Part of the fun of drinking cocktails is tapping into a history and a culture of a particular time. This is a discussion of drinks, spirits, bartending, and history for beginners and professionals alike.
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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!
There are a lot of newcomers to the site this month, and today I have the pleasure of sharing three drinks from a Vancouver veteran. Trevor Kallies is currently the bar and beverage director for the Donnelly Group, owners of sixteen bars, nightclubs, pubs, and barber shops in the city. He is an award-winning bartender and also a director and founding member of the Canadian Professional Bartenders Association.
Trevor is graciously sharing recipes for three holiday drinks he's been working on, all festively named and all using a Kale & Nori Bittered Sling Extract, a line of bitters created by local chef and mixologist team Jonathan Chovancek and Lauren Mote.
Gold
1oz Jameson Irish Whiskey
1oz Benedictine
1 barspoon peach-jalapeño preserves
3 dashes Bittered Sling Plum & Rootbeer bitters
Shake ingredients with ice and strain into a cocktail glass rimmed with gold flakes.
Frankincense
1.5oz Beefeater 24
1oz white grapefruit juice
0.5oz Yellow Chartreuse
3 dashes Bittered Sling Orange & Juniper bitters
Shake ingredients with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a spruce tip.
Myrrh
1oz Glenlivet Scotch Whisky
1oz Tio Pepe dry sherry
0.5oz Lillet
3 dashes Bittered Sling Moondog bitters
Stir ingredients with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with mandarin orange zest layered with cranberries on a pick.
Salty
The body response here is primarily a recognition of essential minerals, namely sodium, potassium, and calcium. An excellent source of saltiness for a drink is soda water, as it almost always contains some level of these minerals.
Increasing the salty will
- Increase the sweet
- Decrease the sour
- Decrease the bitter.
A good example of the latter here is drinking bitters. I drink bitters all the time at home by throwing a few dashes in some soda, which makes it more palatable. I can't drink bitters by itself, and some of the most bitter bitters are just too much in water alone (which will still have the dilution), but the soda takes a bit of the edge off. (Plus, it's amazing for an upset stomach - try a few dashes of Angostura in some soda water next time you're having digestion issues.)
If your drink is too sour or bitter, an easy solution is to top with a little soda (drinking a Mojito without the soda, for example, is too sour). If your drink is too sweet, adding soda is probably not a good idea. The level of saltiness in soda is quite small, so this rule should be taken... yes... with a grain of salt. It's still good to consider in this grand scheme of taste-things.
Sour Sourness is essentially the acidity of the solution, so adding a lot of citrus (citric acid) will make the drink sour. [On the subject of soda water, which is carbonic acid and therefore acidic, the minerals and therefore saltiness of the soda reduce the perceived sourness, making a more balanced taste in your mouth.]
Increasing the sour will
- Increase the salty
- Increase the bitter
- Decrease the sweet.
If your drink is too sweet, adding sour will balance it out. If your drink is too bitter, adding sour is not a good idea, and so on. Sour mainly comes from the use of citrus juice, and some types are more sour than others - lime is actually more acidic than lemon, with grapefruit and orange following afterwards. If you need some sour to really cut through a drink and other flavours, lime is the best option. There are a few good examples of this, such as The Last Word, which has both Maraschino and Green Chartreuse dominating the flavour profile, but using lime cuts through the sweetness of the liqueurs but also calms down both flavours more effectively than lemon or grapefruit would.
We head north again for the next two original cocktails, both of which use a lot more Maraschino than you'd expect, or probably have ever seen. First, is the "Cherry Bob-omb" (which I'm told is a Scott Pilgrim reference) from Simon Ogden at Veneto in Victoria. (You can see my review here).
Simon, head bartender at Veneto, is also a founding member and writer for the Lyric Stage Project (a collective of artists involved in theatre), spends much of his time not behind the bar on or around a theatre stage, and contributes as well to local publications and websites discussing drink in B.C. (such as Urban Diner). You can check out his personal blog here.
His influence is felt here in Vancouver as well, where you can go to the Clough Club (one of my favourite new cocktail bars) and order both his creation from Veneto "The Wax Poetic" (with bourbon, grapefruit, agave, lemon, Peychaud's, egg white, and flamed grapefruit peel), and "The Ogden" (bourbon, maple syrup, absinthe, menthe pastille, and flamed orange). The latter was created by Jay Jones, a director on the Canadian Professional Bartenders Association, and recently named the 2012 Canadian Bartender of the Year (you can find him at Market in the Shangri-la Hotel in downtown Vancouver).
Simon is one of many reasons why Veneto is such a great place, and to reiterate my review, I encourage anyone in Victoria to head down there as soon as possible if you enjoy well-crafted cocktails and delicious food.
Simon has created a cocktail specifically for this series that is "built to showcase the Maraschino specifically, and even with the light Tequila at the base, everything frames it nicely." It looks really interesting, and I'm excited to see how everything balances, but this is not one most of us will be able to make at home due to the addition of Guignolet, a cherry liqueur from Angers in France (from the same place and in part the same people who make Cointreau). The solution is simple - get to Veneto and have Simon make you one.
Cherry Bob-omb
1.5 oz El Jimador Blanco Tequila
1 oz Maraschino (I used Luxardo)
1 oz Giffard Guignolet D'Angers
1 oz Fresh Grapefruit Juice
2 dashes Bitter Truth Grapefruit Bitters
Stir together ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a flamed grapefruit zest.
A point of interest here as well is the "stir" word showing up in a juice cocktail. I often say "shake anything with juice, cream, or egg - stir everything else," but this is a general rule and is thereby probably meant to be broken (much like shaking a Martini, which is fairly common). Simon says: "I personally stir most drinks with citrus juice. I think the notion that all citrus drinks should be shaken is a fallacy - citric acid blends just fine with alcohol on its own. It depends a lot on the size of the ice you're using and the other products. For example, syrup and egg white drinks should be shaken, but that's more of a function of aeration rather than dilution. It's my contention that the vast majority of cocktails being served on the planet right now are being served too cold, to the detriment of the component flavours. The shaker is a uniquely effective tool for doing what it's designed to do; it's a sledgehammer, if you will, while a barspoon is a screwdriver. The spoon offers much more control."
A couple thoughts on this. First, he hits the nail (or screws the screw?) on the head by saying that shaking is a function of aeration, as most drinks that are shaken have a particular look and consistency to uphold and thereby should be shaken. Is it actually necessary to shake these drinks? Well, no, I guess not. (But please, PLEASE don't take this too far and stir your egg whites). Secondly, on the subject of drink temperature, this has been the subject of much debate in the past, namely in deciding whether it is "better" to shake or stir a Martini. There were even double-blind tests done, which basically revealed that people prefer colder Martini's, and therefore the better way to make one is to shake it. However, then you lose the pristine look of a stirred one, and some don't like that, etc, etc. I am, however, with Simon one this one (though not in all cases, as this has to be on a drink-to-drink basis as always) in a way because the colder your drink the less aromatic it will be, and in many cases, the less flavour you will get from it. That's why Scotch, or high-end Tequila and whiskey is enjoyed neat, at room temperature - so you can get the most out of the flavour and aroma. Drinking a $100 bottle of Scotch on the rocks is a bit of a waste because you won't be enjoying it to its full potential. However, we're talking about cocktails, not neat spirits, and therefore the goal is to ensure that the flavours mix and balance through chilling and diluting the ingredients, and a warm cocktail is a very different experience than a cold one (though now Russell Davis has got me very intrigued - check this out). Either way, this is a debate for another post, so I will continue it there. Stirring is how Simon designed the cocktail, so that's how it should be made, damn it!
Russell Davis from Rickhouse mixed his drink without even using ice, Simon stirs his cocktail with juice while using a full ounce of Maraschino, and next post we'll see Graham Racich from The Refinery use a full ounce and a half (!) of Maraschino by making it the base for his cocktail.
Thanks to Simon and Veneto for this contribution!
[[ if you're interested in drink-temperature science, check this out ]]
[[ 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 Shibuya Crusta" from L'Abattoir here ]]
[[ see "The Unforgiven" from Russell Davis at Rickhouse here ]] [[ see "Primer Beso" from The Refinery here ]]
[[ see "The Rubicon" from Jamie Boudreau at Canon here ]]
Today's drinks come from one of the bigger names in bartending and "mixology," Mr. Jamie Boudreau. Who is Jamie? Well, I'll let him do the talking himself here on his blog.
His online show Raising The Bar is a great resource for creative cocktails and learning some new and fancy things outside of the norm, his blog has been filling up my journal with delicious new libations to test out, and he's dedicated a newer blog only to cocktails involving St. Germain. These are all great resources for experimenting at home, but also good resources for trying and learning new things on the job if you're a professional.
One thing that is obvious from reading his blogs and recipes is how much he loves his bitters (he even makes and sells his own cherry bitters), and this includes amari. Some of his wild and crazy creations include the Zim Zala Bim, which uses a 1/4oz of orange bitters, and the Aromatic Collins, which uses a full ounce of aromatic bitters. Lots of others use amari, and his site even has a recipe for creating your own amaro at home in an attempt to recreate the taste of the ever-elusive Amer Picon.
Jamie currently runs the bar at Canon in Seattle, a new but renowned establishment with a ridiculous selection of booze and bitters (check this out), which is also apparently the new home to Murray "The Blur" Stenson.
Anyway, on to the drinking...
The one I wanted to share today I found on Raising The Bar, and it's one I often enjoy at home when I'm thirsty and have grapefruits around (and hopefully it's after noon). Gin holds a solid base underneath a lot of juice, and a lot of sweetness from the Benedictine, so Fernet comes out as subtle as I feel it should be in a drink.
When I emailed Jamie and asked for his permission to share this cocktail on this blog, he sent me another recipe for something that looks ridiculous at a glance. I actually mixed one as soon as I was finished the email because I was so curious. Look at the recipe below, you'll see what I mean...
First, here is Denny Triangle Cocktail
2oz Beefeater gin
3/4oz Benedictine
1/4oz Fernet Branca
2oz grapefruit juice
Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.
And here is the the little present he gave me... a seriously interesting and complex bunch of flavours, and while the Fernet is super forward here, it's actually not as overpowering as I thought it would be...
Miseria Cocktail
1 part Carpano Antica
1 part Fernet Branca
3 dashes orange bitters Stir with ice, serve into a chilled rocks glass, garnish with flamed orange zest
Thanks for the recipes, Jamie!
[[ see the Fernet February introduction here ]]
[[ see the "Gastown Swizzle" from L'Abattoir here ]]
[[ see the "Chinatown Sour" from The Keefer here ]]
[[ see "Pandemonium" from Veneto Tapa Lounge here ]]
[[ see "The Bittercup" from Pourhouse here ]]
[[ see "The Vested Bartender" from Boneta here ]]
[[ see "The Parliament" from The Diamond here ]]
[[ see "Parliament Hill" from The Hideout here ]]
[[ see "The Lucky Lady" from The Refinery here ]]
Jamie's photo by Antoinette Bruno, ICC Food Porn Gallery
Welcome to Fernet February, where all month I will be sharing original recipes from the best bars in Vancouver, Seattle, and Victoria.
Now that we've covered what Fernet is and what the general challenge is for mixing it, we can jump right into the cocktails.
The first bar up is one of my favourites and definitely my go-to spot in Vancouver - Pourhouse. While it's a somewhat new establishment (about three years old), it feels like a very old one as soon as you walk in. Sitting at the bar made from reclaimed Douglas fir from the 1920's you'll feel like you're sitting at an actual saloon at the turn of the century. All the bartenders are vested (as they should be), the lighting sets a mood, French absinthe fountains adorn the bar, and the menu and style of the cocktails themselves are consistently classic in mentality. Each of the bartenders here are skilled and knowledgeable and typically go for the well-crafted classic and simple over newer and more complicated concoctions of infusions and crazy syrups (not that there's necessarily anything wrong with those things, I just happen to be more classic-minded myself).
