At the violet hour, the hour when eyes and back and hand
Turn upward from the desk, the human engine waits–
Like a taxi throbbing waiting at a stand–
To spring to pleasure through the horn or ivory gates.¹

The Violet Hour is a drink that was submitted and featured at Tales of the Cocktail…2008. Yes, sometimes it takes me that long to trudge through a deck of 300 recipes to find ones that show some promise and don’t require my traveling to the plateau of upper Tibet in search of Witches Bane root to be steeped in Unicorn saliva for 20 years under the shade of a Wispwillow tree. I am remiss in taking so long to get to it, as it’s quite dandy.

Toby Maloney opened the Violet Hour in 2007 and it has received accolades as one of the best bars in America. And, certainly, when one visits Chicago, it has become a must-visit attraction for cocktailians. And while I’ve not seen the Violet Hour cocktail on their current menu, Toby apparently featured it at last year’s Tales of the Cocktail as a means of honoring his bar and honor it he has.

The Violet Hour

• 2oz Bourbon (used Bulleit)
• 3/4oz Sweet Vermouth (used Carpano)
• 1/4oz Dry Vermouth (used Cinzano)
• 1/10oz Cruzan Blackstrap
• 3 dashes Fee’s Old Fashioned Bitters

While very much like a Brooklyn that’s been inverted and is using Blackstrap instead of maraschino as a sweetener, the Blackstrap and heavy dose of bitters makes different enough to warrant its own place in a cocktail rotation. The Violet Hour starts with a very Manhattan-esque flavor and then a caramel back with just enough cassia and cardamom from the bitters holds sway to give you something else to think about and consider. Using Fee Old Fashioned is critical in this one. Having tried several others, the rest not quite giving the baking spice zing of Fee’s and allowing the drink to fall off, Fee’s is the order of the day.

The other note I have on this drink is the Blackstrap. 1/10oz is around 1/2 teaspoon and I believe it could use a touch more. And by “touch” I mean about twice as much. The caramel character blending with the spice of the bourbon and the bitters at the back-end of this drink is, to me, what makes it special. Even if you up it to 1/8oz (3/4t) you’ll have an improved drink. So, my recommendation is to use 3/4t or 1t Blackstrap in the drink and move back from there if you find it overly tacky or aggressive.

Otherwise, sit back and enjoy the violet hour, which usually falls around 8:00pm this time of year. A perfect time for a drink, don’t you think?

1. this is a line prior to Eliot’s revisions to the first draft of “The Waste Land”, and I prefer it still to the folderol re: Tiresias and his bloody “throbbing” [↩]

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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 [↩]

This particular Mixology Monday is hosted by Dinah at bibulo.us with the theme “19th Century Cocktails” and, I’ll admit, it was a bit of a daunting task trying to find something that was both eligible AND looked tasty. I tend not to go in for trying 20 things in the interest of curiosity. I’d rather find five cocktails that look divine and four end up earning time in the pantheon of cocktailnerd’s regular rotation than go through 20 as an academic exercise and come out wishing I’d just gone ahead and made another Dead Reckoning instead of feeling like I need to brush my teeth long and vigorously…like 20 times in a row. That being said, after a disastrous Morning Glory Fizz (from Harry Johnson’s Bartender’s Manual), with which I was sorely disappointed and will try again, Joana stumbled upon the Hendrick Cocktail and it hit exactly the right notes emphasizing how bitters, a slight touch of sweet, and slight touches of absinthe and citrus can be used to create a simple drink that invokes the style and tastes of the era. The Hendrick Cocktail also provides me a specious excuse to run through my new bourbons¹ for comparison. Read More »

1. Knob Creek, Blanton’s, Bulleit, Eagle Rare, Booker’s [↩]

I’ve been intrigued by classic films since I became fascinated with quality filmmaking and studying its art. In classic films you often see drink and/or drinking used as a metaphor much more often than you do today. I’m not talking about Days of Wine and Roses sort of in-your-face with alcoholism and its destruction of a man’s soul, but more of how drinking (and smoking) were used as character signals for dramatic subtext, whether it be, ‘hey, that guy just lit a long thin cigarette, he must be morally ambiguous,’ or it’s in a sexual context where sharing a drink with pregnant pauses and dramatic lighting display the growing tension between two people who may just well be married to boot. In other words, drinking and smoking used to be used as dramatic shorthand to great effect. Where sexual tension was once gracefully handled between two characters by the touching of their hands at the passing of a bottle or cocktail glass it is now grossly on display and, more often than not, handled without the slightest hint of subtlety or panache. It’s ironic that what sexuality was once kept off-screen for propriety’s sake is now left on-screen, often with all the delicacy and respect afforded a plumbing training video, and what was once a romanticized and accepted part of adult life, drinking, has been co-opted by the forces of political correctness and is often left off-screen or avoided entirely (except as a means to self-destruction), much to our loss. Read More »