Lamb Martini

Date: August 2, 2007

Ingredients: Boodles gin, Lillet Blanc, Monopolowa vodka

Notes: Aha! A martini I like! The Lillet and vodka moderate the gin, but I’d like it better less dry with more Lillet, to bring the citrus/spice flavors up to par with the juniper. With the proportions in VSFC, I couldn’t really pick them out against the gin.

With the recent cinematic version of Casino Royale, many more people have heard about this one. Haigh says that it was created by Ian Fleming’s favorite bartender. If you’ve only seen the movie (I’m reading the book now), the recipe doesn’t really make any sense– why not just order a drink, instead of making one up on the spot. I finally saw an explanation in a blog post comment: in the book, it’s a British spy against a French villain working for the Soviets, so gin + Lillet + vodka makes a great metaphorical cocktail. I imagine that Fleming may have made such a request of the bartender, and the Vesper was what he came up with.

Other Vesper links:

• The Art of Drink

I first heard of this drink soon after I learned there are, in fact, cocktails that are not served from plastic tubs stored in the refrigerator. Ted Haigh was pimping promoting VSFC in an NPR story. He described how, long before being able to legally consume one, he read about a glorious cocktail named the Corpse Reviver #2 in a recipe book. He described what a wondrous taste it had. And boy does it.

Of the five ingredients, two are relatively uncommon: Lillet Blanc and pastis. Lillet is commonly used in place of vermouth as a moderating agent in recipes, and I’m not that big a fan of vermouth, so paying $18 for a bottle of something I thought I might want to immediately pitch was a bit of a turn off. The only other common cocktail (there are a few others) that uses it is the “James Bond” Vesper Martini. In the US, pastis (legally) means Pernod, which not everyone has around, particularly since it’s expensive the buy a 750mL bottle of something you use by the dash.

My apprehension about the Lillet was entirely misguided. It has a fantastic flavor, with a fresh and light taste of citrus and spice. I could drink this on it’s own, no problem. Very much worth it.

Getting the flavors right is a bit tricky– get them right and it’s the best thing you’ve ever had, get them wrong and it’s just another good cocktail. The recipe in VSFC is one part each gin (Broker’s, for this one) , Lillet, Cointreau, and lemon juice, and a drop (a drop, not a dash!) of pastis (Pernod here). The interplay of the juniper, citrus, spice, orange, lemon, and licorice is amazing. In this one, the Cointreau seemed to pop out the most, but the Lillet and Pernod seemed to pop most in the last couple.

The designated proportions make a drink that’s not tart enough for my palate, since the Lillet and Cointreau both add sweetness, and the acidity of the lemon may vary quite a bit. A “good” gin might be bad for this, since the smooth/mellow flavor will probably get lost. I think a strong juniper flavored gin would be best, like Gordon’s. A drop of Pernod seems to get lost, so I would put up to a 1/4 tsp get get it to come out (this, too, is tricky, since you just want the licorice flavor to rise, but not to dominate, so adding a bit at a time). A bit more lemon would give me a good tart flavor, but I may use citric acid powder to avoid adding too much lemon juice flavor and unbalance the other elements.

And finally the garnish: Oregon-grown Bing cherry soaked Maraska maraschino liqueur. Great over ice cream, too.

A few other posts about the CR#2:

• Gumbo Pages
• Married… with dinner
• cocktailnerd
• Sloshed!
• Pegu Blog

Date: March 2, 2007

Ingredients: Cruzan light rum, lime, Maraska maraschino liqueur , homemade cherry syrup cherry garnish

Notes: Of all cocktail names, the daiquiri has probably fallen the furthest. At it’s best, it is a wonderfully tart and balanced drink. At it’s worst, prefixed with various fruit names, and poured out of a machine or scooped from a plastic tub from the fridge. Like most cocktails, it has several creation myths, and lots of popular lore, with its strongest association being to Ernest Hemingway.

Haigh calls for this one to be blended. The cold really cuts the flavor, which come people like, but doesn’t really work for a culinary cocktails. Straight next time, definitely. The maraschino is a really nice addition, since it gives the drink enough depth to make it interesting.

