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.