MixMarch #31: The Last Word

Wow, March has sure flown by. A trip to New Zealand, some of the finest drinks I’ve laid lips on, the delivery of, if not a library of cocktail books, at least a start. Embury, Thomas, Wondrich, Calabrese, DeGroff & Ted Haigh all arrived to learn me some good mixing. Jerry Thomas even friended me on facebook! Not bad for a man who’s been dead 125 years.

I’ve managed well more than a post a day for the month of March, picked up some new readers and even a few who make a comment or two. It’s time for me now to get back out into the bars of Sydney (plus a little jaunt to Melbourne at the end of April)

I was trying to think of an appropriate cocktail with which to conclude MixMarch, and one stood out above all others. The Last Word is another of those fine cocktails to balance perfectly at equal measures, and this Carthustian elixir delivers a chewy, full and ultimately delightful finish.

The Last Word.

20mls each of Green Chartreuse, Gin, Maraschino liqueur & freshly squeezed lime juice. Shake over ice and strain up. The last word requires no garnish, simply a quiet reflection on a day well spent and a drink well deserved.

MixMarch #30: The 1951 Martini

One of the joys of Cocktail World Cup in Queenstown was listening to Vernon Chalker, Australia’s Most Infulential Person in the Bar Industry, wax lyrical about his first and favourite love, the Martini.

It is the simplest of drinks often butchered. A martini should have two ingredients, three at a push, with a garnish that compliments the drink. Lightning in a bottle, perfection in a glass, simplicity personified. A Dry Martini, well made, does not need anything else.

But,

What if you add something else? A small change, a tweak, a nuance? something that adds layers and mystique?

This Martini won a Martini competition in 1951. It is excellent. There truly are no other words.

The 1951 Martini

Take an extremely cold martini glass and aromatise it with Cointreau. This can be done by pouring a little in the glass, swooshing it round and expelling any excess. You could also use one of those little spray bottles too. The object is to coat the glass with a film of the Orange liqueur.

In an iced tin, stir a healthy splash of vermouth to coat the cubes and dissolve any cheeky shards of ices, discard the liquid, retaining the ice. Pour in between 60 and 90 mls of Gin, I like Tanqueray, but decide for yourself. The amount of gin should reflect your thirst and the size of your vessel. Strain into the aromatised glass and adorn with an anchovy stuffed olive.

The oily film of liqueur, the funky anchovy in the olive, the dryness of the martini. Damn this drink works.

MixMarch #29: The Flying Dutchman

Updating the Classics is a tricky business. You are taking a recipe that is loved by people around the world. It’s a fucking hard thing to do with any level of success. Imagine my surprise then, when American Bartender of the Year, Jim Meehan, stepped up to update both a classic and one of my favourite drinks, the Aviation Cocktail.

I’ve tried a few updates on the Aviation, and most end up like the Cherry Aviation at Pocket Bar in Burton St, too sweet, too different, just not really at all like the Cocktail they’re supposed to be channeling.

This is so very different to that scenario.

Jim’s drink amplifys everything I love about the Aviation, Strong, Sour and fruity floral. Sitting at home back in Sydney, I’m ready to book a ticket, pack my bags and fly half way around the world just so he can make me another one.

The Flying Dutchman

.75 oz. (22.5mls) Clear Creek Plum Brandy, .75 oz. (22.5mls) Bols Genever, .5 oz. (15mls) Creme Yvette .5 oz. (15mls)Lemon Juice, .5 oz. (15mls) Pineapple Juice, 1 Barspoon (5mls) of Luxardo Maraschino

Shake with ice and fine strain into a chilled coupe

Garnish with one brandied cherry

(Jim Meehan, Winter 2010)

An ancestor of the Aviation Cocktail, first published in Hugo Ensslin’s Recipes for Mixed Drinks in 1916, this blue plum, pineapple, cherry and violet accented sour references Dutch genever, not the cursed ship forever lost at sea.

MixMarch #28: The World’s Biggest Flip

Flips are notoriously hard to get right. the taste, the consistency and the fact most people seem to have some issue with eating raw eggs (they will not, so long as they are fresh) all work against them. It was with some degree of trepidation, then, that I took part in the World’s largest flip last night at Hawthorn.

The World’s Biggest Flip.

To start, combine 13 eggs with 300mls of cream. whisk to ensure a smooth consistency.

In a 42Below Magnum, combine 250mls PX Sherry, 180mls 42Below Manuka Honey vodka, the egg and cream mixture, 1 bottle (750 mls) 42Below Pure vodka. Shake well. Pour into a rocks glass over a large ice cube. Garnish with fresh spices. Serves 25.

MixMarch #27: The Tao of Pu

Jim Meehan, owner of PDT in New York, doesn’t like vodka. That makes him at the very least a very strange choice for a judge at a vodka contest.

