Tag Archives: Cocktail

  • Weekly Cocktail #42: The Kentucky Royale

    February 1, 2013

    24 Comments

    The Kentucky Royale Cocktail.

    The Kentucky Royale Cocktail.

    One of our favorite things about cocktails is that they allow you to “follow the Muse” a bit. For inspiration we look at the bar, read some cocktail books, browse some cocktail websites, shop the farmers market or pick fruit from the orchard. Most of the time we have no idea what’s coming, but we certainly enjoy the ride (mostly, a few drinks have gone down the drain). So while we would call this week’s cocktail a “happy accident”, we have come to expect pleasant surprises at the bar.

    royaleroyale2The Kentucky Royale is a Manhattan variant that includes Bourbon (Elijah Craig 12), Cherry Heering, Sweet Vermouth (Carpano Antica), coffee liqueur (Kahlua Especial), Bittermen’s Mole bitters (chocolate bitters) and a cherry garnish. And while this may sound like a bit of a mess, it works beautifully. You get a sweet vanilla and cherry sip from the Bourbon and Cherry Heering, followed by the spice of the Carpano Antica vermouth (good vermouth really helps here) and with slight chocolate and coffee notes at the finish that slightly clean the palate. A very well-balanced sip.

    royale3royale4So what do we mean by “balance”? Well, as you may know, we are not big fans of the term. Often “balance” seems to mean “what I like”. But we would define balance in a cocktail this way; you taste hints of all the ingredients and flavors, but the overall flavor of the drink works from beginning to end, nothing extra, nothing wasted. And the Kentucky Royale, even with a wealth of ingredients, certainly fits the definition.

    royale5How did we find the recipe? We trusted the Muse. Last week we went to a single barrel Bourbon tasting at our local liquor store, and we left with a few bottles. And while the bottles sat on the bar, we opened Fred Yarm’s cocktail book “Drink and Tell”, we literally opened the book, flipped a few random pages and this was the first bourbon recipe we found. (The recipe comes from the Franklin Southie, a Boston-area bar. They developed the recipe for a bourbon-themed industry event.) We had all the ingredients (even the crazy bitters) so we made this cocktail, and enjoyed another “happy accident”.

    royale8The Kentucky Royale:

    Ingredients:

    • 1 and 1/2 oz. Bourbon (Elijah Craig 12)
    • 1/2 oz. Cherry Heering 
    • 1/2 oz. sweet vermouth (Carpano Antica)
    • 1 barspoon (1 teaspoon) Coffee Liqueur (Kahlua Especial)
    • 2 dashes chocolate bitters (Bittermen’s Xocolatl Mole bitters)
    • Brandied or Maraschino cherry for garnish

    Assemble:

    1. Combine all the liquid ingredients in a cocktail glass or shaker. Stir until very cold and strain into a chilled cocktail glass or coupé. Garnish with the cherry. Serve.
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  • Weekly Cocktail #41: The White Negroni

    January 25, 2013

    41 Comments

    The White Negroni (the slightly bitter version)

    The White Negroni (the slightly bitter version)

    We have a confession to make. We don’t like the “classic” Negroni cocktail very much. We try to like it, but there is just too much Campari along with the gin and sweet vermouth. Too bitter and too “ashy” for our tastes. And no matter how many times we try it, or how many mixologists, magazines and websites tell us it’s the “cool” drink, it just doesn’t take. But happily, we are parents, and very used to being “uncool”. Our lives will continue on without ever gaining a taste for the Negroni.

    white2white7But we do understand the need for cocktails that include, and even highlight, bitter elements. Right now in cocktail circles (particularly in NYC and San Francisco) bitter flavors are “in”, and it is a somewhat unexplored area of cocktails. But being old enough to see the first microbrewery expansion, and the California wine craze, we can tell you both went into a similar “phase”. Brewers over-hopped everything (sound familiar?) and high-end wine makers and sommeliers started to highlight “green” flavors and acidity (and tried to call it “balance”). We suspect there is a little of “inside-baseball”, “too cool for school-ness” in these trends, and they don’t last (no, they really don’t). But we always keep an open mind and like to try new things. Enter the White Negroni.

    white3

    The bitter version with Suze.

    The bitter version with Suze.

