rapa nui

1 1/2 oz Old Monk Rum
1/2 oz Smith & Cross Rum
2 oz Blood Orange Juice
1/2 oz Lime Juice
1/2 oz Cinnamon Syrup
1/4 oz Bauchant Orange Liqueur

Shake with ice and strain into a water goblet filled with crushed ice. Float a 1/2 oz of Lustau East India Solera Sherry on top, and garnish with an orange slice and cherry speared with a cocktail umbrella. Add straws.

On Christmas Eve, I decided to venture down to Eastern Standard for dinner and drinks. For my first drink, I asked bartender Hugh Fiore for the Rapa Nui off of their recently expanded Tikisms section. I had never heard of the drink before and I was correct in guessing that it was an original. The creator, bartender Kit Paschal, came by later to tell me about the genesis of the Rapa Nui. Kit had watched the movie "180° South" about a guy who retraces the "epic 1968 journey of his heroes Yvon Chouinard and Doug Tompkins to Patagonia... [and] along the way he gets shipwrecked off Easter Island" (IMDB's summary). The movie spoke about the Rapa Nui who are the native Polynesian inhabitants of Easter Island and their struggles, and he created this drink in their honor. Also as a fitting tribute, I was requesting a drink with Smith & Cross to help celebrate Eric Seed's (the importer of Smith & Cross and the rest of the Haus Alpenz line) birthday from afar.
The Rapa Nui possessed a rather fruity aroma from the blood orange and sherry with hints of rum poking through. As for the taste, a citrus sip was chased by Old Monk's richness on the swallow; moreover, the Smith & Cross was rather notable flavor throughout the drink. In addition, over successive sips, the cinnamon notes from the syrup built up and added a nice degree of spice on the swallow. Lastly, I was greatly impressed at how well this drink paired with the citrus and mixed greens and vinaigrette salad I had ordered. After I put this drink in my 2011 top cocktails of the year post, Eastern Standard updated their menu with the above thank you.

dutch courage

2 oz Anchor Steam Genevieve
1/2 oz Bauchant Orange Liqueur
1 heaping barspoon Sugar (white)
1 dash Angostura Bitters
1 dash Angostura Orange Bitters

Stir with ice, and pour ice and all into a rocks glass. Twist orange peel over the top and drop in.
On Monday night after my 10th anniversary of DJing at Ceremony nightclub, Andrea and I walked to Kenmore Square to get dinner and drinks. Josh Taylor and Hugh Fiore were manning the bar that night (first time I had seen Josh be dressed like a bartender instead of a barback who makes great drinks when need be). Josh talked us through the new drinks on the menu including the new "Old Fashioned" section which appeared last Friday. The one that I picked was the Dutch Courage which was listed in Jackson Cannon-ese as using "Fritz's Genever". Fritz's spirit turned out to be the Genever-style gin made by Fritz Maytag of Anchor Distilling, so perhaps the drink could be renamed Dutch-style Courage to avoid trouble from the A.O.C.? The drink had a wonderful orange nose and a rather malty flavor. Moreover, the notes from the bitters and the juniper appeared at the end of the swallow. While I am not usually a fan of drinks served on the rocks, this cocktail benefited from it. The Bauchant is a subtle orange liqueur that was overwhelmed by the Genevieve; however, as the ice melted, the bite of the gin decreased and the orange flavors became more apparent.

[celery stalking hugh]

1 1/2 oz Clement Premiere Canne White Rhum Agricole
1/2 oz Bauchant Orange Liqueur
1/2 oz Martini & Rossi Bianco Vermouth
2 dashes The Bitter Truth's Celery Bitters

Stir with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. No garnish.

Last night while leaving my jiu jitsu class, I noticed that I had a phone message from Andrea. Her flight landed and she was at Eastern Standard and hoping that I would swing by after class to meet her there. And oh yeah, Hugh misses me.

Once I got to Eastern and ordered some food at the bar, I spied a bottle of the Bitter Truth's Celery Bitters! I had waited for so long to taste them that I had given up and designed my own in the way that I imagined that they should be (historically, not what I read about tBT's version). I based mine on a robust celery seed flavor which was supported by some funky greens and roots such as dandelion, burdock, barberry, and spearmint. When I smelled the Bitter Truth's version, it was very citrussy -- I could neither smell nor taste the celery itself. Andrea said that it smelled like lemon verbena, and Hugh commented that it was not as celery as mine as "yours are extreme celery!"

Still, I was intrigued and so was Hugh. We brain stormed and came up with this drink. The rhum agricole that Hugh chose was a very grassy white from Clement. I figured that a lighter liqueur like Bauchant orange liqueur would work well (Hugh was thinking apricot). And a bianco vermouth rounded out the lineup. The end result was a rather intriguing bitter and earthy concoction. Hugh was pleased enough with the taste that the receipe went into his black book of recipes.

heather in queue

1 1/2oz Plymouth gin
3/4 oz Martini&Rossi Bianco vermouth
1/2 oz Bauchant orange liqueur
1/4 oz Fernet-Branca

Stir thoroughly, garnish with a flamed lemon peel.

Apparently named for a ES regular (who ends up waiting in line often?) this was a lovely, light, and wintery-chill sort of flavor to start off my evening with. My note-taking was worse than usual, this drink being scrawled on a small piece of paper from the receipt printer behind the bar.

[mirto cocktails]

Last night, Tim called us up and asked us if we wanted to meet him at Eastern Standard for which we were game. When we arrived, we found Tim talking to Jackson Cannon as they were drinking Corpse Reviver #3's (equal parts Cognac, Fernet-Branca, and creme de menthe). Jackson asked us what we wanted to drink tonight to which I replied "rye and Chartreuse". Jackson said he had a bitter he would like me to try that might fill the Chartreuse need. That bitter was Mirto, a Sardinian liqueur made with myrtle berries and leaves. While the drink he had been working on was gin-based, he said that he could try it with rye. I replied that I would be willing to go with gin especially if that was what he was comfortable trying. Jackson asked if I was up for two cocktails, one with each base spirit, since he wanted to give the rye version a shot.

Since Jackson had hung up the apron for the night, Hugh Fiore took over. The gin-based recipe he made for me was:

2 oz Plymouth Gin
1/2 oz Martini & Rossi Dry Vermouth
1/2 oz Amer Picon
2 barspoons Mirto

Stirred with ice and strained into a coupe. Garnished with a flamed orange peel.

The Mirto itself was syrupy sweet with a piny taste; Tim likened it to eucalyptus. In the cocktail, the Mirto played rather well with the Amer Picon for complementary bitter fruit flavors and with the vermouth and gin for sharper notes.
For my second drink, Hugh tried his hand at developing the rye version with guidance from Jackson. I watched as the first two versions got dumped before they were willing to serve me a drink they were proud of. And it was well worth their added effort for this:

2 oz Rittenhouse Rye
1/2 oz Martini & Rossi Bianco Vermouth
1/2 oz Bauchant Orange Liqueur
2 barspoons Mirto
1 dash Bittermens Boston Bitters

Stirred with ice and strained into a coupe sans garnish.

The Rittenhouse brought out the spice in the Mirto and formed the base for a complex and tasty concoction. To substitute the orange flavor of the Amer Picon, Hugh used Bauchant, and he added Bittermen's Boston Bitters which is heavy on the citrus. The description of the Bauchant I found was "Delicate aromas of orange and tangerine; complex and elegant with intense fruit flavors underscored by notes of caramel and butterscotch." The variety of flavors and notes going on in that glass were rather stunning. Hopefully one or the other of these drinks makes it on to Eastern Standard's menu in the not so distant future.