Skating

Greetings, folks. It’s the time of year when you might see a bowl of prefab eggnog at a party and know you shouldn’t go there, but you just can’t help but ruin your life, can you? Do you try to avoid it, or just give in right away and despise yourself for the rest of the weekend? You know it’s wrong, even as you kid yourself that the bottle of add-your-own next to it makes it all right—even legal—somehow. Like it’ll all balance out in the end. Sure, pal.

But wait—don’t touch that crap. How about a nice coconut drink instead?



Skating

• 2 1/2 oz gold Jamaica rum
• 1/4 oz Pernod
• 1/4 oz Galliano
• 1 tsp coffee brandy (Firelit Coffee Liqueur)
• 2 oz coconut milk
• 1/4 oz vanilla syrup (B.G. Reynolds’)
• 1/2 oz lemon juice

Shake hard with ice cubes and strain into a 14-ounce glass filled with crushed ice. Cherry, straw.
SOURCE: ROWEN, FOGGED IN LOUNGE

Coffee, anise and vanilla glide over a coconut-frosted rum pond. It’s wholesome—vegan, even. God Jul, Joyous Kwanzaa, grab your Gin-and-Tonic-ah, drink up.

World on a String

OK—trying to work up some holiday cheer here at the Fogged In Lounge. The housemate’s busy doing the place up. The shops look like Christmas threw up all over them. The music’s everywhere like some mad scene in a noir film. Might as well work myself into the mood since there’s no beating it.

I made this Campari-absinthe thing last night that I liked a lot. Anise, citrus, tequila, it’s red—I feel festive already. Now where’s that drink?



World on a String

• 2 oz reposado tequila
• 1 oz Campari
• 1/2 oz lemon juice
• 1 tsp absinthe
• 1 scant tsp agave syrup

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

Williams’ Orchard

I be free to go abroad,
Or take again my homeward road
To where, for me, the apple tree
Do lean down low in Linden Lea.

—William Barnes, My Orcha’d in Linden Lea (Common English version)

Today is the anniversary of the repeal of Prohibition. My celebratory offering is one I’ve been enjoying for a few days, an apple-pear brandy combo with a little ginger to brighten the winter evenings. The Poire Williams dominates, as the name suggests. For the apple brandy, I had some applejack, which worked fine, though I’d like to try it with Laird’s Bonded—my preference in such things.



Williams’ Orchard

• 2 oz apple brandy
• 3/4 oz Velvet Falernum
• 1/2 oz lime juice
• 1/4 oz Poire Williams

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

Persimmons: More Crazy Produce for the Juicer

Whenever I go grocery shopping, I always want to buy persimmons. They look so neat. But I never really know what to do with ’em. I guess I could take the trouble to find out but never do. Or at least I didn’t until I decided to try throwing one in the juicer. There were two types available so I picked up one of each. Apparently, one can be eaten firm like an apple. The other one should be allowed to ripen to mush or you’ll end up with an indigestible ball in your stomach like that chewing gum horror story your first grade teacher used to scare you with. Seriously. Anyway, a variety to eat firm is the fuyu, which resembles a squat tomato. Core like a tomato, slice it up, stick it in the juicer. One fuyu gave me 2 ounces of sweet, mild flavored juice.



Rum Fuyu

• 2 oz 10 Cane rum
• 2 oz fuyu juice
• 2 dashes Bar Keep Baked Apple Bitters

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

Very fresh and bright, and nicely balanced for sweetness. I tried not to slam it with a lot of ingredients because the persimmon is delicate. A little like pumpkin but fruitier.

Gimme a Beet

Playing with the juice extractor again to make a Thanksgiving vegetable cocktail. I went to the nearby market that juices everything to look for ready-made beet or beet combinations, but you never know what they’ll have juiced on a given day. So I did my own bloody beets, as it were, and a Granny Smith apple as well. I’ve been thinking about the possibility of a snapper-type cocktail with beet and aquavit for a while now, and here’s a first try.



Gimme a Beet

• 2 oz aquavit (Aalborg)
• 1 1/2 oz beet juice
• 1 1/2 oz fresh apple juice
• 1/2 oz lemon juice

Stir with ice and strain into a old fashioned. Ice cube or two.
SOURCE: ROWEN, FOGGED IN LOUNGE

Nicely earthy from the beets and the aquavit’s caraway, and of course the color is amazing.

Forbidden City

There was a half grapefruit in my fridge left over from the previous post, and I wanted to do something Tiki with it. This drink was inspired by descriptions of the old Forbidden Fruit pomelo liqueur, which seems to have been a fine thing indeed.



Forbidden City

• 2 oz gold Barbados rum
• 1 oz Demerara rum
• 3 oz fresh white grapefruit juice
• 1 tsp allspice dram
• 1/4 oz honey syrup (1:1)

Shake with ice cubes and strain into a large, ice-filled glass. Long grapefruit twist.
SOURCE: ROWEN, FOGGED IN LOUNGE

The twist really makes this, contributing bright, delicate grapefruit top notes over the dark molasses and spice. I took the twist with a sharp vegetable peeler, removing a little pith with my bar knife.

MxMo LXIII: North Sea Breeze

A big Fogged In thank you to Jacob Grier of Liquidity Preference for hosting this month’s Mixology Monday. Jacob’s theme is Retro Redemption, the resurrection of drinks from the not-too-distance-past, those post-war decades some still remember, yet others can only glimpse in pictures while laughing at the haircuts. We’ve been challenged to find a good recipe in all that banality, or at least find one that has the potential to be revitalized with a makeover.

For this test of mixological metaphysics, I’ve selected the Sea Breeze, a vodka-cranberry-grapefruit number popular in the 1980s, and which some would say can never really die. [Sounds of zombies moaning.] I have to say I don’t pour much vodka, which tends to disappear in mixed drinks. My favorite replacement is aquavit, which happens to go particularly well with grapefruit juice. While we’re substituting like this, I’m not that fond of prefab cranberry “cocktail,” preferring the full-strength, unsweetened, deep red juice that can be adjusted to taste. Honey goes with grapefruit and aquavit too, so that will be my sweetener.



North Sea Breeze

• 2 oz aquavit (Aalborg)
• 3 oz fresh white grapefruit juice
• 2 oz undiluted cranberry juice
• 3/4 oz honey syrup (1:1)

Stir with ice and pour unstrained into a 12-ounce glass.
SOURCE: ROWEN, FOGGED IN LOUNGE

I stirred this gently instead of shaking to avoid beating it up too much and losing the intensity of the flavors. This is more bracing and astringent than the classic Sea Breeze. The cranberry suddenly seems very Scandinavian as the tannins get together with the caraway of the aquavit.

The Formica in the photo also belongs to the Sea Breeze era.