Spirited Cocktails

Last week I told you about my trip to Rye House to celebrate Mardi Gras, New Orleans-style. I mentioned some of the cocktails we sampled, including the Sazarac and the Vieux Carre. I’d like to share one more staple of the Mardi Gras celebration – or any celebration for that matter – The French 75.

This cocktail is actually named after the French 75-mm field gun; a commonplace piece of artillery during World War I. Apparently this particular gun was known for its recoil system, which allowed for much smoother operation than had previously been possible. Once you try the cocktail, you’ll understand how appropriate that is. (History once again courtesy of Ted Haigh’s Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails; a must-have for any bartender’s bookshelf.)

Here’s what you’re going to need:

2oz gin
1oz fresh lemon juice
1/4oz simple syrup
Champagne

Combine the gin, lemon juice and simple syrup with ice and shake well. Strain into a tall glass – either a Collins glass, or ideally, a champagne flute – and top with champagne (or other high-quality sparkling wine). Stir gently, and garnish with a long lemon peel. Some like to add a cherry as well, but I generally prefer to skip it. The choice is entirely yours.

This cocktail offers one of the more surprising combinations in the bartending world – gin and champagne. But with the lemon and sugar to balance things out, it works beautifully. And as Ted points out in talking about the appropriateness of the cocktail’s name, “….smooth, yet packs a wallop.” So true.

Cheers!

-Josh

I’m long overdue for new cocktail posts; fortunately a friend has provided inspiration.

The other day I sent an e-mail to our friend Jonathan Pogash, renowned bartender, beverage director for Hospitality Holdings (World Bar, Campbell Apartment, et al), and head of the USBG chapter here in New York City. I was writing just to ask Jonathan a quick question, and as it turns out, he’s out of town this week. But Jonathan – never one to let a customer go thirsty – left cocktail recipes in his out of office message! Needless to say, this was one of the best out of office messages I’ve ever seen (and that’s after more than a decade working in the tech industry.)

So in a desire to share Jonathan’s wisdom with all of you, I give you the Maple Plum Sparkler (as served at Bookmarks Lounge).

Here’s what you’re going to need:

1 plum, chopped
1 heaping tsp. grade A dark amber maple syrup
A splash of fresh lemon juice
3 oz. Sparkling Wine or Champagne

In a mixing glass, combine the chopped plum with the lemon juice and maple syrup and muddle well. Add ice and the sparkling wine, and stir briefly. (The “briefly” part is important; you want to chill the cocktail, but because the booze here is wine, you don’t want to dilute it too much.) Strain the result into a champagne flute. Garnish with a slice of plum.

Plums are in season right now, and if sourced well, are absolutely delicious. The addition of maple syrup makes for a wonderful fall cocktail.

So many thanks to Mr. Pogash for helping me to get things back on track here at Spirited Cocktails. Be sure to visit him at World Bar or Bookmarks Lounge. I’ll be back later this week to tell you all about my recent trip to France.

Cheers!

Josh

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, 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!