Two weeks after initially bottling up the first step of our bitters, it was time to move on to step 2.

For this phase, we need to separate the solids from the alcohol by placing a cheesecloth-lined funnel over a new, clean jar. Strain out all the solids and squeeze the cheesecloth bundle to get everything out before transferring the solids to a saucepan. stir in a cup of water and bring it to a boil. Once it’s boiling, let it simmer for 10-15 minutes, and then pour the whole thing back into the original jar. Let it cool to room temperature, seal it up, and let it sit for another week, shaking daily.

At this point, you’ve got 2 jars for each batch of bitters you’re making. If you happen to be making four at once like we are, make sure you label the jars clearly so you know which alcohol corresponds to which jar of botanicals.

Some of them are starting to smell REALLY good, so I’m pretty excited to see what we come up with this time. If the smell is any indication, I’m going to have to re-name the “Cherry Cola Bitters,” because they smell nothing like cherry cola and smell very much like the forrest. We’ll find out for sure in a couple of weeks!

Check out the original post for Step 1.

South of the Border, West of the Sun
1.5 oz Monte Alban mescal
1 oz grapefruit juice
1 oz bell pepper syrup (see below)
0.5 oz Benedictine
2 dashes Aztec chocolate bitters

Shake well with ice and strain into a coupe. Garnish with a wedge of grapefruit.

NOTES: This one was a bit of a shot in the dark. Inspired by Cantina’s Tequila Club meeting, I wanted to play with mescal, and I wanted to try working more savory flavors into drinks. While the pepper is sweet in comparison to other vegetables, in the context of a cocktail it added a pretty interesting complexity. The drink was overall surprisingly drinkable. Lightly smoky and herbaceous, a little tangy, spicy and just a touch bitter. It was a nice change from the norm for me, and while I wouldn’t want every drink to taste like this, it was a welcome difference. Might be well suited for a breakfast drink with some alterations, as well. It’s nice to screw around with something unusual and have it end up better than you might expect.

Orange Bell Pepper Syrup
1 large orange bell pepper
1 cup light brown sugar
0.25 tsp red pepper flakes

Slice up the pepper, discarding the stem and seeds. Put the pepper slices into a pot with 2 cups of water and bring to a rolling boil. Reduce heat and add the sugar. Stir, cover, and simmer on low for 30-45 minutes. Remove from heat, allow to cool, and strain into a bottle. Will keep for a couple of weeks refrigerated. If you like your drinks spicy, feel free to play with the pepper flake ratios.

NOTES: While this isn’t the most versatile syrup, and certainly one I wouldn’t want to drink with a little seltzer, I’m happy with how this turned out. It’s definitely a good tequila/mescal pair, and I’m having trouble imagining it with anything else. Maybe Scotch or Gin. I’d also consider using it in a Bloody Mary variation I think.

Whiskey Society write-ups are guest authored by the host of that month’s meeting. This month we were hosted by Sean Mellody of Mellody Brewing, and his well-behaved dog Barley. 

After joining this new group of friends and whiskey drinkers last month, I was excited to host the group at my place in Queen Village. I was equally happy to share with them a special bottle of whiskey that I procureed during a work trip to India. Mind you, hosting is no small task. You need proper glassware, proper ice options (I had some issues making the large ice balls) and of course some food to make sure we aren’t all crawling home on a Tuesday night or too hung over the following Wednesday (mental note – need to eat more food next time.)

Once everyone arrived and was properly greeted by my dog, Barley, we took pour orders and opened the Amrut Fusion. I got the bottle of Amrut when I was in India in January, and it was brought to me by a coworker from the city of Bengaluru – where the whiskey is distilled. It’s a 50/50 blend of Indian Malt, grown at the foot hills of the Himalayas, and Scotish malt.  We were able to track our tasting notes this meeting as Jon designed and printed out some nice note cards for us to do so. It tracks on a sliding scale of 1-5 things like the whiskey’s balance, burn, smokiness, floral and other attributes, and the cards have come in handy in writing this review of the night. The Amrut poured with a beautifully balanced nose of oak and peat, with hints of flowers and what I can only call sugar. It smelled sweet. Upon tasting, it has a nice subdued smoke, which for me is good as I’m not a peat fan overall, but struck a good balance of sweetness and oak and smoke. The consensus was this was a good pour – thankfully I bought two bottles while in India so I can enjoy it again.

After putting some music on the turntable and lighting us a proper fire we opened our second bottle – The Glenlivet 18. I consulted with Jon on this bottle as we tried to find a good follow up to a whiskey we’d never had. The Glenlivet 18, in my world, is a classic scotch. It’s a single malt that poured quite bold with aroma of fruit, “maybe cherries,” I wrote and oak. No smoke here, which was refreshing for me. It was a smooth scotch, with little burn and a nice long dry finish with just a hint of oak aftertaste.  All in all, a nice way to finish the tasting. Some of us went on to try some Dad’s Hat Single Barrel I had, and some homebrew I’ve kegged with rye. Let’s just say – I’m probably not the only one who needed some help the following morning at work.

