Still Sour After All These Years

As threatened, here is the first of the my-favorite-things posts, a Whiskey Sour. I’m making this drink with brown sugar lately—I dunno, it seems cozier that way. And I’ve been using an extra half ounce of whiskey just because it suddenly seems a little light without it. Somewhere there’s a compromise between snap and punch, and I go back and forth. The Whiskey Sour is very accommodating.



Whiskey Sour

• 2 – 2 1/2 oz whiskey (rye is nice)
• 1 oz lemon juice
• 1 1/2 – 2 tsp brown sugar

Stir sugar in lemon juice to dissolve a bit. Add spirits and ice; shake well. Strain into a chilled glass with a short stem.

This is a 19th-century drink, and one that hasn’t changed much. Happily, it’s one that seems to transcend its abuses too, for the most part, though context is everything. Once upon a time, I knew a mad old roué of the Raoul Duke type, friend of a roommate, who mixed up Whiskey Sours at home in pint glasses with packaged sour mix and plenty of ice. When you got to the end of one, there was another. While I tended to view his cocktailing (and everything else) with a skeptical eye, the bottomless bucket o’ sour was a thing of wonder.

The above recipe works fine as a rocks drink in an Old Fashioned glass. Go with the heavier and sweeter proportions suggested. And some sort of garnish is nice for a sense of occasion, but totally dispensable.

Norway by Way of Portland: Two Krogstad Cocktails

I wish more choices in aquavit were available locally in San Francisco but I’m happy to enjoy Krogstad. It works in places where I’d reach for gin, but Krogstad is earthier, a thing of pleasant malty bitterness like horehound candy. I particularly like the star anise.



Lagoon of the Moon

• 1 1/2 oz aquavit (Krogstad)
• 3/4 oz Meyer lemon juice
• 3/4 oz Cointreau
• 1 dash absinthe

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

Since I had the Krogstad out, I thought I’d try an aquavit Negroni. You see various iterations of this idea on the web with the bitter component substituted. Mr. Lauer over at Tempered Spirits has a nice looking one, the Norwegian Sunset.

Anyway, here goes a basic solution.



Aquavit Negroni

• 1 1/2 oz aquavit (Krogstad)
• 1 1/2 oz Campari
• 1 1/2 sweet vermouth

Stir with ice and strain into an old fashioned. Fresh ice cubes to fill. Orange twist.

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.)

Reviving the Corpse

OK—maybe I’ve been a little preoccupied with other projects of late. However, I assure you that they have all been beverage-related. (You probably knew that.) While doing some research in the East Bay, a friend and I hit upon the happy idea of remaking a Corpse Reviver #2 as a scotch cocktail. The CR2 is a classic hair-of-the-dog gin concoction meant for those days when you’re still a little shaky from the night before. Whether you think chasing a hangover this way is really a good idea is a matter of personal discretion but CR2 is a fine thing all the same. And this scotch version is very quaffable.

Banquo’s Ghost

• 1 oz scotch (used Black Grouse)
• 1 oz Cointreau
• 1 oz Cocchi Americano
• 1 oz lemon juice
• 1 dash absinthe

Shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

The original Corpse Reviver #2 appears in the venerable Savoy Cocktail Book, edited by Harry Craddock, and turns up in a number of other good bar books as well. Since the amount of absinthe varies slightly from author to author, I turned to the acknowledged authority on Craddock’s book, Erik Ellestad of Savoy Stomp to see what he did with it. I swear I didn’t look at his photo before icing that glass. Clearly the thing to use.

MxMo LXXVII: Smoke!—Smoky Mountain Boogie

It’s time again for another Mixology Monday. A big Fogged In thank-you to our host Elana of Stir and Strain for a theme close to my heart, a flavor I crave intensely—smoke. There’s any number of exciting ways to work with smoke in cocktails. For this round, I thought of an ingredient I like a lot, smoke beer. Today I’ve used a favorite oak smoke doppelbock by Schlenkerla in a riff on a classic bourbon cocktail that normally calls for champagne, the Seelbach Cocktail. The original version is a house specialty of the Seelbach Hotel in Kentucky.



