none but the brave

1 1/2 oz Hine Cognac
1/2 oz St. Elizabeth Allspice Dram
1/4 oz Lemon Juice
1/4 oz Goslings Dark Rum
1/4 tsp Sugar

Shake with ice and pour ice and all into a rocks glass. Garnish with a long orange twist. The proportions were taken from the CocktailDB recipe with modifications made in terms of liquor brand, glass, and garnish type. Also, the database recommends straining the ice out.

For my nightcap at Highland Kitchen last night, I chose the None but the Brave for two reasons. The first was that I was in the mood for some tasty dram-goodness after tinkering with a new bitters recipe that includes allspice berries. And the second was that I have been wanting to try this drink ever since Lauren Clark wrote about it in DrinkBoston last May (in the same article is a mention of a drink I served at my International Migratory Bird Day party). Lauren surmised that the drink could be named after a 1965 Frank Sinatra movie or a John Dryden poem with the line, "None but the brave deserves the fair". The drink itself did not disappoint. The richness of the brandy and rum was pleasantly tempered by the citrus notes of the lemon juice. The allspice flavors were rather evident in the swallow and served to dry out the drink.

agave punch

2 oz Sauza Tequila
1/2 oz Ruby Port
1/2 oz Orange Juice
1/4 oz Lemon Juice
1/4 oz Simple Syrup

Shake with ice and pour into a rocks glass, ice and all. Garnish with an orange wedge. Measurements were estimates since they were all free poured.

Last night, Andrea and I went over to the Highland Kitchen to meet up with Scott Holliday for his post-work drink. Behind the bar were Joe McGuirk and Beau, and I asked Joe to make me the Agave Punch off of their menu. It would normally be a drink I would not be interested in ordering; however, the presence of the ruby port intrigued me especially in conjunction with the tequila. The port did serve to provide a nice mouth-fullness to the drink that would have otherwise been a thinner tequila sour. Moreover, it also added some depth and complexity to the fruit flavors. The one recipe I found online for this drink had an upped amount of citrus and simple syrup (with a very similar ratio between the three), and about the same amount of tequila and port as the recipe above. I think the pleasant effect of the port would have been lost in that recipe as opposed to the one Joe made me, so the modification was rather appreciated.

blood and sand (variation)

2 oz Dewar's Scotch
1/2 oz Cherry Heering
1/2 oz Martini & Rossi Sweet Vermouth
2 slices of Orange
1 Marasca Cherry (Luxardo)
1 dash Housemade Orange Bitters

Muddle cherry, orange slices and orange bitters in mixing glass. Add rest of ingredients and ice, shake, and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish glass with orange wedge on rim and another Marasca cherry dropped in.

For my second drink at Deep Ellum, I told Max Toste that I was interested in the Blood and Sand unless there was something else he wanted to make me. He paused and then said that he wanted me to try his take on this classic drink, one named after the 1922 Rudolf Valentino as a bullfighter flick. The traditional recipe is:

Blood and Sand
1/4 Jigger Whisky
1/4 Jigger Italian Vermouth
1/4 Jigger Chery Brandy
1/4 Jigger Orange Juice
Shake well with ice, strain into chilled cocktail glass and serve. Recipe from Boothby's World Drinks and How to Mix Them (1934).

The most recent issue of Imbibe magazine (Jan/Feb) mentions this drink and that Ted Haigh suggests altering the equal parts recipe by reducing the sweet vermouth and Cherry Heering down to a 1:1:3/4:3/4 ratio to make the drink less sweet and more engaging. Max's approach was similar but more extreme. He skipped the orange juice entirely and replaced it with a muddled orange slice or two in addition to orange bitters. He scaled back the Cherry Heering and sweet vermouth and added back some of the sweetness with the muddled cherry. The end result was very Scotch forward and relatively dry (well, given the ingredients). There was a prominent and pleasant smokiness over the fruit and vermouth flavors. While I had never had a traditional version of the drink, Andrea had. She commented that she enjoyed Max's variation a lot more than the sickly sweet original.

Update: April 18, 2012 -- Max made us another Blood & Sand two weeks ago. Here is his current tweak on the recipe:
• 2 oz Blended Scotch
• 1/2 oz Cherry Heering
• 1/2 oz Sweet Vermouth
• 1/3 oz Maraschino Cherry Syrup
• 1 Orange Slice
• 3 dash House Orange Bitters
Muddle the orange slice. Add rest of ingredients and ice. Shake and double strain into a rocks glass.

the tommy noble

1 1/4 oz Plymouth Gin
1 1/4 oz Pimm's No. 1
1/2 oz Lemon Juice
1/2 oz Simple Syrup
1 dash Housemade Aromatic Bitters

Shake with ice. Twist orange rind over an empty cocktail glass and rim the edge, strain the ingredients into the glass, and drop the peel in.

