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!

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

Fernet February - "The Bittercup" from Pourhouse

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 ]]