chupacabra

1 oz Lunazul Reposado Tequila
1 oz St. Germain
1/2 oz Punt e Mes
1/2 oz Lime Juice
1 barspoon Mezcal

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

On Sunday evening, I decided to travel to Washington Street in the South End and finally visit The Gallows. I arrived just as a seat at the bar opened up, and when I sat down I was greeted by head bartender April Wachtel who I had briefly met at Tales of the Cocktail in July. Upon perusing the menu, the Chupacabra -- both for its ingredients and its name -- stood out as a good starting point. I mean, a tequila drink named after one of the wonders of modern cryptozoology?
The Chupacabra started with a mezcal and lime aroma, and part way through the drink, the Punt e Mes grape and St. Germain floral notes became apparent on the nose. On the sip, the tequila and St. Germain paired up rather well, and both were complemented by the lime. The St. Germain aided in making the drink pretty mellow especially for a tequila and mezcal cocktail. Similarly, the Punt e Mes functioned to make the St. Germain less distinguishable in the mix despite being a major constituent of the recipe. Overall, the drink was pretty balanced, and the added complexity of the bitter Punt e Mes vermouth and smoky mezcal gave the Chupacabra some intrigue over a standard Tequila Daisy.

aku aku

1 oz Milagro Blanco Tequila
1/2 oz Lime Juice
1/2 oz Pineapple
1/2 oz Orgeat
1 barspoon Pastis
1 small pinch Salt

Add about 1 oz ginger beer and 1 oz soda water to a highball glass. Shake rest of ingredients with ice and strain into the glass. Top with ginger beer (~1/2 oz) and garnish with a lime wedge and a straw.
For my second drink at Craigie on Main, the Aku Aku on the cocktail menu caught my eye. While it is not the Trader Vic recipe of the same name, it did have some strong Tiki aspects to it. However, it felt more like it was a Tiki drink crossed with a Mexican one such as a Diablo. When bartender Carrie Cole made me the Aku Aku, the nose was lime with hints of tequila. The sip started with a fruity ginger spice followed by the lime and tequila. Lastly, the pastis appeared on the swallow along with a smokey note. Overall, the Aku Aku was rather refreshing.

fin du saison

4 slice Small Cucumber (about 2 slices of a regular one)
6-8 leaf Basil
1 pinch Salt
1 oz Cocchi Americano
1/2 oz Green Chartreuse
1/2 oz Lemon Juice
1/4 oz Grand Marnier

Muddle cucumber, basil leaves, and salt. Add rest of ingredients, shake with ice, and double strain into a Champagne flute. Top with a dry sparkling wine (Veuve du Vernay).

On Friday, I made my way down to Craigie on Main and scored a seat at the bar. I had both luck on my side and the fact that I was alone so an odd-numbered party at the bar allowed a seat to be free. For my first drink, I selected the Fin Du Saison for the pairing of cucumber with green Chartreuse reminded me of the tasty Irma La Deuce that LUPEC Boston created for a Chartreuse event I attended at Green Street a few years ago.

The Fin Du Saison that bartender Carrie Cole made for me started with an garden-like aroma filled with cucumber and basil notes. The herbal notes continued over into the light sip that was punctuated by the crispness of the sparkling wine and lemon juice. Chartreuse highlighted the swallow, and this was supplemented by further cucumber and basil flavors.

emerson cocktail

Juice of 1/2 Lime (1/2 oz)
3 dash Maraschino Liqueur (1/4 oz Luxardo)
1/2 oz Sweet Vermouth (Bonal)
3/4 oz Old Tom Gin (Hayman's)

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

Last Tuesday, we had some left over lime juice after making the McMenomy Cocktails for the Mixology Monday event. To find a good use of it, I opened up Jacques Straub's 1914 book Drinks. When I spotted the Emerson Cocktail and showed it to Andrea, she mentioned that it is on the Clio menu. While I was not sure of how Clio's proportions compare to Straub's, the menu does list that they use Punt e Mes as the vermouth. To match that level of bitter complexity, I selected our bottle of Bonal over the Carpano Antica to add some extra intrigue to the drink.
The aroma of the Emerson was dominated by the Maraschino liqueur. In fact, to some degree the sip was as well so perhaps reducing the volume to a barspoon or switching to a less robustly flavored one like Maraska would have been preferable. The slightly sweet sip began with the lime and Maraschino flavors followed by Bonal and gin notes drying the balance out on the swallow. Overall, the Emerson Cocktail was very much like a Martinez with the added flavor and bite of the lime juice.

