:: fred's top 10 cocktail moments of 2016 ::

In 2010, I was asked what my favorite drink that year was and I decided not only to start a list of my favorite drinks I had out on the town and in at the home bar, but I decided to list the top moments of the previous 12 months. So to continue with the tradition, here is the 7th installment:

1. Still bartending.
Nearly 4 years after my first night as a professional bartender, I am still following this career path. March 2017 will make two years at Loyal Nine where I have been the lead bartender since July 2015. There is not too much new to say, but I included this aspect in the previous 3 years of roundups, so why not once again? I am still keeping on focusing on providing good guest experiences as well as creating new recipes that I'll mention later down below.

2. Expanded my voice.
This year saw me teaching my first class (actually two that night) at the Boston Center for the Arts in May on the Margarita and tequila in general based on my travels to Mexico (see 3rd photo below). Moreover, I started writing a monthly column for the USBG national site as well as hopefully the first of many articles for Edible Boston starting with this one on Turkey Shore Distillery's Old Ipswich Rum. Finally, I was also asked to host Reddit's /r/cocktails' first Ask Me Anything in November.
3. Participated in Events.
Perhaps one of the biggest bartending honors for me was having Loyal Nine being one of the 12 bars involved in Cocktail Magic, besides the 3 traveling bars, we were one of the 9 bars chosen from Boston. For Boston Thirst this year, I was also selected to head up a Blender Bender team where our sponsor was Angostura. We made good use of their portfolio with including their amaro, rum, and bitters in our drink, and we contributed to a great deal of brainfreeze that night (see photo above). Early in the year, I was a guest bartender for Wink & Nod's Tiki Monday nights bringing four of my recipes from different parts of my drink creating eras to the masses. And I am still the lead cat herder for Mixology Monday which just did its 114th online cocktail party of sorts.

4. Traveled.
I started my year off with being chosen for an USBG-sponsored trip to Mexico to tour the Patron distillery and experience a taste of Guadalajara. It was a bit of a whirlwind trip for I left to the airport after closing the bar on a Sunday night, flew out early Monday morning and returned Wednesday evening. I should say luckily returned since the airline wanted to send me to Houston since there was no plane to send me to Dallas (which would get me to Boston). I opted to wait for a plane to Dallas in hopes of making it home to open the bar on Thursday. Everything came through with about 30 minutes to spare, but I did miss my chance to visit bars in Dallas and Houston! I also went down to New Orleans for my 5th Tales of the Cocktail. I wrote up my best moments from that trip after attending 12 seminars, a bunch of parties, and a handful of bars. See the rest of the shenanigans and talk notes here. Soon, I will be traveling again in about two weeks to Louisville as I was selected to be a steward for the American Craft Spirits Association competition!
5. Got press!
 I got interviewed for the U.S. Bartender Guild site thanks to my column writing and other participation there, and Doug Winship wrote up my role in blogging as a means to show how Tiki has come to a forefront. My interest in low proof cocktails got me press in both WGBH and Boston Magazine. My Hot Buttered Malört got some talk in Chicago, and our menu's Blood of the Kapu Tiki (neo-classic Tiki recipe crafted by Bosko) found me running off to photoshoots for the Improper Bostonian and Boston Magazine. I was included in Server Not Servant's 64 Suggestions for Bartenders advice post, and my thoughts on seasonal drinking were included in Boston Common for summer and Tales of the Cocktail for fall. Finally, my Tainted Love recipe was Del Maguey Mezcal's drink of November.

6. Appeared in books.
My hangover cure made it into Lou Bustamante's Complete Cocktail Manual; sadly, I missed the call to get other recipes in there. My Colleen Bawn Knickebein got printed in Gaz Regan's 101 Cocktails of 2016; I actually submitted that recipe for his call for poussé-cafe recipes, but since I was the only one who responded, he slid my entry towards that book. While I mentioned it last year, I finally got to read the part about my Fireball Fizz in Matt Rowley's Lost Recipes of Prohibition. I believe that my contribution to the Oxford Companion to Cocktail and Spirits should be out in 2017.
7. Visited new bars.
While I enjoyed staying in my comfort zone of familiar haunts and bartenders, there were a lot of new places to check out (some of which had familiar bartenders as well). Here it Boston, I got to welcome to the city Sichuan Garden II's Baldwin & Sons Trading Co. (their second bar in the same building), Bar Mezzana, The Automatic, and Area Four Ink Block; I also made my first visits to Mooo and Short & Main (Gloucester). In New Orleans, I got to try out the pisco bar at the new Catahoula Hotel as well as being shown the legendary dive bar The Dungeon.