I will save the rest I have to say about Pourhouse for whenever I get around to doing a proper review, so let's move on to the drink.
Today's Fernet February cocktail is "The Bittercup" by Pourhouse bar manager, Christopher Flett. It's possibly the most interesting Fernet cocktail I've ever tried, and just looking at the recipe reveals a creative and gutsy idea in general. Despite the intense and bitter flavours involved, the drink balances extremely well - like that of "bitter strawberries," as Flett puts it. It's so delicious my lady and I have started buying prosecco just to have a few day's worth of pre-dinner Bittercup's.
So without further adieu,
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.
Thanks to Christopher and the Pourhouse for a creative, tasty, and refreshing drink that has become a mainstay at my home bar, and a common order every time we visit.
I encourage everyone reading to share your own Fernet cocktails in the comments area, and of course, please discuss the drinks themselves if you feel so inclined! See you in a day or two for a new Fernet cocktail...
[[ see the Fernet February introduction here ]]
[[ see the "Gastown Swizzle" from L'Abattoir here ]]
[[ see the "Dark and Fernet-y" from Rob Roy here ]]
[[ see the "Chinatown Sour" from The Keefer here ]]
[[ see "Pandemonium" from Veneto Tapa Lounge here ]]
[[ see "The Vested Bartender" from Boneta here ]]
[[ see "The Parliament" from The Diamond here ]]
[[ see "Parliament Hill" from The Hideout here ]]
[[ see "The Lucky Lady" from The Refinery here ]]
[[ see "The Denny Triangle" from Jamie Boudreau / Canon here ]]
To top off the series of posts on tequila, here is one exclusively on the most famous of tequila drinks, and one of the most famous cocktails there is - The Margarita.
Unfortunately, there's no definitive birth of the drink, but I'll go through each of the supposed stories. Double unfortunately, this drink is often butchered by use of artificial sour and fruit mixes, and blenders, so below I'll give you the most traditional recipe we know of, as well as some fun variations if you want to try something new.
The History
There are several stories as to how, when, and where the drink was created. One such story is that Don Carlos Orozco at Hussong’s Cantina in Ensada, Mexico, invented it in 1941. Orozco was visited by Margarita Henkel, the daughter of a German ambassador, and offered his latest experiment to her before naming the drink after her. Carlos Herrera also possibly created the drink at the Rancho la Gloria Hotel near Tijuana, where he invented it for a dancer named Marjorie King, who was supposedly allergic to all alcohol except tequila, which she still refused to drink straight. The owner of La Plaza Hotel in San Diego brought the recipe from Mexico to the U.S. where it became popular after 1947.
Another story for which I can’t find much detail is that Santos Cruz created the drink for singer Peggy Lee at the Balinese Room in Galveston, Texas, in 1948.
There is also a story of a bartender in Juarez who was asked to make a Magnoliia cocktail, but couldn't remember any ingredients except Cointreau, so just made up something new and named it after a different flower - the Margarita.
Lastly, and most likely, it appears to just be a variation on the very old and constantly evolving Daisy cocktail, which hails from the mid to late 1800’s and originally contained brandy and lemon with dashes of curacao, rum, gum syrup, and soda. In the early 20th century, this evolved into brandy and lemon with grenadine and sugar, or brandy and lemon with curacao (which eventually became The Sidecar), and then other spirits started to get used, leading to a Gin Daisy (which evolved into the Cosmopolitan with vodka), or even a Tequila Daisy in the 1940’s. Increase the amount of orange liqueur and switch the lemon to a lime and you have a Margarita - which actually means "daisy" in spanish. Such is the evolution and creation of almost any cocktail. There are hundreds of recipes that vary only slightly on different themes and ingredients, but they all basically break down to a handful of classic recipes - the Cocktail, the Crusta, the Daisy, etc.
