brazilian million

2 oz Germana Cachaça
1/2 oz Averell Damson Gin (*)
1/2 oz Bitter Truth Apricot Liqueur
1 oz Lime Juice
1 dash Grenadine

Shake with ice and strain into a rocks glass filled with ice. Garnish with a lime wheel and add a straw.
(*) Previously made with Plymouth Sloe Gin, so feel free to substitute.
Two Thursdays ago, I paid a visit to bartender Todd Maul at Clio. For a cocktail, I requested the Brazilian Million which was his cachaça-laden variation of the classic Millionaire. The drink began with an apricot aroma with hints of the damson plum fruit. Next, the lime sip contained a berry-like flavor and was followed by a grassy swallow with a tart apricot and lime finish.

the day 3ish

2 oz Frapin VS Cognac
1/2 oz Gran Classico
1/2 oz Dolin Dry Vermouth
1/2 oz Lemon Juice

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

Tuesday last week, I paid a visit to bartender Todd Maul at Clio. One of the drinks I picked off the menu was entitled Day 3ish, and with a name like that, I needed to inquire about its origins. When Todd was working at Rialto, he was in the midst of a 14 day rally during restaurant week; one night, a patron asked how he was feeling, and he simply replied "day 3ish."
The Day 3ish's aroma offered the Cognac with hints of the Gran Classico; later, the bouquet came off a bit floral. Next, the sip showcased the lemon juice and the fruit note from the brandy, and the brandy continued on into the swallow where it was followed by a softened Gran Classico flavor with a tart lemon finish.

lauren and orange

2 oz Chinaco Añejo Tequila
1 oz Carpano Antica Sweet Vermouth
1 oz Lime Juice
1/2 oz Clément Créole Shrubb Orange Liqueur

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

After the rum drink, Todd suggested switching gears to a tequila one, the Lauren and Orange, that was a riff on the Margarita. Todd explained that Lauren is a regular along with Simon and one night she showed up wearing an orange shirt; this is the drink that he made for her.
The Lauren and Orange offered up a lime and orange aroma; these two citrus notes continued on into the sip along with the vermouth's grape flavor. The swallow then presented the aged tequila plus citrus peel notes. Indeed, the citrus balanced by orange liqueur and sweet vermouth worked rather well here as it has in drinks like the brandy-based Emily Shaw's Special.

[red line book club]

2 oz El Dorado 3 Year Rum
1 oz El Maestro Sierra Dry Amontillado Sherry
3/4 oz Lime Juice
1/2 oz Carpano Antica Sweet Vermouth
1/2 oz Burnt Cinnamon Syrup

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a lime twist.

After Island Creek Oyster Bar, I decided to go visit Todd Maul at Clio. For a first drink, Todd wanted to showcase something that he had come up with that still lacked a name. The other bartender, Mary, had dubbed the drink Todd's Mustache in revenge for Todd's naming drinks after her sock drawer and her liquor cabinet; however, he was not too big on that name. Since the drink bears a resemblance to the Dwight Street Book Club he made me, I decided to dub this after a book club a little closer to home.
The drink's lime twist paired rather well with the rum's aroma. Next, a dry grape and lime sip led into a rum swallow with nutty sherry flavors. Finally, the swallow ended with cinnamon notes and the lime's tartness. Overall, the drink reminded me a bit of the classic Fog Cutter.

two from l.a.

2 oz Cynar
1 oz No. 3 London Dry Gin
1/2 oz Green Chartreuse
2 dash Orange Bitters
1 Egg White

Shake once without ice and once with. Strain into a rocks glass and garnish with an orange twist.
Two Mondays ago, I stopped into Clio where bartender Greg Rossi was at the stick. Greg has recently joined the Clio crew, and I believe that the last time I sat at his bar was when he was working at Dalí in Somerville. For a drink, I asked Greg for the 2 From L.A. for the combination of Cynar and Green Chartreuse worked so well in Ryan Lotz's Monk's Thistle and Cure's Drink of Laughter and Forgetting. The drink's nose offered up orange oils, juniper, and herbal notes. The sip was creamy with orange accents, and the swallow showcased the Cynar punctuated by sharper gin and Green Chartreuse notes.

