April 1, 2016
I’m pretty blessed to live in a state full of swell distilleries: big-ish ones, little-ish ones, medium-ish ones. And so many of them are doing their own, interesting bottled thing – it’s awesome! And during the course of one recent evening, I wanted to celebrate this particular WA-blessing by making myself a drink using all local booze. It wasn’t hard really (due to the many choices intimated at above), outside of narrowing it down – cause I like so many of them! Another night, it’d be completely different. This particular evening I was feeling rummy, though, and went with Skip Rock’s Belle Rose rum, the light-ish rum version, which was aged in white wine barrels, and has a nice vanilla-oaky-ness. I introduced it (hopefully not for the first time in history) to broVo spirits’ wonderful new-ish Lucky Falernum liqueur (especially good today). A lot of falernums available are a little cloying to me, but Lucky is higher-proof and more mighty than cloying, without losing its underlying ginger, lime, pineapple, star anise profile. Those two locals together is a good start, but I wanted a wild card, something to bring one more zing – I went with Salish Sea’s Hibiscus liqueur, made from Egyptian red hibiscus flowers, and carrying a lovely tangy tartness. Together, they made for a wonderful Washington evening indeed. No fooling!
The Course of the Evening
The Course of the Evening
Cracked ice
1-1/2 ounces Skip Rock Belle Rose light rum
1 ounce broVo spirits Lucky Falernum
1/2 ounce Salish Sea Hibiscus liqueur
Orange wedge, for garnish
1. Fill a cocktail shaker or mixing glass halfway full with cracked ice. Add the trio of Washington-state delights. Stir well (I really wanted to say “just right” there).
2. Strain into a cocktail glass. Squeeze the wedge over the glass, then drop it in.
Tags: broVo spirits Lucky Falernum, cocktail recipe, Cocktail Recipes, Falernum, Friday Night Cocktail, Rum, Salish Sea Hibiscus liqueur, Skip Rock Belle Rose light rum, The Course of the Evening, Washington distillery, What I’m Drinking
Posted in: Cocktail Recipes, Distillery, Liqueurs, Recipes, Rum, What I'm Drinking
March 25, 2016
Okay, let’s start with another drink – the Martini. Don’t worry, I’ll get to widows. But recently I received (poor me!) a bottle of Ransom Gin and a bottle of Ransom dry vermouth in the mail. If you don’t know (and, if so, why don’t you?), Ransom is a farm-to-glass distillery and winery in Sheridan, OR, started up by owner and distiller Tad Seestedt. With the f-to-g earlier, you can probably guess that they use local ingredients by the bucketful, including in the gin alone, hops, marionberry, coriander, fennel seeds, and chamomile all produced on the Oregon farm where the distillery is, which is fantastic. And the vermouth also features wine and brandy made on the farm, using OR ingredients, too. That’s pretty darn awesome, and means these old pals (gin and vermouth, that is), in this situation are old, old pals, down to the ground. So, when one (if you’re one like me) gets a bottle of gin and a bottle of vermouth from the same spot and sharing the same agricultural legacy, the first thing that happens is opening the bottles. Then making a Martini, of course.
Mine are made in old school style, 2-1/2 parts gin to 1/2 part vermouth, with a twist of lemon. The end result here – darn delicious. Hints of herb and spice, but with a really lovely smoothness overall. Everything, as you’d expect, plays so nicely together. Of course, me being me and all that, I couldn’t just try the Martini, I had to push the envelope beyond the obvious with a lesser-in-the-road’s-middle cocktail. And that cocktail was the Merry Widow, which I’d recently re-discovered (I can’t remember if this is where I saw it first, honestly) in a fun book from 1936 called Burke’s Complete Cocktail and Tastybite Recipes – a fine read if you can find it. Anyway, the Merry Widow lets the vermouth shine a bit more (which is good here, because the Ransom vermouth is very drinkable all alone, with an balanced herbal, citrus, combo), and also introduces just a hint of a few other players, all of whom played well. Give it a whirl, and see if you can taste that good Oregon terroir coming through. I served a round to some pals, and they all could – and thought the drink would make any widow get up and dance.
