Tag Archives: Cocktail

  • Weekly Cocktail #32: The Bullseye

    October 11, 2012

    34 Comments

    The Bullseye Cocktail.

    If you detect a trend in our weekly cocktails toward citrus and spice combinations, you win a gold star. 😉 To our tastes, few flavor combinations work better for the holiday season. And one of our favorite flavor combos is ginger and orange. Many holiday orange/spice recipes go heavy on the allspice and cloves, and that is great (particularly in Tiki drinks, which work for any season), but ginger is a brighter, lighter spice that works well in cocktails and doesn’t hit you over the head. And the Bullseye is a very tasty example of a ginger/citrus cocktail. .

    The Bullseye combines dry gin, ginger liqueur, orange juice and lemon juice. You get a light, bright and spicy sip that is very refreshing but still tastes like a cocktail for the fall or winter. You can also serve this drink as a cocktail or a “long” drink on the rocks, it works either way. The orange and lemon juice balance the sweet and sour, the gin adds herbal notes and the ginger adds a touch of zing, but also cleans the palate. A true “cocktail” in the sense that it tastes better than the sum of its parts.

    But, to be fair, there is very little wrong with the “parts”. There is never anything “wrong” with fresh orange or lemon juice (other than not having enough). And any good juniper-forward gin will work well here, as the juniper plays very well with the ginger. As for the ginger liqueur, the best choice these days is Domaine de Canton. Domaine de Canton combines ginger and other spices with quality brandy and a touch of vanilla and honey. It is sweet and spicy with well-integrated ginger flavor. You can substitute Domaine de Canton for part or all of the Curaçao or sugars in many traditional cocktails for added spice and a change of pace. Domaine de Canton isn’t cheap, about $35 dollars a bottle, but a little goes a long, long way. And if you want to try more “modern” riffs on traditional cocktails Domaine de Canton, along with St. Germain, gives you all sorts of room to play around.

    The Bullseye also works as a long drink.

    So where did we find the Bullseye? It comes from the Cafe Royal Cocktail Book, a British cocktail book from the 1930’s.  We were working on a guest cocktail post for Claire at Promenade Plantings and found this recipe. The Bullseye did not make it into that post (you will see what did next week), but we tried it and then kept “trying” it until we decided to make the Bullseye a weekly cocktail. We immediately took to the citrus and ginger spice and thought the Bullseye would be a delicious holiday cocktail. We expect to serve this one a lot over the next few months.

    The Bullseye Cocktail:

    Ingredients:

    • 1 oz. dry gin
    • 1 oz. ginger liqueur (Domaine de Canton)
    • 1/2 oz. fresh orange juice
    • 1/2 oz. fresh lemon juice

    Assemble:

    1. Combine all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake thoroughly and pour into a chilled cocktail glass, coupé or flute. Or pour into a highball glass with a few ice cubes. Serve.
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  • Weekly Cocktail #31: The Sidecar

    October 5, 2012

    9 Comments

    The Sidecar Cocktail.

    There are few more “classic” cocktails than the Sidecar. A simple, but delicious, combination of brandy, Cointreau and lemon juice, the Sidecar is a very easy cocktail to enjoy. Everything else about the drink, however, is not so simple.

    As is often the case with “classic” cocktails, the history, ingredients and proportions are all hard to pin down. The Sidecar was “probably” invented after World War I in “either” the Ritz Hotel in Paris or the Bucks Club in London and “likely” named after the sidecar on a motorcycle. That clears up everything.

    And when we get to the proportions of the ingredients of the Sidecar, the picture doesn’t come into focus either. Some recipes suggest equal proportions of the brandy, Cointreau and lemon, some go very heavy on brandy and light on lemon, and some follow a 2:1:1 formula. Cocktail geeks writers spend a lot of time on this stuff (a quick Google search will give you more on the subject than you will ever need), but they do get the benefit of “testing” the recipes. We suggest a starting point of 2 ounces of brandy to 3/4 ounces each Cointreau and lemon juice.

    While there is less confusion about the base ingredients of the Sidecar, there is room for experimentation. Brandies vary widely, but most recipes suggest a VS or better Cognac or Armagnac (we like Armagnac). But even among brands, the flavors will vary and may require changing the recipe slightly for your tastes. You can also experiment with other triple secs or Curaçao to replace the Cointreau. We like Pierre Ferrand for a slightly drier flavor. But the Cointreau does work very well. And you may, or may not, want to add sugar to the rim of the glass. We like the drink either way, but the sugar rim is pretty and you can do it ahead of time and impress your guests.

    As for the flavor of the Sidecar, the brandy, sweet orange and lemon flavors all blend into a light citrus sip with just enough sweetness to keep you coming back. You get all the flavor of the brandy, but without any rough edges. The Sidecar is an easy drink to enjoy, even if you don’t often drink brandy. The only problem with the Sidecar is that they are almost too easy to drink and you could get into a little trouble after a few. That is something all the historians seem to agree on.

    The Sidecar:

    Ingredients:

    • 2 oz. good Cognac or Armagnac
    • 3/4 oz. Cointreau (substitute quality triple sec or Curaçao)
    • 3/4 oz. fresh lemon juice
    • Sugar, for rimming glass (optional)

    Assemble:

    1. Run a wedge of lemon around the edge of the glass and then rotate the edge of the glass in the sugar. Shake off any excess and let dry for a few minutes.
    2. Meanwhile, combine all the liquid ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake thoroughly and strain into the sugar-rimmed glass (if using). Serve.