Showing posts with label angostura. Show all posts
Showing posts with label angostura. Show all posts

Monday, 31 December 2012

New Year's Eve Cocktails

What better night to enjoy some Champagne or sparkling wine than New Year's? Should you be in a cocktail mood, here are some delicious drinks containing sparkling wine perfect for celebrating the arrival of 2013. We'll start with some classics and move on to more contemporary sippers.

The best choice of sparkling wine for mixing is always dry. In fact, the best wine for any use is almost always dry. Also, be aware of the acidity you're adding to the drink when you top with sparkling wine. The carbonic acid will affect the sweetness of your drink, despite the sugar content in the wine itself, which is one of the reasons to choose something dry. When mixing your other ingredients, balance things on the sweeter side, and likewise don't be surprised if you find your drink too sweet before topping with the wine as it will be dried out. French 75's, for example, should be a little sweet before you top them.

A great choice for any use is cava, as these tend to be great quality for how much you pay. Prosecco is great for the same reason, and they also tend to be dry so are excellent choices. Should you choose a North American sparkling wine or a Champagne, look for a "Brut" or "extra Brut", which means the wine is dry (i.e. not sweet). "Sec" refers to high levels of sugar, which is something you want to avoid if mixing (and in my opinion, something you should avoid altogether).

The Champagne Cocktail
1 raw sugar cube
Several dashes of Angostura or other aromatic bitters
Top with Champagne or sparkling wine

Drop the sugar cube into a Champagne flute and soak with the bitters. Top with sparkling wine. 
Garnish with a lemon twist.

This drink dates back to the 1850's and is the first recorded variation on the "cock-tail," a combination of spirit, sugar, water, and bitters. Later variations included the addition of Cognac or brandy, which is in my opinion an excellent choice and I suggest going with 1/2oz. Should you have no sugar cubes on-hand, the original recipes call for 1/2 teaspoon of sugar, or 1 teaspoon of 1:1 simple syrup. Twist as always means just the peel of the lemon with the pith cut off, which you squeeze over the top of the drink to extract the oil.

French 75
1oz gin
1/2oz lemon juice
1 teaspoon of sugar
Sparkling wine

Shake ingredients with ice and strain into a cocktail coupe or Champagne flute. Top with sparkling wine.


This drink originated at Harry's New York Bar in Paris in 1915, created by American bar owner Harry MacElhone. The drink was said to "pack a punch like the French 75mm field gun," hence the name. The above recipe is from Harry Craddock's seminal cocktail tome, "The Savoy Cocktail Book," though more modern recipes contain up to 2oz of gin (which I must be honest I prefer). In David Embury's equally as influential cocktail book, "The Art of Mixing Drinks," the recipe claims that Cognac is the true spirit of choice here, lest the drink not be called the "French" 75. However, considering that earlier recipes call for gin and that earlier accounts claim the name comes from the French rifle and not from the spirit, the general consensus is that the drink be made with gin, which in my opinion makes a better drink anyway. Dropping a real cherry into the bottom of the glass adds a nice touch.

Buck and Breck
1.5oz Cognac or brandy
Dash of absinthe
2 dashes Angostura or other aromatic bitters
Sparkling wine

Rinse a small glass or Champagne flute with water. Fill the glass with powdered sugar and throw it out, leaving the glass frosted inside. Pour in the brandy, bitters, and absinthe, then top the glass with cold sparkling wine.

This drink is supposedly created by the grandfather of the cocktail, Jerry Thomas, in the mid 1800's. It is not only a fancy-looking drink, but a more obscure one and very tasty. Should you be without absinthe, absente, pastis, Herbsaint, or pernod will suffice, but be aware of their shortcomings in flavour and complexity in comparison to actual absinthe.

Seelbach Cocktail
1oz bourbon
1/2oz Cointreau
7 dashes Angostura bitters
7 dashes Peychaud's bitters
Sparkling wine

Stir bourbon, Cointreau, and bitters with ice. Strain into a cocktail coupe or Champagne flute and top with sparkling wine. Garnish with a lemon twist.

This was a favourite of mine for a time, and one that I brought to Pourhouse in Vancouver where we included it on our fall menu this year. It comes from the Seelbach Hotel in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1917. During Prohibition, the cocktail was lost until the mid-1990's when it was found in the basement of the hotel during renovations. The infamous Gary Regan convinced the hotel management to share their recipe for this spicy drink and now it is available for us all to enjoy. Should you be using other bitters, be aware of their bitterness and adjust accordingly. Bitter Truth Creole Bitters, for example, is more complex and interesting than Peychaud's, but are much more bitters and only require 2-3 dashes.

Death In The Afternoon
1.5oz absinthe
Sparkling wine

Pour absinthe into a Champagne flute and top with sparkling wine (at least 4oz). 

This one was invented by Hernest Hemingway, who was by all accounts a heavy and creative drinker. It was named after his novel published in 1932. This was not the only drink he created, another one of note being the Hemingway Daquiri or Papa Doble, with rum, grapefruit, lime, and maraschino liqueur, which is by all means worth making in the summer. 

Moving on to more modern cocktails, here is a French 75 variation by Dale Degroff using bourbon instead of gin.

French 95
1oz fresh orange juice
3/4oz bourbon
3/4oz simple syrup
1/2oz fresh lemon juice
Sparkling wine. 

Shake the first four ingredients with ice and strain over rocks into a fizz glass. Top with sparkling wine. 

And here are three great original sparkling wine cocktails contributed to this site for previous series.

Jones' Bitter Aperitif (Evelyn Chick, Blue Water Cafe, Vancouver)
1/2oz Amaro Averna

1/4oz Cynar
1/4oz Taylor 10 Tawny Port
Barspoon All-Spice Syrup

Sparkling wine

Stir all ingredients with ice, strain into champagne flute & top with dry cava


All-Spice Syrup:
Boil a tablespoon of crushed allspice berries, one stick of cinnamon, and three cloves in one litre of water. Simmer for 15 minutes on low, then add two litres of sugar. Stir until dissolved, then let cool before bottling. 


The Shibuya Crusta (Shaun Layton, L'Abattoir, Vancouver)

20 ml Hennessy VS Cognac
15 ml Maraschino
30 ml fresh lemon juice
10 ml orgeat syrup
7 dashes Angostura bitters
Cava

Add all ingredients to a shaker tin minus the Cava. Shake, fine strain into sugar decked flute. Top with Cava. Garnish with a long orange peel around the inside of the flute. 
 
And a personal favourite of mine that we still serve by request at Pourhouse, The Bittercup. Two bitter amari along with fresh juices and sparkling wine combine to create a very complex cocktail tasting like bitter strawberry.
 
The Bittercup
1 oz  Campari
1/2oz Fernet Branca
1/2oz real cranberry juice (not cranberry cocktail)
3/4oz fresh grapefruit juice
1/4oz simple syrup
2 oz dry prosecco


Pour all ingredients except prosecco into a shaker. Shake. Taste and balance bitterness with simple syrup (the taste of bitter strawberries is the goal). Double strain into a cocktail glass. Finish with prosecco. 
 
Happy New Year's!

Monday, 24 December 2012

Winter Cocktails: French 75 in New Orleans

It is with great appreciation and honour that I present a whopping total of four Christmas cocktails from the historic New Orleans bar, the French 75. The bar itself was built in the late 1800's, but was renovated in the 1970's, and reinvented in 2003 with an emphasis on premium spirits and cigars, and of course the new renaissance in cocktails. This award-winning bar is the first in New Orleans to grace this site, and they have graciously contributed a handful of recipes.

"The Winter Waltz," a rye, amaro, and Christmas spice mix, is named after head bartender Chris Hannah's favourite Frank Sinatra Christmas Carol. "The Contessa" is a nod to the character in Tennesse Williams' novel, "The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone." Contessa was the swindler in the book who introduced the Negroni to the characters in tho novel.

Winter Waltz
2 oz Rye Whiskey
1/2 oz Averna Amaro
1/4 oz St. Elizabeth's Allspice dram
2 dashes Angostura bitters
 

Shake with ice, strain into cocktail glass, garnish with star anise.

Dicken's Toddy
2 oz Wild Turkey bourbon
1/2 oz Maple Syrup
3 dashes Angostura Bitters
 

Build like and Old-Fashioned in a rocks glass with ice, garnish with an orange peel and a cherry.

Contessa
3/4 oz London Dry Gin or Plymouth Gin
3/4 oz Aperol
3/4 oz Ruby Red Grapefruit juice
1/2 oz Cranberry Cordial
2 dashes Orange Bitters


Shake with ice, strain into chilled cocktail glass, garnish with an orange peel.


(We make the Cranberry cordial similar to making Cranberry Sauce)

A fairly simple alternative to making a cordial is making an infused simple syrup. By adding equal parts water to sugar (usually 1 cup) and adding fresh cranberries to the mix once the sugar dissolves over low heat, you can make a cranberry syrup to use in this and other similar Christmas cocktails).  

Charante Hessian
1 1/2 oz Cognac
1 1/2 oz Pumpkin Butter
1/4 oz St. Elizabeth's Allspice dram
4 oz boiling hot water
 

Build in a tempered glass or mug, stir and garnish with grated cinnamon and nutmeg.

Pumpkin butter is a compound butter with added pumpkin puree.

Cheers to the French 75 team and their amazing bar in such a historically exciting city.
Merry Christmas everyone!

Thursday, 20 December 2012

Winter Cocktails: Teardrop Lounge in Portland

Portland will be making its first appearance on this site today! Having finally been able to visit for my first time this year, I was blown away by the amount of great food and drink available (and also by the number of strip clubs, but that's not really relevant). The cocktails were consistently great, as was the coffee, and of course the prices (no tax is as fun as you think). Taking a tour down Distillery Road and seeing the impressive number of great spirits being made in one city was also exciting. House Spirits Distillery stood out to me in particular, with Krogstad aquavit and Aviation gin, and their delicious and fresh-tasting coffee liqueur. The number of high quality bars in the city is exciting as well, with Clyde Common, Kask, Rum Club, Beaker & Flask, The Driftwood Room, and Teardrop Lounge - just to name a few. It is with great pleasure that I am able to share some holiday drink recipes from the most latter of these names, one of the best bars in the U.S., the Teardrop Lounge.

Teardrop has an amazing program with a focus on fresh and high-quality ingredients, adopting as they say the "Golden Rule of the kitchen: the finished product relies entirely upon the quality of source ingredients." Their
diverse menu has a nice collection of original drinks, obscure classics, and those made by friends in other renowned bars. Each of the three menus offer a punch for the table, an excellent and fun way to start your drinking evening.

Bartender and co-owner Daniel Shoemaker has graciously contributed a total of four holiday drinks along with recipes. I will separate these into two separate posts for easier absorption.

First up is the Long Time Coming, a pisco-based cocktail with three house-made ingredients: a cherry digestif, a port redux, and truffle bitters. Daniel shares his recipes for each of these ingredients below, and I hope you find them as creatively inspiring as I do!
Following that is the Humble Pie, a mix of blended Scotch and applejack with Christmas spice flavours like pimento, ginger, and peppercorn.

Long Time Coming
2 oz Campo de Encanto pisco
¾ oz Cherry Digestif*
½ oz Port Reduction*
8 drops Truffle bitters*

Stir with ice, strain into a chilled cocktail glass.  
No garnish.  

*Cherry Digestif
8 Quart cherry pits, topped with GNS, stored in cool place for 1 month, agitated daily.  Strain, add:
40 g dandelion root, toasted                                                
15 g gentian, toasted
40 g cedar chips, toasted                                    
8 g rhubarb root, toasted
40 g dong quoi                                                            
3 g horehound
15 g Cherry Bark                   
Steep all ingredients for an additional 24-36 hours.  
Strain, bottle.

*Port Redux
750ml Ruby port
1/4 oz cane sugar
6 cloves
2 star anise
15 green cardamom pods
1 Indonesian cinnamon sticks, crushed
Bring all ingredients to a light simmer, stirring occasionally until total liquid has reduced by 1/3.  
Allow to cool to room temperature, strain & bottle.

*Truffle Bitters
1 lb unsalted butter
½ oz Oregon black truffles
2 – 750 ml high-proof rye
½ cup toasted quassia
1/8 cup rose hips
1/8 cup sweet orange peel
1 tablespoon grains of paradise
1 tablespoon angelica
1 teaspoon fennel seed
1 teaspoon cumin seed
Clarify butter in heavy-bottomed saucepan at low heat for 1 hour.  Remove from heat, pour over thinly sliced truffles.  Let steep for 1 hour.  Strain through sieve into large, non-reactive container.  Pour rye in with butter, let steep airtight for 6 weeks. Freeze overnight to let separate. Strain off butter & all solids, returning rye to container. Add rose hips, orange peel, & qussia. Let steep for 10 days.  Add remaining spices & seasonings, let steep for 3 more days. Strain, add 1 tablespoon caramelized sugar syrup. Pour through funnel into oak barrel (treated with fine sherry for previous 6 weeks). Let age for 3 months. Strain, filter through brita filter & bottle.

Humble Pie
1 oz Laird's bonded applejack
1 oz Famous Grouse blended scotch
1/4 oz ginger syrup (2:1)
1 teaspoon rich demerara syrup (2:1)
4 dashes pimento dram
1 dash Angostura bitters
2 grinds black peppercorn
Candied ginger
Stir all ingredients with ice, strain over a large ice cube in a  rocks glass.  
Garnish with a piece of candied ginger on a small skewer. 


Stay tuned later tonight for two more holiday recipes from the Teardrop Lounge!


More Holiday Drinks!
[[ Teardrop Lounge Part 2 ]]

Wednesday, 12 December 2012

Winter Cocktails: Old Saint Juan by Shea Hogan in Vancouver

Today we have a change of pace in terms of style. Shea Hogan from Vancouver's West and Bitter brings us a mezcal cocktail simple in ingredients but dense and robust in flavour. A cocktail that makes me really think of winter is the Trinidad Sour, employing a full ounce of Angostura bitters to give heavy hits of cinnamon, clove, and other Christmas-like spices (something only possible by balancing with orgeat). Here, Shea uses 3/4oz along with the mezcal for a very spicy and smoky winter drink.
He explains it himself:

"It's rather simple, but that's my style. I like to create drinks that almost anyone can make almost anywhere and that are still delicious while holding true to the theme I'm tasked with. Inspired from the aromas of Christmas, mezcal conjures up memories of sitting around the fireplace, watching the flames dance late at night all season long. Sombra mezcal comes from a little village called San Juan, 100 kilometers or so south of Oaxaca. San Juan means Saint John, Santa is Old Saint Nick... you get the idea."

Old Saint Juan
1 1/2 oz Mezcal (Sombra preferred, though Fidencio works nicely as well)
3/4 oz Angostura Bitters
3/4 oz simple syrup (1:1)
1/2 oz lime juice


Shake ingredients with ice and double strain into couple glass, 
garnish with one decent sized mint leaf.


You can see Shea's drink from last month's Halloween series here





[["Yukon Cornelius" from Veneto in Victoria ]]
[[ "The Rockefeller" from Veneto in Victoria ]]
[[ The Hot Toddy ]]
[[ Winter drinks from Smuggler's Cove in San Francisco ]]
[[ "Bear Skin" from The Refinery in Vancouver ]]
[[ "Cold & Delicious" from The Violet Hour in Chicago ]]
[[ The history of Eggnog ]]
[[ "Gold," "Frankincense," and "Myrrh" from Trevor Kallies in Vancouver ]]
[[ "Old Saint Juan" from Shea Hogan in Vancouver ]]
[[ "Hot Buttered Rhum Cider" from Slanted Door in San Francisco ]]
[[ The history of mulled wine ]]
[[ The history of The Flip ]]
[[ Hot Buttered Rum ]]

Tuesday, 31 July 2012

Bittered Sling Extracts: Grant Sceney at the Fairmont Pacific Rim

Both the Fairmont Pacific Rim and the lead bartender in its Lobby Lounge, Grant Sceney, are new additions to Vancouver. Hailing from Melbourne, Australia, and spending two years bartending on an island in the Great Barrier Reef before calling British Columbia home, Grant has obviously picked up the craft quickly and didn't waste any time making his mark on downtown's drinking scene. With a new menu focusing on both classic and modern drinks, and implementing both barrel-aging and the Perlini carbonation system, this Fairmont is already standing out. An Aviation along with a barrel-aged Rob Roy and Bijou sit next to the Seattle-inspired carbonated Corpse Reviver #2 and Sidecar, and the originals are consistent with most of the contributors in this series having a focus on the culinary approach to mixing drinks. The "Pacific Rim Sour," is a mandarin orange-infused pisco sour with a touch of hibiscus, for example, while the "Bali Hai" features pear and thyme-infused gin and a ginseng and goji berry tincture mixed with agave, lime, and coconut water. Osmanthus and jalapeno both make infusion appearances as well, as does a Hoegaarden beer cocktail with Wiser's whisky, lemon, and honey called the "Chronicle."
Likely the most interesting of the bunch, though, is the drink Grant has chosen to share today - "Seven Days in Havana." The most sophisticated of the bunch, and likely requiring more of an experienced palate than its menu neighbours, this sipper has some complex bitter character from all of Bittered Sling Peach and Pepper extract, Angostura, and Punt e mes. The unique aspect of the drink is the barrel-aged Cointreau, which sat in a 1.5L American oak barrel for ten weeks, which not only rounds and smooths the flavour, but also pairs very nicely both in flavour and intention with the aged Havana Club rum.

