newark

1 1/2 oz Laird's Bonded Apple Brandy
3/4 oz Carpano Antica Sweet Vermouth
1/8 oz Fernet Branca
1/8 oz Maraschino Liqueur

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

One of the last drinks served at the "At Full Sail: The History and Application of Spirits at Proof, Navy Strength, and Overproof" session at Tales of the Cocktail was the Newark. The drink was created at Manhattan's P.D.T. and they described it on their menu as "our contribution to the Brooklyn Cocktail family tree." I originally considered it a variation of the Marconi Wireless; however, I can see how the Maraschino and secondary liqueur could push it more into the realm of the Brooklyn. The Laird's Bonded not only packs extra proof compared to their applejack, it contains more flavor as it has been aged longer and is all apple distillate as opposed to 35% in the applejack.

The only major difference between the Newark served at the session and at P.D.T. (besides the session's smaller serving size) is that P.D.T. makes theirs with Vya which is a more robust vermouth than Carpano Antica. Indeed, the drink did have the essence of a Marconi Wireless with a decent dose of herbal notes from the Fernet and funkiness from the Maraschino at the end. The light touch of these liqueurs did not overwhelm the drink, and the sweet vermouth seemed to bridge the gaps and provide some smoothness.

royal million

3/4 oz Lemon Hart 151
3/4 oz Plantation Jamaican Rum
3/4 oz Lemon Juice
3/4 oz Simple Syrup
1/8 oz Angostura Bitters (~3 dash)

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon twist.

On Thursday afternoon, Andrea and I attended "At Full Sail: The History and Application of Spirits at Proof, Navy Strength, and Overproof" moderated by Eric Seed and presented by Wayne Curtis, Audrey Saunders, and Britt Chavanne. The talk focused on the history of these strong spirits and their applications in cocktails. The historical aspects included the naval tradition of proofing the spirits using gun powder (too weak a drink (under 57% alcohol), and the gunpowder would fizzle instead of ignite) to the 1930s-1950s where the spirits' higher proof was used in marketing as a competitive edge. Over time, proofs were successively lowered until they generally bottomed out at 80 proof to stretch the supply and/or please the accountants by paying less tax. The result was that when the alcohol was diluted down, unfortunately so was the flavor.

One drink that Wayne Curtis used as an example featured the overproof Lemon Hart 151 (which, by the way, passed Wayne's gunpowder test (watch here) in stunning form). The overproof rum gussied up the standard Million cocktail (normally made with a jigger of Jamaican rum as the only booze component) to create the Royal Million. This Planter's Punch-like drink had a strong, rich rum flavor that was smoothed out by the sugar syrup. Moreover, the swallow contained the Angostura Bitters spice as well as lingering rum notes. Even without a side by side comparison with the Million, the Royal Million did pack a lot of extra flavor compared to most rum drinks. Perhaps a similar experience could be generated with using the at proof Smith & Cross Jamaican Rum (Navy Strength, 114 proof) as the only rum component of the drink.

chartreuse swizzle

2 oz Green Chartreuse
1 1/2 oz Pineapple Juice
1 oz Lime Juice
1/4 oz Falernum (Velvet)
1 tsp (1/6 oz) J. Wray and Nephew Rum
2 dash Angostura Bitters

Add ingredients to a Collins glass full of crushed ice. Swizzle to mix, lavishly garnish with mint, and add straw.

Each night at Tales of the Cocktail, some of my fellow bloggers at the Mixo House ended our evening with a Chartreuse Swizzle. The recipe above was modified by Gabe and the original can be found in the recently released Left Coast Libations book. Besides some differences in the proportions and the addition of a splash of J.Wray, ours was made in a more communal fashion -- served in a flower vase for each 4 to 5 people. It was a great way to decompress from a busy night out (or busy night in at the Mixo House events).
I believe this self-portrait photo was taken late Thursday evening with Gabe at 9 o'clock, Rick at 12, Stevie at 3, and myself at 6. I was quoted on Friday night while barbacking for Blair during his Trader Tiki Syrups night as saying, "These people [the last stragglers at the bar] are between me and my swizzle." Indeed, Gabe's swizzle made for an amazingly satisfying shift drink.

