queen elizabeth cocktail

1/2 Dry Vermouth (1 1/2 oz Dolin Dry)
1/4 Benedictine (3/4 oz)
1/4 Lime Juice (3/4 oz)

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.
After returning home from Steel & Rye, I was in the mood for a light nightcap to quench the night's warm air. In my 1940 edition of The How and When by Hyman Gale and Gerald F. Marco, I spotted the Queen Elizabeth Cocktail which reminded me of the Board of Directors with its dry vermouth base. Once mixed, it offered a lime and herbal aroma that led into a lime- and wine-flavored sip. Next, the herbalness of the Benedictine filled the swallow that ended with a lime finish. Overall, the Queen Elizabeth was nice and cleansing and perfect for the hot evening.

chutes & ladders

1 1/2 oz Zapopan Blanco Tequila
1 oz Kronan Swedish Punsch
1 oz Cocchi Americano
1/2 oz Lime Juice

Shake with ice and strain into a single Old Fashioned glass. Twist an orange peel over the top.

One of the first drinks I created while working at Russell House Tavern was inspired by the untouched bottles of Kronan Swedish Punsch we had on hand that needed some love. I decided to riff on the Metexa from the Café Royal Cocktail Book. Taking that 1937 classic and making it less aperitif-like and more citrus-driven like a Margarita, the recipe began to take shape. I originally wanted to call the drink "(In the) Basement of the Alamo" but that seemed to long; not wanting to drop the pop culture aspect (but sadly dropping the Peewee Herman angle), I dubbed it Chutes & Ladders. The first person I made it for was Estragon's Sahil Mehta who visited me one afternoon; he enjoyed it so much that the person sitting next to him asked for a sip and then declared that he wanted one as his next drink. With KoldDraft cubes, the balance was spot on, but when I made it for Sam Gabrielli a few days later when we had only hotel ice, it was a bit more tart so he suggested the dash of simple syrup. I later remade the drink with a barspoon of simple syrup using KoldDraft cubes, and the extra sweetness did no harm and perhaps made the drink a bit more accessible. That time I mixed it for Taylor for the OnTheBar blog when he stopped by to interview me; read the OnTheBar Interview with Fred Yarm here. Perhaps this recipe will make the cut for the next Russell House Tavern cocktail menu in a few weeks...
The Chutes & Ladders began with an orange oil aroma that shared hints of the Swedish Punsch. A lime and citrus wine sip gave way to the tequila and Swedish Punsch-laden swallow. Overall, the cocktail is complex in flavor but without being all that difficult of a drink.

[lower mills]

1 1/2 oz Ransom Old Tom Gin
1/2 oz Suze Gentian Liqueur
3/4 oz Lustau Amontillado Sherry
1/2 oz Citrus Cordial (*)

Shake with ice and strain into a rocks glass containing an orange wheel and filled with crushed ice. Add a straw.
(*) Sub triple sec in a pinch. See this post that includes a recipe for a grapefruit cordial the bar manager used to make while at Craigie on Main and perhaps sub lemon and lime.
Two Sundays ago, we stopped into Steel & Rye in Milton for dinner. There, bartender Ted Gallagher made me an Old Tom gin drink he had been tinkering with. Once mixed, it offered a citrus and grape aroma that led into a light citrus and grape sip. Next, the gin led off the swallow that continued on with nutty and gentian flavors and spice-driven swallow.

borinquen

1 1/2 oz Light Rum (Caliche)
1/2 oz Passion Fruit Syrup (BG Reynolds)
3/4 oz Lime Juice
1/2 oz Orange Juice
1 tsp 151 Proof Rum (Lemon Hart)

Blend with 1/2 cup of ice. Instead, I shook with ice and strained into a rocks glass filled with crushed ice.

Two Fridays ago, I continued on in my explorations of the Playboy's Host & Bar Book and decided to make a tiki-like drink called the Borinquen. It seemed perfect for a really hot night where we needed something cooling and refreshing. Since Borinquen is the indigenous Taíno name for Puerto Rico, I opted to use Caliche Rum from said island. Instead of the island-appropriate Bacardi 151 in our collection, I selected the more flavorful Lemon Hart as the spiritous accent here.
On the nose, the passion fruit's brightness was countered by the Lemon Hart's dark rum notes. The lime and orange citrus notes on the sip were smoothed out by the passion fruit, and the passion fruit continued on into the swallow where it mingled with the rum. Overall, the general feel of the drink reminded me of the gin-based Saturn that appears in Beach Bum Berry Remixed.

san juan sling

3/4 oz Light Rum (Turkey Shore White Cap)
3/4 oz Cherry Liqueur (Heering)
3/4 oz Benedictine
1/2 oz Lime Juice

Shake with ice and strain into a Highball glass filled with ice. Top with soda water, add a straw, and garnish with a lime twist.

