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

Product Review: Fee Bros Aztec Chocolate Bitters

It drives me crazy when there’s an ingredient I want to play with but it’s not readily available. Yesterday I had an overwhelming sense of this as I scoured the city for chocolate bitters. Unsweetened chocolate is one of the great underutilized flavors in drinks. And according to some teasing online reviews of mail-order products, there’s at least one great chocolate bitters out there. I got the idea, though, that the Aztec Chocolate bitters by Fee Brothers, nice company though they are, might not be so great. But since it was the only product I could find on the shelves, I decided to see what I could make of it.

When I opened the bottle, the aroma seemed more cinnamon than anything else. It smelled odd for bitters, and then I noticed why: no alcohol. (Sigh.) In a glass, it seemed somewhat more chocolate and more vegetal. Still not much depth or complexity. Tasting a bit didn’t add anything to these impressions. Oh well.

I decided to try it in a Wild Turkey Manhattan: strong, spicy, hard to louse up.



Manhattan-Bound M Train

• 2 oz Wild Turkey 101-proof bourbon
• 3/4 oz Punt e Mes
• 5 or so dashes Fee Bros Aztec Chocolate Bitters
• 1 dash Angostura Bitters
• Cocktail cherry

Rowen, Fogged In Lounge

My first sip didn’t seem all that different from what is in fact my basic Manhattan recipe, but soon the housemate and I agreed that there was an elusive chocolate note on the finish. I wasn’t too sure that this was the novelty Manhattan the world was waiting for, but it was fun. There seemed to be something 1940s about it, like an old drugstore.

I tried reducing the Punt e Mes so that the chocolate might come through a little more, but what worked well in the background the first time got too much like Fox’s U-Bet—nicely reminiscent of childhood but weird in a cocktail.

Special thanks to Drew at PlumpJack in Noe Valley.