I feel somewhat bad (I mean, not all-the-way bad, as if I’d spilled a Shoreditch Sombrero cocktail, but still sorta bad) cause I don’t have a super accurate and detailed recipe for today’s What I’m Drinking. Usually, I try to give you (and I do mean you) the opportunity to drink along with me by providing said recipe, but as this drink came about somewhat randomly I somewhat forgot to write down the measurements of what’s in it in a precise and helpful manner. Heck, I didn’t even come up with a snazzy name, and I pride myself, darnit, on the snappy-ness of my drink names (maybe I should have gone with Lant? Lavmi? Mive? LMG? Moving Lavender Gogh?). I suppose there’s still time. With all that said, here are the basics. I took a bunch of fresh lavender from the garden (the lavender was really the impetus for this liqueury drink, cause we have a lovely lavender plant), the flowers of course, about two cups, and added it to a sturdy glass container with about a cup and half fresh mint (we’ve also been lucky in the mint department this year), muddled them up a bit, then added a 750 milliliter bottle of grappa that I wasn’t sure I’d be sipping, stirred, and sealed:
I let that kick its heels for a couple weeks in my cool and dry storage room, stopping by to chat it up and swirl it around every day or so. Then I added (if memory serves) about a cup-and-a-quarter’s worth of simple syrup. I didn’t want it to be as sweetened as most liqueurs, but wanted to take the edge off the grappa a bit. You dig me? Then back down to that cool, dry spot away from the sun for a few weeks. Then I strained it a couple times through cheese cloth (those lavender pips can be tricky), bottled it, and Nat took this lovely pic:
It has a slightly floral taste, underlined with the mint and some other herbaceous-ness, but enough of a kick that it won’t be called a sissy anytime soon. I’ve been sipping it solo the last few nights but am tempted to try mixing it up with some flavorful gin or other choice items. Its flavor is singular enough that it may be tough to find the right match, but I’m game (as long as I don’t get away from the sipping solo, too, that is). If anything works out nicely, I’ll report back, okay?
I don’t want you to think I’m getting routine in my drink making and testing and making some more. But I just couldn’t resist conjuring up another mighty mix that maximized the potential of the Deluxe Foods Earl Grey syrup (used last in The Earl of 15th Avenue cocktail), which will soon be available in better stores near you. Or online at the Deluxe Foods site. It has a hint of smoky-ness and a hint of citrus and, naturally, a little sweetness. All those combined had me dreaming of mixing it with a smoky tequila (and yes, these are the kinds of things I dream about. Well, these things and late 1950s era Kim Novak. A boy’s gotta have multiple hobbies), a tequila like the Casa Noble Reposado, which has a smooth smoke mingling with vanilla, citrus, and agave flavors. So, I made the dream a reality by mixing the above two ingredients, and then upped the ante with a little fresh squeezed oj, for health reasons. Delicious, I must admit:
Ice cubes
2 ounces Casa Noble Reposado tequila
1/2 ounce Deluxe Foods Earl Grey syrup
1/2 ounce freshly squeezed orange juice
1. Fill a cocktail shaker halfway full with ice cubes. Add everything. Shake well.
2. Strain into a cocktail glass. Drink with a hat on. Or drink out of a hat. Up to you.
A Note: Shoreditch is a neighborhood in London. Earl Grey tea is named for the 2nd Earl Grey, who was England’s Prime Minister at one point and who lived in London. Tequila is from Mexico, where the sombrero originates. Now you know about the name. As a bonus, Vince Noir once called himself a Shoreditch vampire. And he’d certainly like this drink.
In the Earl of 15th Avenue cocktail post below, I talked a bit about how I was lucky enough to be mixing with a Deluxe Foods syrup not yet widely available. Then I apologized for it. And now I’m apologizing again, because in the drink we’re sipping today, the main (really) ingredient is another of those Deluxe syrups, this time strawberry. And, to keep the apologies flowing, let me apologize for putting a drink sans alcohol on a booze blog. What kind of a creep am I anyway? But sometimes a summer refresher needs to be light, and light on alcohol, and sometimes even without alcohol altogether. Which is how the Deluxe SSB rolls. But its dry-ish strawberry goodness more than makes up for it and will cool you down on a day when the Mercury has risen to the tops of the thermometer. Oh, and keep checking the Deluxe Foods farmer’s market stands for syrups–you never know when you’ll get lucky.
Ice cubes
1-1/2 ounces Deluxe Foods strawberry syrup
Chilled club soda
1 Rainier cherry, for garnish
1. Fill a highball or comparable glass three-quarters full with ice cubes. Add the syrup.
2. Fill the glass almost to the top with club soda. Stir well, and garnish with the cherry.
A Note: Rainier cherry deficient? Sub in a second type and only cry a little.
