Long Island Iced Tea

In my effort to embrace gin as the staple of drinking culture that it is, I find myself revisiting the things I cast aside in my gin rebuking wake.  One of the drinks that I saw as an opportunity to ease myself into gin was a long island iced tea.  According to wikipedia "Long Island Iced Tea, a summer drink, was first served in the mid 1970s by Robert (Rosebud) Butts, a bartender at the Oak Beach Inn, in the town of Babylon, Long Island, New York."  It's probably a good thing that Mr. Butts became a bartender rather than a substitute teacher.  The kids would have had a field day with that one.  Heh heh...Butts.

It's a drink that isn't made outside the context of a bar very often.  It does require more ingredients than most drinks.  The unlikely combination of liquors blend together to create a taste that is entirely its own.  The mixers mask the booze in such a way that it hardly seems like you're drinking at all.  This is the reason that long island iced teas are so popular among girls who have just turned 21 and want to get drunk without knocking back shots of whiskey.

For those unfamiliar, the long island iced tea is a cocktail consisting of the spirits gin, rum, vodka and tequila.  There are some variations after that but sugar, lemon and coca-cola are always involved.  I don't know if this is still the case, but when I worked as a bartender for Ruby Tuesday, the recipe called for no tequila.  Even as a guy who didn't drink them, I knew this seemed wrong.  Oddly, there was a drink that was essentially a long island iced tea called a texas tea.  The texas tea was a long island iced tea and the long island iced tea was an abomination.  Here's the kicker--it was the same price.  As soon as I discovered Ruby Tuesday's dirty little secret, I would use it as a ploy to sell texas teas.  Maybe that was their plan all along.  Anyway, remember that the next time you roll into a Ruby Tuesday.

My first attempt did not yield enough liquid to fill my glass.  I ended up using too much cola to fill; what should have looked like iced tea looked like coca-cola.  In addition it had a little too much lemon and wasn't sweet enough.  I tried tinkering with the recipe the following day and I believe I've vastly improved upon it.  The recipe printed reflects changes that I think helped the flavor profile.  A little more booze, a little less mixer.

Long Island Iced Tea
adapted from epicurious.com

-3/4 oz. gin
-3/4 oz. vodka
-3/4 oz. light rum
-3/4 oz. tequila
-3/4 oz. triple sec or grand marnier
-1 oz. fresh lemon juice
-1/3 oz. simple syrup
-cola
-club soda

Combine all ingredients except cola and club soda in a cocktail shaker and shake 5 seconds.  Strain into a very tall (16 ounce) glass filled with ice cubes, then top off with equal parts cola and club soda and stir. Garnish with a lemon wedge and stir.

I can see how this drink can get out of hand fairly quickly.  The flavors do blend together nicely and go down smooth.  Almost too smooth.  It's one of those drinks that it's probably best to cap at one.  After three or so, you might forget where you put your feet.  It won't be until the following day that you realize they're right where you left them--attached to your legs. Which are sprawled on the bathroom floor.

Cocktail Hour

I've spent my entire post 21 life having an aversion to gin.  Never cared for the stuff.  I remember trying it for the first time quite a while ago and thinking that it tasted like bug spray.  Later on, in my young innocence, a friend recommended a Tanqueray and tonic without realizing that Tanqueray is a brand of gin.  Burned again.  I'm not proud of it but it's true.  Since then I've been keeping my distance.

When I would go though my various books of cocktails, my eyes would gloss over the sight of any drink that would incorporate gin.  Recipes that would be fine otherwise were cast aside shamefully because of their use of gin.  Needless to say, this left a great hole in my liquor knowledge and experience.  I call it the gin gap... I don't call it that, but I'm going to start.  It has a nice ring to it.

Heather recently bought me a book called The Hour: A Cocktail Manifesto published in 1948 written by a man named Bernard DeVoto.  The word manifesto is appropriate for this book because it comes off as the rantings of a crazy person.  He has all sorts of crazy rules and restrictions for drinking that must be adhered to.  According to him, there are only two cocktails--a martini and a slug of whiskey.  As for the others, "[t]hey are not cocktails, they are slops.  They are fit to be drunk only in the barbarian marches and mostly are drunk there, by the barbarians."  As a man for whom only two spirits exist--gin and whisky--I wonder what DeVoto would make of a man like me, a cocktail enthusiast who enjoys a vodka martini.  Blasphemy.

Lately around New York (and I'm sure other places) I've seen ads for Hendrick's gin.  The advertising pitches it as a small batch, craft gin with a bottle that looks like it came off an apothecary's shelf.  The graphics make it look like something straight from the turn of the century--the last one, not this one--and the label claims that among gin drinkers it is not a preferred brand.  Apparently it takes a special kind of discerning palate to appreciate the genius behind this gin.  I figured I would give it a try.

I purchased the bottle and then set to work.  I first administered a non-scientific taste test for Heather and I between the Hendrick's and a small amount of Bombay Sapphire that we've had kicking around our liquor cabinet for a while.  The Hendrick's has a slightly lower alcohol content, which made for a smoother taste I think.  The Bombay Sapphire has a sharper bite to it.

I started out with a couple of gin standbys: cocktails I was familiar with by name but never bothered to try.  First up for myself was a French 75.

French 75
adapted from Death and Company
-1 Gin
-.5 Lemon
-.5 Simple syrup
Shake.

It was nice and sweet.  I'm sure it was repulsive to a man like Mr. DeVoto, but I found it nice.  The gin flavor was tempered nicely by the sugar and lemon and made for an aromatic citrus experience.  Next up was a Corpse Reviver for Heather.

Corpse Reviver

adapted from Death and Company

-.75 Gin

-.75 Lillet

-.75 Cointreau

-.75 Lemon

-Dash Versinthe

Shake

This was a fun one to make because it uses a little bit of everything, and I just so happened to have it all lying around.  I'm not so sure what Versinthe is and what makes it different form Absinthe so I just used Absinthe.  I think it works out nicely.  I may have gone a little lemon heavy on this cocktail.  I would recommend going easy on the lemon because there are so many flavors fighting for dominance that you don't want to mask it all with the citrus. 

Last night I decided to take on the challenge of crafting a martini a la the man himself, Bernard DeVoto. "There is a point at which the marriage of gin and vermouth is consummated.  It varies a little with the constituents, but for a gin of 94.4 proof and a harmonious vermouth it may be generalized at about 3.7 to one.  And that is not only the proper proportion but the critical one; if you use less gin it is a marriage in name only and the name is not martini.  You get a drinkable and even pleasurable result, but not art's sunburst of imagined delight becoming real.  Happily the upper limit is not so fixed; you may make it four to one or a little more than that, which is a comfort if you cannot do fractions in your head and an assurance when you must use an unfamiliar gin."  I would quote the entire book if I could, but as those of you who read my Dark 'N' Stormy post may recall, I fear getting sued.

