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.