Smoky Mountain Boogie

• 1 oz bourbon (Buffalo Trace)
• 1/2 oz Cointreau
• 7 dashes Regans’ No. 6 Orange Bitters
• 7 dashes Bar Keep Baked Apple Bitters
• 5 oz smoke beer (Schlenkerla doppelbock)

Stir bourbon, Cointreau and bitters briefly with ice and strain into a chilled pokal or other slender pilsner glass. Fill with smoke beer. Orange twist.
ROWEN, FOGGED IN LOUNGE

Smoke, fruit, spice and refreshing bitterness. Both bitters are perfect complements to the doppelbock.

MxMo LXXV: Flip Flop—Chancery Cocktail

It’s that happy time again, Mixology Monday. Our host is the incomparable Frederic of Cocktail Virgin and our MxMo moderator. Many thanks to him for stepping in to host when many other cocktail writers tend to be becalmed, whether from Tales of the Cocktail or from the heat of summer here in the Northern Hemisphere. Fred’s theme is Flip Flop, which he describes thus:

I thought of the theme for this month’s Mixology Monday shortly after making the Black Rene, an obscure drink from Pioneers of Mixing at Elite Bars: 1903-1933. The combination of brandy, amber rum, lemon, and Maraschino was tasty, but I felt that the recipe could be improved if I swapped in different ingredients. Taking a page from Max Toste of Deep Ellum who converted the Black Devil into the White Devil, I flipped around the ingredients to be pisco, white rum, lime, and Maraschino instead. With this combination that I called the White Rene, the drink really sang but it was still recognizable as being an alteration of the original recipe. Others have done similar swaps with grand effect including the Bluegrass Mai Tai that that changes the two rums to two whiskeys and swaps lime for lemon from the classic while holding everything else the same.

We enjoy substitution games here at the Lounge, and we love classic cocktails and their variations. Flip Flop reminds me a bit of Stewart Putney’s excellent Inverted theme, so I’ve worked with the same cocktail as on that round, The Chancellor. I’ve had fortified wines on the brain, and thought right away of the white port I’ve been so fond of lately as an exchange for the ruby of the original recipe. The blended scotch became a single malt, the dry vermouth turned sweet, and the orange bitters transformed to apple.

 

Chancery Cocktail

• 1 1/2 oz single malt scotch (Laphroaig 10)
• 1 1/2 oz white port (Quinta do Infantado)
• 1/2 oz sweet vermouth
• 3 dashes Bar Keep Baked Apple Bitters

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

Caramel and wood from the barrels had me drinking this a little too fast, like the flavor descriptor I was trying to think of was just around the bend. I guess I could have used a milder and less iodine malt, but the Laphroaig I bought this afternoon called to me. Since it was intense enough to trample the other stuff in the glass, I used an equal amount of port. (The balance seems roughly like the classic Chancellor recipe when made with my preferred base, Johnnie Walker Black Label.) The apple bitters are a perfect complement to this gold-hued version of the highbrow classic.

Bamboo Cocktail

All right—this here’s the Bamboo Cocktail. It’s another sherry drink in this wine series I’m doing. A classic 19th-century thing, I had it just this weekend at Comstock Saloon here in San Francisco, a fine place to drink in Barbary Coast style. The next day, I tried my hand at the Bamboo as well.



Bamboo Cocktail

• 1 1/2 oz dry sherry
• 1 1/2 oz dry vermouth
• 1 dash orange bitters
• 2 drops Angostura bitters

Stir with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Twist a strip of lemon peel over the glass and discard. Stuffed olive.

I worked from David Wondrich’s Imbibe! which recounts the creation and naming of this light, dry cocktail by saloonman Louis Eppinger. The recipe calls for two dashes orange bitters, though results vary considerably with the brand. Fee Bros seemed better at one dash. Regans’ added a nice cardamom note. And because I’m a scotch nut, I tried a dash of single malt as well, which didn’t hurt a thing.

Fred’s Sherry Mai Tai

This is a great wine cocktail remix by the incomparable Frederic Yarm of Cocktail Virgin Slut. The recipe follows the basic Trader Vic template, changing the Jamaica and Martinique rums for two styles of sherry. These wines as well as the classic Mai Tai are house favorites here so of course I jumped when I saw this item on Fred’s blog. Rich and flavorful, the crushed ice held onto the sherry flavor to the last.