[hendrick's lemongrass sour]

2 oz Hendrick's Gin
1 oz Lime Lemongrass Cordial (*)
3/4 oz Lime Juice
1/4 oz Agave Syrup
1/2 Egg White
3 dash Thai Basil/Kaffir Tincture (**)

Shake once without ice and once with. Strain into a short highball (or cocktail) glass.

In the first "Best of" post, I mentioned a drink that Ben Sandrof made for Corey Bunnewith and I; however, I did not inquire about the recipe since it was a busy night for the bartenders once the party got in full swing. After the fact, I did get in contact with Mr. Sandrof, and I am thankful that he sent me the recipe. Lucky that I did not inquire about the recipe then, because it was too lengthy and detailed to have been easily provided at that moment at Tales.

(*) Ben writes "if you aren't the DIY home bartender type, Belvoir Farms makes a decent one, but it isn't as fresh as what you'd get on your own." If you are the DiY type, I was able to find this one here which I have paraphrased below:

Lime Lemongrass Cordial (makes 2 cups)
• 16 oz Sugar
• 8 oz Water
• 1 stalk Lemongrass (roughly chopped)
• Zest of 1 Lime
• 6 oz lime juice
Heat lemongrass and lime zest in saucepan with sugar and water, bring to a boil while stirring to dissolve the sugar, and then simmer for 2-3 minutes. Let cool, and then add lime juice. Strain into bottle for storage.

I have no clue how similar this recipe is to what Ben used in his drink, but it should be a good starting point. Adding an ounce of vodka per pint of product will also help stabilize this syrup for longer term storage in the refrigerator (otherwise, microbial growth will eventually win out).

(**) Basil/Kaffir Tincture
• 20 oz Overproof Grain Neutral Spirit (Spirytus)
• 15 gram (1/2 oz) Fresh Kaffir Lime Leaves
• 10 gram (1/3 oz) Fresh Thai Basil
Infuse for 5 days and strain into a dasher bottle.

lapsang martinez

2 oz Beefeater 24 Gin
1 oz Lillet Rouge
1/2 oz Lapsang Souchong Tea Syrup

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon twist. Recipe was provided by the bartender serving it, although I found a 1 1/2:1:1/4 recipe in one of the books they handed out.

Wednesday night at Tales of the Cocktail, we went to two back-to-back events. The first was the Beefeater event held at the Contemporary Arts Center in New Orleans, and they decided on a Alice in Wonderland theme. The ladies pictured to the left were handing out small ampules filled with what I believe was Lillet-Gin cocktail and tagged with a "Drink Me" note. Sticking to the theme, they had a crazed Madhatter, an in-drag Queen, and a tea part of sorts. My favorite drink of the night was one created by Tim Stones, the Beefeater Brand Ambassador. His Lapsang Martinez recipe featured a smokey tea syrup that paired rather well with the tea flavor-laden Beefeater 24 Gin. Indeed, smoke and grape notes filled the sip, and gin botanical notes rounded off the swallow. Sounds too simple to be great, but I was pleased enough to repeat the experience a second time later that evening.

death by misadventure

2 oz Sobieski Vanilla Vodka
1 1/2 oz Meletti
3/4 oz Lemon Juice
3 dash Fee's Whiskey Barrel Bitters
3 dash Peychaud's Bitters

Shake with ice and strain into a Collins glass filled with fresh ice cubes. Top with ~2 oz Rogue Dead Guy Ale, and add a straw.
After the Appalachian Flip, Andrea and I headed down to the Sobieski tasting room that was celebrating Polish Mardi Gras. Why were we heading down to a vodka tasting room? Because Aaron Butler of Russell House Tavern had mentioned that he was making a pair of drinks for the event, and he invited us to stop in. I was curious to see how someone with a palate I respect handled the spirit, so I chose his Death by Misadventure. The highball was yet another drink that utilized beer with successful results. This refreshing Fizz paired up citrus flavors with vanilla on the sip which was followed by hops and herbal complexity on the swallow. Moreover, the beer and lemon juice did a decent job balancing out the sweetness of the Meletti amaro. I am sure that I am missing some joke about Polish Mardi Gras and the distribution of beads, so feel free to craft your own -- er, wait... that was Bourbon Street last year, when a girl was throwing down beads so people would look at her flashing from the balcony above.

appalachian flip

2 oz Root Liqueur
1/2 oz Rich Demerara Syrup
1 Whole Egg

Shake once without ice and once with, strain into a fizz glass, and top with pale ale (Sierra Nevada).

