Bloody Maria Mix

For some reason, it took me years to figure out I like a Bloody Maria about ten times better than the vodka version. I can’t imagine why it didn’t occur to me sooner. Tequila naturally pairs with vegetables, and I’m a big fan of savory notes in beverages.



Bloody Maria Mix

• 32 oz tomato juice
• juice of 1 lime
• 1 Tbs cacao
• 1 tsp ground cayenne
• 1 tsp ground chipotle
• 1 tsp sweet paprika
• 1/2 tsp ground true cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground coriander
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1 clove garlic, crushed

Gradually incorporate dry ingredients with a little of the tomato juice at a time until smooth enough to stir with the remaining liquid. Add lime and garlic. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.
ROWEN, FOGGED IN LOUNGE

My preferred tomato juice, Knudsen, has some lemon in it to begin with, so you may want to add more lime for snap. For the cacao, it’s worth finding the dark, smoky, complex Valrhona. And I’m thinking a half teaspoon of cloves wouldn’t hurt a thing.

Reposado tequila is nice with this. But it’s a grownup drink on its own without the spirits, so if you have a Virgin Maria in your party, she won’t feel left out.

Steady Freddy

One afternoon, my buddy suggested we turn his fresh mandarin oranges into Harvey Wallbangers. That sounded like a job for Freddy Fudpucker, Wallbanger’s tequila variation and my preferred version of the drink. It’s unbelievably good with fresh mandarin juice. I feel a little guilty posting this at the end of mandarin season—or so it is here in Northern California—but maybe it’s the perfect excuse for using up some fruit you have around. Proportions below are approximate. Don’t hold back on the juice.



Fresh Mandarin Fudpucker

• 2 oz tequila (we used blanco)
• 4 oz freshly squeezed mandarin juice
• 1/4 oz Galliano

Combine spirits and juice with ice in a tall glass, roll into a tin and back. Carefully float Galliano. (And if it sinks, so what? Sip and smile.)

Hm—I guess the Fudpucker’s a classic. (Again, just sip and smile.)

MxMo LXXIV: Cherries—Silver Spurs

A very warm Fogged In thank-you to Andrea of Gin Hound for Hosting this month’s Mixology Monday, and for her excellent theme, cherries. These stone fruits are essential to so many great and varied cocktails that it took me a while to decide on a direction that I hadn’t explored before. But lately I’ve been working with wine-based ingredients, which suggested a cherry-sherry combination. Tequila seemed a natural compliment to both.



Silver Spurs

• 1 1/2 oz blanco tequila
• 3/4 oz amontillado sherry
• 1 barspoon Maraschino liqueur
• About 1/2 tsp mezcal

Stir with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Lemon twist.
ROWEN, FOGGED IN LOUNGE

Off-dry; delicate fruit and florals. Black pepper from the tequila softened by the sherry.

MxMo LXXII: Drink Your Vegetables—Mexican Pumpkin Fizz

Greetings, folks. It’s time once again for another Mixology Monday post. The theme for this MxMo is Drink Your Vegetables, and I happen to be the host this month, challenging participants to find or invent a drink using one or more vegetable-based ingredients. (After all this drinking and writing about cocktails, we could use the vitamins.) So it is with particular pleasure that I present a vegetable ingredient for your delectation and wonderment, the squash. This would refer to the hard-skinned types including pumpkin, butternut, acorn and the like, sometimes called winter squash. These are available year-round. I’ve researched the matter to learn that the soft-skinned ones are called summer squash. There’s only so much you can do. (I reckon a zucchini wouldn’t survive a frost but can’t say I’ve seen it one way or the other. San Francisco, while chilly, doesn’t freeze. As people have said before, it’s hard to get a handle on the weather in these parts.)

Regardless of when you can find a winter squash, it is inseparable in the United States from an insanity that prevails from Halloween to Christmas, a dementia numerous in its symptoms, one of the weirdest being the delusion that everything tastes better with the addition of a large, tough, orange vegetable. You walk up to a coffee counter and they want to sell you a pumpkin latte. I always smile sweetly, exclaiming, “I would like a squash in my coffee, please!” The barista tends to look nervous.