8. Created some drinks.
It was a decently prolific year with 33 posts about new drinks and many others that never made the blog. If I were to narrow it down, here are my 5 favorites from this year:
• Dakkar Grotto, a funky and grassy Daiquiri riff.
• Mount Pelée, an agricole and apricot number inspired by Martin Cate and John Gertsen.
• Intercept, my cross between a Slope and a Boulevardier that someone on Instagram declared had a "legacy drink feel."
• Hey Heywood!, inspired by the Hoop La also know in the Savoy Cocktail Book as the Hey Hey!
• Town Crier, my tribute to a neighborhood local. A drink influenced by New Orleans recipes and served at Cocktail Magic this year.
9. I read a lot.
I finished 27 books this year that included books on whiskey, rum, agave, Genever, vermouth, beer, Japanese bartending, cocktail history, distilling history, food flavor history and theory, booze science, bartending advice, Tiki, Prohibition, the Manhattan, and other topics. My reading schedule for next year might be slowed down now that a lot of my free time is being spent writing, but hopefully I will rebound with a vengeance once that project is over with. If I were to narrow the books to a few:
• Robert Simonson's A Proper Drink
• Martin & Rebecca Cate's Smuggler's Cove
• Barbara Stuckey's Taste What You're Missing
• Matt Rowley's Lost Recipes of Prohibition
• Brian Hoefling's Distilled Knowledge

10. Random thoughts.
In June, I hit a milestone of 8 years of blogging (10 years of cocktail writing in July) and I am finishing up the year with about 470 posts for 2017. My Instagram efforts are still going strong with nearly 3000 followers. And there is consideration of a second book to tie together the last 4 1/2 or 5 years since the first book came out. We'll see what 2017 brings!

merciless virgin

3/4 oz Lemon Juice
1/2 oz Seltzer
1/2 oz Cherry Heering
1/2 oz Velvet Falernum
1/4 oz Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao
1 1/2 oz Blended Lightly Aged Rum (Diplomatico Añejo)

Flash blend with 12 oz crushed ice and pour into a footed Pilsner glass (shake all but the soda water with ice, strain into a Tiki mug with the soda water). Garnish with cherries on a pick (cherry-lemon peel flag).

After my bar shift two Saturdays ago, I reached for the Smuggler's Cove book and happened upon the Merciless Virgin. The recipe was Smuggler Cove's adaptation of Frank "Skipper" Kent's drink at Skipper Kent's in San Francisco. The only exposure that I have had to Kent's recipes is his Planter's Punch from Remixed, and the name alone of the Skipper's Particular from Esquire's Handbook for Hosts does make me wonder.
The Merciless Virgin gave forth a lemon oil aroma from the twist I added that prepared the mouth for the lemon in the sip that was joined by orange and dark fruit notes. Next, the swallow shared rum and medicinal cherry flavors with a light spice finish.

union club

2 oz Bourbon (Old Granddad Bonded)
1 1/2 oz Orange Juice
1/2 oz Maraschino Liqueur (Luxardo)
1/2 oz Campari

Shake with ice and strain into a coupe glass (single Old Fashioned glass).
Two Fridays ago after my shift at work, I turned to the Canon Cocktail Book for my night's treat. There, I happened upon the Union Club that they based on the Campari-orange juice pairing and named after an old saloon in Seattle run briefly by Wyatt Earp. Once built, the Union Club began with a Bourbon and bitter orange aroma that later led into a more Maraschino-driven nose. On the palate, the sip was filled with orange and malt notes, and the swallow paired the whiskey and nutty flavors all with a bitter finish.

japanese (variation)

3/4 Brandy (1 1/2 oz Camus VS)
2 dash Orgeat (1/2 oz)
2 dash Dry Vermouth (3/4 oz Noilly Prat)
1 dash Picon Bitters (1/4 oz Torani Amer)

Stir with ice and strain into a cocktails glass; I added a lemon twist.

Two Thursdays ago, I was flipping through Pioneers of Mixing at Elite Bars: 1903-1933 when I spotted their variation on the Japanese Cocktail. I had previously skipped over this recipe so as not to add alternative recipes to the basic brandy, orgeat, and bitters recipe first written by Jerry Thomas in 1862, but temptation overcame me. Here, the Old Fashioned style was undone by the addition of dry vermouth to something approaching a Brandy Manhattan, and the bitters instead of being Boker's (or Angostura) were Picon.
This Japanese variation greeted the nose with a lemon, floral, and brandy bouquet. Next, the sip was creamy from the orgeat, and the swallow gave forth Cognac, earthy-nutty, and bitter orange flavors. Here, the drink was more dried out from the vermouth than the nonpotable bitters in the classic, but it had a familiar feel to it.

