Sanctuary

   1 oz Hum
   1 oz Orgeot
.75 oz Lemon Juice
  .5 oz Peaty Scotch (Laphroaig 10)

Shake and serve on the rocks with a lemon twist.

Taking a trip to NYC to buy a bottle of Hum is pretty silly.  That being said, it is the reason I went there.  Tasted a bit of it in New Orleans, liked it and assumed I could find it in Mass.  Turns out I'm shit out of luck, so a NYC trip was born.

Hum is an American take on an amaro, so its sweet with a lot of herbs.  The cool part is the herbal blend because there is a lot of ginger, cardamom and lime flavors in the mix so its a bit different than what you'd expect out of an amaro.  It is a very strong flavor, so you'd either love it or hate it, and I can see it taking over a lot of drinks.

Found this recipe for the Sanctuary off of the Hum site.  I decided to try it straight up because I'm not the biggest fan of drinks on the rocks.

Smell on the drink was lemon with a bit of cardamom.  Flavor was heavily sweet with cardamom / ginger notes that transitioned into smoke from the Laphroaig.  The Lemon Juice came out as a pleasant tartness.  Drink was good but very strongly flavored and cloying sweet.  Maybe some ice for ice melt would help dilute some of the sugary sweetness, but maybe the recipe just needs to be played with (maybe less hum and more base spirit or less lemon juice).  Reminded me of the drinks out of Organic Shaken and Stirred.  Good but cloying.

Fatigue

1 oz Bourbon
1 oz Maraschino Liquor
1 oz Angostura Bitters
Grapefruit Twist

Stir the Bourbon, Maraschino and Angostura and strain into a cocktail glass.  Garnish with the grapefruit twist.

Another recipe out of beta cocktails.  I gotta admit, this book is amazing.  The drinks don't use wildly difficult to find ingredients (no smoked ice or 1 use simple syrups), but the results are usually surprising.  This is one of the surprising recipes. 

I've been making a few heavy angostura drinks lately and while I enjoy them, they usually end up tasting the same, so the novelty was beginning to wear off.  This one didn't taste like any of the other ones and has renewed my desire to try new Angostura recipes.

 

There wasn't a very noticeable smell, some citrus and allspice.  As time went on a funky cherry became more prominent.  The taste hits like a wallop.  I used 107 proof bourbon so the drink started with a spicy burn on the lips and continued to spicy cinnamon and chocolate notes.  My first thought was mexican hot chocolate (which may of been on my mind since I just made a batch of mexican hot chocolate cookies).  Drink was real good, and I'm surprised I got more of a cinnamon taste from the Angostura instead of the allspice I have come to expect.

Silver Monk

   2 cucumber slices
   8 mint leaves
   pinch salt
  .5 oz simple syrup
   2 oz blanco tequila
.75 oz yellow chartreuse
   1 oz lime juice

Muddle the cucumber, mint leaves, salt, and simple syrup together.  Add tequila, chartreuse and lime juice.  Shake and strain into a cocktail glass.  Garnish with mint and cucumber.

Wanting something light and summery I went for this recipe from Food & Wine Cocktails 2011 that I remember making a few months ago.  I also went to goodwill again, and bought some new glasses and I figured this light colored drink would make for a good photo.

I don't really know what the difference is between this version and other times I made this drink.  It seemed a lot harsher and less blended than other times.  Maybe it was due to using some leaves off my chocolate mint plant instead of the usual spearmint, or maybe I needed a larger pinch of salt.  Either way, I'll have to give it another go soon and see.

The drink gives off a pleasant aroma of cucumber, yellow chartreuse and mint.  The taste starts sweet with sugar, cucumber and chartreuse herbals.  After this initial sweetness the drink changes to a harsher tequila and lime burn with a bit of mint.

Caffe Salvatore

2.5 oz Averna
  .5 oz Vodka
   2 oz Horchata

In the Food & Wine Cocktails 2012 book I found this recipe for the Caffe Salvatore.  Under the White Russian section this take excited me because it used horchata instead of milk or cream.  Horchata a sweet rice drink with cinnamon reminds me back to when I just became a vegetarian and made it a few times from a recipe off the post punk kitchen tv show.  I had to dig up the old video to try and remember the recipe I used to use.  There are a lot of recipes, some use normal milk / whole rice / etc.  IDK I liked this one.

