Fall Cocktails: "The Satchmo" by Simon Ogden

Next we trek across the ocean to Victoria where seasoned veteran and CPBA Vice-President Simon Ogden at the Veneto Tapa Lounge shares his rendition of fall, employing spice, fruit, and smoke.

Simon explains:  "Named in honour of the great Jazzman, this cocktail is what I imagine Louis Armstrong's voice tastes like. Honey and smoke, with autumnal bitters providing the bass notes. A twist on the classic whiskey sour."

The Satchmo

2oz Black Grouse Scotch
1 oz lemon juice
3/4 oz honey syrup
3/4 oz egg white
4-5 dashes Apple and Cinnamon bitters

Shaken thoroughly and strained into a chilled glass. Finished with a spritz of Ardbeg.

Honey Syrup: 
boil equal parts water and liquid honey until dissolved.

Apple & Cinnamon Bitters: 
B.C. Gala apples and broken cinnamon bark with lemon peel, cardamom, cloves, gentian root, and star anise all steeped in whiskey.

Later this month as part of the fall series I will be offering a couple recipes for bitters, including apple, so keep this on your to-make list until then.
Another great option is the "Crabapple and Cardamom" Bittered Sling Extract by Kale & Nori. Click here for a list of current retailers for their products.

Also be sure to check out Simon's previous contributions to this site:
"The Cherry Bob-omb" for Maraschino March
"Barjonesing"

We are creeping closer to Halloween and starting next post the drinks will begin to get ghoulish, bloody, and generally more scary...

The Fall Cocktail Series:
You can see the series introduction here
and more terrible Halloween cocktails here
"Death & Oranges" by Donnie Wheeler
"Jones' Bitter Aperitif" by Evelyn Chick
"Dark City" by Jay Jones
Classic Halloween Cocktails 
"The Giant Huntsman" by Lauren Mote
"The Bay Harbour Butcher" by Shaun Layton  
"A Nightmare On Juniper Street" by Shea Hogan 

[[ Photo by Simon Ogden ]]

Fall Cocktails: "Death & Oranges" by Donnie Wheeler

To kick things off for this fall series we are heading to Vancouver for a delicious pumpkin cocktail from Mr. Donnie Wheeler. He brings over fifteen years of experience in hospitality, bartending, and consulting for the likes of Cin Cin, Legacy Liquor, Corner Suite Bistro, and Donnelly Group bars Killjoy and Clough Club. Known to many in Vancouver as Donnie Bahama or Mr. Tiki, he runs Tiki Tuesdays at Clough Club (where each week they feature new drinks from Jeff "Beachbum" Berry's books), as well as giving seminars on Tiki history and culture at Legacy and festivals like The Art of the Cocktail.

Donnie is sharing a perfect example of a seasonal and themed cocktail that is both tasteful and tasty. (Apologies for the lateness on the Thanksgiving theme). I will let him introduce it himself:

"As it is Thanksgiving, [the drink] should be about family... in this case the Corleone family from the Godfather films. In the films every major death is preceded by an appearance of an orange in one way or another. [SPOILER ALERT]
Don Corleone buys oranges right before he is shot and falls into an orange cart. Sonny drives past an advertisement for Florida Oranges before he is assassinated. At the Mafioso summit, bowls of oranges are placed on the tables - specifically in front of those Dons who will be assassinated. Michael eats an orange while discussing his plans with Tom. Before Don Corleone dies he puts an orange peel in his mouth to playfully scare his grandson. The list goes on. So, the cocktail is a little morbid, a little seasonal, and about family."

Death & Oranges

1oz Carpano Antica Formula Italian Vermouth
1oz Campari
1.5oz fresh squeezed blood orange juice (seasonal)
1-2 tablespoons pumpkin puree-infused honey syrup
2 dashes Fernet Branca
Combine ingredients with ice and shake. Strain over crushed ice.
Top with soda water (optional).

Pumpkin/Honey Syrup: 
Add 2 parts honey and 2 parts water and bring to a boil. Add 1 part of pumpkin puree and stir until mixed.

