Category Archives: Whiskey / Rye

  • Weekly Cocktail #50: The Brooklyn Cocktail

    May 4, 2013

    9 Comments

    Pouring a Brooklyn cocktail.

    Pouring a Brooklyn cocktail.

    One of the many things we enjoy about the blog is that we get to “follow the muse”. Yes there are seasons, events and themes to guide us, but in the end we get to do what makes us happy. That’s the point, plus we usually get a few tasty dishes and drinks out of the deal and have excuses to invite friends over. (Have we found the secret to happiness? Maybe.)

    brooklyn1brooklynSo while we could be blogging on Mint Juleps for the Kentucky Derby (we like them, but not all that much), and we owe our friend Viveka a cocktail for winning our quiz (working on it Wivi!), we somehow found ourselves mixing a Brooklyn cocktail. And the Brooklyn cocktail is worth a try, particularly if you are a whiskey fan. And even if you aren’t, this smooth sip may surprise you.

    brooklyn2brooklyn6The Brooklyn combines rye whiskey, dry vermouth, a dash of maraschino liqueur and a dash of Amer Picon. No one seems to have Amer Picon (a French digestif) these days, so most sources suggest amaro like Ramazotti, CioCiaro, Nonino or Montenegro. The recipe is flexible and all of these will work, we went with the Ramazotti, but also liked it with Nonino (we like a lot of stuff with Nonino). You can even just go with a mix of orange and Angostura bitters in a pinch.

    brooklyn3If you notice a pattern with many of our cocktail posts, we tend to like to match rye whiskey with dry, rather than sweet, vermouth. Rye is dryer and spicier than bourbon, and we think you often lose those notes with some sweet vermouths (not always, but sometimes). If we want to enjoy the flavor of the rye, the herbal notes of a good dry vermouth seem like a natural fit. And we do like the combination in drinks like the Scofflaw (and our variant, the Tax Evasion ), so it isn’t that much of a surprise that the “muse” guided us towards the Brooklyn. (Or maybe it was Google….)

    brooklyn7So what do you get with the Brooklyn? Firstly, you get a beautiful looking drink with deep golden hues. Lovely. As for the flavor, you get a smooth and slightly sweet sip, but with the spice of the rye, herbal vemouth and the bitter notes of the amaro keeping the flavor from becoming cloying. The maraschino adds some sweet, floral and nutty flavors. Basically, the Brooklyn is a dryer, smoother riff on a Manhattan. But since Brooklyn is way cooler than Manhattan these days, we think it makes sense that they have the smoother drink. (And speaking of Brooklyn- Hi Tina, Jonathan, Max and William!)

    brooklyn5The Brooklyn Cocktail:

    Ingredients:

    • 2 oz. rye whiskey (Rittenhouse 100)
    • 1 oz. dry vermouth (Dolin)
    • 1/4 oz. maraschino liqueur (Luxardo)
    • 1/2 oz. Amer Picon (sub Ramazotti or other amaro)

    Assemble:

    1. Combine all the ingredients in a cocktail glass with ice. Stir until well chilled. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass or coupé. Serve.
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  • Weekly Cocktail #49: The Tax Evasion Cocktail

    April 19, 2013

    13 Comments

    The Tax Evasion Cocktail.

    The Tax Evasion Cocktail.

    Monday was tax day. Nobody except the most dedicated masochist likes tax day. Regardless of politics, or whether you think you get your money’s worth or not, the actual act of sending the check isn’t fun. But there is a cocktail for that (there is a cocktail for almost everything). In fact, the Income Tax cocktail is something of a classic, and you see it a lot this time of year. It combines gin, orange juice, sweet and dry vermouth and bitters. The only problem with the Income Tax cocktail is that we don’t love the flavor combo of orange juice and sweet vermouth. It’s not as bad as paying taxes, but the Income Tax cocktail doesn’t ease our pain either.