Since the last batch of bitters went over so well we decided to take another shot at it, this time with a little more risk in the flavors. Jen and I each made two jars for phase 1, and in 2-3 weeks we’ll separate and move on to phase 2.

If anyone else is interested in trying this at home, I’d definitely encourage it. As we learned from helpful comments on past posts, Penn Herb Co. (if you’re in Philadelphia) is a great source to find just about all those ingredients that you’ve never heard of. The dried fruit peels & zests are easy to make on your own by putting them on a cookie sheet and setting the oven as low as it’ll go with the door propped open for a few hours. If anyone does make their own, we’d love to hear what went into yours and how they turned out. We’re still just taking shots in the dark. Delicious shots, but shots in the dark all the same.

For now, recipes for what we’ve got steeping after the break!

Jen #1: Green Tea Hibiscus Biters

2 tbsp dried green tea
2 tbsp dried hibiscus
1 tsp dried grapefruit zest
0.5 tsp black walnut bark
1 tsp dried sour cherries
0.5 tsp orris root
0.25 tsp sarsaparilla
1.5 cups Everclear

Jen #2: Mint Bitters
2 tbsp spearmint
1 tbsp wintergreen
2 tsp dried grapefruit zest
0.5 tsp wild cherry bark
2 star anise pods
0.5 tsp gentian root
1.5 Wray & Nephew overproof rum

Jon #1: Cherry Cola Bitters
2 tbsp sassafras
1 tsp sarsaparilla
2 tbsp dried sour cherries
0.5 tsp wild cherry bark
0.5 tsp cinchona bark
0.25 dried blood orange zest
1 tbsp gentian root
1 vanilla pod, split down the center
1.5 cups Elijah Craig 94 proof bourbon

Jon #2: Allspice Bitters
2 tbsp whole allspice berries
1 tbsp dried hops
3 star anise pods
1 tsp cinchona bark
1 tsp orris root
1 tbsp cassia bark
1.5 cups Applejack

The applejack isn’t over-proof, so I’m not sure how this one is going to come out, but I have high hopes for the rest. As the bitters progress, we’ll post more updates! Look for the next in about 3 weeks.

Step 2 of our 2013 Winter Bitters Project

We’ve been slacking a bit with the updates (and remembering to photograph practically anything we’ve made in the past 6 months), but we’re making a concerted effort to be less lazy. In that vein, we’ve got a few new things to report on:

1. We’ve posted a whole slew of new bottles to our Liquor Cabinet, and instituted a new system for marking bottled DECEASED once we’ve finished them and decided they aren’t worth replacing. No point in purchasing something we don’t enjoy with so much great booze out there. We got a bunch of pretty great stuff this time, even if most of it is whiskey.
2. Started a new shrub last night: Lemon Lime & Star Anise, so in about a week we’ll see what we can do with that.
3. We also made a rather unusual syrup that we’ll be posting about once we work it into a drink. Earlier this week has me inspired, so I’m going to venture a guess that tequila will pop up in there somewhere.
4. Finally, we’ve started 4 new batches of bitters. Those will be setting for a while. but once they’re done, Jen and I are hoping to do another giveaway for any that turn out nicely. We had a lot of fun with that last time. I’ll put together a post with the recipes for step 1 of the bitters later today.

More on all those coming up shortly!

The folks at Cantina Los Caballitos were kind enough to invite us along for their first official Tequila Club, an instructional series that educates about tequila, while showing off the kind of food pairings that might not come to mind when you think about when and where to enjoy the oft-misunderstood Mexican spirit.

The club opened with some basic facts about tequila, for example:

• True tequila comes with some strict requirements, It must be made with 100% blue agave, must be produced in Mexico. A “mixto” is a tequila that only requires 49% blue agave, and is inferior in flavor and production.
• There are 4 types of tequila: blanco (unaged), reposado (rested) is aged 2 months to 1 year in oak barrels, anejo (aged) is aged 1 to 3 years in oak barrels, and extra anejo (extra aged) is matured for a minimum of 3 years.
• The traditional drinking glass for blanco and reposado tequilas is, appropriately, called a caballito, or “little horse.” A caballito is a tall, narrow shot glass. We are going to need to get some of these.
• Highlands agave is sweeter in aroma and taste, while lowlands agave is smaller, more spicy and complex.
• All tequilas are mezcal, but not all mezcal is tequila. Unlike tequila, mezcal can be made with any type of agave. The agave is roasted over stones and then buried, where it is allowed to continue to roast underground, giving it a distinct, smokey flavor.