Hendrick's gin is 88 proof, so off the bat, we're not to specifications. But I feel I assembled the martini in the spirit with which it was given.  The ratio was 3.7 to one exactly and the ice used to shake it was plentiful.  DeVoto claims that their should be no olive or onion to sully the drink, but he claims that "the final brush stroke is a few drops of oil squeezed from lemon rind on the surface of each cocktail.  Some drop the squeezed bit into the glass;  I do not favor the practice and caution you to make it rind, not peel, if you do."  So generous, these allowances he makes.

The final result--a surprisingly relaxing cocktail.  I did choose to drop the lemon into it and felt I was richer for the experience.  I think the amount of vermouth that was described was a bit much--especially by today's standards--but for a novice gin drinker like me, it was a nice way to ease myself into a strange new world.  You have to crawl before you can walk.  And who knows, before long I'll be angering Heather by distilling bootleg gin in my bathtub.

Witte Screwdriver

I'm not usually one to incorporate beer into my cocktails, but sometimes the occasion calls for it.  One of the newer bars that we've been frequenting is called Sweet Afton.  It has a good atmosphere, knowledgable staff and these deep fried spicy pickles that are to die for.

Anyway, Heather and I learned that they serve brunch on the weekends and some of the items looked intriguing.  We get there and Heather orders the blueberry pancakes, which she ended up loving and pining after ever since.  I got a burger, which really isn't fantastic brunch fare, but I was happy.  The happy hour cocktail menu has plenty of fun brunch cocktails to try, ranging from your standard bloody mary to something called an oatmeal martini.  One of the best parts is that the cocktails are no more than six dollars a piece.

I see on their menu of brunch cocktails that they have something called a Witte Screwdriver.  A screwdriver, as I understand it, incorporates vodka and orange juice.  This concoction goes a step further and replaces the vodka with Citron and adds lemon, ginger and beer to the mix.

The beer they use is Ommegang Witte.  For those of you unfamiliar with it, it's a belgian-style wheat beer that is very light in color.  The yeast is prominent in the flavor and it has mild notes of citrus.  The cocktail they serve me is delicious.  Looking at the ingredients, I felt that I could play around with the proportions and recreate this pleasant cocktail.  A 25 oz. bottle ran me about $6.99 at the local grocery store which seems kind of pricey especially considering that the original cocktail only ran me five bucks, but I did get the tactile pleasure of popping a cork and having it fly across the room.  It makes me feel like I've accomplished something.

Witte Screwdriver

adapted from Sweet Afton

-2 oz. Absolut Citron

-1/2 oz ginger syrup

-2 oz. orange juice

-juice of half a lemon

-Ommegang Witte

Pour Citron, ginger syrup, orange juice, and lemon juice over ice in a pint glass or other tall glass.  Fill with Witte and gently stir.

One of the goals I have in life (outside of memorizing Hall and Oates' entire catalogue and learning scrimshaw) is having a cocktail recipe at the ready for whatever situation I may be in--morning and early afternoon included.  I admire this cocktail for its deft combination of flavors.  The beer itself is a very prominent flavor, which is good because it's a premium beer.  The other ingredients serve to enhance the flavor by complementing the citrus, and the ginger is the unexpected twist.

Perhaps this has shifted my entire worldview on beer as a mixer.  Sure it's great by itself--no one's denying that.  But perhaps it can exist in piece and harmony with liquor and juice.  Perhaps it's not the lone wolf I thought it was.  If beer can learn to play nice, then perhaps there's hope for all of us.

Brandy Sidecar

This past couple of weeks has been good for our liquor cabinet.  Regular readers will recall that I recently received absinthe and pear brandy for my birthday.  I would like to add that I came to visit PA and my mother gave me a bottle of Courvoisier and Danny Devito's Limoncello.

It occurred to me as I was staring at my Courvoisier that I've never made myself a proper sidecar.  I've read about it numerous times, but I always opt for something else.  For the longest time, I associated it with gin--like a singapore sling or a bronx cocktail.  Irrational I know, but it's what happened.

The drink originated in France in the early 1920s and moved west from there, being featured in--amongst other things--The Savoy Cocktail Book published in 1930.  A cocktail automatically wins points with me if it can invoke a prohibition-era mystique.  The cocktail is also made extra attractive if you drink it while wearing a fedora and an Eliot Ness style trench coat.

Sidecar
adapted from epicurious.com
-2 tablespoons superfine sugar
-1 lemon wedge
-1 1/2 oz. cognac
-1 oz. triple sec
-1/2 oz. fresh lemon juice

Rub the rim of a cocktail glass with the lemon wedge and dip the rim in sugar.  Shake cognac, triple sec, and lemon juice with ice in a cocktail shaker and strain into the prepared cocktail glass.  Use lemon wedge for garnish if desired.

I love visiting Heather's mother's house for a number of reasons: we can sleep at night without listening to Indian pop music and disgruntled youths, Heather and I can both be in the kitchen and actually move around and it provides attractive backlighting for photography.  A nice little change of pace for me.  It makes an already attractive drink appear even more so.

I constructed one for myself and one for the matron of the house, who responded with emphatic approval.  Not one for sweet drinks, hers was served sans the sugar rim.  Though the drink is fairly sweet, the tart from the lemon keeps it in check.  Triple sec, while very sweet, isn't quite as sweet as sugar syrup.  The cocktail would probably benefit from the use of Grand Marnier or Cointreau instead of triple sec, but it worked just fine for our purposes.

Well readers, as you read this, we are well on our way to Avalon, NJ for a relaxing (and well deserved if you ask me) shore trip.  With any luck, I should be bursting with several fascinating topics to discuss before the trip is over.  Bon Voyage.

Champagne Cocktails

Yesterday, Heather and I attended the Jazz Age Lawn Party on Governor's Island, an event at which the attendees are encouraged to dress up in period clothing--1920s or so--and enjoy live jazz music and dancing as well as some vendors and various planned events such as a tug of war.  They had all sorts of food, beer, and other refreshments, but only one type of cocktail.

One of the event's sponsors was a liqueur called St-Germain.  If you are unfamiliar with St-Germain, it is a sweet liqueur that is made from elderflowers.  The literature that was available at the table said that the drink was aptly named The St-Germain Cocktail and it lists the recipe as follows:

The St-Germain Cocktail
-2 parts Brut Champagne or Dry Sparkling White
-1 1/2 parts St-Germain
-2 parts Club Soda

Fill a tall Collins Glass with ice.  Add Champagne first, then St-Germain, then Club Soda.  Stir completely.  Garnish with a lemon twist, making sure to squeeze the essential oils into the glass.