lasky last knight

2 oz Frapin Cognac VS
1 oz Lemon Juice
1/2 oz Luxardo Triple Sec
1/2 oz Green Chartreuse
1 dash Simple Syrup
1 dash Berg & Hauck's Lemon Bitters

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon twist.
After the Hawthorne, Camper English was ready for our third stop on our bar crawl. We considered doing the Commonwealth Hotel hat trick with Island Creek Oyster Bar, but by the time we passed by, the bar was filled with the dinner crowd. Instead, we traveled down Commonwealth Ave to Clio where bartender Todd Maul awaited. For my drink, I asked for Lasky Last Night as the combination of Cognac, Green Chartreuse, and orange liqueur worked so well in the Prospector. The drink is a riff on David Embury's Knight from The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks. True to Embury's preferred magic formula for the Sour, the Knight was as follows:

Knight
• 8 parts Brandy
• 2 parts Lemon
• 1 part Green Chartreuse and Cointreau (half part each)
Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

The Lasky Last Knight began with a lemon and Cognac aroma that preceded a citrus-flavored sip containing lemon juice and orange liqueur notes. Next, the swallow began with Cognac followed by Green Chartreuse's herbal notes and finally a tart lemon finish. While I enjoyed it, I could not help but think what Embury would say about Todd's variation. Riffing on what Embury said about the original equal parts Sidecar, he might declare, "Unfortunately, however, the proportions are stated as two parts brandy and one part each of lemon juice and liqueur. This may not be a bad formula for a midafternoon drink, but for an aperitif it is simply horrible because of its sickish sweetness." While the variation would have been a sugar bomb to Embury (with too much distracting him from the base spirit), it was by no means a sweet drink to the average modern palate.

mary's sock drawer

1 1/2 oz Bols Genever
1/3 oz Rhum Clement Creole Shrubb
1/2 oz Lime Juice
1/2 oz Grand Classico

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass garnished with Grand Classico paint (remainder from roto-vap, boiled down to thicken).

The other drink bartender Todd Maul made for me at Clio was Mary's Sock Drawer which is part of the homage, along with Mary's Liquor Cabinet, to the other Clio bartender.  Apparently, Mary counters by referring to the Sock Drawer as the Bitter Todd.
The Mary's Sock Drawer began with a malty aroma that was complemented by herbal notes from the Grand Classico. The malt continued on into the sip where it paired with the citrus notes that seemed to be derived more from the orange liqueur. The lime though came through stronger on the swallow along with the Grand Classico bitter flavors and the Bols Genever's wormwood and other botanical notes.

capetown

1 1/2 oz Housemade Swedish Punsch
1 oz Lemon Juice
3/4 oz Gutierrez Colosia Sangre y Trabajadero Oloroso Sherry
1 dash Orange Bitters

Shake with ice and strain into a wineglass garnished with white port paint (roto-vapped and boiled down to thicken). Garnish with a lemon twist.

Two Mondays ago, after attending the Plymouth Gin competition at the Hawthorne, I headed down the street to visit bartender Todd Maul at Clio. While perusing the menu, Todd brought over the "Random Drink Monday" drink, the Capetown. I had made the Capetown before from the vague recipe in the Pioneers of Mixing at Elite Bars: 1903-1933, and it was interesting to see how Todd interpreted it. Todd upped the fruity quotient of the drink by increasing the lemon juice and sherry, and he opted for a sweet oloroso sherry instead of the Lustau East India Solera one I picked.
The Capetown offered up a lemon oil and sherry aroma. The sip was a tart lemon that became a touch sweeter and more grape driven as it warmed up. Next, the swallow contained sherry and the Swedish Punsch's rum and dry tea finish; indeed, I was impressed at how well the Punsch and sherry worked together here. The most notable difference between the two Capetowns was that this one was a bit more citrus forward that mine.

joe bans you

2 oz Soberano Spanish Brandy
1 oz Lime Juice
3/4 oz Sangre y Trabajadero Oloroso Sherry
1/2 oz Orgeat

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. See text on how the drink is now served in an dried orgeat-rimmed wine glass.