Grant explains his intentions:
"I created the drink after returning from the Havana Club Grand Prix International Cocktail Competition in Havana, which I was fortunate enough to be sent to by Havana Club despite not competing. The name comes from the movie funded by the rum called "Seven Days in Havana," which is seven short stories done by seven different directors highlighting seven different days living in the city. I was in Havana for seven days myself, and using the seven-year-old rum all fits the name. The seven-year-old is the first sipping rum of their line and thus I created this sipping drink to accompany and emphasize the characteristics of an aged rum. The structure is based on that of the Vieux Carre, and each component and ingredient helps add further complexity and depth while maintaining the integrity of the rum.
Kale and Nori's Peach and Pepper bitters is the perfect addition, with the pepper playing on the spice element from the oak and the peach holding together the orange and honey notes from the Cointreau. A bouquet of flowers moves across the palate with an underlying subtle smoke and peat element carried through by the Laphroaig. The Punt e Mes maintains the body with its mild bitter being further emphasized by Angostura, and this quality is essential in balancing the mild sweetness from the Cointreau."

Seven Days in Havana

1.5 oz Havana Club 7 Year-Old Rum
0.5 oz Punt e Mes
0.33 oz barrel-aged Cointreau
2 drops Bittered Sling Peach & Pepper Extract

1 dash Angostura bitters
Laphroaig Single Malt Scotch Rinse


Stir with ice in a mixing glass, strain over rocks in a Laphroaig rinsed glass.
Garnish with a lemon twist.


If you're looking for somewhere new to try, or like me you're following a Bittered Sling treasure map throughout the city, make the Lobby Lounge in the Fairmont Pacific Rim your next stop.


See the Bittered Sling introduction here
See Dani Tatarin from The Keefer mix something up in her Chinese apothecary-style here
See Justin Taylor from Yew mix up some infused and barrel-aged spirits here
See Evelyn Chick from Uva Wine Bar make some fresh-fruit seasonal cocktails here 
See Jay Jones from Market by JG in the Shangri-La Hotel mix a spirit-forward classic-stye drink here 
See David Wolodidnyk's world-wide competition-winning cocktail here

Monday, 30 April 2012

Amaro April: "Intro To Aperol" From Audrey Saunders of Pegu Club


"Forty miles up the Rangoon River in the land of the Golden Pagodas, on the hot balmy nights of the late 1800's, one might find themselves at the Pugu Club," as the website for Pegu Club in New York puts it. Pegu itself is a place of rich history - a battleground in both Burmese wars before being taken over by the British in the mid 19th century - and as Kipling puts it in "Sea to Sea," the club was "always filled with lots of people either on their way up or on their way down." The club had a house-cocktail, as most clubs do, but this one became wildly popular everywhere, landing itself in Craddock's Savoy Cocktail Book in 1930, and surviving today because of its perfect balance. Fast forward to 2005, when Audrey Saunders opens a new bar in New York with 27 gins and 3 vodkas (which for the record are kept underneath the bar not on its shelves), at a time when, as she puts it, "99 percent of all the bars in New York had at least 20 vodkas on the back-bar and maybe 3 gins," and names it after this gin classic.

Audrey Saunders, whose original background was in cuisine, famously took one seminar from Dale DeGroff on mixology in the mid 1990's - during the dark ages of the cocktail when such a focus was unheard of - and was smitten. She went on to run several famous and award-winning bar programs in New York before finally opening Pegu Club in 2005, a name that consistently ends up on everyone's top bar lists, and greatly contributed to making some amazing products more accessible and better known, including Chartreuse, Punt e Mes, and yes - amari. Audrey's accomplishments and awards, along with those of Pegu Club are way too vast to mention or even summarize here, and my guess is that if you're reading this blog, you probably already know all this anyway.

Audrey is also one of the most influential and earliest "mixologists" in the sense that she was experimenting with infusions and really modern creative ideas from an experimental and culinary perspective. David Wondrich calls Audrey a "research mixologist, applying scientific method to her cocktails," giving the example of infusing vodka with only pith, the white part of a citrus peel that should be removed to avoid bitterness, just to see how bitter her infusion will be. While most bars were still just learning about how to mix Campari or Chartreuse by going backwards to historical cocktail books, Audrey was already infusing them with fruit to see what she could come up with, something that is fairly common practice now, but even five years ago was fairly outlandish. In fact, for a Canadian perspective, it was actually illegal in B.C. to infuse alcohol with anything until two or three years ago. Now look at where we are with places like The Keefer and The Refinery doing what they do.

Needless to say, it is a great honour to receive a recipe from Audrey for Amaro April, and it's a delicious one at that. Aperol first became available in the U.S. in 2006, and since nobody was familiar with it, she created a cocktail to introduce its flavours through a fairly simple but excellently balanced drink. It's an inverted cocktail, in that the Aperol is 2:1 to the gin, and the gin "acts as a spine for the drink and allows it to stand up, avoiding any potential flabbiness," as she puts it. Beefeater is specifically chosen for its citrus botanicals, namely orange and lemon, which match the lemon juice and strong orange character in the Aperol. Finally, Audrey chooses a flamed orange peel to "deepen the essential oil and mellow it, which works well with the overall brightness of the drink's profile."
Aside from being very tasty, this one is perfect for anyone interested but unfamiliar with Aperol or amari in general as it's very palatable, but still has just a hint of the bitter and herbal character that are the staple of any amaro. It's also very easy to make at home, opposed to the majority of what we've seen this month, so it's a great place to start.

