Thursday, February 28, 2013

Tangelo Terrarium

We’re enjoying the last evening of Tiki Month here at the Lounge with another original tropical climate in a glass. This one’s tangy and a little spicy, sort of a snifter-sized tangerine in crushed ice.



Tangelo Terrarium
  • 2 oz gold Barbados rum
  • 1/2 oz Swedish punsch
  • 1/4 oz allspice dram
  • 1/2 oz Lemon Hart 151 (float)
  • 2 1/2 pink grapefruit juice, fresh
  • 1 oz tangelo juice
  • 1/2 oz lime juice
Shake all except Lemon Hart with ice cubes and strain into a large snifter. Add crushed ice. Float the Lemon Hart. Tangelo twist, mint sprig.
ROWEN, FOGGED IN LOUNGE

Sort of an aquatic terrarium—or a rum one. I like overproof floats on Tiki drinks for so many reasons, not least because they’re something to look forward to in all that crushed ice at the end.

Monday, February 18, 2013

MxMo LXX: Inverted—Reverse Chancellor

A big Fogged In thank-you to Stewart Putney of Putney Farm for hosting this month’s Mixology Monday, and for his challenging theme, “Inverted.” Stewart has tasked us to come up with a drink recipe that is some way turned upside down, whether that be a reversal of the ratio of a classic or any of the elements turned on their head in some way.

Well, the composition process is sort of twisted here at the Lounge to begin with so I had to decide how I’d make this demonstrably inverted and not merely warped. I ended up restacking the measures of a great recipe just to see if I could color inside the lines and still come up with something inspired. For this exercise, I went with a superb standard, the Chancellor. Regular visitors may recall that scotch is a favorite ingredient around here, and the Chancellor is the… the prime minister of scotch cocktails. Whisky, port, dry vermouth, orange bitters—what more could you want?

Except that to invert the ratios I’d need a stand-in for the orange cocktail bitters. This was going to be the base of the drink so two ounces of something meant to be an accent might be a lot. Maybe an amaro, a type of bitters constructed as a beverage, would make more sense. Of the ones I had on hand, Torani Amer seemed the best match: mellow and distinctly orange-scented.

And since I was making adjustments, I changed the blended scotch in the original recipe for a single malt that would work a little better in the accent role, the smoky, peaty Laphroaig. I had always been curious about using it in a Chancellor anyway.

cocktail

Reverse Chancellor
  • 2 oz Torani Amer
  • 1 oz dry vermouth
  • 1/2 oz ruby port
  • 2 dashes Laphroaig 10 year
Stir with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

Rich and evocative of the original. I’d definitely make this again.

Thursday, February 14, 2013

FM

We’re celebrating Tiki Month here at the Lounge, a time of fantasy and frivolity to buffer us from those slings and arrows that give even the best people a bad time. And so we bring you another luscious libation, an elixir for grooving to the radio all night long. As Fagan and Becker say, “No static at all.”



FM
  • 2 1/2 oz gold Barbados rum
  • 3/4 oz white crème de cacao
  • 2 oz grapefruit juice
  • 1 oz lime juice
  • 2 – 3 dashes grapefruit bitters
Shake with ice cubes and strain into a double old fashioned. Fresh ice to fill. Grapefruit twist.
ROWEN, FOGGED IN LOUNGE

Grapefruit and chocolate in a delicate state of winter suspension.

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Up the Beach

Aloha, people. Tiki Month is here again, and we welcome you to another fine tiki moment here at the Fogged In Lounge. Here’s a little libation by yours truly that ought to help you while away a bit of time in the shoals of contentment with some Wray & Nephew Jamaica rum, green Chartreuse and homemade crème de banane.

cocktail

Up the Beach
  • 1 1/2 oz Wray & Nephew overproof white rum
  • 1 oz crème de banane (Serious Eats recipe)
  • 1/2 oz green Chartreuse
  • 1 oz lime juice
  • 1 1/2 oz soda
Shake all except soda with ice, and strain. Add fresh ice and top with soda.
ROWEN, FOGGED IN LOUNGE
 
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