For my second drink at Clio, I was lured in by the Joe Bans You for the combination of sherry, orgeat, and lime seemed like a winner. Bartender Todd Maul explained the drink's curious name. Joe, one of his patrons, used to work at the old liquor store in Harvard Square; Todd was amused at how Joe had to deal with a difficult person who was looking at the whiskeys in the store. Eventually, Joe had had enough, snapped, kicked the gentleman out, and banned him from the store. Surprisingly, this drink calls for Spanish brandy instead of whiskey of some sort, and I am sure an aged rum would not have been out of place with this combination either. Todd mentioned that he was drying down orgeat to garnish the drink; from pictures he later posted, the Joe Bans You is served in a wine glass with an orgeat-crusted rim.
The Joe Bans You began with a grapey aroma from the sherry and brandy. The grape continued on into the sip where the fruity wine flavors paired with the lime. Next, the swallow began with a nutty flavor from the oloroso sherry and orgeat and ended with the lime's crispness.

mary's liquor cabinet

2 oz Tanqueray Gin
1 oz Gran Classico
1 oz Cocchi Americano
2 dash Wormwood Bitters

Stir with ice and strain into a cocktail glass painted with two streaks of Lillet reduction paint (post-rotovapping, boiled down). Garnish with an orange twist.

Last Wednesday, Andrea and I dropped into the bar at Clio to visit bartender Todd Maul. While looking over the new menu, Todd mentioned that he remembered a conversation we had last time about how certain gins like Tanqueray are less used in classic cocktails and more for Gin & Tonics. Therefore, he suggested I try the drink, Mary's Liquor Cabinet, that he developed using that gin. Mary is one of the other bartenders at Clio, and this tribute along with the cheekily named Mary's Sock Drawer, were made as collegial jokes. Like the Dwight Street Book Club, Todd utilized a flavor paint technique from boiling down rotovapped wine product leftovers.
The orange twist offered up some fresh citrus notes to the grapefruit and gin aroma. The citrussy sip led into a Campari-like Grand Classico swallow along with gin and wormwood notes. The Grand Classico started as a faint flavor at the beginning of the swallow and its presence grew over time on the drink's finish.

dwight street book club

2 oz El Dorado White Rum
1 oz Lemon Juice
1 oz Carpano Antica Sweet Vermouth
1/2 oz Pedro Ximenez Sherry
1/2 oz Burnt Cinnamon Syrup

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass painted with two streaks of port reduction paint (post-rotovapping, boiled down).

Tuesday last week, Andrea and I took the opportunity to visit the newly redesigned bar at Clio. The bar gained about three seats in length as the lounge area on the short side of the bar was removed; this might be expanded to 4 or 5 more seats depending on the chair spacing. Moreover, the bar gained an additional work station for crafting drinks which will come in handy on the busier nights. In addition, the white marble bar top transformed into a wooden one, the back bar acquired a bit of lighting, and the television luckily evaporated. Still the same old Todd Maul behind the stick, but since we had last seen him, he gained a rotovap and seems to have had a lot of fun tinkering and extracting flavors with it. While Andrea tried a drink that had purified aspects of Lillet Blanc, I went with the Dwight Street Book Club that used remnants of a rotovapped port wine as a garnish.
The Dwight Street Book Club offered up a rum and sweet grape aroma. The grape continued on in the sip where it was countered by the lemon. On the swallow, the rum was followed by cinnamon and sherry notes. Overall, the drink was rather lightly bodied; however, as the paint shed from the sides of the glass, it made the last few sips much more heavier in body with rich port flavors.

r.l.

1 1/2 oz Old Raj 110 Gin
1 oz Alvear Solera 1927 Pedro Ximenez Sherry
1/2 oz Carpano Antica Sweet Vermouth
1/2 oz Clarified Lime Juice

Stir with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a faux lime twist (see text).
For my last drink at Clio, bartender Todd Maul offered me the R.L. as a nightcap. The drink brought together rich, sweet grape notes from the Pedro Ximénez sherry and Carpano Antica and cut them with an overproof gin and clarified lime juice. For a garnish, Todd prepared "twists" using lime juice thickened with xanthan gum, painted on sheets, and frozen before being cut into strips. Unlike traditional lime twists, the citrus oils did not fill the aroma and instead the gin was able to shine through. The sip was a rich grape flavor mostly from the Pedro Ximénez, and addition sherry notes appeared on the swallow along with the gin botanicals. Finally, the clarified lime juice provided a rather pleasant aftertaste here. As the drink warmed up, the faux twist began to soften and donated an extra citrus note and intriguing feel when swallowed.