blackstrap cynar flip

1 1/2 oz Cruzan Blackstrap Rum
3/4 oz Cynar
3/4 oz Demerara Syrup
1 Egg

Shake once without ice and once with. Strain into a coupe glass.
For my second drink at Eastern Standard last Monday night, I asked bartender Jimmy Lane if he had any ideas with eggs. Jim asked if bitter was okay, and when I approved, he set to work on this flip. Jim paired up a blackstrap molasses-flavored rum with Cynar liqueur to make a richer, less bitter Cynar Flip. The drink's nose was mainly the molasses from the rum; moreover, the molasses carried over into the sip which transitioned into the Cynar flavors on the swallow. When I gave Andrea a taste, she commented that it was like "a Cynar Flip with training wheels." The only suggestion I could make to Jim was to add some sort of garnish on the egg froth such as a few drops of an aromatic bitters (i.e.: Fee's or Angostura) for both attractiveness and aroma. Otherwise, this flip was perfectly delicious as it was.

pall mall

1 1/2 oz Plymouth Gin
1/2 oz Martini & Rossi Sweet Vermouth
1/2 oz Martini & Rossi Dry Vermouth
1/2 oz Crème de Cacao
1 dash Regan's Orange Bitters

Stir with ice and strain into a rocks glass. Twist an orange peel over the top.

On Monday, Andrea and I went over to Eastern Standard for dinner and drinks after my DJ set was over. The menu had a few new drinks including this one, the Pall Mall, which appeared in the "Heritage" section. I have spotted the Pall Mall recipe in the past in books like the Savoy Cocktail Book, Boothby's 1934 World Drinks And How To Mix Them, and the Café Royal Cocktail Book; however, these recipes list crème de menthe not crème de cacao as the liqueur. I am not sure where this variation originated for I did not ask and I could not find it later in the first dozen books I opened in my library. My curiosity was piqued enough to ask bartender Jim Lane to make me one. Plus, it gave me the opportunity to joke with bartender Hugh Fiore and ask in a raspy voice, "Hon, would you be a dear and get me a pack of Pall Malls." While it is possible that the drink was named after the cigarette, it could be named after what the cigarette was named for. The cigarette was introduced as one of the first premium brands in 1899 which puts it in the right time period; while the cigarette's name stemmed from a croquet-like game (also spelled paille-maille), the drink also could have been named after an upscale street in the West End of London.
The Pall Mall started with an orange oil aroma. The sip was almost citrussy with the dry vermouth pairing up with the orange bitters and twist's oils, and the swallow contained the gin, vermouth botanicals, and cacao notes. The strongest flavor pairing was the sweet vermouth and the crème de cacao; I could imagine this match-up working even better if the richer Carpano Antica was used instead of Martini & Rossi. Even without the crème de menthe, the botanicals in the mix combined to contribute some sort of mint-like impression.

mcmenomy cocktail

This month's Mixology Monday theme, "Limes" (MxMo LI), was picked by Doug of the Pegu Blog. Doug selected the citrus component of his favorite drink, the Pegu Club, as this month's focus and wanted to know what the rabble of Mixology Monday bloggers could do with this lovely fruit.

When I mentioned the theme to Andrea, she asked if I were going to do the Pegu Clubweiser, a Pegu Club with the citrus swapped out for Bud Light Lime (a drink I created conceptually on a Thursday Drink Night on Mixoloseum to taunt Doug, and later made, as pictured on the right, when I acquired a can of BLL at a 4th of July cookout). As gross as it sounds, it actually did work balance-wise. The lack of citrus' crispness was made up by the beer's hops and carbonation. However, BLL contains "natural lime... flavor" and perhaps not even lime itself, and I did not want to promote this monstrosity save for the shock value (although if you ask in the comments, I will gladly provide the recipe).

