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The Smoking Jacket

November 6, 2012 by Jon

The Smoking Jacket
1.5 oz Sandeman tawny port
1 oz Island of Geese Islay Scotch
0.75 oz Grand Mariner
2 dashes Peychaud’s bitters
Baked apple slice
Cinnamon stick

Cut a thin slice of apple and put it in the oven on 400° for about 10 minutes. When the apple is done, take it out and let it cool. Combine the remaining ingredients and shake with ice. Strain over the apple and garnish with a cinnamon stick.

NOTES: I picked up a bottle of the Island of Geese to see how it would work in cocktails, because we both love the peaty flavor of Islay Scotches, but don’t really want to waste Lagavulin or Laphroaig in mixed drinks that might fail anyway. In the end, it was a pretty good call. I probably wouldn’t drink a ton of it straight, but as a mixer, it turned out to be a sturdy alternative for around $30, rather than the $60-100 that most Islay will cost you.

As for the drink, I had actually expected the Port to really mellow out the drink more than it did. Initially I went with 0.5 oz Grand Marnier, but the drink needed a little boost. In the end, while stiffer than expected, it turned out to be a pretty good cocktail. Smoky and kind of velvety with a nice, well-rounded Scotch kick. Overall, very happy with this one. The second half of the drink gets even better after the cinnamon has had a little time to soak, and the apple slice at the bottom of the glass is pretty tasty, too.

Posted in Falernum, Luxardo, Peychaud, Scotch | Leave a Comment »

Art in the Age’s SAGE Launch Event

August 31, 2012 by Jon

This past Wednesday, Art in the Age was kind enough to invite us back to another of their launch parties, this time for for their newest liqueur SAGE. The whole thing took place in the cocktail lounge at Vedge, which is already one of my favorite places to drink in the city. The extremely well-balanced cocktails were created by Vedge’s bar manager Daniel Miller (running one of the most underrated bar programs in Philadelphia at the moment, in my humble opinion), and for the most part featured very little liquor other than SAGE in order to showcase the new spirit.

Sage itself is a pretty neat liquor when you get down to it. Very close to a gin, but without the juniper, and the herb-driven spiciness that the sage provides. The flavor isn’t as strong or defined as AITA’s other three liqueurs (ROOT, SNAP and RHUBY), but in this case, I think that works to SAGE’s benefit. While I do love ROOT, the opportunity to drink it or mix with it is a little rare. It has the same problem that I assume most bold liqueurs have in that it has a clearly defined role in drink mixing, and can’t venture too far out of that niche. SAGE, on the other hand, is mild enough that it could easily sub for gin in any number of cocktails – the type of drink foundation that I think AITA has been missing in their past ventures.

All of this is great news for Jen, who loves both sage (the herb) and gin more than I do, but I definitely enjoyed the SAGE cocktails and look forward to picking up as bottle as soon as the PLCB gets it together and starts stocking the stuff. I’d recommend the same for anyone building a bar and looking for something unique, yet versatile.

SAGE should be on the shelves in PA any day now for $32.99. Thanks to Art in the Age for including us at another event and Vedge for the great cocktails and snacks. Seriously, if you haven’t gone to Vedge yet, you should really get on that. 

Posted in Sage | 1 Comment »

A Good Man is Hard to Find

August 30, 2012 by Jon

It’s been a little while since we posted updates, sorry about that! It’s been a busy summer. Since the last post, we had another cocktail party to try out some of our more summer-y drinks on friends to see what’s working and what’s not. In addition to The Pennsyltucky and the Gatsby Swizzle, one of the new experiments was this rum and peach cocktail.

A Good Man is Hard to Find
2 oz Amber rum
1 oz burnt peach syrup (see below)
0.5 oz Luxardo Amaretto
4 drops peppercorn tincture
3 oz seltzer water

Muddle a quarter of a peach in a mason jar. Combine the other ingredients in shaker with a healthy amount of crushed ice. Shake well and pour into glass, unstrained. Garnish with mint and a peach slice, serve with a straw.

