Black Jack David

Several cocktails had denuded an orange of all its peel and it was time to squeeze before it went bad. I could’ve made a Bronx or a Ward Eight but kept thinking about the allspice dram from the previous post. Here it is with rye and rum, a beautiful combination.



Black Jack David

• 1 1/2 rye (Rittenhouse)
• 1/2 oz Lemon Hart 151
• 3/4 oz orange juice
• 3/4 oz lemon juice
• 1/4 oz cherry brandy (Heering)
• 1/4 oz allspice dram

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

Rich, spicy and fruity without being heavy or very sweet. Nice with last night’s summer fog.

Sarsparilla Whiskers

I finally broke down and bought Root by Art of the Age. A fan of root beer as a kid, I thought Root looked delicious, but I didn’t really have an idea for it. Each time, I just smiled at it and remembered a camping trip in my early 20s with some friends and a bottle of schnapps.

Root isn’t much like root beer schnapps. For one thing, it’s much, much drier. And it’s the real deal: thirteen botanicals including the cane sugar, illustrated beautifully on the back label. And it is indeed delicious, calling to mind other herbal blockbusters like absinthe and Fernet Branca. I thought right away of a rye cocktail.



Sarsparilla Whiskers

• 2 oz rye (Dickel)
• 3/4 oz Root
• 1 dash absinthe
• 1 dash Bittercube Jamaica Bitters #2

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

People seem to feel strongly one way or the other about herbal digestifs. Root beer is polarizing as well. (The English people I’ve asked don’t seem to care for it. “Almost spat it out.” Maybe you have to be born in North America.)

Booze Up Your Sherry

When it comes to wine cocktails, I find there’s no flavor compliment more felicitous than a good slug of liquor. The drink below by yours truly is an equal parts trio like Whispers of the Frost except with rum instead of port. Puerto Rican rum is a good choice for this Manhattan-type drink, though a more full-bodied style like Pampero Aniversario seems appropriate and would add interest.



W 67th St

• 1 oz rye
• 1 oz gold rum
• 1 oz East India Solera sherry
• 2 dashes Angostura Bitters

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

For the sherry, East India Solera was what I happened to have though anything in the medium-to-cream zone would probably work. Or use madeira.

Manhattan Variations: Bushwick

Here’s a Brooklyn with sweet vermouth instead of dry. I had wondered if it might be slightly too heavy for my taste but ended up enjoying it. The inspiration of bartender Phil Ward, it was brought to my attention by Keith P, who writes theSpeakista and has a fine Manhattan series of his own.



Bushwick

• 2 oz rye (Rittenhouse 100)
• 3/4 oz sweet vermouth (Carpano Antica)
• 1/4 oz Torani Amer
• 1/4 oz Maraschino (Luxardo)

Stir with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
SOURCE: PHIL WARD, BY WAY OF THESPEAKISTA

Richer than the original Brooklyn, there’s a Red Hookish darkness from the sweet vermouth that I may even prefer in this sort of arrangement to dry vermouth.

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 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.

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

Calling All Manhattans: The Pegu Blog

For those of you just joining us, I’ve asked folks to send in their thoughts on the venerable Manhattan Cocktail, and I’ll make and blog whatever recipes I can manage through the end of September, making allowances for the availability of brands and whether or not my fingers develop rigor mortis around the barspoon.

Doug at the The Pegu Blog has thoughts of his own on this eternal cocktail. Judging by the results of my attempt to follow his instructions, I must’ve done something right, as this was a rich, boozy, spicy rye number after my own heart. Doug suggested Russell’s 6 or Rittenhouse—both favorites here at the Lounge, though Rittenhouse was what I had on hand. No mention of a vermouth brand so I hope Carpano Antica was acceptable for this recipe. Sure tasted good.



Manhattan

• 2 1/4 oz Rittenhouse 100
• 3/4 oz Carpano Antica Formula
• 4 dashes Angostura Bitters

Stir with ice—for crying out loud, stir—and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Brandied cherry.
SOURCE: DOUG WINSHIP, THE PEGU BLOG

All that Angostura? Yup, and I spiked the bottle, too, all you drippers. With big rye and dense vermouth, why fool around? Tasty.

Manhattan Variations: Remember the Maine

Maybe there ought to be a few more drinks named for historical events so they’d stand a better chance of being remembered. One time I was in a bar, looking casually at some photos of planes and airmen on the wall, when along came a friendly guy who wanted to tell me and my friend all about them. Military history buffs are often remarkable people but the best of them understand whether a stranger two tables away might or might not have a desire to know immediately how those six fellows happened to be in China.

