November 12, 2013
Hey pals and gals and galpals, I recently did a fun series of posts for the swanky Seattle magazine, all designed to help out the home bartender. First, was a post detailing essential bar tools, then one where I detailed some mixers you should make, not buy, and finally one with a few choice recipes using said mixers. It was pretty tasty fun, and I figured you (yes, you) might dig it.
• Five Essential Home Bar Tools
• Cocktail Mixers You Should Make, Not Buy (and How to Make Them)
• 3 Drinks Perfect for Homemade Mixers
— See all A.J. Seattle magazine articles
November 8, 2013
Sometimes, a drink name says it all. In this case: Perfect. Does that mean I think this is the perfect cocktail, always and for every situation and second? Nah. But I do think it carries a kind of perfection, and for those days when you feel neither 100% sweet or dry, it certainly matches the mood. For those reasons, and during those seasons, sure, this one’s vermouth balance does indeed equal the name: Perfect.
Perfect Cocktail (recipe from Good Spirits)
Ice cubes 1-1/2 ounces gin (Voyager gin is pretty swell here)
3/4 ounce dry vermouth (might as well double up and go Dolin for both vermouths)
3/4 ounce sweet vermouth
Orange or lemon slice for garnish
1. Fill a cocktail shaker half way with ice cubes. Add the gin first, and then the vermouths. Stir well.
2. Strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with either an orange or lemon slice (I’ve seen it both ways, and go depending on my mood).
Tags: cocktail recipe, Cocktail Recipes, Dolin vermouth, dry vermouth, Friday Night Cocktail, Gin, Perfect Cocktail, sweet vermouth, Voyager gin, What I'm Drinking
Posted in: Cocktail Recipes, Gin, Recipes, vermouth, What I'm Drinking
November 5, 2013
My un-stopping love for the great English novelist Anthony Trollope continues with each of his books I read (there are a lot, luckily). Recently I finished the lesser-known treasure Is He Popenjoy?, all about class and legacy and inheritance in multiple ways. What I wish now is that some fine bartender out there would make up a drink called The Popenjoy. I would pay a pretty penny for that, if it was awesome. It would have to contain cherry brandy, which is mentioned in the books, as well as curaçao, which is in the dandy quote below (oh, if you do make up a drink here, go with Pierre Ferrand curaçao, please). If you create The Popenjoy, please let me know asap.
She was in the habit of sitting by him and talking to him late in the evening, while he was sipping his curaçao and soda-water, and had become accustomed to hear odd things from him. He liked her because he could say what he please to her, and she would laugh and listen and show no offence.
–Anthony Trollope, Is He Popenjoy?
November 1, 2013
Here’s something you may not know: John Hanson, the first president of the newly independent United States under the Articles of Confederation, on October 11, 1782 declared that the fourth Thursday of every November was to be Thanksgiving Day. As I’m someone who likes Thanksgiving, well, this was news to me. And it led to me, when trying to come up with a new drink to have before Thanksgiving, utilizing Mr. Hanson’s name in the title. I also utilized a couple of awesome new Seattle-area products in the drink, cause going local is good, especially around Thanksgiving. The first was a shrub. I’m guessing you know I don’t mean the plant, but the colonial era vinegar-based cocktail-and-drink ingredient that’s making a comeback. You probably don’t know I used a Ludlow Market Shrub, made around these parts, specifically the Blackberry Sarsaparilla Vanilla variety, which is rich and tangy and fruity all at once. I also used the new Seattle Distilling Company Idle Hours whiskey (made on Vashon Island), which is an Irish-style whiskey with a hint of honey. All together, the Hanson Sparkler (there soda water which makes it sparkle) is an ideal pre-Thanksgiving drink, one that’ll whet your appetite without filling you up.
The Hanson Sparkler
Ice cubes
1-1/2 ounces Seattle Distilling Company Idle Hours whiskey
1 ounce Ludlow Market Blackberry Sarsaparilla Vanilla shrub
5 to 6 ounces soda water
1. Fill a highball or double-ish Old Fashioned glass with a four or five ice cubes.
2. Add the Idle Hours whiskey, then the shrub, then the soda water. Stir well.
Tags: cocktail recipe, Cocktail Recipes, Friday Night Cocktail, Idle Hours whiskey, Ludlow Market shrub, shrub, Thanksgiving drink, The Hanson Sparkler, What I’m Drinkin, Whiskey
Posted in: Cocktail Recipes, Recipes, What I'm Drinking, Whiskey
October 29, 2013
Hello dear hearts. There’s time I think for one more quote from the The Compleat Imbiber #5, which we’ve been talking up here on the ol’ Spiked Punch due to it’s greatness and my love of The Compleat Imbiber series. This time, it’s from a piece called Four O’Clock at the Five O’Clock, by a gentleman named Hugh Massingham. It’s mainly a look at American drinking establishments by someone not native to this country, and is built off a stop at a spot in Denver (I wonder if it’s still there) called the Five O’Clock, which didn’t at first seem friendly, but which had, from the below quote, quite a friendly line up for the times.
