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.

Manhattan Variations: Coney Island

I was looking for distinctive riffs on the immortal Manhattan and spotted this chocolate version, an original by Frederic at Cocktail Virgin Slut. It’s like a cross between a Manhattan and one of those forbidden ice cream things you buy on Surf Avenue thinking you really shouldn’t but it’s like some kind of twisted heaven. It’s even got the little malty thing like the cone or the wafers or whatever. And it tastes more and more like a Manhattan and less like a kiddy ride as you get to the bottom—until you pop the red cherry.



Coney Island

• 2 oz Old Overholt
• 1/2 oz Punt e Mes
• 1/2 crème de cacao (Marie Brizard)
• 1 dash Angostura Bitters

Stir with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Maraschino cherry.
SOURCE: FREDERIC, COCKTAIL VIRGIN SLUT

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern

Still on a Mid-Century cocktail kick here at the Fogged In Lounge. Judging by the recipe booklets, liquor advertising and printed placemats of the time, they certainly liked dessert cocktails. (And I’ve known more than one older lady who ordered an Alexander or Grasshopper at any hour she perched at the bar.) I like a bit of cacao myself now and then though I don’t really want all the unbalanced sugar in most of those things. So I invented a dry after dinner cocktail—an after dinner cocktail for people who like liquor. As you’ll see, it’s got liquor in it. Enjoy.



Rosencrantz and Guildenstern

• 1 oz aquavit (Aalborg)
• 1 oz kirsch
• 1/4 oz white crème de cacao

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

Aquavit, dry cherry brandy, hint of chocolate. Looks like a Martini, tastes like Scandinavian furniture looks.

This Drink’s In Love with You

There’s an imaginary cocktail bar in my brain called the 60s where I’m in Las Vegas with the Rat Pack, in Reno with The Misfits and with Dusty in Memphis.




This Drink’s In Love with You

• 2 oz brandy
• 1/2 oz white crème de cacao
• 1/2 oz lime juice
• 2 oz soda or to taste

Shake all except soda with ice and strain into a 12-oz glass. Fresh ice to fill, soda. Lime shell, mint garnish.
SOURCE: ROWEN, FOGGED IN LOUNGE

This glass is one of a pair I received as a gift from the housemate from our local de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park. The pattern repeats in oxidized metal all over the façade of the building.

R for Rocket

I’ve been waiting for another idea for Campari and cacao. Here it is with another favorite, aquavit. Caraway goes nicely with the bittersweet notes in both Campari and cacao. (If you like caraway as much as I do, it goes with everything.)



R for Rocket

• 1 1/2 oz aquavit (Aalborg)
• 3/4 oz Campari
• 1/4 crème de cacao (Joseph Cartron cacao brun)
• 1/2 oz lime juice

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

Wood and paper rocket toy by LEAFpdx.

Bronxathon: Bronx Deco

Inspired in part by another cacao cocktail, the great Twentieth Century, I got to thinking about something Dr. Cocktail wrote about how it’s what Art Deco tastes like.

The borough of the Bronx has many fine examples of Art Deco architecture.



Bronx Deco

• 1 1/2 oz Tanqueray London dry gin
  
• 1/2 oz Punt e Mes
• 1/2 oz Lillet
  
• 1/4 oz white creme de cacao
• 3/4 oz orange juice
• 2 dashes Bittermens Xocolatl Mole bitters
• 1 dash Fee Bros orange bitters

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

I went for a subtle chocolate note here. The bitters adds some cacao and complexity without sweetness. The housemate says this is his favorite Bronx variation so far.

Twentieth Century

My favorite vermouth for the Twentieth Century is Cocchi Americano, but I believe they had some issue with importing it lately. A friend told me he put a little Angostura bitters in his Lillet for a similar effect in the Vesper which seemed inspired, so I decided to try it myself. The dash was small enough that there was little difference in color, and the experiment was fairly successful on the whole.

Question: Any news of Cocchi Americano?



Twentieth Century

• 1 1/2 oz gin
• 3/4 oz Lillet Blonde
• 1/2 oz white crème de cacao
• 3/4 oz lemon juice
• (1 small dash Angostura bitters)

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

Adapted from Ted Haigh, a.ka. Dr. Cocktail, Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails