Tom and Jerry

Not the loveable cartoon characters. Rather, the even more lovable winter sipper (or gulper, at times).

But first, two non-related items:

1) Today, Caroline on Crack identified my cocktail, the Superstizione as one of her top 10 favorite cocktails of 2009. Thanks for the compliment, Caroline. The Superstizione can be experienced in all its Caroline-approved glory at Drago Centro.

2) On Christmas day, I was able to taste the ("double?") Russian Imperial Stout that my brother in law brewed last year in honor of his son's birth. It'll be aged for 21 years and enjoyed by family and friends each year until then. This year, in honor of the newly toddling Iain, we tasted the concoction after it's first year of resting. W. T. F. That stuff was CRAZY good. I don't even like stout, but the flavors were so intriguing, so well-balanced, that I gave it a 97/100. It's possible that I'm a little biased, and it's not that I'm some world-renowned expert on beer, but I have a decent background in the stuff and I feel pretty confident in saying that it's one of the better-made beers I've had in my life. I only wish he had made more bottles. Maybe he'll go along with my idea of re-brewing every year with the same recipe so we can have side-by-side vertical tastings of a sort.

On to the drink...

There are a great many of drinks with very strict ingredient lists. I often get called a cocktail snob for berating the use of the word "Martini" to refer to anything other than a concoction of gin, vermouth (sweet or dry depending on the type of Martini), and bitters, garnished with a lemon twist, or if you absolutely must, an olive. Though even that's a somewhat loose definition in my eyes. Anyway, the Tom and Jerry doesn't have to follow such strict rules. There are many great recipes out there... and many not so great. In order to introduce you to this tasty warm beverage, or to add another recipe to your binderful of Tom and Jerry variations, I'd like to share my own version, frankensteined together from the recipes of some folks I respect from the blogosphere, and then adapted to my own tastes and style. And even though Christmas is over with, the winter is young, and a nice Tom and Jerry hits the spot just right after dinner on a cold night, or even to slowly wake up with in the late morning of a lazy day.

Tom and Jerry batter:

6 eggs (separated)
1 cup sugar
1 oz rum
1/4 tsp ground clove (preferrably freshly ground)
1/4 tsp grated nutmeg (VERY preferrably freshly grated)
1/4 tsp ground allspice (preferrably freshly ground)

Beat the egg yolk in a mixing bowl. Beat in the rum, spices, and slowly, the sugar. In a different mixing bowl, beat the crap out of the egg whites until they form those magical stiff peaks. Mix everything together until it has about the consistency of a pancake batter. The batter should remain tasty for 1-2 days. After that though, definitely think about throwing it out. Remember, there's raw egg in there.

Tom and Jerry:

3 oz Tom and Jerry batter
1.25 oz rum
1.25 oz brandy
hot milk
hot water

To a mug, add the batter and liquors. Top with the hot milk and hot water at a 2:1 ratio respectively (or higher, if you're not using whole milk). Stir. Grate a little nutmeg on top, and serve.

As I said before, this is a great drink to experiment with, so feel free to try adding or substituting some cinnamon or orange peel. Or maybe substitute in some rye. Have fun.

Sam Adams Utopias No Longer World's Strongest Beer?

Tactical Nuclear Penguin from BrewDog on Vimeo.

While a lover of the classics of the booze world, I also love people trying new things. So I was intrigued when I heard that there was a beer stronger than Sam Adams Utopias (which is about 25% ABV, depending on which release you're drinking). But this video notes that unlike Utopias, Tactical Nuclear Penguin utilizes the process known as fractional freezing, or freeze distillation. While regular distillation utilizes the difference in boiling points of water and ethyl alcohol, freeze distillation takes advantage of the difference on the other side of the scale, the freezing points. Basically, when you chill an alcoholic beverage cold enough, it starts to freeze. The part that freezes first is the part lower in alcohol concentration. Remove that and you've got a higher ABV. Do it many times, and you have a MUCH higher ABV. This isn't a new process, even for beer. We've all been subjected to drinking or preferably watching somebody else drink a Bud Ice, Natural Ice, etc. And notice all the times I used the world distillation above. This is a distillate. Not a beer. I still want to try it as soon as possible, but I say the title still belongs to the Utopias.

Partida and Tequila Ocho at Rivera

Last night, was the best tequila tasting I've ever been to. Okay, so my tequila tastings to date are a bit limited. I must admit, that it's never been my favorite spirit, though it certainly has been growing on me more and more as of late, and last night at Rivera may have transformed me into a true tequila lover. For those who don't know, Rivera has become THE go-to place for quality tequilas and tequila based cocktails. And one can hardly say enough good things about Partida tequilas. I've been somewhat familiar with them for a while thanks to the likes of former brand ambassador Damian Windsor, who now focuses on his newest venue the Roger Room (go if you haven't). Tequila Ocho, I hadn't tasted until last night. I had only heard of it and their goal to familiarize the consumer with tequila terroir.

Terroir, a term more often used when referring to wine, simply refers to the set of conditions which play a part in the growing of the agricultural product to be fermented and/or distilled. So for wine, it refers to how one malbec grape vine grown in Europe produces a wine much different from the same grape grown in Argentina due to differences in elevation, days of sunlight, average temperature, rainfall, soil composition, etc. In fact, this particular difference in terroir is a great example (in my opinion) because Malbec grown in the old world is useful pretty much only in blends, whereas in Argentina, it's great on its own. However, terroir can often differ vastly even when plain geography does not. Many claim that the terroir of one vine can differ from the terroir of another mere meters away.

Anyway, the concept of terroir is now becoming more and more accepted as applying to various spirits, and Tequila Ocho definitely believes (and demonstrates) that this should very much be the case for fine tequilas. Tequila Ocho offers quality platas, reposados, and anejos (and allegedly, extra-anejos in the not too distant future) with specific vintage years from single estates, or "ranchos". Very tasty product. Get your hands on every vintage you can find. A couple certainly stood out as superior, but none disappointed in the slightest.

While all of the tequilas were well worth having, the highlight of the night would probably have to be finally getting to try Partida's extra-anejo, the 3-year-old, $300, "Elegante". Simply put, aptly named. All in all, a good night.

"Any Dry Sherries?": A Lesson Learned

Been really busy with work lately, but I've got a few minutes, so I thought I would share a learning experience from behind the bar recently. A nice couple sits down at the bar waiting for the restaurnt to open so they can be seated. Before I can get them a beverage list, they ask "any dry sherries?" Then I have that moment which I'm not too fond of, and until I was actually bartending, rarely happened. That moment is the moment I realize that I've been asked a booze-related question and that I don't know the answer. Thankfully, I'd happened to notice at some point that there was a bottle of oloroso behind some ports on the backbar. So, I quickly retrieved it, showed them the bottle, and they agreed that this was acceptable. They liked it, but when I got a minute to look at our spirits list a little later, I noticed that we had an amontillado listed along with the oloroso. Like most Americans, I don't know much about sherry, but I was pretty sure that amontillados were drier than oloroso. Upon conferring with my beverage director that evening, I was informed that the amontillado was stored in the fridge. Well, at least I know now, and will be ready should the couple return or other like-minded, like-palated customers take up a seat at my bar. In the end, they still enjoyed their sherry, and I learned something new. All in all, a new bartender success.

My First Job Behind the Stick

That's right, I'm no longer "just" an enthusiast. After a sufficiently successful working interview at Drago Centro, I've been graciously given a position behind the bar of the upscale restaurant at 5th and Flower in downtown Los Angeles. While the beverage program is predominantly wine focused (which will be a fun challenge for me), they have a surprisingly good bottled beer selection and a pretty respectable cocktail program as well. Oh yeah, they have some pretty quality food there, too. In the interest of preventing this post from turning into basically an advertisement for the restaurant, I'll end it simply by saying that I'm excited to finally get behind the stick, and hope to see you all come down to Drago Centro soon.

Cedd's New Venture

That's right, Cedd Moses is opening another bar downtown, bringing his total to just over 9000. Not that I'm complaining. Far from it. Most of my favorite bars in LA are Cedd's doing. Anyway, the new place will be heavily based in mezcals (Cedd says at least around 50) and will be conveniently located less than two blocks from me. You may know this place better though as 103 E. 6th Street. That's right, it's just across the street from Cole's -- well, really it's closer to across the street from the Association, but come on, Cole's is way better. Anyway, the new venture is still in the construction stages so don't be lining up outside the door quite yet. Cedd says that they're looking to open in November, but if they get a little behind schedule, as can happen with such projects, it'll still be a great Christmas present or start to the new year.

Downtown Move

Yes, this past weekend, I finally moved downtown. I'm very excited as some of the best bars in LA are now within walking distance. Cole's/Varnish is literally less than two blocks away. Already been there twice in two days. Oh crap, maybe I'm too close. Wait, too close to quality booze? Never.

Boozin' in Boston

So, It's about time I talk a bit about my visit to Beantown. Afterall, that was last month.

Weeks before flying across the country, I made sure to do my homework, collecting information on bars I wanted to try out. I mean, who knows the next time I'll be in Boston. Of course, I had several non-drinkers (including my infant nephew who's a real lightweight) in tow, so it was a bit too tough to hit ever bar on my list (there were over a dozen). Still, we managed to make it to some pretty enjoyable drinking locations.

Fortunately, one of our destinations was the Samuel Adams Brewery. Mind you, what's brewed here is not what you buy at the grocery store. The Boston location is strictly an R&D brewery. Each of their recipes comes from this location, aside from the most ubiquitous, the Boston Lager, which was first formulated in a plain old kitchen. We were able to taste some of their beers, which is always nice, and picked up a few souvenirs from the gift shop. All in all, a good tour.