Next up: Lucy Brennan’s Avocado Daiquiri.

Date: February 26, 2007

Ingredients: Plymouth gin, fresh navel orange juice, Fee Brothers grenadine, Pernod

Notes: This was my first cocktail with pastis. Absinthe being illegal and all in the US, I used Pernod. When I tasted the Pernod for the first time on Saturday, my tongue went numb, which was a bit odd. The anise flavor is really nice, much better than in candy, but it’s an unusual flavor to get used to. In the drink, it blends really nicely with the orange and pomegranate-like flavors in the drink. Overall, quite tasty.

The first thing that’s interesting is the bright, opalescent color of the drink. This is purportedly caused by the alcohol-soluble oils in the pastis that come out of solution (known as ‘louching’ in absintheur parlance) when diluted with water.

I made this with Plymouth gin, but I don’t think this is assertive enough to compete with the other flavors, especially the Pernod. Juniper was the only flavor of the four ingredients which I couldn’t pick out. Next time, it’s back to Gordon’s. The way-dominant flavor is anise, but I may try dialing back on the pastis a bit to balance it out more with the other flavors.

Date: February 25, 2007

Ingredients: Gautier VS Cognac, Smucker’s raspberry syrup, Angostura bitters, Bols Curacao, Maraska maraschino liqueur (from Croatia!)

Notes: Sweet, really sweet, cloyingly sweet. It has almost an ounce of sweet in it (between the syrup and the liqueur), and no acidifying agent, so it was quite expected. I would put this particular recipe more as a dessert cordial served in small amounts, rather than a 4 ounce drink in a cocktail glass. This is a curious cocktail, since it’s named after a specific place, but doesn’t seem to have any ingredients actually associated with that place. It’s made with brandy and not gin, so it doesn’t even have the possibility of a British East India Company connection. I found a lot of recipe variations, but no history of the name or where it came from.

I’m generally not going to give the recipe in VSFC, since Ted spent a lot of time working on the book, and I don’t need to copy it here (plus, he has most of the recipes on CocktailDB, and you’re really buying the book because it’s pretty and he has interesting, honest, and engaged commentary). The recipe he gives in VSFC is:

• 3 oz brandy
• 1/2 oz raspberry syrup
• 1 dash Angostura
• 1 tsp orange Curacao
• 1 tsp maraschino liqueur

This is about a 3:1 base-to-sweet ratio.

The short notes in VSFC say the first printed reference to the drink are found in Harry Johnson’s 1882 Bartender’s Manual, and used pineapple syrup. Haigh says some recipes used pineapple syrup, raspberry syrup, or both. It doesn’t appear in the other well-known book of the time, Jerry Thomas’ 1887 How to Mix Drinks (via Darcy’s online copy).

This recipe is different than the recipe Haigh has on CocktailDB:

• 1 3/4 oz brandy
• 1/4 oz pineapple juice
• 1/4 oz orange curacao
• 1 dash Angostura bitters
• 1/4 oz Jamaica rum (optional)

With the rum, you get a 6:1 ratio (I’ll count pineapple juice for half-sweet, since it’s more moderating agent than sweetner).

After Johnson, the next oldest recipe I found was in The Ideal Bartender by Tom Bullock (1917), available here on Project Gutenberg. This has the recipe as:

• 1 jigger Brandy.
• 3 dashes Maraschino.
• 3 dashes Red Curacoa. [sic]
• 3 dashes Angostura Bitters.

And the instructions: “Fill large Bar glass 3/4 full Shaved Ice. Stir well; strain into Cocktail glass and serve with a piece of twisted Lemon Peel on top.”

This is quite a different recipe than most of the others I found, since the liqueurs are only slightly flavoring the brandy, rather than being the major flavor contributors in the drink. The other major difference with this recipe is that it’s stirred, whereas all of the others I found are shaken.

The Savoy Cocktail Book (1930) lists an East India Cocktail and an East Indian Cocktail, with the latter being equal parts sherry and dry vermouth with a dash of bitters. In more recent books, the East India is referred to as “East India Cocktail #1″ and the East Indian as “East India Ccoktail #2″. Savoy gives the EIC as:

• 3/4 brandy (1 1/2 oz)
• 1/8 pineapple juice (1/4 oz)
• 1/8 orange Curacao (1/4 oz)
• 1 dash Angostura

This is a 4:1 ratio.

