déjà vu in dehli

2 oz Old Monk XXX Rum
1/2 oz St. Germain
1/2 oz Lime Juice
2 dash Bittermens Tiki Bitters

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

Last night was my 4th night of cocktails (Tuesday was having friends over, Wednesday was a friend's birthday at the B-side, Thursday was my birthday that ended up at No. 9) where we were celebrating the impending nuptials of some friends at Green Street. Tiredness from the long week of work made me seek out this pleasant sounding cocktail on Green Street's menu which I had not tried before. I am generally not a big fan of the tiki genre but I gave this one a go.

The Old Munk rum is a dark rum infused with vanilla that we own at home after wanting to make a Maharaja's Revenge (2 oz Old Munk, 1 oz apricot brandy, 3/4 oz fresh lime juice, lime wheel garnish) from LUPEC's delightful Little Black Book of Cocktails via Brother Cleve. I am not sure if the Déjà Vu uses the same proportions as that but in essence, it is the same drink after swapping St. Germain for Rothman and Winter Apricot Liqueur.

One difference of course is that the Déjà Vu uses Bittermens Bitters! Instead of trying to describe them, I will just copy and paste from the BB's website:

‘Elemakule Tiki Cocktail Bitters - Winter 2008

Brian Miller - One of the fantastic bartenders Death and Company and tiki enthusiast asked if we ever considered making a Falernum - a classic west indian spiced cordial. Though we’re not doing cordials, we did wonder if it’s possible to actually create a bitter designed with tiki cocktails in mind. It’s a departure from our normal bitters in many ways: the recipe has been simplified in order to make it easy to make at a bar with limited facilities, we’ve developed a new set of bittering agents that play much better tiki drinks and we’ve included a little fresh fruit into the mix.
Primary Flavors: Allspice, Star Anise, Cardamom and Citrus

While my cocktail could have used an extra dash or two of these bitters, they did add a great component to the drink.

pegu club

2 oz gin
1 oz orange liqueur
1/2 oz lime juice
2 dashes Angostura

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

Matt made me this as my first drink last night at No. 9 Park. He used Plymouth gin and Ben's housemade orange liqueur (80 oranges' peels mixed with grain neutral spirits). The fact that their orange liqueur was unsweetened (or not sweetened much) made this drink delightfully dry. Some versions of the drink use these proportions except use Cointreau or curacao which makes the drink taste wrong for me. Also, some recipes use orange bitters instead of or in addition to the Angostura; combined is fine but alone the orange bitters lack the strength to steer the drink the proper direction.

Yes, I am pretty particular about the Pegu since it was the first gin cocktail that won me over to the spirit. The ratio I use at home is 1 1/2 oz gin (often Bombay), 1/2 oz Cointreau, 1/2 oz lime juice, and a dash of Angostura; shake until painfully cold. With this ratio, the citrus and the bitters mix to make the cocktail taste like grapefruit juice.

The rich history of the drink I found when researching this drink back in 2006 was this one, and I just found a decent article in the Wall Street Journal on it (with yet a different recipe).

rum copenhagen

2 oz rum
2 oz apricot liqueur
3/4 oz Gammeldansk
2 dashes orange blossom water
topped off with orange peel oils (no garnish)

Stirred with ice and strained into a cocktail glass. Add orange peel oil to top of cocktail.

Last night after my birthday dinner at Ten Tables, Andrea took me to No. 9 Park. My second cocktail of the night was a variant of their Copenhagen which Ben and Matt were working out that night. They used a Venezuelan rum that really worked well with all of the flavors and was not overly sweet. The rum set a very different tone to the drink than Fighting Cock bourbon does, but it was complex enough to do the job. The apricot liqueur was the same Rothman and Winter one that is in their normal Copenhagen; however, it did not taste like there was too much apricot like the bourbon version (*). Ben's touch to Matt's variant was the orange blossom water and orange oil which added a very pleasant nose feel to the drink.