While we were at the brewery, we were informed that a local restaurant, mere steps from the brewery has the privilege of being the only place you can get a certain beer Sam Adams brews. It was tasty. This is a picture of the tap.

My first cocktail experience in Boston was during our dinner at Green Street (formerly Green Street Grill). It's tough to judge a cocktail program solely by the menu. I take that back. Usually, it's quite simple to do so. If I see the words "sour mix", "chocotini", or a plethora of suggestive cocktail names, I've got a pretty good handle on their cocktail program. On the other end of the spectrum, however, it's a bit more difficult. From the menu alone, I was excited about Green Street. That changed when I tasted their take on an East India House Cocktail. Or, at least I THINK that's what they were trying to do. The predominant flavor was that of the orange juice, and not fresh orange juice. It may very well have been freshly squeezed at some point. Maybe the day before? On top of poor taste, the numerous tiny glaciers pointed to poor training for the bartender who poured it. Shaken drinks served up should have absolutely no floating pieces of ice. If there's a few, I'll just ignore it, but it was as if he had actually tried to get as many ice chips in as possible. This is why I double-strain my shaken drinks and tip my hat to all the barmen who do the same. Needless to say, I switched to beer, which was a much better experience. A good beer menu, it seems, is less likely to betray you than a good cocktail menu. Makes sense.

On Sunday, we made it out to brunch at Eastern Standard. It. Was. Awesome. The cocktails ranged from great to fantastic, and the food, likewise. Cocktails imbibed include: Pimm's Cup, Pisco Sour, Sazerac, Harvey Wallbanger, etc. We shared. Almost everything was very well balanced. The Sazerac was one of the best I've ever had, though just a whisper on the sweet side. After a nice discussion with one of the resident cocktail folk (Kevin, I think?), we were graced with free samples of a lovely sour topped with foamy egg white and Fee's Barrel Aged bitters, giving a delightfully sharp cinnamon nose. A fantastic brunch I would love to repeat. It's near Fenway, so know if it's a game day or not, but certainly make your way down for some tasty treats, both potables and edibles.

Lastly, we made it to Drink. While they do have a great program there, I was less impressed than I intended on being. Large ice, good. Small cocktail glasses, good. Recommending flavored "martinis"? Shame on you, Drink. I know it's tough to say no to a customer, but steering them to a more respectable libation is perfectly acceptable. If they ask for a "chocotini", teach them about the Brandy Alexander. If they say "anything with vodka" (overheard three times in under an hour), it becomes more difficult, though still not impossible. I am glad that one bartender (I believe in response to one of the aforementioned vodka requests) suggested a Last Word, so there is certainly an effort to improve the clientele, even if it's not by refusing to make espressotinis.

One of the things I noticed is that even the cocktail bars have some pretty good beer lists, a concept not found much in Los Angeles. If I ever make it back, I'll definitely try Drink again, but most of my effort will be spent getting back to Eastern Standard. I miss it already.

The Battered Beaver

Yes, that's actually the name of a bar. And yes, I have actually gone there... several times. Each Thursday, the Mixoloseum holds what we call Thursday Drink Night, where we select an ingredient, style of drink, etc. and come up with original drinks based on our chosen theme. There are even small (but very good) cocktail related prizes to be won. I make it a point to show up to this chatroom boozefest pretty much every Thursday, even when I'm out of town. Though, when I tune in from out of town, I'm more of a spectator than usual as I generally am far from adequate ingredients to partake. The evening's libations often contain things as uncommon to the average person as rhubarb bitters, cinnamon syrup, and bitter liqueurs flavored with artichoke. Heck, the average person hasn't even heard of the theme ingredient for this past TDN, the South American brandy known as Pisco. While my home bar is happily stocked with these items, most other places I might be caught at on a Thursday night do not.

This past Thursday, I was visiting my parents in the town I grew up in, Oakdale, CA, which proudly claims itself to be "The Cowboy Capital of the World." No, I'm not kidding. My usual bar when in town is even called The Cow Track, and no, I don't know what a cow track is. "The Track" as it is affectionately called by its regulars isn't the type of place you order a martini or an old-fashioned, but the whiskey is cheap and the beer is cheaper. The vast majority of drinks go for well under $4, so it's not a bad place to have a beer and enjoy some (often live) music.

Recently though, I've been more and more attracted to another local bar called The Battered Beaver. This is partly due to the name, but mostly because it's within easy walking distance from my folks' place. While complaining to the TDN crew that I couldn't join in on the fun, I briefly mentioned The Battered Beaver and was promptly instructed that this would be where I consumed my booze that evening, and that I needed to post pictures on my blog (likely to prove to them that a bar with such a name existed in my charming hometown of Oakdale).

While many consider me to be a cocktail snob, I actually opt for cocktail geek because a snob refuses to "slum it up," which is something that I rather enjoy doing now and then. Hey, we all have our guilty pleasures. So, I saunter on down to the Beav' and I order up, you guessed it, a light beer. While I enjoy my non-snobby beer, I notice mere feet from my pint glass none other than Angostura bitters. WHAT?!? I try to deal with my excitement mixed with confusion. Why in the world would the Battered Beaver have bitters? I say a quick prayer of thanks and frantically debate in my head what to order next, a Manhattan, or my favorite, an Old-Fashioned.