The cocktail was good.  A little sweet for my taste but good.  It reminded me that I had been meaning to try some champagne cocktails of my own.  It's a subject I've dabbled with in the past.  There was a time just after college when we were knocking back Hpnotiq and champagne.  We were doing a lot with Hpnotiq back then; it was a good way to sweeten up whatever you were drinking, but ultimately we grew out of it and stopped buying it.

I enjoy a good mimosa from time to time.  Heather loves them.  For her, it's the most exciting part about getting champagne.  "This is really good, but don't kill it.  I want mimosas tomorrow morning."

Mimosa
-3 parts champagne
-1 part orange juice

Combine in a champagne flute and enjoy.  If you're feeling really ambitious, add a dash or two of peach liqueur.

This past New Years Eve, we rang in 2010 in our apartment watching Dick Clark and Ryan Seacrest while enjoying a drink called the Benediction.  We discovered it in a New York Times article about Benedictine.

The Benediction
-3/4 oz. Benedictine
-dash orange bitters
-Champagne to top

Add Benedictine to a Champagne flute, add the bitters, then fill with Champagne.

In doing research for my absinthe post, I found a recipe on the Wikipedia page for a drink called the Death in the Afternoon Cocktail.  It was created by Ernest Hemingway and calls for you to "Pour on jigger absinthe into a Champagne glass.  Add iced Champagne until it attains the proper opalescent milkiness.  Drink three to five of these slowly."  A jigger is a measurement that I took to mean one ounce, but I think I may have overdone it a little bit.  The absinthe overpowered the cocktail a little bit.  For next time, I would use about 1/2 to 3/4 oz.

When I purchased my bottle of absinthe, I also picked up a bottle of pear brandy.  It was the kind with the pear inside the bottle.  I was researching some of the things I could do with it and one that kept popping up was adding Champagne directly to the brandy.  Simple, easy, basic.  Lately, these Champagne cocktails have been finding me.  Heather really liked this one.  It packs a punch but it has a nice syrupy sweetness.  It would serve really well as a dessert cocktail.

Pear Brandy Champagne Cocktail
-1 oz. pear brandy
-Champagne

Add ingredients to a Champagne flute and garnish with a pear wedge.

I love Champagne, but there are a few people in my life who don't like it as much as I do.  And for those people, it's nice to have a few ideas like this in my back pocket to supplement the dryness and fortify the Champagne with a little more kick.

Blueberry Mojito

We were strolling through our local farmer's market on a beautiful Sunday morning--Heather with her parasol and I with my handsome vest and pocket square that I purchased that very morning from a shrewd young haberdasher--when we saw a carton of blueberries and dared to dream. Four dollars a pint?  Why that's nary more than a tuppence. "Will, don't you have a fancy muddler at home?" says my lovely wife. "Why yes I believe I do." We bought the blueberries and proceeded home to look for ways I could turn it into something delicious.

Scouring the internet for ideas, I arrived upon one for a Blueberry Ginger Mojito Pitchers recipe. It uses vodka instead of rum. On one hand, I like rum. It can be very refreshing as I have proven in my last few posts. On the other hand, I was beginning to run out of rum. I had a lot of vodka that was nice and cold from being in the freezer.

Blueberry Ginger Mojito Pitchers

adapted from foodnetwork.com

-Ingredients-

For the Ginger simple syrup:

-1/4 cup grated fresh ginger

-1 cup granulated sugar

-1 cup cold water

For the Mojito

-1 cup fresh blueberries

-1 lime, cut into wedges

-20-24 fresh mint leaves

-4 oz. ginger simple syrup

-4 oz. vodka

-5 oz. club soda

-Ice cubes

-Blueberries, for garnish

-Mint leaves, for garnish

-Directions-

For the ginger simple syrup:

Peel and grate the ginger and add it, together with the sugar and cold water, to a saucepan. Bring it to a boil and stir until the sugar dissolves. Cover and let steep for 15 minutes. Strain and cool in the refrigerator when done.

For the Mojito:

Add the blueberries, lime wedges and fresh mint leaves to the glass (or pitcher). Muddle with a wooden spoon so the blueberries are broken and the mint and lime release their juices and flavor. If assembling pitchers you can cover them at this stage and leave in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

When ready to serve, add the simple syrup, vodka and top off with club soda. Give it a quick stir and then pour into glasses with ice cubes. Garnish with a handful of fresh blueberries and a sprig of mint.

The recipe outlined below is for 2 tall glasses, but you can use the ratio to make pitchers (depending on how big your pitcher is, double or quadruple the recipe).

Combine the blueberries, mint leaves and lime wedges in the pitcher and muddle it in there with the back of a wooden spoon (or muddler). When you are ready to serve add vodka, ginger simple syrup and club soda. Stir and pour into glasses with a couple of ice cubes. Garnish each glass with some fresh blueberries and a sprig of fresh mint.

I tried making the first batch in a pitcher. I thought it worked out really well, but just for kicks I thought I would try to make it in the glass a few days later. As I suspected, the version made in the glass was a little fizzier that the pitcher version, ostensibly because it hadn't been jostled as much.

The ginger was something I hadn't considered adding to the cocktail, but once I tried it, I wondered why it hadn't occurred to me. It added a subtle burn to the flavor profile and a complexity to the drink throughout. It was a little more work to make the ginger syrup, but it paid off.

This drink goes to show you that vodka does not need to be banished to the winter months. It can--and indeed should--be enjoyed throughout the calendar year.

Brace Yourselves for the Hurricane

Up next in this series of dark rum drinks is something called a Hurricane. This is another recipe taken from the annals of Pennsylvania's Wine and Spirits Quarterly. I was intrigued by their section on dark rum and this recipe caught my eye because it looked fun and summery and it incorporates three different kind of rum: namely light rum, dark rum, and 151 proof rum.

I already had all the ingredients on hand with the exception of 151 proof rum. I don't often find myself needing such strong hooch on hand. So a quick trip to the local liquor store for a small bottle was in order. If I don't drink all of it, I can use the remainder to clean my floor. I don't own hurricane glasses so I had to improvise by using pint glasses that I typically use for beer.

Hurricane

adapted from Wine and Spirits Quarterly

-2 oz. light rum

-1 oz. dark rum

-4 oz. pineapple juice

-dash grenadine

-1/2 oz. 151 rum

Shake rums, pineapple juice and grenadine together over ice. Pour into a glass. Float 151 on top.

(As a fun side note, in the photos of the rum in my last three blog posts, you can see the level of rum steadily go down. It's sort of like a flip book of drinking.)

The big glasses definitely came in handy. The recipe calls for a fair amount of volume when ice is taken into account. As least 16 oz. I'd say. Overall, the drink was nice. The 151 didn't overpower the drink. I think it served to intensify the flavors of the other two rums. It gave them a chance to hold their own with the likes of all that fruit juice. If I'm going to pay for decent rum, I at least want to taste it. I'm not exactly sure why it was necessary to float the 151 on top of the drink. One normally does that for presentation, but the color of the rum doesn't differ drastically from the color of the drink. I'll have to play around with it some more.

I've never purchased a bottle of 151 proof rum before and I didn't realize that there's a flammability warning that reads: "Do not use this product for flaming dishes or drinks. All 151 proof rum may flare up and continue to burn when ignited, possibly with an invisible flame. Do not pour directly from bottle near the flame or intense heat. Use caution." I love it when something you intend to ingest carries the same warning that paint thinner might have. But it does give one the feeling of living dangerously...even if only a half an ounce is used.

I would make this drink again. I probably will make this drink again before the summer's over. I have to use that 151 again somehow. It's another arrow in my quiver of drinks I can use to battle this harsh summer heat. And I know I'm going to need all the help I can get; we're not even halfway through August yet. Arrgh.

Update: We finally tried the brandied cherries from a month and a half ago. The perfect drink for the occasion--I thought-- was a manhattan. I fashioned one for myself and one for Heather before we went to dinner on Sunday. I thought they added a nice syrupy richness to the drink. Heather speculated that perhaps when we become experts at canning one day, we should find a recipe that involves cooking the cherries and canning them with the brandy/sugar solution. The ones that we have at bars tend to have a more caramelized texture to them. But I would definitely recommend this recipe to someone who doesn't want to involve a stove.

On a Dark 'N' Stormy Night

On the Pennsylvania trip we took last weekend, I picked up the publication the state owned liquor stores put out. It's called Wine and Spirits Quarterly, it's free and as you would imagine, it comes out every three months. The things published in it need to be taken with a grain of salt because the only things featured happen to be the same things featured in the store. At least thats the way it seems to me. But I like to flip through and see what the people on the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board have to say about what's hip in the world of cocktails.

The cover story focused on the genre of dark rum based drinks. The one that caught our eye was the Dark 'n' Stormy cocktail. Neat, I thought. I like rum. However, the thing that caught my attention was that the recipe was provided by Gosling's rum. The very people that produce the rum used in this very cocktail. This made the recipe dubious at best. Highly dubious.

As it turns out, the Dark 'n' Stormy cocktail is a registered trademark of Gosling. They own the drink. And stranger still, I've heard of it. I'm not sure if it's just the weird apostrophe n spelling that's trademarked or if it's the drink itself. What if I use an ampersand? I decided not to ask too many questions. I don't need legal trouble right now. Gosling's even produces a line of ginger beer for the specific purpose of making Dark 'n' Stormys. I can't easily get it, so I went with another brand. I hope I don't get sued by Gosling's.

The drink originated in Bermuda, where Gosling's is produced, and has since been exported to various other places according to Wikipedia. It's become popular in Australia since traveling rugby players discovered it and has become popular in the United States among sailing communities along the east coast. I went to an all boys prep school for grades nine through twelve and Heather likes to give me guff about it. Since discovering the popularity of the drink in the sailing community, Heather has this picture in her head of me standing on the deck of my yacht with a captain's hat on my head, my high school diploma in one hand, a dark 'n' stormy in the other and singing my school fight song. Heather thinks that would be quite yare.

Full disclosure: I would have done this cocktail for last week's blog, but I was having trouble tracking down ginger beer. Further disclosure: I didn't know what the difference was between ginger ale and ginger beer. The internet tells me that ginger beer is more gingery than ginger ale--like ginger ale with a kick. So I went to the Gourmet Garage near my work and dished out $1.99 for a 12 oz. bottle. That extra ginger kick isn't cheap.

Dark 'n' Stormy

adapted from Gosling's Rum

-2 oz. dark rum

-ginger beer (5-6 oz. give or take)

-lime wedge for garnish

In a tall glass filled with ice, add rum. Top with ginger beer. Garnish with lime wedge.

Presto. Yet another exciting and yet refreshing summer cocktail. And I would recommend springing for the ginger beer because it makes the drink taste better. My opinion might be slightly biased because I'm not the biggest fan of ginger ale.

Heather and I both felt that the Dark 'n' Stormy was like a more sophisticated version of a rum and coke. It makes sense if you think about it. Both cocktails are comprised of rum, a sugary effervescent beverage, and a lime wedge. But the deepness and spice of the dark rum and the bite of the ginger give it a nice savory quality that would make me want to pay more for it in a bar than a rum and coke. I hate to admit it, but part of the satisfaction of crafting cocktails yourself is knowing that somewhere in this world, some poor schmuck is paying top dollar for the thing you're drinking on the cheap. I never said that smugness wasn't one of my motives.

Pirate's Cocktail

Keeping in line with some of the themes I've been playing around with--savory cocktails, summer drinks, pirates--I thought I would share with you fine people a delightful cocktail that is fairly simple and yet deeply satisfying.

Pirate's

adapted from Epicurious

-1 1/2 oz. dark rum

-3/4 oz. sweet vermouth

-dash angostura bitters

-3-4 ice cubes

Stir ingredients in a cocktail shaker and strain into a cocktail glass.

What you'll find is a cocktail that is not unlike a Manhattan but with a more tropical twist. It's warm and spicy but also oddly refreshing. The name is also appropriate. After my first sip, I felt the urge to yell out "Avast! Shiver me timbers!" I didn't yell it, but I encourage you all to.

While in Pennsylvania, we decided that we needed to invest in a bottle of dark rum. No more excuses. I'm tired of it being a thousand degrees this summer and not being able to take advantage of things like dark rum. Last week's cocktail called for dark rum and I had to use Bacardi instead. I let you all down and I'm sorry. After scoping out all the choices at the state store, we went with a rum called Gosling's, an 80 proof dark rum from Bermuda.

As Heather, her mother and I were waiting at the bus stop for our New York bound bus, (it was an hour late) Heather and I got bored and decided to sample the rum in the car, much to the disgust of my dear mother-in-law. It was a bit spicier than I expected it to be. I think I would have appreciated a more syrupy texture along the lines of a Myer's Dark rum, but it was pretty good. Plus it has a little cartoon seal on the front of the bottle balancing a barrel of rum on its nose.

I imagine that with the weather continuing to be as kiln-like as it is, we'll go through this bottle pretty fast and need to get another. We'll probably try a bunch until we find our favorite. Who knows? We might even go crazy and get one of those bottles that spells it "Rhum." Only time will tell. In the meantime, all that's left for me to do is work on my swashbuckling and pillaging. You know what they say--practice makes perfect.

Bolo Cocktail

As the weather heats up in the summer, one thing we try to do is keep plenty of rum on hand. We do this for two reasons:

1) Rum is incredibly versatile in a wide array of summer drinks.

2) We're pirates. Yarrrr.

