The Captain's Blood

Today's rum drink. Sort of like a rum Manhattan.

1 1/2 oz dark rum
1/4 oz lime
1/4 simple
Angostura bitters

Shake and strain. Garnish with a lemon peel.

Campari ice cubes

I got this idea from a Saveur article; ice cubes made of Campari, dropped into a Manhattan, so that the drink changes into a Boulevardier as it melts.

This is an outstanding idea. I drank two this weekend.

Although, warning: I used one in a Campari and soda, and that proved to be way too much Campari.

2 oz water
3/4 oz Campari

Mix and pour into ice trays. (Makes 2 2-inch ice cubes.)

Peach-basil julep

Necessity is the mother of invention, right? Last night, as service was winding down at the restaurant, I found myself discussing peaches with the chef and line cooks. We had some good ones, really juicy, and I proposed making peach juleps for the end-of-the-night cocktail.

Alas, we could not find any mint.

"Well, give me some basil," I said, "and we'll see what happens."

(Since I've made basil juleps before.)

I muddled together some fresh torn basil and pieces of fresh peach, added Maker's Mark and grapefruit bitters, and voila! The peach-basil julep was born.

Later I threw in some fresh blackberries, too, but that is purely optional.

Warning: this drink is a bit chunky. But that's the best part, I think, as you can slurp down all the boozy fruit pulp in the bottom of the glass.

1 ripe peach
1 bunch fresh basil
Maker's Mark or other bourbon
Grapefruit bitters

Muddle together 4-5 basil leaves and 1/3 peach, in pieces, until pulpy. Add 2 oz bourbon and grapefruit bitters. Shake with ice, and pour out into a glass. Garnish with basil.

The End of the Night

Sorry for the radio silence this week: it's been a long, busy one. The last two nights were lucrative, at least, but both nights were so busy I consider that blood money. On top of an already long and tiring week. I bought new tennis shoes to help with the off-hours foot soreness (did you know you can't buy tennis shoes in plain old white or black anymore? They're all combinations of day-glo neon colors), and discovered that frozen golf balls make an excellent foot massager. I also spent most of the week worrying about my cat, who wasn't eating or drinking. He seems to be fine now, fortunately, but only after an expensive vet trip and a lot of wet cat food (which I don't normally give him).

On the plus side, the week is now officially over, and I have two days off in front of me.

This drink is, quite honestly, the only thing that got me through the last two nights.

I don't know if it has an official name, so I'm calling it The End of the Night.

1 1/2 oz resposado tequila
3/4 oz rhubarb shrub
1/4 oz Cynar
1/4 oz lime

Shake over ice and strain. Garnish with lime.

The Negociant

Happy Mother's Day, everyone! I am NOT working today, and I can't tell you how happy I am about that. Working Mother's Day brunch last year was a nightmare, so for all you folks taking your moms out to eat today: tip well.

Here's a delicious, light cocktail to start things off.

1 oz white rum
1 oz Byrrh
1/2 oz St. Germain
1/2 oz lemon

Shake over ice and strain. Garnish with a lemon peel.

Citrus mint julep

Happy Derby Day, everyone! The day where everyone drinks mint juleps and wears big hats.

Well, I won't have any occasion to wear a big hat today, but I will have a julep and watch the Derby coverage on TV. There is of course the classic mint julep; but today I'm mixing it up a little and having a citrus mint julep.

Reprinted below:

3 oz good quality bourbon
1 ½ oz triple sec (I used Creole Shrubb)
¾ oz fresh lime juice
½ oz simple syrup or 1 tablespoon sugar
8 to 10 mint leaves (don’t be shy on the mint)

Combine sugar, lime juice and mint leaves in the bottom of a glass and muddle gently to dissolve sugar and release essential oils in the mint.

Add 2/3 cup of crushed ice. Pour bourbon and triple over ice and stir generously with a spoon and let rest a few moments.