(*) The original Copenhagen, for my taste buds, could have the apricot halved and the Gameldansk doubled to a 2 oz bourbon 1 oz apricot 1 1/2 oz Gameldansk ratio. The concept seemed to intrigue Ben last night.

leeuwenhoek

1 1/2 oz Hendrick's Gin
1/2 Lillet Blanc
1/2 oz Kümmel
1/4 oz Amer Picon
Lemon Twist

Stir with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Twist the lemon peel over the drink to release the oils and then add to glass.

This was my submission for the Hendrick's Beantown Bartender Battle. The description was, "Finally, a contest for those yearning to combine their mixology and rhyming skills. The Hendrick’s Beantown Bartender Battle is putting out the call to all Boston-area mixologists — from those who pour booze for a living to those who have never mixed a drink outside their kitchen — for original recipes using Hendrick’s gin. Recipes can use up to six ingredients, but Hendrick’s must serve as the base. The cocktail also must highlight one of the 13 botanicals used in the gin: cucumber, rose petal, elderflower, chamomile, juniper berry, caraway seed, coriander, cubeb berry, orris root, lemon peel, orange peel, meadowsweat, and angelica. (Anyone who highlights cubeb berry should get extra credit.)".

The botanical I was highlighting was caraway seed via the liqueur Kümmel. I wrote, "Given that Kümmel originated in the Netherlands, I named the cocktail after a famous Dutch scientist who invented the microscope -- after a few hours straight of using one of those, my mind definitely needs a drink...". I exaggerated slightly on the inventing the microscope part and the Kümmel I used wasn't Dutch (we got ours through Andrea's boss via Germany), but it did unite my interests in booze and science.

Alas, I never heard back so I believe that my recipe was not chosen (which does save me from having to write a lymerick about my drink), so I posted it here for others to try.

slojack

sloe gin
applejack
lemon juice
grenadine

Last night I went to No. 9 Park and picked their new cocktail menu offering which featured the new Plymouth Sloe Gin for Matt to make for me. I did not catch the proportions but the end product was rather well balanced with the lemon juice neutralizing the sweetness in the sloe gin and grenadine. Not sure what the applejack was there for since it lacked any noticeable apple flavor (perhaps Calvados which has 3 times the apple product in it would have altered this). It seemed to be a fusion of a sloe gin fizz with a Savoy Tango cocktail (equal parts sloe gin and applejack).

Overall, I like the sloe gin although it is a bit too sweet for me. It was worth the wait and I am glad the Plymouth started exporting it to the states (and I hope my email to Plymouth a year ago added to the pressure for them to do so).

blinker cocktail

2 oz rye
1 oz grapefruit juice
1-2 tsp raspberry syrup

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Recipe from the Cocktail Chronicles blog by way of Ted Haigh. See postnote below for Green Street's recipe.

Andrea and I went to the Lantern Festival last night at Forest Hills. Andrea had brought a bunch of food for a picnic dinner including mixed berries. After the festival, we ended up at Green Street, and to continue with the berry theme, I chose the Blinker which was finely crafted by Dylan Black. The raspberry syrup counterbalanced the grapefruit's bite and bitterness rather well, although perhaps marginally too sweet for my tastes. I wonder if freshly muddled raspberries with (or even without) a dash of simple syrup would be a good substitute to make a less sweet version of this drink at home.

My only notes for the ingredients of the drink are that Dylan used Old Overholdt rye for the drink, which is what some people recommend for this drink over a spicier rye (see comment section of the blog link above). And that the grapefruit juice appeared to have been pink instead of the more bitter yellow.