Sometimes one gets bored with the typical things that can be done with rum (rum and cokes, daiquiris, mojitos and the like) and feels the desire to branch out and do other things. I was scouring my resources when I came across a drink called the Bolo Cocktail. It was in The Savoy Cocktail Book, which means that it has a history dating back to at least the 1930s if not sooner. I'm a fan of a cocktail that's tried and true.

Upon doing some internet research, I found a couple of different variations that I found intriguing. I kept the sugar part of the Savoy recipe, but incorporated some bitters into the mix. It is my opinion that a drink is rarely, if ever, made worse by the incorporation of bitters.

Bolo Cocktail

Adapted heavily from The Savoy Cocktail Book

-2 oz. rum

-1 oz. orange juice

-1/4 oz. simple syrup

-dash bitters (I used Fee Bros.)

-juice of half a lemon

Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with a lemon wedge.

I thought my adaptation worked out rather well. I wish I had dark rum, but under the circumstances I thought Bacardi was a nice substitute. Sometimes in this world, cocktails are mixed under less than perfect circumstances and we all just have to adapt. Like pirates. It had a fruity, sweet syrupy taste that would have made it a nice brunch cocktail. I'll have to keep it in mind the next time I feel the desire to drink in the morning.

What I like about this cocktail is its simplicity. It starts with a simple enough base--rum and citrus--and then throws in a couple of ingredients that are common enough but when put together, yields something unique.

Overall I thought it was a nice way to use some relatively inexpensive ingredients I had on hand. I love cognac, Benedictine, and single malt scotch as much as the next guy, but sometimes their use can be a little cost prohibitive. Sometimes you just want a nice cocktail that tastes like it costs a lot of money. Because if you know anything about pirates, they love rum, cocktails that taste expensive but aren't, and swashbuckling. Lots of swashbuckling.

Painkiller

The highlight of week in terms of alcohol is the new bar in downtown Manhattan called Painkiller. Heather an I have been reading about it for the last couple of weeks and have been scouring our calendar to figure out when we were going to finally do it. The stars aligned this past Wednesday night when Heather and I decided to meet our friend Sean after work for a couple of drinks.

So off we went, into the subway and down to the Delancy St. station in search of quality cocktails. Heather was playing with her Google Droid phone with built in GPS to get us there. As soon as we got ourselves oriented in the right direction, not always the easiest thing to do, we started down Essex St. towards Grand and found our mark. Though the name of the establishment is not prominently posted outside, the facade is a giant graffiti tag that says, "Tiki Bar."

Heather and I go in and sit down. As is the case with many of the nice bars we frequent, there was no space at the bar proper. But because it was a Wednesday night and fairly early in the evening, we had no trouble securing a booth.

In the press that Painkiller has been receiving, they mention that one of Painkiller's signature drinks (other than their namesake, "The Painkiller") is a Zombie. Their recipe includes Absinthe and Rum among other things. They also mention that the Zombie is so strong that there is only one Zombie allowed per customer, per night. How do I not order that right off the bat?

Before we order we are seated and taken through their drink menu, which looks like something you might find on a diner placemat--little illustrations of what the drinks look like. Amongst the flights and swizzles and what-have-you, there was the coveted Zombie. I order that while Heather goes for the Painkiller, a rum based drink mixed with coconut milk. Not exactly my cup of tea but she seemed to enjoy it. We asked if the rumors were true about only being able to have one. Rumor confirmed.

The decor of the place is bright colors that are subdued by the fact that it's dimly lit. There are lots of Tiki heads that are hanging and painted all over the place as well as more graffiti-style tags bearing words like "Painkiller," "Aloha" and "Mahalo." Pretty soon, our drinks come and Sean arrives. I tell him what I'm drinking and that he can only have one and he's in.

Another thing we read in the press is that they have a machine that will crank out hot dogs by the dozens to dispense free of charge. Or at least they will have a machine that will do all that, because for the time being, it's not up and running. Heather made a frowny face. She hadn't eaten much that day. The ever benevolent waitress brought her a few pineapple slices and she perked back up. After our first round, Sean gets sneaky and tries to order another Zombie. Shut down. Rumor double confirmed.

Our next round consisted of Bartender's Choice, where we get to challenge the bartender to make something good. Perhaps I should have been taking notes but that Zombie packs a pretty big punch. I do recall that Heather's was sweet and tart. The drink didn't have a name so we lobbied for "Sweet Tart." Time will tell if the name sticks.

As for mine and Sean's, I'm a little hazy. I do know that a few of our drinks came with little flowers in them and that before the night was through we were all wearing them at lapel height. My second was another absinthe cocktail. There's a myth out there that absinthe is hallucinogenic but I don't think that's true--and the juggling centaur sitting next to me concurs.

I thought that Painkiller was a lot of fun. If a speakeasy had sex with some sexy hula girls, the resulting offspring would probably look a lot like this bar--if only woman and establishment could mate. What a wonderful world it would be.

A Refreshing Summer Swizzle

Sometimes in the world of drink mixing, it's important to be bold enough to improvise. The New York Times dining section from June 24th of last year had a great series of articles and recipes on summer drinks which I filed away for later. When we started to get bored with our old standby drinks this summer, I dusted it off and hunted around for inspiration. Many of the drinks--with the exception of the gin based ones--were ones that I've made before, but a few of them have yet to be tackled.

The one that caught my eye was a drink that was mentioned in an article about swizzling. It's called a Campbell Swizzle. It starts out simply enough: rum, lime, simple syrup, bitters. But the thing that provided a bit of a hangup was a liqueur called Velvet Falernum. Upon doing a little research on Wikipedia, I discovered that it embodies flavors of almond, ginger, lime, and vanilla. I replaced the Velvet Falernum with a little Frangelico to capture the essence of almond, a little Grand Marnier to complement the orange bitters and lime, and a dash of vanilla extract.

Campbell Swizzle

Adapted from the NY Times dining section

-1 oz. white rum

-3/4 oz. fresh lime juice

-1/4 oz. simple syrup

-3/8 oz. Frangelico

-3/8 oz. Grand Marnier

-4 dashes orange bitters

-dash Angostura bitters

-dash vanilla extract

-mint sprig for garnish

Pour all ingredients except for mint into a tall glass. Fill glass with crushed ice. Blend ingredients with a genuine swizzle stick or a bar spoon for about 20 seconds. Add more crushed ice to form a mound on top, and top with mint.

What resulted was a complex, sweet, citrusy blend of flavors. Heather commented that she could see this drink being featured at a swanky bar like Dutch Kills. Well used bitters has that effect on a drink. As far as the vanilla extract, a little goes a long way. Too much will overpower your drink and obscure the other flavors and aromas. Just a drop will do. On a humid day, the crushed ice will create a rewarding layer of frost on the glass.

When a drink recipe needs to be altered because of a missing ingredient, it's fun to brainstorm about the different solutions and combinations of ingredients that could also work. Not only is it a fun process, but it allows you to take ownership of the drink--to put your signature on it and tailor it to your tastes. It's one of the things that keeps mixing interesting.

