Still here, just been busy. What with?
HAPPY THANKSGIVING, ENGLAND!
Mixology Monday
I do love the Italian bitter liqueurs. I took to Campari immediately upon my first taste, and ordered it over ice every afternoon during a week in the Cinque Terre. Upon my return to Oakland, I started mixing Negroni and Jasmines.
This is a lovely cocktail from Kelley Swenson, head bartender at Ten 01 (in Portland, Oregon). It’s been on and off the drink card at Ten 01 over the past year, depending on the season, and remains a favorite of mine. Two different amaros seems surprising, but the result displays Kelley’s deft hand with bitters.
Cryptic Memo
1½ oz rye
1oz Ramazzotti amaro
¾oz Campari
Garnish with a strip of lemon peel.
Last night I finally mixed a Black Manhattan. This is a whiskey and amaro drink that was developed at Bourbon and Branch in San Francisco. I’d seen the recipe (published in the Washington Post in July 2008), but was a little worried that it would taste too hot, as the Averna has about twice as much alcohol as the vermouth it would replace. But once I inhaled the aroma of the finished cocktail my concerns were dissuaded.
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Paul Clarke (who blogs at The Cocktail Chronicles) wrote a Friday drinks article in the San Francisco Chronicle on the inclusion of beer in cocktails. This is on the use of beer as a cocktail component in its own right, not a reduction1 or a chaser. The most telling passage is this paraphrased statement from Eben Freeman2, “just as Champagne lends a way to add effervescence to a drink without watering it down3, beer contributes many of the same properties, with the added benefit of a world of new flavor options”.
Paul described Eben’s Blood and Sand variation, which includes the Belgian cherry lambic Echt Kriek. Based on little information other than the substitute of kriek for Cherry Herring, I decided to try it4. The result was a beautiful long drink that had all of the flavor of the cocktail.
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I was introduced to the Coffee Cocktail at an Oregon Bartenders’ Guild event last April. David Wonderich, the author of a biography-cum-cocktail book on the pioneering 18th Century bartender Jerry Thomas, presented stories from that book with drinks. One of these was a brandy, port, and egg cocktail that I found delicious. Called the Coffee Cocktail for its color, but it has no coffee at all. Actually it is an opaque brown-purple color, and noticeably thick. It is similar to eggnog in mouthfeel and tastes of raisins.
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Along with a gallon of eggnog for New Year’s Eve, I prepared a couple bottles of pre-mixed cocktails and a half-gallon of an old Colonial drink called the Coffee Cocktail.
Pre-mixing cocktails is a party trick that I’ve been using this year for house parties. It requires much less attention from the social bartender during the event, allowing more time for me to mingle with guests. But since we love the festive sound of the cocktail shaker, I batch a few cocktails for shaking over ice. For the last night of the year, I did two bottles of the Aviation Cocktail and one bottle of the Lion’s Tail.
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During my lunch break Wednesday (New Year’s Eve) I went to the package store for a bottle of Stranahan’s Colorado Whisky, intending to take it to a gathering on New Year’s Day. On my way back to the office I ran into a former co-worker and we chatted about our evening plans. I mentioned that I was making eggnog, and she seemed surprised that anyone makes eggnog in their own home. It always surprises me when I find out that some acquaintance of mine believes that grocery-store eggnog in the paper carton is the real thing, or even believes making it is impossible (or dangerous) for mortals. Eggnog is a wonderful beverage, satisfying and tasty, almost a cold custard. I think it makes a fine dessert in winter months.
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A friend of mine, an accomplished amateur cook who is extending into cocktails, was recently introduced to Campari, and was so impressed he bought a bottle.
It was at the Portland restaurant the Screen Door (which serves a huge and delicious plate of fried chicken and sweet potato waffles), that Eric had a long drink they called the “Blanche Dubois”, described as sweet tea, freshly made lemonade, and Campari.
Campari is an Italian orange bitter, from the western area of Lombardy. It has a distinct red hue. Notes of gentian and orange peel are prominent in the aroma, and the taste is akin to grapefruit peel, with gentian and sweetness behind it. In the old days its beautiful red color was from cochineal, but that has recently changed to an artificial color
The bottle label used to state that one needs to allow three attempts before realizing that you enjoy Campari. So, in the interests of making sure that Eric continues to develop his enjoyment of Campari, here are a few mixed drinks with Campari.
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Here in Portland Oregon we have been experiencing a week of winter the likes of which I’m told have not been seen since 1969. It is not the weather that one is accustomed to, having grown-up on the West Coast. It is finally beginning to melt this afternoon. I’ve had an enjoyable time close to the hearth, cooking and drinking, and making expeditions to grocery stores for additional food and beer.
On Monday evening we greeted our dinner guests with a warm-me-up, this milk toddy. It is a creamy, spicy drink, and warming of the inner man.
Milk Toddy
in a mug, pour the following:
1oz Meyer’s Dark rum,
½oz Averna, and
½oz simple syrup.
Squeeze the juice from an eighth-part wedge of a lemon, and drop it in.
Pour over about 3-4oz boiling water.
Add 1oz heavy whipping cream, and stir
Finish with a grate of nutmeg.
Searching Google for references to the milk toddy, I came across this passage, from a 19th Century local history.
Another mixture was toddy. The rum was put into a glass tumbler ..and a quantity of loaf sugar added. They had an instrument called a toddy-stick. It was seven or eight inches long and about an inch in diameter at the lower end, with which they crushed the sugar and stirred it up, and water was added and a little nutmeg grated in. The ringing noise of the toddy stick against the sides of the tumbler was very musical in the ears of the drinker. It was sometimes poured into a bowl and the bowl filled with milk, which was milk-toddy.
from A History of Old Chester, from 1719 to 1869 (New Hampshire) by Benjamin Chase, available at GoogleBooks
It’s snowing in my fair city, hard.
Don’t think about using a shovel when it looks like this, use a glass instead.
Watch out where the greyhounds go, don’t you eat that yellow snow. Pack the glass full.
Insert liquor “A” into glass “B”.
That’ll keep you occupied while the snow flies. We here at the North American Booze Council continue to bring you all drink recipies from Automatic Bizooty to Whiskeycone.
