Averna-Gin Sling

Collins or sling, collins or sling? This is pretty much the same thing as the previous post but made with gin for a much drier effect. The dry cherry-gin combo puts it in Singapore Sling territory. The edgier gins I like for Martinis and Negronis seem to me too abrasive for certain sours. Bombay is just right.



Averna-Gin Sling

• 2 oz Bombay gin
• 1 oz Amaro Averna
• 1/2 oz maraschino liqueur
• 1 oz lemon juice
• soda

Shake all but soda with ice and strain into an ice-filled tall glass. Fill with soda. Cherry and lemon.
SOURCE: ROWEN, FOGGED IN LOUNGE

Averna-Rum Collins

OK—maybe I could’ve come up with a clever name, but the Yuletide makes me lazy, and at least you have some clue what to expect. It’s tempting to call this a sling instead since it’s got a slightly tiki-like ambiance, but slings aren’t what they used to be and I’m not in the mood for semantics.



Averna-Rum Collins

• 2 oz 10 Cane rum
• 1 oz Amaro Averna
• 1/2 oz maraschino liqueur
• 1 oz lime juice
• soda water

Shake all but soda with ice and strain into an ice-filled tall glass. Fill with soda. Cherry and lime.
SOURCE: ROWEN, FOGGED IN LOUNGE

Christmas Punch

Unfortunately, there was no time for a photo of the punch before it was gone. That’s OK—I don’t feel like bothering with the camera when we have this anyway. It’s served at the end of the caroling at the high point of my housemate’s Christmas party. While he has most of the company gathered around the fireplace in the front of the house, a couple of my homies and I are in the kitchen singing along with them (sort of) and making this punch.

The recipe I use is adapted from one for English Christmas Punch I first found in John Poister’s New American Bartender’s Guide, one of the first things I read on mixed drinks. The original recipe calls for flaming the rum in the sugar, which sounds amazing but too much to manage in a narrow San Francisco house packed to the rafters with guests and antique Christmas decorations.

English Christmas Punch

• 2 bottles dry red wine (Chianti)
• 750 ml dark Jamaica rum
• 3 c strong black tea (5 bags English Breakfast)
• 1 lb sugar
• juice of 2 Valencia oranges
• juice of 2 lemons

Melt the sugar in the red wine on the stove. Add the rum. It takes a while to get it to the desired warmth while heating it gently. (I’m always trying to time this to coincide with the end of the caroling, and I just never know.) Combine juice and tea in a heat-proof punch bowl. Pour booze mixture into the tea and citrus and serve immediately.
SOURCE: ADAPTED FROM JOHN J. POISTER, THE NEW AMERICAN BARTENDER’S GUIDE

Sour on the Holidays?

Nothing says Christmas like a bedraggled escape with a Whiskey Sour. Sometimes I find myself in one of those downtown bars—Irish bars, the smaller hotel bars, neighborhood bars. They can make a Whiskey Sour. Of course there’s a lot of packaged sour mix out there. I guess sometimes a person’s desperate enough. The holidays can make a person do crazy things. But if you’re not out shopping or trying to find an adult entertainment establishment or something, you can turn on the colored lights and a little music, squeeze your own citrus, and make a really good Whiskey Sour right at home.

For the whiskey, you can use anything. I like them all—scotch especially. (By the rules of spelling, that’s a Whisky Sour.) The one I show here is an Irish Whiskey Sour.



Whiskey Sour

• 2 oz whiskey
• 1 oz lemon juice, or a combination of lemon and lime
• 1/2 oz simple syrup

I like mine stirred with ice and strained into a chilled glass. Some like it on the rocks. Cherry and orange or lemon.
SOURCE: COMPOSITE

MxMo LIII: Like That? You’ll Love This!

Abraxas Margarita

A big Fogged In thank-you to Chris Amirault at eGullet for hosting this Mixology Monday, and for suggesting the theme Like That? You’ll Love This! Nowadays there’s a lot of call for drinks that are essentially a pile of esters and sugar in a neutral alcohol base, and Chris challenges us to present a recipe to appeal those who already enjoy the fun of mixed drinks but have not been exposed to a cocktailian cocktail.

This seems as good a moment as any to do one that’s dyed funny colors, and this Margarita has been a guilty pleasure of mine for a while. I used to make it with the lower-proof Galliano, which I swear had a different specific gravity, and didn’t even have to pour all that carefully to get a layered drink. Regrettably, that product is going away, but you can still get a nice sunrise effect.



Abraxas Margarita

Liquid ingredients:

• 1 1/2 oz reposado tequila
• 3/4 oz Cointreau
• 1/2 oz lemon juice
• 1 tsp blue curacao

Plus:

• 1/4 oz Galliano

Rim:

• several pinches unsweetened cocoa (Green & Black’s)
  
• sea salt, to taste
• cayenne, to taste

Assemble the powdered ingredients in a saucer. (The measures for the rim are given loosely. Not too much cayenne or you lose the flavors of the drink to the heat.) Rub outside edge of chilled cocktail glass with a cut lemon and roll carefully in plate. Combine liquids except Galliano in glass with ice and shake. Pour Galliano in the bottom of the glass. Strain the Margarita mixture, pouring gently over the back of a spoon and down the side of the glass for a sunrise effect.
SOURCE: ROWEN, FOGGED IN LOUNGE

Time Out of Mind

Cherry is one of my favorite flavors for tequila cocktails. The first time I did this one, I used Herradura. I did it again it very successfully with Hornitos, but the Herradura gave it an interesting funk.



Time Out of Mind

• 2 oz reposado tequila
• 1/2 oz Cherry Heering
• 1/4 oz maraschino liqueur
• 1/2 oz lime juice
• 1 dash Angostura Bitters

Shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
SOURCE: ROWEN, FOGGED IN LOUNGE