After the Dot, I grabbed my copy of Playboy's Host & Bar Book and found the San Juan Sling. I was reminded of the recipe after reading DiscoInferno's Mixology Monday post for the recent "cherry" theme and then decided to hunt it out. The general recipe reminds me of a Raffles Hotel Sling recipe that I used to make with gin, and I figured that rum could do no wrong here.
The Sling's aroma was filled with lime oil from the twist and the sip offered lime juice and carbonation that balanced the richness of the Cherry Heering and perhaps the Benedictine. The swallow then offered the rum, cherry, and the Benedictine's herbal flavors.

dot

1/2 Booth's Dry Gin (1 1/2 oz Wire Works)
1/4 Dry Sherry (3/4 oz Lustau Dry Oloroso)
1/8 Bols Dry Curaçao (3/8 oz Pierre Ferrand)
1/8 Apricot Syrup (3/8 oz Rothman & Winter Orchard Apricot Liqueur)

Stir with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. I added a lemon twist.
Two Thursdays ago, I was flipping through the Café Royal Cocktail Book and spotted the Dot Cocktail. I had neglected this recipe for I lack and have never made apricot syrup; however, that night, I felt that apricot liqueur would work quite well as a substitute. Once mixed, the lemon oils brightened a candied fruit note on the nose. A slightly sweet grape sip led into a gin and nutty sherry swallow with a lingering orange-apricot finish.

red dwarf

2 oz Rye
1 oz Campari
1/2 barspoon Henri Bardouin Pastis
2 dash Peychaud's Bitters

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

After Brick & Mortar, I headed across the street to Rendezvous to meet up with Andrea for dinner. There, bartender Scott Holliday wanted to make me the Red Dwarf - a drink I had read about in Luke O'Neil's article in the Boston Globe. The article describes how Scott took several classics including the Cocktail à la Louisiane, Boulevardier, and Sazerac and invented something inspired by these drinks. Scott was quoted as saying, "What we've done with the Peychaud's and pastis or absinthe is replace the aromatics of the vermouth in those cocktails with less sweetness, as you'd hoped, all while tipping the glass in the direction of New Orleans and Father Sazerac."
The orange oil from the twist played pleasantly with the herbal aromas of the Campari. Next, the rye's malt on the sip transitioned into its barrel notes on the swallow; afterwards, the Campari's complexity came through and things ended with the pastis' anise and other herbal flavors.

:: mixology monday announcement ::

MxMo LXXV: Flip Flop!

I thought of the theme for this month's Mixology Monday shortly after making the Black Rene, an obscure drink from Pioneers of Mixing at Elite Bars: 1903-1933. The combination of brandy, amber rum, lemon, and Maraschino was tasty, but I felt that the recipe could be improved if I swapped in different ingredients. Taking a page from Max Toste of Deep Ellum who converted the Black Devil into the White Devil, I flipped around the ingredients to be pisco, white rum, lime, and Maraschino instead. With this combination that I called the White Rene, the drink really sang but it was still recognizable as being an alteration of the original recipe. Others have done similar swaps with grand effect including the Bluegrass Mai Tai that that changes the two rums to two whiskeys and swaps lime for lemon from the classic while holding everything else the same.

Here's how to play:

• Find a recipe, either new or old, and switch around at least two of the ingredients to sister or cousin ingredients but holding the proportions and some of the ingredients the same. The new recipe should be recognizable as a morph of the old one when viewed side by side. Want to make an amaro version of a Vieux Carré or a new twist on a Negroni? Go for it!
• Make the drink -- and feel free to make the original one as well -- and then post the new and old recipes, a photo, and your thoughts about the libation and how it differs from the original on your blog or on eGullet's Spirits and Cocktails forum.
• Include in your post the MxMo logo and a link back to both the Mixology Monday and Cocktail Virgin sites. And once the round-up is posted, a link to that summary post would be appreciated.
• Post a link to your submission in the comment section here, or send an email to yarm-at-verizon.net with the word "MxMo" somewhere in the subject line.

The due date is Monday, July 29th which I will interpret as whatever gets posted before I get home after my day bar shift on the 30th (yes, I will accept late entries but a deadline as a symbolic form of structure is needed for this sort of cat herding). Yes, we are doing this later in the month, but with Tales of the Cocktail this week, I figure this timing was the optimal so people could attend, recover, and still participate.

Cheers,
Frederic

auld alliance

1 1/2oz Grand MacNish Blended Scotch
1/2 oz Dark Crème de Cacao
1/4 oz Galliano Ristretto
1/2 oz Lemon Juice

Shake with ice and strain into rocks glass with ice. Top with 2 oz of Page 24 Vieillie En Fût De Chêne, a barrel-aged brown ale (perhaps High & Mighty's Don Cornelius would work well in a pinch). Add straws and gently stir.

For my next drink, bartender Kenny Belanger asked if I wanted to stick with a beer cocktail theme. When I agreed, the drink he made for me was one that he crafted for a High & Mighty Spin the Bottle night. The brewers from High & Mighty brought Page 24 Vieillie En Fût De Chêne, a French barrel-aged brown ale, with them, and left a few bottles so that the bartenders could continue making the drink after the event was over. The name Auld Alliance refers to a 13th to 16th century agreement between Scotland and France that parallels the malt products in the mix.
The Auld Alliance greeted the senses with a lemon and malt aroma. A rich, carbonated, dark sip was brightened by the lemon juice. The Scotch led off the swallow that ended with more coffee than chocolate notes; as the ice melted, the Scotch became more prominent in the flavor profile.