Upcoming TDN: DOM – B&B and Benedictine

B&B and Benedictine are classic and elegant ingredients used in a host of cocktails from the Singapore Sling (ok, *some* versions) to the Widow’s Kiss to whatever you decide to make at this Thursday’s TDN. THIS week’s special feature will be a LIVE! broadcast of the goings-on at the Monkey Hut where Craig, Blair, Rick, and special guest star Jeffrey Morgenthaler will be mixing and waxing poetic the whole evening. As always, festivities begin at 7pm EST in the Mixoloseum Bar.

TDN Vermouth Wrap-up

It was going to be tough to follow TDN: Mata Hari what with its awesome live action at the Tabard Inn and mocking of Oklahoma and sinking of such glorious failures of drinks as the Cannibal Curse (1.5oz Batavia Arrack, I rest my case) but TDN Vermouth came close. Vermouth, in many ways, gave birth to the modern cocktail and opened up endless possibilities beyond the simple “spirit, sugar, bitters, and water” make-up of the earliest cocktail form. The Manhattan, Martinez, and, in turn, the Martini, of course, being the primary examples of the explosion that happened after vermouth was introduced and popularized in the U.S. Whether our contributions will reach that same level of global appreciation and ubiquity remains to be seen, but at least it wasn’t for lack of trying:

Winning Drink

If I had no shame I would award it to my own drink, The Right Stuff, because the use of Pisco and how it came together was really sexy. However, the Financial District was a widely-tried and very well-regarded drink submitted by drink-well of LA who needs to get ahold of me to pass along his information to get his prize to him. Congrats, sir¹ .

Financial District

• 1.75oz Bourbon
• .75oz dry vermouth
• .25oz coffee liqueur
• dash orange bitters
• dash peychaud

Stir, strain, and garnish with a lemon twist

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Other drinks you should try:

By beautiful wonderful, me.

The Right Stuff

• 2oz pisco
• 1oz bianco
• .5oz grapefruit juice
• .25 simple
• .25 curacao (used Grand Marnier)
• 2dash old fashioned bitters

Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

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Submitted by Paul who warns, sharply, do NOT use McClelland’s Islay single malt for this drink, gabe.

Ex

• 1.5 oz sweet vermouth
• .5 oz cask-strength rye
• .5 oz Campari

Stir & strain in glass rinsed with Islay single malt

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Offered up by Rick who will claim it’s the greatest drink ever made, and is dead wrong. But it is awfully damned good.

Jaynestown

• 2oz Firefly sweet tea vodka
• 1oz Dolin blanc
• 2 dashes lemon bitters

Stir and strain over ice

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One of my favorites of the night, and a very classically-styled drink submitted by Jake Parrott.

R.W. APPLE’S ORCHARD

• 1.5 oz apple brandy
• 1.5 oz Dolin blanc²
• dash peach bitters
• dash Decanter bitters³

Stir/strain and garnish with a lemon twist

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Offered, presumably with affection, by Rick and Craig.

Tiki Antica

• 1.5oz Carpano Antica
• 1oz Appleton Extra
• .5oz dark Jamaican rum (used Coruba)
• 1oz Licor 43
• .5oz lime
• .25oz falernum
• float 1oz ginger beer and .5oz Blackstrap Rum

Kick Rick and Craig’s collective asses with a swizzle stick for throwing in the kitchen sink where it’s not likely needed, and then make think and probably enjoy it.

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Submitted by John, a surprisingly good drink that I would cut back on the orgeat with if made again.

Well Stocked Bar

• 2oz gin
• 1oz lillet
• .5oz cynar
• .5oz dry vermouth
• .75oz orgeat
• 1oz lime
• 1 egg white
• 2 oz soda

Shake, strain, top w/ soda

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As always, the whole shameful debacle can be perused, mocked, and set aflame at your leisure.

NOTE: In the future, TDN judging will be handled in a new and exciting way. YOU can be part of selecting the winning cocktail each week. The host(s) will select a group of 4-5 cocktails they feel are worthy of consideration and post them on Friday in a poll on the Mixoloseum blog. Then, over the next few days, try the drinks and vote on your favorite and it will be declared in Tuesday’s wrap-up. Viva la Democracy!!