In The Craft of the Cocktail, Dale DeGroff recounts the story of his Millennium Cocktail, created at the behest of Courvoisier. The recipe for this is 1 1/2 oz Cognac, 1 1/2 oz pineapple juice, 1 oz orange Curacao, 1 dash Angostura, flamed orange peel, and grated nutmet. DeGroff states that he thought he had invented the drink, but then found the East India Cocktail in The Roving Bartender by Bill Kelly from 1946. However, the Millennium probably has a much different flavor profile because of the much higher proportions of pineapple and Curacao.

My 1954 Angostura “Professional Mixing Guide” booklet gives:

• 3 dashes Angostura
• 1 1/2 oz brandy
• 1 tsp pineapple juice (1/6 oz)
• 1 tsp red curacao (1/6 oz)

For a 6:1 ratio.

On the website for the soon-to-be-released documentary Last of the Cantineros, the have two recipes.

• 1 1/2 oz brandy
• 1 tsp pineapple juice
• 1 tsp Curacao, preferably the red
• 3 dashes Angostura

Ice and shake; strain onto a cherry

and

• 2 oz brandy
• 1 teaspoon of Curacao
• 1 teaspoon pineapple syrup
• 2 dashes Abbot’s bitters [sic]

Stir with spoon, serve with cherry in cocktail glass

This is the only recipe I found calling for Abbott’s Bitters rather than Angostura, the only one calling for pineapple syrup, and one of the few that are stirred. This is a 6:1 ratio.

The recipe on uber-site Drinksmixer calls for triple sec instead of Curacao, I assume because it’s a more casual site and more people know what triple sec is. This is the lowest ratio, at 12:1.

• 1 1/2 oz brandy
• 1 tsp Jamaican dark rum
• 1/2 tsp triple sec
• 1/2 tsp pineapple juice
• 1 dash bitters

The real oddball is the one on 1001 Cocktails, which calls for apple juice. Maybe someone thought pineapple juice was just too exotic? At least they left the bitters in. Again, a 12:1 ratio.

• 1 1/2 oz brandy
• 1 tsp rum (dark)
• 1/2 tsp orange liqueur
• 1/2 tsp apple juice
• 1 dash bitters

So overall, there’s a lot to do with this drink. Of course, with ingredients as varied as these, it’s more a type of drink rather than a single drink. It has all of the essential elements that make a nice complex cocktail, and I’m looking forward to experimenting with it.

Date: Feb 23, 2006

Ingredients: Gordon’s gin, lemon, simple syrup, and Hanson’s club soda

Notes: Another of the easy drinks in VSFC. A bit boring, but tasty. I’m not a big fan of sparkling sours like this, since I just want to suck it down like lemonade. The big flaw in the presentation of the drink is that I ran out of ice, so it’s a bit below-board.

Date: February 19, 2007

Ingredients: Rittenhouse 100 Bottled in Bond rye, Boissiere dry vermouth, and pineapple juice(recipe)

Notes: This is essentially a Manhattan with pineapple juice, so if you like those you’ll probably like this. (The drink is actually lighter colored than this, but I didn’t have my camera set right when I took the photo.) I’ve determined I’m just not a fan of vermouth and I should stop trying to like it. I think the big lesson of my recent cocktail kick is the clarification of what flavors I like, and which ones I don’t. I’ve always thought I liked sweet, but I realized that what I really like is sweet-sour. This explains why I like Sprees and SweetTarts so much (true fact: orange Sprees taste like gin), and naturally leads to Sours like Margaritas and Sidecars. I also like sweet-bitter, as in bittersweet chocolate (how appropriately named), which leads to drinks with bitters like the Old-Fashioned (even though it’s not really a bitter tasting drink). I just don’t like herbal or savory flavors in drinks, which is in line with my dislike of most Chardonnay (including the proper French ones), especially the oaky and buttery ones, and Sauvignon Blanc (except for Two Buck Chuck, oddly enough), with it’s gooseberry and cat’s pee. I assume this will change as my taste buds change over time, but for now, it’s not my cup of, um, herbal fortified wine. Oh, and contrary to what the title of this blog may indicate, I am completely opposed to umami flavored drinks. And I will stop now, since I have used entirely too many parenthetical notations in this post (not that there’s anything wrong with that).

