Aperol & St. Germain

Since hitting the North American market in 2006 and 2007 respectively, Aperol and St-Germain liqueurs have become staples on many a cocktail menu. It's no secret that the latter is ridiculously tasty and is considered by some to be almost cheating because of its ability to make just about anything delicious. Made from elderflowers gathered in France by hand during only a handful of weeks, and transported by bicycle before being gently macerated, the liqueur is not overly sweet for a liqueur. It offers aromas of flowers, peach, pear, grapefruit, and lychee, and flavours just as wonderful. Perhaps the reason bartenders get so excited about it, however, is its acidity, which balances extremely well in a cocktail and even in small doses can round out a drink without ever being overpowering. Aperol, the mildest of Italian amari, originated in 1919 with the intention of being a lighter version of Campari and as such offers lower alcohol content, a sweeter profile, and much less bitterness. It is also much less complex, and has strong rhubarb and orange flavours. It will be bitter for some, but most experienced drinkers will find it quite mild. Modern bartenders have furthered its reputation of being "Campari's younger brother" by swapping the liqueurs in classic drinks such as the Negroni and Boulevardier, or at least mixing the two so as to make these drinks more palatable to the uninitiated.
It is usually fair to assume that putting two awesome things together will create further awesome drinks, and in this particular case this logic yields amazing results. However, it doesn't seem to happen as often as one would expect. There are a ton of options, particularly with gin, and it is worth experimenting. With the hot weather finally arriving in the Pacific Northwest, here is a small collection of some summer afternoon refreshers to evening sippers employing the skills of both of these liqueurs and the magic they create together.

Apparent Sour
(Bobby Heugel, Anvil Bar & Refuge, Houston)

• 1.5 oz Aperol
• 0.75 oz St-Germain
• 0.75 oz lime juice

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a sprig of rosemary.

These taste amazing and are perfect not only for summer, but also for anyone looking for something low-proof. A perfect and simple example of the great flavour you get from mixing the two liqueurs. Try switching the lime for lemon and throwing in a dash of your favourite bitters.

 
 Primrose
(Jay Jones, Shangri-La Hotel, Vancouver)

• 1.5 oz London Dry Gin
• 1 oz Aperol
• 0.75 oz St-Germain
• 0.5 oz lemon juice
• 2 dashes peach bitters

Stir with ice and fine strain into a cocktail glass.
There are a lot of options in sour-territory.

This is a great starting point to play around with the bitters, citrus, or spirit choice. Tone down the Aperol and top with sparkling wine for a lighter drink even better suited for hot weather.



Rye Invention
(Kathy Casey, Small Screen Network)

• 1.5 oz Straight Rye Whiskey
• 0.75 oz St-Germain
• 0.75 oz Aperol

Stir with ice, strain into a cocktail glass, garnish with a flamed orange peel and a cherry.

This one is surprisingly light in flavour and mouth-feel for a whiskey-based cocktail and the rye brings some much welcomed spice to the mix. Using a different spirit with a dry profile might work well here too (such as a slightly high-proof rum, an unaged Tequila, or be very adventurous and use aquavit or a Scotch).

Welcome To The Dark Side
(Colin Turner, Cin Cin, Vancouver)

• 1.5 oz Bourbon
• 1 oz Amaro Averna
• 0.25 oz St-Germain
• 0.25 oz Aperol
• Orange Peel

Lightly muddle the orange peel in the mixing glass, then add ingredients with ice and stir. Strain into a cocktail glass and garnish with a fresh orange peel, squeezing the oils over the top of the glass.

A much darker, heavier drink than the rest so far. The liqueurs offer a lot of complexity and bitterness, but the sugar from each balance everything very nicely. Despite having a whiskey base and using a full ounce of Averna, the flavour offers a lot of fruit along with chocolate and vanilla. Using a dry bourbon is your best bet here to really round things out (Colin prefers Maker's 46).