Horchata
Ingredients:
4    cups rice milk divided
2    cups water
2    cinnamon sticks
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup ground almonds
1/4 cup rice flour
zest 1 lime

Directions:
Combine 2 cups of rice milk with the water and cinnamon and bring to a low boil.  Take off of the heat and add the sugar, ground almonds and rice flour.  Let the mixture sit warm on the stove for 2 hours then chill.  After the mixture is chilled add the remaining 2 cups of rice milk.  Remove cinnamon sticks and strain the mixture.

The smell off the drink is light with a slight hint of vodka and almonds.  The taste is cool with sugar and rice followed by the herbal hit of Averna.  The drink ends with lime / Averna.  One person on sampling it said it tasted like 'a vodka version of eggnog'.  When I mentioned it came from the White Russian section they said it makes sense.  It is surprising how well an amaro stands in for coffee liquor in this drink.  I liked the cool refreshing taste of horchata.

The horchata I made was a little light on cinnamon flavor so I threw an extra pinch of cinnamon into the drink and it became more exotic and less 'oh, a slightly different white russian' tasting.  I prefer it with the extra cinnamon and that's how I'll make the drink but it does change the drink so I'd recommend trying the unaltered one first.

I also do not know how important the 1/2 oz of vodka is in this drink.  The second time I made it I left out the vodka and didn't notice a big difference in flavor.

Prince of Orange

1 1/2 oz Bols Genever
1 oz Drambuie
1/2 oz Lemon Juice
1/4 oz Orange Juice
1 tsp Orange Marmalade
2 dash Angostura Bitters

I was browsing the cocktailvirgin blog and saw this recipe for the Prince of Orange.  A couple of things drew me to this one.  I liked that it used Genever / Drambuie.  Genever is one of those bottles that I have but I rarely know what to do with, and Drambuie has some interesting taste notes that I like better than other sweet liquors in drinks (like St. Germain for instance).

Another reason I decided to make this drink was that it had orange marmalade in it.  One of the first homemade cocktails I made out of Organic Shaken and Stirred had marmalade and it seemed like an interesting idea.  The fact that I have a bottle of blood orange marmalade sitting in my closet sealed the deal.

Whew, this is a sweet drink.  The smell is all oranges and sugar.  On the taste there is an Aperol style bitter orange with a lot of sugar and some slight floral notes from the Drambuie.  The drink ends with a slightly funky malt note from the Genever at the end.  If I gave it a quick description my thought would be melted orange freeze pops.  Next time I'll double strain anything with marmalade because the bottom 1/3 was full of orange peel.

La Vida Del Diablo

1.5 oz Mezcal
  .5 oz Creme de Cassis
   3 oz Ginger Beer
  .5 oz Lime Juice

   2 dash Angostura Bitters

Combine all ingredients in a chilled collins glass filled with ice.  Stir well

Going through Food and Wine Cocktails 2012 I saw this recipe for a twist on an El Diablo, and realized I never made the original drink.  Taking this as a sign I decided to try both the classic El Diablo and the twist on the El Diablo at the same time and compare.

El Diablo

1.5 oz Tequila
  .5 oz Creme de Cassis
   3 oz Ginger Beer

  .5 oz Lime Juice

Lime wheel garnish.

The composition of the two recipes were pretty similar.  The biggest difference was the use of mezcal instead of tequila.

  

El Diablo is on the left and the La Vida Del Diablo on the right. 

El Diablo:

The classic starts off with tequila and citrus on the nose.  The taste is ginger and lime tartness with some tequila.  At the end the flavor gives way to lush berry notes from the creme de cassis

La Vida Del Diablo:
The La Vida starts with tar and smoke on the nose.  The taste starts with a slight lime taste followed by a oppressive punch of mescal that almost convers the berries in smoke.  Ginger is light throughout.

Comparison:
With the mezcal change the two versions end up being quite different and I'd have them in different situations.  The classic El Diablo is very light, reminiscent of a flavored margarita and refreshing.  It reminds me of something that could be used with food as a pallet cleanser.  The mezcal version feels heavy and aggressive and leaves you with smoke on the tongue for minutes afterwards.  It is more of a nighttime sipper compared to the El Diablo's daytime fair.  Both are good though.

Naked and Famous

.75 Mezcal
.75 Yellow Chartreuse
.75 Aperol
.75 Lime Juice

Shake all ingredients and strain into a chilled coupe glass.