Frozen Margaritas Anyone?

Summertime in our apartment can be pretty ruthless. We don't really have the funds to keep our apartment cool all the time. All we have is a window unit in the bedroom that we use when we're trying to sleep. Believe me, it's no fun waking up drenched in sweat.
The reason I'm telling you this is because one of the last lines of defense against the mercury expanding doldrums of summer is cool refreshing summer drinks. It's one of the few arrows in our frosty quiver. If you scroll down to past entries, you'll find a running theme of, "What will keep me from sweating my central nervous system out of my pores?"

I don't often resort to frozen drinks. I like them just fine, but I am very lazy. To do a frozen drink, I have to drag out the blender and then clean it afterward. But sometimes the thermometer requires bold action.

Heather has been chomping at the bit for fresh local strawberries to be in season. This past weekend she finally got her wish at the farmer's market. She used most of them to make something delicious (more details on Wednesday,) but there were enough left over for me to play around a little.

In searching the internet for a good drink recipe that incorporates strawberries, I came across a listing in The New York Times back in 2002 for a Strawberry Basil Margarita. It seemed like the perfect thing to cool us down, and easy to do because we have a makeshift herb garden on our windowsill. The only problem was that if I was going to make the recipe as written, there would be a lot of debris to deal with. I was looking for a smoother, more consistent experience. The simplest solution would be to make it frozen. It kills many birds with a single stone.

Frozen Strawberry Basil Margarita

adapted from The New York Times

-2 oz. Tequila

-2 oz. strawberries

-3/4 oz. lime juice

-1/2 oz. simple syrup

-6 basil leaves

Combine all ingredients in a blender with enough ice to thicken (1-1/2 cup.) Pour into a margarita glass and garnish with a basil leaf and lime wedge.

I liked this margarita a lot and it was very different from what I was used to. I also played around with it and replaced the six leaves of basil with about twelve leaves of mint. I think I preferred the mint to the basil. It was in keeping with the refreshing summer drinks theme. What could be more refreshing than mint? As Heather put it, the basil version might be better for pre-dinner cocktails and the mint version might be better as a dessert cocktail.

The nice part about making drinks in a blender is that once you have it out, you can do multiple drinks at once. I might have to bust one of these out for my dad this summer; he does enjoy a nice banana daiquiri from time to time. This makes these drinks an incredibly handy thing to be able to make full batches of for pool parties, get-togethers, hootenannies, and box socials...especially box socials.

Brandy Fizz

I'm in a very summer drinks kind of place right now. Normally I tend towards the aromatic, savory types of cocktails, but sometimes you just have to give in to what your heart desires. And since our apartment is largely un-air conditioned, my hearts have been desiring drinks that are cold, citrusy and refreshing. And as it happens, this line of thinking led me to a place I've been meaning to explore for some time now--Fizzes.

All a fizz is is a drink that incorporates effervescence and some element of citrus (most commonly lemon) into the mix. To that end, I've already done some experimenting with fizzes making drinks like collins and mojitos, but nothing that one would classically think of as a fizz. As an amateur mixologist, I value history and authenticity.

With anything old-timey, my new go-to reference is The Savoy Cocktail Book. It give a lot of prohibition-era drinks that one can sift through. Many of the drinks in the fizzes section fell into one or more of the following categories:

-Has a ton of gin

-Too elaborate/too many ingredients

-Contains mixers I don't have

There were a couple that were just too simple as well. For example, a Bucks Fizz contains orange juice and champagne--basically a fancy name for a mimosa. But finally I stumbled upon one that was simple but not too simple, contained no gin and made with items I had on hand. Success.

Brandy Fizz

adapted from The Savoy Cocktail Book

-2 oz. Brandy (I used Courvoisier)

-1 1/2 teaspoons powdered sugar

-Juice of half a lemon

Shake and strain over ice into a highball glass. Top with club soda. Garnish with a lemon wedge.

And there you have it. A perfectly refreshing summery cocktail. I found it sweet and tart with a beautiful syrupy caramel flavor lent by the Cognac. Normally I would use simple syrup for this sort of thing, but I decided that I would adhere to the recipe and use powdered sugar. In my early days of experimenting with cocktails, I tried to mix cocktails with granulated sugar and found it to be a great burden. I would be left with a fair amount of crystals at the bottom of whatever I was making.

At the time, I didn't have powdered sugar on hand so I put the effort into making simple syrup--a method that has worked for me ever since. But Heather, in all her culinary keenness, keeps a fair amount of powdered sugar on hand. I'm not sure if I can tell the difference, but I think I noticed a subtle smoothness in the sweet flavor of the cocktail--one that I will tinker with in the warm months ahead.

Summer Citrus

Heather and I are looking forward to Summer and all its bounty: The outdoor concerts, the reopening of Governor's Island, the ability to go from place to place without being encumbered by a jacket. I've been trying to help the warm weather along by focusing on some citrusy drinks in preparation for the season--specifically ones that focus on lime.

I prefer drinks that incorporate lime to those with lemon for some reason. I think it yields a more complex drink. I love lemon but it can be a bit overpowering at times and can quickly take over the flavor profile of a drink whereas lime, in my opinion, is more of a team player.

The mojito is a tried and true favorite in our household and also one that I've posted about in the past. Delicious. The combination of mint and lime is fantastic, incredibly refreshing and one that I can't pass up.

Mojito

-2 oz. white rum

-1/2 oz. simple syrup

-Juice of half a lime

-8-10 mint leaves

-Club soda

Muddle the simple syrup and mint in mojito glass or pilsner. Add ice and remaining ingredients. Tumble in a cocktail shaker to incorporate. Garnish with lime wedge and mint sprig.

Another favorite of mine is the Vodka Gimlet. It's made exactly the same way as a Vodka Martini except it replaces the vermouth with the juice of half a lime giving it a fruitier, more festive feel.

Vodka Gimlet

-2 oz. vodka

-Juice of half a lime

Shake and strain into a cocktail glass. Add a lime wheel for garnish.

A drink that the New York Times recommended last year was a Rye Rickey. It's a variation on the popular Gin Rickey but with rye whiskey substituted for gin. The NY times article calls for a full lime but I eased it back to half. Sometime you can have too much of a good thing.

Rye Rickey

Adapted from the New York Times dining section

-Juice of half a lime

-2 oz. rye whiskey

-1 teaspoon grand marnier

Top with club soda, stir and garnish with a lime wedge.

And to top off our limey battery of drinks, a twist on an old favorite. The Cuba Libre is simply a Rum and Coke with the juice of half a lime. It gives the drink more of a tropical taste and Cuba Libre sounds much more exotic than Rum and Coke.