    The White Negroni combines gin, vermouth and/or bitter fortified wine or liqueur. The idea is to have the similar bittersweet flavors of the classic Negroni, but with lighter flavors and colors. And as we like all sorts of gin, dry vermouth and fortified wines, we figured we would have the ingredients to experiment. And we did need a range of ingredients, as there is no single recipe to work from. From the PDT Cocktail Book to Serious Eats to Cocktail Virgin Slut, the recipes abound.

    whiteBut it turns out there are two basic variants of the White Negroni, the slightly bitter and the very bitter. The main difference is in the strength of one flavor, gentian. Gentian is a very bitter root flavor found in many apéritifs and fortified wines. Some, like Cocchi Americano have just a hint of gentian, some like Suze or Salers are “gentian-bombs“. If you like the classic Negroni, make your White Negroni with Suze or Salers. If you are just experimenting with bitter-flavored cocktails, use the Cocchi Americano (good stuff for many cocktails, btw) in your White Negroni.

    white4We include a version of both recipes, but there is room to experiment. Usually the very bitter recipe includes dry gin, Suze and Lillet blanc to add some sweetness and counteract the very bitter Suze. The slightly bitter recipe includes dry gin, dry vermouth and Cocchi Americano. The very bitter White Negroni with the Suze has beautiful yellow color and strong flavor, and it is just as bitter as a classic Negroni (not as “ashy’). Not really for us, but we have friends who do like it. If you like bitter drinks, you will be very happy. Have at it. Continue reading →

  • New Years Cocktail: Black Velvet

    December 29, 2012

    17 Comments

    The Black Velvet cocktail.

    The Black Velvet cocktail.

    Sometimes it seems like all we do this time of year is visit with friends, eat sweets and enjoy a few cocktails. And then we realize all we are doing is visiting with friends, eating sweets and enjoying a few cocktails. Not bad, not bad at all…Actually, we are doing quite a bit of cooking, but it turns out that blogging about savory dishes in the midst of the holidays is tricky, too little natural light and too many people coming and going for good photos (we are not complaining, more time with friends is always better). Baking and cocktails are a bit easier to plan for, so with New Years coming, how about another cocktail?

    velvet2velvet3And the Black Velvet is a perfect cocktail for New Years. A simple combination of equal parts Guinness stout beer and good champagne or sparkling wine, the Black Velvet packs real flavor and depth, but without a lot of booze. A cocktail, but one that will keep you standing until midnight (or 9pm, we cheat and use east coast time, then we go to bed…we save our “humbug” for New Years). While you might not expect stout and champagne to work together, they are a very surprising match. The stout adds body and some roasted and bitter flavors to the crisp, yeasty and fruity notes of the champagne. You get a sip you can savor from beginning to end.

    velvet4The Black Velvet is also beautiful, and as it turns out, fashionable. Let’s start with the looks. If you first add the Guinness and then slowly add the champagne (a spoon helps here) the drink will form two layers, the top a bit rosy and the bottom black. The layers will meld over time, but the almost-black drink in a champagne flute is stunning. As for the fashion, beer-based cocktails are all the rage in mixology these days and the Black Velvet is a very good introduction. And since part of the fun of cocktails is the conversations they start, if you add the looks with the trend and then the back story, the Black Velvet is a sure conversation starter.

    velvetThe back story? Most histories agree that the Black Velvet was created at the Brooks Club in London in 1861 to “mourn” the death of Prince Albert. Some suggest the cocktail symbolizes the black armbands worn by mourners. Some, like David Wondrich, suggest that (just maybe) the Guinness was a way to mask the drinking of champagne, which would have been very tacky right after the death of the prince. We bet both are right, the only question is the relative order of the explanation. We have our guesses, but either way, we get a good drink out of the deal. And even if the Black Velvet came from an “ending”, it is a lovely cocktail to celebrate the new year. Beautiful and flavorful but light on alcohol and with a great story attached, the Black Velvet is the perfect drink for a long night with friends. Happy New Year!