Last night after a dinner at Grasshopper, Andrea and I went over to Deep Ellum where Max Toste was bartending (Max is often at the stick on Mondays and Wednesdays). When Max handed us the drink menu, he mentioned that there were a few new cocktails on the list. The Tommy Noble was the one that called out to me first. My research today tells me that the recipe originated at the B-Side, created by Dave Cagle, and is named after a notoriously bad British boxer who fought 180 times in the 1910s through 1930s. I knew that the name had something to do with the UK given the presence of Pimm's in the ingredient list.

The first sensations of this drink was the vibrant orange oil nose which lingers for the first few sips. Besides that, the drink itself had a nice citrus bite and was rather nice and dry. Max commented that the Pimm's works well with his aromatic bitters which contain allspice, cinnamon, cardamom, gentian, and other botanicals. I would have to agree.

Postnote 6/18/26: In researching my first book, I learned "According to Dave, he is not a fan of 1910-30s boxing, but it was named after from the 'Drinking out of cups' video with the talking lizard. He and and another bartender used to banter back and forth with lines from that video. Puts the year a little after 2000 since the video came out 2006 and I had it in early 2009." A FoodLens article placed the drinks creation at 2003 when Dave was working at the B-Side in Cambridge.

scotch toddy

1 1/2 oz Laphroaig 10 Year Cask Strength
3/4 oz Bergamot Simple Syrup
Hot Water
Lemon Oil

Served in a glass mug that looked like a junior version of one of those old root beer mugs places used to give away as a promotion.

I was intrigued by the bergamot simple syrup that Misty used in Fred's first cocktail, the Chartreuse Swizzle. Drink buys the rather expensive little bergamot fruits and uses both the zest and juice for the simple syrup. The result is a drier orange flavor relative to a regular orange. Misty said that she likes to mix it with a nice smoky scotch in a toddy. After I'd drained my Tennessee, I decided that this would be my hot drink choice for the evening. As we waited for more hot water, I was unable to resist the temptation of the duck drummettes on the nibbles menu. As I wolfed these down (NOM NOM NOM, watch your fingers), the sweet, rich barbecue-like sauce paired very well with the scotch-n-citrus cocktail. At some point, the gentleman who had initially greeted us came in to announce the SuperBowl status with less than 23 seconds left. It sounded like it was an exciting game. Especially for the chef who'd made my incredible duck drummies - he'd won the football pool and came out of the kitchen to celebrate.

rye tennessee

2 oz. Old Overholt Rye
1/2 oz. maraschino liqueur
1/2 oz. lemon juice

Shake on ice and strain into an old fashioned glass (the one they gave me was a beautiful etched, rounded one).

After a nice meal at Dali on PuppyBowl Sunday, Fred and I headed over to Drink. A familiar-looking gentleman came over and asked me what I wanted, and I stated that I wanted a rye-based drink. "A Fort Point?" "I've had it." "How about a Seelbach?" "I've had that, too." "Oh, he said, you're some serious cocktailians. I have to go get the expert." In retrospect, I guess I must have sounded like a total snot. Oh well. I felt guilty when the gentleman re-appeared with a somewhat annoyed-looking Misty, who had been enjoying a steak taco from Olecita in the back office. I apologised for pulling her away from dinner (which hopefully she had managed to finish), and she got her revenge on me by making me hungry again with her description of the tacos. Maybe it was the glucose finally hitting hitting her system after a couple of minutes, but she perked up and immediately thought of something to address my rye fixation - a Tennessee. Though the traditional Tennessee is made with a corn whiskey (I hesitate to say bourbon), Misty prefers the way rye dries out the maraschino. I was in the mood for something uncomplicated and direct, and this cocktail certainly delivered. Even more glucose must have hit her system while she was preparing my drink, because the cocktails she came up with for me and Fred afterwards were truly inspired.

jet pilot

1 oz Meyer's Dark Rum
3/4 oz Lemon Hart Demerara 151° Rum
3/4 oz Ron Pampero Aniversario Rum
1/2 oz Velvet Falernum
1/2 oz Cinnamon Simple Syrup
1/2 oz Lime Juice
1/2 oz Grapefruit Juice
6 drops Herbsaint
1 dash Peychaud's Bitters

Shake with ice and strain into a stemmed tumbler filled with crushed ice. Garnish with a caramel cherry.

For my last cocktail at Drink on Sunday, Misty and John schemed up to make a vintage tiki drink, the Jet Pilot for me. The Jet Pilot's history can be traced back to the Luau Restaurant, a late 1950's Beverly Hills tiki mecca, and the bartenders at Drink stuck to the original recipe save for rum brands (no alterance in rum styles) and using Peychaud's instead of Angostura. The drink was garnished with an elegant caramel dripped cherry; unfortunately for the photo above, the long stem of caramel was broken off in the process of preparing the drink but it was a marvel to see the artistry in the garnish before hand.