While looking for drinks one night in the 1940 The How and When, I spotted the McMenomy Cocktail which not only seemed intriguingly tasty but contained lime juice as well. When I gave the recipe a little thought, the drink reminded me of a Coca Cola-less Mandeville -- all the same flavors (rum, grenadine, Pernod) save for the soda aspect and the Mandeville's lemon instead of lime. The McMenomy's secret weapon though is its inclusion of Swedish Punsch to add some complexity to the rum component.

McMenomy Cocktail
• 3/4 oz Bacardi Rum (Pritchard's White)
• 3/4 oz Swedish Punsch (Homemade)
• Juice 1/2 Lime (1/2 oz)
• 2 dash Grenadine (1 tsp Homemade)
• 2 dash Pernod (1/2 tsp Pernod Fils)
Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

The book gave no history of the drink, and searching the web provided no clear link between the drink name and anyone famous during that time period. On the nose, Andrea detected the rum notes and the Batavia Arrack in the Swedish Punsch, whereas I focused in more on the Pernod aroma. Strangely, the mix made the Pernod Absinthe smell and taste more peppermint than anise; it was not unpleasant, just slightly surprising. The sip was sweet and followed by lime, absinthe, and Batavia Arrack on the swallow. The lime worked well with the rum and Swedish Punsch flavors and did a good job keeping the sugar in the Punsch and grenadine in check.
Cheers to Doug for hosting this month and doing his part to prevent scurvy, and to Paul Clarke for being the royal cat herder!

arrack sour

1 1/2 oz Batavia Arrack
3/4 oz Lemon Juice
1/2 oz Maraschino Liqueur (Luxardo)
1/2 oz Simple Syrup (Gomme)
1/2 oz Egg White (1/2 Egg White)
2 dash Peychaud's Bitters

Shake once without ice and once with. Double strain into a coupe glass and twist a lemon peel over the top.
Flipping through Left Coast Libations on Sunday, I spotted the Arrack Sour by San Francisco bartender Lane Ford. I was curious to see if the egg white-laden Sour recipe could tame the intensity of a full jigger of Batavia Arrack. The Arrack Sour's nose was full of lemon and funky Batavia Arrack aromas. On the sip, the sharpness of the Arrack coupled well with the sharpness of the lemon-Maraschino mixture. Moreover, the flavors of the Peychaud's Bitters and the Arrack paired well together on the swallow. While the egg white did not seem like it was doing a lot relative to other Sours, given that the base spirit was such a beast, it was doing an impressive job in mellowing things out.

spice trade

1 oz Kümmel (Helbing)
1 oz Herbsaint Legendre
3/4 oz Curaçao (Curaçao de Curaçao)
2 dash Angostura Bitters

Stir with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

After getting home from the dinner at Lineage, it was time for a nightcap. The drink I picked, the Spice Trade, was one that we found in an addendum to the Rogue Beta Cocktails book. When we were at Cure in New Orleans in July, I asked if their new cocktail book was ready. It was not, but they handed me a booklet of recipes which included their last book's drinks plus five new ones. The Spice Trade seemed like an oddball especially with a beast like kümmel (especially our harsh kümmel-of-the-people) and an antagonist like Herbsaint all being balanced by Curaçao? Well, their cocktail book has yet to steer us wrong so we needed to give this drink a try.
The Spice Trade started with an orange and caraway seed aroma. Moreover, the sip was a bounty of anise, caraway, orange, and other flavors all strangely in balance. Andrea queried, "How does he [Kirk or the other bartender-authors] come up with this shit (and make it work)?" I gave that question some thought for a few days and realized that the recipe had a vague resemblance to William Schmidt's Weeper's Joy that he described in his 1892 book The Flowing Bowl (and David Wondrich included in Imbibe!):

Weeper's Joy
• 1 oz Kümmel
• 1 oz Sweet Vermouth
• 1 oz Absinthe
• 2 dash Curaçao
• 1/2 tsp Gomme Syrup
Stir with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

Absinthe for Herbsaint. Sweet vermouth, gomme syrup, and a hint of Curaçao for a half jigger of Curaçao to maintain the same degree of sweetness. While not the same drink, both are delightfully complex and balanced in similar ways.