June 20, 2014
Welcome back Brancamenta lovers! Wait, you say you don’t know what I’m talking about? Well, then go read my first post about the Brancamenta Mint Challenge (#brancamenta) and The Better Days cocktail. Neat, right? Remember in that post I said I made a second drink? Well, the Mint Meridian is that very drink.
But first, I realized I didn’t say much about Brancamenta in that earlier post, and maybe some folks still don’t know about it – which is a crying shame. It’s made from the same herb-and-spice set up as its older sibling, Fernet Branca, with the addition of Piedmontese peppermint oil. It’s super minty, a bit less of a digestif than Fernet Branca, and fantastic (I think) with soda over ice and in drinks. And it was inspired by opera singer Maria Callas. Neat, again, right? For my second ‘menta (I sometimes shorten it suchly) drink I wanted to hit the refreshing route more heavily, to help y’all out with summer. But I still wanted to get creative with it – hence building on another summer favorite, rum. Really!
The Mint Meridian
Ice cubes
2 ounces dark rum
3/4 ounces Brancamenta
1/4 freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 dashes Peychaud’s bitters
Chilled club soda
Mint sprig, for garnish
1. Fill a cocktail shaker halfway up with ice cubes. Add the rum, Brancamenta, lemon juice, and bitters. Shake well.
2. Fill a highball or closely comparable glass up with ice cubes. Strain the mix from Step 1 into the glass.
3. Top with 3 ounces club soda. Stir. Garnish with the mint spring. Enjoy your afternoon.
Tags: #brancamenta, cocktail recipe, Cocktail Recipes, Friday Night Cocktail, Peychaud's bitters, Rum, super refreshing summer cocktail, The Mint Meridian, What I'm Drinking
Posted in: bitters, Cocktail Recipes, Italy, Recipes, Rum, What I'm Drinking
May 23, 2014
I recently brought this back into the rotation – and couldn’t be smile-ier about it. I like it so much, I’m gonna quote myself:
I choose to believe there’s a hidden mystery by Dame Agatha (Christie, that is) called The Crimson Slippers, where mercurial and Belgian (not French) detective Hercule Poirot must solve the multiple murders (seems there’s almost always more than one) circling around two single clues: a pair of comfy slippers with a tiny bloodstain on the toe, and a cocktail glass containing the remains of a bitter-ish combination aglow with a deep red hue. Naturally, if there isn’t a yet-to-be-discovered Agatha manuscript with this title out there—perhaps in a trunk in the back corner of the attic in an English country house—then I guess you’re going to have to write that mystery. Once it’s an international publishing phenom, though, I’ll expect you to buy the next round.
The Crimson Slippers (from Dark Spirits)
Ice cubes
2 ounces dark rum
1 ounce Campari
1/2 ounce triple sec
Dash of Peychaud’s bitters
Lime slice for garnish
1. Fill a cocktail shaker halfway full with ice cubes. Add the rum, Campari, triple sec, and bitters. Shake well.
2. Strain into a cocktail glass (being sure not to spill on any manuscripts lying around).
3. Squeeze the lime slice over the glass and drop it in without any mystery.
Tags: Campari, cocktail recipe, Cocktail Recipes, Dark Spirits, Friday Night Cocktail, Peychaud's bitters, The Crimson Slippers, What I'm Drinking
Posted in: bitters, Cocktail Recipes, Dark Spirits, Recipes, Rum, What I'm Drinking
May 16, 2014
It’s getting nearer and nearer to summer (which some dread, some pine for, and some – like me – are happy when it’s here but don’t miss it when it’s gone). My advice in these pre-summer days (outside of buying some new short shorts)? Get ready for the rising of Mercury by putting a few new new drinks into your hot-weather repertoire. A good start would be the ASAP. It contains the requisite bubbly, tangy, refreshing nature, and also has a heck of a shot of rum in it – which I find helps summer trot smoothly through its paces as well.
The ASAP (from Dark Spirits)
Ice cubes
1-1/2 ounces dark rum
1/2 ounce Falernum
1/2 ounce Tuaca
1/2 ounce fresh pineapple juice
Chilled ginger ale
Lime slice for garnish
1. Fill a highball glass three-quarters full with ice cubes. Add the rum, Falernum, Tuaca, and pineapple juice. Stir, but only twice.
2. Top the glass off with ginger ale. Stir once more. Garnish with the lime slice.
Tags: cocktail recipe, Cocktail Recipes, dark rum, Dark Spirits, Falernum, Friday Night Cocktail, ginger ale, pineapple juice, The ASAP, Tuaca, What I'm Drinking
Posted in: Cocktail Recipes, Dark Spirits, Liqueurs, Recipes, Rum, What I'm Drinking
May 9, 2014
If you are someone who is adventuresome, who isn’t afraid of, say, wearing a velvet jacket, or making out with someone in an elevator, or drinking a drink that would cause most people to say “jumpin’ Jehoshaphat, what is that,” then you are probably up for trying this drink. The name dates back to a poem by Thomas Moore, first published in 1817. The poem is about the daughter of a Mughal emperor (her name is Lalla Rookh) who’s engaged to some prince, but who meets a poet who sweeps her off her feet with poems and poetic-ness (those poets are so tricky, especially this one, as he turns out to be—spoiler alert—the prince). The drink is old, too, but maybe not that old? I’m not 100% sure. Famous cranky drink writer David Embury said of this drink, in 1948, “This relic of the Gay Nineties is a syrupy-sweet and wholly deceptive concoction.” Which means it can deliver a wallop under all the coo-ing it does.