The Merry Widow
Cracked ice
1-1/2 ounces Ransom gin
1-1/2 ounces Ransom dry vermouth
2 dashes Absinthe
2 dashes Benedictine
1 dash Angostura bitters
Lemon twist, for garnish
1. Fill a cocktail shaker or mixing glass halfway full with cracked ice. Add everything but the twist. Stir well.
2. Strain into a cocktail glass. Now, bring that twist to the OR party.
Tags: absinthe, Angostura bitters, Benedictine, Burke’s Complete Cocktail and Tastybite Recipes, cocktail recipe, Cocktail Recipes, Friday Night Cocktail, Gin, Martini, Ransom dry vermouth, Ransom gin, The Merry Widow, vermouth, What I’m Drinking
Posted in: bitters, Cocktail Recipes, Distillery, Gin, Liqueurs, Recipes, vermouth, What I'm Drinking
March 22, 2016
In case it slipped by you like a ship in the night (for shame, for shame), my most recent Seattle magazine Bar Method article is about local bar Westward, bar manager Andy McClellan, and a cocktail of his, The Tale of Two Sherries – which uses two different kinds of sherry! It’s truly a fine mix, and one you should probably read about, right? So, check it out.
*See all Seattle magazine articles by me
March 18, 2016
Well, it’s the day after St. Patrick’s Day, so you may be up to your ears already in drinks utilizing Irish whiskey this week – but really, can you have too many? Not when you’re using some deliciousness like The Quiet Man Traditional blended Irish whiskey, which is re-casked in first-fill bourbon casks. It carries a very approachable nature, along with a vanilla, honey, apple, spice, and oak flavor that’s sippable, sure, but which also plays well with others – as in this drink. This drink, by the way, you’ll sometimes see with other ingredients (mostly a sloe gin variety). Well, the name you’ll see on other ingredients I suppose would be proper. But this time of year, this is the only way to go, as many have gone before you (it is a fairly old drink). Have a few, and you’ll be telling stories in no time. Unlike The Quiet Man founder Ciaran Mulgrew’s father, John Mulgrew, who this whiskey was named after and who worked many years in the Irish bar world, and who, as they say “told no tales.” A good story! Which also always makes a drink taste better.
The Blackthorn, using the recipe from Ginger Bliss and the Violet Fizz
Ice cubes
2 ounces Quiet Man Traditional blended Irish whiskey
1 ounce sweet vermouth
1/4 ounce absinthe
3 dashes Angostura bitters
Lemon twist, for garnish
1. Fill a cocktail shaker halfway full with ice cubes. Add the Irish, the sweet vermouth, absinthe, and bitters. Shake well.
2. Strain into a cocktail glass. Twist the twist over the glass and let it drop in.
Tags: cocktail recipe, Cocktail Recipes, Friday Night Cocktail, The Blackthorn, What I’m Drinking
Posted in: absinthe, bitters, Cocktail Recipes, Ginger Bliss and the Violet Fizz, Recipes, What I'm Drinking, Whiskey
March 15, 2016
Spring has nearly sprung, or maybe is in mid-spring, though that could be mid-sprung-ing? Either or, things are budding, including my most recent blog posts for the swank Seattle magazine, which you probably already know, having read them all, right? RIGHT? Well, if not, there’s no need for shouting (that was just me kidding around). Read them now, before the web explodes**.
• New Greenhorn Whiskey and Other Local Distillery News
• Top Five Drinks for Celebrating a Birthday
• Valentine’s Day Drink Picks from Seattle Bartenders
• Support Your Local Female Bartenders at Speed Rack
*See all Seattle magazine posts by me
**This is not happening, and I don’t want to be the start of any “the web’s exploding” rumors for gosh sakes.
March 11, 2016
I am, admittedly, about 18 days late here, as first president Washington’s birthday is Feb. 22nd. But I’ve never thought one should only honor the father of our country with a drink on that particular day (December 14, the day he passed away, is another good one), and for that matter, feel there’s not one particular drink to have, either. Another good one, for example, is the Washington’s Wish (in Dark Spirits if you want to know more). And I’ll bet there are others called just Washington too, as it seems a good name for a drink. This one is a good one, though it can be tough, as it’s very vermouth forward, so you need a good vermouth, first off. I used Dolin, which is reliable, tasty, and something one should always have around the house. Then, you need a super brandy, since it’s lower in volume than the vermouth – it needs to stand up a bit. I used Lepanto Solera Gran Reserva Brandy de Jerez (which showed up in the mail, to be honest), the only brandy to be produced entirely in Jerez. It’s nearly too swell for mixing (and great on its own), but hey, sometimes you gotta say “why not?” Aged in American oak barrels once used for sherry for 15 years, it has a nutty and spice taste, with strong wood notes, that go amazingly with the vermouth. This is one fine cocktail, friends, and worthy of the historic personage it’s named after – even when had a little later than expected.