I recently picked up this year's Food and Wine Cocktails 2012.  I've been buying these books for a few years now because they have some interesting recipes ideas in them (although some are misses).  This year's version is set up a bit different than past years.  In previous years there were sections for drinks by spirit (brand, gin, vodka, etc) or theme (pitcher, mocktail, classic, etc).  This year it is organized by classic cocktail(blood and sand, margarita, etc), and then takes on it (classic, twist, reinvention, mocktail).  Seems to be a pretty interesting idea for people who want to get into making their own variations on a drink. 

The Naked and Famous was listed as the reinvention in the Last Word section.  I made this Last Word variation as one of my first drinks out of this book because Last Words are one of my favorite drinks (although they can come off as a little sweet), and the mescal / aperol / yellow charteruse version sounded cool.

The drink starts off with a muted mezcal smoke on the nose.  Taste begins with mezcal and smoke reminiscent of a mezcal based margarita or el diablo.  This transitions into faint grapefruit and herbal notes with a subtle sugar sweetness.  The drink ends with some chartreuse herbals and leaves a smokey flavor on the tongue.  As time goes on the initial hit of mezcal starts to dissipate and the aperol comes through with hints of grapefruit and lime.

Space Gin Smash

     6 Mint Leaves
  .25 Lemon
     2 Green Grapes
  .25 Green Apple
  .33 oz Simple syrup
1.25 oz Tanqueray Gin

In a shaker, muddle the mint, lemon, grapes, apple with the simple syrup. Add the gin shake with ice.  Strain into a rocks glass filled with fresh cracked ice and garnish with apple slices and a mint sprig.

Its been raining for the last few days straight and while gloomy and disruptive to my running schedule it is a perfect chance to try out some rainy day cocktail recipes.  A few months ago I saw this post about rainy day cocktails and have been thinking it since then.

Of the two cocktails featured the one I went for was the Space Gin Smash.  I went for it because, well, it looked the most like a rainy day w/ a foggy green / grey tint.  Mine is a bit pinker cause I couldn't find green grapes and had to go with red.  In my defense, I did go to two stores looking for green grapes and debated a switch to kiwi (except prior experience shows kiwi turns into an impossible to strain mush).  Guess it just must not be grape season or something.

The drink presents a mint smell with a bit of sharp citrus.  Taste is watery and begins with a bit of mint.  It moves to a light gin presence and ends with more lemon juice and some mint herbals on the swallow.  This is a really mild tasting drink.  Between the water from the cracked ice and the mild tasting grapes / etc it ends up tasting very light and diluted.  This not necessarily a bad thing.  I enjoyed the drink and it seemed to be pretty strong all things considered.  It is also a drink you could finish in less time than it takes to make it.

Which brings me to ny biggest complaint with the drink, all of the muddling.  I am fine muddling ingredients, but since the flavor of the apple / grape didn't really shine in the final product I am wondering if I can made a version of it where I muddle mint and use apple / grape juices or pre-make a batch of the muddle solution.  Because while a pleasant drink it didn't seem to justify the extra prep time.  If I can figure out a way to turn it into a punch it could be a winner.

ghost in the graveyard

1 oz Cocchi Americano
1 oz Yellow Chartreuse
1 oz Amaro Montenegro
1 oz Lime Juice

Shake with ice.  Strain into an old fashioned glass filled with ice.  Garnish with a mint sprig.

Taking another drink off of the cocktailvirgin blog I chose the Ghost in the Graveyard which is from Gary Regan's Annual Manual for Bartenders 2011.  As much as I wanted to make this drink (Cocchi, Chartreuse, Amaro, fresh mint) I was a bit sad because I knew it was going to kill the last of my bottle of Yellow Chartreuse, and I don't really feel like buying a new one (I will though).  Luckily the drink turned out to be a good use of it.

The scent on the drink was mint with a slight bit of lime.  The taste starts out with Yellow Chartreuse before transitioning to lime.  The drink finishes with sugar and some Cocchi style bitterness.  The drink tastes surprisingly like Green Chartreuse for it using Yellow Chartreuse.  Because of this it kind of reminds me of a last word.  Since it is sweet, limey and herbal.  The ingredients work very well together.  Tasting the Amaro Montenegro alone before making the drink I was surprised by how much it reminded me of Cocchi.