I suspect what this bit of marketing is really about, and why it succeeds, is that people like pumpkin pie spices, and will have them in their coffee, beer, yogurt or whatever. A pumpkin pie is a very good thing indeed.

But the flavors of this group of similar orange squashes, while distinctive, are delicate and versatile, and lend themselves to lots of different treatments—not necessarily cinnamon, clove and ginger. The drink recipe below plays with the winter squash in more of a warm-weather way, the vegetal sweetness combining subtly with blanco tequila, chilies and lemon. A salt-cocoa rim brings out more salinity and earthiness. And it’s effervescent and without added ice in the glass, so I’ve declared it a fizz.



Mexican Pumpkin Fizz

First we need some squash-chili syrup.

SQUASH-CHILI SYRUP

• 1 c hard-shelled squash, peeled, diced
• 1 c raw sugar
• 1 c water
• 1/2 tsp chili flakes

Combine and bring to a boil, then simmer, stirring occasionally, until the squash is soft enough to mash. Strain off the liquid and mash the pulp. Recombine and double strain. (I put a fine strainer in the top of a measuring cup, and poured the squash mixture through a coarser sieve that I held over the fine one and the cup, pressing lightly with a spatula.)

And now for that drink.

MEXICAN PUMPKIN FIZZ

• 2 oz blanco tequila
• 1 oz squash-chili syrup
• 3/4 oz lemon juice
• 1 oz soda water
• coarse salt, for rim
• unsweetened cocoa, for rim

Chill a 6-ounce glass. (Delmonico, fizz, juice glass, etc.) In a saucer, combine a little coarse salt and unsweetened cocoa, enough to rim half the glass. Moisten half the rim with a cut lemon and dab the outside carefully in the salt-cocoa mixture. Shake tequila, syrup and lemon with ice cubes. Strain into prepared glass. Top with soda.
ROWEN, FOGGED IN LOUNGE

Light, bright and tingly, with an aroma of chocolate from the half-rim. I was tempted to throw every mole-style spice at the thing but quickly decided that I was not dealing with a dragon but a moon moth. The tequila used will have a considerable impact, whether it’s a pungent, mineral one, or a softer, more caramel one. I could go either way. Any left over syrup could go in savory glazes, and would be amazing on a vanilla dessert.

Blackberry Margarita

Greetings, folks. It’s been a rough few weeks. How about a drink?

I’ve been wanting to play with my Leopold’s blackberry liqueur since my buddy and I had Rum Runners in Reno on a photo expedition to the desert. Blackberry liqueur (aka blackberry brandy; crème de mûre) is a great ingredient for winter cocktails, a little escape in the darker part of the year.

Blackberry Margarita

• 2 oz reposado tequila (Hornitos)
• 1/2 oz blackberry brandy (Leopold Bros)
• 1/4 oz Cointreau
• 1/2 oz lime juice

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

Big tequila up front gives way to blackberry somewhere in the middle. The housemate and I had a few of these over the course of chili night, and the food brought out the lime quite a bit.

Stagecoach

I dunno—I feel like I should expand my range of garnishes. I’m pretty much reduced to twists, cherries and lime shells these days, if anything at all.

So that said, here for your delectation is another plain brown cocktail. It’s citric but aromatic too, a combination I like more and more. There’s some Punt e Mes, which gets together with the other elements in a way that suggests lemon oil or lemongrass, even though there’s none in there. So it tastes brighter than it looks. Maybe when I make this again, I’ll go find a shaft of fresh lemongrass and stick a piece of it in the drink to dress it up a little.

Stagecoach

• 1 1/2 oz reposado tequila
• 3/4 oz Punt e Mes
• 1/2 oz lime juice
• 2 dashes Fee Bros Aztec Chocolate Bitters
• 1 – 2 dashes Angostura Orange Bitters
• 1/4 oz amber agave nectar

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

The flavor sort of reminds me of oxidized copper too. (Remember being told as a kid not to put pennies in your mouth? I must not have paid too much attention.)