    evaderevader8But being the industrious drinkers farmers that we are, we decided that perhaps we could create our own cocktail to “celebrate” the occasion. Even better, a cocktail that would allow us to fantasize about not paying the “gummumint” at all. Fittingly we chose to riff on the Scofflaw, one of our favorite prohibition era cocktails. The Scofflaw combines rye, dry vermouth, lemon and grenadine, and is an incredibly drinkable cocktail that works both for whiskey fans and those who prefer lighter spirits. A crowd pleaser, and a good template to work from.

    evader3evader7The Tax Evasion Cocktail combines rye, dry vermouth, lemon juice, sour cherry syrup (d’arbo is great stuff) and a dash of Peychaud’s bitters. We chose cherries because paying taxes is, you know….the “pits” (ugh, eye roll). Like a Scofflaw, the dry vermouth lightens the rye so you get a light spicy sip with a touch of the lemon and then the sweet / sour of the cherry syrup and just a hint of the spice and anise of the bitters. You don’t have to use the bitters, but it adds a bit of bite and depth that we like. A very enjoyable cocktail, and if you find the overt sweetness of grenadine a bit cloying, the sour cherry syrup is a very good substitute. The Tax Evasion also works well as a cocktail served “up” or as a longer drink served on the rocks (you have to be flexible to dodge the taxman).

    evader1As for the key ingredient, if you can find the d’arbo sour cherry syrup, we suggest you get some. It is a very tangy sour cherry syrup that makes a great base for sour cherry limeade or lemonade. So even if you just want a “mocktail”, the sour cherry syrup is worth it (but if you sneak in a little gin, we won’t tell). Normally, we would make our own sour cherry syrup here at the farm, but sour cherries are one of the few fruits that are very hard to get here in Norcal. We did just plant our own sour cherry tree, but we don’t expect fruit for another few years. For now, we will just use the syrup, enjoy the cocktail and try to forget about April 15th.

    evader4The Tax Evasion Cocktail:

    Ingredients:

    • 2 oz. rye whiskey
    • 1 oz. dry vermouth (Dolin is good here)
    • 1/2 oz. fresh lemon juice
    • 1/2 oz. sour cherry syrup (d’arbo)
    • Dash of Peychaud’s bitters
    • Lemon twist, for garnish

    Assemble:

    1. Combine all the liquid ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake until well-chilled and strain into a chilled cocktail glass, flute or coupé. (You can also serve on the rocks, if you like). Garnish with a lemon twist. Serve. 
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  • Weekly Cocktail #45: The Paper Plane

    March 23, 2013

    15 Comments

    The Paper Plane cocktail.

    The Paper Plane cocktail.

    “Now that’s a good brown drink, I like that”, is something we rarely hear from Carolyn when whiskey is involved. She likes her gin, vodka and rum just fine, but most “brown drinks” with bourbon, rye or scotch taste too sweet and heavy for her tastes. And to be honest, even I prefer the spice of rye to the sweetness of bourbon. But we do like the caramel and vanilla notes of good bourbon, we just don’t want it to dominate the drink. But this week’s cocktail, the Paper Plane solves this problem quite nicely. It is by all measures a bourbon drink, but it is a very bright and refreshing sip.

    planeplane1Created a few years ago by well-known New York bartender Sam Ross, the Paper Plane combines equal parts good bourbon, lemon juice, Amaro Nonino and Aperol and is garnished with a lemon twist. The combo of the whiskey and lemon is standard, but the key to the Paper Plane is the use of two sweet and bitter ingredients, the Amaro Nonino and Aperol. These are both bitter ingredients but come from very different ends of the spectrum. We would not have thought to combine these ingredients, but it really works, and that’s why cocktails are fun. There are always surprises awaiting.

    plane4plane3Aperol (which we have discussed in the blog and is one of our favorite ingredients) is Campari’s lighter, less boozy, cousin and features sweet citrus and rhubarb notes with a bitter finish. The Amaro Nonino is a whole other animal. It’s amaro, but it is sweeter and boozier than most and with some fruity notes to compliment the herbal core. Nonino is seriously good stuff and is fun to play around with in all sorts of whiskey-based drinks (Nonino Manhattan variants are very tasty). Also fun to substitute for Benedictine. Along with Montenegro, the Nonino is now one of our favorite amari for mixing. Worth picking up a bottle if you can.