[[ Photo by Donnie Wheeler ]]

The Fall Cocktail Series
 You can see the series introduction here
and more terrible Halloween cocktails here
"Jones' Bitter Aperitif" by Evelyn Chick
"The Satchmo" by Simon Ogden  
"Dark City" by Jay Jones
Classic Halloween Cocktails
"The Giant Huntsman" by Lauren Mote
"The Bay Harbour Butcher" by Shaun Layton  
"A Nightmare On Juniper Street" by Shea Hogan 

Fernet February: "The Parliament" from The Diamond

Tonight's recipe is a change of pace from what we've seen so far, and a big change of pace for me because of the base: Cachaça. I've never owned a bottle, and I've had very few drinks with it at all. While similar to rum (it's distilled from sugarcane juice, whereas rum is distilled from molasses which is a by-product of extracting sugar from sugarcane), it has a much more raw flavour, and I would describe it as more harsh. It's actually the third most consumed spirit in the world, but a big reason for that is the fact that it's almost all that Brazil drinks (with its national drink being the Caipirinha), and Brazil happens to have a huge population. In fact, only about 1% of Cachaça made in Brazil is exported out of Brazil.

What's not different about tonight's recipe is that it comes from another bar in Vancouver's Gastown. This area does happen to have most of the best food and drink in the city, so that's not really surprising. Hidden, like so many amazing places are here, The Diamond is on the most famous corner in Gastown, across the street from the statue of Gassy Jack. Now, if you're not very observant, you might have trouble finding it because it's above you. The entrance to The Diamond is just a single doorway leading upstairs to what feels like a secret hideout only you and anyone else who has the password knows about. While this speakeasy sort of feel is exciting as you head up there, enjoy a cocktail and look down on the lights and brick streets of Gastown, it does unfortunately also seem to extend to the service, which has been less friendly than I'd like the times I've been there.
However, the drinks are delicious, the menu is smart and full of great choices (including an "Overlooked" section with such gems as The Chrysanthemum), they're open late, and they even offer weekly bartending classes.

My last visit there was exciting for a few reasons - first, it was really late and everything else was closed which lent itself nicely to the ambience, second, I got to try the The Parliament cocktail featured below, and lastly I also got to try a different, off-the-menu Fernet cocktail created by my bartender for the evening, Patrick. He was kind enough to not only make the cocktail for me very near closing time, but also write me out a recipe, which I will also include below.
The Parliament, created by Diamond co-owner, Josh Pape, is harsh on my tongue - again because I don't have a real taste for Cachaça - is complexified by the Fernet, softened by the honey, and tied together with the lime. It is definitely a well-crafted drink. The "Irish Cabana Boy," as Patrick called it, is kind of a variation on The Trinidad Sour, which features a whole ounce of Angostura bitters balanced by orgeat syrup and lemon. It comes off tasting similar, but much less complicated simply because the two amari, while dense themselves, just don't cut through the way Angostura does (as to be expected). It was delicious and exciting, and the first Fernet drink I had tried of this kind (though I moved on to taste a similar idea at The Keefer the following night, but more on that later). It's an excellent post-dinner cocktail. Both the selections tonight are worth a trip to Gastown, but so is most of The Diamond's menu.
If you feel like a late-night, secretive sort of evening of impressive cocktails while looking down on beautiful Gastown, hit up The Diamond - just make sure you don't miss the entrance or forget the password ;)


(the mL measurements are the indended measurements for these drinks, and the oz listed are approximations for home experimentation. Head to Diamond to ensure these are made properly!)

The Parliament

45mL blanco Cachaça                      (1.5oz)
15mL Fernet Branca                        (0.5oz)
25mL fresh lime juice                       (a little more than 0.75oz)
20mL runny honey                           (2/3oz)

Shake hard and fine strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
Spray with grapefruit oil. Enjoy.


The Irish Cabana Boy

30mL Fernet Branca                       (1oz)
25mL Amaro Montenegro              (a little more than 0.75oz)
20mL lemon juice                            (2/3oz)
15mL orgeat syrup                          (0.5oz)
2 dashes absinthe

Shake and fine strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

[[ 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 Bittercup" from Pourhouse here ]]
[[ see "The Vested Bartender" from Boneta 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 ]]

Photography from Scout Magazine