It is important to stir generously and allow this drink rest for a few reasons:
1. This is a drink from South, designed for outdoor consumption, it’s supposed to be ICE cold.
2. This drink is pretty much straight alcohol (AKA: Boozy), dilution from the ice is crucial so that the other subtle flavors are not quashed by the bourbon.

Garnish with a sprig of fresh mint.

The Black Manhattan

For those of you who enjoy a bitter/boozy cocktail at times, like me, you'll find this intriguing.

A Manhattan made with an amaro in place of the vermouth.

An amaro is a bitter Italian digestif (Averna, Cynar, Fernet). Quoting from this Food and Wine article about them:

"Amaro is traditionally made by infusing grape brandy with a (usually secret) mix of herbs, flowers, aromatic bark, citrus peel and spices—a blend that can include anything from cardamom to elderberry flowers. Then it's sweetened with sugar syrup and aged, sometimes for years. It's silky, like a liqueur; bitter and sweet in varying degrees; aromatically complex; and, as far as I'm concerned, both delicious and fascinating."

Traditionally, they're served neat, maybe with ice, at the end of a meal. But they're fun in cocktails, too.  As I discovered when hubs and I stopped into a local bar for a celebratory drink. DH asked for a Manhattan, and we got into a discussion of Manhattans, and the bartender trotted this out: bourbon, Averna, and angostura bitters.

So I may have found another way to utilize my home supply of amari. I'm also going to try a rye version, with Cardamaro.

The Rhuby Boomershine

I've invented a cocktail for work.

And look! It's on the menu!

It's 1 oz each of Rhuby (now renamed Rhubarb Tea) and the rhubarb shrub I wrote about a couple of weeks ago--which is equal parts chopped rhubarb, brown sugar, and vinegar, left to sit for a few days. Pour over ice, top with Dry Rhubarb soda, and mix well.

It's light and refreshing, like rhubarb lemonade without the lemons. It makes you want to sit in the sun and drink three of them.

And it's paired with a bite of foie gras wrapped in pastry. What could be more awesome?

Rhubarb shrub

A shrub (in addition to being a small bush) is a Colonial-era drink involving fruit, sugar, and vinegar. Think lemonade, only not lemons. It's equal parts fruit, brown sugar, and vinegar (plain old white vinegar is fine, apple cider vinegar is nice if you have it) left to sit for a few days to let the flavors meld. It's then watered down, and either consumed over ice or used in cocktails.

I know it sounds weird to drink vinegar, but a good shrub doesn't taste like vinegar. It tastes like fruit, sugar and acid in equal amounts. (Again, just like a good lemonade.)

I've been trying to come up with a new cocktail at work involving Rhuby, and I think this rhubarb shrub I made might be the ticket.

Combine equal parts chopped fresh rhubarb and brown sugar in a jar. Shake well to combine, cover, and refrigerate for 24 hours so the rhubarb will macerate. Add an equal amount of vinegar (so, if you used 1 cup rhubarb and 1 cup sugar, you'd add 1 cup vinegar), stir well, cover with a paper towel, and let sit in the refrigerator for a few days. The longer it sits, the mellower the acid/vinegar will be.

That's it. Dilute to taste, and enjoy over ice or as a cocktail base. I'll report back on my cocktail findings.

The Sage Martini

One of my new favorites is Rhuby, which I've written about before. (Now apparently being sold under a new label, as Rhubarb.) I've turned my new job onto the glories of Rhuby already.

That company has come out with a new product, called Sage. It's a very sage-heavy botanical gin, light and herbal and kind of like Hendricks without the cucumber notes.

It makes an excellent martini (3 parts Sage, dash of dry vermouth, shake and strain). It also makes for an interesting gimlet (3 parts Sage, 1 1/2 parts each lime juice and simple syrup, shake and strain).

The Boulevardier

My new favorite drink.

If you want to get really classy, add the juice of half a blood orange to this.

2 oz bourbon or rye
1 oz Campari
1 oz sweet vermouth

Combine in a glass filled with ice and stir for at least 30 seconds. Strain into a cocktail glass and garnish with a lemon or orange twist.