NOTES: When we first created this drink, we both really liked it. It had a good spice to it, and a lot of good, rich sweetness. Upon making them at the party, however, the peppercorn ended up tasting out of place. On the second drinking, we decided to remove the peppercorn altogether, and it improved the drink, but dumbed it down slightly. I still like the overall theme of the drink, but I think it needs one more thing to give it a little kick. We’ll be circling back to this one next time we make the syrup.

Burnt Peach Syrup
10 ripe peaches
1 cup brown sugar

Halve and pit the peaches. In a nonstick pan, place the peaches skin-side down in the pan. sprinkle 1/2 cup brown sugar over the top of them and then add 1/4 cup water to the bottom of the pan. Bake at 400° until the sugar on top of the peaches starts to burn slightly and take out of the oven (this took about 35 minutes for me). Transfer the peaches to a pot and add 2 cups of water. Using a muddler or potato masher, crush up the burnt peaches a bit and bring to a boil. Add the remaining 1/2 cup of brown sugar. Simmer for 15 minutes on low, and then strain repeatedly. Once your liquid is cloudy, but free of debris, transfer to a bottle and allow to cool. Lasts about 2 weeks, 2 months if you add 1 oz of everclear and shake well.

NOTES: This is probably one of my favorite syrups to date. It’s thick and sweet but really retains the peach flavor with a nice char from the burnt sugar. Pretty versatile syrup, but went best with whiskey and rum in the experiments we tried.

Posted in Amaretto, Bitters & Tinctures, Burnt Peach Syrup, Peaches, Rum | Leave a Comment »

The Five-Toed Cat

June 18, 2012 by Jen

The Five-Toed Cat
1.5 oz Leblon Cachaça
0.5 oz Brugal Anejo rum
1 oz Spodee

Muddle 2 maraschino cherries with 1 tsp sugar and 3 drops burlesque bitters in shaker. Add liquor, shake well and double strain into a coupe. Garnish with a cherry.

NOTES: My first thought on drinking this was BOOZY. In terms of flavor however, I was pretty happy with it. The Spodee gave it a rich, chocolately flavor while the rum and maraschino cherries gave it a subtle, sweet cherry flavor. Because the drink was a bit unbalanced, in the future I would reduce the cachaça to 1 oz, increase the Spodee to 1.5 oz and leave everything else the same.

Posted in Burlesque Bitters, Cachaça, Rum, Spodee | 3 Comments »

The Pennsyltucky

June 13, 2012 by Jon

The Pennsyltucky
1 oz Shine white whiskey
0.5 oz Laird’s 100 Proof Apple Brandy
1.5 oz Spodee
3 oz Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale

Shake Shine, Spodee and Laird’s well with ice, then pour over ice cubes into a frosted mug. Add the ale and stir gently.

NOTES: I’m not totally sure what drove me to try combining the most hillbilly-themed ingredients we had on the shelf, but I’m pretty glad I did. It was hot as hell this past weekend, and this drink went with it perfectly. Really refreshing and light with a great flavor to it. The Spodee is turning out to be a lot more versatile than I expected of a fortified wine. Next time I’m in a place where playing horseshoes is an option, I’ll be making a batch of these.

Posted in Apple Brandy, Beer, Corn Whiskey, Spodee | Leave a Comment »

Gatsby Swizzle

June 11, 2012 by Jen

Gatsby Swizzle
1.5 oz Beefeater 24 gin
0.5 oz Rhuby
1 oz strawberry rhubarb syrup
0.5 oz lemon juice
0.5 oz lime juice

Shake ingredients well and strain over crushed ice. Garnish with a lime wheel and top with seltzer if desired. (I didn’t)

NOTES: Extremely refreshing – went down like dangerous lemonade. The RHUBY really complemented the drink and strengthened the subtle rhubarb flavor of the cocktail. A perfect summer porch drink!

 

Posted in Gin, Rhuby, Strawberry Rhubarb Syrup | Leave a Comment »

Slow Learner

June 11, 2012 by Jon

Slow Learner
1 oz Bourbon (I used Elijah Craig)
0.5 oz Aalborg Akvavit
0.5 oz Benedictine
0.5 oz lemon juice
2 dashes Hella Bitters Wormwood
0.75 strawberry rhubarb syrup

Shake ingredients well with ice and strain over a large ice cube in a rocks glass. Garnish with a strawberry and a lemon peel.

