I tend not to be a big fan of sugar, salt, spice, etc. on the rim of a cocktail glass when I’m drinking a cocktail. I don’t get all upset about it if I have such, cause drinking oughta be fun, not upsetting, but it’s not my favorite, cause really, I wanna taste the drink and its ingredients and not be overwhelmed by whatnots on the glass. I realize others take a different take on this, and that’s just okay with me! Again, drinking oughta be fun! However, there is one (maybe more, but that wouldn’t make such a good transition) drink I am okay with a sugared rim on, and that’s Mrs. Solomon Wears Slacks. Because it’s from Crosby Gaige’s Cocktail Guide and Ladies Companion, published in 1941, and I don’t want the ghost of bon vivant Gaige haunting me. Unless ghosts are all-of-a-sudden able to become corporeal enough to shake cocktails; if that’s the case, haunt away Mr. Gaige! And start the haunting by serving up this amazingly-named drink.
Mrs. Solomon Wears Slacks
Ice cubes
Super-fine sugar
2 ounces brandy
1/2 ounce orange curaçao
3 dashes Angostura bitters
Lemon twist
1. Put a good helping of sugar on a saucer. Wet the outside rim of a Champagne flute (I used a lemon slice, but you could also rotate it through water on a saucer–just don’t get any water in the glass). Carefully rotate the outside rim of the glass through the sugar–but you don’t want to get any sugar on the inside.
2. Fill a cocktail shaker or mixing glass halfway full with cracked ice. Add the brandy, curaçao, and bitters. Stir well.
3. Strain the mix into the flute. Garnish with the lemon twist. Now, dance!
We’ve had a number of brandy drinks here lately (just see the last few posts!), and they reminded me of the below quote from the George Harmon Coxe book Eye Witness, featuring photographer/mystery-solver Kent Murdoch, who can throw punches, talk smoothly with the ladies, drink it up, and snap memorable pics. All at once! Even with all that, I wouldn’t say George H. Coxe is like at the top echelon of Spiked Punch posted authors, but he can spin a swell yarn, as they say. And one with brandy!
Murdock asked Leone if she would have a brandy. She thought a B&B would be fine so he had the brandy. Only then, when the waiter took the other things away, was Murdock able to sit back and give his attention completely to his companion.
‘That was all right,’ he said.
‘Marvelous.’
She was watching him now, the faint flush in her cheeks giving her a new radiance that was attractive and promising. The cocktails had apparently done their work well for she seemed relaxed and at ease, content; it seemed to leave the next move up to him.
The name of this long-a-Spiked-Punch-favorite drink means, or so I was told, I think of you always. Which is about the sweetest sentiment one could echo, making this a drink ideal for both romance, but also when thinking about and toasting departed loved ones, and also for having when you’re petting a beloved dog. Considering the sweetness of said sentiment, the drink itself can be a tad sweet – if your love is worried about a cavity, then you could omit the simple syrup in the below, or drop it to 1/4 ounce. Actually, I’d try that first, cause I do think the smooth simple helps to make the brandy and world-renowned-now beauty Aperol cuddly together nicely. Add an orange slice and boom, deliciousness. Drink it up, and I’ll be thinking of you.
Ti Penso Sempre
Ice cubes
1-1/2 ounces brandy
1 ounce Aperol
1/2 ounce simple syrup
Orange slices, for garnish
1. Fill a cocktail shaker halfway full with ice cubes. Add the brandy, Aperol, and simple syrup. Shake well.
2. Strain the mix into a cocktail glass, garnish with orange, and think lovely thoughts.
Sometimes, you need a quick bracer in the morning of a particularly stressful day, one you know might test your, let’s say, patience a bit (side note: do people still say “bracer” when referring to drinks? If not, why not, cause it’s an amazing word. If you start doing it now, bringing it back, so to speak, I’m sure it’ll catch back on, cause you’re cool, right? Right!). For me, today I think is that day, and so I’m starting with one of my favorite bracers, the one named after the fair city of Baltimore. It’s got the nice smooth kick from brandy, a swell helping of anisette (which goes well with brandy historically) that adds loads of flavor and tones down that brandy umph a bit, and then an egg white, which not only makes it frothy smooth but brings us back to this being an egg-cellent (hehe) morning drink, one that’ll brace you up for whatever the day holds. Unless the day holds driving large equipment or flying a plane or doing surgery. Then maybe stick to coffee.
