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.

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. 

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.