the hunter

2 oz Sage-infused Santa Teresa Rum
3/4 oz Honey-Bourbon-Lemon Syrup
3/4 oz Sparkling Cider
1/2 oz Clarified Apple Cider
1 dash Willet 110 Rye
1 dash Smoking Ban Bitters

Stir with ice and strain into a rocks glass flavored with cinnamon smoke and containing a large ice cube. Garnish the ice cube with mace, flower petals, and a small sage leaf.

After the crowded No. 3 Gin event at Eastern Standard, I decided to relax at the bar at Clio a few blocks away. One of the drinks that bartender Todd Maul wanted to show me was the Hunter where he strove to recreate a Fall afternoon in a glass. The last time he tried to capture a seasonal feel like this was in April with the Spring in the Afternoon. The similarities between the two drinks included a botanically infused rum. For the Spring drink, it was a fresh and clean fava bean leaf, and here it was an dark, earthy, and spiced sage leaf. Another was the smoke-flavored glass; for the drink in April, Todd utilized a smoldering dried black loomi lime, and here it was cinnamon.
The smoke worked rather well here to fill the Hunter's nose, and unlike many smoked drinks, there was not an acrid burnt taste on the sip. Instead, the sip portrayed a very apple flavor that was complemented by the honey and citrus notes from the syrup. The honey continued on in the swallow where it mingled with the rum and whiskey elements. With the darker flavors, the apple and honey notes, and the smoke reminiscent of burning piles of leaves, the Hunter did indeed capture many of the elements I associate with Autumn.

sands of time

1 1/2 oz Bols Genever
1/2 oz Punt e Mes
1/2 oz Cherry Heering
1/2 oz Pimm's No. 1
1/2 oz Lemon Juice
1 dash Simple Syrup (by taste, approx >1/4 oz)
1 dash Jerry Thomas Decanter Bitters

Stir with ice and strain into a coupe glass. Garnish with marigold petals if in season.
Two Mondays ago, I paid a visit to Clio to sit at Todd Maul's bar. For a first drink, I spotted the Sands of Time off of their extensive cocktail booklet and I was curious as to how all of the fruity, bitter, and malty flavors would play out. The Sands of Time began with a floral and malty aroma that contained hints of cherry. The sip started with a lemon juice and Pimm's berry-like flavor; later, as the drink warmed up, malt from the Genever and cherry from the liqueur began to appear in the sip's profile. The Punt e Mes' bitter grape notes began the swallow that ended with the Genever's botanicals. Overall, I was impressed at how well the Punt e Mes paired with the Genever and was rather pleased at how the other ingredients as a whole smoothed out this spirit.

horace gray

1 1/2 oz Old Raj 110 Gin (*)
1 1/2 oz Loomi Black Lime Tea (**)
1/2 oz Rothman & Winter Orchard Apricot Liqueur
1/2 oz Orgeat Syrup
3-4 leaf Mint

Shake with ice and double strain into a rocks glass filled with crushed ice. Garnish with fresh mint and add a straw.
(*) They make a variation of the Horace Gray with Appleton 12 Year Rum instead of gin.
(**) Made out of crushed up dried black lime (lumi) steeped as a tisane.

For my second drink at Clio, bartender Randy Wong recommended the Horace Gray. Horace was a Boston-born, Harvard-educated intellectual who later became an Associate Supreme Court Justice. Besides associating with the Saturday Club of Boston with Ralph Waldo Emerson, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and Nathaniel Hawthorne, Horace was best known for being the father of the Boston Public Gardens. Through his vision, efforts, and personal wealth, the swamp next to the Boston Commons was drained and converted into a horticultural wonder of the day.
Randy mentioned that there were two variations of the Horace Gray drink -- one with Appleton 12 Year Rum and the other with Old Raj 110 Gin. Since my last cocktail was rum based, I opted to switch over to gin. Once mixed, the mint garnish greeted the nose and the sip was a tea-like lime flavor. Next, the swallow was a bit more complexly flavored with apricot, mint, gin, and orgeat notes. Overall, the gin kept the drink on the lighter side, and the black lime tea and ice melt provided a softer drink than the Yellow Mist. Moreover, the tea and overproof spirit helped to dry out the liqueur and orgeat's sweetness.