Baltimore Bracer
Cracked ice
1-1/2 ounces brandy
1-1/2 ounces anisette
1 egg white, preferably organic
1. Fill a cocktail shaker halfway full with cracked ice. Add the brandy, anisette, and egg white. Shake well.
Whether its Mother’s Day, or graduation, or Memorial Day, or just a darn good day for a party, many occasions for serving a group of people drinks are coming up. Make it easy for yourself and pick up a punch bowl and punch it up. That is, if you don’t have a punch bowl already, but maybe you do? I was on the radio (you kids might not remember such) once, on a call in show, talking about having two punch bowls, one fancy, one not, and a caller called in to say they had eleven punch bowls! Eleven! Now, that person knows how to party. Not saying you need eleven, but one or two, yes. And then, you can make this punch in one of them. It sounds like a Shakespeare character, and admittedly hearkens back in a way back-a-ways, with a hearty red wine base (like a Cabernet or other robust red wine) mingling with some juice (grape, here), and sweetened with some simple syrup. But then! We are also adding mysterious French herbal liqueur Bénédictine, and a heaping helping of brandy, plus club soda (which helps lighten it up, and make it okay for brunching as well as later affairs). The first item in that list really gives this punch an intriguing personality, and one that is sure to make your late April, May, and June events memorable (as well as events in the other nine months, to be clear). Punch it!
1. Add the block of ice to a large punch bowl, or fill the bowl halfway full with ice cubes. Add the brandy, grape juice, Benedictine, and simple syrup. Stir well.
2. Add the red wine to the cast, and stir again.
3. Smoothly add the club soda, and stir a final time (or maybe a few final times—you want to get it good and combined). And a handful or two fresh red seedless grapes, if you want. Sometimes I feel the grapes, sometimes I don’t. I’m weird. Serve in punch glasses. Or with straws.
Though we’re well past Valentine’s Day, really, if you’re a perfect paramour or partner, you should be showing the love every day, right? Right! And what’s the best way to show the love? Making that favorite person of yours a dandy cocktail, perhaps one a bit sweet to show you think they’re the sweetest? Too much? Well, it makes for an interesting intro idea to this cocktail, which isn’t overly sweet, mind-you, thanks to the bountiful base of brandy (the most under-utilized base spirit). One top of which are two other dancing partners that might be a stitch sweet, but also deliver lovely (!!) flavors: Navan vanilla liqueur and the Italian charmer Dumante Verdenoce pistachio liqueur. Those three alone play together quite cozily, but adding an egg white, as we do here, gives a wonderful silky mouthfeel (as they say), one that’ll have you and yours canoodling happily any day of the year as you sip it.
Well, it’s already deep into the winter holiday season, and I haven’t yet put up a sparkly drink suggestion for your holiday gatherings, because I am lazy, or busy, or some combination of the two? Either/or, you may still need a special sparkler to make your holiday party stand out from the party pack, or to enthrall your relatives with, or to just make yourself because you deserve a nice shiny drink at the end of the year, I think you do! For all of those occasions, let me present How Silver-Sweet, a treat this time (or any time) of year. It uses Castello del Poggio sparkling Moscato, which is light on its feet, featuring pretty fruit notes, including peach, pear, and strawberry, swirling about the sparkly bubbles. It’s a wee sweet (in the best way), and goes delightfully here with Strawberry brandy (a true fruit brandy is what you want, dry, crisp, no additives), Pierre Ferrand’s lush orange curaçao, and a dash of earthy Peychaud’s bitters. It’s bound to make the holidays even more jolly.
How Silver-Sweet
Cracked ice
1 ounce strawberry brandy
1/2 ounce Pierre Ferrand orange curaçao
1 dash Peychaud’s bitters
3-1/2 ounces Castello del Poggio sparkling moscato
1. Fill a cocktail shaker or mixing glass halfway full with cracked ice. Add the brandy, curaçao, and bitters. Stir well.
2. Strain into a wine glass (or flute). Top with the moscato. Stir briefly.
It’s nearly the 31st of October, or Warlockoween, the day (or/and the weekend before depending on what day of the week the 31st falls on) when everyone follows along with the below video, drinking their Warlock (the mystical mix of brandy, Strega, limoncello, orange juice, and Peychaud’s bitters that has been favored by magicians, sorcerers, conjurors, witches, and the like for thousands of years) and then turning into zombie spell-casters. Fun! Watch and learn and fall under its spell. A spell also good on something called Halloween, which hasn’t taken off yet like Warlockoween, but hey, it could.