I decided that while they might not know how to make either, they've certainly at least heard of a Manhattan... and we have a winner. The first bartender asks another bartender as I insist I can lead them through it (in fear that the other bartender might have been taught how to make a poor Manhattan). Eventually, I'm able to walk one of them through making me a passable Manhattan. Next, I teach a different bartender how to make an (almost) equally passable Old-Fashioned. No, neither was what I would call well-balanced, but both had all the right ingredients in roughly the right proportions, so it was much better than I expected to be drinking before I walked in.

I ran into an old friend there and she insisted that I try a drink called a Mind Eraser, which she informed me had something like kahlua, vodka, citrus vodka, and 7-up. Despite being served in a double rocks glass filled to the brim, she also informed me that the drink must be consumed all at once from bottom to top via the given straw. Well... when in Rome. Apparently, on Thursdays, they have a buy-one-get-one-free deal so long as a lady is involved. So my lovely bartender and I erase our minds together, and I become convinced that the name is quite apt. This is clearly a drink designed to get as much alcohol in without the alcohol burn. Needless to say, I opted not to repeat the erasure. And when all is said and done, I'd say it was a pretty enjoyable Thursday Drink Night.

Reviving Drink-Well with San Francisco

Okay, so I said that I was killing off this blog, but it refuses to stay dead. I'll wait while you go mix yourself a Zombie.

In honor of the original beginnings of Drink-Well, it feels fitting to revive it with a post on Cocktail Week. This year, I was not celebrating in my current home of Los Angeles. Instead, I was able to make it up to the Bay Area for San Francisco festivities.

The Opening Gala on Monday the 11th was at Le Colonial, which can be a bit difficult to find (yes, it's back in that alleyway), but a very enjoyable venue. And despite the heavy influence of vodka, their cocktail menu is actually pretty decent. Of course, there was a special list for the evening containing a few select cocktails one could pick up in exchange for one of the two drink tickets included in the $25 price tag for the evening, with additional drink tickets available in advance for a very reasonable $5, or at the door for a still reasonable $7.

I had a chance to taste each of cocktails and was at least mildly disappointed. Generally, they were too sweet, and I would only have described maybe one as being "well balanced". Although Camper (from alcademics.com), whom I was finally able to meet in person (both of us being regulars at The Mixoloseum) actually quite liked the drinks that night. Maybe we got our drinks from different bartenders? H. from Elixir was even there to help out, but they seemed to be using him more as a barback. I still had a blast, loved the little bites being passed out, and was able to finish off the evening with a glass of Maker's, bought for me by some new booze friends. Thanks again.

Tuesday night was filled with lots of fun at the United States Bartenders' Guild National Competition (with the local San Francisco competition happening earlier in the day). The evening was held at Harry Denton’s Starlight Room at the top of the Sir Francis Drake Hotel (which was quite nice) and sponsored by Tres Generaciones Tequila, which meant that while the judges were able to taste all the competitors' entries, we all sipped on some (mostly) tasty tequila libations. And yes, despite coming from Sauza, these tequilas really are well worth drinking, unlike their infamous mixto tequila.

While there, I actually met up with some LA booze folks, so I ended up spending most of the event with them, cheering on our SoCal representative from the Tlapazola Grill. I apologize to the gentleman, as I can't recall his name. While the Tlapazola Grill isn't well known in the cocktail community, I'm told they've formed a pretty solid cocktail program, so I'll definitely have to check that out. Unfortunately, in the end, the title went to the Las Vegas representative, Armando Rosario.

Those were the only Cocktail week events I went to largely because I was flying to Boston mid-week (more on the booze of that trip later). Wednesday night, I was ticketless, which wasn't too bad as it freed up the evening for me to revisit Bourbon and Branch, which, in my opinion, is the best bar in SF. Sad to say, I was let down a bit there as well. Granted it was still at least a B+, it lowers my cumulative ranking from an A+. Bartender was very friendly, but the drinks were mostly a little off. Not much, mind you, but I hold Bourbon and Branch to a very high standard. Even my old-fashioned was slightly unbalanced. Despite small imperfections, every drink was still far more than drinkable and Bourbon and Branch remains my must-go-to bar whenever I'm SF.

The week in general gave me a mild fear that the cocktail culture of SF might be resting a bit on their laurels. I hope that this is not the case and trust that even if it is, they can't continue for long, given the number of quality bars popping up in Los Angeles and throughout the country. And we can certainly thank San Francisco for their role in that. Cheers!

Repeal Day!

It now seems inescapable that this blog has perished. We bid thee, dear blog, a fond farewell. But today is not a day of mourning, for there are a great deal of wonderful cocktail blogs around. No, this is a day of celebration. In fact, I intentionally chose this day to say goodbye to drink-well. You see, today is Repeal Day. That's right. Exactly 75 years ago today, the 21st Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified by Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Utah, completing the ratification process, thus ending The Ignoble Experiment, Prohibition.