Suddenly, behind the bar, artfully lit from below, is a blaze of welcoming friends. There is good old Johnnie Walker, as spry as ever. There is that authentic notes of Floreat Etona, Harvey’s sherry. There is historic Beefeater – the snob gin in the United States – and those two dogs yapping away on behalf of Black and White, and soft-tasting ding-dong Bells and kindly tempting Teachers and Cutty Sarks in full sail. There is bicarbonate of soda on draught and tots of Alka Seltzer – the necessities for a hangover morning, familiar sights in an English bathroom, but unknown in English pubs. True, there are a number of bottles that are strangers, and that wink away at you with the offer of novel and perhaps dangerous pleasures. Leroux’s ‘Ginger-Flavoured Brandy’ should surely tickle some secret spot hitherto unexplored by the milder and less adventurous brews of your native land? Then there is gay Dixie Rose, a cross, perhaps, between a Gone-With-The-Wind lady and a gypsy, who is offering for your relaxation in this subdued light a bottle of London dry gin. There is Hill Billy Reserve Whiskey, with its suggestion of some smoky still in a mountain chasm. There is Popcorn Straight Cut Whiskey, made, apparently – and yet can this be true? – from the same fat white salted ears piled up in the dish by your elbow. There is ancient Carstairs (established 1788) with his White Seal Blended. There is good old Thompson – don’t let’s forget his blended bourbon. And there is Vernon and Paddy and a bottle with a playing-card label, showing a King both face upwards and face downwards – delights still not tested after all these weeks of travel.
— Hugh Massingham, Four O’Clock at the Five O’Clock, The Compleat Imbiber #5
Tags: Bars, bars. whiskey, Beefeater, Bells, Cocktail Talk, Cutty Sark, Hill Billy Reserve whiskey, Johnnie Walker, lots and lots of booze, Popcorn Whiskey, Teachers, The Compleat Imbiber, White Seal
Posted in: Bars, Cocktail Talk, Whiskey
October 25, 2013
Pals, it’s getting chilly. No way to escape it, in the general sense. But in the specific sense, the best way to escape it is to cuddle up with someone cuddly and have this very drink, which is a warmer meant to be had while cuddling. And yeah, it uses both Drambuie and schnapps, which may bother your snootier sensibilities. But if so, no one wants to cuddly with you anyway and you can ignore this whole thing.
The Late Date, Recipe from Good Spirits
Orange Wheel
Lemon Wheel
2 ounces Drambuie
1/2 ounce cinnamon schnapps
3-1/2 ounces hot water
1. Add the orange wheel and lemon wheel to a sturdy mug. Using a muddler or wooden spoon, gently muddle the rounds.
2. Add the Drambuie and cinnamon schnapps to the mug. Stir briefly. Add the hot water, and stir again.
Tags: cocktail recipe, Cocktail Recipes, Drambuie, Friday Night Cocktail, Good Spirits, Late Date, What I'm Drinking
Posted in: Cocktail Recipes, Good Spirits, Liqueurs, Recipes, What I'm Drinking
October 22, 2013
Hey friends and drinkers of all varieties and shapes and sizes. I know I ramble on mainly about cocktails on this blog, but hey, I’m an equal-opportunity drinker, and also love the cider (and other non-cocktail drinks, but here it’s apple season), and, for that matter, cider cocktails. I wrote about both recently for Seattle magazine, and thought, hey, you might want to cider up, too! So check out:
• Seattle’s Thriving Hard Cider Scene
• Two Cider Cocktail Recipes
October 18, 2013
So, the other night I was reclining in the big comfy chair, trying to decide what to have for my evening libation while paging through a pocket-sized book called The Standard Cocktail Guide: A Manual of Mixed Drinks Written for the American Host by Crosby Gaige, published in 1944. It’s a handy little book, if not as exuberantly fun at Mr. Gaige’s Cocktail Guide and Ladies Companion. But well worth picking up if you ever see it. I knew, before deciding on a drink, a couple facts. One: I wanted to make a drink using iced crushed in my new McSology Lewis bag (a dandy Lewis bag made here in Seattle out of 100% cotton canvas, and available for $48 for the professional-sized model and $26 for the home-bartender version, if after reading this you want one). Two: I wanted to make a drink I didn’t know. Three: I wanted to make a drink out of this book. Four: I wanted to use the last bit of mint from the mint plant out back. I ended up with the Santa Cruz Daisy, though admittedly I modified it perhaps nearly out of Daisy-dom, cause I went with a mint instead of fruit topping, and I used crushed and not shaved ice. But it was still massively delicious.
The Santa Cruz Daisy (Sort Of)
2 ounces white rum
1/4 ounce maraschino
1/4 ounce simple syrup
Crushed ice
Fresh mint sprigs
Splash of soda water
1. Add the rum, maraschino, simple syrup to a mixing glass and stir well.
2. Crush a bunch of ice in your Lewis bag and revel in the crushing.
3. Fill a goblet or other swell glass with ice, and strain the mix gently over it, topping with more ice as needed.
4. Add a splash of soda and garnish with mint sprigs.
Tags: Bar Tools, cocktail recipe, Cocktail Recipes, Crosby Gaige, Friday Night Cocktail, lime juice, Maraschino, McSology, McSology Lewis Bar, Rum, Santa Cruz Daisy, What I'm Drinking
Posted in: Cocktail Recipes, Crosby Gaige, Recipes, Rum, What I'm Drinking