Intro To Aperol

2 oz Aperol
1 oz Beefeater Gin
3/4 oz Lemon Juice
1/4 oz Simple Syrup (1:1)
1 dash Angostura Bitters


Add all ingredients with ice and shake. Strain into a cocktail glass.Garnish with a flamed orange peel.


A quick note on flaming a peel: if you haven't done it before, simply cut a thick and fairly large piece of orange peel and hold it over your glass. Let the flame from your lighter or match touch the peel for a few seconds to heat the oil, then squeeze the oils over the drink like you normally would - through the flame. This will create a small spark of fire (don't worry it's not dangerous). Then drop the peel in the drink.

A big thank you to to Audrey and Pegu Club for contributing; I am most honoured and humbled. If you are at all unfamiliar with her contribution, please just google and catch up, and if you're in New York and haven't been there you should be ashamed and rectify this immediately.


[[ See my post on amaro digestivos here ]]
[[ See my post on amaro aperivos here ]]
[[ See a buying guide for amaro here ]]

[[ See "The One Hit Wonder" from L'abattoir in Vancouver here ]]
[[ See "The Penny Farthing" from Pourhouse here ]]
[[ See an introduction to amaro  here ]]
[[ See "The Imperial Eagle" from Bourbon & Branch here ]]
[[ See "Sevilla" from Beretta here ]]
[[ See "Fallow Grave" from the Toronto Temperance Society here ]]
[[ See "The Black Prince" from Phil Ward here ]]
[[ See "Bad Apple" and "Jackson Ward" from Amor y Amargo here ]]
[[ See "The Four Horsemen" from Jay Jones at Shangri-La here ]]
[[ See Colin MacDougall from Blue Water Cafe here ]]
[[ See "Debbie Don't" from Dutch Kills here ]]
[[ See "Foolish Games" from Russel Davis here ]]
[[ See "Welcome To The Dark Side" from Cin Cin here ]]

[[ Photography courtesy of Pegu Club, and Tales of the Cocktail ]]

Monday, 23 April 2012

Amaro April: "The Four Horsemen" from Jay Jones

Today and tomorrow we will be changing pace a little and looking at two very simple, classic-style cocktails using Averna. The first takes us to the Shangri-La Hotel in Vancouver where award-winning bartender, Jay Jones, gives us his "Four Horsemen."
Jones, or "BARJONESING" (who you can follow @BARJONESING on Twitter), is a veteran of the Vancouver scene, having been behind the wine, beer, and cocktail programs at some really great places in town, including Nu, Salt, Voya, the Donnelly Group, a five year stint at one of my favourites, West, and also co-created and opened Pourhouse in Gastown before heading to Shangri-La in early 2011, where you can now find him behind the bar at Market. He's a Certified Specialist of Spirits, a founding member of the Canadian Professional Bartenders Association, a contributing writer at Montecristo and Urban Diner magazines, a multiple award-winner (including a few Bartender of the Year awards, and the recently announced "Most Imaginative Bartender" by GQ Magazine), and despite only having the chance to be served by him once so far, I can say he's definitely one of the most talented bartenders I've had the pleasure of meeting. Needless to say, you should head to Market and meet Jay when you can, especially if you feel like learning a thing or two and enjoying a perfectly balanced cocktail.

As for his drink, it was originally created as a holiday offering over Christmas last year to "resound the assertive qualities of Maker's 46 in the spirit and architecture of a Manhattan," as Jones puts it. "It speaks not only to the bourbon, but allows each component to speak distinctly as an individual while simultaneously creating harmony with its colleagues." Entering 2012, which is of course when the Mayan calendar ends and therefore as some see it, The Apocalypse, Jones named his drink for the occasion after the harbingers of the Last Judgement as prophesized in the New Testament. Each of the four ingredients, or "The Four Horsemen of The Four Horsemen," are represented as follows:

War - Maker's 46 Kentucky Straight Bourbon - declares battle and charges through you

Death - Amaro Averna - your bittersweet demise; a pull towards the darkness

Conquest - Abricot de Roussillon - taunting with the sweet; a seduction of righteous victory

Famine - Angostura Bitters - the scent and taste of the bitter end approaches with certainty.


(Perhaps you understand the aforementioned "Most Imaginative Bartender")...