makahiki cocktail

1 oz Ponche de Santo Antão (Cape Verdean rum liqueur)
1/2 oz Aguardiente Grogue de Santo Antão (Cape Verdean rum)
1/2 oz Clarified Sugar Cane Water
1 oz Clarified Lime Juice
1/4 tsp Kona Coffee

Paint the inside of a rocks glass with pineapple paint (sediment after centrifugal clarification, thickened with a tapioca thickener). Add crushed ice, place pineapple ring in middle, add more crushed ice. Shake ingredients with ice and double strain into glass. Pack with more ice. Garnish with a candied pineapple disk (here a charred one) and a Marasca cherry soaked in house allspice dram. Insert a straw down the middle of the glass (through the pineapple ring).

Last time I spoke with Randy Wong, he told me that he had a drink that he wanted to make for me, so last night when we stopped by Clio, I had a chance to try it. The drink was the Makahiki Cocktail that garnered him the victory in the Dole Pineapple cocktail contest a few weeks ago. Makahiki is the Hawaiian version of Thanksgiving that occurs during harvest season, and Hawaiians show their gratitude toward their god of agriculture, fertility, and rain. In addition to the pineapple, Randy included sugar cane and coffee grown in Hawaii to round out the islander agricultural theme. Randy describes the Hawaiian symbolism in further detail on his blog.
The Makahiki Cocktail's aroma was primarily from the pineapple garnish. The sip was a light lime and pineapple flavor that had a pleasant sugar cane juice flavor to it; since the drink lacked pineapple juice, Randy explained that the pineapple flavor was from the pineapple paint slowly entering into solution. Next, the sip had a dark rum flavor from the rum, rum liqueur, and coffee. As I have seen elsewhere, coffee and lime make a good flavor pairing, and here it was similar; I say similar because clarified lime juice is a bit different from regular freshly squeezed juice. Randy explained that the drink could probably be made with fresh lime juice (and perhaps muddled pineapple at the bottom), but simple syrup would give a different flavor than the sugar cane water.

genever gimlet

2 oz Bols Genever
1 oz Swedish Punsch
1 oz Clarified Lime Juice (*)

Paint the inside of a cocktail glass with two stripes using citrus paint (**) and a pasty brush. Stir ingredients with ice and strain into the glass.
(*) Instructions on how to clarify lime juice can be found on the Cooking Issues blog. The drink can be made with regular lime juice if need be, but it will taste slightly different.
(**) The paint was the product of lemon and lime juice pellets after being thickened and gelled with Ultra-Tech and centrifuged. Food coloring was added to the final product for added contrast.

For my second drink at Clio, bartender Todd Maul wanted to show me his Clarified Genever Gimlet. This Gimlet showcases a few of the things that makes the bar stand out. First, their Swedish Punsch recipe is rather good for Todd and Randy Wong have fine-tuned their recipe using a bottle of the real deal that a guest brought them from Sweden as a flavor model. Next, the use of high tech toys like centrifuges and cane juice extractors (not shown here) and processes to improve the drink's taste and presentation. Unfortunately, this makes replicating the recipe at home a little difficult, but a rough approximation of this Gimlet can be made using regular lime juice and skipping the citrus paint. As a recipe, the Gimlet reminded me of a cross between the Dr. Cocktail and the Royal Wedding.
The Gimlet's aroma was rather malty from the Bols Genever. The sip was lime-like for clarified lime juice tastes a bit different and brighter than freshly squeezed; moreover, over time as the paint came off the glass, a different combination of citrus flavor elements entered the drink. Lastly, the swallow was rather drying with a combination of the citrus, the Punsch's tea tannins and Batavia Arrack, and the Genever's botanicals. Interestingly, the Bols Genever and the Swedish Punsch (and perhaps in conjunction with the clarified lime juice) together came across with a funky note that reminded me of rhum agricoles or Cape Verdean rums.

wong's grog

3/4 oz El Dorado 5 Year Rum
3/4 oz Goslings Black Seal 80 Proof Rum
3/4 oz Rittenhouse 100 Rye
1/2 oz Lime Juice
1/2 oz Grapefruit Juice
1/2 oz Burnt Cinnamon Syrup
1/4 tsp Ground Kona Coffee Beans
1/4 tsp Vanilla Paste

Infuse rums and rye with coffee in a mixing glass for 5 minutes. Add rest of ingredients and ice, shake, and double strain into a double Old Fashioned glass. The glass can have an ice cone with lime wheel garnish or can be filled with crushed ice with a lime twist garnish.