Veruca Salt

1.5 oz Gin (Plymouth)
.75 oz Blueberry / Cucumber Shrub
  .5 oz Dolin Blanc
dash Grapefruit Bitters

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

Here is another drink I made w/ the homemade blueberry shrubs from last week.  I worked off a recipe in this post from the cocktail virgin blog with a couple of changes to the recipe.  First I used Plymouth gin instead of Hendricks because it is what I had on hand.  To give it some cucumber notes I used a blueberry / cucumber shrub.  I also subbed Dolin Blanc for the Lillet, but I think next time I'll try it with Cocchi.

Unsurprisingly the smell is dominated by the shrub with funky cucumber and vinegar notes.  The taste begins with blueberries, switches to a little gin burn before fininishing with bitterness and citrus.  Riding over all of the phases is the cucumber taste.  This was a very refreshing drink.  I will have to try it with Cocchi though because I'd like there to be more bitterness on the end to contrast the shrub's sweetness.

Blood Orange Julio

1.5 oz Rum
   1 oz Licor 43
  .5 oz Orange Liquor
   2 oz Orange Juice
   1 oz Soymilk

Shake with ice and strain into a large martini glass.  Garnish with an orange wedge.

This is a take on the Orange Julio drink that I found in Food & Wine's Cocktails 2006.  After making the original a few times I made the following modifications to see how it'd work w/ what I have at my bar.  The changes I made were that instead of using 2 oz of orange rum, I used 1.5 oz of rum and .5 oz of orange liquor.  I also subbed out .5 oz of cream with 1 oz of soymilk.

The smell on this drink is cream with slight hints of orange with a lot of rummy notes in the inhale.  Taste starts off with cream and switches to a bitter pith before settling in orange and vanilla.  Rum hits on the aftertaste.  Blood oranges leave a long lingering bitter orange note on the tongue.

The modified drink is a lot lighter and more citrus driven than the original.  Swapping the cream for soymilk turned this drink from a dessert cocktail (the segment I got it from) to more of a beach / pool drink.  The heavily orange taste allow it to hold its own next to fruit drinks like the strawberry daiquiri or pina colada and the soymilk instead of cream keeps you from feeling bloated after having one or two.

Spiked Blueberry-Thyme Lemonade

1.25 oz Vodka
  .75 oz Blueberry Thyme Shrub
    .5 oz St Germain
    .5 oz Lemon Juice.
     1 oz Spring Water
Barspoon Berechovka

Inspired by a recipe on the Cure bar website I decided to make some shrubs last week.  I made 3 takes on the blueberry shrub featured here.  The three varieties I made were Blueberry-Cucumber (to use in a Cure recipe), Blueberry-Thyme (cause blueberries and thyme go well together), and Blueberry-Lavender (cause well, I just like lavender).  This means a lot of purple drinks in the next few days... but I'll try and spread em out.

I really like the concept of shrubs since the vinegar gives a drink a different dimension.  As a plus they work really well in citrus style recipes.  Using the blueberry thyme shrub I modified the recipe for spiked blueberry-thyme lemonade from organic shaken and stirred.  The changes I made to the recipe were that instead of .75 oz of simple syrup I used the shrub, I removed the thyme / blueberry muddle step and I used some berechovka since I ran out of yellow chartreuse.

The drink's nose begins with a hit of thyme with a slight vinegar backing.  The taste is predominantly blueberries and lemon.  Thyme and a slight honey / herbal flavor kicks in at the end.  Overall the lemon juice and the vinegar combine for a perfect lemonade pucker.  The only concern with this drink (and a lot from organic shaken and stirred) is that it is a bit sweet / syrupy.  Next time I may put it on ice (ran out of ice or I would of), add a pinch of salt, or play w/ the shrub/lemon levels a bit to lower the sweetness level.

Green Deacon

1.5 oz Plymouth Gin
   1 oz Grapefruit Juice
.75 oz Plymouth Sloe Gin

Shake with ice and strain into a chilled coupe rinsed with St. George Absinthe.

Taking another recipe out of the PDT Cocktail book (feels like I'm trying to cook through every recipe in that book) I chose the Green Deacon.  I went for this recipe for two reasons, the first is earlier in the day I made a different recipe using sloe gin (the Sloe 75) and wanted to show Skyler what other things sloe gin could do.  The second reason I made this drink is that the drawing on the page caught my eye.