Giant beers, for the end of the world

The world didn't end yesterday. But is anyone surprised by that?

It made for a good excuse to drink a lot of beer, though. Thursday night, after work, my coworkers and I plowed through a collective 10 or 12 liters of fine Belgian beer. A six-liter bottle, a three-liter bottle, a magnum, and a few regular-size bottles.

Pouring an almost three-foot-tall bottle of beer is heavy, by the way.

A new use for ginger beer

I keep Barritt's ginger beer around for Dark n' Stormys (and the occasional Moscow Mule), but last night I discovered another use for it.

Rye, ginger beer, lemon and mint.

Kind of like a Whiskey Smash, with carbonation.

Chamucos tequila

Every once in a while, the universe throws you a bone.

During the New Mexico chapter of my road trip, I discovered this tequila. It had a devil on the bottle, and it was delicious. Smooth, floral, amazing. Best tequila I'd ever put in my mouth. I bought a bottle.

Then I couldn't find it outside of New Mexico. Not in California, not in New York. Not until my current job--the bar there carries it. Even so, it was not available to me personally; the local New England liquor stores didn't carry it, either. I despaired.

Until last week, when I discovered that the random wine shop across from my new digs had it for sale.



I'm going to drink it on my day off tomorrow. (Some of it--not the whole bottle, of course.) I will drink it neat, with no ice or mixers, because this is not a cheap tequila that you dump into a margarita. This is like drinking a little piece of a road trip. Then, I'm going to purchase an additional bottle to take with us to Seattle, because God knows when I'll be able to find it again.

The Alaskan

I'm faced with about 2 inches each of a bunch of weird stuff in my bar: Creme de Violette, Herbsaint, yellow Chartreuse, Cointreau. Our drinking is about to get really creative.

1 1/2 oz gin
3/4 oz yellow Chartreuse
2 dashes orange bitters

Shake with ice, strain. Serve with lemon twist.

Maurin Quina

I discovered this stuff last night at work. I actually have the poster--I think the poster is more famous than the beverage it depicts--but I didn't know this liqueur was still in production.

Surprise, it is, and it's delicious. It has a rich cherry and almond flavor, without being sweet. Maurin Quina Liqueur was created in 1906 by Auguste Maurin in Le Puy en Velay, and quickly gained fame with the help of Leonetto Cappiello, the Italian-born artist who created the infamous green devil on the label. Smooth and delicate, it's created by macerating wild cherries, quinine and bitter almonds in fortified white wine, and then blending it with cherry brandy, lemon juice and cherry juice.

Drink it neat or on the rocks.

Basil julep

Just like a mint julep, only with basil!

Muddle basil with a little powdered sugar or simple syrup. Add crushed ice and bourbon to taste. Garnish with fresh basil.

My sister's garden is overrun with basil; I'm helping her get rid of some of it by drinking it down. It's a dirty job, but someone has to do it.

The Sazerac

In honor of our upcoming triumphant return to New Orleans, I share with you here my favorite rye cocktail--which is also the official cocktail of New Orleans. This is the way I make it (purists may disagree).

2 oz rye
1/4 oz simple syrup
Several healthy dashes of Peychaud's bitters
Herbsaint rinse

Pour a tiny amount of Herbsaint into a glass, swirl it around to coat the inside of the glass, and pour it out. Stir rye, syrup, and Peychaud's with a little ice; strain into the Herbsaint-coated glass. Maybe add 1 large ice cube. Enjoy!

The Rhuby Doobie

Yesterday I tasked my husband with creating a new drink. This is what he came up with. (The name is his, too.) It's pretty tasty!

2 oz whiskey
1 oz Rhuby
1 oz simple syrup
1 oz lemon juice

Shake, serve over ice.

The Pan-Am

Trying to use up the last of the mezcal. Also, I need a drink.

1 oz mezcal
1 oz bourbon
Dash of Angostura bitters
Dash of simple syrup

Combine in ice-filled glass, and stir.