Or, at least, he didn’t. Jim, recently named American Bartender of the Year, has just put a Carlson vodka Old Fashioned on the list at PDT (recently named Bar of the Year, as well)

Making cocktails in front of a tired but extremely interested crowd of the best young talent from behind bars around the world, Jim said the hatred that bartenders had for vodka as an agent of erosion of the skills, craft and taste of cocktails is quickly becoming a thing of the past. People like having great drinks, they’ll drink Gin, Tequila, Genever and not blindly ask for a replacement with the neutral spirits.

This drink was introduced as the one that had to be made to get Jim down to NZ, but for a Honeylover, it’s something quite special.

The Tao of Pu

30mls Coconut water, 15mls 42Below Manuka Honey vodka, 15mls Galliano Liqueur, 3 dashes Fee Brothers Lemon Bitters.

Shake, strain and serve up.

MixMarch #26: The Pharmacological Stimulant

Dick Bradsel came up with this drink at a Bar called the Pharmacy in London. There are legends of a supermodel walking in and asking for a drink to “wake her up and fuck her up”. I’m not sure if that actually happened but in the voice of Steve Coogan, playing Mancunian impresario Tony Wilson, “If you have to choose between truth and the legend, choose the legend.”

This little version was served up last night at the Modern Martini challenge at Mojo coffee headquarters in Wellington. The coffee is roasted a whole ten feet from where the drink was made, so I reckon this might just have been the best drink in the world, for a few minutes, at least. When coffee is this good, you don’t to add sugar.

The Pharmacological Stimulant

60mls 42Below Manuka Honey vodka, 30mls of the finest coffee, freshly made. Garnish with three beans, repeat until your eyes stay open like they’re held there like matchsticks.

MixMarch #25: The B&B

The second drink that Simon Difford made at his Masterclass session was the B&B. A fusion of vodka and tequila, the B&B is named for Professor Jacob Briars and Julio Bermejo, of Tommy’s Restaurant in San Franciso.

The drink features another of Simon’s soon to be released range of cocktail bitters, this time Lavender. It also uses Agave Sec, a Triple Sec sweetend with the syrup of the fruit of tequila itself.

The B&B

30mls 42Below Manuka Honey vodka, 30mls Herradura tequila, 22.5mls Agave Sec, 15mls lime juice, 3 dashes Difford’s Lavender bitters. Shake over ice and strain up.

MixMarch #24: Whoop It Up

Simon Difford had pulled together one of the most comprehensive websites in the world, Difford’s Guide. He also publishes Class Magazine. To top it all off he loves a Daiquiri. He talked yesterday at Cocktail World Cup and made a few drinks. This was one of them, You might have to wait just a moment to make it, as Simon’s Bitters are not yet in General availability, but hold tight, they’re on their way…

The Whoop It Up

30mls Bacardi, 30mls 42Below Manuka Honey Vodka, 15mls Benedictine, 7.5mls Canton Ginger Liqueur, 15mls Lemon Juice, 3 dashes Diffords Daiquiri Bitters. Shake, strain and serve up.

Whoop, Whoop!

MixMarch #23: The Bacchus Reisling

The Bacchus Reisling is possibly the most complex cocktail I’ve listed on this site, certainly right up there with the Alamagoozulum. Invented for the 2007 Cocktail World Cup, and garnering a second place for Riki Carter, Chris Harup and Kyle Simpson, The 42Below Vineyard 2007 Bacchus Reisling takes ingredients from the local region in an attempt to emulate the fruitful Central Otago style. Featuring 42Below Passionfruit, described by Professor Jacob Briars as “The most passionate of all vodkas”, this is a drink that is a real delight.

It also pairs nicely with fish.

The Bacchus Reisling

30mls 42Below Passionfruit, 15mlsLillet Blanc, 15mls RinQinQin (a peachy brandy ‘secret ingredient’), 5mls Speyside Scotch, 5mls Barenjager Honey Liqueur, 10mls Calvados, 25mls Verjuice (Gibbston Valley for a preference) 10mls fresh grapefruit juice, 2 thyme sprigs.

Combine all ingredients in a shaker over ice, Shake like you’re in the most beautiful place in the world and strain into a reisling glass.  a amended after comment by Riki Carter, creator of this drink.

Please dont shake the cocktails stir lovingly and double strain in to a glass pre rinsed with fresh thyme and the glenlivet whisky

Here’s the original.

MixMarch #22: The Vodka Cocktail

I’m sitting in the Koru Lounge waiting with anticipation for my flight to Queenstown and 42Below’s Cocktail World Cup. This once evry odd yearly event represents a pinnacle in bar tending & cocktail events worldwide. Where most events are held inside the darkened halls of the bar world, or in stuffy private clubs, Cocktail World Cup showcases the home of 42Below and challenges bartenders to compete, learn and experience the wonderful place that is New Zealand.

The Vodka Cocktail

Take 42 bartenders from right around the world, muddle gently until they’re all in Queenstown. Add one part amazing scenery, two parts adventure sports and a dash of the Rockstar lifestyle. Mix vigorously from Queenstown to Wellington and serve up with a massive fanfare on a production stage. This drink should be served with at least one Fergburger on the side.