    The Black Velvet:

    Ingredients:

    • 1 part stout (Guinness)
    • 1 part champagne or dry sparking wine

    Assemble:

    1. Filled a chilled champagne flute or tall Collins glass halfway with the stout. Wait for some of the foam to subside.
    2. Very slowly add the champagne (use a cocktail spoon on the inside of the glass, if you like) until the glass is full. Serve.
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  • Mixology Monday Cocktail: Alone, Bitter at the Beach

    December 17, 2012

    36 Comments

    Alone, Bitter at the Beach

    Alone, Bitter at the Beach

    mxmologo-2It’s time for Mixology Monday, and if you couldn’t guess already, this month’s theme is “Humbug”. Firstly we want to thank JFL at Rated R Cocktails for hosting this month and Fred Yarm at Cocktail Virgin Slut for reviving Mixology Monday. Now lets get to the theme:

    Lets face it the holidays suck, yeah I said it. You put yourself in debt buying crap people will have forgotten about in a month. You drive around like a jackass to see people you don’t even like, or worse they freeload in your house. Your subjected to annoying music, and utterly fake, forced kindness and joy. Plus if you work retail your pretty much in hell, so don’t we all deserve a good stiff drink? So for this Mixology Monday unleash your inner Grinch. Mix drinks in the spirit of Anti-Christmas. They can be really bitter and amaro filled. They filled with enough booze to make you pass out in a tinsel covered Scrooge heap. They could be a traditional holiday drink turned on it’s ear. Or they could be a tribute to your favorite holiday villain. If you celebrate Hanukkah or Kwanzaa then you still suffer through the holidays, so feel free to join in with your Anti-Holiday drink as well. Whatever it is add a hearty “Humbug!” and make your drink personify everything annoying or fake about the holidays.

     humbug6While “some people” here at the farm have similar crabby feelings about the holidays, some of us don’t (ahem), but we both immediately said “tiki” when we thought of “anti-Christmas” cocktails. And when you are in a long holiday line at the store and the items won’t scan, and the kids are starting to squirm, and nobody can find the manager, and the next person in line is sneezing on you and yapping about their sex life on the phone, and and now you will be late for dinner, and you just can’t listen to one more fu…..umm, you need a trip to the beach. And, if anything, a tiki drink is a trip to a beach. Far, far away…maybe by yourself.

    humbug3So now that we had a direction, we started in on our “anti-Christmas” cocktail. The Alone, Bitter at the Beach combines, light rum, golden rum, aged Jamaican rum and Lemon Hart 151 rum with lime juice, pineapple juice, passion fruit syrup, a dash of absinthe and a big dose of Bittermens Hopped Grapefruit bitters over crushed ice. Garnish with a lime wheel and the most cutesy, annoying holiday-themed item you can find. The Alone, Bitter at the Beach starts with pleasant notes of rum and citrus then you get the sweet / tart kick of the passion fruit and some heat from the booze. Standard tiki. But on the finish you get the herbal and anise flavors of the absinthe and a dry, almost tannic note of the hopped grapefruit bitters. We think the Alone, Bitter at the Beach fits the holiday season perfectly- too much good stuff that leaves a bitter taste in your mouth (literally and figuratively) and a bit of a headache.

    humbug1

    Our kind of reindeer.

    How did we get here? We stared with the Zombie as a template and then made sure to tune it to match the theme. Boozy? Oh yes. We took one of the booziest cocktails and added another ounce of aged Jamaican rum. Is that too much? Probably, but it is the holiday season, after all. Bitter? Medicinal? Well the absinthe and grapefruit bitters took care of that (and many tiki drinks do include grapefruit and absinthe, so we aren’t too far off the reservation). And we made sure to keep Falernum and allspice liqueur out of the drink- no pleasant holiday spices allowed. The garnish and cocktail napkin were our own special touches. Now if we only had a Grinch mug……

    humbugAlone, Bitter at the Beach:

    Ingredients:

    • 1 oz. light rum (El Dorado)
    • 1 oz. gold rum (El Dorado)
    • 1 oz. aged Jamaican rum (Appleton 12 yr.)
    • 1 oz. Lemon Hart 151
    • 1 oz. lime juice
    • 1 oz. pineapple juice
    • 1 oz. passion fruit syrup
    • 2 dashes absinthe
    • 6 dashes grapefruit bitters (Bittermens Hopped Grapefruit)
    • Lime wheel, for garnish
    • Christmas ornament, for garnish (optional)

    Assemble:

    1. Place all the liquid ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake thoroughly and strain into a large glass or tiki mug filled with crushed ice. Top with more ice if needed. Garnish with a lime wheel and something holiday-themed and overly cheerful. Serve with a loud “harumph!” or “humbug!”.
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