round the world

1/5 Gin (1/2 oz Cascade Mountain)
1/5 Orange Juice (1/2 oz)
1/5 Dry Vermouth (1/2 oz Noilly Prat)
1/5 Sweet Vermotuh (1/2 oz Vya)
1/5 Brandy (1/2 oz Pedro Domecq Fundador Solera Reserva)
1 dash Absinthe (1/2 barspoon Pernod Fils)

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a cherry (Luxardo).

For our first drink on Monday night, I spotted the Round the World from the Café Royal Cocktail Book. The drink caught my eye for it appeared like a cross between a Satan's Whiskers and a Monkey Gland. The former has a more similar structure with its equal part of orange liqueur and dash of orange bitters swapped for the Round the World's brandy and dash of absinthe. With the latter, the Monkey Gland is the one of most famous recipes that also contains gin, orange juice, and absinthe.
The Round the World started its adventure with a light anise scent. The sip was a slightly sweet orange flavor that was chased by grape notes and the absinthe's and gin's botanicals on the swallow. Overall, it was a lot drier the Satan's Whiskers with a bit more challenging of a flavor profile given the absinthe notes. In addition, it was less richly orange flavored than the Satan's Whiskers, and the Spanish brandy I used donated a decent amount of heft and body to the Round the World.

[navy dock daiquiri]

1 1/2 oz Smith & Cross Rum
3/4 oz Cynar
1/2 oz Lime Juice
1/4 oz Maraschino Liqueur

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

For my last drink on Sunday night, bartender Will Thompson wanted to return to Cynar liqueur in a Daiquiri-like drink he developed using Smith & Cross Rum. While most of the time Cynar is used in straight spirits drinks, Cynar does pair up well with citrus such as in the Mortal Sunset (orange), Peralta (grapefruit, lemon), and Wayne Curtis' Tango #2 variation (orange). As for lime juice, the only one I have had before was the Violet Hour's Kyle Davidson's Art of Choke that Maksym Pazuniak made me at Cure, and the lime did work well with the Cynar.
Will's drink greeted me with a dark note from the aged molasses rum and the Cynar and with a nutty one from the Maraschino liqueur. The sip presented a sweet lime flavor with the funkiness of the Maraschino. Other aspects of the Maraschino continued on in the swallow along with the bitter herbalness of the Cynar which coupled well with the potent Jamaican rum. When I let Andrea have a taste, she commented "this is really old school," and she noted that the funky rum aroma had a bit of a salinity or brininess to it. With the history of London Dock Rum and the Smith & Cross' navy strength proofage, I dubbed this drink the Navy Dock Daiquiri.

armada

1 1/2 oz Bols Genever
1/2 oz Ransom Old Tom Gin
1/2 oz Lustau Don Nuño Dry Oloroso Sherry
1/4 oz Lustau Pedro Ximenez Sherry
1/4 oz Drambuie

Stir with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with oil from a lemon twist.

For my second cocktail at Drink last Sunday, bartender Will Thompson suggested that I have a drink created by Misty Kalkofen with the unofficial title of "2 sherry, 2 gin." The actual name, the Armada, was most likely a reference to the Spanish Armada where the Spanish fleet sailed against England during the Anglo-Spanish War. This would explain the sherry, Old Tom (despite this one being made in the U.S.), and Drambuie, but what about the Genever? Well, part of the Armada's goal was to stop Queen Elizabeth I from supporting the Dutch revolt against the Spanish in the Netherlands. Indeed, sometimes the best history lessons are served in a cocktail glass.
The Armada's aroma was fresh lemon oil at first with raisiny Pedro Ximénez notes entering into the bouquet later. The sip was sweet and grape flavored with Ransom Old Tom's spice and the sherrys' nutty notes on the swallow. I was pretty impressed at how potent the Ransom was and how much flavor backbone it provided with only half an ounce. Overall, I have to agree with Will's assessment that this was definitely a Misty recipe especially with its balance and its use of sherry and Drambuie.

