Spirited Cocktails

The best part of writing a blog about spirits and cocktails is the opportunity that it creates to taste lots of new spirits and cocktails! Seems obvious, I suppose, but it means more than you might think. The opportunity to try something new is great, but the opportunity to do so along with other people whose company you enjoy and whose opinion you respect – that’s much more meaningful.

This past week, I joined some of my favorite people – fellow bloggers @nybarfly, @lincolnwrites, @selenawrites, and @sweetblogomine – to taste Harlem, a new spirit distilled in Holland (named after the Dutch town Haarlem), and based on an herbal blend that the Dutch call Kruiden. At first blush, one might notice some similarities to Jagermeister, in that Harlem is definitely a dark, herbal spirit, intended to be poured as a shot, and definitely best served ice cold.

However, while I’m not really a “shot person” either way, I found Harlem to be much smoother than Jager; certainly herbal, but more well rounded with a nice citrus finish (the result of a strong presence of mandarin in the blend.) We tried Harlem in a few different combinations, include as a straight shot, on the rocks, and blended with common mixers like Cola and Ginger Ale. (I actually found the Harlem and Ginger Ale to be my favorite!) These mixed variations could be served either as shots (1oz Harlem and .5oz cola, for example), or over ice as a tall drink.

While Harlem has been a closely held family recipe for decades, they’re just in the process of launching in the US now. It has started to show up in major markets, and will be rolled out across the country in the coming months. The suggested retail price is around $22 for a 750ml bottle.

Unfortunately, our resident blogger/mad scientist @halw (of amuddledthought.com) wasn’t able to join us for the tasting, but I’m looking forward to seeing what kind of cocktails he can whip up with Harlem. Stay tuned.

Cheers!

Josh

I love a good tweetup. As you probably know, I’m a Twitter addict, and I’ve met so many great people on the Twitter machine. Every once in a while though, it’s nice to crawl out of one’s cave and actually hang out with people in person!

Last night, we were lucky to have two amazing tweetups back-to-back. The first was the evolution of what has become our awesome monthly event (which began with our brown liquor tweetup in Brooklyn, followed by our clear liquor tweetup at Double Crown last month). This month’s tweetup focused on Rum – Tiki-style cocktails in particular. @Sweetblogomine was kind enough to get things organized at Elettaria in the West Village, which has a Mahalo Monday tiki special. My favorite of the evening was the Black Pearl – a twist on the Old Fashioned which includes Old Forester bourbon, Curzan black strap rum, demerara sugar and bitters. Outstanding.

As the tiki tweetup started to wind down, it was time to move on to Keen’s Chophouse for a tasting of The Dalmore, an excellent Highland single malt scotch. Organized by our good friend @livethelushlife and hosted by whiskey expert @the_nose, we were fortunate to receive an expert education on the proper way to taste scotch. Turns out I’ve been doing it wrong this whole time. We tasted both the Dalmore Gran Reserva and the Dalmore 15, both of which are outstanding single malts. The Gran Reserva spends time in both sherry and bourbon barrels, and turns out a bright, intense flavor with a sweet finish. The 15 year spends its time exclusively in sherry barrels, resulting in a more rounded, balanced flavor with a beautiful aroma.

Our good friend @halw also received an exclusive taste of a 1936 single malt, said to be one of the most expensive scotchs on the planet (at around $160,000 per bottle). He seemed to enjoy it :-)

You can read all of our tweets about the event by searching for #TheDalmore on Twitter.

Thanks again to @sweetblogomine, @livethelushlife, and @the_nose for hosting wonderful events! It was also great to see (and in some cases, finally meet!) so many Twitter friends, including @brooklynwino, @shotsandcuts, @halw, @daisy17, @meredithmo, @csmcbride, @paystyle and @selenawrites.

Cheers!

While the sessions at Tales of the Cocktail are wonderfully interesting and informative, another big draw at TOTC are the tasting rooms. At any given time over the course of the day, there are usually 3-4 rooms running simultaneously, and there are usually at least 3 sessions per day per room. So when you do the math, there ended up being about 40 different tasting rooms over the course of the event. Of course, not every tasting room is dedicated to one individual brand, either. There was a cognac tasting room, a scotch tasting room, and so on.