Date: February 3, 2007

Ingredients: Laird Applejack, lime, Fee Brothers grenadine

Notes: Tastes nice, but using a blended (ahem, diluted) applejack really cuts the flavor down. And boy is that an anemic-looking lime. Haigh’s recipe calls for 3 parts applejack to 2 parts lime juice, but the lime overwhelms the “lite” apple flavor. I can really see myself liking this with more flavorful applejack or more appropriate proportions. But, this also brings up the question of whether the applejack this cocktail traditionally calls for is a full-strength apple brandy or a neutral spirit blended liquor.

The Jack Rose is probably the least known, and consequently least made, of Embury’s six basic drinks. As with cider, applejack is a once-popular and common apple-based drink that has been relegated to the also-ran status. As Michael Pollan recounts, it wasn’t Red Delicious that made Johnny Appleseed such a popular guy.

The only current producer of applejack is Laird’s. The Laird’s Applejack product is an 80 proof blend of 35% apple brandy and 65% neutral spirits, so it’s more like a blended whiskey (more on that in a bit). Laird also produces a 100 proof Applejack, a 7 1/2 year old “Old Apple Brandy”, a 12 year old “Old Rare Apple Brandy”, and Captain Apple Jack 80 and 100. They state that the “Old Apple Brandy” is “original historic applejack.” I believe the Captain Apple Jack product has very limited availability, possibly only in Virginia.

Laird’s Applejack is the only product carried by Oregon liquor stores, so I didn’t have much of a choice. Trying it straight up, it tasted a bit weak. I hadn’t done my research yet, so I didn’t realize it was blended in the same way inexpensive blended Scotch is, meaning with neutral spirits. If you look at this older bottle of Laird’s Applejack, you clearly see, printed on the main label and the neck, that it is “blended applejack”. However, the new, slicker bottle says “a smooth blend” under then name and “distilled, blended, and bottled by…” in small print at the bottom of the label. Being that it’s $17, I should have assumed that it wasn’t actually made entirely from apples, but it would be nice if they still clearly indicated on the front of the bottle that it is blended. Not that that would have made much difference to me anyway, and the exact proportions of the blending are listed on the back.

Prices for all of the available applejack products I’m aware of:

• Laird Applejack 80 (OR) $17
• Laird Old Apple Brandy (7 1/2 yo) 80 (VA) $27
• Lairds Rare Apple Brandy (12 yo) 88 (VA) $56
• Captain Apple Jack 80 $14 (VA)
• Captain Apple Jack 100 (VA) $18

Images of various applejack bottles on CocktailDB

Date: January 27, 2007

Ingredients: Plymouth gin, Cointreau, fresh Persian lime juice*, Angostura

Note: This cocktail is the namesake of a 19th century British officers’ club in Burma, so infamous, in fact, that Audrey Saunders named her mixology lab after it.

Ted notes that some recipes for the Pegu Club call for curacao, which is what he has in the CocktailDB recipe, but the VSFC recipe calls for Cointreau. The CDB recipe also calls for orange bitters. The orange flavor of the Cointreau isn’t immediately apparent, but I’m sure it would taste less dimensional without it. The sharpness of this would probably make it good for a heavier aperitif drink.

cocktails in wine glasses?!? blasphemy!

Of course, one should not confuse this cocktail with Greg Mankiw’s Pigou Club, which may be just as interesting, but far less edible.

* I like to be specific about ingredients, but Persian limes are just typical grocery store limes.

Date: January 24, 2007

Ingredients: Plymouth gin, M&R sweet vermouth, Campari

Notes: This was the second proper cocktail I ever had, and was what really got me interested in them. VSFC instructs to serve this without ice, which was the first time I’d done so. I think I like this better, since the flavors get a bit stronger as the drink warms. The Campari really punches your palate, so this strengthening is nice.

bitter drinks rule