Stories and decorated histories is part of what makes cocktails so much fun, but most of the time there are just a lot of bartenders everywhere at the same time doing simple variations on a theme and coming up with new ideas.
The Recipe
The traditional Margarita is just tequila, triple sec (Cointreau is best), and lime juice, served on the rocks (with a salt rim or not), and definitely not blended. Below are 3 separate recipes for you to try at home, starting with the most basic.
Traditional Margarita
There are countless recipes for this drink, so the best thing to do is experiment and find what you like. 3:2:1 or 4:2:1 (like the Sidecar) is always a good way to go for a sour, so let's do that! 2 oz tequila blanco or reposado
1 oz Cointreau (or other triple sec / curacao to taste)
1/2 oz fresh lime juice
Shake all ingredients with ice, and strain into a rocks glass filled with ice. Garnish with a lime wedge if you like, and salt the rim if you like (but I would suggest not if you have a really nice tequila).
How to salt a rim? Well I can't find a video anywhere at the moment that doesn't either do it in a rimmer tray by dunking the glass in, which is not only messy but also not nearly as classy as it should be, or one that does the rim really messily. I'll find good pictures or a video and do a whole post it on next time.
Margarita Especial
I got this one from Charlotte Voisey on her Small Screen Network show, The Proper Pour. It's a fun way to play with the agave flavour of tequila. If you can't find agave nectar, you can use agave syrup (which you can just buy in Safeway or just about anywhere), but you need to cut down the amount by half because it contains a lot of sugar. 2 oz tequila (reposado preferred)
1 oz agave nectar (or 1/2 oz agave syrup)
1 oz fresh lime juice
Shake all ingredients with ice and strain over a rocks glass filled with ice. Garnish with a lime wedge.
Now here's a really awesome one that my brother made me in San Francisco, but I'm not sure where he found the recipe. It's a totally different collection of flavours, but they all really compliment the tequila. It's definitely worth trying out if you have the ingredients and want something new! 3/4 oz Mezcal (or tequila reposado)
3/4 oz tequila blanco
1/2 oz Green Chartreuse
1/2 oz lime juice
1/2 oz grapefruit juice
1/2 oz simple syrup
Shake ingredients with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.
My brother tells me you're supposed to float a peaty Scotch over the top of the cocktail, which would really accent the smokiness of a Mezcal if you have it, but just the above by itself is fantastic. If you do want to experiment with smokey flavours, you can also try throwing a dash of Lap Sang Su Shong tea or infused syrup in there.
Experiment, switch some ingredients, throw dashes of new things in there (maraschino pairs with tequila in a cool way) and have fun!
The Culture California in the early 20th century was really a progressive and unionized state, and by WWII they had old-age assistance, unemployment compensation, workplace safety rules, and over 120,000 union members in many professions. Los Angeles became the centre of the universe in terms of film-making, San Francisco became an industry power-house, and San Diego became a hub for American military and defense.
California really acclimated itself to Mexican culture, particularly in San Diego (which was for a time actually part of Mexico), and Mexican food, film, music, and the Spanish language all became integrated into American life there.
The biggest musical influence of Mexican music was Mariachi, which had become prevalent in the mid-1800’s and really accepted into America in the 1940’s. Mariachi actually originated in the state of Jalisco, which is where tequila is made (see how I came full circle there).
Perhaps the most famous and prolific film and music stars in Mexico throught the 1930's to 1950's was Pedro Infante, who not only made over 60 films through the golden age of Mexican film, but also recorded more than 350 songs. Listening to his music you can really hear a Mexican tradition but also an American influence in the production and arrangements, which pairs very nicely with the Margarita which also has a blend of the two cultures.
Enjoy your Margarita of choice while enjoying this classic by Pedro Infante - Serenata Tapatia.