NOTES: I honestly didn’t expect this one to work out as well as it did. A little wormwood can go a really long way for me, and I have never actually pulled out the Akvavit to try in a drink, but in the end, this ended up being incredibly crisp and refreshing. To quote Jen, “I really like this one, and that’s saying a lot because we never agree on drinks.” Bourbon flavor came through without any burn, the wormwood added a slight bitterness, and the syrup is just downright delicious. By all counts, this one was a winner.

Strawberry Rhubarb Syrup
10 ripe strawberries
2 rhubarb stalks, cut into 1″ chunks
2 cups water
1 cup sugar

Bring the water and fruit to a boil and then reduce to low heat. When the rhubarb almost completely disintegrates, add sugar and simmer on low for 15 minutes.  Strain a whole bunch of times (I used three different grade strainers in order to gradually get everything). Allow to cool and bottle. Add an ounce of everclear and it should last a couple weeks, refrigerated.

NOTES: Really sweet, and really good. Rhubarb adds a nice tartness. Beware, however, this one yields very little syrup for what you put in. From the above recipe, we only ended up with about 1 cup of usable syrup.

Posted in Akvavit, Benedictine, Bourbon, Strawberry Rhubarb Syrup, Wormwood Bitters | Leave a Comment »

Research: Tasting Our Rum

May 21, 2012 by Jon

Inspired by our gin tasting a few months back, we made a pact to eventually do the same for all of our liquor. This time, we pulled out the rum: one of Jen’s favorite spirits. I’ve always been lukewarm on rum, so this was a pretty big eye opener for me. I’ve long wondered why Tiki drinks might call for 3 different kinds of rum that I didn’t consider to be that different from one another, and I’ve finally got my answer.

Just like with the gin, there were some real surprises, and some discoveries in our own collection that really changed the way I thought about quite a few of these. We invited our friend Becky over again to help, and we individually rated each and picked an overall favorite. Here’s everything we tried, in the order we tried them (prices according to the PLCB site, when available), complete with a chart of our individual ratings at the end:

1| Mount Gay Eclipse Gold ($13.99, 80 Proof): This may have been a bad place to start. Across the board, this was the least favorite rum of the night. It had a harsh burn, tasted like the rum that everyone pictures after they haven’t had any rum since that one night in college, and lacked in character. It would be useful in large batches of fruit mojitos or something else where a powerful fruit can overtake the flavor in a party setting for the non-discerning drinker when you need a lot of a booze that no one is going to appreciate anyway.

2| Cruzan Aged Gold Rum ($12.99, 80 Proof): We were all surprised to find out that we greatly preferred the Cruzan to the Mount Gay, especially because we initially got the Mount Gay specifically to replace the Cruzan as a mixer. The sugarcane flavor really came through, and in the sweetness there was a little bit of a pleasant throat warmth. “Inoffensive” and “smooth” were the two most common descriptors.

3| Mount Gay Eclipse Silver ($10.99, 80 Proof): While it was better than the Mount Gay Gold, it wasn’t by a large margin. Almost no sweetness to the rum somehow made the flavor almost reminiscent of tequila. No one was shocked by how bad it was, but we agreed that we probably won’t be buying it again.

4| Bacardi Silver ($14.99, 80 Proof): This was another one we weren’t looking forward to drinking. Years of ads and being classified as a well liquor had us all expecting the worst. Of course, we were wrong again. The Bacardi was smooth and easy to drink with almost no burn at all. Someone described it as “buttery,” and everyone agreed with the assessment. By this point, we were starting to learn that our liquor prejudices might be a bit unfounded. We closed out this round agreeing simply: Bacardi is pretty good.

5| 10 Cane ($26.99, 80 Proof): The 10 Cane was a little different than the rum we had tasted so far in that it had a bit more character to go on. I actually liked it a bit more than Jen and Becky, thought we agreed that price-wise, it was a little high for what we were tasting. It had more burn than we expected, and had a bit of a sour flavor that would mix well with sour. If I had to pick a way to use the 10 Cane, it would be in a Mojito. The lime would balance it well, and the kick would stand out well enough to compete with the mint.

A whole bunch more – including our stand-out favorites – after the break.