As for flavour, Jay explains:
"Bitterness is certainly essential to the structure, but also dictates the flow and complexity across the palate. Averna is the body of the drink - fattening the personality with sweet tones of coffee and chocolate. It's bitterness is amplified by a heavy dose of Angostura. I tried a variety of different aromatic bitters, but in the end, it was good 'ol Angostura that gave me the tone I sought. Abricot de Roussilon provides a very specific sensual nuance - not just expressing apricot, but also almond, coffee, coconut, plum, and cherry-like subtleties derived from its drupe genetics. [It's] complexity allows it to play immensely well with others."

The Four Horsemen

1.5oz Maker's 46 Bourbon
0.75oz Amaro Avera Siciliano
0.5oz Giffard Abricot de Roussilon
4 hard dashes Angostura Bitters

Combine all ingredients with ice in a mixing glass, stir gently for 15-20 seconds, then fine strain into a cocktail coupe. 

No garnish.

This is a nice departure from the mostly modern cocktails that we are seeing this month, and Jones hopes it will some day be looked upon as a modern classic. Take a trip to Market, have him make you one, and you be the judge.
Thanks to Jay Jones for his excellent contribution and for being such an important part of making Vancouver the cocktail destination it has become today!



See you tomorrow for another first-time trip for this blog, this time to Blue Water Cafe in Yaletown...

[[ Photography by Mark Prince Photography - @CoffeeGeek - (top) and Jay Jones (cocktail) ]]

[[ See my post on amaro digestivos here ]]
[[ See my post on amaro aperivos here ]]
[[ See a buying guide for amaro here ]]

[[ See "The One Hit Wonder" from L'abattoir in Vancouver here ]]
[[ See "The Penny Farthing" from Pourhouse here ]]
[[ See an introduction to amaro  here ]]
[[ See "The Imperial Eagle" from Bourbon & Branch here ]]
[[ See "Sevilla" from Beretta here ]]
[[ See "Fallow Grave" from the Toronto Temperance Society here ]]
[[ See "The Black Prince" from Phil Ward here ]]
[[ See "Bad Apple" and "Jackson Ward" from Amor y Amargo here ]]
[[ See Colin MacDougall from Blue Water Cafe here ]]
[[ See "Debbie Don't" from Dutch Kills here ]]
[[ See "Welcome to the Dark Side" from Cin Cin here ]]
[[ See "Foolish Games" from Russell Davis here ]]
[[ See "Intro To Aperol" from Audrey Saunders at Pegu Club here ]]

Tuesday, 13 March 2012

Maraschino March: "The Shibuya Crusta" from L'Abattoir

Tonight we head back to Gastown to once again visit Shaun Layton at one of my favourite places for food and drink in Vancouver, L'Abattoir. (You can check out my review here)

Shaun combined a few different cocktails to come up with this one, namely a Brandy Crusta and a Japanese. The former was originally a style of drink (much like the "Cocktail") using a spirit, lemon, Maraschino, Cointreau, bitters, and served with a large piece of lemon peel wrapped around the inside of the glass. The latter is simply brandy, orgeat, and Angostura bitters. Shaun is also adding sparkling wine to the mix and upping the amount of the bitters, like a Champagne Cocktail or Seelbach. Add all these elements together and you've got a fairly complicated, yet light, creative drink. Shaun manages to balance a lot of elements here, in particular using the orgeat to calm down the seven (as he says, "that's right, seven") dashes of Angostura - or perhaps the bitters calms down the orgeat? The Cava really ties everything together, and the Crusta-style of presentation makes this a truly enjoyable drink on all levels.

The Shibuya Crusta

20 ml Hennessy VS Cognac
15 ml Maraschino
30 ml fresh lemon juice
10 ml orgeat syrup
7 dashes Angostura bitters
Top with Cava

Add all ingredients to a shaker tin minus the Cava. Shake, fine strain into sugar decked flute. Top with Cava. Garnish with a long orange peel around the inside of the flute.



 Head down to L'Abattoir to check this one out, and do yourself a favour and stay for dinner and extra cocktails. 
Thanks to Shaun and & L'Abattoir for contributing!

