Tag Archives: mixology monday

  • Mixology Monday LXXVIII Roundup: Intercontinental

    October 26, 2013

    18 Comments

    Time of the Saison cocktail.

    Time of the Saison cocktail.

    Another Mixology Monday has come and gone, so now it is time for the roundup. Our theme was “Intercontinental” and the goal was to mix a cocktail, or cocktails, that have “ingredients” from at least three but up to seven continents. And, as we mentioned, the definition of  “ingredient” was pretty broad, so we hoped to see many cocktails that spanned the globe….including Antarctica.

    mxmologoSo how did everyone do?  Very, very well, IMHO. The cocktails, photos and the stories were great. We actually had many of the ingredients (should we be embarrassed about that?) and mixed a number of the drinks. Very tasty. And just as important, an excuse (motivation?) to try something new. Whenever we feel we may be getting into a slight cocktail “rut”, Mixology Monday snaps us out of it.

    Thanks again to everyone for participating and to Fred Yarm at Cocktail Virgin Slut for keeping MxMo going. Here is the roundup (in no particular order):

    Feu-de-vie, one of our favorite booze blogs, covers six continents with the Giganta, a coffee-pineapple tiki-ish concoction with homemade Coffee-Macadamia Orgeat. Nice. We want some of that…

    Giganta cocktail.

    Giganta cocktail.

    Next we get the Vegan Pisco Sour from Elana at Stir and Strain. She has lovely creations and her photos are some of the best we have seen. For this cocktail, not only do we get four continents, but some cool info on using beer as a substitute for egg whites in “foamy” cocktails. For vegans, good stuff. For us, a tasty drink. Everyone wins.

    Vegan Pisco Sour cocktail.

    Vegan Pisco Sour cocktail.

    Amarula, the “Bailey’s of Africa” makes its first (but not its only) MxMo appearance in Swizzlestick’s Life is Beautiful cocktail. Lychee liqueur made it in as well. A truly global cocktail that hits six continents. Well done.

    Life is Beautiful cocktail.

    Life is Beautiful cocktail.

    The good folks at Booze Nerds take advantage of a good name/story and global ingredients to cover seven continents with the Amundsen (nice historical reference guys!). More importantly we get a very creative drink with spirits, amaro, bitters, spice, a tea reduction / syrup and a port wine float. Gold Star.

    Amundsen cocktail.

    Amundsen cocktail.

    The Straight Up, gives us another drink using Australian port and narrative license to cover seven continents with the ….and Antarctica. Again, we also see some tea and amaro in play for this beautiful aperitif-style cocktail. We certainly are intrigued with the mix of bitter, tannic, smokey and herbal ingredients. Gold Star.

    ...and Antarctica cocktail.

    …and Antarctica cocktail.

    Our Bay Area neighbors and frequent travelers BarFlySF, take us to five continents and then a few layers of hell as a bonus…seriously. They give us Dante’s Divinia and Dante’s Divinia Down Under, riffs on the Dante’s Paradise cocktail they discovered at Longman and Eagle’s in Chicago. And with some Habanero shrub involved- there will be some fire.

    Dante's Divinia.

    Dante’s Divinia cocktail.

    Out in Tennessee, Sass and Gin goes a slightly more traditional route with the Madison’s Revenge. This Manhattan variant shows that you can get to five or six continents quicker than you think. A little tuning of sweetener, spice or garnish and you have a global cocktail. Good work.

    Madison's Revenge cocktail.

    Madison’s Revenge cocktail.

    Our fearless leader Fred Yarm of Cocktail Virgin Slut pulls out a bottle of Van Der Hum, an African tangerine and spice liqueur, for a very spirituous, old-time cocktail the Daiqurbon. We expected to see a bit more Van Der Hum this MxMo, but since we couldn’t find any here in Norcal, we are glad somebody found some.

    Daiqurbon cocktail.

    Daiqurbon cocktail.

    Continue reading →

  • Mixology Monday “Intercontinental” Cocktail #2: Two Trios

    October 21, 2013

    9 Comments

    Two Trios Cocktail.

    Two Trios Cocktail.

    Lots of cocktails at the farm these days (well, sort of, more reading and shopping than actual drinking, but such is life).  We may just need to change the name to Putney Tavern (hmmm…I like the sound of that). In any event, we are the hosts of Mixology Monday and the drinks are rolling in, so we figured we would do one more cocktail. The theme is “Intercontinental” and the challenge is to use ingredients from multiple continents (full details here). We used five continents in the Horn of Good Hope cocktail, so now we are looking to use six.

    mxmologotrioSeeing as our bar is already full of ridiculous esoteric bottles, we decided to look to the orchard, garden and pantry for ingredients from the “tough” continents like Africa and Australia. And pretty soon we learned that our Cayenne pepper is from Africa (who knew?) and that our candied and crystalized ginger is from Australia. From there, things started rolling.

    trio1trio2One concept we are familiar with is the “holy trinity” of Creole cooking, the mirepoix of onion, green pepper and celery. But there is also a lesser-known “trio” of using black, white and red pepper in spicier recipes. The idea is to give heat, bite and burn to a dish so you get layers of spice. This concept works really well in cooking, so we figured we could apply it to the cocktail. The ginger has heat and the Cayenne burn, so all we needed was some “bite”.

    trio3Well, with booze, that is easy enough. The spirits themselves have kick, and citrus (without too much sugar) has that sour bite. So now that we had a few ingredients, we just looked to the map and started to play. One of our favorite spirits, El Dorado Demerara rum comes from South America, we chose to go in the direction of a daiquiri. And since we were thinking of trios, we decided to use three types of citrus that would add complexity and help finish our “map”.

    trio4The Two Trios combines Demerara rum (Guiana, South America), Persian lime juice (North America, oddly enough), Meyer lemon juice (originally from Asia), Curaçao (Europe, France in this case), ginger liqueur (Europe, although the ginger is Asia or Australia), a pinch of Cayenne pepper (Africa) and a crystalized ginger garnish (Australia). Antarctica will have to wait.

    trio5So how does it taste? Very, very good. One of our better Mixology Monday cocktails, and one we will make again. The Two Trios lands somewhere between a daiquiri and a tiki drink with a clear rum and citrus base augmented by a wave of extra spice. You get sour lime and rum up front and then the orange, lemon and ginger in the middle. And at the end you get just a hint of burn from the Cayenne. It builds, but just enough that you know it’s there. And if you take a bite of the crystalized ginger you get a nice blast of sweet heat. A good sip from beginning to end.

    trio8So that is our second Mixology Monday cocktail. Every time we do this it gets the creative juices flowing and we learn something along the way. And usually we end up with a tasty cocktail. Not a bad deal…not bad at all. Roundup post coming soon!

    Two Trios Cocktail:

    Ingredients:

    • 2 oz. Demerara rum (El Dorado gold)
    • 1/2 oz. Curacao (Pierre Ferrand)
    • 1/2 oz. ginger liqueur (Massenez)
    • 1/2 oz. lime juice
    • 1/2 oz. Meyer lemon juice
    • 1 pinch Cayenne pepper
    • Crystalized ginger, for garnish

    Assemble:

    1. Spear the crystalized ginger on a long toothpick or cocktail spear.
    2. Combine all the liquid ingredients and the Cayenne in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake until well-chilled and strain into a chilled cocktail glass or coupe. Garnish with the crystalized ginger. Serve.
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  • Mixology Monday LXXVI Cocktail: Special-Ti’

    August 19, 2013

    15 Comments

    Special-Ti' Cocktail.

    Special-Ti’ Cocktail.

    ti2Time for another Mixology Monday, the monthly online cocktail party. Let’s start with thanks to Fred Yarm at Cocktail Virgin Slut for keeping the party going and to this month’s host, the Muse of Doom at Feu de Vie (another excellent cocktail blog). The theme, a fitting one in a very hot August, is “Fire!”. Here is the announcement post and the details:

    mxmofire_zps75bb9668Tiki-philes have their flaming spent lime shells and scorpion bowls. Classic cocktailers have the magic of a flamed orange zest. Molecular mixologists have their Smoking Guns. …You don’t have to go full Blue Blazer, not nearly — heck, you could go full Fireball Whiskey! (or Fire Rock Pale Ale, etc.) You could riff on the Old Flame or come up with an inventive name of your own. You could even use a good firewater or burned wine. (and if you’re grilling fruit, save some for me, will ya?) In essence, bring the heat! Bring the Fire! Bring your inspiration!

    ti3Great theme. At first we thought of making a flaming tiki drink, and even ran a few fun experiments with Lemon Hart 151 in all sorts of vessels (it lights easily, btw). But after a while, we figured that we would see plenty of flaming tiki, and in better tiki bowls and cups than we have at the farm (we are working on adding to the collection). We also looked at flaming citrus peels over classics, as the announcement post suggests, but nothing really popped. But then a few days ago we used a brulee torch to make Chocolate S’more-bet Sundaes and we decided to use the torch in our Mixology Monday cocktail. Might as well use the thing…

    ti4So what to make? This part was surprisingly easy. We decided to deconstruct one of our favorite summer desserts, pineapple with lime zest and molasses, into a cocktail. We started with the garnish. We cut wedges of pineapple, coated them with dark brown sugar (turbinado or muscovado would also work), caramelized the sugar with the brulee torch and then added lime zest. You could eat this on its own and it is quite good, but a bit one-dimensional.

    ti5But we then made a hack of the standard Ti’ Punch (lime, cane syrup, rhum agricole) and dipped the caramelized pineapple wedges into the drinks and ate the pineapple. We tried a bunch of rums from dark to light, regular rum to a few types of rhum agricole. In the end, we liked Rhum Barbancourt 5-Star, an 8 year-old rhum from Haiti best. We also went light on cane syrup, as we learned that the caramelized sugar from the pineapple would mix into the drink and sweeten as we went along.