We cocktailians look back on Prohibition with somewhat mixed feelings. Granted, it gave a strong foothold for organized crime in America, converted Christianity into Moral Deism, nearly ruined California wine for the following several decades, killed countless home distillers and bathtub gin drinkers, and of course, it even tried to take our booze away. But on the other hand, it failed to rid us of our drinking, gave us some interesting history to relive through the modern speakeasy, and it forced the creation of a great deal of mixed drinks. When your gin is made in your next door neighbor's basement, you're probably going to want something to alter the taste a bit.


Anyway, long story short, God took something evil and used it for at least some good, but we're still very glad to have the right to plead the 21st. So raise a glass tonight in honor of that precious Amendment, and perhaps even ponder if it goes far enough. Consider the following, admittedly grabbed from Wikipedia:

The Twenty-first Amendment is also one of only two provisions of the Constitution to prohibit private conduct; the other is the Thirteenth Amendment. As Laurence Tribe points out: "there are two ways, and only two ways, in which an ordinary private citizen ... can violate the United States Constitution. One is to enslave someone, a suitably hellish act. The other is to bring a bottle of beer, wine, or bourbon into a State in violation of its beverage control laws—an act that might have been thought juvenile, and perhaps even lawless, but unconstitutional?"

And this doesn't even address the current Prohibition still severely limiting Alcohol production and consumption such as (insert your favorite three or four modern forms of Alcohol prohibition here). Laws like these, public drinking laws as one group of examples, continue to criminalize drinking, and thereby also further our negative cultural perspective on alcohol. Still, the more obvious current Prohibition comes in something oh-so-creatively named "The War on Drugs," as though it's an enemy to be fought. This, as with all prohibitions, merely furthers organized (and unorganized) crime in this country as well as... Okay, sorry for all the politicizing. You get my point.

Anyway, be sure to find a good Repeal Day party tonight to honor those who fought for your booze. Several bars are holding such parties. And if you can't find one or make it out tonight, hold a celebration of your own. So long and drink well.

-Mark

The Scots Love Their Contests

Okay, I don't actually know whether or not those of Scottish decent have a proclivity for contests, but I did happen to stumble upon a couple of interesting booze related contests both rooted in Scottish products.

The first Scottish booze product, you can probably guess. It's called scotch -- specifically, a brand new 40 year single malt from Highland Park, a Highland island (not Islay) distillery in Orkney (right off the northern coast of Scotland). Anyway, Whisky Magazine is having a contest wherein they're giving away a bottle of the prized 40 year old, which Highland Park claims will be part of the permanent line-up rather than a limited release. The bottle is retailing at £899, which I can only assume is a great sum of cash (a little over $1,600, but who's counting). The cheapest I've found it is at Loch Fyne Whiskies where they're letting it go for a scant £638.30 (you can do the math on this one). The point is, I can't afford it and, most likely, neither can you. So enter the contest already. And if you win, perhaps you could offer a wee dram to your favorite booze blogger. Don't bother clicking it, it's just me.

The other contest, while not as boozy, has an equally boozy source, Hendrick's Gin. Extra points if you somehow saw this as the next obvious Scottish liquor. Their website, The Unusual Times is giving away a fittingly unusual musical instrument, the theremin. If you're not familiar, there's a link to a nice video on the contest website. I personally prefer this video though:

If somebody wins this, I'll also be expecting a wee dram. You heard me.

Alaskan Brewing Company

So, it's about time I write a little something about the cruise to Alaska and, of course, the booze involved. While our pub tour in Victoria was canceled, we did still get to thoroughly enjoy our trip to Alaskan Brewing Company in Juneau. We were encouraged to grab a sample beer (or our second) so that we could start the tour. I was also pleased that our guide gave an intermission during the tour specifically so we could refill our glasses.

In addition to all their mainstay brews (and the seasonal Summer Ale), we also were able to taste their coffee brown ale. That's right, a brown ale brewed up with a healthy dose of real coffee. While not a huge coffee fan, I am a brown ale fan. And having been disappointed previously by such travesties as raspberry brown ales, I was a little wary of the concept. I must say, though, that I was very pleasantly surprised, and I hope that this tasty brew will be available outside of Juneau, Alaska shortly. As a fan of mixology and beer, seeing craft breweries creating products like this makes me very happy. It's just sad that, not unlike other quality forms of booze, the demand (while growing) is still rather low. Still, if you're ever in the area, for whatever reason, stop on by the brewery. You won't be disappointed.

The Second Greatest Cocktail of All Time -- The Sazerac

The title is, of course, a matter of personal taste. There are, however, many cocktailians and mixologists who agree that the Sazerac is far too often neglected, and must be revived so that we might show others that their drinks need not be laden with Red Bull or sour mix.

The Sazerac is a superb drink, which comes to us from New Orleans. In fact, we can thank one man in particular, a Haitian pharmacist of sorts from the early 1800's named Antoine Amédée Peychaud. Along with the Old-Fashioned (which I personally consider to be the only cocktail superior to the Sazerac) is part of a very small group of the very first cocktails to ever exist (to our knowledge). It is a sad thought that we teeter on the edge of forgetting this wonderful concoction along with the others.

While the Sazerac most likely has taken its name (indirectly) from a particular brand of cognac, the original predominant spirit, it is now made with rye whiskey. In a pinch, another whiskey can be used. But this is not advised. The bitters, however, should not and cannot be substituted. Some have tried to use Angostura in the place of Peychaud's bitters, perhaps due to the difficulty of acquiring any bitters other than Angostura. However, this is no longer the case due to the internet and inexpensive nature of aromatic bitters. You no longer have an excuse. Pick up some Peychaud's wherever you can find it. See? No excuse. In fact, come to think of it, find yourself a nice bottle of rye soon thereafter. It's what the internet was built to do. Not to mention, a surprising amount of these once-hard-to-come-by ingredients are popping up at (gasp) grocery stores. Okay, enough ranting. Onto the recipe...

Sazerac

2 oz rye
1/2 simple syrup
1-2 dashes Peychaud's bitters
1/4 oz absinthe or absinthe substitute*

The serving glass (a rocks glass for the Sazerac) is prepared by first chilling, then coating the inside with absinthe. The chilling can be done with a simple ice bath. That is, while preparing the drink in a mixing glass, fill the serving glass with ice and water. The absinthe should be applied later, although I have seen reputable Sazeracs prepared by adding the absinthe to the ice bath. I personally don't think that this imparts enough of the flavor and aroma. To do an absinthe rinse, merely place a small quantity (roughly 1/4 oz or so) in the glass and swirl it around so that it coats the entirety of the inside of the glass. Those inclined to aspects of flair bartending opt to accomplish this by turning the glass sideways and throwing it up into the air, spinning it vigorously. I'll leave this decision to you and your glassware budget. Robert Hess has an excellent idea which I have not yet tried, but sounds quite nice. Instead of a traditional absinthe rinse, he uses an atomizer to apply a few quick sprays of absinthe mist in order to coat the walls of the glass. Finally, a use for those "vermouth spritzers" which give the dry martini a bad name.

During the ice bath and before the absinthe rinse, one should prepare the bulk of the cocktail in a mixing glass. Combine the rye, simple syrup, and Peychaud's bitters with ice and stir vigorously for several seconds. Quickly, but effectively, apply the absinthe. Then strain the cocktail into the prepared rocks glass. Squeeze a piece of lemon peel over the top of the drink, but (if you're a purist) do not place the peel in the glass. If you do desire the lemon peel to rest in your drink, be certain not to include any of the bitter white pith. You'll notice that this drink, despite being served in a rocks glass, has no ice in the finished product. This will cause the glass to be far from full. Resist the urge to add ice or anything else to your Sazerac. Simply sit back, relax, and enjoy the second greatest cocktail of all time.

*Absinthe was at one point difficult to acquire within the United States (and many other countries). This is slowly changing as more and more countries are realizing that the rumors of absinthe's hallucinatory and highly toxic nature were far from true. If you do happen to have an absinthe substitute like Herbsaint, Pernod, etc. feel free to use it. It will still produce a highly tasty drink. However, as always, there is no complete substitute for the real thing. Perhaps, a Sazerac revival and an absinthe revival could lead each other back to our shelves. Here's hoping.

Back From Hiatus

I apologize for the recent posting dry spell. To make it up to those who drink well, I'm bringing you two consecutive postings. Enjoy.

The first is to introduce an original of mine. Let's call it the "Gimdom Cuke", paying homage to it's resemblance to a gimlet laced with a healthy dose of the fantastically herbal Bénédictine, and rounded out with the currently ever-so-trendy (yet still worthwhile) inclusion of cucumber. The dom, of course, is a reference to the initials D.O.M. which grace the bottle, and which stand for "Deo Optimo Maximo" roughly translated as "To God, most good, most great". Sorry, I needed to get something out of my classics degree. I hope I made my professors proud. Poor Latin translations aside, it is quite a tasty and well balanced drink.

Gimdom Cuke

1 1/2 oz gin
3/4 oz lime juice
3/4 oz Bénédictine
3-4 heaping tablespoons cucumber (don't use the skin though)

Shake well and strain into a cocktail glass.