The Washington, from Ginger Bliss and the Violet Fizz
Ice cubes
2 ounces Dolin dry vermouth
1 ounce Lepanto Lepanto Solera Gran Reserva Brandy de Jerez
4 dashes Angostura bitters
1/2 ounce Simple Syrup
1. Fill a cocktail shaker halfway full with ice cubes. Add the vermouth, brandy, bitters, and simple syrup. Shake well.
2. Strain into a cocktail glass
Tags: Angostura bitters, Brandy, cocktail recipe, Cocktail Recipes, Friday Night Cocktail, The Washington, vermouth, What I’m Drinking
Posted in: bitters, Brandy, Cocktail Recipes, Recipes, vermouth, What I'm Drinking
March 8, 2016
Well, here’s a first I believe – a Jane Austen Cocktail Talk. Not weird, really, since I love some Jane, and I was also recently in Bath, where I trod the streets she walked (so to speak), and had fun doing it. However, weird in the fact that there’s not a ton of drinking it up in Jane, so the quotes applicable to the Cocktail Talking are fairly few and far between. However, I was re-reading Northanger Abbey recently, cause of the Bath-ing that goes on in and my recent visit, and came across a pretty swell, boastfully funny, bit about drinking at Oxford:
“Lord help you! — You women are always thinking of men’s being in liquor. Why, you do not suppose a man is overset by a bottle? I am sure of this — that if everybody was to drink their bottle a-day, there would not be half the disorders in the world there are now. It would be a famous good thing for us all.”
“I cannot believe it.”
“Oh! lord, it would be the saving of thousands. There is not the hundredth part of the wine consumed in this kingdom that there ought to be. Our foggy climate wants help.”
“And yet I have heard that there is a great deal of wine drunk in Oxford.”
“Oxford! There is no drinking at Oxford now, I assure you. Nobody drinks there. You would hardly meet with a man who goes beyond his four pints at the utmost. Now, for instance, it was reckoned a remarkable thing, at the last party in my rooms, that upon an average we cleared about five pints a head. It was looked upon as something out of the common way. Mine is famous good stuff, to be sure. You would not often meet with anything like it in Oxford — and that may account for it. But this will just give you a notion of the general rate of drinking there.”
— Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey
March 4, 2016
Created at some point in the 1940s (as the story goes) by Pat O’Brien (whose bar when first opened during Prohibition had the code phrase “storm’s brewin’” if you wanted in) to get rid of the cheaper rum his distributors forced him to buy in order to get the more desirable whiskey and Scotch, by mixing said rum with fruit juice and such and then giving it all away to sailors, the Hurricane is now thought of as a drink for drunken-and-wanna-be-drunker collegians. It’s usually made with a pre-mix-y thing that would make Pat turn over in his grave, and usually has all the taste of off-brand Kool-Aid. Hopefully whoever gets the $$ from this travesty is happy. But! And however! Even if he was originally making it as a give-a-way, a Hurricane made more closely to the original idea, and with homemade ingredients (at least the grenadine), and decent rum (which is plentiful), is actually darn good, refreshing, fruity, and a treat. A treat! So, don’t believe the hype. Believe the Hurricane. Oh, the below recipe can easily be doubled, as the below is a lighter wind than my usual recipe, which is only for sailors. For gosh sakes though, if drinking that doubled version, don’t go sailing or driving, and do use a fancy Hurricane-style glass.
The Hurricane, recipe from Good Spirits
Ice cubes
1-1/2 ounces white rum
1/2 ounce dark rum
1/2 ounce freshly squeezed lime juice
1/4 ounce homemade grenadine
1/2 ounce passion fruit syrup
1/2 ounces pineapple juice
Orange slice for garnish
1. Fill a cocktail shaker halfway full with ice cubes. Add the rums, lime juice, grenadine, passion fruit syrup, and pineapple. Shake really well.
2. Fill an old fashioned or comparable glass halfway with ice cubes. Strain the mix through a fine strainer into the glass.
3. Garnish with an orange slice.
A Note: Passion fruit syrup can be hard to find – check Asian grocery stores and online. But if you absolutely can’t track it down, substitute 1 ounce simple syrup. Not quite the same, but not quite awful, either.
