madame mustache

1 1/2 oz Aged Rhum Agricole (*)
1 oz Drambuie
1/2 oz Cynar
1 dash Angostura Bitters

Build in a rocks glass, give a quick stir (no ice), and garnish with a grapefruit twist.
(*) The drink was developed originally with aged cachaça, so feel free to substitute for a funkier drink.

The third drink I created for the Women of the Wild West event was by request. Matthew Schrage, who organized the whole Whiskey & Amari series, mentioned that it was his birthday that night, and he would like nothing more than a birthday Scaffa crafted for the event. Scaffas are a 19th century style of cocktail that are stirred, un-iced cocktails often as simple as a spirit, a liqueur, and a dash of bitters; some utilize water for dilution to make them more potable, while others utilize syrup or liqueur's sugar to balance the spirit's heat. As I thought about possible base liquors, I was drawn to sugar cane spirits which had been neglected in the first batch of recipes that Katie Emmerson and I had created for the menu. Looking back at the Scaffas I have had, Scott Holliday's Rum Scaffa and its use of Cynar caught my fancy. Instead of rum proper, I first grabbed an aged cachaça and began to tinker with flavor combinations. Since cachaça is a bit thinner than Plantation Barbados Rum Scott used, I wanted to bolster the body, and eventually I happened up on Drambuie to fulfill this roll -- especially when I recalled how well Scotch and Cynar pair. After remembering Matt's love of rhum agricole, I switched to an aged one for a base spirit, and the change worked albeit it drove the profile to be a little less funky and perhaps more approachable.

With such a quirky drink, it definitely needed a quirky name, and Madame Mustache answered the call. Here is what I wrote on the Facebook event page:

The most curious drink of the night tonight is named after the most curious lady of the bunch, Eleanore Dumont, better known as Madame Mustache. To honor her, there is a Scaffa -- a room temperature, non-dilute cocktail, and feel free to raise a glass with Blue Room's Matthew Schrage for it is his birthday tonight and he requested a Scaffa and he loves rhum agricole (the base spirit here).

When Eleanore arrived in San Francisco in 1850, she claimed to have been the daughter of a French viscount amongst other sordid tales, although it is believed that she was born in New Orleans. At this time, the mustache had not made the trip over to the Wild West yet and she was quite beautiful. She found a job as a card dealer; her game was Vingt-et-un a/k/a "21", a pre-cursor to Blackjack, and by 1854, she had earned enough money to open her own luxurious gambling house. Miners came to be around her witty and charming persona and found losing money was balanced by the privilege of being around her. Amusingly, she was known to buy the men who lost heavily at her table a glass of milk when they’d run out of funds; although other stories say champagne.

She moved her establishment from one boom town to the next. When she was in Montana, she earned the name Moustache Madame from a miner who lost his temper along with a lot of money, and the sobriquet stuck. Soon after, she got out of the business, bought a ranch, and settled down with a handsome man, but sadly he disappeared with all the money, sold the ranch, and left her with debt. Legend has it that she hunted him down and shot him dead from a double shotgun blast. She denied it at first and the sheriff did not bother to investigate, but years later she admitted to it.

At this point, she was penniless, the mustache was in full effect, and her body was not as shapely as before, so men were not seeking her out for her beauty. She chose not to shave off the mustache; it was surmised that she was a shrewd business woman and used it as a gimmick akin to the bearded lady at a sideshow carnival. She still drew customers but she became less of a lady and more of a character. Her establishments were more second rate than lavish at this point, and she added the bordello aspect to her business. Her gambling abilities also went south; one night she had to borrow $300 which she then lost. She then wandered out into the desert with a wine bottle laced with a lethal dose of morphine and with a written suicide note and will.

So raise a glass tonight in honor of the good times in life, but be careful -- Madame Mustache has been known to carry a derringer pistol under her skirt. And after a few, the mustache will not matter as much.

What I thought would be a fringe drink that very few people would order turned out to be a very wrong assumption. Perhaps it was the name, the description, or word of mouth, but it was one of the top 2 or 3 best sellers of the 9 drinks that evening. In fact, we came a jigger away from finishing a freshly opened bottle of Drambuie that night. Luckily, given its popularity, the drink was so easy to make; however, the best part was seeing people ordering the drink by gesturing their finger across their lip!
When made with aged Seleta Cachaça, the drink's nose contained grapefruit oils that complemented the funky grassy notes from the sugar cane spirit. A honey and caramel sip led into a grassy and herbal swallow and spice finish. Once remade with aged rhum agricole, the grassy notes remained but the funkier notes diminished; I cannot tell which way I prefer the drink, but the tribute to the birthday boy aspect won out.

pearl de vere

1 oz Reposado Tequila
1 oz Cocchi Americano
1/2 oz Lime Juice
1/2 oz Benedictine
1 dash Angostura Bitters

Shake with ice and strain into a coupe glass. Garnish with an orange twist.