Then the fun started. Four rounds of different tequila paired with four different courses. Details of the courses after the break!

Pairing #1: Espolòn blanco & rock shrimp mango ceviche

The Espolòn Blanco (a highlands tequila) was interesting. It had a bit of pepper, and a little citrus on the nose. Once you sipped it, there was burn on the lips, but it warmed quickly and roundly on the tongue with a slightly woody finish. The Espolòn had a lot of flavor for a blanco, with almost no heat in the throat. It went nicely with the strong tangy citrus of the ceviche and the salt of the tortilla chips, which leads me to believe that it would mix into cocktails well with similar properties.

Pairing #2: Corralejo Reposado & chorizo potato croquettes w/ paprika crema fresca

This was our only lowland tequila of the night, and is was decidedly my favorite. It carried a sweet aroma, but the taste was anything but. Complex and spicy with a heavy pepper flavor. It had a rich, deep tongue heat that was really rewarding to roll around in your mouth, and finished dry. More than anything, it reminded me of a good rye – the flavors were different, but the elements were surprisingly similar. The spice of the chorizo in the croquettes complemented the tequila nicely, and the crema fresca balanced it well. Personally, I would refrain from mixing much of anything with the Corralejo for fear of ruining its complexity.

Pairing #3: Mezcal Vida & sirloin empanada

Mezcal Vida is one of several mezcals by Del Maguey that are made in a single village in Oaxaca, Mexico. The Vida is the youngest (and cheapest) of the bunch, all of which are certified organic. Traditionally, I am a big fan of mezcal. I can’t get enough of the stuff in cocktails, but this time I was a little underwhelmed. It might be because I usually mix it with other ingredients, but it’s hard to say without other mezcal to compare it to. The Vida was great so smell with lots of fruit and smoke, but despite a nice buttery mouthfeel and smoky flavor, it was a bit heavy on the ethanol flavor and burned more than I like to see in a sipping liquor. I, for one, am pulling for an all-mezcal class in the future so I can get a better handle on what scope is available.

Pairing #4: El Mayor Anejo Tequila & mocha flan
If the Corralejo was my favorite, this was a close second, even though it makes for a predictable choice. Comparing an anejo tequila to a blanco isn’t exactly an even playing field, but in any case, it was still delicious. El Mayor Anejo is a highland tequila (it showed), aged 3 years in charred oak bourbon barrels. It had a subtle, slightly sweet smell that reminded me a bit of agave syrup. The taste was rich and smooth with strong sweet notes, specifically vanilla and caramel. It finished warm, and the caramel flavor really came through at the end. It paired great with the flan (I suspect it would with most desserts), as the warm sweetness of the El Mayor tastes almost like a dessert itself.

All in all, it was a really fun night. Very informative, and it was great to see tequila treated the way it deserves, rather than a second-class, college bar spirit. There’s a lot of range and complexity in agave-based liquors, judging by the number of people that came out to enjoy and learn really gave me hope for the future of tequila in the educated drinking community.

The next Tequila Club will be held on Tuesday, February 26th. Follow @CantinaPhilly or check them out on Facebook for more info. We can’t get enough of this kind of stuff.

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Note from Jon: as I mentioned in last month’s post, we’re going to have guest posts each month after meetings of the Whiskey Society by the host / person that chose that month’s bottles. This month we were graciously hosted by Sarah and Jordan, and Sarah was kind enough to provide us with a write-up of the evening. It turns out she’s far better at describing whiskey than I. 

“This is my favorite thing on my calendar each month.”  This statement and other similar ones were heard a few times at the second gathering of the Whiskey Society of Philadelphia.  And, honestly, it really is. Our selections for the month were the result of trying out Caskers.com, a membership-based site that features difficult-to-find liquors that you can purchase and have mailed to you.

Our first whiskey was from the Aberlour Distillery – Hart Brothers 1994 Aberlour 12 Year Old Scotch Whisky.  A single malt that’s aged in bourbon barrels, the bottle’s tasting notes claimed it had a nutty nose, but I found it to be a mild dram, easily sipped while we sat around discussing trips to India, the Philly restaurant scene, and who could claim the most boring work story.  The whisky falls on the sweet side of the spectrum, but wasn’t too cloying.  The profile was subtle, with a floral sweetness and notes of vanilla and honey.