Sherry Mai Tai

• 1 1/2 oz amontillado
• 1/2 oz Pedro Ximenez (subbed East India Solera)
• 1/2 oz curaçao
• 1 oz lemon juice
• 1/2 oz orgeat

Shake with ice and strain into a double old fashioned full of crushed ice. Mint garnish. (Used a cherry.)
SOURCE: FREDERIC YARM, COCKTAIL VIRGIN SLUT

Sorry to be all out of mint last night when making these but the sweet almond aroma of the (naturally) candied cherry worked well enough with the other nutty flavors in the drink.

Sourer Than Usual

I’m really liking Kronan Swedish Punsch. Until recently, I had so much trouble buying punsch that I simply made it from Erik Ellestad’s recipe, which works very well. Kronan is a little heavier and darker in character—not a bad thing at all, merely different. I also wonder if it’s a little sweeter since I’ve had to adjust a few cocktails.

But then maybe it’s just me. I don’t have much of a sweet tooth in any case. But as I continue to think about taste and how it works, I notice a slight preference for more tartness in sour drinks—maybe the result of a subtle physiological change with the passage of time. (It’s unlikely that I want more sourness because I’m getting sweeter. Friends would say otherwise.)



Have a Heart

• 1 1/2 oz gin
• 1/2 oz Swedish punsch
• 3/4 oz lime juice
• 1/4 oz grenadine

Shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
SOURCE: ADAPTED FROM THE OFFICIAL MIXER’S MANUAL FOR HOME AND PROFESSIONAL USE, PATRICK GAVIN DUFFY

I first saw the original version of this recipe in Dr. Cocktail’s Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails. I especially like the way the intense flavors play off a personality gin like Beefeater 24 or Botanivore.

Cachaça and the Missing Links

There’s a place where the Sidecar-Margarita sours all get together to chatter and take time out from the customers and the other drinks. I can see them in front of the mirror or flopped on a chair or bench, some straightening garnishes or fixing a salt rim. Maybe they’re gossiping about the G&T one of ’em is going out with for a couple in the corner. Or there’s a party of six that ordered the same all around, and the drinks are all giggling in the same way, hoping to meet a pig in a blanket or two later in the evening.



Cachaça Sidecar

• 2 oz cachaça
• 3/4 oz Cointreau
• 3/4 oz lime juice

Shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

Gaz Regan calls the rum interzone of this style of sour the Missing Link. Cachaça is another superb cane spirit for the purpose: delicate, herbaceous, green, vanillic, subtly oceanic all at the same time.

Two at a Time

Till the break of day we’re gonna set ’em up
Two at a time
Just be’s better that way when you set ’em up
Two at a time
Set up till the morning
Don’t say boys we don’t give you no warning
Till the break of day were gonna set ’em up
Two at a time

—Andy Bean, Two at a Time

We had some people over from work for a classic cocktail session, tasting lots of things in miniature portions—a fun evening. As someone who makes drinks primarily for guests at home, I often find myself mixing rounds of the same drink in quantity. Maybe I ought to get me some of that fancy vintage home bar gear that was designed for this purpose—big mixing vessels with fun decorations and ingenious pouring spouts, matching cocktail glasses, serving trays that look like carousels—but I never seem to get around to it. Maybe next time.

Anyway, I’d like to have the folks from work over again. They were a game crowd. The runaway hit that party was the Jack Rose, a favorite here at the Lounge. Seems funny that folks order these faddish pomegranate syrup things lots of times without realizing that it’s just good old grenadine. Here’s something similar.

Demerara Rose

• 4 oz Demerara rum (El Dorado 8)
• 1/2 oz lemon juice
• 1/2 oz lime juice
• 1/2 oz grenadine (Small Hand Foods)

Shake with ice and strain into chilled cocktail glasses. Makes two.
SOURCE: ROWEN, FOGGED IN LOUNGE

My own current favorite variation of the rum and grenadine sour. My guests who liked the Jack Rose might try this one. Where the Jack Rose is snappy, this one’s rich and velvety.

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.

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.