Normally, I do not like to post recipes that require specialized ingredients that I have not seen on the market, but this drink was damn tasty. And it also used a beer float to a great effect which is always a bonus in my book. Root is a liqueur based on Colonial recipes for root tea that was brewed from sassafras, sarsaparilla, and wintergreen birch bark amongst other roots and herbs. With the temperance movement at the end of the 19th century, this spiritous brew morphed into root beer soda. While Art in the Age's version does not use sassafras (banned by the U.S. government in the 1960s), they have tried to replicate the flavor as best as possible. So far it seems that their current day product has not moved too far from Pennsylvania yet.

The flip I had with Root was created by Al Sotack, head bartender of the Franklin Mortgage & Investment Co., in Philadelphia (link has a video of him making one). The Appalachian Flip was rich with diverse root beer-like flavors without seeming simple and syrupy like today's soda versions. The pale ale served to lighten up the drink and the hops signature complemented the herbal ingredients in Root rather well. Al should be commended not only for the creation of this drink, but for his willingness to double-shake up these badboys nonstop for the entirety of the tasting room session.

The tasting booth also had the company's newest product, Snap, which is their ginger snap (cookie) liqueur. I did not have the opportunity to try it, but I have high hopes for it given the craftsmanship they put into their Root product.

spanish cobbler

2 oz Dry Sack Medium Sherry
3/4 oz Dos Maderas 5+3 Rum
1/2 oz Pineapple Syrup

Shake with ice, and strain into a rock glass filled with crushed ice. Garnish with raspberries.

On Wednesday at Tales of the Cocktail was the one day where we had very little interest in the talks since their focus was more hardcore industry rather than enthusiast. Therefore, we hit a decent number of tasting rooms. One of the best ones that day was the Dos Maderas rum room. This spirit blends rums from Barbados and Guyana and ages them first in whiskey then in sherry casks which impart a rather intriguing finish. They had both their 5+3 and their 5+5 products for tasting with the latter being more elegant due to an additional aging step in Pedro Ximénez sherry barrels.

Besides straight spirits tasting, they had Freddy Diaz and Julio Cabrera of Alambiq Mixology Consulting making a few exquisite cocktails featuring the rum. Well, the first one I had, the Spanish Cobbler, focused more on sherry with the Dos Maderas playing a strong second fiddle and bolstering the strength of the drink. The nose was filled with sherry and berries which made for a congruous fruit aroma. On the sip, the Cobbler was pretty dry, and the rum and the pineapple delightfully complemented the sherry.

One other drink I had there was this one:

El Quijote
• 1 oz Dos Maderas 5+3 Rum
• 1 oz Gran Duque d'Alba Brandy
• 1/4 oz Dry Sack Sherry
• 1/4 oz Simple Syrup
• 2 dash Angostura Cuban Cigar Bitters
Stir with ice and strain into a rocks glass filled with fresh ice. Garnish with a grapefruit twist.

The El Quijote had a grapefruit aroma that led into a Spanish brandy and rum-flavored sip. Moreover, the cigar bitters donated some interesting flavors on the swallow. Most notable was the presentation of the bitters which was a long dropper bottle inserted into the wrapper of a cigar. Well, also notable was Dos Maderas' generosity by providing me with a fine cigar that really added to the experience of an outdoor event later that evening.