Languisher Cocktail

I like random processes when I make up my mind to. Maybe it’s because this world requires an ever increasing level of deliberation for the thoughtful person just to stay sane. So once in a while in a moment of whimsy (meaning boredom), I like to spin the Mixilator and see what comes out. Since the fun is in letting the machine make the drink, I don’t fiddle with the buttons too much except to specify that the cocktail be simple to prepare. Even if the results are too bizarre to try—and they tend to be—I’d like to be able to make the drink if I want to. And now and then, it gives you something good. Take the Languisher Cocktail, a simple boozy drink with nice ingredients.

Languisher Cocktail

Chill cocktail glass. Prepare as follows:

In pre-chilled cocktail shaker combine

• 2 oz tequila añejo
• 1 oz Johnnie Walker
• 1/2 oz St. Raphael
• 3 drops cherry liqueur

Shake with large cubes of ice as though you’ve just perceived a rapidly advancing case of the trots. [You see, the charm of the Mixilator is the element of surprise. And don’t you find that sometimes it’s best not to try to follow a recipe too closely? Stir.] Strain into chilled cocktail glass.
SOURCE: THE MIXILATOR

This is a rich, strong, medium-dry cocktail not unlike a Manhattan but with the black pepper bite of añejo tequila. (I used Hornitos.) Specific though the instructions are (maybe too specific), there’s no garnish mentioned. I went with a couple of Luxardo cherries, which brought out the taste of the scotch as I ate them. I had no St. Raphael so I substituted another quinquina, Punt e Mes. For the cherry liqueur, maraschino seemed like the obvious choice. I might have had a few more drops than three. Tequila-forward without citrus. Very cool.

Sugar Skull

I bought a bottle of Tres Agaves on impulse, and it had an unexpected caramel note that took me off in a different direction from the cocktail planned for the evening.

Sugar Skull

• 2 oz blanco tequila (Tres Agaves)
• 1/2 oz Amaro Nonino
• 1/2 oz lemon juice
• 1 tsp mezcal
• 1 tsp coffee brandy (Firelit)

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

I had been thinking of something with vermouth on the lines of a Manhattan but the caramel thing made me reach for the Amaro Nonino. The lemon’s very bright with the Nonino but the smoke and touch of coffee in the background give it some depth.

World on a String

OK—trying to work up some holiday cheer here at the Fogged In Lounge. The housemate’s busy doing the place up. The shops look like Christmas threw up all over them. The music’s everywhere like some mad scene in a noir film. Might as well work myself into the mood since there’s no beating it.

I made this Campari-absinthe thing last night that I liked a lot. Anise, citrus, tequila, it’s red—I feel festive already. Now where’s that drink?



World on a String

• 2 oz reposado tequila
• 1 oz Campari
• 1/2 oz lemon juice
• 1 tsp absinthe
• 1 scant tsp agave syrup

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

Bel Canto

I was trying to think of something else to do with my Gran Classico when this drink came to mind, which turned out to be something else to do with my orange blossom water as well. (Surely it had to be good for something besides melon salad.) Both ingredients seem 19th-century somehow. Careful when you pour the orange flower. Note that those are drops and not dashes, or you’ll end up with a glass of perfume. Do it in a spoon over the measuring glass and not over the shaker.



Bel Canto

• 2 oz reposado tequila
• 1/2 oz Gran Classico Bitter
• 1/2 oz lime juice
• 2 drops orange blossom water

Shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Lime twist from a fresh lime with a sharp vegetable peeler.
SOURCE: ROWEN, FOGGED IN LOUNGE

Sort of a Margarita relative but with a long ago and far away feel. More bitter-herbal with a hint of orange blossom honey.

MxMo LXII: Morning Starfish

Many thanks to Kevin of Cocktail Enthusiast for hosting this month’s Mixology Monday and for a theme very close to my own heart: morning drinks—a theme I hold so dear that this very post was held up a bit by a protracted celebration of the morning. But fear not—dawn’s very rosy finger has touched the recipe offered below. (Hey, it’s dawn somewhere.) A bright and bubbly tequila-grapefruit-Campari thing that’s light enough to let you have at least two, even in the morning.