Ok this drink is odd and I'm still trying to figure out my opinion of it.  At the start the drink has a lot of anise notes from the absinthe.  They fade as the drink goes on but it makes a pretty large impression on the overall drink.  The smell on this drink is sweet with anise and citrus notes.  The taste begins with anise and moves to dark plum and grapefruit flavor.  Somehow these flavors made me think of a bunch of different things like watermelon and lipstick (don't ask me how).  After a while the drink settled down and the grapefruit began to come through stronger.  At this point the drink reminded me a lot of the Peralta because they're both heavily grapefruit driven and start w/ a spicy / herbal liquor note (rye in Peralta, absinthe in the Green Deacon).

The Tween Barber

Whiskey Version:
1.5 oz Single Malt Scotch (Dalmore Cigar Malt)
.75 oz Red Wine
  .5 oz Licor 43
.25 oz Lemon Juice
.25 oz Simple Syrup
  dash Orange Bitters

Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.  Garnish with a lemon peel

Wine Version:
   2 oz Red Wine
.75 oz Single Malt Scotch (Dalmore Cigar Malt)
  .5 oz Licor 43
.25 oz Lemon Juice
.25 oz Simple Syrup
  dash Orange Bitters

Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into a wine glass.  Garnish with a lemon peel

In preparation for a trip to New Orleans I have been checking out the list at my favorite bar down there Cure.  They have a lot of interesting things on their menu.  One that that caught my eye was the Twee Barber with the use of wine, scotch and Licor 43.  For this reason I decided to try to recreate it at home.

Since I've never had the original and only had the ingredients list to go by I made two versions.  The first is more whiskey driven and uses the wine as a flavor element.  The second version is more of a sangria.  Both versions turned out good, so I still don't know which direction is better.

 

Whiskey Version:
In the whiskey version the drink starts with a lemon and slight whiskey aroma.  The taste starts with the scotch and a hint of smoke and changes to sugar, citrus and a purple almost creme de cassis fruit note.  It reminded me of cool flavored whiskey sour or similar whiskey driven drink.

Wine Version:
The wine version starts with lemon oil.  The taste is incredible smooth with the wine notes as the primary taste with the sugar and lemon juice coming in after the wine notes.  The whiskey is almost invisible in the drink, it provides some body and depth but doesn't stand out on its own.

As I said both drinks were good.  I'd probably make the whiskey version if I was having a cocktail or 2 with friends, but on a summer night sitting outside, the second more wine driven version would be more my go to.

Angostura Sour

1.5 oz Angostura Bitters
.75 oz Lime Juice
   1 oz Simple Syrup
   1 Egg White

Add all of the ingredients into a shaker and shake without ice.  Add ice and shake.  Strain into a coupe glass.

Today I tried another drink out of the beta cocktail book.  The Angostura Sour caught my eye because the only liquor involved in this recipe is Angostura Bitters, which are usually used in real small portions.  I've tried a few other drinks that use heavy amounts of Angostura with mixed results (mentirita and veracruz sling), but since it's an interesting concept and I had some eggs lying around.  I figured I'd try it out.

It turned out to be pretty cool.  I think I was more open to this drink because I had just tried a Ramos Gin Fizz.  The Angostura sour reminded me of a Ramos Gin Fizz because they both have a lot of citrus and a general 'sunday morning cocktail' feel.

I ended up making this drink twice.  Once as written with the egg white, and again trying to remove the egg white from the scenario (cause I don't keep eggs in the house much / raw eggs sketch people out).  I first tried it without the egg and it just wasn't the same, so I replaced it with a little soy milk (to try and replicate the creamy mouthfeel and touch of vanilla you get from egg whites) and it worked out pretty good.  I figure in a pinch a spash of soymilk could replace the egg white in this drink, but I'll have to try it a few more times to really see.

This drink starts with a heavily Angostura focused nose.  Allspice and herbs dominate with a hint of citris.  The taste is where the surprise is.  The drink is smooth and mellow and creamy.  It starts with citrus and sugar is followed by spicy nutmeg and allspice notes.  The sip ends with lime zest.  This drink really shows off what Angostura can do and allows people to understand how you could make whipped cream with Angostura or put it on vanilla ice cream and have it work.

The Remedy

   1 oz Sazarac
.75 oz St. Germain
  .5 oz Yellow Chartreuse
.25 oz Fernet Branca

Grabbing a drink off of the cocktail virgin blog I went for The Remedy.  The drink interested me because I have been doing a lot of Rye drinks lately, and the addition of Fernet and Yellow Chartreuse seemed cool.