Cuba Libre

-2 oz. white rum

-Juice of half a lime

-Cola

Add rum and lime to a tall glass with ice, fill with cola and stir. Garnish with lime wedge.

There you have it. Four summery cocktails to kick off summer. And they don't even include old standbys like a Cosmopolitan or a Margarita. I hope I've been able to add more ammunition to your Summer drink arsenal.

The Infamous Bobby Burns

In my last blog about PDT, I mentioned a cocktail called the Bobby Burns cocktail that I enjoyed. The ingredients listed were Benromach 12 year scotch, Dolin sweet vermouth and Benedictine. The problem with bars is that they never list the proportions of the liquors they use. Damn them and their not giving me detailed instructions on how to make all of their signature creations. Bastards.

In the past week I've toyed with a couple of different recipes that I found on the internet for the Bobby Burns. Many of them had way to much vermouth. I thought it best to take matters into my own hands and adjust the recipe to my own taste.

In full disclosure, I did substitute the scotch in the recipe with some Irish whiskey we had left over from St. Patrick's Day. The Bobby Burns I had in PDT had a bit of lemon peel in it so I thought it appropriate to add some lemon juice. Some of the recipes I saw called for a dash of Benedictine but I found myself wishing the flavor was more prevalent so I added more. An idea I saw and stole was to add some Angostura Bitters--can't go wrong there. I cut down a little on the sweet vermouth and there you have it. A cocktail fit for a king...or at least a Scottish poet named Bobby Burns.

Bobby Burns Cocktail

as adapted by me

-2 oz. Scotch (or Irish Whiskey if it's what you've got)

-1/2 oz. Sweet Vermouth

-1/2 oz. Benedictine

-Dash or two Angostura Bitters

-Juice of half a Lemon

Shake with ice and strain into a champagne flute. Garnish with lemon.

I welcome you all to try it. Post your feedback in the comments. I'm still tinkering with the recipe and your thoughts are always helpful.

Please Don't Tell

Yesterday, Heather and I spent the entire day in the East Village. The main purpose of the trip was to attend a pig butchering demonstration and bluegrass music at Jimmy's No. 43 on 7th st. It ended at 4:00 and we were kind of left to our own devices for the rest of the evening. This, it seemed, was the perfect opportunity to try an establishment that I've wanted to try for a while. PDT.

PDT stands for Please Don't Tell. It's one of New York's many not-so-well-kept secrets. You go inside a hog dog place called Crif's Dogs and walk into a phone booth. Once inside, you pick up the phone and wait for the hostess to answer. She will then open the secret door in the back of the booth to let you in. It might sound a little cheesy but I like little touches like that in a bar. A little something unique that sets it apart from other places. Plus, who doesn't want to feel like they're in an episode of Get Smart.

The place isn't that big, so generally you need reservations to get in. Like many of the other places we like to go, they won't let more people in than they can handle. There's nothing worse than having people eye my bar stool while I'm trying to enjoy my drink. But we arrived just as it opened, so we were in luck.

Heather has been there once before but I haven't so this was all very new and exciting. The place is very dimly lit and adorned with animal heads on the wall. Theres a bear wearing a hat on one side of the bar and a rabbit with antlers and sunglasses on the other. We sat at the bar itself--I prefer to look back there and see what's going on. Behind the bar, there's a little monitor that looks into the phone booth. It was kind of cool watching people enter the phone booth on this little black and white TV. It reinforced the illusion that we were doing something we weren't supposed to be doing.

After much deliberation and soul searching, I decided to order a Bobby Burns cocktail--a drink combining Benromach 12 year scotch, Dolin sweet vermouth and Benedictine--while Heather went with a Black Jack--Pierre Ferrand Ambre Cognac, Clear Creek Kirsch and 9th Street Coffee Concentrate. My drink was very well put together and was garnished with a bit of lemon peel. It had a nice sweetness to it that went well with the smokiness of the scotch. Heather's was sweet as well with a heavy coffee flavor and was garnished with a few brandied cherries; right up Heather's alley. She had to pace herself, the drink tasted like a coffee candy and threatened to go down way too quickly.

Also behind the bar, there is a little window through which food from Crif's Dogs--the front for this secretive establishment--could be slid. Crif's Dogs is known for it's deep fried dogs with a variety of unusual toppings, Heather was both disgusted and excited to read about dogs with cream cheese and scallions and a bacon wrapped dog with avocados and sour cream. We had just eaten so we did not order any food, but it's nice to know we could have. There's something charming about a really fancy drink and food that not just could, but probably will kill you.

There's a little kid part of me that wanted there to be secret doors all over the place, like a puzzle you have to figure out. I wanted there to be a lever that you have to pull while standing on a certain spot that releases a trap door in the floor to bring you to the bathroom. I wanted a false floor tile to reveal a secret staircase that leads to gangsters playing dice or craps. I wanted to pull a candlestick and have a bookshelf rotate to reveal a secret bar-within-a-bar where you could get really crazy drinks made with stuff like snake venom or bald eagle eggs. I'd like to think that that stuff could be there at PDT and I just haven't discovered it yet. Sigh. Someday.

We only stayed for one round partly because we had other stuff to do and partly because the cocktails were fourteen dollars a piece. Dutch Kills is much more reasonable at ten. Instead of spending another $28, I played a round of Double Dragon in Crif's Dogs. It was fun but it reminded me how bad I am at Double Dragon. We then headed over to Desnuda to enjoy dollar oyster night.

What a Girl's Gotta Do

Warning: Heather got out of the kitchen and made some cocktails. This means the following blog is written with less cocktail expertise then when Will writes it. Explanations of ice usage and shaking methods might be a little more elementary then usual. Just smile at her and nod.

Will's been a bit busy lately. There's been some late nights at work, we've had some nights out with friends, and as a result his cocktail shaker has been looking a little sad and lonely. This past weekend with Will working and my adored Stef in town, we were short two pre-dinner drinks. I stared at the shaker suspiciously. It's not that I've never made cocktails before, I have. It's just, I was in college. Or at best in the middle of an internship. The "cocktails" I made then tending to involve thinks like soda, various shanaps, and tons of cranberry juice. Then I met Will and we've had an understanding with our grown up existence: I make fantastic food, and I never want for Gimlets and Manhattans. I haven't stooped to mixing a Midori Sour in years. Besides that, Stef and I are totally nerds for the early literary drinkers, and if Dorothy Parker didn't drink it, we're not all that interested. And why mess around, I thought, why not bring out the big guns, the classic cocktail. Two Martini's coming up.

Martini, a cocktail made up of two ingredients and a garnish, is actually more complicated then it sounds. As Will talked about when blogging about our Christmas Cocktail Party, there is the option of vodka or gin, there is the option of shaking or stirring, and there are the garnishes of olive, twist, or even cocktail onions. According the Savoy Cocktail book, our go to for drinks of the 1920's varitey, depending on whether you were making a dry or sweet martini you would pick Italian or French vermouth. As all we had in stock was Martini and Rossi, dry martini's it was.