I’ll be at Cocktail World Cup all week, seeing what these bartenders will bring to the glass is an exciting proposition and the team at 42 never fails to deliver an amazingly hospitable time. Look forward to a week of great content.

Oh, and I musn’t forget the cocktail you can drink…

True 42

Fill a Rocks glass with ice, and squeeze in 3 wedges of lime. Add one part of 42BELOW vodka, and stir well.  Fill with ice again, and squeeze in more lime, and add remaining 42BELOW vodka.  Stir well again, and serve.

MixMarch #21: The Shanghai Cocktail

Paris of the East, Whore of the Orient, City of Broken Dreams. Shanghai sprung from the brackish marshlands near the mouth of the Yangtze River only a few hundred years ago. It was handed, probably in jest, to the invading laowai who had proved themselves to give up the foisting of opium addiction on the people of China, if only to assuage their own addiction to the brewing leaves of tea.

Shanghai is a city that reinvents itself, almost on a daily basis. The old is swept away to make way for the new. Romance lives right there in the streets, with its kindred spirits, heartbreak and poverty. Sights, sounds and smells assualt the senses.

Embury’s Shanghai Cocktail could indeed have sprung from those very same brackish waters. It is a cocktail that balances but also is quite unlike anything I have tried before. It has a smell of leftover Christmas Cake and spices swimming in, well, something. It’s not that I hate it, I’m just not sure I’ve got my head around it yet. I think I might try it with rum next…

The Shanghai Cocktail

5mls Cointreau, 10mls lime juice, 10mls Sweet Vermouth, 40mls Rye Whiskey. Shake over ice and strain.

MixMarch #20: Julep #1

Still working my way through The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks and stumbled into Julep country. Mr Embury has an obvious passion for the Bourbon Slushy so I thought I’d try my hand.

Juleps come from a time when spirits were commonplace in drinks at any time a clock could show, and the Minted Julep offered a cool, refreshing respite while sitting on the porch, watching your workforce toil in the cotton fields. With the current Bourbon revival in full swing, this is a drink that is sure to making more of an appearance in the coming year.

Julep #1

Place your metal vessel in the freezer ahead of time, getting a good frost is key to the look and feel of a Julep and a frozen cup makes this much easier to achieve.

In a bar glass place three dashes of Angostura bitters*, 15mls of simple syrup and 12 fresh mint leaves. Give these a gentle muddle, to much vigor will taint the drink with a bitter aftertaste, so take your time and tease the oils out. And a generous measure (at least 60mls) of bourbon to this mixture and set it to one side.

Take your frozen vessel from the freezer and fill it with crushed ice. If you have a machine, use that, but beating cubes in a clean tea towel works too.

Pour in the minty bourbon, giving the ice a stir with up and down movements to ensure the correct slushy consistency and to accelerate the frosty exterior. Top the cup with more crushed ice so it’s full to the brim, or heaped like a Taiwanese snow cone. Add two short straws and a garnish of mint, the tips of the plant make the best looking garnishes. Exhale deeply and enjoy this truly superior drink.

*I’ve never come across another recipe that calls for angostura and I did think it a little odd from the outset, however, it delivers a Julep of unusual character, just as Embury promises.

P.S. I do believe this might just be the prettiest looking drink I’ve ever made.

MixMarch #19: The Bronx

David demands drinks definitively dry. The Bronx delivers, and how.

My second delve into The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks landed me in New York. Everyone knows the Manhattan, not so many have an intimate knowledge of the Bronx. This Gin strong, dry cocktail with a hint of herb each way from the pair of vermouths really impressed me. It was, like a lot of the drinks Embury favours, bone dry on the first sip, but the second sip was bliss. This one is a new fast favourite.

From a more historical perspective, The Bronx was number 3 on a list of the top ten most popular cocktails in 1934. Oh! how far the mighty have fallen…

The Bronx Cocktail.

7.5mls Sweet Vermouth (Martini Rosso), 7.5mls Dry Vermouth (Noilly Prat), 7.5mls Freshly squeezed orange juice, 45mls Yellow Gin (Tanqueray 10) combine all ingredients over ice, shake and serve up, with a twist of orange peel.

I am sure someone will call me on the fact the Tanqueray is not Yellow Gin. I concur, Yellow Gin is very hard to come by, being London Dry Gin aged in oak casks. It would be more proper to use Oude Genever perhaps, but I am all tapped out after my recent escapades in the Land of Dutch Gin. I would also be interested in a known source of Yellow Gin, should one become available…

MixMarch #18: Lotus Club Special

My copy of David Embury’s The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks arrived last night. Once the gauche dustcover that was obviously designed by a blind man in the late seventies was removed I was quite taken by the powder blue embossed hardcover and sat down to read the words I have heard so much about.

Embury would have done extremely well in a world of social media, and there is little wonder in my mind why his book has remained popular. He exudes a point of view, not content with listing ingredients or defining methods, he defines opinion. He is right, and you, dear reader, are most likely wrong and have been for some time, for that matter.

After thumbing through the pages, wondering what I would make, I stumbled on the section containing the Sazerac. It seems very clear that Embury was not a fan, claiming the drink satisfied neither whiskey fans nor those with a taste for herbsaint or absinthe. He goes so far as to call the drink an old fashioned flavoured with absinthe and to declare that he had never met a Sazerac fanatic, even in Nawlins.

I felt the grate a little on this, being as I am, a Sazerac fanatic. While the taste does perhaps not permit the best of either the base nor modifier to shine through, it is the interplay between them that makes me love this drink. That ordering one requires a bartender to make a little effort and is usually the start of a discussion and a number of drinks. For me, at least, the Sazerac is very much an “enlivening tonic”.

Embury focuses on cutting the corners from the somewhat finnickity practices of the absinthe wash that make a Sazerac so time consuming and offers up this method in its place.

The Lotus Club Special

In a rocks glass, place a sugar cube soaked with three dashes of Peychaud’s bitters, a few drops of absinthe and a small amount of whiskey. Muddle the sugar and stir thoroughly until dissolved. Add a curative measure of Whiskey and stir in ice until the drink is cold and the glass covered in condensate. Garnish with the peel of lemon.

I used the La Perruse 100% cane sugar cubes, about 5mls of Green Fairy absinthe at 75%abv and a slug of about 60mls of Jim Beam Rye Whiskey to make the drink in the picture. It was delicious, a little muddier than the carefully prepared Sazerac, but the time saving means I’ll be doing it again…

I think Mr. Embury ande I are going to have a lot of fun together.

MixMarch #17: The South Ireland Sour

No, there hasn’t been a terrorist attack, it St Patrick’s Day. A day for everyone on earth to pretend they’re Irish, hang up their moral compass and run naked through the streets of common sense. In Chicago, they like it so much they’ll poison their rivers with “organic” food colouring. In order to properly honour this day of days, I present to you, dear reader, The South Ireland Sour.

This drink is the brainchild of Jacob Briars, enfant terrible of the international bar cheffing community, voted second most likely to blow up the Houses of Parliament by his year 2 classmates and 42Below‘s Professor of vodka.

Briar’s came up with the idea for the drink whilst undertaking a walking tour of Ireland’s bog snorkelling arena. Up to his eyeballs in Bog Violet and tadpoles, the most unusal pairing of Feijoa and Guinness entered his mind, and stayed there, despite numerous attempts to scour it out with Bushmills at a Cork Hotel later that evening.

It was not until Jacob made it back to New Munster that this curious recipe got to see the light of day. And so it was, at the 2007 Cocktail World Cup in Queenstown, New Zealand, the drink was shook. And poured, and supped.

The first remarks were “that has the look of filthy pondwater” quickly followed by “that’s a hell of a drink”

So, go on, get a little Irish in ya.

The South Ireland Sour*

Take equal parts Guinness, 42Below Feijoa Vodka, Simple Syrup and fresh lemon juice. Add a dash of fresh egg white. Ice and shake like you’ve lost ownsership of all your lands and you’ve naught to eat but pa-tay-tas. Strain up. Obvious garnish choices would include a four-leaf clover, a leprechaun or the false hopes of a technology led economy.

*Just in case there’s Americans reading this who otherwise might miss the witty subtext: Cork, where the drink was conceived is in the county of Munster in the Emerald Isle. The South Island in New Zealand was once called New Munster, by our first Governor, William Hobson, largely due to the abundance of pots of gold and wee folk. By using the words ‘South Ireland’ for a drink made in the ‘South Island’, Jacob has alluded to the connection between the two places and the ingredients in the beverage. This is what is called a homophonic pun, but has nothing to do with gay rights. It is exactly this type of considered, intelligent wordplay that prompted the North Seatoun Bowling Club, Domino Shack and College of Cardinals** to award Jacob his Professorial Degree.

**I realise this name is quite a mouthful and sounds a tad made up, in all honesty though, it is proof of what happens when a mixed member proportional system of government, devised by an invading power and meant to cripple a country, is instituted in a small shire like New Zealand. Special Interest groups quickly combine, unholy trinities result and the next thing you know, Winston Peters is the country’s Foreign Minister.

P.S. Should any of you plowed on this far, prepare to reap the reward of your efforts as I weld one more tenuous link in the chain that has become this article and link the drink with the otherwise incongruous photo the beginning. Before it was named New Munster, the South Island had another name Te Wai Pounamu, or, The Waters of Green Stone. Which links nicely to those green waters at the start. No loose ends here then, move along.

MixMarch #16: Blood & Sands

I was first introduced to this cocktail in Shanghai. Prosaically described as the first choice for ladies who lunch, this small but well proportioned cocktail got it’s name far back in the twenties from a silent movie about a man who rises from peasant to matador. The drink represents the blood of the bull spilled and mixed with the sand of the arena.

It is another in a growing line of scotch cocktails that really work, it adds a meaty undertone to the drink that would fall off the deep end into sweetness were it not there.

The measures mentioned in the Savoy book ask for equal measures, and while I’d love to have another brother for the Negroni and Corpse Reviver, I’m sad to say it doesn’t really do it for me. The Cheery Heering sweetens the mix way too much. The orange juice has to be fresh. Of this I am quite certain.

Blood & Sands

30mls J&B Scotch, 30mls Orange Juice, 15mls Martini Rosso 15mls Cheery Heering. Shake and strain up. Drink with a waspish sense of place and purpose.

You can read about a more considered approach to the drink, and see where I purloined this picture from, over here.

MixMarch #15: The Martinez

Having finally found a bottle of Luxardo* Maraschino Liqueur, I thought it time to investigate a few drinks that had been sitting on my list of things to try for a while, and, with the Martini going up (and down) last night, here is a drink that some bartenders call the grandfather of the Martini. I’m not sure about that, but it sure is great. More floral than the Gin & It I wrote about earlier in the month, the bitters and maraschino really work some magic.

Martinez

• 40mls Genever
• 40mls Martini Rosso
• 5mls Maraschino Liqueur
• 2 dashes Orange Bitters

Stir and strain it up in the style of a Martini.

* I know Luxardo is not the only brand out there, but my first Aviation came from one of the straw wrapped bottles and having tried the finer drier versions, I’d still sway towards this one.

Go check out Science of Drink and the great unpacking of the different styles of Martinez, and see where I got this great shot of the drink as well.

MixMarch #14: The Martini

It’s taken me some time to write about this drink, certainly not by any virtue of dislike, it just seemed when I started this blog that it was pretty well covered elsewhere. After a long time, a lot of martinis and a lot of different viewpoints I’ve come to realise it’s not. There is certainly room in the world for another point of view.

Firstly, Martinis are made with Gin.

Secondly, said Gin is to be mixed with dry vermouth, I like somewhere between four and six parts Gin.

Third, the mixture is to be stirred in an icy vessel to obtain the perfect dilution of spirit, vermouth and icy water.

Next, the resultant elixer is to be strained, up, into the eponymous, stemmed,  inverted triangle glass.

Lastly, the drink must be garnished with either the peel of lemon or olive. the thin oily layer imparted by either adds nirvana to perfection.

A couple of things to focus on when you decide to make a Martini, 1) Cold. Everything you are using should be chilled, the glass, the vessel. 2) The Stir. If you want to make a Martini, you should really buy yourself a barspoon, use its length to get under the ice in your vessel and try to stir the ice as a single block. 3) Preparation. Have everything ready before you start, garnish, glass, everything. 4) Portions. Make smaller drinks, more regularly. A warm Martini is ugly.

This is a drink that will take experimentation. I think that the perfect martini should be strong, cold and almost silky. it takes practice and timing to do this with regularity. Spending the time really is its own reward though…

The drink itself is certainly not the first cocktail, nor the hardest to make or find on a menu. It certainly is the most famous, as the beverage that sums up the cocktail culture, a boozy dream, cold and small enough to down in a gulp. There are a million different people who have a strong opinion on this one, some stir in stemmed Japanese glassware to ward off the warmth of a hand, some will shake (I do not, but one of the best I’ve ever tasted @Naughty Nuri’s in Ubud, Bali was) In some ways at least, everyone is right*

The Dry Martini.

80mls Beefeater Crown Jewel, 15mls Noilly Pratt French Vermouth. Stir over ice, in a vessel. Strain up and garnish with a peel of lemon. Repeat.

* there are obvious exceptions to this rule. Such as:

If it contains vodka, it’s not a Martini, if it contains juice, it’s not a Martini, if it is named for a fruit and ends in ‘tini’, it’s not a Martini, just because it is served in a Martini Glass, doesn’t mean its a martini. If it is just icy cold gin, poured straight from the bottle, it’s not a Martini, it’s just cold Gin…

MixMarch #13: The Sherry Cobbler

A Cobbler is basically any drink ‘cobbled’ together from spirit, fresh fruit and sugar. Some of the earliest recipes are from Jerry Thomas’s “How to Mix Drinks, or the Bon-Vivant’s Companion”

First published in 1862, when Thomas would have been only 22, it remains one of the true tomes of classical bartending, from a time when the world of straight spirits, beers and wines were facing a real attack from the forces cocktail.

The cobbler rose on the back of one of the most significant inventions in an age of significant inventions, the commercial manufacture of frozen water, or ice. Perfected in 1854 and widespread by the time Thomas wrote his book, Ice would become the backbone of cocktails everywhere, and the Cobbler would receive another fine piece of scientific enablement before the turn of the century with the invention of the paper drinking straw.

The drink itself is delightfully refreshing, and thanks to the addition of a summer’s bounty of forest berries, looks the part too.

Sherry Cobbler

• 120 ml dry Sherry
• 3 slices orange
• 2 bar-spoons sugar
• Shake all ingredients hard with ice and pour, unstrained, in to a tall glass. Garnish with fresh berries then add a straw.

While this recipe belongs Jerry Thomas, the photo and my attention owes a deep debt to Oh Gosh!

MixMarch #12: The Bumble Bee Cocktail

This drink comes from the second volume of Charles H. Bakers Gentlemans Companion. Charles was a bit of a legend, travelling the world, partying with both royalty and ruffians and documenting it all in neat prose.

The Bumble Bee is a really lovely drink, silky smooth, with a wonderful balance of sweet, sour and strong that opens up the flavours in the rum. It might just be my favourite non tiki rum drink.

The Bumble Bee Cocktail

60mls good quality rum (I used Mount Gay XO), 2 tsp honey, 2 tsp egg white, 2 tsp fresh lime juice.

Add the rum and the lime juice to the drink and stir in the honey until it dissolves. Spoon in the egg white, ice the glass and shake hard to make it fluffy and delightful. Garnish with a couple of drops of Angostura, the peel of an orange and a flower to attract a real bumble bee.

I think this might be the best shot of a cocktail I’ve ever taken, by the way.

MixMarch #11: The Boulevardier

I’ve written before about my love of the Negroni and also of Rye Whiskey, so it made perfect sense to combine these two passions in this wonderful drink.

The recipe calls for Bourbon, but increasingly I swap corn for rye in pursuit of a spicier mouthfeel. I’ve also made the drink with the red dipped Maker’s Mark, and while good, the rye wins in the end, at least for me.

Harry McElhone, who wrote it up in Barflies and Cocktails, was meant to have invented it for Ernest Hemingway, presumably while he was in Paris after visiting Spain to fire a couple of potshots at the forces of General Franco. I like to picture him blustering down the streets of the City of Lights, well stoked by a number of these.

Boulevardier

• 45mls bourbon (or rye)
• 30mls Campari
• 30mls sweet vermouth

Stir with cracked ice & strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a cherry, or a lemon twist, or an orange slice.

MixMarch #10: The Zombie

Unlike the sours, slings, flips and smashes set down in the somewhat finessed worlds of American and European bar tending, Tiki drinks have a habit of evolving. I’m not sure if it’s the transition of a laid back lifestyle into the bar, the quality and availability of ingredients or just that tiki tradition seems to be more about scribbled notes than printed volumes, but I have seen upwards of 20 different recipes all claiming to be a Zombie.

A chap by the name of Patrick Duffy claims to have invented the beverage and certainly has the first version in print. His Zombie calls for Apple Brandy and launched a number of recipes that use fruit brandies, but I’ve found they tend to come out a bit sick sweet.

While there’s debate about who went first, Don the Beachcomber made this drink famous.

The Zombie, despite variations in print, is about just one thing – packing as many different rums into a beverage that remains palatable while delivering uncompromising alcoholic strength. Huzzah!

While Tiki has made a marked comeback in other parts of the world, it has been largely overlooked in Sydney, with only a few notable exceptions. Bacardi brand ambassador, Jeremy Shipley, has installed perhaps the city’s best bamboo shrine to the gods of tiki, unfortunately it is in the back of his house, rather than on public show in a bar. This snippet does point to the fact that Tiki is something that Sydneysiders will have to invest in and indulge themselves at home.

My recipe leans on Dr Cocktial’s recipe, with a couple of little additions of my own.

The Zombie

The juice of one whole lime, 30mls unsweetend pineapple juice, 15mls fresh Ruby Red Grapefruit juice, 15mls Falernum, 15mls passionfruit syrup, 30mls Ron Zacapa 23, 30mls Rum Shrub, 30mls Bacardi, 30mls Mount Gay XO, 5mls Absinthe, 4 dashes Angostura bitters, shake over ice and pour into a highball or tiki mug, half filled with crushed ice. garnish with a mint bush and plastic monkeys, if available.

I make my rum shrub by infusing the remnants of my anejo rums with dried orange peel, cinnamon, cardamon and vanilla. I store it in a dark cool place, and it hasn’t started fizzing yet. Clement have a nice product too.

And if you’re interested, this is the earliest Don the Beachcomber version:

Don the Beachcomber Zombie recipe

“Zombie Zowie, Hollywood Night Life Weird and Wonderful,” Winnipeg Free Press, Oct. 28, 1938

“The serving glass should be approximately 14 ounces and frosted. Into it is shaken one ounce of Demerara 150 proof rum, one ounce of heavy Jamaican rum, one ounce of Guadalupe rum and one ounce Porto Rican cartadora. To this is added one ounce of Falernum and one ounce of simple syrup, the juice of one whole Mexican lime and four dashes of bitters. Decorate with fruits in season, and mint.”

This one is pretty good too, and shows how the drink evolved:

Zombie

Recipe from “Hawaii Tropical Rum Drinks & Cuisine by Don the Beachcomber” by Arnold Bitner & Phoebe Beach (2001)

• 3/4 oz Lime Juice
• 1/2 oz Grapefruit Juice
• 1/2 oz Falernum
• 1/2 oz Simple Syrup
• 1-1/4 oz Ramirez Royal Superior – Puerto Rico*
• 1 oz Lemon Hart Demerara 151
• 1 oz Palau (30 years old) – Cuba*
• 1 oz Myers’s Planter’s Punch – Jamaica*
• 1 oz Treasure Cove (32 years old) – Jamaica*
• 2 dashes each Angostura bitters, Pernod
• 1 Dash Absinthe, Pernod
• 3 dashes Grenadine
• 3/4 oz Marashino Liquor

MixMarch #9: The White Lady

This cocktail was definitely invented by Harry, this is however, quite a bit of debate over which Harry. Harry at Ciro’s Bar printed a recipe for the White Lady in 1919, and while this is the first mention of the drink in print, the recipe calls for the use of Creme de Menthe instead of Gin, resulting in a very different drink.

Harry Craddock, bartender of The Savoy, committed his version to print in the 1930 edition of The Savoy Cocktail Book. His calls for 1/2 Gin, 1/4 Cointreau, 1/4 fresh lemon juice. He apparnetly had a lot of success plying comedians Laurel and Hardy with the drink. Harry from Paris later said he started using Gin in 1929, but there’s no written proof.

It’s the gin one I’m talking about, and the recipe I’ve used is a bit of a  mix of the Savoy and Embury’s version.

The White Lady.

42mls Gin (I’ve used Beefeater), 15mls cointreau, 15mls lemon juice, 2tsp egg white. Shaken hard over ice and strained up. garnished with a twist of lemon. Serve on a moonlight night. delicious.

Another reason I’m a big fan of this drink is the connection string it has to popular culture. Many of you will have heard on the 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon, this drink is connected to someone way more famous.

I wonder if anyone can tell me what the connection is to this man?

MixMarch #8: Alamagoozlum

Okay, so the name doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, and the recipe isn’t exactly what you’d call a “standard”. It comes from f Charles H. Baker, Jr.’s  The Gentleman’s Companion or Around the World with Jigger, Beaker and Flask, published in 1939.  Baker described this cocktail as:

“J. Pierpont Morgan’s Alamagoozlum: the Personal Mix Credited to that Financier, Philanthropist & Banker of a Bygone Era.”

I’ve included this drink as in a post GFC world, JP Morgan simply has less to play with, like the man and his enduring Bank, Northen Hemisphere bartenders must also do without, as they are held on rationed stocks of Angostura Bitters, the addition of half an ounce to a Cocktail would seem indulgent to the extreme.

The drink itself is different to be sure, but I reckon it does actually work. The Genever should be the Oude variety, as it really needs the malty kick. The bitters deliver a real Christmas cake feel, backed up by the Chartreuse, Curaçao & the Rum. I think this is one I’ll have to roll out again when I track down some gum arabic and  get round to mixing up a batch of old school gomme.

The Alamagoozlum Cocktail

60mls genever gin
60mls water
45mls Jamaican rum
45mls yellow or green Chartreuse
45mls simple syrup
15mls orange curaçao
15mls Angostura bitters
½ egg white

Yield: 2 large or 3 small cocktails
Shake very hard over ice and strain into chilled cocktail glasses.

This cocktail and the wonderful photo come from the amazingly colourful, well-read & considered Sloshed.

MixMarch #7: The Possum Hunt

I’ve been a massive fan of 42 Below Feijoa for a long time. The wintergreen note is addictive, like licking deep heat and tiger balm off a mattress. It sounds bad at first, but once you’re into it there is no turning back.

Mostly this isn’t a flavour that does well with North Americans, and while if I’m being proper, this is a mixed drink and not a cocktail, and finding an American willing to try and convert people to the gospel, I just had to add it here.

The Possum Hunt.

Double shot of 42 Below Feijoa over lots of rocks.
Top with a mere splash of soda.
Double squeeze of lemon.
Get huntin’.

Thanks to the fine cocktail blog in the empire city for sharing this first. Embury Cocktails.

MixMarch #6: The Jabberwocky Cocktail

My sneaky little taste of the Hendricks cordial got my mind whirring. Here is an infusion of the notoriously hard to find cinchona bark, with the addition of bitter orange and floral notes. Could this not, indeed, be used as and addition to Lillet Blanc to approximate the long extinct Kina Lillet? I will have to try this out next time i’m with Marty and his wondrous bottle in Melbourne.

Given the source of said bottle being the twisted mindspace of Lewis Carrol I thought it only proper to bring to light an inspired drink from the Savoy Cocktail Book, the Jabberwocky.

The Jabberwocky

30mls Dry Gin, 30mls Dry Sherry, 25mls Lillet Blanc, 5mls Hendricks Tonic Cordial. Stir over ice with a runcible spoon and serve up. Garnished with lemon peel, preferably cut with a Vorplal Sword.

Just in case that all seems a little obtuse, i suggest reading this:

‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!”

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought—
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.

And as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! and through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

“And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”
He chortled in his joy.

‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

by Lewis Carroll

MixMarch #5: Pacific Dawn

I love a cocktail that comes with good story, and over the years, entries in the Cocktail World Cup have got to the point where there is often more story that substance. This one, however, served up at the recent UK finals at Shoreditch House in London, seems to get the balance between story, ingredients and result exactly right.

The West London team mixed this up in the garb of convicts and a naval Captain, with the ingredients representing a journey around the colonies of Merry Old England.

Pacific Dawn

50mls 42BELOW Manuka Honey Vodka
25mls Vanilla Tobacco infused Naval Rum
25mls Cardamom Infused Treacle Syrup
1tbs Kenyan Coffee Beans
4 drops Liquorice Bitters
Serve at 42degrees centigrade in a silver goblet with a scurvy ration of 42BELOW Kiwifruit lime wedges.

If you’re going to be in Wellington, New Zealand on the 27th of this month, get yourself a ticket to the finals, plus a rock concert. Go to Hawthorn to pick it up. 82 Tory St, they’ll set you back $42 dollars, obviously.

MixMarch #4: The Classic Champagne Cocktail

“Three be the things I shall never attain: Envy, content and sufficient champagne”

When Dorothy Parker was not under the host, she was well known for sharp and erudite social comment on the lubricating effect of alcohol. Outside of her love of Martinis, her work on Champagne has surely raised more that the odd smile around the world.

Purists will often look down their noses at the addition of anything to noble Champagne, and while I’d agree that the finer ends and specific vintages are a wonderful experience in their own right, there’s much to be gained from looking for points of balance with other ingredients as well.

This simple recipe softens a dry Champagne…

Classic Champagne Cocktail

• 1 sugar cube
• Generous dashing of Angostura bitters
• Top up with Champagne
• Put sugar cube and bitters in the bottom of a Champagne Flute and add Champagne. Garnish with a lemon twist.

Plenty of recipes out there on the web call for the addition of Cognac to this recipe. I suppose I sit in the part of the camp that says if you’re going down that path, you might as well have a French 75 substituting Cognac for the Gin.

MixMarch #3: Gin & It

Here’s a drink recipe I stumbled onto last night and just had to try.

I have written at some length of my love for the Negroni, and indeed all gin based cocktails; I even touched on the Negroni’s predecessor and its place as a literary libation of everyone’s favourite secret agent.

For some reason the obvious had escaped me, Gin & It. The simple dance of Gin and Italian Vermouth. A non bitter Negroni, or perhaps just a herby gin. yuss.

Invented sometime last century, the Gin & It shakes apart a modern miscarriage whereby vermouth is something to be wafted from the other side of the room or diluted in ratios ranging from 1:12 to 1:50. This drink calls for equal measures, or perhaps as far as Embury takes it in 1948, 3:1 in favour of Gin.

I agree with Embury, and in the interceeding 62 years, distillery has come a long way. Gin is a far milder mistress and won’t make you blind or generally any more depressed. It deserves the bigger role. Picking up a gold statuette for Best Actress in a supporting role, however, is Sweet Italian Vermouth. Her dark looks and the deep, herby flavours even the briefest kiss lets linger. Well, delicious, more words only cloud the issue.

The Gin & It

60mls Tanqueray Gin, 20mls Italian Vermouth. Stirred, over ice. Strained up and adorned by the simplest of garnishes, the peel of lemon.

Rush home and try three now.

MixMarch #2: The Saratoga Cocktail

The Saratoga cocktail is the sweeter cousin of one of my favourite drinks in the whole, wide world; The Manhattan. I first found the recipe reading through David Wondrich’s fantastic investigation of the drinks and times of Jerry Thomas, Imbibe!

The springs at Saratoga made it one of the escapes from New York in the days of Jerry Thomas, and it’s probably no surprise that a drink named for a resort is appreciably sweeter than its urban relation. This is achieved by swapping out half of the rye whiskey normally present in the drink for cognac or brandy at a push.

The Saratoga Cocktail.

3omls Rye Whiskey, 30mls Cognac, 30mls Sweet Vermouth, a couple of dashes of bitters. Combine over ice in a tin and stir until cold and sufficiently diluted. Strain up, garnish with the peel of an orange and a healthy dose of disgust for urban mores.

Best served with a newspaper and a back massage.

Beware the Ides of March.

March is upon us. The first two months of the year have just flown past and I thought that an appropriate response to FebFast might just be MixMarch. It’s not that I’m trying to take away from raising money to increase awareness of drug and alcohol related issues ($600k this year, well done team) but I think that responsible drinking has its place too. So this March, you’ll be getting one drink a day from me, mixed up by any number of talented bartenders, from around Australia and the world.

I’m also travelling across the ditch to Cocktail World Cup from the 22nd to 27th of March, so look out for some great drinks and coverage of the bars in Queenstown and Wellington, as well as the best of cocktails and vodka worldwide.

Salut!