Grapefruit Aperitif Cocktails with Wine

Two great and geographically related fortified wines combined with fresh pink grapefruit and bitters for light cocktails to begin a summer dinner. The first one features madeira and allspice notes from Jerry Thomas’ decanter bitters; the second is made with white port and lavender bitters. I just got the Bar Keep Lavender Bitters and really like them.



Ribeiro

• 2 oz madeira (medium-rich)
• 2 oz pink grapefruit juice
• 1 dash Jerry Thomas’ Own Decanter Bitters (Bitter Truth)

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



Vicente

• 2 oz white port
• 2 oz pink grapefruit juice
• 2 dashes lavender bitters (Bar Keep)

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

One grapefruit does two drinks. Strain the pulp. It seems like I ought to say that fresh juice is essential here, but if you’re cooking the sort of dinner these things would go in front of, you probably knew that anyway.

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.

MxMo LXXIV: Cherries—Silver Spurs

A very warm Fogged In thank-you to Andrea of Gin Hound for Hosting this month’s Mixology Monday, and for her excellent theme, cherries. These stone fruits are essential to so many great and varied cocktails that it took me a while to decide on a direction that I hadn’t explored before. But lately I’ve been working with wine-based ingredients, which suggested a cherry-sherry combination. Tequila seemed a natural compliment to both.



Silver Spurs

• 1 1/2 oz blanco tequila
• 3/4 oz amontillado sherry
• 1 barspoon Maraschino liqueur
• About 1/2 tsp mezcal

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

Off-dry; delicate fruit and florals. Black pepper from the tequila softened by the sherry.

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.

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.