[[ see "Oden's Muse" from Tavern Law here ]]
[[ see "The Hemingway Solution" from Vessel here ]]
[[ see the Maraschino March introduction here ]]
[[ see "The Division Bell" from Mayahuel here ]]
[[ see "The Unforgiven" from Russell Davis of Rickhouse here ]]
[[ see "Cherry Bob-omb" from Veneto here ]]
[[ see "Primer Beso" from The Refinery here ]]
[[ see "The Rubicon" from Jamie Boudreau at Canon here ]] 

Tuesday, 10 January 2012

Review: The Hideout

My lady and I made a trip to Seattle in November for the horror exhibit at the EMP (which was amazing), some vintage clothes shopping, some good food and theater, cheap booze (notably Martin Miller's gin, American rye, Carpano Antica, and a beautiful liqueur de violettes), and of course, some cocktails. I knew I had to visit the Zig Zag Cafe because of Murray Stenson's legacy there and the award-winning cocktail menu, but our other night was a wildcard. So, I used Yelp to find the best reviewed bars anywhere near our location in Seattle, as well as Jamie Boudreau's list of Seattle watering holes, and came up with a short list. We checked out websites, cocktail menus where applicable, and of course, pictures. We ultimately decided on The Hideout based mostly on the look and the general description on their website.

Walking into the Hideout we were immediately excited to see a bar with a very different look than what you usually see. The ceilings were sky-high, the lighting was dark, the mood very casual, and the walls were completely covered in local artwork. According to their site, there are over 70 paintings on the walls, staying for weeks to years, and most of the pieces are for sale.
This art continued in some really interesting ways: there is a vending machine near the washroom that sells only small, quirky art pieces, and there is a book on the bar filled with impromptu drawings and writings done by patrons. (I say vending machine, but it's actually a self-proclaimed robot - the Robotic Art Dispenser named Earl 3.0).
While all of this could impart an heir of pretension and hipster-ism, we didn't get that feeling once we sat down for our drinks. The bartenders were very friendly and skilled, and flipping through the art journal we got a good couple hours of entertainment before reaching our unfortunate alcoholic limit.

While the food menu is very limited, the cocktail menu is excellent. The selection of spirits is large and diverse, and the cocktails are modern but not over-complicated with some really interesting ideas. It includes a new classic, the Trident, and an obscure classic from the Savoy Cocktail Book, the Champs Elysees. On top of this they have the following selections that I feel really show how great this bar is:

The Andy Warhol
A Cosmopolitan and a polaroid picture of yourself
(and there was a collection of these pictures for viewing at the bar)

The Hemmingway
A shot of Hornitos, bottle of Carta Blanca, and a Nat Sherman cigarette

Every drink on the menu looked great, and the last drink we tried seemed like a combination you'd only come up with by being really creative, or really crazy (probably both): The Profanity Hill with Blackstrap rum, Fernet Branca, blackberry preserves, and Gosling's ginger beer. This is one of a very small handful of Fernet cocktails that I don't feel are overpowered by the extremely potent Fernet flavours.
We had the pleasure of being served by the lovely and talented bar manager, Kristen, who actually came up with the Profanity Hill cocktail, as well as one I'm going to share below, the Swan. She was very friendly, made some excellent drinks, and was happy to give me the below recipe, which has become a regular addition to my home menu.

All in all, we didn't really have anything negative to say about our experience at the Hideout, other than our disappointment we couldn't drink more (after drinking too much the night before). Great menu, great bartenders, unique decor, and interesting art in all directions. I highly recommend you stop by if you find yourself in Seattle - but for drinks, not for food, as that's just not their thing.
(Their website doesn't seem to have their cocktail menu for you to peruse yourself, but I'm hoping they'll change that soon! If I was deciding on where to go for drinks, their menu would definitely keep them at the top of my list)

The Swan Cocktail
(not to be confused with another couple cocktails online with the same name that feature either very different proportions with Abbott's bitters, or *shudder* stawberry vodka, stawberry liqueur, and creme liqueur. Did I say *shudder* already?)
1&1/2 oz gin
1&1/2 oz dry vermouth
3/4 oz fresh lime juice
3/4 oz simple syrup
2 dashes Angostura bitters
2 dashes absinthe
Combine all ingredients, add ice and shake, strain into a cocktail glass. 

This is a very well balanced cocktail that very interestingly uses a whole 1 and 1/2 oz of dry vermouth - but don't let that scare you if you don't like vermouth. It doesn't taste vermouth heavy at all, but the herbal notes are still present and play well with the gin and absinthe. This is definitely one you must make for anyone who says "I hate vermouth!"
For gin, Kristen used Gordon's. This confused me because Gordon's in my opinion is really not a good gin at all, but perhaps this is a Seattle thing as the bartenders at Zig Zag were using it as well, even on more delicate cocktails. I suggest using something with more interesting herbal character, like Tanqueray, or Hendrick's or Martin Miller's if you have them.

Enjoy! Thanks to Kristen for her skill and hospitality, and thanks to the Hideout for being a great bar.

[[ Check out "Profanity Hill" cocktail here ]]