For a more gimmicky gimdom cuke, feel free to exaggerate the cuke-ness by substituting for the cocktail glass, a vessel carved from the cucumber itself. Simply slice off one tip, close enough to the end that there will be no seeded portions for the drink to slowly drip through. This will be the base of the glass, which will end up shaped vaguely like a Collins glass. If you wish to make a cucumber stemmed glass, no such slice is needed. Merely, take the cucumber and very carefully stab the bottom with a plastic (or glass) stem. The next step is to decide how tall you would like your glass. At this point, slice off the rest of the cucumber. Use a knife or spoon to carefully hollow out an appropriately sized section of the cucumber. The flesh that you've scooped out should be more than sufficient for the cucumber which will be used as an ingredient. Be sure to not puncture, even in the slightest, through the bottom of the glass. This is a surprisingly easy mistake to make during your first time creating this glass.

Whether you use the gimmicky glass outlined here, a standard cocktail glass, or even throw the libation into a rocks glass, be sure to thoroughly enjoy it -- and to thank God for giving us those nice monks who make our booze. Amen.

The Last Word

On a recent shopping trip, I picked up (among other fun booze purchases) a bottle of green Chartreuse and some Luxardo. Finally, I have the proper ingredients to make the Last Word. It is a fantastic drink for three reasons.

Firstly, it is another great way to get a non-gin drinker to drink (and more importantly, enjoy) their neglected bottles of gin. Secondly, it also helps introduce a whole new generation to the beauties of Chartreuse, something so wonderful that it's "the only liqueur to have a color named after it." That remarkable achievement alone (quoted directly from the bottle itself) should be more than enough to persuade us all into tying this cocktail. Ironically enough, Chartreuse comes in two colors, the traditional green and the softer yellow. Finally, the ingredients all have the same measure. This means you can make your drinks as big or small as you want without ever having to struggle through the mathematical impossibility of multiplying four different fractions having just downed your third cocktail of the evening. Also, there's really no need for a measuring jigger. Don't read this incorrectly. It is still important to measure. But with the Last Word, you can use whatever liquid bearing vessel your pretty little heart desires. So grab your mini dixie cups and start filling to the third blue flower.

1 part gin
1 part green Chartreuse (try yellow for a milder version)
1 part maraschino liqueur (Luxardo if you've got it)
1 part fresh squeezed lime juice

Shake with ice. Strain into chilled cocktail glass. Enjoy.

Sparkly Drinks

I'm a huge fan of drinks using champagne (and other sparkling wines). Today, I bring you two new original concoctions of yours truly. The first is presented (partially) as a joke. A friend of mine is a pretty big fan of the oh-so-classy, alcopop combination of energy drink and booze called Sparks. Now, I support this habit solely because he also has a high appreciation for booze items that actually are classy. Through my quality-booze evangelism, his second favorite alcohol item is probably an Old Fashioned (made properly, of course, with NO soda water whatsoever). Anyway, he and I recently picked up a new place (I'll post pictures once the bar is set up), and I felt that a proper way to celebrate would be to combine my mixology with his elixir of choice. It's very, very basic, but it's quite tasty and, to my knowledge, the only mixed drink using Sparks. If anybody is aware of any more, let me know. I'd love to try them out. Anyway, if you hadn't already guessed from the post title, this special drink consists of topping up with champagne a flute already containing an ounce or so of Sparks. To add a bit of complexity, top it off with a dash of Angostura bitters. I know it sounds crazy, but sometimes mixology calls for a little something crazy -- but only sometimes.

This second drink is a little more conventional. I call it the French Appleflower. In addition to be a really girly sounding name, it also serves the purpose of highlighting the ingredients used. The "French" refers to the champagne (a la French 75). The "Apple" refers to (drumroll...) applejuice. And the "flower" refers to the elderflower liquer, specifically, St. Germain. It's difficult to overstate the greatness of this liqueur. Just to give a brief idea, at this year's San Francisco World Spirits Competition, it won a Double-Gold in it's category as well as a Double-Gold for it's packaging, so not only is it a fantastic herbal/botanical liqueur to mix with, it's also quite pretty. But you could probably tell that from the picture. Just pick up a bottle if you haven't already and make a light, refreshing Appleflower for your nearest reason to celebrate.



3/4 oz. St. Germain
1 oz. 100% apple juice
Serve fluted and topped with bubbly and a float of Peychaud's bitters (1-2 dashes)

For more of a cidery drink, feel free to bump up the juice content, just be warned that it's already a pretty sweet tasting drink. Much more appleness and you may need to switch the bitters to Angostura. Enjoy, and always drink well.

A Day in the Life

Today was a good day. Specifically, it was a good booze day. First, I spent a couple hours reading about booze. Then I spent a couple of hours mixing and drinking booze. After that, a couple hours looking at and buying booze. A couple more hours of drinking booze. Now a couple hours writing about booze. That's my kind of day.

Some of the reading time was, as always, spent reading, analyzing and sometimes mocking and correcting drink recipes under my breath. Most of the reading time, however, was spent with a fantastic little book by Ron Givens entitled Bourbon at its Best: The Lore and Allure of America's Finest Spirits. While it's certainly not perfect (for example, the author (or editor) seems to have difficulty with "(variable)teenth" century nomenclature), it is by far, one of the best books about booze I've ever run across. I suspect that it may even be the best book ever written on bourbon. Basically, it's something to check out if you get the opportunity.