Morning Starfish

• 1 oz gold tequila
• 1/2 oz Campari
• 1 1/2 – 2 oz fresh grapefruit juice
• 1 oz lime juice
• 1 tsp honey
• soda
• salt and cracked pepper mixture, garnish

Moisten half the rim of a 12-ounce glass with lime or a little honey, and roll carefully in salt-pepper mixture. Set aside. Flash melt honey about 5-10 seconds in microwave. Stir together with lime juice. Add tequila and grapefruit juice and shake with ice. Strain into prepared glass, add fresh ice. Add Campari, top with soda.
SOURCE: ROWEN, FOGGED IN LOUNGE

Monterey Bay

Old Father Time checked, so there’d be no doubt,
Called on the north wind to come on out,
Then cupped his hands, so proudly to shout,
“La-de-da, de-da-de-dum, ’tis Autumn!”

—Henry Nemo, ’Tis Autumn

A big, smoky one full of fruit for the turning of the season. Fall makes me all dreamy-eyed, like I don’t want to do anything but sit around and watch the sky and the stuff floating inside my head. It’s the time in Northern California everybody seems to like best.



Monterey Bay

• 2 oz reposado tequila
• 1/2 oz crème de framboise
• 1/2 oz crème de cassis
• 1/4 oz mezcal
• 1/2 oz lemon juice
• 1/2 oz lime juice
• 2 oz soda, or to taste

Combine all but soda and shake with ice. Top with soda and stir gently. Lemon wheel.
SOURCE: ROWEN, FOGGED IN LOUNGE

Tamarind Tamarin

One of my favorite pastimes: wandering the shops eyeing everything as a potential drink ingredient. The tamarind paste is a brand called Neela’s. It’s 100 percent tamarind without seeds. Tamarind is something that grows from a tree. Tamarin is something that lives in a tree.



Tamarind Tamarin

• 2 oz resposado tequila
• 1 oz pineapple juice
• 2 tsp tamarind paste

Combine pineapple juice and tamarind paste in a shaker with a barspoon. Add tequila and ice, and shake well. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
SOURCE: ROWEN, FOGGED IN LOUNGE

Ephemeral Horse

Life’s a little hectic here at the the lounge lately. I came up with this one few nights ago and barely had time to take the picture, let alone write something. It's got a good dose of Pedro Ximénez sherry held in check by a little Amaro Nonino.



Ephemeral Horse

• 2 oz blanco tequila
• 3/4 oz Pedro Ximénez sherry
• 1/4 oz Amaro Nonino
• 1/2 oz lime juice
• 3 dashes Bitter Truth Xocolatl Mole Bitters
• Mezcal to rinse

Rinse chilled cocktail glass with mezcal. Shake remaining ingredient with ice and strain.
SOURCE: ROWEN, FOGGED IN LOUNGE

A Few of My Favorite Things: Mayahuel Roundup

There’s such an array of riches on the Mayahuel list that I’m sort of amazed our bartender Kate could keep it all straight. I’m not even sure I remember everything my friends and I tasted on this recent adventure (I know somebody ordered the cocktail in the photo above) but three stand out:

The Mad Cardoon is a long drink of mezcal, cognac, pineapple, lemon and Cardamaro. Funny to think of it but I hadn’t put it together that Cardamaro’s got cardoon in it. I confess to never having eaten a cardoon so I couldn’t say what one tastes like, but the pineapple was very forward and gave it that balance of smoke and fruit you hope for in such potations. The brandy seemed to help too.

The elegant Warlock, an aromatic elixir of reposado tequila, Punt e Mes, pear eau de vie with a rinse of mezcal and absinthe, is one I’ll be playing with at home. If you’re in for a long session, the Warlock would be a good place to start before your palate gets smoky from all the drinks that are heavier on mezcal and from that amazing red salsa.

