Hold the Cucumber

The above title does not refer to a wild party game but a request I have received from a few folks—my housemate among them—to avoid using any cucumber in the preparation of food and drink. Apparently, there is a small number of people who have an intensely disagreeable response to what for most of us is a fairly bland item. Go figure.

But the cooler below creates much the same green, vegetal impression as a cucumber drink, and should avoid setting off whatever the offending receptor might be.



Cucumber Choke

• 1 1/2 oz pisco
• 1 1/2 oz Cynar
• 1/2 oz lime juice
• dash celery bitters
• 1 1/2 oz soda, or to taste

Shake all except soda, and strain into a double old fashioned. Add soda and fresh ice. Lime wheel, mint sprig.
ROWEN, FOGGED IN LOUNGE

Cynar and celery bitters seem like a natural pairing. The mint garnish contributes to the overall aroma of pseudo-cucumber-ness.

More Fun with Smoked Tea Syrup: Rain Cloud Tiger

It seems like whenever I tell people I’m taking a vacation they ask where I’m going. Go? I’m going to go home, lock the door and shudder. “Just a little moment away. I’ll be fine—really.” (Eesh.) So I’m holed up here in the Fogged In Lounge with plenty of nice things to get interested in that I don’t otherwise have much time for. It’s gray and rainy, perfect weather for listening to records, eating cereal out of the box and writing my blog.

And of course it’s perfect weather for a sherry cocktail! Recent visitors will note that I’m on a fortified wine kick, going at the amontillado like a crazed lemur. (It is a scientific fact that lemurs love Spanish fortified wines. Trust me, I’m an expert. I’m also guy who sits around on his vacation eating dry cereal.) And liking a little smoke flavor with my sherry, I’ve paired it with the rich and tasty Russian Caravan tea syrup I’ve become fond of. It’s a very versatile ingredient, adding subtle depth and complexity. I’m always on the lookout for new ways to get smoke flavors into cocktails.



Rain Cloud Tiger

• 1 1/2 oz amontillado sherry
• 3/4 oz pisco
• 1 oz lime juice
• 3/4 oz Russian Caravan tea syrup
• pinch sea salt

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

Powerful tang of the sherry-tea-lime combo up front accentuated with the hint of salt, subtle smoke and aguardiente notes rounding things out in the background.

Pisco Pilot

Now, folks—everyone should know that you shouldn’t drink and fly a plane. But you may be wondering what to do with your hands instead. Well I have the answer: paper planes. You can’t kill anyone in a paper plane. (Except if you try to get into one and go sailing out the window.) Maybe you haven’t made a plane in years. No sweat—you can find swell instructions from Alex’s Paper Airplanes. I found this site and knew I was in for hours of harmless cocktail time fun.

For a moment, I wondered if Alex would approve of having his planes plugged from a booze blog, but to my amazement and delight, Alex has a booze site too! How cool is that?




Pisco Pilot

• 2 oz pisco
• 1/2 oz maraschino
• 1/2 oz lemon juice
• 1/4 oz or less crème de violette (optional)

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

This here’s the old Aviation with pisco instead of gin. Nice and bright with a little wine-like grape note. It works pretty well, though as usual, people will have different ideas about the amount of violette, if any. More candy than perfume here.

Pisco-Sherry Sour

Making a Pisco Sour last night was great, but I’ve already started to fiddle around with it. I substituted honey syrup for the simple, and changed the proportions slightly. Just for fun, I also added a little amontillado.



For two drinks:

3 oz pisco
1 1/2 oz lime juice
1 oz honey syrup
1 oz amontillado sherry
1 egg white
A few drops Angostura bitters for garnish

Shake hard with ice to foam the egg, and strain into chilled glasses. Decorate foam with a few drops of Angostura.

Rowen, Fogged In Lounge

The egg white had a little stuff in it that I wanted to remove, so I performed the dry shake operation again, and ran the drink through a mesh strainer.

This version is light and delicate as well, but the sweet-sour-strong balance is more to my taste. The sherry and honey harmonize nicely with the base. Now I’m curious to try using one of the aromatic varieties of pisco.

Pisco Sour

The last time I had had a Pisco Sour was years ago at a neighbor’s while living in the Haight-Ashbury. Peruvian brandy and egg white sounded like a colorful hangover, but I accepted one anyway. I remember liking it but very little else about it. While I’ve learned to appreciate drinks that contain egg white, I tend to procrastinate when it comes to making them because I just don’t eat many eggs at home. When I buy them, they sit there until my housemate finally gets the urge to make an omelette. The last few eggs in the house got so old we had to toss them.

But at the start of the weekend, I was bound and determined to make at least one classic egg white drink, having looked at the recipes for so long, and settled on the Pisco Sour.

If I had limited experience with egg drinks, I had even less with Pisco. My local shop had two by De La Motta. The guy behind me in line said he used the Uvina for Pisco Sours, so I went with that. Thanks, guy.

Then I had to decide on a recipe. Lemon or lime? I sort of remembered my neighbor using lime, and she had learned about Pisco Sours in South America. As for the ratio of tart to sweet, I had to start somewhere, so I went with Gary Regan’s proportion in The Joy of Mixology of an ounce of juice to half an ounce of simple syrup. And since I was making my housemate a drink as well, one egg white for two drinks seemed fine.

The flavor was very light and elegant. The ingredients suggested it would seem more sour and boozy, but housemate and I agreed that it was a very subtle beverage.



For two drinks:

4 oz pisco
2 oz lime juice
1 oz simple syrup
1 egg white
several drops Angostura bitters for garnish

In a Boston shaker, combine pisco, lime juice, syrup and egg white, and shake with ice. (I decided to “dry shake” the drink first, that is, agitate it some without the ice to help manage blending the egg, then add the ice and shake it until cold.) Strain into an old-fashioned or sour glasses. Garnish with several dots of bitters in the center of the foam.