Article by Rhett Williams; originally published on www.shakestir.com

[[ Photography:
Wall Street Journal (Apparent Sour)
Taste Magazine (Primrose)
Small Screen Network (Rye Invention)
Rhett Williams (Welcome to the Dark Side) ]]

Bittered Sling Extracts: Justin Taylor at Yew

Our next contribution comes from a first-timer on this site, Mr. Justin Taylor - lead bartender at Yew Restaurant and Bar in the Four Seasons in downtown Vancouver. Originally from Ontario, Justin brings over fifteen years of experience behind the bar and some award-winning efforts, including placing second in the Giffard Iron Bar competition last year and going on to represent Canada in the Giffard International Cocktail Challenge held in France. His approach to drink creation is bold and modern, using barrel-aging on both his cocktails and his spirits, making liqueurs in-house, and infusing with spice and even actual pieces of meat (buffalo in vodka - for real). A look over Yew's cocktail list shows a lot of classic inspiration, such as the "Golden Eye," a Vesper-variation using house barrel-aged genever, vodka, and Lillet, or the "Yew Gimlet," adding Aperol and house-made Velvet Falernum to the gin and lime mix. Continue on, though, and you'll find some pretty crazy combinations, like the "Crow's Foot" using single malt whisky, Lichi Li, melon, vanilla, cranberry and lemon, or "La Bonne Mere" with Fernet Branca, chocolate, strawberry, and sparkling wine (I know, right?). He even gets into shrub territory with his "Ebi Sunomono" mixture of gin, cucumber, yuzu, and rice wine vinegar.
His menu does have a selection of great classics too for the less adventurous, including the less-seen Lucien Gaudin and Twentieth Century. 

It's plain to see that Kale & Nori's approach to drink is in line with Justin's, so the Bittered Sling Extracts are a good fit. Justin has generously shared three of his original cocktails today, each using a different extract, and each using a different technique for creation.

First we start with his "Rosemary Collins," for which he infuses Bombay Sapphire Gin with rosemary. According to Justin, "the Bittered Sling Cranberry really adds a depth to this simple and refreshing cocktail."

Rosemary Collins

1.5oz Rosemary-Infused Bombay Sapphire Gin
1/2oz cane sugar syrup
1/4oz lemon juice
1/4oz lime juice
5 dashes Bittered Sling Cranberry
 
Combine ingredients, shake with ice, and pour over ice in a highball. Top with soda and garnish with rosemary and cranberries.

Next up is a twist on the New Amsterdam cocktail in which Justin uses Boomsma genever that he has aged in an American oak barrel with medium char for six weeks. Justin describes this one as "a slow-sipping cocktail with deep complex flavours from the Bittered Sling extract and the oak-aging." Presumably you could try this one with an oude genever, but we can't get any here in Canada, so this is an altogether fun and adventurous experiment!

Red Light

2oz Barrel-Aged Boomsma Genever
3/4oz Amaro Ramazzotti
5 dashes Bittered Sling Crabapple & Cardamom
 
Combine all ingredients with ice and stir. Pour over ice in a rocks glass and garnish with a "generous spray" of orange oil.

Lastly, we have a cocktail that will be used for the second installment of the Yew Shake It competition (see below), Justin's "Unusual Margarita." Here he goes a step even further, aging a 4:1 mixture of Hornitos Tequila and St. Germain elderflower liqueur in a medium charred American oak barrel for four weeks. The Moondog bitters "bring spice to this cocktail and makes for the most unusual Margarita."

Unusual Margarita

2.5oz Barrel-Aged Tequila and St. Germain
2oz pineapple juice
1/2oz lime juice
5 dashes Bittered Sling Moondog
 
Combine all ingredients with ice in a mason jar and shake.


