The Italian American

One of the great things about becoming known to your friends as a bit of a cocktail nerd is that they will try and bring you weird and wonderful potions from around the world, for you to mix and match for your benefit and often theirs too.

Returning from a buying trip in Italy, Aaron smuggled me back a bottle of Alexander Grappa Amarone. This Grappa is made from a single grape variety, Amarone from the Valpolicella region. It has a dry raisiny taste and it is quite pleasant lightly chilled on its own. After doing a small amount of research, I learned that Italians often drink Grappa in their coffee calling it ammazzacaffè or the coffee killer.

Inspired I set about making a variation on an espresso martini that made the most of the spirit. I have been thinking about making a raisin or muscatel syrup which would work very nicely, but for now the half and half maple syrup and amaretto work fine.

The Italian American.

Combine 40mls Grappa, 40mls fresh black coffee, 5mls amaretto and 5mls maple syrup over ice and shake with some vigor. Strain into a sherry glass and float coffee bean or two on the froth.

If the taste of the Grappa proves too much, you could drop back to a 20/60 ratio, but in my mind that masks the character of the spirit.

A Dry Friday Fix

Mmmm, sometimes, the classics are the best. ice up a martini glass and metal tin (the boston glass will melt too much ice before it chills.) Add 10mls of Noily Pratt French Vermouth (it’s a bit more floral than the Italian ones like Cinzano and Martini.) Add 70 mls Tanqueray No. Ten Gin. Stir the mixture with a long barspoon, trying to stir the whole mass of the ice all together. Discard the ice from the martini glass and strain the martini in. squeeze the oil from a lemon peel onto the surface and garnish with a beautiful lemon twist.

Repeat until all the troubles of the week disappear. Have a great weekend.

The Old Fashioned

On May 13, 1806, The Balance and Colombia Repository printed the first known definition of the word “cocktail”

`Cocktail, then, is a stimulating liquor, composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water and bitters it is vulgarly called a bittered sling`

This somewhat unsavoury sounding mix is what we today call the Old Fashioned. 

Like almost all things alcohol related, there are disputes as to who coined the name instead of it just remaining ‘Cocktail,’ the members of the Pendennis Club claimed for some time in their blustery Colonel Sanders way that the name belonged to a Bourbon Cocktail made in the club. David Wondrich, who looks not dissimilar to a member of the Pendennis Club, discounted this theory by uncovering a wealth of examples of the use of the word prior to the Club’s foundation in 1880.

But I digress.

The Old Fashioned Cocktail

Take a sugar cube* and douse it in three or four belts from a bottle of Angostura Bitters, slide this into the bottom of an Old Fashioned glass. I use at least 60 of good quality Bourbon in my version, Maker’s Mark would be a fine choice. Add a little of the Bourbon, with a couple of pieces of ice and start stirring. Keep adding a little more Bourbon, a little more ice and perhaps around 15 mls water. 

The result is an amazingly balanced, rich and seductive elixir. 

*I prefer to use a cube of sugar as the time it takes to get it to dissolve is around the same time it take to mellow this drink to a superior level.

Variations.

This cocktail is amazingly adaptable, you can change out the spirit for a Rye Whiskey, Brandy, Cognac or Rum.

At Toko on Crown St they do a Old Fashioned with Junipero Gin and there is a fashionable trend for Tequila Old Fashioneds around the world right now.

Once you’ve tried a variety of spirits, perhaps making a move on to changing out the bitters. Peychaud’s, Fee Brothers Peach or Orange Bitters, even Aperol or Campari. I’ll post an article later in the week about the process of homemaking bitters as well, to really change things up.

This really is a drink for the ages, we’ll be putting this up against the Trans-Galactic GargleBlaster when we make it to the restaurant at the end of time.