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.

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.

Manhattan Calling: Vermouth!

My refrigerator’s always crowded with a bunch of bottles of vermouth and related wines—probably a typical state of affairs for a cocktail enthusiast. You might think my current Manhattan kick should help use all that stuff down but it’ll probably have the opposite effect. In fact, it already has. I try to restrain myself and concentrate on drinks that can be made from the open ones, but vermouths are not quite interchangeable and I want them all.



Swell sweet vermouth links in no particular order:

Vermouth 101 by Martin Doudoroff.

The folks at Summer Fruit Cup review an astonishing total of 18 red vermouths.

Make vermouth! Haven’t tried myself but Serious Eats has a recipe.

French vermouth production at Noilly Prat with Camper English at Alcademics.

Classic Manhattan vermouth taste test post by Anita at Married with Dinner.

Penthouse and Attic

By a strange and wonderful coincidence, a bottle of ouzo was given to me by another colleague one year after the previous bottle. Santa must’ve heard I like anise or something. Whatever’s going on out there, I just wanna say to one and all that ouzo makes a fine gift. Really digging the ouzo.

Last year, I complimented it with dry vermouth, so I decided to try it with sweet vermouth instead. Again, it’s soft and elegant with a little vanilla note that’s rich without being too candy.



Penthouse and Attic

• 2 oz dry gin
• 1/2 oz sweet vermouth (Carpano Antica)
• 1/4 ouzo (Metaxa)
• 2 dashes Regans’s No. 6 Orange Bitters

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

Aquavit and French

There are a few variations of the Dry Martini recipe remixed with aquavit. Here I’ve decided to follow the Martini proportions from the 1906 version by Charlie Mahoney that appears in David Wondrich’s Imbibe! So far, this is my favorite classic cocktail with aquavit. The spirit really shines, and the drink seems more assertive than the gin version. I have to say that for this particular ratio of spirit to vermouth, I actually like aquavit better than the original.



Aquavit and French

• 1 1/2 oz aquavit (Aalborg)
• 1 1/2 oz dry vermouth
• 1 dash orange bitters (Angostura Orange)

Stir with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Lemon twist.
SOURCE: BASED ON CHARLIE MAHONEY’S “MAHONEY COCKTAIL,” DAVID WONDRICH, IMBIBE!

The gin one calls for an orange twist. I had a lemon. The drink’s a bit small for the glass in the photo but it was the best one I had to capture the turn-of-the-century feel of this.

Reverse Martini

You sometimes see an article that attempts to persuade people who think they don’t like gin that they’ve just had a bad drink. (Usually the case.) The Reverse Martini might do the same for the reputation of vermouth. I doubt many people in so-called Martini bars have any idea what vermouth tastes like. If they do, it was a nip of the stuff they picked up cheap and tasted warm, then left open in the cupboard to oxidize for the next several years. All those customers who are told they want a Martini made with that goofy atomizer should try a decent vermouth drink with a reliable brand that’s been stored they way you would an open bottle of wine, which is what vermouth is.

Reportedly, Julia Child liked this cocktail. She had taste and liked a bit of booze as much as the next, so she ought to have known.



Reverse Martini

• 2 oz dry vermouth (Dolin)
  
• 1/2 oz dry gin (Tanqueray)
  
• 1-2 dashes orange bitters (Angostura Orange)
  

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

I’ve taken my standard Martini recipe and just inverted it. The housemate and I tried a Cocchi Americano one too, which was richer and very different. He liked the Cocchi a little better than I did, though both were good pre-prandial cocktails.

Concorde

This combination of flavors has been in my head for a while: off-dry, gin and lime, a white wine note. As much as I’m taken with Fever Tree ginger beer lately, I used Reed’s for this to compliment the subtlety of white vermouth. You could use a spicier ginger beer but reduce the amount.



Concorde

• 1 1/2 oz gin
• 1 1/2 oz dry vermouth
• 1/2 oz lime
• about 4 oz ginger beer (Reed’s Extra Ginger)

Stir all but ginger beer with ice cubes and pour into a 10 oz glass. Fill with ginger beer. Lime garnish.
SOURCE: ROWEN, FOGGED IN LOUNGE