So here are some of the new (or particularly noteworthy) things I tried at Tales:

Martin Miller’s Gin is celebrating its 10 year anniversary, and Martin Miller himself was on-hand to tell their story. Martin Miller’s is distilled in England, then bottled in Iceland with very soft, unfiltered water. The argument is that the particularly soft, glacial water gives a particularly soft, sweet mouthfeel to the gin. I’m not 100% sure I’m sold on that, but I definitely enjoyed my first tastes, and I look forward to tasting more of both blends of Martin Miller’s (the traditional bottling at 40% ABV and the slightly spicier Westbourne at 45.2% ABV), and getting them into some cocktails of my own.

Xante is new to the US, having been around in Europe for some time. It’s a liqueur composed of cognac and Belgian pears – sweet, with hints of vanilla. I sampled it neat, and the pear flavor is very nice, so I look forward to playing with it in a few cocktails.

Ty Ku is an Asian liqueur blended of soju (a distilled spirit made from rice or barley, native to Korea), citrus, melon, teas and botanicals. It’s an interesting flavor – definitely citrusy and sweet, with a touch of ginger, too. Again, I only sampled it neat, so I’m looking forward to doing some mixing with it. Ty Ku also produces a sake, which I’m anxious to try.

Pierre Ferrand is good cognac, plain and simple. I tasted the Ambre, which is light and balanced, as well as the Reserve, which is aged longer, producing a richer taste. Not even sure I want to mix with these… maybe just sip on them by a fire.

Cointreau Noir is the first variation of the famous orange liqueur ever released. It starts with the traditional Cointreau (an orange liqueur) and blends it with Remy Martin cognac. The result is a sweet, nutty flavor, and I’m told that it’s really meant to be sipped (though I’m going to play around with mixing it anyway, as soon as I get ahold of a bottle of my own!)

Averna Sambuca agli Agrumi is a citrus-infused sambuca. Sambuca has always been one of my favorite digestifs, particularly enjoyable after a large meal. This particular variety was still clearly sambuca (have on the anise, which I love), but with a nice citrus infusion (I picked up most on notes of grapefruit). In my mind, plain sambuca is perfect the way it is, but the citrus sambuca from Averna was a nice change of pace (particularly in the summer).

Of course, that’s only a fraction of what I tasted, and doesn’t even begin to touch on all of the actual cocktails that followed. One step at a time though! Rest assured, there’s much more to come.

Cheers!

I’ve been on the hunt lately for new summer cocktails. I’m hoping that, in a tribute to mind over matter, the imbibing of summer cocktails will actually cause summer to materialize (which, as those of you enduring the incessant rain along with me in New York know, is long-overdue).

So recently when the folks at Bulldog Gin sent me their list of new summer cocktails, Friday I’m In Love jumped out at me (you’ll see why in just a moment). It also gave me a good opportunity to give Bulldog a try.

Bulldog itself is very well suited to summer cocktails. It’s on the drier side with some nice hints of citrus and pine. It’s also got some interesting ingredients like poppy and Dragon Eye (which is related to lychee). I’ll admit though, I had trouble picking out the Dragon Eye in the flavor, but hey, I’m still an amateur taster :-)

In any case, here’s what you’re going to need to give Friday I’m In Love a try:

2oz dry gin (I used Bulldog, obviously, which worked very well)
2oz white cranberry juice
1/2oz lemon juice
club soda
lemon wedge to garnish

Combine the gin, cranberry juice, and lemon juice in a cocktail shaker with ice and shake well. Strain into a tall glass over fresh ice. Add club soda to top and a lemon wedge for garnish.

The crisp, citrusy flavor of the gin combined with the tart white cranberry and just a hint of lemon gave me exactly what I was looking for – a light, refreshing summer cocktail; the perfect choice to enjoy outdoors on a warm summer day (if we ever have one).

Plus, any cocktail named after a song by The Cure gets extra points in my book.

Cheers!

You know I don’t really do much in the way of brand-specific work here at Spirited Cocktails. I haven’t done many brand reviews (though I’ve had a lot of requests, so I may start), and I very rarely call for a specific brand of spirit in any of my recipes. I think it benefits the consumer to try different brands on their own and determine what suits their own tastes.

Earlier this week, though, @NYBarfly (whom you should be following on Twitter) was gracious enough to invite me to join him in meeting Andrea Bearbower, an educator at Cruzan Rum, at Gramercy Tavern. Many brand ambassadors claim to be “educators”, but Andrea is the real deal. She knows more about rum than I think she cares to admit, and I couldn’t help but truly respect her once she went all “spirits geek” on us and the bottles of molasses came out at dinner!

As Andrea taught us, Cruzan Rum has a long and rich history on the island of St. Croix. You may know them well for their wide variety of flavored rums (including guava, coconut, pineapple, and more.) But Cruzan seems to be trying hard to really expand their line of “pure” rums – a line which now includes a single-barrel estate rum, a black strap rum, and others – in order to help rum win the respect it truly deserves.

All too often, we think about rum and we form an immediate association with mojitos. Mojitos aren’t all that bad, but they’ve been so over exposed (thanks to brands like Bacardi), that they’ve become a sugary shadow of their former selves. In fact, rum is used in some of the most classic cocktails (like the Daiquiri) as well as some of the earliest punches. A quality rum can also be mixed in a number of modern cocktails (as I’m about to show you), or even sipped straight on its own.

The supremely-talented bartenders at Gramercy Tavern were kind enough to mix up a few different cocktails with Cruzan rum. I didn’t capture all of the proportions for each one, but I’ll give you a rough description, and because I’m so dedicated, I guess I’ll head back to Gramercy Tavern soon and dig up more detail for you!

Here, Andrea is holding up the Orange Blossom – made with Cruzan rum , champagne, St. Germain, lemon juice, a sugar cube, and orange peel.	The Cruzan Silver Greyhound was very grapefruit-centric (as you’d expect), including Cruzan rum, grapefruit juice, grapefruit bitters, cane sugar, and candied grapefruit as a garnish.	As an after-dinner drink, the bartender whipped up what a Cruzan Hot Toddy, with Cruzan Rum, Hot water, Orange Juice, Lemon Juice, Velvet Falernum, and cinnamon sticks. (This one was my favorite!)

If you ever have a chance to catch up with Andrea and hear her speak about rum, I highly recommend it. I believe she’ll be appearing at the Tales of the Cocktail event later this summer. In the meantime, maybe I can talk her into a guest post here at Spirited Cocktails.

As I said, I’ll be working diligently to dissect the three cocktails I described above and recreate them for you here. If you just can’t wait, swing by Gramercy Tavern here in New York and ask one of the talented bartenders there to help you out – I’m certain you’ll enjoy them!

Cheers!

Update: Check out @NYBarfly’s post about our trip. Trust me – he’s a far better writer than I!

I just came across this article on a new black cherry infused bourbon coming from Jim Beam, called Red Stag. I’m intrigued.

As many of you know, I’m a pretty big bourbon fan, and I tend to be a bit of a snob about it, so my initial reaction was to cry heresy. Don’t mess with a good thing.

But the more I think about, the more anxious I am to try this. I worry that if it’s not done well, it could have an artificial, medicine-like taste. But if it really is an infusion of black cherries, that adds nice flavor without overwhelming the bourbon or being too sweet, it could be excellent.

I look forward to trying it. If any of you get your hands on some, let me know what you think!

I had the opportunity yesterday to sample Maker’s Mark (premade) Mint Julep at Astor Wines & Spirits  (@astorwines). I must admit, I didn’t expect much. If nothing else, the making of a Mint Julep is a time-honored tradition, and the idea of purchasing a Mint Julep in a bottle wasn’t particularly appealing to me. I must admit though, after tasting it, I was pleasantly surprised!

It was definitely on the sweeter side as mint juleps go, but if you’re having a Derby party this year and the idea of hand-crafting mint juleps by the dozen just doesn’t appeal, I think this would be a fine substitution (and if you make a good show of it, most people will never know!)

The only catch is that this bottled mint julep is fairly hard to find. Astor Wines & Spirits here in New York was carrying a small inventory, but the Makers Mark representative there told me that distribution was still pretty limited. It’s worth a shot though!

If you’re interested in making your own Mint Juleps by hand (certainly the path I would recommend, especially if you can’t find this special-edition Makers Mark), check out Dale DeGroff, the king of cocktails himself, making Mint Juleps trackside over at the Lush Life site.

Cheers!