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.