The second drink I worked on for the Women of the Wild West-themed Whiskey & Amari night at the Blue Room was the Pearl de Vere. I decided to use the Scofflaw as a formula and tequila as the spirit. While I tried a variety of amari including Nardini and Ramazzotti, it seemed that Benedictine worked well. I was reassured that there was no rule that the drinks needed to contain either whiskey or Italian bitter liqueurs, so a French liqueur found its way in. I did not do a write up on Pearl de Vere for the Facebook event page since the only photos I could find of Pearl were of her tombstone and her brothel. Pearl found her way to Cripple Creek, Colorado, during the gold rush there. Since men greatly outnumbered the women in town, she took up the profession and soon had opened up her own brothel. Pearl's brothel catered to the more prosperous men, and her ladies wore fine clothing to match their beauty and received good pay and medical exams. At one gala event at her second brothel, she overdid the morphine she occasionally used to sleep and sadly never awoke. Her lavish funeral procession played such tunes as "There'll be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight" in tribute.
The orange oils from the twist complemented the aged tequila aroma. The lime and citrus-wine complemented the light caramel notes in the sip, and the tequila mingled with the herbal Benedictine and Angostura spice on the swallow.

belle starr

3/4 oz Bully Boy Aged Whiskey
3/4 oz Apple Brandy (Laird's 7.5 or Calvados)
1 oz Bonal Gentian Quina
1/2 oz Strega
1 dash Orange Bitters

Stir with ice and strain into a coupe glass. Garnish with a lemon twist.

One of the first drinks that I came up with for the Women of the Wild West-themed Whiskey and Amari night was the Belle Starr. For a direction, I based the drink off of the Marconi Wireless-like Star Cocktail for obvious reasons. I split the apple brandy into apple and whiskey, swapped the sweet vermouth for Bonal, and added Strega to take it in a Green Point or Nonantum Cocktail direction. The first pass used rye and Yellow Chartreuse and these would make a fine substitution. For a history of Belle Starr, I will turn to what I wrote in the Facebook event page:

Belle Starr, the Bandit Queen, is another Woman of the Wild West to be honored next Monday in drink. Born Myra Belle Shirley, she spent much of her childhood as a spoiled rich kid, until the Kansas-Missouri Border War broke out which took her brother and destroyed her family business. A few years later, after the James-Younger Gang robbed a bank, Myra was smitten by one of the robbers, James Reed whom she later married, gave them shelter, and became a member of the gang. Her parents had no objection to the marriage since James was not yet a wanted man and they lived a good, upstanding life in Texas. Until they moved back to Missouri where Reed was indeed a wanted man for allegedly murdering a man. So they fled to California, where outlaw life caught up and led to Reed's demise via gunfire. Myra then married Sam Starr, formed a gang, and entered upon a life of rustling, horse stealing and bootlegging whiskey to Indians. The lifestyle was lucrative and they used the extra money to bail out gang members; when that wouldn't work, Belle Starr would use her womanly charms. Her arrests and being written up in the Police Gazette had turned her into a western folk hero, "a female Robin Hood and a Jesse James." Her career ended during an ambush at age 41. A lot of her infamy came after her death including some from stories told by her daughter, Pearl, who enhanced her mom's outlaw image by running brothels in the West from the late 19th century until World War I.

"I regard myself as a woman who has seen much of life."
- Belle Starr stated to the The Fort Smith Elevator about one year prior to her death.

The Belle Starr's lemon twist oils joined the aroma of the apple brandy. An apple and grape sip led into a whiskey swallow with an herbal and bitter finish. Indeed, the end result was somewhere between the two drinks I based it off of and perhaps close to the Woxum from the Old Waldorf-Astoria Bar Book as well.

tiger lily

1 oz Dark Rum (1/2 oz Appleton VX, 1/2 oz Plantation Barbados)
1/2 oz Brandy (Foret)
1/2 oz Curaçao (Senior Curaçao)
1/2 oz Lemon Juice
1/2 oz Orange Juice (*)

Shake with ice and strain into an ice-filled rocks glass. Garnish with a lemon twist.
(*) The recipe was provided as 1/2 oz (7 mL). I ended up using the 1/2 oz instead of the 7 mL (which would be 1/4 oz) here.

