A Modern Classic

I wrote a couple of weeks back about the True Originals campaign from Bacardi and the Global Legacy Cocktail Competition that hung off the back of it.

Well, the first contest has wrapped in Barcelona and the gorgeous looking drink in the photo above is the winning drink. It’s a rethink of the Ramos Gin Fizz, swapping gin for rum and orange blossom water for something deliciously herbal and made by monks.

Marco’s Bacardi Fizz
by Marc Bonneton

50ml Bacardi Superior rum
40ml Cream
15ml Green Chartreuse
15ml Lemon Juice
15ml Lime Juice
15ml Simple Syrup
1 egg white
Top with soda water
Mint sprig for garnish

Dry-shake the egg white in a shaker with no ice, then add all the other ingredients and ice and shake for a long time to emulsify to egg white and the cream. Fine-strain into a tall glass and top with soda water. Garnish with a sprig of mint.

Hat Tip Camper English at Alcademics, who actually was on the ground in Spain watching it all unfold.

The Sophisticated Urbanite

Asked for a Cosmo on Saturday night and had no cranberries nor any desire to reprise SJP, this is what I came up with instead.

The Sophisticated Urbanite

45mls Smirnoff Black, 7.5mls Cointreau, 7.5mls Aperol, one dash Fee’s West Indian Orange Bitters, 30mls freshly squeezed blood orange juice, 5mls fresh squeezed lime juice. Combine over ice, shake and double strain up.

I was told it was better than a Cosmo, I’m not sure if I should have replied “that’s not hard,” but I went with humble acceptance of the compliment and a sneaky shot of Don Julio.

Stolen from Julio

I feel lucky to have in my possession a recipe for the Tommy’s Margarita, signed by Julio Bermejo. I was lucky enough to sit next to him at the 2009 Bar Awards and get a lesson in the evolution of the drink, the move from Herradura to Arete and most importantly, the 2-1-1 measure that make this drink drop dead gorgeous.

Inspired by the bottle of Stolen I received last weekend I thought I might combine it with the dark agave syrup that is on sale each Saturday in Fitzroy Gardens at the Kings Cross food market, some limes from the Organic vege stall and a little bottle of Aromatic bitters I found at the back of a shelf in Coles, produced in an industrial estate in Sydney’s western sprawl. Stolen has fruit and flowers where Reposado brings a dusty earthiness, so I upped the strong portion to balance things out.

Stolen from Julio

60mls Stolen white rum, 20mls freshly squeezed lime juice, 20mls dark agave syrup and a small dash of aromatic bitters. Combine in a shaker, ice and shake. Strain and serve up with a wheel of lime.

While it isn’t quite the symphony you get in a Tommy’s, the aromatics bring out the floral character in the rum, the dark agave adds a caramelly depth and it is a very pleasant little drink.

A Collins for Tom

I was reminded on Saturday night of the beauty of simple recipes. Talking the guys at Velutto through making a spectacular Tom Collins and seeing it bring a smile to the face of the guy drinking it reminded me once again why I love cocktails enough to spend my spare time writing about them.

They are at their best transformative, little windows into something else and a spark of inspiration. I had taken my friend, also called Tom, to such a window that night.

Sitting through Tom’s window was, amongst other things, an Apple Tom Collins. While I couldn’t put one together for him on the night. I came home inspired to make one. Most of the recipes asked for Applejack, and having none, I went in a different direction.

A Collins for Tom.

45mls Smirnoff Black, 15mls Sour Apple Syrup†, 7.5mls absinthe, 30mls fresh lime juice. Combine in a large glass, stir well. Ice the glass, top with soda and garnish with an apple fan.

†Sour Apple Syrup is made by first making a plain 1:1 sugar syrup and once it has cooled, the addition and steeping of 3 Granny Smith Apples, macerated as finely as you can be bothered. If you add the apple while the syrup is still warm, the fructose will stew and turn to glucose, making your syrup more poached apple than sour apple.

Vote Goggin!

It appears that at least one of the contestants from 42 Below’s Cocktail World Cup last week is on his way to true global bartending rockstar status. James Sugarfoot Goggin, of the storied family Goggin, has become the first New Zealander to make the finals at Tales of the Cocktail, the pinnacle of this green earth’s drinking events.

I was lucky enough to be behind the bar in Queenstown for a little while. Goggin was struck by a bolt of genius and turned out a banana Sazerac, inside a banana skin. Somehow, methinks, this is not going to be the last Goggin recipe I post here.

Once Upon A Time

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 #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 #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.

Friday Fix: ホットサワー

With 42 Below’s Cocktail World Cup just around the corner, I’ve been once again staring open eyed at drinks that show a level of commitment and creativity that frankly astonishes me. I’ve also been watching a lot of the Winter Olympic coverage, in stunning HD on Channel 9 here in Australia, and it was that coverage that led me to the Toronto View website, and this great article on the cocktail scene there.

I’ve got all the ingredients for this either at home or in one of the great Asian supermarkets downstairs from my office, so I’m off home to make one of these tonight. I’ve taken a small liberty in renaming the drink the Hottosawa in katakana, somehow I like it more than the Hot and Sour, which seems a little plain for such an amazing looking drink.

ホットサワー Hottosawa

½ oz Choya 23° plum liqueur (this is a umeshu-salt/sour/sweet liquer from Japan), 1 ½ oz Bulleit bourbon (I’m going to use Basil Hayden’s instead), 4 pieces nori seaweed, 4 or 5 drops of sriracha (this is a hot chili & vinegar paste from thailand. If you can’t find it, mash up chili, garlic, salt, sugar & vinegar. I’d start with equal amounts and go by taste), 1 pinch wasabi, 1 egg white, 1 ½ oz citrus (lemon and lime juice), 3 cilantro leaves (that’s Coriander to you and me), ½ oz maple syrup (this drink is from Canada, after all), ½ oz simple syrup. Combine all those over ice and shake hard to make a great foamy consistency for the drink. Stain it into an ice filled rocks glass

The one in the picture is rimmed with a mixture of powdered Miso, lime salt and nori (seaweed). Then further garnished with a sliver of nori, tobiko (flying fish roe) & ikura (salmon roe). You could probably use Masago (capelin roe) without anyone pulling you up. If someone does, take the drink back and pour them an eight ounce glass of  Blue Curacao.

Lime in the Coconut

It’s getting warmer. Rum drinks and warm weather go together. Time to buy some tiki mugs.

As an interim measure, I picked up a young drinking coconut at the supermarket and decided to revel in the kitschness of it all.

Lime in the Coconut

15ml fresh lime juice, 30ml coconut juice, 15ml fresh pineapple juice, 30ml spiced rum, 30ml Mount Gay Extra Old rum,  10ml Amaretto. Shake all ingredients well and strain into a well iced coconut. Garnish in a garish fashion, I’ve gone with pineapple leaves, a wheel of lime, 1987 fluro straws and ice cube Moai heads.