The Lalla Rookh (from Dark Spirits)
Ice cubes
1 ounce Cognac
1 ounce dark rum
1 ounce vanilla liqueur
1/2 ounce Simple Syrup
1/2 ounce heavy cream
Chilled club soda
1. Fill a cocktail shaker halfway full with ice cubes. Add the Cognac, rum, vanilla liqueur, simple syrup, and cream. Shake poetically (which here means shake a lot, rhythmically).
2. Fill a highball glass halfway full with ice cubes. Strain the mix into the glass. Top with club soda and stir well (again, poetically).
Tags: club soda, cocktail recipe, Cocktail Recipes, Cognac, dark rum, Friday Night Cocktail, heavy cream, simple syrup, The Lalla Rookh, vanilla liqueur, What I'm Drinking
Posted in: Cocktail Recipes, Cognac, Dark Spirits, Liqueurs, Recipes, Rum, What I'm Drinking
May 2, 2014
This will blow your mind. I’m not kidding. Blow your mind. I’m sorta freaked out just looking at the ingredients list. Three awesome drink ingredients. And one is an amaretto. One is a nocino. And one is a beer. There is no way these should go together in a drink. But they do. And the result will blow your mind – with tastiness.
Over the Kent Moon
1 ounce Sidetrack Nocino
1 ounce amaretto
8 ounces chilled Airways Final Departure Stout
1. Add the Nocino and the amaretto to a chilled Collins glass.
2. Slowly, and with a steady hand, add the stout. Stir briefly and calmly.
Tags: Airways Final Departure Stout, amaretto, beer cocktail, cocktail recipe, Cocktail Recipes, Friday Night Cocktail, Over the Kent Moon, Sidetrack Nocino, Two Beers Trailhead ISA, What I'm Drinking
Posted in: beer, bitters, Cocktail Recipes, Recipes, Rum, What I'm Drinking
April 11, 2014
Argh, shiver me timbers, and yo-ho-ho. If the Captain’s Blood is flowing across the mizzenmast, it may be time to give up the ship. Or invite the marauders over, where you can splice the mainbrace in proper fashion–eye-patches, peg-legs, cutlasses, and black hats required. And if you think I know what that means, you are a very tipsy pirate. Which, I suppose, is the only way to be.
Oh, also, this makes a good drink if you’re watching any pirate movie, taking a bath with some sort-of floating ships in the bath with you, or watching BATTLESHIP, BATTLESHIP, BATTLESHIP. Heck, it’s just a good drink.
Captain’s Blood, from Good Spirits
Ice cubes
2-1/2 ounces Sun Liquor barrel-aged rum
1/2 ounce freshly squeezed lime juice
2 dashes orange bitters
Lime slice, for garnish
1. Fill a cocktail shaker halfway full with ice cubes. Add the rum, bitters, and lime juice. Shake matey, shake.
2. Strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with the lime slice.
Tags: Captain’s Blood, cocktail recipe, Cocktail Recipes, Friday Night Cocktail, lime juice, orange bitters, Rum, Sun Liquor barrel-aged rum, What I'm Drinking
Posted in: Cocktail Recipes, Good Spirits, Recipes, Rum, What I'm Drinking
February 18, 2014
There are a number of things we miss in the modern age: Myrna Loy, zoot suits, un-ironic swing bands, speakeasies that aren’t just trying to be trendy, and more. We also miss the chance to have “bootlegger” on our resumes. Ah well, at least the unmissable Compleat Imbiber # 2, itself a bit old (from 1958) lets us relive the bootlegging days in an essay it contains. An essay from which I present to you the below quote.
The first violinist, an expert chemist, skillfully diluted the contents of gin, rum, Scotch whisky, Bénédictine, and Cognac bottles which he bought at the crew’s fifty per cent reduction from the second-class barman. (In those days of Honesty, it was ‘second’ and not ‘cabin’ class.)
—Joseph Wechsberg, Confessions of a Bootlegger
Tags: Benedictine, Cocktail Talk, Cognac, Complete Imbiber, Confessions of a Bootlegger, Gin, Rum, Scotch whisky, The Compleat Imbiber
Posted in: Cocktail Talk, Gin, Rum
January 10, 2014
There have been many famous and legendary pugilists. And, there have been many famous and legendary bartenders and bar scribes. As a whole, I’d say that the pugilists could probably take the bar folk in a back alley brawl, but wouldn’t hurt them much, as then who would pour the punchers the drinks? Anyway, one guy who fits nicely into both categories is Andrew Bohrer, of Cask Strength and the book The Best Shots You’ve Never Tried, in which you’ll find this tasty shot, a fine pick-you-up either before or after watching a boxing match.
The Prizefighter
1 ounce white rum (or try Sun Liquor’s aged rum here)
1/2 ounce simple syrup
1 whole egg
2 dashes hot sauce (your choice)
1. Fill a cocktail shaker halfway full with ice cubes. Add everything. Shake well.
2. Strain through a fine strainer into a shot glass. Drink quickly, and always go down swinging.