I don’t read a lot of military history. But if every drink on the menu contained some historical fact in the name or description, I could have learned them all before I had even ordered, and countered with some trivia of my own. Think of the educational value alone if we incorporated historical allusions with our cocktail lists. I bet you could teach the average sorority girl the entire Second World War.



Remember the Maine

• 2 oz rye
• 3/4 oz sweet vermouth
• 2 tsp cherry brandy
• 1/2 tsp absinthe

Stir with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Lemon twist.
ADAPTED FROM THE GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, CHARLES H. BAKER, JR.

This was my first recipe with Rothman & Winter Orchard Cherry. It’s lighter in color and flavor than Cherry Heering. I don’t know that I have a preference either way, though the Orchard Cherry was good with the similarly light and clear Dolin Rouge vermouth.

I borrowed the recipe off my fellow cocktail bloggers. Paul manages to work in a McKinley reference. Filip has a grand picture.

Ward Eight

Sort of an expanded whiskey sour, this classic is supposed to be from the 19th century though it doesn’t really feel much like that kind of drink. And it probably isn’t, or at least not the one below. Even David Wondrich’s chosen recipe in Imbibe! is post-repeal. This really seems like the 20th century, at home in the 1930s and oddly more so in the 60s or 70s with its orange juice and touch of grenadine. I like the proportions given in Wondrich’s Esquire article. The Lock-Ober recipe is similar.



Ward Eight

• 2 1/2 oz rye
• 3/4 oz fresh orange juice
• 3/4 oz fresh lemon juice
• 1 tsp grenadine

Shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Amarena or brandied cherry.
SOURCE: COMPOSITE

Trick Pony

She hides
The television
Says I don’t owe him nothing,
But if he comes back again
Tell him to wait right here for me
Or,
Try again tomorrow
I’m gonna kick tomorrow
I’m gonna kick tomorrow

—Jane Says, Perry Farrell/Jane’s Addiction

Trick Pony

• 2 oz Rittenhouse Rye 100 Proof
• 1/2 oz Amaro Nonino
• 1/4 oz Ardbeg Single Malt
• scant tsp simple syrup, 2:1
• 2 dashes Bitter Truth Xocolatl Mole bitters

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

Willett Rye

I bounced into my local with a grin and told the bartender, “I got me a new baby—Willett Rye!” I had it there several days before when the other guy was on. Unless I’m in a cocktailian bar, I almost always drink Manhattans if the place can actually make a cocktail. It’s sort of endearing to be remembered for a drink—something that doesn’t happen to me as much since I left off drinking neat scotch. And as I still like some alcoholic heat, I was very excited to find Willett. The bottle of single barrel rye I went out and bought within that hour was a 4-year at 55 percent alcohol. Mixed with a sufficiency of Carpano Antica and Angostura Bitters, it’s like driving a sofa down the freeway.

Fort Greene

This cocktail owes some inspiration to the Slope, which Frederic posted last week and I wanted to try. But it would’ve meant opening a bottle of Punt e Mes, and my fridge was looking a little overcrowded with similar bottles of aromatized wine and the like. I reached for the sherry instead.

Like the Slope, Fort Greene is a neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York.



Fort Greene

• 2 oz rye
• 1/2 oz Amontillado sherry
• 1/4 oz apricot brandy
• dash Angostura Bitters

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

Monte Carlo

When I was first getting interested in mixed drinks, I made this for a good-sized cocktail party, cranking it out in batches. Flinty-dry white Bordeaux was also on offer. I don’t remember how I did it that time (especially with a blitz of canapés too), but surely would’ve used Angostura Bitters. Jeff Hollinger and Rob Schwartz suggest Peychaud’s, which seems like a nice touch with the rye. For the proportions, I went with the Robert Hess version this time.



Monte Carlo Cocktail

• 2 oz rye
• 1/2 oz Bénédictine
• 2 dashes Angostura or Peychaud’s Bitters

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

For the rye, I went with Rittenhouse 100, which did a nice job of drying down the Bénédictine. Some versions mention the lemon twist, others don’t. I like it, particularly with Peychaud’s.

Vanilla Whiskey Skin

Sounds oddly salacious, don’t it? Thanks to Nancy of The Backyard Bartender for hosting this Mixology Monday. Her theme is Some Like it Hot—“make anything you want to, so long as it’s hot.” OK—I’m feeling a little worn out from the recent adventure in New York so here’s an easy one. David Wondrich says a toddy with lemon peel is a skin. Vanilla syrup sounded soothing after reading about Tiare’s Vanilla Smash.



Vanilla Whiskey Skin

• 2 oz Rittenhouse rye (100 proof)
• 2 tsp vanilla syrup
• lemon peel
• 4 oz hot water

Combine in a heat-proof glass.
SOURCE: ADAPTED FROM BASIC WHISKEY SKIN, DAVID WONDRICH, IMBIBE!

