The Tuxedo

This drink is a much wetter take on the Martini, with a couple of flavorful additions. I like it because I get to have a traditionally dark spirits garnish, the brandied cherry, in a Gin cocktail.

The history of this one is mixed, appearing in the Savoy book, but also being associated with the Ritz in Paris. The use of Anis as opposed to Absinthe or Pastis, makes me lean toward the French on this one. Whichever way, it remains a great way to kick off a weekend.

The Tuxedo Cocktail

50 mls Tanqueray No. Ten, 20 mls Noilly Pratt, 5 mls Maraschino Liqueur, 5mls Marie Brizard Anis (substitue absinthe or pastis, should you have none) 3 dashes Fee Brother’s Orange Bitters.

Combine all ingredients in a tin over ice, stir and strain up. Garnish with a twist of lemon and a brandied cherry. Exhale, imbibe. Relax.

Oh Gosh! has got this recipe as well, although made with Hayman’s Old Tom Gin. I prefer the addition of the orange bitters, over the version without in Dale De Grof’s “Craft of the Cocktail”

Friday Fix: Grandmother’s Minted Pear Cooler

The latest fruit to become seasonally inexpensive in Sydney has been the Packham Pear. Incorporating pears into a drink with resorting to a nasty schnapps has been a bit tough for me in the past, muddling is a lot of work and only seems to impart flavor without that great velvety texture that I associate and love about pears.

With this idea, and a kilo of Packham pears for only 2.99 from Harris Farm markets, I hit the kitchen and got to work making poached pear syrup. First, I peeled the pears, leaving the stalk, as it makes it easy to grab the pear out of the hot syrup later in the process. I used two pears to make my syrup, but if you wanted to have them for dessert you could add one for each guest. Of those two pears, one will be for eating after and one will be for the syrup itself. So on one of them, cut a deep X into the base, halfway up the pear, so it gets really soft. Leave the other one peeled but otherwise whole.

In a saucepan, add 250grams of sugar and 350mls of hot water, stirring it until the sugar crystals dissolve. Add the pears to the pot, put the lid on and set the element to a low heat. (My stove, mark 4 is perfect, it only just simmers but not boils.) Leave it on the stove for a good couple of hours.

The pear with the X might slump a little, so grab some tongs and put it in a blender, put the other pear on a plate, pouring over a couple of tablespoons of the syrup. Add the remainder of the syrup to the blender and pulse until smooth. Strain this over a bowl, you might want to push the pulp through with the back of a spoon and strain it again as well, depending on how much process you can handle.

You should be left with about 350-400mls of cloudy but fine poached pear syrup. While it cools, go and eat the other pear.

The poached pear syrup is great in a Champagne cocktail and makes a fine addition to most sour cocktails.

Grandma’s Minted Pear Cooler.

Combine 60mls Basil Hayden’s Bourbon, 15mls poached pear syrup, 20mls fresh lemon juice, 6 mint leaves and a couple of dashes of Peychaud’s Bitters over ice. Give it a crisp shake and strain it up. It shouldn’t require a double strain due to your efforts earlier on. Garnish with a mint sprig.

I’m also partial to the same drink made with Gin, minus the bitters and I’d love to try it with Fee Brothers Peppermint Bitters too.

You can also serve it in an old fashioned glass with some ice and a splash of soda if you want to summer things up a little, or it’s daytime and drinking from a martini glass makes you feel a touch of a lush.

Friday Fix: Cherry Gin Sour

One of the great things about this time of year in Sydney is the fresh cherries. Head up to the Kings Cross markets on a Saturday and you’;l find at least a couple of stands selling beautiful boxes of cherries.

While the fruit are quite hard to whip up into cocktails, short of making syrups or muddling handfuls and steeping them in spirits, there is another side of the proliferation of these special little fruit, Pressed Cherry Juice. The juice is made from those cherries not pretty enough to move of the shelf, luckily, these are also some of the sweetest and juiciest as well.

The juice is not a manufactured product, so expect a lot of variation between products and you’ll need to tweak the recipe to make sure you don’t just end up with Cherry tasting juice that’s alcoholic.

The Cherry Gin Sour

60mls Tanqueray 10 Gin, 10 mls pressed cherry juice, 15mls freshly squeezed lemon juice, 5mls sugar syrup. Combine all ingredients over ice in a shaker, shake, strain over a sour glass filled with fresh ice. Green garnishes look great against the deep red of the drink.

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.

Gins & Tonic

I am sure that some people will try and tell me that this is not a cocktail. Some may even question the pluralisation of Gin, but i’ve been told its Gins & Tonic by far too many barmen to consider writing it any differently.

The definition of a cocktail I like best is a fine spirit, slightly improved. The Gin & Tonic truly embodies this fine ideal. It is also one of the easiest cocktails in the world to make. Add any quantity of Gin to an iced glass top with tonic and lightly flavor with citrus. tall glasses on a long day, short ones in more serious company.

The choice of Gin again is up to personal preference. Bombay Sapphire is my Dad’s standby, Gordon’s makes a fine G&T, Beefeater too. My own personal favorite is the Tanqueray and Tonic, particularly when its made with the very special and very preeemium Tanqueray No. Ten. Legend has it this Gin is made from the only still at the Tanqueray distillery to escape Hitlers bombers during the blitz. It is a well crafted and very smooth example of the category, and one that works with almost any type of citrus you can lay your hands on. 

Most drinkers will be familiar with swapping lemon for lime, and on occasion orange or grapefruit. I would encourage you to try a decent measure (say squeeze two or three segments into the drink) of Tangelo, Blood Orange, Pomelo, Yuzu frankly, if its citrus it will change the profile of the drink, swap between a few during the course of the night.

My father used to ask for two fingers of Gin, in a glass with no ice, topped with cold tonic. It remains a great drink, so long as you whip through them before they warm up.

Here’s how I like it: at least 60 mls Gin, poured into an ice filled glass. Three segments of whatever citrus is at hand and between 90 and 150 mls of tonic to fill the glass. Savour the taste of the spirit, the cold of the ice, the sour of the citrus and the tangy effervesence that comes with the addition of tonic.