The West of East India Cocktail is a like a list of sure-fire ingredients, so it’s not too surprising that it’s so drinkable: reposado tequila, Demerara rum, East India sherry, falernum, Amaro Nonino and Xocolatl Mole Bitters. Broadly appealing, it looks like a few of someone else’s favorite things too.

All these fine concoctions were compounded with aplomb by Kate, who made us feel at home right away. Many thanks to her for a great visit.

Summer and Smoke: Smoky Margarita

We’re having one of our infrequent heat waves here in the San Francisco Bay Area, and I’ve been making intense drinks for the intense weather. Here’s a mezcal-scented Margarita, our recipe for chili night at the Lounge. You could go smokier here, but for this I like to use mezcal as an accent to the basic Margarita flavor.



Smoky Margarita

• 2 oz reposado tequila
• 3/4 oz Cointreau
• 1/2 oz fresh lime juice
• 1/4 oz mezcal
• kosher salt, for rim

Rim a chilled cocktail glass with cut lime and kosher salt. Shake remaining ingredients with ice and strain into prepared glass.
SOURCE: ROWEN, FOGGED IN LOUNGE

MxMo LVII: Flores de Mayo

Many thanks to Dave of The Barman Cometh, fellow Bay Area cocktailian and the host of this month’s Mixology Monday, Flores de Mayo. Dave invites us “to feature a cocktail that highlights a floral flavor profile or includes a floral derived ingredient, whether home-made or off the shelf.” I was already at that moment similarly inspired, thinking of the elusive scent of violets, of tequila, and the haunting nature of memory. Flores de mayo, flores para los muertos, La persistencia de la memoria and the arrow of time. And people wonder why I started drinking cocktails.



Arrow of Time

• 1 1/2 oz blanco tequila (Tenampa Azul)
• 1 oz Punt e Mes
• 1/4 oz crème de violette
• 1 dash Regans’ Orange Bitters

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

The violet should be kept subtle. You’re gonna be haunted by the persistence of memory one way or another so you might as well do it right.

Hapi Papi

OK—last year I covered St Patrick’s Day. This year it’s Cinco de Mayo. (I honor all peoples every day with a fine drinking holiday, really.) Today’s offering is a riff on one I spotted in Beachbum Berry’s Intoxica! called Happy Buddha, and transformed without much ado into a guava Margarita. (Cross out rum....)



Hapi Papi

• 4 oz guava nectar (Ceres)
• 1 1/2 oz resposado tequila (Hornitos)
• 1/2 oz lime juice
• 1/4 oz Cointreau

Shake with crushed ice and pour into suitably happy container. Lime garnish, straw.
SOURCE: ADAPTED FROM THE HAPPY BUDDHA, FROM JEFF “BEACHBUM” BERRY, INTOXICA!

The original version calls for Rose’s Lime Cordial but is plenty sweet with fresh lime. It also calls for the old school Hawaiian-style rum (Okolehao) but responds really well to the tequila treament. I can still taste an almost rose petal wine note that would compliment the original rum or a rhum agricole.

El Maullido del Gato

A lighter one for a young friend of mine whose moderation is admirable. I know he won’t think the less of anyone for adding a little extra tequila.



El Maullido del Gato

• 1 1/2 – 2 oz resposado tequila (Hornitos)
  
• 1 1/2 oz guava nectar (Ceres)
• 1/2 – 3/4 oz lemon juice
• 1/4 oz lavender syrup (Sonoma Syrup Co.)
  

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

Mellow Bee

Last night on the way home I bought a bottle of Lustau East India Solera, a rich, complex sherry that paired nicely with the Hacienda Vieja tequila I happened to have around. The East India is a great ingredient in this drink, though that bottle of Harveys will work fine.



Mellow Bee

• 2 oz reposado tequila
• 1 oz East India Solera sherry
• 1/2 oz lemon juice
• 1 tsp honey syrup (or 1/2 tsp honey melted 2-3 seconds in the microwave)

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

I kept trying to put a twist on this to go with the lemon and couldn’t figure out why the balance would suddenly drop out of gear. Better ungarnished.