Hey ho daddy-o, you won’t believe it but we’ve made the mighty and masterful Cocktail to Cocktail Hour Season Two even more magnificent and helpful for the masses. How, you say, is this impossibility possible? By adding a new segment in the show called “Everyday Drinking,” a segment designed to help solve the problems of everyday drinkers, drinkers that are just like you and me (except without my awesome suit and trophy wife). Learn more in the most recent episode of the roaring Cocktail to Cocktail Hour.
As I detailed a few ticks of the Spiked Punch blog ago (and in the swell Seattle Magazine), Seattle and WA are in the midst of a distillery boom of sorts, and I couldn’t be happier. All this fantastic local booze to sip and shake and sip some more? Great with me. One of the newer distilleries that I was a little slow to track down is the Sidetrack distillery, in Kent, WA, outside of the city of Seattle (I mention this mostly to give myself an excuse for the tardy tasting, not out of any geographical bias). Sidetrack is situated right on the Lazy River Farm and makes an assortment of liqueurs and fruit brandies with fruit grown on the farm–now that’s using local ingredients. This focus on fresh and homegrown fruit lends the liqueurs (full disclosure: I haven’t had the brandies, but am excited to try them. Second disclosure: I was given samples of the liqueurs) a bright, clear fruit taste backed by a smooth slight sweetness. There are four varieties: blackberry, raspberry, blueberry, and strawberry. I went with the strawberry here in the Straw Track cocktail, because it seemed to yell “summer” the most to me, and as it’s mid-February I needed a jolly jolt of summer. I think, though, that this drink is balanced enough, and bubbly enough, to have year round.
Cracked ice
1-1/2 ounces gin (I would stick with the WA theme and use Voyager if you can get it)
1/2 ounce Sidetrack Strawberry liqueur
Chilled brut Champagne or sparkling wine
Lemon slice, for garnish
1. Fill a cocktail shaker or mixing glass halfway full with cracked ice. Add the gin and liqueur. Stir well.
2. Strain into a flute or other charming glass. Top with chilled bubbly and garnish with that lemon slice.
There are some combinations that you just know, before you even start pouring and experimenting, will go together like the Hulk and green skin. By which I mean, perfectly. Dark rum and Rhum Clément Creole Shrubb are one of these pairings. This of course makes perfect sense, since the latter is made on a base partially of the former. But still, sometimes things don’t go as planned (like the Gamma bomb going off on poor old Doc Banner). However, I’m happy to report that in this case no one was turned into an over-sized misunderstood creature. Instead, the rum and the Rhum Clément Creole Shrubb mingle nicely, aided by an addition from another part of the globe, amaretto. Amaretto is, much like the Hulk, often misunderstood. Here, though, it shines with our two Caribbean pals. All of above leads to the fact that you shouldn’t drink this when angry (or drink anything really—who needs another angry drunk?), but drink it while watching the 1970s Incredible Hulk series, or reading the comics of the same character from the same era.
Cracked ice
2 ounces dark rum
1 ounce Rhum Clément Creole Shrubb
1 ounce amaretto
1. Fill a cocktail shaker or mixing glass halfway full with cracked ice. Add the rum, Creole Shrubb, and amaretto. Stir well.
2. Strain into a cocktail glass.
A Note: I think cracked ice is crackingly good for stirring here, but if you have only ice cubes and don’t feel like cracking, they’ll work too.
In the second smashing episode of the new season of the Cocktail to Cocktail Hour (hey, didja somehow miss the first episode with poet Ed Skoog and the Ellipse cocktail? They watch it now) I my-own-self take the stage in the Cocktail to Cocktail studios to make a brandy-Benedictine-Cointreau-lemon drink called They Shall Inherit the Earth. It was originally created by Morley Callaghan, a Canadian writer from years past. Oh, and there’s singing. And more singing by some shady folks who stopped in the studio. Curious? Watch it for gosh sakes.
Here’s something that’ll add a little kick to your holiday season–Seattle has another local spirit now available for public consumption. After the various distillery articles, it’s probably not surprising that there are more new spirits, but what’s surprising is that this one probably isn’t going to ring any bells (or not many). It’s a shōchū, a Japanese-origin spirit, one that often goes through a single distilling, usually made from barley (though other options abound), and usually with a lesser alcohol content as well as with less calories than say, vodka and various health benefits (or so the legends go). There are some other rules and such, but I’m starting to digress too far afield. The main point is that the Sodo Spirits distillery here in Seattle (lucky us) is making and marketing a shōchū called EvenStar.