Redeemed Leftovers: Peach-Rum Syrup

Hey—maybe not my most innovative, but it’s a small triumph when my leftovers don’t actually creep me out. One summer Sunday evening, I was trying to be seasonal and also not end dinner with a huge blob of fat for dessert. So I poached peaches. They were pretty cool, as that sort of thing goes. I added some gold Jamaica rum to the syrup—maybe a quarter to a half a cup. So at the end there was this slightly peach and rum flavored byproduct that was too good to discard. It was so subtle that a recipe didn’t immediately come to mind, but I figured I’d stick in anything that called for simple syrup. No longer would it be That Weird Thing I Made but an actual ingredient—one that plays well with brown booze. I’ll be poaching fruit for dessert again soon.



Savannah Sazerac

• 2 oz rye (Sazerac)
• 1/2 tsp leftover peach-rum syrup
• 1/4 tsp absinthe
• 6 dashes Peychaud’s bitters
• 2-3 drops Angostura bitters
• Lemon twist

Stir with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Express the lemon oil from the twist along the rim of the glass and over the drink, and drop it in or discard it.
SOURCE: COMPOSITE, ADAPTED BY ROWEN, FOGGED IN LOUNGE



Brugal Old Fashioned

• 2 oz Brugal Añejo rum
• 1 tsp leftover peach-rum syrup
• 1-2 dashes Angostura Bitters
• 1-2 dashes Peychaud’s Bitters
• Splash of water
• Strip of lime peel

The lime peel only works with a fairly fresh, perky lime and a sharp vegetable peeler. Take a good-sized strip of green off the outside of the lime and bruise it well with a muddler in a glass with the syrup. Add the bitters and a piece of ice or two. Add the spirits and the splash, and give it a stir.
SOURCE: COMPOSITE, ADAPTED BY ROWEN, FOGGED IN LOUNGE

I’d give you a recipe for poached peaches, but I don’t really remember exactly, and c’mon, it’s not brain surgery: peeled peach halves, sugar, water, rum at the end so you don’t cook it too much. Y’know—poached peaches.

The Delmarva Cocktail

I could drink these all day. I could say the name over and over again. C’mon—say it with me: Del-MAAAR-va. Wasn’t that fun? Fascinating as it sounds, I gotta admit I had to look it up. In case anybody else doesn’t know where the name comes from, here’s a hint: it’s three states. And it’s the area that Ted “Dr. Cocktail” Haigh comes from, and this drink is his invention.

There are variations by Gary Regan that change the liqueur, one of which was posted by Paul Clarke in The Cocktail Chronicles, and resembles the Twentieth Century. (Hm—my last post referenced Paul too. Wonderful stuff but I gotta get out more—especially if it would increase the likelihood that someone would offer me a Delmarva Cocktail.)



The Delmarva Cocktail

• 2 oz rye
• 1/2 oz white creme de menthe
• 1/2 oz dry vermouth
• 1/2 oz lemon juice

Stir with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a mint leaf.

Source: Gary Regan, The Joy of Mixology, adapted from a recipe from Ted "Dr. Cocktail" Haigh

Red Hook

I first found the Red Hook a few years ago in a great post by Paul Clarke. Named for an area of my old hometown, Brooklyn, New York, this rye cocktail is an appropriately edgy and solid relative of the Brooklyn and the Manhattan. I’ve become very fond of it and keep it in regular rotation, adding a lemon twist to brighten things up and compliment the rye.



Red Hook

• 2 oz rye
• 1/2 oz Punt e Mes
• 1/4 oz maraschino

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

Source: adapted from a recipe posted by Paul Clarke, The Cocktail Chronicles

The Brooklyn Cocktail

Maerose Prizzi: So let's do it.
Charley Partanna: With all the lights on?
Maerose Prizzi: Yeah. Right here. On the Oriental. With all the lights on.

—Prizzi’s Honor (1985)

It wasn’t until I moved all the way across the country that I learned of this beautiful cocktail named for my homeland. It’s every bit as delicious and sophisticated as the Manhattan, but its ingredients are a little harder to come by, and it has four of ’em instead of three. “Welcome to Brooklyn: Fourth Largest City in the World.”



The Brooklyn Cocktail

• 2 oz rye or bourbon (Rittenhouse 100)
• 3/4 oz dry vermouth (Dolin)
• 2 tsp Torani Amer
• 2 tsp maraschino liqueur

Stir with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a cocktail cherry—homemade, if you happen to have.

Source: Ted Haigh, a.ka. Dr. Cocktail, Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails