chronic iced tea

1 oz Pierre Ferrand Ambre Cognac
1 oz Bärenjäger Honey Liqueur
1/2 oz Lemon Juice
3-4 oz Bergamot Iced Tea

Shake all but the tea in a pint glass with ice. Take off the shaker tin and top pint glass with ice tea; garnish with a lemon wheel and straw.

Sometime in the middle of my first cocktail, I gained another glass in front of my Blue Skies and Kentucky Breakfast Stout -- a glass of sparkling wine! That Sunday was the eve of Green Street owner Dylan Black's birthday, and it was nearing midnight so the surprise party began with a sabering of a Champagne bottle to open it! This feat was matched by an amazing happy birthday song sung by someone at the bar with a classically trained voice. It felt rather decadent to have three glasses of booze in front of me, but Dylan would approve.
Once my collection of glassware was drained, I ordered my second cocktail off of the small menu -- Chronic Iced Tea -- from bartender Derric Crothers. This tall drink was a B-Side original, perhaps named after the Notorious B.I.G. song that featured Snoop Dogg, and it can be found at a few other B-Side disciple bars like the Highland Kitchen. The drink's nose was strong with an Earl Grey tea aroma that preceded a rather classy drink despite the name (it is a reference to tea brewed with marijuana leaves). The bergamot-flavored black tea was complemented by lemon and hints of honey. Indeed, with a lower proportion of tea in the mix, the Chronic Ice Tea would fall into the category of a classic Punch. Instead, it falls into the category of easy and refreshing drinking.

blue skies

1 oz Laird's Apple Brandy
1 oz Plymouth Gin
1/2 oz Lemon Juice
1/2 oz Grenadine

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

Two Sundays ago, Andrea and I went down to Green Street for drinks. Bartender Derric Crothers greeted us and gave us a sample of Kentucky Breakfast Stout, a once-a-year offering from Founders. The beer was flavored with coffee and aged in a Bourbon barrel for 12 months, and the bar had scored a small keg of it. It was dry like an Imperial Stout generally is and filled with a well-balanced collection of coffee, barrel-aged vanilla, and roasted malt notes. Indeed, Green Streets' beer program has impressed me greatly as of late.
The first cocktail I ordered was from Green Street's new bartender, John Baker, who they acquired from the Parish Cafe. Off the short cocktail menu, I chose the Blue Skies. This Blue Skies' recipe is unlike any of the others I have seen (for one, it is not even blue), and with the split spirit content balanced by lemon and grenadine, it reminded me of the Three Mile Limit. Here, instead of brandy and white rum, the spirits are apple brandy and gin, and CocktailDB places this recipe closest to variations of a Royal Smile and an Applejack Daisy. The Blue Skies' nose was mainly the pomegranate notes from the grenadine, and the gin coupled with the lemon worked well to dry out the grenadine's sugar content. While the Blue Skies was not all that complex, it was pleasing like most Daisies are.

royal james punch

1/2 Lime
1/2 tsp Turbinado Sugar
1 oz Dark Rum
1 oz Sweet Vermouth
1 oz Cherry Heering
2 dash Angostura Bitters

Cut lime half into 4 pieces and muddle with sugar in a rock glass until the sugar is dissolved. Add rest of ingredients and stir to mix. Fill with crushed ice.
For Mixoloseum's Thursday Drink Night a week and a half ago, the theme was "Unclear" such that all the ingredients needed some sort of color or cloudiness to them. For a drink idea, my eyes drifted over to the bottle of Cherry Heering, and this was coupled with the idea of muddling lime quarters and sugar like in a Caipirinha. To stick with the theme, I chose dark rum, sweet vermouth, and Angostura Bitters to increase the color quotient in the drink. Since the drink had rum, vermouth, and bitters like a Pirate Cocktail, I named the drink after a famous pirate ship captained by Ignatius Pell, the Royal James. One of the Mixoloseum guests, Sunny&Rummy, who made the drink commented, "The Royal James is an interesting drink. I quite like dark rum and sweet vermouth together. And the cherry liqueur gives it some depth. [It was] tart on first taste, but my taste buds recalibrated and it's sipping very easy."

fioupe cocktail

The theme for this month's Mixology Monday (MxMo L) was picked by LushLife Productions' Lindsey Johnson who runs the Brown, Bitter and Stirred blog. Lindsey chose the eponymous theme of "Brown, Bitter and Stirred" and decided not to elaborate on the theme much more than by saying it is the first four words out of her mouth when she requests a cocktail at a bar. And now, she is requesting people across the blogosphere to craft a drink to her modus operandi.

I was not specifically searching for a drink to satisfy this Mixology Monday when I spotted one that would work. While looking through the 1940 The How and When for something to drink that night, I spotted the Fioupe Cocktail and made a note to revisit it later in the week for this event. For several days the note sat there until I was in the mood for something more brown, bitter, and stirred than I have been with my drink choices as of late. As I began to hunt out an older source if not the original source of the recipe, I ended up finding one in Robert Vermeire's Cocktails and How to Mix Them from 1922 and decided to stop my searching and to make the damn cocktail already. Vermeire proffered a line of history that read, "Monsieur Fioupe is a familiar figure known all along the Riviera by everybody from prince to cabman." His recipe was as follows:

Fioupe Cocktail
• 1/4 gill Cinzano Sweet Vermouth (1 oz Bonal)
• 1/4 gill Cognac Brandy (1 oz Martell VS)
• 1 tsp Benedictine
Stir with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Add a cherry (Luxardo) and twist a lemon peel over the top.

The only difference between this recipe and the one in The How and When is that the former specified Cognac and the latter was a vague brandy. I was originally going to choose a more brown and flavorful Spanish brandy, but once finding the older recipe, I went with the Cognac. In addition, instead of sweet vermouth proper, I went with Bonal which is a sweet vermouth-like aperitif wine embittered with a healthy dose of gentian and quinine.
The Fioupe Cocktail started with an aroma that was a mix of lemon oil and Benedictine. The Cognac notes were the first to hit the palate followed by the Bonal and Benedictine's bitter notes on the swallow. Moreover, the Bonal also contributed a pleasing grape aftertaste. Overall, the Fioupe Cocktail was a stripped down Vieux Carré for it lacked the rye, Peychaud's, and Angostura Bitters. Thus, it was a bit smoother as it lacked the bite from the rye whiskey and some of the herbal complexity of the nonpotable bitters. Still the Fioupe Cocktail was plenty bitter enough not to mention brown and stirred.

Cheers to Lyndsey for hosting and picking this month's theme and to Paul Clarke for being the puppeteer behind the MxMo show!

parker house punch

1 1/2 oz New England Rum (Thomas Tew)
1/2 oz Brandy (Pedro Domecq Fundador Solera Reserva)
3/4 oz Cold Tea (Oolong)
1 1/2 oz Lemon Juice
3/4 oz Simple Syrup (Gomme)

Shake with ice and strain into a highball glass or punch cup filled with shaved ice. Add a dash of soda water, a slice of orange, a slice of lemon, and a cherry. Our punch cups would be too small for these volumes so we subbed a rocks glass.

Ted Saucier's Bottoms Up captures an old Boston recipe, the Parker House Punch. While the Parker House, which still exists as the Omni Parker near the Granary Burial Ground, developed this punch, the hotel is better known for creating the Boston Cream Pie and coining the word "scrod." In fact, the only other reference I could find for this punch is in the Robert E. Sherwood 1940 book There Shall Be No Night where it gets mentioned a few times. Obviously, the recipe had a big impact on Sherwood and enough of an effect on Saucier to add it to his 1951 book. One problem that separates people from easily making this recipe is that New England Rum (as a style) is no longer made. Adam Mechanic recommended that we try Thomas Tew Rum made by the Newport Storm Brewery and Distillery. Thomas Tew is a pot stilled rum named after a 17th century Rhode Island privateer, and while not claiming to be a New England Rum, it is closer to the style than not. Unfortunately, Thomas Tew cannot be found much outside of Rhode Island, so we were forced to make an unscheduled antiques run down to Warren, RI, and get a bottle (along with a bottle of Everclear for infusions).
The rum contributed barrel aged and light molasses notes to the nose of the Parker House Punch along with the aroma of the tea and lemon. The lemon-sugar sour flavor on the front of the sip was balanced by the tannins and flavor of the tea on the swallow. Moreover, the Thomas Tew Rum added a good amount of richness to the drink (along with the Spanish brandy), and the rum was notable on the aftertaste as a pleasing pungency. Overall, the Parker House Punch was a pretty solid single serving punch that could easily be scaled up to punch bowl quantities. A rich rum like Appleton, Lemon Hart, or Coruba would make an adequate substitution.

old bill

1 oz Oloroso Sherry (Lustau Don Nuño Dry Oloroso)
1/2 oz Maraschino Liqueur (Maraska)
1/2 oz Aged Rum (Zacapa 23)
3 dash Orange Bitters (Angostura Orange)

Stir with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.
Two Mondays ago was National Rum Day, and to celebrate, I began flipping through our copy of Left Coast Libations. The drink that caught my eye was one from Neyah White, the Old Bill, that conjured up memories of how well rum and sherry couple. The drink was also attractive for it would allow us a chance to use the Maraska Maraschino Liqueur which we recently found and purchased at Marty's in Newtonville. Maraska is a little sweeter and less complex than Luxardo and is half the price; it seems like it would work in the drinks where you wanted the sweetness without an overbearing Maraschino flavor. The Old Bill greeted us with an orange aroma from the bitters. Sherry and Maraschino flavors were on the front of the sip, and there the ingredients were battling for whether it would be perceived as a sweet or dry balance. The Zacapa rum added a lot of body and kick to the drink, and it along with the bitters added a bit of spice on the swallow. The sherry appeared again on the swallow as a pleasant nuttiness to round out the drink.

[ben-tiki sour]

1 oz Ron Matusalem 10yr Classico Rum
1 oz Pierre Ferrand Ambre Cognac
1/2 oz Lemon Juice
1/2 oz Pink Grapefruit Juice
1/2 oz Orgeat
1/2 oz Cinnamon Syrup
1 Egg White

Shake with ice and double strain into a highball glass. Top with soda water and twist a grapefruit peel over the top. Garnish with 3 drops of Tiki Bitters and a straw.
For my second drink at Ben Sandrof's Sunday Salon, I asked Ben if he had any ideas for something like the delightful Pisco Sour that was on the menu. Ben thought for a moment and then came up with a great Tiki-style riff that hit the spot. The Tiki Bitters and grapefruit oil on the surface of the egg white foam provided a great citrus aroma to the drink. The orgeat and cinnamon syrup put the drink on the somewhat sweet side especially since pink grapefruit juice is not as crisp as lemon or lime. Finally, the mix of Cognac and rum appeared more on the swallow where they helped to dry out the sip; the two spirits matched the tropical flavors in the drink rather well.

clt peche

1 1/2 oz Beefeater Gin
3/4 oz Peach Syrup
3/4 oz Lemon Juice

Shake with ice and strain into a highball glass filled with fresh ice cubes. Top with soda water. Garnish with an orange twist, a mint sprig, and a straw.

Sunday almost two weeks ago (Tales of the Cocktail and the posts that followed have made catching up to date rather a challenge), Andrea and I got a message that Ben Sandrof was hosting his Sunday Salon again. When we arrived and sat down at the bar, we noticed a few new drinks on the menu. One of them, the CLT Peche, seemed like a wonderful seasonal one that I ought not let slip by. CLT stands for Claremont, NH, where some members of Ben's family live, and when he was there last, he gathered up a bunch of peaches. Ben made a syrup with some of the peaches to use in this riff on a Tom Collins.
The CLT Peche started with a mint and orange oil nose that led into a pretty refreshing sip. The balance was a touch on the tart and crisp side with just enough peach flavor to match the lemon's. Andrea commented that the CLT Peche was the type of beverage you could drink all night (assuming you had the peach resources to do so).

bali bali

1 1/2 oz Red Ronrico Rum (Blackbeard Spiced Rum)
1/2 oz Passion Fruit Syrup (Trader Tiki)
1/2 oz Lime Juice
1/4 barspoon Sugar (Turbinado)

Stir the sugar in with the lime juice until dissolved. Add rest of ingredients, shake with ice, and strain into a 10 oz Highball glass. Fill with fresh ice (crushed ice would have been more space filling than cubes) and decorate with mint, cherries, and a straw.

For a cocktail on Saturday night a week and a half ago, I was leafing through the pages of the 1940 cocktail book, The How and When, and spotted the small section of Tiki drinks including the Pago Pago that I had at the Franklin's Chartreuse night (apparently, this book has the earliest published recipe for the drink). Next to it was the Bali Bali which would make good use of our newly acquired bottle of Trader Tiki's passion fruit syrup. We were a little confused as to what "Red Ronrico Rum" would be like as it is a defunct part of that distillery's portfolio. Andrea discovered in her search that it was a dark Puerto Rican rum. Since we do not have any regular dark rums from that island (and we were not sure if their rums got much darker than gold), I figured it would be also be a good time to crack open a rum sample that had been sent to us. The Blackbeard Spiced Rum was reasonably dark and was from the correct island; while Red Ronrico was surely not the same, the Blackbeard seemed like a decent substitution for this drink.
The Bali Bali's mint garnish contributed greatly to the drink's nose. The rum's richness coupled rather well with the passion fruit syrup's smoothness. Meanwhile, the rum's sharpness along with the lime juice's bite did a decent job of drying out the passion fruit syrup's sweetness that was supplemented by the sugar. Finally, the Blackbeard contributed a light spice note on the swallow that added a little extra zest that was probably absent in the Red Ronrico version.