This one is pretty good.  It is surprising that I'm able to taste all of the ingredients and none of them clash with each other.  The nose on the drink is candied lemon peel and the sip starts on the same sweet lemon note.  After the lemon I'm hit w/ rye and the alcohol note.  This transitions into sweet liquors, mainly St Germain with some Yellow Chartreuse herbals notes in the background.  Finally the sip ends on a mellow menthol note from the Fernet that makes you wonder if it was there the whole time.

The only criticism I could have with this drink is that it is sugary.  Which is to be expected of something with that much Yellow Chartreuse and St. Germain.  Which is fine by me, you just have to be in the right mood.  The drink reminds me of a Sazarac, with the rye, lemon peel, sweet liquors and herbal notes.  Personally, I'll take this drink with Chartreuse / Fernet herbals over a Sazarac's Peychards / Absinthe.

Strawberry Lychee Punch

   3 Strawberries
   1 Lychee
.25 oz Simple Syrup (Agave)
.25 oz Lychee Syrup
   2 oz Light Rum (Jamaican Rum)
  .5 oz Lime Juice

Muddle the strawberries and lychee with the syrups.  Add the Rum and Lime Juice and shake.  Strain into a cocktail glass and garnish with a strawberry and lychee.

Dispite the fact that the weather isn't accommodating (snow flurries? what the heck). I want it to be nice out.  I also wanted to do up a drink that wouldn't require a trip to the liquor store.  Fulfilling this role is the Strawberry Lychee Punch from Food & Wine's Cocktails 2006.  I made a couple changes to the base recipe when I created mine.  I used agave nectar for a more nuianced sweetness and threw in a pinch of salt and some rosewater to intensify the fruit flavors a bit.  It seemed to help, but it isn't necessary.

This ended up being a nice and simple summer cocktail.  The nose was delicate with ripe fruit, floral and rum notes.  The taste started with a slight acidity from the fresh strawberries and went into a jammy fruit taste.  The rum breaks up the fruit flavor with a bit of heat + spice.  After more fruit the drink ends on a slight lime note.  The most noticible factor of this drink though was the mouthfeel.  The muddled fruit gave this drink a thick almost smoothie like consistancy that worked well in the drink.

In the end if you had a can of lychees around and feel like making something a bit more interesting than a strawberry daiquiri, I'd recommend giving the strawberry lychee punch a try.

White Negroni

   2 oz Plymouth Gin
   1 oz Lillet Blanc (Dolin Blanc)
.75 oz Suze (Bittermens Amere Sauvage)

Grabbing another recipes out of the PDT Cocktail Book I decided on the White Negroni.  Negroni's are a drink I really want to like, but don't.  They're a too sweet mess of flavors that doesn't blend well.  To really learn to like negroni's I need to start doing some tests with different vermouths + ratios.  Either way, I decided on this white version for 2 reasons.  The first is of course, that I really want to like a negroni.  The second is that it asks for Suze, which is an ingredient that doesn't come to the U.S., but thanks to the new Bittermens Spirits I believe I have something I can replace it with.

In Bittermens new spirit line there are two that I don't really know what to do with, The Amere Sauvage and the Amere Nouvelle.  Originally didn't want to pick them up, but then after some research I figured one could be used for Amer Picon, and the other Suze since their botanical list seemed similar.  So in this drink, I'll admit, I accidentally started with the wrong one.  I made it with Amere Nouvella the one I feel is closer to Amer Picon.  The drink was ok, but it wasn't negroni like at all.  There was lemon, citrus and some bitter notes, but nothing as assertive as Campari.  It tasted closer to dry vermouth cinnamon and oranges.  Good, but no negroni.  After doing a double check I realized that I should of been using Amere Sauvage as the Suze substitue.

Wow, what a difference.  The smell is all lemon oil and doesn't give a hint of what is to come.  The sip is a real shocker.  It starts light and lemony for a split second and then you are hit over the head with a bitterness reminiscent of Campari.  Instead of the grapefruit and bitter herbs I'm used to from Campari though the dominant flavor I get is ginseng.  Within the ginseng 'I'm rubbing my tongue against a tree root, in a good way' taste there are hints of orange and honey and a warming sweet vermouth note. Sweet drink.  The flavor profile of the Amere Sauvage brings a welcome and surprising change to a Campari standard.