The drink had notes of sweet and spicy due to the flavors in the sugary botanical goodness of the falernum and cinnamon simple syrup which were supplemented by the Herbsaint and bitters. The citrus juice interacted rather well with the sweetness and the spice to round out the drink's profile. Well, not completely as that does not include the richness of the three rums. Nothing more surreal than drinking a tiki drink in the winter and on the eve of Groundhog's Day much less. If only Punxsutawney Phil had drank one of these that night, he might have come to a different conclusion. Or perhaps, he might not have wanted to come out of his hole at all yesterday morning...

airbag

1 oz El Tosoro Reposado Tequila
1/2 oz Mezcal del Maguey
1/2 oz Batavia Arrack
3/4 oz Carpano Antica Sweet Vermouth
1/4 oz St. Elizabeth Allspice Dram
1/4 oz Benedictine
2 dashes Bittermens Xocolatl Mole bitters

Stir with ice and strain into cocktail glass. Garnish with a lit cherry bomb (cherry soaked in Laphroaig Cask Strength).
For my second cocktail at Drink last night, I asked Misty for a suggestion for a next step, and when she mentioned the name of the drink and that it was a Phil Ward (Death & Co., NYC) creation, I was sold without knowing what was in it. According to Paul Clarke in his Cocktail Chronicles blog post about this drink, the cocktail was made at the behest of Avery Glasser of the Bittermens Bitters. Paul wrote, "Recognizing the horrific resemblance of this long list of complex-flavored ingredients to the gruesome spectacle of a car wreck, Phil dubbed this drink the Airbag."
The drink features three smoky flavored ingredients: Scotch, mezcal, and Batavia Arrack, although the tequila could have some smokiness to it as well. Not knowing the history of the drink until today, I figured that the drink was named after the smoky residue that is dispersed when an airbag is deployed. The car crash aspect of it was missed on me since I have seen other creations of this magnitude work. The rest of the drink is very herbal with the Allspice Dram, Benedictine, and Carpano Antica vermouth not to mention the bitters adding a great deal of complexity to the drink. The top picture did not capture the flaming cherry due to the flash but it was the rather pretty blue flame associated with burning alcohol. Overall, the crazy recipe for this drink did indeed work. It was spicy and smoky. Andrea after trying my drink commented that she was "hit in the nose with a giant rush of flavor, kind of like a car accident. Ow... but I'm still alive." So apparently, a better name for this drink could not have been chosen. And thanks to Misty for bringing a bit of NYC magic over here.

chartreuse swizzle

JM Rhum Blanc
Pierre Ferrand Amber Cognac
Yellow Chartreuse
Bergamot Syrup
"West Coast" Ginger Syrup
Lemon Juice
Grapefruit Juice
2 drops Peychaud's Bitters

All ingredients save for the Peychaud's poured into a stemmed tumbler filled with crushed ice and stirred with a swizzle. Glass topped off with more freshly crushed ice and Peychaud's added to top of ice.
Last night, after having dinner at Dali (easy to do even as a large group when it is Superbowl Sunday), Andrea and I went to Drink. We found seats at the center bar where Misty was tending. While Misty was making Andrea a Rye Tennessee, my eyes spied the authentic naturally grown swizzle stick from Martinique in the tools bucket. The tool was one that Adam from The Boston Shaker had mentioned to me that Drink bartender John Gertsen had in his possession (Note: Adam is still looking for a source for these authentic swizzle sticks for his store. Any leads would be greatly appreciated by him and the Boston cocktail community as a whole).

When I mentioned the stick to Misty, she stated that she had two chartreuse swizzles that she greatly enjoyed making: one with green and one with yellow Chartreuse. While I was more interested in the green since I have had a several yellow Chartreuse cocktails recently, the yellow one's recipe was more appealing. Misty started my drink like mighty Thor, except with her hammer's target being an ice bag filled with a large chunk of Gloucester lake ice. I did not ask for the specific volumes on this one as I was overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of ingredients. Next, I got to see the swizzle stick in action as Misty twirled it until the drink was well mixed. To top off the drink, Misty added some more ice and added some Peychaud's bitters for an immediate aromatic nose to the drink.

In terms of tasting notes, the fresh citrus and the Chartreuse worked to intensify the other in the drink. Yellow Chartreuse can sometimes get lost in a complex drink; however, this was not the case in this swizzle. Andrea commented that she could definitely taste the funkiness of the rhum agricole, and how the sweetness of the drink was a good balance to that. The bergamot (a citrus fruit which is one of the flavors in Earl Grey tea) also added a distinctive note to the drink. We asked and got a taster glass of the bergamot syrup to appreciate it separate from the rest of the ingredients -- delightful!