MxMo LXIX: Fortified Wines—Whispers of the Frost

Many thanks to Jordan Devereaux of Chemistry of the Cocktail for hosting this month’s Mixology Monday, and for his very fine and tasty theme, Fortified Wines. Here at the Lounge, we’re big fans of port, madeira, and the whole range of sherries. The rich flavors and little dose of extra alcohol make these wines perfect for wintertime drinking, alone or in cocktails.

Here’s a classic recipe I’ve liked for a long time which has two fortified wines, port and sherry. Most recipes I’ve seen don’t mention what sort of sherry, though a very sweet one seems too heavy for the port. Also, most recipes call for sugar, which is totally dispensable, even with a dry sherry.



Whispers of the Frost

• 3/4 oz bourbon
• 3/4 oz port
• 3/4 oz sherry (Amontillado)

Stir with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Lemon twist.
SOURCE: COMPOSITE

Elegant fruit and nuts brightened by the spray of lemon oil from the twist. Mellow and warming. Have two—they’re small.

Martini Time (and a Thyme Martini)

Greetings from the bleak shores of post-holiday confusion, where those of us in northern latitudes stumble around in the cold and dark, numbly bumping into things. (“Stupid parking meter!”) Martinis help a lot. It’s true that they increase the delirium but then you don’t mind it as much as you did before. They seem so astringent and boozy that you can’t help but think after a sip or two that they’re good for everything that ails you. (They’re not, but even so….)

And there’s something comforting in that trace of brine from an olive. Its savoriness is sort of bracing—like soup for people who drink. That’s why I like a garlic-stuffed olive. Big flavor. Substantial. Add a green herb and it’s practically a meal. I’ll just illustrate with a recipe here:

Thyme Martini

• 2 oz London dry gin
• 1 oz dry vermouth
• thyme sprig
• lemon peel
• scant pinch sea salt

Gently muddle a 2- or 3-inch sprig of thyme with a wide, thin piece of lemon peel and a pinch of sea salt. Add plenty of ice and the gin and vermouth. Stir and double strain. (Second one is mesh to catch the bits.) Garlic-stuffed olive.
ROWEN, FOGGED IN LOUNGE

This is exactly what it sounds like, a Dry Martini with stronger herbal notes. Think about going easy on the muddler since the thyme can get pretty assertive if you mash it hard. (I guess you could add more booze to dilute it. Heh.)

What’s that salt doing there? Why not extra olive brine? I gotta say I’m not crazy about the Dirty Martini for some reason. I understand why other people like them but to me, they always taste, uh, dirty. But a small pinch of sea salt in a cocktail like this is very nice indeed.

MxMo LXVIII: Humbug!—Snakebite

A big Fogged In thank-you to JFL of Rated R Cocktails for braving the hazards of the season to host a Mixology Monday. His theme is “Humbug!” After an evening on the town trying to find a friendly beer or two in a San Francisco filled with smug, banal, poorly socialized revelers, “humbug” seems about right.

JFL invites us to “create or find a drink that is Anti-Holiday Season, or personifies your favorite Holiday Villain.” After last night, I might just become a holiday villain myself, but maybe it’s wiser to retreat with an anti-holiday drink instead. Behold the classic Snakebite. No fake cheer here—just cider and lager. To dress it up a little, I served it with an evil clown. Everything’s better with an evil clown.

Snakebite

• 1 part beer
• 1 part cider

Built in a pint glass.
TRADITIONAL RECIPE

Samuel Smith’s Organic Lager and Crispin Natural Hard Apple Cider combine in a tasty, undemanding pint, good for drowning out those awful voices of the nitwits all around you. Humbug!

Special thanks to Dave Hauslein and everyone at Healthy Spirits for gamely playing along, as always.

Manhattan Variations: Saratoga Cocktail

DJ HawaiianShirt of Spirited Remix suggested that this Manhattan relative might make an interesting taste comparison with the more familiar standard. It’s certainly very grand, swapping half the whiskey with brandy. I went all the way and made mine with Courvoisier and 100-proof rye, just as I sometimes do with Sazeracs. The vermouth on the first round was with Martini & Rossi—good to be sure—but it was much richer when made with the dense and vanillic Carpano Antica as Paul Clarke suggests.