If you’ve never had shōchū, or shochu, then you aren’t alone. I hadn’t tried it but once, until recently experimenting with the EvenStar. It was light on its feet as you might expect, with a hint of rosemary and grain and a tiny herbal undertone. The suggested drinking modes cover the gamut from neat, warm (like some sake is consumed), over ice, and mixed in cocktails. The friendly folks at the Sodo Spirits have some cocktail suggestions on their site and some that come along with the EvenStar (by the way, they were nice enough to send me a bottle) but many of the drinks were using it alongside other base spirits, and to me it seemed to have enough taste to stand as a base spirit, if that makes sense. So, I did what comes naturally to any cocktail-loving cocktail lover; I started experimenting on my own.
I thought that the EvenStar’s hints of herbalness and rosemary might match up with other herb-ish mixtures, and I was right–it matched up well with French liqueur Chartreuse, especially the green version, as well as with the earth mother of bitters, Peychaud’s. After I had those two other ingredients, I just needed to balance everything out a bit, the low and the high, the herbal and the sweet, the gossip and the facts, and a little fresh orange juice did the trick right. The end result is a cocktail worthy of Venus, the goddess of love and beauty, as it’s light, won’t weigh you down, and has a lovely glow. I suggest trotting down to your local liquor store (if in the Seattle area) and picking up some EvenStar and taking Venus out for a spin this winter. Or, try it in other mixes and let me know what you come up with, because I’m always open to other ideas. And if you don’t live here (well, first–why not?), then come for a visit, because our local distillers are making Seattle an even finer place to reside within.
The Venus in Voiron Cocktail
Ice cubes
2 ounces EvenStar shochu
3/4 ounce green Chartreuse
1/4 ounce freshly squeezed orange juice
Dash Peychaud’s bitters
1. Fill a cocktail shaker halfway full with ice cubes. Add the shochu, Chartreuse, orange juice, and bitters.
2. Strain the mix through a fine strainer into a cocktail glass. Drink looking east, and then drink looking west.
I just flew back from NYC (and boy are my arms tired. And yeah, I said that) a bit ago, after having the happening-est time teaching a class at the Institute for Culinary Education, and just have to jaw about it for minute (or a post). The focus of the class was Italian Holiday Cocktails, with four fantastico recipes being made by me and a class of fourteen cocktail-loving folks from the City of New York. The lineup of drinks was culled almost completely from Ginger Bliss and the Violet Fizz (which makes, if I may say so, a wonderful holiday gift) and included Spagliato, La Rana de Oro (or the Golden Frog), Ti Penso Sempre, and the historic Hanky Panky (the first in that list is actually from Champagne Cocktails, which also makes a heckuva gift). I meant to take pics of all of them, but was having too much fun, so I only have images for La Rana de Oro:
And a blurry shot of Ti Penso Sempre:
But wow, what a tasty night! And what a fantastic class, up for shaking, stirring, twisting, and laughing at my jokes and listening to my Italian stories. It was a sweet time, and if any attendees happen to read this post, thanks again for being so awesome to hang out with. Oh, wait, I have a great pic of the class, too–don’t they look fun:
PS: If this is making you want to take a class with me, the fine folks at the Delancey Pantry have added a second iteration of my Italian Winter Cocktails class there (which was mentioned in this post), on Saturday, February 11. You should sign up.
Ba, baa, baaa, ba bum! That’s right cocktail lovers, the moment you’ve dreamed about since the finale of the last season of the Cocktail to Cocktail Hour dripped to a close is here–the new C2C season is now beginning (sorry for the wait. Our cameraman had some problems in a Central American lock up. But all’s well now). And what a beginning it is, friends, one that will be sung about in bars from here to Poughkeepsie. We have a very special lit’rary guest for this first episode, none other than poet and drink-maker and shot-putter extraordinaire, Ed Skoog, making his soon-to-be-renowned cocktail (a cocktail featured in Ginger Bliss and the Violet Fizz) the Ellipse. I’d say more, but I don’t want to spoil the fun, and the episode is a tad lengthy, so, with no further palaver, let the new season begin.
Whew, that’s a long title. But I wanted to make sure to get it all in there, so you didn’t just skip over this post like the others (I kid, I kid. I hope). The title really says it all: I’m hosting a class at the amazing Delancey Pantry, and the focus/menu/tippliciousness is an Italian Winter Cocktail one. What does that mean? Sign up for the class and find out, cutie. I can tell you a little more. First, the Delancey Pantry is the coziest spot for sitting around a table drinking and making drinks that you can think of, or that I can think of (it’s behind the pizza awesomeness of the Delancey itself, in Ballard, WA). Second, the four drinks we’ll be making are: Sicilian Sling, Negroni, Hanky Panky, and the Cynartown. Third, the Pantry is at: 1417 NW 70th Street, Seattle, WA. Fourth, the class takes place on Friday, February 10th, 2012 at 7 pm. So, c’mon, sign up today and be a part of it all, Italian style.
PS: Even if you don’t sign up, check out the Delancey Pantry website. Isn’t it lovely? It was done by Mr. Sam T. Schick, who should probably redo your website, too.