    The Paper Plane cocktail.

    plane9 Continue reading »

  • Weekly Cocktail #44: Wild-Eyed Rose

    March 9, 2013

    19 Comments

    Wild-Eyed Rose cocktail.

    Wild-Eyed Rose cocktail.

    (Note: Before you read on, we suggest you visit Liquid Culture Project and read about the Ile Saint-Honorat, one of the best cocktails we’ve had in quite a while. Then come back and see us.)

    St. Patrick’s Day is coming, and while we are not big fans of the holiday (we explain below), we decided to play around a bit with Irish Whiskey. And this can be a bit of a tough task. Irish Whiskey is very tasty stuff, but is basically known for smooth flavor. Good for sipping on its own, or alongside a good beer (and we are all for a shot and a beer sometimes). But since Irish Whiskey lacks the smoke of Scotch, the spice of rye or the sweet of bourbon, it can get lost in many cocktails. With that in mind, there just aren’t that many cocktails that lead with Irish Whiskey.

    wild5wild4But we do have the internet and an ever-growing stack of cocktail books to look through and it didn’t take long to find the Wild-Eyed Rose (we found it at Alcademics). This cocktail is a simple combination of Irish Whiskey, lime juice and grenadine. And, at first, you can look at this recipe and think it is one of the thousands of basic cocktail “trios” of spirits, sweet and sour. But on further inspection, there is a little more going on here, and the cocktail comes with a decent back story.

    wild3wild2The recipe for the Wild-Eyed Rose is interesting in a number of ways. Firstly, it uses lime juice with whiskey, rather than the more traditional lemon juice. Secondly, it uses a whole lot of lime juice, a full ounce balanced against two ounces of whiskey and a half ounce of grenadine. This is a dry and strikingly sour sip, but you get just enough sweet at the end to keep you coming back (it certainly isn’t cloying). A good cocktail to start the evening and get your taste buds going. And the lime and cherry garnish is visually appealing (we are suckers for that kind of thing). Finally the drink came from famous pre-prohibition bartender Hugo Ensslin and his cocktail book “Recipes for Mixed Drinks“, so the cocktail comes from a master (CORRECTION: Ensslin wanted only the juice of 1/2 a lime- other recipes changed the original. Thanks to Doug Ford for the real scoop.) As for the name of the drink, it is a riff on the song “My Wild Irish Rose”, and as names go, it’s pretty good.

    wild Continue reading »

  • Mixology Monday LXX Roundup: Inverted

    February 22, 2013

    46 Comments

    Stir and Strain’s El Jardin de Mi Abuela.

    Another Mixology Monday has come and gone, but this time we were hosting. Thanks again to everyone who participated and to Fred Yarm at Cocktail Virgin Slut for reviving and maintaining Mixology Monday.

    mxmologoThe theme was “inverted”, and we will spare you the full back story (post here) and just say the theme was intended to see if we could “flip drinks on their heads” any and all possible ways. And the Mixology Monday crowd certainly delivered. We saw drinks “inverted” on name, spirits, solid/liquid (ice was well used), colors, layers and temperatures. All good stuff. We are “working” our way through as many of the cocktails as we can, and many are very good.

    As for us, we found this theme somewhat more challenging than expected. We created two drinks, but also failed repeatedly to make our third, a champagne-based cocktail that tasted and looked like Napa Cabernet (some things simply aren’t meant to be, and who wants a cocktail to taste like wine anyway?). Oh well. In any event, here are all the cocktails (mostly) in the order we got them:

    BarFlySF gave us three cocktails that invert classics using light instead of dark spirits. We like their use of homemade limoncello as a substitute for darker liqueurs. Their Union Square inverted the New Orleans classic the Vieux Carre.unionsquare1

    BarFlySF then took up our challenge to invert the Manhattan and created the Nemo.