Continue Reading »

Posted in Blackstrap Rum, Rhum Agrocole, Rhum Barbancourt, Rum | 12 Comments »

Spodee Launch Party

May 14, 2012 by Jon

This past week, we were invited to check out the newest invention of Steven Grasse, the guy that came up with Hendrick’s Gin, Sailor Jerry Rum, Root, Snap and Rhuby. This time around, he’s got a sort of fortified wine called Spodee, made with grape wine, moonshine and spices, and it’s definitely interesting.

We hit this one at just the right time, since we’ve been on a bit of a fortified wine kick and finding an excuse to have some Sherry after every meal. The event at the Philadelphia Sculpture Gym was a lot of fun with Rival Brothers Coffee, The Smoke Truck, Cookie Confidential (a long-time favorite of ours), and Little Baby’s Ice Cream. A few variations of the Spodee were being passed around, from a coffee concoction to the Spodee and Sody [cola], and I have to say it’s more versatile for mixing than most wines. I’m not a big coffee drinker to begin with, so the Spodee Coffee Cocktail didn’t do much for me other than taste like coffee, but I did enjoy the unfortunately named Spodee and Sody (which will join “Moons Over My-Hammy” on the list of things I may want but will never order by name). I was also able to grab a glass of Spodee on its own so I had a point of reference on what I was tasting elsewhere. It’s got a very unique flavor: very sweet, with chocolate flavors and grape that leans more toward raisin and black cherry flavor than what you generally think of when you imagine wine. At 18% alcohol, it’s not going to put anyone on their ass, but it’s got a flavor powerful enough to stand up to mixing. The chocolate undertones give me hope for using it as a vermouth or sherry sub, or even swapped for a sweeter amaro.

The long and the short of it is that it’s different, which is almost never bad. We’re looking forward to messing around with Spodee in some cocktails, and picked up a bottle just this weekend in Old City (at a surprisingly affordable $8.00 for a 500 ml bottle). Some of the stores seem to have it behind the counter on account of its small size, so don’t give up looking for it too quickly.

Thanks to Spodee for having us out!

Posted in Miscellany, Spodee | Leave a Comment »

High Road to Saffron

May 11, 2012 by Jon

High Road to Saffron
1.5 oz Cazadores Blanco tequila
0.5 oz Milagro Reposado tequila
1 oz mango lime shrub (see below)
1 oz Strega
0.5 oz seltzer water
2 dashes lime bitters

Shake ingredients well over ice, strain into a coupe. Garnish with a maraschino cherry.

NOTES: I’m a little sad I didn’t make this last week for Cinco de Mayo, because it would have been absolutely perfect. This is one of my favorite shrubs so far, and the whole thing was tart, sweet and really refreshing while still having the balls of a good tequila drink. Strega spiced the whole thing up nicely, and the little bit of reposado gave it a nice character without the guilt of drowning a great sipping tequila in other stuff. Might have found the first candidate for the next party.

Mango Lime Shrub
2 ripe mangoes
2 limes
2 cups apple cider vinegar
1 cup white sugar

Peel, pit and dice the mango and transfer the good stuff to a jar. Discard the peel and pit. Zest both limes, being careful to take ONLY the zest and none of the white pith. This is one of those times that paying for a zester really comes in handy. A peeler can work, but you have to have the steadiest hand in the world, or spend 20 minutes scraping pith off the back of your peels. If you end up with much pith at all, it’s going to give everything a bitter flavor. Transfer all the zest from the 2 limes into the jar, and then juice both limes in as well. Add 2 cups of vinegar, seal and shake well. Let it sit for 5 days, shaking every day.

On the fifth day, strain well (the mango will get soft and pulpy, so straining multiple times through cheese cloth might be necessary), and bring the liquid to a boil. Add sugar, and allow to simmer for 5-10 minutes to thicken. Allow to cool, transfer to a clean bottle, and refrigerate.

NOTES: We agreed that this shrub was outstanding, and basically wanted to drink it by itself. Mango and lime go together way better than we could have hoped. If you’re looking for a nice summer shrub to play around with, this is the one.

Posted in Lime Bitters, Mango Lime Shrub, Strega, Tequila | 2 Comments »

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