There are some fun programs happening at Yew as well, if you haven't made it down yet, such as the "We Make It "Yew" Shake It," where the bartenders combine your ingredients for you in a mason jar, and you shake it. Take your picture while you're shaking and post it to their (or Justin's) Facebook or Twitter pages, and he best (or worst?) picture will win you a gift certificate to Yew. They've also got Foxy Friday's happening each week - show up wearing some pink and you get a free appetizer and drink special. Altogether fun stuff.

Thanks to Justin and the Yew team for this contribution!


See the Bittered Sling introduction here
See Dani Tatarin from The Keefer mix something up in her Chinese apothecary-style here
See Evelyn Chick from Uva Wine Bar create some twisted classics here 
See Jay Jones from Market create a spirit-forward classic here  
See Grant Sceney use his barrel-aged Cointreau here
See David Wolodidnyk's world-wide competition-winning cocktail here

Maraschino March: "Rubicon" from Jamie Boudreau of Canon

We are nearing the end of Maraschino March now, and have only two more new, original cocktails to see before I move on to some historical ones. The first of the two takes us back to Canon in Seattle where Jamie Boudreau, whom we met for the Denny Triangle in Fernet February, will be cooking up - literally - something herbal and delicious.
Setting cocktail ingredients on fire is not just for show, it does actually change the flavours in sometimes dramatic ways, and Jamie puts this to use with the Rubicon by cooking a sprig of rosemary in flaming Green Chartreuse. By burning the Charteuse, in Jamie's words, "a lot of the alcohol edge is burned off, and the botanicals seem to blend and integrate more smoothly." He even suggests just trying a spoonful taste of it normally, then trying one that's been burned for about 6 seconds so you can see the difference. Cooking the rosemary will strengthen its presence in the cocktail as well.
Be warned that, obviously, fire is dangerous and you need to be careful when using it, but also be careful what you're cooking the ingredients IN. I made the mistake of burning the rosemary and Chartreuse in a poor quality glass that ended up cracking in half after a few seconds of flame. Also, don't leave the rosemary on fire too long or you'll burn and blacken it. Jamie uses an olive oil mister filled with Chartreuse to spray through the flame into the glass, but it is possible to just light the liquid inside the glass by hand (I would definitely suggest using one of those long candle lighters and not a typical cigarette lighter). This drink is still delicious without the fire, and is even delicious with a rosemary tincture instead of actual rosemary, but you should stay true to the original if you can. Also, the crushed ice added afterwards is key because the flavours are quite potent and need a little extra dilution to even out a bit.
Here is the video from Raising The Bar on the Small Screen Network where you can see Jamie making this cocktail himself.

As for the name, Jamie explains: "The rosemary curled in the glass reminded me of Caesar’s laurels and therefore I’ve named this libation after the famous river Caesar crossed in 49 BC after uttering the now famous words: ‘Let us go where the omens of the Gods and the crimes of our enemies summon us! THE DIE IS NOW CAST!’ It is with this action that the Roman Empire began, and western civilization as we know it."

Jamie's bar, Canon, simply must be at or near the top of your Seattle bar list, and when you stop by, have Jamie make you a proper Rubicon - unless he something even more exciting in mind.

Rubicon

1.5oz Plymouth Gin
0.5oz Green Chartreuse
0.5oz Maraschino
0.5oz Lemon Juice
2 full sprigs of rosemary

Arrange a small rosemary wreath in the bottom of a rocks glass and soak it in the Chartreuse.
Combine other ingredients in a shaker with ice, shake, and set aside.
Light Chartreuse on fire by misting Chartreuse through a flame into the glass and let burn for about 6 seconds. 
Put out the flame by pouring the shaken ingredients into the glass. 
Top with crushed ice and another sprig of rosemary.


[[ Photography by Jamie Boudreau ]]

[[ see "Oden's Muse" from Tavern Law here ]]
[[ see "The Hemingway Solution" from Vessel here ]]
[[ see "The Division Bell" from Mayahuel here ]]
[[ see "The Shibuya Crusta" from L'Abattoir 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 Maraschino March introduction here ]]