Platanos en Mole Old Fashioned

   2 oz Zacapa 23 Centenario Rum (English Harbor 5 Year Antigua)
.25 oz Creme de Banane
2 dash Bittermans Xocolatl Mole Bitters

Stir with ice and strain into a chilled rocks glass over a large cube of ice.  Garnish with chili powder.

So this recipe caught my eye for two reasons.  First, because it was simple (I was having a meeting and wanted a drink) and because it had creme de banane in it.  I hate fake banana flavor, but for some reason I decided to buy banana liquor.  For this reason I grabbed the most 'real' looking bottle I could get and ended up with Giffard Banane du Bresil.  Which tastes amazing, but I can never find a drink that uses it.  This may be the one.

Due to the time constraints making the drink I had a couple changes.  First I used a coupe glass instead of a rocks glass.  I also didn't garnish it with the chili powder and instead used a few drops of Bitters, Old Men's Holy Trinity Bitters.  The results were impressive, and I'll have to try it out as it was written.

This drink ended up tasting like a Bananas Foster.  The smell was warm rum notes and bananas.  The flavor started with a rum note which quickly switched to caramelized sugar and bananas.  The aftertaste contained a bit of the heat from the pepper and mole bitters but it didn't detract from the overall drink.  The spice provided a nice counterpoint to the sweet banana.

Honey & Spice

1.5 oz Grapefruit Juice
   1 oz Lime Juice
   1 tbs Honey mixed with 1 tbs water
  .5 oz Allspice Syrup (Allspice Dram)

Shake with ice, Garnish with a grapefruit twist

Taking a break from alcoholic cocktails I pulled the Honey & Spice out of the mocktail section of Food & Wine's Cocktails 2011.

Smelling the drink I was hit with almost a tangerine citrus smell, wax, and allspice.  The flavor started off with sharp citrus flavors starting with grapefruit and moving into lime.  The drink reaches a flavor peak with a rounded honey sweetness which momentarily cuts through the tartness.  At the end of the sit the allspice flavors come in evoking a holiday feeling.  The final aftertaste is pure sweetarts but in a good way.  Definitely a keeper, and I may think up a way to create an alcoholic version.

Mail Order Bride

1 oz Vodka
1 oz Creme de Cassis
3 oz Baltic Porter (Smuttynose)
3 dash Orange Bitters (combo fee brothers orange and urban moonshine citrus)

Shake with ice and garnish with an orange peel.

In an attempt to try some different style drinks I tried the mail order bride from beermixology.com.  It ended up being a cool drink.  I find it funny that it combines one of my least favorite ingredients (vodka) with one I understand the least (creme de cassis), but it worked out for the best.

Since this is my first drink off of this site I'm going to reserve my verdict on the quality of the recipes for a bit, but my initial impression is pretty good.  Of course I don't really understand how they expect me to shake a carbonated beer and not make a mess due to built up pressure.  Maybe they were working with a lower carbonated porter.

This drink greeted me with the smell of roasted black chocolate malt and hints of citrus.  Tasting the drink I noticed funky purple fruit, orange pith and white cane sugar notes.  The vodka and the beer's carbonation hit the back of my throat during the swallow and I was left with lingering macerated fruit and a limey tartness.  All in all it is a cool drink and makes me want to try out a few more beer cocktails. 

Transatlantic Giant

1.5 oz Buffalo Trace (Bulleit)
  .5 oz Smith & Cross
  .5 oz Cynar
  .5 oz Sloe Gin
  .5 oz Creme de Cacao
3 dash Angostura

Stir and strain into a coupe glass

Sometimes I feel like I only make drinks because I get a new book in the mail.  Today I received my copy of beta cocktails and just had to try it out.  I'm pissed that I just heard about this book, because it was available in New Orleans when I was there over the summer for a convention.  I even went to the bar it was being sold at and didn't even know about it.  I still got thanks to their blurb page, but it would of been far more awesome if I got it there.

The book is interesting and I'll definitely be making a lot of drinks out of it.  Opening the package I was surprised by how small the book was, but it is pure recipes with 1-2 on each page.  The recipes are also pretty interesting with a lot of bitters and amaros.  Of course this means I really will have to buy a new bottle of Cynar because I noticed 4+ Cynar recipes in a quick scan. 