I made a Saratoga and a Manhattan with the same amounts of spirits, bitters and vermouth, and the housemate and I each had a half. We agreed that the Saratoga was rounder, silkier, more contemplative. The Manhattan seemed edgier, like its weight was shifted slightly forward.

I dunno that I have a preference per se except to note that for all my years in San Francisco, my feet still wanna get me everywhere in a New York minute.



Saratoga Cocktail

• 1 oz rye
• 1 oz cognac
• 1 oz sweet vermouth
• 2 dashes Angostura Bitters

Stir with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Lemon twist.

This recipe, more or less, appears in Jerry Thomas’s Bar-Tender’s Guide, as per my usual my time machine for the 19th-century cocktail, David Wondrich’s Imbibe!

Manhattan Calling: Manhattan Cocktail Links

The last few days, I’ve been running around like the proverbial decapitated chicken, but don’t suppose for a moment that I haven’t been thinking about and drinking Manhattans in my customary fashion. Below are a few links I happened to like, in no particular order.

The great gaz regan on the great whiskey potion.

And of course you gotta have Wondrich too.

Oh yeah—and Robert Hess has a video.

Then there’s the Wall Street Journal.

None of these mentions that story about Jennie Jerome having invented the Manhattan, presumably because she didn’t and it seems barely worthy of a footnote now. But it turns up now and then—I saw it in the first bar book I read—so you might as well have it. You can say that you read it in The NYT so it must be true that it’s not true. And there’s a variation at Churchill, appropriately, which is named after her, and more of a Brooklyn anyway.

Calling All Manhattans: Nihil Utopia

This one from Dagreb of Nihil Utopia arrives a bit belatedly cuz I had to fetch the Knob Creek Single Barrel for it, but very well worth the wait. The overproof bourbon balances well with the big jolt of Martini & Rossi, making for something like an ultimate bar Manhattan. And as such, it cries out for a red cherry. (Fear not—it’s naturally dyed.)



Manhattan

• 2 oz Knob Creek Single Barrel
• 1 oz Martini & Rossi Rosso
• 2 dashes Angostura Bitters

Stir well with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Cherry.
SOURCE: DAGREB, NIHIL UTOPIA

Another superb Manhattan, rich yet graceful. I’m impressed as I make each of these varied recipes how essentially Manhattan-like they all are.

Oh yeah, and in case anyone’s still wondering, I’m on a Manhattan jag, spinning favorites from callers out there in the broadcast area. Anyone can play.

Manhattan Variations: Little Italy

OK—here goes another Manhattan-like cocktail named for a neighborhood. Internet articles abound on this one, but in case you missed Audrey Saunders’ Little Italy, it’s one of my favorites of these neighborhood outings. Cynar takes the place of the Manhattan’s usual aromatic bitters to subtle and elegant effect. Audrey uses Martini & Rossi vermouth, though it seems just fine with Dolin.



Little Italy

• 2 oz rye (Rittenhouse 100)
• 3/4 oz sweet vermouth
• 1/2 oz Cynar

Stir with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Luxardo cherries with a little syrup.
SOURCE: AUDREY SAUNDERS, PEGU CLUB

That Pegu link takes you to the site for the Pegu Club in West Houston Street. For the recipe, Imbibe has a nice article, though I’m liking Chuck Taggart’s piece at Looka! as it has that cozy feeling we so appreciate here at the Lounge.

Calling All Manhattans: WDM

For those just arriving at this cocktail party, I’m blogging Manhattan recipes folks send in as well as some of the more unusual variations and sundry bits of Manhattanalia.

And the one below just goes to show that this Manhattan Cocktail party is open to all, whether you blog drinks or not. This is the first time I’ve heard from WDM—at least that I’m aware of—and I thoroughly enjoyed this Punt e Mes edition.



Manhattan

• 2 oz Rittenhouse Bonded
• 1 oz Punt e Mes
• 3 – 4 dashes Angostura Bitters

Stir with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.  Appropriate cherry garnish.
SOURCE: WDM

Rich but bright enough to be recognizable as a Manhattan. I’ve made similar many times myself, being a major Punt e Mes fan.