Wednesday last week, I stopped into Clio to taste some of the drinks on their new menu. I recently learned that Randy Wong has moved up from schemer and collaborator (to head bartender Todd Maul) all the way up to being a full bartender at Clio. Randy has been mentioned here a few times for his Tiki-inspired recipes that have made their way to different bars including Drink such as the Chee Hoo Fizz and Helen the Pacific. This time, instead of another bartender making his recipes, I had the chance to be served by him directly. For my first drink, I, therefore, went with Wong's Grog which is his take on the classic Navy Grog.
The Wong's Grog began with a lime oil aroma from the twist. The sip was a dark citrus and caramel taste that was followed by spice notes from the vanilla, coffee, and cinnamon. Overall, it was on the dry end of the spectrum for Tiki drinks and the coffee helped by providing a gentle bitter finish to the swallow.

[montresor]

1 oz El Maestro Sierra 12 Year Old Amontillado Sherry
1 oz High West Double Rye
1 oz Frapin VS Cognac
1 dash Simple Syrup (under 1/4 oz)
3 dash Smoking Ban Bitters (sub Angostura)

Stir with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Twist a lemon peel over the top and discard.

Two Thursdays ago, I met Andrea at Clio for drinks. One of the cocktails bartender Todd Maul made for me was a take on the Saratoga that appears in Jerry Thomas' Bon-Vivant's Companion (and not the other one I more recently wrote about). Instead of sweet vermouth, Todd substituted in a glorious 12 year old Amontillado sherry from El Maestro Sierra which contains some delicious earthy tobacco notes; Todd also added some simple syrup to give the sherry a similar sweetness to Italian vermouth. In addition, to bolster the tobacco notes in the sherry, Todd added a few dashes of Smoking Ban Bitters. Todd threatened to name this drink after me and call it the "F.Y." or similar; who knows if he will make do on his threat, but his track record of naming drinks The Simon or the J.R.T. after his regulars speaks for itself. For now, I will just dub the drink the Montresor in respect to the sherry.
The drink's lemon twist added high notes to the aroma of the sherry. The taste was dry, earthy, and somewhat herbal on the sip, contained the sherry's nuttiness and rye's spice on the swallow, and ended with the bitters' clove on the finish. Surprisingly, the drink did not taste much like its simple components as the flavor morphed into something higher to the point that it would be hard determine the individual constituents.

j.r.t.

2 oz Ron Diplomatico Rum Reserve
1 oz Lime Juice
1/2 oz Housemade Allspice Dram
1/2 oz Burnt Cinnamon Syrup

Shake with ice and strain into a rocks glass containing one large ice cube. Freshly grate nutmeg over the top and add a pinch or two of ground mace to the top of the ice cube. Add a straw.

For my second drink at Clio last Wednesday night, bartender Todd Maul wanted to make me the J.R.T. off of the new Spring cocktail menu. Luckily, I asked Todd what the initials stood for instead of trying to guess later if he had a fascination with Jack Russell Terriers or other. The name is a series of initials standing for John, the regular for whom the drink was made, Randy Wong, the creator of Clio's allspice dram and other recipes, and Todd Maul himself.
The nutmeg and mace aromas greeted me before I took a taste of this Tiki number. While nutmeg and mace come from the same fruit, mace is the outer covering of the nutmeg seed and packs a more potent punch and reddish hue. Once I did take a sip, it was full of a semi-sweet lime flavor that paired well with the caramel richness from the aged rum. Moreover, these notes were chased by the spice from the cinnamon syrup and allspice dram on the swallow. The spice quotient was augmented over time as the nutmeg and mace notes dissolved into the drink.