A Second Note: Feel this has to have a alcohol component? Add an ounce of gin to the glass in step one. Gin and strawberries are a yummy combo.
Here’s something long-time readers (all three of you) of the Spiked Punch don’t see very often: a drink recipe with vodka. It’s true, I find most mass-produced modern vodkas a wee smidge, well, boring. Flavorless, even. This has probably and sadly kept me away from some modern craft-y vodkas, ones I would enjoy. Until recently, that is (and that, friends, is what we call an “ah-ha” moment). Recently, I’ve been lucky enough to try some of the new local vodkas, those created around the Seattle and WA area, and I’ve been blown away–complex vodkas with intriguing flavor profiles? Amazing. I’m talking about vodkas like Bainbridge Organic’s Legacy vodka, Woodinville Whiskey’s Peabody Jones vodka, and Sound Spirits’ Ebb+Flow vodka. The latter is what I used in the below drink, because it’s flavor, which comes from using 100% malted barley, mingled well with some tasty Earl Grey syrup I received from the fine folks at Deluxe Foods. Deluxe isn’t selling their syrups yet (I don’t think–though if you’re in Seattle you should stop by a Farmer’s Market and ask), but keep checking the Deluxe Foods site for when they do. The Earl Grey syrup has a subtle-but-evident tea taste and a nice medium sweetness. Sorry to list a recipe that might have hard-to-find ingredients, by the way, but you know what they say: fate favors those who track down hard-to-find-ingredients. Or something like that.
Ice cubes
2 ounces Ebb+Flow vodka
1/2 ounce Deluxe Foods Earl Grey syrup
1/4 ounce Lillet blanc
1/4 ounce freshly squeezed lemon juice
1. Fill a cocktail shaker halfway full with ice cubes. Add everything. Shake well.
2. Drain the mix into a cocktail glass and enjoy to the fullest.
The Margarita may just be the most curious of the super-popular cocktails (and by “super-popular” I mean being ordered by a massively large number of people as I type). The curiosity stems both from its history, which I’ll talk more about in a second, and from the fact that people seem to be okay about 78% of the time with drinking a really awfully made mix that somebody who doesn’t know better calls a Margarita.
and if that doesn’t get you over there to read the rest of the article, well, you’d better check your pulse pal, to make sure you’re not, actually, a ghost.
It’s July, so I’m not going to lie (really, I just wanted to make that rhyme. No, wait, really, I’m not lying. Really)—I have a strong affection for not only the Oriental Cocktail (a beaut of an unburied treasure utilizing a party power pack: rye, sweet vermouth, orange curaçao, and lime juice) but for pretty much all cocktails that come with a good story. Want to learn more? Check out this short-but-swell article on the Oriental Cocktail I wrote that was recently in a special summer cocktail e-issue of the Good Life Report (the article does have the full recipe, too—if you’re thirsty). If you don’t know about the Good Life Report, and yet feel you are someone who does, indeed, want a good life, then, well, sign up for gosh sakes.
PS: I almost forgot–that article also talks about Mark Butler’s genius drink the Occidental, too! How can you miss it?
I love this bubbly-and-bitter-belle-of-the-ball. First, it’s a variation on the Negroni (which is, of course, a fav) that subs in Prosecco for gin. Second, I originally had it and heard about it when staying in Florence at a spot called the Hotel Casci (not far from the Duomo, don’t you know), and pal Jeremy was there as well (we were drinking and playing Quiddler after a day of touristing). Third, it means “wrong” due to its Negroni-less-ness, if that makes sense, and I think having a drink called “wrong” is genius. Fourth, well, it tastes great–can’t go wrong with Campari, sweet vermouth, and Prosecco. Fifth, it (like La Rana D’Oro below) was a featured drink at a recent charity event that I slung drinks at (for my ma, if you didn’t know). Sixth, it’s also featured in my book Champagne Cocktails (which, if you don’t have, please buy, cause I need to be able to buy more sparkling wine). And seventh, well, seventh just adds up all the earlier six reasons to expand my love of this drink to epic–epic–proportions.
Serves 2
Ice cubes
3 ounces sweet vermouth
3 ounces Campari
Chilled Prosecco
2 orange twists, for garnish
1. Fill a cocktail shaker halfway full with ice cubes. Add the vermouth and Campari. Shake well.
2. Strain the mixture equally into two flute glasses. Top with Prosecco and garnish with the orange twists.
A Variation: You could use the Italian sparkling wine Moscato d’Asti or Asti Spumante here and be happy about it.
A Second Note: I could see the rationale behind serving this in a cocktail glass in the Negroni’s honor. I could also see the rationale behind calling this a sparkling Americano. But it doesn’t mean I’m going to do either of them.