Two Fridays ago, at the beginning of the cocktail hour, I decided to make the Tiger Lily that I spotted in the Big Bartender's Book. The source of the recipe is Ted Saucier's Bottoms Up; I had held off on making the recipe for a while since I could not spot the drink in my copy of Saucier and figured that there was a mis-attribution. I finally realized that the recipe resides in the 1951 first edition version and not in my 1962 second edition of the book. The Tiger Lily is credited to Robert Bushnell, and I have no further explanation for the recipe's removal.
The Tiger Lily's lemon peel oil aroma danced over that of the dark rum and hint of orange liqueur. Flavorwise, Andrea commented that it was very punch-like given its smooth citrussy balance. Indeed, the sip was mostly orange and lemon, until the ice melted and the rum's caramel notes came out. Next, the rum and brandy filled the swallow along with an orange peel finish.

tombstone mule

2 oz Del Maguey Mezcal Vida
1/2 oz Lemon Juice
1/2 oz Honey Syrup (1:1)

Shake with ice and strain into a rocks glass filled with ice. Add ~1 oz ginger beer and flame a lemon twist over the top.
Two Thursdays ago, I stopped by Bergamot where Paul Manzelli and Kai Gagnon were tending bar. For a drink, I asked Paul for the Tombstone Mule from the menu. The drink offered up a lemon, honey, and mezcal aroma. A carbonated honey and lemon sip led into a smokey agave swallow and a ginger finish.

:: women of the wild west night::

Tomorrow night, Monday February 11th, will be my bartending debut! I will be accompanied by the Hawthorne's Katie Emmerson at the Blue Room's Whiskey and Amari Night Series. For our night, we are doing a Women of the Wild West theme -- a drink-guided history of some pretty bad-assed broads. Nine women, nine drinks, including a 19th century style Scaffa (room temperature cocktail) named after an infamous professional gambler and madame in honor of Matt Schrage's birthday! Bully Boy Aged Whiskey and Fernet Branca will be in the house and "For a Few Dollars More" will be playing in the background. Drinks and bar snacks for purchase.

Details:
The Blue Room
1 Kendall Square, Cambridge
Monday, February 11th, from 9pm-1am

I'll be posting some drinks soon from last week's event featuring No. 9 Park's Tyler Wang and Scholars' John Henderson. And the next two weeks are listed on the flier below (click to enlarge):

little rebel cocktail

1 jigger Applejack (1 1/2 oz Laird's Bonded)
1/2 jigger Scotch (3/4 oz Laphroaig 10 Year)
1/4 jigger Grenadine (1/2 oz)
Juice 1 Lime (1/2 oz)
1 Egg White

Shake with ice and strain into a glass.

Two Wednesdays ago, I was flipping through Hugo Ensslin's 1916 Recipes for Mixed Drinks and spotted the Little Rebel, an egg white applejack and Scotch Daisy. Besides the allure of apple and smokey whisky which worked so well in drinks like the Applewood and French Toast Flip, I recalled Camper English's article on grenadine that lists the Little Rebel and other drinks by Ensslin as part of the first major wave of grenadine-containing cocktails. While no back history on the cocktail name was provided, there was a movie called The Little Rebel in 1914. Moreover, although not a precise match, there was a 1911 Broadway melodrama called The Littlest Rebel which would have played near where Ensslin was tending bar nearby at the Wallick Hotel on 43rd and Broadway in Manhattan.
In the Little Rebel, apple and smoke greeted the nose. The egg white provided a mouthfeel to the sip along with a smoothness to both the malt and fruitiness of the lime, pomegranate, and apple. Next, the swallow began with the Scotch and finished with the apple brandy. Indeed, there were more apple notes on the nose but more Scotch on the palate.

kirkwood

1 1/2 oz Rye Whiskey (Redemption)
1/2 oz Punt e Mes
1/2 oz St. Germain
1/2 oz Cynar
2 dash Grapefruit Bitters

Stir with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a grapefruit twist.

Two Tuesdays ago for the cocktail hour, I made the Kirkwood that Imbibe Magazine covered in their article on Georgia in the November 2010 issue. The Kirkwood was created by Miles Macquarrie of Leon's Full Service in Decatur. Miles modeled the drink after the Red Hook and named the recipe after one of the neighborhoods in Atlanta.
The Kirkwood's grapefruit twist dominated the aroma at first, but later grape notes from the Punt e Mes crept in. A malt and grape sip led into a rye swallow. The swallow also contained the St. Germain which came across in a grapefruity way and was balanced well by the Cynar and Punt e Mes' bitter notes.

wells cocktail

2 liqueur glass Cognac (2 oz Foret Brandy)
1/4 liqueur glass Crème de Menthe (1/4 oz Tempus Fugit)
1/4 liqueur glass Crème de Cassis (1/4 oz G.E. Massenez)
1/4 liqueur glass Fernet Branca (1/4 oz)

Stir with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.
After the Rebennack, I decided to make a recipe I found in Louis Mixed Drinks from 1906 called the Wells Cocktail. With a brandy base and fruit and minty herbal notes in the mix, it seemed like it would make a great nightcap. Once prepared, the Wells proffered a berry aroma. The cassis continued on into the sip with a hint of mint. The rest of the mint flavors came through in the swallow along with the brandy, and the Wells ended with a tart cassis finish and lingering menthol notes. The Fernet Branca was surprisingly tame here, and perhaps it was smoothed out by the cassis and hidden by the menthe.