dutch totem

2 oz Bols Genever
1 oz Amaro Ramazzotti
1/2 oz Chestnut Honey Syrup
3/4 oz Pineapple Juice
3/4 oz Lime Juice
2 dash Angostura Bitters
1 dash Absinthe

Shake with ice, strain into a Tiki mug, fill with crushed ice, garnish with a pineapple slice and freshly grated nutmeg, and add a straw.
Two Wednesdays ago, I ventured down to Bar Mezzana for a cocktail, and I was lured into one of their amaro-forward tropical drinks called the Dutch Totem. Once prepared, it offered a nutmeg aroma that led into lime, caramel, and honey notes on the sip. Next, the swallow began with Genever, pineapple, cola-herbal, and wormwood flavors and ended with a pineapple and honey finish.

letters of marque

1 oz Scarlet Ibis Rum (Privateer Navy Yard)
1 oz Cynar
1/2 oz Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao
1/2 oz Galliano

Stir with ice, strain into a coupe or cocktail glass, and garnish with flamed orange oils from a twist (unflamed oils).

Two Tuesdays ago, I returned to Brad Parson's Amaro Book to make a recipe after having replenished my Cynar supply. The drink was the Letters of Marque by Jerry Slater of H. Harper Station in Atlanta, and the name refers to the government documents that authorize privateers to profit from the goods that they seize on the ocean. Since I did not have Scarlet Ibis Rum, I opted for another strong rum that I purchased on that recent shopping trip, namely Privateer's Navy Yard Rum which seemed rather fitting of a distillery name for this tipple.
The Letters of Marque shared an orange aroma from the twist oils that joined the caramel and star anise nose from the drink. Next, orange and caramel on the sip led into rum, vanilla, orange, herbal, and star anise on the swallow. Overall, the combination reminded me a bit of the Son of Man that opted for Calvados and Amaro Montenegro for the rum and curaçao.

mighty peking man

1 1/2 oz Aviation Gin
1 1/2 oz Pineapple Juice
3/4 oz Cocchi Sweet Vermouth
1/2 oz Lime Juice
3/4 oz Simple Syrup
2 dash Angostura Bitters
1 dash Orange Bitters

Shake with ice, strain into a Collins glass, fill with crushed ice, garnish with mint, and add a straw.
Two Mondays ago, I ventured down to State Park to watch the screening of Bartender at Large. Bartender Erick Castro who helped to create the documentary was present, and he offered me one of his creations created with the event sponsor, Aviation Gin, called the Mighty Peking Man. The drink name is a reference to a 1977 monster movie featuring the "King of the Orangutans" (the literal translation from the Mandarin title) that came in the wake of the 1976 remake of King Kong. Once served, the Mighty Peking Man proffered a mint aroma that led into a grape sip tinged by the pineapple and lime notes. Next, pineapple modulated by the vermouth was joined by the gin on the swallow with a lime and clove finish.

canon's sherry cobbler

1 oz Oloroso Sherry (2 oz Lustau)
1/4 oz Patxaran (1/2 oz Atxa)
1/4 oz Maraschino Liqueur (1/2 oz Luxardo)
2 dash Angostura Bitters (4 light dash)

Shake with ice, strain into a Cobbler cup or wine glass, fill with crushed ice, and garnish with an orange slice, mint leaves, and seasonal berries (mint sprigs and an orange twist).
After my bar shift two Sundays ago, I reached for the Canon Cocktail Book. There, I spotted a delightful sounding Sherry Cobbler that seemed a bit on the small side especially for a nightcap. After doubling the recipe, Cobbler gave forth grape, mint, and orange aromas. The grape continued on into the sip where it mingled with hints of cherry and dark berry, and the swallow offered nutty, coffee, and cherry notes with a clove spice finish.

yesterday, today, & amaro

2 oz Wild Turkey 101 Rye (Jim Beam Rye)
1/2 oz Cynar
1/4 oz Averna
1/4 oz Benedictine

Stir with ice, strain into a cocktail glass or coupe, and garnish with lemon oil from a twist.
After work on Saturday night, I was in the mood for a nightcap, so I reached for Brad Parson's Amaro book, and found something bitter, brown, and perhaps served down called Yesterday, Today, and Amaro. The drink and the pun name stem from the bar at the Abe Fisher restaurant in Philadelphia. Once prepared, the drink's lemon oil brightened the caramel, herbal, and whiskey aroma. Next, the caramel continued on into the sip where it mingled with the whiskey's malt, and the swallow shared the rye, funky herbal notes, and a hint of cherry.