:: best of tales of the cocktail 2010 pt 2 of 2 ::

Continuing on with some of the superlative moments from my experiences at Tales of the Cocktail this year:

• Best Antiques: Vintage hand blown absinthe glasses from the 19th century at Lucullus Antiques. Amazing specimens especially since some were in matched sets of 8 to 10.
• Toughest Part of Tales: Workwise, it was barbacking for Blair for a Trader Tiki night and having to keep up with his crushed ice needs besides the rest of the barback duties like cleaning glassware and the like. Most of his drinks were served in 10 oz highballs that burned through a lot of ice, especially since I was breaking it up with a Lewis bag and the bottom of a Midnight Moon liquor bottle (an amazingly sturdy bottle!).
• Best Transportation Experience: The St. Charles Streetcar we took out to the Garden District to go to Cure along with Devin, the Periodista Historian. We still walked home again this year (but not through the Magnolia Projects) all the way to the Marigny. The runner-up was the British-style double decker bus that brought us from the Monteleone Hotel to the Beefeater event.
• Best Swag: Bottles of Torani Amer, the West Coast version of the French Amer Picon. Hard to find out this way since it is boozy and most distributors of Torani products only handle the alcohol-free ones.
• Best Prize: Yarai Mixing Glass from the New Amsterdam mix-off contest. The judges seemed to like my drink, but the fact that I called my drink the Bowery Sour after the New York/New Amsterdam connection instead of after New Orleans probably hurt. Recipe and pics forthcoming.
• Hottest New Trend: Ambush Marketing!
• Cutest Rep: Lisa Hare, the Sailor Jerry's brand ambassador. She made me a Stormin' Norman at the Hendricks event inside the Elms Mansion.
• Best Parlour Trick: During the "At Full Sail: The History and Application of Spirits at Proof, Navy Strength and Overproof" session, Wayne Curtis demonstrated the old naval tradition of proofing liquor using gun powder. Under 100 proof, the water in the spirit will prevent the gun powder from going off. Over 100 proof, it was pretty spectacular akin to a mini fireworks fountain.
• Best Local Color Cocktail: While I have so far missed the delicacies of the Hand Grenade, Hurricane, and frozen "Daiquiri" for the second year running, the winner would have to be Gator Cum. As we were packing up bottles from the blogger house's bar, we decided to donate a small collection to the bar next door. When we checked in, the bed and breakfast owner described it solely as a "neighborhood bar." The owner of the John Paul's was so thankful for the gifts that he got Darrin the bartender to make a round of shooters for the bar. Well, this concoction of Passion Fruit Skye Vodka, Midori, a splash of pineapple juice, and a few drops of milk floated on top was actually rather tasty. And the bevy of drag queens who filled the establishment seemed to like it too, especially Zaza d'la Whore!
• Best Example of Quackery: The crazy Australian and New Zealand presenters at the Amaro session who fooled the audience with their medicinal Koala Bitters; their mix was a combination of mouthwash, Nyquil, and other ingredients you can find at Walgreens.
• Best Explanation of a Continuous Still Distillation: This never made much sense as the "plate" part always was confusing. The roving distiller from the Gascony region of France during the Armagnac talk did a great job even though he needed the help of a translator. Part of his one of his 3 stills made the trip over to New Orleans to solidify his explanation.
• Best Blend of Philosophical vs. Technical: The Eggpire Strikes Back! From the significance of eggs through history, religion, and society to the biochemical reasons why the parts of eggs do what they do in food and drink. Plus, there were ways of introducing customers to egg drinks when they otherwise might show a little resistance.
• Best Trend I Would Like to See Take Hold: Aperitif wines and aperitif cocktails. Often, this goes hand in hand when I am cooking, and Paul Clarke and Neyah White did an amazing job during their seminar with the historical aspects and the practical applications, respectively.
• Best Taste to Come from a Hipflask: Rum from Eric Seed. It was from the last batch of British Navy Rum released in 1970 after a 18-23 year stay in a solera system. The rum was transferred from the large flagon into bottles which are valued at $800 each.
• Most Winning Moment: Thinking that my suitcase was too heavy with swag and purchases, but weighing in at 48 pounds -- 2 pounds under the limit. I felt like a fighter must after a tough but successful weight cut...
• Best Annotation in a Notebook: Andrea during Brian Rea's "Bartending in the 1940's, 1950's and 1960's (the dark ages)". Brian spoke about how women were not welcome as bartenders as the labor part was too great; aspects like removing unwanted guests and breaking up block ice were deemed too physical. Andrea's last point in her notes was that "[Brian] never met Josey [Packard of Drink]".

Tomorrow, I will start on the drinks and seminars.