"We could just have wine," Stef said, as we started yet another episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. But by this point I was determined. I was a grown, capable woman, the type who could bake an egg and roll her own pasta. I could make a damn cocktail. Hell, I could make a damn cocktail while wearing stilettos thank you very much. This may have resulted in much giggling and me actually wearing stilettos while fixing the drinks. God bless girls weekend.

Stef and I had varying tastes. I am a fan of extremely chilled vodka, Stef prefers the more potent flavor of gin. We agree on the superiority of twists over olives. Cutting my twist created a few freaky curls of lemon peel, but a video from CHOW helped things along.

One recipe called for whacking the ice with a spoon before dropping it into the shaker. I'm not sure entirely why one does this, but I've seen bartenders in places fairly serious about their cocktails do it. And I was a serious sophisticated woman. In heels. And that "THWACK" makes a great sound. I considered the less James Bond approach of stirring the drinks, but if I was going to be teetering around my apartment in heels, shaking was the much more fun options. Advice from The Modern Girl's Guide to Life (a book that was a lifesaver when I was 23 and didn't know how to make a basic cream sauce or get a stain out) said that a martini should be shaken for at least 10 seconds. A Rachel Maddow video for Grub Street I had seen instructed that when one was shaking a cocktail, it should be shaken until it makes your hands hurt a bit from the cold, and then given a few shakes more. This also made a very satisfying sound.

Shaken Martini with a Twist for Confident, Fabulous Women

Ingredients:

-4 or 5 large ice cubes

-2 oz chilled vodka or gin

-A dash of vermouth

-Twist of Lemon Peel

Directions:

Take each ice cube and give it a whack with a tablespoon, breaking it into somewhat smaller pieces. Place the ice in a shaker and add the liquor of choice and the vermouth. Shake sharply until just past the hurting point, and strain into martini glass. Drop lemon peel into glass. Serve.

Again, variations are ubiquitous, shunned in some circles, embraced in others. But if you are a confident, fabulous woman, make what you want and screw the naysayers. You probably look better in your shoes then they do anyway.

Foxtrot at the Savoy

One of the things I like about mixing cocktails is its timelessness. Thumbing through my copy of The Savoy Cocktail Book, I feel like an archaeologist discovering an ancient text. At the time my grandfather was born, these were the drinks people were consuming. The names of some of these drinks are great--old-timey and cheeky--with names like the "mule's hind leg cocktail" or the "damn the weather cocktail."

These cocktails are all well and good, but as I've stated before, a lot of them are very gin heavy and many contain egg and absinthe. The weather is warming up and it's high time for something a little more summery. They have a few standards like the daiquiri which has a quote underneath from Joseph Hergesheimer's "San Cristobal de la Habana":

"The moment had arrived for a daiquiri. It was a delicate compound; it elevated my contentment to an even higher pitch. Unquestionably the cocktail on my table was a dangerous agent, for it held in its shallow glass bowl slightly encrusted with undissolved sugar the power of a contemptuous indifference to fate; it set the mind free of responsibility; obliterating both memory and tomorrow, it gave the heart an adventitious feeling of superiority and momentarily vanquished all the celebrated, the eternal fears. Yes, that was the danger of skillfully prepared intoxicating drinks."

There's a part of me that believes that people actually talked like that about things like cocktails. A spirited discussion if you will. The time period of the Savoy book is something that has been romanticized because of prohibition. Every time I make one of these drinks, I get thoughts of intellectuals in darkened rooms wearing ridiculous hats and having fascinating conversations.

This week, I thought I would show you a recipe for something that I selected partially because it has a summer theme and partially because I really like the name:

Fox Trot Cocktail

-The Juice of 1/2 Lemon or 1 Lime

-2 Dashes Orange Curaçao

-Bacardi Rum (I used about 2 oz.)

Shake well and strain into cocktail glass.

It's a fantastic drink for the warm summer months ahead. It's simple to make and it has everything you would want on a hot day: citrus, sweetness and rum. It resembles other drinks--a margarita with rum instead of tequila or a daiquiri with Curaçao instead of sugar--but it definitely has its own thing going on. There's a bit more tartness to it because curaçao is used instead of sugar, but it gives the cocktail a more complex flavor.

In my fantasy, I'm sitting on the balcony of my Manhattan penthouse apartment in 1930 watching the Empire State building be constructed. As I listen to the latest Jolson tune on my handy dandy gramophone, I sip my Fox Trot Cocktail and think to myself, "Life sure is swell." Maybe if the weather is nice tomorrow, I'll go to the soda jerk's and get a phosphate or a malted.

The French 75

This past weekend Heather's mother was in town, and we made a second visit to a trendy restaurant in Tribeca called Locanda Verde. Heather's been referring to this as the current "Sex in the City" restaurant since it's getting so much buzz and press at the moment. Any cocktail mixer worth his salt, however, knows that Cosmo's are out and the "of the moment" drinks tend to be of the speak easy era with and old timey feel.

Locanda Verde was well aware of this fact, which had Heather Ordering the French 75, a remnant of the WWI era, named after artillery canon. It's one of those cocktails you would drink with Hemingway or Dorothy Parker, which is the kind of New York we're looking for. There's something appealing about the prohibition era--the feeling that at any minute someone's going to pop out of nowhere and slap the drink out of my hand. It's sexy.

The French 75 is a cocktail with a couple of different variations. The main ingredient can be either gin or cognac--a pretty big jump in flavor profile--then lemon juice, sugar and champagne. That's about the long and short of it. The drink originated just after the first World War and was published in The Savoy Cocktail Book in 1930 with a note under it that reads "Hits with remarkable precision." They list it as having gin rather than brandy but if you've ever leafed through that book, you would see how much 1930's people loved their gin.

The Death and Company website also incorporates gin and includes no champagne.

The Locanda Verde version reads as follows:

SETTANTA CINQUE

Citrus grappa, strega liquori, fresh lemon, prosecco

Our French 75, Italian style

Grappa is a type of italian brandy distilled from pomace wine which is made from grapes or olives (How Italian) and strega is an herbal liqueur with a slightly sweet flavor.

Not all of us can afford to have a liquor cabinet that is quite as stocked as a place like Locanda Verde, but if you're anything like me, you have a few staples. I would make it like this:

-2 oz. cognac

-1/2 oz. simple syrup

-1/2 oz. lemon juice

-fill with champagne in a champagne glass

If you're looking for a nice brunch cocktail and want a little change of pace from your standard mimosa then this might just do the trick. Heather's only regret is that she ordered it as a pre-dinner cocktail...and that nobody slapped the drink out of her hand. Oh well, next time.