[kuromatsu]

1 1/2 oz Cognac
3/4 oz Cynar
1/2 oz Zirbenz Stone Pine Liqueur
1/4 oz Monin Orgeat

Stir with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

On Super Bowl Sunday, we decided to make good use of most people being in front of a television set by going to Drink where such technology luckily does not reside. Well, the quarter scores were put up on the letter board for those who were interested, but our attentions were on Will Thompson who would be our personal bartender for the night (although other people were sitting in our section in the early and later parts of the evening). The first drink Will made for me was his take on a Japanese. The concept started with Will liking the combination of Zirbenz Stone Pine Liqueur and Cynar; he found that the Cynar took away the flatness of the Zirbenz and the two worked together to make a more rounded flavor. With his love of the Japanese Cocktail, he swapped out the original's Boker's Bitters for a healthy slug of these two liqueurs. While Will did not have a name for this drink, I informally dubbed it here as the Kuromatsu -- the Japanese Black Pine.
The drink started with an orgeat and grape aroma that smelled both sweet and dark. Its sip was piny with a light sweetness, and as the drink warmed up, the orgeat flavors became more apparent. On the swallow, the Cynar and Cognac flavors pleasantly melded and the Zirbenz contributed an interesting minty note on the finish. I was quite surprised at how the orgeat was overwhelmed in this drink for it usually is a rather pervasive flavor. For all that the Commodore Perry was a lighter and fruitier Japanese riff, Will's take on the classic was darker and more complex.

new orleans golden fizz

1 1/2 oz Gin (Bombay Dry)
1 oz Lemon Juice
1/2 oz Lime Juice
1 Egg Yolk
1/2 oz Cream
1 tsp Sugar (*)
3 drop Orange Blossom Water

Shake once without ice and once with ice. Add 1 1/2 oz of soda water to the bottom of a highball glass, and strain the drink over that. Top off with more soda water (1 1/2 oz) and add a straw.
(*) Perhaps increasing this to 1 1/2 or 2 tsp might provide a better balance, especially for fans of sweeter drinks.

After making the egg white-laden Pansy Flower on Friday night, I retained the yolks and went on a quest for a use of them. On CocktailDB, I spotted a recipe from Stan Jones' Complete Barguide, the New Orleans Golden Fizz, that was essentially a Ramos Gin Fizz with yolk instead of egg white. I began to wonder what a Ramos would be like without its characteristic fluffy light character that the egg white donates. The thought of an egg yolk Fizz reminded me of drinks that Josey Packard has made for me in the past at Drink, such as the Golden Fizz and the Saratoga Brace Up. Since these were great drinks, I was willing to conjure up my inner-Josey and give the New Orleans Golden Fizz a shot.
I am glad that I tried this recipe for it was a rather refreshing drink. The dual citrus and soda water donated a delightful crispness to the sip. Without the egg white to mute the flavors, the gin botanicals really stood out on the swallow. Indeed, the yolk and cream added a richness without dampening the other ingredients all that much. Overall, the drink was a little too much on the tart side for me so perhaps increasing the sugar a little might be required to balance the full jigger of lemon and lime juice. Moreover, it made me wonder if there was a need for a New Orleans Royal (full egg) Fizz to round out the genre?

pansy blossom

3 dash Gum Syrup (omitted)
1/2 oz Kümmel (Helbing)
1/2 oz Absinthe (Kübler)
1/2 oz Sweet Vermouth (Vya)
1/2 oz Maraschino Liqueur (Luxardo)
1 Egg White

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. I garnished with 3 drops of Angostura Bitters on the egg white froth.

Last Friday night, I was flipping through The Flowing Bowl and a strange egg white drink, the Pansy Blossom, caught my eye. I had not spotted this drink in any books I have read; however, there is a more modern recipe in CocktailDB of the same name that contains pastis (or anisette), grenadine, and Angostura Bitters, but there is only one ingredient in common with the above 1892 recipe. While the CocktailDB drink would at least have the coloration of a pansy, it surely lacks the intrigue to draw me to try it. Indeed, it was the strangeness of two potent herbal spirits being mitigated by the other ingredients that sparked my curiosity. Since three of the ingredients contained sugar, I decided that drink would probably be sweet enough and omitted the gum syrup from the recipe.
The Pansy Blossom started with a fennel aroma from the absinthe. Flavorwise, the sip was a sweet grape coupled with Maraschino's nuttiness. Meanwhile, the egg white and sweetness did a good job of mellowing out the absinthe's herbal intensity and kümmel's caraway notes on the swallow. Overall, the drink offered up a nice degree of complexity and was not as bizarre as I first expected it to be. With the egg white, it was a softer version of Beta Cocktails' Spice Trade with Maraschino notes instead of Curaçao.