    ti6ti7So what did we get? A successful cocktail dessert. Both the cocktail and the garnish would be OK by themselves. But when combined, the sweet acidity of the pineapple, the intense (almost buttery) rum, sour lime and deep sugar flavor all play very well together. The extra texture of the pineapple and lime zest is also welcome. Great fun and something we will make again.

    ti8So thanks again to the Muse of Doom and Fred Yarm for another great Mixology Monday. We can’t wait to see he roundup.

    ti1Special-Ti’:

    Ingredients:

    Garnish:

    • Pineapple wedges
    • Dark brown sugar
    • Lime zest
    • Wooden or metal skewers

    Cocktail:

    • 2 oz. rum (Barbancourt 5-Star)
    • 1 oz. lime juice
    • 1/2 oz. cane syrup (or rich simple syrup)

    Assemble:

    1. Push the skewers lengthwise through the center of the pineapple wedges.
    2. Liberally sprinkle the pineapple wedges with the brown sugar and then caramelize the sugar with a brulee torch (or place on a baking sheet under a very hot broiler for about 30 seconds, or until brown). Quickly sprinkle on the lime zest before the caramelized sugar hardens.
    3. Place the pineapple wedges in the fridge for a few minutes to help the caramelized sugar harden.
    4. Meanwhile, combine the rum, lime juice and cane syrup in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake until well-chilled and strain into a chilled cocktail glass or coupé.
    5. Garnish the cocktail with the pineapple wedge and serve.
    6. We suggest starting by dipping and eating the pineapple and then finishing the remaining cocktail. Enjoy.
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  • Mixology Monday LXXV Cocktail: The Carlos Danger

    July 27, 2013

    19 Comments

    danger

    The Carlos danger Cocktail.

    Time for another Mixology Monday! This time our host is also the “keeper of the flame” Fred Yarm of Cocktail Virgin Slut. Thanks again from keeping things going Fred. Let’s get right to our theme “Flip Flop”:

    danger8I thought of the theme for this month’s Mixology Monday shortly after making the Black Rene, an obscure drink from Pioneers of Mixing at Elite Bars: 1903-1933. The combination of brandy, amber rum, lemon, and Maraschino was tasty, but I felt that the recipe could be improved if I swapped in different ingredients. Taking a page from Max Toste of Deep Ellum who converted the Black Devil into the White Devil, I flipped around the ingredients to be pisco, white rum, lime, and Maraschino instead. With this combination that I called the White Rene, the drink really sang but it was still recognizable as being an alteration of the original recipe. Others have done similar swaps with grand effect including the Bluegrass Mai Tai that changes the two rums to two whiskeys and swaps lime for lemon from the classic while holding everything else the same.

    danger1Find a recipe, either new or old, and switch around at least two of the ingredients to sister or cousin ingredients but holding the proportions and some of the ingredients the same. The new recipe should be recognizable as a morph of the old one when viewed side by side.

    danger2This theme was a fun one for us to play with, as we were already doing some experimenting with tweaks to classics. So we decided to use the Manhattan as our foundation. Ever since we tried the excellent Ile St. Honorat from the Liquid Culture Project, an aged rum Manhattan variant, we have worked on our own version. Now we decided to do a fully “flipped” Manhattan using aged rum instead of whiskey, amaro in place of vermouth, and Amargo Chuncho (Peruvian) bitters for Angostura (we kept the orange twist we like to use with our Manhattans). We pretty much went for the “full flip”, just like that idiot guy from Manhattan Anthony Weiner sometimes fully “flips” into his alter ego, Carlos Danger. (Sorry, not much of a segue, but it’s what we had- and we couldn’t resist the name.)

    danger3danger4Since we had the orange twist and the herbal, coffee-ish notes of the Amargo Chuncho bitters, the big question was the choice of aged rum and amaro. We wanted a mild, slightly woody sipping rum, and after trying a few bottles settled on the Matusalem Gran Reserva, a 15-year-old rum with well-integrated floral and burnt sugar flavors. The Matusalem is an easy sipper, and a good fit for this kind of spirit-forward cocktail. As for the Amaro, we tried a bunch. Maria a Monte was good but a bit too minty and boozy (worth revisiting, good stuff), Cynar didn’t quite fit and Averna was too sweet. We settled on Amaro Montenegro with its less bitter, light herbal and orange peel notes.

    danger5danger6So how does the Carlos Danger taste? It has light floral, orange and coffee notes up front with a bit of kick from the booze in the middle (it’s a strong drink, no question). But the cocktail closes with a soft, dry vanilla note from the rum and amaro that is simply delightful. We tried the Carlos Danger up and on the rocks and it works both ways. So if you want to try something new, try a Carlos Danger cocktail and leave that cell phone alone. Continue reading →