1. or ma’am, you never can be sure [↩]
2. I used Cinzano Bianco [↩]
3. I used Fee’s Old Fashioned [↩]

For my MxMo XIX theme in September of last year I chose ‘Fizz’ generally because I thought it’d be fun and narrowly because I have trouble denying myself any reason to have a drink topped with sparkling wine, champagne, tonic water or club soda. Or hell, any with champagne as a base for that matter. So recently when my glorious wife shoved a stack of papers in my face with a great number of drinks she felt I needed to make for her to try post-haste I had no trouble taking that honey-do on when I saw how many involved the bubbly.

Among the many she found were the winners of last year’s Tales of the Cocktails competition; the Crescent City Blossom, the Starfish Cooler, and the Sparkling Sakepom as well as several from the Food Network and Martha Stewart websites including the Laughter in the Rain¹ , the Killer Mango Champagne Cocktail, the Grand Champagne Cocktail, and the Frizzante Mojito. Now, many of these require more work than I’m immediately willing to put in sight unseen² but several of these I could try with little pre-work and had the right ingredients ready, and willing, to go. We tried the Starfish Cooler, the Crescent City Blossom, and the Frizzante Mojito. Each had their considerable charms, and none fell flat or disappointed. Read More »

1. this is another drink that uses cucumber in its preparation, like the Flying Cucumber, to good effect; bit too sweet for me though [↩]
2. I’m looking at you Killer Mango thingy [↩]

This Mixology Monday, as you’ve probably already read, Paul at The Cocktail Chronicles invites all of us partcipating to select and discuss a drink from a site we frequent that we’ve enjoyed, discuss our favorite drink blogs, and perform a little self-reflective metablogging about what made us ‘cross our cocktail shakers with our keyboards.’ Happy to, Paul!

The drink I’ve selected is from a blog of the old guard that isn’t updated as frequently as it used to be, but still has plenty of value in visiting and perusing its archives, and, when it is updated, always has an interesting take on cocktail or bar culture as well as any drink it posts. Plus, it’s a little ranty, which endears it to me all the more. I selected the ‘Golden Age Martini‘ as created by Brad Ellis, self-proclaimed ‘Bar Mix Master’ at www.barmixmaster.com. Brad hails from New Orleans, has a deep love of Manhattans, and has a wonderfully designed layout and feel on his site; the photos are always top-notch and it’s obvious he has an eye for design, something I always appreciate in a blog. Read More »

The 'Aviator' is a variation on one of my favorite cocktails, the 'Aviation', which started me on the road to cocktail obsession. This particular recipe is from a collection I recently purchased while at the bookstore (I seem to find myself stopping by there when it's out-of-the-way for my errands, like a literate H.I. McDunnough at the local Kwik-E-Mart) in the Food and Wine Cocktails 2007 guide. Now, I'll write up a full review of this uneven, if well-produced, guide later on but you should know that essentially it's a compendium of cocktail (and some bar food) recipes from around the U.S. that the Food & Wine magazine editors compiled in their research and visits during the past year. Thus, it was natural in flipping through it that I was attracted to the 'Aviator', developed by Jay Crabb at the 'Martini Monkey' bar in the airport at San Jose, California. It takes the basic 'Aviation' cocktail and puts a spin on it that includes creme de cassis, egg white, and throws in some orange bitters to boot to keep the drink more balanced against the sweet liqueur. Read More »

At the behest of Mark in my ‘Spotlight On: Chartreuse‘ entry, I pulled out my Savoy cocktail book and went to work mixing up the Bijou cocktail as it features two of my favorite ingredients; gin and chartreuse. There are only two basic recipes I’ve found for this (though you’ll find slight variations in garnish and amount of bitters – 1 dash or 2) in my search, the ‘Savoy Cocktail Book’ version which you can find here (with equal portions gin, chartreuse, and vermouth) and another you can find here (with a 3 parts gin to 1 part chartreuse and 1 part vermouth). Now, the first strikes me as being much more likely to retain its balance given the volume of sweet vermouth to offset the gin and Chartreuse. But, being the ever-faithful explorer of libations and other treats, I forged ahead trying both. Read More »