (obviously)
• And Lemoncello (why not?)

You can find the full recipe here. Enjoy!

A truer sentiment was never expressed.

(Photo Courtesy: Gothamist)

Being a New Yorker, one doesn’t need much convincing to try something called a Brooklyn Cocktail. So when Lush Life (Follow @livethelushlife on Twitter) posted a new video in their 12 Second Cocktail series, I had to follow their instruction and try my own.

Here’s what you’re going to need:

1.5oz Rye
1/2oz Dry Vermouth
1/4oz Maraschino Liqueur
2 dashes Angostura Bitters

Simply combine the ingredients in your shaker with ice, shake well, and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

This is the first drink we’ve made here at Spirited Cocktails using Rye whiskey (certainly not the first ever, but the first we’ve made for you!), so it’s worth mentioning that rye has a very distinct flavor, which you’ll pick up on in this cocktail. Take some time to taste various brands of Rye on their own (I’ve chose Rittenhouse Rye here, but there are many to chose from!) You can also read more about Rye on Wikiepedia, or on the blog Rye Whiskey Is For Patriots.

Below is the 12 Second Brooklyn Cocktail video from Lush Life. This is a GREAT series of videos. I definitely recommend you check out the rest at http://12secondcocktails.tumblr.com/. And again, be sure to follow Lush Life on Twitter.

The 12 Second Brooklyn Cocktail from Lush Life on Vimeo.

So the Kentucky Derby is coming up this weekend, which means that everybody and their brother will be making Mint Juleps. There’s a long and storied history behind the Mint Julep – it’s preparation, and it’s relationship to the Kentucky Derby – on Wikipedia, so I won’t bore you with it here. I’m not going to make a Mint Julep either; it’s too cliché. Instead, we’re going to make an Apple Julep.

Many of my readers from the South will cry sacrilege here, but I find the Apple Julep to be a refreshing and creative adaptation. Don’t yell at me until you’ve tried it!

Here’s what you’re going to need:

2oz Applejack (apple brandy)
1 bar spoon of maple syrup
1 spring of mint for muddling and 3-4 sprigs for garnish

It’s really pretty easy. If you have a silver julep cup (as you can see here), great. If not, a normal rocks glass will do. Pour your bar spoon of maple syrup (the real stuff; none of that fake supermarket syrup) into the bottom of your glass. Add the leaves of one sprig of mint. Press the leaves gently with your muddler to release the oils. (If you have a muddler with teeth on the end, consider using the handle side; you don’t want to crush the mint, or you’ll end up with a bitter drink.)

After you’ve pressed the mint leaves into the syrup, fill the glass with cracked ice. (If you’re working with full ice cubes, use the back of your bar spoon to crack each cube; you want the ice in fairly small pieces here.) Add your 2oz of Applejack, and stir well until a nice frost forms on the outside of your glass. Some of your ice will have melted down, so top off the glass with more ice, and add your 3-4 springs of mint as garnish. The garnish is essential here (as in the Badminton Cup), because you want the fresh mint to act as an aromatic.

The result is a very tasty cocktail, fit for any fan of the Triple Crown.

Cheers!

As I mentioned in my last post (Further Thoughts on the Gin Sling), this past Friday evening I stopped by Eleven Madison Park for a few pre-dinner cocktails. During that time, I had that great discussion with the bartender I was telling you about, concerning the classic gin sling. When it came time to order a second round, I opted to leave the decision up to him. From our earlier discussion, I knew he was a pretty well informed bartender, and I knew quite well from previous experience that it would be hard to go wrong ordering pretty much anything from the cocktail menu at this particular bar.

Needless to say, I wasn’t disappointed. I was presented with a cocktail that was new to me, called the Silhouette (this is available on the cocktail menu at Eleven Madison Park, if you’re ever in the neighborhood.) The Silhouette was described to me as follows, “If a light were shown through a Negroni, the Silhouette would be the result.” (Clever, huh?) The drink was composed of Rye whiskey, Sweet Vermouth, and Aperol, which is an orange-flavored liqueur. I’ve got to do some work to deconstruct it more and get the exact proportions, but once that’s done, expect to see a more in-depth posting on the Silhouette!

In any case, I wanted to share this experience with you in the hopes that you’ll take the opportunity, when in a fine drinking establishment where you trust the taste of the bartenders, to allow them to guide you. If you’re feeling hesitant, talk to your bartender, and ask questions! Tell them what you like – what flavors, what spirits, and so on. See what they would recommend. My bartender chose a drink that I likely wouldn’t have chosen for myself, and in doing so, introduced me to new flavors that I really enjoyed!

Cheers!

-Josh

I stopped by Eleven Madison Park (check out their cocktail menu) the other night for a pre-dinner drink with friends, and had a great conversation with one of the bartenders there. I had ordered a gin sling, which seemed to get his attention, as it’s not a drink you hear ordered that often, I suppose.

He reminded me that the Gin Sling I wrote about a few days ago is an updated take on the traditional. As I mentioned, Dale DeGroff created this modern recipe to reflect today’s tastes, but in doing so, made it more of a cocktail than a traditional sling. The Savoy Cocktail Book, one of the holy texts of mixology (circa 1930), lists the Gin Sling as simply gin and sugar (2oz of gin and a teaspoon of sugar dissolved in water to be precise), stirred with ice and garnished with a lemon twist. That’s exactly what the bartender at Eleven Maddison Park prepared for me, and while it was certainly different than Dale DeGroff’s Gin Sling, it was terrific just the same.

One thing to note in particular is that if you’re mixing a traditional Gin Sling as described above), the brand of gin you use becomes that much more important. Of course, the brand is always important, but in this cocktail, the primary thing you’ll taste will be the gin, so choose a gin that appeals to your tastes. I chose Plymouth gin, which has very prominent botanical notes, and I was very glad  I did.

The daiquiri is one of the simplest of all cocktails, and also one of the most misunderstood. All too often, people confuse the daiquiri for that mix of sugar, cheap booze, and food coloring that comes out of a Slushy machine in Vegas. In truth, not only is the real thing easier to make at home, but it’s much tastier too!

The basic daiquiri follows the formula for a traditional sour:

2oz base spirit
3/4oz sweet
3/4oz sour

In the case of the daiquiri, the spirit is Rum, the sweet is simple syrup, and the sour is fresh lime juice. Simply combine those three ingredients in the 2/.75/.75 proportion (with ice!), shake vigorously and strain, and you’ve got yourself a very fine cocktail. But it wouldn’t be much fun if we stopped there!

I’ve been on a summer cocktail kick lately, and the strawberries are finally starting to look good again. To make a fresh strawberry daiquiri, simply add strawberries to the recipe above!

2oz rum (I prefer a dark rum like Santa Teresa or Barbancourt, but be sure to sample a variety of brands)
3/4oz simple syrup
3/4oz fresh lime juice
1 large (or 2 small) hulled strawberries

Add the strawberries and simple syrup to your shaker and muddle the strawberries well. Then add the lime juice and rum, and top off your shaker with ice. Give it a good shake, and strain into a daiquiri glass (which essentially looks like a rounded-off martini glass; no worries if you don’t have them – any cocktail glass will do!) Garnish with a small, fresh strawberry (hull still in-tact), sliced vertically from the bottom up towards the hull.

Prefer your daiquiri to be of the frozen variety (a bit more akin to the kind you see in Vegas but maybe… good?) Simply add the ingredients to your blender along with crushed ice and give it a few good spins!

Cheers!