tito puente

1 oz Toasted Coconut Knob Creek Rye
1 oz Lustau East India Solera Sherry
1/2 oz Punt e Mes
1/2 oz Del Maguey Mezcal Vida

Stir with ice, strain into a double old fashioned glass with a large ice cube, and garnish with two lime twists.For my birthday two Mondays ago, I met Andrea at Mahaniyom for a round of drinks and an appetizer before moving on to Blossom Bar for more vegetarian-friendly fare. For a drink, I asked the bartender for the Tito Puente for the combination of Lustau's East India Solera Sherry with Punt e Mes reminded me of Alex Day's Night Owl at Death & Co. I did not bother to ask for a recipe so I did not take tasting notes; however, a friend just sent me a collection of Blossom Bar recipes, and I was able to locate the Tito Puente. As for the toasted coconut-infused whiskey, Liquor.com proffered a recipe for their article on the Normandie Old Fashioned. I revised it as such:

Toasted Coconut-Infused Whiskey
Toast 2 oz by volume coconut flakes over medium heat for 5 minutes or until slightly golden. Add to a 750 mL bottle of whiskey and place in a hot water bath at 145°F for 2 hours or overnight at room temperature. Strain into a quart container, freeze overnight, remove all solids such as by passing through a coffee filter, and rebottle.

queen's court

1 1/2 oz Santa Teresa 1796 Rum
1 1/2 oz Mango Cordial (*)
1/4 oz Cynar
1 dash Ardbeg 10 Year Scotch

Stir with ice, strain into an old fashioned glass with a large ice cube, add lemon oil from a twist, and garnish with lemon and lime twists.
(*) 2 parts clarified mango juice to 1 part white sugar. Jen said that this would probably work with unclarified mango juice mixed with sugar, but she would not have served it over a clear ice cube.Two Sundays ago, I ventured over to Brookline to have dinner at Blossom Bar. For a first drink, I asked bartender Jen LaForge for the Queen's Court which was one of her creations. Jen originally created this with a Plantation Rum single barrel offering that had leather and mango notes; however, after they ran through their stock of that, they switched to Santa Teresa Rum. The intriguing ingredient here was the house mango cordial which was made from clarifying mango juice (I did not inquire as to the technique) and white cane sugar. In the glass, the Queen's Court proffered a lemon oil bouquet to the nose. Next, mango and caramel notes on the sip presided over rum, mango, and herbal flavors on the swallow.

presidente

1 1/2 oz Bacardi Ocho Rum
3/4 oz Martini & Rossi Sweet Vermouth
1/4 oz Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao
1 dash Angostura Bitters

Stir with ice, strain into a cocktail glass, and garnish with an orange twist.
Two Mondays ago, I was invited to attend a class on rum aging held by Juan Coronado of Bacardi at the Blossom Bar in Brookline. Throughout the day, we were treated to Cuban-style drinks that ranged from classics like a Bacardi Superior-based Daiquiri a la 1898 to more recent ones like the Mulata Daisy crafted for a recent Bacardi Legacy competition. Indeed, beginning the session with a Daiquiri Time Out made for a great start to my Monday. One of the classics that I had never tried was called the Presidente. Well, I have had another version of the El Presidente before -- both with the older interpretation of dry vermouth and the more recent one with blanc vermouth along with rum, curaçao, and grenadine. Both Presidentes were crafted by Constantino Ribalaigua Vert at the Floradita Bar in Havana, but this one took the form of a Rum-hattan. In his Cocktails: Bar La Florida books, the editions up to 1937 have the Presidente as a Chambery vermouth (and the 1932 Sloppy Joe's Cocktail Book has it as a Noilly Prat Dry Vermouth recipe) but the 1939 one has it as "Ama Vermouth" which was here interpreted as sweet vermouth (the Sloppy Joe's Cocktail Book also included the Ama Vermouth brand but with no descriptor).

Presidente (1939)
• 1/2 Ama Vermouth
• 1/3 Bacardí Carta Oro
• 1/2 tsp Curaçao
Chill with crushed ice, strain, and serve with cherries and a peel of an orange.

The drink that Blossom Bar's Ran Duan made utilized a bit less vermouth and substituted Martini & Rossi Sweet Vermouth, added bitters, and skipped the cherries. Once prepared, the Presidente offered orange oil notes that complemented the curaçao's orange aroma. Next, a dark grape sip yielded to a rum, grape, and orange swallow that ended with an orange, clove, and allspice finish. Overall, this Presidente was much different in a Manhattan direction (as opposed to a Martini one) than the better known El Presidente recipe.

palm viper

3/4 oz Zacapa "23" Rum
3/4 oz El Dorado 12 Year Rum
1 oz Carpano Antica Sweet Vermouth
1/2 oz Cynar
2 dash Bittercube Corazon Bitters

Stir with ice, strain into a rocks glass, and garnish with a lemon twist and a cherry.

Two Thursdays ago, Andrea and I ventured down to Brookline to dine at the Baldwin Bar's new sibling, the Blossom Bar, that hosts the same style of Sichuan cuisine as the Woburn location but with cocktails inspired by Central and South America. For a start, I selected the Palm Viper that reminded me of a rum Little Italy. I later discovered that the drink was crafted by Patrick Andrew as a riff on the 1919 Cocktail, and he utilized aromatic bitters from Bittercube that have chili pepper, cocoa, and coffee flavors akin to a mole to give some extra regional flare to the two Central American rums in the mix. And for a name, he dubbed this one after a poisonous snake lurking in the mountains of Costa Rica and Panama.
Once prepared, the Palm Viper gave forth bright lemon oil aromas over the bass notes from the dark rums and amaro. Next, caramel from the rums and amaro mingled with the vermouth's grape on the sip, and the swallow paired rum and funk with an elegant spice finish.