The mixing and drinking involved tinkering with a delightful beverage, The White Lady. For those of you not in the know, that would be concoction of gin, lemon juice, and triple sec (I used Cointreau). Yet another way to enlighten those who "don't like anything with gin." Shake and strain into a cocktail glass: 1.5 oz gin, 1.0 oz Cointreau, 0.5 oz freshly squeezed lemon juice. For those who are already big fans of gin, feel free to bump up the gin -- a little. Anything more than 2 ounces and the orange and lemon become little more than additional botanicals for the gin.

The shopping was quite fruitful, more so than usual. I actually ended up buying three bottles. I picked up a cava, an asti, and a California cuvee. Okay, so it's not the most diverse bag of booze bottles to bring home, but as far as sparkling wines go, there's a significant amount of variation. Most of the liquors and liqueurs I want are on my birthday wishlist (July 2; send nice booze), and my inventory of beer has nowhere to grow, so I guess it was inevitable that I would end up bringing home some kind of wine. I'd also recently run out of sparkling wine, as I'm currently working on developing a bubbly way of guzzling St. Germain with delicious appleness. With my new stock of sparkling wines, it should be perfected shortly, so keep your eyes open.

Mixology Monday: The Miss May No More

I know that it's not Monday, but I wanted to contribute a bourbon based drink to the blogosphere, especially seeing all the work that others had put into it. This drink is special to me because I created it as a wedding gift for a friend, hence the name. It's largely a variation on my favorite classic cocktail, The Old Fashioned.

The Miss May No More:

1 1/2 bourbon (Elijah Craig 12 year if available)
1/2 oz. Cherry Heering
1 or 2 dashes of Angostura bitters

Build in rocks glass with ice. Stir. Enjoy.

This drink works very well as an intermediary to The Old Fashioned for those who "don't like strong drinks". The bourbon obviously serves in a prominent role, but the sweetness of the bourbon is brought out (and contributed to significantly) by the Heering. The Heering also brings an amount of complexity to the table, so there's no need to go crazy on the bitters.

I'm eager to try some other cherry liqueurs to see how they hold up. I've got my eye on some Luxardo.

Drinking Styles

Happy Fathers' Day to the gentlemen blessed and cursed with offspring. This Fathers' Day has me thinking about the drinking styles of different people. Due to my huge interest in mixology, I wanted to give my father a nice bottle of liquor or a liqueur. While he's somewhat interested in mixed drinks and is always willing to help me test out new and old recipes, I knew that he would be a litte bit more grateful for a bottle of scotch than St. Germain. While I don't have much money to be throwing around right now, I was able to pick up a 10-year-old Speyburn scotch to honor him this year for having fathered me. For such a young and reasonably priced single malt, it was quite tasty, and I'll likely add a bottle to my own collection shortly.

Sipping our glasses of scotch after dinner reminded me of how differently people drink their booze. As a mere 22-year-old, I'm used to seeing most of my peers filling a shot glass or holding a can of Red Bull. While this isn't my favorite method of consumption, it is not below me to join in on occassion. Of course, I also try to spread the gospel of quality drinks in the meantime, and the same people I drink fizzy yellow beers with one night, may halfway jokingly refer to me as an alcohol snob the next night. I generally don't get upset about this.

One thing that does occassionally get on my nerves is having to justify making myself a champagne cocktail for brunch to binge drinking friends, who may even have a hangover from the night before. So, in honor of different drinking styles, and to calm the minds of my loved ones: No, I am not an alcoholic. The fifty bottles of booze I own do not make me a problem drinker, nor does the fact that I semi-regularly have a drink or two in the afternoon or (perish the thought) the morning.


I am a much bigger fan of constantly consuming small amounts of quality booze than consuming large amounts of cheap alcohol during short periods of time. This does not, however, make me a booze snob either. I have been known to even play a game or two of beer pong, and I generally don't fill those iconic red plastic cups with Samuel Smith's Nut Brown Ale or a home-brewed hefe. Red plastic cups should contain the light varieties of Bud or Coors. I know it's a scandalous concept for many, but I hold that it's perfectly fine to enjoy these beers in their proper context, as long as you realize that there are other things to drink out there, which are brewed, fermented, cellared, distilled, and/or mixed with much greater care for quality of ingredients and richness of taste than for dollars to be garnered (although that can be an added bonus).

You don't need to eat filet mignon every evening. Even McDonald's is fine to have on occassion. I know that not everbody agrees with me on this point, and my opinion may change, but until then, this is how I drink, in many different ways, at many different times, and with many different people. While I'm not a fan of either drunkenness or addictions, every other way to drink, I'm more than happy to encourage and join in on, though still some more than others. It also seems that people need little if any encouragement to drink cheap beer and fake martinis. The endangered and extinct styles of drinking are the ones which need a little bit more press and it is with that in mind that I encourage you all to try something new to you (classic or modern), and as always, whatever you drink, to drink it well.