    nemo

    And finally, BarFlySF, added another post and inverted the classic Brandy Sidecar and created the Pisco Pedicab. Extra points for use of blood oranges.pisco1

    ——

    Shake Strain and Sip took the inverted theme to another place altogether and put the drink inside an ice-cube. The Alice’s Looking Glass is a very cool, and very tasty, creation with rye and Aperol in the lead. (We made it with regular ice, still great).——

    901 Very Good Cocktails managed to create a cocktail, discuss the Butthole Surfers (a band from our youth, yes we are that old) and even promote the idea of moderation. We are all for moderation….in moderation.  The Shah Sleeps Cocktail inverts standard cocktail proportions and leads with Amaro Montenegro.Shah

    ——

    The Shorter Straw applied the inverted theme to the Super Bowl (we would still like to invert that outcome) and gave us the 35th Minute. The lights went out during the 35th minute of the game and we certainly would have liked to sip this beautiful Rhum Agricole-based cocktail while we waited.

    ——-

    Continue reading »

  • Mixology Monday Cocktail #2: Elmer Fudd’s Revenge

    February 16, 2013

    21 Comments

    Elmer Fudd's Revenge Cocktail.

    Elmer Fudd’s Revenge Cocktail.

    Mixology Monday drinks are due this Monday, so we are adding another recipe for our “inverted” theme. The last week we spent a good deal of time looking at the bar and pantry and asking “can we invert that?” And the answer always seems to be “yes”, as long as we are willing to stretch the definition of “inverted” (and we are certainly willing to do that). And this cocktail, the Elmer Fudd’s Revenge, does fulfill the theme, even if the connection is a bit ridiculous tenuous.

    elmer4So if you want to understand how the randomness “creative process” works here at the farm, here is how we created the cocktail:

    • We saw a bottle of Laird’s bonded applejack looking lonely on the bar.
    • The first drink we thought of was the Applejack Rabbit (good stuff).
    • Maybe we could riff on the Applejack Rabbit for MXMO.
    • We thought of famous rabbits and Bugs Bunny came to mind.
    • Elmer Fudd never catches Bugs Bunny. Poor Elmer.
    • So what could we “invert”? How about Elmer catching Bugs?
    • If Elmer caught Bugs it would be a bloodbath. (Elmer has some pent-up frustrations.)
    • Hey look, we have some Moro blood oranges.
    • How about an Applejack Rabbit with blood oranges?

    And that’s how we think before we start drinking….so the experiments began. The traditional Applejack Rabbit combines applejack, lemon juice, orange juice and maple syrup. It’s a sweet drink with just enough sour from the lemon juice to tame the maple syrup and orange. But when we used blood oranges, with their tart and berry notes, the maple syrup didn’t play as well. So we used simple syrup. That worked, but we lost the extra character of the maple. We fixed this by subbing 1/2 ounce of rye whiskey for some of the applejack. The spicy rye and blood oranges (surprisingly) play very well together.

    elmer3Elmer Fudd’s Revenge combines applejack, rye, Meyer lemon juice, blood orange juice and simple syrup. This is a dryer cocktail than the Applejack Rabbit, with the applejack and rye in the lead and a bright, tart finish and a touch of berry flavor from the blood oranges. This is a very refreshing sip and an excellent way to use blood oranges in a cocktail, as the color and flavors make the drink, but don’t dominate. The only issue with this drink is that it goes down very easy…But after catching that “wascally wabbit”, Elmer deserves more than one to celebrate.

    elmer1OK, one more “inverted” recipe to go (it’s been in the works for 10 days, not quite there yet).

    elmer5Elmer Fudd’s Revenge:

    Ingredients:

    • 1 and 1/2 oz. Laird’s bonded applejack
    • 1/2 oz. rye whiskey
    • 3/4 oz. Meyer lemon juice (or regular lemon juice)
    • 3/4 oz. blood orange juice
    • 1/3 oz. simple syrup (use 1/2 oz. if not using Meyer lemons)

    Assemble:

    1. Combine all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake thoroughly. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass, flute or coupé. Serve.
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