danube

2 oz Punt e Mes
1/2 oz Rittenhouse 100 Rye
1/2 oz Zwack Liqueur
1/2 pinch Salt

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

On Wednesday last week, Andrea and I had to get out of the house after being shuttered in for too long thanks to the winter storms. Therefore, we shuffled through the salty slush, took the subway down to Kenmore Square, and went to Eastern Standard for dinner. For my aperitif, I asked bartender Naomi Levy to make me the Danube which just appeared on their menu. The drink was created by bartender Kevin Martin who, along with the Franklin's Peter Cipriani, got to tour Hungary with the Zwack family. Named after the Danube River that runs through Budapest, the drink was designed as a reverse Manhattan of sorts.
The Danube greeted my nose with an orange oil and grape aroma. The sip was a sweet caramel flavor from the Zwack that paired well with the Punt e Mes' grape; moreover, the swallow was a combination of the Punt e Mes' bitterness, barrel notes from the rye, and some herbal complexity from the Zwack liqueur. This complexity came across with a cinnamon-like menthol note. While the Danube started sweet, it ended cleanly and a bit more dry, and it did indeed make for a good aperitif.

robert e. lee cooler

1 dash Absinthe (1 barspoon Pernod Fils)
Juice 1/2 Lime (3/4 oz)
1 jigger Scotch (1 1/2 oz Famous Grouse + 1/4 oz Caol Ila 10 Year)
1 pint Ginger Ale (4 oz Hansen's)

Shake all but the ginger ale with ice and strain into a highball glass filled with ice. Top with ginger ale (note my volume correction). I added a straw and a wide lime peel garnish.

On Tuesday night, I was in the mood for a highball so I looked in Jacques Straub's 1914 book Drinks. There, I spotted the Robert E. Lee Cooler that would make good use of the cane sugar ginger ale that Andrea had just bought. While other Robert E. Lee Coolers I have seen are gin based, this one called for Scotch, and whiskey seemed more appropriate for the South than gin. With spirit, lime, and soda, could this have been the Confederates' version of the Cuba Libre? Probably not, for Scotch did not become abundant in America until 30 years after Lee's death. Moreover, I am unsure if Lee would approve of Straub's version anyways depending on how you parse one of his famous quotes on alcohol. Lee claimed, "I like whiskey. I always did, and that is why I never drink it." However, around 1914 when this version of the recipe was published, Scotch had become quite popular and the Mamie Taylor was in fashion.
Straub's recipe called for a full pint of ginger ale which seemed like it would be refreshing on a hot day in the South, but it would not make for a decent highball today. Therefore, I decreased the call for soda to four ounces although the drink would probably work with even a little less. Initially, I used just Famous Grouse blended Scotch; however, the smoke profile was rather weak so I added in a dash of Caol Ila single malt to boost up the signature. With that addition, the nose was not only lime oil from the twist but a decent amount of peaty smoke notes as well. Flavorwise, the ginger ale dominated the sip, and lime and the absinthe's fennel were on the swallow that was punctuated by the smoke. Overall, this version of the Robert E. Lee Cooler pleasantly reminded me of an egg white-less Morning Glory Fizz. Furthermore, the way absinthe raised this drink above a Mamie Taylor was similar to how it gussied up a Cuba Libre into the Mandeville. Given to how some of Straub's recipes can be a little off, I may have to revisit this drink sometime and experience it as the much more common gin-based version.

dutch flip

1 1/2 oz Bols Genever
1/2 oz Ruby Port (Ramos Pinto)
1/2 oz Heavy Cream (Half & Half)
1/4 oz Grand Marnier
1/4 Demerara Syrup (2:1)
1 Egg

Shake once without ice and once with. Strain into a wineglass or snifter (rocks glass), add one coffee or espresso ice cube, and garnish with a freshly grated blanched almond and a flamed orange twist.

On Tuesday night, I finally got to make the Dutch Flip. I originally planned on making the drink on Monday, but the coffee had not frozen for the flavored ice cube in time. What was an extra day considering that I had originally spotted this drink in a Tasting Table article about cocktails in Manhattan a few months ago? The Dutch Flip was created by bartender Katie Stipe of Vandaag in the East Village and seemed like it would well serve as a dessert drink.
The Dutch Flip's nose was mainly from the orange twist. Early in the drink, the sip contained the cream and almond notes which were followed by orange and Bols Genever flavors on the swallow. The grated almond worked rather well in the drink as it heightened the flavors of the Genever. As the coffee ice cube melted, the drink began to change with the additional flavors and bitter complexity. Indeed, the coffee complemented the cream and Genever in this drink. Overall, the Dutch Flip was worth the extra preparation of the coffee ice cubes, and it made for an intriguing drink as the flavor profile change over time.