Postnote: Greem Street's recipe is 2 oz Old Overholt Rye, 1/2 oz Grapefruit Juice, 1/2 oz Fresh Raspberry Syrup.

hesitation cocktail

1 part Swedish Punsch
1 part rye

Swedish Punsch
3 parts 1:1 simple syrup
2 parts Batavia Arrack
1 part lemon juice
nutmeg (1/4 tsp grated to 500mL)
cardamom (8 pods to 500mL)

My last drink at Deep Ellum came by way of Max Toste's suggestion for a Hesitation Cocktail. Previously, he had made me a Waldorf Cocktail that had gin and Swedish Punsch (and possibly other ingredients) which was rather good, so a rye version sounded appealing. I had heard of the cocktail from the Savoy cocktail book, but had never made it since we have not yet gotten around to making our own Punsch (despite buying a bottle to use for that specific purpose). Again, Max's version strays from the Savoy which has less whiskey in it.

I provided Max's alteration of the Swedish Punsch recipe from the one on the Batavia Arrack bottle. Despite the drink being 1/4 volume of 1:1 simple syrup, the drink was not overly sweet and was rather well balanced. The extra rye in the drink probably assisted in this balance given my tastes.

cocktail à la louisiane (variation)

4 parts rye
1 part Benedictine
1 part sweet vermouth
Peychaud's bitters
absinthe rinse

Stir with ice and strain into a cocktail glass rinsed with absinthe.

We went to Deep Ellum (Allston, MA) last night after eating at Grasshopper around the corner. Max Toste greeted us as soon as we sat down at the bar (which luckily for us is less filled now that the outdoor seating area has opened for the season) and proceeded to act as our personal cocktail tour guide. While Andrea went on a rum cocktail tour, I went with a New Orleans theme probably after reading and hearing about Tales of the Cocktail so much as of late.

I started my drinks with his variation on the brandy Sazerac (off his cocktail menu) which later launched into a discussion of the merits of sugar cubes to add texture to a drink (thickness and mouth-feel) while simple syrup adds more plain sweetness. It is definitely a theory I need to experiment in a side-by-side mixology session akin to how John Gertsen from No.9 demonstrated the taste differences between a shaken and a stirred martini.

The next two drinks were off his menu; despite Deep Ellum being know for the beer selection, they do have a rather decent cocktail menu and when Max is at the stick, a wealth of cocktail history and recipe wisdom as well. My second drink was a Cocktail à la Louisiane variation. The one I am used to and make at home, I first had at Green Street and that follows the recipe in the Famous New Orleans Drinks and How to Mix 'Em book. That recipe can be found in Chuck Taggart's blog here. This variation was somewhere between the traditional and either a Sazerac or a Manhattan although Max compared it more to a Manhattan variation.

A very tasty drink and a lot lighter than the original recipe. Did not catch what ingredients he used other than Old Overholdt and I have no clue whether he spiked in some of his own house-made bitters to the mix.

el presidente

1 1/2 oz light rum
3/4 oz Creole Shrub (orange curacao)
3/4 oz dry vermouth
1 dash grenadine

Stir with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Squeeze lemon oil, coat rim, and drop in peel. The recipe above is from The Cocktail Chronicles website (with the Creole Shrub swapped in) and not necessarily how Eastern Standard makes the drink.

Last night, Andrea wanted to go to Eastern Standard after I DJ'd up the street at Ceremony. I started the night with a Flying Dutchman (a Batavia Arrack-based cocktail) and ended with an Ameri-beer (Amer Picon-Czech beer combination). For my middle drink, I requested something to be made with Creole Shrub. Tommy recommended El Presidente which will be Eastern Standard's drink of the month for August. Their menu states that it will be made with "orange curacao" but he used the requested Creole Shrub instead.

The drink itself is rather smooth, and it had the right degree of dryness for me. Moreover, it was interesting to have a rum drink at a bar that did not have fruit juice in it (save for the pomegranate juice in the dash of grenadine). There are plenty of rum drinks that I have made at home sans fruit juice (I do appreciate fresh juice in my cocktails, but not all the time), but a common trend is to treat rum very differently from the other liquors.