On to the drink.  I was prepared to dislike this drink.  Looking at the liquor bill there are a lot of flavorful ingredients and I feared it would taste like bourbon with a shot of grain alcohol added.  The reality was quite different.  On first sip the nose started with bourbon and transitioned to a funky dark fruit (plum-ish) smell.  The taste started with corn / cherry from the bourbon which then transitioned to a funky rum note.  Following close after the rum is a caramelized sugar and fruit note.  The drink finally finished with a rounded chocolate flavor.  After taking a few sips I began to see it a bit differently.  It started to remind me of an amaro.  I began to get an almost pepperminty spice off of the nose and the taste (taken in a quick swallow) reminded me a bit of Fernet Branc.

Prince Edward

    2 oz Compass Box Oak Cross (Great King St.)
 .75 oz Lillet Blanc (Cocchi Americano)
   .5 oz Drambuie
2 dash Orange Bitters
*orange twist*

Stir with ice and strain into a chilled coupe.  Garnish with the orange twist.

Today I decided to open up my new copy of the PDT Cocktail Book and try a recipe out of it.  Its funny that I ended up getting a copy of this book because I picked it up and looked through it two times in bookstores and decided that it wasn't a book I'd like... and then I grabbed it in an amazon cookbook spree.  Despite the dubious start I realized when I opened it at home that it was pretty ill and a good buy.

I was drawn to this drink for a couple of reasons.  First, I like that it uses scotch.  I also really enjoy the whiskeys that Compass Box puts out.  Finally, I like trying cocktails that use Drambuie as the sweetening ingredient because I feel the honey / herb notes it brings are more interesting than the ones added by say St. Germain or Luxardo Maraschino.  I used Great King St. in this one because I like the spice and vanilla notes.  It was also the only Compass Box I had on hand.

The drink opened up with a orange spice nose and transitioned into a navel orange taste.  On the heels of the orange is the Drambuie's honey and heather notes.  The sip finishes with white pepper and a lingering burn from the whiskey.  After a few more sips the sweetness becomes more pronounced and a vanilla taste becomes apparent which combines with the orange for an almost creamsicle taste.  This drink was good, and would appeal to people who can handle a sweeter whiskey drink.  Rusty nails are the easy comparison, but the switch from lemon to orange, and the addition of Cocchi Americano leaves this drink with surprisingly different impression.

Campari Punch

2 oz London Dry Gin (Plymouth)
1 oz Campari
1 oz St. Germain
1 oz Grapefruit Juice

Shake with ice, strain into a rocks glass.  Garnish with a grapefruit twist.

Campari Punch has a special place in my heart because it was one of the first craft cocktails I tasted.  Before I was interested in cocktails I ended up a tasting at K.J. Baarons where Corey Bunnewith was showing off summer punches.  Tasting them I was floored.  Not by flavor (though they were very good) I was more surprised by the number of bottles of liquor that would be necessary to make each one.  The thought of having a home bar with all of the required ingredients seemed expensive and impossible.  I decided that the Campari Punch was the most doable on my limited budget, even though I refused to buy St. Germain for months afterwards (I used elderflower juice from IKEA for a few weeks).

This drink ended up changing my thinking in two ways.  It made me realize that I may have to start purchasing a few pricy ingredients if I wanted to make interesting drinks.  It also opened a new realm of flavors by introducing me to my first bitter liqueur.  I made these drinks religiously with my first bottle of Campari till I couldn't even stand to look at that lurid red liqueur let alone restock it.  When I finally forced myself to stomach the thought of drinking Campari again, I fell in love with it all over. 

For this version I used a combination of Plymouth and Rogue Pink Spruce gin and fresh pink grapefruit zest and juice.  The drink starts off with a huge grapefruit nose from the zest.  Overtime the nose changes a bit to include a bit of almost clove like bitterness from the Campari and an almost bubblegum St. Germain smell.  The taste bounces between two spectrums, sweet and bitter.  For the sweet flavors it starts with the pink grapefruit and ends with an almost passion fruit sugar note from the St. Germain.  As for bitterness, the grapefruit to Campari transition is seamless.

A few notes on this, I feel that the grapefruit juice quality and the gin play a huge role in the end result (maybe why I ended up going off of them for months).  Recently I made it with Bombay and an older grapefruit in my fridge and I could barely stomach it.  The gin was too offensive and the drink didn't hold together, which is why this time I selected milder gins for this version.