As nice as the first whisky was, I was blown away by the second.  Compass Box Flaming Heart Blended Malt Scotch Whisky was a last minute substitute for another bottle and was truthfully an upgrade from the original.  The whisky is blended from Highlands, Islay, and Island single malts and was sipped while we discussed how to pronounce “Islay,” what makes a burger a burger, and what we did for New Year’s Eve.  This whisky was definitely on the smoky side, but even those of us who normally avoid the smoke found it to be not as aggressive as Laphroig or Caol Ila.  There was a nice balance between peat and earthy smoke, thanks to the Islay and Islands single malts, but no iodine-y astringency, thanks to its Highlands’ contributions.  The nose wasn’t overly smoky, but the palate was.

After a month that seemed to take far too long, Jen and I got together with 8 other like-minded drinkers from Philadelphia for the express purpose of opening and consuming a bottle of whiskey that at least one of us had been meaning to try. Due to some really fortunate timing and a tip from a friend of a friend, I was lucky enough to snag a bottle of Pappy Van Winkle Family Reserve 20 Year from the Old Rip Van Winkle distillery. It’s one of those bottles that everyone wants and no one can find, and opening it just to finish it definitely messed with some of my hoarder tendencies.

With 10 people, it worked out that everyone got a decent 2.5 oz neat, with water or with an ice cube, depending on preference. Honestly, what I had expected to be an intense dissection of flavors actually turned more to 10 people sitting in a room drinking quietly, grunting in approval. I can’t say I blame anyone because (as we discussed once the initial joy faded a bit) it was goddamn delicious. Absurdly rich and spicy in a way that reminded me of rye with a smooth vanilla tone, it was SO good. The hype is not exaggerated and at no point did I regret a cent of the price. After a few minutes of praising the liquor, we turned to just drinking and bullshitting about random topics, which is probably the way whiskey was intended to be enjoyed. We followed the Pappy with a much softer couple bottles of Jefferson’s Bourbon, which while obviously not as good, served as a pretty nice dessert to the Pappy main course.

All-in-all, I’m a big fan of whiskey club. I’m excited to have a group of people that are as interested as I am, and we’ll be putting one together monthly. I wholeheartedly encourage anyone else interested in whiskey to do the same and tell us how it goes! I’ll be trying to talk each of our monthly hosts into doing a guest post on their selected bottle, so look forward to that!

Last week, after the kind of brainstorming that only happens over drinks with friends, we had an idea for getting to drink more whiskey than a reasonable person could afford. Since there are so many types of great whiskey out there, but it’s impossible to try without dropping a hundred or more on a bottle you might not even love, we decided a little divide-and-conquer might be in order. We recruited a group of about 8 people that all really enjoy whiskey to start a club that will meet once a month to split a bottle of something we’ve been thinking of trying (or flat-out lusting over) for a while.

It’s going to work like this:

Each month, a rotating member of the club will host, and the host will get to pick what whiskey we’ll be drinking – Rye, Bourbon, American, Scotch, Japanese and Irish are all fair game. All other participating members will come, pay their portion of the bottle, and we will sit and drink it in one sitting. It’s not the most unique or innovative thing in the world, but I’m certainly looking forward to getting to taste all the whiskey I’ve been hunting for a pretty reasonable price.

For the first meeting, I’ll be hosting, and I’m excited to say that I got my hands on a bottle of Pappy Van Winkle 20 year.

I’d encourage other people to try it out too. I would love to hear about what everyone thought about their whiskeys in normal terms…professional reviews are never much help to me. All you really need is a few friends, some extra rocks glasses, and the urge to drink something delicious.

0.75 oz Pendleton Canadian Whiskey
1 oz  Tyrconnell Single Malt Irish Whiskey
1 oz Art in the Age Sage
0.5 oz Rothman & Winter Orchard Apricot
o.25 oz apple cider vinegar
2 dashes Bolivar bitters

Shake ingredients well with ice and strain over a large ice cube. Garnish with a cherry.

NOTES: Interesting, but not there. I may have gotten a little ambitious and tried too many things at once. The Sage is misused here, and Orchard Apricot gets shadowed by the stronger flavors. I’m not generally a huge Canadian whiskey fan…for me it’s almost sweet like bourbon-but not sweet enough, and spicy like rye-but not spicy enough. It’s only one guy’s opinion, but I just don’t enjoy the balance of it no matter how many times I try to convince myself otherwise. Tempered with the Irish, however, it turned into a flavor I liked a lot more. The idea of using the straight apple cider vinegar is also something I’d like to explore more. It mixed with the whiskeys in a pretty neat way. Worth revisiting, maybe as shrub. Overall, not a very successful drink, but it gave me a few ideas for trials going forward. And I WILL make something I like with the Sage if it’s the last thing I do.

A little aside about the cherry we used: We went with a pickled sour cherry we got canned from Green Aisle Grocery, which was really good. If you live in the Philly area, I HIGHLY recommend you check out their canned stuff. When the weather is nicer, they generally have a booth at the Headhouse Farmers Market, and they’ll let you try just about anything they’re selling.